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 birthday party supplies I got at Dollar Tree.
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.
Apple Pie, Banana Cream Pie, and Key Lime Pie are selling Girl Scout cookies. When we moved here in August, the group was just being formed. I don’t know much about Girl Scouts, but it’s pretty much the only program happening after school around here, so I made the girls join. We had one gardening activity in the fall, and then nothing happened. But the leader (I don’t know the title for the Girl Scout equivalent to a Cub Scout Den Mother is) is making another effort to get things going, and February is cookie month. Apple Pie is dedicated and excited, even when the weather is windy and 30 degrees. At least the sun is shining!
Key Lime Pie and Banana Cream Pie chose to stay home where it’s warm. No sales for them. I found out that one of the teachers here was a Girl Scout, so I need to ask her lots of questions.
This morning we helped clean the church building. One benefit to living here is that the church building is so small, we can get it really clean in under an hour. The brother in charge of scheduling has a box of cards with jobs on them. I took pictures of the cards, and I am determined to do 2 things:
1. Make our own job cards for Saturday morning chores at home.
2. Clear all my books and papers off of the flat surfaces around the house so that the cleaning and dusting will be easy.
In Missouri, when I read house cleaning books, I was always surprised at the emphasis put on weekly dusting. Dusting once a month felt like overkill to me- there just wasn’t that much dust. But here in the desert, there really is enough dust to justify weekly dusting of the piano and bookshelves.
Back in December, Zeke was sick with a minor cold, but ran a fever enough that he missed nearly a whole week of school. That experience has made him eternally hopeful, and he insists that I check his temperature every morning before school. He likes school fine, but he would rather stay home and watch movies all day.
This week we have been playing lots of BananaGrams. Skeeter made a pretty impressive crossword puzzle. I was going to get a better picture of it, but it got destroyed before I could get around. Some of his words were: admire, riper, prix, and defeat. He reads a little slower than Zeke, but he is faster at spelling.
Two thoughts from my scripture study this week:
From Rosalynde Welch: The ancient Israelites had their tabernacle- their “tent of meeting” where God’s presence was. There they could go to feel His presence and learn more about Him. The greatest revelation of all is the revelation of God to the world in the personage of Jesus Christ. We have temples today, but on a smaller scale we also have the scriptures. The scriptures are a “text of meeting,” they are full of the presence of God, and as we study, if we come to our study desiring to be changed (not just to get out of it what we already know) we can enter into God’s presence, and He can be revealed to us.
This morning I was rereading Susan H Porter’s talk from October 2021 conference.
She said,
“Sisters and brothers, how can we receive the transforming power of God’s love? The prophet Mormon invites us to “pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ.” Mormon is inviting us not only to pray that we may be filled with His love for others but to pray that we may know of God’s pure love for ourselves.”
I felt happiness from that reminder that God doesn’t just love everyone. He loves me.
He loves you.
Love,
GlowWorm
Walking to school while it is snowing outside is fun. I considered driving, but I don’t like driving in the snow, and it is just slightly less than a half mile to walk to school. I’m glad my sister, Mary gave me this coat. The fur-edged hood books a lot of wind and snow from my face and holds warm air in.
We absolutely loved having Pumpkin Pie and Peach Pie with us in Monument Valley for a few days.
One thing I miss about homeschool is not having a “First Day Field Trip.” So, starting this year, we will now have a “First Day Hike” tradition on New Year’s Day.
Gouldings Arch is a five minute drive and a short, easy walk from where we live.
We had a great Thanksgiving.
My sister-in-law, Linda, and my brother-in-law, Daniel, came down to Monument Valley from Slat Lake City. I cooked a big Thanksgiving dinner, which we ate on Wednesday.
Also on Wednesday, we took Linda and Daniel to Corkscrew Canyon. It had rained recently, so the bottom of the canyon was full of water. Because of that, we only went in a little way, but Daniel was still able to get some good photos, and Linda and I got to talk a lot, so mission accomplished!
Finishing the work of Thanksgiving dinner turned out to be awesome because on Thursday morning, while I knew everyone else was slaving to cook Thanksgiving dinner, I could just relax. As Mole says in The Wind in the Willows ,
“…the best part of a holiday is perhaps not so much to be resting yourself, as to see all the other fellows busy working.”
I wasn’t sure that was true when I first read it, but I found it was true on Thanksgiving morning.
My husband and Daniel took a morning hike around the Mittens.
Thursday afternoon, we headed down to the south rim of the Grand Canyon.
We entered the east entrance and went straight to the watchtower.
We had to wait in line a bit to go into the tower.
The weather was chilly and there were patches of snow on the ground, but it was warm inside the tower. The views from the rim were (obviously) spectacular and surreal.
The inside of the tower had fascinating paintings, copied from ancient Native American art.
After exploring all the tower had to offer, we continued along the rim, stopping at most of the overlooks, until the sky began to get dark and the air too cold.
Then we headed to an AirBnB I had booked in Williams, about an hour south of the Grand Canyon. It was a super cute cabin with a gas fire place. The kids loved it and ran up and down the stairs, pausing to bask in front of the fireplace and rest.
I had brought plenty of leftovers from home. And I made crab rangoon cups in the mini muffin tin for extra snacking.
Our original plan had been to return to the Grand Canyon on Friday morning and visit the main visitor’s center and maybe hike.
However, the morning was foggy and snowing, and the kids just wanted to stay at the cabin in front of the fire. Additionally, Linda had a terrible migraine, and my back was really hurting me. None of my usual stretches or creams were helping.
After discussing, we decided that we probably would not see much of the canyon with all the fog, anyway, and we just relaxed at the cabin all day. I lay on my back reading a novel, the kids ran up and down the stairs and watched Bugs Bunny on TV, and Ben and Linda slept. I have to admit, it was a great day for everyone (except Linda.) She finally called her doctor and got him to send a prescription to Flagstaff so that Ben could pick it up and ahead could have relief. Thus Ben and Linda took a quick trip to Flagstaff.
When she got her prescription, Linda bought tasty pizza for dinner.
Saturday morning we headed home, but we stopped at PetSmart in Flagstaff to fulfill my beginning of the school year promise to Isla.
We adopted Potato and Poochee
Potato is fairly friendly, although he bit me the first time I tried to trim his nails, so I don’t trust him completely.
Poochee is very shy.
Do I regret getting pets? Time will tell.
This is definitely the kind of trip we want to have while we are living in Monument Valley.
Our friend, Stine, a teacher here in Monument Valley, took us on a sunrise hike around the Mittens. This was by far, my favorite hike of all that we have taken in Monument Valley
As the light dawned on the mittens, the immensity of the mittens dawned on me.
Marvelous Pigs in Satin 