Thursday, September 28, 2017

Tired

I'm still waiting for the magical day when Lewis starts sleeping all night. For right now, he wakes up once, sometimes twice. Basically, the same as when he was a tiny baby. From what I can tell, he weighs 16 lbs. now, so he isn't as tiny as he was as a 6-month-old. I'm just tired of waking up at night. I get up every morning feeling sleepy, no matter how long I stay in bed. I usually feel more awake after breakfast, but today I'm still tired even after forcing myself to work out. (I wish extra points were given for working out when I didn't feel like it, was too tired, or had a kid whine or climb on me.)

I have barely seen James this week. Last Friday, he and the boys went to Comicon. It was a pretty rough day at our house. Katie missed her brothers a lot and acted out. She was happy for the 2 hours that we did Barbies and the princess tea party, but after that, all heck broke loose.

The boys got back in time for the Primary program practice and pizza party. We got home from that in time to see James's grandparents, who were in town for a wedding. They stayed to visit for 1 1/2 hours. Then I had about an hour before it was time to go to the RS meeting. My ward rented a bus to pick up everyone. It was a ton of fun and a really great meeting.

Despite that, I really felt down in the dumps all of Sunday. Part of it is seeing one of my friends with her brand-new baby (from a distance; she just came to see her kids in the Primary program). She has 6 now. It has always been my dream to have 6. I don't know why I feel jealous of her. She is about 6 years older than I, so it's not like I'm even running out of time to have some more kids. For whatever reason, I'm feeling crazy and ready for another baby right now even though the one I currently have is still waking up. I should be grateful that my biology actually prevents me from getting pregnant while I'm nursing until the baby is about 9 months old. (That is what happened with Kenny and Katie, so I have an 18 month gap there.) Yes, I have tested that. That would make it possible by November, which is not so far away. Besides, I am already tired, and being pregnant and nursing together are more exhausting than anything in the world. I will just have to wait. I realize that this complaint is nothing compared to what many of my friends are going through when it comes to having kids. In relative terms, I have it easy. I don't understand where these negative feelings come from.

The kids did really well in the program. I'm glad. Getting ready for it was a little stressful.

Monday, we did see James, so we did FHE. We played Charades with the kids and they absolutely loved it!

Tuesday and Wednesday, James worked his last two days of mosquito abatement! He also had a meeting, so I didn't see him till 9 one night and 10 last night.

We are going on a date tonight, not sure what, but it will be nice. We haven't had time in the last month thanks to mosquito abatement, but now that that's over, it should be much easier to plan them. (Ha ha ha.)

Thursday, September 21, 2017

Busy...Still!

It's hard to remember all the events of a week. Maybe I'm getting old and need to write more often!

James is still working mosquito abatement. Next week is his last week! Hurray! Last week, he worked all of Saturday again, so it just felt like another regular day, just with more kids. I canned some tomato sauce and took Joseph took a birthday party. The timing worked out perfectly with getting the jars sealed and Lewis taking a nap. I think perfect timing is definitely one of God's tender mercies.

Monday, we went to Cherissa's for FHE and had s'mores. It was really fun. I could eat like a thousand of those things.

Tuesday - moquito abatement, so we didn't see James till about 8.

Wednesday - James was home, but we didn't do anything specific. We didn't feel like going anywhere.

Today, James is working mosquito abatement again. He was going to do Saturday, but he will be at Comicon with the boys. They leave tomorrow morning early.

I've still been sewing a lot. I had originally planned on pacing myself with the projects, but I actually enjoy it now and find myself sewing for a couple hours each day (if I have the time, which I usually do here and there.) Lewis is so mobile that he'd prefer to explore most of the time and is happy on the floor dumping something out. Katie actually loves to watch me sew, especially when it's stuff for her Barbie dolls. I think I've made about 40 pieces of clothing for them. I find them all over the floor, naturally. The thing I'm most excited about is that I made Lewis a Perry the Platypus costume from free patterns I found online. I already had some turquoise fabric that's also nice and thick in case it's cold. The shirt and pants turned out perfect, and I had the perfect amount of fabric for them, which made me really happy. I never thought I'd like sewing or even follow patterns at all. The internet is amazing for finding stuff like that. Regular paper is so much better than those tissue paper ones.

Our weekend is quite busy, but I'll report on that next post.

Thursday, September 14, 2017

Heads Visit

We've had a lot of visitors this summer. Can you tell?

James's family arrived Wed. night. We just hung out for a bit. The kids were already in bed.

Thursday, I took the kids to the hotel to swim in the pool while Joseph was at school. They had a really great time. We relaxed during the afternoon and then enjoyed a meal together, then played a game of Balderdash. James won. I never play board games with him because I always lose. I know that sounds silly, but it's really not fun to play games when I never EVER win.

Friday, we went to the Harry Potter after-school library activity. The kids got to do a couple crafts and a scavenger hunt. We then hurried home, ate dinner, and then I took the boys to Tayson's birthday party (inc. Uncle Joseph). They had a really great time, and so did I because I got to hang out with some of the moms there. We got home late for bedtime, but that was okay.

Everyone left Saturday morning, including James, because he still hadn't finished getting his mosquito abatement hours. I worked on sewing during the day. Too bad the whole time we had visitors, I felt grouchy and tired due to PMS. Stupid PMS. All in all, though, it ended up being an okay Saturday even though we didn't see James all day.

Sunday we had a regional broadcast, so we were home by noon from church. That made for a very weird and long afternoon. I'm going to have to adjust to that again next year.

We haven't done anything of note this week, just D.I. and the library. James is going to do mosquito abatement Sat., so we've been able to hang out with him during the afternoons.

I've been working on getting the material cut into patterns that Melodie gave me from her mom. I actually found patterns for baby dolls at D.I., only 50 cents! 4 of the 6 views had all the pieces. I ended up having the exact amount of material I needed for those and a couple of actual baby clothes. I'm hoping to finish some of those for Katie's birthday. She can't say she doesn't have enough doll stuff!

Thursday, September 7, 2017

Phenixes Visit

Friday, we picked a bunch of tomatoes and made salsa. I helped Mara finish up the slideshow for her wedding. It was fun to see all those old pictures of Ricky. I'm really glad I digitized everything a couple years ago. It has been really convenient. James and Myles went hunting after dinner while Mara and I hung out. We started a movie when they got back, but I fell asleep during it. Oops.

Saturday was really fun. I went shooting with Myles and Mara in the morning. After lunch, we went to the temple for the 3:00 session while Alyssa came to babysit. It was really great to be there. We got some Sonic shakes on the way home. After dinner, Myles and Mara went hunting while James and I put the house back in order.

Sunday, we had church. I was the only one in the library, but it went very smoothly. Myles and Mara stayed until after dinner, then headed to Rexburg.

Monday was a holiday. James took the kids out for the morning while I sewed. It was so awesome to both start and finish a project! We met up for lunch and then relaxed in the afternoon with one of James's friends and his kids, who are about my kids' ages.

Tuesday and Wednesday, James had meetings, so we didn't do much together. I did a little more sewing. I've been trying to spend time with Katie, but it's a challenge. I do her hair nice in the morning, but it often doesn't last more than an hour. I've made her Barbie clothes and played Barbies with her, but it never seems like enough. There's only so much playing I can do before I get totally bored anyway. I really miss my boys while they're at school. So does Katie. It's just not the same without them. They are so good with Lewis, too. I would never leave Katie and Lewis alone for too long. Because he is so mobile, he gets all kinds of stuff in his mouth. He is a constant hazard to himself!

The Heads arrived last night (Wednesday) and are here till Saturday. I took the kids swimming at the hotel pool this morning. So far this afternoon, we have just been relaxing and waiting for everyone to come home. They should all be here by 4 pm.