Soccer, Ice Cream, Canceled Church

Monday was a rough morning. Both Ruby and Penny were having melt downs. It makes me want to melt down too. I had to take away screen time from Penny and that seemed to help her calm down for homeschooling the rest of the week. For those people who say they could never do homeschooling, I hope they know that just because I do it, it doesn't mean I am some sort of amazingly patient and good teacher with my kids. It's rough but I try to remember why I do it and hang in there.

Tuesday morning I went on a walk with Grace to the library. At the library when Ruby was playing near another toddler I told her to play nice and she patted the kid on his head. I guess that's better than stealing a toy from him or hitting him. After the library I went with Grams to Kohl's to return a wifi booster thing that Tyler had been trying to use so Grams and Poppy could better use our internet. Unfortunately it only worked for Poppy's computer and for some reason made the wifi inaccessible for Grams and Tyler. Technology is weird. 

After returning it, I got a Kohl's coupon, so I took Penny and Lucy to Kohl's the next day to look for jeans but they had hardly any. I don't know what is going on with the fall/winter clothing stock but I am willing to spend my money and they are not giving me any of the things I need to buy. Lucy ended up using the coupon to buy herself a Snoopy sweatshirt. It's funy to me that she thinks Snoopy is cool because I totally had a Snoopy shirt when I was a teen.

Wednesday night Penny had soccer practice in Milford and Ben had a game. Tyler took Ben to his game and me, Ruby and Grams went with Penny to Milford. I had thought about going to Ben's game after dropping Penny off but there was a chance of rain so the coach told us to stay close. Instead we played at the park and the library. I think that Ruby quite enjoys her time at the park because later in the week when we were taking Penny to her soccer game Ruby started talking about going to the park to play. She was very disappointed that we actually had to stay and watch Penny play soccer.

Thursday while the kids were at school I was supposed to meet in person a toddler mom in our neighborhood that I had connected with on Facebook. I had seen her walk by our home before with her daughter and then she had posted on facebook looking for walking buddies for her and her 2 year old daughter. I responded to the post and then had anxious regrets (especially when I saw her at the library a few days later and decided it was too awkward to say hello) but still, I really do want to make more friends for Ruby. It was disappointing that she canceled. Instead of meeting her, I had a melt down about the gnats in our house and then went on an intense cleaning spree. That was way less fun. My gnat melt down sprung Tyler into gear though and he changed out pipes and bought more things to kill them with. We also had an ac guy come and clean things out and I don't know what really did it- Tyler's work, my cleaning, the ac guy...- but since all these things there have been way less gnats around. I am really hoping they are on their way out permanently. 

Friday after doing our homeschool work, we took Poppy to the library. When we were done at the library it was lunchtime and Poppy was nice and took us to Burger King. Ruby really loves their chicken nuggets and apple juice and now the kids have collected all of the Scooby Doo toys ;)

Friday after Ruby's nap Asher came over to play. They didn't do a whole lot of playing together, mostly fighting over toys or playing in separate areas. Sometimes I think I am not "crunchy" enough for Julie. My kids are definitely exposed to a lot more tv things and teenage trends. She was making a comment how she was a little shocked that her young niece was so into "K Pop Demon Hunters" and she didn't think it was super appropriate and I was like...well Ruby likes the music a lot...I mostly enjoy hanging out with her and Asher but I also sometimes feel a little judged by her.

Friday evening Ben had a soccer game. His team won 3-2. Ben ended up playing for the first 14 minutes which was a bit of a bummer because I got there 5 minutes late. I did like that he played in the beginning though, because then I didn't have to stress about if he would get to play or not. I had bought a reusable sticker book for Ruby because I am constantly looking for ways to entertain during games and church and it seemed to be a hit. She played with it until the very end of the game when she decided to wander over to the gate and drop it onto the field. I was very lucky that I nice lady (I think the teams physical therapist?) was there and picked it up for me. 

Saturday Penny had a soccer game in the morning. I have mixed feelings about early morning games. I don't love having to get up early on a Saturday but it's also nice to get the game done so I can move on with the day after. Penny's team won again- 8 to 2. Her team is mostly just older kids(10-11), whereas the other teams are usually more of a fair mix between 8-11 year olds. I sometimes wonder how they would do if all the teams they played were older like them. However, I do think they have an advantage of having played together for a long time and they really work well together.

Saturday was our last day to get ice cream at Dairy Twist before it closes for the season so of course we had to go. Unfortunately, even with having a kid that works there, we ended up coming before it opened. Rookie mistake. But no need to worry, we went back later when it was open and boy was it busy. We waited at least 30 minutes before getting our ice cream. It was worth the wait though. Ruby enjoyed sitting on the table and stealing bites from everyone's ice cream.

Normally I save Sundays recap for the next week but this has been a particularly tough Sunday. Today was supposed to be the Primary Program. I had practicing the piano religiously for the last week- I was super nervous but so ready to be done. The girls had invited their friends Geli and Luna and Mimi's family. They had all arrived and I had explained to Mimi's family how our church services work and we were basically ready to get this show in the road. Then Tyler comes to me and says church is canceled and I thought he was just joking because he knows how nervous I get about playing the piano, but then it wasn't a joke. The Bishop was canceling church and telling us all to go home. There was a shooting at the Grand Blanc building- less than an hour away from us. They wanted to be extra catious so they sent us all home. I had to call Geli and Luna's mom and tell her what happened. She came back to get them. We said goodbye to everyone and then left and it was just awful and scary. Steven has friends from that building that he has met at multistake dances. He checked in with them. Thankfully they had attended church at another building that day. The details are coming out slowly but apparently the man drove his car into the building and then shot at least 10 people and lit the building on fire. They think they will find more victims now that the fire is out. Is completely insane. I know I don't personally know anyone there but I feel so heartbroken about it- it was just way too close to home. I keep telling my kids we can't live in fear but I also just desperately want to bubble wrap them and have them never leave the house again.