November 2021

 Davy got a really nasty case of croup and we ended up going to the ER around 1030 at night. I hate croup so, so much. I was there with Davy for a few hours while they gave him breathing treatments and we slept on and off on a hospital bed. Luckily he improved enough that he didn't have to be officially admitted and we got to go home in the middle of the night. As with most of my kids and croup, once the worst is over, we battle a nasty cough for another week or so, but the scary stuff subsides. 

Thanksgiving "window" painting at the gym.

Christmas Shoeboxes! We've been doing it since Miles was little. It's one of our favorite traditions, even if that means that the younger kids don't love giving the toys away immediately. They're learning.  The older kids now pay for the entire box themselves, which is a huge sacrifice for them when their total comes to $50 plus dollars. 

Bonnie Boreguard moved into our ward in early 2021 I think. I met her on the first day she came back to church after more than 30 years. I knew I immediately liked her. Plus she was super knowledgable about homesteading things that I was a novice in. She offered to come over to help show me how to trim my goat's hooves. I really needed that guidance! But later on she told me what a dark place she had been in, and just being needed by someone helped to pull her out. We became great friends, along with Trudy Halford, who lives down the road and we kind of adopted. When we moved in, Trudy had just lost her husband and was also just barely starting to come back to church.  So we adopted both Bonnie and Trudy. It's very, very clear to me that we were supposed to move here when we did for many reasons, but especially to meet Bonnie and Trudy.  Imaging what a sweet blessing it was to go back to the temple with Bonnie, for her 2nd time only, after being away from the church for decades. It is such a special memory for me. I got to help Bonnie at times throughout the session, and meet her sister. My dear friend Misty (who I was serving with in Relief Society) came also. It was a special, special day.  Later on (hopefully I got some pictures of that...) we taught temple prep to Bonnie and Trudy in our home, with permission from the bishop. Trudy had never gone through the temple before. So they would come over every Monday for dinner and a lesson. Eventually Trudy went through the temple and was sealed to her late husband and children. A really special, special experience. 

Scenes from the homestead and homeschool

2nd half of October 2021

I brought back my window painting skills and starting doing the wall art at my gym in exchange for a free membership. 

I cleaned out the top shelf in our pantry to "manifest" to the universe, or myself, or whatever, that I was going to start making money by making soap. This small shelf seems to be the only usable space in the house to let my soaps cure and hold supplies. Here's to trying new things!

We love the homeschool PE class the rec center puts on! We've attended many sessions. This day was archery. :) I love that I can drop the kids off at the rec center, and have just Davy in tow. I'm guessing it's what it would feel like if I had the kids in school! The kids feel grown up that they get to hang by themselves for hours at the rec center. They bring books etc to keep them busy when it's not their class's turn, but Miles usually doesn't get to read. He's generally the cool older kid who entertains the littles. 

Miles's last football game of the season. I never thought Miles would want to play football. He's such a tender heart. But trying this different, growing opportunity was so great for him to develop some grit. To help him know it's ok to be tough and aggressive, as well as kind and thoughtful. Something about a naturally occurring growth spurt and the physical aspect of the football season helped Miles mature in leaps and bounds. I felt like I was watching a time lapse video of my son growing. We went to and supported as many games as we could. After this game, he said it was the best experience of his life. 

We made a trip down to SLC so that we could be apart of apple cider pressing. It's such a fun tradition. I'm so glad Mom and Dad Garner purchased that apple press and we get to participate in such a cool, fall rite of passage. Of course, the kids loved playing with their cousins! While we were there, Richie also got to go to a James Taylor concert with his Dad!!! Lucky!!

In SLC, we met up with the Crosby clan.  Mom and Dad decided to do the annual grandkid's sleepover in a big way this year. They reserved rooms for every family at Little America downtown and treated us all to " The Secret Garden" at the Hale Center Theater. Wow!!! Such special memories we get to make!

Then Richie headed back up to Idaho, and I took the kids down to SG for a little bit more fall break time.  It was so great. We did crafts with grandma, and got fast food and ate Eggos and watched TV with grandpa. Grandpa also took Miles shooting and Miles totally got a bullseye!! Grandma hosted another grandkids art/talent show. She helped my kids work on some art pieces to present and The girls performed a dance they had choreographed. I got to see my good friend Sam! We took the kids to see where Aunt Jenn works as an actual librarian, which they thought was pretty cool. Aunt Jenn always has the best book recommendations. On the way back up to Idaho, we stopped in SLC again and set up some play dates for the kids to see old friends. Miles hung out with Parker and Colton, and the girls and Benson hung out with Aimsely, Becksley, and Riggin. :)

Halloween! The kids became obsessed with the Annie movie and music this year. They had all the songs memorized and have seen every version of the movie. So this year's costumes were a no brainer. Luckily, Aunt Laura down in Bluffdale has access to thousands of costumes. She had the perfect costume for every kid!! Miles was Rooster, Gwen was Annie, Lindy was Miss Hannigan, Benson was Daddy Warbucks, and Davy was Sandy.  Halloween was on a Sunday this year, which is always so weird. Do you go trick or treating on a Sunday or not? We decided we'd try and go Saturday. It was absolutely deserted! We found one other family trick or treating. It felt so weird. If Halloween is on a Sunday in Utah, you can basically expect everyone to go trick or treating on the Saturday before, and then get a few stragglers on Sunday. Not here! When we went trick or treating on Saturday, we even had people refuse to give us candy, telling us to come back tomorrow. Then the actual Halloween day felt lackluster. I tried to make it fun by having a festive lunch and doing some Harry Potter spells I found online, which were super cool. But it just didn't have the right feel to it. We decided to get back in our costumes and go reverse trick or treating to some of our friends. We took cookies to Bonnie and Trudy and a couple others.