Swan Swimmers: Lehi and Spanish Fork Meets

Springville Seals Swim Team 2016. I think my boys are somewhere in the first two rows, but it's hard to tell.

Ribbons from the Lehi Meet.

Swim season is going well so far. We've been to two meets, one in Lehi and one in Spanish Fork. It's a lot of fun being a second year parent and having more of a clue about what's going on. :) I feel like last year, I used all my mental capacity just trying to figure out when Linc swan which races, and getting him to the bull-pen in time.

This year is going better. I already know that stuff, so I've been able to figure out the next stage of things. Times. At each swim meet they post sheets for each race, telling you which event number, heat, and lane you are. And then, if they have a previous time recorded for you, they'll tell you what your best previous time was in your event. That's how they determine which lane you'll be swimming in. And then at the end of the meet, they'll post another sheet with each event number and list the places and times of each swimmer in the race. AND IT'S FUN, because if you can know your previous time, and the time you swam in this meet,  you can see if you are getting better or not. :) It also gives you a way to know how to compete with yourself. Ok, let's be honest, my kids don't really care that much. But I am having a blast with the numbers.

Lincoln's best times from last year:
Freestyle: 35.01
Backstroke: 31.12
Breaststroke: 34.23

Lincoln's Lehi meet times:
Freestyle: 28.66 - 8th place
Backstroke: 27.66 - 4th place
Breaststroke: 30.17 - 1st place

Lincoln's Spanish Fork Meet times:
Backstroke: 26.15 - 2nd place
IM: 2.22.38 - 1st place (his first time competing this stroke, he was the only one in his age group)
Breaststroke: 31.25 - 1st place

Since this is Ivan's first year, he doesn't have times from last year. But his times for this year:

Ivan's Lehi meet times:
Freestyle: 31.55 - 11th place
Backstroke: 30.67 - 5th place
Breaststroke: 45.23 - DQed for alternating his kick

Ivan's Spanish Fork Meet times:
Freestyle: 34.68 - 15th place
Backstroke: 35.68 - 11th place
Breaststroke: DQed - for alternating his kick

Lincoln and Ivan also swim in the same age group, 7-8 year old boys, so even though the places don't show it that much, Ivan is actually doing really well. He's beating a lot of Lincoln's times from last year. So that's awesome. And that's another reason why I like looking at the times instead of the places.

The Lehi meet was indoors, and the lighting was terrible for pictures, so I didn't take any. But Spanish Fork is outdoor, so I took lots to make up for the lack the week before. :)

Lined up in the bull-pen waiting their turn for backstroke.

Ivan waiting for the buzzer that will start his breaststroke race.

Lincoln swimming the freestyle portion of his IM.

Ivan diving in. 

Breaststroke is probably Linc's best event so far.

Awesome picture of Ivan's breaststroke. I love his Spiderman swim cap, it makes him easy to spot.

Linc off the blocks in his first ever IM race!

Aaron brought the little kids to the meet in time to see Lincoln's IM and Lincoln and Ivan's breaststroke races. Then he left and took the girls grocery shopping. I took the boys to 7-11 to celebrate a successful swim meet with Slurpees.

Don't Tell Me I Can't

26 weeks pregnant, showing off the necklace made out of nuts that Aaron bought me at the carnival. Looks like I need to sweep the porch. 

"Go home!" A well-meaning woman in our ward told me. Our ward party had just ended. I had Ruby on one hip, and I was walking around the table folding up chairs one at a time and walking them to the chair rack. It was slow-going, but not hard work.

"Go home," she said again, "I'm serious! Pregnant ladies with five kids don't need to be folding chairs and cleaning up trash."

She was half kidding and half serious, and her heart was in the right place. So I wasn't offended or anything. Besides, how could she know that one of my biggest pet-peeves of all-time is being told that I can't (or shouldn't) do something just because I'm pregnant.

"Are you going to try to stop me?" I teased back to her, and kept right on stacking chairs. "I could take you!" I'm pretty stubborn when I want to be. She had no idea what to make of me, and our conversation ended.

Nine months is a long time. Nine months times six, well...let's just say I've been pregnant more of my adult life that not. If I had to drop everything and sit around twittling my thumbs for nine months every time I was going to have a baby, I'd go crazy. Like literally, depressed, anxious, haul-me-off-to-the-looney-bin-and-throw-away-the-key crazy. I'm a doer. I must do things. Not, it's nice to do things, or I really like to do things, but MUST. Having something to do is a need ingrained into every cell of my body. I need projects the way I need oxygen.

Yes, I can't keep up my normal pace when I'm pregnant. I'm well-aware of that extremely frustrating fact. My body does force me to slow-down some. And yes, there are certain activities that are uncomfortable to do while pregnant. But I prefer to be the one who decides which ones I can and cannot do.

Example: I mow the lawn while pregnant. I get so many comments from people, "Gasp! What are you doing out mowing the lawn?! You're pregnant!" But to me, mowing the lawn is a snap (as long as I do it during cooler parts of the day so I don't over heat), because all I have to do is steer and hold down the handle that propels the wheels forward on it's own. I feel like if I can walk as a pregnant person, then I can mow the lawn. Loading and unloading the dishwasher, though....that's torture. All that bending, and twisting, and stretching to reach things that are low so that you can put them away up high. Ugh. I pass that one off to the kids when I can. But instead I'll be perfectly happy to stand at the sink and scrub dirty dishes. It's not like I'm just going to forget about everything that needs doing and lounge on the couch for nine months.

I love my OB because he's very fond of saying, "Pregnancy is not a disease. You can do anything you feel up to doing. If you were a marathon runner before you got pregnant, then by all means continue to be a marathon runner during pregnancy; however, if you weren't a marathon runner before, taking it up now might not be the way to go." Which to me basically translates into: Just use good sense.

So, if I want to paint walls, I will. If I want to can 15 quarts of cherries, I will. If I want to refinish furniture, weed the garden, adopt four more baby chicks, build a bean tepee, experiment with making sour dough bread in the dutch oven, get up at 5:30 to spend 6 hours at my kids' swim meets, or help fold chairs after a ward party, I will.

I have been doing these things, and I have no intention of stopping. These are the types of things that make me happy. I realize they aren't what would make everyone happy. I'm not saying all pregnant women should do as I do...no. But please, for the love, stop telling me that I can't or shouldn't. It will only motivate me to prove you wrong.

A spinach harvest from our garden. I used it to make spinach ice cream for FHE treat.

Kelly and Esther gave us a TON of cherries off of their tree. Thanks guys! I raw packed 8 quarts and hot packed 7 quarts. I learned that hot packing helps the cherries hold their color better. This experience made me super excited for our cherry trees to mature and produce. 

The YW in our ward held an auction to raise money. I donated a bunch of my canned goods. I spent an afternoon adding ribbons and labels and cute paper onto the lids to make the bottles more appealing. All but 3 jars got sold. Not too shabby.

Sour dough bread in the dutch oven was a success!! Finally. I've tried several different times to make sour dough, and they've all failed. This time, I got a start and a few tips and a recipe from Esther and it came together like clock-work. 

I finished the rocking chair!! And I love it. 

Aaron's parents gave us this old rocking chair that once belonged to Aaron's great-grandpa Charles Erastus Swan (the one Ivan was named after). I sanded it down really well, and then used a paint-stripper to strip it down, thinking I'd restain it. But once I got the many layers off, we realized the wood wasn't anything to call home about, and probably wouldn't look great with stain. So, I decided to paint it yellow! The same yellow we painted the leaves on the trees in Ollie and Cal's room. It adds the perfect pop of color to an otherwise very calm and blended room. 

Here's what the chair looked like when we got it from Aaron's parents.

Aaron had to fix the seat, it was cracked down the middle.

Then I sanded it down a couple times.

Here it is all sanded and waiting to be stripped.

I'm so, so, so, SO excited for this room to be done. It's pulling together better than I imagined it. We changed out the old light fixture and put up a small ceiling fan. I'm working on finishing up painting the ceiling. The tree leaves need one more coat of paint and then they'll be all done. I sanded down the curtain rod and the rod holder, painted them white, and hung them back up. As far as the room goes, the next big project for Aaron is building the bunk bed, and the next big project for me will be to sand down the changing table so I can either re-stain or paint it. (I haven't decided which yet.) 

Time for a Break

It's time for a break. Did you know that I have homeschooled through the summer every year since I started teaching Lincoln to read when he was four? He'll be nine in August... and I am burnt. out. I haven't lifted a finger to motivate the kids to do any school work since Memorial Day. I haven't so much as batted an eyelash at our books. I don't even want to. And you know what? An incredible thing is happening at our house. My kids are blowing my mind with what they are choosing to do with their free time. Check this out....

One afternoon during quiet time, Lincoln kept running downstairs and asking me for things like batteries, wires, an old bike bell that didn't work anymore, etc. I let him have what he needed as long as he promised to clean up whatever mess was left over when he was finished. He was occupied all afternoon.

When he came out of his room around dinner time, he had an electric doorbell to show me. What!? How does he even know how to do that? I surely don't. But he's learned all about circuits from his Snap Circuit set, and he loves the Nick and Tesla's High Voltage Danger Lab book series. He got an idea from one of the books, but they had to modify the instructions to fit in with the parts he had available. He used a trial and error process, and after a few rounds got his doorbell to work just they way he wanted it to. I was so impressed. And he was so proud of himself. And I thought to myself: THIS. This is why we homeschool.

I haven't had to pester any of my kids one time to read since summer started. We accidentally stumbled upon the Springville Library book sale the first day it opened. We stopped in after swim practice to pick up a hold that had come in for the boys and walked out having spent only $16 on a plastic crate full of books. I found Story of the World volumes 2 and 4 for 50 cents each, a ton of beginning readers and early chapter books for Ivan and Adelia, some Children's Classics such as Jason and The Argonauts, and War of the Worlds for Linc. He's really into H. G. Wells, I'm sure that surprises you. And the boys found (what they consider to be) the treasure of all treasures, Calvin and Hobbes books, for 50 cents each. Between our basket of newly acquired books and the Library's summer reading program my kids have been avid little readers so far this summer.

Ivan and Adelia have picked up a new hobby: pressing flowers. Every where we go, they have been on the lookout for interesting plants, leaves, and flowers. Even at Home Depot the other day, they walked up and down the garden section, picking up flower heads and leaves that had fallen on the ground. They bring these collections home, arrange them between two pieces of wax paper and pile books on top of them. When the plants are sufficiently smashed flat, they take them out and glue them onto paper. At first they hung their artwork up all over the house, but now they've decided it would be fun to make a plant journal by combining all their pages together in a book.

They've also made an art gallery. Designed and built cranes to haul things from the floor to the top bunk bed. Role-played animal food chains. Started a band consisting of a ukulele, wooden flute, accordion, trumpet, and drums. Made a bug collection. Cooked meals and treats. Set up a paleontologist dig site in the sand box, and so on and so forth.  One day I even walked in on Ivan attempting to teach Ollie how to play chess.

And THIS is why I'm taking the summer off this year. Because my agenda gets in the way sometimes of the things they can and will teach themselves. And let's be honest, when they want to learn something, they are more thorough and come up with cooler projects than I ever could.

So here's to summer break: Cheers!

The Swans Take on the City Carnival

Welp, the Swans took on the Springville City Carnival this weekend, and we all lived to tell about it. :) Actually, it was a blast. 

The three older kids have been eyeing the ferris wheel all week as we've been driving by. So Saturday night we decided to take them and let them try it out. They loved it. Even Del, who I thought for sure would be afraid. She wasn't, not one bit. A little ways into the ride she even told Aaron, "Dad, you don't have to keep your arm around me anymore." Haha!

Ollie and Rue and I were perfectly happy to keep both feet on the ground and watch the others. We took some pictures.

After the ferris wheel ride, Ollie and Rue got their turn on the carousel. Ollie's face says it all. They enjoyed it very much. :)

I love carnivals. The smells, the food, walking around and looking in all the booths...I love it all. So we did some of that too. We ate yummy scones, and let each of the kids pick a $2 item from the booths. Aaron bought me a cool necklace made out of nuts that grow on trees in South America. It was a lovely night.

Because I don't talk to other adults often enough...

Do you ever have nightmares about dirty bathrooms? I do! Maybe it's because I used to do a lot of custodial work as a teen and early college-age person. But the dreams go like this....

I'm somewhere, usually a school, and I need to use the bathroom. So I walk into the locker room (I don't know why it's always a locker room), and I wait in line, because of course there is a line. When it's finally my turn, I go into the stall and am so blown away by the filth and smell that I almost vomit. It's a little different every time, and I'll spare you the graphic details, but usually it's something like an over-flowing toilet that looks like it hasn't been flushed in about two weeks. Something you wouldn't get close to with a ten foot pole, let alone sit on with your bare bottom. In my dream, I leave, and try to find a different bathroom. I do find one, only to discover that it is in a similar state. And I spend the rest of my dream wandering from nasty bathroom to nasty bathroom, wondering who the custodian is in charge of taking care of the building, why they let it get so awful, and why other people are still using these horrid bathrooms. At some point, I wake up and realize that I have to use the bathroom in real life. I take care of business and get back to my beauty rest (ha!). But seriously, how weird? Who dreams about dirty bathrooms? Me, apparently. I guess I should just be grateful I never actually use any of the bathrooms in my dream, or I might wake up to find I'd wet the bed. How embarrassing!

Sorry. Moving on....

Blog stats are interesting aren't they? I can see how many times each of my posts was viewed. On average I get about 6-9 views per post. Not surprising, seeing as my own mother doesn't even read my blog. (And I'm not mad about that, I don't write to get readers, I write because I enjoy it, and to make a family year book at the end of each year.) But what IS surprising, every time I do a post that has to do with baby names (I've done two recently.) I get over 100 views. No comments though. And the reason I think it's so interesting/funny, is because my last post was all about the baby name statistics for my family on the recent social security list. Most people are not at all interested in that topic. Aaron (who is one of the 6-9 people who checks this blog) didn't even read that post. Well, I guess to be fair to him, he read the first paragraph and thought it was boring and didn't finish. :) So, I have to wonder, who are these 90 some-odd other people that come out of the woodwork when I post about baby names.

And speaking of baby names...I found a new one that I LOVE. We aren't going to use it this time (because I feel really strongly that "Cal" fits this particular baby), but I love it nonetheless. If I thought I was going to have a Type 3 baby boy, I'd use this name in a heartbeat. The name is "Ari" pronounced ar-ee. It's Hebrew and means Lion of God. Lion of God, that's probably one of the coolest baby name meanings I've ever come across. I think if I were a boy, I would want my name to be Ari. :) I love the name Leo too, which means Lion, (it's one I considered early on, before deciding on Cal) but I really really really like the idea that all that fierce, determined energy is directed at building/defending the kingdom of God. So I guess if there's ever a baby #7 and it's a boy, Ari would be a great possibility.

Want to hear something else really cool? The cherries on my cherry tree are turning red. Yep. I just noticed the other day, and it makes me SO giddy. And even better....the cherries pictured below are way up in the top of the tree. I really wanted to take a picture, but can't climb the tree, so Aaron, being the wonderful husband that he is, squatted down so pregnant me could climb up on his shoulders, and then slowly lifted me up and up and up so I could take a picture of my ripening cherries. Then he slowly and gently lowered me back down to the ground. That's how much he loves me, folks!

We've had a few days of hot sun, after weeks of rain on and off, and even though I'm sad to see the cooler weather go, the heat has been great for my plants. For a minute, at least. They have really taken off. The other night I was walking inside from running something out to the trash, and when I got to my porch I could actually smell my Foxgloves. Heavenly! If I had a front porch swing, I would have sat right down on it and breathed deeply for a long, long time. Instead, I made Aaron come out and smell them too. Aaron wasn't as impressed as me, he said all he could smell was cows. He's probably just as sick of hearing about the Foxgloves as all of you are. But just in case you hadn't seen enough pictures of them this year, here's a couple more. You're welcome.

See the tiny green sprouts in front of the lilies? The Zinnia seeds I planted are finally starting to pop up. 

Some of the pole beans are almost to the second tier on the bean tepee! 

I'm finally starting to envision how this bean tepee is going to go. I hope it's as cool as I think it's going to be.

 Last week was swimming marathon week. We survived. :) Lincoln and Ivan are doing swim team this year. It's every weekday from 9-10. On top of that, I signed all the kids up for swimming lessons at a place in Spanish Fork called Childrens' Visions. Each of my four oldest kids was in a different level, and only one level was taught at a time. That means we were at the pool for two consecutive hours. It was exhausting for me. And luckily, after the first day, Aaron volunteered to work from home while we were there so Ruby could stay home and take a nap, otherwise it might have killed me off. BUT, it was so worth it for the kids. The instruction was excellent and thorough, something I feel is really missing from the city taught lessons. And I was very impressed with Miss Debbie, the teacher. We will be going there again, either at the end of the season in August, or next year when I'm not quite so pregnant. Pictures....

As part of the class each student gets to bring home an underwater picture of themselves. I'll be keeping these on my fridge for awhile, they are darling. 

Rue wants to be a swimmer too. Sorry Rue you've got a few years.

There are tons of pictures of Ollie. He was the funniest to watch because it was his first year in the water.

Ollie was timid but brave. He did everything the teacher asked, but he did it slowly and carefully. Love him!

Adelia doing her dive.

Ivan diving.

Ivan liked to sit in the swing and read Harry Potter while the other kids had their lessons. 

And Linc.

 Baseball has started up for the boys, and Tball for Adelia. After Del's first practice, she said to me, "Oh Mom, I just love Tball! I love it! I think I love it even more than I love soccer!"

In my head I was getting all excited, thinking, "Yes! Finally, this is it, the moment I've been waiting for! A child who will be athletic and love softball the way I did!"

So I asked her, "That's so great Adelia! What did you love about Tball?"

Her response, "Oh! I got to pick what we said for the cheer! And I got to splash in a mud puddle! And I made friends with a girl named Marley who was wearing a BEAUTIFUL necklace!"

*Face palm*

But only kind of. I love Adelia's happy-go-lucky personality, and the enthusiasm and light she shines on everyone around her. I wouldn't want to change that,  not ever.

But it would be fun to have one child who was interested in some of the things I'm interested in. For now though, Tball is all about having fun and making friends. I'm good with that.

I'll get some pictures up of the boys soon. They are on the same team again this year, thankfully. And they seem to be enjoying themselves so far.