Hiking Rock Canyon

When I looked at the calendar and saw what I had planned for Saturday for our family, I started to hyperventilate. The day was packed. And with lots of fun things, but they were going to require us to be away from our house all day, and get nothing done that really needed to be done. I had (another) minor panic attack. This would be the first of three Saturdays like this one. When were we going to mow the lawn? Finish the chicken coop? Go grocery shopping? Clean our house? Prepare for the house guests we were expecting in a few days?

So I did something drastic. I canceled everything. Every. single. thing. that we had going on, I obliterated it from the calendar.

I needed air and space. So this morning we headed up to Rock Canyon, which is one of my favorite places to hike. I think my kids needed air and space as much as I did. We all had a wonderful time. The kids caught cicadas by the dozens. They played in the stream. We took snack and water breaks whenever we wanted. There was no rush. It was beautiful. I love the mountains. I don't go there enough.

And after our hike we came home and got to business. We got a lot done. And now at the end of the day, I'm feeling tired, but happy. I feel like we've eliminated a little bit of the the crazy.

A Break

Sometimes, well, a lot of the time actually, my husband knows exactly what I need. An escape. A peaceful evening outdoors. Not having to make dinner. These are the things he gave me on Friday night. It wasn't very long. We had to squish in between running some other errands. But it was glorious!

We bought pizza and had a picnic at the Spanish Fork splash pad. Since it was evening, there was hardly anyone else there, and it wasn't blazing hot either. We ate and threw breadcrumbs at the seagulls, and watched Ollie try to sneak over to the water.

For an hour, life was calm and perfect. Thanks husband.

The Epitome of Summer...

Time for some thoughts

If you put the words ‘anxiety’ and ‘claustrophobia’ into a bag and shook them up until they blended together, you’d get a pretty good idea of where I’m at mentally right now. My life is not my own. Everyone wants something from me. Everyone has an agenda for me to follow, or a need they want me to fill, or a demand, or an expectation. I’m in up to the roots of my hair, and I’m drowning.

It’s not that any one thing is overly stressful or demanding, but the culmination of them all is starting to overwhelm me. My obligations— some are essential, necessary, and good (like motherhood and church callings), some I do only because “that’s what I should be doing.”— are starting to feel like a noose around my neck, slowly but surely getting tighter and tighter. I can’t breathe. It makes me panic. And my reaction to panic is anger. Maybe that’s the fight in me, but instead of shutting down, I feel a hostile energy boiling up inside of me. I am a bull about to charge. A bomb waiting to go off. A volcano about to erupt.

More and more frequently I’m feeling apprehension caused by situations that seem to limit and restrict me. I’m tired of feeling obligated, manipulated, taken advantage of, and pushed around by the environment outside of my home. I resent being told what I’m going to do, and when and how I’m going to do it. I am an independent and capable person.  I insist on having the space and freedom to choose what I feel is most important, for myself and for my family.  It’s time to start asserting myself.

The trouble is, I know I need to establish some boundaries, but I don’t know how to go about it without burning bridges, stepping on toes, hurting feelings, etc., etc.

Right now, today, if I were given the opportunity to take my husband, children, house, yard, and a few close friends and move across the country, I would accept. It sounds marvelous to be in a place where no one knows us, where Aaron and I could rely on each other and our own agenda to occupy our time and our thoughts. 


...I was going to end there, but as an afterthought I should probably add that I like to be busy. Well, maybe busy is the wrong term. I like to go and do and get things accomplished. That is not what I'm talking about above. The solution to this is not to stop doing everything and stay home all day. That would kill me off. My problem is that I don't feel like I'm accomplishing anything, because I'm too busy with the things everyone else wants from me. And because I do those things, I am not doing meaningful things. I hope that clarifies. 

We Have Been a One-Car Family for 8 1/2 Years....

EIGHT AND ONE HALF YEARS, people!!! But no longer. 

Introducing Aaron's new truck. We love it. It's a Dodge Dakota. V8 engine, 4-wheel drive, it can tow. It has 4-doors. It's paid for. We are soooo happy to have it joining our family. All six of us can fit inside, it's squishy, but it's possible. Let the good times roll. 

Tennis Camp

A lady in our ward was teaching a tennis camp. So I signed my boys ups. They have LOVED it! They like other sports, soccer, Tball, and whatnot, but I have never seen them as enthusiastic for anything, the way the are for tennis camp. I'll be sad when it's over. They are learning lots of good stuff. Which is awesome, because I don't know a thing about tennis. And, interesting side note, the days we've had tennis camp, we get up first thing in the morning and go play, and when we get home they are much more willing to do their chores and school work, then they are on mornings where we jump right in to chores/school. So that's definitely something to keep in mind.

Busted!

Life's a Beach

Or at least, as much of a beach as you can get in Utah County. :) We spent another glorious day at Salem Pond with friends. It's a magical place. Our own little secret escape plan.

Aaron's Work Party at Jolley's Ranch

My kids were rock climbing machines. Seriously. They'd climb the wall, come down, and get back in line to do it again. But, it made it really easy to keep track of them, so no complaining here.

June is Jolly

There is a time and season for everything, and June is not the season for my blog, obviously. I feel like I've been really hit-and-miss with it lately. And I haven't felt as inclined to photograph our daily goings-on, as I usually am. I don't know. Maybe I've been satisfied to just be, instead of frantically trying to record everything. There are pluses and minuses to this, because I know in the future, my memory will fail, and I'll wish I'd written down that cute thing someone said, or snapped another picture of Ollie's mischievous grin.

But here is what I do have of our June. We tried to be outside and much as humanly possible and still give Ollie his nap.

We recently discovered Salem Pond. And it could easily be our new summer hangout spot. Forget the crowded splash pad; this place has a playground, shade, water to play in, AND a sandy beach strip. It's like a naturally made sand/water table for my kids, with shade for me. We love it.

Ivan has been working hard and completed Level 1 of All About Reading. He is doing so well, and I think he read well enough now, that he's starting to enjoy doing it. I have really like this program, and will continue on with Level 2.

We have voles in our garden, and they've been knocking out an average of one spinach plant per day. Time to send Aaron to the store for some rodent poison. This seriously chaps my hide. If they get a tomato plant I'll be fuming.

As it turns out, Carrots is a rooster. So he will be finding a new home asap. And in the meantime, we can't only have 5 laying hens when the limit is 6, so we got 2 new chicks. Yes, 2. We couldn't buy just one and have it be lonely until it gets big enough to be with the others. I'd like you to meet Ariel and Merida, both Rhode Island Reds. I forgot how cute they were when they are little fuzz balls.

And here's Ivan kicking my trash at Battleship....

Adelia has become quite the sandbox chief. Her specialty is "Cake Muck Soup".

We are right at the beginning of Tball season. We've played 3 games so far. I am coaching, which is an adventure to say the least. Luckily, my friend at the rec office allowed Ivan to play up a league (by age he should be playing kickball instead of tball) so that we only had to attend 2 games a week instead of 4. I'm forever grateful for that. Our team is the Mets! Anyways, the kids are doing well. Aaron took these pictures, I have enough to do during the games, without getting my camera out. :)

 Lincoln batting while I coach him.

Ivan running in to home, while I try to explain that he needs to touch the base with his foot, not his hand. 

And of course, I can't forget Father's Day. 9 o'clock church kind of puts a damper on the festivities, but we made due. I tried to let Aaron have a Sunday afternoon nap, but instead he took turns playing one on one with each of the kids. (That tells you who is the better parent at this house. All I want on Mother's Day is chocolate and the day off.) I did make him haystacks for dinner at his request. And we had an amazing Peach Kuchen for dessert.

What is Peach Kuchen you ask? Well, it's deliciousness personified. If you have to go with a chocolate free dessert, look no further than this. You'll never want Apple Crisp again, it's not even in the same league.

Peach Kuchen

1 package white cake mix
1/2 cup flaked coconut
1 stick butter
large can of peaches (I use my home canned peaches, yum!)
2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup sour cream
1 beaten egg

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Combine cake mix and coconut, cut in butter
3. Lightly press mixture to bottom and 1/4 inch up the sides of a 9x13 pan.
4. Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes.
5. Arrange peaches on hot crust. Combine sugar and cinnamon, sprinkle over peaches.
6. Mix egg and sour cream. Pour over peaches as evenly as possible.
7. Bake again at 350 for 10 minutes or until set.
8. Let cool one hour before serving. (Or eat it hot!)

Volcano Unit

We've spent the last several weeks, in between other summer activities, working on our volcano unit. It was a lot of fun, especially when we finally got to explode the volcanoes. The kids worked hard to build their volcanoes out of clay, which we had to let dry for several days. Then we painted them, and had to let them dry some more. During the drying time, we made a model of the Earth showing all of it's different layers. We also drew pictures of volcanoes and labeled all the different parts. Here are my examples that the kids copied.

Lincoln was very interested in the side vent of the volcano. When he sculpted his volcano, he added a really big side vent, because he wanted to see how it worked. When he mixed his vinegar and baking soda, all the bubbles came out the side. He was not disappointed. He was very excited to see that his idea had worked.

Ivan was most excited about the measuring, I think. He was also very proud that his volcano was the closest to a real volcano in color.

I was surprised how well Adelia followed along in this activity. Usually she gets bored, and wanders off. But she stayed right with us all throughout. She's been REALLY excited about coloring lately, and there was a lot of opportunity coloring, so maybe that was it. Either way, she came up with the most colorful volcanoes I've ever seen. :) 

And of course, it couldn't be a unit study directed by me if we didn't read a million books to go along with it. :) Here are some of our favorites.