A long update on the happenings of the Richards fam

 I should be folding laundry, there are so many clean baskets full of clothes to fold.  Instead, I'm taking a few minutes to write, mostly nonsense, before one of the girls hops on my computer.  They have been sharing my computer with me lately.  I'm not sure how that got started but I find that someone is always on it so I am taking the chance to be on my own computer before it gets stolen for the rest of the day.  No one ever considers stealing Mike's computer.  We are officially at the stage now where all of my things have become common property--my church shoes, my white bra, my brush, my perfume, my sandals, etc, etc.  

Mike is on his way up to the temple for his temple shift.  He works every other Saturday at the temple, sometimes volunteering for the late shift.  Today isn't his normal day but we will be gone for a week in June so he is switching with someone.  He took some days off of work this week and it was so nice to see him.  We don't get to see him a ton these days.  His normal schedule since we moved here has been about 12 hour days and now he is the head of the department so his workload is even heavier.  I'm not sure how he is going to manage everything at work but I feel confident that God will help him.  He is really good at seeing what is the most necessary thing to do and then eliminating things where he can and I think he will be inspired to see how to do that in the department so that they can all feel less stressed.  They have lost a lot of their teachers, both military and civilian, so they are all filling in the gaps and overloaded.  The last head of department was a really good head but things were messy for him and they are getting passed off messy for Mike.  It will be ok.  We miss him on the Saturdays he works at the temple but I think maybe his temple shifts will help him with his work stresses. 

Eli is at work for soccer buddies today.  He has a love/hate relationship with his job.  I actually think he is awesome at his job.  Little kids love him and parents always love him too and he keeps getting really good reviews online from the parents but every day leading up to work he grumbles about how he doesn't want to do it anymore.  He said he was giving his 2 weeks notice today, which makes me a little sad, but it's his choice and I'll support it.  He has not been particularly helpful getting ready for the mission stuff.  He doesn't actually care about any of the purchases, he just wants me to do it all.  I usually put things in the cart and make him choose between a few options.  It's his money so I don't want to make money decisions without his input. He has been actively going to shops with his resume and asking if there are job openings.  He's had a lot of rejection but yesterday he went to one shop downtown and the owner said she didn't have any need for a shop worker but she would be interested in hosting some jewelry classes for kids and she would market the classes and take a small cut of the money.  He is going to put some class ideas together and then teach some classes at her store.  I'm excited for him.  This week he is going to Aaron's camp with the Young Men in the ward and then on Saturday, the 6th, he will go through the temple.  So, lots of big things coming along for him.

 Piper hasn't been too busy yet this summer.  She is going to FSY on Monday and she's nervous because her period should start any day.  She has a fair amount of cramps and discomfort that make that week a difficult one for her, as you'd expect from a teen girl, so she has some anxiety about how that will go.  She is also rooming with a girl from our ward who is on the spectrum and she is the sweetest girl but she does have a lot of sensory issues and doesn't like noise and often gets upset at night when the girls stay up and giggle and gossip.  Piper is nervous about how that will go and if it will kill all the fun.  I'm hopeful that the week will go well for both girls and that there will be plenty of fun for Piper and enough quiet for her friend.  Piper is also going to girls camp later in the summer and she is going to start a regular babysitting job for a family in the ward.  She and Felicity have already done a week of watering plants for one neighbor and a week of cat sitting for another neighbor so they are raking in the dough, which is good to fund their slushy addiction. Currently, she is rocking to music while she is mowing the lawn for us. 

Felicity is going to her first summer camp this coming week.  We decided that since both Piper and Eli were going to be gone all week maybe Felicity would enjoy something different than normal.  We found a theater camp that she is so excited to attend.  She is excited to learn how to write music and excited to perform at the end of the week.  She really wants to be Annie in the school play in the fall and she is convinced this theater camp will help her.  Everyone keeps telling her that 4th graders don't get picked for the main parts but she is hoping they are wrong and that she can shock everyone with her voice and acting.  I just love her.  Besides that, and the odd jobs she has been doing with Piper (watering and cats), she is mostly playing hard with friends every day.  She wakes up, does her violin practice, cleans some of her room, changes her clothes, eats breakfast, and then she is off to play with a friend.  We see glimpses of her from time to time.  

Will calls about once or twice a week.  They aren't usually long calls but I enjoy hearing from him.  He is so busy with work, classes, and social life.  His social life is so much more "socially" than either mine or Mike's and I thought I was pretty involved in social life at college.  He is literally hanging out with friends every day from the second he gets done with school work until he goes to bed.  He has started cooking for people in the complex at least once a week and just sends out a text inviting anyone who wants food to come over.  Don't ask me where he is getting all the money to fund his culinary interests but it appears that he loves cooking for people and people love eating his food.  He also plays pickleball, does rock climbing, and volleyball regularly, as well as goes to the gym to lift weights.  He said there are too many opportunities to do things and too many people who want him to participate in their activities that he doesn't know how to manage all the offers to hang out.  Such a hard problem to have.  I actually love this for him so much.  Will loves people and I've always had a little guilt about the lack of friends during those years of homeschooling but also, every ward we moved to never had kids his age. I tried hard to get the kids involved socially and they never complained but I can see that he probably was more lonely than he ever let on.  There was always some neighbor kids or kids at the community center where he did Art and PE or kids at basketball, and always at least one church friend his age, if not a year older or younger.  I don't think it was enough to fill him though and maybe he didn't know it either.  All that is to say, he loves his life right now and I love it for him.  He can't wait for Isaac to join him.

I don't really know what to say about Isaac.  He has about 3 1/2 months left.  He seems happy, but not mourning the end of his mission.  A few weeks ago he confided in a few things happening with a companion that he was trying to figure out how to manage.  I can see how he is changing by the advice he asks for and the compassion he extends towards people.  It also hurts to know when he is struggling because of other people.  I'm being vague and it sounds like a bigger deal than it is.  It isn't anything major, and he is navigating personalities just fine.  He shared the very first spiritual experience he's had this last week.  I was surprised and mentioned it was the first one he has shared and he said, "It's the only one I've had!"  He's had other spiritual experiences personally and lots of spiritual growth but not really any that had to do with actual missionary work.  He said that they invited a friend to come to church.  This friend hasn't been able to taste food for a long time.  He ate the bread during sacrament and when they asked him what he thought of the meeting, the man said, "That bread tasted amazing, better than any bread I've ever had."  Isaac and his two companions were slightly disappointed, wondering why of all the things that could leave an impression on his it would be the taste of the bread but then the man explained that he hasn't been able to taste bread for a long, long time so when he tasted the sacrament bread, it was incredible.  It felt like a miracle to Isaac and his companions.  I know that this mission has been disappointing in some ways for Isaac but I also know that God is aware of his efforts and his heart and loves the people of Japan as much as people in countries where the Gospel is more accepted.  I can't wait to have Isaac back.

Well, I've written much longer than I expected. I am managing all the schedules and trying to manage the messes in the house.  I am proud of all that the kids accomplished at school this year and was happy to participate in celebrating them but I really do love summers and I'm happy to have them home. I recently started ADHD meds and it's been pretty interesting to see how it affects me.  I don't feel like superwoman but I do feel like I'm so much more motivated and I am so much better at compartmentalizing things.  I don't get as overstimulated by schedules and things as much. I notice it when I am working out, for instance.  When I used to work out, I was always thinking about how I needed to hurry through the workout so that I could get to the mile long list of tasks I had to do that day.  Now, when I exercise, I'm exercising.  When I'm cleaning, I'm cleaning.  Projects that othewise made me feel overwhelmed to start don't bother me.  I just start doing it and before I know it, I've been doing it for an hour.  I also bounce my legs less, do fine on long car rides, when before it felt like torture to sit in a car that long, and I also can sit and read books for extended periods of time instead of picking it up for 5 minutes and then needing to do something else.  

I also started a blood thinner, sadly.  I went for a good, long walk one day and that night the back of my knee was in so much pain.  It woke me up throughout the night and in the morning it was swollen and red.  The nurse hotline told me to go to the ER and I grumbly obeyed, thinking an ER visit was probably an overreaction.  A suspected blood clot is taken pretty seriously so they got me back pretty fast and then did an ultrasound.  The knee pain actually ended up being a baker's cyst but they also found a blood clot lower in my leg.  The baker's cyst has not been that painful since that day, only flaring up from time to time, and I think had the baker's cyst not shown up, I wouldn't have caught the blood clot in time.  It had no symptoms where it was located.  So, ultimately, it ended up being a blessing in disguise that I had the baker's cyst.  I was put on blood thinners for the next three months but they also made me stop the hormone replacement therapy, which I am mourning.  I didn't realize how much it was helping me until I had to stop taking it.  I am going to a hematologist in July and I am hoping they can tell me what caused the blood test.  If they can confirm that it had nothing to do with the hormone replacement therapy then I can probably convince them to let me go on it again. I'll be so sad if they say I can't.  Anyway, I've got a lot to do today so I need to end this musing.