Author: Angela

I write so my family will always have letters from home.

Um, that’s why the internet was invented

“You haven’t fully embraced the concept of the internet,” said Richard to me one night. I was worrying again about sharing so much about ourselves on the old blog, although I realize that’s pretty egocentric.

We have conversations like this all the time. It begins with me asking, “Aren’t you worried….”

  • someone will arrest us for leaving the kids?
  • someone will start to stalk us?
  • some kid will fall through the gaps between the springs of the trampoline?
  • we’ll get sick from all the dog droppings in the yard?
  • our kid will need counseling because I don’t want him to play baseball anymore?
  • our kids will never reach their full stature because they won’t eat peas?
  • our kids will never get married?
  • I’m becoming the Miss Havisham of baby clothes hoarding… an old shriveled hag, hanging on to sizes 0-3 mos?
  • our dog will permanently destroy our relationship with my family?
  • our kid will get whooping cough because I might have missed an immunization…?
  • someone will use our family as a poster family against homeschooling?
  • people won’t like us?

“Worry is just in your nature,” the husband replies, although that’s not an answer to my question(s). Maybe he does worry, but it’s just not in his nature to vocalize it.

Wouldn’t it be nice…

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could spend the day making sure that people know that you love them? Mark spends his days composing notes for people. Here I caught him putting *another* note on Dad’s bedside table… with duct tape… which he cut himself with his new scissor skills.

Wouldn’t it be nice if all science experiments matched my blender from the 1960’s? Maybe not.

Paige extracted the DNA from split peas this afternoon. I may be the only one who was moved by the sight, but I’m o.k. with that.

Time for Paige

Believe it or not, my worst fear is that I am messing up my children’s lives by educating them at home (and other places). There is no homespun superiority complex being taught or felt at this home school. I run an over-achieving-so-no-one-will-question-us kind of home school.

Sometimes in my efforts to prove we’re providing a great education, I ask too much of my children. High school brought a new level of fear and worry for me and an accompanying workload for Paige that left her exhausted. She stopped doing many things that she loved. There was no reading for fun, no sewing, and no painting.

This semester we made sure Paige isn’t overbooked.  It’s good to see her doing the things that she loves again. She is a great student, but there is more to life than school.

Thank goodness.

Temple Trip

We drove up to the Mesa temple this weekend and Richard and I attended a temple session together. The kids came along and walked around the temple grounds for several hours during our session. They learned about citrus trees and played games in the shade. Mark composed this note while he waited for us. I reflected on the sacrifice that our children make when we go to the temple. They drive for 4 hours and wait for 2-4 hours once they get there. I never had to do that as a child. They are really good sports about it and I am proud of them.

Pinewood Derby 2011

Here’s the shiny Pinewood Derby track from last night. I filled in for our Cubmaster at this Pack Meeting. We did the cheese grater cheer, the race car cheer, the rocket cheer, and the big canary cheer. These photos were taken by Phillip Flores, one of our den leaders.

Here is Timothy with his awesome car. He has a Lego man inside.

Richard’s computer program kept track of race times and generated the order of races. We projected the race stats from the computer to a big screen. It was very cool.

Trying to contain his delight…

This boy won 4th place!

He earned his Bobcat, too!

A Few Thoughts

Richard took the boys hiking yesterday and then spent time with Timothy working on his pinewood derby car and with Daniel working on a computer programming lesson. What a man.

With all the time I had without family yesterday I cleaned the house and then read a book. I haven’t read Anne of Green Gables in years. Reading it now that I have a teenage girl of my own puts a new dimension on the words and feelings of Marilla and Matthew. I think I cried seven times.

My Sunday plans include more time reading and attaching stamps to a stack of letters and notes that have been accumulating for two weeks. I love sending and receiving letters.

I am no longer teaching the 3 and 4 year olds at church. I will never forget them, but they have already forgotten me.

Paige played music from the Phantom of the Opera on the piano all morning. What a nice thing to have children who can play the piano.

I’ve lost them

I see myself trying to live life in every direction. This gets me in trouble because it makes me a little skatter-brained.

I get so frustrated by my own ignorance, especially when I know I have learned something before and forgotten it. I’m always reading and writing to try and fight my own ignorance… or dementia.

“Enthalpy or Entropy?” I asked myself  when I opened my messy kitchen drawer this afternoon. By the way, a real science teacher would never have to ask herself this question.

Richard overheard me. (I guess I wasn’t asking in my head.) With a swagger (the kind you can put together while sitting in a chair,) he effortlessly said, “Entropy.”

If I lost you in the above paragraphs, please don’t be concerned. Let’s just pretend it didn’t happen. I’m brilliant. I’m together. And my kitchen drawer is not a mess.

Back to the beginning. You know, about living life in every direction. I feel driven to know more. So much of my life is neglected, but I read books with heft…whilst teaching, eating, and writing this nonsense on the blog.

Today I misplaced 8 pages of notes I have taken from my reading of the latest smartypants book. I lost the notes in one of the following places:

1. The dentist (45 minutes away)

2. Michael’s craft store

3. McDonald’s drive up (My, this is a confession tonight.)

4. Library drop-box

5. Somewhere in the van

I would really like to find the notes in the van, but it isn’t happening.

It could be dementia. I need to do some more crossword puzzles. Do you know that tonight one of the missionaries we invited over for dinner asked if I had a SON in the MTC? That would make me, well, a little bit older than I actually am. Ok, not much older.

It’s 8:30. Time to recharge the hearing aids and give the dentures a good soak!

And whoever sent me a text today giving me a hard time about passwords on my blog,
identify yourself. Just type my middle name if you know me, silly.
You should also know that I have only sent a text about 4 times in my life
and it was only because Ray had cancer. Nothing else can impel me to type with my thumbs.
Respectfully,
-A.R.