2nd week of January

The second week of January felt really low key. Dode didn't have any church responsibilities at all! The kids didn't have youth night at church either. To take advantage of that open youth night, we had Sharon and Lynn and great grandma over for dinner. After dinner we put Lynn to work recording the narration for the laser maze Dode is working on for the church talent show.

I think this will be the third year of the talent show. The talent show has both performing talents and display talents.  The first year, we did a funny family skit about a pretend enlarging machine and Dode built a floor piano that Anastaya and a friend performed on. Last year, we brought the floor piano as a display talent and set it out for the kids to play on, as well as our secret combination box where when they solve the combination, they can take a token they can use to get candy from our candy machine. This year, Dode decided he wanted to try his hand at building a laser maze. I teased about it on the ward Facebook page as a display talent with ping pong balls, toilet paper tubes and Bionicle pieces. So far, he's experimented with lasers and found that he needs to use green lasers since they're more visible than red lasers. He's repurposed a tap light to be the button the kids will push at the end to turn off the lasers. He's also built a count down clock. The kids will have 40 seconds to make it through the maze. He wanted a quick narration to set the stage for the kids. Lynn has a very deep voice that worked perfectly. Great Grandma Dickson was in the room when he was recording and she kept giggling and laughing at him. It was so sweet!

Wednesday was early release for the Arlington School District. I try to do something fun with the kids each early release but this year is a bit of a challenge because there is an early release day each month! When I asked the kids what they wanted to do, Miriam really wanted to go get frozen yogurt. That was an easy activity! While the twins and Finnley were sleeping, we headed over to frozen yogurt. It was waffle Wednesday which meant you could get a waffle bowl for free. Score!

Thursday after dinner, Miriam and I had some one on one time. We visited the four little free libraries in Arlington. A little free library is a small display that people put in their front yard with books in it. The idea is you can grab a book and leave one behind. We visited four libraries and Miriam never found any books she wanted. She enjoyed the time with just mom so she could vent about all the stresses of middle school life.

I made it to the YMCA four times this week so I'm half way to the goal of 12 visits in January. I did TRX on Monday, strength training on Tuesday and Friday and yoga on Thursday. They have free child care at the Y that is divided into “child watch” and “adventure zone”. You have to be 3 and potty trained to go to the adventure zone. Leah is potty trained but Luke and Finnley aren't. Since it was just Leah going with me on Thursday and Friday, she got to go to the adventure zone. She thought she was a pretty big girl! Maybe it will encourage Luke to start using the toilet?

This weekend is a produce weekend. I can't believe I've been doing produce for over 8 years! Every other Saturday, Dode and I get up in the middle of the night to meet the semi truck at the end of the driveway and transfer about a ton of produce from a pallet to our trailer. Semis won't fit up our driveway so this is how we have to do it. For years, they've told me that they don't send the smaller trucks that would fit up our driveway as far north as we are. Well, every time I'm driving around on a Friday afternoon and see one of the smaller trucks in my area, I'm just a little bit peeved. I've asked for our delivery time and truck to be changed but the company said that's not an option.