Sunday, February 1, 2015

Weekend Warriors

It is Sunday and our house is completely quiet.
Did you hear me? I said our house is completely quiet. That doesn't happen around here.

Sunday mornings are a mass of chaos--trying to bathe and dress three sleepy kids and two sleepy adults, stuffing crusts of toast into little mouths while planning hurried Primary lessons, and dashing to the car only to find we've forgotten somebody's shoes, and where are those dang shoes, anyway?! Church starts at 9:00am this year, which for us means we need to LEAVE the house at 8:00am. Partially because we live so far away, partially because Matt is in our family and you aren't "on time" unless you are sitting in your seat 15 minutes before the opening song.

Church is three hours long, where I serve as Primary Chorister (I lead the children's music) and Matt teaches the eight and nine year olds in the Valiant 8 class. It's fun to be in Primary together, and I especially enjoy having the power to make Matt perform "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" anytime I deem worthy. Bennett is in the CTR 6 class this year, and every time I look at him sitting on the second row I am shocked to realize that my baby is growing up! Most Sundays Bennett does fairly well with listening and participating, but some Sundays I fell like we would all benefit from a good long stretch away at some distant Military School. But he is five and wiggly and learning, so we will be patient. We. Will. Be. Patient.

Patton goes to Nursery each week with the other littles who are between the ages of 18 months and three. He is learning to love his time there and is always excited to bring me his scribbled coloring pages they make with titles such as "Jesus Loves Me!" on them. Kennedy is just as easy-going at church as she is everywhere else, and each week upon entering the chapel doors we forfeit parental ownership of her as she is passed from adoring family to adoring family to be hugged and cuddled. She loves the attention, and I love the freedom of my hands and arms to do other things...like making silent threats at our other two children like a deranged mime. Our ward is large and loud with lots of little kids and big families and good friends and good feelings.

Once church is over we drive three exhausted humans home, who usually fall asleep in the car. And every week Matt and I look hopefully at each other and say, "Maybe we can get a nap in, too." And every week, as soon as we pull into the driveway, our three newly re-energized humans snap to and make it quite clear that we will not be taking a nap, but will in fact be coloring and playing board games and watching church related videos and making family dinners and Skyping friends and relatives and keeping in a constant state of business until it is bedtime, and we can all collapse into our beds and breath a sigh of relief...until we realize that it is Monday tomorrow, and that means school and work and the start of a whole new week.

And I love it.

Life is loud and busy and full of crazy schedules and quiet moments and time-outs and cuddles and badly-timed jokes from a five-year-old and an easily amused two-year-old who will always laugh at them. Today Patton wasn't feeling well though. So I stayed home with him and Kennedy while Matt took Bennett to church. And now there is quiet music playing while they both sleep, and I am writing this blog post in complete silence. And it's true what they say. Silence is golden.

This week was a typical week. Bennett went to school, Matt went to work, I stayed home and was the power behind the throne. The weather this week was BEAUTIFUL though, which is very a-typical for North Dakota in January. The sun was not only shinning but was even a little bit warm, and almost all of the snow melted. It was an awesome spring-like break right in the middle of the drudgery of winter and it gave me hope that there was, in fact, an end to this state of darkness (also known as the state of North Dakota).

Because of the great weather we spent a lot of time outside this week playing at the park and going on walks and getting ridiculously muddy doing so. I did a lot of laundry this week. I did even more laundry after our toilet got drastically clogged and a plumber had to come snake down twenty feet of pipe before finding the blockage. Who knows what it was down there. Kids are fun.

Friday night we went out to dinner and then ice skating with some friends. The Young Men and Young Women's groups were at the skating rink as well, and Bennett made more friends in a single hour than I could ever hope to find in a lifetime. He was skating with a different group of giggling teenagers each time I checked on him and he actually got pretty good at staying upright and skating (cautiously) around the rink by himself toward the end of the night. Patton went around a few times with Matt and me, but he has never been one for ice or forced activity, so he didn't last long. Kennedy was once again held and adored by numerous groups of young women and their adult leaders. She repaid their kindness by showering them with affectionate smiles and hugs. Kennedy is a fantastic hugger--like a baby monkey. We all had a great time and have the aching muscles and blisters to prove it.

Saturday morning we went over to the same ice skating friends' home for a delicious breakfast and then worked on sealing bags of dry milk and potato flakes for our food storage project (more on that later). Around noon our family called it quits and headed back into Dickinson for some swimming at the rec center with another group of friends. Bennett and Patton both did great swimming, and I dare say Bennett might be able to swim without a life jacket by the time he is seventeen. Patton improved greatly as well, moving all the way from "help-me-help-me-I-am-going-to-die!" to being willing to float in the water unassisted for several seconds at a time. I'm not sure what we did to our children to make them so afraid of the water, but they are getting over it...slowly...

By the time we were done swimming it was snowing and cold and back to (stupid) normal January weather, so we decided to welcome it back with a homemade hot chocolate and movie night. We invited yet another set of friends over to enjoy it with us, and we all had a good time watching the new Annie and spilling large amounts of popcorn and hot chocolate all over the floor of our basement.

And now it is Superbowl Sunday. And Patton is feeling better, and Matt and Bennett are home from church, and I think for the first time in a long time we are NOT going to have a Superbowl party. Well, at least not the kind where a lot of other people come over. We are going to have a family non-Superbowl party and eat all the good food (fried chicken and mashed potatoes and jalapeno poppers and brownies) and just not watch the game. Because we really don't care about anything besides the food anyway.

But trust me. If I were to bet on the game, I would be right.

She is just awesome!

Playing in the mud. I put this up on Instagram and everybody kept making comments like, "You are such a fun mom!" I told Matt I just had to laugh. I was definitely NOT a fun mom when this little stinker decided it would be a good idea to literally wallow in the mud. Like a pig. With all of his clothes on. But he had already done it so I decided to make the best of it and take a picture. And besides, look how happy he is. How can you say "No" to that face?

Fresh from the bath after playing outside and eating lunch on the trampoline.

Playing in the boxes our WeatherTech floor liners for our new van came in. In this weather we'll definitely need them!

Playing with Patton. These two have a good thing going :)

Ice skating, the "before" picture. 
(Bennett's pose...oh my...)

Ice skating, the "after" picture. Patton had such a good time!

Kennedy's ice skating experience. Not as exciting but just as fun.

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