Too Cool for School

Or actually ... just cool enough for school? 

Anyway. 

They are back to school! And it's a strange thing after having all ten of them home all summer--coming and going, and up till all hours--to have this old routine falling back into place: with it's regimented mornings; stretches of quiet in the day; and wildness throughout the afternoons and evenings as we clear out backpacks, work on homework, and try to get dinner going, etc. (And it's odd having no drivers to run errands again and fewer adept chore doers!)

I've been more troubled, this time around, about sending them out into this world in any degree, but I've also had three very reassuring and comforting experiences about it all that just seem ... so nice of the Lord to give me. I keep reflecting and drawing on them to guide my thoughts and give me hopeful light to hold to. One brief one I will share here: 

As I fasted over all of my children shortly after they returned to school, an image just formed in my mind. I just saw light in them--I saw them as light really; a bright circle at their core. I saw that light moving forward through their days; through their activities and their interactions with others and it seemed to be drawing light in others more fully to the surface and in turn, their own light grew stronger; and those combined lights then carried forward together like a river that carved a path through darkness--decreasing the power of Satan as it went and frustrating his plans.

And here those little circle of lights are. Off they go!

Abe and Daisy headed off to BYU. They are such pros now that they didn't even need us to take them down like we have in the past. (Or maybe they never needed us to in the past ... and we just needed to! I guess we are becoming the pros at letting them go.)

But not too big of pros. We still needed to go with Goldie to the unfamiliar Utah State campus to see her safely settled (in her seventh floor dorm with no AC--poor girl).

Penny started 10th grade--her first year at the actual high school. (Which is convenient for us as it is only a block away! No more driving to and fro to pick her up from various school activities.)

Jesse, entering 8th grade, is on his own this year at the junior high. (I was so grateful that he had Penny to show him the ropes and look after him last year, but he seems ready to manage it all by his lonesome now.)

Anders: 5th grade.

Summer: 3rd grade.

Mette: 2nd grade.

Kindergarten for my little Hansie.

And this little gnome isn't leaving my side. (Quite literally! Ha! With these last four kids packed so closely together, I have had almost no time to give individually to them, so I was feeling a little guilty to have a little extra time to focus so much on Starling now. But in our back to school blessings Mike talked about me receiving great joy from her and using this "gift of time" with her to grow our relationship, and so I'm trying to just feel grateful as opposed to guilty! [After all, she had to wait patiently for a very long time to come to our family. Perhaps none of us should begrudge her a little extra time now that she's finally here.])

And here begins the adventures of another school year for this wide range of ages and large number of children!

And, because I have nowhere better to put them, a few pictures of me and Mike. Perhaps he and I will also have a little more time together now that we don't have quite so many older kids keeping quite so many younger kids up quite so late! (Though ... Mike's about to enter the time of year where, with his work, I don't actually see him at all--alone or with kids. So ... we shall see. But! Either way, I take great happiness in my marriage to him. I really love him so much and feel so so grateful that, although there is a lot that is bad in this world ... none of it exists at all in him. It makes me feel so incredibly safe and secure.)

(Notice my wee sidekick. I think she is in all the photos--just conveniently cropped out.)

(I know. They all look the same. But we don't have many pictures of us, so they will all stay. And thanks to Abe for taking them.)

The End.

Summer Girl Gets Baptized

We went to the farm the other night. We hadn't been in awhile, and I'd been feeling a missing sort of homesickness for the place. (Which is a surprising thing to feel for a place that has never actually been home).

The starlings were everywhere in great flocks--covering tree branches till they were more bird than leaf, twisting themselves through the sky in patterned clouds of black, perching in great lines across fences and panels. The alfalfa had just been cut and was still lying in rows waiting to be baled. Goldie and I walked some of the littler ones carefully back along the cut lanes--our feet crunching satisfactorily over the low, dry stubble where alfalfa had been severed--to the hidden and overgrown, back pond.

And with us was this little sprite of a child--dressed in a way that would typically not be permitted on the farm:

It was permitted, however, because she had been baptized just 24 hours earlier, and I'd promised her pictures somewhere pretty in her new, white dress. 

And if there'd been any question remaining (after the dried alfalfa, swirls of birds, and goldfish hiding under algae in the cow trough) about the magic of the farm that day, it was put squarely to rest by the presence of this bright little soul--sun filtering through her hair and setting a glow all about her.

She'd been so excited for her baptism day. It didn't seem quite real to her that such an occasion could really, truly be hers. (Words kept failing her as she tried to explain it. "I mean it never seemed like too big of a deal when other people got baptized. But now that it's my baptism ... !")

But she'd also been a bit nervous. She wanted such a significant day to feel as special as it should. And what if it didn't?

I was a little worried too. As our family has grown in size, many of our siblings have entered the realms of grandchildren, etc. In my family in particular it has started to seem that one could conceivably attend an extended family baby blessing, baptism, missionary talk, or wedding every month. (In fact one of my brothers had a granddaughter baptized the very same day as Summer.) So we've tried to somewhat ease the expectations in recent years by mostly just celebrating these events with our own family and grandparents. Luckily our own little family is actually quite a large family, so it's a fair amount of support! Still, I was worried that not having the big gatherings that her oldest few siblings had might somehow mar the day.

And there was a small moment (when I was being brisk about mess, and siblings were bickering) that Summer got a little teary (because that felt very ordinary and not special at all). But I know just that feeling. So I comforted her quite well.

And when it came to the actual baptism, she couldn't stop smiling. (She told me that, while in the font, she made sure to smile the whole time so everyone would know how happy she was. I surely felt that happiness! It felt all of heaven was pausing to rejoice!) Mike gave her a beautiful confirmation blessing. And, afterwards, we had pumpkin pie, chocolate covered strawberries and chocolate milk.

(Here Summer is with Blakely--the other little girl in our ward who was baptized on Saturday.)

(And with Melyssa--our friend from church who all of my little kids plead to go sit by during every sacrament meeting.)

(And with Alma and Gayle. [I was slow telling my mom about the baptism day and she'd already agreed to play for my brother's granddaughter's baptism. But she came out beforehand to bring Summer her own new set of scriptures!])

(Abe had signed up months ago for a race in Salt Lake and so, sadly, missed the baptism, but Daisy and Goldie came back from just having settled into their college dorms/apartments.)

(We tried to have a picture with Summer and all of her sisters. But one small sister was unwilling to leave my side. ...)

(So I tried to bring her in. Somewhat successfully. ...)

(Her primary teacher [on the right], and two members of the primary presidency.)

After pumpkin pie and strawberries, Mike came up with a plan for the rest of her special day that would involve four wheel drive. (Which our van does not have. Luckily we have the truck and the Bronco.)

We drove a solid hour and a half up Willard Road to Inspiration Point--stopping a ways before the top to hike to a tiny lake Mike knows about that is home to loads of salamanders. (I assumed we'd be lucky to see even one, but the kids were catching them left and right. Summer seemed to think that catching salamanders--which she excelled at--was an excellent way to celebrate getting baptized.) Along with the salamanders we saw rabbits (very fluffy and large and not at all appearing to belong in the mountains) and a moose (admittedly the moose was dead ... but it isn't every day you see an entire moose carcass ...).

Here we are at the top. It was incredibly windy and cold--something I did not expect at all (seeing as our temperatures at home have been in the 90s still)--so we didn't last long, but it was a pretty amazing view.

By the time we got back off the mountain onto smooth roads it was after 10 p.m. and everyone was hungry so we stopped at the little McDonald's in Brigham City. Only to have them not let us in at that late hour. So Mike went through the drive through and we ate on the grass out front--in full view of all the other late-night McDonald's drive through goers. Perhaps not the most glamorous way to end the day. But I don't think any of us cared!

Happy baptism, Summer! (And older kids ... I'm sorry it never occurred to me to take baptism pictures for you. If you'd come as a seventh child I might have thought of it by then.)