30 June 2025

 

29 June 2025

I can't get over what a big change in D there has been since school got out. With all the pressure to suppress his ADHD at school, and the ordinary peer pressure of middle school, he was often morose and grouchy at home. Mr. Brown and I had decided that at least some of it was the teenage grumpies. But now all that pressure is gone, and so is all the moroseness and grouchiness. He's relaxed back into being the kind, affectionate, laughing D that is familiar to us, and whom I love so much! I'm so happy that I get to spend the summer with him!

27 June 2025

I thought I was having panic attacks, but last week we found out that they were probably actually gallstones.  After a particularly bad one on a Sunday night after fasting at the beginning of May, I stopped eating and drinking.  On Tuesday, Mr. Brown took me to the emergency room, where they gave me an IV and rehydrated me, and then diagnosed me with gallstones and recommended me for surgery.  My liver enzymes were so high that I ended up staying in the hospital for three days.  The pain from the gallstones went away and I spent a lot of time sleeping.  It was different to be so limp and quiet.  The pope was chosen while I was in the hospital and I spent part of the night praying for him.  I also had an interesting experience where I was debating whether or not to ask the doctor a question, had decided not to, and then had him turn back to me almost involuntarily to give me the answer to my unasked question.  God was answering my prayers there.  It was just funny to see how he was surprised by what he was telling me.

Because the pain had subsided, I decided to wait on surgery to see whether the gallstones were going to be a recurring problem.  After fasting at the beginning of June, I had another terrible attack - at seminary graduation, which mercifully subsided in 45 minutes instead of going on for hours like the previous one - and immediately called to schedule surgery.  The surgery was done without incident and without too much difficulty in recovery.  Plus they sent me home with pictures of my guts.

Turned out that my gall bladder was pretty much trashed, so getting it removed was the right decision.  No more gallstone pain!  Mr. Brown and I are twinsies in yet another aspect - neither one of us has a gall bladder any more!

26 June 2025

My book club met tonight at a neighbor's home just a block away, so I walked over. I had to leave early to get home before eight for the financial self-reliance group that I'm facilitating at the moment. It was pouring rain! But I had an appointment to keep so I opened the door to dash home... and discovered Mr. Brown pulling into the driveway to pick me up and keep me from getting soaked!

We sat up late to watch Rose Pink's choir concert. It starts at 7:30 MST, which is 9:30 EST, kinda late for us.  The first appearances were not her choir, so we were hanging out at the kitchen table. Nut Brown decided to make fluffernutter sandwiches on his and D's palms! He said, "Ten o'clock is way too late for serious business, that's why we're being silly." He clapped his hands together to smush the peanut butter and fluff together. "We're making peanut butter handwiches!"

25 June 2025

Tonight B helped me fold a mountain of laundry. She was so pleased to hang out with me, and happy with herself and her ability to fold her own clothes. We were together for maybe half an hour, and she was happily chattering away to me about what her hands were engaged in. It was so fun to be with her and listen to her. I was so happy that she was happy.

22 June 2025

This may not look like much, but it's actually a super spy hideout with a spy chief (D) and a spy (Rosebud) inside it. Created with a floor fan and a top sheet.

18 June 2025

Rosebud is involved in very active imaginary play with her classmates at recess.  For awhile she was running a restaurant where the "food" is natural items.  She used green pine cones for bananas, and mud for pudding. Pine tree flowers were sprinkles on other food. She used samaras for pasta, and so on.  She was surprised how popular this game was with her classmates, and they played it for several weeks together.  

One of her friends made 3D printed articulated dragons in different colors for her group of friends, and they took them outside for recess and set up kingdoms for each dragon around the tree in the recess yard.  Rosebud was so happy with her dragon that she made it a bedroom in her dresser:

There was drama around receipt of the dragons - the girl didn't bring them when expected - and around her teacher not allowing them to take the dragons outside to play, but finally everything came together and the girls had a great time with them.  

The game she's been playing lately is with her friends Melanie and Fiona, and it involves possession of superpowers.  I offered to let her skip the last day of school, but she wanted to go in order to make sure that she got one more session of play in with them.

She was sad at the end of school, because she felt like her class had really come together as a community and she was sad to see the end of the community.

10 June 2025

It was my birthday! Rosebud made me a card!  She actually made it for me several months ago and it's been waiting on my dresser for me! 

Nut Brown decorated the dining room for me while listening to Weird Al polka mixes.  That's his motivating music right now.

It's a fairy grove, with floating balls of pink, and one mimic pretending to be a floating ball of pink.

Mr. Brown bought strawberries and Rosebud made tiny pancakes for me that she and I ate with strawberries on them.  

There were happy wishes from many people, which made me happy! And it happened to be the same night as book club, which is one of my favorite things, and they got me a cake. Happy happy!

Two weeks later, I got to have a tea party with my two friends who also have May birthdays - Megan and Melissa.  We had tea in my tea cups and ate biscuits and tea sandwiches and Chinese food, and these lovely petit fours that Mr. Brown and Nut Brown made for us.  They really went all out to support the tea party, and it was very fun!

8 June 2025

Nut Brown decided to make cake pops from some leftover red velvet cake we had, and he made them up for his mission prep class.  He made the balls up and I helped him with the sprinkles.  

I think he enjoys making and bringing sweets.

Also- my day lilies are celebrating summer.  They're so brash and bright that I always feel happier when I see them!

7 June 2025

Last night, walking with D, he was telling me about a background in Minecraft that can be applied that creates a starry sky. He says, "You can see galaxies, and nebula, and black holes... Well, you can see accretion disks, because you can't actually see black holes."  I love that he knows that obscure astronomical fact!

6 June 2025

Message from Rose Pink today:

She's so cool!

6 June 2025

Walking with D tonight and he's talking to me about Minecraft mod sites and tells me that one of them is more "unique-able" than the other. He wasn't struggling for words either, just speaking his thoughts as they came to mind.  

3 June 2025

Except for Rose Pink, none of my kids really do pajamas.  Nut Brown sleeps in his underwear and D and Rosebud generally wear either what they wore that day or what they're going to wear tomorrow.  When they were small, they all wore footie pajamas, and had designated sleeping clothes, but it didn't stick.  Conversation with Rosebud tonight on her way to bed:

Mom: Are you ready for bed?

Rosebud: I'm changing into my pajamas.  Tomorrow is pajama day and I don't want to change in the morning.

2 June 2025

Last night was seminary graduation for Nut Brown.  He had such a huge smile here and was so happy about the ceremony and his participation.  

The ceremony started with the graduates processing to the front pew in the chapel.  He was invited to speak and prepared a wonderful talk about the impact of seminary for him.  They also did a video montage that we thought was supposed to be graduates sharing their testimonies, but Nut Brown was the only one who actually did.  He wrote his out and we did several takes before we had a video he was happy with submitting.  Everyone else gave generic "I loved it so much even though it was early" statements.  And then afterwards when the graduates were recessing, Nut Brown gave everyone sitting on the aisle a fist bump as he went past.  He's so cool.

... and poses in the (currently) mandatory Jotaro pose