soaking up Blueberry vibes one last time before he is gone for 2 years. He knew what would make my heart happy.
Later that day…
Blueberry has arrived at the Provo MTC. His aunt Linda picked him up at the airport and took him by Zion’s bank to get the amount of cash in English pounds that his packing list proscribed. Then she delivered him to the Provo MTC.
This picture she sent relieved me so much, because I had been so worried that logistically he would not make it somehow. I kept seeing home walking away from me alone in the airport. After Linda sent this picture, my heart and my head could believe that he had made it safely.
I was reading “Little Brother to the Bear” to the age 8-11 year old kids in our homeschool co-op. The author tells stories of animal behavior he observed while spending hours and days alone in the wild (in Canada, I think.)
One of the stories was of the deer playing a game or a dance where they ran in a circle or a figure-eight pattern, leaping and bounding.
My feeling reading this story was that we had no chance of observing this for ourselves, because it was written so long ago, and there are so few wild places left, and we don’t spend that much time outside.
I even thought that probably the animals don’t act like that any more.
But this morning, before dawn, Blueberry Pie went out to his car, and there were white-tailed deer in our yard.
He later described to me that they were running fast in a circle or a figure-eight pattern, as if they were playing a game or doing a dance.
Blueberry Pie and the Resident Captain celebrated by taking a road trip to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore on the southern shore of Lake Superior in Michigan.
It was epic! The views kept coming and coming as they hiked and visited the local attractions.
It was full of adventure too.
They met Sasquatch, and they saw a real porcupine on the trail.
They found several new brands of root beer to sample, so Blueberry Pie was super excited about that.
Blueberry Pie took a dip in the 46⁰ water, but the Resident Captain decided against it.
John Mark, Julie, Marcus, Me (and Skeeter), Blueberry Pie
In 2020, we were supposed to have a family reunion, but we had to postpone it due to covid restrictions. This year, when it was decided to postpone a second time, my dad reacted a huge group site at Aspen Grove so that any cousins who wanted to see each other and hike up Timp mountain could do so.
Matt and Pete
We had such a great time camping and hiking and visiting.
Mom and MarcusMarcus and LukeyDad, Uncle Verne, and Aunt ChristieCegan, Verna, John MarkSammy, Lukey, Kimberly, JimmyJohn Mark’s girls
I took the four littlest kids up to the waterfalls.
I almost took them up the wrong trail.Here we are at the correct trailhead. John Darrell and Matt made it up to Emerald Lake.
The 4 little kids and I made it to the second waterfall (which, I believe, is 2 miles, but felt much longer.)
Zeke took baby penguin steps all the way up, so it was 2 hours up, and we only made it because I bribed him and Skeeter with fruit snacks most of the way.
Banana Cream Pie and Apple Pie ended up hiking ahead with cousins because the twins and I were so slow.
Zeke kept asking me if I would carry him, and I kept saying “no.”
Here is a very hot and tired Zeke at the waterfallThe water was ice cold and refreshing.
Skeeter had a lot more trail left in his legs. When we got to the waterfall, he asked “Where is everybody?” I told him, “all the little kids have gone back down ahead of us. The big kids are going to the top.” “I want to go to the top,” says he. “It’s 5 more miles,” says me. Raising both fists in the air, he announced “I can do it!” (I considered it for about 2 seconds before I came to my senses and we headed back down to camp.
About 2/3 of the way back down, Zeke stopped a total stranger on the trail and asked super pitifully, “Would you carry me?”
I could tell that good-hearted guy was considering it 😂 😬 😬😬😬😬
I assured him we were fine and continued shepherding my boys down.
Sometimes it’s hard to tell on a hike if your 5 year old is actually tired or just bored. I think Zeke was actually tired.
Smiles at the Trailhead
The summit hikers’ report from the resident Captain
Great climb with the kiddos up Mt. Timpanogos, Utah elevation 11,752 ft. above sea level. This was a deceptively difficult climb, but we made it safely. The views were spectacular, and this ranks as the most scenic climb I have done. We hiked about 16 miles round trip and it took us about 14 hours.
First waterfallWe stopped at Emerald Lake where Pumpkin Pie and Peach Pie decided to stay at the lake while we continued. After looking up at what was still left to climb, I didn’t blame them. This mountain teases and tricks you. If you look at the top center, you can see a small white speck which is the shed at the summit.4 made it to the summit
This was the most difficult climb and tallest mountain that Cherry Pie and Key Lime Pie had attempted. Both of them did great.
Key Lime Pie was an amazing climber. She kept up with her uncles and made it all the way to the top. “I guess I inherited your climbing ability, Dad.”Cherry Pie adds her name to the list of summit champions.Going back down what is left of the glacier.
We decided to glissade down the snow field instead of hiking back down the trail. You can see the scale of the mountain by how small we look.
First week back to home school after break went very well. I’ve begun teaching the Scooter Pies to read because they were barging into Apple Pie’s reading lessons and giving the answers before she could. They are reading pretty well, and for the first time ever, every child in the house can read a verse during family scripture reading. The Scooter Pies’ enthusiasm is good for Banana Cream and Apple Pie, my reluctant children.
For Art, we have been learning brush technique and using watercolors from tubes, but Tuesday’s lesson was free painting. Peach Pie experimented with our new watercolors, but the younger girls begged for a “fun art lesson like we used to do last year,” so we looked through the videos on Deep Space Sparkle Art’s YouTube channel, and they were inspired by a Cozy Cat . They drew and painted their own versions of cozy cats, and I didn’t even have to walk them through any steps. They know what to do with sharpies and watercolor now. I am in love with these cutie cats.
For geography, we read about island archipelagos. We found several on our globe, and then made our own archipelagos with air dry clay.
Skeeter
We built them on some cardboard from the recycling bin.
Key Lime Pie’s ArchipelagoBanana Cream Pie “These are the Hampster Wheel islands”!Apple Pie’s Island
For Composition, we watched a Writers On Writing webinar from Read-Aloud-Revial done by Jonathan Auxier (author of Sweep:The Story of A Girl and Her Monster, one of Key Lime Pie and my favorite books.) Jonathan Auxier showed many sketches and writing from his own journals and explained how his books have grown from those sketches and ideas. He talked about the hero’s journey motif, common in many books, and taught how to keep a journal that will grow into inspiration for writing. The girls began their own “Hero’s Journals,” and I was thrilled by the ideas laid before them.
I made the mistake of setting up the writing lesson by saying we were going to do something really fun. Banana Cream Pie was so upset by how un-fun she perceived her hero journal assignment to be, that she curled up in a ball and cried and refused to do anything I asked for over an hour. I’m considering prefacing lessons by saying they will be hard and boring. Maybe I’ll be more successful?
Current bedtime Read-a-loud: The Courage of Sarah Noble by Alice Dagliesh
Random funny boy quote:
Skeeter’s Tree Pose
“Mom! Look at me while I do a tree pose. It took me awhile to master it.”
Banana Cream Pie
Random funny girl quote:
Banana Cream Pie: “Can I have one of these cupcakes?”
Me: “Do you mean the cornmeal mufins?”
Banana Cream Pie: “Oh, Never mind.”
Pretty Thing:
Blueberry Pie painted these flowers on rice paper for me for Mother’s Day this year. They’ve just been propped against the wall in my room. One day, I was at the thrift store and saw this frame and just knew it was right for something. I brought it home, ruthlessly removed the Degas print from it, and put the flowers in it. Maybe I should have ironed the rice paper, but I’m scared to ruin it. I’ve hung it in the hallway upstairs, and it is just right. I see it and feel happy multiple times a day.
The Endless Merry-Go-Round of Meals
Usually on a Saturday, I grocery shop and meal plan and a little bit of preparing to make the week’s meals go smoothly. Since I teach piano until 6pm, dinner is pretty late if I don’t begin it before or have the girls make it. Last weekend, I did none of that, and this week’s dinners were late and no fun to figure out when I was already tired from a long day. I was determined not to have that problem this week.
So I planned and shopped, and then enlisted the girls to help me. I couldn’t have accomplished all this without them.
Peach Pie
We spent over 3 hours, but we put together nearly all the dinners for this week as well as peeling and chopping many vegetables for meals and snacking.
So yummy
Peach Pie made 4 loaves of wheat bread. We also made breakfasts: frozen burritos, yogurt, and granola. That way, I get time to study my scriptures in the morning instead of having to make breakfast for everyone.
I also made 8 dozen pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. My lovely neighbor shared her recipe with me. I love it because it is lower in sugar than normal, and the cookies taste better the longer they sit in the cookie jar.
What is left of the 8 dozen cookies? Maybe 3 dozen…
Dinner Menu for this week: Sunday: Pinto Bean Soup and Cornbread muffins
Monday: Green Chicken Enchilada Casserole and Creamed Corn
Tuesday: Summer Sausage & Cabbage & Onions over Rice
My “Dollar Tree Decoration” attempt is satisfactory!
This week, October began and the cool weather came in earnest. It was “break week” for us for home school. We are trying out a schedule of 6 weeks on, 1 week off this year. So far, our schoolwork has been very productive; the new Alveary curriculum I am using makes it so easy to get our work done consistently each day. However, it’s a very full curriculum, and takes me from 8am-2pm each day to finish teaching all the lessons. Peach Pie’s (9th grade or Form 4) school day is 8-3; however, she works mostly independently. Her day includes 50 minutes of violin/piano practice, 20 minutes of playground games/Pilates, and 30 minutes Nature walk which most high schoolers wouldn’t probably get to enjoy during school hours.
Because it was break week, I was able to help my sister Mary a little as she finished up projects at the home they are selling. Tuesday, I prepped walls for painting, and Wednesday, I babysat her pre-schoolers and baby.
Wednesday, I also got a fun haircut. I’ve wanted to get a faux hawk pixie cut for years, and finally decided that it was silly to worry about what people would think and whether I would like it, and that I needed to just live my own life. I am loving my hair cut.
Wednesday night I explained to The Scooter Pies that they are big enough to go to sleep in their own bed (and don’t need to be snuggled all the way to sleep in my bed any more) and old enough to stay in their room until the sunlight comes in their window. I have reaped some precious nights of uninterrupted sleep since, and though I don’t want to rejoice too early and jinx myself, feel cautiously optimistic about this wonderful new arrangement continuing.
Blueberry Pie rescued an abandoned puppy near our home on Thursday. The kids have names him Aztec, and he is pretty cute. We are all trying to learn more about how to take care of a puppy. I’ve already explained to the kids that he has to be an outside dog because we have family who are allergic. So we have a crate to put him in at night, and the kids play with him outside when he is awake. I am eager for his vet appointment on Tuesday to clear up some obvious parasite conditions.
Key Lime Pie’s twelfth birthday was Sunday, and we let our girls get their ears pierced when they turn twelve, so Friday, I took her to get the deed done. It seems a bit barbaric to let my girls get holes punched in their ears, but they all look forward to it eagerly. Julia chose tiny birthstone studs, and my wild child looks sweet and girly. I found her watching “West Side Story” all alone, recently, and thought to myself, “She really is becoming a teenager.”
I still taught piano all week. I have 33 students this year, who I teach in 7 group classes and 11 individual lessons. I teach piano from 3-6pm each day Monday-Thursday. Group lessons are best for the students, they learn rhythm and note reading much more quickly by playing ensemble, and they have more fun in groups; but due to some families schedules, some students being at odd places in the curriculum, and some students wanting individual lessons due to COVID, I have more 1-on-1 lessons than I would have ideally scheduled. The Alveary recommended finding a teacher who uses the “Curwen Method” of teaching. So I read a teaching manual written in the 1890’s by Mary Curwen. The method books I already use are quite similar, but she adds in ear training, which is exactly the thing I have been wanting to add to my teaching. In each lesson, she has the students take “dictation.” They listen to a short sequence and have to write the music down- rhythm and pitch. I believe my students will reap multiple benefits from this practice, and I’m very excited about it.
My conference buddy, Mandy
Saturday after leading a masked ACT study group with Pumpkin Pie and 6 of her friends from school, we loaded up the van and headed up to my Brother Peter and his wife Amy’s house to watch General Conference and play with cousins. The resident Captain had Guard Drill weekend and was gone Friday-Sunday, so it was a good day to run away and play.
One of Blueberry Pie’s swim coaches was getting married up north, near Booneville, Missouri, so he drove up to that. At 6:30, he called to tell me that his car had broken down on I-70, so I began the 3-hour drive to go pick him up. He called the Highway Patrol, and they took him to the nearest truck stop so he didn’t have to wait on the side of the road. It was a good evening for him to get stuck somewhere, really. I didn’t have anything planned except watch conference with Amy, and I listened to it while I drove, plus listened to a big chunck of my fascinating audio book. (It is Rain of Gold by Victor Villaseñor, and I highly recommend it, though it deals with tough realities and some situations are probably PG-16ish.)
Roz the Wild Robot cake
Blueberry Pie and I got back to Peter’s house at about 12:45 and crashed on his couches with the rest of my kiddos. Yay for an unexpected sleepover! We stayed and played with cousins until the morning Sunday session of General Conference was over. Amy fed us some delicious chili, and then we drove home to shower and relax and get ready for Dad to be home from soldiering.
Sunday afternoon, my sister-in-law, Kaitlin (Johnny’s Kaitlin) messaged me that I might be able to salvage my scripture journal by putting it in the freezer for a couple of hours. Back story: I bought a Journal Edition Book of Mormon and have been making study notes all year with friXion pens. These ink pens erase with friction (heat).
A week or 2 ago, I discovered that the book had gotten hot somehow, and many of my notes through first Nephi had erased on their own. Following Kaitlin’s tip, I stuck my BOM in the freezer, and it worked! My notes came back enough that I could tell what I had written, and I went back over them with my flair pens. Lesson learned: don’t journal with erasable pen!
Ben came home from Ft. Leonardwood, happy with the news that he will get to transfer to an instructor position with the RTI. This means he will be teaching new officer candidates. It’s a position he has been actively seeking for a long time. It’s still a one-weekend-a-month gig like normal National Guard stuff, but he will have some 2-week trainings this fall to prepare. It was quite the “break week.” I’m excited to get back to school Monday morning.
Another proud moment for our family. Congratulations, Blueberry Pie for earning your Eagle Scout rank! Nothing will diminish all the hard work that you did to accomplish this. -Dad
Sammy is my youngest brother. He was born 8 months before Blueberry Pie. They were in the same grade in school. We lived next-door until Blueberry and Sammy were almost 8 years old.
Blueberry always wanted to go back and live next to Sammy. (We only moved 20 minutes away, but it was a new school district and it was not next door.) I don’t think he ever got over being so far from his best friend.
Loved band director Mr P SouleSammy also graduatedSammy and PeytonBest friend BaileyBailey and Tyler- also part of Blueberry’s familyThe Squad
Marvelous Pigs in Satin 