Early Wednesday morning I got a phone call that a ward member, friend, and co-worker of Josh's had passed away unexpectedly in his sleep. He left behind his wife and four teenage sons. Josh was in Santa Rosa for meetings and had accidentally turned off his cell, so it took about an hour to track him down and give him the message that he was needed back here (a lovely 2.5 hr drive for him to make).
Josh has spent the rest of this week helping the family deal with their loss and make the memorial and burial arrangements. This has been really emotionally exhausting for him, I believe. He doesn't complain much about things, but I can tell he's just tired. My heart aches for my friend and her sons. I wish I were in a state where I could do more for her.
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I've been spending my week trying to keep up some momentum. However, between fighting a cold and not getting enough sleep, it's been really hard. My cold is starting to go away and I've gotten more sleep the past couple of nights, so things are looking up.
The kids learned about John Henry this week, made a rain gauge, read a ton of books, and have played some fun math games to help strengthen their skills.
We have been eating a lot of Tabouli lately. I have loved it. Quick, easy, and oh-so-healthy! Instead of making it with bulgar wheat I've been using quinoa (which I buy in bulk at WinCo) and it turns out wonderfully. I personally like it with cottage cheese and maybe some tortilla chips or pita chips on the side. I suppose it's a salad, not a main dish, but it's pretty filling and popular with the kids.
I tried a new pizza dough recipe last week that was posted on my friend Megan's blog. Josh mmmmm'd after every bite. We found a winner!
Hannah had her first school Valentine party. I was grateful that the school policy is to serve healthy treats. They had one sweet treat (brownies, I think), and different kinds of fruit as their party food. Last year Hannah moaned and groaned with sadness when she realized that other kids had valentine parties and she didn't (although we had a fun valentine celebration at home with friends). She went through the whole "it's not fair routine". So this year I was excited that she'd be able to participate. Well, the day she brought home her class list she moaned and groaned and said, "I don't want to have to make valentines for ALL those kids!" :-) No pleasing that girl.
She did make valentines. We bought some pencils and she put flags on them with a valentine message ("you're the write stuff valentine", etc). And she enjoyed doing it after all!!!!
Funny story. Hannah came home with a bunch of leftover bananas from her party that had been cut in half (therefore, they need to be used!). I had a meeting last night but I suggested to Hannah that she have dad make some smoothies to use those bananas. Hannah suggested the smoothies and mentioned bananas...but neglected to tell him WHICH bananas. So poor Josh looked in my fruit bowl to find two slightly green bananas and couldn't figure out what the rush was with the bananas. He made the smoothies with those bananas, of course, although he must have thought I was crazy to insist that the bananas get used immediately! I think today we are making banana bread or something!
That's the Richardson round-up for this week!
The kids learned about John Henry this week, made a rain gauge, read a ton of books, and have played some fun math games to help strengthen their skills.
We have been eating a lot of Tabouli lately. I have loved it. Quick, easy, and oh-so-healthy! Instead of making it with bulgar wheat I've been using quinoa (which I buy in bulk at WinCo) and it turns out wonderfully. I personally like it with cottage cheese and maybe some tortilla chips or pita chips on the side. I suppose it's a salad, not a main dish, but it's pretty filling and popular with the kids.
I tried a new pizza dough recipe last week that was posted on my friend Megan's blog. Josh mmmmm'd after every bite. We found a winner!
Hannah had her first school Valentine party. I was grateful that the school policy is to serve healthy treats. They had one sweet treat (brownies, I think), and different kinds of fruit as their party food. Last year Hannah moaned and groaned with sadness when she realized that other kids had valentine parties and she didn't (although we had a fun valentine celebration at home with friends). She went through the whole "it's not fair routine". So this year I was excited that she'd be able to participate. Well, the day she brought home her class list she moaned and groaned and said, "I don't want to have to make valentines for ALL those kids!" :-) No pleasing that girl.
She did make valentines. We bought some pencils and she put flags on them with a valentine message ("you're the write stuff valentine", etc). And she enjoyed doing it after all!!!!
Funny story. Hannah came home with a bunch of leftover bananas from her party that had been cut in half (therefore, they need to be used!). I had a meeting last night but I suggested to Hannah that she have dad make some smoothies to use those bananas. Hannah suggested the smoothies and mentioned bananas...but neglected to tell him WHICH bananas. So poor Josh looked in my fruit bowl to find two slightly green bananas and couldn't figure out what the rush was with the bananas. He made the smoothies with those bananas, of course, although he must have thought I was crazy to insist that the bananas get used immediately! I think today we are making banana bread or something!
That's the Richardson round-up for this week!
2 comments:
Sorry about your friends husbands death. Is there something Scott should do as Stake Young Men's president for the boys? Please let us know!
I noticed that you posted this blog before 7am... I don't even want to know what time you were up that morning, that you had time to write a long message and post it that early!
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