I’ve been chomping at the bit to write this monthly update. So much happened in the beginning of the month, and then when it slowed down I thought for sure the month must be over. Nope. Barely through the 3rd week. Depending on how you look at this month… it had 5 weeks!
The month began with our Church 4th of July activity, of which I was partially in charge. A week before the activity (a pancake breakfast and bike parade) I learned that we were getting WAY LESS help than expected so I needed to pick up a lot of slack. I was anxious about it, but JR was confident and I moved forward, glad he’d be available to help me. Then he had to go out of town, and wouldn’t be home until the night before the activity! So I was on my own, and I only panicked for a while before I pulled myself up by my boot straps and got to work. I realized that since I was in charge of food, I could procure healthier food options (instead of the cheap, albeit tasty, full of definitely not healthy ingredients option). The activity was terrific! The number we expected showed up, and the extra food was divided up into bags and sent home with whomever wanted it. I also got a few bottles of maple syrup (win for me!). Some people loved the healthier food options, and others complained that it was a terrible choice.
M&M turned 1 a week later! I read through her birth story, and then had to journal again about many unresolved emotions. So many emotions about pregnancy and birth and kids. Maybe it’s just there are so many emotions. All the time. For everyone. Maybe? Or not.
I made her a cake (out of baby friendly ingredients) with maple-sweetened yogurt for frosting, and it was so good the kids and I just wanted to eat it instead of our individual NothingBundtCakes® (the kids got them free through a reading program at the library).
JR’s parents visited, and to be honest, I was rather nervous about the visit. It’s not like we could house them, and even inviting them over to our house-like-an-oven seemed stressful. At the Grandparent’s house back in Utah, the kids were expected to never be loud, but in our sweet ToastyHome, the kids were able to be rather loud and ya know, be kids. Make messes. Spill milk or water (and then clean it up, of course). JR and I discussed, made a schedule, and then prepped the best we could, and decided to just let go of expectations and go with the flow. Since we couldn’t house them, and they were staying at an airbnb, we decided to take a spread of breakfast items to them. We were expecting a quick drop off, since they’d been traveling all day, and instead they invited us in and we all happily chatted for over an hour. Goose texted us, “you said you’d be gone only 12 minutes!” (which, I didn’t. But I did say it’d be a quick drop off and the airbnb was 6 minutes away).
The next few days were not according to the schedule at all! On the days we were planning outdoor things, It rained! So our schedule kept changing. On days we planned to go out to dinner, we went to lunch instead. Instead of this restaurant we went to that one. And the best part of all… we were all having so much fun. I had anticipated a rather stressful week trying to keep the kids in line. Instead, they had a terrific time with their grandparents and I, personally, engaged with my FIL more than I have the entirety of the last 5 years. They brought loads of presents, and we played games (especially Cover Your Cookies), went to the KidMuseum, read books together, did archery at the ActivityCenter, and went bowling, etc. Oh, and BIGGEST thing of all (the main reason they came out), My newly turned 8-year-old, Boo, got baptized. I had put some thought into it, and I got her a pretty white baptism dress & Grandma gifted her a pretty bracelet. Boo asked Goose and me to be witnesses. (Twas my first time being a witness). Other things I forgot about until the morning of. I actually planned the baptism program on the drive to the baptism. Boo had invited some friends, and after the baptism we gobbled up the delicious fruit skewers that we’d assembled that morning.
On the Sunday during their visit, I got called to be the secretary of the Relief Society, and I also taught RS for the first time ever. I was exceedingly nervous. I think overall, I did okay. The lesson was on Elder Uchtdorf’s last talk in General Conference on Discipleship. In our congregation, we have rich, poor, educated, not-educated (I was going to say Smart/Dumb, but thought better of it), lots of children, no children, and everything in between. There is quite a diversity, and it’s quite different from our previous one. The message is the same, we are not trying to change others to all be just like us, we are trying to all face the same direction – to Jesus. He is the answer.
Other updates this month, the RS had a “crochet craft” night. I had planned to go with just Goose and Boo, but JR was not home, and in order to go I had to take them all. It was a great night and so stressful. Trying to learn a new skill (knitting) while navigating conversation with new people, while trying to keep track of my offspring, all of whom wanted to learn a new skill too… it was, uh… trying. But, good. I’m glad I went. Though, if I had known in advance how hard it was to be, I might have talked myself out of it. Good thing I didn’t know, eh? Afterwards the kids all wanted to either learn or practice crocheting. This was fine for Goose, I could watch a how-to video with her and she could pick it up quick. But with every other child I had to patiently coach them through each part of the process. For Nana and The Boy this meant I had to LEARN the process of crocheting LEFT-handed. This turned out to be very good for me, because in the process I learned various things I’d been doing wrong for all my years of crocheting. It’s slow work. Boo can hold the string and crochet 3 different stitches, but she likes me to be right there to watch and correct if (when) she gets it wrong. The Boy and Nata still prefer I hold the string (in my right hand, of course), while they crochet the stitch. Nana copies me in how she holds her hook, but The Boy insists he hold his a different way (like a pencil), and so guiding him has been a step trickier. The whole thing has been a marvelous opportunity for me to practice patience.
Confessions of a Wannabe Homesteader 