I Had a Bad Day

I had a bad day. Jeremy knew this and brought home flowers for me. He found the most cheerful bunch he could. 

He also brought me strawberry shortcake bars because January 15 was National Strawberry Ice Cream Day.

Then he got up in the middle of the night or really early in the morning to do dishes (Lucky got up and helped).

The next morning I found the baby doll head in the vase with the flowers. That cheered me up. 

I never mentioned something that happened a while back. You know how we used to put that baby doll head in different places for others to find (I blogged about it on May 14, 2022)? Not long ago, I watched Jet carry the doll head from the living room to the kitchen, open the refrigerator, and place the baby head inside. He hadn't participated in hiding the doll head before. I loved seeing that.

Some More Holidays

November 17 was National Homemade Bread Day and National Butter Day. 

Easy to combine holidays that day.

 

November 18 was National Apple Cider Day.

I figured after working for hours on Jeremy's book that day and the day before, I earned some nice apple cider in the composition mug.

 

November 19 was Have a Bad Day Day. Some of us took turns being grumpy for a bit. It never lasted too long. I kept commenting that it was just to celebrate the holiday. Both Nichole and Jr. fell that day. Sigh. You don't always have to celebrate, kids. Sigh.

November 20 was National Absurdity Day and World Children's Day. We talked about that in Nursery on Sunday. The adults did. The children were just absurd at times.

November 21 was National Gingerbread Cookie Day. I've been wanting to make gingerbread men again for years. My father-in-law gave me a recipe for gingerbread cookies so we made gingerbread men for the holiday. Hooray. 

Some of them came out in interesting shapes because they stuck so much to the cookie cutters. This is one that looks different depending on the angle you look at it. What do you think it looks like? 

Lucky and Jr. Jr. had fun with the end of the dough adding embellishments to the last cookies. I didn't make icing so we didn't have gingerbread zombies this time.

The day before, Nichole got a gingerbread man from a teacher at church. Sweetheart that she is, she shared with Jet. Then when she didn't have more to share, she made a gingerbread man out of cardboard for him, and we talked about the story of the gingerbread man. Lucky shared a story he made up about the Antarctic gingerbread man.

He Was Just Celebrating

One of the kids was having a hard time one day. I looked at the calendar. November 19- Have a Bad Day Day. He was just celebrating. That's why he was acting like he was.

November 19 was also Carbonated Beverage with Caffeine Day. Jeremy celebrated for me.

One of the kids was acting up another day. I looked at the calendar. November 20- Absurdity Day. He was just celebrating. That's why he was acting like he was.

At least that's what I told myself.

From Apples to Absurdity

Friday, the kids made dinner.  They all helped in one way or another.  Since November 18 is William Tell Day, we listened to the William Tell Overture as they made dinner, including apples.

 

Yesterday was Have a Bad Day Day.  We didn't.  However with breakfast, several of the children made mad faces with their food.  I think that's a better way of celebrating the holiday.

Today, November 20, is Absurdity Day.  It is also Universal Children's Day.  Today is the Primary Program in Sacrament Meeting.  How appropriate.  Wish us luck.

Winnie-the-Pooh Day 2014

Winnie-the-Pooh Day, January 18.  We love this holiday and some years this is a big celebration for us.  In the past we've had Winnie-the-Pooh themed food, played with Winnie-the-Pooh toys, and other fun activities.

This year, because it was one of those days, we ended up celebrating by doing as Christopher Robin in one of A. A. Milne's stories- Nothing:

"How do you do Nothing," asked Pooh after he had wondered for a long time.

"Well, it's when people call out at you just as you're going off to do it, 'What are you going to do, Christopher Robin?' and you say, 'Oh, Nothing,' and then you go and do it."

Yeah.  Maybe next year.  Plenty of other holidays to celebrate this year, though.

A Bad Day

A friend recently commented that we "seem truly happy" and "love abounds" in our family.  Yes.  I agree.  We have a great family.  A really great family.
But, as with everyone, we have good days and we have bad days.  And this most recent Memorial Day was one of those bad days.  There was whining, there was complaining, there were raised voices, there were tantrums... and the kids were pretty bad, too.  It was just one of those days.  None of us could get along.  Jeremy was able to come home early from work, and we had the thought to all get out to the park.  Sometimes we just need to get out.  We brought along some children's books to read to the kids to teach them about manners, fighting, whining, respect, screaming, yelling, etc.  At the park the kids ended up learning about maple trees and oak trees and their leaves, as well as alders (or as Jr. thought was said- boulders), spiders with drag lines, and poison ivy, oak, and sumac.

Then we had to leave before we got to reading the books because the kids would not listen and were disobedient.  Sigh.

I don't often go on a lot about the bad days because I believe it's important to focus more on blessings.  We are a happy family, we have a lot of blessings, and I want my children to remember the good days more than the bad days.  And if I really want to go on and on about the hard times, I can write in my personal journal instead of on a public blog.

Even on bad days, though, there are still reasons to celebrate.  That bad day, the kids peeled carrots to go with dinner.  They peeled them... and peeled them... and peeled them. The carrots ended up being a lot thinner than if I had just peeled them, but there was reasoning behind peeling them so thin.  We give our fruit and veggie kitchen scraps to some people we know for their chickens.  Jr. really wanted to give the chickens a LOT of carrot scraps (to make the chickens fat?), hence the thin carrots.  It was thoughtful of him.

I am reminded often that I do have really great kids.

So, we all have bad days and times, but I'm happy to dwell more on the happy times.

One of Those Days

It was one of those days. Things started out fine for a while. Then afternoon/evening hit and things went downhill. I'm not going to go into all the details. Just a few things. Each of the kids and I took turns in tears. I lost it with Jr. and even though I felt guilty, I was frustrated enough that it took a while before I was able to go in to tell him I was sorry. I tell you though, prayer really does help. When you are frustrated with someone, whether it's someone in your own family (in my case, children- aaaargh) or someone else, you really can turn to the Lord to help you get over those feelings and help you ask for forgiveness (even if it takes a while to calm down) from the person you were frustrated with.

Anyway, by dinner and bedtime, the kids and I were getting along and I was even able to get some cute pictures of them dancing to a "Pajama Time" song.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day, but I'm glad for how the end of the day turned out compared to the middle.