Check-ups

Since the boys were out of school yesterday, they all went to their sweet dentist and were in the no-cavity club, so they were entered in a drawing for free tickets to see Tangled. I hope they win!

Gateau au Chocolat

Made this typical french chocolate cake today - dense, dark and delicious, for girl night tonight at my house. It is very different from a sponge cake and it is excellent served with cream. And good friends to eat it, of course!

Strike Alert: Lightning

For the second year, Lightning has hit on our street. Max tried out for the Lightning hockey team again this year and he just found out in an email today that he made it. He was so excited and really shocked, he said he didn't think there was any chance of him making the team this year because he knew there were a lot of returning players and he had just moved up to the new division. But he did, which just goes to show you - you never know what you can do unless you try. Think of the miners in Chile. President Piñera spoke to the nation of Chile and the world that had been watching events unfold the last 70 days. He delivered a portion of his address in English.


Piñera said, "After 68 days of worry and hope, the moment of truth has come. Let God be with the miners and the rescue workers."

Rescue efforts to bring 33 miners trapped underground to the surface have been successful, with the last of the miners being pulled up late tonight.


The miners had been trapped underground for more than two months. Efforts to surface them took place on an individual basis using a specially-built cage.

When the 33 miners were determined to be alive in late August, it was said that it could take up to four months to get them all out alive. One of the trapped miners, 19-year-old Jimmy Sánchez, wrote an emotional letter to a relative just days ago. A doctor from Copiapo Hospital stated that the miners are no longer using sunglasses as their eyes have adjusted. They are eating normally and it seems they have only lost fat, 10-13kg each, not muscle. Their protein state is better when they entered the mine, thanks to all the care they've received. I am sure that all of the miners are grateful that their country and community kept trying. President Piñera also said, "A country that wants to call itself developed is a country that takes care of its workers," and that Chile owes protection and dignity to all of its workers.

Oops, I forgot

If you’ve been waiting all day for your daily dose of peach goodness with anticipation building, hoping as the hours went by that I was making you wait for something really good, I hate to be the bearer of bad news. The truth is, I forgot.

I hate to forget things, but it seems like I’ve been doing a lot of it lately. I was stuck in traffic on the freeway on the way to teach my skating lessons when I felt that recently-all-too-familiar pit in my stomach, the knowledge that I’d forgotten something, I just didn’t know what it was. And then it struck me, Morgen's orthodontic appointment.

The sad thing is, today’s episode in forgetfulness is just one in a long line of forgotten orthodontic appointments and text replies. Other things I’ve forgotten (just this week!) include:

* To make cute little handouts to remind the primary kids of their assignments for next week

* The names of two of the teachers of the Senior Primary as I was conducting Sunday. I looked up at a sea of faces, couldn’t remember what I should call either one.

* To buy my newest nephew a present for his birthday until it was too late. Instead, I went to the mall on the way to meet the new little guy, to pick up a set of onesies and the line at the gap was out the door. Little did I know that it was a one night only sale of everything in the store being 40% off. Needless to say, I did not make it in time to see him that night, as he was too fussy by then.

* To check to make sure I was decent before running out to the garbage to recycle the milk jug yesterday morning. I wandered out, ahem, less than presentably dressed, to find my neighbor standing in his driveway, not ten feet away from me.

I feel like I may be losing it, but it would help if I had some company in this forgetfulness party. What have you forgotten lately?

Alta Game

Max's game against Alta highlights. It was a really close game until the 4th quarter, 6 - 0 but then Alta scored two touchdowns and Murray lost 20-0. He had a headache after the game from all the tackles, ah the joys of football.

Birthday

Although I finally talked to my brother - I didn't see him today to tell him in person. So here's wishing you a happy and prosperous birthday and a sweet night of birthday dreams.

Game Day

Max's first hockey game this morning

Max - Center

The Sioux Vs. The Bears

Half-time with coaches Abel & Gil

The bears scored 7 goals in the first period then once the team remembered how to defend, the Sioux made a come back scoring 4 goals in the second & third

Final score: Bears 8 - Sioux 4 (but one of their goals was actually scored by the Sioux's own goalie on accident!)

Markus' game

Falcons vs. Johnnies

Falcons scored so many goals they stopped keeping track - not that they are supposed to keep score anyways! But the kids usually do.

Football game vs. Alta

Alta 20 Murray 0

It's a Jungle Out There

Today after school, Markus and I were alone, since Max went to his friend Adam's birthday party at Boondock's and Morgen went home with his friend Alex after school. So when I asked Marko what he would like to do he answered, "Jungle Jim's!"

It wasn't very busy and it is getting kind of old and run down but he still enjoyed it. 

I remember spending countless hours there with the boys when they were little, it was their favorite place to go on cold, winter days.

I think he was a little bored on some of the rides, after going on wicked at Lagoon, the jeeps on a track weren't as exciting as they used to be to him, but he still was smiling all the while.

Chores S'mores

After my piano lesson yesterday morning, Ellie - my friend and piano teachers daughter, wanted to show me some of her writing that she has been doing while in home school. She had several short stories that she had written and a couple of poems. One of them entitled "Chores S'mores!" I wish I could remember all of it but the part that made me laugh the most was that "clean mommies are mean". It reminded me of my Grandmother (she asked me to call her that as opposed to grandma) on my dad's side, that my mom affectionately called "Granny Grunt". She would clean her house non-stop, and had one room that was officially off-limits to children, the living room and/or celestial room.

As girls we receive mixed messages. Should I listen to:

Quiet down cobwebs, dust go to sleep,

I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.

or

“Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God;…”

For me, it’s a compromise. I happily put in two hours into housecleaning each week, but I refuse to do the eight hours it would take to keep this place perfectly organized. And I think some of Grandmother’s organizational skills are a genetic gift. A gift that I admire but don’t need to duplicate in my own life.


Still - what about kids that don't know how to do anything? It’s easy to blame a kid for when they are unable to tie a shoe or scramble an egg, but maybe the fault lies with the parents. How can a child learn to clean a toilet if a parent isn’t offering instruction? No one is born with the innate knowledge of bathroom disinfection.

DesNews–

Susan Maushart, a mother of three, says her teenage daughter “literally does not know how to use a can opener. Most cans come with pull-tops these days. I see her reaching for a can that requires a can opener, and her shoulders slump and she goes for something else."


Teenagers are so accustomed to either throwing their clothes on the floor or hanging them on hooks that Maushart says her “kids actually struggle with the mechanics of a clothes hanger.”

But I wonder if this article is just so much hype? Yes, we all know a parent that indulges their children with the newest video game, super phone or iPad, but the majority of parents I know are very picky about what they bring into their home. They set limits, make rules, require manners and finished chores.

My boys do chores. They mow the lawn and wash the dishes and vacuum the hallways. But I rarely check their work and a definitely don’t redo it as so many women do. And somehow, I feel like a better mother, a better person if they respect me enough to hang up their backpacks and to throw their socks in the hamper instead of on the bathroom floor (three boys, two socks every day, no way to distinguish them, no wonder I like them to pick them up!).

I just find this interesting, because to me, cleanliness has nothing to do with godliness. It is sort of like talking about our fingernails. Some of us like to paint them, some of us like to keep them short, some of us bite them to the quick … is there a wrong answer?

This is a culture question. There is a culture of judging women by their ability to keep a clean house and every person has different standards for what that means. If you want to “win” at being a homemaker, you have to play the how clean is my house game. How do I stop devoting brain cells to thinking about this? Don’t ever even think about what someone else’s house looks like dirty or clean?

And who said that you should use “a house of order” to talk about your actual house and its level of cleanliness? Frankly, I think that is misusing the scripture. We have to be more careful about using scriptures out of context or we end up with admonitions to regularly partake in Almond Joys because, you know men are that they might have joy.

Pee-Wees

Max is excited for the hockey season to get started. He is on the Sioux team this year, his coaches missed the first practice, came late to the second one and then he missed the third due to try-outs for the Lightning team. So his first game is Saturday and it should be interesting - they have a great goalie though who was the first line goalie on the Lightning team last season. He knows a few kids on his team, Max G. (pictured above) and Chase as well as Connor, the goalie. This is his first season as a pee-wee and he isn't too nervous about checking being allowed. He said it couldn't hurt as bad as being tackled by a lineman in football. I am sure he is probably right!

Heading Home

Owen Richard B.

Meet my newest nephew Owen, he weighs 6 lbs. 9 oz. and is 19" long. My s-i-l Tanya said that she is "smitten".

Highlights

From Max's game vs. Cyprus on Saturday...enjoy!

Another Win

What a beautiful day for a football game...Max's team beat Cyprus @ Taylorsville 21-0 yesterday. They will have a pizza party to celebrate on Monday after practice, as is the tradition after a win. So far they have only had one but you never know what the last 4 games will hold.

Let the Games Begin

Markus' first game today vs. the Wildcats. The Falcons won 10-2. It was such a fun game to watch.

Love you Forever

You know in that book entitled, "Love you Forever" how the mother sings to her sleeping baby: "I'll love you forever / I'll love you for always / As long as I'm living / My baby you'll be." She still sings the same song when her baby has turned into a fractious 2-year-old, a slovenly 9-year-old, and then a raucous teen. So far so ordinary--but this is one persistent lady. When her son grows up and leaves home, she takes to driving across town with a ladder on the car roof, climbing through her grown son's window, and rocking the sleeping man in the same way. Then, inevitably, the day comes when she's too old and sick to hold him, and the roles are at last reversed. It's a humorous, sentimental page-turner that rarely - let's say never, leaves a reader with a dry eye. My boys and I have enjoyed it, night after night, for years. A charmer. The simple story touches the heart. No one can read it without the tears falling. When I was turning out the lights tonight, I couldn't help but but think about how I am in the full throws of when the boy became a raucous teen. He wears strange clothes, and listens to strange music and has strange friends - he had his friends Austin and Alex over for a sleep over tonight. He stayed up late and he will most likely sleep in until noon. But I still tuck him in bed and kiss him good night. And I will still love him forever.

Some Questions This Fine Thursday Morn

Over breakfast this week with one of my really smart friends, a question came up… Although I can’t quite articulate the question without a rapid-fire series of questions like these:


Is there anything better than people who accept us for who we are?


Friends who know our weaknesses but laugh them off and frankly forgive us?

The consensus over bagels was that she does. I have asked her to meet me for breakfast or lunch several times, and every single time, she answers, “Sure. When do you want to go?” So we had breakfast and went our separate ways.

But here’s the thing, she sent me this text: Alright I can’t stop thinking about you! It sounds like we need to go to breakfast again or on a hike soon so we can talk.

It means a lot to me. In this world where people scream at others for making a wrong turn or choosing the wrong word or neglecting the tiniest detail, it is so refreshing to know people who say– “You’re fine.” “I know you’re doing your best.” “It’s OK.”

Second Thursday of every month, for the last fifteen years she has been one of these sweet people. It’s part of the rhythm of our month.

And I’m especially grateful for these people– they laugh off my quirks and work around my weaknesses.

Fall is Here.

 

(Autumn books, pumpkin candles, ghost door mats, antique jack-o-lanterns, and doorbells)

Fall is here on B Street.

And Markus couldn't more thrilled.

Something about this strange holiday coming up that he just loves.

Almost as much as Christmas...almost!

Harry Potter books and owl

Spiders, and webs and bats, oh my!

He loves helping me put up all the decorations and is the only one that still asks how many more days until Halloween.

**********

Book Love

Book Love. It will make your hours pleasant to you as long as you live. - A. Trollope

  I am a book lover. Crammed bookshelves spill over to stacks on the floor or on tabletops and baskets. (Is it obsessive?) Right now I am reading three different books at the same time. I like the way books feel, smell and the excitement of what the words will say to me. My idea of a delicious day is reading outside for hours.

It is awesome to be able to read, to learn the letters of the alphabet have sounds, and that if you put the sounds together it makes a word! And words become sentences. And sentences become stories, and suddenly the magic happens. You can read! In How Reading Changed My Life, Anna Quindlen writes, "It is like rubbing two sticks together to make a fire, this act of reading, an improbably pedestrian task that leads to heat and light. Perhaps this only becomes clear when one watches a child do it."

On Fridays I help out with the reading program in Markus' class. What fun I have! I watch the class room of seven-year-olds struggling at various levels to conquer the sounds of letters, putting letters together, forming words, and suddenly realizing they are reading. When I take them out in the hall, one on one, to practice reading aloud, I watch stubby fingers stabbing each word, earnest faces mouthing silent words before committing the words to the airwaves. It is serious work - this business of reading - slow and tedious. After all, most of them are just beginning. Except for tall Lehav who can hardly wait to read out loud. When it is his turn to read, something electric happens in the hall. Lehav seems to size up a sentence before beginning to read; none of this word-by-word stuff for him. He reads with drama, his voice rising and falling. When the dog ran, his voice warned of impending danger. When the character in the story says something as simple as, "Where did he go?" it becomes a melodrama, a moment of adventure for both of us. This is reading! I smile just thinking about the miracle I take part in every week. The wonder of reading; the magic of words.  

Reading and words obviously go together. Words rightly used have the potential of making us shiver with pleasure. All communication, the expression of ideas, the interface of human beings is dependent on words. I can change myself with words and attempt to let you into my personal world, telling you who I am-and you can do the same with me. All of which makes the world more habitable and less lonely.

We also speak and create a world-a world for someone else to live in. The harsh destroying words of my angry father; the comforting, nourishing words of a loving mother; the name calling bully in school; the affirming words of a teacher about work well done- these are only examples of how people use words to create a world for someone else to live in. Words have enormous potential for good or for bad. It is likely that more lives have been destroyed by words than by bullets. More grace and joy have been brought to lives by words than by expensive diamonds. Words not only create worlds, they give meaning to our lives.

I read because it is a good way to bump up against life. Reading may be an escape, but it is not escape from my own life and problems. It is escape from the narrow boundaries of being only me. Reading helps me find out who I am. I read to feel life. A story should make you feel something. The right thing said in the right way, ah, that's the delight of good books. I read for pleasure. Life is more than meat and potatoes. Learning to see, to laugh, and to enjoy others is reason enough to read. I read to learn. I learn and gain perspective, an involvement of myself so that it translates into my life. The critical moment in a story may not be when we read what is happening to a character, but when the character begins to see what is happening we enter into the characters life. It never hurts to sympathize with other people. To stand in their shoes. 

There are many other reasons to read; as a way to work through problems in real life; as a way of celebrating life; for enjoyment; for entertainment and because you love beauty. Read to savor your life. 

C.S. Lewis wrote that any book worth reading at ten years of age should be worth reading at fifty. I read Anne of Green Gables again and again before I was twelve. I cried through the story, and cheered up magically only at the happy ending. Nothing I can remember in my life before that had moved me to tears, and then to a sense of delight, as did the trials and triumph of the life of Anne. Maybe it's time to read Anne again to remember the joys of reading. Children's books are some of the best out there. I am reading Fablehaven aloud with Markus. It is captivating! You may find yourself shedding tears of happy memories, and finding fresh pleasure in the love of books. 

   

It's like honey for your heart.

Bring it

Markus and coach Matt

Coach Derek telling Markus how much better he is doing at his stick handling this year

Coach Jeff with his sons Jake and Sam 

Coach Dave

Markus had his second practice for the Falcons tonight. His first game is Saturday and he is excited. I think he has a great little team this year.

Highland Highlights

Here are some highlights from Max's game vs. Highland on Saturday. His team played great...and still lost by one touch down.

Red

Utes game tonight

Falcons

Markus is # 5 this year on the Falcons hockey team

He had a great practice last night with so many friends that he knows from last year on his team, and his same coach.