purple potatoes

Third week of February the daycare kids were mostly too sick for daycare with combinations of fevers and runny noses. I did a lot of diffusing, Breathe the respiratory blend and Peppermint. I tried to get some work done with everyone in tow. Not too effective, but we spent a fun noon time at the Sonic drive-in.

Saturday was one of those days when everything starts to turn sour. It all started with an air soft bullet to William's right eye. An emphatic gun safety/why do we have these things anyway lecture to be heard by the whole neighborhood followed. And everything went down hill from there. Bad Mom.

All I can do when I feel the world falling apart is force everyone to clean. I swear it makes things better. So by 9:00 pm we were all happy again and we piled in the van to get Panda Express. You can see us there huddled around the Orange Chicken.

Sunday was the big night around here, the Oscars. I was elated when Meryl Streep won. Tree of life was our favorite but oh well. And what about Jude Law in Contagion?

We made a delicious Purple Potato Shepherd's Pie with the beautiful Merlot Potatoes that Anne and Eric sent us from the San Luis Valley.

As they say in Maine, I just scrambled a pound of hamburg, with a chopped onion.  Added a bit of flour and milk to make a gravy, then topped that with a couple of chopped, microwaved carrots, two cans of creamed corn, and covered that with purple potatoes mashed with butter and milk.  Topped it all with cheese.   This was the dish that our friend from the LDS church, Augusta Ward, brought us when Bethany was born.  It is still her favorite meal and she loved it even more with purple potatoes.

Lunchtime at Sonic.

october break

The middle of October the kids have a few days of vacation from school.  We had a couple of peaceful, sleep-in mornings with pancakes and pajamas, and television. I was grateful the kids were content with not that much planned. I had just started into the boxes and was really trying to save money.  Thursday we walked over to the mall where they were having a free animal demonstration.  It was a beautiful day.

Our neighbors, including Caitlin's best friend, came with us. 

After the animal show, we stopped at Ike's ice cream and let the little kids, and not so little kids rid the carousel.

Bethany loves Pandas.

William loves elephants.

No bubble gum ice cream that day. My only complaint.

This was right before Sophie got tired of waiting for her cone and dove out of her stroller into a face plant.  She got a bloody nose and black eye and wouldn't even be consoled by her ice cream, so we went home for nap time.

I was grateful that the kids spent a lot of their vacation time entertaining themselves and their friends with our moving boxes.   The nieghbors agreed that boxes are the best toys ever.

ike's ice cream

My first full week at home was tackling the enormous laundry pile. If you were reading last year, during my period of fascination with photographing my monstrous mountains of unfolded clothing, you know the type.  This one was actually blocking passage to the other disaster, Grant and Kyle's room, A.K.A. the family room and playroom.  I figured that was necessary preparation work before I got started on the boxes from China. 

Thursday morning I was getting ready to work on the playroom and when I got a call from a friend who told me that the new ice cream shop at Riverwoods needed kid models to eat ice cream, immediately. So as quickly as I could I got the kids ready.  How hard can it be to convince two little boys and a baby to change their clothes, get in the van and go eat ice cream?  By the time we got to Riverwoods I thought I would never smile again.  I didn't even bother to find my cell phone/camera because I couldn't imagine ever wanting to take a picture of my (I won't say which one) child again.  It was that hard.

Everything changed when we got to Ike's Ice cream and the cones came out.  Chocolate for Grant, his favorite.  William had chosen chocolate too, until he saw Sophie's blue-green bubble gum ice cream and quickly made a switch.  Then an enormous banana split arrived at the table and I was in complete blogger's remorse. No camera!  Life can change so quickly, from just feeling like you are buried under stress and depression, to a happy perfect day. I guess you should always be prepared for the chance that some kind of wonderful surprise might come to your table.

I told Grant we could ride on the carousel after the photo shoot, but it was time to get Caitlin off the half-day kindergarten bus.  So I convinced the kids to leave quickly if we could come back with Caitlin.  By some miracle we made it in time to see the yellow bus pull up to the stop.

It was a gorgeous  day to walk through the mall.  This is the Provo Beach Resort where Ike's Ice cream just moved in. 

They have crafts for kids an Thursdays at 11:30. They made candy corn filled mummy cups.

This is the best my camera can do.  I love this picture of a day on the boardwalk. It made me think about life; a string of productive, stressful, happy, boring, frustrating, lonely, crowded, complicated, interesting days. You live for the perfect moments like the one in this picture.  But how many can you expect? And if you are looking for the wrong thing, maybe you will miss the perfect moment that is happening to you right now.

peppermint indiscretion

Thursday Grandpa and Grandma invited the big kids to spend the night at their house so they could leave early Friday morning to go fishing.  Thursday seemed like a blur of breakfast, lunch, and dinner to me. Maybe because Grant can seriously sit at the table from breakfast, till noon, till night eating bowels of dry "ceedee'al" or cereal as others call it. Thank goodness we had hot dogs in the freezer when dinnertime for the rest of the kids snuck up on me.

 Here was a nice moment...Grant and William having a snack together on the back porch (probably cereal.)

Friday the kids returned. Only Bethany caught a fish this time. I felt pretty lethargic all day, but by evening I found the courage to go school supply shopping. Sam was so excited to get out of the house he gathered everyone into the van on his own. We had a nice time out together. I stopped at Five Buck Pizza on the way home.  The kids were very appreciative. Friday turned out better than I thought it would.

Saturday, found more courage... for bike shopping this time.  And did I need it.  With school starting at the universities, Walmart was busier than Black Friday. Sam and Ben intended to ride their bikes to school. I felt bad for the boys when after their first trial run they called from a gas station to say it was just too far. I hate dashed hopes, but who wants to go to Middle School drenched in sweat?  I felt bad... but I'll admit also a bit relieved not to have to worry each morning. They'll use their bikes to ride to the library and the mall nearby.

Sunday evening we got a surprise visit from our friends Jackie and Isako.  They have a friend who works for Stouffers and gives them free frozen foods every week.  I've been grateful for their sharing the wealth in our direction.  Sunday night it was an enormous container of peppermint ice cream. William was the first to discover it.