National Cooler Day

May 22 I was too busy getting ready for a trip to celebrate well so I told people this is what you get. I didn't even have time to cut up the watermelon. Nichole did. Happy National Cooler Day.

Jeremy did suggest while he was still at work that one of the kids take a frozen Costco lasagna and cook it in the oven. Oh yeah. That was a good idea. So they did. Happy Don't Fry Day.

The kids did help in some ways with getting ready for the trip. Besides taking care of food because I wasn't up to it, and gathering things, some of them also helped clean out the van so we could travel more comfortably the next day. Happy National Road Trip Day. 

Spring Break

Let's talk about Spring Break... for three of our kids. Last week was Spring Break... for three of our kids. Here are some of the holidays we celebrated (besides what I already mentioned in my April 9, 2026 post).

April 7 was National No Housework Day. I didn't tell the kids that was the holiday and asked them to clean. Bwah ha ha ha. But I celebrated.

 

April 8 was Draw a Picture of a Bird Day. This is what Nichole created.

She's awesome. I love that I could immediately tell it was a red-tailed hawk. Gorgeous.

 

April 10 was National Siblings Day. I encouraged a couple of my kids to wish each other a Happy that holiday but forgot to wish it to any of my own siblings even though I planned to.

It was also National Farm Animals Day. For dinner the night before, I made red beans and rice and hush puppies and garlic parmesan asparagus. On April 10, we had leftovers (including the beans and rice that had Polish sausage made out of what? Farm animals!) and I made more hush puppies.

This exchange happened while I was making them.

 

Jet: What are the dog things you are making called?

Mom: Hush puppies. 

 

He's so adorable.

 

Easter and General Conference Weekend

Easter fell on the Sunday of General Conference this year.

The Saturday of Conference, April 4, was Vitamin C Day so our Conference Nachos had green bell peppers and salsa and we drank juice with Vitamin C.

A sister from our ward stopped by between sessions and gave us some rice crispy treats as an Easter treat.

That Sunday, April 5, was Caramel Day so some family members had hot cocoa with caramel syrup in it.

There was plenty about Easter during General Conference. Wonderful talks.

I don't know how many times during Conference this time that a speaker would mention a piece of music in their talk (hymn or children's song) or read lyrics and immediately someone in our home would start humming it. Sometimes it was even me. I love that.

We love to emphasize the Savior on Easter Sunday then it's okay to have a little Easter Bunny fun the next day. We usually do an Easter egg hunt for FHE.

For our lesson, Jr. Jr. led us in one more scripture and thought for Holy Week. For our treat and activity, the kids hunted Easter eggs and we ate candy.

Earlier in the day, the boys cleaned and vacuumed the living room without being asked. Thank you, boys. By the time the Easter Bunny came, there were things all over. Eh, more places for the Easter Bunny to hide eggs. We didn't even bother to pick up a blanket that was on the floor. Eggs were just hidden there. Ha Ha. Nobody complained.

Since Monday, April 6, was Carbonara Day, that's what we had for dinner that night before the egg hunt.

Surprises of Cleaning

You never know what you're going to find while cleaning. This is what I found while changing the bedding on Jet's bed.

I don't even know what to say.

I Love to Write Day

November 15 was Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day. You know what that means. Leftovers Night! Unfortunately a lot of things went back into the refrigerator. It still needs to be cleaned out more.

I bought raisin bran for Raisin Bran Cereal Day that same day, but I forgot to get it out. Sigh. Sounds like me.

That day was also I Love to Write Day. Nichole happened to have her Creative Writing class that day. Jeremy did some writing that day as well. And since it was a special writing holiday (and because it's November- NaNoWriMo), Nichole had some hot chocolate in our composition mug.

What She Missed- August 11

Wednesday, August 11-

Play in the Sand Day. After doing chores again, the boys convinced me to let them play more video games- either sandbox games or games that had sand in them.

We didn't have any real sand so the toddler had to make do with what he could find while Mom wasn't looking.

Good thing I hadn't put the eggs in yet. 

I'll say my reaction was good, though. He's a toddler. It's not like he would understand if I gave him a talking to about what he did wrong. So I let him play and took pictures. I figured the mess to clean up wouldn't be different if I stopped him as soon as I saw or if I waited until he was done. There would just be less screaming if I waited so I did then moved him over to the kitchen sink where I could wash him off. Then I gave strict instructions for people to watch him and keep him out of the kitchen while I cleaned up and started a new batch of cornbread.

This isn't the first time I've handled a messy situation with a toddler and managed to get pictures. I even blogged about some of them, especially when I kept my temper. When Jr. was little, he drew all over his face with a sparkly pen. I blogged about it in September of 2009.

When Jr. Jr. was little, he got finger paint on our new bed. I blogged about it in July of 2013.

There are others but sometimes I'm pleased with how I handle situations. I think it helped that I was already in a good mood when I found Jet with the cornbread mix.

Spring Break- Monday and Tuesday

For Spring Break I explained to the kids that we can do cleaning in the morning, get some outside time in the afternoon, and watch a movie in the evening. Simple enough, right? Um... yeah. Sure.

When dealing with multiple people who have their own interests or ways of doing things and weather that doesn't always cooperate and a mom who wants to fit holiday celebrating into the activities, sometimes things don't go exactly right. The kids and I planned out our week and... we adapted.

So this is the fun we did have on Monday and Tuesday (because I'm guessing you don't care as much about what cleaning we did):

Monday, the kids and I went for a drive. While we drove, Jr. had us play a game. One person calls out a word on a sign (since we were in the middle of the city for a while, it worked out). Whatever letter that word ends in, another person calls out a word they see on a sign that begins with that letter. You can't call out two words in a row, you have to wait until someone else finds a word before you can do it again. It was pretty fun until we reached "DQ." We were not on a road with a Quick Quack Car Wash, which would have made it simple, so we had to wait until after our outing to continue the game when we did pass a Quick Quack Car Wash on the way home. 

Our outing? We drove up to Big Springs Park and played frisbee. We had "Daddy" there with us as well as Flat Stanley who came home with Lucky for Spring Break.

After we got home we did get to watch a movie. 

Since April 5 was Gold Star Spouse's Day, I printed out a gold star to put on Jeremy's shirt when he got home. 

He is a most terrific spouse. When I'm in the middle of writing a blog post, if I step away (which often happens- Mom, here), some of my kids will sometimes come in and add "My husband is awesome." See, they know it. Sometimes I leave it in. Sometimes I take it out (my husband is still awesome, though) if it really doesn't fit what I was writing right then. So if you're reading my blog and a random "My husband is awesome" is in a blog post, my kids probably wrote it and it's true.

I didn't realize it but while I was making dinner that night, Jr. came up and put a gold star on my back. Aww. What a sweetie.

Tuesday, it snowed. We didn't get out like we planned. I did make a quick trip to the Provo Library to pick up some things that were being held for us. April 6 was Library Workers Day. See my post from March 25 of this year to read my opinion on library workers.

April 6 was also National Carbonara Day. I did make carbornara with French bread on the side.

That evening we colored hard boiled eggs with crayons.

April 6 was also the anniversary of the invention of the Twinkie but I totally forgot to get out the Twinkies to celebrate.

The Little Things...

 The boys: We cleaned the living room, can we play video games?

Me: I guess so.

 

What They Missed- August 12

Wednesday, August 12-
I feel like my one accomplishment the whole time Jeremy and the oldest two were gone was getting the kitchen table completely cleaned off.

That and taking the boys out to feed the birds... most days.

I had a rant written down on this day when I was taking notes. I don't want to write it on here. I'd rather write about Middle Child Day. Jr. Jr. was excited because now he is the exact middle child in the family. With the two oldest gone, Lucky was the middle child of the two that were left. So we celebrated them both. I had Jr. Jr. figure out the menu plan for dinner, though.
We had pizza, dried fruit, and root beer. I taught the boys a trick of using a red vine for a straw in their cans of root beer if they bite the ends off first. Red vines dissolve easily in pop, though, so we had extra sugary root beer.

 
That night we went outside in the dark in case we could see any shooting stars. Before we got very far, though, the neighbors' porch light came on and the boys started playing Shadow Wars. They were cute.

We went in the backyard to look at the sky. We didn't see much in the way of shooting stars since we were still in the city. I think I saw a couple, so does Jr. Jr. We did see UFOs, though. That was cool. Jr. Jr. explained to Lucky that UFOs are Unidentified Flying Objects so if you can't tell what is, it is unidentified and therefore a UFO. When I first saw one it was floating across the sky. It looked like the shape of one of those elongated parachutes that people use to jump from Point of the Mountain. My next thought was... some sort of stealth jet you could only see the outline of if you were trying? We all watched it as it continued along then watched it change shape. Well, there went my stealth jet theory. It was weird. Was it a group of bugs flying in formation then changing formation? We saw these UFOs a few times so it was either several groups or individuals or it was the same group or individual going around again. It could have been eerie but we found it interesting.
We also saw several planes and helicopters flying around flashing green and red.
While we were out there, we sang a bit of "Somewhere Out There" from An American Tail just in case Jeremy was out looking at the same stars from a few states away.

Locker Clean Out Day

Everything needs to be out of your locker by this date.
It's a little different this year with scheduling a specific time to go, requiring face masks or bandanas, and not just doing it at the end of a normal school day.

Oh, the stories there will be to tell.

Spring Break and Spring Cleaning

During Spring Break (no online school), we tried to do some Spring cleaning. We had some good days- productive. We had some fun listening to music, helping each other out.

We had some not so good days- unproductive. In fact, I gave everyone a day off on April 7 which was National No Housework Day. I didn't ask the kids to do any chores.

April 7 was also National Coffee Cake Day so I tried out yet another recipe and made blueberry coffee cake. Well, it was sort of blueberry buttermilk coffee cake from Budget Bytes. I put mixed berries in half of it and left the other half without because we have various tastes in our household. It was a success. Yumm.

 
April 10 was National Cinnamon Crescent Day. Nichole made crescent rolls with cinnamon roll filling. Yumm.

Spring Break was definitely a bit different this year. Oh well.

Winnie-the-Pooh Day 2020

January 18 was Winnie-the-Pooh Day. The kids earned watching The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh by picking up the living room and moving their boxes of Christmas stuff out of the living room finally.

This Weekend

How did your weekend go? This is how mine went:
Friday, October 11, was It's My Party Day. I don't think I cried (though I cry often enough). I did sing the song, though. Jeremy and I got to go out to eat again that day. The kids were happy with that since they got to stay home and watch movies. It was a relaxing evening.

 
Saturday, Jeremy spent all day long at The Big Sit. I got to do that last October for a few hours. This time it was Jeremy's turn. He had a great time. He was there birding from dark of morning to dark of night and it was coooooold but worth it.

The kids and I stayed home to clean. I cleaned. They did not get to watch movies or play video games. Even though October 12 was International Moment of Frustration Scream Day, I did not scream even when...
I told the kids dinner was "Fend For Yourself" to celebrate the holiday. When they asked what the holiday was, I told them, and they all immediately screamed in pretend frustration.

Then Nichole did shake 'n bake type chicken drumsticks (I told her I would sit at the table and supervise but she got to make it herself).and Jr. made chocolate chip pancakes. They both did a good job.

I ate leftovers from Friday night's dinner. Yumm.
I also tried out a new kind of smoothie. Lucky had been wanting me to make a cinnamon smoothie so I found a recipe online and finally got around to making it. None of the kids liked it. I drank it but I still prefer smoothies with berries in them.

Sunday, October 13, was International Skeptics Day and English Language Day. We didn't really do anything to celebrate those days except Jr. said he didn't believe those were really the holidays. We did go to a ward potluck in the evening. I brought oatmeal muffins.

When we came home, Jeremy and I sat in the van talking for a bit while Nichole and Jr. went to the door reading and Jr. Jr. and Lucky decided to lie on the ground looking at the clouds. That was so sweet. I love those precious moments. 

We did have a somewhat rough day before and after church but we had another precious moment before bed. After family prayer we all sat around and just had a nice conversation. Sometimes it was silly but not disruptive silly. Here's how part of it went.
We were talking about surgeries because we've been praying for my brother-in-law who had surgery recently. Then we started talking about different kinds of surgery. I mentioned surgery for cataracts.
Jr.: Isn't that where you put dead people?
Mom: No, that's catacombs.
Jr.: I thought that's what you brushed a cat with.
Yeah, that's the kind of silliness we had.
It was a good end to the weekend.