Screen Time Fast Day 2 + Missing Roxy

Day two of our screen time fast started with Mason waking up at 5:30 in the morning. He’s been sleeping in until 6:30ish lately, but he fell asleep pretty early while we were doing yoga last night. And the first thing he wanted to do was ply with the cardboard roads we made together yesterday. He’d say, “Mom, you draw with me? Ok, get cars!”

I finished my little colored pencil neighborhood map and gave it to him to play with. He played on it with cars for a little bit, but surprisingly he seems to have more fun adding little details to it with a pencil. I LOVE that my kids inherited my artsy fartsy nature. Kender is a natural born athlete like his dad, but he’s also quite good at drawing when he takes the time to do it. Rhett and Mason draw all the time. Mason’s little people drawings are so cute!! They look like adorable little cartoon monsters. I forgot to take a picture today, but I’ll try to grab one and post it tomorrow.

A pain in the… back.

When I woke up this morning I was very stiff and my back was in a lot of pain. I did some intense yoga for a couple days in a row after doing nothing for months, so I had a big knot in my upper back. I tried using our Theragun, and it kind of helped, but I could feel the pain radiating up to my ear! So I figured more yoga would probably help. It was still just Mason and I awake, and he said he wanted to “play yoga” with me, so we gave it a try.

Dodging Mason while doing challenging yoga poses is not ideal… I didn’t feel it at first, but I tweaked my lower back.

Then I sat on the floor and worked on repairing our cat treehouse. Roxy shredded up the rope on the scratching post, so I hot glued some fresh rope to it.

R.I.P Roxy

Roxy had a stroke back in March and we had to put her down. I was a lot more sad than I thought I’d be… I always thought Ryan would be a mess when she died, but it happened when he was out of town and I was on my own with the kids. Not an ideal scenario, but thankfully Susan and Melissa were here to help me. They took the boys so I could take Roxy to the vet, and ultimately have her euthanized. I held her in my arms, and it was very peaceful (albeit, emotional). After the stroke, she just wasn’t Roxy any more. She was suffering, and she was about 14 years old. It was time. I believe she’s with our Father in Heaven now, alongside our other beloved pets that have passed on. She really was the best cat in the world.

I buried her in a giant hole that Kender had dug in the forest. I was deep enough for a person, so I figured she wouldn’t be disturbed by coyotes there. I spent a couple hours making a mold of her paw, filling in her grave, and marking it with a heart and flowers. I hoped she would know how much I loved her by how hard I worked to give her a peaceful resting place. Sometimes she annoyed me and I didn’t pet her enough… But I’ll always love her and miss her.

Ok, back to present day.

When Ryan woke up he massaged the knot out of my upper back, but then the sharp pain in my lower back set in. I tried the Theragun, Ibuprophen, and more yoga, but nothing helped.

I powered through it for most of the day and managed to get some chores done, but by dinner time my back was killing me and I just needed everyone to sit still for a little while, and I was unable to sit on the floor and color with them again. I told them we could pick a movie to watch together as a family, but our internet was down. Again. Century Link is the worst.

Mason helping me vacuum for the first time - such an awesome milestone!

So the boys picked a DVD (Planet Earth) and we started watching that. At first they were mesmerized, but then Rhett and Mason started running around acting like wild animals… So we switched the DVD to the Lego movie. They only watched it for about 30 minutes before Mason was ready for bed, so we turned it off and continued our screen time fast.

After Mason goes to bed, Kender and I study the Book of Mormon together. He made a personal goal to read it every day, but he’s only 9 and scriptures are challenging books to read, especially for a kid! He got through most of it on his own, but then we picked up where he left off in Alma and our study time together had been really special.

After the Book of Mormon, I read aloud a different book until bed time. We’ve been reading a book written by Ryan’s aunt Jill called “Watching Honey Bees.” It’s a fantastic book, and Kender and I have really been enjoying it!