Finishing up the school year

Things at my house are in even more chaos than usual (difficult to believe, I KNOW!).  This is because we simultaneously ripped the tiles off of both bathrooms and that means—every bathroom article is stored in a box.  Somewhere.  At some (fabulous future) point in my life, I will have my house totally clean and organized BEFORE I start construction projects, and end up with the contents of all cupboards, as well as all the tools AND all of the construction supplies piled willy-nilly on top of the existing detritus.  Not yet, though!

The excellent news is that the downstairs bathroom is 95% done.  Only a tiny bit of trim work and detail needs finished up.  In the upstairs bathroom, the tile is gone, the old tub is gone, the old plaster and lath are gone, the window is gone, the new vent/light is installed, the new waterproof drywall is up, the plumbing is in, and the tub is installed (but not hooked up).  Next week: The bathtub surround, hooked up plumbing, new faucet & shower head, install the wainscoting on the walls, install the new floor, install the toilet, install the new sink & vanity and the new linen closet.  Yep—awesome!

Dad has gone to PA to do some handymanning for my dear Aunt, and he will bring BigGirl back with him.  All reports are that she has had a great time learning to quilt with my aunties.

I spent Mother’s day mostly just with SmallDaughter, since BigGirl was in PA, and LargeBoy was at Great Wolf Lodge with the friends, but my sweet hubby drove home after work (he got in around 9pm) to spend time with me (he left at 4 am), which was super sweet.

Last week was a big one for WonderDog—he had his annual checkup from the Vet (doing great!), got his vaccinations, and then he had a total makeover at the groomers.  He looks so sleek with his new haircut—it was getting VERY long and shaggy!  Also, the cat got spayed.  She is the last of our female cats to go in, so no baby kitties for a while.  We will have to be content with the mere 8(ish)  cats that are bumming around here.

On Wed, I had a bad mama moment (or several!) on the day SmallDaughter’s class went on a fieldtrip to see a Toledo Mud Hens game. It was our last regular class day of Seminary (I am afraid the book of Revelation got rather short shrift!), and I forgot she was going, so I didn’t have a lunch packed, and had to just send money.  I was running late getting her dressed, so no sunblock or hat (she did not fry, luckily!), and when I went to pick her up, I went to her usual school and waited for 20 minutes, before a teacher realized they were at THE OTHER SCHOOL—so I was a half hour late getting her.  Big sigh.  I drove straight back, picked up the boys for Scouts fed them fast food, and drove to the other town (one is 25 miles north of our house, the other is 25 miles south.  We live--not close to anything.  Not kidding!).  Not a shining star day.  There was no Faith in God Girls (they only meet the 1^st, 2^nd and 4^th Wednesdays), so while SmallDaughter played in the nursery, I began the much needed purge of the toy boxes.   I dropped 2 trash bags off at goodwill, 1 to the garbage, and have one that is to give away to kids we know.  There will be several more purges in the coming moths, too!

All the boys “slept” at our house on Thursday night, and Friday morning, we got up at 5, got SmallDaughter & everybody else dressed, and went into town for the Bishopric Breakfast for the end of Seminary.  We got home in time to take everybody to school, in spite of the crazy fog that had rolled in while we were there.

After school, everybody (plus Sam K) came back over to our house for LargeBoy’s (long delayed) birthday party!  We played Michigan Bankroll, Scattergories and Ticket to Ride, and he loved his gifts, which included: an order of 3 lbs of random legos (not a specific set) from ebay, a plush death star, a new scout uniform, 2 pairs of flannel pajama pants, “Captain Jules Amazing Telescope Ring”, a great pocket watch from Sam K, and a ukulele—which he is decorating beautifully, and sounds really good on.

On Saturday, SmallDaughter & I took Sam K home, and we stopped to ride the carousel, and I told her we only had 2 tickets, so we would to “1 then 2 rides, then go home”—(we have been working on first—then concepts”)  She was excited until we got to the “then go home” part of the plan.  She had a MAJOR tantrum all the way home.   LargeBoy went to the Zoo with Miss I. and her crew, so I put grouchy girl to bed and spent the evening by myself, cooking food for Seminary Graduation. 

On Sunday, LargeBoy had a mandatory hike for the Jamboree, so it was just SmallDaughter & I at church.  It was very nice—Luke (who is SmallDaughter’s new helper) spoke, and she kept waving to him, which made him smile, but he didn’t lose his train of thought!  Sister C did a really cute Primary Sharing Time on tithing, and she wanted to show the kids how much easier it is to pay it first, not last.  She had me sit in front, and gave me 10 fruit snacks, and told me I had to give her one when she came back.  So there I was, jamming fruit snacks in my mouth, talking about how yummy they were, as the kids counted them—when I got to 9 they all started to say “Don’t eat the last one!”—and I said “it would be so yummy, I am so hungry, etc.”  I licked it a couple of times, too!  The kids were very involved, which was super cute!—“NO—Don’t eat that!”.  Then she gave me another 10, and had me give her one right away, and they could see how much easier it was!  It was a very good lesson—the only problem was the fruit snacks were pretty old, and I had a hard time getting them all chewed!

After church, I took SmallDaughter over to dear Aunt A’s house, then I went down to Columbus for Stake Seminary Graduation. The powers that be had asked the other teacher from our 2 ward split seminary & I to be in charge of the refreshments (for over 200 people!)—and to have them NT themed.  It ended up turning out well—mostly because of MAJOR prayers, and the help of a super sweet Brother & Sister from another ward, who also brought LOTS of bread.  We asked our seminary families to contribute bread—any kind—so we had yummy pumpkin, apple, zuchinni, etc, as well as homemade white, French and herb savory breads.  Poor Kathy had business meetings in Missouri all week, so she volunteered to get everything we needed from Sam’s Club.  We also had little cards with each item that read:

BREAD:

I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. John 6:51

Candy Corn Symbolizes: SEED

Now he that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness. 2 Corinthians 9:10

Pretzels Symbolize: REVERENCE

The history of the pretzel dates back to 600 AD when a monk in the area between France and Italy was playing with dough left over from the daily baking. While he was playing he came up with a unique twist that looked like arms crossed in prayer. This baked "pretiola" was given to children as a reward for their reverence.

Gold Fish & Swedish Fish

And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and brake the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided he among them all. Mark 6:41

WATER

Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:

But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

John 4:13-14

(We had little cups with blue pudding and a little sour patch kid on it*)

And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.

And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. Matthew 14:29

BUTTER & HONEY

Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good. Isaiah 7:-15

My pudding ended up being a little curdled and not very pretty, but they ate it anyway!  Truly it was a miracle of loaves and fishes—I was pretty worried about having enough, and we ended up perfect—we ran out of most things, and only had 1 ziplock of sliced bread left!

Monday was SmallDaughter’s last day of riding for this session—and it was meltingly hot.  She will start again  in mid-June.  It was also the local High School’s Choir Concert.  Friend A.  asked LargeBoy to make a poster of a “Santa Mammoth”—apparently one of the girls had a dream in which the choir director wanted them to sing louder than fortissimo—and that level of sound is called “Santa Mammoth”!  It turned out SUPER CUTE, and they held it up during the final number.  Quite a few of the choir kids knew the story of the dream, so it went over really well!

Tuesday was a fun Library Board of Trustees meeting, where we had fun—we officially began the makeover of our library building!  New paint, carpet, furniture, and everything rearranged.  It will be awesome!  It won’t be done until Aug, though!

So Busy!

I have been spinning so many plates, and keeping so many projects in the air, but yesterday one came to completion.  Seminary Graduation!  I am so proud of my class.  They are so awesome, and they have no idea how much they inspire me!  They are the reason I can force my unwilling body out of bed and 4:40 every morning, get dressed in a skirt and blouse and function coherently.

Yay!

I successfully smoked my bees today, and checked on them to make sure they were doing what they were supposed to, without any problems.  The smoke is just to calm them down, and it worked fine, and even better, I found the queen (because I paid $1.50 extra to have her marked with a dot of red paint--which was money WELL spent!).  She has been busy laying lots of eggs, and there is some lovely healthy brood (baby bees) which (I am happy to say) is not gross--which was a big relief!

We are working on a huge surprise here at our house, and I will have some awesome photos soon, but I am way too busy right now!

I wrote my dear little sister a long, rambling, newsy letter last week filled with all of the stuff that has been taking up all of my blog time--and I am too lazy to re-type it, so here it is (in a slightly modified, and WITH PICTURES ADDED form!)

Tuesday, 7 May 2013

Dear Sister Sister,

8:30am

Here I am, sitting at the most boring election EVER!  Primary Elections are always quieter, but this one is stunningly dull, since we don’t have any issues, or any democrats, and the only republicans are running for judge—which nobody cares about.  We have had the polls open for 2 hours, and haven’t had ONE voter yet. 

UPDATE—10:30: We have had 4 voters!

So, I brought the laptop, and my goal is to use this time to write you the nice, long, newsy letter I have been meaning to!  Since I think I have missed two weeks, I will start back then! 

So, two Monday’s ago (April 22), I was working on Miss C’s Tardis dress, and had to stop working to take SmallDaughter to riding.  When I got back, it turned out that Seminary Boy L, Miss C & Seminary Boy A were staying the evening, and we ended up having a great Family Home Evening about http://www.lds.org/topics/patriarchal-blessings?lang=eng

">Patriarchal Blessings, which was so inspired, and so excellent, and a spontaneous birthday party for LargeBoy.   The real party is on hold until Sam P gets back from Texas, which works out fine, since I forgot to order his gifts and they just barely arrived yesterday!

Tuesday was his actual birthday, and pretty darn dull as a celebration.  In the evening, we went to town for the 4-H banquet for everybody who got “A” grades last year.  BigGirl & LargeBoy had a good time (they always have entertainment, which is usually pretty good) and I ended up taking SmallDaughter to the park.  We partook of a mediocre “catered” dinner—stuffed chicken breast, corn, salad & cake—but I didn't have to cook it! 

I spent the rest of the week working on both trying to get my beehive parts painted (they are such a beautiful sky blue), and Miss C’s Tardis dress finished.  I also needed to finish Sarah K's dress, and my sewing machine was acting up and making me crazy!  There were many words uttered!  Also, SmallDaughter painted the archway, table leg & one chair a beautiful sky blue!  More words.

On Saturday, I finished up Seminary Boy L’s (matching, Tardis blue) vest, and Miss C’s dress.  I ended up missing a baby shower, but they looked GREAT!  Miss C was so thrilled that it was totally worth it! 

On Monday, I drove my dear friend Miss K's hubby to the campground (since he works nights, and was in no shape to drive, and she was still in TX--she is the mom of one of LargeBoy's best friends--and all of his best friends seem to be named Sam).  He inherited his parent’s trailer, and three weeks ago when he was there with his brothers he opened a drawer and found three baby squirrels (so little their eyes weren't open yet.  He is such a softy, he let them stay)!  He wanted to check and make sure they were gone.   They weren't   So we got to take the drawers out and let them go.  They sure were cute—about the size of a chipmunk, and they obviously hadn't been out—they were pretty wobbly on their pins.  I thought for a minute that one of them was going to run up BigGirl’s pants leg! 

When I got back, I immediately picked up SmallDaughter for riding, and we zoomed down.  The campground is over by Youngstown (in fact, one side of the lake is in PA)., so I logged a lot of miles!  While she was riding, my cousin Matt drove My Favorite Gentleman’s pickup over to the transmission shop for me, and I picked him up, and we went to Hobby Lobby to get photo albums, as I am attempting to get my huge backlog into a usable form!  I also got bright blue (royal blue) glitter, since I was planning to make cool corsages, but luckily, I didn't need to—because: very quietly, between Riding & Matt's house (less than 2 miles)—SmallDaughter quietly sprinkled $3 worth of glitter around the car!  The good thing is it matches the car—because glitter is forever!

On Tuesday, I drove over to pick up my package of bees.  On the way there, I talked to a hitchhiker (young guy in his 20’s with 2 dogs) at the stoplight on Rte. 250.  I decided that if he was still there on the way back, I would stop and pick him up (BigGirl was with me). She was very brave and held the crate of bees for the entire half hour drive.  They can't get out, but the buzzing IS pretty ominous! 

3 pounds-roughly 10,000 bees!

Well, when we came back, he was walking along the road with his girlfriend (who I hadn't seen the first time).  We picked them up, and ended up letting them spend the night in the yard, feeding them dinner and a good breakfast before they got back on the road.  I felt very glad, when I found out they had only had a bag of chips and some cookies to eat for more than 24 hours, because there were no stores along the road.    They were very nice, and they picked up all the sticks in the yard (which had been causing many arguments and stress amongst us!)—which was 3 huge wheelbarrow loads full.   I fed them a good breakfast on Wednesday morning, and they continued on their journey.  I can't recommend always picking up hitch-hikers, but I was glad I gave those 2 the benefit of the doubt.  

I ended up just giving up on trying to sew Sarah’s hem on the machine, as it hated the fabric, and made me crazy, so I just put on a movie and hemmed it by hand.

I got everything set up for my beehive on Wed morning.  It was so beautiful, a truly perfect day.  

I really enjoyed my “bee dump”—but there was one big, stupid boo-boo!  The queen is from a different colony than the rest of the bees, so she is in a separate cage in the crate.  (a cute, tiny little cage, about 3 inches long!).  It is screened so the workers can get used to her scent.  When you set up your hive, you remove the cork from the queen cage, and fill the hole with a candy plug (fondant works great), and the workers will eat the candy, and free the queen.  Since it takes a couple of days, by that time they are used to each other, and things go swimmingly. 

Although the package bees are totally tame and mellow, it still SOUNDS ominous, and I was trying to remember all the many steps I needed to follow (in order)—and when I got out the queen cage, I removed the cute tiny cork, and forgot to put my finger over the hole, and my queen flew away!  VERY BAD. Without a queen the colony will die.  SO, I had to call Queen Right, confess my mistake, take some very good natured ribbing, drive back over, and pay $25 for a new queen.  Everything is good now—and when they marked the queen for me, I had them put in the fondant, and didn’t even bother with the cork!

They are so fascinating!  At first, there was a huge flurry of activity as they all flew around the hive, because they all had to memorize it’s location.  Now, when I go see it, it is very quiet, with only 10-15 bees outside.  However, when you lift the lids and peek inside, you truly see a hive of activity!  My three pound package had about 10,000 bees in it.  Once the queen gets laying good, she will lay 1500-2000 eggs A DAY!  Her own body weight in eggs—every day!  By with end of the summer, the colony will have sixty or seventy thousand workers, who each have a few week lifespan.  

The more I learn, the more I realize how truly celestial they are!  They truly wear out their lives in service, and show us how each individual member may not be much (each worker will produce ¼-1/2 teaspoon of honey in her life), but working together we can be incredible ( a good hive can produce 150-300 pounds of honey in one summer!).  I was a little nervous about bee stings, but I got one sting (on the finger, because I wasn't wearing my gloves, and didn't watch where I put my hand!) FYI--honey bee stings are MUCH less painful and don't last NEARLY as long as wasp (Yellow Jacket) stings.  The last wasp sting I got felt like someone was literally pounding a 10 penny nail into my skin for hours.  The bee sting was on the pain level of a splinter, for about 10 minutes.  NOT a big deal.  Bees get a bad rap, being blamed for the nastiness of yellow jackets.  (Which, although they love sweet stuff are primarily carrion eaters.  Even yuckier than I had previously thought!  Urg.)

VOTER UPDATE—1:45: Five voters.

After we got back and got new queen installed, it was time to go into town for Young Women.  Matt got drafted to drive the truck up to our house (since the shop found out it WAS NOT the transmission!), and he got to see the hive.  I dropped him off at home, then went to the church early so I could fit  Sarah for sleeves on her prom dress (the great part was that I cut so much off the bottom to make it short enough for her that I had plenty to modest up the top!  I wasn't able to get all the hand stitching done until Friday, but it turned out beautifully, and she had a great time at her prom!  It started out strapless, it ended up looking quite like Meg from Hercules.

On Thursday, I drove the truck to a DIFFERENT shop, and Miss K's hubby stayed after work and brought me home.  He can’t wait for his family to be back. Fortunately  Miss K’s mom is doing MUCH better.  (they should be home tomorrow night or Thursday morning) . BigGirl got to go to New York to attend Youth Conference with Aunt M & Uncle O's stake--she had a GREAT time.

 LargeBoy went to the Seminary Boy A & C's house for a sleepover, and to see  Seminary Boy  soccer game on Sat.  LargeBoy was supposed to ride with their aunt into town to see the Youth Theater production of “7 Brides for 7 Brothers” which had LOTS of his friends in it.  However, during the game Seminary Boy C got kneed in the head, and went to the ER with a concussion, so LargeBoy missed his ride.  However, he got to go fishing with  Seminary Boy A  and had a great time, although he did get a pretty bad sunburn.

My Favorite Gentleman got to come home—just for Saturday, and we had a nice day together.  He modified the outside coop for the new chicks (who are now teenagers, and way to big for my basement!), and we got them moved out.  We also went on a nice date to our favorite Mexican Restaurant, and we took SmallDaughter.  She LOVED the guacamole, and the refried beans, and ate most of the steak out of my quesadilla (this is NOT the quesadilla you are thinking of!)  It is our favorite restaurant  and has spoiled me for all other Mexican joints--and I ALWAYS order their supreme beef quesadilla, because when you have found perfection, why mess with it?

VOTER UPDATE—2:25: Five voters.

BigGirl was still in NY and My Favorite Gentleman had gone back to work at 5am , so LargeBoy, SmallDaughter & I went over to Aunt A & Uncle R's house, where we ate a yummy lunch, and played with Matt’s new kitten “Seuss” (

the WonderDog wanted to play, but was pretty scared when we actually brought the kitten close—that big pansy!).  Their house looks great—My Dad & Uncle R put in a gorgeous new wood floor in the kitchen and hallways.  Afterward, we went to see the play, and we really enjoyed it.  SmallDaughter kept waving, and waving, each time she saw somebody she knew, and trying to whistle between her fingers!

Yesterday, I started the day with a Library Board Building & Grounds Committee meeting (I am the committee Chair).  It was pretty cool, because we were picking the samples and approving the final changes for our little Branch's makeover!  Then I ran a couple of errands and bought groceries and then drove North to pick up the Election Supplies.  Then I went back home, picked up SmallDaughter and took her to riding (south).  After we got back, BigGirl was getting ready to leave for her very important 4-H meeting, when we got a call from my dear friend Miss P.  She was babysitting her grand-kids  and she got a call from the rest home that her mom had fallen and broken her hip badly.  So we picked up the kids,  and went North (again!), and I took the little ones to McDonald’s playplace.  Afterwards, I took them back to Miss P’s and BigGirl watched them till Miss P came home.  AND—as if her day wasn't crazy enough—her oldest son and his sweet wife had their beautiful baby girl in the morning!  

That ends up being about 150 miles—a pretty good road trip, if it hadn't just been up and down the same stretches of road!

I got home and cooked some yummy food (ham and cheese pinwheels, chocolate cinnamon no bakes and blueberry coffee cake to bring to the polling place) and did my election prep (since I am the Presiding Judge, I have some extra stuff to do), and got to bed before 10:30, and got up this morning at 4:20.  Which, let me tell you –this boring day is not helping my desire to nap at all!

VOTER UPDATE—3:10: Five voters.

VOTER UPDATE—4:45: Six voters.

This election is less exciting than I imagined it would be—which is saying something!  I am happy that I am working with such nice people.

VOTER UPDATE—5:35: Six voters.

We have set a new record in our County—lowest voter turnout. 

The worst part of election day is that, BY LAW, is that someone has to step outside at 6:30am and yell “Hear ye, Hear ye, The polls are now open.”, and at 7:30pm, yell “Hear ye, Hear ye, The polls are now closed.”  That someone is (without exception) me, because nobody else wants do it—and I am the Presiding Judge!  I was pretty happy that there wasn't anybody here to hear me! 

VOTER UPDATE—6:05: Nine voters.  (we had a rush there for the three minutes it took for those 3 guys!)

Unimaginably exciting.

And, I have random snatches of song from“7 Brides for 7 Brothers”  running through my head--and we can't have any kind of radio.

The good thing is we are in the High School Library, but it is hard to concentrate on a book when everybody is talking.

SmallDaughter has been super cute and funny lately.  She loves her new playset, but oddly, does not feel that one should wear clothes upon it—so I have to go collect pants and gloves every day!

VOTER UPDATE—7:15: Nine voters.

Final count: 9 voters (plus 2 poor dems that we had to tell there wasn't anything for them to vote on!).  We officially set the low record for voter turnout in the county this election (not for all elections—I believe that goes to Hartland Center, who one year had 7 voters—4 of whom were the pollworkers!).  Anyway—I think my cunning plan for a long letter worked well, and you are now pretty caught up!

My brother just had a birthday.   

 

A big one.  The big 4-0.

It makes me think.

He has been my best friend for most of my life (all but the first year or so!).

The one person who can share almost all of my  memories back through 10 houses, lots of moves, births, marriages and deaths, friends, campouts--and camp songs, embarrassing stories--everything.

When his voice changed, and he learned that he loved to sing, he talked me into singing the high parts on every song with a good bass line (specifically, "Blue Moon"--the Marcels version, and "Under the Boardwalk"and "Elvira", along with a few others) so he could do the "down low parts".  His love of singing and his guitar playing inspired his friends, siblings and cousins, and created quite a few new musicians.

He has always been bold and daring, and ready for new adventures.

He can quote a movie perfectly after watching it once.

He is the world's best dyer of Easter eggs (seriously, he made a plaid egg one year using only standard egg dye and masking tape).
The best perpetrator of clever April Fools pranks.
The best carver of Jack O'lanterns (although his younger brothers are also pretty darn awesome in the "Uncle Arts"!).

He has the most incredibly mobile face--so expressive, so flexible--only Danny Kaye and Donald O'Connor can do it justice.  And--as more than one person who ended up snorting liquid out their nose can attest, an amazing sense of humor, genius level comedic timing, and super expressive eyebrows.

Now there are a lot of miles between us, but I still love him just as much, think about him, quote him and look for things that would make him laugh.

So--little brother,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

TO A GUY WHO IS STILL 
(AS ALWAYS) 
TRULY 
OUTSTANDING IN HIS FIELD!

Whew! What a great week!

The entire month of March was so incredibly busy and booked solid that even though everything was good, it is kind of nice to return to our usual levels of crazy! 

The week before last at Church we had the Relief  Society (Adult Women’s Group) Birthday Dinner, which was very fun.  They had different sisters decorate tables in a seasonal theme—I had a “winter” table.  It was fun to see the different personalities and approaches.  My table did turn out really pretty—I had some sheer fabric in a “watery” print in several shades of blue that I used for a tablecloth, then I cut a giant (3 feet across) snowflake with RS themes—a wheat sheaf up the middle, hearts above that, the ornate “RS” letters  from the symbol, and the upper edge was sisters holding a heart between each of them (just the little paper dollies that  “hold hands”) I put a clear plastic tablecloth over it so it wouldn’t snag, and then a funny little centerpiece.  The evening was super nice.

The chicks are growing fast—not as cute as they used to be!  We have a mix of breeds (we just got the “Brown Egg Layer Assortment”)—I don’t know what kinds the yellow chicks (at least 2 breeds, as they are different shades of yellow!) will be, but I know the little black and yellow, that have a little yellow dot on their head like a fingerprint will grow into “barred” hens—black and white stripes.  Very pretty ladies—I am excited.

The kids had their temple trip and LargeBoy got to go to his first OA Fellowship (Order of the Arrow is the Boy Scout’s Honor Society) WITH Grandpa A.  When my Dad was helping us with the kitchen last year, LargeBoy was going on his first OA Fellowship, and Dad mentioned that he had been in the OA as a youth, and had always meant to get around to being active again.  So, for his birthday, I did the legwork to get the needed forms, and paid for his enrollment, and this was their first activity together. 

I went to an all day New Trustees Seminar for the Library.  It was at a really cool Library, and it was very well done—the speakers were all interesting, and I did learn a lot.  I was debating taking SmallDaughter to see “Veggie-Tales Live” that evening, but she was sick all week, and was still not feeling good enough. 

Sunday was Seminary day, and since LargeCousin was on spring break, she got to come to our Sunday Seminary Class with us, and then have a sleepover.  On Monday, I was supposed to be very busy running lots of errands, but it snowed enough that it basically shut everything down—I was SO grateful!  It gave me time to stay home and clean and get things at least partially ready for all the company! 

BigGirl did have her first 4-H meeting in the evening.  LargeCousin and LargeBoy are not doing 4-H this year, as they have too many other things going on.  I don’t mind—I am really proud of how well they have done in the past, and it is their decision what they want to do with their time and energy.  LargeBoy will be spending most of his time finishing up his Eagle project, besides going to the National Scout Jamboree. 

On Tuesday I took LargeCousin into town in the morning and took my inlaws their Birthday loot and ran some of Monday’s errands.  In the afternoon, BigGirl & I went to Yoga and Herb Class—it was on Native herbs and I was very relieved to find that many of the weeds that I have not gotten rid of are actually very beneficial! 

On Wednesday, Sister A’s family arrived and things started to get busy! In the evening we went in to have dinner with Sister M & Sister A’s families at Dad’s house.

Things really picked up on Thursday.  The guy’s picked up the awesome playset that dad had ordered from Lowes, and they got right to work on it.  I am really glad we got the kit, with all the wood pre cut and drilled, because even with that they still had over 2 full days of work to get it done!  It is AWESOME! And it has all of the features that will be great for SmallDaughter for a long time.  There was a huge bunch of cooking—I still have loads of excellent leftovers!  It was noisy, and chaotic, and FABULOUS! We averaged between 35 and 45 people all weekend long!

On friday, we helped the kids dye 5 dozen hard boiled eggs (and by "helped"--we let all the teenagers and college age awesome people "show them how it's done"!)  We had some awesome eggs!  Friday evening, we got LOTS of pizzas and we set up the projector and watched “The Princess Bride”.  It was so fun!  And—as many times as I have seen parts and bits, I haven’t watched the whole movie for years! My Favorite Gentleman got to come home on Friday, but he threw his neck and back out, and was in a lot of pain the whole weekend!

On Saturday, we had the Easter egg hunt.  It was rather cool and blustery—pretty early for a really warm Easter.  In the evening, Sister M, BigGirl, Aunt A, LargeCousin & I went to watch the Young Women's Broadcast .  It was so excellent.  

On Sunday, we filled the first 4 rows in Sacrament Meeting, and we almost doubled the primary!  We had a big dinner at Dad’s and had not one, but 3 different birthday treats (cheesecake for my awesome Brother, a “cake” made entirely of 3 types of ice-cream and toppings for Sister M, and a  Super rich gluten free chocolate “Ex-Girlfriend” Cake for her hubby—who has his birthday the day before hers!).  Sadly, people started to leave after dinner. 

Monday was nice and mellow.  Sister M got stuff packed up and then we went into town.  SmallDaughter FINALLY got to have her horsie riding—the first 2 classes of the season got cancelled for bad weather!  Youngest Brother took Awesome Brother to the airport on his way home, so we got to see them for a little while, then we just hung out with everybody. Grandpa & Grandma took the boys swimming at the Y, but SmallDaughter wasn’t really feeling good, so we didn’t even try to go.   Dear Auntie and her boys left at about 10 pm, so we came home then too. 

SmallDaughter is on spring break this week, which is good because she has spent the last 2 days laying on the couch with a chest cold and fever.  She is starting to feel better, but she is less than impressed with her mom—I have put an onion poultice on her the last 2 nights.  (everybody asks, so I will tell you:  just cut 2 onions into rings, and slice 4 or 5 cloves of garlic, then smash them with a French knife, so the oils are activated, then put them in a pan with either olive or coconut oil on low heat until they start to clarify—you are NOT trying to cook them, and you don’t want them nicely brown and carmelized.  Then, cool them down till they are a comfortable temperature, and apply a thick layer of Vick’s (and I also use a few drops of Tea Tree oil) to the back and chest and rub them in, then cover the chest and the back with the onions and wrap her up snugly in plastic wrap). 

She was not fond of this the first night—but she REALLY hated it the second night when she knew what was coming!  She said “Owie” “No” and “Hot”—which was funny, since it wasn’t any of those things, but she doesn’t have words for “nasty” “slimy” and “gross”!  It is a very interesting fragrance mix—let me tell you!  But it has really helped clear her up. 

We are recovering nicely from all the fun, and I am trying to catch up on all the jobs My Favorite Gentleman needs me to get done for him!  Tomorrow we are going to buy my hive and beekeeping tools, since the bees will be in sometime in the next two weeks!  Yaaay!  I am super excited for them!  And—in perfect timing, next Friday the Local Beekeepers Association is having a “live bee dump” at their monthly meeting.  They will show us exactly how to “dump” our bees into their new home and get it functioning right! I am glad to have so much help and mentoring!

With all the fun we have been having, we have lots of people we love who are going through hard times, and we are still praying for them.  It is always interesting to see how life is such up and downs!  However—I know that these times with the people we love (as noisy, crazy and hectic as they may be!) are the best memories and the real stuff that life is made of!  I am grateful to have a framework for living, so that when our family gets together, it is pure fun—no fights, no screaming or hitting, just love everywhere you look. 

I just want to share some of my Dad’s take on the week:

One of the most remarkable aspects of the whole weekend to me was "the guys".  We had six adolescent and young single adult males ranging in age from 14 to 28.   Not only were they not lost in their own world or electronic gadgets, they were deeply involved in everything.  (The biggest point of contention was who got to hold the baby).  Their major activity was playing with the rug-rats.  In the disengaged society we live in, I find this truly wonderful.  What great fathers these guys will make.

Pictures coming soon!

I have been busier than a marshmallow vendor while Rome burned!  At the beginning of March, I realized I did not have A SINGLE UNSCHEDULED DAY in the entire month!  It has gotten busier since then!  And, while all of the stuff is good—some of it is FABULOUS, even—it is still LOTS OF BUSY!

 Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

Both the Yoga and the Herbs classes that we are taking are offered though our Tech HS Community Ed classes.  Yoga is very sneaky—it starts off so easy you think “this isn’t even really exercise!” and then, before you know it, you are working so hard you can’t believe it!  I am really enjoying it—I love it even more because I am doing it with BigGirl!  I wish we had somewhere closer (it is about 45 min North of us) so we could do it several times a week. 

The Herb class is actually 5 freestanding classes that I signed up to take as the entire series.  Mary Colvin, the teacher is a woman who is a Master Herbalist, certified through Dr. Christopher’s School of Natural Healing in Springville, UT (where my friend Heidi worked).  The first class was on Growing a Medicinal Herb Garden.  The second class was “Herbal First Aid” and the third was “Herbs for Women’s Issues”.  I am working on designing and preparing gardens, and hope to plant them next year.  However, it did make me feel better about several “weeds” that I never got around to exterminating—turns out they are awesome helpers that I was already growing!  YAY!

I am taking Beekeeping classes, also, and I will gradually buy apiary supplies this year and get my bees next spring.  I am REALLY excited about that—I didn’t think it would be possible to think bees were any cooler, but the more I learn, the more fabulously awesome they are—truly celestially designed!  (However, the pests that affect them are DEFINITELY in the telestial category!  GROSS and nasty!)   I will probably start my “vermiculture” worm farm this year.  Pretty neat little critters—but not as beautiful as bees!  Red Wigglers eat 1 ½ times their body weight a day in household waste that they turn into the highest possible quality compost!  You can just set up a bin in the basement or outside and make sure they have plenty of kitchen scraps and newsprint, and enough moisture, and they do their magic without much outside interference!

We had the Candyland Activity last Wednesday, so now I can give you more details!  The Laurels wanted to plan a really special Mother-Daughter Activity, and they recruited me, because they know where my talents lie!  We actually started the planning back in November, and over the Christmas break Sarah K and Aryn P came for a 2 day sleepover, and we started work on decorations.  BigGirl and I have been working at least once a week on parts of it since then! 

It started with walking in the YW hallway under 8 ft tall Candy Canes flanking the inner glass doors, with a “Welcome to Candyland” sign.  There were bright paper squares on the floor, like the game board.  If you followed them, you went into the YW room, where the front chalkboard had been turned into the Peppermint Forest, and they did a craft, decorating picture frames with Starlight Mints (red and green).  Then they went to the “Gumdrop Mountains”, and guessed how many gumdrops were in a jar.  Then on to “Peanut Acres” where they played cornhole with beanbags shaped like peanuts.  Each of those areas had a large (4-5 foot long) painted backdrop.  Then out into the hall, past “Lollipop Woods” which had 6 paper mache lollipops that were about a foot across standing in a grove. 

In the RS room we had 4 tables set up, each with a brightly colored plastic tablecloth. The table centerpieces were little gingerbread houses. Over the chalkboard we had the “Candy Castle” which was a castle I painted on sheet years ago for a little girls birthday.  Up at the front we had the “Chocolate Swamp, where I had a chocolate brown silk fabric “chocolate waterfall” and a real chocolate fountain, with stuff to dip.  On the other food table we had sandwiches in the shape of gingerbread people and “cupcakes” made with mini meatloaves in aluminum cupcake papers, topped with mashed potatoes piped on like frosting, then baked.  Out in the hallway by the gym, we blocked it off with the piano, and then put up giant stand up Gingerbread Mom & Daughter cutouts, where we took pictures of the girls with their moms, and we will put those pictures in their frames as a memento.  It was a HUGE amount of work, but we had a really good turnout, and we had several of the less active girls and everybody had fun, so it was worth it!

The next morning was our Seminary visit from our Stake Seminary Supervisor.  He drives all the way up from  Columbus twice a year to visit!  (He has to get up at 2am, and he is still willing, cheerful and brings donuts!  Talk about dedication!)  After he left, I jumped in the shower, then got SmallDaughter dressed and on the bus, then left for town, where I hooked up with a couple from my Ward, and my newly returned from his mission cousin, and we went to the Temple.  It was a wonderful session, even though I was running on 4 hours of sleep!  I stayed in town for an hour, then drove over to the church, where I carpooled BACK down to Columbus for the Stake Primary Leadership Meeting.  It was also very good.  There were several classes on Special Needs children, which was excellent, since SmallDaughter’s new Assistant was able to go! 

I had been really worried about finding a babysitter for SmallDaughter for Saturday’s Quad Stake Seminary Activity/Dance—I knew I would be gone 10+ hours, and there was NO way she would like it!  However—the babysitter situation was looking pretty dire!  Grandpa & Grandma were in Maryland for her brother’s wedding, LargeCousin & Auntie were in their final performance of “Oklahoma”, and Bestie K and her kids are in TX, where her mom has been in Intensive Care with internal bleeding.  Even my backups—were all babysitting grandkids!  AARGH!  I finally asked the mom of one of my seminary boys, and she was willing, but was sick, and not sure how she would be feeling.  Anyway, in blessings many layers deep, My Favorite Gentleman got to come home on Friday, so SmallDaughter just got to have an awesome day with her daddy!  He took her to see “Wreck-it Ralph”, to ride the carousel (once on the chariot, twice on kitties), and to eat Hamburgers at McDonalds! 

So, on Friday, I worked on the house (slowly, since I was super-tired!), and I was at Beekeeping Class when My Favorite Gentleman got home, but boy was it nice to see him!  It is working out that he comes home once a month, and I go see him once, so I average seeing him every two weeks, with the kids seeing him once.  Better than nothing, but less than ideal.  Please pray that he will be transferred to a crew that works 10 days on, 4 off, so he can be home more.  Saturday was the big seminary activity, and it was really fun.  I took my whole seminary crew and we had a great time, but I got home a little after midnight, and had to leave the house on Sunday at 8, so I could be at Ward Council by 9.  I presented the new Summer Project—instead of Book of Mormon Reading, we are doing a Summer of Service.  I have had so much inspiration on this, it has already been awesome for me, and I hope we can get the rest of the Ward to catch the spirit!

Today we are going to go pick up our new chicks!  Always a fun time!  (We just got back—they are--OF COURSE!—super cute!)  And varied, because I just got 25 assorted brown egg layers. I think we have 4 or 5 breeds—lots of barred (black and white striped feathers, very pretty), some yellow chicks that will probably be regular red chickens and 4 cute little “booted” girls that have feathers on their feet, and are a really pretty “seal” brown like a Siamese cat! 

BigGirl going to Spain is because we found a neat program called Pueblo Ingles, where they pair up native English speakers with Spaniards who need to practice English.  We only have to pay for plane fare, and they put the “anglos” up at a 4-Star resort, all expenses paid for 1 or 2 weeks.  All she has to do, is have lots of 1 on1 conversations with teens from Spain!  And,  they use English speakers from all over the world, so she can meet friends from South Africa, Ireland, Australia, etc.  The only problem we are having is with scheduling, because the teen program mainly runs through the month of July—right when she has Youth Conference and Girls Camp!  We are doing our best, but she is planning to try next year if we can’t make this year work!  And for just awesomeness, our passports have arrived!

How is everybody doing?  Well, My Favorite Gentleman is working lots and lots, BigGirl is busy doing awesome young lady things like watching the Lizzie Bennett Diaries (which finish up next week!!), staying updated on several webcomics, reading stacks and stacks of books, going to plays and various social awesome things, and  being on the Stake Youth Committee.  LargeBoy is drawing all the time, and having a great time being awesome with his seminary bros.  They alternate between video games, drawing, creating live online adventures via chat with the various far away friends, learning to play musical instruments and practicing sweet dance moves.  He is also working on becoming a fashion-meister with his own hipster, thrift store style.  It is pretty awesome (often involves hats, suspenders, cool belts and custom decorated canvas tennis shoes).  SmallDaughter is doing really well.  She is continuing to progress in school, and when I had our meeting with her teacher, Mrs. K, (who taught her for 3^rd grade, didn’t for 4^th and had her this year for 5^th), she has noticed LOTS more concentration, and Lots less picking, which gives me hope.  I am just doggy paddling along, trying to keep everything in balance!