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My First Visit to Grand Canyon

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.

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Categories family vacation, homicidal pets, Monument Valley Adventure

New Sunday Clothes for the Scooter Pies

19 Nov

Don’t they look handsome?

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Categories Monument Valley Adventure, Zeke&Skeeter

Sunrise Hike around the Mittens

18 Nov

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.

Looking at the West Mitten from the north side

Apple Pie was the only kiddo willing to get up at 6 A.M. She rocks.

The Man of the House in front of the West Mitten (but the eastern face of it)

Full sun- the west mitten in the foreground, east mitten in the rear.

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Categories hike, Monument Valley Adventure

Rez Life Quirks

13 Nov

This is the Mesa that I look at every day out my kitchen window.

Living in Monument Valley has spectacular views. There are other, less spectacular things. Like very spotty cell service and frequent power-outages. Usually the power is only out for a short time, but this Saturday it was out for about 24 hours.

Luckily, we have flashlights and a propane grill. Hamburgers for the win!

The power outage interrupted my weekend sewing project.

A few years ago, I made a wedding dress. There was some lace left over, and I promised to make a baby blessing dress for the bride’s baby girl.

Baby girl is on her way here, so I got out the lace. There was far less lace than I remembered.

First panic.

I finagled around and got all the pieces I needed cut. I did some sewing and put the project away for the next day.

A week or two later, I finally had time to get it out again. I could not find some of the pieces. I looked and looked, but they were lost.

Second panic.

I considered cutting the skirt shorter to replace the pieces. I called my sister, and she talked me off that ledge.

Then I found the original pieces. They were the pieces I had already sewn together, and they had been right in front of my face the whole time. My sister suggested medication. I decided I had better finish the dress that day rather than lose pieces/forget what I had already done yet again.

The pattern instructions confused me several times. I read them and re-read them and re-read them again. Finally I figured out what the pattern was telling me to do. This dress has a bodice front and back, a lace overlay front and back, and a lining front and back. I was confusing the bodice and the bodice lining. 3 layers. Not 2. I had to cut out more bodice pieces. So now the skirt lining is shorter, because I had to get that fabric from somewhere, and Jo-Anne’s is 3 hours away!

I sewed the bodice together wrong two different times before I got it right. I really hate unpicking lace.

Finally, the dress was all the way sewn, except for the sleeves and buttons. Then the power went out. Forced sewing break.

Did I mention that it’s hard to do a sewing project when you live almost 3 hours from the fabric store?

I had to get creative a couple of times, when I didn’t have what the patterned called for (interfacing—replaced it with fuse-able hem tape), and I almost gave up when it got time to put button holes in. My machine is a tiny bit broken on it’s button-hole function. I tried elastic loops for the buttons, but they looked terrible.

The resident captain came to my rescue and suggested hook and eye closures and to let the buttons just be for decoration. Quick as a wink, I applied his genius idea. Also, I managed to break a hand sewing needle, as well as stab myself and bleed all over the dress while I was sewing on the buttons, because that fuse-able hemming tape turned out to be really hard to sew through.

Now it’s been a week since I finished the dress, but it isn’t mailed yet because another quirk of Rez life is that the post office is only open from 9 AM to 1 PM (fairly frequently it closes earlier than the posted hours.) So I can only go on my lunch break. Additionally, the post office only takes cash. So it took me several days to get cash and several tries of not making it to the post office in time. Tomorrow will be the magic day, I’m sure of it.

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Categories Monument Valley Adventure, sewing

Corkscrew Canyon

11 Nov

Our friends, Mark and Shannon, took us hiking in Corkscrew Canyon. It is not in a tourist area, and only people who live here can go to it. (You gotta know someone.)

It was beautiful and fun. We had to carry a ladder with us, and Shannon’s 25-year-old son had to scramble up and down a couple of tough places to place the ladder for us oldies.

An old ladder, washed out and buried in a flood

Climbing on the hills beyond the canyon. This is so high up, I am super freaked out.

Banana Cream Pie and Apple Pie stayed home and missed out on this awesome hike.

This place has weird, hollowed-out rocks

Corkscrew Canyon is super cool.

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Categories hike, Monument Valley Adventure

Hike to Tear Drop Arch

28 Oct

Looking back down the trail towards Monument Valley

The Tear Drop Arch is not a true arch, but it is still cool.

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Categories hike, Monument Valley Adventure

Homecoming

11 Oct

The resident Captain announced the football game for homecoming. Our team lost, but the view was spectacular.

Miss Tsébii’nidzisgai Elementary School Princess

About half the school royalty wore traditional Navajo dress and about half wore modern formal gowns. The traditional Navajo dresses looked far more royal to me.

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Categories Monument Valley Adventure

Camping in Manti-Lasal National Forest

11 Oct

We drove to Monticello, Utah for a lightning quick camping trip the last weekend of September.

We left home about 3pm Friday and we’re home again by 3:30 pm Saturday. Someday I’d really like to try leisurely camping. At least I think so. I like the idea of camping, but it seems like I always have a terrible sinus headache when we get to camp, and I’m as eager as anyone to go back home as soon as possible.

The gamble oak grove was a perfect setting to begin reading “The Book of Three.” When a child asked “what’s a thicket?” I could just point.

Zeke informed me that he was an expert at woodcraft.

Matches was the thing we forgot to bring, so dinner was late, and the mountain air was cold. When our fearless leader returned with fire, we rejoiced.

In my worry over everyone else having what they needed, I forgot my own jacket. So I wrapped up in a sleeping bag for much of the evening.

Poor Apple Pie had a cold and suffered pretty much the whole trip. Here she tries what hot apple cider and a flannel nightgown can do for comfort.

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Categories camping, Monument Valley Adventure

Practicing Mediocre Skills

11 Oct

El Capitan, near our home, looks like an evil enchanter’s castle to me. It looms over the landscape, and can be seen for miles.

After two weeks of substitute teaching at the Elementary school, two things happened. First, I was shocked at the low literacy rates, the high amount of worksheets, and the low amount of actual books the teachers were reading to the students (nearly zero.) In my mind, these things are very much related. How can we expect children to learn to read if it isn’t exciting and fun? Books are exciting and fun. Worksheets are not. When I asked about books, I was told, “The teachers don’t have time to read for fun.”

I wanted to cry, “But what about reading for knowledge? Reading for context? Reading to learn how to read?”

Since I have no public school teaching experience yet, I held my tongue. But my heart is weeping over the dismal daily grind of copying answers on worksheets the kids are subjected to.

The second thing I learned was, I prefer to know what I am doing every day, instead of it being a surprise.

So, I applied for and accepted at job as para, or teacher’s aid, for the JR High reading teacher. He is so gracious and happy to have my help, and I am happy to be busy working for something meaningful. In the JR high and high school, many of the students are still at a zero-first grade reading level. Here too, the daily school work is pretty much copying answers from the board onto worksheets, because they cannot even read their worksheets. Direct phonics instruction is a pretty new occurrence in this school, so the high schoolers never had it. That’s where I am focusing my efforts, that and reading from actual books.

I have found that my patience for struggling readers in the classroom is much higher than my patience was when my own children were the struggling readers.

I was blessed to find this excellent resource. I love that it gives basic learning sequences and best strategies for reading.

Skeeter’s third grade teacher shared this excellent resource with tons of free online tools. So awesome.

When we moved to Monument Valley,

I expected that my well-developed music skills would be instantly needed here. Instead, I have been using my mediocre hair-cutting skills to give the missionaries hair cuts, saving them hours of time, and lots of money. (The closest barbershop charges $35 for a basic men’s haircut.)

I have also been using my fledgling invite-people-to-gather skills to create more connection and community. I’ve organized play-dates with the stay-home-moms and invited families to our house for dinner and games and singing more times since we moved here than I did in a year in Missouri. There are plenty of new teachers who are alone because they know this isn’t their forever home, and some are reluctant to invest time in building relationships, not to mention overwhelmed with their teaching work–but at the same time, they are lonely and need the support of community. I know the best thing to do is gather.

I was surprised that what I have been useful for so far has been these things that are not my strengths. As I thought more on it, I realized, of course, God is always putting us places where we can grow, not places where we can rest easy on skills that we already have.

❤

GlowWorm