September Sunday notes

 9/18/22

• Every man will worship something; who and what and how they worship will be up to them -- what things am I tempted to worship, other than God? 

9/25/22

• Moses 5:5-8 -- live and do everything in the name of the Son (even tedious household things) -- repent and do all things better, call on the name of Jesus to help you get better at all the things you do
• Discover and develop spiritual gifts. Heavenly Father gave us these gifts to help us identify, perform and enjoy the work He has for us. How do we come to know our gifts? We can reference our Patriarchal blessing, ask those who know us best, and personally identify what we are naturally good at and enjoy. Most importantly, we can ask God. He knows our gifts, since He gave them to us. As we discover our gifts, we have a responsibility to develop them. 

• Daniel is up putting Jack to bed, and the girls joined them in singing "I Will Walk with Jesus" before Jack goes to sleep. It's the sweetest thing I think I've ever heard. Maybe apart from Brooke singing "I Am a Child of God" when she was a tiny little 2 year old. 😭😭😭 Time is my greatest enemy. 
• Camille says "oofy" where other people say "oof" or "oops". And it's possibly my favorite thing currently.
• Sawyer is now obsessing over fire trucks and asks Alexa to play the fire truck song over and over and over. We all get tired of it really quickly, but it's cute how much he loves it. 
• Brooke was frustrated this Saturday with soccer. Her team never passes the ball to her, so she gets very little time actually playing with the ball. It's so hard, I understand it, and it's hard to change. I told her the best way to change it is to improve her soccer skills so that they trust her more. 
• Jack is loving school, and I met with his teacher this week and she says he's doing really well, listening, working hard and being a good example. She said he's also making friends in class. I'm so happy he's doing well at school. He's been a challenge at home, though. He's just become very demanding and needy, he's constantly interrupting school and he throws major fits when he doesn't get what he wants immediately. It's frustrating for me. 
• Actually, interrupting has become a bad problem in our household lately. Everyone wants my attention constantly, and they're always trying to talk over people. 🙄 Daniel even sometimes does the same thing, and it's been so hard to make them understand that I'm just one person and can't listen and pay 100% attention to them all the time. This week has been really hard and exhausting, and I think this is part of the problem. The mental load was almost unbearable this week. So many things going on, so many things to remember, so many people need things from me, so many people talking to me at the same time... it makes my mind spin and get really tired. Every night this week I've been so tired. I'm not sure what to do about this particular problem. I fasted for help today. It's hard to even explain what I'm feeling, but I just get so drained from it all lately. 
• I took Jack, Sawyer and Brooke to Cornbelly's yesterday. Camille had to stay home with Daniel because she wasn't behaving well, which was sad for us. Brooke didn't have much fun, we lost Sawyer at one point, and Jack wouldn't go do anything without me. Overall, I'd say our first trip to Cornbelly's this year was a bit of a bust. 
• We went up to visit Michael and Michelle yesterday, and Daniel and Michael went on a bike ride together while the kids and I played and chatted with Michelle, Brixton, and MacKenzie. It was nice. 

First Few Weeks of School + Daniel's Birthday

 Our first few weeks of school were very exciting for us. The girls were ready to start school and excited to break into our new school books. They've been really good about starting school on time and getting their things done quickly. They both seem very motivated to get their schoolwork done early so they have time to do what they want. 

Our first history unit has been interesting, learning about the ancient Greeks and other ancient cultures. We've really been enjoying learning together. 

Soccer season for Brooke also started up at the end of August. Her coach is a little intense. 😬😳 He has them practicing 2 times a week, and then they have a game nearly every week, sometimes two. I'm hoping that a more serious coach will help her improve her skills and help her get better. It is kind of unfortunate, though, because her schedule is exactly opposite from her friends' schedules, which means she hardly gets to play with her friends these days. Everyone is too busy. Perhaps including us.

On Friday, DeAnna and I put together a surprise birthday party for Sarah, a tea party. We invited a handful of women to come and made yummy food and ate and talked. It was really fun! 

Daniel's birthday on Saturday was quite a fun and busy day. We had a leisurely morning, and then packed up the kids and some bikes and went up to the training trails in Draper for us to do and mountain biking and hiking (I just hiked with the boys while Daniel biked with the girls).

Then we rushed to Brooke's soccer game, which was fun to watch all together as a family. We stopped at a fruit stand to pick up watermelon and a huge box of peaches before going home to put Sawyer down for a nap and to make a birthday cake.

We gathered up some food and drove up into the mountains for a birthday dinner of tin foil dinners and chopped up melons and chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting. We stopped at our usual picnic spot by the river and built and fire to cook dinner. It was so yummy and so fun, and it was just the perfect birthday for him.

Brooke crocheted a hat for Daniel for a birthday present. It fit him really well, and we were both impressed with her skill and creativity. 

The Sunday after Daniel's birthday the Rich's invited us to come to their house to eat watermelon that they had grown that summer in their garden. The kids had fun playing and it was nice to be invited to do something. Plus, their homegrown watermelon was delicious. 

St. George

 Daniel had Labor Day and the Friday before off of work (to somehow make up for the fact that he worked himself into the ground all summer 🙄), so we went to St. George that weekend with the Freis and the Smiths. We'd never done St George for fun before (mostly we just travel through), and we wanted to do a little getaway. 

We packed and drove most of the day Friday, did a quick grocery trip, and made it to the house like an hour before our friends. We made burgers and hotdogs for everyone for dinner. We got the kids to bed and stayed up playing VR games with the adults. 

We had such a great time! There was a splash pad right in the patio of the house we rented, which the kids loved. They played in the splash pad, watched a little TV, played games and spent time with their friends. 

We went to the lake on Saturday to take out the paddle boards and kayaks (the Freis brought theirs) and to swim. It was super hot that weekend, like highs in the 110s. Daniel and Matt went on a mountain bike ride together in the morning before the lake, and it felt so nice to be in the water. Sarah and I tried the paddle boards, which was fun, but super hard. It basically took all of our concentration just not to tip over. I fell off several times, and I'm sure we were a spectacle. 

Brooke and Camille had fun swimming and kayaking with their friends, and Jack and Sawyer floated on a paddle board with the other littles, and dug in the mud. 

That evening, while the Smiths made dinner, we swam at the pool, and after dinner and putting kids up bed, we stayed up late again and played group games on our phones and the TV. 

We did go to sacrament meeting on Sunday (where I ran into someone from Medford, small world), and went home for a primary lesson altogether, just us. We relaxed and played, had lunch, and the men took the kids to do some hiking while the women stayed home with the nappers. We caught up with them when they went to a big splash pad in town. The kids loved it. 

We didn't stay up too late after dinner and putting kids to bed. We all had to pack up and drive the next day. The kids played in the splash pad one more time that morning, and played the VR game while we all worked on packing and cleaning up. 

The Smiths left pretty early, but the Freis stayed with us and hit the pool one more time, after we checked out and before we left. The pool was fun and felt so good in that heat. We had planned to stop for another hike on the way home. But it was hot, and kids fell asleep in the car, and we were all pretty tired. It was such a fun weekend with friends.