Topher in the Box

The Blessing of Waving My Arm

I currently serve in three callings (jobs) at church. I'm a den leader for the cub scouts, I teach Peter's Sunday School class, and I'm the ward choir director. With all those roles some Sundays are hectic, some are less so.

Our choir sang the Hymplicity arrangement of Come Ye Children of the Lord this past Sunday. Due to the travel plans of choir members and our already small numbers, we had taken the summer off. I was nervous that no one would come back. And in fact, our first rehearsal a few weeks ago only had four people in attendance when we were supposed to start. However, by the time we were ready to sing for Sacrament Meeting we had twenty singers, a huge group for our small ward.

They sounded amazing. Truly. Their blend was gorgeous, their dynamics smooth and appropriate, even the a cappella section was lovely. While it would boost my ego to take total credit, the lion's share goes to the people that showed up to sing,

After the number was over and the next speaker was at the pulpit, I was in the hall with Topher. As I walked and bounced our wiggly boy, I was contemplating how well the song had gone. Then a new idea popped into my head: leading this choir is a tender mercy. I already had the cub scout and teaching callings (though I was teaching Primary rather than Sunday School at the time) when I was asked to take on the additional role of leading the choir. I said yes without hesitation. It's a blessing to serve in a calling that brings me so much joy and lets me exercise skills that had been dormant. I hadn't viewed it in that light before and the realization made me smile.

That's the thought that I shared with the Bishop when he thanked me after the meeting. Just in case they decide to release me from one of my jobs, I want him to know that I'm especially thankful for that calling.

Play the Game

Rise and Shine

Peter needed to leave the house by 6:45 yesterday morning (at the latest) to make it to school on-time. He's starting high school next year, which means early-morning seminary before school. I figured this was my last chance to have everyone dressed and ready and in the same picture before school started. I don't plan to wake the whole crew up next year to take pictures at 5:30 AM, but I did wake them up at 6:15 this year! Can you tell that Topher isn't fully alert yet?

We sent Bryan and Peter off first, then finished getting the rest of us ready. Sophie really wanted to ride the bus the first day, so Topher and I saw the girls onto their bus and Cooper onto his bus, then scurried over to the elementary school and met Sophie as she walked off the bus. She was delighted to see us and said the bus "was awesome!"

We said goodbye to Phoebe, then walked Sophie into the cafeteria. It was teeming with tiny kindergartners wearing too-big backpacks and their parents/younger siblings/grandparents. After checking in with her teacher, we found the table where her class was gathering, complete with name tags and folders full of homework for the parents. We waited so long that Sophie turned to me at one point and said, "Can we go to my classroom now?" She finally got her wish and the entire class followed their wand-carrying teacher out of the cafeteria and into the halls of the school.

Topher and I then dropped off paperwork in the office, ran the Epi-Pen to the Middle School office, and headed to a friend's house for a mom/grandma get-together. Topher had a wonderful time chasing balls around their enormous backyard and eating lots of food. I loved visiting with friends a little too much; Topher and I both have the sunburns to prove it. Then we went home, Topher napped, and I did laundry and deep cleaned my kitchen while listening to a book. It was great.

So how was the first day of school for the kids? Here's the rundown:

• Peter came home and told me about how funny his teachers are, except for the one that just graduated from college, she's too quiet to be heard. He got right to work on his first homework assignment and kept trying to speak french because that's one of his classes this trimester. With the exception of sitting by himself at the peanut-free table for lunch (his buddies from last year that would purposely bring peanut-free lunches so they could sit with him aren't on his team this year, so they have different lunch periods), it was a good day for him.
• Cooper had been so very nervous, even going so far as to request homeschooling and telling me he would ride the bus to school and then walk home. Good news: he had a great day. His good friend from church is in his classes and they stuck together, which calmed Cooper's fears. Plus, Cooper has one of Peter's favorite teachers this year and I think he'll be a good fit for Cooper.
• Phoebe, being Phoebe, had a fantastic first day. She's not sold on her teacher yet, though we've heard he's the best. She loved getting to serve as a temporary bus patrol worker until the official kids are picked. She played with friends and easily settled back into the swing of school.
• Sophie, well, Sophie's report was confusing. During the few hours between getting home from the bus and going to bed she told me: "It was awesome!" "It was the best day!" "It was the worst day!" "Someone tried to punch me." "No one tried to punch me." "We did a science experiment with coke and mentos and my teacher let us drink it!" "No, she didn't let us drink it." "It was sad because I had no friends, no one wanted to play with me." "I have a best friend in my class." "The art teacher gave us a prize if our pictures were good and coal if our art was bad." "I don't want to go back!" "I'm sad because I have to wait until tomorrow to go back and that's too long!" So yeah, I'm really not sure how it went.

Peter and Phoebe came home and did their chores. Cooper came home and yelled at us a lot. Sophie came home and yelled at us while manhandling Topher and doing her chores.

When it finally arrived, I was ready for bedtime.

Dem Bones

Today is the first day of school. I'm never really ready to get back to a schedule and have the kids gone for so many hours each day. However, (most of) the kids are excited and ready. I'm typing this on Sunday night (as is my nightly goal), but by the time it publishes I anticipate Peter will be sitting down in his first class of the day while the rest of us finalize preparations to meet the bus. Expect a report tomorrow.

Sophie is especially excited since she is starting Kindergarten today. Her weekend leading up to this important milestone was pretty eventful. On Friday morning she was doing a tumble in the living room and twisted her wrist and hand at an odd angle. She started screaming and crying right away, which is not her usual MO. I came in and examined both arms. Her right arm, the one in pain, did look slightly swollen, but just barely. She sat with ice for quite some time, then resumed her activities, but she was definitely favoring it, even if only a little. We discussed taking her to get it x-rayed, but decided against it.

On Saturday morning I discovered that Sophie could use her hand, but she couldn't squeeze it into a tight fist. That reminded me of when Peter had a buckle break a few years ago. We found an urgent care facility nearby that did x-rays and Sophie and I paid them a call.

After an hour there, a doctor came and told us that he had read the x-ray and he was pretty sure she didn't have a break, but he would have the radiologist look at it and let us know if he saw something different. That's the reason I answered my phone on Sunday after church when the name of the urgent care appeared on caller ID. The radiologist suspects she might have a buckle break after all. He told us to wait a week and get another x-ray and a second opinion, then possibly meet with an orthopedist. At least she didn't have to start the school year with a cast, that's something right?

We were there for so long that she asked if the light above her head was GLaDOS from the video game Portal. Thankfully, it is not.

And if that wasn't enough adventure for one day, Sophie lost her first tooth on Saturday night! It had been loose for a while and had gotten even wigglier in the last few days. When I saw it before bedtime on Saturday I was mildly concerned she would swallow it in her sleep. I asked if she wanted me to pull it out, expecting her to decline. She said yes though, so I joggled it out. She said it didn't hurt despite the bit of root that hadn't dissolved away from the tooth. The tooth fairy left something that is rarely gifted at our house for teeth: money. It's almost as if she was unprepared for this tooth to fall out.

Sophie proudly showed her tooth gap to everyone she came in contact with at church on Sunday.

Let's hope the first day of school is a little less action-packed.

Dancing Topher

Hogwarts, A History

Flashback to the spring of 2017. School was winding down and I had a realization: we weren't moving. For the first time since Peter started school, we were staying in one place during the summer. Shouldn't we do something fun and exciting to celebrate?

That sent my teacher brain into overdrive. Phoebe was just finishing the Harry Potter series and Cooper was part way through. They were all very into the Wizarding World at the time. Lightening struck my brain and I knew what we should do with our summer: we would go to Hogwarts!

No, we didn't go to Florida to enjoy that actual Wizarding World of Harry Potter, though that would have been awesome. Instead, we experienced our summer through a Harry Potter lens.

First, I created Hogwarts letters for each child.

Then I made chore charts that fit with our theme. 

The kids loved the idea and jumped right in. We each picked out an owl to take with us to Hogwarts. We also designed our own wands and came up with wizard names for ourselves, though I can't find pictures of either.

Then we had an airplane making competition and sent our owls soaring.

Of course we had to be sorted into houses. Thankfully we had a sorting hat. And we had several online quizzes to properly place us into the correct house.

 I thought through the possible activities we would do over the summer and figured out how to make them into classes offered at Hogwarts.

For example, that summer we attended Potions (cooking) class. Each child had their own cookbook and was responsible to prepare (with help, depending on the kid) one dinner each week of the summer. This meant lots of planning and cookbook reading.

We studied Herbology by tending our garden.

We took a turn with Care of Magical Creatures by visiting the zoo here in PA.

And spending some personal time with birds at an aquarium while in Utah. I think this is how Harry and his cohorts felt when they met Buckbeak for the first time.

 The living historical farm was a little less traumatic for animal exposure.

We also did Transfiguration (sewing and crafts), like these onesies we painted for my niece.

Astronomy class was easy thanks to the eclipse and a trip to the USS Enterprise in New York City.

History of Magic came in the form of reading the inspiration for the summer, lots and lots and lots of reading.

 

We found ways to tie in our adventures as well. We had a tea party, which is terribly British.

 And we visited a library that even looked like Hogwarts.

We loved our Hogwarts summer and used it as the inspiration for our Halloween costumes that year.

We even kept our Hogwarts chore charts up until the following summer.

Sneaky

You guys, I'm a ninja.

I must be, that's the only reasonable way to explain why my children believe that I don't do anything at all around the house. That's right, they think that they do all the cleaning and childcare and work. I've been trying to wrap my brain around how they can possibly miss all the work I do on a daily basis.

So, I must be a silent and stealthy ninja; a ninja who does laundry, prepares food, shuttles children to activities, schedules and takes kids to doctor appointments, washes dishes, bathes babies, changes diapers, reads and sings with kids, teaches them, sacrifices sleep, enforces rules, oversees homework, and does so many other things on a regular basis.

If you need me, I'll be covertly doing my job.

A Walk in the Park

Our Marriage is an Adult

We celebrated our 18th family birthday (code for wedding anniversary) yesterday. The kids were really excited about it and had been counting down all week. We followed the tradition we started last year and had each member of the family pick a food for part of our meal. Last year we had a bizarre combination of foods. This year it all went together pretty well.

The raspberry pie at the end did get a little messy though.

Happy birthday to our family!

Airy Goodness

A few days ago Cooper decided he was going to make an orange chocolate souffle. No, I don't know why. He spent most of the afternoon working on it. He grated chocolate and orange peels. He whipped egg whites into stiff peaks. He learned the difference between stirring and folding. And he really enjoyed the result of his labors.