Grateful Friday

After smugly feeling like maybe I had conquered headaches, I had a doozy.  Not horrible, but days long. If I don't have a headache for awhile I think I'm cured and if I have a bad headache, I think I'm dying.  This was somewhere in the middle, but I didn't like it.

Speaking of dying, I realized that root rot was the problem with my two plants.  I spread the soil out in the sun on the side of the house by the driveway where nothing grows anyway.  Maybe the soil can get itself figured out.  I washed the pots and set them on the deck for the sun to sanitize.  I threw the plants away.

Sometimes you just need to start over.

My mom called me yesterday to see why I hadn't written a blog post.

I told her about my headache.

I also told her about other things that were bothering me and she said, "I understand."

Sometimes you just need your mom.

I told Mark I needed to go to Walmart and he said he'd go with me after work.  Sometimes it's the little things like a buddy to go to Walmart.

I'm still trying to wade through and get rid of photos I don't want on my old computer.  It is boring and not very fun, but then I come across good stuff like pictures from Braeden and Anna's wedding.  

Root rot, headaches, disappointments.  They are all tempered by good things too.

It's my turn to teach Sunday School this weekend.  There's so much good stuff there, I don't think we'll have time to talk about it.  The title of the lesson is He is risen.

Talk about good news.

Did the ancient Egyptians know about Cadbury eggs?

Because they have preserving properties in them!

Yesterday I just bit the bullet and cleaned the dungeon.  I always tell myself I'm going to gradually do a project in a measured way and when it's something like that, I just do the entire thing because I want it over and done with.

I have a box of Easter decorations that I haven't been into for years.  They are kind of little kid Easter decorations and I'm saving them because Nana duties are taken very seriously around here.  There was a perfectly intact Cadbury egg inside.  Years.

I have three boxes ready to go to DI and I threw away a bunch of stuff and I took pictures of some stuff and sent it to my children to see if they were interested.

Mark was interested.

Which resulted in this:

The agony and ecstacy of a mom cleaning I guess.

I found the Skylanders for Mark, but years ago I threw away the duel disk launcher and you can't come back from something like that apparently.

(I also once got rid of the Transformers because I hated them.  They were too hard for my kids to transform them and they were ugly and plastic and junky.  And beloved.  I know that now....)

This box cracked me up though:

Cross another thing off the list!

✔ dungeon

These are the days

 These are the days of...

• knocking things off my to do list and then remembering five more things I need to add
• preparing for July--family reunion, trip to Pacific Northwest, Braeden, Anna and QE visiting
• Meal Matrix Monday with Mark (we forgot the M and M's last night, which feels kind of tragic now that I remember)
• trying to make Ruby laugh with my dumb jokes over FaceTime (not really succeeding)
• not being interested in any of the Tuesday movies at Water Gardens (also feels kind of tragic, but that to do list....)
• it starting to get hot
• reading Think Like a Monk and thinking about things (like a monk?)
• trying to get up the courage to clean our storage room in the basement which we call the dungeon because that is an apt description
• feeling anxious about my Sunday School lesson
• bare feet 
• spending a little time with Adam and Mark in the evening

These are the days.

Weekend

My slow moving start to today is inversely proportional to my really big to do list.  

We had a nice weekend though.

Adam and I went to Nevada and as soon as he unloaded the car, he started mowing.  I put everything away and swept the floors and did all the things.  It is nice to be there and feels more and more like ours.

Hedwig disagrees.

She likes our front porch and has a very accusing look whenever she sees me.

Saturday morning, I was awake before Adam and I noticed three cows come down the orchard side of the house (they were escapees from up on the hill).  They knocked over our Starlink satellite thing that we need to mount on the roof (for example, cows knock it over).  Then the cows started licking it.  It is white and square and I think they thought it was a salt block.  I opened up the door to go chase them away but I was barefoot and I saw the offering of mice bones on the doorstep that Hedwig had left and I opted to just yell at the cows instead.

Adam thought it was an exciting way to wake up.  Me yelling, "Go away!"

Adam finished mowing while I went over to my parents' house.  Olivia called when I was there and she was driving home from girls' camp.  Also she was sick.  We heard about her time while she drove and my mom and I both cried because we were touched by all the great things that happened at girls' camp.  Olivia does so much good in the world and I'm glad she's mine.

Olivia got home so my mom and I walked some codeine cough syrup over to her.  Our cousin Hannah had gone to girls' camp too with her girls so their family was at Olivia's.  It was fun to see them and visit a little.  Edgar was making Mexican hot dogs and Olivia encouraged us to stay.

When Edgar is making anything I need about zero encouragement to stay.

Our car was at my parents' house and Adam was at our house with no car so I not only invited Adam to lunch too, but I borrowed a car to go get him.  

Basically I have a lot of social graces....

But Edgar's cooking!

In the afternoon Adam and I cleaned off the front porch--mostly Adam with the power washer--and we washed the outside of the windows and we repaired six screens.  

I also admired the yellow roses.

Yellow is not my favorite color but those are my favorite flower.  They smell amazing and remind me of the most idyllic summer day of my childhood memory.

After dinner we went to my parents' house to visit--Marianne and Robert and Carolina were there too.  My dad said that he wanted to ask me a favor.  I asked if he wanted me to do some excavating, because I could use the practice....

It wasn't that.

We are in full planning mode for the family reunion.  My dad's family is in charge this year and I am armed with a list.  If I had a nickel for every time my mom told me to save the receipts because she is going to pay me back, I wouldn't need to save any receipts. 

I love that about my mom though.  She wants to do stuff for her children and not the other way around and she learned it from her mom.  They are generous ladies!

Sunday morning we closed up the house which was pretty fast because we'll be back next week, but is always a thing.  I wanted to tell Hedwig yes to catching mice but no to leaving their bones on the doorstep but she wasn't around.

Braeden was speaking in his ward so we listened to that during the first part of sacrament meeting in the Wells.  Covid's best gift is being able to hear Braeden speak in church.

My mom taught Relief Society and I loved hearing her teach.  It reminded me of when she was my  Merrie Miss teacher and my YW leader.  And also, you know, being my mom.  She's taught me a lot over the years and I appreciate her wisdom.  I also loved sitting next to Olivia in Relief Society.

Every time we're there, I hate to leave.

The land of the setting sun does not disappoint.

Grateful Friday

Today Adam and I are heading to Nevada, after he has several work meetings.  We are going so we can do exciting things like wash windows, repair screens (we'll try), clean the porch, mow.

It occurs to me that maybe we are a little crazy to have taken on two sets of chores.  This is the life we've chosen though and I'm grateful for it.  I created a Snapfish book about the fire that destroyed my grandparents' house and the house they rebuilt.  When I think about the legacy they left that I want to carry on, the house doesn't seem like the main part of it (their lives were the legacy), but it is part of it.  I love that spot.  It feels like an uphill climb as we are getting it up and running, but I think eventually it will become more maintenance and less recovery.

And I'm grateful to get to spend some time with Adam.  

I'm grateful that since I'm home and Mark is working from home, we can eat lunch together every day.  He has a lunch break from 12:45-1:15 and I have it ready to go so we can sit and chat and I love it.  Also, I made one of his favorite recipes last night:  sausage sandwich squares.  They are basically a pizza with a top crust too.  I made gluten free pizza dough and it felt very high stakes because I wanted to get it right.  Much like everything gluten free, it was...OK at best.  I think there are things I could do to improve it.  Making something Mark hasn't had for a few years and watching him smile when he takes the first bite is worth a lot to me.

I was given my friend Michelle as a ministering assignment.  It's the kind of assignment that you think, "Oh good."  I visited her yesterday and it was so nice.  We talked and it very quickly became very real.  We shared our vulnerabilities and tears and she said really helpful things that I needed to hear and I hope I was able to help her a little bit too. 

It's a far cry from some ministering assignments I've had where I am kind of at loose ends to know what I can do to get close to someone that seems like I'm hassling them when I ask.  I thought, this is the point though.  If we can connect with each other enough that it feels helpful and enriching to visit each other, that is the point.  I was grateful for a glimpse of what to keep working towards.

It's nice that none of us are done improving.

Pretend decorator

When I left the movie theater on Tuesday, I had a missed call from Adam.  I texted him and he texted back, "I was calling for decorating advice."  No further explanation.

You just never know with that guy.

Facilities fall under the umbrella of his job and when he was at the office of WGU in Columbus, OH, he decided the facilities needed a little help.  He had gone to IKEA and purchased some things and later he FaceTimed me and asked my advice on placement while he was there with another guy assembling furniture.

I said, "Let me see it with the plants there, now there."

He said, "Should I put two chairs there and two chairs there?"

I said, "No.  Make a conversation area."

I don't really know what I'm talking about, but I pretend and I'm always ready with an opinion.

Later he texted me pictures.

Later still I talked to Adam when he was back at his hotel.  He said, "I did what you taught me.  I bought three plants.  I made sure they were different, but about the same size."

I don't remember ever having a lesson about "buy three plants," but three was the right choice.  

He knows that you should buy three and I know what a designated hitter is in baseball (I for sure didn't used to know that).  In marriage you just rub off on each other I guess.

Slow and easy summer

My thoughts are with my poor sisters at girls' camp this week.  As if camping weren't miserable enough, there is a FREEZE ALERT there.  The high yesterday was in the 50s.  

I, on the other hand, have been living the easy summer life.

I've been doing my little projects.  Reading this, organizing that.  Because it was Juneteenth on Monday, Emma and Mark didn't have to work.  We took a walk along the Provo River.  Emma wanted more than anything to jump in and swim.  

I don't understand how my children just want to swim any time they see a body of water and they don't understand why I don't just want to swim any time I see a body of water.

We had lunch and were going to go scope out Mark's new apartment he'll move to in August.

I said, "First I have to deliver a statue to Liberty."

And that delighted me to say.

It was more of a figurine than a statue, but how could I miss saying a statue for Liberty?  Years ago, I had given my grandma a figurine of a mother and daughter and the daughter was holding a violin.  I got it back because anything you had gifted my grandma with, you got back.  I decided to give it to Liberty, my favorite violin player.

Mark's new apartment is wonderfully close to Delawarde. Delawarde itself is something of a wonder.  Adam and I lived there, Marianne and Robert lived there, Anna's parents Mark and Amy lived there, Braeden and Anna lived there and now Liberty and Nikki live there. 

I think it is basically QE's destiny to end up there someday.

After we located Mark's apartment, we parted ways and Emma and Mark went swimming at the Provo Rec center and I went home.

Monday night I went to YEN without Adam which felt a little awkward for a couples group, but when I got there it wasn't awkward at all because they are my friends.

Yesterday we got our piano tuned.  Emma had the idea to give that to Adam for Father's Day.  Adam doesn't play the piano, but he loves it when Emma does and he wanted it tuned.  Trust Emma to know the perfect gift for her dad.

In the afternoon Nola and I went to Elemental at Water Gardens.  It was impressive just like all Pixar movies, but not as magical as a lot of Pixar movies.  Still.  $5 Tuesday. 

Since I wasn't home on Monday, Mark and I had Meal Matrix Monday on Tuesday.  He chose the menu and made pesto pasta with chicken.  I sat at the counter and chatted with him, answering a couple of questions, but he made everything himself.  We had a scale for assessing the meal--ease, time, cost, nutritional value, taste.  We are nothing if not lovers of rating things.

It checked all the boxes so after dinner we each got five M and M's.  Don't think we are not taking this job very seriously.

We read a chapter in the Book of Mormon and prayed together and then the two introverts went their separate ways for the rest of the evening.  I carried the Costco size jar of M and M's back upstairs to my office closet, because they aren't for idle snacking.  Mark started laughing at me.  He said it looked like I was going to go upstairs and drown my sorrows in a huge amount of M and M's.

There could be worse ways to drown sorrows.