Dancing with Daffodils

 Finishing up October has been busy. I've been subbing at Duke and Evergreen a good amount with some Hollywood thrown in there. Everyone at Duke has been especially nice to me and friendly and helpful and I appreciate it. I went to book club and we had a good discussion about The Book of Doors. I like the idea of having a way to go through any door way; that would make travel so easy! Otherwise it has been a lot of piano lessons and driving and errands and cleaning.  We had a guy come to repair the stove a few days after the carbon monoxide incident only to tell us there is no gas leak and the stove is perfectly fine. Good on one hand but concerning on the other; what caused the problem? I can only think it had something to do with canning and having the burners on all day and we just have to trust that the alarm saved us once and will hopefully save us again if necessary.  Brandon had his last few baseball games over the last two weeks and he did a good job in all of the...

 The last two weeks have been interesting. Two Saturdays ago Curtis ran at an MD invitational and got a PR plus made his goal of getting under 18 minutes on the course. I led a primary teacher council that was fun; I love talking about how to teach better at church. We focused on the talk from General Conference that was all about teaching and that to teach of the Savior, we need to love those we teach like the Savior.  On Columbus day we slept in and had pancakes and then went to Forest Hall farm with the Rays. It was muddy and our older kids are less enthusiastic than they used to be but it was a beautiful day and we had a lovely hay ride all together. We got our pumpkins and I got apples for applesauce and it was wonderful to be with friends on such a great fall day. We stopped at Zimmerman's on the way back for a bakery treat (we wanted doughnuts but no dice) so then we went to Aldi and got some pumpkin doughnuts and apple fritters, which we ate with cider when we got home...

 I feel like the past week and a half or so have been about healing. Josh is feeling better every day. He has had follow ups with a few of his doctors and stopped taking the cough medicine and isn't coughing so that is a miracle in of itself. He is still sleeping a lot but a much more normal amount compared to when he first came home from the hospital. His energy is not back to normal but on the way. He was able to catch up with his school work and he started a new job this week that is less stressful than his old one (a very lateral move to a different area in the same building but no administrative responsibilities!)  and he had really good news at work (a project he has been working on for 15 years came to fruition) so all in all, he is doing well. We have been so blessed with so many people praying for him and his healing; many have reached out and been very kind, which really lifted us up.  I have still been very stressed about some situations, one of which is our li...

This little guy greeted me one morning; thankfully he was on the outside but in-between the screen and the door. He was cute but left after a little while.  I was going to title this Wake Me Up, When September Ends, but I decided to be a bit more positive. The last few weeks have been hard and I'm not even sure I really want to write about them but here's a summary. We've been battling cockroaches in the kitchen which is beyond disgusting. It was just a handful here and there but then one night I was up late waiting for Josh to get back from picking up his friend from the airport and I found a whole bunch under my kitchen mat and lost it. They are just so gross and pop up out of nowhere and they're so fast and it just makes me feel dirty to have them in my kitchen. So I finally called the exterminator and told him to come right away. He was a super nice guy and came one day to talk through it with me and said he would be back the next day to do the treatment.  Unfortuna...

When we got home it was go time. I now have two middle schoolers and no good reason not to be up with them so I've been getting up at 6am, which is not my favorite, but I have been surprisingly productive, except the one day I did go right back to bed after they left. Last Monday was also the first day of dance and the first day of teaching piano so I just had to jump back into it all, but did so with some grace, I would say. Tuesday morning I took Curtis to an early dentist appointment, picked up groceries and was back home by 830 am. I've had a kid on the Evergreen bus for 13 years and it is kind of blowing my mind a bit that I don't have to wait around until 8:45 am to do anything now. I went to Inklings and the library and felt very productive about my morning.The bummer of the day was when Leisa ran over our sprinkler when she came for piano and totally popped her tire. They had to wait for a tow truck and reconfigure their evening while I took Brandon to practice. I c...

The good news is, we made it through an extremely emotional, stressful, hard week. Monday started off with Emma's open house. Thankfully going into 8th grade is a bit more chill since she already knows the school and schedule. So we walked around and met her teachers or at least saw them and went through her schedule a few times and called it good. Curtis went to school to get his parking pass, Lily was doing laundry and packing, then Emma went to a stay-in-shape dance class taught by the seniors and Brandon and I went to his open house. He was obviously more nervous about a new school and going from class to class and so we went through his schedule a few times and said hi to all of his teachers. I think both kids have good teachers this year and I am hopeful that they will both have a great year. Getting up so early is the worst but once seminary starts, all three kids will be out of the house by 6:45 am and I'm a free woman until 2:30 pm. I much prefer the 9-4 schedule of el...