General Conference

This weekend we watched General Conference. It was entirely virtual again. Not sure, really, when that will end...maybe by 2022? Lilla is my General Conference girl. She was really excited to watch and did so diligently every session, including the Saturday night women's session, which, technically, she didn't need to. I was impressed by her. Kit liked the singing and was totally mesmerized by the children's choir (which, of course was a recording of a previous year).  

Today, Mom and Dad came over and watched with us. Dad brought his projector and we used it to blow up the picture huge onto the wall. That was also Lilla's idea.

There were some good reminders in conference today. One of which was of the power of prayer.  I pray daily, but I'm reminded that I should be a more faithful prayer. Another reminder was the power of our thoughts. I've been struggling to be positive lately. Honestly, I feel weary. I know there are so many with problems so much bigger than mine. And that just makes me feel weary and guilty. :) I can do better.

Busy and Beautiful

Kit is super busy lately. She is adorable and sweet and funny and she makes huge messes. The other day I set out to pot flowers on the front porch with her. It was a disaster. She spread dirt everywhere, dumped the cat's food and attempted to drink his water. I was feeling frustrated when I looked up and saw this beautiful scene.

 

Gibson is a Teenager

We'll we are officially the home of three teenagers. Gibson is such a good kid. He is always making us laugh with his wittiness. He is very obedient and helpful.  For his birthday he asked for a loaf of homemade bread all to himself. He also asked for Cake Pops. I hate making Cake Pops, but I will do it for a person who asks on their birthday. :)

 

Grace Concussed

Well, Tuesday I was headed to the grocery store with Kit. I had just dropped Lilla at school, when I received a call from the VP of Davis High saying Grace had passed out in her nursing class and hit her head on the cement floor. I went straight over and picked her up. She was in a lot of pain mostly in her neck and the back of her head. She had a giant goose-egg. Conveniently the teacher is a nurse so Grace was well taken care of. I took her to the ER, the same one I visited when I hit my head. Yep. Luckily she didn't need stitches, but she was quite confused. For example she couldn't remember the word "breakfast" or even pronounce it when I gave her the word. After talking to her, the Doctor said, "She's obviously concussed." Now it's funny, then it was scary. She was just having a little bit of a hard time understanding what people were saying. They did all the tests and scans and everything came back fine. She didn't eat breakfast that morning, and the doctor said it's not uncommon for kids her age to pass out. 

I called my Mom and she rushed to the hospital to pick up Kit, thankfully! Kit got to spend the day in Pa's garden, a much happier place than a hospital. I'm so grateful we live close to our awesome family in times like these

Wednesday, Lilla made muffins "NOT FROM A BOX" which was her goal. They were delicious carrot muffins, and she did it 99% by herself! 

 

Grace

Friday morning was off to a rough start. Nate's car wasn't running because it needed a new battery and mine had squeaky breaks and needed to be taking to the shop. Grace saved the day by using only help of YouTube to change the car battery. It was awesome. I was so proud! And grateful!! Now we could take the other car to the shop and have a car to use for the day. YES! 

Saturday we got up early and helped with the neighborhood cleanup of branches and trees that the wind took out. Even after many many hours of work yesterday, there is still clean up to do. They even brought in the National Guard to help.

Grace and I bailed out early though and headed to Provo for a little mental break. We met up with Margie and Chloe at the Beehive Bazaar. And hit my favorite little shop, Harmony. We ate way too much and then went to check out this cool mural. Apparently Provo has lots of cool murals. It was good to spend some time one on one with Grace. Before we know it she'll be flying the coup.

Wind

We have had a few traumatic days. Monday night, September 7th. Nate and I and the kids had just finished the main work on the mud room. We worked on it all weekend, and it's looking good. We went to a neighborhood meeting, and it's a good thing. Because we were notified of a wind storm that was coming. We came straight home and all worked together to get everything in the yard secured and put away. That night was crazy windy. At 3:30 AM Tuesday morning I noticed our bedroom window was cracked open, and stuck that way. I prayed we'd figure a way to shut it. The window surely would have blown off had we not been able to get it shut. Thank Heaven we did! I couldn't sleep after that. The wind was blowing SO hard, I was nervous to stand by any of the windows because the wind was shaking the house. I was nervous enough that I went down to the basement and prepared beds for everyone, then went to each of the children's bedrooms, woke them up, and we all went to the basement to sleep. I felt much safer down there, but didn't really get much sleep. The power flickered off and on during the night, but we finally lost it for good for around 10 AM Tuesday. School was initially put on a 2 hour late start, and then cancelled altogether. The rest is sort of a blur honestly. 

The winds died down a little that morning, but we'd heard it was going to get really bad again. And it did. Winds of 99 miles per hour were recorded in Farmington. I'm not sure when, but at some point the big tree on the northeast corner of the property blew onto the garage. Nate and our new neighbor John Baker (Poor Bakers literally are just moving in.) braved the wind in bike helmets to cut some of the tree off the house to prevent more damage. I was scared for them. The power was out all day. That evening things calmed down and we were able to go outside, knowing that things were supposed to get bad again Tuesday night. We've lost several trees including Lilla's favorite pink poof tree. Dad was able to bring us Uncle Ace's generator, so we could at least keep the fridges going and have a little light and some Wifi. Nate ran to Home Depot and Target. Nate said the stores were like scenes from Stranger Things. It being pretty dark and the generator lights flickering. He said he had to use his phone light to pick out the M&Ms -ha! Nate and Dad helped stabilize the chimney that was blown off the house and we braced for round 2.

Luckily Round 2 was not as bad as Round 1. Still super windy, but I was able to get some sleep. We even slept upstairs in our own beds. School was cancelled Wednesday. Due to power outage and debris. There were 180,000 people without power. I believe Farmington and Centerville seemed to receive the brunt of the storm (Centerville even worse than Farmington I've heard), though I know there was destruction all over the Wasatch front. And still, some people today (FRIDAY!) without power. They called on crews from other states to come help get it restored.

Anyway. All day Wednesday we worked on cleaning up our yard and the Baker's yard. Dad was up again to help, Nanny brought Ila and Pearl and they helped. It was a huge mess. And there is still a lot of cleaning up todo. We picked up so many branches, some garbage, a bunch of apples, and probably 100 pounds of plums that had fallen from our beautiful trees. The sound of chainsaws was everywhere, even as I type this I can hear 2! Both neighbors sawing away at fallen trees. We worked hard all day. My watch recorded 23,321 steps. :) Just under 10 miles of walking and working. We noticed the power was back on about Noon on Wednesday! Yay!

Thursday the kids finally were able to back to school. I drove around our little town with Kit in the back seat taking pictures and feeling a little traumatized.

Old Famington City Hall.

Though there's so much destruction and sadness, through it all there is always the the awesomeness that comes from working through it and helping each other out--Coming together as families and communities. 

I like to call this the Hurricane Hibiscus. I brought this pot in before the storm and the Hibiscus finally was warm enough to bloom.

The Best Thing

The best thing happened today. We got to visit with Keith and Carolyn and, for my birthday, they gave me a beautiful afghan that Nate's grandma made. It really is exquisite. When we got home Grace found this on the porch. A gorgeous delivery from my parents. Including birthday flowers from my dad. He always sends us flowers on our birthdays. So many beautiful colors here.

 Also today, our Sacrament Meeting was especially good. Our Bishop sang--he really is a good singer-- and we had a returned sister missionary talk. I'm so glad we went. Another wonderful thing about it--there were more people there than I've seen since Covid.  It felt good to be in a bigger congregation, even a little bit normal.

This week was exhausting. It's a lot to manage, trying to keep the kids productively occupied and being worried about the education they're getting. Three days a week they're all home, eating, making messes, arguing. Those are the negative things. It's definitely not all negative, but dealing with those things is wiping me out.

I took Kit on a walk on the LaGoon trail. We had a friendly older couple give us some grapes they picked somewhere along the trail. The were so good!

Ander and Gibson spent Saturday morning working for Kyle McKenna. He paid them to help him with his yard. And, he gave them a yellow watermelon they grew in their garden. It tasted to me exactly like regular watermelon--a really good regular watermelon.

 

Back to School

Well. We're back to school. For now, that means we're actually in school twice a week and doing "remote learning" the other three days. Nate and I decided to put together a little theme this year. Our theme is "Mens et Manus" it's Latin for "Mind and Hand." We based it on the MIT motto and this quote by President Hinckley: "The Lord wants you to train your minds and hands to become an influence for good as you go forward with your lives. And as you do so and as you perform honorably and with excellence ... you will be regarded as a man or woman of integrity and ability and conscientious workmanship. ...The Lord wants you to educate your minds and hands, whatever your chosen field." With so much "online" learning happening these days we feel it's important for our children to engage with the "real" world too. And of course we want them to do this all for the betterment of this world and the people in it-we want them to work to become a force for good. Minds and hands for good.

This is just some of the masks I washed the other night. Trying to be prepared in the mask situation.

I know the kids are disappointed to be learning remotely, to only have 2 days physically in school. And honestly, initially I was too. But, I'm wondering if it will be a good thing. Maybe not having to go to Junior High School everyday isn't the worst thing in the world? That place can be rough. Grace is taking CNA classes at Davis High School, so she splits her time between schools. I'm excited for her to explore this option. 

Kit's face, "What is happening? Where is everybody going?"
 

Winding Up Summer

 

Well, summer has come to an end. In so far that school has begun anyway. It's still insanely hot. Our grass is super dead, and I hate going out in the afternoons. Mornings and evenings are lovely though. 

Lilla went to Cherry Hill with some friends.

Betty Whitlock and Michelle McKenna came over to see the Fairy Garden. I wish I would have taken a picture of Betty. She looked so beautiful. I just love her. Betty is 80-something years old. She said she stopped counting at 80, so I'm not really sure, but I am sure I adore her. She is so much fun to be with. She and her husband, Woody, are sharp as tacks. In fact Woody is still running marathons.  I hope to be like them in my old age!

Gibson has been looking forward to working at the farm for a long time, and finally just decided to show up and see if they would let him work. And they did! I'm so proud of my hardworking farm kids. "Digging in the soil has a curative effect.." said Declaration of Independence signer, Benjamin Rush, and I agree!

Kit suddenly developed a fear of the deck. It's funny though, she doesn't mind being on the rug that's on the deck. It makes watching her easier. For now.  

Gibson had a 7th grade orientation Anderson came along to show him the ropes. They'll be at the same school next year.  I took the boys shopping for new school shoes.

Lake Powell

 We had a last-minute chance to go to Lake Powell with Nate's high school friend and his family last weekend. LaMont and Nate spent a lot of time rock climbing and know each other well. LaMont's company has a house boat and he invited us all to stay a few days. House boats and toddlers aren't a good match, so I was going to stay home with Kit while Nate and the rest of the kids went. How could we say no?! But then Nate's sister, Margie, was willing to have Kit stay with them-so nice! I knew the Fullmers would take good care of little Miss, and they did! 

We spent the first night in a cheap hotel, we had to leave late and drop Kit off and the drive was about 5 hours. So around 11 pm, we checked in and snoozed for just a bit before getting up way too early to make it to the lake by 8 am.

One of the things we did was kayak. There was a little cove across from where we docked the house boat the kids called "Lizard Cove". It was fun to kayak (or swim) to and from the cove. 

Grace had discovered a different little cove that she wanted to explore. It was more out in the lake--outside the little nook where our boat was docked. She and I took the kayaks and and found this beautiful little area. The water was super sparkly and the rock formation awesome. We wanted to swim but there was dead fish that kept us in our kayaks. 

LaMont also had a speed boat there. The kids always love tubing. And this time we tried Wake Surfing. It's so awesome! You basically surf behind in the boat. Once you're good enough, you can do it without even holding onto a rope. I was so proud of Gibson who tried over and over and didn't give up. And then, he got up! LaMont was super patient with us all while we learned.

Anderson did it without the rope! First time I believe! 

Grace was able to let go of the rope too.

I even got up! (It think people were surprised. :)) But I never got to the point of not using the rope. Next time! It felt so good just to be in the water and to swim, honestly. I miss swimming. 

One of my most favorite parts of the trip was sleeping on the very tippy top deck of the house boat and star gazing. The stars before the moon rose we unreal. You could see the Milky Way, so bright! I honestly am not sure if my children have ever seen the stars like that. I know it's been a really long time for me.  Hopefully we can get in some more serious stargazing soon!

Nate, of course, was super man and got up and went running. Grace went with him, I wish I had too! 

The last night we had a Glow Party! The kids had an awesome time playing with the glow sticks in the water. It was awesome to watch. I was a little worried we were going to lose someone swimming in the dark. But we didn't. All is well.

I'm so grateful for good friends willing to share their good times!