My Husband, The Lawyer

It's official! Eric is now a lawyer, all sworn in and everything. Did you know they swear them and everything? He took an oath with 89 other Idaho Bar Admittees, the same oath they've been swearing since 1800-something. The ceremony was in Boise at the state capitol and me, my mom, and the girls came to watch. It was actually a pretty neat thing. There were two judges that spoke, one from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, and they were both very Idaho!! (i.e. awesome!) One judge phrased his advice to the new lawyers in idioms, appropriate to Idahoans and those that strive to be, that made me smile and sigh in big breaths of fresh air. My favorite was "Don't Squat With Your Spurs On," meaning, play nice with the other lawyers. Be ethical and a good person. We were also told to laugh and define your own success and several other good pieces of advice. Oh, and the Idaho Bar is the best bar in the country. That came up a few times ;-)

It's really incredible to be "done" with this whole thing. I mean, we still have a long row to hoe, and there might be more school and more lean times for a while, but he DID IT! He ran that gauntlet and won! And he did well! But more importantly, he did well enough. He didn't sacrifice our marriage or family in the process. Sure, there were a lot of exceptions we made and we certainly weren't living the kind of life balance we hope to get to eventually. But neither did he let school consume him, not all the time at least ;-) He made some tough calls on how to allocate his time and I think he did a bang up job. I couldn't be prouder of my husband.

Just Happy.

Today was a really good day. And the thing is, I'm not totally sure why. So I'm writing this post to figure it out so I can get More Happy, and I'm going to do some contrasting with what I've decided in my mind what equals a good day. This is all really just for me and my posterity, so feel free to skip it.

Woke up 7-ish. Kids where already up and got to at least kiss Eric goodbye before he left for the day.
IDEALLY: I'd get up at 6:00, do some yoga/stretching, some breathing/mediation, some prayer and scripture study, short walk and make breakfast before the kids wake up.

Greeted the kids excitedly (forced) and got right to making breakfast- oatmeal pancakes and strawberry orange smoothie. Yum. Kids ate pretty well, some teething fussiness from E and just the usual mealtime dance with J.
IDEALLY: It would have gone a lot faster. I did get the kitchen tidied, though, but it all took til nearly 9:00.

Really, really tired and cold, I talked J, and even E for a bit, into snuggling up with me and watching a perfectly frivolous Australian teen series called H20, Just Add Water about girls that turn into mermaids if they get wet. She'll watch it because they always become mermaids at least once in the show and while Dora doesn't bug me to have on, I don't like to watch it.
IDEALLY: Yay, I'm not the a.m. TV kinda girl. So I was really tired. And crazy cold for some reason. The idea is that we are through our "To Do" book, pictures of all the things J is supposed to do in the morning, before 8:30...

Still really, really tired and cold. So I turn on Laurie Berkner for the kids. And send myself to my room for scripture study. I text Eric about how cold and tired I am and I kind of resign myself to a long day. I snuggled up in bed and read my scriptures for a bit, till just after 10:00. Behind much?

Then, somehow, I found some energy. We got going and did everything on our list, which includes J making her bed (with help), getting dressed (with help), brushing teeth, washing face, sweeping up breakfast mess, reading scriptures (which was quite sweet this particular day), a handful of other things, and wiggling: We turn on the Wiggles and we all dance. J is getting pretty good at a couple of the moves. This took us to 11:30!! Behind much?

Then we got out the play dough, something E had never touched before, and they played and I did something I hate to do- financial type calls. They give me anxiety and an upset stomach. But the kids where playing nicely and it had to be done so I just sucked it up and did it. And it wasn't too bad, actually. Great to not have to worry about it!

Then we did lunch, clean up lunch, and bedtime for E, quiet time for J and I worked on some stuff for Harmony Kids. My mom has had this singing group for 25 years now and I'm helping (again). This year we are putting on a Christmas musical and so I was getting some audition materials ready to go. It was enjoyable and a productive use of my quiet time.
IDEALLY: I'm still not sure what is supposed to be the best use of my quiet time. I've thought about using it for exercise or creative writing or painting or working or something I can't really do with the kids awake...I just know I'm not supposed to let it flit away, I'm supposed to utilize it today, which I did.

This brought us to 2:30 and J was up and eager for singing time to start. I finished some things I'd been making for the studio and got them up on the wall and then E woke up and singing started. Today I was down there off and on for the 3 hours of lessons. So it was mostly a circuit of teaching drama basics, herding toddlers, and cooking dinner (Mondays are always a big dinner night for me, don't know why).

Which brought us to 6:00. I was feeling pretty awesome for the things I'd taught the kids and how good they are and for the glimpse of how fun the next few months of putting this thing together is going to be. And because dinner was really tasty. And because Eric was home. And because everyone liked dinner. J and E were especially challenging during the meal and required quite a bit of focused, calm attention, but it was no problem. Dessert was baking pleasantly in the oven and I was putting out the kid's fires left and right with style. Then the kids went out to jump on the tramp and I got an FHE lesson together and we did that (not the best FHE, but we did it!) Then it was PJs and stories and bedtime and then Eric went to bed too and I've had the last hour and a half to write emails and blog and check FB for a few minutes.

I DIDN'T exercise (yet?) - we didn't go on a walk and I didn't do any stretching or strength training. I was NOT well rested, but I did eat and drink VERY well today.
I DIDN'T do anything crafty, but I was a bit creative in the singing stuff I prepared and taught. The only learning I did was in my scripture study. And I DID have a long enough break from childrens' voices.

So, what are the things that made today great? (not in order of importance. Except #1)
1. Reading my scriptures. Hand's down, that one is a game changer. I've noticed for me, though, it has to be done before 3:00 or it doesn't do as much. Morning is best.
2. Not expecting too much. I woke up so tired and couldn't shake it for so long, I think my low expectations for the day had a little to do with it's success....hmmmm...not sure how I feel about that one.
3. Teaching and doing with my kids what I know I'm supposed to do, like reading scriptures, and teaching Jane good hygiene and cleaning habits, and cuddling and loving and playing with them.
4. Doing something that I'm particularly good at that benefits others- getting the audition materials ready and teaching the kids some drama basics was a nice little kick in my day, reminding me of past-awesome-i-tude and talent in areas I don't utilize much these days. Also, it wasn't stressful AT ALL preparing for it! I was a little stressed prepping for preschool the other day, lots of rushing around. There was NONE with this.
5. Cooking. Cooking something tasty. Cooking something everyone likes. Cooking something healthy. And planning it was a cinch, no wasted minutes of scratching my head figuring what the crap to make. All those add up to Joy. I really do love to cook on all those levels.
6. Chatting with my mom about several things throughout the day. Even though we live here, she's gone A LOT. It's amazing how much we don't talk, actually. But we had several nice, short conversations about things here and there.
7. Calling about the financial stuff. It really was a weight that was lifted for me, AND there is always that little kick back of pride in doing something that is normally hard for me.
8. Blogging/Emailing. Yep, kinda love it. It's not that I forget how much happier it makes me, it's that I guilt myself out of it thinking there is something else I should be working on.

So, how do I replicate this day? I think my scripture study was HUGE this morning. I didn't just read, but I got really thoughtful about certain aspects of my parenting and my role as a mom right now in our situation. There are a lot of reasons to worry these days. And there are a lot of things I have no control over. But I have total control over my parenting and those kids are my top priority, no matter what else is going on in our lives. If we had a dream (or a tolerable) job already and our own place and whatever else, I would still be focusing on exactly what I'm focusing on. That was pretty comforting, sustaining thought today and I chewed on it all day. I think I need to chew on something everyday.

All right, so I'm sorta spent all of a sudden and I kind of want to go on and pontificate some more and push for some more answers but the tired wave just hit me, and I know from experience if I don't go to bed now, I'll be up past 11:00. And that, plus molars coming in for E, could make for ugly tomorrow.

Making It Snappy with Great Grandpa

We are currently a four generation household as my 93 year old grandpa is living with us. It's been pretty great, actually. He's incredibly sweet and very patient with my girls...and their noise. The girls think he's pretty great, too. He particularly loves Jane, calls her an angel child. I snapped these after a soccer game of the cousins (Jane's wearing her soccer shirt we made her for Christmas last year, Grandpa is wearing his overalls, he was hoping to work on the tractor later, which he did). They were cuddling there for quite a while and of course, as soon as I get out the camera, Jane starts wiggling away.

SCHOOL!!!

Jane is part of a group of four three year old girls who meet once a week for an hour and a half for an in-home preschool. Boy, was this a TON of excitement for Jane. Can you tell? Here she is with her backpack in a dress from Grandma.

I taught the first week and really enjoyed it. I loved seeing the other girls' personalities and strengths. Craft time was by far the best! It's a shame how few crafting opportunities I've given Jane, given my propensity to create and her enjoyment of it. Speaking of creating, here is this pretty sweet tent/canopy I finally finished for Jane. I'm pretty proud of it, it's the first thing I've made where I haven't thought "not bad, but-" The best thing about it is that we put it on a swivel hook on the ceiling and we can turn it around and drape it over the foot of her bed and it makes her whole bed a little hideaway. Both girls love it!

Jane's Second Haircut

My youngest sister is in hair school and we've already started to put her to use. Here she is giving Jane a trim, very successfully, I might add!