The Georgia Times

The Best Things in Life are Free

2011-12-30T07:59:00.002-05:00

Laughter - Hugs - Chatting - Goofing off - Attending the Temple - Reading "A Christmas Carol" and watching "It's a Wonderful Life" for the zillionth time - Listening to and playing lots of Christmas music together - Tickling Seth: This is what we did for the holidays. Of course, we had to spend almost $2000 to get all the kids here to DO these things, but it was totally worth it. As I drove Lindy and Nick to the airport this morning, I was reflecting on how fast the fun times fly by, and how long it may be until we're all together again (after Quinn's mission?). I suppose these things would pale after a while if that's all we did, and that life must be mostly nutritious grains and vegetables in order to keep dessert sweet.
On a humorous side note, yesterday when we walked into the portrait studio to get the above family portrait, Lindy and Nick had introduced themselves to the photographer, and then the rest of the family did, and last I came in with Seth, and she said, "Oh, and is this the grandbaby?" ARGH! That's the first time that's happened (but I'm sure it won't be the last). However, later that evening we went to the temple, and Lindy, Nick and I went into the lobby and sat down while Paul went back to the car for something. After he came back we went up to the recommend desk, and the sweet brother there said to Lindy and me, "So, are you sisters?" !!! Totally compensated for the prior question, and it made me laugh that it followed it so closely. No, I'm not a grandma yet (though I could be), and I hope that I've still got the energy to be a great mom (Joy School teacher, sports team mom, math and reading tutor, Eagle Scout harasser, drivers-ed fear-monger, etc.).

Our BIG Year

2011-12-16T07:12:00.009-05:00

Why do we say 2011 is our big year? We've never before gained two family members in one year -- a son and a son-in-law. Or, depending on your point of view, our family shrank, as Lindy got married and Quinn graduated and went off to BYU. We also had a big year in church service, as Paul was called as a counselor in our bishopric, and Jeni served as Stake Young Women president before being released in August. And it's been a big year for Luke and Seth, as they both got very big: Luke grew almost a foot straight up (though no wider) and Seth grew from a few ounces in January to over 20 pounds -- at six months he's in the ninetieth percentile for height and weight. Adrianne has had a big year in her role as big sister to Quinn, which has meant advisor in all-things BYU.
We hope you enjoy the slide show (below), and we wish all our loved ones far and near a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!
(Note: the slideshow doesn't work well with Google Chrome - hold your cursor over the bottom of the window so all the thumbnails show up and if there's a lot of blanks try IE or Firefox as your browser instead.

Obsession

2011-12-03T22:01:00.003-05:00

Last weekend was our 23rd anniversary. Where did the time go? I've been working on photo albums, and that reminds me of where it went: fun, work, stress, laughter, grumpiness, boredom, sweetness, hilarity. But part of me can't believe it, though, that I've now been married longer than I've been NOT married.
For my gift (though he didn't see it this way) Paul said the words I'd wanted to hear: "Go ahead." The reason that was music to my ears is that we'd been pursuing an adoption option since January, which fell through in October. This soured my honey to the whole idea of adopting, which made me sad. It's been tough on Luke being "kind-of" an only child this year -- I'd wanted to get him involved in lots of things, but he didn't want that, so he's bored a lot without his Quinn. And thinking that I'd have an only child from the time Seth turns five and Luke leaves... that's a long time. I was talking to Paul about moving into a neighborhood and finding a private school or something (though the thought of not homeschooling horrifies me) so he can be around other kids more than just the few hours per week that we can do co-ops and play dates.
So I've been obsessed for over a month now with researching AGAIN all our adoption possibilities (this is the third time I've done this). And I've been emailing Paul stuff and talking to him non-stop. I attended an adoption info meeting with one agency, and have been emailing others and joined a Yahoo group about adopting from Peru (which would definitely be our first choice -- IF). In case you didn't know, it's getting SUPER hard to adopt, either domestically or internationally. If we'd made this decision a few years ago, we could have had one of the 4700 Guatemalan kids they passed out in 2007 before that came to a screeching halt. The Hague Convention has caused a dramatic fall in international adoptions -- I'm sure it's prevented some problems, but it's made the process much more complicated and time-consuming, so the reality is that more kids are sitting in orphanages who would otherwise have families. And for us it seems like every time we think we've got a good option, a door slams in our face. But we'll keep trying/thinking/researching/praying. And when I find the most promising avenue, I'll take my spouse's "Go ahead" and run with it.

Seth's new toy (check the link)

2011-11-12T21:44:00.003-05:00

This is a direct quote from Paul Georgia: "I forgot that babies are so much fun." And we are having a great time with ours. He's the sweetest thing! And entertaining -- one should never underestimate the comedic value of small children. They're so gloriously innocent. They're so easily entertained, and thus entertain you right back. It makes me wish that there were no serious things in life, no problems, no need to earn a living, etc. I suppose that's what heaven is like. I hope it is. Like baby laughter.

"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..."

2011-10-29T18:29:00.002-04:00

Woke up to snow today. Our Halloween activities were impacted by Ol' Man Winter -- Trunk or Treat cancelled, running through the sleet to get to the Halloween recital (piano book soaked). "Davy Jones Plays His Organ" was heard by the residents of a local nursing home, except that it was Luke and he was playing the piano. For only having two months of lessons under his belt the boy did phenomenally well, as he does whenever HE decides to do something (as opposed to when it's my idea).
Now he's embarked on his first sewing project -- a costume of some character from Homestar Runner -- don't ask me who or why, I really don't care or want to know anything about it. As long as he's happy Trick-or-Treating with his buddies, I'm happy.

So, I thought having a baby would make time go slower...

2011-10-11T19:38:00.004-04:00

And it did for a while, when Seth's Circadian cycle of eat-sleep-diaper-repeat was only about two hours long. Many of those cycles fit into a 24 hour period, which made the days seem long and the nights endless.
But then he started sleeping better, and he started growing like a dandelion, and time sped up again until it's the same as before. Run, run, run, take care of this and that, and the day is gone. So click here to see him at his giggly best.
In other family news, Luke was called to be the deacon's quorum president -- now he'll get to be the one making sure the front two benches are full on Sunday. It will be good for him.
I'm still working with LDSEHE planning next year's conference. I'm the speaker coordinator this year so it will be fun and challenging.
The three (four with Nick) big kids are all doing awesome -- moving along toward their goals.

Reflections on the High School years

2011-09-23T21:15:00.002-04:00

This week I wrote an email to a friend who was asking for some personal mentoring for herself so she can mentor her "scholar phase" kids (high school age). I asked her if I could post my reply here, in case anyone else may be dealing with this balancing act:

"My two older children are struggling with time management. Now when I say this, I do not mean at all that they are wasting time. They are not. They are working so much doing so much learning that they feel overwhelmed. Now I know that is normal sometimes. But we dont want them to feel TOO overwhelmed. I want them to be joyful learners."

I don't have any real answers for you. But I know it can be therapeutic to vent! At this stage it seems that 95% of what your kids decide to do is based on what they want, what they see in their future, and only 5% what you think they should do. Basically, you have to let go of the reins.
This is a GOOD time for them to take on TOO much, so that they see their limits in an environment where it's safe, where there is a soft cushion for failure. And they may not fail if they're motivated enough -- it sounds like they love what they're doing. So I wouldn't worry too much about that.
At some point in your maturational process you shifted from finding joy in playing and having a "fun time" to finding joy in accomplishing hard things. Your kids may be shifting also, and that's a great thing. The difficulty on my part when my older kids hit this stage was twofold: anxiety that they would fail, and the loss of a playmate/friend, since they're now too busy to do all the fun little things you used to do together. It's sad, but there's nothing you can do about it (except have another baby!) Even when you are remembering the principles of Julie Beck's "Mothers Who Know," family togetherness gets more and more difficult the older they get -- right now you may be down to just weekends (for fun and work).
So, to help with your anxiety and their overwhelm, you should help them make a reasonable weekly schedule, and then provide them with some oversight -- I'm sure you do this. Be a "reminder," but not a nag -- they need to learn to nag themselves.

"What I am asking is HOW did you determine what their high school load of classes would be???"
We try to get in those basics: four years of math and English (always doing something to keep the grammar fresh, plus writing practice of some sort), three or four years of science and history/literature -- we use The Well-Trained Mind as a guide here. Some of this can be AP prep, and they need to do some work with a test prep manual to ace the SAT or ACT in their Junior year, and their senior year it's the college and scholarship applications that take time. Add in Driver's Ed, music, seminary, exercising, a job, and a social life and you've got a full plate! And we were also helping Quinn finish his Eagle his Senior year. It can be a lot, but remember "by the yard it's hard, but inch by inch it's a cinch" (and have then do their Eagle early!)
Yes, I do have HS age kids take outside classes. I think this is critical practice for college.
"Did you have them study a few things or several?" Frankly, my kids have had trouble "compartmentalizing" their time and chipping away a bit at lots of things through the day. They do better with fewer things and larger blocks of time. We often start the year with big plans about many subjects, but only finish some of them. Like Quinn's Classical Rhetoric video program -- seemed great, and he liked it, and it didn't take a lot of time, but he didn't often get around to it, and went off to BYU without finishing it. But they often don't finish programs in the public schools too, and they waste so much time! Quinn didn't waste time -- he was always doing something productive (usually reading far too long.)
"What chores do you have your 14 and ups do?" Everyone had a night to do dinner, and they rotated through the dishes. However, I frequently bailed them out when they were too busy. So the expectation was there, but when we went from "Ideal to Real," like in your class, I'd step in. They also had an inside job (their own bathroom and an area of the house)and an outside job (mowing, weeding, washing cars, leaves, snow, etc.) each Saturday, which together took under an hour, and I tried to consistently get this much work out of them, and usually did (and do, for Luke).

These issues are tough no matter whether your family homeschools or not -- in fact, I think they are tougher for public schoolers since they have less control over what to say "yes" and "no" to. All I can say is, pray and counsel together, and you're already doing that, so I'm confident you'll come up with a good mix for your family.

Homeschooling one

2011-09-15T19:35:00.005-04:00

is pretty weird. But this is a good year for it, since with Seth around it seems I can only accomplish about 1/3 of what I could do in a day without him. Not that I would trade him for any number of decks, finished basements, gardens, books, big callings, or any of my other pre-Seth projects; he IS my project this year - raising a baby to raise a boy to raise a man.
But this post is about Luke, the Lone Homeschooler. He is, as I have always said, a most stubborn child. I know one shouldn't label children, but one must also tell the truth. And now I have objective proof of that: see photos below. Wednesday we were at the Maryland Science Museum in Baltimore (Yay for Homeschool Days and $2 admissions!) and we went in the Kids'Room (for 0 - 8 year olds, and we're thrilled to have a 0 year old to get us in) with the Ariases and the Olmos. There lives the favorite toy of all my kids: a big wall of plastic pins -- I don't know what it's called, but I've seen little versions for sale -- you push all the pins smoothly to one side, and then press your hand or any object into it and it makes the pattern on the other side. Well, for the twelve-or-so years we've been going there, my kids have loved to play with this wall, one side of which is red and the other clear. So this time Luke got in a friendly contest with other kids, each trying to push all the pins to the other side. And he kept at it. And kept at it. And kids came and went but there was always someone on the red side pushing the pins back to the clear side. And I went out to feed the meter and came back and he was still at it. After an hour, there were two girls on one side and Luke was on the other and they decided they would go leave for a few seconds and fake him out (he heard them say this) and when he had it almost done, come and mess it up again. But he quickly finished on his side, and then I said,"Walk away Luke -- you won!" and he did so before they could get back. Whew! AN ENTIRE HOUR he was there doing this and he got all sweaty and his arms were tired but he wouldn't give up!
So I'm hoping two things: First, that people will believe me when I say that, no, I can't make him do something he doesn't want to do (swimming lessons, various co-ops and classes), and second, that he will recognize this trait in himself and turn it to great ends.

Oh, AND...

2011-09-04T22:14:00.003-04:00

I also was released as Stake Young Women President a couple weeks ago. It was sad, but it needed to happen, with Paul in the bishopric and a baby in the house -- we'd have been fine with two of the three things, but our Stake President feels strongly that any one family not be overburdened. So the rest of my presidency is still in, and they have a new secretary, and will do great -- they've got one year under their belts now so they know the ropes.
I was called to replace Quinn as our Primary Music Leader, and am SUPER excited about that. Though I don't think I'll be nearly as popular as he was -- he really enjoyed the calling to and related well to the kids.
Here's another giggly Seth video.

Fun with Nick and Lindy

2011-08-28T09:47:00.003-04:00

August was a whirlwind. We packed in the fun, not knowing when may be the next time we'll have all our kids together. We started out with a huge party (Open House) for the happy couple. Guests arrived, and so did the rain, but we had a good time anyway. Then we did several days of hiking and camping -- Seth was a trooper. The following week we went to Williamsburg and toured Jamestown Settlement and then did Busch Gardens. Lindy and Nick also got to do a private 2 1/2 hour tour of the Capitol building along with other DC sightseeing, some with family, some without.
Seth is now three months old and the cutest little sweetie ever! Here is a silly video of him.
Adrianne and Quinn left on Wednesday for BYU. Grandma and Grandpa Shumway picked them up and got them tucked in to their dorm/apartment and went to Freshman Orientation programs with them. Adri went to the good things like a program on choosing a major (maybe she'll finally settle on something) and the party-type things where food and fun were present. Both kids are going to do great this year.

Dads are for Fun, Moms are for Food

2011-08-03T16:22:00.003-04:00

It's not really fair you know. I spend hours each day feeding and burping and changing and rocking the boy. But who gets the best smiles, and even giggles? Paul, of course. Seth thinks he's hilarious. Where do I file a complaint?
But I did have fun last week at Youth Conference at SVU. My part in it was necessarily small because of the unpredictability of a 2 month-old, but it was nice to soak it all in. Seth was the most popular guy at YC, by the way, and got passed around by all the women, many of the girls, and one nice young man (who, it appeared, had never held a baby, but he wanted to try.) President Lowe said that Seth has now had one YC, and only gets three more (LOL).

"You are my Sunshine..."

2011-07-15T16:33:00.004-04:00

Here is the first smiley picture of Seth. He was very cheerful this morning for a guy who didn't sleep more than an hour at a time last night. When I titled this I was thinking I should put "You are my Moonshine," but I was afraid people would think I meant the alcoholic kind.
Yes, he's still a bit jaundiced but after dragging my feet for a week I took him in for a blood draw, and he's fine -- it's just "breastfeeding jaundice."
Speaking of... it seems that's all I ever do lately. Which means that I've been spending a lot of time on the computer and reading, since that's all I can really do. I just finished a driving course that I elected to take rather than pay for a speeding ticket, and I learned that one should NEVER drag race -- about 50 videos on that so I guess their main audience is young and male -- go figure! I've also turned into a facebook junkie, at least I check it every day, which I never did before.
But the great thing about being so sedentary is the amount of reading I've been able to do. I'm going to finish the Book of Mormon by my target date of the end of July, I read Dr. James Dobson's The Strong-Willed Child, as a parenting review, and I also really enjoyed Free To Choose by Nobel-prize-winning economist Milton Friedman, which help define and give clear explanations for things I have believed but not fully understood, like free trade and abolishing public-sector unions. It also explains the bureaucratic bungling behind the Great Depression in a way that made me finally "get it" (most explanations I've heard never made sense to me, and I finally realized that's because they just presented the symptoms, not the root causes.)
And finally, I'm getting around to finishing Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling after having lost it in a stack of books for a long time. This book is totally unique in that it presents the life of Joseph Smith in the context of the world he lived in, comparing the culture and religion of early Mormonism to other societal and religious movements of the time. Some people are put off by reading about the occasionally-bizarre things that went on, and feel it's not good to publicize them, but I think we have nothing to fear from the truth. People were coming to the church with many different ideas about what it should be like, and the Lord couldn't spell out every detail of everything all at once -- it took time to develop. Richard Lyman Bushman is an expert on the period, and his research and notes are phenomenal. One review I read on Amazon stands out to me. The person said they were not a member, but after reading the book had come to believe Joseph to be an "inspired man, or possibly a prophet." I'm going to read the Doctrine and Covenants with a new eye now.

A Lovely Visit

2011-06-24T13:39:00.002-04:00

My mom and dad are doing a 50th wedding anniversary get-away in their typical style, which means they are "anxiously engaged in a good cause" (or causes). They are driving cross-country visiting temples and doing family history research. They were able to spend over a week here with us and helped with many projects, including the huge one of keeping Seth happy.
We had three great moments they were able to participate in. The first was the ordination of Quinn to the Melchizedek priesthood, which his grandpa participated in. Immediately following that, all my men-folk were able to be part of a beautiful blessing that Paul gave to Seth - even Luke helped by holding the microphone. And then yesterday we held Quinn's Eagle Scout Court of Honor, and both of my parents were a huge help in that. We had some of Quinn's favorite youth leaders speak - Brian Nanto, Justin Turner, and Josiah Hunter. And of course, Paul, who has been Quinn's "youth leader" from the beginning, but also served as his Scout leader for a while.
We wish we lived closer to family so that visits would be more frequent, but we must take life as it comes. And having mom and dad all to ourselves for a week is something that wouldn't happen much if we lived closer. So we count our blessings!

Mormon Prom

2011-06-10T09:08:00.003-04:00

A week before Seth was born was another big event we were involved in - Mormon Prom. It got sidelined on the blog, but was really so much fun I've got to post about it. In our area we do a big multi-stake prom each year (thank goodness it wasn't our turn to host!) The theme was "Around the World in 80 Days" and our stake's assignment was to turn the foyer into an 1870's-era train station where the kids could come check in before going into the dance. So Quinn made some sketches of people in correct costume and he, Adrianne, and another woman in our stake painted them life-size on some canvases. Our YW secretary did a fabulous job of painting a huge mural of the stairs and windows in Grand Central station, and my counselor, her sister, and I made three ticket booths. The whole place looked great - you can see the amazing pics here.
But that was only half the fun. Quinn and some of his friends (and their moms) planned a dinner for 7 couples which they used our house for. We set up tables on the deck and they had menus with various choices of entrees, etc. and Luke and another little brother were the waiters. It was all good fun!

HEADLINE NEWS: MOM FINDS EASY NEW METHOD OF LABOR

2011-05-28T20:51:00.004-04:00

Unassociated Press - Manassas, VA
A new method of labor and delivery has just been developed by a mother of five. Instead of the usual 6 to 12 hours of labor that most mothers experience, this trend-setting mother has broken the norm by spreading out her labor over a month, and having only one half hour of real discomfort before the arrival of her baby. Starting in April with frequent contractions, she was able to achieve partial dilation and effacement by early May, and continued the trend throughout the month, arriving at the hospital with the process nearly complete. When interviewed, this mother commented, "Never say 'No pain, no gain.' Go for the month-long labor next time girls -- you'll love it!"

LDSEHE Conference

2011-05-18T15:05:00.003-04:00

We had a great time last week at the LDS Eastern Home Educators conference in Virginia Beach. Upwards of forty fabulous speakers presented classes for three days on various topics related to education. We had authors, entertainers, professionals, and plain-ol' homeschooling moms and dads talking about their field of expertise. It was a lot of work for the planners (including me) but I wouldn't miss being a part.
Quinn was a part of a graduation celebration along with a bunch of other homeschooled kids. I worked on putting together the information that they wrote up for a booklet spotlighting each one, and let me tell you they are a great bunch of kids. Each one also had something read about them that their parents wrote while they walked up to receive their diplomas. Here is what was read about Quinn:

Quinn could be nicknamed “Mr. Sunshine.” He is always cheerful and goes around laughing, joking, and trying to make everyone happy. He loves getting together with people and baking delicious desserts. Music, especially Broadway, plays a big part in his life, and he has enjoyed learning to sing and playing violin in an orchestra.
Quinn is a deep-reader and a deep-thinker, often surprising his parents with unusually insightful comments for someone his age. His passions are C. S. Lewis, Dickens, the scriptures, and most any other good book that is in his possession at the moment. He absolutely adores his seminary class, and is looking forward to a mission. We are not sure what we will do without him when he goes off to BYU this fall, but it will include lots of phone calls.

I'm now the mommy of a married woman (even if she looks 14)

2011-05-02T06:54:00.003-04:00

Lindy looked like she was playing dress-ups two weeks ago when she was married. She looked the beautiful "child-bride." Really she will be graduating from college this year and turning 22 in August. But I suppose all the little ladies thought she was a teenager as her pregnant mother accompanied her in the bride's room at the temple. I didn't bother to disabuse them of that notion.
Being in the temple with my daughter (and my baby son that I snuck in without a recommend) is now counted as one of the highlights of my life. It's just so amazing to look back at the road that got us there. It certainly wasn't all her parents' doing, as she's had amazing people influencing her in good directions her whole life. They have my heart-felt gratitude. But mostly it has been Lindy that has just wanted to choose the right her whole life. I'm so proud!
Last night we called her and asked her how married life was going. She said that living with a husband was much better than living with roomates -- less drama and chaos. Amen to that!

On Being "We"

2011-04-02T21:26:00.003-04:00

Pregnancy is an odd state of affairs. One has many conflicting emotions. It makes me feel both weak and strong. I feel like nurturing and being nurtured. I feel vulnerable. I feel important. Since I'm not just living for me, I'm careful of the food I put in my mouth, the gas fumes I breathe when filling the tank, and the cold remedies I take when I'm sick. I try to be my normal, active self, but find that I can't bend over and pick things up very well or squeeze through tight places. People tell me that I'm not very big for seven months, but it's a reality check when you park next to a grocery cart holder, then find that you can't get past the railing.

It took me a while to come to grips with this state, especially since it had been so long, I never expected to do this again, and, in the beginning, the survival of the pregnancy was in serious doubt. I've almost got my brain wrapped around it now. But I am treasuring this time. Unlike most women who are pregnant in their 20's and 30's, I know I'll never be pregnant again in this mortal life (who knows how things are done in the next one). So for me, pregnancy is fun, scary, and sweet.

Growth!

2011-02-25T07:29:00.002-05:00

Though we've had another pseudo-snow day since then, last week it was WARM! We went out to look for birds and buds at a park. We found few signs of spring, but many signs of winter (in the picture below).
How else are we growing? Paul was called to be 2nd Counselor in the bishopric in our ward. I am so happy for him. Callings that make you stretch also make you grow. In our recent Gospel Principles lesson on work, I loved how it said that "As we become like Him, our work will become like His work...'to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.'" We start out as children learning simple tasks, which grow ever more complex as we grow. Being involved in Heavenly Father's work is the most complex, important task of all, and prepares us for more work in the eternities.
What other growth? Well, Quinn was accepted to BYU, and should get a full tuition scholarship! YAAY! We had thought about having him work the year between high school and mission; Paul wishes he'd done that. But honestly, the kid is so darn mature that he'll do well. I think he'll have more growth in that setting than he would with another year at home (though we'll miss him like CRAZY!)
And last, I'm growing! I've had trouble with underweight babies in the past, but this time Junior is doing great. I really think that it was working as an ICU nurse -- 12 hour night shifts in a stressful environment are not conducive to happy pregnancies. But all is well -- we're so blessed.
Within the past six months I've kept making announcements to my family: Stake YW Pres., pregnant, adopting, Lindy's engaged, and now Paul's in the bishopric. But they've all been happy growth -- it could have been that someone has cancer!

Snowstorm Trauma

2011-01-31T14:08:00.003-05:00

I love the trees that are growing in front of our house. When I planted them five years ago they were about as tall as me, and they've grown very fast up to the roof line. One is a boy and one is a girl (tiny cones). But Juliet is dead. Now Romeo will have to die too (wouldn't it look weird with just one?) During the big snow storm we had last year I went out and shook them so they sprang upright again, but during the one last week I completely forgot about it, and when we looked out in the morning Juliet's top had broken off, and Romeo was very dejected (bent to the ground) but when we shook him off he stood up again.
It COULD be that the reason I was otherwise distracted from our landscaping was that I was worried about my husband. He left work at 3, when it was still just sleeting, but the federal government also let their employees out at 3 so it was a traffic jam from the get-go. Then the snow started coming down really heavily, and people started getting in accidents and getting stuck and clogging up the roads. Around 9 p.m. he called me from Tyson's Corner, where he was trying to go down back roads to get to a more main road. His Australian tour guide (GPS) Karen was driving him crazy so he came back to his wife for that duty, and I talked him through a few roads till he could get to a better one. He did stop for gas and food, and pushed a LOT of people out of where they were stuck.
Around 11 he said he had finally made it to get on I-66 in Fairfax, and then I fell asleep. When I woke up at 12:30 he still wasn't home. Also the power had gone out, and it was a creepy feeling. I was thinking "OK, my husband is dead. I am a pregnant widow." But my cell phone worked, and I called him... and he answered -- YAY! He got home at 1 a.m., completely exhausted after at 10 hour commute of 40 miles (it takes him 45 minutes to get to work in the morning -- he leaves early.)

Then guess what he did the next day (after sleeping in)? He dressed in boots, jeans, and a work coat (just in case things got rough) and drove back to work. Crazy man! I threatened to throw his keys in a snowdrift, but he's bigger than me. I tried to reason with him: "You're an ECONOMIST! What can't you do from home that you can do from DC?" To no avail. Luckily the roads were much better, and many of the abandoned vehicles had been towed -- he said the night before it had felt positively post-apocalyptic out on the roads.

But his main incentive for going in might have been that he could shower in the gym there. Our power was out until 2 p.m., and it was starting to get cold in here (though actually we spent a lot of time outside playing and shoveling). But that just made us very grateful for electricity when it came back on.

It's a BOY!

2011-01-19T17:20:00.006-05:00

He's sure an active little guy. I'm only 20 weeks and he's already doing Tae Kwon Do in there. Maybe we'll adopt a Korean child.
What! Adopt? Well we, not wanting to raise this child alone, are going to be doing an adoption. We're very excited -- this is something we've thought about doing for a long time. But this pregnancy makes it mandatory -- I believe kids have a RIGHT to siblings (if in any way possible).
But how am I keeping my sanity, you ask? Actually, planning a wedding long distance, especially when Lindy has two grandmas, several aunts, and her future mother-in-law all in the immediate vicinity, is so far not much more than some phone consultations and writing checks. I feel great, and apart from doing a lot of studying about adopting, nothing is going on there. But I do have TONS to do right now with my stake Young Women calling – getting camp and youth conference committees headed in the right direction, along with ward conference visits and other meetings is really time-intensive. But I think this will lighten up after a while.

Lindy is Engaged!

2011-01-11T08:26:00.004-05:00

My beautiful oldest daughter will be getting married in April to Nick Whittaker. He's from Idaho Falls, and almost all our family is there, so they are getting married in the Idaho Falls Temple. Nick's parents, Paul's parents, and Paul and I were also married there, so we have a great tradition going.
Lindy and Nick only have one week off between semesters to get married in, so after the next semester is over they'll come out here and we'll throw an Open House for them in late July or August. Then they'll honeymoon out here (Nick served his mission in New Jersey).
They are both almost done with their degrees in Geology (Lindy) and IT (Nick) but are planning on going on for their Masters' -- I think at ISU? Maybe after that we can entice them to live in the east for a while; IT is a booming industry around here, and the US Geological Survey HQ is in Reston. So we'll see.
But for now we're just very happy for them and excited that they are moving on with their lives in a way that is pleasing to the Lord.
LOVE YA and CONGRATS LINDY AND NICK!

"For unto us a child is born; unto us a son (or daughter) is given"

2010-12-25T00:53:00.004-05:00

Well, around June 5th anyway, if all goes well. It's true. I'm 44 and expecting our fifth child. Luke will be 13 by then, and Lindy is and will still be 21, and possibly getting married around then.
"What were they thinking!" you say? Well, we were thinking that we've always wanted more children than four (Paul is the oldest of nine, I'm in the middle of six). But because of circumstances too numerous to detail here -- mostly me needing to supplement our income for many years -- we decided after Luke that four beautiful kids was sufficient.
What I wasn't counting on was this: I was only 31 when Luke was born. I thought that by the time I was in my forties that I'd be done with needing little guys around. I thought I'd WANT freedom from runny noses and crayon on the walls. I was wrong. And last spring when Luke grew enormously and his voice changed and he graduated from Primary, I was immensely sad. I knew we only had one more year with Quinn at home and then it would just be Luke and I during the days. And having already sent two off to college I had learned one sad fact: when they leave, they don't really ever come back. I've only seen my beautiful oldest daughter for a few weeks this year.
So anyway, we're praying that all be well with this baby. I'm healthy and feel perfect, so we'll see how this goes, and we'll see what we'll do from here -- there will be more decisions to be made.
BTW -- the kids are SUPER excited. One of our reasons for coming to Idaho was to have the whole family together to make the announcement. We handed the kids a Christmas card with the ultrasound pics inside, and they just sat there stunned and unbelieving for a while, but then pandemonium broke loose. I don't think Luke has stopped smiling yet.

2010 in review

2010-12-15T07:21:00.001-05:00

This year has been one of much progress in our family. Some of us made physical progress, like the huge growth spurt Luke had. Others made educational progress: Lindy is in the last year of her geology major and loving it and Adrianne has finally settled on manufacturing engineering as her major. Quinn excelled on the SAT and is preparing to attend BYU and Paul attended a seminar to learn to do some very specialized economic modeling which will make him even more valuable to his company. Some of us made progress in organizational life skills: Jeni is now the Stake Young Women President and learning to juggle what that calling entails, Quinn completed his Eagle Scout project and has not missed a day of seminary.

We continue to develop our talents: writing, art, woodworking, and music. Adri has had lots of opportunities to play her guitar with several different groups. Lindy is always off seeing the geological wonders of the west with her geology classes, and she’s really becoming quite the rock hound. Quinn has been taking voice lessons, and Luke is learning piano, so some day they can perform together for their parents.

There’s something else afoot in the progress department, but you’ll have to check back on Christmas day or later to find out!

Finishing up Quinn

2010-11-07T06:56:00.002-05:00

I feel like lately I've been focusing a lot on putting the finishing touches on Quinn so he's ready to launch. He's been very busy with working, doing his Eagle stuff (though his project is over there's still lots to do), finishing Drivers' Ed. (he's had his permit for almost 2 years now, and is a good driver -- it's just jumping through the rest of the hoops to get that license), working on college applications, and he took the SAT for the second time yesterday (if he can get just 10 more points between the reading and math sections he should get a full tuition scholarship to BYU!). Then he'll have to finish his Duty to God and keep focusing on what major he wants to do. But I'm feeling the finality of it all.
Last week he took Kylie Anderson to Battlefield's Homecoming dance with some other friends. He made her a wrist corsage from some roses that he grew -- he loves to garden. But he said that compared to Mormon Prom it was really lame and the atmosphere was NOT good -- very dark, no decorations, girls very immodest, music no good. They came over here and watched a movie after a while. When you're raised in the light, you recognize the darkness (sorry if that sounds elitist or smug -- it's true).

A Beautiful Day

2010-10-09T19:45:00.002-04:00

Today was not just a "wonders of nature" beautiful day, but also beautiful in productivity: Quinn got his Eagle Scout project almost completed. We had a good turn-out to Chapman's Mill this morning, and were able to clear brush, stumps, and garbage from a 100 year-old stone barbeque and fish pond, repair a section of fence, and also build three picnic tables! YAAY! Now on Monday we'll just have to mix some concrete and repair the stone work.

My New Life (as an Event Planner)

2010-09-03T09:33:00.004-04:00

Changes! I'd never have thought that I'd be doing this (my strengths don't seem conducive to this) but here I am -- now the president of the Centreville Stake Young Women program and the Adult Conference Committee Chair of the LDS Eastern Home Educators' Conference (that's a lot of capital letters). I'm also continuing our science co-op, doing biology labs (with lots of icky dissection this year) and also organizing Eureka! club for some middle school and high school students in the area. All of these things are exciting and fun for me! I just wonder when I'm going to sleep, and if I'm going to be able to do a good job at each of them. And be a good wife and mother. And do the regular homeschooling stuff. But I always come back to "At least I'm not still working night shifts in the ICU!"

Actually, when the stake president called me, he specifically said that I shouldn't regard this position as that of an event planner, though that did come into it, but that I should think of how to set an example for the YW and their leaders. That's even a taller order -- maybe I'll set an example of how to over-schedule yourself until you don't know whether you're going or coming!

Vacation!

2010-08-23T08:41:00.000-04:00

We have always gone out west to visit each summer, but decided this was our year to just focus our own little family. We were trying to decide between doing a Florida or an island vacation, and I'm glad we chose the latter. We were totally low-tech -- no cell phones or computers either. We mainly snorkeled and did some sight-seeing. When it rained we played board games or read aloud. Good family bonding time was what we were after, and what we got.
I wouldn't recommend Grand Cayman in August though -- too hot and muggy. I was expecting it to be like Hawaii, where the temperature is perfect all year. Now I know why their big tourist season is in the winter. But the water temperature of 87 degrees made it so we never got cold in the ocean! And the snorkeling was fabulous -- better than Hawaii. Just 30 yards off shore in chest-deep water was a beautiful reef with huge staghorn coral and brain coral and every kind of coral you can imagine and zillions of fish of all sizes and colors. We saw squid that continually changed colors and patterns, pufferfish, nudibranchs, a stingray, a peacock flounder, a barracuda, a moray eel, a scorpionfish, a huge spiny lobster, and several kinds of sea urchins. My favorite was a tiny black fish covered in a pattern of tiny circles of the brightest neon, sparkling blue you can imagine. They were very shy and live in holes in the coral, but when we learned where to look for them we could always find them.
We also enjoyed attending church in the branch there, everyone was super friendly. We liked visiting the Queen Elizabeth II Botanical Park with it's amazingly beautiful and strange plants, and the rare blue iguanas. And though we liked the touristy shopping, our favorite store was the antique shop with lots of ancient coins and maps. They had silver and gold coins recovered from shipwrecks, and Adri bought a tiny coin from the reign of Emperor Diocletian (AD 275 - it wasn't from a shipwreck). The Brit who runs the shop had lots of fascinating stories to tell -- I could have listened to him all day.

And speaking of Brits, driving on the wrong side of the road was a trip in itself. Paul did most of the driving, and by the end of the week had it down pretty good -- our mantra was "A right turn is a left turn and a left turn is a right turn." But the funny thing was how bad it messed up everyone's (but especially my) ability to tell right from left. Paul would say "Which way?" and after a while I would just point and say "That way" so I didn't have to think through the double negatives with my befuddled brain.

Lindy's Home!

2010-08-01T18:53:00.003-04:00

We've got our girl back, and we get to keep her for six weeks! We've been enjoying her mature-yet-randomly-silly personality a lot this past week. We went on an outing to Harper's Ferry -- yes, we were just there in June but it's one of our favorite places. We love to walk around the town and up the Appalachian Trail -- which runs right through here -- to an old cemetery that dates back to the 1740s. Walking through some of the steep, narrow alleys, with the crumbling buildings and outcroppings of stone may be the closest we ever get to touring the Mediterranean coast as a family. Paul has been to Italy (work-related) and has promised to take me, but the chances that we can all go together some time are not great, so we enjoy what we have.
We also went to Westmoreland State Park on the Potomac River (but it's so wide there that the opposite shore is hazy in the distance.) Last time we went there we didn't have the girls with us, and we enjoyed being all together as a family this time. Lindy had a class on fossils last semester, and we had a great time searching for them at Fossil Beach. We found some fossilized ray teeth and some pieces of the bone that is always washing out of the cliffs there -- but didn't find any fossil shark teeth like last time.

Youth Conference

2010-07-17T21:46:00.000-04:00

I've been having a very busy kind of fun lately. My sister-in-law and her family that had been living with us for a year and a half moved out to Warrenton at the beginning of July and we helped them with that. Then I spent the next week and a half fixing up, painting, installing molding, etc. downstairs where they had been living, in preparation for the Centreville Stake Youth Conference. Paul is the leader over the 16 and 17 year old boys at church (including Quinn), so we decided to host the boys to stay here at night while the Youth Conference was going on Thursday through today.
The youth gathered together to do several service projects (landscaping up at the temple, cleaning up small family graveyards, and recording the data they found on the headstones), and then had classes in the afternoons and activities in the evenings to help the kids all get to know each other and learn new skills (from genealogy to swing dancing). There were about 160 14-17 year olds, and they had a great time dancing, eating, and playing games. I was asked to help with the conference, but I must say I had a blast myself. Today at the conclusion there was a testimony meeting, and many of the youth got up and shared what they had felt during the conference, and the Spirit was very strong. They were truly affected by what they had seen and done. You may have heard the term "the spirit of Elijah," the Old Testament prophet who prophesied that "hearts of the children would turn to their fathers." Many of the youth mentioned that while they had been searching old census records, and cleaning the headstones at the cemeteries, they had felt connected to these people. I thought that was pretty neat -- they were touched by the spirit of Elijah.

While I was up at the temple we went through the Visitor's Center, and there is right now a very moving exhibit on display by artist Angela Johnson. It is a bronze sculpture exhibit on the life of Christ. They are exquisite! I especially loved "Christ Walking on Water." It is about a 3 feet by 3 feet chunk of water made out of bronze, with a very majestic-looking Christ walking across it. I can't imagine sculpting water and making it look good, but she did it. AMAZING!

Summer at our house means...

2010-06-24T14:28:00.002-04:00

Scouting, day trips, swimming, and carpentry. Quinn has been working on his Eagle, Luke has been working on being able to swim 100 yards to pass off his First Class, and Adrianne has just been working (babysitting, watering plants for people who are out of town, etc. -- none of the jobs she has tried for has panned out, and that's fine). Both Adrianne and Luke are going to build bookshelves for their rooms, so I've been helping them. Quinn purchased some chair-rail molding for his room, and is going to get it painted this summer (we are hoping for one of the less-wild paint schemes that he has in his head.) And I've been having fun making some oak trim for the basement, now that it will be available to work in again (in a week.)
We had a lot of fun with NaLyn and Amanda when they were here at the first of June. We went to Philadelphia, Gettysburg, Harper's Ferry, D.C. (of course) and managed to see some things that we hadn't seen before.

Whew!

2010-05-31T20:26:00.005-04:00

We just spent four days preparing for and participating in the LDS Eastern Home Educators Conference. It was a lot of work, but totally worth it! Both boys had a blast, and their lives were blessed by all of the presenters who put so much into their classes. Adrianne was on the other side this year, helping with three different events/classes. She and Quinn, along with two other youth, presented a musical number during the opening session for about 500 people. They sounded great, but my video camera was giving me an error message - drat!
Anyone looking for info on my math presentations, I'll have the entire text of the talks on this site within the next week, along with (hopefully) the Power Points.

Mormon Prom

2010-05-12T08:34:00.006-04:00

Strange-but-true fact: those two kiddos in the prom picture have been friends since they were two. Through fights about toys and the imagination game they were playing, through summers exploring the woods and winters building snow forts, they've always adored each other. Kristen's dad Tim, Paul, and I were reminiscing on Sunday about that, and had to break into song: "Sunrise, Sunset," etc.
Is there a future here? Who knows! Certainly they'll always be friends.

I just had to put this here! Too funny but TRUE!

2010-05-07T17:15:00.003-04:00

Author Unknown: "I just realized that while children are dogs - loyal and affectionate, teenagers are cats. It's so easy to be a dog owner. You feed it, train it, boss it around. It puts its head on your knee and gazes at you as if you were a Rembrandt painting. It bounds indoors with enthusiasm when you call it. Then around age 13, your adoring little puppy turns into a big old cat. When you tell it to come inside, it looks amazed, as if wondering who died and made you emperor.
"Instead of dogging your footsteps, it disappears. You won't see it again until it gets hungry -- then it pauses on its sprint through the kitchen long enough to turn its nose up at whatever you're serving. When you reach out to ruffle its head, in that old affectionate gesture, it twists away from you, then gives you a blank stare, as if trying to remember where it has seen you before. You, not realizing that the dog is now a cat, think something must be desperately wrong with it. It seems so antisocial, so distant, sort of depressed. It won't go on family outings.
"Since you're the one who raised it, taught it to fetch and stay and sit on command, you assume that you did something wrong. Flooded with guilt and fear, you redouble your efforts to make your pet behave. Only now you're dealing with a cat, so everything that worked before now produces the opposite of the desired result. Call it, and it runs away. Tell it to sit, and it jumps on the counter. The more you go toward it wringing your hands, the more it moves away.
"Instead of continuing to act like a dog owner, you can learn to behave like a cat owner. Put a dish of food near the door, and let it come to you. But remember that a cat needs your help and your affection too. Sit still, and it will come, seeking that warm, comforting lap it has not entirely forgotten. Be there to open the door for it. One day your grown-up child will walk into the kitchen, give you a big kiss and say,"You've been on your feet all day. Let me get those dishes for you. "Then you'll realize your cat is a dog again."

Anglophilia

2010-04-22T07:05:00.003-04:00

On Monday Quinn and I went over to the Fergusons'. Quinn had been doing a job for Carol and needed to finish up, so I just chatted with her for a while. After he was done, Carol said, "Lord Monckton is here. His flight back to England was cancelled because of the Iceland volcano. Would you like to say hello?" I said sure -- I've met him before. So we went up to the library where he was working and started talking to him. Quinn shook his hand properly and said hello. Monckton told us about some projects he is involved in -- amazing stuff! He got into some detail about a promising new medical treatment that he and a doctor have been doing trials with. And he mentioned his work with a new fuel that will give your car 30% more miles per gallon. Then there's his anti-global warming work -- he was recently on Glenn Beck about that. Paul calls him a "polymath" but I think he better fits the definition of a "Renaissance man."
Anyway, so we went to go and I said goodbye/good luck and Quinn said nothing, just turned and left. I had just been writing an article on socialization among homeschoolers and saying how individual attention and instruction in proper behavior leads them to have good manners. So when we got out the door I said, "Quinn, you should have said 'Goodbye, nice to have met you' or some such thing." Then I looked at him and he had this dazed look on his face. He said to me, "THAT WAS THE MOST AMAZING EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE!" That took me back a bit, and I started laughing. He said, "He's so very very British! I love listening to his accent, and all the little British-isms. So very proper! And he's so smart! Can we go to England?" When I hedged, he said, "Well, at least can you get me a T-shirt with a British flag on it?" So, since his birthday is next week, I did.

Spring is SO Lovely in Virginia

2010-04-14T17:50:00.002-04:00

I would really miss this if I were to move away. Flowering dogwoods, cherries, pears, crabapples, and redbuds line the roads. Baby leaves have the most precious green -- right now the sun is shining on the trees behind our house and filling the room with a gorgeous light.
This year spring meant that Luke turned 12 and is now a deacon. He and Quinn are on Luke's first temple trip right now (Paul drove up from DC to join them). He had a lesson on Sunday in how to pass the Sacrament, and next Sunday he'll join the deacons in their duty. SO PROUD!
Adri only has nine more days until she comes home - YEAH - we're so excited to see her! Lindy has now moved down to IF, has an Idaho driver's license and a car (thanks to her Georgia grandparents!)and is already job hunting -- she begins classes again next week.
I have some serious deadlines for my involvement in the LDSEHE conference coming up, so I'd better get to work on that....

Hot Off the Press

2010-03-18T07:39:00.005-04:00

Lindy won't be coming home until July, much to the disappointment of her siblings. She is going to take some classes during the spring semester while living with grandma and grandpa in Idaho Falls (and hopefully working also). Because she changed her major twice she needs an extra semester to catch up to where she should be in her geology classes. This also gives her an opportunity to spend more time with the current love interest, who also lives in I.F. So we'll see what happens with that.
BUT Adrianne will be back on April 23rd -- only five weeks away! She's preparing for some serious R&R time, but also has a job lined up (we think). One year down, three to go!
Quinn is beginning his paperwork for his Eagle Scout project. He's going to build picnic tables and repair a stone barbeque and fish pond near Chapman's Mill, a local historical site (the above picture is from 2006, when Lindy painted this sign and we all helped install it as a YW Value project). We are helping to get things ready to open the mill to the public on weekends as part of the Civil War Sesquicentennial. The mill was the site of a fierce battle during 1862, and the many famous people who have played a part in its history (or it has played a part in their histories) include Gen. Edward Braddock (French and Indian War), George Washington, Jeb Stuart, John Singleton Mosby, George Armstrong Custer, and others. So Quinn is excited to play his part in preserving the mill, and to have it play a part in his life.
Luke spent his last week in Primary on Sunday. I can't believe I'm all out of Primary kids (except for my Sunbeam class of course!) He met with the Bishop, passed off his Faith in God, and is ready to be ordained a deacon. I'm so proud of him! He's growing like a weed, and I can't keep him in pants that reach his ankles and shirts that reach his wrists.

Staying in Touch

2010-02-21T19:31:00.002-05:00

It's a hard transition for moms to go from seeing and hugging and talking to their kids each day to just talking on the phone. We try to do a conference call every Sunday with the girls to catch up on things. And the only reason I even have a Facebook account is to see what they're posting (it's amazing to me how often Adri posts things like "I should be doing homework but I'm..." -- just confessing it for all the world to know -- except that she's doing fine in school so I don't worry).

But Friday I called her in the afternoon to find out how she did on a paper that I gave her some help with, and left a message. Later that evening she called me back, and said, "I just got done playing the piano for three hours. I didn't realize how much I had missed playing classical music. I saw a copy of Favorite Piano Classics at the BYU bookstore (we have this book at home) and I just had to buy it. So I went and had the best, most relaxing time I've had in a while."
I didn't say much, but inwardly was going, "My BABY! She's all grown up!" I knew if I didn't fuss too much about the electric guitar and the rock music (as long as it was clean) that she'd come back to classical music on her own. She also said that a guy in her American Heritage class had asked her on a date, and though she wasn't terribly excited about it, she would go out with him. Compassionate too! I'm so proud of my girls (and my boys too).

Well. that wasn't so bad!

2010-02-07T14:56:00.002-05:00

We did get 24 to 27 inches of snow, but with the manpower around here, and some help from a neighbor with a bobcat who came down our lane, we're already mobile (though some of us are a little bit sore!) See our pics below.

Snow, snow and more snow!

2010-02-05T16:37:00.006-05:00

It's been pretty fun around here lately. We had a great, wet snow storm on Tuesday night, and in the morning the trees were coated in snow. It was too pretty to resist, so even though most snow days we try to do school, we just blew it off and went exploring in the woods. Then Luke and I ganged up on Quinn and had a snow battle (which we chalked up to learning military tactics in a practical, hands-on methods). Then we decided to do a sculpting lesson (making snowmen) and ended up with a giant man-eating caterpillar and The Snowman (from the movie/book of the same name by Raymond Briggs). He almost made us cry he was so perfect, and then he did make us cry when he fell over (well, not really, but Adri knows what I'm talking about).

Now we're in the middle of what the weatherman says may be one of the top five severe winter events (in the history of keeping track of such things) of the DC Metro area -- possibly two feet of snow overnight tonight with stiff winds -- should be interesting. Hopefully this will put a lasting damper on the Cap and Trade insanity.

Chasing Sunbeams

2010-01-12T07:56:00.003-05:00

On Jan. 10th I was released as the Relief Society President of the Gainesville ward after 3 1/2 years. I had known it was coming for a while, and so had several other people, like the Primary President, who had me help with a Sunbeam class at a Primary activity on Jan. 2nd. My name was on the classroom door as a teacher, and I had several people wanting to know what's up, am I being released, etc. I told them that it was my duty to squelch rumors like that.
The next day, Sunday, during Relief Society several of these little guys came running into our meeting crying for their mommies, as it was their first day out of Nursery, and they were put out. So when I was giving my goodbyes this Sunday, I mentioned that I would come back into RS from time to time because I would be "chasing Sunbeams."
That afternoon I met in the clerk's office with the new Relief Society President. I asked her if she wanted to go over people or programs, and she chose programs, then we went over people. Telling her what I knew that she needed to know about 177 sisters took a while. Then I taught her how to use the computer for visiting teaching purposes. Then before I knew it, we had messed up the "Visiting Teaching Rubik's Cube" and then had to solve it again. All together this took us six hours!!! I felt like I was killing her, but she's pretty tough, and I had brought along snacks (chocolate goes a long way to sustain you in those times.)

Hello and Merry Christmas to all our friends and family!

2009-12-16T19:57:00.005-05:00

A few words will suffice to catch you up to speed with us and our year:

Luke - Eleven
Boy Scouts
Trumpet-tooting
Paleontology-obsessed
Goofy
Compulsive reader
Eternal artist

Quinn - Sixteen
Almost Eagle
Violin-playing in the Concert Orchestra and beyond
Mythology and obscure language-obsessed
Happy
Even more compulsive reader
5:45 a.m. Seminary-attending
Chick magnet

Adrianne - Freshman at BYU
Off-campus-living
Entering the wild world of Mechanical Engineering
Electric guitar-obsessed
Symphonic Metal-obsessed
Able to make it to her 8 a.m. chemistry class on time!
Making good decisions

Lindy - Junior at BYU-I
Surviving in Iceburg but wishing for some global warming
Adores geology and the cool field trips she goes on
Active social life
Electric bass-obsessed
Loves to rock out with her sister

Jeni - Forty-something
Still a homeschooling Relief Society Pres.
Still loves a challenge and taking on too much (like the new Eureka! Club we’re starting up, and writing a book on homeschooling)
Still can’t play the piano or the mandolin worth a darn
Enoying helping to organize the LDS Eastern Home Educators’ Conference

Paul - Forty-something
Still doing economics for the National Mining Association
Venture Crew leader
BYU Sports fan
Bluegrass music-loving and Banjo-playing
Waiting for the kids to leave home and the dogs to die so we can spend our summers attending Bluegrass Festivals (stop me before I swoon from excitement)

We hope you have a Happy 2010!

December

2009-12-09T07:29:00.002-05:00

Does anyone else out there say, "If only I can make it through December"? I love everything about it -- there's just too much to love. I guess I need to give up Thanksgiving, like the rest of the world, and just get straight on with Christmas after Halloween. The trouble is, I love Thanksgiving too, and we refuse to do anything Christmas-y until December 1. But that leaves us one lap behind in the Christmas race. I've already been getting cards from people for over a week now, and am just starting to say, "Um, what are we doing for cards this year?"
I think instead of writing this, I'll write a Christmas letter, and then post it here later.

Halloween Fun

2009-11-03T20:58:00.003-05:00

This was a Halloween to remember. Usually it's not my favorite holiday, but this year Paul got tickets for us and Quinn to go up to the Hippodrome Theater in Baltimore to see Fiddler on the Roof. Not at all in keeping with the usual events, which is why I liked it. The coolest thing is the the main character, Tevye, was played by the star of the movie, Topol. At first I thought, "Is he going to be out there with his walker?" but really he didn't look that much older, a bit thinner. And he wasn't hitting some of the high notes. But he was great! Really hamming it up in the scenes with Golde, and totally cracking the audience up.
Luke went Trick-or-Treating with some friends and hit three neighborhoods and brought home seven pounds of candy. Luckily he was willing to donate most of it to a charity for soldiers -- to rot their teeth.

Our day

2009-10-21T08:07:00.005-04:00

Just thought I'd post what we did on Monday (for anyone who wants to know what the life of a homeschooler is like).
We did devotional first thing as usual (we're studying the Preach My Gospel manual and looking up all of the scriptures). Then we noticed that some ugly caterpillars were attacking the honeysuckle plant growing up the bird feeder, so we got some jars and picked them all off and we're going to feed them leaves and see what they turn into. I told Quinn that we only had 15 minutes before it was time to go to his Debate and Speech class (which he does once a week in Centreville) but he is time-management-challenged, and I intentionally did not remind him again, and he didn't wake up to how much time had passed until he had made himself late. But this is the painful process he needs to go through, I think, or he'll never be able to get himself places on time.
While we were waiting for him, Luke and I read a Genevieve Foster book Abraham Lincoln's World, and tried to do some spelling, but I think I need to change what we are doing with that. Luke can spell great, though he has never had a spelling program (because he resisted it in 1st grade and several times since then). But I thought that this year he was ready to take on a book that lists all of the frequently misspelled words. I think I'm going to wait on that.

Then we went to the library, and the boys did an assignment in their Classical Writing program in which they pick some words out of a classical story, and look them up in a dictionary, a thesaurus, an etymology book, and a quotation dictionary. It's really interesting to do that, and they enjoyed it. After that they got to browse the library and pick out books, then we got lunch (which we do when they've had a good past week) and went home. In the afternoon the boys did math and it was "fun math" day (we alternate doing Saxon math with non-traditional math topics). So Luke wanted to see if there was a pattern in the squares of the numbers in the base 7 system (as opposed to our base 10 system). We wrote them all out on the dry erase board and Luke found that yes, indeed, there was. He spent about 1/2 hour on this and it used his arithmetic skills quite a bit, but more importantly, like the John Holt quote says, his mind was "powerful when discovering."

Then Luke read his library books until school time was over. I did laundry and Relief Society stuff. Later Quinn and I went to orchestra down in Woodbridge, and he watched his chemistry lesson on the in-car TV while we were traveling. While he was there I shopped (it's right by Potomac Mills) and read. And that was our day.

School days

2009-09-24T07:52:00.002-04:00

Here we go again! It's strange to be down to just the two boys in our homeschool, though I do find myself still spending time with things the girls are doing. Adrianne is writing her first paper for her "Advanced Writing and Rhetoric" class, and I've been giving her some input. Today Lindy is off with her geology class on a field trip to Yellowstone to study some the awesome mineral deposits there. I keep telling her I want to trade places with her -- doesn't that sound fun?
Quinn is super busy this year, being in the Youth Orchestra of Prince William, and taking violin lessons, and working at Cox Farms, and taking a Debate and Speech class at a homeschool support center, and trying to work on his last merit badges before his Eagle, and attending seminary at 5:45 a.m. Luke is taking trumpet lessons, doing a presentation on the Sun for our science co-op, trying to get his brain wrapped around the concept of being a part of our writing co-op, and working on his swimming requirements for Scouts.
I've been swamped with Relief Society things since I got back from vacation -- being gone for a month, there are lots of people on my "finding" and my "visiting" lists.
Paul is enjoying his calling as Venture Crew leader, and has been doing fun things with Quinn and his other boys.
Onward and upward!

Fun in Yellowstone

2009-08-11T11:37:00.003-04:00

The Rex and Linda Shumway reunion was a great time. Except for freezing, which happens every time I go there. I forget that it's practically a sub-arctic zone -- it's August and should be hot everywhere, right? It was 30s at night, 50s in the day. You know when you're standing in a cloud of sulfer-smelling steam and you don't want to leave it because it's a bit warmer than elsewhere, that you're not dressed warmly enough.
But otherwise we really enjoyed it. The company was great, and the scenery was awesome. Truly a window into the earth, like they said at the visitors' center.

Finding Fossils!

2009-06-09T08:51:00.002-04:00

We had some great fun Saturday when we went down to Westmoreland State Park on the Potomac River. Millions of years ago this land was under an ocean, and as the cliffs slowly erode away they leave behind fossilized bones and teeth of ancient sea animals. In the Visitor's Center there is a four foot-tall scapula of a whale, and some five inch shark teeth. It had rained hard the night before (we had planned on camping, but decided against it) and so the "experts" had converged on the scene at first light to pick up what had washed out. One guy had some two-inch shark teeth and lots of other smaller ones. We didn't get there until the afternoon, so we didn't find anything that big, but we did find several bones and lots of small shark teeth of various kinds. Here is a cool web site that shows what we were doing and some of the things you can find, and below are more pictures of us.

My apologies

2009-05-29T07:02:00.002-04:00

to those who went to my Math is Beautiful class. Between the technical difficulties and the shortness of the time, I hope that my main message got across. Let me restate it here: Math educators agree that early mathematics shouldn't be just arithmetic, and not just pencil and paper, but in schools they have a hard time implementing anything else. But in your homeschool you don't have to teach math the way you were taught. Many math programs I’ve seen spend too long teaching too little, especially in the primary grades. There is a "more excellent way" and that is to infuse it with interesting non-traditional math and logic topics.
We call this doing “Fun Math” at our house. My eleven-year old does Saxon math every other day, reading through two lessons, doing one problem set, and checking it himself, which takes him less than 30 minutes. On the other days we explore the world of math together. In other words, he's getting the traditional and the non-traditional math, in the same amount of time.
The handout on the LDSEHE web site lists many resources that we have loved, and the three extra things that I threw in were The Elegant Universe, a PBS documentary about String Theory, and tenthdimension.com, which has an animation that shows how we could have up to ten dimensions (my son also got excited by the book Flatland that we read together on this topic.) The other web site which contains lots of pages of recreational math ideas is mathworld.wolfram.com.
In the next couple of days I'll post my full text of my presentation, along with many other articles I've written on homeschooling. I did have them up here, but they were deleted off the server and I hadn't put them back in yet, but I will.
Good Luck!

Transitions

2009-05-25T11:23:00.004-04:00

It seems like everyone is moving on to new things. Adri took her AP English test and is finishing a few other things, then her official career as a homeschooler is done. She's got one more piano recital, then her lessons are over. She's going to her last year of girls camp (I'm going too) and then she'll do the Pioneer Trek and finish up her Personal Progress and then her time in the Young Womens' organization will also be over.
Quinn auditioned to move up to the Concert Orchestra of YOPW and made it. He was ordained a priest and the next Sunday blessed the sacrament and had his first baptism, his cousin Samantha.
Lindy is reading great books and drawing a lot and playing her guitar and applying for jobs. She may just do a bunch of babysitting this summer and not bother with being someone's employee. She came back from college all jazzed up about geology, and wants to go on a bunch of geology field trips around here.
Luke moved up to Boy Scouts and has already been camping a couple of times.
This week is the LDSEHE conference, and Quinn, Adri, and I are all going. I'm teaching three classes, and we're all playing a song with a Celtic feel, "The Islander," on violin, acoustic guitar and bodhran (Celtic drum) at the talent show. Adrianne is super excited because Jon Schmidt is coming to give a piano concert, and she is signed up for his class "Jon Schmidt's Darkest Songwriting Secrets."
OH BOY!

April showers...

2009-04-17T21:12:00.002-04:00

We got very wet at the Tax Day Tea Party, but were glad we went. The girls made a "Don't Tread On Me" flag, and we went to the White House to say "Enough!" Lots of other people were saying the same thing, all over the USA in 800 tea parties (it wasn't raining EVERYWHERE on April 15th.)
In other news, we've got Lindy back and she's applying for jobs. Paul got a new car after I was rear-ended driving his car (I was just innocently sitting at a red light). I got braces, 30 years late, but now that we've finished with orthodontia for the older three (and Luke may not need it) I figured it was my turn. We finished the decorative trim-work we were doing in the living room, and it looks really nice I think (see below).

March Update

2009-03-23T21:28:00.003-04:00

So Adrianne has decided to go to BYU-Provo. She really WANTED to go to BYU-I, where her sister and friend and many cousins and grandparents are. That would have been lots of fun for her, but I'm proud of her for doing what she felt, after praying about it, was right. More difficult for her and us though. At BYU-I we have the system down about the travel and housing and myriad details that need to be taken care of, and now we're starting from scratch again. She'll be on campus, and enrolled in Freshman Academy though, so that will help.
Lindy is doing great and will be home in three weeks. Last weekend was spent playing with cousins, the previous weekend was spent traveling to Montana with a rock band she's in to play a gig (I know -- but they're all BYU-I students so I guess it's OK). She is going on a field trip, with all the geology majors, to the Grand Canyon this weekend. Lucky her! Then the following weekend is conference at Grandma and Grandpa's. Then she comes home. You'd think with all of that she wouldn't have time to study, but I think she's getting all A's. Go girl!!!
Luke had fun at the science fair and won second place. He just about bailed out when we were planning on doing a project with solar ovens, but then we changed to dinosaurs and he was gung-ho again. See below.
Quinn continues to be awesome, sun-shiny, and cute. I'm his mother, so you won't believe me if I say he's perfect, but ask all the girls in the ward who have crushes on him.
Paul and I have a new project (we needed one?) that began by fixing a water leak that messed up a spot on the ceiling of the living room then why don't we also paint the walls but before we do that let's do some decorative trim but we also need to rip off the base molding because we are going to put in hardwood floor but then we should just do the floor now. But we backed up one step and are drawing the line there -- no floor right now. WHEW!
That's all for now!

Another child preparing to launch

2009-02-07T22:53:00.002-05:00

We've been busy with college and scholarship applications lately. Adrianne did get all the paper work and essays done in time, but for those who will be doing this soon -- begin BEFORE December. She already was accepted to BYU-I and we're waiting on BYU-P. She'll have a big decision to make: Idaho has Lindy, Dana, grandparents and cousins all quite near OR Provo has a football team, and she's a big fan.
Next week we'll be going to Richmond where she's competing in the Sons of the American Revolution oration contest. She already won $100 and has a shot at winning more, but most of the contestants are from schools with professional speech and debate coaches, and so she's not counting on it.
She's finishing up her Personal Progress, preparing for her AP tests, and it feels like we're counting down the days until we're down to two kids at home. But we'll have the whole summer together.
What else? My mom and dad were in Israel lately and the Palestinians started chucking bombs at them, which made me nervous. Imagine -- me nervous about something my mom was doing -- what a switch!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

2008-12-21T14:29:00.002-05:00

We have had such a great year! Much of this is due to our wonderful family and friends, and we want to thank you for all you do for us. Life is good.
We had a wonderful time recently being a part of a play our church put on, "Savior of the World, His Birth and Resurrection." Originally I talked Adri and Quinn into being in the chorus, and they were game since a lot of their friends were also in it. But then Paul got guilted into it, since they needed a LOT of men (all those apostles and prophets). And he ended up enjoying it almost more than the rest of us. He was cast as the "tomb angel" and "ascension angel" and had a gorgeous white costume. All the rest of us were chorus angels who came to sing to the shepherds, or towns-people in our Jerusalem costumes. It was quite a big time commitment, rehearsing every Saturday morning for months, then the week leading up to the performance every evening until around midnight. But we pulled it off, did six performances, and many people came to see it again and again. The soloists were professional in quality, the cast of 140 blew the audience away, and the spirit was so strong that grown men were weeping. We will never forget this Christmas.

Two endeavors

2008-11-14T07:33:00.002-05:00

I haven't posted here in a while because I've been busy with two things - one mental and one physical. In the days leading up to the election I couldn't shake the feeling that I should try to advance ideas of freedom. I kept hearing about what people thought would be best for the economy, best for the middle class, for the poor, for the environment. But what is best is ALWAYS freedom, unfettered from government control except to make sure that no one tramples on anyone else's rights. How to change the world? Work within your own sphere of influence. So I have been working on starting up a book club where we will read books on government, economics, and American history. There are seventeen people who have said they would like to be a part, and our first meeting is Tuesday. I set up a blog for it at books4liberty.blogspot.com
The second LARGE endeavor has been finishing our basement so Juan, Jennifer, Samantha, Faith, Eden, and Zion could come stay with us while they are between houses. Juan has done a lot, but Paul and I have also been busy with it. I have tiled three rooms/areas, and now need to get the kitchen cabinets installed. The carpet should be coming Saturday, but the Arias's came yesterday, so it's a bit awkward. But we'll all survive.
Paul's parents were here and at Jennifer's for two weeks and we had a nice time with them (Thanks for staining the cabinets!) We went up to Gettysburg on a beautiful fall day and really enjoyed ourselves.

New School Year, New Opportunities

2008-09-21T23:15:00.003-04:00

I am so grateful that we are surrounded with good people and good things to learn and do. There has never been a time like this in the history of the world.
This year, besides adding several families to our science co-op -- we're studying physics and chemistry -- we are also doing a history co-op and studying world and American history from 1600 to 1850. This is my favorite period to study. Luke likes medieval, Quinn likes ancient, and Lindy and Adri like modern history. But I love to read about the colonial period, the French and American Revolutions, the Napoleonic wars, Jane Austen land, etc. Wednesday we are doing the play The Tempest, which I scaled down to kid level by using a narrator, while keeping Shakespeare's own words for the characters' lines. We'll film it, then let the kids enjoy seeing themselves acting.
Another big part of this new year is that we are involved in our stake musical production of The Savior of the World. This is taking up our Saturday mornings through the beginning of December, but it is totally worth it. We'll be onstage in costume singing in the chorus in many scenes, or we will be up in the balcony as angels (we all like to sing, except Luke, but we are going to need help if we're to sound like angels!)
Quinn is again in the Youth Orchestra of Prince William (our county), and all the kids are also taking lessons in their instruments of choice (Quinn's violin teacher is Russian, and has the cutest accent!) Adri is going to start teaching guitar lessons to the little pirate above, Luke's friend Emily. And they are working three days a week at Cox Farms Fall Festival again.
So we'll have a very busy fall, then it should slow down a bit by Christmas time.
Lindy has changed her major again, to Geology this time, and hopefully it will stick. That girl has always liked rocks, but does she really want to hike through the wilderness and pound on them with hammers? We shall see.

THE DECK IS FINISHED

2008-09-12T16:59:00.003-04:00

Actually, it was officially finished on August 22nd, just in time for a big (60 people) barbeque. Hooray! A picture speaks a thousand words -- see below....

Three recent opportunities

2008-08-06T21:10:00.003-04:00

I recently attended our Stake Cub Scout Day Camp and Stake Youth Conference, as the nurse for both. As such, I had a lot of fun, because my responsibilities were few and I got to go where I wanted and do what I wanted to do. At CS camp I did man (woman?) the "Hero Training" station one day where the boys did zip line, monkey bridge, hover-craft, target shooting with squirt guns, and a relay race. We also talked about Mormon, and how he was just their age when he was chosen for a special mission, etc. But the other two days I was just able to chat with folks and help out as needed.
At Youth Conference we went to Shenandoah University, where I roomed with Stacy Torfin. It's been a while since I had a female roomie, and we had a lot of fun. The theme was "Faith of our Fathers: Finding our Land of Promise." I helped out with games and a service project and a dance and my kids performed at the talent show. I also listened to many excellent speakers, took notes, and recycled them for the RS lesson that I taught on Sunday.
Here are some excerpts:
We sing, “Faith of our fathers, holy faith. We will be true to thee till death.” But which “fathers” is this referring to? The preceding few generations to us? Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? Adam? Ultimately, the father that we need to be true to is our Heavenly Father.
Sister Cheri Fox stated, “True religion doesn’t originate in what pleases men, or even in the traditions of our ancestors. It is what pleases our Father.”
Bishop Jeremiah Clark addressed the “mathematical” equation for faith: hope in something that is true yields evidence, which becomes knowledge, which in the presence of sacrifice, yields “faith power.” It is imperative that we learn truth and that we help our fellowmen to learn truth, so that our “faith power” can grow.
As Brother and Sister Toma taught, Abraham’s life was a pattern for us all to follow. He “saw that it was needful for (himself) to obtain another place of residence.” Why did he do this? Because “there was greater happiness and peace and rest for me.” His fathers had become idol worshipers who “utterly refused to hearken to my voice.” But he, “having been myself a follower of righteousness, desiring also to be one who possessed great knowledge, and to be a greater follower of righteousness, and to possess a greater knowledge, and to be a father of many nations, a prince of peace, and desiring to receive instructions, and to keep the commandments of God,” Abraham listened to the voice of the Lord, obeyed his commands, and was blessed. Along his way, he wanted to stay close to the Lord. He built an altar on the mountain at Beth-El, which means “the house of the Lord,” a temple.
We too, as we go along in life, may fall in with idol worshipers. Modern idols are more subtle than the golden calf of the children of Israel, in fact the sneakiest, most erosive ones are simply the attitudes of the world: what is acceptable speech and behavior, what possessions we should have, what we should spend our time doing - all boiling down to selfishness. But as Jen Wall taught, we have the church as a place of refuge in troubled times. The stakes of Zion are a gathering place for those who want to hold fast to the true standard.
Isaiah 2:2-3 (2 Nephi 12:2-3) "And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.
3 And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us ago up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem."

Being Relief Society President

2008-07-15T22:54:00.002-04:00

After I got over the shock of this calling and went about finding out what Relief Society WAS and what I was supposed to be DOING with it, I had an interesting conversation with Kathi Hansen. Our ward boundaries had changed and she had been the RS pres. in the ward that was being partly absorbed, so we talked a lot about the sisters that were coming in. (BTW - She got MY calling that I dearly loved: Primary music leader. I still haven't forgiven her for that ;-). ) The thing that has stuck with me is her saying that she had LOVED being RS Pres. Here's this mother of young children who takes on this huge task, and loves it.
I am nowhere near that place, though I'm getting closer. But here's the things: How can you ever know that, if you died today, you would hear, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant,"? I knew that I was a good Primary music leader. I would teach the kids, entertain the kids, bear testimony to the kids, surprise the kids - you name it. How can I know that I am a good RS Pres.? I look at the ward list, and nearly everyone on there I FEEL that I need to talk to right now - either about their problems or about the problems of the people they visit teach or about how can we help you come back to church. About 15 of these conversations are fairly urgent.
So why am I writing this blog, you say? Because there are ALWAYS 15 urgent phone calls that need to be made. There never gets to be any less. Now, obviously, the people on the receiving end don't think so, or the phone calls would get done. These are just things I feel I should say to people, information that I feel I ought to communicate.
I suppose any calling can be open-ended, can be magnified. I could have gone and practiced the program songs with all of the children, in their homes, so that the Primary program would be perfect. But that's not really expected. However, in this calling I feel like I really should be more involved with all three missions of the church. I should "do" my calling more, but there is no one who is giving me assignments in this nebulous business, so it's easy to just drift along.
I don't mean to be whiny, and obviously there are far busier people than me who hold down this calling, and there are far busier wards to have the calling in. We did go out on a "finding mission" last week as a presidency, and I have kept up with my self-assignment to visit all the new sisters who move into the ward. So I need to give myself the advice that I just gave a sister who is struggling: "Sometimes we just have to ride it out, keep plugging along, and time will take care of things. I know that our Father in Heaven is aware of our struggles and mindful of our heartaches. He WILL send the Holy Ghost to comfort us if we ask in faith."

A Real Summer

2008-07-03T21:45:00.003-04:00

This year I am having a "real summer" for (almost) the first time since I left high school, by which I mean getting up in the morning, deciding what I'd like to do, and doing it. No schedules, few appointments, minimal kid-taxi service demands, etc. The kids have resisted doing swimming lessons or anything else structured. And I get to sleep at night! Usually summer means working a lot at the hospital, but I am gloriously unemployed at present. I've been working on the deck a lot, and am almost done. Today I built the roof for the pergola, and then I need to build the benches that go under it. Paul has some more decking to put down on the middle level, then we're all done!
I got my mandolin fixed and I'm learning to play it. Paul and I played "I'll Fly Away" together a couple of days ago. We have a long way to go....

Vacation

2008-06-17T20:32:00.006-04:00

Since this blog is part of my journal, I'd like to write about walking across the high desert looking for arrowheads near the Limhi mountains, a storm sweeping in and pouring rain, hail, and snow on our heads; walking across a red road in San Juan county looking for Anasazi ruins in the cliffs known to only my father and a few others, while ravens, hawks, and swallows search for prey and a rattler crosses the road on its own business; climbing up and down cliffs and squeezing through holes in thousand year-old walls; crossing an ancient sea bed where clams left burrows which have hardened into a gnome village; getting foot massages in a waterfall pouring over slickrock; watching my kids watch cowboys train their horses; searching for fossils and dinosaur tracks and finding some.
ALSO: the smell of sage brush, many games of Rook, carrot cookies, hugs, sunshine.

Paul did end up being able to come on this vacation, which was a blessing, since he has missed so many. The Senate climate change bill that was keeping him in town was defeated (YEAH!) so he flew out a few days after us. He was able to see most of his siblings, his 95 year-old grandpa, and his parents as they were on their way home from a mission on a Navajo Indian reservation in New Mexico.

So many opportunities, so little time...

2008-05-25T20:34:00.004-04:00

Lately it feels like we've been hustling from one really important thing to another. Paul had 24 hours to prepare to testify before the Senate Republican Conference on how energy policy could be improved to bring down energy costs. He was live on C-SPAN and we were all proud of him.
Then we hosted Dr. Arthur Robinson, a famous scientist and homeschooling dad at our house to discuss with us and some other homeschoolers how his six children had educated themselves after their mother died. They did so well that they aced the SAT, tested out of two years of college, and have advanced science degrees. They developed their own curriculum and educational philosophy, which is based on self-teaching. Basically, he or an older child taught them to read, and they taught themselves everything else. His big thing is that he doesn't help them when they have a problem. They have to look up the information and figure it out for themselves.
Next we hosted a piano recital at our home on our ALMOST finished deck (no one was injured). We had about fifty people here and had a cook out and the kids played their pieces on an electronic keyboard. They each also played a piece that they had composed, some of which were quite good!
Now we are coming up to the LDS Eastern Home Educators Conference in Virginia Beach. We are looking forward to some great classes and a lot of fun - the kids attend the youth conference, and I go to get my brain refilled with good ideas. Also this year I am honored to be on the discussion panel for the New Beginners seminar. But luckily that is first and then I can relax. I haven't been able to find out who recommended me for that.
Then the following week we are off for our vacation - only Paul won't be able to come with us because of some silly things that the Democrats are trying to do to destroy life as we know it. Our valiant warrior must stay behind to fight the dragons.

Funeral

2008-04-30T12:36:00.003-04:00

Monday we went to the funeral of my uncle DeVan. It was very interesting and touching. He is the half-brother of my father, his mother having died in childbirth, after which my grandfather married my grandmother and had seven children. He was raised by his maternal grandparents and never felt close to my father's side of the family. He raised his family in the Washington D.C. area and was apparently a hard-bitten, heavy-smoking reporter (thus the emphysema which killed him). He then became a member of the Nixon White House staff (someone there said they had never been able to get out of him what his role was in the Watergate thing, but it coincided with his divorce and an all-around bad time for the family.)
What I found interesting is that so many of his family members commented on how he had changed throughout his life. He became gentler and more committed to family. He eventually became active in the church and went to the temple. These things were accompanied by a reconciliation with my grandfather.
This has made me ponder on the fact that forgiveness goes a long way to improving your life. It's impossible to be happy while you are struggling with resentment. I'm so glad that he had the chance to "experience a mighty change of heart" and to give his family this great example.

L.A. is home!

2008-04-13T21:20:00.003-04:00

We are all so excited to have her back! She is equally thrilled to get away from "Iceberg." It was snowing off and on the day she left, but here the flowering trees are gorgeously on display and it got up to 80 yesterday. Apparently Idaho had the coldest March on record EVER.
Tomorrow will be the first day of the rest of her life (as it is for everyone) and she will begin job hunting and work on finally getting her driver's license -- she's had her permit for a looong time.

Latest Happenings

2008-03-29T09:45:00.001-04:00

We have been running around doing a million things at once. A couple of Saturdays ago we had L.R.'s science fair, Q's Odyssey tournament, and A's basketball game all at once (we only made two of the three.) What do people with eight kids do?
L.A. has only got two more weeks of college for her freshman year. It has been a great experience for her, but she's ready to leave "Iceberg," and we're looking forward to having her around. She is going to work over the summer, but we'll get to see her a lot.
P. is still enjoying his job. In the evening he serenades us with "Boil-em Cabbage Down" and "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" on his banjo, which the kids are fairly ambivalent about.
Baby is turning into such a good doggie that we may get another one. Ginger is the dog of our former bishop, and he and his wife have been called on a mission and need a home for her. But our first two attempts to get the dogs together have ended in scuffles, so I'm not sure this will work out.
This week I'm getting ready for the state Odyssey tournament, which is on Saturday - I coach Q's team. His last structure held 207 pounds, which, as I've looked over the results from other tournaments, is pretty good, but could be better. So we'll see. I'll post pictures of it next time....

New Beginnings

2008-02-28T23:28:00.004-05:00

A. got tapped by the Young Women's President in our ward to organize New Beginnings this year, for her Personal Progress. She did a great job with very little nagging on my part, and it went off well. But since I give her so many assignments, she thought she'd get back at me and make me be the main speaker. Paul said he liked my talk, so I thought I'd sum it up here, since I don't seem to write much about Church things, and that's the most important thing that I do.

The theme was "It's a Wonderful Time" (we had a "clock" cake served on "clock" tables afterward) and so I had the girls think about what this is a wonderful time for. The life cycle of a butterfly is a good metaphor. Small children and babies are like caterpillars. They crawl around, eat frequently, and when you meet them, you don't really know what they are going to become. They continue to grow, and then sense that they are about to change, so they become a cocoon (or a chrysalis - but a cocoon works better for my metaphor). When passing through the phase of change, teens often retreat to their rooms a lot, but you should think of the whole world as your cocoon. At this phase of life, your parents are protecting you and providing for you, making your life soft and comfy. Because in our modern affluent society teens aren't usually required to do anything to support their family, many teens just focus on entertaining themselves and put a minimum effort into their education. The time passes all too quickly, however, and then they're out on their own, unprepared for life as an adult.
But think about the butterfly. It is hard at work in there preparing itself for adult life, growing, stretching, redefining itself, so that when it emerges, it is radiantly beautiful.
This is your time to develop yourself - your talents, your intellect, your body, and your spirit.
We then read a bunch of scriptures to find out what the Lord would have us use our time on, and discussed how the Personal Progress program could help us in those goals.
That's over! Next......

"Scientists Doubt Climate Change" but Minnesotans are all for it...

2008-02-15T10:21:00.003-05:00

Scientists Doubt Climate Change
12/21/2007
"More than 400 scientists challenge claims by former Vice President Al Gore and the United Nations about the threat of man-made global warming, a new Senate minority report says. The scientists many of whom are current or former members of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that shares the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Mr. Gore for publicizing a climate crisis cast doubt on the 'scientific consensus' that man-made global warming imperils the planet." (Washington Times, Friday)

My dad sent me this funny music video from "Minnesotans For Global Warming"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJUFTm
6cJXM&eurl=http://www.google.com/reader/view/

Paul said that someone he knew went to the Republican Caucus in Minnesota, and though the politicians were all global warming alarmists, the delegates were all for global warming, and circulated petitions to try to prevent their elected officials from doing anything that might stop it. ;-)

GRRRRR...................

2008-02-08T23:46:00.001-05:00

At our house we are all sick about what is going on in politics. The kids were devastated that Romney withdrew. I had to remind them that we survived eight years of Bill, and now may have to endure some with Hillary - but please don't let it be McCain! At least the Republicans in Congress will fight Hillary. When McCain tries to do the same things, they will go along with him. I don't know - maybe Obama would be preferable to either of them. At least he is sort-of a question mark, and could have a bit of integrity or morality? Maybe?

I love Ann Coulter (though she can be a bit crude) and here's what she says about McCain:
Coulter: He opposes [drilling in] ANWR and supports the global warming cult, even posturing with fellow mountebank Arnold Schwarzenegger in front of solar panels. Yes, he supported the surge, along with every other Republican worth mentioning, but he would shut down Guantanamo — the most successful rat trap in our nation's anti-terror fight — and he joins Code Pink in calling the Bush administration "torturers."
Oh yeah, he originally voted against the Bush tax cuts, but now says he would support them. And he libels our miraculous drug companies as “crooks.”
Newsmax: Do you really plan to campaign for Hillary if McCain is the GOP nominee?
Coulter: I will campaign against John McCain until Inauguration Day, which, God willing, will not be his.
Newsmax: What do you recommend conservatives do?
Coulter: Write in "Mitt Romney: or — if it’s close — vote for Hillary.
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/ann_coulter/2008/02/04/69907.html?s=al&promo_code=4464-1

We read some really profound things about elections in our family read-aloud today, one of which I will share with you. From Frederic Bastiat (French economist and statesman from the mid 1800s):
“If law were restricted to protecting all persons, all liberties, and all properties; if law were nothing more than the organized combination of the individual’s right to self-defense; if law were the obstacle, the check, the punisher of all oppressions and plunder – is it likely that we citizens would then argue much about the extent of the (voting) franchise? If law were confined to its proper functions, everyone’s interest in the law would be the same.”
What would Mr. Bastiat think of our three-ring circus campaigns? He would probably think that we get just what we deserve. The fact that we pay so much attention to who is going to be elected is both a cause and a symptom of the disease we suffer. Everyone wants his bread to be buttered, and the fact that so much butter is being passed around makes us all nervously watch who the next butterer will be. We give them so much attention that when they get into office they think they are really something. Our elected officials who used to be called public servants are now our public masters, telling us what we can and can’t do, how much of our hard-earned money we can keep (only 60% of an average family’s income, according to the National Taxpayers Union), and now banning incandescent light bulbs (yes, if you hate fluorescent light, stock up before 2012, because they have just been outlawed! - but that’s the subject of another rant). In fact, they are now not just keepers of the peace, but have become Santa Claus - quite overtly in Hillary’s case. Did you see her gift-wrapping TV ad in December? It gave me the creeps. Oh isn’t she nice to pay for health insurance and “Universal Pre-K” (otherwise known as government child care like they had in the Soviet Union.) But wait, she’s passing the bill on to us!
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/
2007/12/19/clintons-holiday-ad-wrapping-it-up/

Letter of Resignation (HOORAY!)

2008-02-01T20:47:00.000-05:00

February 1, 2008

Susan, Monica, Kim, and all of the wonderful ICU staff members,

The time has come for me to take leave of the nursing field for a while. Between my family, my homeschooling responsibilities, and my church responsibilities, I don’t have much time left for nursing. My youngest son is nine, and after he is on his way out the door I plan to go back for my Master’s and combine my love of nursing with my love of teaching.

Since 1994 I have enjoyed working with the knowledgeable, dedicated, and friendly staff of Fair Oaks ICU. It’s been heartening to see all the “random acts of kindness” that go on in the unit. Being around such nice people has made staying up all night bearable.

Thank you and take care,
Jeni Georgia

Geography rambling 1/23/08

2008-01-23T11:01:00.000-05:00

Just now Luke brought me the Borderline World Geography card game and we are sitting here playing for high stakes - who gets to choose the kind of cookies we make this afternoon. We just finished reading Around the World in a Hundred Years: From Henry the Navigator to Magellan by Jean Fritz - a very interesting book for both of us. Also in our Earth Science class, that I teach Luke and four other kids, we are making maps of the physical geography features of each continent. We downloaded black line maps from the internet and are filling them in.
One of the maps is a projection of the Pacific Ocean like you are looking at a globe from slightly below the level of the equator. It is bordered by Antarctica on the south, Asia on the west, and the Americas on the east, of course. But what interested me is that, from this projection, almost no land is visible. It strikes me as ridiculous to think that humans could be responsible for global climate change, when we're barely even in half of the picture. Actually, over 77% of the earth is covered with water, and of the land, only 4 percent is urban and suburban use, so less than 1% of the total surface of the earth is "peopled." Another 25% of the land is in agriculture, but that may actually reduce CO2 output since people are growing plants where, in many places, not much was growing before, and the plants take in CO2 (I'll have to see what studies have been done on this.)
It seems like if we are looking for a cause for climate change, we should look at really BIG stuff, like the thermo-nuclear reactor in the core of the earth, our enormous sun, the oceans, etc. Not us puny humans.
Quinn just brought me his BYU Physical Science book, wanting to go over the answers to the end-of-chapter questions. One of them was discussing how we know what we think we know, and mentioned Occam's Razor, which essentially states that when confronted with equally valid explanations for a phenomenon, choose the simplest one. Anthropomorphic climate change flunks that test. As William M. Gray, professor of atmospheric science and meteorologist at Colorado State University says: “Human kind has little or nothing to do with the recent temperature changes. We are not that influential...."
BTW -- Luke beat me at Borderline. Maybe I shouldn't multi-task so much.

The Quest for Princess Peony

2008-01-17T21:07:00.000-05:00

The kids made a movie over Christmas vacation, for which they made up a story line, drew characters and improvised a script. They had lot of fun with it.
Unfortunately, the first scene got cut off, in which the princess was walking through a field of flowers (were they peonies?) and was abducted by a dragon sent by Queen Malevolence....

Snow conquers all!

2008-01-17T16:29:00.000-05:00

Around here when it snows everything comes to a screeching halt. It's GREAT! I had things planned all afternoon and evening, but, to quote an email I got, "for the sake of safety" everything is canceled. So I've been working on our blog, trying to make it functional before I announce it. Anyway, here's to SNOW!

What a Fun Thing!

2008-01-15T21:46:00.000-05:00

Everyone wants to be listened to. Now we can get all the bees out of our bonnets (and manly hats) and you can love it or leave it! A win-win situation! The plan is that all of us will post our latest happenings, art work, cogitations, photos, projects, videos, and maybe home-made music clips if we can get it all to work right. So our friends and family will have one-stop shopping to know what's up around here.