Thanksgiving Thought

Trevor was telling me what he learned in school about Native Americans. When he was done, I asked if he knew we had some Native American ancestors. He was all surprise, and said "I haven't met my Native American Aunt-Sisters in a hundred years!"

Gwama's Fishie

I can't remember when either grandma last had a fish die, but a few days ago, Miriam asked me when "Gwama's fishie" was going to be resurrected. I'm not sure what our doctrine is on animal resurrection, but I tried to explain about spirits and death and resurrection. Today she has had a fever. Tonight she was on my lap while I was reading Old Testament stories when she stopped me to say, "Gwama's fishie sure is taking a long time to be resurrected."

My New World

We're mostly settled into our new house. The boys have adjusted to their long public school days, and the internet is working. I shall now rejoin the land of blogging. This implies that we are very soon going to replace the missing battery charger for our camera. I've missed so many photographic opportunities.

I am wondering, with my world being so new and all, if I should start a new blog. It's partly the focus, I was thinking about being more education/nurturing child oriented, less personal, and partly the labels-I don't know how to clean them up once they're started. I have a barely used "art" label. I want it to be "arts and crafts." I know some families keep two or more blogs-one for friends, one for a target audience. I think that's what I'll do, although I wonder how regularly I can post on both.

First Swim Lessons

I've been wanting to see the children in swim lessons for years, but didn't dare take all of the kids to the pool by myself (read-before Cory graduated college), so this summer was the first time we were able to put them in lessons. We put Kaith and Trevor in the same class. Their teacher thought Trevor looked a little small, but let him stay anyway. He was a little piranha. At the last lesson, his teacher said he could progress to the next level. Miriam was sick the first week, and her teacher was a boy, so she didn't want to go to lessons. We figured it would be easier to put Sterling in a Mommy-and-Me class than to keep him out of the pool for half an hour, but he hated the first five or so lessons. Then I saw a ball. Once we let him stand on the side of the pool and throw the ball in, he loved the pool. He got very brave about jumping in (more like a big step into the water). With a couple days left, Cory got permission to take her into the Mommy-and-Me class. She loved those last two days.

Trevor's Sprinkle Cake

The commissary had tubs of sprinkles. I thought Trevor would love that for his FHE treat responsibility. I was right.

Creative Letters

Every now and then I get around to a "supermom project." This was one of them. I collected pink rose petals for Miriam, and green leaves for Trevor (their favorite colors, respectively). On a sheets of paper, I drew bubble letter initials, then let them fill them in and glue on the nature. The project didn't last long, and I probably valued it more than the children, but it turned out looking good (okay, I helped Miriam a little).

Oregon Coast

What we did for summer vacation . . .
we drove down to visit our wonderful relatives (on my mom's side). We made a large group outing to the beach. When we got there in the morning, it was cloudy, windy, and chilly. Sterling wouldn't let go of me, and I shuffled my feet in the warm sand as I walked. Eventually, he drove a tiny dump truck in the sand, and found food in easy reach. My other children? You'll have to ask someone who knew. Perhaps Alex. Later, the clouds disappeared, Sterling chased waves, and the tops of Cory's feet burned dreadfully. Judging by the end of the day photos, we all got a bit of sun on our faces.