21 April 2019

We had a far less exciting week, which was nice.  We’re starting to reach that time of year where homework and studying for spelling tests and bedtimes become more cumbersome.  We are powering through, but you can tell that summer break is just on the horizon.  We had Family Home Evening on Monday and played a game together.  Felicity got to go to the temple with the beehive class on Tuesday for her mutual activity.  She really enjoyed herself.  I can't believe her limited use recommend will expire this month, it’s hard to believe it’s been a year already!

Our kitties are all doing fairly well.  The older kittens have been spending time outside during the day and while for the first few days didn’t venture off the porch, they are becoming more and more curious and adventurous.  I like not having them all over my furniture and underfoot constantly.  The new babies who are less than two weeks old are doing alright.  The mama cat in the laundry room with them is only taking minimal interest in caring for them, so we’ve been supplementing with bottle feedings.  Felicity doesn’t seem to mind!

Nana picked up Felicity after track practice on Wednesday and the two of them went out shopping for Felicity’s birthday.  They had Mod Pizza, went into town, and picked out some fun clothes and a LEGO set, Captain Marvel of course.  My mom didn’t bring Felicity home until nearly ten, I think they had a pretty good time. 

I had to work on Friday, but the kids were home from school.  Somehow I didn’t have that detail written on my calendar, so I didn’t know they’d be home until I read it in a teacher’s update email earlier in the week.  They helped me get the house picked up and in the afternoon we met Nana and Papa in Tucson to have lunch.  We enjoyed Longhorn Steakhouse together.  When we were done I made a trip to Home Depot to get some more mulch and some new trees.  I lost a few of my citrus trees over the winter and had a couple of empty wells that I wanted to fill also, so I got a new lemon, a tangerine, and a grapefruit as well as a new apricot, peach, nectarine, and plum.  I figure all of the trees would do better if there were at least two of each kind, now I almost have accomplished that.  I probably have a tree-planting problem, but I’m ok with that!

The kids went to visit their dad for the Easter weekend and I met up with some friends for a Bunco game in the evening.  It was a lot of fun and I appreciate getting to know some of the women better.  I’m still trying to find where I fit in.  I thought it wouldn’t be difficult to move to a new ward in a new stake, but I’m finding it takes time. 

I was up early on Saturday morning and worked outside pretty much all day.  The weeds were out of control since we had such a wet winter and I had trees to plant and some flowers to pot.  I also wanted to weed, reinforce, fertilize, and lay new mulch over my existing trees.  I didn’t manage to get them all done, but I got off to a pretty good start.  I also did some trimming of the older more established trees, they were starting to look more like bushes than trees.  I have a lot of work ahead of me.  I had hopes of opening up my hives in the evening and pulling out any leftover honey from the winter and put empty supers (for new honey) on them, but it was far too windy to open the hives.  It will have to wait until next weekend.  I noticed a couple of swarms fly across the yard this week, I’m praying they’re not my bees!  I worked on piecing together my granny square crochet project while watching a couple of movies once the sun went down and I was done in the yard for the day.

Sunday morning was quite, I got my Primary lesson together and headed to church.  I missed having the kids at home.  My Primary class was much better this week, which I was grateful for.  I picked up the kids from their dad’s in the evening and we came home and enjoyed dinner together and then Arlo and I played Monopoly while the sisters played with LEGOs in their bedroom.  Arlo’s math abilities really astonish me.  We were playing the grown-up Disney version of Monopoly and he was making change, figuring out how many times he’d have to collect rent to make back his investment, and reasoning the probability of me landing on his properties.  He’s always been that way, very logical and natural in his approach to math, like its just second nature.  That being said, I really need to work with him on his spelling, reading, and site words, because he’s below his class average there!

We had a really nice scripture study before bed, we went over the last week of Christ’s life and of course His resurrection on Sunday and what the implications are for our lives.  The kids asked such great and insightful questions.  Arlo went to bed and the girls stayed up for a while to discuss their weekend and to have some extra time to talk through the things that are going on in their lives.  I’m grateful to have the relationship that I do with my kids; that we can have meaningful and open conversations, I hope it always stays that way.

14 April 2019

It was so nice to only work part time all week.  I was able to accomplish quite a bit, although not as much as I had hoped.  Monday for Family Home Evening we talked about gaining and strengthening our testimony of Jesus Christ after reading Matthew 16: 13-16.  We watched Mary Poppins Returns as our activity.  In the evening we went and picked up a horse trailer from our Ministering Brother .  I even practiced backing it, which I'm glad that I did because it sure came in handy.

On Tuesday morning I took the girls to school and I took Arlo to the dentist.  He had two or three new teeth that needed to be sealed.  After we were done with that we went back to the house and backed the trailer near the pig pen.  With a bag of jumbo marshmallows in hand, Arlo helped me lure them over to the trailer where I had set up a ramp.  Hamilton was very compliant and went up the ramp as well as he could.  In case you didn't know, the bottoms of pigs feet have little to no traction, so he needed a little shove from behind to get him up.  I poured some corn in the trailer and that kept him occupied while we worked on getting RuPaul up the ramp.  It was fruitless, he refused to go up the ramp and ran as soon as I got behind him to push him.  I told Arlo to go get some apples from the house and while I waited I put marshmallows on the lip of the trailer (which Hamilton kept stealing).  He finally put his front legs up on the trailer and I hoisted his rear up (no small feat) only to find that not only was he completely panicked that I'd picked him up, I couldn't reach the door and Arlo was still inside looking for apples.  So he jumped out before I could get the door locked.  We must have tried for another hour to get him in, until he finally plopped over and refused to get up or move.  I couldn't drag him or lift him.  It was SO frustrating.  I tried pulling him by the back legs at which point he ran back to the pen, pushed the fence in, and got into the mud wallow.  So I quit!

We drove to the U of A's farm and filled out all the paperwork to have the one pig processed.  I backed the trailer up and helped unload Hamilton, where he weighed in at 195 pounds, about right for his breed, and got an ear tag.  They keep them overnight to make sure they are healthy and then in 2-3 weeks they will call me to pick up my meat.  They estimate that meat weight is 70%, so that's 136.5 pounds of pork.  I'll end up with two cured and sliced hams, cured hocks, cured bacon, fresh picnic ham, Boston Butt roasts, 1 inch thick pork chops, two sets of spareribs, and they'll make the trim into breakfast sausage.  I'm glad they were patient and went over all of the options!  I'm eager to see how it turns out.  Seeing as we still have quite a bit of venison in the freezer, I'm going to try and sell RuPaul instead of keep that meat.  Basically, I'll try to find someone that will pay me for the hog, and then I'll take him to the butcher and the buyer will select all their cuts and pay the butcher.  This way I'm not selling meat, I'm selling a whole pig with butcher drop-off service.  They have another appointment in May and I'll take him then, assuming I can get him in the trailer.  If I don't have anyone interested, I will have them vacuum seal the meat and we'll get through it eventually!  We are keeping Bubba, our third boar and I'm in the market to buy an American Guinea Hog gilt to keep with him.

Felicity had her first track meet this week.  Because I had to pick Helen up after Girls on the Run, I missed her 100 meter hurdles, but we were there for her second and third event.  As it turns out, her cross country coach is coaching track this year, so he signed her up for the 800 meter (1/2 mile) and 1600 meter (1 mile).  She was not happy, but she did it anyway.  I was proud of her and her effort, it wasn't an easy day to run a mile and then 30 minutes later run another half, it was awfully windy!

I worked on preparations for the ward Easter party that I was asked to plan this week.  I made six dozen cut out cookies and buttercream in six colors.  I also made four dozen cupcakes.  I put together several centerpieces this week as well, I think they turned out pretty cute.

Friday afternoon I went down to Copper Ridge for the science fair award ceremony.  Helen's award was last since she had won the overall award for the school.  She was pretty happy, she walked back through the middle of the assembly after receiving her trophy and gift card and everyone reached out to give her a high five, it was Helen's rock-star moment.  I'm glad I could help her get that; I don't want Helen to ever get lost in her big sister's shadow.

The kids helped me stuff Easter eggs for the party.  We ended up having 680 plastic eggs with candy!  I stayed up way too late on Friday night decorating all the cupcakes I had made, although when I was done I was pretty happy with them.  I made little bunny-butt carrot cake cupcakes, and some floral bunches on yellow butter cupcakes.  I also made bunny peep bouquets.  My floor was not only covered in powdered sugar from all the buttercream I made but also a fine layer of "peep sugar".  Ugh!

Saturday morning Helen and I drove to Kino Sports Complex for her Girls on the Run 5K.  I was so proud of Helen, she got out in front of me early and I didn't want to hold her up by making her run with me (which they're supposed to do).  She stayed in front of me the entire race, most of the time far enough ahead that I couldn't see her.  I had a pretty pathetic 13 minute mile, I think Helen was probably doing an 11 as she finished pretty far ahead of me, at least enough to cross the finish line and drink half a bottle of water while waiting to cheer me across the finish line.  I wish I could walk away from running and then pick up where I left off when I start again, but I always start back at the bottom!

We rushed home right after the race and got all the stuff for the Easter party in the car.  The kids hid the 680 eggs around the outside of the church building while I set up inside.  We finished about 45 minutes ahead of schedule so we waited around for everyone to show up.  Felicity manned the cookie decorating station while Helen was in charge of the egg decorating station.  Arlo helped me with the egg drop competition.  We were supposed to go until 3 pm, but ended a little early which meant it was three when we finished cleaning up and got packed up to go home.  I think it went fairly well.  I don't want to have to plan another party again for awhile, but I'm glad I had the opportunity to serve.

Felicity and I went out Saturday evening to celebrate her 13th birthday.  We went to Target and went shopping.  She got a new pair of sandals, some clothes, and a new bathing suit.  When we were done we had dinner at Red Robin.  It was a lot of fun to spend the evening with her, I can hardly believe that she's 13, heading into the teen years.

We enjoyed our church meetings on Sunday.  I don't have a co-teacher anymore in Primary, so it's been me and whoever they can get to sit in.  The kids were challenging this week!  While I was in Primary I got a text from my mom that she had an emergency, that while my dad was watering in his garden, they came upon a nest of abandoned kittens and could I take them.  I told her she could take them to the house.  The mama cat probably didn't abandon them, she probably ran off when they were outside.  However, they'd gotten wet from the watering, so they did need to be warmed up and then there is no guarantee that she would accept them back.  My stray mama cats showed limited interest in taking care of them, although if they are shut up in the room with them, will allow them to nurse.  They are no more than a day or two old, so we'll just have to see how it goes.  With these four, if you've been following the kitten fiasco, the total cats in my house is now at 17, yes, 17...hoarder status I'm sure!  If you want a kitty, hit me up, the first batch will be ready to leave home in a couple more weeks, much to Felicity's chagrin as she thinks we can keep them all.

In the afternoon we went to my parent's house to visit and celebrate Felicity's birthday with cake and ice cream.  I think it was a pretty good day.

07 April 2010

Happy Spring!  I had hoped that this week would be a little more productive, at least where the outside was concerned, but alas, it was not. Felicity started track practice last week so she has been getting home later in the afternoon.  Once she got home on Monday, we had dinner together, Arlo helped me make BBQ Chicken and corn on the grill.  Felicity was in charge of our Family Home Evening lesson and she did such a great job.  She put a key in each of our sets of scriptures, and we read Matthew 17:1-5, and then each had to search around the house to find which lock our keys opened.  Each lock was labeled with a priesthood key that was restored on the Mount of Transfiguration in the Matthew account.  We really enjoyed her lesson.  We played Yahtzee as our activity.

 Tuesday morning, Felicity woke up saying that she hadn’t slept very well and she felt awful.  She had a temperature of 104, so she got to stay home.  It was really bad timing as she had testing this week.  I gave her some Ibuprofen before I left for work and when I came home early her temperature hadn’t gone down much.  I struggled to keep it below 103 all day and she woke up again on Wednesday with aches and chills and the continued fever so I took her to the pediatrician first thing.  She tested positive for flu, so we were sent home with some Tamiflu and instructed to switch between Ibuprofen and Acetaminophen to keep the fever at bay.  We were also told she couldn’t return to school until Monday.  While she slept most of the time, she also fit in some movie watching, mostly making continued progress on watching Marvel movies.

Kittens still need love, even when you're sick

Luckily none of the rest of us managed to get sick. Arlo and I had flu shots, I get mine at work every year, and since Arlo has his birthday (and well patient checkup) during flu season, he gets one every year also.  I think I will be taking the girls to Arlo’s well patient visit this year so everyone can get flu vaccines! 

Helen and Arlo went to visit their dad on Friday night, Felicity wanted to stay home, so she did.  On Saturday morning Felicity and I watched General Conference.  She worked on her cross stitch project and I pulled out my conference project.  I’m one of those people that listen better if I’m doing something with my hands, so traditionally I work on a crochet project while I listen to conference.  When I pulled out my granny square blanket to work on, I realized I had enough squares to construct the blanket, so that’s what I did, I started joining my squares.  I love it when something I’ve worked on over a long period of time starts to come to an end. 

In between the Saturday sessions, Felicity and I did our grocery shopping.  I also worked on constructing my new Flow Hive.  I invested in a Kickstarter last year to add a Flow Hive to my apiary.  It didn’t come until late summer, too late for starting a new colony, so I have waited until now to construct it.  I have a nuc coming in the next few weeks, an Italian queen that will hopefully be more tame than my hot Arizona native hive.  I’m excited to compare the traditional Langstroth hives to the new Flow Hive.  While some beekeepers have been outspoken against the Flow hives, most of their complaints are that people won’t respect their bees, won’t be properly educated about beekeeping, and that it makes it too easy.  No real scientific evidence that its bad for the colonies.  Some have said that the viscosity and water content of the honey is different, so I think I see next year’s science fair project forming!

Felicity and I really enjoyed conference together.  She was feeling mostly better by Sunday.  I picked up the kids on Sunday evening and heard about their weekend.  Arlo was stained with (what I hope was) food dye (his dad didn’t know for sure what he had been playing with), both his hands and a leg were bright pink, so he went straight to the tub, and it took a while to get him cleaned up.  I was a little more than perturbed that they’d also been taken to PG-13 rated movies, even after Helen raised a concern.  I’m grateful for all the things the work smoothly in our parenting time arrangement, I know it could be far more complicated and strained, but it’s hard not be frustrated sometimes. 

My team at work recently launched a product that we’d been working on for several months, and since the technical lead is going on vacation for three weeks, I think I’ll be working part time next week.  I’m hoping to get caught up on my garden work and animal chores.  I have an appointment to take two of the pigs for slaughter next week as well.  The ward Easter party that I was asked to organize is at the end of next week, so it will be good to be able to work on that as well.  Wish me luck!

31 March 2019

 This may prove to be a pretty short entry as I was gone most of the week.  On Monday we had Family Home Evening and it was Arlo's turn to come up with the lesson.  Helen helped him and we had our lesson from Matthew 14:15-21.  Arlo came up with a game to test our knowledge of the story and even built each of us cars to move if we got our answers correct.  It was really cute and very creative and he really enjoyed being in charge.  We watched "Inside Out" as our activity.

Tuesday was so busy, as it usually is.  I had a doctor's appointment in town, so Papa picked up Arlo and took him picking.  Arlo picked up the most useless brass on the ranges, but he was happy.

The Activity Day girls were having a princess ball for the younger girls in the ward, so Helen had to be there a little early.  She seems to have had a lot of fun.  I picked her up a little over an hour later and dropped Felicity off for Mutual.

I spent the rest of the evening packing myself and the kids for the rest of the week.  The kids were going to stay at my parent's house for a few days since I was going on work travel.  I got everyone to school on Wednesday morning and then dropped off their stuff at my parent's house.  I met up with a couple of colleagues and then left for Yuma, Arizona, where we would be working at the Yuma Proving Grounds for a program test event.  I was gone from Wednesday to Saturday and had a great time and worked quite a bit of overtime, like 20 hours of overtime.

I got back to town Saturday afternoon about 1pm and took the kids to see Dumbo. We enjoyed it, it was a cute movie.  Saturday evening was full of unpacking, laundry, and grocery shopping.  We attended our church meetings on Sunday, and since it was a fifth Sunday, I got to attend an adult class instead of teaching Primary which was nice.  We gave Nana and Papa a break and didn't go visit in the evening since they had kids all week.

24 March 2019

It was a quiet week since the kids spent the second half of their spring break with their dad.  I put in a few extra hours at work and made progress on some projects around the house.  Spring is definitely in the air around the ranch.  Several of the trees are covered in blossoms and even better than that, they are also covered in bees.  I love that I will get both honey and fruit!

I went to the temple on Thursday evening after work since I didn’t have to worry about getting home to feed kids and help with homework.  I was off on Friday and spent the morning cleaning and working on laundry. I picked Felicity up around 10am.
I had planned to help with the Beehive class camp out this weekend, but since their originally planned camp ground was not available we moved the camp out to Two Jack Ranch.  The girls arrived around 2:30 and set up tents and shade.  They jumped on the trampoline, visited, and practiced target shooting with the archery set.  We cooked outside and then when the sun went down we built a fire and had S’mores and shared our testimonies.  The best part was I got to go in and sleep in my bed when it was time to turn in for the night!

We were up early on Saturday and had a pancake breakfast and cleaned up camp.  We then drove to Windy Point on Mount Lemon to do some repelling.  When we parked and got out, Felicity started to tear up, she didn’t want to do the repelling.   By the time we got to where our instructors were set up she was full on crying.  I told her I wasn’t going to make her do it, but that she should at least get the gear on.  She reluctantly complied.  We sat on top and watched a couple of the girls go over and then I asked her if she wanted to watch from below.  If you remember, I repelled off this same spot when I was helping at Girl’s Camp several years ago and I knew if she watched a few of the girls do it, she would be less scared.  The instructors told the girls repelling was safer than driving in a car up the mountain, and with all the redundant safety features, I’m sure he’s right.  I told Felicity, in order to convince yourself to go over a cliff on a rope, you have to overcome the natural side of your brain, the side that reacts quickly to keep us safe, the side that says “high cliff, danger, stay away”.  Your reasoning side sees all of the safety equipment and says, “its ok, go ahead, it’ll be a fun adventure”.  The nature side of your brain would probably tell you hurling down the road at 60MPH in a car was dangerous and not to do it, but because you’ve done it pretty much every day of your life and don’t get hurt, you convince that side of your brain that its not scary.   

 She watched many of the girls go down.  After a few had finished they came down and sat with her and gently nudged her in the "you should try it" direction.  Telling her it was fun and that it was only scary for a moment.  She agreed to go back on the top and attach all her gear and watch from there.  I stayed below and after a couple more girls came down, she popped over the side, ready to take her turn.  I honestly was amazed.  Her reaction to the idea at the beginning of the morning was so sever, I thought she’d stick to her guns and not try, but good peer pressure and some confidence helped. 

 Once she got started, she didn't look back and worked her way down the side of the cliff face with confidence.  And low and behold, went right back up to the top to do it again.   I was really proud.  We stayed for several hours and when we were done, I took the girls in my car for ice cream before dropping them back off at the church building. 

Felicity has been asking to see some of the Marvel movies for several months now, but since they're rated PG-13 I've told her she had to wait.  She really wanted to see Captain Marvel at the theater, but I told her she really needed to watch the others for context (I was really stalling on this, can you tell?).  Well as it turns out she turns 13 in a couple of weeks, and Captain Marvel actually fits into the series in the number 2 spot (in my opinion), so I told her if she watched Captain America: the First Avenger first, I would take her to see Captain Marvel and we could watch the rest of the series in order when her brother and sister were not around.  She was ecstatic and we watched Captain America after getting home from the beehive activity and then Saturday night went to the movies to  see Captain Marvel at the theater, she loved both.

She and I attended church on Sunday and in the evening picked up the other kids from their dad and headed to Nana and Papa's to visit.  It was a fun spring break and hard to believe that summer is just around the corner.