The teenager

Jay's 13th birthday fell on a Saturday this year. He was a good sport about dealing with all of the non-birthday things on his day. Jeff had a track meet (day two of the district meet), and had to leave the house by 8am. I figured 7:30am present opening would suffice, but all three kids were up and raring to go an hour before that. I told Jay that I wasn't sure if he was really a teenager if he was getting up before 7am on a Saturday, to which Jay responded that he had been up since 4:30am unable to fall back asleep. He said he decided to read his scriptures "to start off my new age the best way." 

The birthday interview. I made him choose a favorite superhero and a princess, allowing female superheroes in the princess category, haha. When asked "what is scary?" Jay said "moving and change--I like stability!" Classic Jay. He is so totally related to me.

Mellow Monday

Monday evening (May 16th) was breezy but mellow, with golden sunlight bathing the peaceful fields behind our house. After dinner, I suggested that for family night we could go on a scooter ride together. The kids  rushed to get ready. Jeff was away at a coaches meeting, so it was just me and my kids, passing the golden hour outside together. We have had so few days with nice weather this spring (wind, rain, wind, snow, windstorms, hail, wind). Even though the breeze was a bit stronger and brisk-er than my ideal, it was still wonderful to just BE outside together. 

We scootered the entire length of the paved pathway behind our house, for a total of one mile. Amber chose to ride her bike. When we arrived at the grassy field at the far end of the path, we stopped to explore, play, and bask in the sunshine. Rose scampered off to climb her favorite tree. Amber started collecting pinecones. Jay walked around, plotting ways to tease his little sisters. I sat down in the plush green grass and took it all in. 

Savannah Finale: A Tour and Tybee

Friday, May 13th came in two parts: a tour of a historic building in the morning and an afternoon on the beach at nearby Tybee Island.

On Friday morning, we ate breakfast together at the darling Mirabelle Café (where I discovered that lavender and lemon curd topped waffles and fresh strawberry lemonade go surprisingly well together). After breakfast, we walked to the Owens-Thomas House and Slave Quarters, where we split up. Em and Dani went shopping while Alivia, Mel, and I took the 45 minute guided tour of the historic house. 

The Owens-Thomas House

Sisters in Savannah: walk, talk, eat, repeat

We started our first full day in Savannah with one of my favorite activities--a sister run! Mel, Dani, and I ran a few laps around the big, beautiful Forsythe Park. The air was humid and the breeze was gentle. The sun was dappling through the trees and we were feeling that special brand of euphoria that only a glorious morning sister run can create. We ran 3 miles and walked the 4 blocks or so back to our apartment to get showered and ready for a day of exploring.

The first order of business once we were all dressed was to find a cafe for breakfast (or second breakfast in my case--I brought several packets of instant oatmeal to eat first thing in the morning because my stomach is high maintenance like that). While we were running, Alivia and Em researched and selected E. Matthews Cafe, so we all headed thataway mid-morning (thank you, Google maps). I had my favorite meal of the entire trip there: eggs benedict with crab cake instead of ham and a fluffy biscuit instead of an English muffin. Yum.

Sisters in Savannah!

My four sisters and I have been trying to plan a sisters trip for years, and we finally made it happen last week! We pulled off the massive feat of coordinating five different schedules and booked a trip to Savannah, Georgia for May 11-14th. On Wednesday, May 11th, I got up at 3am and drove to the Pasco airport to catch my 5:20am flight. I met my sister Mel during my brief layover in Denver, and we took the same plane to the Savannah airport, where we met up with Em and Dani. The four of us took my very first-ever Uber ride from the airport to our 3 bedroom VRBO rental apartment on East Gwinnett Ave in Savannah. It kind of blew my mind that the airport was only a 25 minute drive from Savannah. Alivia's flight ended up getting delayed for six hours, so she got it close to midnight that night. 

Mother's Day 2022

Mother's Day 2022 Highlights: 

• Jeff was present and healthy in both mind and body, all day long. 
• Jay gave a very sweet talk in sacrament meeting at church.
• We didn't have time to take my traditional mother's day picture before church, but Jeff remembered and volunteered to take it after church. I slimmed down my mother's day requests to just this one picture, and I verbally asked for it rather than hoping it would happen on its own. 
• Amber and Rose gave me kind cards.
• My family said thank you for the dinner.
• I did not have any expectations for the day, and I felt at ease all day, not angsty or unloved. I did get a tad grouchy in the evening, but it wasn't mother's day grouch; it was a tired grouch. There's a big difference, haha.

Five for Five

 Last week we had a combined five track meets in five days:

1. Monday, May 2nd was our home middle school track meet, with over 200 kids from five schools participating. Jeff hosted set up, and timed the meet. I was his assistant clerk at the timing table by the finish line. Jay ran the 1600 and the 400 in the meet, and Rose and Amber played on the infield for four hours during the meet. We were all so tired when it was over!
2. Tuesday, May 3rd was a high school JV meet. As the head coach, Jeff did not have to attend this meet, but he did have to prep all of the gear and paperwork, etc. that the JV kids needed for the meet. (The eight track coaches divide up who goes to each JV meet, and it wasn't Jeff's turn this time).
3. Thursday, May 5th was a high school league meet in Wenatchee (2 hours 20 minutes from home). Jeff got home after 10pm.
4. Friday, May 6th was a middle school meet for Jay in Naches, WA (55 minutes from home). I took Rose and Amber to watch Jay run.
5. Friday was also a high school distance festival track meet in Issaquah, WA (3 hours away). Jeff drove a school van with the top six distance runners to the meet. He got home after midnight.

Piano Ensemble

 Saturday, April 30th was Rose and Amber's piano ensemble recital. Activities of the day:

• I ran a satisfying 10 miles during the only rain-free window of the day. Some runs everything just clicks, and this was one of those runs: good weather, good music, good shoes, good route, great pace. 
• The kids played Catan, which is a long haul of a game.
• Amber's piano ensemble rehearsal was at 3-3:20pm.
• Rose's piano ensemble rehearsal was at 4:20-4:40pm.
• The piano ensemble recital was at 7-7:45pm.

Amber rocks

The scene: Friday morning at 7:45am, 11 minutes before it was time to walk to the school bus stop. 

"Amber, put your piano books into your backpack," I called from the kitchen. On Fridays, the girls go straight to piano lessons after school, so they carry their piano books in their backpacks.

Amber unzipped her backpack and started removing crumpled papers and other miscellaneous items one by one. Soon there were half a dozen coloring pages, worksheets, a mashed lunchbox, and a crumpled sweater scattered across the floor.

Jay

 It's the first day of Jay's birth month, so how about a feature on my firstborn? Jay is in the middle of middle school right now and he has Activities that are separate and distinct from his younger sisters. He attends young men's activity every Wednesday night at church and helps pass the sacrament on Sundays. He is the secretary in the deacons quorum. He plays tuba in the school band and string bass in the school orchestra. He is on the middle school track team and convinced several of his friends to join the team with him to make it more fun. He grew his beautiful hair out till it was the longest it's ever been, claiming that he wanted to run one track race with it long before he whacked it all off. 

March BOOKS

Ah, March: the first month of track season. A month spent adjusting to Jeff being gone 30 extra hours each week. This year's coping mechanism leaned much more heavily on the Netflix side of cushioning rather than the literary fluff as in the past. Survival is about doing what works NOW, and I struck out when it came to finding cute fun fictional fluff in March. But I found a rich vein of light sweet entertainment in the TV-14 East Asian Drama category on Netflix! I will not be listing and reviewing the many K-dramas and Chinese dramas (are they C-dramas?) that I watched in March, but suffice it to say that it was many. I read a modest ten books on the side.

Talk

I gave a talk in sacrament meeting at church today, with all of the usual heart-pounding palm-sweating side effects.

The view out my bedroom window: a beautiful sunset reflected on puffy clouds in the eastern sky.