Dreaming of Food

It's fast Sunday, and I came home from church and took a 3 hour nap, which helped tremendously with the hunger pangs. However, I dreamed about food almost the entire time, so obviously I'm starving. Ha.

I'm getting worse and worse at taking pictures of life these days. I don't know why, I guess I'm just so focused on being PRESENT. Hahaha. Anyway, here's what I got:

Aani was riding her scooter to school and hit a rock. She face-planted and got a nice scrape and knot on her head. I picked her up from school and let her stay home for a couple hours to recover emotionally and physically. When she was ready to go back to school, she made sure to pick the biggest band-aid ever made to cover up her wounds. Subtle, Aani. ;) 

Ava- 'nuff said. This child is a never-ending source of amusement. #8 though.

This is what I do for Valentine's Day, and all they remember. The kids love getting the giant Hershey Kisses. They (the children, not the kisses) are getting bigger and much faster at eating them. It used to take them weeks. Not no mo'.

Costco went through this nightmare phase of many months of not carrying this product. WHAT was Nils supposed to eat for his late night snack? It was a dark time. One of the last times I was there, I made sure to stock up.

Addie called me one morning from school feeling sick. She was soooo sick for days and couldn't even sit up. She crawled to the bathroom and could barely even lift her head off her pillow. We made a trip to the ER, since it was Sunday, and it turned out she had influenza. Poor kid. She was sick in bed for a solid week.

Speaking of Addie...

Addie and Aani have been telling me for awhile that they can't see very well, but I didn't think much of it because they weren't running into things and are able to recognize people. I'm such a good mom. Anyhoo, the past few months we've noticed they have to get close to the TV when we cast scriptures at night, so maybe they weren't faking it like I thought. I took them to the eye doctor last week, and it turns out they actually CAN'T see. It's not too bad, but bad enough to not be able to read the board at school, etc. They, Aani especially, feel like they've won the jackpot. We tried on glasses at the optical shop and then came home and ordered them online. Just helping ruin the little guy. :) 4 pairs of glasses for $100, as opposed to $300/pair at the optical place. Sorry, little guy. Anyway, Addie and Aani are super excited for the glasses to arrive. #nerds

We replaced our upstairs flooring this month. The carpet the builder put in our house is just the worst, so we had the same laminate/hardwood flooring that's in the kitchen extended to the great room, entry, and down the hall. The house was a construction zone for about 5 days, but we actually didn't do it- we hired it out and it was amazing to see it done so quickly. ;) We're loving no traffic patterns and no crappy carpet bunching up.

Gluten update: I'm feeling so much better! I have had a few little breakouts, but nothing too bad. I haven't intentionally eaten anything with gluten in it since the beginning of February. I've learned how to make gluten free brownies, so I feel like life is still worth living. All the meals I prepare are gluten free, and the kids honestly don't mind. Gluten free products are about 8 times as expensive as their counterparts, which is completely nuts. I made regular homemade bread a couple weeks ago for the fam, and held it up to my nose and lips and smelled it- Nils was like, "Don't go sniffing too hard, woman!" I'm surprised that I don't really miss it- it's more just a pain in the neck to make sure I don't eat gluten, but I have no desire to eat it. Not worth it. Full body rashes aren't funny!

Nils has reached a point with YouTube that we're really having to evaluate what this is and what we want from it. We're attending a seminar next month on how to streamline everything- hiring people to help and making the most of our time and resources to make it worthwhile, and not kill us or hate life. It's so time consuming, but it seems the more time you put into it, the more profitable it is, so it's a vicious cycle it seems. It's now an official business. Anders has been editing the videos, and we pay him minimum wage. Not too shabby for a 15 year old kid. He's been able to buy AirPods, a nice blue tooth speaker, and plenty of crap from the vending machines at school.

Anyway, finding balance is a constant challenge. There's a house to run, kids to raise, memories to make, church callings, family, job, health to upkeep, sleep to get, rashes to scratch, YouTube job, etc. etc., so we're always experimenting, failing and succeeding, learning and trying. It's bananas. All is well in Zion. :)