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!