This Is What I Do

This is what I do. I do a pretty good job of blogging for a while then... stop.

Excuses? Starts out with kids won't get off the computers then when they finally do, I'm too tired. Or I'm too busy. Or I'm too far behind. Or whatever excuse.

So I use it as an excuse to put up pictures of the sky until I get around to catching up. 

So... remember all those walks I took at the park during Christmas Break? Being out at dawn/sunrise is a great time for me to see beautiful changes in the sky. It's amazing how quickly it can change.

I figure now is a good time to show a picture (that I didn't already show) of the beautiful sky from Christmas Break.

Such a pretty sky.

 

Speaking of the pretty sky. There was a night in November when the Northern Lights were showing up again. I was out running errands in town anyway so I got info from a friend and I stopped quickly by a park where I had a view of the red sky.

I didn't have time to go out of town away from the light pollution but I did see them.

I tried to get pictures with the birding camera when I got home but it didn't work out. Oh well.

See You Later, Alligator

Jeremy left on another trip the beginning of October. It was a quick trip. He had a one day balloon build in Wyoming, but he missed a few things while traveling and building.

There was the Grand Lunch at the elementary school. It is supposed to be like a grandparents sort of lunch but not everybody has grandparents near enough so the elementary school invites anyone "grand" in your life to come. I think that's sweet.

I noticed a while back that when Lucky brings a lunch from home, he writes part of "The Jabberwocky" on the outside of his lunch bag. He went through the whole poem and finished it the day of the Grand Lunch. 

Since I want to be like my kids, I thought I'd join in and wrote part of a poem (from my elementary school days) on my lunch bag that day. Tee Hee.

(I did miss celebrating Shel Silverstein's Birthday on September 25 due to being sick.) 

When it was time for Jet's lunch, I came over to join him and he got so excited to see me there, he was giggling. Awwww. I like that reaction. It makes me feel good when my children want to see and be with me. He asked if Daddy was there but I had to remind him that Daddy was on his trip.

That evening was Lucky's parent teacher conference with his teacher. Jeremy joined in on speakerphone as he was not physically able to be with us.

October 1 was Fire Pup Day so Lucky helped me make squid pups which we had with hot sauce.

When Jeremy got back from his trip, he made it home before the kids went to school, so he went when Jet asked him to take him to school. 

After school, Jeremy was busy getting ready for another trip, so when Jet came out of school, the first thing he did when he gave me a big hug, because that's our ritual after school, was ask, "Where is my Dad?" What a sweetie. He wants both parents.

That night I made curry because... comfort food. I wanted something welcoming for Jeremy. We had homemade sourdough on the side because... I'm learning.

Other September thins

Other things we did in September:

 

More Walks-

alone (or with the birds)

with Jet (he still really likes to ride in the stroller)

 

Can I just say what a gorgeous place we live in? It is a treat just to walk outside and look at our mountains.

 

FHE fun-

Jeremy's been trying to come up with ideas that are not the usual ideas for Family Home Evening activities. We did the glow stick story back in August. In September, we played "Keepy Uppy." We even put on the accompanying music and had fun. If you don't know, "Keepy Uppy" is a game the family played in an episode of Bluey. We even turned on a fan and added more and more balloons to our game. It was fun.

 

Creativity continues to happen.

I thought I was being nice one morning and made scrambled eggs and got out cheese and tortillas for making breakfast burritos. I even made a sign that said, "Go for it. Enjoy! (Love) Mom," with an arrow pointing toward the burrito fixings. 

Someone thought it would be funny to move the sign so it was pointing at the chocolate chip banana muffins that were in a different spot on the table. "Go for it? Enjoy? Oh, thanks, Mom." 

I agree it was funny. Points for creativity. Of course I was fine with them eating some muffins with their breakfast burritos. I love this family! 

 

One evening I was having a rough time and I needed to take my young men to a fireside at the stake center. I decided to stay for the fireside instead of just dropping them off and I'm glad I did. I needed the extra little spiritual uplift that night and sharing it with my boys was nice. I love my children so much.

Lots of reading. Jet likes it when Daddy reads to him.

 

Dress Up! 

Looking like Mommy? Or a ghost? Boo!

The Next Few Days

The day after our van and we had issues in Southern Utah, we went to church when a sister came up to me before church started and asked, "What's the holiday today?" I love that we're known for that. I let her know that September 21 was the anniversary of when Joseph Smith saw Angel Moroni who told him about the Book of Mormon. And it is also H.G. Wells' birthday. Then we chatted about Fall (since September 22 was the first day of Fall) and the Fall colors.

At home after church, I went around singing, "Do you remember the 21st night of September?" 

Jeremy and I took a big nap after our long day the day before.

Besides being the Autumnal Equinox, September 22 was Hobbit Day so I listened to Hobbit music.

We didn't have time to go out for a drive to look at Fall colors so there was a lot of just hanging out.

 

 Then as you know, I got sick a few days later, so that was the end of celebrating September.

A Little September Catching Up

September!

September 1 was Johann Pachelbel's Birthday. I watched something with Pachelbel's Canon playing in the background.

It was also Labor Day so I got a selfie with the American flag. 

September 3 was Skyscraper Day. Nichole very obligingly took a picture of a 10 story building near where she was for me because I wasn't going to get out to see anything taller. 

 

September 4 was National Wildlife Day. I took some time for myself to go for a drive and a little walk to see some Fall colors starting to turn and to look for birds. I saw some birds (nothing exciting), a squirrel, and lots of yellow jackets.

 

September 5 was Lazy Mom's Day. I tried to be lazy. I only succeeded a little. I decided to let myself sit down and watch a movie but of course I fell asleep during it. This was in the morning after the boys were off to school. I'm usually awake in the morning. Then again, I'm usually moving around and not being lazy in the morning.

I Predicted This

I'm not surprised. 

I felt so good about catching up. I even caught up to the start of September. 

I started a few blog posts to get going with September things. I had 4 posts started about holidays at the beginning of September, Shelftember, "Other September thins", and a post about our garden. But as is the way of things, I started one post like this:

"Woohoo. I made it to the same month I'm in while catching up. You know what that means. I'm going to drop off on my blogging because it always seems to be that way when I've almost caught up. Life is crazy and busy, man. Let's see what happens."

I predicted it. I didn't predict I was going to get super duper sick for a couple days then need recovery time then need time to catch up on taking care of my family and house because you can't get anything done when you're that kind of sick. I'm still working on that part. But I finally cleaned my room today after my youngest decided to get out all the toys he could find and spread them around the room while I was sick. I've been washing bedding all day so I'll have a nice clean bed to sleep on in my nice clean room tonight. I decided I can let myself work on my blog for a bit so here we are.

So here is a picture of the sky again. It's what I do when I explain about why I haven't been blogging. 

 

Other August thins

Jr. Jr. really wants to make juggling balls so he and I have been working on that project- making juggling balls for everyone in the family. It's slow going but we'll get there.

Jet heard us talking about making juggling balls and told us he wanted to make "chocolate balls" so one day we made Oreo mint truffles like we did for St. Patrick's Day, except we didn't bother to make them green this time.

Jet is doing well at school so he's been able to pick something from the treasure box a few times. The first thing he brought home was a little water color paint set so I printed out a picture for him to color. He did a good job. 

I still try out new recipes from time to time, some from A Season of Family Meal Plans by Jordan Page, some from something I see on Instagram by my favorite food bloggers. I made Slow Cooker Loaded Chicken and Potato Casserole from Six Sisters' Stuff and it tasted so good to me. I didn't have whipping cream so I combined some sour cream and milk to get the creaminess (#shelfcooking).  

 

We had an amazing storm one night. I was concerned that my bedroom floor was getting wet. I went outside several times to check the window well. There were pools at the top of the stairs outside and in front of our front door. I checked my bedroom window and realized it was open. Rain was getting in and getting on my floor. Sigh. 

Luckily it dried up quickly after closing the window. I put towels down and kept checking them.

When I went outside in the pouring rain, the lightning and thunder were flashing and booming every few seconds. There was so much of it. 

 

It's amazing how calm the next morning can be after a storm.

 

 

When Nichole was the last one at home before she started school, she and I got to have some bonding time, going to the library and for a drive up the canyon to Bridal Veil Falls this time. 

More Catching Up

August 25 was Kiss and Make Up Day. Jet and I were arguing. We stopped and gave each other a kiss on the cheek and then got along.

 

August 26 was National Dog Day. Jet helped make squid pups.

It was also Toilet Paper Day. We used toilet paper. 

 

August 29 was Chop Suey Day. I just made some teriyaki. It tasted good.

August 30 was Toasted Marshmallow Day. And International Bacon Day. Nichole had this great idea to combine them. Bacon on S'mores. Why not? 

 

August 31 was Eat Outside Day. We did.