Sun Setting on September

For the month of September, I am using prompts from a project called 30 Days Hath September. Each day has a prompt for something to capture, something to collect, and something to record. The prompts are for a scrapbook album, but I thought they'd be wonderful blogging prompts as well. I am selecting one of the three prompts to write about each day. 

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September 30: The Sunset

{Sun setting behind me in the church parking lot}

Now that September is over, can I confess that this has been a hard month? I've had to face some changes that I'm not thrilled about, I had to do some things I didn't want to do, and I've been tired and overwhelmed. 

A week ago today, my grandma passed away kind of unexpectedly. I've been too stressed to grieve - I don't have time for it, and apparently, it takes time to acknowledge grief. I need a moment for things to settle so I can process this loss. I had the opportunity to speak at my grandma's funeral yesterday. The night before the service, I sat in the church parking lot where I could be away from my kids to run through my talk. I thought maybe if I could be alone for a minute, I could feel something. But instead, the car died, and I had to have Scotty come jump start it for me. 

Today during church, I had a second where the grief almost caught up to me, but then Scotty had to go help pass the sacrament, and I had to drag a naughty kid out of the meeting, and there were just too many other things to deal with. It's one thing after the other- before I finish solving one problem, there's something else lined up I need to handle. 

No time for grief. 

Even if it only lasts five minutes, I need to mourn. I just don't know when that's going to happen. 

A Visit Downtown

For the month of September, I am using prompts from a project called 30 Days Hath September. Each day has a prompt for something to capture, something to collect, and something to record. The prompts are for a scrapbook album, but I thought they'd be wonderful blogging prompts as well. I am selecting one of the three prompts to write about each day. 

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September 27: A place you visit

There are so many places I could write about for this post - my library, Sam's Club, the track I walk around a few mornings a week, the grocery store, or even Disneyland. 

I considered writing about Moochies, one of my favorite places to eat. After all, I would have had to go to Moochies and eat for a photo op for this post (genius, right?) But looking back over my posts from the past few months, it is clear that I eat out waaaaay too much, and I haven't done a very good job keeping that a secret from you. Why add to the evidence?

I decided to write about none of the above (though each could have its own post or two). 

One place I like to visit from time to time is downtown Salt Lake City. It's definitely a love/hate relationship. I love being downtown, and I hate being downtown. But regardless of my conflicting emotions, downtown Salt Lake is a special place. It's wonderful and scary and exciting and strange and beautiful all at once. 

There's something about navigating downtown that makes me feel - excuse my language - bad ass. I've felt this way ever since I was a teenager. As a teen, I learned how to get around downtown without a parent, and I felt so cool. Sometimes I rode Trax, and sometimes I drove, but in each scenario, I was independent, and insanely awesome. This prepared me for my first two years of college, in which I went to school downtown (and got my first traffic violation and had to go to traffic school at the downtown courthouse). 

My two favorite parts of going to school downtown were:

1) Seeing Ned Winder, a temple sealer* who commuted to the Salt Lake Temple from West Valley in his red Porche, wave to me every morning on North Temple. We often ended up in the same traffic flow as we rolled into the city, and he always recognized me in my car and greeted me with enthusiasm at stop lights.

and 

2) Getting to drive down the big hill after school. It was the essence of freedom! And that's why I got nabbed by the cops for going 15 mph over the speed limit in a residential area. I was celebrating my liberation from class!

For the past month, I've been studying a lot of Church history. I read the new book, Saints: The Story of the Church of Jesus Christ in Latter Days, which sparked my interest a little more than anything has in the past. 

I've been listening to some podcasts with Church historians and re-reading the gospel topic essays. With Church history fresh on my mind, I decided to take a trip to the Church History Museum. 

I've been there dozens of times with my kids, but I wanted to go ALONE. So my mom watched Eva for me while Zoe was at school yesterday, and I went to the museum by my bad ass self.

During this visit, I was particularly drawn to the hand-written documents that are on display. I love "old" handwriting. There is a page of Oliver Cowdery's transcription of the translation of the gold plates at the museum, and his handwriting is stunning. The lines are so straight and beautiful.

I laughed at the contrast between his penmanship and Joseph Smith's. But I appreciate Joseph Smith's sloppiness. Just one more thing to love about him!

{Joseph Smith's journal}

I also liked Wilford Woodruff's journal because it seems he was a bit of a doodler.

After my museum visit, I walked over to City Creek for a while and then to Temple Square. I took some photos of the flora and helped some tourists get their temple shots. 

{Photos from yesterday}

As a general rule, you can't walk the grounds of Temple Square and not stop to take pictures of the flowers. Try it, I dare you!

 {Photos from earlier this year}

From there I met up with Scotty on the plaza, and we walked to the Olive Garden for lunch (we had a gift card, woot! woot!)

But first, I had to appreciate more flora!

*A person who performs marriages within temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

September Feelings

For the month of September, I am using prompts from a project called 30 Days Hath September. Each day has a prompt for something to capture, something to collect, and something to record. The prompts are for a scrapbook album, but I thought they'd be wonderful blogging prompts as well. I am selecting one of the three prompts to write about each day. 

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September 26: Feelings that have changed since 
September 1st

I had a bout of depression this month. I tend to have more depressive symptoms after big changes, so I think this round might have been generated by my kids going back to school. When school started, I was extremely hard on myself about how I spent my time. Day after day, I beat myself up over the stuff I wasn't getting done. I have this long list of things I want to accomplish while my kids are at school, and I continually fail. It takes everything out of me to get my kids to school each morning, and I end up too tired to do anything after they leave.

I've also had this problem as of late... Let's refer to it as "raging PMS."

PMS was never an issue for me until this year. Now I get super hormonal, and I basically want punch every person who speaks to me in the throat. I also want to sleep for a whole week. I get so fatigued. This month, I was depressed and had raging PMS at the same time, so I was a hot mess!

I'm doing much better now. I've somehow managed to let go of my intense need to "get stuff done," and my raging PMS has passed (so please enjoy being around me before I become a holy terror again).

For the past week I've focused more on getting outside with my kids and less on doing household tasks. We've been hanging out at lots of parks after I pick up Zoe from kindergarten. We are all much happier for it. I asked Scotty to fix my bike tires, and I've been taking Zoe and Eva on rides. I've also started running a little bit (key word: little). Between riding my bike and running, I have an extreme case of Jell-O legs (if I follow my usual pattern, I will quit both activities before October begins).

The cooler weather is such a relief. I love this time of year. For the past two days, I've worn pants!

PANTS!!!

I broke out my boots (I had to brush dust off them), and I bought a new pair of sweats that I'm pretty sure will be my winter uniform.

So here at the end of September, I feel much better about many things. Feel free to check back with me in about three weeks, but watch out!

In Which the Crazy Creeps In

For the month of September, I am using prompts from a project called 30 Days Hath September. Each day has a prompt for something to capture, something to collect, and something to record. The prompts are for a scrapbook album, but I thought they'd be wonderful blogging prompts as well. I am selecting one of the three prompts to write about each day. 

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September 22: A marquee, sign, or billboard in your community

Things got crazy for a minute, and I had to skip a few days of writing. Daisy turned nine last week, and the whole week was out of whack due to scouting things. Nicky was scheduled to do the swimming merit badge on Wednesday night. Then he had scout camp on Daisy's actual birthday, so Daisy's birthday party was scheduled for Sunday at 6:00. Then our ward decided to hold a court of honor on Sunday night at 6:00, so I had to move the party. Our ward also scheduled Nicky to have a scout master conference right during his merit badge class (which, if he missed the class, would TRIPLE THE PRICE for the other three boys attending). I was a wreck all week as I rearranged things to make scouts and the birthday happen. Then, after all the rescheduling I did, our ward canceled the court of honor, and all I could do was rock back and forth like a crazy woman and douse myself in Dr. Pepper.

One night last week I had to go on a Therapy Drive. I left the kids with Scotty and drove out to my "hometown" library (taking the long way). As I cruised down Main Street, I saw this sign, and it made me chuckle... kind of like a lunatic, but at least I smiled. 

Family Doodles

For the month of September, I am using prompts from a project called 30 Days Hath September. Each day has a prompt for something to capture, something to collect, and something to record. The prompts are for a scrapbook album, but I thought they'd be wonderful blogging prompts as well. I am selecting one of the three prompts to write about each day. 

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September 18: A photo of the whole family

Since I don't post many pictures of my children on my blog, I had to get a little creative with this prompt. I decided to have each of my kids draw a picture of our family. 

Here is Nicky's:

He was in a "get this over with" sort of mood, but his personality shows in the fact that he and Scotty are wearing top hats. Nicky always throws in something funny even when he's being lazy. I can imagine him thinking, "I'm just going to do stick figures... but they're going to have top hats!"

Here is Daisy's:

Daisy always spends more time on realistic details, and she often gets mad at herself for not being able to do draw things perfectly. She gives up quickly, so I'm actually surprised she didn't draw the first two people and then say, "You do it, Mom." 

Here is Zoe's:

I love that she assigned everyone a letter (slightly inaccurate, but charming nonetheless).

She also added an extra person, and when I asked her about it she said, "That's Susie."

Welcome to the family, Susie!

(And no, this will not be one of those things where my kid draws an extra child and then we have a baby. Susie is far more likely to be a hamster than a human).

Eva refused to play along. She's very firm on the fact that she's not my performing monkey. 

What's Clean

For the month of September, I am using prompts from a project called 30 Days Hath September. Each day has a prompt for something to capture, something to collect, and something to record. The prompts are for a scrapbook album, but I thought they'd be wonderful blogging prompts as well. I am selecting one of the three prompts to write about each day. 

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September 16: Something Clean

I almost skipped today's prompt because nothing in my life is ever clean. 

Last night, Scotty and I got our kitchen and living room cleaned, and then we turned on a movie for the kids. By the time the movie was done, the house was trashed. I'm convinced that my kids could hold perfectly still and still manage to destroy my house in under ten minutes. 

I cleaned it all up before church this morning, and by the time we left, it was all destroyed again.

Then I cleaned it after church, and sure enough, it was a mess again by the time Scotty got home from his meetings.

I found this one spot in the kitchen that kind of stayed clean, though, because A) we ate entirely from paper products today and B) if I squat down just so you can't see the Rubbermaid containers in my sink.

So this is it.

This is what's clean. 

Now excuse me while I go stand guard, cause once someone notices this part of the house, an ice cream bomb will go off or something. 

9:15 on 9/15

For the month of September, I am using prompts from a project called 30 Days Hath September. Each day has a prompt for something to capture, something to collect, and something to record. The prompts are for a scrapbook album, but I thought they'd be wonderful blogging prompts as well. I am selecting one of the three prompts to write about each day. 

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September 15: What you're doing at exactly 9:15

Today is a bit out of the norm for me. I slept in until almost 8:00 (though I was up from 4:00-5:00 reading a book). I'm usually out of bed by 6:30 (even on weekends - I am a morning person), and I eat breakfast within an hour of that... because FOOD! 

Today I dragged myself out of bed, did some parenting, took a shower, and then wandered into the kitchen where I was greeted with a leftover donut. I wanted the donut for breakfast, but I had a bag of raspberries leaking red juice all over my fridge. They've been in there for two days, and I've been ignoring the mess (despite my children repeatedly telling me that there's blood in the fridge).

The raspberries won (the donut still awaits).

(Lunch?)

At 9:15 on 9/15 I was making a smoothie.