Sunday for 2.5 hours, Banana Cream Pie, Apple Pie, and my friend who is also a secretary at the school helped me decorate all the teacher’s doors.
Our designs were perhaps not sophisticated, but we had fun and we hope the teachers felt loved.
We created the designs with large paper from the school and about $100 of birthday party supplies I bought at Dollar Tree.
I am in love with how accurate it is!
Writing outside with students.
I
Our little bat is back! 🥰
We missed him this winter.
Also, I have evidence that 8-year-old boys live at my house:
Yesterday I was missing the springtime birds of Missouri. I wished for the cacophony of birdsong that I could hear in my front yard every morning. I had worked to learn to identify the different bird calls, and I knew many of them: cardinals, blue jays, Carolina wrens, oriole’s, red-winged blackbirds, dickcissel, meadow larks, robins – they felt like friends.
I was thinking that I haven’t heard any birdsong here in the desert, though I have seen ravens and a little brown sparrow-type bird.
This morning, I woke early with ideas for young women’s, so I got up to write them down and study how best to achieve a meaningful activity for the girls this week. We suddenly have 9 girls coming to activities frequently, although sometimes it dips down to 3 again.
On Sunday in Young Women’s class, one of the girls spoke of going to a cultural ceremony. She expressed that she had felt fear that she would offend God by going to it, but that she wanted to honor her heritage also. So she went, and she prayed that God would forgive her for going, and she felt peace. I told her that God wants her to honor her heritage, and I felt right in saying it, although I know that not every single traditional practice is good.
It has been interesting to see how some of the Navajo adults at church felt they had to abandon every Navajo teaching – that is was all of the devil— and how others find the similarities and connections with Christian faith, and it strengthens their testimony of God.
I want the young women to be able to honor and keep the good, wise teachings of their heritage without fear. I’ve been studying what principles I can teach them to help them feel confident in keeping all that is good in their Navajo traditions, and how to pray for guidance if they feel confused or unsure about something (as this young woman did.) And that they can move forward, learning as they go and not be afraid that they will be condemned for mistakes.
As I was finishing up making notes of the thoughts and ideas I had, I heard a bird chirping right outside my door, so loudly! It practically rang my doorbell and announced, “Hey, I’m out here!”
I stepped outside my door and watched the sunrise and listened to the birds I had not heard before. Heavenly Father really is there in the small details of my life. His love is so generous and abundant, even when I don’t think to pray for the little things my heart longs for. What I have now are some new birds to make friends with, and sufficient notes to guide a discussion with the Young Women about Our Heavenly Father, Mother, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. By the end of it, my hope is each girl will know that she has a testimony of their love for her.
Love,
GlowWorm
Living in Monument Valley means that school activities often have fry bread for all.
So. Delicious.
Friday was a break from school, so Ben and I drove to Page, Arizona. I forgot that Page is on standard time, instead of daylight time, so we got there an hour early for our grocery pick-up.
Since we had bonus time, we got tacos at a taco truck and drove over to see the Glenn Canyon dam.
After that, I managed to get a last minute appointment for a hair cut, and Ben picked up the groceries at Walmart. (Page is our closest Walmart- only 2 hour drive from Monument Valley!)
We also made resurrection rolls and put them in the fridge for Sunday.
I really missed getting together with family for Easter. But we had a nice ham dinner, and an indoor egg-hunt, because there was a sandstorm blowing outside. I made the kids wait outside in the wind while we hid the eggs. 😂
Sunday evening, we had a glow stick dance party with all the glow sticks from the egg hunt.
I really wanted to go to the beach for Spring Break. However, the resident Captain had to be at Camp Williams for the Saturday and Sunday of the week, so driving the opposite direction to Sand Diego or Puerto Penasco didn’t make sense this year.
We were considering whether to take the family to Salt Lake City for Spring break, and then Key Lime Pie won our regional Poetry OutLoud competition, and the state final was in Salt Lake City on the Wednesday of spring break week. Decision made.
We got to Salt Lake City on Tuesday evening, and the first thing I did Wednesday morning was get a haircut. Currently, the biggest pain point of living in Monument Valley for me is living so far away from a good haircut. I still haven’t found a stylist within a 4-hour drive that cuts my hair the way I’d like. Even this cut was not what I initially asked for, but I compromised when it became clear that I wasn’t getting the cut I wanted. At least it’s cut.
After the haircut, I took Key Lime Pie shopping for an outfit for the night. She bought her own shoes! what a grown-up!
Then the Man is the House and I went to a runners store and got new running shoes because we started our favorite couch to 10K running program again. I am determined to build up some cardiovascular fitness and endurance! I also got these sweet converse kicks on clearance. When I saw them, I knew the kiddie pies would approve.
All the contestants, but one, were type 1 energy girls, just like Key Lime Pie, so they became instant friends and already have a text chat group.
Thursday, we found a place called “Classic Fun Center” in Sandy, Utah. We bought discounted tickets online and spent about 6 hours there playing in the bouncy houses, jungle climbing, laser tagging, nerf blasting, roller skating, and arcade gaming. I have zero pictures. We were too busy having fun.
Thursday night, we left the kids at the Airbnb with microwave Mac-n-cheese, and the Man of the House took me to a delicious Indian restaurant in American Fork. Chicken Tikka Masala, Lamb Curry, naan, and mango lassies! Yes please!
Friday, we went to Clark Planetarium. We had free tickets to the IMAX theater, thanks to Key Lime Pie’s astronomy teacher. We watched Deep Sea 3D. The kids were amazed by the 3D movie. The narrators (Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet) were very soothing, so I admit, I fell asleep for an unknown chunk of the movie. After the movie, we spent about 1.5 hours playing with all the interactive exhibits. Friday was probably not the best day to go, because there were 2 school groups, and it was pretty crazy and crowded. But the exhibits were stellar. We would have stayed much longer, but we all got hungry and caved in to baser needs than exploring.
Friday afternoon, we headed to my friend Shelley’s house. She moved from Missouri about the same time we did and loves to have us visit.
Pumpkin Pie and Peach Pie drove down from Rexburg to visit us, too. That was lovely. We did lots of talking about their school and future plans.
Friday night, the resident captain headed off to Camp Williams for soldier duty. Shelley, Robyn, and I went to Leatherby’s Family Creamery for a girls’ night out! Robyn is another Missouri friend who lives in the Salt Lake Area now.
I ordered the mud pie, and it did not disappoint! So, so, so delicious- but not overwhelmingly sweet. Girls night at Leatherby’s will happen again.
Saturday, we went to an early Easter breakfast at Shelley’s ward. Then Shelley and I ran some errands (like picking up dry cleaning because when I’m in town with all the stores, I have to do all the things that cannot be done in Monument Valley.)
Then we walked with the kids to a fun park about a mile from her home.
We made good time, and got home around 7pm. I whipped up some Spaghetti-and-Meatballs and oven-roasted Brussels sprouts. It was so good to eat home-cooked food after a week of take-out and easy snacks.
We have been to Arches before, but it was years ago, so our younger kids were too little to remember or not even born yet.
We decided to stop on our way up to Salt Lake City. Moab is about half-way, so it’s a good place to have lunch and a break. The kiddie pies liked it, but they also complained a lot. Which I have hypothesized was mostly because they knew we still had 3.5 ish hours of driving after we left the park, and they just wanted to get it over with.
However, even mostly reluctant kids can not fully ignore the awesomeness of the arches, which is why I have all these enthusiastic photos from a stop that was mostly whining from start to end. The moral of the story is, that family trips like this are worth it, even though it feels like so much hard work at the time, and the whining sucks away all the parents’ energy. Ten years from now, they won’t remember the long car ride, but they will look at these pictures and remember the fun.
I’ve blogged about this same idea before: the worst family vacation ever is still a good thing.
I saw a TikTok about visible mending right after we moved to Monument Valley, and I’ve been wanting to try it since then.
Tonight night Key Lime Pie won our regional Poetry Out Loud competition. That means that in about three weeks, she will compete in Salt Lake City for the state level competition.
She did such a good job! She recited from memory “The Conqueror Worm” by Edgar Allen Poe and “Momma Said” by Calvin Forbes
While the judges were deliberating, the MC asked if anyone in the audience wanted to share a poem. Banana Cream Pie got up and recited
“Antigonish” by Huges Mearns, which she memorized last year during homeschool.
In about three more years, she can compete, too.
A little later, Apple Pie came over to me and recited a poem she had written before school recently. She showed me in her notebook when we got home. It’s not quite the same as what she recited from memory- her recitation actually had better rhyme and meter. But she has this whole notebook full of poems that she has written!
“Poor Mushroom”
A single mushroom lies beneath
A tree.
It sits there day by day.
It sits there
Without a care.
One rainy day
The tree falls
After that day,
A girl picks the mushroom.
…
The poor mushroom is not
here anymore.
**********
As you may imagine, I’m pretty proud of my girls tonight.
Also, since we had to drive all the way to Blanding, we stopped at the library, too. Apple Pie found a book to check out called The Lost Library by Rebecca Stead and Wendy Mass
Apple Pie was reading while we waited for the poetry to start, and giggling over a funny line. This is a first for her, and as learning to read has been a tough, years long, struggle for her, it is a real breakthrough. My heart is full of gratitude for this tender mercy.
Marvelous Pigs in Satin 