This week felt crazy busy on so many levels, because it was just a crazy busy week.Monday Amelia woke up a year older, a new and wiser 15 year old. She wore a crown to school! Justin and I brought Jimmy John's to the HS for lunch. I tried walking like a cool kid but still looked and felt like the nerd I am. Amelia looked so cute in her crown, her joyful eyes sparkling. At home the little girls played Cafe with Mia, they ate her order of fries. The food servers eat the food in our home! I made delicious homemade raspberry ice cream and a lemon-raspberry cake for her cake. She requested sushi bake for dinner. This time I doubled the crab topping! Clare and Fallon came over to hang out for dinner and dessert. Amelia finally got to open her gifts of two cute pens and 5 tubes of Japanese Mayo. OK, AND new bluetooth headphones, brush marker set, clothes, and 5 squishmallows. Amelia is one smart, gorgeous, creative young lady.
Tuesday morning we drove to counseling for a couple hours. Phillip and Evelyn helped me frost and decorate 4 dozen cookies for the Da Vinci fundraiser. Evelyn is almost finished listening to the Wild Robot! I worked my fingers off for an hour editing school photos until it was time for dentist appointments. The dental assistant was VERY thorough removing every speck of plaque on my teeth, plaque that I was probably born with. Josie was disgusted with my bloody smile during that procedure. Bad news: I have a growing cavity underneath the crown on the very back right molar. That means an $800 hit to my pride and our budget. Amelia had sealants placed last year...unfortunately over 6 soft spots on her teeth. The dentist will need to scrape those off and lightly fill the recesses. The rest of our gang walked away with clean teeth and aching gums. I rushed home to get the Great Brain projects finished with the little girl's help. Josie decided last moment (again) that she really wanted to do a project. I typed up a few fact sheets, we glued those to a presentation board, and finally tied a koala to the board. She brought a Mommy koala with a baby to set in front of the board. Evelyn and I finished her project over the weekend, she wanted to add a couple more agates to her presentation. Everett and Ava worked on their presentation over the past couple weeks on nuclear fission. I signed up to help set up between 2-5 pm, I walked in 5 minutes past 5! Those dental appointments were a bit unexpected because I did not properly calendar them. We had a fun evening learning about interesting topics, eating sweet art-themed treats, admiring artwork, and watching the grades compete with each other's stem projects. Our Stake hosted a RS conference that same evening. Brother and Sister Kroon spoke about anti-fragility a very interesting mental health topic. Essentially, the takeaway for me was:
- be anti-fragile not resilient, resilience does not create growth after trials, only a return to original state
- Be curious. Don't get angry, upset, offended when something "hurts" you instead become curious about the how, what, where, and whys
- anti-fragility is the world's title for God's grace. It is the power that Christ has to heal our souls, the atonement in action
- Dr Shahar's S.P.I.R.E. model (spiritual, physical, intellectual, relational, and emotional) focuses on how to become anti-fragile in our life.
- our generation was more trained in the peripherals of the gospel (the law/letter), teach the real core principles of the gospel.
- we tend to only hang out with others in our ward when we are called to do so as a ministering member or when invited to activities
- Don't be so arrogant that you think you know better than God.
- Focus more on the heart, will understand behavior better
I had a goal to finish editing the school photos by Friday. I'm pleased to announce that the last gallery was posted at 9:35 pm on Friday. YESSSSSS! Breanna welcomed her baby girl 2.5 weeks early. That meant an unexpected newborn session was added to an already busy week. I photographed tiny Elleigh and her big sister Thursday morning. Elleigh was a stellar baby, except she hated being on her tummy. She was a breech baby so her feet were very comfortable next to her face. So cute. Evelyn stayed home from with school with a cough. She went grocery shopping with me. We enjoyed having some alone time together. Evelyn threw quite a tantrum Wednesday evening because she had a headache. Phillip had some music on while doing his chore. She whined about it then demanded he turn it off. He turned it down but not off. She turned on her own music triple loud on the TV. Things went down fast after that. We camped out in the van while Evelyn raged around. She calmed down after a while, especially after drawing all over the van with window markers. She cleaned off the marker with a smile. Nina had a long chat with Evelyn toward the end of her episode. It's so exhausting. The missionaries came over for dinner Thursday evening. They are not allowed in the house without a male over the age of 18. We ate the garage with the door open. Justin is crazy busy with work, lots more snafu's to deal with. Fate would have it to arrange the coldest, raniest, most blustery evening of the week on that day. Phillip set up the tables in the garage. We huddled in our coats for dinner! I ended up opening the third garage bay and closing the main door just for warmth. Dinner was Hawaiian sloppy joes and brussels sprouts. Yum.
Friday the kids had the day off due to a teacher work day. We slept in a bit then I edited until 11:30 after which we went to the rec center for swimming. Ambree and Oliver came along for the adventure. I got almost two hours of gym time, bonus. Amelia swam with the kids, of course making the time extra spicy. Ambree's birthday party was from 4-9 pm so the kids mostly spent the rest of the day at the Ostlers. I walked out to witness a TP party on our lawns! The trees were lovely in their TP draping. Happy birthday to Ambree! Amelia helped me hang studio paper and get my equipment set up for a full day of dance photos on Saturday.
Phew, Saturday was loooooooong. Sara agreed to assist me with the schedule and check-in. We started at 9 am with lots of cute little dancers 4 and under. The day progressed until the evening full of teenaged dancers. I was on my feet photographing for 11 hours with two bathroom breaks and snatches of time for water and sustenance. Amelia and Sara switched out around 3 pm. Justin brought Amelia, Evelyn, and Josie to get out of the house for a bit. It was quite boring for the kiddos so they went home when Sara left. I am going to rethink my pricing and packages. It seemed like half of the girls were in 3-8 classes, which does not make sense to make parents buy multiple packages for each dance outfit. Amelia and I were/are dead tired today.
Everett bore a sweet, well-thought out testimony in church today. He wrote down his thoughts in a notebook Justin gave him several months ago. He really tries hard to live and understand the gospel of Christ.
Congratulations to Jeremy for graduating with his Master's Degree on Friday. He was hooded later in the evening. I don't recall getting hooded when I graduated...that is a conundrum. Justin just informed me that the photo hanging over my computer has a photo of me wearing my Master's degree hood. Well, I no longer feel jipped.
**Josie was so cute, the evening before Mia's birthday she spotted a wishing flower, she scrunched up her eyes concentrating on her wish. I heard her whisper, "I wish, I wish that Mia will have the best birthday ever!" Those wishes fluttered out into the wide world with that heartfelt wish floating along in the breeze. Made my mommy heart sing.
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