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The Sunny D: October 2014

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Work Hard, Have Faith, Play Hard


This was the weekend before October break we had just finished a great hike and were HANGRY. That is a crystal light right there in my drink...yes I am off soda again..I had a little slip this week but I am rededicated. I have noticed when I am stressed or tired I want a diet coke. MMMM Diet Coke. I need to reach for water instead. I could easily beat myself up and think how lame I am for drinking soda OR I could remember that life is a marathon and my best is good enough. I can try again because I am not sprinting to the end of my life. I am jogging and learning along the way.

Boy am I learning.

Wednesday is a marathon day for me.

I think sometimes it is easy for us to be critical of each other. We think we do things better or more efficient. The truth is we can't compare our lives to each other or the way we do things to another person. We have different tasks asked of us, we do different jobs. All of us. I am sure my life looks very easy to some people. While someone may look at my day on Wednesday and say, I have no idea how you do it. The truth is I am not perfect, I am learning a lot about being a better person, Mother, daughter, friend and teacher every day. EVERY SINGLE DAY. I can't stop and count the things I didn't do. I HAVE to stop and think of all the things I DID do. I can't beat myself up or compare the way I mother to someone with a totally different set of circumstances than I have. I have to run my marathon the best I know how. I have to run it with the grace of God. I have to, or I would never make it. I have to live my life, evaluate and improve where improvements need to be made. That is it.


  • Wake up 5:45 AM Shower
  • 6:00 AM get dressed, wake kids up
  • make protein shakes/get breakfast for kiddos.  
  • 6:15- hair, make-up
  • 6:45- Make sure kids have brushed their teeth, dressed, shoes, agendas signed, do Ellie's hair pack up for the car.
  • gather lunches
  • get in car, family prayer, drive kids to their Dad's house
  • 7:00 drop off kids
  • 7:15 get to school
  • check emails
  • write morning work on the board
  • last minute touches on lesson plans
  • tidy desk
  • make copies
  • talk to co-workers
  • check mail box in the front office
  • pick up class
  • kids make lunch choices
  • I take attendance
  • get everyone situated
  • organize lunch money to be sent to lunch lady
  • answer any parent notes
  • 8:05- Pledge of allegiance 
  • grade morning work
  • 8:15- Math lesson I am teaching or roaming the room and answering questions this whole time
  • 9:15- Specials class goes to PE or Music etc. I maybe run to Joanne's for a last minute item I need for a lesson that day, or work on lesson plans, weekly spelling email or class blog, etc. IF I don't have a meeting scheduled during that time. 
  • 10:00-class returns, Math until 10:20
  • 10:20-Spelling repeat teaching and answering questions for every subject
  • 10:50- Reading lesson Break for YOGA or jumping jacks
  • 11:40- get ready for lunch
  • walk class to lunch make sure everyone has their lunches or lunch card
  • rush around to wash my hands, grab my lunch, use the restroom, make a parent phone call, or respond to an email...oh and try to eat lunch
  • 12:15- pick up class silent reading time for 10 minutes..while I take afternoon attendance. I have sat down for maybe 15 minutes total today so far. (Prep for Science or History)
  • Sometimes a migraine starts to set in right about here. 
  • I read aloud to the class for 10 minutes
  • Teach Grammar lesson or Writing Lesson
  • 1:30 begin Science or History
  • 1:45-recess I have duty about twice a week so I am on the playground with the students
  • 2:00- Continue History or Science
  • 2:30 Fill out agendas, hand out homework, tidy room, play a fun math game
  • 3:00 bell rings
  • 3:05 rush to parent pick up-duty
  • 3:20 back to the class room, change date for the next morning and hand out morning work on each students desk or write it on the board
  • Check emails for any important information about the next day, or answer parent questions
  • 3:45 go to pick up my own children 
  • rush to the store to get groceries, or run errands
  • Drop Aydan at scouts at 5:00
  • 5:15-5:45 sit with Ellie at the table to help her with her homework, read together while snuggling
  • 5:45 Ellies Piano teacher arrives to giver her a lesson
  • leave to pick Aydan up from scouts
  • home at 6:15 Aydan begins piano lesson
  • I leave for a 2 mile or so jog because at this point in the day my shoulders feel like they are touching my earlobes they are so tight and I have a lot of work to do still
  • Home at 6:45
  • Get Aydan started on homework or quiz him on spelling
  • start dinner
  • Ellie sets the table 
  • 7:30 we eat dinner
  • clean up, tidy, sweep, kids shower for next day and jammies
  • 8:00 make lunches and do dishes
  • 8:15 all of us upstairs on my bed for scriptures and family prayer
  • 8:30 kids brush teeth
  • I tuck each one in bed
  • load a load of laundry, take one out to fold
  • check emails, facebook, 
  • 9:00 shower, teeth brushed..face cream IF I remember
  • read scriptures, personal prayer sometimes cry out of exhaustion 
  • Lay in bed and wonder if I am doing enough for my children..worry....have a talk with Heavenly Father peace and slip into sleep
  • 5:45 the alarm rings and I think is it already Thursday? It is. Here we go again. 
And THAT'S if everything runs smoothly. I don't have a helper, I don't have a husband to say, "Be kind to your Mother..... or each other" if my children are arguing. I can't say honey I am tired tonight, I'd love to shave my legs for once this year or read a book or I 'd LOVE to take a bath...could you put the children to bed? I manage this on my own and the fact is many of my days look just like this. Many of the single parents I know...their days look JUST like this. Many of these single parents I know it wasn't their choice to be in this situation. The truth is it is the marathon we each run every day and we run it nose to the grindstone, eye on the prize, faith in the Lord that HE will help us get there, present for our children, taking them to activities, holding a respectable full time job because THEY need to know that when life is hard you put on your running shoes and you RUN. You don't roll over and say..its too hard. I can't. I want to move to a remote country thousands of miles away because I can't handle my life. You don't ignore the homework your kids need help with, or scouts or piano practice. YOU PUT ON YOUR SHOES AND YOU GO TO WORK. 

and then when you get a break

YOU PLAY!!! Rocky Point with the GAGGLE

We walked or ran this beach every morning 3,4 or 5 miles of it...dreamy

We pretended it didn't look like people had DIED on the beach chairs...we covered those puppies up with our towels and laid there reading, snoozing, and relaxing with our head phones in 

We LAUGHED and we ate yummy food

We had FUN

We shared taco plates and got sunburned

We enjoyed fresh fish for 10 dollars or less..ON THE OCEAN...we giggled at the mariachi band

We discussed life and read conference talks. We rode the banana boat got whiplash, thrown off, and laughed our heads off

I came home and I began my work loaded week all over again...with extra laundry from the trip. By Thursday I was tired. I had parent teacher conferences with the teachers of my own children, I learned that there needed to be some changes in the way I did things. I realized I needed to modify and adjust. I knew Heavenly Father would help me but I felt stress and worry. A song came over my stereo system in my car it said Have Faith, Have Hope, live like his son, help others on their way and I knew I had help. I knew everything would be okay. I knew that even for my children life is a marathon, not sprint all I learned in those parent teacher conferences the good, the bad, the ugly was just information to help me, help them. It was time for us to get to work. 


XOXO- The Sunny D Have Faith, Have Hope, Live like his son, Help others on their way






Thursday, October 9, 2014

She Loves Sometimes.






October Break date with my girl. We went to lunch, shopping for new Sunday shoes and the movies. Pretty much a perfect day. 


You know life isn't at all how I thought life would be divorced. I mean it kind of is but it really isn't in a lot of ways. I thought I would get remarried and I didn't think it would take much work. If I am being completely transparent. I knew lots of people who had been divorced and who were remarried easily, quickly. 

Yet, here I am. 

I see my friends one by one pairing off and getting engaged and then married and moving on with their lives and I am just here. I ask myself all the time if maybe it's because I really don't want to be married again? Maybe. I have a full life, I have lots of friends who are really super duper fun. I mean really fun. I am sort of afraid marriage will be really hard. I mean, it was the first time. Really. Really. Hard. Love hasn't changed from before though, it is as it has always been. 

You love him, adore him, would get the moon and the stars for him. He's clueless. He doesn't even know you exist and the truth is you're not brave enough to show him that you do exist. You're just you, hoping that maybe he will see you the way you see him. Maybe he will, maybe when the fear of marriage leaves your heart for good. Who knows. Who knows what it takes, and you never will know because your a big fat chicken. 

Then there is this scenario. He loves you, he adores you. He would get the moon and the stars for you. And you have fun with him, you like him even. You enjoy his company and he's an all around great guy but there is no magic. He could even be a really, really, great guy. The kind of guy you told yourself if he came along you would snatch him up for good...who cares if there is magic you just want peace and happiness in your home. But the magic...where is that magic and you just can't do it. You just can't. The truth is you want it all, great guy AND magic. 

And so it is. Girls trying to figure out boys and boys trying to figure out girls. It is really exhausting, and that is probably the reason why I am not in a rush to be married. I have to have the magic, because when the magic is there it is not exhausting. It is easy and fun. 

The magic just happens so rarely for me that is the problem. There are people who see fireworks every time they turn around. Then there is me who just simmers, quietly never really too excited about any guy. I'd like to think that I don't think too much about boys. The ugly truth of it all though is, it sits in the time out corner of my brain and yells at me every now and then wanting some attention. Until I put it back in time out shushing it with all the things you tell your friends sort of half believing yourself like: he's just not ready for you yet, or he's here you will meet him soon, or he just HAS to see what I see, he HAS to see how great you are, it will happen someday. You know, those types of phrases that shut the beast up.

I am in no rush because I refuse to live without magic. So for now I will make my own magic and enjoy my life. Oh man am I having the itch to travel right now. I want to pack my bags and fly to some new place I have not yet explored. Exploring is magical. The kids and I went camping for the first weekend of Fall Break. It was amazing. We listened to conference in the forest during the day and coyotes and elk serenading us at night. We hiked and walked, roasted marshmallows and I was so happy. We all were. The rest of the week I spent cleaning and doing laundry. I went to lunch and dinners with friends. I shopped at Last Chance and I took my daughter out for some one on one time. My next adventure will take me to one of my happy places. So how can I complain? The forest and the beach sandwiching the week of October Break? Pretty glorious.

On our hike we discovered all kinds of things like cacti and poop shrooms.