swirling around the recesses of my mind

A little bit of randomness to end the evening with. Today was a good day. We had Austin to play and he and Lucy got along great all morning. By about 1pm she had tired of the her playmate and began her usually whining and crying (this is new and unpleasant behavior on her part {said with a sigh}) They fell asleep when we went to pick up brother and stayed asleep when I carried them inside and then while he got picked up and carried to his car, and she got picked up and driven to the bank and to get hair cuts for E and H. I think this means they had fun. Most of the day was good. This morning I got phone calls done for dinner groups and picked up the upstairs and my friend Joy came over since she had a computer emergency and we had a fun visit.

Brother and H got hair cuts from Alison. She did a nice job. DH has been doing brother's hair since he's had any but I was ready for a neater look along the sides and a little length on top. H just got her bangs done.

Tomorrow we will have Carson to play all day. I think that will go well.

I've been thinking Lucy needs some more structure from me. My friend GoodLife told me once that she set her timer during the day and she would spend 15 minutes playing with the kids or reading or whatever they were going to do. Then she would spend 15 minutes getting something done that she ended to do, repeat. I know I won't be that structured about it but I do need to do something more for her. She's a little tornado lately hopefully that would help. My imaginary friend, who I don't even post on but only lurk, Salsa in China has twins a little younger than Lou and she has a 5 thing plan. Every day they: go outside, do something creative, read books, do "school", and hhhmm, I'm forgetting the last thing..maybe it's cook something. Anyway, that might work. We always read but the others could be more diligently planned. Also I know she' ready for the potty so we need to stop and do that once an hour. Notes to self.

H won't find out about the play until later this week: can we live with the suspense?

Brother has a dentist appointment tomorrow.

Tonight we had a lesson for FHE on honesty. Something we need to work on, sadly. We had two incidences this week that needed addressing. First was someone wrote with marker on the floor upstairs. Of course everyone denies it.
Second, J did a great job fundraising for her venturing outing this summer. One lady, however, wasn't going to get her ordered filled and I had her money set out on my bookshelf. Sunday I went to get it so J could run out and return it on the way to church and tell her thank you for her order and that she was sorry they couldn't fill it. Well, $2 of it were there and $20 were missing. Again that darn, naughty, begging for a spanking and year long grounding nobody did it.
So out came the Gospel Principles book and we had the lesson on being honest. It's hard to know what to do, I don't want to beat anyone up but they have to be 100% honest. As I was thinking this day about the lesson I was trying to evaluate myself too. Of course, I fall short. For example if I have an assignment to do something, and I might not have even started it, and you ask me how it's going I am likely to say "great" even if I know I'll be up all night burning the midnight oil. Why do I do that? I could just say, I'm not done yet but don't worry I will be.
Or sometimes I keep silent when the truth is inconvenient. And if you cook some thing for me that I don't like and you ask me, I'll probably lie and say it's good. I won't voluntarily compliment something I don't like but when pressed....maybe. DH says I am a good diplomat, does that mean I am skilled at not saying the absolute stare you in your face truth? Or do we weigh a persons feelings into the equation. That's what I love about tithing. It's black and white, 10% or not. No judgement call.
For the record I consider myself honest and try to be truthful and accurate, I'm just saying there is all this murky grayness...and that I, like everyone else am not perfect (just in case you thought otherwise;) )

We rented and watched two movies this weekend. "Copying Beethoven" and "Deck the Halls". I liked them both.

DH just informed me that there is some question as to our move date now...we had thought it would be next summer but now it might not be until later which would mean he would go ahead and I would stay and finish another school year. We told the kids that it was looking 50/50 ish and much to my surprise they were upset. I don't care. I like it here a lot and would be happy not to move. Moving would be exciting as well. The flippedy floppedyness of it is what drives me nuts.

Which brings back on our minds our anniversary trip dilemma. We've had quite the saga. We have always planned on going on a 10th anniversary trip. Along the way we thought it would be so fun to have some of my sibs come too, and they agreed. Early on we had some misunderstandings about it, which were upsetting and stressful, but we got through that and had planned a Mediterranean Cruise. Then we discovered it was too rich for our blood and we had some debt to pay off before we could entertain that kind of idea (and I was worried about leaving the kids for 10 days even though their grandparents who are SO AWESOME would be staying with them, I know it would have been long and hard for everyone especially with Lou being so little still) So then we switched to something less expensive and maybe shorter...only we never could decide on what. Then we thought we'd be house hunting, which I still don't know that we won't but we might not, so we backed out all together (which caused me great guilt and sadness...but not DH LOL). And now, maybe we won't be moving just yet, and maybe we can fit in a short trip.....dun dun dunnnn. So now what? We talked today about doing a short trip to Cozumel. Will I feel guilty? Will it be fun? I know DH deserves for me to take off my mommy hat and spend some wife time with him and I want to but will they survive? and will my sweet in-laws? and will my sibs be SOOOO mad? and what if the plane gets on schedule and we have to leave them twice?

No wonder I "cheated" today. :( Do over tomorrow!

Off to clean the kitchen.