The Second Half of June

 The kids were so excited for Monday evening because Dad was coming home from work to take them to the park for an evening of playing baseball.  They even got to pick up their favorite friends along the way.  We don't have any pictures because Sir Walter Scott forgot his phone, but that just means he was able to participate fully without stopping to frame a photo.

Everyone came home sweaty, tired, hungry, and happy.  

I had our usual Monday night huge pot of pasta ready and waiting for them as they walked in the door.

Earlier in the day, our case manager made his weekly visit, but this time he had a nurse with him because she did some digging into files and found that we'd not had a nurse visit at any time in our history with this service, so she started fixing that lack with Brother.  He got weighed and measured in various ways, and we spent a good part of the afternoon answering questions about health habits and history.  

I am delighted to report that she was pleasantly surprised to find a family that eats mostly homemade whole foods, limits screen time, and encourages regular outdoor play.

It's been long enough between writing today and actually living life two Tuesdays ago, that I have no recollection of what we did.  The calendar has nothing on it . . . which makes me smile.  That means we had no outside commitments.  I probably fixed food, cleaned, napped, and read aloud to the kids.  They probably ate food, cleaned with me, played games, and read books.

I did find a picture that tells me Tuesday was the day Little Princess finished Algebra 2!!

Wednesday was, and always is, library day.

It was also the day we celebrated Beowulf's half birthday. 

We have 4 birthdays in December, and one year I joked, "Who wants to celebrate their half birthday instead of actual birthday in December?"

Beowulf realized the benefits of having a celebration in a month other than December and in a month other than one full of other family birthdays, so he jumped at the chance. :)

This day was nicely clear for a half-birthday celebration, so we scheduled him in.

Little Princess is our family cake baker/decorator, and she lets the birthday kid design and help make his/her own cake.  She's a patient and kind teacher.

Lola gave him gum for his half-birthday present.  She personalized each piece!

It was a busy, happy family evening celebrating the life of our boy.

On Thursday, we had an American Rhythm park day.

The director and I showed up with our kids.  

Several hours later one other family joined us.  

At least the director and I and our kids are very good friends!

I sent Baymax off with my camera to capture some pictures, and this is what he brought me. :)

The big kids spent most of the day on the ball field.  The little kids spent most of the day on the splash pad.   Everyone went home tired and happy.

We shipped Little Princess off to CAP Encampment Training on Friday.

She's a flight commander this summer, and this is her flight staff.

The training lasted about 48 hours, and on the way home, she was alerted to a system computer glitch that deleted a bunch of Encampment documents.  This means that she and a handful of other flight commanders spent the following week rewriting plans that they'd spent the past 3 months creating.  

It was stressful, but she succeeded in meeting her deadlines.

The younger kids and I finished Villainous with much satisfaction.  They all wished for another book in the series, but when I looked it up, I found that it is only a trilogy.  Honestly, the trilogy had a satisfying ending, but when you grow to love characters the way my kids love these characters, it makes sense that they'd want the stories to go on and on.

Ladybug was invited to spend an evening with a friend, and I hear it was a success!

The medium kids gathered up to watch a Marvel movie together.

The big boys are playing chess in most of their free time.  My mom has a friend whose husband runs a national chess camp, and she's organizing an opportunity for my boys to play chess with him sometime in the next month!

On Saturday, we learned that Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease was going around the church nursery.  As a member of the Primary Presidency, this meant I was one of the people in charge of giving the nursery and every single toy in it a thorough disinfectant cleaning.  I brought three of my kids with me, and we were joined by a presidency member of another ward and her husband.

We followed the instructions for daycare safety levels with the industrial cleaners at the church.
I love how they worked together to complete tasks without burning out because they were so long.

We cleaned every surface (horizontal and vertical), every standing toy, every page of every board book, every piece of every puzzle, every item of play food, block, Duplo, lacing bead, and laces.

It was a huge job, but I feel good about how thorough we were.

And there have been no new cases of HFMD since!

Sunday was fairly typical with church and family quiet time.  The reason I didn't get a chance to write last Sunday, though, was because I had my first set of Primary visits--20 minute appointments with 2 Primary families in their homes.  It was terribly fun to meet with the kids on their home turf.  My companion and I delivered little I Am a Child of God messages and presents (crayons and coloring page).

Once my visits were done, I headed to CAP to wait for Little Princess' return, and I had the fun of being the first to listen to her stories as we drove home together.

Shopping for the boys' camp supplies and packing filled Monday from start to finish.

But we did have time to start The Mysterious Benedict Society before falling into bed that night.

Then we dropped the boys off bright and early Tuesday morning.  The boys' leaders aren't as adept at sharing pictures as the girls' leaders are, but I do have one picture from the week (shared with me by one of the moms [who got it from her husband])!

It was a week of tent camping, hiking, rafting, exploring, and growing spiritually.

Within a couple of hours of dropping off the boys, the American Rhythm director came over with her daughters (her son and husband were on the boys' camp out), so that we could go through the dance gear and decide who would be doing what dance.   Our theme for 2025-26 is It's a Small World.  We'll be learning about a few world cultures, and we'll weave together a show that celebrates our own clogging specialty as well as other traditional dances from around the world.

It took all day to investigate our 30+ bins of costumes, shoes, and accessories!!

Wednesday was our usual library day.  I just asked the kids what else we did while the boys were gone, and Ladybug answered, "We just sat around and read all day."

I think she's right. :)

Oh!

Starting to write about Thursday reminded me of what happened Wednesday night.  I sent the kids to bed, but Lola disappeared.  I walked through the house, peeved, looking for her.  I finally found her outside on the deck, crouched, staring into a corner.

"[Lola!] I sent you to bed!"

"Mom, I'm watching a spider make its web.  It's so cool!"

Then she came inside, and I actually wanted to turn her back around to watch the spider longer, but I was tired, so I let the moment pass.

I've been reading a book about intelligences, and Lola so clearly has great strength in Nature Intelligence.

Thursday arrived. A local town had Kid's Day planned at one of the parks we like to walk at.  I was not in the mood to go out in the summer heat, but the kids held me to my promise, so we went.

I'm so glad we did!!!!!!

It was just little.

When we arrived, I actually thought no one had even set up yet because there was so little to see.  But as we walked deeper into the park, we found the tiny petting zoo, and we parked ourselves there for 40 straight minutes.

I encouraged Baymax to look at the police car and talk to the police officer who was there to  answer questions and let kids explore his car, but he was feeling shy.  Right then, a man passed us and invited us to come see what he was presenting, so we followed him.

Turns out, he is a member of the Secret Service.

Baymax was spellbound.

We learned so much!

Great big men sit in this seat--position #4 on a team--in order to keep watch from the back of an armored vehicle.  They sit there with their guns and gear.  I have no idea how they fit!

For reference, Ladybug is 4'10" tall, and her knees are in her chest. 
Can you even imagine being 6' or taller and crammed in there!?!?

Then we talked to the police officer for a while.

I asked him what skills he thought were most valuable for a hopeful future officer.  I loved the answer this barely 20-something young man answered.  

"I think listening is the most important skill you can develop.  I spend most of my day listening to people so that I can find the truth from people's stories.  People just need someone to listen to them when they're scared or mad or struggling."

I'm so impressed!!!

All of a sudden, a fire truck pulled into the park.  They'd been on a call, so they were late, but they came, and our world was rocked.

The firefighters were doing typical things like passing out little plastic hats and letting kids climb up in the truck, but then Ladybug dared to ask if their real gear was available to try on.

Yes!!

At first Ladybug worked on getting dressed herself.

But then a firefighter noticed her, and helped her get not only into the uniform correctly, but also added her personal gear to Ladybug's ensemble to let her get a real feel for the weight.

It was so heavy, and Ladybug was so happy!

The other 2 kids got their turns, too.

At some point I made a comment about how Ladybug would make a great firefighter because she's so strong.  This led us to wonder if firefighters have a height requirement because at 4'10", she's full grown.

No!

A light came on inside my girl, and she talked to the firefighters for 20 straight minutes asking questions and listening to answers about how to become a firefighter.

My mother-heart was bursting with happiness at this light in my girl.  All of her questions came from herself.  She's usually very shy around others, but her curiosity cured her shyness in this situation.  It was like seeing her find herself.

I consider this to be a pivotal moment in her life.  I don't know if firefighting is actually in Ladybug's future, but I do know that this tiny celebration at a park opened up Ladybug's mind to the possibilities of her future.

She beamed all day.

I beamed all day at her beaming all day.

That evening we had church activities and CAP, so I took Lola and Baymax to the splash pad to meet their classes, while Nature Angel took Little Princess and Ladybug with her to the swim party scheduled for their classes.  

Little Princess left early from the pool for CAP where she had an interview for squadron commander scheduled.  She's not certain she wants to be squadron commander yet, but she's actually their best candidate.  We'll see what happens.

I took the kids grocery shopping with me on Friday.

That evening, Little Princess watched them while Sir Walter Scott and I had an at-home date night.

Early on Saturday, Sir Walter Scott took Baymax with him to do some lawn mowing for an elderly couple from church who can't manage any more.  Once they were home, they watched a baseball documentary that Sir Walter Scott has long loved and was delighted to have a son who would enjoy it with him.

In the afternoon, the 3 big boys came home.  We listened to their stories for a few hours, then I sent them to shower so we could have dinner and gather for evening reading.  We summarized what happened in the book while they were gone (we've read the book before, but some of them don't remember it at all).  

It is good to be together again.

I realize I've not recorded a new part of our homeschool/family day.  Sir Walter Scott has long been bothered by the fact that Morning Meeting takes place without him most of the time.  With his new job, it now takes place completely without him.  He didn't want to stop Morning Meeting, but he did want to find a way to show his children that he loves the scriptures, too.  Finally, he talked to me about it a few weeks ago, and we decided to add a few minutes of Book of Mormon reading to our dinner time/family prayer routine.  For over 25 years we've sung and prayed after eating, but now we sing, pray, and read.  We're not doing a whole lot, just one verse each around the table.  

But it's good. 

 

And if we old parents (who learn new routines more slowly than we used to) ever forget, the kids remind us.  

I think it is a heaven-sent plan for us.

And I believe it will be a case of "small and simple things" bringing to pass "great things."