Work never ends

Jared and I went to a marriage retreat at Aspen Lakes at the beginning of the month. My friend Allyson Omdahl sent a picture she took of me and her and Wendy Heim while there. These two have been great friends for me in this ward, so I wanted to document and add the photo to our family history. Allyson and I have been doing carpool and violin duets with our daughters and have been out to dinner a couple times. Wendy has been my running partner for a while now and is one of those people who shows up with dinner on your doorstep just because. I love them both!

The next few pictures in the line up are of my efforts regarding food storage. Did you know September is Emergency Preparedness Month? Neither did I, I found out I was honoring EPM after I made a bunch of freezer jam, stocked our freezer, borrowed a canner from the Lindon Cannery and canned 30 cans, which stocked our storage shelves with flour, oats, nuts, granola, cereal, sugar, etc., I also replaced the 72 hour kits with unexpired goods, and stocked the house with toiletries and the like. The universe and I were in sync.

I snapped a picture of Fiora and her friend Jaquelyn, who volunteered themselves to make a "Wattle and Daub" house for a school project. They were very determined to make a replica of a colonial house made of mud, sticks, and hay, they set up a date to work on the project, and came to our house to brainstorm how they could make this happen. After an hour of watching them wander around talking about what to do, I finally intervened and gave them some direction and assistance, because it was clear to me that they really had no idea how to begin. I was having an attitude about teachers giving kids assignments that require parental intervention, but they are smart girls, it only took showing them where some grass clippings were available (straw) and giving them permission to dig some dirt under the tramp and giving them a bucket to make their mud, and providing an aluminum container to put everything in, and they got the vision and went for it. After their foundation dried a few days later I had to help Fiora build up the walls and weave string along the top to hold up the straw roof, but the majority of the project was done by her. She is a self motivated learner, she asked me to write some large number multiplication problems out for her this morning so she could practice for her test. Math is a weak spot for Fiora, but we are trying to learn together that weaknesses can be turned into strengths. She has never been much of an exerciser, but this week she ran 7 laps at the PG rec in a row! That's half a lap more than a mile. :) The vending machine is a great motivator for her.

Have you ever gotten into a project and then realized you never took a "before" picture? That happened to me this past week as we were remodeling our guest bedroom, so you only get the after picture. Its no secret anymore that Jared and I sleep in separate beds (don't worry we are still very emotionally and physically connected and get plenty of "together" time), because I am a very light sleeper and struggle with insomnia unless conditions are just so. It works better for us to have a place for me to sleep that isn't with a person who snores, goes to bed at odd times, sneezes loudly, showers and shaves at night, and twitches in his sleep. The guest bedroom has been where I have gravitated, and we thought we should make that room the way I like it instead of just thrown together odds and ends of furniture that were cast offs from other people. Jared bought a bedroom set for a great deal and painted it blue, I bought a white duvet cover for my bedspread so I could have a blue and white room, and I changed the valence to white.  Its heavenly. Don't worry, if you want to stay in our guest room/my bedroom, I can sleep in Jared and my king size bed while you stay.

So far we are keeping up with Weston's gymnastics schedule, and he is keeping with it too! He has even found some reasons to love gym now, he says he didn't like his coach at first but now he thinks he is pretty cool. Savanna was complaining about one of her teachers and Weston tried to ffer her some advice, "I bet you need to wait five weeks, after 5 weeks I liked my coach!" He said once after class they were doing standing back flips and Weston was the only one who could do it while squeezing a pair of socks between his feet (I guess they were working on keeping their feet together).  Wes has a competitive streak to him and likes to the the "best." The gym had a parent meeting and I talked with his coach, and he thinks Wes will make the level 5 team, so that means he will compete at gym meets this season. Expensive and exciting, I think its a neat opportunity. How blessed we are to have the means to let Weston achieve his goal! And how awesome he is for putting the work necessary into developing this natural talent he has been given. I've been starting now teaching him that competing is great and all, but the Lord is our #1 priority, and school is also a priority, and a mission is absolutely essential. I can see that as becoming quite a future conflict if he gets too wrapped up in the life of a gymnast.

The primary program came and went. I'm the primary chorister so the primary kids signed a card thanking me for teaching them the songs. It was really cute, and they all sang very well! Jared has been working at ton at real estate, and got a little over stressed, so he took a weekend 4-wheeling excursion with his dad and brother to get away for a bit. He has also been working on some home improvement projects and dejunking. Work never ends, but there are some nice consequences when you work hard, so we keep at it!

 

Math and Orchestra troubles

Junior high has thrown Savanna a couple of curve balls that unfortunately are spilling over and affecting me. One is that Savanna's orchestra teacher has the PR skills of Ebenezer Scrooge, and Sav is getting a real attitude about having to put up with this lady, and its souring her on everything orchestra and violin related. I've worked quite hard the past 4 years trying to keep Sav interested in and thriving in violin, so its not making me happy that Savanna hates her orchestra teacher and is in the back of the class stuck playing violin 2 the entire year. Not that I think Sav is so great at violin and should be a first, but she certainly is getting lost in the shuffle and Sav doesn't really thrive on being ignored and then corrected sternly, and even insultingly at times. I have other moms' testaments to this frustration, just think female Scrooge, and that's her teacher. But at least Sav has managed to scrape an A out of her class the first month, after redoing several things that she didn't have exactly right or missed an instruction or two on. I'm quite tired of hearing Savanna gripe about it, and knowing this is the only orchestra teacher in this school, we have 3 years of this if she can keep it up, and I have little hope that she will. I told her she has to stick with it until at least 8th grade. 

The other curve ball is math class, I have never seen Sav struggle so much with math, she has always been independent at doing math homework, and now she is asking questions and arguing and fighting with Jared and I when we try to learn and explain it to her most every A-day, and she is missing assignments that she claims she turned in, and she got a C- on her test this week. Savanna told me several times her teacher "can't teach math" and Sav zones out and doesn't understand her, and several of the students are struggling to understand how she explains concepts, and many students are transferring out.  I hate to transfer my kids, I feel like there is always something to be learned from every teacher difficult or not, but I did feel like Sav's grade doesn't reflect the work she is putting into math, so I went to parent teacher conference to see for myself what the problem is.  I'm don't expect every teacher to cater to my 12 year old, and Sav sometimes exaggerates.  So I went to see the math teacher that "can't teach math" and I learned that Savanna wasn't exaggerating. I waited in a 45 minute long line with several other parents fit to be tied that their kids' assignments had been lost so they got a 0 even though they turned them in, their kids who never struggled in math before are completely lost and doing poorly on quizzes and exams, and moms whose kids are begging them to transfer out. One mom really laid into the teacher and I felt quite sorry for her, and I doubt she will be able to keep this job if what I heard is true that several complaints have come to the front office about her. But what do I do? After talking to this teacher for 5 minutes I realized she wasn't a good fit for a jr high, something was definitely off with her (diagnosably off), and Savanna may have to work independently and hard in order to succeed, and might not even get an A then. But I felt some compassion for this lady who was trying her best and was at least cordial to me even after having 4 hours of angry parents in her room. But there is definitely more to the problem than just "transition from elementary to jr high" which this teacher claims is the issue for Savanna. Oh dear oh dear oh dear.

The other classes are great, Savanna is thriving in drama, spanish, english, PE, science and CTE.  What doesn't destroy Savanna makes Savanna stronger right? Its hard to see my kid trying and caring and working and getting her confidence shattered and her self esteem blown, but that's part of being in the real world I guess and the rest of her life is pretty dang easy, so on with the jr high journey, and we'll see what the tide brings in next month.

Fun events

I took the girls to a play "The Curious Savage" bc Savanna needed to see a play for Drama and Orchestra. They seemed a little bored at first but the second half was pretty funny and they both left saying they liked it. This was also the day we went tot he mall and the huge rainstorm hit and we had to walk through a flooded parking lot to get to the car. We were soaked. Shawna Schauers let me use her flip flops which I was very grateful for and felt very self conscious wearing to a nice event like a play in the Hale Center Theater. But I loved the play!

The Lindon elementary school carnival was actually really fun this year. The kids loved running around to all the booths and events, getting prizes, and Wes especially loved the blow up obstacle course, and we had a nice hamburger dinner. Fiora got her hair colored. Even big junior highschool girl savanna had a fun time.
 Also pictures of a couple cute kids all spruced up for picture day!

Jesse and Kelsy invited us to Lagoon for FREE with the Nuskin employees. Weston and Jared were on an overnight Father Sons campout, and Savanna hates rollercoasters and heights, so I just took Fiora. She went on about 8 rides before she got motion sick and had to stop. It was fun times, we all took turns taking care of baby Knightly. We waited 10-20 minutes for the rides, but we were in line for an hour for the food, but it was free so I can't complain! Heidi Gabe Lucy and Rachel got tickets from Jesse too.  It was a fun party, we stayed til 10:45 PM. Thanks Jess!

transition

I had a friend ask me the other day "is it nice to have the kids back in school?" and I had to respond "not yet." Because I knew that eventually the transition from summer to school in would be my "new normal" and it would be fine, but my brain, as with most brains, struggles with any large scale change but I'm happy to report that yesterday I finally felt like I had adjusted and all is well again. Having a junior high school child in the mix added an especially difficult transition to adjust to, but I think I've calmed down enough this week to feel assured that Savanna will survive and may even succeed in jr. high. Its still weird having her leaving over an hour earlier than the other two and coming home so early, really cuts in on my personal time ha ha, but she gets up on her own and gets ready fairly independently so its all good.

We had another little angel join the family August 20th.  Ava Luann Schauers was born to Amy and Aaron.  She was only 5 lbs 14 oz, the same as Savanna. She is so tiny, or was when I saw her, she is already two weeks old! Jared had a hard time believing Savanna was once that small, but she was! She is adorable and we are very happy for A and A.

I made a lovely dinner one night, then Jared called and said he wouldn't be home til late as usually happens during the summer, and so we took a picture and said "the only thing missing from this awesome meal is you!" I have been getting on this kick lately of putting fruit in waffle cones. Its a low sugar treat that makes me very happy. I even went to the trouble of borrowing waffle cones from anyone in the neighborhood who had some on a Sunday so I could share my yummy side dish idea with the Schauers family. The evenings are getting pretty busy for me and the kids, so when Jared is busy in the evenings too its a big bummer. Crazy getting going in the morning, dead during the day, crazy going here and there in the afternoons, its the new normal. I hope Jared's business slows down this fall/winter like it usually does so he can help me more, because the kids' and my schedules only get more and more crazy until Christmas which is the climax of all stress. Just looking at my calendar Oct through Dec gives me shivers.

Homework homework homework! If we aren't getting to gym, clogging, orthodontist apts, YW, scouts, volleyball, after school socials, plays, drama tryouts, and friends' houses, we are home hitting the books! Sav had her first "stay up late to finish homework" experience last night. Ah the joys. Thankfully the girls are self motivated to get theirs done on their own, Weston still needs mom and dad to set him down and put a pencil in his hand. 

Poor Weston's hands. Thanks to 9 hours of gymnastics every week he has gotten some big old blisters on his palms that refuse to callous and rip open every time he goes. That caused him a lot of pain, stinging ripped open blisters. He told me not to tape them because he was afraid of slipping off the bars, but yesterday after class he said "Mom you need to tape these, they keep bleeding!" Yes we need to tape those! We watched "Holes" just so Weston could empathize with the boys' blistered hands digging holes every day. Weston comes home from gym with a new set of sore muscles each time, first it was his pectorals, then his triceps, then his abs, then his back muscles. Its been hard on me as a mom to watch him build endurance. I keep reminding myself that other than gymnastics his life is easy, he could use some toughening. Brave tough little Weston.