How We Celebrated Some of June

June 1 was Flip a Coin Day. I needed to inventory my fridge and freezer anyway so I used a coin flip to decide which to do. 

We flipped a coin to decide plenty of other things as well.

 

June 2 was the anniversary of when Babe Ruth retired. We had macaroni and cheese with polish sausage in it in honor of "Babe" (you know what the movie, "Babe," is about, right?) "Ruth" retiring.

Someone made the comment, "Talk about retiring."

 

June 5 was Veggie Burger Day. I would have liked to have made black bean burgers but didn't menu plan far enough in advance and didn't have any black beans to make them. Sigh. So I was looking through cookbooks and websites trying to decide what to make but Jet just wanted snuggles so... 

Priorities, right?

 

June 9 was National Movie Night and Johnny Depp's Birthday. We watched Alice in Wonderland and ate popcorn. Jr. made crepes that we ate for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. 

June 11 was King Kamehameha I Day. We had Hawaiian Haystacks leftovers from a family reunion we went to the night before. It was a family reunion for people we're not related to. I like to say, "We're family by association." This is a family Jeremy was home teacher to many years ago. He's done balloons for them many times and we've gone to wedding receptions and concerts to support them. We were able to get Nichole's first violin from them when she was learning to play. They watched over our older kids when Lucky was born in the middle of the night. We've had a good relationship with them for many years and they feel like family. 

They invited us to their family luau. Jeremy did balloon animals and we all ate, played, and enjoyed ourselves. 

We got to try Dole Whip for the first time. Yumm. 

I had plenty of people to talk to that I knew. I'm a chatty person anyway. I got to stand up high and take their family reunion photo.

It was a nice evening and it was sweet of them to send us home with some leftovers.

June 11 was also Corn on the Cob Day so besides the Hawaiian Haystacks, we had corn on the cob and plenty of other food for an at-home potluck.

Jr. Jr. made apple pie for the first time (with some help) and did a great job.

June 14 was Flag Day. I took another selfie with the flag.

 

June 15 was World Tapas Day. We made bean dip and enjoyed it.

Choosing Priorities

I've mentioned before that I'm trying to work on finding balance. Part of finding balance is prioritizing, deciding what things need to be put first and what things can be sacrificed. Sister Beck, the General Relief Society President for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, talked about essential things, necessary things, and nice to do things (see my link above). There are times when some of those nice to do things must be sacrificed. As much as I like blogging, that is one of those things that has to be sacrificed from time to time. So do a lot of other things on the computer.
Yesterday, I sacrificed some of the necessary things, like laundry, in order to focus on something very essential- my relationship with my children.
It's vacation- Thanksgiving Break. Jeremy was out of town working all day so the kids and I had a day for us. Luckily, lunch and dinner were taken care of since we have plenty of Thanksgiving leftovers. Making meals is one of those necessaries that takes up a lot of time for me, but not yesterday. After we got ready for the day, including scripture study and family prayer, we took turns picking activities to do together (although I admit during some of the activities the kids didn't need me for, I did some dishes), and had a full day of fun.

We painted mini pumpkins.

Before and After

Jr. Jr. really wanted to do what his brother and sister were doing so he got a dry paint brush and pumpkin and enjoyed getting to do the same thing.

We played Disney Junior, Wii, and Game Cube.

We read books.

We watched a movie.

There were other activities we did as well but I didn't get pictures of everything. And there were times between activities or when I was taking care of the baby that the older two kept themselves occupied.

At the end of the day, Nichole and Jr. fell asleep in my bed. Jr. Jr. had kind of a rough night, so I spent some time in my bed with the kids and some time holding the baby, trying to help him sleep.

It was a good family day (though we missed Jeremy).

I Have a Handle on It

I did it. I did what I set out to do. This morning I said, "I think I can handle this day," and I did. I didn't worry about all the things I "needed" to do. I didn't get the living room cleaned and vacuumed. Instead I prioritized and supported my family.

I got up before anyone else and took the time I needed for scriptures and prayer to prepare myself for the day (it does make a difference). I made sure that we had our scripture and prayer time for our family as well, after everyone was up.

I knew it was important to support Jeremy working, so I made sure he knew that the kids and I would give him the hours he needed to do whatever he needed to do. So, while he cleaned his office for most of the day, the kids and I had a nice time together. After breakfast (and after the kids helped clear the table), we did some exercising- stretching and running around pretending to be different animals (including princesses, frogs, fireflies, etc.- continue reading to find out why).

Then we went to disney.com to play some "The Princess and the Frog" games. Nichole is very interested in that movie (even though we haven't seen it yet), and she's pretty good with the computer games.

After lunch, we all went outside. The kids played with the snow, while Jeremy and I chatted. Finally, we had everyone get in the car to go to the credit union, then home again where the kids continued to play with the snow, while I shoveled some of the ice in our parking spots, and Jeremy went back in to work on his office.

The kids helped me start some laundry, then we went on to our next activity.

Nichole has been wanting to paint rats, so we finally did today. We printed out a picture of Remy from Ratatouille for each of the kids and they painted them.

Before

After

The one on the left is Jr.'s and the one on the right is Nichole's.

After painting, we switched the laundry from the washing machine to the dryer, and the kids earned a movie.

Jeremy went off to do balloons at the Brick Oven and the kids watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, while I relaxed a bit.

The kids and I ate a light dinner, played some Monkey Island, and I got them ready for bed. Nichole was "too sleepy" to help clean up some rice she spilled so I let her know she'd have to go to bed if she was too sleepy. Jr. came out with me and fell asleep on the couch as I wrote this blog post. Nichole let me know she wasn't sleepy any more, but I didn't think she should get away with selective sleepiness, so I told her she needed to stay in her room. Poor little girl.

I am glad of the prioritizing I did today. I'm glad Jeremy had time to work on his stuff. I'm glad I spent a lot of time with the kids. And I'm glad tomorrow is family day so the kids get to spend time with both of us.