This blurry photo is about like my experience watching senior awards night through teary eyes. The choir sang And So It Goes by Billy Joel, and when seniors sing at graduation time, every word seems more poignant.
During his senior year, Tim served on the seminary council and was the Instrumental Music Sterling Scholar. He worked hard in his landscaping business and restored old Fiats.
He made this beautiful furniture. 😍
He is always bringing home surprises.
We are proud of him!
If I could choose a symbol for Tim right now, it would be his stack of work shirts on laundry day. It’s a point of contentment for me to know he works hard.
Another symbol might also be his 1980 Fiat Spider. Right now the car is an empty shell as Tim installs new carpet and paints the interior. It’s a daunting project, but he is chill about it. He knows how to work and have fun.
Tim has a regional woods competition this week. I can’t wait to show you his finished cabinet and bed. They are beautifully made.
It’s been a long time since the high school has held a dance. To attend, each person had to take a Covid test the day before Prom, and Tim and several of his friends since elementary school went together. They have changed a lot, but I still see their little faces in my mind. I love looking at these pictures and observing each personality.
Tim spoke in church and it was the longest I have heard his voice in years. He keeps it all to himself, the humor, the insights, the excellence. Some people just don’t show a need for approval, and he is the most independent person I have ever known. In only one class has he asked for help. Even when we were homeschooling, he would take his work to his room and do it alone. I came home from church and took a personal video of the recording of church services so I can hear his voice and his testimony whenever I need it, and I hugged him up and told him how proud I am of him.
Richard went on a trip to Moab with friends over the weekend, and our dog, traumatized by the separation, found a place in his suitcase as he unpacked on Saturday night.
We all self-soothe in some way about anticipated separations. I make a recording and the dog tries to stow away. I have found 3 gray hairs during my life so far. All have happened around the time of high school graduations.
Spring Break happened, but we didn’t travel. I put miles on the car going back and forth to shuttle Mark to be with cousins. I finally visited an antique mall in Springville and purchased some beautiful plates there. I sewed with friends one afternoon, and I think that I drove our cross-country-road-trip-conversation about funerals.
I spoke in a leadership meeting at stake conference, which is a rare opportunity, so I dedicated each morning of Spring Break to writing and practicing my delivery. When the meeting was over, I rested on the couch and didn’t move for a long time. Richard watched a miniseries, The Woman in White with me. He worked in the yard all weekend.
Daniel enlisted Paige to illustrate something for a biology project. Tim worked so much on his landscaping job that we rarely saw him. Two more of us received a vaccine for COVID-19.
Our dog has ailments, then rallies.
Today everyone is back to routines: school, work, music, etc. but I am lagging. On Mondays you usually find me at my best, but I need a rest from the “break” we had last week from routine.
Here we are on Easter. There is Richard who spent the day preparing food in his smoker, wearing one of his many blood donation shirts. I rushed into the day without thinking about doing my hair (typical), but tried to set the table beautifully and have a clean kitchen. Mark wears his favorite color and will go on to eat more than anyone sitting at this table. Tim teases us with the BYU shirt and remains mysterious about his plans for the future. I’ll add that he is so strong from his landscaping work. I notice that Daniel is wearing a new version of the teal and white shirt he loved and wore all through high school and his mission. He’s almost finished with his first year at BYU, and his friend, the lovely McKenna joins us at the table. Paige is effortlessly elegant and happy, and has spent the last year since graduating from BYU settling into working as a freelance illustrator. And there is handsome, hardworking, and smart Michael, who changed jobs this year and is enjoying more sleep (even in April… he’s an accountant).
The blog is less about our children than it used to be, but they remain the ones who occupy our thoughts and conversations. They are still the focus of our energy and time, and when they linger at Sunday dinner as they did this week, I can draw from that happiness for a long time.
Some of you have read this blog from the beginning. There are 1,919 posts in the archives. I owe you a diploma or something, not that I have anything figured out except perhaps how to muster a tiny bit of faith. To each reader, whether you have read for years or months, I send my love to you.
Easter weekend is here. The Sanchez family has been busy getting ready for the memorial for my grandmother. Mixed in with music practice, writing her life sketch, and other things, I have been editing pages of my dad’s memoir of his growing up years playing in the hills. Paige finished the illustrations for the last pages. Our goal was to finish by Easter, and we have done it. His book is a cross between The Hobbit, John Wayne Westerns, and Hardy Boys mystery books.
At times, it has been an escape to work on these stories. We included a map in the book. I think this is one of my favorite illustrations she did. The blog can’t do it justice.
We are celebrating being alive, celebrating those who have passed away, and celebrating the Savior’s Resurrection this weekend in the sunshine.
Tonight we attended a piano recital, a long one, with enough songs stored in fingers from a year of pandemic living. I think this was Tim’s last recital. (Noooooooooo!) Mark played Beethoven and Tim played Schubert, and both boys elicited more than polite applause from somebody in the audience. “Whoo hoo!” called someone else’s mother as they took their bows, and I will love her forever for it.
It’s all there: the old family van, Mark is barefoot, Tim avoids the shot, and we are enjoying the warmth of St George in February as we did each President’s Day weekend. Good memories.
This is Rebecca’s house and it is also where Richard proposed. 🌹
Richard and I were able to cheer for Tim and the other Sterling Scholars this week. Tim performed Valse Romantique by Debussy at the assembly, attended only by parents and the scholars. It felt good to be back in the auditorium again.
Senior year is intense, pandemic or not. I am making efforts to avoid the indulgence of crying about the end of Tim’s era at home, because that would take away necessary energy to press forward, as that is what we must do. We are so proud of him!