Human again! I feel human again!

This "cold" that I got at the beginning of the year, and which I thought would be a little three-day cold (or whatever) turned out to be more like a three-week cold. But I'm pleased to announce that—at long last—I'm feeling much better. 

I have three classes on Tuesday, but one of them is online...so I only have two classes that I need to be present in. The only problem is...they are this far apart (1.3 to 1.4 miles—last week I walked the path on the right, but today I walked the 28 minute path instead):

Let there be...squats

Sometimes I wake up sore the day after primary, usually after I have the brilliant idea to play "sit-stand" during a song. This is where the kids have to stand up or sit down when they sing/hear a given word/phrase, so if they were seated and we sang the word they would have to stand and if they were standing and heard the word they would have to sit.

I remember playing this game during the song "Sing a Song" when I was in primary. 

The words go like this:

Sing, sing, sing;

I like to sing.

I like to sing a song;

Sing, sing, sing!

So you can see that in this song you'd have to either sit/stand a total of 8 times. Since you begin sitting, you stand on the first sing, then sit on the second sing, then stand on the third sing...and so on. 

Yesterday I decided to play this game with a new song that we're learning, called "The Creation," a lovely song written by my lovely and talented mother. The kids have really taken to it. I've had multiple families ask me where to find a copy of it so they can help their kids sing it at home (because their kids are already singing it at home; I should probably just send an email).

We had only gone through the first few verses, but yesterday I was determined to run through them all. There are seven verses...because...of the seven events of the creation story. 

The first verse goes:

On the first day, God said, "Let there be light.
We need the world to have both day and night.
Let there be light; let there be light."

That pattern repeats through the first six verses, with God saying, "Let there be..." 

Squirrel! In the attic! (Again!)

A few years ago we got some squirrels in our attic—flying squirrels, we were told. They chewed into the attic through the window frame of the kids' bedroom in the back. Pesky things.

We had a pest control company come out and inspect the attic. They set out some "excluders" (a one-way trap door that allows the squirrels to exit but not return) and then put some mesh paneling around all the possible entrances (that they could figure) into the attic. 

We had our handyman come out and fix up some siding, replace the frame around the kids' window, etc., and so forth. 

It was expensive...and a bit of a headache. 

We managed to keep them at bay for a while, but do you know what a determined squirrel can do in a short amount of time? A whole lot of damage, that's what!

All that is to say that I heard a squirrel in the attic the other day. I told Andrew about it and he called pest control right away. Because we already know what they can do in a short amount of time. 

So, they came out and installed an excluder on the gable vent above our bedroom, but the silly squirrel would not use that as an exit and instead went on a rampage through the attic trying to find an alternative exit. We could hear it scrambling all over creation. 

It finally decided the gable vent over the garage was a promising exit and promptly chewed through not one but two slats of our vent...and still wasn't able to get out because of the mesh installed previously (which you can see an angry squirrel had tried digging away previously—that's precisely how they got into the gable above the bedroom...by clawing away at the wood and squeezing under the mesh):

aaht-aat-aab-fila

I am actually not sure which of my children painted this, but I found it on the credenza and thought it was adorable:

Plein air dollhouse

Phoebe's most recent obsession is this poor innocent baby figurine. It came in a set of people that Grandma bought to go with the dollhouse when we moved from Egypt back to Utah...and straight into my in-law's house. (You can see some pictures of Rachel playing with the dollhouse stuff here; after Karen's death, the "original" dollhouse and many of the people and accessories went to Emily while we tried to only take the newer stuff that my girls had grown up playing with...though I'm sure things got jumbled a bit). 

Anyway, this poor innocent baby figurine is approximately 15 years old. In that time it has lost all of its limbs. But she found it in our box of dollhouse stuff and decided that it is the most precious baby to ever have existed because...she's like that. 

Remember when she found and adopted Garbage Baby?

Now we have to know where this tiny figurine is at all times because it's in its VIP Era

For MOM

Phoebe is excited about the idea of making valentines for everyone she knows (so hopefully we'll get some valentines in the mail soon). I suggested to her that she should write her name on each one she makes. She did not take my suggestion (although she does know how to spell her name—which is really pretty tricky when your name is Phoebe because.../f/).

Instead she brought me this drawing:

See how it says MOM at the top. 

This is the first time she's spontaneously written my name down (that I'm aware of)!

Resolutions

I recently had a discussion about resolutions with a friend, who said she doesn't make any (or encourage her children to make any) because if she wants to do something...she does...but that she doesn't feel the need to "be more" simply because it's a new year. Or something like that. 

On the one hand, I agree that it's important to feel valued for who you are in any given moment. But on the other hand, I think it's nice to have scheduled moments to contemplate who you are, where you are, what you want to be. 

At church, the sacrament is an example of a "temporal landmark," a time dedicated for contemplating my life—to consider whether I've misstepped or misspoke or misbehaved—and a time to begin anew—to recommit to living life a certain (higher) way. 

Not because I'm not "enough" as I am, but because I have such potential to...do and be...better.

The dawning of a new year offers a similar (but different) temporal landmark. And while I think goals can absolutely be started at any time, our brains really like these moments of "newness." We like the turning of the calendar page, the beginning of a new week, of a new year. We like anniversaries and birthdays and first days and...we just like landmark events. Setting goals in conjunction with a temporal landmark is shown to improve success/progress.

So at our house we talk about goals at the beginning of every year (and then have check-ins throughout the year), not to shame but to encourage. Doing so at the beginning of the year helps us be more mindful of those goals throughout the year. 

Alexander started a hat at some point last year. I don't know when. It was months ago. He'd knit a few rows and then put the project down for...weeks...and then knit a few rows...and then put the project down for a few weeks. It would lay forgotten on his dresser or on the staircase of his bed or behind the couch...

One of his resolutions was to finish his hat, and he approached that project with fresh determination, knitting row after row after row until...

Work

I haven't been into my office since November. I had a few packages waiting for me when I arrived on Tuesday morning...

I worked in the receiving department at BYU's library during my undergrad, so opening up all these boxes and processing the books brought back some fond memories. Getting to do some physical work (flattening boxes, for example) was kind of a nice break from all of the more academic thinking/reading/writing I do when I am on campus. 

I probably won't have a haul like this for a while since packages usually trickle in. But it was kind of fun to get to tackle this wall of boxes!

Braces

My first few weeks of braces went great-ish. But there was a point where things just got quite uncomfortable and my aligners felt agonizingly tight and my teeth weren't quite tracking.

I remember the person who helped me force the first set of new aligners into my mouth (1) asking me if it was always this difficult to put them in and (2) telling me that things weren't quite lining up with one particularly troublesome tooth, but that "it'll be grabbed."

But it wasn't just grabbed. 

And it was uncomfortable and awful. 

And I've had a few adjustment periods since then, where they rescan my teeth and reorder a sequence of trays to get back on track. So, it's fine. But, like...also frustrating...because I started out with 20 sets of trays over a year ago...and now I have like 15 left to go...still.

Anyway, I laid them all out yesterday and noticed (too late) that when they should have given me trays five through whatever...they gave me tray nine through whatever...essentially skipping eight weeks (two months) of the treatment plan and setting me back at least that long, if not longer.

So that is a little frustrating...and explains that terribleness this summer.

Pumpkin and raccoons

I forgot to mention!

The older kids went to a game night this evening, leaving Alex and Phoebe home with their boring parents. 

It was raining when Benjamin came home from swimming, which Phoebe was so excited about. She wanted to go outside to stomp in the puddles, but we had to have dinner first. And then the big kids left. 

And then she begged Alex to go outside to play in the rain with her, but he felt—given the darkness and possibility of foxes and other nocturnal predators (we get coyotes and bears around here, too, so...fair)—that they should probably have an adult with them. 

So I took them for an evening stroll...in the rain...

Phoebe wore her reflective vest (for safety; she's rather safety-conscious) and we brought a flashlight and...they thought it was the best thing ever.

And then we saw a creature lumbering across the road in front of us.

"Was that a cat?!" Alexander asked. "I've never seen a cat move like that! And it was so fat!"

"I'm pretty sure that was a raccoon," I said.

"A FOX AND A RATCOON IN ONE DAY!!" Phoebe squealed.

It. Was. A. Good. Day.

So, yes, she says "ratcoon" instead of "raccoon."

And this is probably a good place to mention that she says "punktin" instead of "pumpkin."

And when she says "masks," it's more like "maksksksksksks." She just doesn't know when to stop.