Bad Week

The week after Easter was a bad week. Sometimes I have a bad day or a bad few hours, but this week it just seemed like nothing was going right. It was also the week I was starting my new exercise challenge, so finding time to do that became even more of a challenge and I started getting just a little bit (okay maybe a lot) frustrated.

To start with Sunday Landon's eye started hurting him. It got worse and worse. It was bad enough that he couldn't drive home from Flowell, and bad enough that I actually called the eye doctor on Sunday and we took him in as soon as we got home. The verdict he had a horrible eye infection. It hurt like crazy and infected his vision. The doctor gave him several prescription eye drops. He didn't go to work on Monday, because it was so bad. The kids and I had Monday off, so that worked out okay, though it did add to my stress load just a little bit. Having the day off Monday is a rarity, and I tended to overbook myself just a little bit, but in the end I managed to get everything on my list done even getting a haircut, and going to the pool and gym to workout. Luckily Landon was able to go back to work on Tuesday.

Next on the list the dryer. It had started acting up the day before we left for Flowell. When we got home and Landon's eye was feeling good enough he was able to take it apart and verify that the element had gone bad-so what did that mean? Well he could fix it but the part would be a week out. So in the meantime. In my "spare time" I would be taking trips to the laundromat to dry clothes.

Thursday I woke up and my tire was flat-I mean really flat! I didn't dare to just air it up and go to work, because I new it needed to be fixed. So I was able to borrow Tanner's car until I got off, since his work schedule was opposite of mine that day, and he didn't have to pick Bryce up on Thursdays. However, that lead to another problem, because my sister forgot to pick Bryce up from school, so I couldn't just send Tanner over to get him, but luckily my other sister was able to grab him. When I got off I was able to get the car in and get the tire fixed and get back on the road of life.

Friday we had a big fight with Tanner. It was bad. It left me crying for two days and really thinking about things. Teenage years are definitely hard sometimes. I just hope that we are doing something right and things will turn out in the end.

To top it all off I fought a cold all week. It made it hard to do the things and needed to do, and probably made me a little bit ornery at times.

I guess you could say it was a horrible week, but really I'm trying to look on the positive side.

I found this quote by Dieter F. Uchtdorf that I really like

" No matter our circumstances, no matter our challenges or trials, there is something in each day to embrace and cherish. There is something in each day that can bring gratitude and joy if only we will see and appreciate it."

Yes a lot of challenging things happened this week, but there were good things to. We have good health insurance, we have vehicles (3 of them), we only had to wait a week for the dryer to be fixed-some people never own a dryer, we have each other and even though the kids at different times can offer their own challenges I wouldn't trade them for any other kids, and even with every thing that happened this week I was still able to pull through it all and meet my requirements of my exercise challenge and that made me feel good about myself. Plus we were able to not only let our kids participate in sporting events we were able to watch Bryce play t-ball this week and also go to a softball tournament for Chloe-so it hasn't all been bad. Busy for sure though. Just focus on the positive ;)

New Hair Colors and Finding Time for Me

Chloe and I got our hair done. I went red with some high lights and Chloe went dark. She has been wanting to for awhile now, and I think she pulled it off. My only problem is that she's starting to look just a little to grown-up ;)

Me getting my hair done is a new step in the new series in my life where I'm taking more care of me. Lately I haven't felt good about myself. I decided I wanted to change that. Not that I don't love my family and everything I am able to do for them. I just needed to find time to do more for myself that I normally don't. I have started hanging out with my friends a little bit more and also started playing pickle ball-something I enjoy. I went and got my eyebrows done-not a huge deal, but I seriously haven't done it in a couple of years. I also got my hair colored probably for the first time in about 5 years. Again not a huge deal but something I just haven't taken the time to do for myself. I have also joined an exercise challenge, but I'll write more about that later. It is definitely hard sometimes to make the time or find the time for me, but it's worth it and so am I.

Is it Summer Yet?

Bryce asks me a couple of times each week if it's summer yet? He is ready for watermelon, water balloons, and swimming every day!

Easter Weekend

My Mom was in town Thursday so we got all of the grand-kids together to dye Easter Eggs.

We went to Flowell for Easter. Tanner didn't come, because he stayed home to work. I guess he took to many days off for Spring Break to go to Arizona with us. It was kind of sad, because it was the first Easter we weren't all together. I guess as the kids start to grow up that will happen more and more. The Easter bunny still managed to bring Tanner a basket though, even though he wasn't with us ;)

A couple of Landon's siblings also came so we had a full house of people.
For some reason the kids are always super excited for Holidays. They don't sleep well and wake up early. Bryce was so excited for the Easter bunny to come. He woke up at 2 and asked if he could go find his Easter basket. I think he finally got up around 6 with Chloe and then the hunt for baskets was on. Bryce was surprised and happy find a treasure map that lead to his basket which ended up being a treasure chest filled with Easter loot.

We made our annual trek out to the sand hills to roll Easter eggs and have lunch.

 We didn't get in the annual wiffle ball or kickball game this year, but Landon helped Bryce build a serious egg rolling run per tradition.

Burried

It was a good weekend spent with our families.

Making the weekend even better was that along with Easter weekend it was also General Conference, so we were able to hear many beautiful and inspired messages from our prophet and other church leaders. They announced several changes in the church, and gave many inspired messages. I like when conference and Easter are on the same weekend. It just seems to make the Holiday even more about the Savior somehow. 

March Book Recap

Here is what I read in March. Really there was nothing I didn't like this month. All a little different. A Wrinkle in Time was definitely better than the movie. I have like everything else I have ever written from Scott Westerfield his new book Afterworlds was pretty good, but I still can't decide if I like it as much as his 'Uglies' series, but I will for sure continue reading the series. Thanks to being introduced to Overdrive by our school librarian I am able to down load lots of books on my phone and read them-it's like an online library. So I've been reading a lot of the Newberry Award books. 

March Goal Review

March Update

Goal Review
Red Means Not Doing Well
Blue Needs Improvement
Green Accomplished or on Target to Reach Goal
Spiritual

-Read Scriptures 5 Days A Week
-Read Lesson Material for Relief Society each week
-Attend 2nd Hour (family history or Sunday School more regularly)
-No Social Media on Sunday morning Before Church
-More Personal Prayers
-Don't work on Sunday (I do some work from home for my Mom and I want to limit this to Monday-Saturday and not work on Sundays)

Looks like I need to focus on my Spiritual a little bit more. I'm seeing to many red lines in here.

Health and Fitness

-Run, Walk, Bike, or Swim 1 mile once a week

My new fitness plan is really helping with this one :)

-Only drink Coke once a week except for my period/headache week

-Make a conscious effort to drink more water

The last part of the month I did way better on this.

Financial
-Save at least $300 spending cash by the time we go to New York in June

I spent some of the money I had saved to go to Arizona for Spring Break-but it was worth it.
-Do better at staying on budget and not spending my weekly petty cash before I have it
-Save any dimes we get for the year (we read something about it and want to test it out)

Educational

-Read at least 3 books per month (I want to focus on reading more and being on social media less)
-Look into what it would take to finish my Bachelors Degree (1st Step)

Personal
-Sew 6 Levi Quilts and 6 Other Quilts During the Year

Quilts are taking a back burner at the moment, but maybe over the summer I'll be able to catch up. I did work on one during Easter though.
-Continue Blogging
-Do Better at Keeping the House Clean---Focus On the Dishes!

The Dishes are for the most part getting done every day, now I'm going to focus on doing some deep cleaning in the month of April

18 Year Anniversary

Sometimes it's hard to believe that we have been married for 18 years, but it's true. We celebrated our 18 year anniversary on March 25. We didn't go anywhere this year instead we opted to buy ourselves some pickle ball paddles and go out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse. The dinner was delicious, and hopefully the pickle ball paddles will let us spend more time having fun together. 

Happy Anniversary Landon. Love You!