Dear Thursday,

Dear Kitchen Floor,
I'm sorry that I can't keep you clean for more than 6 hours, and that's only if it's at night and everyone is sleeping. I thought that I'd finally be successful after my last deep cleaning attempt when I stopped letting people eat in the kitchen (Peanut butter sandwiches in the bathtub? Don't mind if we do.) But alas, I couldn't hold back the tide and you are again, albeit lovingly, smeared with banana goop and cheerio crumbs.

Dear Mint.com,
Thank you for faithfully tracking our budget every month. You continually save us money and make sure we stay on track for our financial goals. I'm sorry we've neglected you for the last month, but don't worry - we have a hot date planned to sit down with our receipts and make sure everything is allocated to the right place. See you soon. ;)

Dear iOS X upgrade,
Why oh why did I download you?!? I didn't realize that you would actually change the way my programs functioned. Now I can't utilize my iPhoto albums in the same way and I'm not sure how to handle it. Couldn't you have just made my computer faster without messing with my mojo? I'm now trying to adjust to the change and wish that I wasn't.

Dear October,
The weather yesterday was incredible. I love you!

Dear Wasps,
Take that! Elite Pest Control has got our backs. Now, please go away and never return. (I'm talking about each and every one of the four nests you've built up inside the eaves of our home.)

Dear Towne Cinema,
We love your cheap movie tickets and sticky floors. Don't let the naysayers get you down, we adore you. We loved your showing of "Inside Out", and will be back soon with our 3-year-old in tow because in her words "I'm bigger now and I can go to the movies, too."

Dear Stack of Unread Library Books,
I'm sorry that I have to return you without getting to know you better. As a book lover, I can't resist your bright covers and captivating back page summaries but I just can't seem to find the time to devote to you. Don't you worry though, I'll write you down on my ever-lengthening book list and I'll be back for you... someday.

Dear General Conference,
Thank you for lifting my spirits and helping me regain my focus. Sometimes I get so overwhelmed by the whirlwinds and badness in the world around me and hearing such powerful messages of God and His love give me something to hold on to. Thank you for strengthening my grip.

Dear Cornbelly's,
You are far too expensive for me to even consider going to this year. I'm sorry about that. But, thank you for all the Friday night fireworks! We love watching them from our front porch.

Dear Thursday,
You are one of my favorite days of the week. Thanks for speeding us toward the weekend and for giving me one more day to enjoy this wonderful life of ours.

Blogging and Preschool and... Nothing

I have so many half written blog posts in my head. I'll be doing something, like washing the dishes, and I'll start composing a post about a certain topic. I'll remind myself to file it away for when I finally have the time to sit down and post, but inevitably- when I open up my computer with the intent to blog - my mind goes blank and I can't think of a single thing to say. 

I'm sitting here wracking my brain for the hilarious post I was thinking up yesterday while doing laundry. Or the thoughtful and sincere post I started thinking of while driving to see my grandma and grandpa last week. Or even the bulleted list I had started about things that have been going on recently. But I've got nothing more that bits and pieces and can't figure out how to formulate it all into words. 

*sigh*

Lydia is at preschool right now. I haven't posted about it yet (because I basically haven't posted anything recently), but we are really enjoying the experience. When people started asking me last March where I was putting Lydia in preschool, I would get this deer in the headlights look and answer "She's two!" I hadn't even thought about it one. single. second. But apparently you have to start registering your two year old for preschool in March because she's going to turn three in May, and if you wait until August to look for a preschool you're done for. I almost immediately knew that I didn't want to put her in a real preschool. Friends, do you know how much preschool costs? A lot. And I just am not ready to send her off to preschool yet. Luckily I was able to get a group of other moms together who have kids the same age and who feel the same way. We set up a little preschool co-op and take turns teaching a Tuesday/Thursday set. It's been wonderful. Lydia gets to socialize with other kids, learn a little bit about letters, and have fun with some interesting themes. She likes it most of the time, and I'm so glad that it's worked out so well. 

{Preschool 2015}

An hour and a half isn't a very long time (in fact I only have a half hour before I need to run and get her) but I've started to think that this is the time that I'll set aside for my blogging. I miss it. I want to do it. (I just need to jot down my blog post ideas on paper instead of leaving them in my head.) I think I posted this before, but an author that I really like was giving a presentation about her books and when asked about how she finds time to write she said something to the effect of, "You've got to take the time for the things that matter to you. No one is going to give you the time." I think about this quote all the time. It's different than "making" the time, because let's be honest, you can't make time. If I could make all sorts of extra time, I would totally do it. Rather, you have to take the time. That means taking the time that you would have been giving to something else. Sometimes this means taking the time from mindless facebook scrolling and giving it to my children. Sometimes this means taking the time from cleaning my kitchen and instead giving it to myself so that I can sit down and blog. I'm in charge of where I allocate my time, but sometimes it's hard to take the time from one thing and give it to another. I'm working on making sure that I take the time for the things that matter to me because it's true that no one is going to come knock on my door and give it to me. 

And so, here is a lame blog post about nothing at all. I'm tempted to just delete it and try again later. But I'll post it and hope that getting this out of the way lets my creative juices start flowing and maybe I'll try to post again this afternoon. 

Because it's 10:54 and I'm off to pick Lydia up from preschool. 

David's Birthday Celebration

This David-guy, he's really great. I often wonder how I got so lucky to find him. Really, it's a miracle. I knew that I wanted to do some thing special for his birthday week, but couldn't come up with anything. I was aimlessly wandering around the aisles of the store trying to keep Austin happy and Lydia in the shopping cart when I saw a pack of balloons and knew that this would be perfect. I stuck little papers inside and each day he got to pop a balloon and get a treat/prize. They were pretty simple like, three bags of popcorn while we watched our shows, a bag of cheetos, breakfast in bed, an ice cream date. So nothing big, but something that hopefully helped him feel special. 

His birthday fell on a Sunday, so the weekend before we got a babysitter (thanks Shields!) and went to see Inside Out at the theater. We had a really nice time. The next day we went to Kaysville and went on a hike with David's brother and his family. It ended up being more of a nature walk than a hike, but there was a river and we got to climb around in the river and dip our toes in the water and it was perfect. A lovely day. 

On his actual birthday, we had Stake Conference so we had the majority of the day was open for us (no meetings!). David opened his presents, we ate his favorite dinner (Potato Supreme), I made him a special banana-toffee cake, and we had a really good day. 

 

Happy birthday darling boy! We love you and hope you know how much you mean to us.