Sterling and Susan invited us over to celebrate New Year's Eve with them. Susan's parents were there, as well as Sterling's mom. We ate food, played games, the kids watched a movie, and we did a fake count down around 10:00 pm. I took the kids home and got them in bed around 10:30, but Matthew stayed to ring in the new year at midnight.
Monday, New Years Day, Matthew finished the closet in the front room. I went grocery shopping, and the kids enjoyed one last day of absolute freedom. We had family night and I made the kids go to bed at a reasonable time.
Matthew had to go back to work on Tuesday. I had the kids clean their rooms and the boys resume their piano practicing. After lunch, Ammon and Micah came over and the kids spent most of the afternoon playing video games. I made pork stew and rolls for dinner. I've tried making dinner rolls several times over the past 10 years and they've never turned out, but these were really very good even though they didn't keep their Parker House shape.
The kids went back to school on Wednesday. It was Mercy's early day and the stillness in the house once the boys left for the bus was both refreshing and a little unsettling. I mostly spent my time cleaning up and working on some primary stuff. For dinner I made a breakfast Strata that also turned out really good. That evening I went to the church to redecorate and update the primary's hallway bulletin board. The Activity Days girls were there decorating the bulletin board in the primary room.
Thursday I did a lot of work on the computer, mostly writing the annual updates for the blog. Matthew and Hyrum started working on Hyrum's pinewood derby car. Before bed I gave the boys haircuts. They really wanted to keep some length but I'm not sure I did a great job of it.
Friday was Matthew's day off and we spent most of it together. We dropped Mercy off at the Jolley's at 10:00 then went to the Temple. I was able to do the initiatory work for Vebel and Porter Petrie, who we did the baptisms for when we were in Utah over Thanksgiving. We picked up some gross lunch at Taco Bell, went to Walmart, then picked Riker and Mercy up from preschool. We took them both with us to go through the car wash, then stopped by Sterling's house to drop off a book. Mercy asked if she could stay to play, so we left her there and took Riker home. Matthew spent a couple hours changing the oil and putting air in the tires of both cars, then around 5:00 we went back to Sterling's for dinner. I took the kids home around 7:45 and Matthew stayed for a while longer.
The boys had Karate this morning, and I spent the morning cleaning. Matthew helped Jeb do some car repairs. I made Swedish meatballs and mashed potatoes for our late lunch before starting our fast. The potatoes were not good, but the meatballs were really amazing. We decided to fast as a family for President Monson's family, as well as for the new Prophet. Matthew took a nap while I sat with the boys during their piano practicing, then the kids got some screen time. Matthew spent the late afternoon working on building in the attic. Matthew's D&D Bearclaws campaign has finished up, so the group of them plus two more met here for a role playing game of Fate.
***
In other news, we've been working on night time potty training Abraham. He's been sleeping on the floor in our room and using the "pee pee machine" (an alarm that attaches to the underwear and goes off when it senses moisture). I can't say yet whether or not it's going well. It's certainly disrupting everyone's sleep, but at least we're not paying for diapers and there's a chance that his body is learning how to wake itself up.
No comments:
Post a Comment