Next weekend (23rd), my sister is graduating from Weber State in Utah. And I want to be there! My plan was to fly down for the weekend, leaving John here with the kids. Then, we found out he is going to D.C. that weekend for a conference, and won't be back until Saturday - a day too late for me to go. Still determined, I just changed the plan - I'll drive down. Just me and the kids, 12 hours, and 12 hours back. Driving to Ogden from Seattle is do-able. But by myself with 3 kids, and trying to make it a quick trip so as not to miss too much school, might be a little trickier. Now I found out Olivia has her school's annual "walk-a-thon" that same day, plus she'd miss a t-ball game, and at least 3 days of school . . . I don't feel like I can take her. But how can I leave her? I thought about seeing if I could find some charitable person to keep her until John's back (don't worry, I'm not asking for a volunteer) - but that still leaves me with two more than we could buy a plane ticket for, so I'd still have to drive . . . making it longer that I would have to leave her for . . . Can't I just be in two places at once?

Oh, how nice it will be to be done with residency, when John can have a schedule that's more his own! Right now, (and for the next 3 months), he works late at least 3 days a week. He leaves every morning before the rest of us are up, and then won't be home until after kids are in bed on all his late days so probably won't even see them. And he'll be at a conference in Florida for a week, and in D.C. for 4 days, and a few other work-related things on Saturdays. He'll have to miss all but about 3 of Olivia's t-ball games. ): This should be fun getting ready to move. But, we're almost there! Residency doesn't last forever afterall. (And it hasn't all been as bad as this rotation).

Tammy - I'm still trying to make it - somehow!

Uncondensed

I've done a lot of posting this week. Some of it I posted mostly just to preface this long story - so keep scrolling down if you want to see it all. The week before Easter was a full week, and I had so much I wanted to do. I did manage to do quite a bit of my "list," but I just kept thinking about the rest of the things I wanted to do but couldn't. I just was feeling like there were lots of important things, and I was failing to do them all.

It was Olivia's spring break, and I wanted to "go and do" and "make it fun" for her. Plus I had lots of things I wanted to do that week for Easter (we did the week-long thing, a Resurrection eggs lesson - a craft never happened, some recipes never happened). It was also the week before conference, and I wanted to kind of prepare -for myself, and to have some things ready to help the kids get something from it. Plus, making a baby blanket for my sister, not to mention that laundry I've been talking about . . . by Thursday, I wanted to say April Fool's, there is no dinner tonight. Then, Thursday night, I was telling John how I didn't think we'd done much for the break, and trying to figure out what we could do on her last (rainy) day, to make for a more exciting spring break. He reminded me that sometimes all kids really want to do is stay home and just play. She got to have a few playdates, and she'd had something fun she did to report to him each day when he'd come home. Plus, during the "mid-winter break," we'd gone to lots of different places/beaches/zoo/parks, etc. Even if this week wasn't the bestspring break ever, overall, our kids aren't so deprived of doing fun things.

And I did make dinner on April Fool's. No familyfun stuff this time, but they got to have ice cream for dinner. Actually, frozen yogurt and bananas, on top of chocolate waffles (my mom used to make them for us sometimes). Katelyn and Jackson got to the strawberries before they made it to the table. See, that counts for something - even if my only other prank of the day (switching Olivia and Jackson to the wrong bed while they slept) backfired on me and eventually put me on the couch (and Jackson in my bed) with less sleep for the night. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Why do I even admit this stuff?

Then conference and Easter weekend came, and I again was thinking of the things I hadn't done for that. We had our friends, the Finnigans over for the last session of conference and Easter dinner. There was so much about teaching children, the great responsibilities for parents - especially mothers, gospel learning in the home . . . I took a break from being inspired, and was thinking, "how can I fit it all in! I know plenty of moms who seem to, but I can't even get the Easter story cookies made or the resurrection rolls made, or Katelyn's scrapbook done . . ." Just then, our friend James interrupted my thoughts by asking, "So do you think you'll have more kids?" !

Late that night, I was talking to my sister on the phone about conference, about our kids, etc. I don't remember what I said - something about what she does really well with her kids (like never yell) that I need to learn how to do. She reminded me that there are some good things that I do. She could even think of one or two. So that, along with John's reminder about lazy-spring-break-days-are-good-too, helped me to change my focus a little. Looking back at the crazy week, I did plenty. I'm much better off if I don't focus on what I haven't done. There will always be more "good" things to do, and there will always be someone who does things better or accomplishes more. Moral of the story - who knows. Maybe read less blogs of overachievers? (but definitely keep reading here - and commenting, too). (:

General Conference

We had a wonderful general conference last weekend. (If you don't know what that is, find out here)! Maybe my expectations were just lower, knowing that with three kids around, after some conferences sessions I can barely remember what the talks were even about. But this time I've been able to keep some of the messages in my brain a little longer. This helped us:

Jackson only did one of the pictures - the angel next to the empty tomb. Then he went back to his legos. But he does remember there was a story of a big wave that put a car in a tree. Olivia listened pretty well - at least long enough to hear a topic to draw for most of them. For Pres. Monson, she drew a boy in a hospital bed from the story he told, complete with a BYU shirt. I like her "mothers and daughters" picture for Elder Ballard. It's a picture of the two of us on a mom-daughter outing we went on (to a BYU dance performance - too bad it was ballet - over 2 hours of ballet - no offense to any ballerinas).

During the week before Easter, we used this idea to learn more about the Easter story each evening leading up to Easter Sunday. Or, at least some of it - mostly just the scripture and story with the gospel art picture for each night. The only extra activity we used from the list is the dinner from day 2. I told Olivia we were going to dress up like we're in the time when Jesus was on the earth, and eat foods like they might have eaten back then. She thought it was a great idea, but said, "And then we'll just have a normal dinner right after that, right?"
I made the unleavened bread, and put out a few of the sides, but we used chicken for the skewers instead of lamb. Also, I don't think they had sippy cups for the grape juice, or fitted crib sheets to wear on your head.

John got home right after I finally finished the food, and we were all hungry. So to dress up, we all grabbed something out of the linen closet to put on our head and called it good. Halfway through the meal, Katelyn decided to lose her sheet and go put some princess dress-up on instead.

They've talked about it a few times since then. Jackson told me "the time of Jesus must have been close to the time of Star Wars because they wore stuff kind of like that, too." He still can't figure out how I made "that one kind of bread" like they had way back then.

At least it was memorable . . .

Spring Break

Last week was spring break. Olivia had playdates scheduled for 3 of the days, plus it was supposed to be rainy most of the week. But we managed to get out a little bit. One day, we went to a chocolate factory where you can sample all their chocolates, and then to see the Fremont Troll. Yep, there he is.

Check that off our list of the many things to see in Seattle. That's a car he's holding. My kids wanted to go explore under the bridge behind him, but I didn't let them - I didn't want to find out if the row of tattered sleeping bags back there were inhabited or not.
They thought the chocolate factory (Theo's Chocolates - "Proud to be the only organic, fair trade, bean-to-bar chocolate factory in the US") was full of "disgusting chocolate." They had flavors like coconut curry, spicy chile, fig fennel and almond . . . most of it was dark chocolate, and kind of chalky. We decided the vanilla milk chocolate was pretty good, but apparently our taste buds (including mine) aren't refined enough for their chocolate.
To make up for their disappointment in the gourmet stuff, I stopped at Rite-aid on the way home and let them pick a piece of Easter candy.

Jackson was excited to find a chocolate bunny just like the one at the chocolate factory Curious George goes to in his book (which was more what they had in mind, I'm sure).

The rest of the week was mostly playdates or doing rainy stuff at home, like play-doh or making more of these.

On Friday, Olivia really wanted to go ride the lightrail. We rode the bus downtown, ate lunch at Westlake Center mall, and then got on the lightrail and rode to the airport and back. They got to experience the joy of public transport. And I was really glad when we got to the airport that we only had to go in to find a restroom, and didn't have a plane ride to add to our journey, too. On the bus ride home, it was really crowded. When I got on with 3 little ones, two kind souls gave up their seats for us. I was glad Jackson fell asleep on the arm of the little grandma next to him and not the gangsters behind him.

Easter

Here are the kids trying to wake up Dad so they can go see their Easter baskets, and some other Easter pictures (the blob is a big rice krispie treat egg - my simplified version of the individual ones I saw in a picture). More to come on conference and spring break . . . we're catching up here.

Whistler

John and I got to go up to Whistler for a weekend.
Here's a picture that's not from our trip, but it's a way better picture of Whistler than we got (with the view, the snow on top, and not squinting at the camera). This is from a trip John took with friends recently. He's been able to go a couple times, and, with the help of his parents to watch the kids (thanks again!), I finally got to have a trip, too. It was my first time to be away from the kids overnight! While we were gone, they played at the park, dyed Easter eggs, and had lots of fun with Grandma and Grandpa. I'm sure they hardly missed us! I think I'll have to do this more often . . .

A view from the peak-to-peak gondola. It's so high up, and almost 2 miles long, with just the cables.


That's where we stayed. Whistler has tons of shops, restaurants in this little village right at the base of the mountain. But the sky was pretty overcast while we were there so we didn't get very good views. Skiing/snowboarding conditions weren't too good (kind of icy and bad visibility) until about 2:00 when the sun finally came out and softened the snow up for our last few runs!
I was out in my bobsled and accidentally bobsledded right into this store.

T-ball

My plan is that my kids are supposed to love sports as much as I did (and still do). Early signs are not looking good - at least for Olivia.

"Whenever I try to throw the ball to one person, it always goes to someone else."
"Why do I even need a mitt in tball?"
"The only fun part of bad t-ball is rolling down the hill at the end."

She doesn't like things that are hard (she used to say she hates reading - now she just doesn't like chapter books). Maybe once she starts to get it down, she'll like it more. If she'd only let us practice with her!
Or maybe this trading card will be an inspiration to her.

Yeah, probably not.

Independence

She is also proud of herself when she climbs up on the countertop to get herself a snack out of the cupboard.

P.S. Thanks for all the laundry comments! I didn't think I'd get so much good advice. It almost made me excited to go do laundry! Mindy and Michelle - I'm glad you've got your priorities straight.

You've all inspired a better plan here - I'll have to let you know how it goes. A while ago, I started doing one load a day, realizing I couldn't do it all in one day anymore. It's easy to start a load each morning, and keep all the clothes washed that way. But I don't like folding every day and putting it away when I have to put only 1-2 things in each drawer. If I'm going to be putting stuff away in every drawer in the house, I'd rather do it together in big piles. Bigger task, bigger accomplishment. So I'm going to try 2 days a week, or 3 if needed and . . . I like lots of the other ideas (on how to have less to wash, ways to have kids help - which is easier if I wash certain days, and they have that chore certain days, too). I could keep going but I better go to bed now instead of writing about all your good ideas! Hmmm, maybe I'll have to think of some more questions to get some good feedback on. All trouble areas of my life could be revealed this way.

More to life . . .

There's way too much laundry in this house. I can wash it all, but then the pile sometimes likes to hang out in the family room for a while and get jumped on. I'm tempted to just start throwing it back into drawers not folded, especially all those little underwear. It all gets undone anyway when my kids dig through looking for Star Wars shirt, soft pants, or cutie pj's (all Jackson, by the way).
So what do you do, all of you who are better housekeepers than I? (Yes, that's pretty much everyone reading this . . . ) Any good shortcuts you use?