Mother's Day

 

I started out this week getting my eyebrows micro-bladed and shaded. My appointment was out in Emmett, a 48 minute drive north. I enjoyed the ride admiring the spring flowers Mother Nature provided. I fed my spirit listening to Joy D Jones conference April 2021 talk 5 times in a row. Now my eyebrows are super dark and pop off my face and shout HELLO! Don't worry, it will fade once my eyebrows heal in a couple more days. I teased Jeremy by telling him I got two new tattoos. He was impressed...until he realized the tattoos were on my face. Just call my the family Black Sheep. The worst part of the healing process is I cannot sweat for 10 days, and shower without getting my brows wet (try that one out, it's hard), and not scratch my itchy brows. 

The boys and Evelyn really stepped up this week working hard to finish school for the year. I assigned the boys to complete 16 assignments including two zoom classes. Phillip completely procrastinated his work so had not even started by Wednesday. He was proverbially chained to his chair all Thursday from 8-4 doing his work, with a break for gymnastics. He turned an hour of work a day into a full time job for a day. He got so hung up on just choosing which topics to learn about that he wasted hours instead of just getting it done, on the converse side he wanted to choose instead of assigned the work. He skipped out three times on me earlier in the week after he was asked to complete his chores. He chose to go play instead. Justin lost it when Phillip skipped out on doing dishes Tuesday night, his consequence was cleaning the entire kitchen alone without help. I must say he did a marvelous job in the end, but seriously! He repeated his mistake the next day! We were late for the Stake Youth Activity because Phillip procrastinated his work. Evelyn and Everett buckled down and did a few assignments all week so finished without a fuss. We celebrated the end of school on Friday with a visit to DEFY trampoline park with the Ostlers followed by milkshakes. There are still some school items to finish like a maturation course for the older kids, lots of reading, and cleaning/organizing so our summer vacation has not yet started. 

I went to the optometrist this week because reading road signs clearly is finally a problem. My eye sight is terrible...I went from a +3.5 to a +7 this visit. I am also getting my new prescription as a graduated bifocal. Stink. I am quite nervous to endure months of migraines, dizziness, and depth perception issues like I experienced 16 months ago. 

Justin resurfaced from a very busy three weeks after filing the 10Q on Thursday for this last quarter. Work should settle down to a more normal schedule until the next filing. We celebrated with a trip to Cabela's on Friday night with the kids (minus Amelia who was babysitting). We got some new camp chairs, fishing rods, shoes, sunscreen shirts, water bottles, and hats. The total was staggering, we miss our employee discount! Good thing we have points in excess to spend. Yesterday we all went to the last round of soccer games for the year. It was quite chilly outside, the breeze was frigid when one is sitting around watching. Evelyn is in love with her first soccer medal and lanyard. The boys were thrilled to get more medals to supplement their collections. Everett is by far the most competitive and driven to get into the game. He gets into it with his whole heart. We spent the rest of the day working outside as a family. Justin and the boys worked on mowing and edging the yard while I worked on digging out the old border, leveling it in preparation for a new brick border. I actually removed the grass on Tuesday but had to stop because my eyebrows were sweating, oh my heck what a world. Justin worked hard leveling the bricks on level one so level two would be straight. There was a little bit of arguing and hot tempers (me) but I left to get more pea gravel and reign in my opinions. I love the presence of the new wall! The kids worked hard hauling bricks and digging out dirt. 

Amelia got a new accessory to hide her beauty...a paper bag. I kindly cut eyeholes and a mouth slit so she can still eat and drink if necessary. She left it home for church today, not fair! We get you bag and you're supposed to wear it! Ha ha. 

I woke up spoiled and surprised on Mother's Day! The kids decorated my bedroom door with hearts they cut and wrote on last week. Justin surprised me with a large piece of artwork with a scripture from Isaiah, a fun kitchen print, and a poster that says: "Thou shalt try hard things" ~Mom 27:7. Evelyn drew a beautiful picture of me. I got a new temple recommend cover as well. I felt so loved this morning. Everett sang with the Primary boys in church. His sweet voice was clearly heard rising over the other boys. The kids and Justin cleaned up the house and will make waffles and berries for dinner. Hooray. I video-chatted with my mom for a while, talked with Jana, and Mom Call. So many wonderful ladies in my life! The Elder's Quorum served cheesecake and toppings for the Sisters after sacrament meeting. We all enjoyed a chance to visit and chat. 

Josie: when she gets in trouble lately, she starts crying and clings to me saying, "But MOM! I love you!" melts me...but she still has to clean or do whatever I asked her to do. 

How do we teach our kids to do hard things? It seems like every older generation since time immemorial has complained about the younger generation. Guess I'm no different! It seems like kids are content to do half-baked jobs and roll along with the flow instead of fighting for greatness. Of course there are always the outliers, but in general seems like kids fight harder for device/TV time than for things that matter. I want to instill in my kids a love of hard work, that hard work equals joy. Do the hard things, enjoy the challenge!