Some examples of items that have made it on my "to get done" list (both today's and ones in the past) include: calling the pediatrician to get an emailed copy of Sophie's physical so she can finally tryout for the dance team; making any sort of calls in general -- because I really HATE making phone calls; and posting reminders on the ward Facebook page. And actually, now that I really stop and think about it, the vast majority of my procrastinated tasks really do revolve around making phone calls! Hahahaha. With 6 kids (and a dog), it seems as though there are always appointments that need to be made -- dentists, orthodontists, pediatricians, allergists, oral surgeons, veterinarians, etc. -- not to mention needing to make calls like scheduling workers to repair stuff, or to get the roof fixed from a hail storm that hit us back in April, or to find out information about school stuff, or church stuff, or whatever stuff!
The final item on TODAY's list, however, was to update the blog. Hahaha. I've clearly been procrastinating that as well. Mostly because I really do feel like everyday is basically the same these days and there's really not much that is all that interesting to capture. But if I really make myself sit down and think about it, I can come up with enough stuff to fill today's post. :)
First up? A less-than-successful family home evening lesson from this Monday. I say less-than-successful because even though we spent a good 15-20 minutes on our lesson about being "anxiously engaged in a good cause" and "doing many things of [our] own free will," by the very next day I was still being bombarded with a whole bunch of "there's nothing to do" and variations on that theme. Even though we LITERALLY had our whiteboard still out and displaying all of the ideas we brainstormed the night before. Clearly my lesson did not pierce anyone's soul with motivation and inspiration to take these ideas to heart. Doh!
{The picture is blurry -- my phone camera is still doing that shaking thing -- but the question at the center of our brainstorm web says: Don't Know What To Do? And then we came up with examples and ideas for each of the following categories: Active -- like jumping on the trampoline, going for a bike ride or walk, playing tag; Brain -- doing a crossword puzzle, reading a book, learning something new; Imaginative -- playing school, making a movie or music video, doing something artsy/craftsy; Friends -- FaceTiming friends (or cousins), having a Netflix Party, planning a "physically distanced" movie night; and Electronic -- indexing on FamilySearch, blogging, learning Photoshop skills.}
{I captured this screenshot from an Instagram account I follow.}
With one month left of summer before school starts back up again, I'm trying to encourage everyone to make the most of it. These efforts have also been mostly in vain, as everyone but Ethan is more interested in vegging out on screens all day long than on doing anything else. There have been a few breaks from the older kids in doing other activities -- for instance, Ethan has been playing the piano every day and has been learning a ton of new music; Grace has been putting her new debit card to good (?) use by ordering lots of things online; and Sophie cut bangs a couple of weeks ago and has also been tinkering around on the piano -- but overall, I'd like it if everyone were a little more purposeful with their time.
{This is the shot Sophie sent me when I asked her for a picture of her new bangs. I told her it was going up on the blog, so she might want to take a different one, but she insisted this is the one she wanted to document her haircut with. Hahahaha.}
In addition, Sophie is still our resident baker. Her "Coco Chaos" recipe for chocolate frosting that she and Grace made up at the beginning of quarantine has been made over and over again this summer. Sophie likes to whip up a bowl to eat every now and then and Isaac has become enamored with a "treat" I threw together a few weeks ago, which he consistently calls "those delicious treats you made that time." Hahahahaha. We're trying to decide if a better name for them is "Coco Crackers," "Chaos Crackers," or "Coco Chaos Crackers," but the jury is still out! If you'd like to make this delicious treat yourself, just make a bowl of coco chaos frosting and spread it on some graham crackers. It's that simple. Hahaha. The frosting really is delicious, though, so here is the recipe if you'd like to give it a try.
COCO CHAOS:
3 c. powdered sugar
1 stick of butter
2 tsp. vanilla
2 flat spoons (?) of cocoa
2 TBS. of milk (or more)
hand mix
Scott continues to soldier on in his "home office" [i.e. our closet] and is anxiously looking forward to the day when he will not have to tune out the noise and (non-coco) chaos of our household while trying to work; and as for me, I've been keeping busy with becoming practically a professional in Photoshop, LightRoom, and InDesign. Hahahahaha. Oh! And I just registered to run two half marathons in October. You know -- because I like to go big or go home. I think I've somehow created this idea that by running TWO half marathons this fall, it will make up for the fact that I wasn't able to run one last year as part of my 40 Before 40 list. Hahaha.
I don't actually run on this trail -- although I do walk it regularly with Maxwell when I take him out for his daily walk -- but I love it so much that I wanted to document it. It's so still and quiet and lovely that it feels like my own personal Sacred Grove. :)
I was able to doctor up these pictures -- which were really aged looking and super orange-y -- in Photoshop before inserting them in InDesign, and I kind of love them! I've had to scrap my plans for publishing the book I'm creating in Shutterfly about my dad's life because it was already too long (Shutterfly only has a finite number of pages you can print in a book) and I still was only halfway finished. My solution was to painstakingly recreate all of my work up to that point in InDesign -- which has a plug-in for the publisher Blurb, whose page limit is much, much higher than Shutterfly's -- and move forward from there. It was a lot of work, but honestly I think the finished product will be so much better, so I'm excited about that.
Here is an example of a page from my Dad's mission scrapbook that I recreated for his book. The above picture is his actual scrapbook page, and the picture below is my recreation of it. I was pretty proud of myself when I was done. Hahahahaha.
Sorry! I'm sure most of you really don't care about this book, but I was so tickled pink when I discovered this font from Adobe that looks almost IDENTICAL to my dad's actual handwriting! In the picture above, the font writing is on the bottom left and my dad's handwriting is on the top right. Crazy, right??
One more, one more!!! This is another personal fave. I created this little graphic by finding an image online that I then altered in photoshop to look like my dad when he went hitchhiking as a teenager and then added the text in InDesign. The picture of my dad (the hippie) below is what I was basing the graphic's "look" on.
And that's pretty much it! Things really have been mostly the same as they've been for the last few months. With school on the horizon, though, I'm curious to see how that will shake things up around here in our daily life. :)
