Is It Naptime Yet

1. My intelligence. I’m happy to be on Earth and able to learn and grow, even if I’ve felt like I haven’t been learning things lately I’m grateful that I can and have had many opportunities to enlighten my mind.
2. Spring. I love warm weather and I’m happy it’s getting warmer here. I can’t wait to go swimming this summer with the girls.
3. I can sew. I’m looking forward to creating my Ozian costume for the play. Since Lilah’s a lullaby girl I don’t have creative freedom to do with that what I want, so my costume is the one I get to worry about and design.
4. The future. I know this is broad but I’m thankful for the happy outlook of my family’s future. I’ve been focusing on the future and I think that helps me stay focused on more important things rather than dwelling on the past or worrying about stupid things.
5. I’m grateful that Jon does/ did the taxes.

As a child getting dressed each Sunday for church, I knew three specific rules to Sabbath day apparel. My mother taught me these three rules and I knew that they were very important.

The first rule was you must always wear a slip under any dress or skirt.

I’ve never deviated from this rule. I wore slips when I was five and I’ll wear them till I die. I have vivid memories of seeing woman in lovely flowing dresses standing directly in front of the glass chapel doors as the afternoon light came in and I could outline every curve of their body. I thought why didn’t this smart woman wear a slip with an obviously see through fabric? It seemed so obvious that she needed one. I didn’t want that happening to me and so slips are a required piece of clothing if I’m wearing a dress, no matter how heavy the fabric is I wear a slip, and if it’s a light  fabric I may even wear two. My girls have never worn slips, but that’s more because I can’t find them for them and I make sure they wear shorts under their dresses, which at this age I think is much more necessary than a slip.

The second rule was you must always wear tights, nylons, or socks. Bare feet were not allowed.

One thing you must understand is my mother wears nylons everyday of her life.
Everyday.
Even if she’s wearing pants, even if she’s wearing jeans with tennis shoes, she wears nylons. As the youngest of four girls I saw nylons as a right of passage into my teenage years. I was no longer a child once I began wearing nylons so I embraced adolescence whole heart with the skin toned nylons that in my mind made me a young lady. As a twelve year old I felt so grown up wearing nylons and I wore them each Sunday until I got a little older and then had the desire to wear shoes that went in between my toes to church, not flip flops but they might has well have been, in which not wearing flip flips to church could also be added to my list, but I’ll just fit it in here because the mere requirement of something covering your feet or legs does not allow you to wear shoes that go between your toes. I’m not sure what age I abandoned this rule of always wearing nylons to church, but I was around 15 or 16. I do not wear nylons with shoes that show my toes but I must wear nylons with closed toed heels. So in one way it has stuck with me, in another way fashion won out since I rarely wear closed toed shoes except in the winter.

The last rule my mother enforced was one that I have never broken, at least until yesterday.

You must never wear denim to church.

Denim was seen as too casual of a clothing. Denim skirts or jumpers were not allowed and my mother would never buy us a jean skirt and never let us wear one to church. I know Andrea had/has a jean skirt, but I don’t remember if she ever wore it to church and she was in her 20’s when she bought it, so my mom couldn’t say much anyways. Denim is an everyday fabric, it’s not for the Sabbath day. That’s what’s been ingrained in me for many years and yesterday I broke that rule and I think I’m OK with it.

In an effort to change up my wardrobe a little I bought a denim looking skirt and wore it to church yesterday. I have never felt so casually dressed for church. After I put it on Jon made the comment that I was wearing denim to church, since he knows my mother’s rule and how I have followed it these 25 years, and I felt somewhat ashamed, but more because I have never approved of wearing denim to church, though I have let Lilah but it’s a dark, nice looking denim, and different for some reason. My skirt is more a regular skirt with denim printed fabric, so it’s not as casual as some denim skirts, but it’s still denim and while I like the skirt I felt very under dressed as a teacher yesterday. I will probably continue to wear the skirt to church just because it brings variety to my Sunday wardrobe and I’m not much of a skirt wearing kind of girl during the week.

I did wear my slip and closed toe shoes, but without any nylons, in which these are the first set of closed toe shoes that I do not wear nylons with also and I still have a hard time with it.

Old habits are just hard to break sometimes.

I must admit I want to do a poll on how many of you wear slips. I see it as a must, but I think the idea of wearing slips is fading.
When I was a senior in high school I went to Conference with the other youth and youth leaders in our ward and I had to buy a slip once I realized that I had forgotten it and the others girls thought I was silly for needing one so badly, but I just couldn’t wear my dress without one.

Yesterday there was Earth Hour. Cities all over the world turned out lights and encouraged the regular people to do so also from 8:30 to 9:30 pm. My husband being the supportive green person he is, at least in our small way we try to be more green, thought Earth Hour would be fun and educational for our girls. Jon took down a few candles and lit them and made me turn off the movie I was watching on TV. The girls were fascinated with the candles and Lilah nearly burned her eyebrows off looking at one. (I light candles we just don’t have them lit very often at nighttime.)

We spent some time helping the girls clean their room by candle light, outside looking at the stars, in which having the  lights to the Strip turned off made no difference since it’s the actual city lights that cause most of our light pollution. Then the girls and Jon huddled around the candles at the table to read a chapter from The Mouse and the Motorcycle, the current book Jon’s reading to them at bedtime. Then we sat on the couch telling stories. Eden likes to tell stories to herself while on the toilet about Aladdin, the ones she tells herself seem a lot longer than what she told us last night. (My children are a little strange, they like to talk to themselves while in the bathroom.)

It was fun to be with my family in quiet. We’ll need to turn the lights off and light candles more often.

Last week Andrea and Brien came to town to see Scot and Fallon. Since they live in Ely and Ely has no large restaurant chains, besides McDonald’s and Subway, which are fast food, they like to go out to eat to at least one of their favorite restaurants. We choose Olive Garden and it was basically those who were at my parents house that came. Carolyn called me while I was driving there so she she came along after work.

I got some cute pictures of the little girls there and some adults and a video of Zarina. I warn you that my finger was over the mic at first so don’t turn the volume up too loud because I uncover it later.

Cute Zarina, even with a mouth full of bread. She was on an all carbs diet.

Eden was all smiles for the camera.

Lilah was bashful for some reason.

I guess she wanted to take the pictures rather than be in them. She took this one of Brien.

Scott and Fallon talking to my parents.

Grumpy grandpa getting a bite of Lilah’s sundae.

My sister Andrea did a post about planning on making chocolate chip cookies. She gave no recipe so I thought I’d look on-line to see what would pop up if I searched for “best chocolate chip cookie ever”. I found this recipe in there and it’s pretty good, though I don’t know if I would say it’s the best but they’re pretty good and very big if you make them the whole 1/4 cup sized scoop of dough. It only makes around 14 cookies though.

So pretty on my cookie sheet. I had to cool them on a towel because I couldn’t find my cooling racks.

The girls loved the cookies. They’re about twice the size than they normally get.

When I say I ate two, does that still make me a cookie hog?  (I ate only 1 1/2 at first because they were so big, but then I just couldn’t bare to put half a cookie in the bag to keep for later.

Recipe:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (for pure convection, adjust accordingly; I used 310 F on convection). Grease cookie sheets, or line them with parchment paper or use a Silpat.

Sift the flour, salt and baking soda and set aside.

Mix the sugars and butter just until thoroughly mixed, then add egg, yolk and vanilla and mix until creamy. Add the sifted ingredients and mix until just blended.

Stir in the chocolate chips/chunks, then drop dough 1/4 cup at a time on a cookie sheet, about 3 inches apart, and bake for 15-17 minutes. Leave them on the cookie sheet to cool a bit when removed from the oven (this is important… they fall apart if you move them too quickly). Once they cool a few minutes, remove the cookies to a cooling rack to finish cooling. Or eat them right away, with milk!

This is my catch up blog of all the mundane things. I will do some interesting picture posts later but this is my last week and a half in a nutshell.

Last week was a little crazy. My brother Scott and his wife Fallon came to town. Since they were here I was in Henderson a lot last week.

Monday I went over to visit. I don’t remember when or how long but I was there. I think I went shopping with Kristi at Target and then to Costco with my mom and Fallon. That seems familiar.

Tuesday I had Relief Society stuff to do so I stayed on my end of town and had a fun night with the sisters in my ward.

Wednesday we had a Whole Foods grocery store tour in Henderson with the homeschool group. It got canceled half an hour before, but we and two other families did not know that and were there. They gave us a “tour” where the walked us around the store and gave the kids free samples. Lilah was in heaven because they got fruit, pizza, cheese, brownie bites, and kettle corn popcorn, which meant two sweet things in one day, all before lunch. We also bought some expensive cheese and a cinnamon bun that we left at my parents and didn’t eat till Thursday.

We hung out with the family afterwords and then went out that night to the Olive Garden. Jon didn’t go with us because it got to be too late and he was to hungry to wait at a restaurant.

Thursday I went shopping with Fallon, though I did not find the specific items I was looking for. (A casual jean or khaki skirt and cute capri’s. I hate when I’m looking for something specific it makes shopping so hard.)

I then hung out till later that day and went home that afternoon.

Friday the girls and I went to the Lied Children’s Discovery Museum. We went with some friends and then had a picnic with some other friends right afterwords.

Then Friday night we had family pictures. I don’t remember when all six of the kids were in the same state so we seized the day and took pictures to remember that there are six Harvey kids.

Saturday Lilah and I had play practice. We then dropped Jon’s car off at the mechanic and then onto my parents house for a BBQ that started 3 hours behind schedule. Oh well. I got to see family and eat good fruit while we waited.

Sunday Jonathan went out of town for a business trip. I had to teach the lesson for my class and I forgot that Eden was to give the scripture and prayer in closing exercises for Primary until I went to pick her up and everyone told me what I nice prayer she gave. I was so upset that I forgot since this was her first prayer or anything in Primary. I’m a lame mom. With everything else it just slipped my mind.

The girls and I then had a lonely Sunday and took a nap together. I was too bummed to cook so I broke the sabbath and bought some Subway for us.

Monday we stayed home and cleaned a little. Our house had gone to the pits since I was gone most of last week.

Tuesday we had lunch with Anna and picked Jon’s car up from the mechanic with my mom’s help. I can’t wait till my car is paid off and we can get him a nice one.  I also had practice that night so the Lee’s watched the girls for me.

Wednesday, or today we went to the Dolphin Habitat with the homeschooling group. Hannah came along and then hung out at our house till Beth and her sisters got home. Lilah was so enchanted with having Hannah around that she asked if I would like Hannah to be apart of our family. I said Hannah was our friend, but friends can be like family. Lilah then replied that she wished Hannah was apart of our family.

I also picked Jon up from the airport and the girls have hardly left his side since we’ve been home. Of course they’re having fun looking at the Big Picture blog and other things, but I think it’s too cute to see the two of them on either side of their daddy sitting on the couch looking at his laptop.

There, now I can start posting about other things that are on my mind, but that will have to wait till at least tomorrow.

1. A garden. Jon does all the work and I’m also grateful for that.
2. A second car.
3. Family Blogs. I love reading about what’s going on with those I love or how they’re feeling.
4. Healthy children.
5. Warm blankets on chilly spring nights. It went from 80 during the day to 60 during the day in one night.

I’m getting behind on my 5 things I’m grateful for. I’m suppose to post on Monday’s but we were busy and gone all day yesterday and Jon hasn’t posted his yet for the week and that is usually what reminds me to post mine.

1. Sleeping in, well anything that means extra sleep is nice.
2. Little girls who fall asleep in your arms because they didn’t get a nap and just love watching Dancing With the Stars so they don’t want to go to bed.
3. Crazy food experiments.
4.  Husbands that let you watch Dancing with the Stars while one of their favorite shows is on also. (We like The Big Bang too and often find ourselves just watching the dances so we can watch more of the other show.)
5. Family. All of mine get to be together this week and I just love it.

Our St. Patrick’s day started off late.

Lilah decided to sleep in until 9:30 am!

Isn’t she so cute. I just love watching my children sleep.

While she slept Eden and I ate breakfast.

Since some of the clothes we bought yesterday were green or had green I washed them so the girls could wear them.

They sure are hams sometimes.

(Eden was suppose to choose a shirt, but she chose these ladybug shorts, and since I have a soft spot for ladybugs I aggreed to buy them and the shirt that goes with them.)

By the time we were dressed we had a short errand to run and then it was time for lunch. Lilah wanted to do something or go somewhere to celebrate St. Patrick’s day, but we’re not, so I suggested having green macaroni and cheese. She loved the idea and was happy to suggest that we should also have applesauce and dye it green too. I obliged and we had a very green lunch.

Lilah loved the green applesauce.

Our green lunch.

I’m suppose to actually eat this green slimy stuff?

So Sunday was Daylight savings and stake conference. Since it was a satellite broadcast I was not very inclined to go, so I stayed home, slept till 10, and didn’t go. (Remember 10 am was really 9 am since it was daylight savings.)

Anyways even though I’ve lost an hour of time, this week has been the longest week of my life, especially yesterday.

I’ve been trying to get up early and exercise, which means I’m waking up at 6:50 am which translates to my body thinking I’m waking up at 5:50 am. Yesterday I did my workout and the girls woke up right as I finished and as Jon was leaving. They laughed at me while I did the ten minute ab work out. I told Lilah it wasn’t polite to laugh at people, something she’s been doing lately that has been rather annoying/ rude to those in her family.

We had breakfast and got dressed. I accomplished the first school task I wanted to with Lilah and then we worked on a 300 piece puzzle. It was only 11:00, but boy did it feel a lot later.

The girls played I did nothing of importance and I started making lunch at 11:30. We ate, did more of nothing,  I let the girls finish watching Monster’s Inc. and read or something.

The day just dragged on.

I got Lilah’s math stuff together and Eden and I took a nap, then I woke up at 5 to make dinner.

We ate, or I ate since the girls both had to go to the bathroom at the same time, dinnertime, and they both entertained themselves by singing or telling stories to themselves, so I was finished with dinner before they even began.

Jon came home around 6:47pm and I wanted to end the night right there. I had such a long day, but only accomplished the school things I needed to and dinner.

No laundry was folded, no floors were swept and the house was in a slight chaotic state that just annoyed me.

I could have done so much, but I didn’t want to.

He motivated me to do a 15 minute tidy around our living room which improved it and my mood a little more. I mostly felt bad that I had so much time but hadn’t accomplished much, besides school stuff.

Do you have days where you do nothing but have so much time to do something?