Highlights

This week went by quickly.

1. I have an extra child on Tue. and Thu. mornings now. He is good-natured and 6 years old, so it's easy to keep track of him. His mom was my visiting teacher and got a new job that doesn't allow her to take him with her.

2. Rain. It was wet all last week. That means not a lot of harvest, so I'm getting a little break from canning for now.

3. School. It's going well for Joseph and James. They seem to like their schools a lot. Aside from taking the finals, James finished up his classes. Yahoo!

4. Temple. We did sealings last Friday night. Those are my favorite to go do together. We took family names.

5. Walking. James has to do 5 miles a week to earn credit for discounted insurance. We have been on a few together exploring the little valley we live in.

Everything else has been pretty routine: a little yard work, visiting teaching, getting ready for the Primary Program on Sunday, and keeping this house from falling apart. It's a good life.

Another Busy Week

I don't feel like typing a long post, so enjoy the pictures. We had a great time with Christian, Myles, and Dad/Grandpa. Not shown: fixing our car for us so it can pass inspection, dinner at Golden Corral (tradition!), and the general hanging out that doesn't make good pictures. Also, I had babysitting, but it went smoothly. Dad helped me sort the old pictures he sent me, and I just finished scanning them today. There are some real gems!

reading with Uncle Christian

Grandpa and his babies at Rainbow Park

Island Park

McKee Springs petroglyphs

Several Good Things

We will have visitors later this week! Dad is coming to see his grandbabies, and Christian and Myles are stopping by on their way back to school.

I'm still canning a lot. I love my big garden.

James shot his 3rd jackrabbit. We will eat it for dinner tonight.

Joseph loves school and tells me every day how fun it is.

Kenny loves not taking naps. I love that he sleeps past 6:00 now.

Katie still runs around with only a diaper. She's getting her Vitamin D for sure.

We figured out how to fix our gutters! No more gap between the roof and gutters will hopefully mean no water in the crawlspace - ever.

I still haven't had time to be bored, and I'm grateful for that.

Dad is going to help me sort through a box of old photos. Next project: scan them into the computer.

The Perfect Life

No one knows my whole story. That became even more clear to me when my mother-in-law remarked that, to her daughter (my sister-in-law), I have a perfect life.

I scoffed inwardly at that comment. Too often, I find myself wishing for another life. I wish we had more money, a bigger house, and nicer cars. I wish I had a taller, skinnier frame, more children, and more musical talent. My life isn't perfect. I often feel that I don't measure up. I yell too much and don't play with my children enough. I get distracted from important things with mundane things.

It's not okay to sit here coveting someone else's life. Anyone could sit down and write this same post, just with different wants. I have to remember that when I start getting jealous. Material possessions are not a sign of how much God loves us.

Any life that includes God is a perfect one. He makes up for all those holes we think we have and the ones we actually do. I'm trying to see perfect as "whole or complete" instead of "easy".

School, Potty, Canning

I feel like I've passed a big "mommy milestone" this week by sending my first kid onto the school bus and to Kindergarten. Did I cry yesterday? Well, no, but I did for a few weeks beforehand. I'd been dreading it for a long time, but the actual sendoff wasn't so bad. Joseph confidently stepped on the bus and didn't look back. I think he had a good day but was hungry and tired when he got home.

I've been warning Kenny for a few months that he'd have to go on the potty when Joseph went to school. He's 3 1/2, so the same age Joseph was when I potty-trained him. Joseph took a couple days to get the hang of it. Kenny already gets it after one day! He only had one accident yesterday, and he didn't freak out. He changed his clothes and went on with life. It's so nice to only have one kid in diapers now.

Our garden has been producing very well. We've had tons of squash, peas, beans, peppers, cilantro, green onions, tomatoes, and kohlrabi (so far) with many other crops to come. Today, I will can my first (double) batch of salsa. I can't wait! I'm also going to make a kimchi from the kohlrabi, which I peeled and shredded yesterday.

I was worried about staying busy during the afternoon, but I think my fears were unfounded. This harvest is going to keep me busy until Halloween if it's like last year. I'm so excited!

We did go to a wedding reception in Provo last Friday night. It was intense because it's a 3 hour drive, and we went there and back in the afternoon/evening/early morning. It was fun to see family and stop for a picnic on the way. We spent the rest of the weekend sleeping, or so it felt.

Goals

I always dread the end of summer. School is the first sign that the best time of year is coming to a close. I live for the long days of sunshine and warmth. I don't look forward to short days, cold, and gloom. I know it's a while off, but knowing it's coming makes me feel anxious.

I have set a few goals to help me get to the end of the year. Keeping goals constantly helps me improve myself and get things done. I do love projects.

1. Exercise every weekday morning with James for 30 minutes. So far, I am really enjoying this. I got a fair amount of exercise over the summer with all the yard work, but there isn't enough outside to keep me busy anymore. We are doing Your Shape, an Xbox workout game, while listening to my Spotify playlists. I'm a little sore, but in a good way. I've already adjusted to getting up at 6. Exercise always starts the day off right, but if I don't do it first, it isn't likely to happen. Since I'm up, I can also make James a decent breakfast instead of him eating cold cereal. (I could write a whole blog about how lame I think cold cereal is!)

2. Finish using the denim squares I've cut out to make jean quilts. I actually already did this one! I just finished my last blanket yesterday, a twin size and my 5th one for our house. I'm going to take a very long break to hopefully make queen or king-sized blankets for my kids when they're a lot older. Since I need 288 per quilt, I will need to save for a long time! Maybe by then I'll have a decent sewing machine.

3. Go on adventures to finish exploring Uintah County. As mentioned before, we've done a ton of exploring this summer. We have about 5 day trips left to see the rest, and after that, we can do some hikes during cooler weather (September, October) before there's snow. I have everything mapped out. We just have to get in the car and go!

4. Finish the hard piano book I'm working on. It's a pre-virtuoso level, so I have to work really hard on the songs to make them sound good. I have only 3 left! After that, I really want to learn the additional music found on lds. org (stuff they print in Church magazines). We will have to buy a printer first. :) I also have a really hard LDS song book, meant for special musical numbers. I slacked off a lot over the summer, so I really hope to get back into practicing every day.

5. Finish trying recipes for the Happy Herbivore cookbooks. I have tried a ton so far and found lots that I've liked. I know my blog hasn't been updated in a long time with recipes, so I'll get on that too. HH's recipes are plant-based. I've learned some fun, new food combinations that are also easy, cheap, and healthy. Win-win!

With all this and being involved in Joseph's school, I'm hoping I won't have time to be depressed.

Back to School

We had a wonderful family visit this past week. It was a stressful week overall, but that's because it was so busy!

1. Apricots. I processed all of them into salsa, jalapeno-apricot jam, and regular jam. It took a lot of time and made a big mess.

2. Helped friends move. Scott and Chelsie are moving back to SLC area, so we helped them pack up, and they fed us lunch. We got some stuff from them that they didn't want. It was like a free yard sale.

3. Yard work. We spent 6 plus hours on Monday pulling weeds from the new grass area. It filled our big garbage can! I wanted it to look nice before the family came.

4. Babysitting. Same as last week, I did Wed. and Thu. nights. It was a little stressful because of the family being here too, but we managed.

5. Temple. James and I attended last Friday before it closed for the 2 week cleaning. We were also able to go to dinner. We felt really needed there, because there was no one else doing sealings at the time.

6. Family visit. We crammed as much as we could into less than 72 hours. We did the dinosaur bones, DUP museum, Western Heritage museum, petroglyphs, shooting, found James's great-great-great-grandfather's grave, did a cookout at Remember the Maine park, and ate grits and eggs on the last morning. In our down time, we watched some episodes of the Middle.

7. Catching up. I missed a dental appointment last week, so I rescheduled and went. No cavities still! I also had grocery shopping, laundry, cooking, and generally putting the house back together.

The internet hasn't been working for a few days, which has been a real bummer. James starts school tomorrow, and Joseph starts on Monday! I can't believe that time has come already.

8. Katie the stripper. I can't keep clothes or a diaper on this child. I have resorted to taping the diapers on. I tried a onesie, but she just took the diaper off through it and slept completely naked, peed in her bed, and pooped on the floor. Ugh! The boys never did this!

Thankfully, even with school starting, this week is a lot less stressful so far. I hope it stays that way, but I know it won't. It will be an adjustment to start waking up at 6, but I know it won't last long.