First Half of June

Kid's Day
The last couple of years, the kids look forward to "kid's day" with much anticipation. It's the only day of the year I don't regulate screen time. :) Really, kid's day is supposed to be a day where they can do "anything" they want, but usually that just translates into unlimited video games. I think in their mind, it's the first official day of summer vacation, even though we had finished our school work the week before.


Cove Fort
We headed down to Cove Fort early in June to do our annual Mother's Day Luncheon. We ended up spending most of our time at an Indian Cultural Center nearby where they were having a demonstration day. Perfect! The kids got to eat flat bread, weave with beads, do some wood burning, watch actual weaving going on, there was a visitor's center with cool stuff in it, and lots of petroglyphs on a little hike nearby. Then we headed back to the fort and had lunch before heading back to Riverton. It was a wonderful day!


Lindy tumbling
An old friend Richie grew up with is hosting a little tumbling class in her backyard this summer. We signed up and it has been so fun! The first day Lindy was extremely shy and took some work getting warmed up to a new place and new people, but after that she's been great. It's been really fun to be able to watch her. When she did her little tumbling class at Gwen's dance studio this past year, parents were never allowed to just sit in the class and watch. So that's been fun. And realizing how capable she is! She's very precise and good at it, for her age.


Quilt tying
As a homeschool group, we set up some activities for us to do during the summer before our school year ended. Otherwise we knew we'd have a hard time seeing each other because everyone just gets so busy. So Breann chose quilt tying for her service activity. We spent a morning tying 2 quilts at Christy's house. Miles really hung in there till the end. I was so glad they taught my kids how to do this! I was busy chasing Benson and not much help truthfully. But Gwen and Miles put in some actual work. :) Then a week later, we took them up to the LDS humanitarian center to donate them and go on a tour. It was such a great experience!


Road Rally Scouts
Mile's June Pack meeting was one where kids could bring bikes, scooters etc. and they did different activities with them. The kids had a lot of fun. Gwen made it all the way till the end before she totally biffed it in her roller skates and landed on her rear. Lindy had a small breakdown in the middle because she thought one station was a race, and she was trying SO hard, and couldn't keep up with the big kids. She was scooting her little heart out, but couldn't compete with the 10 year olds on bikes. She calmed down after a bit and enjoyed the smaller scale obstacle course.


Ensign Peak
Another activity we planned as a homeschool group was hiking Ensign Peak. It's short but steep. I wanted my kids to hike it though because I wanted them to know that their Grandpa Hinckley was instrumental in getting the site restored after years of discard and vandalism. Benson refused to stay in his hiking backpack, so I ended up carrying him in my arms and walking fast to catch up with everyone, or letting him walk on his own and pick up every single rock he saw. He loves rocks! Afterward, the Jameses invited us to go swimming at her in-laws house near by. The kids had such a blast. I'm pretty sure it was Benson's first time in a pool, and he wasn't so sure about it.


Splash Pad Day
Can't have too many splash pad days in the summer! I made the mistake of telling the kids that I'd invited some friends. And when they didn't show up, it was hard for them to have a happy attitude about our fun activity. Oh well.


New Kiwi Crate
Our kiwi crates still show up every month. I love the mindset of continual learning. It doesn't matter that we're "out of school" for the summer, there is always learning taking place. We did a fun UV light one that was really cool (probably my favorite one so far) and then this fun one on the human body.


Face Painting
Lindy had been begging to paint my face for about a week. I kept putting it off, but finally felt like I had time one night. She had so much fun and felt so special. I specifically left it on the rest of the night so that she knew how much I loved it. :)


Miles Bball
We signed Miles up for a rec center session of Basketball. It's been a really good experience for him. He likes to shoot around in the front yard, but has never really been in a game scenario. Once a week they have drills, and once a week they have a game. So he's learning the ins and outs of the game, and although there is a BIG learning curve, he's having a really good time and working really hard. The first week of practices, I entertained the other kids in the racquetball courts while he had his practice. When he was finished, he came to find us and had a bloody tissue up his nose. He said a ball hit in in face when they were passing, but he's ok. :)


Swimming Lessons
Something we always look forward to in the summer is swimming lessons! We're only doing one session this year because the lady I found is in Sandy. It's a long drive and a big time commitment. We're there every morning from 11-130. That doesn't include driving time. Her backyard it really great, so it hasn't been as hard as I thought it would be entertaining Benson for that long. He does pretty well. Besides the actual swimming, the kid's favorite part has been finding friend's to trade Pokemon cards with. After the first day, Gwen came up to me and said, "Miles is really good at making new friends." She said it in kind of a sad voice, like maybe she isn't. Miles is a naturally good friend maker, but with a tiny bit of encouragement, Gwen is great at it too. She felt better when she had made some of her own friends as well as the buddies miles was trading cards with.


Tea Party
Gwen set up a pretty legit tea party for her, Lindy, and her friend Aimsley one day. It was pretty cute to watch from the garden as I weeded.

Today I....

*6:30 Alarm goes off and is conveniently silenced. The burning feeling in my eyeballs tells me that I may have stayed up too late last night... Lindy climbs in bed with me, asks me to make her some dinner (breakfast) and quickly falls asleep again, snuggled close to me.

*7:30 The other kids are beginning to stir, so I face the inevitable. But not before retreating to the bathroom to, besides the obvious, delay the morning by checking stuff on my phone and deciding what we will be having for breakfast. I get so sick of deciding what every meal is going to be. Anyone else?

*8:00 Oh Shoot! Lindy has that early tumbling class at 9, and then we have to book it up to SLC for a homeschool field trip. (Just because it's summer doesn't mean the learning stops!) Throw some cereal on the table, make a Kiefer smoothie to ease my mom guilt about feeding my children a semi-unhealthy (but necessarily quick) breakfast.  The kids pour themselves the biggest bowls of cereal known to man, and then reach for the milk carton, which turns out to be...light. No problem, Mom can fix that! I take the almond milk carton to the sink, mix in a little water- Ta-Da! But even that isn't enough! So I take some of the whole, cow's milk I just poured into my Kiefer start and strain a bit off into each kid's bowl. Yep. That's how we get breakfast done! Boom!

*8:30 Chaos! Change a poopy diaper, fix girl's hair, start a load of laundry, coach son on his dishes responsibility for the day, clear off the table, rush the kids to do their animal chores, say prayers, and make their beds, roll in garbage and recycling cans, start to lose my mind, and oh-what else? I feel like I'm missing something... Clothing. Yep, getting dressed would be a good idea.

*8:52 The essentials: I change my underwear, put on actual clothing, brush my teeth, put on deodorant, somehow manage to get a bit of makeup on, leave bed-hair in a high bun (so classy), grab a water bottle, some browning bananas, and a half eaten clamshell of blueberries, and we're out the door!

*9:05 Lindy is only mildly shy this time and seems to genuinely enjoy her tumbling class. Her teacher has prepared such fun activities! Miles makes a friend with another boy there (no surprise), Gwen inserts herself into the gymnastics class as a volunteer helper (no surprise), and Benson has decided to try and wear me out before lunch (no surprise).


*9:45 Book it up to SLC to tour the LDS humanitarian center. Last week, we all got together as a homeschool group to tie a couple of quilts we wanted to donate. So today, we skipped swimming lessons and a scout hike to have this experience. Some things are more important than others.  I'm incredibly grateful for my smart phone and it's direction giving abilities. We make it to welfare square, but no one else is there. Turns out, Welfare square and the Humanitarian center are 2 different things! I whip out my handy-dandy gps to find the new place, get half way there, and then it dies. If you don't know me personally, let me just tell you I'm one of the most directionally challenged people out there. So on a scale  of 1-10, my anxiety level during finding new places is usually right around the level where you want to curl up in the fetal position.

*10:30 Everyone makes it and we start the tour. I'm blown away by the good that is happening there! WOW! Clothing, medicine, clean water, wheelchairs, disaster relief, education etc... And though our 2 quilts are small, I'm crossing my fingers that my kids get that good feeling in their hearts that you get when you know you've played a part in something wonderful.


*12:30 I only get slightly lost trying to find the freeway back home (small victories people), and I spent 50% of the drive back listening to Lindy make up her own songs (cause she doesn't like listening to books on CD), and flinging my free arm behind me to whack Benson in the legs, desperately trying to keep him awake!! We all know what happens when babies fall asleep for 20 minutes before their official nap time and then you have to get them out of their carseats.... it's not pretty.

*1:00 Eat a quick lunch and send the kids to separate spaces for quiet time. I am a firm believer in alone time. Everybody needs it! So when they sneak into each others rooms, I go separate them-again and again and again... Finally I let them play together, and wouldn't you know it- they can't seem to play for more than 10 minutes before there is a fight of some sort. So during what is supposed to be my break-time, I'm up and down 83 times. Super relaxing. My episode of "The Office" is interrupted more times than I can count! (Good thing I've seen every episode a million times, whew!)

*3:30 I tell the kids to clean up their rooms while I go mow the lawn to surprise Dad-who broke his pinky toe last night, poor guy! I mow front and back, AND hang up a load of laundry. When I come back inside Miles is all ready, but the girls haven't touched their rooms at all. Each conveniently claims the other one is to blame...

So here's how I handle it:

1. "Hey guys! Let's not tattle on each other, let's just please pick up your room. Then you guys can have computer time! Yay!" Nothing is done. More fighting happens.

2. "Gwen and Lindy, let's get going! You've already had 30 minutes to get this done, and it could have taken you 5! You can do it!" Nothing is done. More fighting happens.

3. "Get going! I'm setting a timer for 10 minutes and if it's not done when the timer goes off, neither of you get computer time!" Nothing is done. More fighting happens.

4. "GET YOUR ROOM CLEAN NOW!!!! YOU PUT THAT BOOK AWAY! YOU PICK UP THOSE CLOTHES" etc. The room actually gets clean! And they wonder why I act like a crazy person sometimes!??

*4:30 I get some yummy kisses from Benson, the kids take turns on the computer, work on their summer bingo charts (A genius idea I had last year. I'll post more later), and I start a batch of bread. Mama Garner comes over to drop of some healthy dog food for Ginger. (I usually buy whatever is cheapest, so Ginger is in for a treat!) We chat for a bit, I pick her brain about plants and recipes and find out that what I thought were turnips that I had planted are actually collard greens....So yeah, I don't remember planting those, I've never prepared them...This should be interesting!

*6:30 We eat a simple dinner of scrambled eggs thanks to our chickens out back,  and our spinach out front. Now if I could just make my own cheese! Miles makes some toast from the fresh bread, and as we're finishing, Dad comes home from another window job. He's totally beat, so I'm still on full-time parent mode. The kids work on their chores, and then I tell them that if they help me pull some weeds out in the garden, and harvest some peas quickly, they can watch some of a movie.

*6:40 I'm not as zen as I wish I was, and I have to bring Benson back inside after 2 minutes cause he's pulling entire pea plants out. The kids and I do what we can, then they go in to watch a show, but I stay out. It's that magical time of evening where the entire garden is shaded. It's almost completely quiet outside and I just lean into that ache in my back that's still there from yesterday when I had to replant all of the green beans. Of the many lessons to be learned from the garden, one that's always at the forefront is "try, try again". I weed the beds with the peas in them and harvest a small bowl.  Our garden is too small to produce much in the way of canning and preserving, but it's a great size for snacking.

*7:30 I hang up another load of laundry, my favorite chore, and let Richie shell the peas with his injured foot elevated. He's visibly excited when I tell him tomorrow I'll attempt his mother's "creamed peas and potatoes" recipe with our fresh peas.

*8:00 Woops! Did I miss bedtime? Must be because the kids are quiet, and I'm busy checking Facebook and Instagram...again...

*8:30 Alright, alright. Time to get this show on the road! Cause the sooner the kids are in bed, the sooner I'm a free woman! Richie handles most of it and tells me to sneak out to the gym. He didn't have to fight me too hard on it.

*9:30 When I'm at the gym I love catching up on my reading, people watching and, oh yeah, exercising. But my favorite all time activity is the sauna. It feels great, yes, but the best thing about it is the awkwardness. Just sitting in a small, dark, incredibly hot room, sweating with a bunch of strangers. Yep. I get such a kick out of it. Usually I just close my eyes, deep breathe, and let my mind wander. But one of these days I'm going to write a book about my conversations and observations of my time in the sauna.

*9:45 Get home, put my feet up with some almonds and chocolate chips, Richie and I manage to squeeze in an old re-run of "Monk" before his eyelids weigh a thousand pounds, and then I offer my classic line, "I'm almost to a good stopping point on (whatever it is I'm working on). I'll be in to bed in just a second." Richie never believes it, deep down I know it's not true, but for some reason it always comes out.

*12:26 am Contentedly typing away, trying to avoid thinking about the chaos that will ensue tomorrow morning the moment my eyes open.

The rest of May

To end Lindy's Joy school year, we went on a field trip to Wheeler Farm! The weather made it so pleasant. It's always a fun, free outing!


I turned 32! To celebrate We got dinner from Costa Vida, and the kids made me a cake! Nothing particularly magical happened on my birthday, but it was such a lovely day!


Uncle Jacob came to sleepover! We get to be closer to him this summer before he moves to Iowa for med school, so we're trying to soak up all the uncle time we can.



Richie tamed our trees. We'd really like to chop a couple of the cottonwoods down, but they are too close to neighbors houses to do it ourselves, and we can't fork out the small fortune it costs to have it professionally done, so Richie rented a special gadget and spent nearly all day taming our canopy out back. The internet is working better now, thanks to our hard working man!


Pretty Garden/flowers/produce!


Gwen had her last dance recital of the year, and Lindy's tumbling class participated at the beginning so it was her very first! I was nervous to see how she'd handle being on stage. To the trained eye, I could see a lot of nervous energy coming from her on stage, but overall she did so well! She was ridiculously excited about actually being in the recital after years of watching Gwen perform and cheering her on from the audience. Before they started, I went backstage to snap a couple of pictures. I said, "Get together and smile!" This is what I got:


So then I asked Lindy to smile normally, and this is what I got:


So then I suggested that we take some individual shots, so that Gwen would have at least 1 non-goofy picture of her:


And then I told Lindy I'd get some individuals of her, and to smile nicely. This is what I got:


Last Official Homeschool group day of the year to "This is the Place" park. The end of our history curriculum this year left us with the 49ers. So it was fun to practice panning for gold and to get an idea of what pioneer life was like. Benson wore me out. Maybe it's just his age...I'm hoping he calms down a little bit. Please help him calm down a little bit! It's impossible for him to stay in once place long, especially when it's a new exciting place. And he's a runner, so I've always got to have 1 eye on the three oldest, and 1 eye just for Benson. It was a really wonderful outing, and I was really tired when it was done. :)



Memorial Day! We started the day off at the Blufdale cemetery to "say hello" to Matthew and Karl and Helen. Then Richie had the idea to go up to the SLC cemetery to visit the grave of my Hinckley grandparents. We had no idea of the scope of the SLC cemetery. It's gigantic! And without super specific directions, we ended up wandering around for about an hour, until we were all tired and defeated. To salvage what was supposed to be a family history activity, we stopped at my grandparent's old home on 12th avenue (and Richie reluctantly took a picture in front! I checked and no one was home, but he was still uncomfortable :) ) And then we went and ate at Litza's Pizza. I have wanted to eat here ever since we moved to the valley. I remember my parents telling me that it was a favorite of my Grandpas. Although the pizza was yummy, it was expensive and the service was reeeeeally slow. So I spent about 45 minutes walking around with Benson before we ate. Ha! Oh man, sometimes we try to create these special memories, and...it's doesn't end up the way you think it should.