How is your Forehead doing?

I was making photo collages and once again was overwhelmed by the amount of foreheads in my photo feed. Sooooo…How is your forehead doing? The domination of foreheads over here in Nampa, ID are doing really well. If you want to share your forehead please do. 

Monday was a lovely teacher work day, which means I did not work because I’m a pseudo-teacher. Instead I lazed in bed trying really hard to get up but lacking motivation. The task of the day was one I did not want to face: mom cleaning the boys room. I finally got to the task, only to have Everett complain that most of the stuff is NOT his. It never is. In spite of his declaration I found plenty for him to work on. We got the boy’s Lego collection into the new bookcase with Everett’s spintronics taking up the bottom cubby. Everett declared he was done, um no…I moved on to their bookcase cubbies and enjoyed the extensive eye rolling when I insisted we go through those bins. Next we moved to their closet. Oh the little treasure hiding in the closet…more than half was Everett’s. I went to Walmart for a new stuffed animal net and a shoe hanger. The last moments of the afternoon Phillip and I spent hanging shelves, the net, pictures, and hats. Their room now looks much more presentable and not quite as smelly. When Amelia moves out I plan on moving Everett to the middle room and commandeer a corner from him for a small sewing corner. 

Evelyn started ukulele lessons with Emma Beck on Tuesday. Josie had her lesson first. She is working on Arkansas Traveler, Edelweiss, and You Are My Sunshine. Emma decided that Rubber Dolly was too challenging with some complicated rhythms and double bowing, I agree. I hope Evelyn will practice! She gives me grief whenever I announce it’s time to practice. 

School this week felt like a cotton-wrapped sledge hammer. I confess, once I started back to work after my surgery I started drinking a Coke Zero or two each day. My body felt so tired and my brain like mush. I recommitted starting Monday to drop the habit, it did not come back in full force but was creeping back up to former levels. No caffeine made that first week back quite difficult with headaches. Plus we had a school day on Friday since Monday was a no-contact day. I really do love having most Fridays off, it makes the weekends less crazy. By Friday I came home from school barely able to walk one foot in front of the other. Apparently, I fell asleep clutching a bag of chocolate mint wrappers (the best Palmer’s mints Miekka recommended from Cinco, that you can only find in December). I had my post dinner treat, asked Justin to put an interesting show on the TV, which he did not so promptly fell asleep. They woke me up a bit later which made the rest of the night a restless mess. I did get my Walmart shopping done at 11 pm via the app. 

Evelyn had her first real combined YM/YW activity on Wednesday! The youth went to the Caldwell ice ribbon for ice skating. Evelyn spent quite a few minutes getting her outfit ready the night before, something cute and cool. She settled on her Wicked shirt, necklace, and hat clip. Slay girl. I hear they had a really fun time. I was surprised Everett did not skate. Little stinker sat out with Logan the entire time. The youth shared their hot drinks and doughnuts with other ice skaters who asked if they could have some.

Amelia, Josie, and I went to Sister Minor’s home to record the last audition track Amelia needed for her BYU-I music school application. That was fun to hear how much she’s improved over the years. Amelia is practicing the All-State songs few times each week. That music is quite complicated! The students are expected to have all the music memorized. Last year Amelia got the music 2 weeks before All-State because she was called as an alternate two weeks before. She was very stressed because the clinicians are very hard on the students, especially the alternates. Phillip was asked by Mrs Sene to play drums for CHS next concert in a month! He was very excited to be asked. Emma Beck and I were talked during the girl’s fiddle/ukulele lessons. She is going up to All-State for the 4 days. She invited me to stay in their hotel room instead of getting my own room! That sounds like a fun party. 

Amelia and I had a fun shopping trip Saturday afternoon. I picked up the Walmart groceries earlier. I had to go in and pick up a few items that were substituted but I cancelled. It is much faster than an entire shopping trip. I went to Albertson’s for meat and got a really awesome deal on beef. Love that. I needed to donate the pile of stuff from cleaning bedrooms to the DI, return a shirt to Fred Meyer, and Amelia wanted to spend her Christmas money at Hobby Lobby. Amelia found totally darling jeans at Fred Meyer. She gets frustrated finding jeans that fit, so that was exciting. I got several photo frames to make a collage for Ms Gingerich at the DI. Amelia found cute mushroom prints for her dorm room and a hanging shelf. We talk about the silliest things, it’s like non-stop chatter. I am going to miss her so much. When Justin and I are alone we enjoy comfortable silence with some conversation. Amelia is silly like me…we vibe.