All In A Few Days

You may have noticed that between our new callings, Emma's graduation, the work conference in Saint George, and our trip to Alabama, it's been pretty go go go around here the last several weeks.    I had hopeful visions that things would calm down a bit once we returned from Alabama, but that has not been the case yet.    

I arrived back home on a Wednesday night to an empty refrigerator, boatloads of laundry to do, and a somewhat messy house after being gone for 2 weeks (4 days in Saint George, then 10 days in Alabama).    I also had a funeral program to design (see below) and print by Thursday and book group to get ready for hosting on Thursday night, plus a busy weekend ahead, which pretty much meant there was not a moment of downtime before I had to go go go again. 

BOOK GROUP
 I LOVE my book group!   They are fantastic people that I am lucky to call my friends, so I totally don't mind hosting every month, even if sometimes it feels like a lot.    Luckily I was able to talk Emma into coming up for a couple hours to help me clean and make refreshments, which took the edge off of this crazy day. 

BACK ROW L-R:  Julie D, Nancy G, Kelly D, Emily G, Mary J, Heather P, Andrea C
FRONT ROW L-R:  Susan T, Me, Carrie W, K'Lynn W

A FUNERAL
My Aunt Valerie passed away while we were in Alabama.  She never married, so it was her sisters (including my Mom) helping to plan the funeral.   I was asked to make the funeral programs...something I was happy to do!  

The funeral was on Friday, so I needed to finish designing and printing them by Thursday, so they'd be ready for Friday.   Luckily I have found a good local printer that was able to do them same-day.  I ran to the grocery store to do a quick restock of the fridge while I was out picking up the programs.

  The funeral went great, except that I forgot to tell Glen that he was giving the family prayer.  I had been asked about it while I was still in Alabama and just plain didn't thoroughly read the text they sent  and then couldn't communicate to Glen something I skipped over.  It was a bit embarrassing as everyone was waiting for him and it was 100% my fault.   😳 Oops.  Besides giving the family prayer, Glen also led the music.  Emma gave the life sketch.   This was us at the funeral. 

  My Mom and 3 of her remaining sisters (one was too sick to come) immediately went to Star Valley after the funeral for the burial.  

 

MY SISTER AND NEPHEW

Speaking of sisters...my sister, Kristina, town for the funeral too. 

She also brought Jesus, who decided he wants to be called J  now. Denali was LOVING all the extra attention J  was giving her...

And J was LOVING all the one on one attention he was getting here without any of his siblings to compete with.   We read lots of books and let him pick the movies  (Frozen and Pete the Cat), which his brothers would never let him watch. 

I'll be honest...I was also quite LOVING the bonus time with this sweet little guy, since I was in serious Lucie and Oliver withdrawals  at that point! 

WEDDING RECEPTION
On Saturday night, after a busy day of doing all of our Saturday things,  we went to the wedding reception of a friend of Emma's from PA. Emma didn't live in PA for very long, but Katie left on her mission within a few weeks of  Ems and both got reassigned to SLC missions during COVID, so they connected that way.  I grew to really love Katie's Mom, Elizabeth, who was one of our bright spots from PA, after the very awkward social experience we had in the first ward we lived in while we were there.   We didn't take any pics at the reception and we actually didn't get a chance to talk to the L family for very long, since they were a bit distracted with lots of wedding stuff, but it was great to see their happy faces and celebrate with them. 

A VERY LONG SUNDAY
One Sunday a month, we wake up extra early and head to stake meetings that start at 7:30am.   But since it's about 35 minutes to get there and we have to find parking on campus, we have to leave around 6:50am and we don't get home until about 3:00pm.   The Sunday after we got home from Alabama was one of those long days, but luckily  Kristina was leaving from the Provo airport, so she dropped by right after our ward ended to say goodbye!   It was fun for Kristina to see a glimpse of what we're doing in the YSA ward now and it was fun that Emma could run over and greet Kristina as well.  I laughed when I offered to pick J up for the picture and he immediately flopped over in my arms like a baby!  Silly boy!     

A BUSY WEEK
By the time you'll read this post, we'll have prepared talks for this Sunday, had a kid break a bone in two places (a post for another day),  and been down to BYU FOUR  separate times  for various ward activities (it actually ended up 6/7 days).  

 

And, yet, here I am blogging, because, you know, priorities...

💗

Day 323: Gratitude at Preschool

Today at preschool we learned all about gratitude and Thanksgiving.   We reviewed the story of the Pilgrims and how the first Thanksgiving came to be.  They seemed to remember it perfectly!  

Then we went outside and gathered our own bountiful harvest---these carrots from our garden.  Once again the kids were thrilled!  

They were completely enraptured by this Thanksgiving sticker scenes from OTC and spent a good 20-25 minutes laboring over them.  I actually ended up having to pry them away after a while. 

Then we made this harvest blessing mix where each child contributed their own part.

Then we made these little gratitude trees.  The kids were so cute and loved talking about what gratitude was and what they were grateful for.

Another fun day at preschool and now I'm done until February!

Day 321: Pilgrims at Preschool

Today at preschool we learned all about Pilgrims.  I was amazed at how much the kids just "ate" up all this information.  As I was telling them a little flannel board story about the Pilgrims they were completely enraptured and were later easily able to retell the story back to me. 

We went on a ride on the Mayflower and went searching for a land where we could worship God they way we wanted. 

We painted little turkeys starting with their own footprints

and later made little turkeys out of apples. 

Once again, it was days like today that remind me why I do this preschool thing year after year after year. 

Day 317: Rhythm and Drums

Today we had a rhythm and drum day at our house with Ellie's preschool group.  I collected a bunch of coffee cans from Freecycle and helped the kids to make their own drums.

  The kids had a fun time repeating rhythms and discovering all the different sounds their drums could make (marshmallows make cool sounds and taste good afterward). 

Then we made little Indian vests since they had just learned about Native Americans the day before.  They were cute as whooped and hollered and beat on their drums. 

It's fun days like today that remind me why I like doing home preschool so much!

Day 293--Paper Towels and Play Date

Today Ellie had another play date with her friend Rachel. They had a great time unrolling all the paper towels all over the floor and playing dress up. Afterward, Ellie was exhausted and fell instantly to sleep.

Since I never took a before/after picture of Spencer's room on Saturday, today I took a picture of it a few days later. You can still see the floor, but it's already getting messy again.
Maybe next time we'll just shovel everything in the trash.

Day 288--Maps and Geography at Preschool

It was my turn to teach preschool again and I must say today was a lot more smooth running than last time. The kids had a great time learning all about maps and people living around the world. They loved these little globe balls and by the end could even point out where the USA was on them.
They had fun playing with earth colored play dough and tried to make their own little globes. In reality though they mostly just squashed it, poked it, and rolled it around.


And me?
Well, my hands look like this now and I'll sleep like a log tonight!

Day 258--Back to Preschool!!!

Today is a happy day at our house. After almost a week without any siblings to play with all day, Ellie finally started preschool today!!


She was as eager as can be about going and I won't lie. I was probably even more excited than she was.

I finally got some exercise, got this 365 blog all caught back up so Glen can stop calling me a slacker, and Ellie isn't begging me for food and friends all day! Woohoo!