Things

On Monday Lucy had her annual check up. Her Doctor was running behind because apparently the person before us had come in late and brought a binder. Lucy's doctor admitted that that kind of threw her off her groove. I hope we helped get her back on her groove by not being complicated. I just complained about Lucy's desire to chew on all the things (currently it's ice). She said it's probably just a nervous habit but we are welcome to take her in for a blood test to make sure there's no deficiencies. However the way Lucy panicked and burrowed into me for her flu shot, does not make me want to take her in for an elective blood draw.

Monday evening Jacob was over and it was fun to watch all the kids play a game nicely together. They had seperated the stuffed animals into teams and were having them do all sorts of contests. There was a cooking contest in which they were all different judges (that were clearly based on shows they've seen) and there was a drawing contest in which I was quite impressed with all their artistic skills. It was fun to overhear them playing.

Tuesday I was grateful for a day in which I had no projects and wasn't hosting anything so I could just take care of neglected things. I ran some errands, did a Salvation Army run, picked up an awesome doll bed for the girls for just $5, and went through the massive amount of junk the boys had been storing under their beds and in the basement. The boys did not appreciate my efforts- Steven especially is quite the hoarder- but I felt better, at least for the one day that everything felt clean and organized. 

Wednesday the kids all had their dentist appointment. No cavities but Lucy has cracked two of her fillings from all her ice chewing and will have to go get them fixed. I struggle with stopping her from chewing on the ice because it's way better than other things she has chewed on before. Maybe I should get her blood drawn...That evening Lucy had Volleyball practice and then I had to take her and Steven to the church for activities. Steven's activity involved eating gross things and would you believe he ate a snail!? He was not a fan.

Thursday morning we had the pleasure of giving a lesson on a political section in D&C. It is hard to listen to how messed up our youth are about politics. We had one basically telling us it is more important to have a president that looks good than a president that has good policies. You can tell how much media has influenced them. I hope at the end I at least got them to realize they need to research things for themselves and put prayer into the equation. 

Thursday afternoon Tyler left to Arizona for his sister's 40th birthday. They are not that good of friends so he is trying to reach out an olive branch I suppose....a $500 olive branch because flights are pricey again. I think though that after my several trips this year without him or kids, he wanted a break of his own. I don't blame him. The kids have been in fine irritating form this week. Lots of button pushing. Taking him to the airport was an adventure in itself. I forgot my phone (because we picked up the kids from school first, it took me a bit to notice) so I had to google directions on his phone and do my best to remember them, It gave me a lot of anxiety. Traffic was also awful. I was in the car with the kids for almost 2 hours. And on top of it all we finished the story they were listening to on the way to the airport so I had no more entertainment for them. Not my favorite my part of the week.

That evening I left the kids to meet some friends at Cheesecake Factory. I was little worried about leaving them home alone at night but they did great, no issues. Cheesecake Factory was a nice outing, even if I always replay what I said later and then wonder why I am such a weirdo. We had about an hour wait for a table and then another hour wait for the food but that just meant more time to socialize and the food was delicious as always. With Melissa still in young womens we talked about how things are going with the new YW Pres and it sounds like all the work I had done to get the program running right has been derailed. It's really depressing.

Friday Caroline took my 3 youngest to the temple to video them walking around for a music video she is making for stake conference. I had the two teens (David and Steven) but I sent them out to Seven Eleven and enjoyed a quiet house for awhile. It was nice. I was going to be productive but I ended up taking a power nap instead. That evening Lucy had a volleyball match and she did way better than last week, she really went for the ball. Her team once again won 2 out of the 3 matches. 

Saturday the girls and I went to see "Once Upon a Mattress." I think the inappropriate stuff flew over their heads (like the "man to man" talk that was had) and they did pretty good with the long sitting time. I'm not sure it was quite Lucy's thing but Penny loved it. She told me afterwards that it was way better than she expected (I guess she had low expectations?). Penny really loved the song "Quiet" and the nightingale. It was also nice to be able to support Abbie, even if I am no longer in Young Womens with her.

In the evening the girls went to a friends house for a movie night and I played the Nintendo Switch with the boys. I have been frustrated with Steven all week and was still feeling blah when we first started playing but near the end I let go and we had a good time. I think Steven and I really needed that. And bless Ben's sweet heart for always telling me I'm doing good in the games, even though I am totally not. He is very sweet and supportive. He'll make a good husband someday.

Belle Isle

After a cold spell, Monday was a warm day so when the kids finished their school work, we walked down to seven eleven and got slushies. Then we went to a nearby park to enjoy them. We had some fun on the teeter toter, the kids attempting to lift me up but most of the time I had the advantage. Lucy suffered a minor tragedy and spilled some of her slushie. When they were done with their slushies, we went to the library and got some books. I really enjoy these outings with the kids. I know I should probably do better at arranging things with friends for the kids, they do like to socialize, but I really like our outings as just us. They are much more chill.

Tuesday I was hosting Bunco so I basically spent the day getting the house and food ready. Since it's November I did a Thanksgiving theme and Tyler was nice enough to do the turkey (although I helped a tiny bit with choppping spices). I really am not a fan of hosting. I always worry about all the things and just feel anxious and uncomfortable. But everyone was really nice and said they enjoyed the food and they all dug into the mini pies I made at the end. I did not win any prizes but that's ok, it always feels weird to win at your own house anyways. I did have a moment during Bunco where I laughed until I cried over the caramel candy I had out that basically stuck your teeth together and prevented socializing. For some reason Melissa and I found it super hilarious, only she didn't do the ugly laugh cry I did. I am such a weirdo.

Wednesday was fairly warm (although not as warm as Monday) and we did another walk- this time just to the library. While I was at the library I saw a homeschool family that I had met when Penny was doing speech therapy. I thought about saying hello but it had been sooo long since I had seen them that I decided to just not make eye contact with them. I hate awkward encounters so I probably make them more awkward by avoiding them. After our walk to the library, I drove down to Long's with the girls to get some doughnuts because they just sounded amazing. They were.

Thursday Tyler had off work for Veteran's Day and the kids were at school so we went out to lunch at a sit down place. Afterwards we picked up a couple games at Game Stop. I was attempting to relive my youth and thought I was getting a game that I had played when I was young but alas, it was not the same game. So disappointing. That evening we had a new family in the Ward over for dinner. They made quite the entrance by coming in with a dog that we thought was their dog. I was so weirded out, like why would they bring their dog?? And panicking a bit as I thought of all the things that it could destroy. Turns out it had been wandering our yard so they thought it was ours. I was more than happy to release it back outside. I hope it found its home, it didn't have a tag. Anyways this family has 3 little ones so they are in a much different stage of life than us but they are nice people. 

Friday morning Tyler and I had the pleasure of talking about plural marriage with our seminary class. I was struggling so I did a lot of research and ended up finding a podcast that had some great insight. It talked about the sacrafice Nephi made (killing Laban) and the sacrafice Abraham was asked to make (killing his son) and how it was a similar sacrafice, it felt like it went against taught values. It also talked about how these were not 2D people and how it was important to hear their stories. So I bought the book "A House Full of Females" which is supposed to give first hand accounts of polygamy. So far it's given a lot of church history but it's still been an interesting read. I feel like my feelings on plural marriage are still a work in progress but some understanding is coming. 

Friday after we did our school work, we drove out to Belle Isle. I wanted to see the newly remodeled aquarium but it didn't seem to be much different from before the remodel. Still the kids had a good time. They actually had fun learning about the different fish and were most intrigued with the garden eels and axolotl and also the fish that keeps its babies in its mouth. Lucy was really surprised that an axolotl was real. They have them in Minecraft and I guess she thought they were made up creatures because she asked me when they were created. 

After the Aquarium we went to the Conservatory that's next door. The kids liked hiding underneath the giant leaves and Ben thought the tree he is standing by looked like it had eyeballs all over its trunk

After our good times on Belle Isle we hit up the Detroit Cookie Co on our way home. On the way there Google took us through some pretty sketchy neighborhoods and I was grateful my car didn't decide to shut down on me (it's had the check engine symbol on for the last few days) and ironically after we had our yummy cookies, Google took us through this beautiful, historic neighborhood. Such a contrast between poverty and wealth. I am pretty grateful just for my middle class status. 

Friday evening Lucy had her second volleyball game. I feel like she was a little bit more shy of the ball this time around- maybe because she realized it hurts to hit it? But her team still won. Although she tells me it doesn't matter if she wins, it's all about learning how to play. They have really pushed that message.

Saturday was a low key day. Errands in the morning, one of the kids had a friend over in the afternoon, and we ended the day watching "Just Add Magic" on Amazon Prime. 

November Begins

Sunday was Halloween but I failed to take any good photos. It was cold and ended up sprinkling on the kids. Steven went to Milford with Max and David. The rest of the kids went trick or treating here with the younger 3 May kids. Tyler and Caroline's husband were nice and went out with the kids. Caroline and I stayed home and chatted while we passed out candy. Once again I ran short on the full size candy bars and ended up having to scrounge up things- a super old bag of Smarties and some Twinkies from the basement. Kind of a bummer for the hand full of kids that came after the good stuff ran out. I guess if I want to do full size candy bars next year I will need to buy more. 

Monday was Lucy's nineth birthday. Since she already had her party and cake it was a fairly low key day. She started off opening all her presents (at 7am sharp). Our big present to her was the ear piercing but we did get her 2 Minecraft Minifugres and one more pair of earrings (unicorns). Grams Hatch got her a huge pack of Roblox figures. Grams Brady got her a Beanie Boo and gave her some cash. And Ben got her one Roblox minifigure and a Minecraft Minifigure.

After Lucy finished her school work, her dad took her out to KFC for lunch. Next I took her (and Penny) to the mall so she could spend the Claire's giftcard that Peter had got her. She ended up getting a Beanie Boo with it and a Unicorn Pop-it. Then we went to food court and got milkshakes. After that the girls were actually able to play at the play area- it was finally open! 

For dinner she was content to have potatoe soup and we wrapped up her special day finishing off Season 2 of Lego Masters. She said it was her best birthday ever so I'll take that at as a win.

This week my project was to move out the stuff by the front door so we could get the lockers set up- mission accomplished! And I even sold the desk that was there. I also tried to decorate the top with things we had on hand to make it more homey. Still want to add some things but I have to find things that won't fall off and break. So far I am really happy with the lockers. They hide the kids crap perfectly.

Wednesday night Lucy had volleyball practice and Activity Days. Lots of picking up and dropping off but she's the only one doing a sport right now so I can handle one busy night. After I dropped her off at her activity I strolled Salvation Army- I do love thrift shops. I ended up finding an extra small but extra cute nutcracker. It will be a great addition to my collection.

Thursday night we went and saw our Seminary Student, Dean, again. He's the one who owns a flock of birds. I do love finger trained birds, they are so fun. His birds also talk and they can whistle the Star Wars song. Tyler and I are talking about getting one but I just don't know. As an adult I'm not sure I can handle the feathers and poop everywhere. Plus it's cold here and I am not sure where I'd put one. But it was a really fun visit.

Also on Thursday my kids made these lovely masks at school and kept scaring me with them. First I was driving along and spotted Lucy wearing hers in the rearview mirror. Then I was going to the bathroom and when I opened the door, there Lucy was, wearing the mask and freaking me out. 

So to counteract the creepy masks, I will show a picture of the girls making Poppy proud and wearing their jean jackets to school. Apparently snow jackets are "uncool" so the jean jackets are winning lately.

Friday night Lucy had her first volleyball game (after just one practice). The coach had us come early for no apparent reason. We ended up just waiting in the halls the whole time we were there early BUT Jenna is in volleyball with Lucy so it was nice to be able to chat with her family and catch up with them. I'm going to enjoy hanging out with them on Friday nights. The girls also played surprisingly well. I really thought it was going to be more a train wreck than it ended up being. Lucy actually hit the ball several times and even got it over the net when she served. Her team also won so that was awesome.

Saturday Steven worked hard so he could earn the rest of the money he needed to buy his Nintendo Switch. He is pretty happy that he finally was able to get it.

Pumpkins, Skeletons, Lucy's birthday

 On Sunday the kids carved their pumpkins...inside the house because it was raining for the billionth time. We have had so much rain lately.Usually I am super involved in the process, but this year they all scooped out the guts themselves. Then Tyler used one of his tools to help the girls carve their designs and the boys carved their own pumpkins. And I made dinner while they were all working on their pumpkins. It was a nice change of pace.

 

On Monday the kids didn't have too much school work so I wanted to get outside and do something but unfortunately it was raining again. So instead we went and saw the movie "Ron's Gone Wrong." I had discovered we still had a giftcard to the theater that we had gotten right before Covid hit so that was a pleasant surprise. The movie was fun and the kids seemed to enjoy it.

On Wednesday Tyler and I had a inservice training for Seminary at lunchtime. It was both good and not so good. It had some good ideas but also left me feeling like I should be doing more or doing some things differently. I am super hard on myself and also really good at overanalyzing every lesson. Anxiety is the worst.

After the seminary training, we met up with the Mays in Northville to see the skeletons. It was fairly chilly but still a good time. We played at the nearby park, posed with lots of skeletons, got some candy at a candy shop and then played some games that a store had set up outside. 

 

After we finished up in Northville we tried to pick up an archery target for Steven's activity that night but the store didn't have any so Tyler had to go hunt one down. By that time it was getting close to time for the activities to start so the kids and I picked up some pizza on our way home, no time to cook. I took Ben to his activity at the church and got to hang out with my friends who were there. Also got frustrated that this family keeps coming to church and activities even though their mom has covid. I know I am not a big person on taking precautions with covid but that feels a little much. Just stay home.

Then after I got back from the activity I did a spontaneous hang out with one of my friends. Honestly I was worried about her and the fact that her husband started his job in Indiana 4 months ago and they have a house there and she's still working on projects on her house here and hasn't moved. I thought maybe there was more behind it but after hanging out with her, I think it's just her usual crazy, lol. We're all crazy I guess...But apparently she thinks she'll have it on the market next week. After seeing it though, I have my doubts.

Thursday we finally had a sunny day with no rain so I got back to spray painting the lockers. I spent 3 hours spray painting those dang things. I was covered in spray paint(I looked like an old lady with white in my hair), got blisters on my fingers and still didn't finish. Thankfully Tyler has offered to finish them off, the weather just needs to cooperate. They are so close to being done.

Friday I decorated Lucy's cake. It is not perfect but it'll do. I was not up to the task of making a taco cake for her taco themed birthday so it is more of a fiesta cake with a taco themed topper. I did have to run to Kroger's at one point to get more sprinkles and Penny came along. I have had various errands to run all week with the locker project and this party and Halloween and I have found that I really enjoy when one of the kids will come with. I enjoy having that one on one time with them, we don't get that much.

Saturday morning the power went out. Seriously this year with weather and power outages has been crazy. I was real worried it would be out for Lucy's party but thankfully it came back on. The party was nuts as usual. She had four friends come, Peter, Reggie, Jenna and Angelica. I sometimes wish Lucy didn't have friends that are boys because girls are way less loud and crazt. Anyways, we started off playing "Don't Eat Pete"- taco version. This was a hit. After that we played a Taco game which the boys did not enjoy but the girls and I had a blast. It involved collecting ingredients for a taco. Next we watched a video on how to draw a taco and drew one. Even though the boys gave me grief about sitting down to do it, they seemed to enjoy it once they started. When we finished up with that Tyler came with an excessive amount of tacos and pizza. The tacos were not well received and we have plenty of leftovers. Our last activity was the Taco Pinata. Jenna hit it off the string and then Lucy broke the bat but despite the hiccups it seemed to be the most loved activity. We ended the party with cake and ice cream and present. Lucy said it was the best party ever.

After her party I took her to Rowan's at Target to get her ears pierced. I thought this would be a good choice over Claire's because they have a certified nurse but it was quite traumatizing. The nurse aimed too high the first time and had to redo that hole so essentially Lucy got pierced 3 times. She was not happy after the first and so it took a lot of hand squeezing and positive talk to get her through it. I guess the perk of getting 3 piercings was that they threw in an extra pair of earrings for her and gave her 3 lollipops. It took Lucy a long while to stop being sad and grumpy but now she keeps telling me how beautiful she is so I think she's happy about it.

Fall Y'all

On Sunday we decided to play hooky from church and go to Belle Isle. That turned out to be a poor choice. Apparently the island was closed for a marathon. So we navigated through closed roads and ended up parking as close as we could to the Detroit Riverwalk. We walked over to the Detroit River Lighthouse and tried to figure out what to do next. Apparently everything was closed Sunday (Belle Isle, our fav Detroit bookstore and the Outdoor Adventure Center. I think this was a good lesson that we should have just went to church. Anyways we ended up walking the Dequindre Cut Trail. The weather was a little chill but it was a nice walk. Overall good but I was glad we were with the men because there was a group of guys hanging out at one section, drinking and looking all kinds of sketchy.

After the walk we parted ways (we had drove in seperate cars). I took the kids home and Tyler, Mike and Grams got to go do a tour of the Detroit Masonic Temple. I think they enjoyed seeing it and learning about it and I was actually glad to be able to get some things done around the house.

Monday Mike and Grams had a flight to catch in the afternoon so we made the most of the time we had left together. We first got some more fresh doughnuts at Longs Orchard...

Then we took a nature walk at Proud Lake. One last chance for Mike and Grams to enjoy the cool weather and beautiful scenes before heading out. Also my children enjoyed shooting Mike with stick guns and trying to attack him with stick swords- they are quite violent. Hopefully all the bruises and scrapes my children gave him won't prevent him from coming back ;)

Then it was time to say goodbye. I always hate having to say goodbye to family. It's times like this that I wished we all lived in the same state. Since the kids didn't come with me, it was a quiet drive back home.

Tuesday was full of all the things: Seminary, errands, making over the lockers and catching up on household things. It was a busy day but Tyler was nice enough to buy me lunch so I did sit down for a minute. It's busy times like this that make me wish I had the kids in school full time and wasn't trying to cram all the things that need to get down into 2 days. 

Wednesday I dropped off doughnuts to Melissa as a thank you for subbing our seminary class. Apparently she had hurt a muscle in her neck and she was down for the count. She always seems to have health issues. I wonder sometimes, why that is, that some people seem to have more than their fair share of health issues. 

That evening Lucy got her chance to ride a horse for Activity Days. They really just learned about horse safety and then let the girls sit on a horse but she had a good time. She seems to get along well with all the girls in the Ward. I also chatted with one of the seminary parents and she told me how much the kids in her carpool enjoyed being with the Bloomfields and how I should ask for some tips and tricks from them. That sent me into a bit of a self doubting spiral. I struggle with confidence anyways and I am always feeling like I'm not good at teaching Seminary. When we asked the kids what they liked about being at the Bloomfields, they basically said her dog and her kids. So maybe they just liked the distractions and I shouldn't be so hard on myself?

Thursday I did some more work on the lockers and then that evening Tyler and I had a game night with the Eakins and the Bloomfields. Melissa's neck was still hurting so she was slightly loopy due to pain killers. The night was fun, even if we lost all 20 of our quarters to the loopy Bloomfields. The game essentially involved rolling dice to determine if you keep, or pass your quarters. I like games that don't involve skill because then you don't have to feel awful about losing. It's all just up to chance.

Friday night we had the Ward Trunk or Treat. This year Steven was an Identity Thief (he had people write their names on name tags and then he put the name tag on), Lucy was a unicorn, Penny was a horse and Ben was Mario. They were going to do a chili cook off for it but the primary president came down with covid after being around everyone's children Sunday so they cancelled the indoors chili cook off and just served pizza outside instead. For our trunk I made a shooting Target and hung it from the trunk. Then when kids came to our trunk they had to stand behind the target and Tyler threw candy at them. Kids are weird and they all thought this was fun. Unfortunately I planned poorly and didn't have enough candy bars so I had to go steal some from my kids. I was trying out full size candy bars this year because I am tired of always having so much candy leftover but I guess if I am going to do that in the future I will need more...not sure if we're that rich ;)

Saturday Ben and Lucy had their very last soccer game. Unfortunately they lost 3 to 4 but it was still a better season than last year. I feel like they had better coaches. I am glad the season is over because it sure was getting cold outside.