I want to talk about Molly's artwork first. She is so good! That's coming from me, with no training or background in art or anything. But, seriously, I think she is really talented! She has been wanting to try to earn some money by selling her art-in the hopes that she can buy her own ipad instead of having to use Justin's work-issued or her school-issued one. (We did tell her that if she earns half, we'd pay for the other half and then work out a payment plan for her to finish paying for the entire thing. I think this is a worthy goal.) I finally made a separate Instagram account (that is connected to mine and only on my phone) where she can post her pictures. She can't believe how many followers she already has-and she has had three "clients" in the last month, which is really exciting for her. She is able to crank them out fairly quickly and seems to enjoy putting on a podcast and drawing on her ipad. She amazes me.
Molly worked on the Heber Valley Polar Express train as an elf again this year. I just think this is such a fun thing for the kids in our valley! She loved it and was so happy to be able to do it again this year. Since she wasn't a new elf this year and the boss was familiar with her, she was able to work luxury cars a lot this year. Those are the higher-priced tickets, sometimes a family will even reserve the entire car to themselves. According to Molly, only the best elves get assigned to the luxury cars-and they often come home with tips too! She is really hoping she can be a "host" next year-or be hired to work on the train year round.
Molly's other love is online shopping. I say this with some sarcasm. But, really, this might be the thing that holds her back from getting her ipad. She loves to shop online and look for a deal. She has her own one-of-a-kind style and has a few different websites where she can get things for pretty cheap. I told her she can wear whatever she wants as long as she is modest and clean. Modest she is good with, clean might be another story. Also said with some sarcasm-but, seriously, some days I just have to bite my tongue and not say anything.
Soccer has been slow lately. I mentioned the fall season, which I thought was great, but since then, covid has slowed every thing down. With the governor's restrictions in November, her club took a break through the holidays. She is so excited to get back to it-with the winter futsal league in January and a tournament in St. George in February, if it doesn't get canceled. She has missed it.
Molly has complained a lot about back pain-like, for several years. We've taken her in for adjustments occasionally-and to at least to rule out anything really serious like scoliosis-but nothing beyond that. At the beginning of December she was just in so much pain. At one point she couldn't walk upstairs without it being very painful for her. So we decided we better get in her for some physical therapy and see if she could get some relief. Turns out, one side of her spine was so compacted it made it so one leg was longer than the other. She had several sessions at the physical therapist before it started to feel better. We've slowed down the appointments (they weren't cheap) but plan on going back sooner rather than later next time it acts up.
Molly is a typical teenager in the fact that friends=life. She loves hanging out with friends. November and December have been rough since we really tried to limit "hanging out" so that we could still be with family over the holidays. (This backfired-more later.) She texts her friends constantly and lives for when she can hang out with them.
Molly is a "foodie." She loves to try new foods and all sorts of varieties of foods. She likes to search the web for new recipes to try. She is so easy to please and almost everyday when I tell her what's for dinner, she responds with, "Ooh, yum." It is so rewarding to hear.
On the phone front, this is the year we finally switched the "kid phone" to being mostly Molly's phone. She still has to share it with Stockton and Brynn when she's home and they want it, but that doesn't happen too often. She takes it to school, texts all her friends with it, and is never too far away from it even at home. It was inevitable. I do think that we fall on the stricter side of phone parenting-not a bad thing-and she is mostly okay with that. At least, she doesn't complain too much, probably because she knows it won't get her anywhere. I still have a time limit for each day as well as a texting limit. She doesn't have any social media accounts (other than the art one that I monitor for her). She has to charge it upstairs at night and it's on downtime from 9pm-7am. She still uses it plenty though! If she wants me to change a limit on something she comes to me and makes her case and I consider it.
Molly loves to watch movies with Justin. We have also been a bit strict over the years with what movies and shows we've allowed and are starting to loosen up a bit-she loves when she gets a movie night just with Justin upstairs and he shows her one of our favorite "grown-up" movies. Some that I can think of this year: Fried Green Tomatoes, Knives Out, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Italian Job. We still haven't let her watch Stranger Things, much to her dismay.
Molly loves Hamilton! She knows all the words to so many songs...there are something like 80+ songs in the musical. She is crazy good at the rap songs, but you are only lucky to hear when she doesn't think you are listening.
Molly loves watching her favorite YouTube channels, like Stockton. Her favorites are different from Stockton's favorites, obviously. A lot of Brooklyn and Bailey, the Merrell Twins , and family YouTube channels like the Ohana Adventure and Norris Nuts.
Molly's been getting more and more interested in combing her hair. She still needs to practice a whole bunch with getting the styles down-especially with using the straightener-but she's getting there. There's not a lot of time on school mornings so either she does something real quick or has me straighten it for her. On Saturday's/non-school days, she will usually experiment.
Molly loves to listen to podcasts!
Molly is not a huge reader these days, at least not like she used to be. She enjoys reading but it's different from me. I am always reading a book but it might take me two or three weeks to get through it. When Molly finds a book that she loves, she will consume it in a day. So-she loves to read but only when it's the right book for her. She loves to listen to podcasts and that's probably what she does more than reading.
After the spring quarantine and then the summer I didn't make Molly go back to piano. I didn't feel like her heart was in it to make a lot of improvement. But I did tell her that she always needs to be working on a song at home. She does that but she starts a lot and doesn't finish many.
Molly's birthday interview (taken January 10, 2021):
Favorite color: green
Favorite movie: Wait Until Dark, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Italian Job
Favorite breakfast: giant breakfast burrito
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| 1/9/21-Molly made us dinner! "Panda Express knock-off night": sweet and sour chicken, fried rice, lo-mein |
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