Mother's Day 2023

Spring homeschool photo event started up last Thursday with a flood of cute kids continuing on throughout this week. I quite enjoy seeing the regulars coming back twice a year.  

The spring snuffles caught up with us all big time this week. A child was home sick three out of the 5 school days, Evelyn was the most sick with a stuffy nose, cough, and fever. Everett and Josie also got quite sick. Everett took a 6 hour nap when he stayed home. I caught the grossness too, by Tuesday I was trashed. I had a lot of work to slug through so drank down a packet of energy stuff I can pour in my water. Within a hour I was so nauseous I had a friendly interview with the toilet, add in a migraine for a whole package deal. I rescheduled most of my piano students and spent a couple hours in bed. Justin helped schlep Phillip to drums and back while I attended a Stake Primary training meeting. Justin helped get the girls to bed while I went to sleep at 9 pm. 

Our camp preparation activity this week was to decorate mailboxes and journals. Jocelyn is back home! Lots of squeals to see her back home after a month in treatment. We will use the mailboxes to deliver notes and thoughts to each other at camp. The journals are for our “faith” time each day and to use for devotionals. I brought a crate full of paper, fabric, paint, glue, ribbon, buttons, flowers, and not enough scissors. Evelyn and Josie enjoyed Dad and Me time this week! I hear they went to Walmart for a secret Mother’s Day mission and Sonic Slushies. Yay! 

Amelia had her Springs Pops choir concert Thursday evening. Each choir performed fun compilations of songs like Disney, popular, and oldies. I think that is the best. In between choirs Mrs Sene presented awards, graduation ropes, and letters. Amelia earned a letter in choir! She mentioned working on her letter but I did not realize she earned it until she was called up! Way to go Miss! She can earn a bar next year if she wants. Amelia will accompany her choir on piano to as part of earning her bar. Justin and I attended alone, left the sick and whining kids at home watching a movie. Amelia went to the after parting all by herself. Man, that freedom is sweet. 

Friday and Saturday we worked our bums off. Justin cut off the top two levels from the tall garden box. We removed half the garden soil with shovels and wheeled it over to dump out on a tarp for later dispersement. My plan is to make one long box for tomatoes and a small box for peas on the south side of our house. That side gets full sun, hoping to get a better tomato crop. The smaller box is in open shade so might be perfect for a late crop of peas. 

The men went on a man mission Saturday morning for Mother’s day food for the RS ladies refreshment on Sunday. They also grabbed some longer screws to hold the garden boxes together. Evelyn, Josie, and I went to D&B Supply for garden plants. Everett discovered wire worms in the dirt so I also got treatment for that and some fruit tree spray to kill the pests attacking poor Wilbur (our peach tree). I was quite dismayed that the bedding plants were $5.80 per plant this year. Gracious. I ended up taking half the plants back and scrounging up a plant here and there from folks selling starts from their homes. I assembled the boxes and stapled landscaping fabric to the boxes going on the south side. After that the family kicked in helping fill the boxes, prune trees, and mowing the grass. I had a last moment maternity session with Andrea Cortes, Beau, and Diego. Grandpa came along to help Diego feel more comfortable. This time Diego thought my fart nosies were hilarious. Finally! The little girls had the time of their life playing in the huge pile of gardening dirt. I caught them hiding toys in the dirt for a fun discovery game. Evelyn and Josie cleaned out their playhouse with the hose. They were in dirt heaven! Evelyn helped me plant the tomatoes, this year I put a cracked raw egg in the bottom of the planting hole. Rumor is the egg will provide tons of nutrients the tomatoes need to grow, sort of like planting corn with fish? The old Indian trick?! Dirt was everywhere by sunset, in the house, out of the house, and everywhere. I asked Justin and Everett to help me bag up the remaining dirt. Justin wanted to leave it for Monday. Yeah, right….you mean Saturday? I took my bull-head and started doing the job alone. Everett helped me bag up 4 trash bags of dirt. Sara took 2-3 barrows full of dirt so that helped diminish the pile. The patio was rinsed off and clean by 10 pm. Phew, bed was a welcome change, horizontal instead of vertical. 

Evelyn was so excited about mother’s day that she was up poking me until 1 am, couldn’t sleep so had to let me know. She finally fell asleep with zzzzzquill and me bodily holding her down. I was relieved she slept until 9 am the next day. Amelia, Evelyn, and Josie made me breakfast of eggs and toast with orange juice. Josie gave me a cute craft she made in school. Evelyn brought home a spider plant start in a cute pot she decorated at school. The plant start came from Ms Gingerich’s own spider plant in their classroom! Evelyn then came cradling a new garden gnome, the reason she could not sleep! I immediately christened him “Percival.” He is guarding my mum plant. Justin surprised me with wind chimes, a set of large geodes to break open, and hallelujah, an instapot. Yes, I am excited to have a new 8 quart instapot, this one even sous vides. Nice. Church was nice. The primary kids sweetly sang, “Mother, I Love You.” The EQ laid out a lovely spread of fruit, cookies, chocolates and cream puffs for the ladies to enjoy while visiting in the gym. 

We left right after church to drive north to Emmett where a guy sells AKC certified Scottish Terrier pups. He currently has three pups ready for sale. We immediately feel in love with the oldest puppy, a chubby little guy. The puppy will be ready for a new home next week. The kids and Justin and very, very excited. I’m along for the ride, what’s one more thing to look after? The Ostlers came over for dinner of Lake Powell chicken, rice, salad, and Dusty’s labor of love: grilled ribs. I whipped up a batch of brown butter rice crispy treats for dessert. I had a headache from all the discussion about possible Scottish names, reformer names, silly names, et al for the new puppy. Crikey sake, just name it Sirius Black, my personal favorite. Justin is being selfish and wants sole naming rights because he is “paying for it.” Mmmmm, does that mean he will take care of it too? Nooooo, that’s my thankless job once again.