Two Bad Things. One Good Thing. School. And BYU.

Bad Thing: On Mette's birthday she asked if I would paint her fingernails and toenails (along with Summer's). It's no simple process as they both require different colors for nearly every nail; but it was her birthday, so it had to be done. 

While I was about this task, Hans must have gotten a bit ... bored? curious? or??? I don't know. But he took a bottle of pink nail-polish without my knowing, went outside, and painted, willy-nilly, over every single one of our cars. 

Bless his three-year-old heart, he shan't live this down. 

Obviously nail-polish remover cannot be used on car paint, and the baking sun had dried all of it long before we could set to work removing it. The only thing that worked was scrubbing each spot until you almost lost the will to go on ... with Clorox wipes, which, most of you know, pretty much don't exist anymore (Daisy found a few hidden ones in a container in her bathroom). It was not pleasant work, and I still can't believe we ever got it all off!

Bad Thing: Our water manifold developed an enormous leak last week. We were several days with no water. No water in a house with this many kids is not something I hope to ever experience again (bless our pioneer ancestors' hearts!). Oh we had plenty of water bottles to drink all right, but there are just so many things one hardly notices they use water for until it's gone! Not just the little matter of showering and dishes and loads of laundry, and cooking, but ... for spilled milk on carpets. And sticky babies covered in fruit. And kids covered in cement chalk. And a bed-wetting accident (which we haven't had for months and months, so it would happen while our water was off of course). And for flushing toilets (it's lucky it was summer as our outside hoses were still bringing reservoir water -- which I hauled by bucketfuls to fill our toilet tanks when toilets needed flushing).

But, it was miraculous that Mike discovered the leak before it flooded our basement. And perhaps equally miraculous that he was able to figure out the whole complicated repair process without us needing to hire a plumber. 

Good Thing: I haven't read a chapter book out loud to my kids for several years. Years? Maybe? Yipes. Can that be true? I read them all A Face Like Glass two or three years ago. I might have read them The Wolves of Willoughby Chase after that? Anything since? I can't recall! Mike has read to them (The Hobbit, etc.) but I think I mostly haven't. But! I started reading Watership Down to Pen, Jesse and Anders the last week of summer. I love that book. Summer and Mette, who understood little at all of it, would come snuggle by me as I read, and even Daisy and Goldie (who I read it to years ago) couldn't resist stopping what they were doing to come and listen for a second time. We are only a third of the way through. (They've befriended and cared for Kehaar and he's just discovered General Woundwort's warren for them. Ohhh those rabbits don't know what they are in for! Nor do my kids who thought Bigwig being caught in a snare in Cowslip's warren was adventure and danger enough!) Anyway, there is nothing that makes me happier or more content than reading a book I enjoy to my kids. It made the end bits of summer seem extra happy for me.

School: Well, they are back! The kids. To school. At least for now? I'm crossing my fingers they won't send them all home for online learning ... and bring them back and send them home and bring them back again. And I'm incredibly discouraged that they are learning through the restriction of mandated face masks. But also ... I don't know. I don't feel hopeless about it all. It feels like somehow we will weather and muddle through it however it plays out. And my kids will adapt. And I will. There will be resilience. And, even if the circumstances and the learning itself end up being a bit subpar this year, I really feel we will all be fine in the long run. And, at least two days in, they all seem pretty eager and excited about it all! (Though the eagerness that had them all up and 100% ready a full hour before we needed to leave only lasted for the first day.)

BYU: The very same day the kids began school, Daisy was scheduled to check in to her dorm at BYU! Mike and I took her down and got her all settled. I kept telling her how she could call all the time and come home every weekend if she wanted -- even just for a night if she needed. It wasn't long before I realized all my reassuring her was really just ... an attempt to reassure myself. Sniffle. Such a strange and big thing to send her out of our house not knowing if she'll ever truly live here again. She might of course. (That's another thing I kept reassuring "her" with: "And if you don't love BYU, you can always just transfer to Weber State!") And she will be here for summers and hopefully at least some weekends. But not just here for Starling to run to or to take the girls off to Target, etc. And the thought makes me lonesome. 

On the other hand. It really is so great that we can call and text multiple times a day. It doesn't have the same dramatic feel as a mission when days go by without knowing if they are fine or sick or hanging out in a flooded apartment as Abe was a week ago. 

And it was a happy little atmosphere on campus and around her dorm. And I am excited for her to have this new experience. Even if I miss her being right here with me!