This may be my only June post. So this is what we are up to:
The kids are enjoying being out of school. Jet is on a three-week dairy-free diet to see if it will help with his digestive system difficulties. We are about half-way through the three weeks and so far it is inconclusive if it is helping. He is actually doing tons better lately, but that trend started before we started the dairy-free diet. We'll see what going back on some dairy after the three weeks does to him. I suspect the lack of school stress in his life is making more of a difference than anything else. The question I ask myself is, "Why does my second-grader feel enough stress about school that it contributes to physical problems?" I keep telling him to be a kid--this is the time of life that is supposed to be relatively stress-free!
Jumble has a few weeks off before marching band really gets going. For now, she just has a sectional once a week and yesterday she got her uniform back. I also talked to Mr. Miller about why he put her on bass clarinet in Symphonic Band for next fall. He asked if she auditioned on the clarinet (yes.) He checked his system and realized that he put her on bass clarinet for her concert instrument simply because that was the only instrument showing in the system for her since she plays it in marching band. He was happy to switch her over to clarinet for Symphonic Band so that made her very happy. She still is somewhat unhappy with her bass clarinet section for marching band right now because two people dropped out before rehearsals even started so there is only three bass clarinets. Mr. Miller assured her that they will get two more by fall or he may switch the three of them over to clarinet. It will all work out, we're sure. The problem is convincing Jumble that it is all going to work out O.K! She feels like one of the other bass clarinet students isn't very good ("He still can't play the music from last years' show right, Mom!") so she doesn't want to belong to the "worst section in the whole band!" (Understandable.)
Jumble went to "AFY" last week--our stake's version of EFY--for youth conference. It went from Thursday afternoon to Saturday night. They all came home to sleep at night, but were at the stake center from early in the morning until late at night. Our stake leaders did an amazing job and all of the kids LOVED it. Somebody in the stake has EFY connections so they were able to get some EFY speakers and performers. The young adult ward in our stake provided the group leaders/chaperones. They had it organized just like EFY. It didn't require any of the ward YW/YM leaders to be there at all--except for they planned a surprise for the kids at the concluding "Taking it Home" fireside. They had us go learn a song (As Sisters in Zion/Army of Helaman medley) at another building in our stake and then they hid us in a room at the Stake Center until they were all in the chapel for the fireside. They had all the YW/YM leaders and the bishops of all the wards come in, filling the aisles of the chapel, singing this song. I really didn't expect the kind of reaction that this caused in the youth. Almost all of them were crying. These three boys sitting on the pew right by me were SOBBING. There was an amazing spirit there--it was really cool to be a part of it. A lot of the youth said later that they had never felt the spirit so strongly in their life. It is an experience I will always remember as well.
Jumble left this morning for her 4th year adventure. They are going rock climbing at a place called "The Quarry" in Provo. Then they are going up Provo Canyon and doing a GPS navigation/biking treasure hunt thing (called Geo Cashe) and then they are spending the night at a cabin in Heber. This is also all done at the stake level so I didn't have to do anything except make sure my Mia Maids got their money and forms turned in; had a bike, helmet, and the list of things to bring; and had a ride to the stake center this morning. We have AMAZING stake leaders and we, at the ward level, are very grateful for that because we would have to do A LOT more work if they weren't so incredible. Camp is going to be awesome--the stake camp committee is also an amazing group of women who have done mind-boggling amounts of organization, preparation, and inspiration.
Minnie is participating in summer band for the next three weeks. She is playing her flute in the intermediate band and is taking beginning oboe classes. She is loving it so far. I'm interested to hear how much she'll improve on the oboe by the time they perform in their concert at the conclusion of the program. Minnie is always my helper in the kitchen, which I LOVE. Here she is with some saguaro sugar cookies (dairy-free, of course) we made for FHE treat on Monday:
Atom has revived one of his old interests lately--he is really into calendars again. He found my stack of old calendars and spends time looking through them each day, plus they must all go to bed with him at night! That kid is one of the most unique individuals I have ever known. He comments often on what month, day of the week, and year it is. What 4-year-old pays attention to such things? He seems to enjoy having the other kids home all the time, which is good. I was worried he wouldn't like it, since he gets so accustomed to having all the toys to himself all day long when they are in school.
The garden Niles planted is growing! We are looking forward to tomatoes, lettuce, spinach, squash, carrots, etc. Most of you know this already, but the company Niles works for isn't doing too great. They did significant pay cuts a few months ago and we feel that lay-offs are likely coming in a few more months. This has caused him to keep his eyes open for other job opportunities. In two months' time he has found one whole job to apply for. It is likely that one of the places he is doing work for will hire him if Logan Simpson does lay-offs, but it would only be part-time and as an independent contractor (no insurance benefits, and we pay all the payroll taxes.) So far we have felt like we should just wait, that things are going to work out, but I think it is about to drive both of us crazy to sit and wait in what seems like a hopeless situation and hope that it is going to turn out O.K. We have definitely been blessed as we have tried our best to follow the counsel of our leaders in our financial stewardship. We would really be in trouble right now if we hadn't. It's all of the things that are out of our control that make us nervous and require us to exercise all our faith to trust that we will be O.K. I guess we both firmly believe we will be O.K., but realize that "being O.K." doesn't mean that we will be free of trials and difficulties, or that things will go the way that we want them to. After almost three years of job and financial "limbo" we feel very weary of it all. Still, as we take a step back and look at the "big picture" we can see that we are extremely blessed and are very grateful for our many, many blessings. Meanwhile, we just have to keep trudging along one day at a time. I am so very grateful for a husband who keeps doing just that. And hopefully this constant reminder of how dependent we are on Heavenly Father for everything is keeping us humble and on the strait and narrow path.
The first week in July will be girl's camp. Maybe that will be the subject of my next post. We'll see how it goes. I hope someday to get back to posting more than just mundane recitations of what we are doing.
