Parentheticals

Well, we're back. We were tired on Monday, but we made it through Classical Conversations. Timmy and Gideon were encouraged to behave by promising that they could have Logan and Dustin come over. They were pretty good, but unfortunately the Plastows were sick this week, so it didn't happen until Thursday. They played their new game Amazing Frog and seemed pretty happy about it. We got some snow this week, which made the dog and the kids very happy. At nature group on Friday, they went sledding and had a great time. They ended up making chains of sleds and sending up to six kids down the hill at once. The "hill" they chose ends in a drop-off into a pool of water, and they seemed to think that the steering challenge added spice to sledding. No one actually got wet, so that was good. Speaking of the water, it's a collection point for storm drain water, and someone must have poured dish soap into it somewhere, because it produced an incredible amount of bubbles the en...

We failed to write for a few weeks, so this is a big post to get caught back up. Three weeks ago we did Organized Simplicity on the front room. On Monday the 13th we took everything out of the room. It doesn't look like it has that much stuff in it, but it still took up half of the carpeted room and half of Mike's work room to hold all of the stuff. After cleaning out all the stuff we cleaned the room and Alison decided that she also wanted to paint the walls. We ended up painting it a yellowish white that matches the color of the Kallax. Painting took till Wednesday night, so we started moving things back in Thursday and we got it all back together by Friday. Mike marked some board games for disposal, and we also got rid of some art stuff. The room was re-arranged during the move, so we now have a cool new setup which gives us less horizontal furniture to put things on. Hopefully that works to keep the room cleaner. Boo's birthday was on the 15th. We ate fruit pizza and sh...

On Monday Mike went to the Salt Lake Community College surplus computer sale and got Rea a used laptop. It is small and cute and has good stats and battery life. It was only $195, however Rea hates it. She says "Dad! I told you not to get me a computer 'cause I don't want one!" We are hoping that she will start to like it some day because being able to use a computer is a good skill to have. We had lots of medical appointments this week. Alison met with her psychiatrist on Monday and modified her medicine some. The first medicine has prevented any more major depression, but she still feels mildly depressed about half the time, so the psychiatrist is hoping adding this one will help with that. Tuesday morning Alison went to get a chipped filling fixed and get an impression taken for a mouth guard. Apparently she grinds her teeth now. Tuesday afternoon Timmy and Sara went to the dentist. All four kids had dentist appointments last month, but it was the week everyone was...

This last week we went to southern Utah in order to attend the nature group fall camp out. The leader has a relative who has 800 acers and a cabin on the Utah-Arizona border, and they let us camp there for free every October during fall break. It's a lot of fun, although we always end up getting a hotel instead of camping because Mike needs to work at night. That was a good thing this year, because they had an unbelievable cold snap down there! At one point, they were predicting lows of 25 for those nights! I think it was a little warmer, but most of the families ended up finding somewhere indoors to sleep. Some of the teenage boys tented the first night and woke up to frost on their sleeping bags - they slept in their cars for the other nights. We were glad to be in a hotel. We drove down Wednesday afternoon and checked into the hotel. Thursday morning we went to Coral Pink Sand Dunes, which is one of our favorite places down there. The dunes are pretty, playing in the sand is fun...

On Friday, the older kids had their final exam for Nature Kids Connect, our nature group. Rea and Sara ended up with a harder exam than most. The kids ages 8 and up were supposed to walk from one trailhead in Dimple Dell to another. The starting trailhead just happened to be the one we went to for our Forest Kindergarten for several years and the one where Mike likes to forage, so our girls were at an advantage at the beginning. They were supposed to identify about a dozen plants, and all but one of them were ones that we have foraged or pointed out (poison ivy), so they not only knew what they were, but exactly where to find them. They were even able to help some of the other kids. As they hiked, the kids got more and more strung out, and Rea and Sara were on their own in the part of the park they didn't know when the trail split and they took the wrong turn. They wandered around and realized that they were lost. That was scary, but Rea recognized one of the mountains. It was the ...

This week our Brown grandparent's came over and we spent a lot of time with them. Alison went out with all of the girls and ate lunch together, the kids spent time at the grandparents, Mike ate lunch with Grandpa Mike, and we all also went over to eat dinner with them. It was fun to see them again. Wednesday evening we went to the nearby nursery and bought some tomatoes, peppers, and onions. Hopefully they grow well. Rea also planned and executed a may-day celebration. It had a parade of children and a maypole dance. They also ate a picnic of lemonade, peppers, pears and cheese.  On Friday we were all well enough to go to nature group for the first time in a month. It was hot, and a few of the kids whined, but we stayed the whole time and the kids had fun. Mike did yard work and mowed the lawn with our new mechanical lawn mower. It works pretty good, but doesn't do well on tall grass or sticks. Saturday we transplanted two new trees: a cherry and an apple which we bought from t...

 We didn't actually write about our family Salt Con last week! We had too much fun, I guess :). So last Thursday we woke up and packed up the car. The kids were so eager to go, they pushed and prodded us out the door - they were in the car buckled up half an hour before we were ready to leave, which was half an hour before we supposed to leave. We were aiming to get to Crystal Hot Springs near Brigham City at noon, when they open, but we ended up getting there at 11:30. We went to a nearby park to eat a picnic lunch, and then we went back to the hot springs. They were beautiful rock pool with different temperatures of water. We deliberately picked one of the least-busy days and times, and there were plenty of people but not so many that we couldn't stay socially distanced. Mike and Alison enjoyed soaking in the hot water; the kids went back and forth between soaking and playing in the traditional swimming pool. Even Elizabeth ended up liking the water by the end! We had planned...