We love our little house for what it gives us, but this week we also appreciated how where we live allows us to help out with friends from church in often unexpected ways and how our location also makes getting to and from church very convenient (a big deal with our active kidlets).
Monday, September 30 – It took us a bit to remember what
happened on Monday. Then Hallie looked at the calendar, whereupon it dawned on
her. How on earth did we forget what happened? Today was the day that Hallie
was supposed to babysit Laurel’s kids, but that was pushed to Tuesday. As the
day unfolded we saw why that was to be. Marshadae moved into a new apartment
and needed to get new beds. We were supposed to leave from our house at 10:30 AM,
but after Marshadae ran out of gas on the way to our house, it was nearly noon
before heading out. Once Hallie and Marshadae did get started—boy, was it an adventure!
Highlights included: The Salvation Army did not have the stuff they charged the
girls for, the apartment we were moving stuff into had a 1 ft by 2 ft hole in
the ceiling, the starter for the truck we borrowed from our branch president overheated
on us, the hood flew up on us while driving, the truck’s windows had been left
open the night before so the girls bums were wet everywhere they went from
sitting on the wet seats, and we walked a mattress and bed frames through a
strip mall. During all of the shenanigans, the girls experienced the kindness
of strangers that left an indelible impression on them. Many things would not
have been able to happen if it was not for these great men who came to their
aid. When Hallie arrived home at 8:30 PM, she was exhausted, but we are glad to
be able to help Marshadae.
Tuesday, October 1 – Mike went up on campus to take care of
work in the morning after taking Landon to school. Landon rode Eliza’s pink
scooter to school so he could show off some tricks. To him, the color doesn’t
matter, just so long as it rides well. Hallie ran several errands in the
morning after dropping Eliza off at school. Along her travels, she discovered
Eastern Market’s version of poutine. She approves.
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| The secret is the chorizo gravy |
She looked after both Nadia
(in the morning) and Laurel’s kids (in the afternoon/evening). Mike helped out
in Landon’s class in the afternoon doing number recognition on ten frames. Once
there, he dropped into teacher mode, evaluating what each child knew and needed
to know. It’s like riding a bike.
Speaking of bike riding, he had ridden over,
so he let Landon sit in the kangaroo seat for the walk home. We’re still amused
at the looks that seat gets when we pass people by. Then Mike took Landon to
Laurel’s. The way the kids reacted to seeing him, you’d think he was a
celebrity! Mike held his evening class in the basement with the laptop sitting
on the washing machine. Humble surroundings, but the outcome remained the same.
We had some really interesting discussions there among the laundry and boxes of
food.
Wednesday, October 2 – Landon took his bike to school today.
As we passed some of his classmates along the way, he showed off his mad
skillz. The girls were seriously impressed. Oh, boy. Hallie looked after Nadia
again today after taking Eliza to speech, where she continues to make good
progress.
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| Searching for Fergus in the bushes. He got out five separate times on Wednesday alone. |
After school, Mike rode down with Eliza in the kangaroo seat to pick Landon
up, and they all rode home in between doing tricks.
The missionaries and Otto
had stopped by, so we took advantage of their willingness to volunteer to have
them help clear the garage floor. Didn’t take much, but now it looks good
again.
Eliza had her last swimming class today, and she has completed her Level
1.
Mike helped move some furniture at the giant warehouse owned by the family
of a recently deceased member of the branch, the same member whose residence
Mike had helped at last March. Spooky place late at night, but always
interesting. Mike spent much of his time looking for the circuit panels to get
the lights to work. That was pretty fun, actually.
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| One of the last remaining vehicles in storage: A Packard 180 just waiting to be restored |
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| Nate running the forklift while Dave takes a rest |
Thursday, October 3 – Hallie thought she would get a
permanent replacement crown this morning, but it didn’t fit right. Plus her new
glasses were ground wrong and need to be reordered. Plus, Landon had a hard time
at school today and had his color changed to red. He got sent home with a note
and everything. Mike was at work when Hallie went to get Landon, and he heard
about it over the phone. Good day for Dad to be at the office. Bad day for
Landon to be a rambunctious five-year-old boy. So, in the same week he got rewarded for good behavior,
he saw the opposite.
Friday, October 4 – Mike helped out again at Landon’s school
with a math center project in the morning. Mrs. Humphrey said Landon was
behaving much better today.
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| Giant spider just hanging in the air between the tree and the house. Imagine jogging into that one (cringe). |
He still lost out on any screen time. Good thing we
had a Primary Activity Days activity in the evening so we could at least have
pizza. We got a phone call from Cynthia, a member of the branch, who told us
that her grandkids needed to be picked up from the local charter school a
couple of blocks down the road. Mike and Eliza walked down to pick up Kayla and
Robert, and then Hallie took Robert home and Kayla to Activity Days. Activity
Days was very successful. Hallie had 10 of her 15 kids there, and fun was had
by all as she helped the kids get ready for General Conference.
Landon's story of him fighting a bully. He said someone hit him earlier this week, and we're still trying to figure it all out. We know it didn't relate to his red card.
A month's worth of math journaling:
More work with numbers:
Firefighting and public safety seemed to be a theme for the week (perhaps in preparation for the field trip to the fire station next week?):
Saturday, October 5 – Hallie got up bright and early to take
Landon to get the CSA at Eastern Market and his gymnastics class. We attended
General Conference this weekend. We must be gluttons for punishment, because we
keep taking the kids to church to watch, and they keep being kids trying to sit
through a two-hour meeting. Generally, because no one but the missionaries and
we attend the first Saturday session, it’s not too much of an issue. We’ll
bring something to eat in the cultural hall for lunch and sit on the floor or
in some folding chairs while the kids play with toys or draw. This year Hallie
brought popcorn and we brought the kids’ beanbag chairs. Other than some
enthusiastic door opening and occasional venturing into the halls, the kids did
fine. Between the two of us, we managed to watch the full session. We
appreciated Elder Hales’ talk both for its content and for its timing.
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| "My happy family" |
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| All the names of our family members. |
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| The setup for streaming conference at home |
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| Fooling with the camera |
Sunday, October 6 – Hallie whipped up some egg soufflé and
monkey bread, and we took it over to church to feed to the missionaries and
some friends who accidentally arrived to church early before conference. Later, the sisters stopped by with a thank you from our "magnificent seven" elders and sisters.
Mike took Eliza home for a nap and watched from home while Hallie and Landon watched with branch members. We really have been blessed to live so relatively close to church, particularly since we hadn’t realized the new building would be as close as it is when we bought our house. Sure makes attending meetings with little ones convenient. We opted to watch the afternoon session at home, especially after Eliza took a shorter nap than we anticipated. We had a fun dinner and visit with Dave and Analee and their kids in the evening. All in all, we ended the day having feasted both physically and spiritually.
