A Good Day to Blog

Friday is a good day to blog. It just feels right. 

As I type this, I am sitting in my favorite spot in my house - the corner of the sectional sofa in the living room. In the hot summer months, it's prime seating because the swamp cooler blows right here and keeps me cool.  In the winter months, it's a perfect spot for curling up in a blanket. Many books are read from this spot, many blog posts are written, and I confess, many naps are taken. 

My corner (I rearrange the pillows for my comfort)

The only problem is I'm not alone in my spot. I'm here with a feisty five-year-old who is throwing a mega tantrum, making all sorts of animalistic noises, and kicking me with her feet. I don't remember what initially started this tantrum, but I think it had to do with food. She said she was hungry, and I told her to go find a snack. I recommended goldfish or string cheese because I'm full of solutions, but she wants me to cook her something. Like waffles. I told her I'm not going to cook her waffles, and I think that's what got her kicking and screaming. But then it changed into screaming about wanting to go to Grandma's house and now it's something to do with Sponge Bob. Suffice it to say that Eva is being loud and violent, and she keeps pushing herself into some sort of downward dog position and then throwing herself against the side of the couch.

At least she's getting some exercise. 

Four hours later...

I’m now sitting in my garage recliner. 

The beauty

Nicky is next to me, sitting on a wiggle car, talking my ear off. Things Nicky talks about:

-All the unfair things that have happened to him in the past - he got in trouble for saying “stupid” when he was five, but Eva says it all the time and doesn’t get in trouble, I spent more on Daisy’s birthday present than I did on his in 2010, etc

-Things he wants to do to the yard - build a swimming pool, swap out our grass for a putting green, and so forth

-Everything he watches on TV - Shark Tank, American Ninja Warrior, and even his toddlerhood favorites like Bob the Builder

-All of his different business ideas and product names

Now he’s trying on all the bike helmets and analyzing the different plastics they are made of. 

I need this kid to go back to school!

Daisy is at her grandma’s house sewing a blanket. Zoe and Eva have built a fort on the side of the house and are eating Otter Pops in it. 

Nicky is still talking...

And talking...

Scotty went to the office today. Clearly he is missing some very exciting things. 

Like Nicky talking about bike helmets... still...

Now Nicky has shifted to a TV idea he wants to propose to Disney. 

I feel horrible, but sometimes I have to ask him to go in another room for a while so I can have a break from his incessant chatter. I have to be kind of forceful about it, too, because he doesn’t go willingly. 

I always remind myself that if Nicky is talking, it’s a good thing. As annoying as it is, it means he trusts me and is most likely happy. When he’s not talking, that’s an indicator that something’s wrong. But I hit a point every day where I can’t handle it anymore, and I need to get away from the dear boy.

I’m at that point currently.

Three days later...

Monday is a good day to blog. It just feels right.

That went well.

One day later...

Tuesday is a good day to blog. It just feels right. 

I'm back in my favorite spot in the corner of the living room sofa. Eva is begging for food, as usual. The other kids are downstairs on electronics. There is no school for the rest of the week. Yesterday was a gift - the first day all the kids were out of the house in over two weeks. I had two blissful hours to myself. I used that time to make a few impulse buys at Ross - a birthday present for Zoe (she is going to lose her mind over it), a new pair of shoes and a purse for myself, some scented candles (I can't resist the fall and Christmas scents), and a couple of Christmas gifts. 

Oh! And a wreath. 

I'm such a sucker for wreaths. 

But since I bought a new wreath, I forced myself to get rid of a wreath as well. I retired the first holiday wreath I ever bought. It was in a pretty rough state from the many holiday seasons it spent on my front door, so it was okay to bid it farewell. 

Though yesterday was a gift, it also came with challenges. Daisy got a bloody nose on the way to school. Later in the day I drove to a store that ended up being closed. I got stuck in a few traffic jams, and to finish off the evening, I got a screw in my tire. Luckily Scotty saw it before it went flat - he notices those things. He made an appointment to get it fixed, but the hole was an inch from the last screw hole in the same tire, so they weren't able to repair it. Guess who has two new tires?

It's me!

But they gave us a pretty good discount. 

I wonder if Wednesday will be a good day to blog. 

While the Muffins Bake

I'm currently trying to finish up a triple batch of pumpkin muffins before I have to pick up my kids from school. If all goes well, I'll have the third batch out of the oven right at the very last possible moment I can run out the door without being late. 

In true Brittany fashion I mixed the muffins in a bowl that was too small, and I now have flour all over my floor. I am sweating to death, and I have pumpkin permanently embedded under my fingernails. I'm so suave.

While the muffins are baking, I thought I would do a quick update on all my kids. 

Obligatory photo

Nicky is on his last day of "quarantine" for COVID exposure at school. He will go back to school on Monday, and then he has the rest of the week off. So he'll have gone to school once in three weeks. He has enjoyed being home, for the most part. He does his school in the morning and then spends the rest of the day watching Shark Tank and playing with Legos.* We've gone on a few bike rides together so he gets some exercise, and I take him to the car wash for a change of scenery. 

He has been golfing a lot with Scotty over the past few months and really enjoys it. He and Scotty both got new RC cars, and when they walked in the house carrying them fresh from the store, I'd never seen two happier boys. Nicky has been playing the piano a lot lately, and I think he's starting to really like it after 7 years of piano lessons. 

Daisy is doing dance class, piano lessons (via FaceTime), and Lego League. She has started to enjoy reading more this school year, and she has been talking about books more and asking me to put books on hold for her at the library. I attribute this to a few things:

1. Her teacher, who has more books in her classroom than I've ever seen and who has encouraged her students to read 40 chapter books this school year

2. Her friend, (who happens to be her teacher's daughter) who loves to read and is always telling Daisy about books.

3. The school librarian, who has taken Daisy under her wing and has her come help in the library several times a week. Our librarian is FANTASTIC! 

Zoe started piano lessons a couple of weeks ago. She had been begging to do piano lessons. She has big dreams and wants to do everything - figure skating and gymnastics and dancing and singing and all the things. She recently bought a Lego set with her own money, and she fell in love. Prior to that set, all attempts at Legos were failures. Now she wants several sets for her upcoming birthday. 

She is obsessed with Minecraft and Roblox (ugh). She’s the first of my kids to require video game limits, but at least I have some incentive to get her to do her chores. I only let her play on the weekends. 

Zoe loves to make smoothies. She asks every day if she can make a smoothie for breakfast and for dinner. I usually only let her make one every-other day because I can only supervise so many smoothies before wanting to rip my hair out. She has really improved in her reading (she has been a little behind in previous school years but is catching up now). She is starting to enjoy chapter books - some of the ones she likes are the Bad Kitty series and Junie B. Jones. She sits up in her bed reading every night (in between fights with Eva).

Eva is a tornado. She is emotionally up and down. She swings between "I love you, Mom" and "I hate you, Mom" several times a day. She's had some tantrums this week that have left me utterly exhausted. Scotty and I had to tag team her to get her dressed for school the other day, and then I had to drive her to school while she thrashed around in the back seat. I didn't think I was going to be able to get her to go to class, but when we got to the school, she hopped right out and went to class as if everything were fine. She hasn't been able to make any connection between actions and consequences yet, and it kind of worries me. I haven't found a form of discipline that works for Eva. 

Eva has become a bit of a Ninja Warrior lately. We have a "rock wall" on our playset in the back yard, and all the rocks are currently removed. She just runs right up the wall. The other day when I picked her up from school, I had the passenger side window rolled down, and she ran up to the van and dove head first through the window before I could even blink. 

Eek... the muffins are almost done. Hurry, Britt, hurry!

*I just spent way too much time deciding whether to say "Legos" or the more proper "LEGO bricks" here, and I decided I'm a "Legos" person. LEGO prefers that "Legos" not be a word because they think it hurts their brand. I think that's silly! 

Another Day, Another COVID Life Update

Now that I'm not following a list of writing prompts, I don't really know how to blog anymore. Since my last four posts have been in "list" format, I feel like I need to offer up some legit paragraphs or something - I just don't know if I have any in me. 

For the sake of documentation, let's do a COVID update, shall we?

We're seven months into COVID life now - rocking the "new normal" or whatever we say these days. We're fine. Except for when we're not fine. But mostly we're fine. 

(The emotional rollercoaster is a blast, isn't it?)

 

So far our schools are still in session, but Nicky was sent home last week for possible COVID exposure from another student and can't return to school until the 19th (though his "quarantine" ends this Friday). I knew it would happen eventually, and I'm actually really surprised that we lasted as long as we did before we had a kid sent home. I honestly thought our schools would be shut down by now, but our two schools have only had a case or two thus far, and none have been deemed as "school spread." A couple of the high schools in our district have closed down for two weeks because they were getting up in the double digits, but overall, things have gone very well with the schools in our area. 

Last week, Zoe had a day where she said she was having a hard time breathing. She told her teacher she needed her inhaler. Zoe uses an inhaler for a chronic cough, but it's not an emergency inhaler, and she has never had issues breathing. When I got to the school, she said her body was hurting, so I decided to check her out of school just to be safe. Of course, she was fine for the rest of the day at home. 

I feel like every day brings some sort of COVID scare. Every sniffle, every sneeze, every itty bitty little pain could be COVID. Just this morning, Zoe came into my bedroom sniffling, and I awoke thinking, "Oh crap! I'm going to have to keep you home from school!" but it turned out to be a bloody nose. I've never been so happy about a nose bleed!

I haven't been paying attention to other states lately, but here in Utah, we've had a pretty big spike in cases. Back in June, we had a spike that took us up to the 500-600 per day range. Now we are having 1,000-1,500 a day. Masks are mandated where we live in Salt Lake County, and masks are required at school. 

Scotty continues working from home. They were supposed to start phasing employees back to work last month, but when this spike hit, they postponed. I've been having a hard time managing the kids when they are home on Fridays, so I asked Scotty to go to work on Fridays. I need the freedom to parent loudly.  

We started going to church again last month. To me it feels like we’re “playing church.” It reminds me of being a kid and setting up a make believe scenario, “And pretend you’re the bishop and you tell us what song to sing and I’ll sit on the bench and wear a mask, and then you have to look at me and try to guess if I’m singing or not singing. And you’re not allowed to get up or talk to anybody because floor is lava. Then later we’ll get on our walkie talkies and play Relief Society.”

I just keep wondering what it would have been like to look into a crystal ball a year ago and see today. What would we have thought?  

Goal Check-In #1

Last week I shared 21 things I want to do before 2021. Here's how I'm doing so far:

1. No soda for the rest of the year.

So far so good. I haven't had soda since Labor Day.

2. Finish reading Jesus the Christ. 

On chapter 13.  

3. Try 10 new recipes. 

I've tried 2 so far and have a third lined up for tonight's dinner. 

The first was this pressure cooker mac & cheese. 

I think maybe mac & cheese just isn't my thing. The only recipe I have really ever liked is Pioneer Woman's with added bread crumbs, and even then, I can only handle a little bit. 

The other recipe I tried was this gluten-free fried zucchini, which we loved!  

Tonight we're trying this pumpkin baked oatmeal, and tomorrow we are trying this mango curry (I can already predict what my kids will think of it).

4. Get a haircut. Done!

5. Don't eat out for a month. 

Haven't eaten out since Jimmy Johns on September 30. I'm permitted to go out to eat by invitation, though, so I'm eating out with Christie today. 

6. Finish the closet doors in the basement.

I should amend this to say "make Scotty" finish the closet doors in the basement. He is currently building the second set of doors, then I'll stain them, and he'll hang them. 

7. Get the door hung on the storage room.

"Make Scotty" (but I will paint it).

8. Hang the closet doors in the kids' bedrooms.

"Make Scotty" (but I will paint them).

9. Weigh less on December 31 than I weigh today.

I don't routinely weigh myself, so I probably won't intentionally check my weight until December 31, but I have to go to the doctor next week, so I'll get a sneak peek. 

10. Walk 250 miles. 

So far I'm at 24. I'm only tracking "going for walks" and not my daily steps, so I have to do it with intention. 

11. Do 2,000 push-ups.

176. 

I'm so much weaker than I thought, so I'm allowing the first 500 on knees, then after that, I need to get up on my toes. I might amend this depending on how my arms are after the 500. I feel like something is wrong with my elbow, and if that's not feeling better after 500, I might have to stay on my knees. 

12. Do a DI run.

I have an appointment scheduled for Thursday and a huge pile of stuff in my garage ready to go.

13. Clean out the garden. Done!

14. Try something new. Done!

15. Finish 9 books.

I haven't finished any so far, but I have a few in progress.  Our county libraries finally opened on September 21. I've been twice now, and it just feels amazing!

Also, I lost two children's books during COVID, and they kindly waived the fees (I didn't even ask them to!)

16. Clean out the box of junk that's been sitting on the window seat in my bedroom since July. Done!

17. Go to the doctor. Done!

18. Complete a study of temple symbols.

In progress. 

19. Buy a dishwasher.

20. Finish a self-reliance class. 

21. Hang the sign over the washer and dryer that's been sitting on the floor for two months. 

It's still sitting there. But I've got time. 

Things the Kids Say: Episode #10

 "Mom, I know a secret ingredient to put on popcorn that makes it extra yummy. I need you to put the salt right there on the counter, and then go away so you won't see what my secret ingredient is. ."

-Zoe

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"We're going to have so much fun today! We're going to go to the store... and we're going to buy some vegetables... like maybe some broccoli...."

-Eva

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Daisy: Where did we get this blanket?

Me: Utopia gave it to us.

Daisy: What's Utopia?

Me: Our new internet company.

Daisy: So did we get rid of FedEx?

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"Those look like mom jeans."

-Nicky to Scotty

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"I realized I don't like fantasy books. I like books that are like 'Here are normal people and normal things happening' not 'Here are mythical creatures and mythical things happening.'"

-Nicky

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"Your music is too loud for your age."

-Nicky to me

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"I'm so mad! I'm going to do middle finger at you!"

-Eva

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Scotty: I said something inappropriate in a work meeting today, and I had to apologize to everyone.

Eva: Was it 'fart?'

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Scotty: Guess what was playing on the oldies station this morning?

Me: Blink 182?

Scotty: No, but close! "Forever Young" by Alphaville.

Me: 

20 Things About Me That May or May Not Be Weird

1. I yell "Eagle" every time I go down a hill on Splash Mountain. 

2. I wash my feet every night before I go to bed.  

3. I want to be a mascot. 

4. I don't own any flat sheets. My kids probably don't even know what flat sheets are. 

5. I make a clicking sound in the back of my throat when I'm tired or when I am singing a song in my head (it's my metronome).

6. The song "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" gives me anxiety. 

7. I like the sensation of my nostrils being stretched.

8. I like putting rose petals up my nose and shooting them out. 

9. And while I'm on the topic of noses, I might as well tell you that my nose is very pliable. I can squish it and stretch it all over the place (this is the exact opposite of Scotty's nose which is very firm, bony, and immobile).

10. I really hate koi fish and most sea creatures. I find them repulsive.  

11. I've always had a secret desire to eat the food other people have left behind at restaurants. Free appetizers? Yes, please! 

(I've never done it. Calm down!)

12. Two of my favorite smells are Cabbage Patch Dolls and the exhaust fumes from old Volkswagens. 

13. I want to adopt Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, and Britney Spears. I want to mother them and nurture the heck out of them. Even though Britney is older than me...

14. I put all the silverware in the dishwasher prong/scoop-up except for sharp knives. I don't feel like they get clean otherwise, and I don't like not being able to see what they are.  

15. I like to catch bubbles on my tongue. When I was a nursery leader, I taught all the kids to do it. The parents weren't super thrilled about it. 

16. I have trypophobia, and I have been so happy since I discovered the word for it! I never knew how to explain this weird reaction I've had my whole life. 

17. I just recently learned how to pronounce "croissant" in English. I only knew how to say it in French, which would make a lot more sense if I were, in fact, French.

18. I'm brilliant at opening Otter Pops with my teeth. 

19. I have "voice crushes" - people whose voices sound lovely to me, and I want them to read me books or sing me songs. 

20. I watch everything with closed captioning.

Currently {October 2020 Edition}

Reading: Jesus the Christ by James E. Talmage, 175 Temple Symbols and Their Meanings by Donald Parry, The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Dare, and News of the World by Paulette Jiles (quit).

I have too many books in progress right now. I really need to make a plan of attack here. 

Buying: lounge pants. Can't stop. Won't stop.

Missing: lipstick and earrings - two things that masks have made pointless.

Craving: Dove chocolate. 

Playing: Mariposas, Bohnanza, and Wingspan.

I can't win Bohnanza. Try as I might, I just can't do it! 

Loving: cool weather in the mornings and evenings. 

Listening to: The Second Coming of the Lord by Gerald Lund and The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett.

Wearing: leggings, slippers, and a hooded tunic that I will have to change out of pretty soon because I will get too hot. 

Watching: Good Omens. I read the book many years ago as part of the Super Duper Blogger Book Exchange. I didn't really care for it. But when I saw that David Tennant and Benedict Cumberbatch were in the Amazon series, I had to check it out. Still don't care for it. But I'm almost done with it, so I'm sticking it out. Plus, Benedict Cumberbatch hasn't shown up yet. 

Eating: Cadbury eggs. My mom had an Easter/Halloween party last weekend... because it's 2020.

Feeling: ornery. It's a distance learning day, and Zoe and Eva are most unpleasant students (it's the "mom" factor - they are angels for their actual teachers, thank heavens). I'm basically tied to the kitchen table for four hours walking them through every little detail of their school work. Just getting their names on their papers nearly kills me. 

By the way, the kindergarten curriculum is just right for me. Today we had to draw spots on a pig and count them. I can handle that! Then Daisy comes and asks me for help with 5th grade math, and even though I know how to do it, I have no idea how to explain it to her.

Wanting: a nice rainstorm.

Annoyed by: the way my kids act when a sibling has a friend over. 

Wishing for: world peace. I might as well go big. 

Dreading: taking Zoe and Eva for flu shots this afternoon.

Hoping to: watch the last Harry Potter movie soon. I've only watched it once, and that was at midnight on opening night... nine years ago!!! How has so much time passed? I remember that was when assigned seating was relatively new in the movie theaters - something I had always hoped for! That's the only reason I was willing to go to a midnight showing. 

I've been watching all the HP movies with my kids since the little turds won't read the books (I've finally given up on them). They have so many questions about Snape. I just keep saying, "You'll have to wait and see!" I'm not giving anything away!

Hopefully they will read the books someday. They are missing out on so much!

Enjoying: fall scented candles. I've been alternating between two different pumpkin spice candles and an apple harvest candle. I also may end up with corona since I keep sniffing candles at the store. 

Grateful for: teachers. The real kind.