Cerebrate Good Times

It's been a while. I changed jobs and routines, and I have less free time in general these days. And the whole pandemic thing has really left me feeling weird and unsure what to blog about. But I do have a story to tell. I had been scheduled for a regular colonoscopy as a checkup on my crohn's disease. Originally it was going to be in March, and then the whole world stopped. It got pushed a couple more times until the final date was this last week. I was originally going to go alone, but Katie decided to have us all go as a family. I felt a little irresponsible about having us all go, given the current recommendations against traveling out of state, but it also gave us the chance to bring home an old pickup truck my dad was giving us. They had been trying to get it to us since March. Everything went fine on the trip, and we were heading home. I was in the truck, and Katie was in the van with the kids. We stopped at a gas station near the Utah/Idaho border for a bathroom bre...

I rarely have a moment when I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing. And as a creature of routine, I am generally pretty comfortable in my rut. I am also always aware of what time it is, so it's not surprising that my life is more or less scheduled out to the minute. Here's my daily routine, Monday through Friday. 5:45 Wake up 5:45-6:00 Shower 6:00-6:20 Read scriptures 6:20-6-40 Exercise 6:40-6:50 Get dressed, get things ready for work 6:50 Wake up kids for school 7:25 Get the kids out the door for the bus 7:30 Leave for work 8:00-Noon Work stuff Noon-1:00 Walk (Mon/Wed/Fri) or run (Tues/Thurs), eat lunch 1:00-5:00 Work stuff 5:00 Leave work 5:30 Get home 6:00-8:30 Make dinner, get kids to do homework 8:30 Have kids brush teeth 9:00 Get Clara and Allison in bed 10:00ish Prepare whatever I need to for the next day and get ready for bed 11:00ish Collapse from exhaustion I try to encourage Katie to get out for a bit in the evenings for a break, and ...

Clara started kindergarten this year. There's always something unique about sending your child off to school for the first time. There's a little relief, and a little sadness. And since Clara has always been our wild card, we weren't totally sure what to expect. She was really excited, though, and counting down the days. I don't really remember her expressing any fear about it, which seemed a little unusual. It's still the first week, but she's been goo about getting up early. As a side note, I swear our elementary school's 8:00 starting time is earlier than others. I think mine started at 9. And Clara has usually slept until past 9. So getting her up before 7 is a huge change. We'll see how it works out in the freezing winter months. Oddly, we requested afternoon kindergarten but didn't get it; in the past it's been no problem because more parents seem to want the morning schedule. Last week we had back to school night and met her teache...

I've started a few posts lately but haven't felt strongly about publishing any of them. So here are a few random updates. James turned three a couple weeks ago, and my parents came for a visit along with my sister and her family. It was nice. The kid's stinkin' cute. Yes, that's Nacho Libre in the background. Sam's been struggling a little bit with teenager-hood. We finally took him to a counselor, and they diagnosed with with some anxiety and OCD tendencies. So we're working to find the best way to treat it so school isn't so overwhelming for him. I think a lot of it has to do with his troubles sleeping, but we'll see how things go. We're going to visit Utah in a couple weeks. My sister recently moved back from DC with her husband and little girl. They're staying with my parents while they look for a place, so we'll go down and spend some time doing family-type things. Last time we took Cinder, but he was just a kitten. Now he...

Okay, that's a reference to What about Bob? Which is a movie that probably downplays the seriousness of mental illness, but nevertheless is a very fun watch. Anyway, last week Samuel went to a young men's camp for three days. He's never been away from us more than just overnight before, and even then only a couple other times. So while he was gone, Allison was the oldest child, at 9 years old. It was interesting to sort of go back in time a few years so the problems you're dealing with as parents are different. Samuel deals with teenager issues now, so things that seem much more serious, particularly given his responsible personality. Allison, on the other hand, is still at the stage where it's about sharing her toys and eating dinner before dessert. So it was nice to have a bit of a break from the all-consuming existential crises of a teenager. That being said, we were happy to have him back.

Well, this was a first. Last week Allison got her ears pierced. This is a rite of passage for a lot of girls, and it's even more interesting in our family. My mother doesn't have pierced ears, and neither does Katie. So it's kind of a first. But she had been bugging us about it for weeks, because one of her friends just got her ears pierced. Katie and I had discussed this before. I guess the reason she had never done it herself was more because of the pain rather than an objection to the practice itself. I've always admired that she had never done it (I'm honestly not a big fan of the ridiculous things women have to do for appearance, including makeup and even shaved legs), and I wasn't sure how Allison would fare. She is rather sensitive to pain. We can't even brush her hair without her screaming about it most of the time. So that she was willing to undergo this said something about her determination. Anyway, she reported that it barely hurt, and ...

For a while I've been wondering if it's possible to train cats. I mean, I knew it was possible , because they're in movies and whatnot. But I've never trained an animal and didn't know how to go about it. Then in my regular Internet wanderings I came across a book a couple years ago called The Trainable Cat . Then I finally picked up a copy shortly after we got Cinder. Training them younger is supposed to be better, so I thought I'd see what the book has to say. It took me a few months to get around to it, and I still haven't finished the book all the way, but here's what I've learned in general. You're supposed to reward them for doing the thing you want, not negatively reinforce things you don't want them to do. The reward also has to immediately follow the action, because they associate whatever their mind is focused on at the moment with what is happening. You're also supposed to train them in a quiet, distraction-free environment. ...

This little lady just turned 9. She can make any outfit work. Allison has always been the most unique one of our kids, beginning with her entry into this world too quickly for Katie to get any anesthetic during her birth (we were barely in the hospital). She is the one with red hair when the rest have the sandy blond color, and is much more average in size instead of being tall and lanky like the other kids. I picture her being the feminine, elegant one when she's grown up with Clara being more athletic and tomboyish. But we'll see. Allison is very much into the things we typically associate with femininity, like clothing and jewelry. She likes to carefully match her clothes, including her socks. She's currently petitioning us to be able to get her ears pierced, which will probably happen sometime soon. (It's a new experience for us, since even Katie doesn't have pierced ears.) She's really sensitive to sounds, from the cats fighting to the fire alarm at...

I don't know if I would categorize myself as a  great  cook, but as the primary meal prepper for our family for 15 years I feel reasonably confident in my abilities. But there are some corners I cut. So here are my kitchen confessions. I often use regular vegetable oil instead of olive oil. I use paper towels for pretty much everything, including plates sometimes. I haven't purchased ground beef in... 8 or 9 years? We exclusively use ground turkey. It started as a cost-savings thing, but now we just like it and I feel it's healthier. My chicken parmesan recipe is super simple. I just bread it with a mixture of bread crumbs and parmesan. I don't even pound the chicken flat. I use Prego spaghetti sauce, but I add shredded cheddar and ground turkey. And parmesan, of course. It's really good. One of my favorite lunches is just plain spaghetti noodles with butter and parmesan. That's three parmesan items in a row. But can you ever really have enough par...

Full disclosure: I stole that title from an episode of Futurama. We've had a teenager now for about four months. That still feels surreal to me. In some ways it's what I expected, and in others it's not. Samuel is the same good person he has always been. He cares deeply about things, has a keen sense of justice, and makes intelligent observations about the world around him. But it does seem like puberty hit hime like a truck. He's already 5' 6", which I think is about 6 inches taller than I was at his age. He's struggling with terrible acne, as both his parents did, and we're in the process of getting him the industrial-grade meds to deal with it. His biggest challenge right now is that he takes FOREVER to do ANYTHING. When I was his age I was going like a maniac. I was still smart enough to get my homework done without too much work, or I at least did a half-hearted job at everything. But I got it done. Every night he seems to take hours to even ...

I love discovering new facets of my kids' personalities. That recently happened with Allison. She enjoys writing notes for people, and recently Katie's brother had sent the kids a bunch of Hot Wheels cars. So when she asked Katie to mail a letter she had written to him, it didn't seem that unusual. The odd thing was that she asked us not to read it. Naturally, Katie read it. It was a note telling her (single) uncle how much he has in common with her teacher, suggesting he should take her on a date. We decided to go ahead and let her mail the letter, although we don't think the match would work for a number of reasons. The next day Allison's teacher texted Katie a photo of a hand-written note she had received from Allison with a similar message. This is pretty adorable. Allison can be incredibly perceptive and wants everyone to be happy (unless it involves sharing her toys with Clara sometimes). She is focused on wanting to be a mom someday, and also currently ...

I got an Instant Pot for Christmas from Katie, which was great. I've heard a lot about how versatile and great these appliances are, and I was really looking forward to trying it out. I mean, you can cook a tender roast in less than an hour, cook easy-to-peel hard-boiled eggs, and supposedly make a million other one-pot meals. So I unboxed it immediately and started looking at the instructions. With all the controls and settings it seemed a little intimidating, so I wasn't sure what to expect. The first thing I saw was four pages of safety warnings. Okay, that's a little weird. But I guess it cooks things under high pressure, so it's good to be safe. Then after giving it a wash, the first thing I was supposed to do is put some water in it and let it get up to pressure. Okay, it's a good idea to make sure it works properly. So I put water in, and carefully followed the instructions to boil some water. And it worked. But I quickly realized that this pot is anyth...

The other night our doorbell rang. We opened it to see a woman we don't know. She said, "I was asked to give this to you," and handed Katie an envelope and left. We closed the door, opened the envelope, and... ... saw a $500 Walmart gift card. Our first thought was, this has to be a mistake. This is the time of year when people look to help those in need. We assumed someone, or a group of someones, had collected this money and sent someone to deliver it. It seemed like this person had probably just knocked on the wrong door. But she was gone, and there was nothing on the card to indicate who had sent it. And while I'm sure my kids don't always look super neat and comely, they are generally well cared for. I called the ward relief society president, who would likely coordinate any large-scale donations of that kind if it were done by church members. She had no idea what the deal was. So now we are trying to figure out how to use it. I think we'll hold o...

You guys, I have a teenager. That is really weird. I feel like Samuel is a good kid to ease into the whole parenting teenagers thing. He's responsible and relatively level-headed. He has a desire to be obedient and is fiercely defensive of his family. And he recently switched from taekwondo to krav maga, so that defense is also literal. He's not fond of being photographed right now, however, so you get to see him with his siblings. Happy birthday, Samuel. I honestly could not hope for a better son.

Mediocrity is wonderful. Well, I mean being average in some areas. I often reflect that I wouldn't really want to read minds, because knowing exactly what other people think about us would only result in arrogance or depression. (I feel like I've posted on this before, but I couldn't find it.) Similarly, I believe that people who are rich or extremely attractive must have a hard time judging the motivations of people in their life. This might sound weird, but I hope my girls grow up to be average-looking. Since we still place an inordinate emphasis on appearance, and women are still at a societal disadvantage when it comes to finding a spouse, I hope they grow up to simply look like normal women. If they are too attractive they will get too much attention from people who may not actually care about them as people, which creates additional challenges in their lives. And if they are too unattractive that makes having relationships a challenge. If they are in the comfortab...

With the beginning of the new school year, it's time to reflect on the kids and how they're growing. Sam started seventh grade. He's finally decided to dress a little nicer than warmup pants every day, so that's nice (though a bit more expensive). It's taking a little adjusting for him to get used to a schedule of different classes at different times, but I imagine he will learn some time management skills which he sorely needs. He's definitely growing up and has been especially helpful lately playing with the younger kids when we need help getting things done. Allison is in third grade, and this will be her first year without Sam there at school too. She's always concerned about other kids and was talking this morning about helping kindergarten kids know when the bell rang so they could get to class. It seems like she's rising to the responsibility a bit, and we've been working on having her treat Clara extra nicely. When she would react poor...

I am supposed to receive email notifications when people comment, but for some reason that hasn't been working. So I just published a bunch of comments from the last few months. I'll be more vigilant about that now.

A couple weeks ago we went down to Utah for a few days. My sister was in town for her daughter's third birthday, and my parents were hosting a party. We were sticking around for a few days after to see friends and do some fun things. My niece is a cute little thing who has a bit of a challenge relating to people. I haven't ever gotten her to interact with me directly, which is understandable since she's only seen me a handful of times. If I look at her she runs away (which is admittedly not an uncommon reaction among females). But she and Clara played together really well, and I think my sister was very surprised and pleased. When I was a kid we often went to Lagoon on my birthday. In case anyone lurking here doesn't know, Lagoon is a local amusement park in the vein of Knott's Berry Farm. It had been a long time, so we decided to go to Lagoon on my birthday again. And it was a lot of fun. Sam finally went on the Colossus with me, and he loved it. I got to ride ...

It's the 20th anniversary of high school graduation for both Katie and me this year. I decided I wasn't interested in going to mine since we'd be in Utah a couple weeks before the reunion anyway. Katie wasn't interested in hers, but there was also a reunion for the kids who were on the seminary council. She wanted to go, but we couldn't decide whether to try making the trip. Eventually the week of this reunion came and we still hadn't made the decision. It was a breakfast Saturday morning on Toquerville near her parents' home, which is about an eight-hour drive. The thought of making the kids be in the car that long was frankly terrifying, so I had mostly ignored the possibility. There was also little chance that she would go by herself. Except she did. For the first time in our entire marriage, Katie took a trip away from the kids. Okay, once she left overnight to fly to Oregon for her grandmother's funeral, but that was the only other time. And at ...

Last weekend we took all the kids to see Incredibles 2. And I have a few thoughts. This was the first time the whole family has seen a movie together. As far as we can recall, Katie was pregnant with James the last time we all went to the movies. Clara and James struggled a little bit at the end, but we made it through. The Incredibles came out the year Katie and I got married, and as this one picks up right at the end of the first film, Katie and I are now at about the same point in our lives as the Parrs. It's funny to think about. They put a few swears in the movie. I struggle with this because the first one had none, and I had expectations that this would be the same. Had those words not been in the movie I don't think it would have diminished the film in any way. We're officially at the point where we have to start screening Disney/Pixar films the same as any other movie, which I knew would happen sometime anyway. I took Sam and Allison and went early to get ou...