This week was Spring Break. Real talk. It’s hard raising kids with two working parents. I grew up thinking the possibility existed be a stay at home mom. I spent many years as a work at home mom that pushed the working part of my life to the side, trying to do that. When I instead went back to work full time after Chloe was in kindergarten and my job was dissolved, I didn’t know how it would go. I’ve been incredibly blessed to have AWESOME work opportunities. I love my job. I really enjoy what I get to do. And I think it’s not a reality for nearly any family to be able to survive and thrive on one income anymore. Bill or I maybe could support our family in the absolute necessities alone if we stayed in this too small for us townhome and really slimmed down our life. But there would be no thriving. Not much in the way of activities or sports or clubs for the kids. No family vacations. Really careful food purchases, clothing, etc. So we both work. And thankfully, we prepared for many years to be able to do work we enjoy and that challenges us and helps us grow. It’s amazing to have a job where I feel valued and needed, where I’m in the room for important decisions, where my expertise is sought and appreciated.
The juggle of the intensity of both Bill and my jobs and four kids that are close together in age, so at this point all doing a lot of activities, is real. We’re going in six different directions all the time. In spring and fall when there are sports, it’s all hands on deck to get to practices. I’m coaching Aaron’s tennis team. Spencer and Genevieve have soccer. Chloe has ballet and an art class. Spencer has band concerts. Chloe has percussion club. There’s young men’s and young women’s and activity days. I have my running club. Bill has his f3 exercise group. Dinner is hard to come by and the juggle is so hard. I’m quite concerned about how we’ll handle this summer when they’re out for months.
But you know what? The stress is the kind of stress I want. We’re doing things that we actually want to do. We’re running around like crazy to places we want to be. I’m learning to not say yes to everything, but I do say yes to a lot of things. Some days are hard. This week was a rough one for me. How do you take care of your kids when they’re off school but you still need to work? My office is 40 minutes away. Bill’s is out of our house, so that’s great, but he also travels a lot. He’s on his way to LV for a job the next two days. I happen to have a local conference this week, so my schedule is tight. The kids are learning all sorts of new ways of independently getting themselves places, which I can’t help but feel is good for them, but wow, also feels crazy. You know what though? They really can get ready and walk to school without us hovering over them. It’s going to be OKAY!
We’re both early in new jobs, so vacation time is still accruing. It’s not plentiful just yet. I took two days off this week and worked from home a third. I spent the vast majority of it cleaning my house or working on my basement, which is so very close to done, but the small things like painting and hanging doors and painting trim, and creating a door to cover the water shut off, those I’m still doing. I hung one door and discovered when I had shimmed it, which happened after I took the doorframe off to paint it, but before I trimmed out around the door, I must have put the shims in a little too tight and moved the frame just a bit. So now that door doesn’t close and I have to sand it down in a couple places to make it work and then repaint. Thankfully the two other doors I painted and hung worked perfectly. That one was deflating for me. We had a lightning strike somewhere very close in our neighborhood this week. Bill saw it strike as he was driving Spencer and a friend home. I was in the garage and the whole sky lit up like day and then it felt like a bomb went off. I ran inside expecting to see my house in pieces. So far the only damage is half our basement rec room lights don’t work. Bill needs to replace the switch, which he thinks is what failed. Fingers crossed that’s it! This basement finish has been hard, to put it mildly.
All that being said, life is good. We have so many good things happening. Aaron got his braces off this week. He looks good!
We took my mom along with us to go attend the Manti Temple open house on Friday. It was the only thing we did for Spring Break. 🤷🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️ we’re making big plans for next year! Spring Break cruise!
But back to this year, we ended up waiting two hours in line to get in. It was LONG! But also such a nice tour. I’m glad we went. Bill and I went down to Manti when we were dating or engaged to do a session and I’ve been there a couple times for the old Easter pageant they had. I love that temple.
I started out Saturday running 12 miles with my friend standing to the right of me in this picture. We did nine together and met up with our run club to finish the final three. Fifth Saturdays we do a newbie run and end for breakfast at this adorable shop in daybreak called Biscott’s. It’s always just a few miles to break in new friends easy, haha! Diane and I run together a lot and I really enjoy her. She’s 15 years older than me and all I can say is I want to be this fast in 15 years! We’re prepping for the Salt Lake Half in a few weeks. We were supposed to run 11, but took a creative route during part of the run that added an extra mile, lol! We still managed to catch the group for the picture, go us!
Our ward always hosts an Easter egg hunt and brunch at the church for the neighborhood. It’s well attended and a great time. This year they did an Easter walk where the kids went from room to room and got a message associated with each day of Holy Week. So very good!
We had a lovely Easter dinner last night at Grandma and Grandpa’s house, plus an advanced level Easter egg hunt. The kids requested it hard, and Bill and Grandma delivered. It was really fun.
We got Freya a cat tree and she loves it SO much. I’ve never seen her more pleased with life.
Life is good. Life is hard. Life is fulfilling. My mental health is getting an intense workout to grow and expand to be able to handle this intense phase of life. But I think I’m surviving it. It always feels like a lot when the workout is happening, but you’re stronger after.
We had a really beautiful, music filled sacrament meeting today. I planned the music and it turned out gorgeous. The primary sang a song. One of our primary kids did a super impressive piano solo. We had a piano, violin, solo number that made me tear up. I accompanied the choir for two numbers. It was a very nice meeting and a great cap to Easter.
