Other August Stuff

As the month of August winds down, I thought I'd get in one more quickie post before other things intervene. This month was not the most eventful August ever (aside from the usual school/church/piano/family happenings), but there were a couple of things I thought were worth mentioning:

Aurora had her first-ever dentist's appointment. All three girls had their appointments, but I was most worried about my wiggly youngest child. I needn't have worried: she behaved perfectly. Aurora sat still, listened carefully to the dentist & hygienists, and wasn't squeamish at all about any of the things they asked her to do.

 

They all looked pretty awesome with those giant glasses on! The only downside to our visit? Our dentist warned me that Lorelai would probably need an appointment with an orthodontist to discuss her future. After reluctantly making that appointment, however, the orthodontist told us that Lorelai's teeth needed more time to grow in, and we don't need to worry about braces any time soon. Hooray; we'd like to keep kicking that can down the road for a while longer.

My "home-canning" bug returned. I haven't been doing as much home canning as normal this year; maybe that's why the desire came back with a vengeance a few weeks ago when I saw apricots on sale. My grandfather (who was a small farmer in rural Utah) canned every type of produce under the sun, and one of my favorite things he canned were his apricots. In fact, after he passed away several years ago, I took some of the canned apricots that were left in his cellar and took them home with me.

It took me a long time to getting around to eating them; I was sort of holding on to them as a memorial of my Gramps Nash. After a while, though, I realized that Gramps would have wanted me to eat the apricots, not just stare at them wistfully...so I ate them. And they were delicious!

I had never canned apricots before, but it was a breeze; I can see why Gramps liked to do it! Unlike peaches, there's no need to get the fuzz off the apricots before canning them, so it eliminated a big, time-consuming step in the process.

Aah, I just love the color of brand-new canned fruit. A friend and neighbor of mine suggested making jam out of the apricots, something I'd never tried before. I didn't have quite enough apricots to make a full batch, but as luck would have it, I had a bunch of fresh raspberries lying around, so I threw some of those into the mix. Voila...apricot-raspberry jam. It was soooo delicious. Hooray, experimenting is fun!

 

A few days later, I started canning some pears, which I'd bought at the same time as the apricots. We have a lot of canned pears already in our pantry, so I didn't want to go overboard on the quart jars of sliced pears. I decided to try something new...again! This time, I found two different recipes online for spiced pear preserves...so I tried them both. As the preserves were simmering on the stove, they filled the house with an absolutely fantastic aroma. I cannot wait to try this stuff out on toast or biscuits or muffins! Hopefully I will be able to give some of it away as gifts as well this holiday season (shh...don't tell my family).

Aunt Kelli came for a visit, and the girls got cool hair out of the deal. I haven't talked about this much on the blog (although I might talk about it more in the near future), but Nathan's father, Glenn Barrett, has been battling cancer for over three years now. In recent months, the cancer has returned, and all of Nathan's siblings have traveled to Arizona recently to pay their father a visit and boost his spirits. At the beginning of August, it was Nathan's sister Kelli who made the trip, along with her four boys. It was nice to see them all again!

Although Kelli wanted to spend as much time as possible with her parents, we found time for a little mutual goofing off: first, at our clubhouse pool...

 

...and later, at Kelli's rented home, where she kindly braided all our girls' hair! This is why Aunt Kelli is probably their favorite aunt (sorry, all other loving aunts!). They love going to church the following day looking so cute!

 

 

And they loved going to school a couple of days later, with the crazy post-braid wavy hair too!

 

My girls got some new hobbies. Now that the school year is kicking into a higher gear, my two school-age girls are getting prepared for their after-school activities this year.

Lorelai is a busy bee this year. She's trying out for the school production of "Beauty And The Beast" (tryouts are still going on; I'll post what part she'll get when the cast is formally announced). She has a little more homework than she used to (all part of being in fourth grade now, I suppose). She attends our church's Activity Days for the eight- and nine-year-old girls every other Wednesday night. And in the biggest new development of all...

...she is joining Beginning Band this year! Our charter school only does jazz band, which sort of bummed me out at first (no orchestra? LAME). However, since I was classically trained myself, I reasoned that I can be responsible for that side of Lorelai's music education, and Great Expectations Academy can be responsible for the "jazzy" side. It could be very beneficial (and fun!) for her to experience both musical styles, especially at this point in her life, and she could figure out which style suits her best going forward.

About a week ago, we went up to Tucson and rented her a trombone. I think it is so awesome that she is learning a brass instrument (that's something I never had the opportunity to do!). Plus, she is in a minority in the band; most of the other kids chose the saxophone or trumpet to learn. I think it's neat that she will stand out in the crowd! Plus, she looks absolutely adorable holding that big old trombone.

So far, she hasn't learned to play too much yet, but I suspect that with time, she will get better. She has already told me, "Mom, the trombone is harder than the piano!" Well, duh, kid, you've been playing piano for two years longer than the trumpet!! But never mind that. I am a little worried that I won't be able to help her out much with the trombone, since it's an instrument I have no experience with. However, the school's band director is a good, capable guy and I think she'll be in good hands with him.

As for Celeste, doing dance class this school year was sadly not an option, due to budget concerns. However, she is still excited about the new activity in her life...

...Girl Scouts! This is another activity I have zero experience with; I think I may have done 4-H for a short time as a girl, but that's it. However, a few of Celeste's friends were already part of a Girl Scout troop, so I thought it might be a fun bonding activity for her to do. Out of all three of my girls, I think Celeste is the best "fit" for Girl Scouts; she loves any activity involving girl bonding and girl projects. She is a social butterfly and chatterbox, and having a bunch of girls together in a social setting seemed like a perfect fit for her personality. Plus, you know...cookies.

We've already attended our first Girl Scout activity this month, even though it was mainly an orientation meeting. However, since we met at the local frozen yogurt place, it counted as an "ice cream social" and she actually got a badge for it! Last week, at the same time we got Lorelai's trombone, we went up to the regional Girl Scouts office in Tucson and picked up her Daisy vest:

She is very excited to start her regular meetings next week! We'll try Girl Scouts out for the year, and then we can decide next year if she wants to continue it, or resume dance classes instead. It will be interesting to see what choice she makes.

My Baby Has Started School, Kind Of

August 12th, 2014 was a date of some significance in our family...and not just because it was Lorelai's birthday. On that same day, my "baby girl" Aurora had her first day of preschool! Wow...now all three of my kids are in school! At least some of the time.

Aurora had an informal co-op "play group" last school year. It was sort of/kind of a preschool on occasion (that is, when one of the moms decided to actually teach the kids something on their assigned day). However, the preschool this school year is definitely the real thing! In other words: it's run by someone with an actual college degree in education; it takes place in a "classroom" designed specifically for preschool; it has reading, writing, assignments, activities, and field trips involved; and she brings her own backpack and snack every day!

 

Aurora has been looking forward to preschool all summer. The last school year was pretty rough on her, what with her sisters being gone all day and Mom often proving an inadequate playmate. I'd argue that the youngest kid in the family needs preschool even more than its older siblings, if only for the needed social stimulation. Aurora has grown more and more social over the last few months, so this school experience was desperately needed!

Aurora will be attending Smart Scholars Preschool, the same preschool Celeste attended a couple of years ago. Ms. Nichole, who runs the preschool, was happy to welcome Aurora to the class (even if she kept calling her "Celeste" by accident for the first couple of days, hee hee!). Aurora was so excited that her "turn" had come; she already knew Ms. Nichole from Celeste's preschool days and she was overjoyed to be her newest student. Besides that, a few of her friends (Taylor and Logan) would also be part of the preschool, and she was excited to share the school experience with them as well.

The first week of preschool went really well; I think Aurora will soon adjust to the schedule. Every day, as soon as preschool was over, the first thing out of her mouth was always, "Mom, I want a play-date today!" She was always frustrated when I told her we couldn't that day. Hmmm...perhaps she is getting too much stimulation at the school, and will need to appreciate her down-time a little more. However, she also fell asleep very quickly every night after preschool...I suspect it wore her out a little more than she was willing to admit.

Hopefully I'll have some fun crafts & activities to report on from preschool this year; stay tuned! And as for myself: who knows?? I sure hope I can figure out how to productively spend my time now that most of my kids are out of the house. That will probably be a work in progress.

Lorelai Is Getting So Grown-Up

Last week, my oldest daughter Lorelai turned nine years old. This year, her birthday wasn't as busy or momentous as her birthday last year (when she turned eight, threw a huge party, and was baptized). But in some ways, this birthday was even more significant...at least from my point of view. I am seeing my oldest daughter in a new light these days.

In the last few weeks, as her birthday approached, I have noticed a subtle shift in the way Lorelai acts, talks, and thinks. I am starting to realize that Lorelai is not a "little kid" any more, but a "big girl," or "tweener," or whatever you want to call this age. She is getting even more thoughtful and helpful than she used to be; she has an aura of quiet responsibility wherever she goes. She is quicker to lend a hand to those who need it, and at the same time more eager to do things without her parent's help. She is gaining new skills rapidly, and the talents she already has are getting more developed.

As an example, I woke up one morning after a bad night's sleep, only to find that Lorelai had made me an omelet. No prompting from Daddy or myself, or anyone else; she just decided she wanted to make me an omelet because she's nice like that. Nathan helped her a little bit, but she did most of the prep work and all the presentation. I was surprised and touched at her thoughtfulness and maturity; it really impressed me that she came up with the idea all on her own. It is humbling to think my daughter might be better at quiet acts of service than I am!

(For the record: she's made several omelets over the last month, sharing them with various family members.)

Her cooking bug resurfaced when it was time to make her birthday cake. She wanted carrot cake this year, and she volunteered to help me make it! Of course, carrot cake is a little more labor-intensive to make than most cakes, but Lorelai was still able to add ingredients to the mixer and scoop out the batter, and (of course) lick off the beaters afterwards.

We got the carrot cake made in time for her birthday "party" the Saturday before her birthday. After last year's big bash, I was determined to make this get-together as small and easy as possible. So she invited over two friends (Abigail and Hyrum) over. They ate cake; they opened presents; they went and swam at our clubhouse pool for a few hours. A good time was had by all!

 

Grandma and Grandpa came over briefly on Sunday night to wish Lorelai a happy birthday. At the same time, Nathan and I allowed her to open one of her presents...

...this cute mini-muffin tin, as well as a pastry decorating kit. Maybe this will spark her culinary imagination some more! In any case, we unwrapped it so Lorelai could use it to make brownie bites to share with her class on Tuesday, August 12th (her actual birthday).

On her birthday, we got up early to open the rest of her presents...

 

She shouted in triumph when she saw the gift she wanted most of all...

A sweet remote-controlled car!

She got a Spanish-English kids' dictionary from Daddy; all three girls love it

Sadly, she didn't get to play with her new car until after school that day. Ah, to be young again and have no school on one's birthday! At any rate, she didn't have a lot of time after school to play, either, because she had a dinner date with Daddy planned for that night.

Since Nathan usually rides the commuter shuttle to work every day, it can be inefficient for him to come all the way home if he's going back to Tucson again later in the day. So we tried something different this year, in honor of Lorelai's being a "big girl" now...we sent Lorelai on the northbound commuter shuttle by herself, in order to meet up with Nathan downtown and go on their date from there! To be safe, I sent my phone with her, in case she needed to call anyone (as it turned out, she ended up texting Nathan the whole drive up).

It was very hard to overcome my "protective" genes as I got her seated on the shuttle and waved goodbye from outside. Her face looked ready to crumple into tears as the shuttle pulled away, and it was all I could do to not launch myself onto the shuttle and hang on the outside, so I could keep my eye on her for the duration of the drive. But guess what? She survived the trip (which is only about 20-25 minutes long), she met up with her daddy, my phone lived to call another day, and they had a fun birthday date at Olive Garden!

They brought home a ton of food, too, and spent much of the rest of the week eating it. Yum.

The following weekend, Lorelai and I had another outing designed to expand her independence; we took a bike ride together across Rancho Sahuarita. We biked all the way to our local library branch, so we could pick up a couple of items. At the same time, Lorelai would be testing out her new bike lock.

With this bike lock, she will be able to drive her bike to the library (or the grocery store, or the clubhouse, or the McDonald's) all by herself, and make sure her possessions are looked after.

It was a hot, muggy morning, so the drive to the library wiped us out. We decided to celebrate our journey with a refreshing smoothie from the nearby McDonald's. Lorelai managed to lock and unlock her bike at the McDonald's, too...with a little practice she should have no trouble securing her bike wherever she goes!

It has been really fun to have these "big kid" experiences with my girl. It makes me really excited to have them someday with Celeste and Aurora as well! Sometimes, I still feel a little pang of regret that I won't be having any more babies. However, I am also really enjoying seeing my daughters entering this more mature, sophisticated part of their lives, and I am lucky they enjoy sharing their lives with me (for now). I wonder what life will be like when they are teenagers who are too independent and "too cool" to go on bike rides with me, or share their thoughts with? Better live in the moment, and put off those worries for another day!

One And A Half Camping Trips

Halfway through August, and I'm finally getting back to the blog for a bit. We have spent the last few weeks getting back into "school rhythm," and we're slowly figuring out what each of our schedules looks like. Even though two of my kids are in school, I have still been finding my days busy (sometimes that "busy" includes wasting time on the Internet, but still!). Maybe that will change with time...but I somehow doubt it, knowing myself and my penchant for filling my life with Stuff. At any rate, I hope to add blog posts with more regularity during the weekdays, while I am still able to do so.

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, we took a small camping trip on July 31st. We'd been planning to go camping as a family for most of the summer; in the past, all our camping trips have been with our LDS ward as part of the annual ward camp out. Although we have really enjoyed all those camp outs, we have wanted to be a little more adventurous and try camping in other locations, with other people. We finally got that chance this month with our good friends the Perrys.

For this camping trip, we chose to visit nearby Lake Patagonia State Park.  Lake Patagonia was formed when Sonoita Creek was dammed a few decades ago; today, it's a large-ish lake that is a quiet, pleasant place to spend a night or two. The girls and I visited the lake last summer with several friends and had a wonderful time, despite getting rained on. We have wanted to re-visit Patagonia ever since, and we thought a camping trip would be the perfect opportunity. Best of all, our friends the Harts lent us their canoe, so we could have some fun paddling around on the lake!

Another reason Patagonia appealed to us was its relative "civility"; the campsites all have parking spots right next to them (most with electrical plug-ins and water hook-ups for RVs), and the public bathrooms are shockingly clean for being out in the wilderness. I thought those things would appeal to Nathan, who (shall we say) is not the world's most enthusiastic camper and who likes his creature comforts. We were also lucky to have the Perrys accompany us; besides being our good friends, they are also much more experienced campers than we are and their relaxed, confident attitude helped us feel more at ease in the great outdoors.

We arrived at the campsite a few hours before the Perrys, though; they still had some business to attend to in town. Luckily, we were able to borrow a shade canopy from our friends the Nielsens, and we set that up first; it was a hot humid afternoon so we desperately needed a little shade to take breaks in while unloading the car. That warm afternoon almost broke us; we drank almost all the water I'd packed in just a couple of hours! We'll have to plan a little better next time.

Our new tent is on the left; the Perry's tent is on the right

This was the first time we've officially tested out our new family tent; we are happy to report it performed very well for us! Nathan was able to set it up on his own in just a few minutes; unpacking went very quickly after that. It did get pretty stuffy inside the tent in the afternoon, but that was more due to the hot day than any flaw in the tent. We cracked the windows that night and felt pretty comfortable for the most part. Unlike the deluge that fell on us last summer at Patagonia, we only got a small drizzle at two o'clock in the morning this time. No problem! We woke up for a few minutes and zipped up the windows, and we stayed nice and dry for the rest of the night.

Despite being hot for much of the afternoon, it was a fun camp out overall. Setting up our tents so close to the lake was wonderful; it was very quiet and peaceful listening to the water lapping against the shore (only feet away from our tent!). Once in a while we'd hear the far-off thrum of a motorboat, but other than that there wasn't much "man-made" noise besides the quiet conversations of distant campers.

See if you can spot the cows in this picture

There was a small herd of cows across the lake from us, and listening to their "moo-ing" as the sun went down was a very soothing experience for me; in a way, it brought back memories of my grandparents' farm. The cows on their farm would bellow all evening, and it gave me the warm fuzzies to hear that sound again in a very different location.

 

We all tried out the canoe, with mixed results. At first, all five of us rode in the canoe at once, but it was a little rickety and it made the younger girls a little nervous (even though everyone was wearing life jackets). It was a little tricky mastering the current and the paddling motion, but we eventually figured it out.

Over the course of the trip, all of us went out in the canoe multiple times. Nathan took Lorelai out once, and I made two long trips: the first with Celeste, and the second with Lorelai and Aurora. In both cases, I paddled the canoe clear to the eastern edge of the lake, where cows wandered and birds relaxed. It was too marshy to fully put ashore, but it still gave me a great sense of accomplishment! Of course, my arms were very sore the rest of the day.

 

In between the canoe rides, we made a delicious campfire dinner that night: spiced sausage foil dinners, with potatoes & sliced vegetables. Mmmm!! We also made banana boats (basically, a banana sliced partway open, filled with chocolate chips & marshmallows, and placed the fire for a few minutes), and the ever-popular S'mores. We were very full and happy that night!

The girls and took some time to go swimming in the roped-off wading area in the evening; I joined them again the following morning. Since it was overcast for most of our trip, the water was a little cold, but it was still refreshing after our warm night in the tent. Amber and Brad nicely made breakfast for everyone...pancakes, bacon and sausage, yum! Amber had also printed up a "scavenger hunt" for the kids; they were encouraged to find small items throughout the park like flowers, stones, etc.

 

By 11:00, it was time to check out of our campsite. We broke down the tent and loaded the car, while also munching on some sandwiches for lunch. After that, it was time to head home. We felt pretty proud of ourselves for managing the trip; Brad and Amber were a great help and we were so glad to spend the time with them. After the drive home (and after dropping off the canoe at its rightful home), we collapsed in hot sweaty piles at home. I spent the next two days doing laundry!  But it was worth it.

As luck would have it, our annual LDS ward camp out was scheduled for just two weeks later! For the past couple of years we have gone up to Camp Zion in October: this time, the ward leaders elected to move it up earlier in the year, so as to avoid the chilly nights. Which was a good idea in practice, except that the monsoon has been going full steam this summer, and showers were predicted for Mount Lemmon the night of the camp out. And since we had just gone camping two weeks before...well, you see how our minds were working at this point. We held a lengthy family council the night before, and Nathan and I eventually decided against camping the following night.

However, the girls cried and begged and pleaded to go, so we eventually made a compromise...we would drive up to Mount Lemmon on Friday afternoon and spend some time with our friends. However, we would not spend the night on the mountain. We even bought Subway sandwiches to take up with us (Nathan and I were doubtful we would be able to start a fire, due to all the rain). This compromise seemed to satisfy everyone, so that's what we ended up doing.

We had only just arrived at Camp Zion when the rain started falling. And it didn't stop for about an hour! It made the air very cool and comfortable, but it also made it very hard to set up tents and cook meals. Our family spent much of that time huddled under the lodge's porch, eating our dinner. Aurora became very fussy with all the rain; at one point, she went back inside our van and refused to come out, tearfully insisting that it was "time to go home" over and over.

 

But we persisted, and waited out the rain. We got to see some beautiful rainbows and cloud formations afterwards! And more and more friends kept showing up, so we were able to share some dessert and have a lot of fun visiting with many families. In fact, our friends the Powells (who moved out of our ward last fall) decided to "crash" the activity, to my daughters' delight. They had lots of fun playing with Hyrum and Ella that evening! Nathan took all the girls and their friends on the hike down to the lookout rock, and they found the trail well-built and the going easier than last year.

As the evening wore on, both Lorelai and Celeste started regretting our decision to not stay the night. Nathan and I felt a little disappointed too, but we held firm and we drove back down the mountain for the night.

Relaxing at the lodge at Camp Zion, just before our trip home

We promised our family that next year, we'd be sure to stay the night at the ward camp out. We also promised one more family camp out before the end of the year (here's hoping we can pick a good date!). Although we had a lot of fun on Friday night, we did miss out on the fun and games the following morning...not to mention the yummy breakfast! Next year, we'll do our best to make the ward camp out a priority on our schedule, so we can fully enjoy it.

I guess Nathan and I are "not ready for prime-time" campers; we were too skittish of the rain, and two nights in one month was too intimidating for us! Maybe with a little more practice, we won't be too afraid to camp more often. And with time, we might even be able to camp completely on our own; that is probably the next step in our evolution into "proper" campers. Pray for us, friends; my husband and I are city slickers, but perhaps someday we'll be able to survive the wilderness without so much hand-holding! In the meantime, we're grateful for all our wonderful friends who are willing to loan us their supplies and give us encouragement as we work on improving our outdoor skills.