Bwahahaha… this boy keeps us laughing. We are heading to Sunny St. George soon for Jimmy’s Grandma’s burial…. which is why he was talking of “Satan George.”
Here’s Max at the doctor yesterday. The Good News… he doesn’t have strep throat. The sad news… he still isn’t feeling well and has had a fever for 5 days. As you can see… yesterday he was feeling a bit better. Today, he’s back to laying down.
1st theme of the day… inspired by my friend Julie.
2nd theme for the day… the thought on our white-board… for me, for Hannah… our positive affirmation.
3rd theme for the day… this is for Janey. Isn’t it so true some days?
Took Abe to the doctor this a.m. Strep throat … and the flu. Nice. Or not. At least antibiotics will help something. He’ll be on the mend. He’s gotten enough movie time in during the past 6 days for the entire year.
Liza is laying in my lap watching baby einstein. She keeps sinking deeper. She moaned and groaned all night long – poor little thing.
Jimmy is curled up in bed with a belly ache, fever, and cough. He got up with Liza once last night so I could have a few hours of sleep. Bless him.
Hannah is having lunch with the principal because she was the top reader in her grade this week for the jazz read-a-thon (2,000 minutes). She is thrilled.
Tru & Max are playing super mario… because I needed a break.
We have 6 loads of laundry waiting and a counter full of dishes… yes, I believe I must gird up my loins, fresh courage take.
With the tender mercies from God, we will make it through… and look forward to sunnier days.
Oh good… the sun just came out for a second… see… there is always hope.
It started out as A FEW WITH THE FLU…
and now it’s more like MOST of the FAM WITH THE FLU
(save two… Hannah & Tru).
First Abe – who has been the sickest of everyone. Cough, fever, chills, red & sore eye. He stayed home from school on Friday and is still home today (Tuesday). Max’s stomach hurts – on top of all the other junk that Abe has. Zuzu started a cough and fever yesterday. And then Jimmy … who stayed home from work today.
I’ve been on the verge of getting sick for a week + and I’m so grateful it hasn’t erupted into something terrible. I’ve had a slight cough, aches, and tiredness. On Guard, occasional naps, lots of water, smoothies with spinach & blueberries, chicken noodle soup, and lots of blessings from Heavenly Father are keeping me going.
As much as I love Hannah’s help, I’ve encouraged her to stay in her room and read … hoping she’ll avoid this gombie. I don’t know how Tru hasn’t gotten it… he sleeps in the boy’s sick room. We’ll hope these two stay healthy.
I was hoping we’d avoid this nasty flu this year. Abe got the flu mist. The rest of us got a flu shot (except Jimmy). So I know that we have the ‘lesser’ version of the flu. Nothing like what I’ve heard about others having 101+ fever for 5 days.
sigh…
At least it helps us realize how grateful we are for good health.
Today Max, with crinkle sleep lines still on his head, said with a cute morning voice, “Did you know tomorrow is warthog day?” Be still my heart. What he really meant was that on Feb 2 it’s groundhog day. Warthog vs groundhog. Made me laugh.
The other day I was trying to convince Truman that it was better to read books than to watch a movie. He said, “Movies won’t burn my DRAIN. Movies are good for my DRAIN.” Yep… sounds like it – or not. Drain vs BRAIN. Ha-ha.
Later that night Tru was choosing his bedtime song and he said he wanted “Macaroni Mission”. huh? Macaroni Mission vs I Hope They Call Me on a Mission. Loved that one too.
In December we visited Grandma Beck. She is living in an assisted living home and is 95 years old. She communicates with her family by typing weekly letters on her typewriter. My dad showed the kids her typewriter and they were completely AMAZED! They’d never seen such a thing.
A few days later, Abe asked if we could buy a typewriter. Awesome! I found this one on etsy for over $600.
I don’t think we’ll be buying a typewriter, son.
I remember we had a red typewriter growing up. I liked typing on it. It was fun to get all the keys stuck together by the ribbon. In college I used an electric typewriter to address labels for work. Anyhoo…. here’s to vintage typewriters.
well… it’s animal week i guess since we’ve mentioned Claud the Chameleon, Johnny Blue the Beta Fish, and now we’re going to talk about dogs and cats. I have two children (Abe & Tru) who I know would greatly benefit from having a constant friend to hang out with when they need chill-out time.
The only problem… I really, really, really don’t like dogs and cats. They startle me. I don’t know that I could handle cleaning up after them. But do you see who loves Cats & Dogs… Well… I shouldn’t say LOVE… I should say ‘are finally getting used to’ …
Remember when Abe kissed Trace, the yellow lab, because Julie paid him $5. Remember when Truman laid on the Pettit’s cat… like every time he goes over there. Tru loves Kota. He lets Kota walk him (hee-hee). He lays on Kota. He throws balls for him to catch.
Well – anyhoo… I think having a cat would be so therapeutic for Truman… and a dog would be good for Abe.
So someday when we live on a homestead (yah – right? will that ever happen?) … or have more land so we can have outside animals in a barn, I’ll think about getting one of these.
Aren’t they cute?
A few months ago a gal in our ward asked if anyone wanted a beta fish. I guess someone gave it to her husband and she didn’t want it around. We jumped at this opportunity… mostly because I knew there was a Pet Care achievement and belt loop for cub scouts. And a bonus: take care of a plant. 2 in 1 adventure for Abe.
Amazingly enough… it lived past it’s first week in our home. Then it lived a month. I was pretty much amazed. I have no skills with pets. I don’t like changing the water… but I have Abe help so he can learn. I haven’t even dumped the fish down the drain yet. Abe feeds the fish every day and checks up on him a few times a day. He has stepped up and cared for his pet quite responsibly.
Anyhoo… Abe named his fish Johnny Blue. Welcome Johnny Blue, to the Smith family. We quite like having you around.
p.s. we hope you live.
Why does anyone say that… “I know, right?” Where does it come from. Even Hannah says it. “I know, right?” Anyhoo… I know – I’ve blogged like 10 posts today – everyone can just ignore me. I’ve had pictures sitting and I felt like getting them on here. Not much to say about these pictures… only that this is our life.
Family devotional with Tru thinking he should play the opening song on the piano.
Mom went to the temple… peace and quiet my friends. Saved my week.
The kids dressed up… Eliza & Hannah- the princesses. Tru – the knight in shining armor. Max – the king. Abe – the Prince.
Do you see Tru’s expression making muffins? What shall we ever do with him? He loved making muffins though – just didn’t want a picture.
i’ve waffled back and forth for years about what to do for a family scrapbook. Yes, I’ve blogged, but haven’t ever printed it. I know – Yikes! I’ve done photo books for years. I love that but I decided I just need to simplify and do my blog… with more photos… Hence photo overload here. I thought about printing with Blurb… but I really, really disliked their interface for arranging pages. It was tedious. I would love a nice printed book from them… but I think I’ve decided to just do my own formatting in a word processing with pictures. I’ll just print at UPS who has fabulous prints with fabulous paper (when they have a sale!). Formatting will be simple. The book will be simple. But the purpose is to document words and pictures of family memories and our very ordinary life. We learn from the simple. We grow every day. Some may think it ridiculous to note the ordinary… but it is what keeps us going – right? The simple joys. hence… my journal. We’ll see how it goes this year.
Anyhoo… Yes… our beautiful, ordinary (and sometimes very HARD life).
The picture of the kids lounging watching Wild Kratts Brothers is our after-school life. Tru is sitting in the laundry basket full of clean clothes. Sigh… Yes, this is our life.
I love the photo of Liza sleeping with her legs sticking out of her crib. She is getting so tall… no longer a baby. I do wish she would sleep better at night. She wakes up and cries for an hour (or more) and it about kills me to make her cry it out. But cry she does and then she wakes up happy to see us. Oh Liza.
Sorry ’bout the bare bum. But really – Tru is a character (a pill – as Grandma Nelson would say). He goes potty (and I must declare he is officially potty-trained – #2 and all!!!) but he doesn’t always get his underwear up and pants on. I shouldn’t take pictures of such things… but it was too funny. Don’t worry – we got his pants on.
I made some wool dryer balls. They are so soft once felted. I had to keep making them larger and larger (remember wool shrinks heather!). They are supposed to help things dry quicker by bouncing around in the dryer. Mostly it was a fun project. Rolling the balls was actually quite therapeutic for some reason. Love the colors too.
Treadmill. I’ve decided I need to be healthier. I need get back to ‘Heather’ which means losing some pounds and eating healthier. We’ve had the kids hop on that treadmill to get some energy out. Hannah and Abe can go so fast and long. Max and Truman love doing it too though they need greater supervision. We shine a happy light in hopes that our little brains will not forget the sun. Happy Endorphines – we’ll take them!
My birthday. 37. I cried. I dried the tears. My parents came and watched tots. It was fun to go to lunch and shopping with my dad. We got a green comfy Nike hoodie. I love it! We ate at Johnny Rockets. It was the perfect place to go with my dad. I went to Abe’s donut date in the morning. He was thrilled to see me walk in. It’s so meaningful for kids to see their parents at school. Then we had the pinewood derby that evening… which was wild, but an adventure. Jimmy and I ended the night eating raspberries/bananas on icecream. Overall, the day ended out helping me feel encouraged.
Hannah and Abe dressed by like a book character. Hannah was Annabeth from Percy Jackson and the Olympians. She wanted a NY Yankees hat (which we found cheap online). We made her shirt and she colored the beads. Abe dressed by as Dwight from The Strange Case of Origami Yoda. He always has a paper yoda on his finger. I love Abe’s facial expression in the picture.
Life in the winter is simple… we stay home. We try to stay warm. We try to stay busy with good things. We don’t have too many spectacular events to note… but isn’t life made up of ordinary moments. These are the things we remember from our childhood.