Labor Day Weekend 2018 (I almost typed 2009. I hardly know what decade we are in!)

We went up to Bear Lake over Labor Day weekend. There was a bit of wildness in the coming and going.

Mike was out of town and unable to join us up there until well after midnight on the evening of our arrival. And with kids back in school, there were no older ones around to help with the cleaning and packing and readying to go. So I was on my own (with three little needy ones -- crying and demanding and clinging to my heels) for much of the preparations, grocery shopping, etc.

Abe had to be back bright and early on the morning on of our return trip (as he had a bike race he needed to get to). Mike, knowing I’d been a bit exhausted with all I’d done while he’d been out of town, etc., kindly suggested I head home with Abe and enjoy a little time alone relaxing while he and the rest of the kids stayed to clean up the cabin and pack up everything before following us – after all, we had two cars there. It was a generous and kind plan. Only . . . shortly after I arrived back home with Abe . . . Mike called to tell me I’d taken the van keys with me – leaving them stranded at Bear Lake. Sooo . . . a few hours of quiet were cast sadly aside and I spent the day, instead, driving back to Bear Lake and back home again.

But! There was plenty of enjoyment in between. The weather, like last year, stayed surprisingly warm for a Bear Lake weekend in September.

Though not so warm as to allow us to wait in the mile-long line for the food and shakes we’d intended to get after going to the beach! (It was after bedtime, dark, small kids were whining and crying, and all kids were shivering like crazy . . . and we’d never seen such long lines . . . so . . . we went to the tiny, overpriced grocery store next door and grabbed some frozen pizzas and a tub of ice cream to bring back to the cabin instead. Not quite as wonderful as Bear Lake shakes, but a necessary call on that occasion.)

We also took our kids to Hansen Hollow. A year or so ago, in doing some family research, Mike came across the mention of a place called Hansen Hollow where his great grandpa (Abraham Hansen) would spend summers with his brothers caring for pigs and letting cattle graze. No one in the family seemed to know anything about it, so he did some searching and discovered that not only is Hansen Hollow still officially the name of the area, but it isn’t too far from Bear Lake! Earlier this summer he and I went and found the spot where his ancestors most likely stayed; and, on this trip, we took the kids with us. It is near an area of campgrounds (though you have to wade across a freezing river to get to the actual hollow). So we tramped about with the kids, rode the 4-wheeler a bit, and made a fire. (And Mike – sounding like Bigfoot crashing through the trees – rolled this giant log out of the forest for us to make up for our lack of chairs.)

Everyone gathered around the snake Penny discovered:

Abe encouraging his siblings to make a normal picture around the campfire impossible for me to catch:

There. That’s a little better.

Overall it was a good weekend, and made me grateful again that we have this place for creating so many happy memories as a family.

Illness and Homecoming (Throw up and dancing? Probably, it occurs to me now, these topics should have not been in the same post. :))

Mike and I have developed a pretty good system when it comes to dealing with children throwing up at night. I tend to the business of washing the little sick person (removing offending food chunks from hair, etc. as they cry over their unlucky lot . . .  and over being stuck in a tub and having buckets of water poured on their head in the middle of the night); and Mike busies himself with changing bedding, starting a load of wash, finding new sheets and a new blanket that, hopefully, will be acceptable to the child whose special blanket is now washing.

Still, efficient as our system has become, babies throwing up is always for me one of those things where my mind forgets to just deal with the present and, instead, for a moment anyway, catapults itself forward in horror over the thought of just how many episodes of a similar nature I will yet pass through. So many little people with bouts of illness still ahead. . . .

But, that panic only lasts for a bit, and then it is back to dealing with the present alone. (The future will be dealt with as it arrives. I know. I know.) And, in the meantime, Mette, the offender from the other night, seems well enough again. And Jesse, who was in misery with an awful ear infection for days (and nights) is finally back at school. And today, Goldie gets braces!

In other news, Abe and Daisy both went to their high school homecoming dance this past weekend. Abe asked me to do the pictures for their group. And while, as a general rule, I avoid doing official pictures for people as much as possible, it is such a fun thing to get to see Abe and his friends and the girls they interact with all laughing and talking and having fun. Particularly when they are all dressed up and on dates – there is an excitement in the air that I love watching. (The parents of one of the boys in the group hosted a dinner for the group in their backyard after I took the pictures. They’d hung up floating lights and put little lanterns in their small pond, and Abe stuck a speaker in the bushes playing classical music. The mom [who hosted] told me how one of the girls commented that she felt like she was in a movie.)

I didn’t get to take Daisy’s pictures (as it was a boy’s choice dance and so she wasn’t in charge of arranging things). So I hope to see some of those soon. But it was both her first date and her first dance. And I don’t think it could have been more perfect. She went with a boy who is just a good friend and so someone she feels completely comfortable with. She seemed to have a great time during all the activities that makeup high school dances these days (day date, pictures, dinner, dance, and sometimes games, etc. afterwards! goodness!). I was so happy we found a dress she loved (and on clearance!). And I am also grateful she has such fun friends who, the minute she was asked to the dance, began planning how they would do her make-up and hair. I was impressed with what a great job they did!

Mette. Abe. Back to School.

Several days ago, after Jesse had somehow wronged Mette, she woefully said, “Jesse, I thought you were my best friend.”

When he didn’t respond in the affirmative, Abe, who had overheard the conversation, kindly chimed in with, “Jesse isn’t your best friend Mette, because I am!”

She apparently only found this comment patronizing, however, and, having no tolerance for such things, she yelled angrily, “No! Summer is my best friend!” And then, to make things perfectly clear as to Abe’s hopes of being befriended by anyone at all, she added (spitefully), “Abe, you will NEVER see a best friend at your school.”

That girl. She is not someone to be trifled with. (Also, I was a bit worried about her developing severe shoulder or back pain last week. I had told her that we were going to Bear Lake “in four days”. She immediately ran and packed her backpack with a million heavy and unnecessary items for the trip – and insisted on wearing it round the clock ‘til we finally left. It took great planning and stealth on my part to find any moment of time at all where I could remove all of the things she had packed [“Ah-hah! There’s that half full bottle of Hans’s that he set down three days ago and never found again!” Etc.] and replace them with the necessary clothing and blankets.)

Speaking of Abe (though leaving his best friend potential aside), the other night, after a lengthy homework assignment calculating water densities at various temperatures, he told me, “You know, I really like theoretical stuff in science, but not so much things like accurate measuring.” He thought a moment further and added, “Accurate measuring stifles the young scientist.” (He then grumbled something about following Mr. Cruff around to see if he always followed the significant digits rule.)

He does actually really enjoy learning, and it is fun to hear him talk about new concepts that fascinate him or exciting realizations as various things all suddenly connect and come together for him.

He’s also taken up the harmonica recently. Often, when he should be in bed, I will suddenly hear strains of How Great Thou Art or Sweet Hour of Prayer coming from his room. (And then, inevitably, Sweet Home Alabama. He can’t resist. I doubt he ever sets the harmonica down without a bit of that rousing tune to top things off.)

As for the rest of everything around here, we are in our third week of school. And, of course, I still haven’t adjusted to the change. (Goldie leaves earliest in the morning – which is why she is pictured alone in the back-to-school pics.)

There are things I really like about the school year – the routine, the feeling of productivity and accomplishment as we move with more purpose through the necessary demands of our days, the somewhat more likely chance of just a few minutes of time to think, read, or write when the little ones nap (and Summer plays nearby) (though that doesn’t always pan out), the more clear focus on my role as a homemaker and mother that seems to come with more determined movement through each day -- getting kids up and going, packing lunches, reading scriptures, seeing them out the door, helping them with homework, preparing them dinner, striving for a good bedtime, etc.

But, I do have so many kids, and there are so many schedules and needs that come with each of them accomplishing their daily tasks that it can definitely feel impossibly overwhelming at times. On Tuesday both Jesse and Anders brought home their first official homework requirements for each week. It was nothing too difficult, but they both still need me right there to walk them through each thing, and Anders’ stuff, while fairly simple, was scattered into a million small things (pass these words off and return signed each time you do, read these four books three times each week, log this many minutes of math time and record here, practice these spelling words, keep track of this on this sheet, finish these worksheets and turn in on Monday) that, for a minute, I actually almost began to cry!

But, I know that is typically how I feel when things are unfamiliar and need to become routine still. And they do become routine. As I’ve said before, by Halloween, it seems that I always realize I’ve slipped, almost unawares, into our new way of existing, and the requirements for each of my kids and their schoolwork and schedules are all clear in my head again. And of course, there are a million exciting things all tied in with the start of the school year too – leaves changing, a million peach stands springing up, orange lights and pumpkins right around the corner. . . .

So, we shall continue forging ahead – working out our new routines and looking forward to the many good things we will experience as we do.