V Day 2018

My kids love me. They looooooooooooooove me. They love me so much that all three of them were up at 2 AM to wish me a happy Valentine's Day. When I finally got back to bed at 4, I was super worn out from the love fest and slept in way too late.

But we still had to do our V Day traditions.

So we still whipped up pink heart pancakes and had the girls open their V day boxes to see what their grandparents had sent.

Hearts are a little hard for me to make. This next one turned out a little bit like an actual human heart. Educate your kids at every moment! That's what I always say.

Set up from the night before. We had had our usual busy Tuesday with multiple appointments, as well as a couple extra, and I almost forgot to set these out. Dan had the longest day of work known to man, and he banned me from making a path out of hearts from the girls' room to the kitchen because he just wanted to go to bed. It was a good choice.

And this morning:

I comforted myself on Valentine's Eve while eating a bag of treats June's yoga teacher had given her while giving a cynical chuckle at the note I found inside. Because I knew that eating her treats was not going to bring any peace to this household. Tuesdays around here are rough, man.

We packed up the valentines we made for June's classmates and teachers. June has 6 boys in her class and no girls, and she always call her classmates "my boys", which is darling. 

And then we got her and Gwen dressed in pink, purple and red, and I attempted to June's hair in a heart shape like I found on pinterest. This was a bad choice. Heart-hair is above my skill set. I kept messing up and kept asking June, "What if we just put a lot of pretty pink bows in your hair instead?" But she wasn't having it. I finally pulled off a simplified version that doesn't really resemble a heart, but she was satisfied.

Tonight, we will have the sister missionaries over for dinner, and I have planned more cutes-y V-day things for that which I will also not be able to pull off. I love the excitement of the challenge, the frustration at my own incompetence, followed by the desperation of time running out and, ultimately, total defeat and surrender. This is MY Pinterest life.

I'm also excited for Dan to come home with my chocolates this year. I have specifically placed an order with him for expensive chocolates. No Whitman's Sampler for me this year. Poor guy. He is the easiest to please and I'm the toughest to please. Hope he likes his coupon book. Some of them aren't even expired yet.

And now, time for the miscellany from the last week:

We banished ourselves to the Relief Society room for Stake Conference this past weekend. The kids did a lot better than they have in the past, and I only couldn't find someone one time. The conference had fantastic messages about becoming sons and daughters of Christ through his Atonement. The theme was Mosiah 5. Dan and I enjoyed studying the chapter together before conference and actually listening to most of conference as our children could spread out on the floor and draw and play with magnets.

Next--

I feel like I live at the grocery store. I've gotten into the terrible habit of heading to the store anytime we run out of anything. And then I buy even more stuff than the one thing I had intended to buy. So I'm trying to cut down on that. We went into this weekend knowing that we were soon to be out of bread and that we had to save the last few pieces for school lunches. We were out of cheese. Cheese. That's like being out of water. But we all agreed (to be fair, the kids have no idea what they are agreeing to) to just eat what we had. Which is why we toasted hot dog buns and put jelly on them to go with our Sunday meal.

More Snow Days from school means more schooling at home.

I made these worksheets where the girls had to circle the different letters I called out. June loved it. Gwen loved it for 3 minutes. That's about right, and I was satisfied.

June always wants to wear a bow in her hair when I do a french braid, and I try to talk her out of it because I think she looks like Mozart or a founding father or something.

Dan and I went to a work dinner and I wore a new sweater.

Not to sound like Ariel, but I don't go "where the people are" very much, and in these situations, I often find myself silently chanting my Scotty Smalls from The Sandlot mantra, "Don't be a goofus. DON'T be a goofus." I hope I succeeded.

And finally, welcome to the Jolley Family Gym. Childcare provided! As in, we provide it while we work out. A few mornings a week, Dan and I try to get up and work out before our kids get up. But they usually come down and find us anyway and we are all together for more family fun! Can you spot Harris?

The End.