Mother's Day

 I'm grateful for my mother.  I think of her often and wish I could share my current accomplishments and interests.  People are complicated and relationships even more so.  I love being a mother to my family.

P has a tradition of taking the children to the dollar tree to pick out a gift for me.  I like this tradition.  P also has a tradition of adoring me.  He's good at traditions.

I made German Pancakes for the kids today.  They are getting so independent.  Sundays are very restful.  I'm grateful for the relationships the children have with each other.  B and L are doing a lego set G got them for Christmas.  They all know Sunday funday activities.  There is less need to be reminded or instructed.  

This Summer I'll have the 3 peas home a lot.  I hope we'll do homeschool fun every day.  Sign language, Cooking, Music Theory, handwriting, going on outings, beast academy, good and the beautiful.  Good times.

M will be off at a camp she is working at.  It's so weird, but also good, that she can go and work this summer.  She flies back the day before moving in to the dorm at Auburn.  I'm proud of the life she is making for herself.

Visit and fun

 My sister N came to visit.  She brought cousin S, dog M, and met her child F here for a drive home to Utah.  It is so fun to have visits.  I wish we would go out to Utah sometime.  Maybe we will.  

We swam with them at the hotel they stayed at Wednesday evening.  Thursday they went to see our brother S.  Friday I took them kayaking and they took me to lunch.  I drove the trailer!  In the evening we all went to the arcade then came back here for campfire fun and tacos.

Today the boys cleaned their room and we figured a place for grandma B.  It's nice to get a new lease on a space.  We had sent grandma B to the hotel for N to sleep on.  Having it out of the house for a few days helped us reach this new set up.

I'm studying for my fall class in Neurology.  I am a Graduate Ambassador and learned that if you get a 4.0 you can get a medal for graduation.  So far so good.

Camp Weekend

  We attended a family weekend at the camp with Hands and Voices.  It was so fun.  I work for Hands and Voices so it was more fun for me, having a role.  I love the location, the family time, the deaf community.  It is really beautiful.  Some sign, some don't.  We're all parents with deaf kids and accepting differences is important.  I make so many important professional connections working for Hands and Voices.  I have a clear vision of how to move forward.  One lady challenged me to come up with a catchy name.  I did.  So she challenged me to come up with a solid mission statement.  I'm working on that now too.  So good. 

M is amazing.  Her friend in the band has a little brother with hearing loss and special needs.  He has accepted M as part of his crew.  I'm glad she is such a decent human being.

 

professional photos

 Our school takes senior photos via a professional photographer.  I felt like it was kind of a racket.  It's expensive, but also, the quality is amazing.  I took the photo on the left under florscent lights as we waited for her minute with the photographer.  She had a sunburn from band camp and was feeling not thrilled.  But they took about 10 pictures and then we got to choose which one to use.  In the end I'm glad the school forces families to get a high quality photo of their children.  These are way better than the senior photos I had taken on the stage when I was a kid.

Keeping the Sabbath & Getting A’s

 I often have exams on Monday.  I am learning to study as hard and deep as I can Thursday, Friday and Saturday.  Sunday I rest.  I try not to even think about the material.  Monday I may or may not wake early and review.  

I’m taking a running leap and the stress of having a deadline Saturday makes me work harder/smarter.  Then the day of rest lets it all get sorted out in my subconscious.  So cool.

Overlap

 I'm doing training to provide child care for GBYS and a lot of those trainings have overlap with my church calling and language development class.  I have an internship at CRS and that has a lot of overlap with my articulation, language development, and other classes.  It's a fun time where so many new ideas are being reinforced by real life experiences.  

I'm planning to teach a Relief Society mini-lesson about Early Intervention and child development that would help current moms and community members be better educated about available services and red flags.

I did a lesson with the missionaries recently and their friend had a 2.5 year old with only 5 years.  His delay is significant.  He's in speech but they declined Early Intervention and that is going to be a barrier for him attending a pre-k program for special needs.  

M has had some hard times but she plans to work at a summer camp this summer and go to college in the fall.  I'm excited for all she is working toward.  She's a great young woman.

Stand stand

 We have 5 stands!  They were taking up a lot of space so I built this little stand for them.  It just barely holds the three manhasset stands that are ours.  We have one of those stands that has adjustable knobs, terrible but better than the wire things.  We also accidentally brought an extra one home from the Christmas music festival.  I sent an email to the organizers and they say nobody has asked about it.  Bummer.  We love manhasset stands.  

Our first manhasset stand was from P's school when they were throwing away the old ones.  Last year I drove to Decatur to get another one since we would both be needing good stands for the Christmas festival.  While in Florida for spring break I found another for $10.  So we brought it home too.  Now we have more than we need on a daily basis but will never have to use a bad stand again.

I used the knob adjusting one just the other day as a stand for holding the container as I ground some wheat.  It's good for that sort of job.  But when you want something to hold music, manhasset stands are my one elephant.