Fifth Grade Field Trip

Cute kids.

Squishy school bus.

Happy to hike. (Hiking makes me hungry!)

Breathtaking views.

Heart-stopping drop-offs.




Lots to learn.

Making memories with Emily.

P.S. I live right there. I know. I'm lucky.

Visibility

In one of my favorite college courses, I was introduced to the idea of "invisible work": The work we do that is only noticed by others when it doesn't get finished. An example might be dusting. No one really thinks about the fact that you've stayed caught up with the dusting; but if you neglect the dusting, people notice that.

Much of what I do on a daily basis might be considered "invisible work".

Just a few weeks ago, at the end of a frustrating day, everyone in my house (including myself)was noticing what still needed to be done.
The next day, I set out with renewed determination to get on top of things, and I felt like I had gained a lot of ground. At dinner (which I had worked to prepare, by the way), Doug asked me how my day was. My short answer was, "Busy," and he came back with, "Oh really? What did you do?"
I'll admit, that was a little bit disheartening. I know he didn't mean it the way I interpreted it, but it stung just a little bit.

Last week, however, I realized that there is one duty of mine that is not invisible. It doesn't get undone the minute I finish doing it, like so much of my work around the house does. And it is satisfying both to me and to my family.

It is shopping.

After a morning run to Target, my kitchen island gained the company of three barstools. As soon as the family entered the house, one by one, this is what I heard: "Sweet!" "Awesome! Thanks Mom!" "Hey, you got some stools. That looks good." Truly, each of them commented within 60 seconds of entering the house.

I find personal satisfaction in a clean bathroom or a mopped floor, but it also pains me to see my work undone, carelessly and with great haste, in those areas. I've got to tell you, I enjoy a little praise once in a while. And if it takes a bit of shopping to pry a few compliments out of my family...I guess that's just what I'll have to do!

Winning in the Wind

Lauren is playing her first season of soccer, and it has been discovered that she is a really great goalie! She's fearless and quick.

Friday evening, the wind tried diligently, but couldn't knock her off her game.

I love watching my kids' sports.

In fact, their games are much more thrilling than was the BYU football game I watched from the stands last Saturday. (What a bummer!)

How Does My Garden Grow?

Let's just ask Mr. Tomato Head:

His smile says it all.

Tomatoes, despite their close company with the weeds, have been very content and good producers. I planted too many, since I'm the only one in the family who likes to pop them in my mouth like candy.

Next year: One cherry tomato plant is more than enough. Make salsa.

Peas: weren't too plentiful, nor did they persevere. June was too cold and rainy, and July scorched them.

Next year: Plant more peas, and pray for a warmer spring.

Green beans: did alright, but I need to be better at picking them before they get too large and tough.

Next year: Plant the same, pick more often.

Squash: Zucchini must have gotten cross-bred with something, because half the plant produced large albino zucchinis. Anyway, zucchini is not so good for me, since mostly we either fry it or bake it in sweet breads. Yellow squash, I've decided, is not that good.

Next year: Try one plant of zucchini again, because I love to bake; but instead of yellow squash, plant spaghetti squash and acorn squash and pumpkins.

Cucumbers: Kept me guessing. I was always surprised to find a couple of good sized cukes on the vine, because I never noticed them until they were ready to pick and eat. Yummy.

Next year: Plant more cukes.

Watermelon: One vine produced two little melons, which grew to about softball size. I expected them to grow bigger, and by the time I tried one of them, it was overly ripe. The other got mushy on the vine. I don't know how to pick a watermelon from the vine, but I'm pretty good at picking them from the grocery store.

Next year: Give watermelon another shot.

Beets: I didn't give them the attention they deserved. They never got thinned, and they never really got picked or cooked.

Next year: Leave the beets alone, and let them be a treat for dinners at Grandma's house.

Jalapeno peppers: This little plant wins "MVP" of my garden. I picked it up on a whim, threw it in the garden box, and it just did its thing. It produced so well! I've made a couple of batches of jalapeno jelly, and I've still got enough peppers to make at least one more batch. I'll be smiling when I think of this little plant all winter long, as that jelly warms me up a bit. Yum.

Next year: Continue the tradition, and give this little guy some friends of the "bell" variety.

Four mature fruit trees came with this house, and we discovered that there were two varieties of peaches, and two varieties of apples.

Next year: Prune the fruit trees. And try to figure out how to keep the wasps away from my peaches!

With all our garden space, one thing is seriously lacking: Berries! I've already planted a strawberry patch, and I hope it will give me a little sneak peek of its bounty next spring. I want to plant raspberries and blueberries (do they grow well here?) as well. Lots of berries.

How did your garden grow?

I Love

• Sleeping with the windows open and the ceiling fan set on low speed.
• How my big girl Katelyn gets ready for school independently and walks to and from with a great group of neighborhood buddies, and how she still likes to talk to me about her social life.

• Buying piano music at the thrift store.
• Mowing the lawn.
• Garbage Pick-up Day.
• How my baby Olivia crosses her ankles while she eats.


• The weekend dawning.

Celebrity Sighting

Saturday night, 9:30 p.m., Abigail Breslin was having dinner at Olive Garden. She sat at an open-seating table near the bar. (O.G. was our second attempt at getting dinner at that late hour. Our first choice had a 55 minute wait, for a table for two! So when O.G. told us it would be 20 minutes to wait to be seated, or we could seat ourselves in the bar room, I had no problem with that option. But here's a question...what's the point when the restaurant doesn't use the open tables near the bar to seat waiting guests? It's not an age issue, because Abigail wasn't the only child in that room.)

Anyway, if you're interested to know, Abigail is joining a short list of my celebrity spottings. The first one I can recall was seeing Hulk Hogan in the SLC airport when I was a young teenager, and I thought it was curious that he was flanked by bodyguards. I mean, who would he possibly encounter that he couldn't handle on his own?!

Thwarted

This morning as I helped Hannah get dressed and make her bed, I thought about what I could do to make life more lovely and enjoyable for my family. How to find beauty and pleasure in the mundane.

And then it came to my attention that Olivia was splattering pink nail polish all over the bathroom cupboards, floor, base boards, and wall.

And that was that.

Not Yet

This is how I feel about Summer:

And, even though I do enjoy the Fall, I'm never ready for summer to end.

It doesn't help that every September I catch a cold! It may be the most predictable thing about my life these days!

Em

My Emily and I have something in common: we both love to cook. So many of our classic Emily moments, which have gone down in our family history, have been food-related, starting at a very young age.

She used to horde food in her cheeks, like a squirrel, when she was really little. Especially fruit snacks. Oh my goodness, she loved fruit snacks! (In fact, she loved them so much I had to stop buying them for a while, because she couldn't get her mind off of them if they were in the pantry.) Emily instigated mischief with a bin of flour and her sister Katelyn when they were just toddlers. She painted the bathroom door with a chocolate ice cream cone. She sang a song about broccoli: "I know that broccoli is a special word for tree...doo a diddy diddy dum diddy dee...." And she ate it. She eats just about anything, and usually likes it. She likes the foods her sisters refuse, but she also appreciates the sweet stuff.

For her classroom treat today, she requested donuts. That's my girl!

A few weeks ago, she browsed through a cookbook and picked this recipe for lemon bars.

I have never made lemon bars before. Honestly, sometimes I like them, and sometimes I don't. They have to be baked just right. Well, Emily baked them just right. They were so tasty! I was so impressed.

Emily tends to do that. She impresses me, takes me by surprise, and makes me realize how I've underestimated her.

Happy Birthday to my Emily.

Part 4 - The End

Sunday was a reflective day for me. We went to the church I attended 15 years ago (even though it meant we missed most of the yummy breakfast our hostess made), and without children the hour went by very quickly! Saw a few familiar faces.

Then it was time to check out of our B&B. Before we left the property, though, we had to check out the wolf sanctuary, just down the path from the mansion we slept in. As it turns out, some wolves are pretty and others, not so.

From there we drove past the home I lived in during my senior year of high school. It's such a pretty house, and a really nice neighborhood.

We drove by my old high school, too, which has been added onto and changed so much that I hardly recognized it.

Hail, Manheim Township High! (I used to know the Alma Mater, but that first line is all I can recall.) Of course, we can't mention my high school without Doug teasing me about the mascot: "I can't remember, were you the brown streaks or the blue darts?" It was a BLUESTREAK, actually, as in lightning. Yes, lame, I know.

On the contrary, this sandwich place was not lame at all.


Lunch there was as good as I remembered. All their sandwiches are named after different birds.

By the time we finished lunch ("finished lunch" meaning topped off our sandwich, soup, and salad with a nice big piece of chocolate cake with raspberry sauce) it was time to head to the airport. It was supposed to be about a ninety minute drive. "Betty", our faithful navigational assistant, got us there in 89.5, but it wasn't easy!
We had to laugh during this weekend trip at some of Betty's "short-cuts". After twisting and turning our way along country roads and through residential neighborhoods, Doug finally asked me if that was the way we used to get to the airport 15 years ago. Um, no! But anyway, she did get me to the airport eventually. Ahh, Betty! Confused with you, but lost without you!


During my flight, I was feeling anxious to get home to my children...but that's not to say I'm not already looking forward to my next weekend getaway (whenever it may be) with Doug.

Second (or subsequent) honeymoons: I highly recommend. :)

Part 3 - Pennsylvania

When I was seventeen, my dad took a new job and moved our family from California to Pennsylvania. It was a big change, and it was the beginning of my senior year of high school. One year later, I went away to college, and then the following summer my family moved from Pennsylvania to Utah. So the last time I visited Pennsylvania was when Doug and I were engaged. This picture is from July 1995. We missed the covered bridge (aka "kissing bridge") tour this time.

Since I only spent one year in PA, and fifteen years have since passed, there wasn't a whole lot that seemed very familiar to me. But when we drove past this lake as we approached our Bed & Breakfast on Saturday afternoon,

I immediately remembered picnicking there with friends, back in '93.


But I never knew "Speedwell Forge B&B" was right around the corner until I Googled B&B's in the area, a few weeks ago.



After staying there, I realize that it does feel like it's hidden from everyone and everything around it. I loved this place. We didn't spend much time there, but it could have very well been a destination in itself. It's situated on several acres of quiet, wooded land.



This was the key to our room,

which was the perfect mesh of antique, clean, and updated.



Speedwell Forge would be a great escape, if you just want to relax, read, and remove yourself from the cares of normal life.

But let's face it, this entire county could be described as an escape from "normal life." The Amish lifestyle is anything but modern or bustling. We visited a couple of touristy areas, but my favorite way to see the Amish country is just to drive around without a destination.


It was a bonus to drive around with Clark (Doug's brother), Liesel, and little Maybree in the back seat! They were flexible enough to make the quick day trip from Maryland to explore the Amish culture with us.
It wasn't the highest quality dining, but we agreed that we had to experience the family style local cuisine for dinner.

Honestly, I kind of liked the Chow Chow and the Hamloaf. Go figure.

At dusk we got to see the fireflies show off in a nearby corn field. It was a peaceful ending to the day, and such a contrast from the big city lights of the previous night.

Part 2 - Saturday in the City

We woke up (thankful to have slept in a real bed for that night!) and headed back on foot into the city. It was, of course, still raining, harder than it had been the previous day.

First stop: Grand Central Terminal.

Many people, books, and websites suggest this as an important stop. I don't think first thing Saturday morning is the most exciting time to see it, however. It was a nice building, and it's thought-provoking just to imagine thousands of people coming and going through that terminal every day. In the lower level food court, Doug and I picked up some breakfast. We had a chocolate croissant and a delicious toasted "Jewish" bagel with herbed cream cheese and fresh tomato, served to us by a dark-skinned French-speaking smiling man. Doug found several opportunities to use his French language skills in New York City, and in those times I just smile and nod. I could tell that this particular man was asking Doug if I speak French as well. I followed along well enough to shake my head at that! He told Doug that I should learn. Maybe he's right.

After breakfast we headed towards Rockefeller Center. When we saw the American Girl doll store across the street, I just had to go in (and drag Doug along with me). That was one of several moments when I missed my girls! They would go gaga in that place. Even I went a little gaga, and took lots of pictures.

Rockefeller Center was familiar and unimpressive. It's more fun when it's winter time and it's decorated festively and couples are ice skating.

We pushed on towards Central Park. Even though we knew it was an expensive touristy thing to do, we wanted to take a carriage ride. Actually, that was second to rowing a boat in one of the little lakes in the park, but the rain encouraged option #2, since this carriage would give us a little bit of shelter.

Next time I'm in NYC, I would like to explore more of this park. It is huge!

We had also considered going to the Manhattan Temple, which would have been a good rainy day activity...except that it was closed for maintenance. Another item still on our "To Do in NYC" list: museums. We didn't make it to any of those.

But by 11:00 Saturday morning, something (was it our rain-soaked clothing, or the horse-drawn carriages around us?) urged us on towards our next destination: Pennsylvania. We took a cab back to our hotel (this driver was the craziest! Maybe he feels the need for speed when Saturday morning offers a break from the usual gridlock of weekday traffic.) and checked out--out of our hotel room, and out of the city. We went from this shiny metal crowded hodgepodge big city, to quiet slow-paced rolling-hills natural beauty Amish territory: Lancaster County.