Peter: Week 9 in Pictures

Peter: Week 8 in Pictures

Peter: Week 7 in Pictures

 

This is the only picture he shared from last week. Well, there was one other, but it was of street names, so I'm not going to post that here.

And with that we're caught up!

Peter: Week 6 in Pictures

Called, Again

Tonight something happened that Peter has been hoping for ever since he got his mission call in September.

He switched from a service mission to a teaching mission.

We got the word a few weeks ago that his request to transfer had been approved. We've spent the time since then trying to get him ready. Many errands were run today gathering all the needed items.

And then we drove him down to the mission home this evening and dropped him off.

There were tears, at least from those that were in the van as we drove away.

It was a mixture of happy and sad tears, but mostly joyful.

Welcome to Pennsylvania

My Aunt Carolyn came to visit last week and we had a wonderful whirlwind of adventures. The first day we chatted a lot and she rested after coming in on a red eye. Thanks go to Topher for picking up my phone and taking this picture.

The next day we toured the Martin Guitar factory. I took very few pictures, but here's a little proof we were there.

On Wednesday we trekked up to the Priesthood Restoration Site. It was soooooo cold and light snow fell a few times while we toured the homes of Joseph and Emma Smith and Emma's parents. Sophie reminded me that we had hand warmers in the car, so I ran to the parking lot and grabbed a handful as the tour took off without me. I caught up and quickly handed out our expired, but still functional, warmers. I was thankful that we had this small blanket in the van. We turned it into a hood for Topher.

One highlight was running into one of the sister missionaries that served in our ward last year. She was visiting her old mission with her parents. We had planned to be there an hour earlier, but were running late. If we'd come when we planned, we would have missed her. I think our tardiness was a tender mercy.

On Thursday we drove into Philadelphia and attended the Temple. Then we met up with Aunt Carolyn's friend and walked to eat at the Reading Terminal Market and then see several historical sites. We saw Benjamin Franklin's grave, the first Quaker church in the US, Christ Church (and George Washington's pew), and the Great Essentials (the US Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the Articles of Confederation) in the West Wing of Independence Hall.

Bryan took on all of the dinner responsibilities and kept us well fed. It was great not having to worry about that.

Our Own Zoo, Almost

This picture doesn't do justice to how huge this bird is. We watched him chill for a while on the wire across the street behind our house. Based on our quick Google search, we think it's an osprey. It's amazing to me how much wildlife we've seen from our own backyard.

Soak Up the Sun

Last week the afternoons warmed up to the high sixties and low seventies! For early November that's glorious! We took advantage of it by going on walks after naptime and playing outside for several hours on Saturday. It's supposed to rain most of next week, so I'm extra thankful that we enjoyed the beautiful weather.

Closing Time

We made it to the end of the school year.

Cue my audible sigh of relief.

I thought about taking our last day of school picture in pajamas as a nod to doing school at home, but the reality is that we got dressed in daytime clothes almost everyday, so I figured a pj picture would be inauthentic. And since the snake may still be living in the bush by our front door (though we didn't see it yesterday!), I decided to move our traditional front porch pose down the sidewalk a bit.

Cool to be Kind

We've had several neighbors here in our development that relocated from Turkey. I try to introduce myself whenever a new family moves in and then I say hello when I see them outside. That's the relationship that I developed with the Turkish family that lived two doors down from us. I would say hello and smile, I would offer (and be politely refused) several rides home in the rain to their school-aged son, and that was about it.

A few weeks ago I noticed a moving van outside of their house. When I left to get the girls from the bus one of our neighbors was out. We had a brief chat and I learned they were moving to a house just a few minutes away. I said something about what lovely homes were in that area and wished them well.

On Sunday after church our doorbell rang. I opened the door to see this family, the father (with whom most of my interactions took place), the aforementioned son, an older son, and the rarely seen mother. They handed me a gift bag and said that they would miss us as neighbors.

I thanked them for the treat, a box of Turkish baklava, and again wished them well. Then I came inside and read the note. Here's what it said:

Dear neighbor,

Before moving to our new house, it was important to my family to let you know how much we enjoyed having you as neighbors for the last three years. If we were ever a burden, we sincerely apologize. Despite not always speaking the same language, we will always look back on our visits with you with a smile. We hope our new neighbors share your kindness and caring spirit. Please enjoy the Baklava from our home country of Turkey. We wish you nothing but the best for you and your family.

Then they signed it and included their phone number.

I was shocked. All I had done was smile and say hello when we both happened to be outside. I had no idea those small gestures had such a big impact. Perhaps this is cultural. The other Turkish neighbors we've had have also been gracious and generous. But we suspect that maybe not everyone gave them such a friendly reception.

Kindness is important, even when we don't realize it.

Choose to be kind.

Old Dog, New Tricks

Part of the reason I was willing to let Peter go tubing this week was that I went tubing for the first time just a few weeks ago. That's right, this thirty-nine year old faced some pretty serious fears and joined in for a friend's birthday celebration.

I wasn't going to go at first. It would take me away during bedtime and it sounded dangerous and I was feeling anxious about the whole thing. Bryan encouraged me to at least go and be social, even if I didn't actually slide down any mountains. I begrudgingly agreed.

I didn't tell the kids what I was doing until I was about to walk out the door. Then there were tears and pleas for me to be safe. The last thing Phoebe said to me as I walked out the door was, "I love you Mommy, please don't die."

This was our adventurous group. The birthday girl is in the orange jacket. Two of us had never done this before, but I think I was the most vocally apprehensive about it, though I did try to come off as funny instead of just terrified. Fun fact: I knew two of these women while I was at BYU as a student. BYU makes the world a smaller place.

Behold, the slope.

I look happy, right? Not like I'm about to do something that scares me to the point of a mild panic attack, yeah? That my friends, is proof that I'm a good actress.

We were all bundled. I wore a base layer, regular clothes, snow pants and a sweatshirt, a scarf, a warm jacket, ear muffs, a hat, two pairs of gloves, cozy socks, and sturdy snow boots. And it was a warm-ish evening, somewhere in the high 40s, which isn't too bad for January in Pennsylvania.

I'm the one in the picture close to the camera, but turning away. For most runs we hooked our tubes together and slid down tandem in groups of two, three, or four. This upped the velocity significantly, but I opted for that rather than a solo flight. There was one run where all but two of us went alone. The chance of spinning while speeding down the hill increased dramatically when not hooked to another tube, and that didn't appeal to me.

I did not know this picture was being taken. Once we got to the bottom of the hill we would carry our tubes to a moving walkway and ride it back up to the top. Except for when it was turned off, then we carried our tubes and huffed and puffed back up the hill.

And those are my legs and feet. When it was almost time to go down the hill I would plant myself and hold on tight to the tube, ready. I didn't want to be caught off-guard, especially since I would be pulled down by the tubes I was attached to.

After the tubing we got pizza and sang happy birthday and laughed until we couldn't breathe. The talking was the best part of the night. It is a blessing to have friends to go and have this kind of crazy adventure with. I carpooled up and back and didn't get home until after midnight.

The next morning the kids asked how it was. I told them I was glad that I went because it was wonderful spending time with friends. Then they asked about the actual tubing. I told them that it was terrifying on every single run. As we started down the hill I would have thoughts like, "I really like my teeth, I hope they stay in my head" and "I am a mother! I have children depending on me! What am I doing?! This is insanity!" It wasn't until the last run that some of those anxious feelings started to fade a little.

That said, I'm glad I went. I need people and since I have made the choice to stay at home with kids, I don't have that many chances to be around people. Talking and laughing and listening filled my soul. And it's nice to know that during the year of my fortieth birthday I can still be adventurous and do new things that scare me.

Corny

I'm still serving as a cub scout leader and Saturday was our September pack meeting. We visited a corn maze. I took Cooper, Phoebe, and Sophie and left Topher and Peter at home with Bryan. I had no desire to push a stroller or chase a toddler through a muddy field/maze and Bryan was thankful for a reason to stay home.

I spent my time inside keeping track of children (my own and the scouts) and didn't take pictures. When we were done, the kids posed themselves and asked me to take their picture. Sure, I could handle that.

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.