Dancing with Daffodils

 I enjoy reading my friends' blogs so I feel like I should write one but I honestly have nothing interesting to say today. It has been a normal week of kids doing school work and their activities and me just being a mom. I've cleaned, planned meals, picked up groceries, took kids to the doctor for check ups, taught piano lessons and read. Last weekend was Curtis's last soccer game and he did well and his team won. Monday was supposed to be a player vs parents game but it got rained out so they just passed out small soccer balls and ice cream. Curtis and Brandon are constantly playing soccer in our hallway with that little ball so way more useful than some trophy. I really liked his coaches and it was a great season for him. Brandon has one more game on Saturday and then he will be done too. His game last week was way far away and while Josh was gone at stake conference and while Lily had dance rehearsal so it was a bit crazy and so hot that day but his team won for the firs...

Another week and I feel like there isn't much to say. Josh's sister came Wednesday to surprise the kids and they were all so happy to see her. It has been two years since she has been here and 18 months since we've seen her so it was good and they were all shocked when she knocked on the door. Thursday was school work and piano lessons and Brandon's soccer practice. Friday Josh took off and it was a tough day for me. I forgot to change my piano lesson and so he showed up as I was about out the door for dentist appointments. Josh ended up taking them and I got there just in time to go in with Brandon and take over so he could go home and hang out with his sister. No cavities and they even pulled out the last five of Curtis's baby teeth so that was great. Then I wanted to go donate some clothes and a bike and realized they only were there until a certain time (15 min from the moment I realized it) so I grabbed it all and shoved it in the car and drove over there just ...

Climbing a tree instead of watching their brother play soccer  It has been another week. Nothing special happened, just all the normal stuff. Girls danced, boys soccered, everyone did lots of school work, I taught piano, I did my last zoom gym class because they are discontinuing them so now I have to actually go, I sat through a lot of soccer practices, talked to my parents, and cleaned.  I did go visit Carolee with Michelle and that was nice. It was good to see her and talk a bit and hopefully it lifted her spirits some. I also did some yard work. Emma and Brandon and I went to Lowes and got some flowers on Tuesday and then Thursday we planted them all. They put some flowers in the pots on our patio (Brandon's has all yellow flowers and Emma picked pink and purple) and then some tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and basil in our tiny vegetable garden. I also put a few flowers in front that are bright pink and fun. Now hopefully everything stays alive and beautiful! My front garde...

 I keep trying to decide what to do about this blog. When I started it, I inteded it to be an outlet for me to write. I had dreams of writing a weekly newspaper column or contributing to a magazine and thought a blog would sharpen my skills or force me to focus. My goal was to have a friend share something I wrote on facebook and that never happened so I felt like I was missing the mark. Then covid happened and I turned it more into a journal, for me but also to connect with friends I wasn't seeing. Now we're in this strange in between of not normal life but getting closer and I just don't know if I want to keep this up or if I should go back to my original idea or if I even want to write anymore.  In the meantime, it was a challenging week. I last wrote on the 14th so that weekend was actually pretty good. I spent a lot of time at soccer practice, driving my daughter to dance, and we also had a few soccer games that were fun. Saturday night I surprised Josh with an early a...

 It was a very busy week but a good one. My parents got here last Tuesday and we spent a nice afternoon and evening talking and just being together. Josh has been crazy busy at work and didn't get home until 11:30 pm that night (after working until 11pm the night before) so I especially appreciated their company.  Wednesday they all went off to school and I exercised then my parents took me out to lunch and we picked up some groceries. It was relaxing and nice to just hang out with my parents. They have always been so good to me and every time they visit they make me feel like a good parent, a wonderful daughter and so loved. Mom and I took Curtis to soccer that night while the others stayed home with my dad and Josh did church stuff. Thursday was Josh's birthday but he made it difficult to celebrate much because of work responsibilities. I made him his favorite doughnut muffins the night before so he had those for breakfast but then I didn't even see him until we met at Ni...

 Well, I went into spring break cautiously and not all that excited. We didn't really have anything planned and I figured it would be hard to keep the kids busy doing good things. I am happy to report that for the most part, I was wrong. We had a great week! Monday I taught a few piano lessons and then while the big kids were off playing with their neighborhood friends, I convinced Leisa to come with me down to our school playground so the littler kids could play together for a bit. It was such a beautiful day and so we talked and the kids played for about an hour and it was really nice. Then I made dinner and we went to soccer practice and when we got home we had dinner and family night.  Tuesday the kids all did a job (a great part of spring break is each day they did a cleaning job!) and then we went to the park to play with the Ainas and Rays. It was another beautiful day and my ear and forehead got sunburned after sitting out in the sun for a few hours. The milkshake plac...

It hasn't been a very interesting week. Monday after I got the kids off to school and spent all morning birthday planning, then I went for a bike ride and then I read for a couple of hours. My book was dark and heavy and I was glad to finish it. It felt indulgent just reading in the afternoon but it was wonderful and I look forward to more of it.  In the afternoon I taught four piano lessons and then Curtis had his first soccer practice in two years. He hasn't been making healthy choices lately so I am really glad to have him get out there and exercise and socialize. We had a late dinner and family night and called it a good day. Tuesday I did laundry, helped Brandon with school, and lots of other things before making dinner and taking the girls to dance. Wednesday I got everyone off to school and then I posted a bunch of stuff to facebook to sell and then I tried to log in to my body pump class but their internet wasn't working so I found a workout on youtube and did that....