May the 4th, Tennis, and Mother's Day

Monday was the infamous May the 4th, where Star Wars lovers celebrate. I planned to show up in a black cape, our Darth helmet and brandishing a saber. I couldn’t find the helmet so that was a buzz kill. I had a wonderful time carrying around my saber using it to recruit small children to the dark side. Josie went to school as an Ewok, she was very frustrated after a little while because her friends thought she was a cute bear. No, not so. She is a full-embodied Ewok, full of mischief and capable of war. What do they know? Nothing I tell you. 

Phillip had his end of year choir concert with the Concord Men’s choir. He was very excited to sing “I’ve had the time of my life” and a song Ashton arranged. At one point the guys were singing AND dancing…Phillip was singing and dancing. It’s a miracle. Next week we have three more performances to attend, the end draws near. I cannot wait to be done with this school year. Josie performed with her 4th grade cohorts Thursday afternoon. They all played 3 songs on the recorder and then sang 3 songs. I played piano for “Here We Have Idaho.” McGrath started the concert 5 minutes early, I still had kinders in my classroom when Mrs Curtis hurriedly asked if I was coming down to play. Dang you McGrath! I ran into the gym with a few minutes to spare. Josie wore her cowgirl hat and the chicken skirt to match the concert theme. 

Amelia drove down to spend a few days with Lia Lance. Cousin time! I enjoyed getting texts and snippets as the girls went shopping, painted, got to meet Jared’s girlfriend “Winky,” made cute hug shirts, and silly videos. Yep, Jared has a girlfriend! He has a job and all that. Dude! Life is going forward. We had some major FOMO watching Amelia play with cousins while we had to work and school. 

Everett finished out his tennis season at districts on Friday. He played hard all season. Josie and I left school early to watch his match on Thursday. The sunshine was glorious, especially with a light breeze cooling us down. Everett lost his match on Thursday and then on Friday morning. He gets into his head when his opponent starts to win, his coach had some good advice for him: just focus on what you can and don’t think about the score. Evelyn’s last match was on Wednesday, she and Macey won a match and lost a match. She was thrilled to finally win a game, their first match of the season to win one. Hooray! What a way to end the season. 

The girls had strings lesson Friday evening because we both had full evening schedules for the next 2 weeks. Josie and Evelyn were very anxious to get back into learning more fiddle and guitar. Evelyn giggled most of her lesson with Andrew. I suspected she has a mild crush on Andrew. She said that is NOT the case, she just had the case of the giggles. I felt a bit discouraged with the contest results. I felt like the girls practiced their hearts and fingers off, yet they still placed low. Emma reminded me that most fiddlers are homeschooled and also start competing around age 6, Josie starting late and working around our schedules puts her in a different place. Emma said both girls are doing phenomenal for how long they’ve played their instruments. Usually their silly turkey walks up to the window during lessons and gobbles along with the music. It’s quite funny. As Emma and I were chatting after lessons we noticed the turkey was stalking toward the swing the girls were playing on. Soon we watched the girls swiftly rush into the van and close the doors. The turkey was protecting its turf! I danced quite a tango with the turkey trying to get to the van myself. We had quite a giggle together. Friday Phillip helped me tidy up the garage because I needed to photograph a family for some school photos. That was a necessary evil. I later asked Everett to vacuum out the van. He managed to vacuum the back but did not get the front done. He totally spaced it. Justin thought he did it on purpose, I knew he probably vacuumed inside his head but not in reality. He fixed the issue. I also worked on sorting through the mountains of girl clothes switching out winter for summer clothes. Josie helped me clean up the floor once the great sorting event was completed. 

Evelyn had quite a bit of ELA homework to catch up on over the weekend. She and I spent about 3 hours working on her notebook pages for “Enchanted Air” poem study. I was very proud of her for keeping her emotions in check and not acting like a cheeky monkey. We still have a book report to work on but she was very worried about the 5 missing worksheet pages she accumulated. Evelyn went with me to photograph a group of MCO friends for prom. Abram hired me for 30 minutes starting at 5 pm…until Miles was an hour late. The 30 minute session turned into a 2.5 hour affair. Evelyn ate all my tic tacs she was so hungry. Every few minutes after 6 pm I’d hear her whisper, “Mom, I’m so hungry when can we eat?” At least we were in the gorgeous Scentsy Commons for the wait. I hired Evelyn and Josie to weed the garden beds and the bark areas. Evelyn got all her work done, Josie lost interest after an hour. I need to add a few inches of good soil to my large box and then rototill the new soil into it. The soil is very hard after an inch deep. 

Josie is being so sweet today. She followed me around singing Primary songs from a little songbook we have. Phillip and Everett were asked to give a short talk along with other YM and YM leaders from the ward. Last night Phillip had no idea what to talk about. He manned up and gave a sweet talk off the cuff. Everett made me tear up a bit with his stories and words. Sara organized a fondue treat for the sisters after her lesson. That was really nice. Justin went off the hook making steak, shrimp, and scallop kebabs on the grill. So delicious. I am grateful for my mom. She is like the best ever. Makes me laugh and feel loved even out here in Idaho. Amelia drove back home this morning, so was home by the time church was over. She gave me a Strawberry Shortcake shirt that did not have an ugly pink clashing color! Score. We have amazing kiddos.