Catching my breath between holidays

This was such a beautifully simple week. I LOVED that Halloween was in the rear view mirror and Thanksgiving/Christmas still felt far away. It was nice to just focus on little things like getting caught up on the laundry. It felt like a week to catch my breath. 

Because this was such a simple week this post should be pretty fast. So let's see how fast we can zip through this. 

On Sunday afternoon the kids spent a lot of time making a ship out of the downstairs couches. Here's Veronica on the prow. Her lion is a decoration on the front of the ship.

Here's the full ship surrounded by water. 

Charlotte and Lydia are showing off the sleeping area. 

Here's the flag. 

And here's everyone working together during the early stages of construction. 

I spent some time finalizing the schedule for the scripture study group. Brandon says that most normal people don't have things planned out through October of the next year. I told him that it's easy to plan things on Wednesdays because you don't have to worry about holidays that are on Monday's or Fridays.

The other thing that helps me plan a year in advance is that I have a pretty awesome job where I can set my own hours. Sunday happened to be the four year anniversary of my first day of work for Aspen Grove. I can't believe I've been there for four years. There are very few things I've done for that long. So it's just incredible that this job has been one of them. 

I took a picture on Monday to commemorate that milestone. 

I picked Veronica up from school a little early and took her to the doctor for her well check. She was worried about getting a shot, but there isn't a new covid vaccine for children under 18 and she already had the nasal flu mist vaccine at school. So she didn't need a shot. She was happy about that. 

After everyone was home in the afternoon I made sure everyone got their laundry put away. All though the month of October we'd done something fun every Monday afternoon. I was thinking of doing something similar in November, but then I was like, "nah, we need to get back on top of a few things."  So we spent time getting laundry put away. Charlotte and Lydia cleaned their room and Brandon helped Veronica clean hers. 

Was it the most fun afternoon ever? No. Did our house feel a lot better afterward? Yes. 

Brandon and I took the firepit back to our neighbors. I always struggle with their back gate. The latch is more complicated than it should be. But Brandon had it open and then shut with no problem. I was like, "How did you do that so easily?"  His response was just one word, "Mechanic."

The BEST part of Monday happened when I put Derrick to bed. The night before Brandon had overheard Derrick reading a book to himself. That night I asked Derrick to read to me. He read me ALL of The Berenstain Bears Messy Room. He needed help with some of the bigger words. But he very confidently read me so much of the book. I had no idea his reading vocabulary was so big. I'd noticed that he could read faster, but I honestly never thought he'd read me a book. 

Even just a few days before he'd refused to read a simple easy reader book. And now he was reading a whole book to me. It was AMAZING. I made sure to email his SPED teachers and let her know. 

Tuesday was another day with a chill afternoon. Derrick and Veronica were really hyper so I ended up taking them to the park. Derrick had a frisby and they had fun throwing it.

It was fun to see them play together. They also had fun swinging together. 

Wednesday was the first day of my new schedule where I take Wednesday's off. 

I started the day by taking Veronica to her therapist. It was time for another goal evaluation. It was so nice to report all of her progress. Simple things like the fact that Veronica was fine staying home by herself for the 10 minutes while I took the older kids to the middle school. Four or five months ago she would have insisted on coming with me. But she's made a lot of progress with her worries. 

After her appointment I dropped her off at school and then went home. I'd made arrangements to pick up stepping stones from my around the corner neighbors. I'd offered to pay for them, but they said I could just take them for free. So I picked up the stones and brought them home. I love how they look on this path. 

I also moved the bricks back to under the front faucet. Now there is somewhere for the hose to sit. (And yes, we probably should unhook it, but in 4 years we haven't ever been able to unhook the hose. It's pretty much stuck there. So we try to drain the water out of the hose the best we can. So far that's worked every winter.  

I also cleared out the dead zinnias and alyssum. 

That evening I went to a meeting for volunteers with the Twin Falls Warming Center. The Warming Center is a new resource in Twin Falls. They did a pilot program for a few weeks last winter, but this is the first time it will be open all winter. Any time the temperature is under 29 degrees the center will be open all night to accommodate homeless people. 

I'm signing up to help once a week for the 8:30 to 11:00 shift.

I DON'T need one more thing in my life right now. But I feel really strongly that this is something that I need to participate in. There's a lot of really heartbreaking things going on in the world that I can't do anything about. But this is a little thing in my own community that I can help with. So I'm going to do my small part.

It was a good meeting. There were about 30 other volunteers there. The guy in charge was so happy to see all of us. This has been something he's been thinking about and trying to get to happen for several years so it meant a lot that other people were supporting his plan.  

Thursday was another simple day. There was a bit of a problem when Charlotte and Lydia let me know that they NEEDED a poster board for school the next day. I also needed to pick up medicine for Veronica. I was pretty certain that I could get the posterboard at smiths along with the medicine, but I wasn't sure. Brandon is awesome because he was like, "What can I help with?"  I told him that if I couldn't find posterboard at smiths it would be great if he could go get the poster. 

But smiths did have posterboard so it all was really simple. After I picked up the stuff at smiths I went to the church for the Friendsgiving Dinner for Relief Society. 

Everything was set up really cute. I loved it. 

But I didn't love that once again I was asked to just help in the smallest ways. I hadn't even known about the activity until Tuesday. And I was just asked to come help set out water and butter. 

I'd been talking with Brandon about how much I've already committed to in 2024 and what I could maybe give up. I said, "Maybe I shouldn't be on the RS committee."  His response was, "You don't do anything on the committee anyway. So getting released from that won't change anything."

He was right. 

I did stay after and help clean up. So I did contribute a bit. But yeah, I'm not doing much. 

On Friday I ended up staying at work for almost 4 hours. Whew. That was busy day. 

In the afternoon Charlotte, Lydia, AND Derrick had orthodontist appointments. Charlotte and Lydia were getting their wires tightened. Derrick was having his pictures taken for his official start of braces. He wanted me to take a picture too so he could see it. 

He still has two baby teeth that need to come out. But they are on the bottom and the orthodontist is going to start with the top teeth. 

We just have to wait for insurance to approve the treatment and then Derrick will get braces. I was telling the office manager that I recently started working with the Gainwell side of Medicaid. I told her, "I had NO IDEA how awful they were at communicating. Bless you for working with them."

We should hear back from them in 2 to 8 weeks. So Derrick could have braces on before Christmas or maybe a little after. 

Friday night we watched The Two Towers. The kids really liked it. We were watching the extended edition so it was super long. But it was really good. 

Saturday was probably the busiest day of our week. We cleaned the house in the morning and then got to work on getting the garage ready for ANOTHER party. Brandon is the activities committee chair person for the Elders Quorum. He's wanted to do a dutch oven cook off for a long time and decided that he wanted to host it.  

It worked out that the best day to do it was Veterans Day so this activity was doubling as a Veterans Day activity. He asked the Veterans in the ward to come and share some things about their service. 

I figured if we were making this a Veterans Day activity it would be appropriate to have a Missing Man Table. This is something that they do at Military events like military balls. It's to remember service members who are either missing in action or prisoners of war. 

Everything on the table has meaning. I printed out a list of what everything symbolized and put it on the table in a picture frame. 

Here's what it said. 

The table is round, to show our everlasting concern for our missing men.

The cloth is white, symbolizing the purity of their motives when answering the call to serve.

The single red rose, reminds us of the lives of these Americans and their loved ones who keep the faith while seeking answers.

The red ribbon symbolizes our continued determination to account for our missing.

A slice of lemon reminds us of their bitter fate; captured and missing in a foreign land.

A pinch of salt symbolizes the tears of our missing and their families who long for answers after decades of uncertainty.

The lighted candle reflects our hope for their return, alive or dead.

The Bible represents the strength gained through faith to sustain us and those lost from our country.

The glass is inverted, symbolizing their inability to share a toast.

The chair is empty, the seat that remains unclaimed at the table.

Brandon had our big table all set up and ready to hold the food. 

And look at the seating!  Our friends Jeff and Lindsey were getting a new couch and asked if we wanted their old one. Brandon said yes, thinking it would be another good garage couch. But when we got it we realized it's better than the couches we currently have in the basement. So it's going to be moving down there eventually. But for now it's it in the garage. 

The activity went really well. There were about 10 men there. Two of them brought their wives. The kids and I were going to eat dinner in the house, but there was so much food that we were invited out to eat with the activity. 

Everyone had a great time and Brandon is already planning the next one. 

While all that had been going on, Veronica was working on her rock collection. She counted them all and there were over 800 of them. 

On Sunday I announced the study group on Facebook. This is the invitation. I've had several people tell me they are interested. 

Sunday night we had two overlapping events.  Brandon took Derrick to the Temple and Priesthood preview. I took the kids to a surprise birthday party for our friend Ken. He's the dad of my friend Candace. He was turning 80. Brandon and Derrick met us there. Candace was making sure everyone took pictures with her dad.  When we were posing for the picture Brandon said, "Ken, you were the first person I ever met in this ward."  I didn't know that. 

The party was great. (Candace's parties are always great.)  We'd got there around 6:30 and the night was already so dark it felt like midnight. I kept saying it felt like this was a New Years Eve party. Since it felt so late I didn't really pay attention to the time. After a lot of good food and good conversation I looked around and realized that we were one of the last families there. I asked Brandon, "What time is it?"  He said it was 9:50. The kids' bedtime is 9:45. I was like. "Oh we better go!"  

So we came home and put everyone right to bed. It was a good way to end the weekend. 

So there you have it. Our fairly simple week where I was able to catch my breath. 

Thanks for reading.