Service and Burnout

We did so much that first week of December. I wanted to get things in before the tradition of being sick during the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. Actually, nobody was sick for that this year. Yay. We did enjoy watching it together.

In Sacrament Meeting that morning, our bishop talked about doing simple acts of service, which as you know I've been thinking about and trying to do lately. He shared an experience where he offered to throw away somebody's trash for them because it looked like they were done eating. Simple acts of service. I offered to take someone's cart back for them in the Costco parking lot. I was already taking mine back and he had one arm already full. Simple acts of service. At church, I complimented a couple men on their ties because the Christmas season brings out some awesome festive ties. Simple acts of service.

I also took some time Sunday afternoon to make paper bag puppets with Jet. He loved it. 

So I tried to do service. I tried celebrating. Then Monday and the burnout came. I had my nice little breakdown, feeling the overwhelm. I managed to clean and vacuum the living room. I did not manage to catch up on dishes. Did you know baking uses a lot of dishes? I still haven't caught up on the dishes. I'll just admit that right now. And I want to do more baking (read that with a whiny voice).

I still managed to do service when a couple people asked me to help with things. I mean, when someone needs a balloon blown up and you have access to balloon pumps... 

Monday evening, I dragged the kids (a couple were grumpy and didn't want to go- everyone's feeling the burnout and overwhelm) over to the mall for something new. 

They had a live nativity. Students from one of the local high schools were the performers. I knelt down with Jet to explain who the different people represented. When we get to the different groups (shepherds, wise men, etc.) in our family scripture study, I'll be able to remind him of what we saw. 

We also got hot chocolate and brownies there which we were excited about because December 8 was National Brownie Day.

Jet wanted to go inside the big Christmas tree while we were there. It is so cool looking inside.

 

We enjoyed the holiday lights (including the lights of the fountain). 

Here's a funny story. We sat down by the fountain to let Jet eat his brownie because he was just carrying it around for a while. While we were sitting there, Lucky handed me his napkin which he had shaped like a flower and said, "Here's a pretty flower for the lady." Awwww. When Jet finished his brownie, he handed me his crumb covered napkin and said, "Here's a napkin for when you finish your brownie." Ha Ha Ha Ha. I think he did it in a similar voice to what Lucky was using which is what made it hilarious. Have I mentioned I love my kids?

 

We got to see live animals as we walked back to our van, including a camel.

The weather was so good that day. We were really fortunate. I think the student performers were also really fortunate because when Nichole went to the mall just a couple days before that, it was so cold.

The grumpy kids didn't stay grumpy very long which I am grateful for and Jet was very well behaved.

We talked about how many years ago (November 2017), most of us got to ride a camel, so when we got home, Jet got on his brother's back and told us, "I'm riding a camel."

Since it was also Pretend to Be a Time Traveler Day, we had "fish fingers and custard" at home.

Huh. I guess going to a live nativity also works for that holiday because we went back more than 2000 years to when Jesus came to Earth as a little baby.

 

Yesterday, December 9, was National Llama Day so my mom said I could share a couple pictures she took of her neighborhood llamas. She shared some llama thoughts with me as well. I love that my mom helps me celebrate. 

Goodbye, Jr. Jr.

Why do I ever think that things will be less busy once school is out? They never are.

The day after Jr. left, Lucky had an event at the Orem Library. He got to watch a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie and have popcorn. We played in the library while he was at his event. Jet loves playing with the puppets.

The very next day, Jr. Jr. left for a camping trip.

I tell you. It's weird going from five to three kids in such a short time.

That evening, Jet and Daddy had their bonding time while Jeremy took a break from working on balloons for the Summer Reading Program kickoff at the Orem Library. Oh, the cuteness.

World Puppetry Day 2024

World Puppetry Day was on March 21. Jet likes puppets. We had puppets around and he even took one while we were picking kids up.

At the end of the day, Jet and I were watching 9 Years to Neptune, a show with puppets on BYU-TV. I kept telling Jr. Jr. to go to bed. This was his response. "It's not me watching the show. It's the dinosaur puppet." Heh Heh Heh.

That same day, Jeremy, Nichole, Lucky, and I went to a UCB Meeting at the Bean Museum. Club members were presenting about different shorebirds. Jeremy and I were asked to present on Greater Yellowlegs and Lesser Yellowlegs. Jeremy put the presentation together and I presented it.

Because the meeting was about shorebirds, and little sandpipers are known as "peeps," the club officer in charge of meetings brought marshmallow Peeps for refreshments afterward. Tee Hee. She had fruit punch flavored. We'd never had that kind before. It was fun. I liked the flavor.

Cuteness and Accomplishments

I do "Baby Cuteness" posts often on this blog. It's time to share some cuteness and accomplishments from the other children.

In no particular order:

Jr. Jr. got silver medal in the Read-a-thon for his class at school (It was Olympics themed). He came home and was so happy to show me his medal and to say how happy he was for the student who got the gold medal because that boy put a lot of work into reading so much during the event and he deserved it (Jr. Jr. put a lot of minutes in himself).

Jr. was a student of the month for November at the junior high. His English teacher praised him for helping out so much in class (helping other students, straightening desks and chairs up without being asked) besides doing so much more than the required work.

The youth in our ward put on a talent show. They wanted to show both performing arts and visual arts. Nichole brought some of her drawings. She made a coloring page for people to have. 

She also juggled and she and Jr. put on a puppet show with her crocheted puppets. Those two together put on some entertaining puppet shows.

 

The Young Women collected recipes then asked the girls to make one of their dishes to share when they got copies of all the recipes that were collected. Nichole sculpted a cheeseball. Well, she started with one cheeseball that turned into three fairies. She expressed that cream cheese is a lot easier to sculpt than clay.

When we were in quarantine, Lucky missed out on some projects at school so he colored a hinged skeleton at home and hung it on a door. It looked really good.

 

Jr. wanted to support a friend in the school play so he went to watch it and had such a great time. His friend played the Grinch in "Seussical Jr."

I mentioned that Nichole is taking a digital photography class this semester. One of the things she needed to do was get pictures of water splashing/flying through the air, that sort of thing. I was her helper. At one point I tried to throw the water straight up but I ended up throwing it more back than straight up. Oops. I guess that is more "cuteness" on my part but hey, Nichole was taking the pictures.

Another Day Off?

Since my day off didn't really work on Lazy Mom's Day, I decided I was going to try it again on Friday, September 24, Bluebird of Happiness Day. That ended up more of a lazy mom's day.

I had such plans for that day. Once we dropped kids off at school, Jet went back to sleep, though, so I couldn't do what was on the plan. I could have gotten so much done while he slept with cleaning and organizing but I watched a TV show instead and got nothing productive done (lazy mom).

After the kids got home from school, they knew they were in charge of dinner again, so Jet and I headed off to do at least something I was planning to do. I guess I was chasing that bluebird of happiness with a day off.

We went for a walk at Powell Lake but Jet didn't want to ride in the stroller and didn't always want to stay right by the stroller so there was a lot of running after him to keep him from falling down an embankment. I'd say the majority of the time was chasing after him so he'd be safe. 

 

At one point it wasn't worth trying to make it all the way around the pond so we headed back. I didn't get a chance to look at the birds much. No bluebird of happiness. It took quite a bit of effort to get Jet back to the van and get him in and buckled and etc. etc. etc. Sigh.

We've had better outings. But hey, at least we got a few cute pictures in the van.

We drove home by way of driving around the lake. Jet fell asleep then woke up when we were about as far away from home as possible and was unhappy for a while. Plus we got stuck in construction traffic so it took even longer to get home with a poor uncomfortable baby. Sigh.

I found no bluebird of happiness while I was out. When I got home the kids were watching "Muppets Most Wanted" because September 24 was also Jim Henson's birthday. Nichole had her puppets out as well.

When Jeremy got home I went up to help him bring things in and we chatted with the neighbor for a little while until I saw something in the sky? "What are those?" They looked like something on fire. The neighbor looked up and said, "Oh, those are lanterns." We called the kids up and we all got to see floating lanterns in the sky. We got to see quite a few before they burned out/burned up. They must have been sending them off somewhere nearby for us to be able to see them so well, but for what purpose? I don't know.

So no bluebird of happiness but we saw floating lanterns at home. The End.