Family Time – Page 38 – Letters from Home

Schroeder

Happy 16th! Now you can take your show on the road! We love you, Daniel.

Let’s look back on a few of the things you did when you were 15.

You learned your first concerto.
You played piano in the musical Les Miserables.
You played cello in your orchestra.
You were a freshman class officer.
You were the Teacher’s Quorum President.
You did really well in school and your AP test.
You learned to play He’s a Pirate on the piano.
You began playing the organ in church.
You went on a high adventure trip to the Grand Tetons.
You learned to drive.
You participated in bell choir.
You joined the ultimate Frisbee team.

You are smart, capable, and a good brother and son.

Show and Tell

We’ve given our hearts to many projects this week. Mark and Richard spent every evening and all day one day working on a pinewood derby car. I once went to a fireside by Noelle Picus-Pace where she talked about coming in 4th place a the Olympics and how you almost want any place but 4th. That’s the situation that Richard and Mark faced last night. Mark didn’t understand how the race was decided, and knowing that he had won all of his races, he thought he had won first place. We tried to explain that it was all about time, but in his mind, he was going to win the grand prize. He was brave, but I watched his heart break when his name wasn’t read. I watched his heart break over and over as he tried to understand what had happened. I know it’s good for kids to learn to cope with disappointment, but it hurts to watch it.

On a lighter note, Timothy played some great baseball this week and he and a partner made a model of an atom. I have never seen students take the electron cloud so literally, but I like it.

And I made quilt squares. I haven’t perfected the art of sewing a “scant” 1/4 inch seam, so 7 of my 9 squares are too small. Surprisingly, I am not too flummoxed about this. I am leaning toward just starting over rather than reworking seven more squares. It’s a good project for me, because the seams are just a few inches and I can step away and come back. Instead of long stretches of time, I have many 15-minute intervals of time in my days. I have a sewing room, so I can walk in and out of my project without having to clean up.

The project room for the rest of the family is the kitchen, and it’s a big mess. Someday I will miss the projects strewn all over the hearth, island, table, and computer desk, but today I am just getting up the courage to face it.

A Day at the Weber

We tubed, we danced, we ate. We played, we talked, we rested. The cousins are growing up together and it’s pretty entertaining. Daniel didn’t have anyone his age to talk to, so he ferried cousins in the canoe and gave scooter pushes. Learning how to interact with people of all ages is an important skill you learn in a family. It was a nice Saturday retreat at the Weber.

Last days of summer

1-DSC_3637 — First day of 7th and 10th grade

1-DSC_3643 — First day of 4th grade. Flip flops are allowed in home school.

1-DSC_3644 — We were not sure we would survive this.

1-DSC_3647 — Mark’s school room looks like this.

1-unnamed — The boys climbed a tree at the company picnic

Milestones at our house mean that you get your picture taken at the front door. We had some big days last week. A 19th birthday, the first days of school, and a piano recital.

Our power was interrupted all day on the last day of summer break. We braced ourselves for the “hardship,” and loaded our cooler with food so we didn’t have to open the refrigerator and we turned off the computers. We cooled off the house in the early morning hours. Then the power went off, and along with it, our internet, phones, and our appliances for 7-8 hours.

We got so much done!

Daniel, Mark and I finished assembling my new bed. I sat down and worked on an important project for four hours, uninterrupted by phone calls, social media notifications, and squabbling over the computer. I couldn’t do laundry or cook, so we ate a simple lunch. Daniel cleaned out his room and we had several conversations. I repeat: we had several conversations. The weather stayed cool, so we were never too warm, and this was important.

Mark read books through the afternoon. I could hear him singing to himself from the hammock outside my window and from his bedroom down the hall. There was no hum from the refrigerator and air conditioner to block out his voice. So I sat, with my boys, my project, and the quiet. This time in our dim house wasn’t a hardship! It was a gift as our summer break came to an end. It was a reminder of how much we miss when we are too connected to our screens. Seven hours of living life unplugged left me feeling happy and connected to my family. What an easy remedy for feeling stressed out, stretched, and disconnected: put down the phone, turn off the screens, gather, work, and talk.

Frontier living

We’re living frontier-style with our bed in the living room while we paint our master bedroom. It’s like Little House on the Prairie here as I awake to find the kids pouring cereal in the kitchen, just feet away from me. Our new foam mattress arrived this week in a very compact box. As we pulled away the plastic, it grew to normal size in half a minute.The mattress on the living room floor is so much nicer than our old mattress that we have made up the bed and go to sleep to the sound of the dishwasher each night.

I took pictures of the “still” times that our family enjoyed this week. Mostly, though, it was all go. The evenings after we finished our activities were precious. One night we pulled out Scrabble. Other nights we walked. For Family Home Evening, we played a version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire that Richard and I made with Book of Mormon trivia questions. One night we entertained my mom and my brother Matt’s family.

I feel like I am coming out of a Relief Society trance. It’s all I have been able to think about or do for the past five weeks. But now that I “know” the visiting teaching routes and I am getting into a schedule of visits and meetings, I can manage my time better. And wow, do I need to do that. I forgot to write Mark’s talk for Primary. I forgot that summer is ending. The boys start school next week. Paige moves out the week after that. What?

We went to the book store and Paige and Daniel didn’t spend much time in the fluffy literature section. I found them camped out in the college prep section. It’s like I saw their childhoods flutter away at that moment. I shook my head and walked back to the children’s section where I could reminisce about the days when we read picture books together. Then I bought myself a coloring book.

Today I’m remembering that it’s the 3rd anniversary of the day I drove the kids to Utah, saying goodbye to our home and friends in Arizona. I miss a few things about Arizona, but I have never regretted moving here. The house projects move at a snail’s pace between errands, but we are getting it done.

Art, Science, Wildflowers & Family

It was a social week for us, with house guests in many corners, a science camp, an art camp, full evenings, and a family reunion. I ate a burrito from Freebirds with Richard and Nancy. Mark and I were stung by wasps and Richard and Daniel came to the rescue, vacuumed them up as they flew around their nest, and sealed up the entrance to their nest beneath our house.

My knowledge and interests have expanded over the years as I have waited in my van for kids at music lessons, school, church activities, and ballet. This week I read a lot at the University of Utah while I waited for Timothy at science camp. My van is almost the only place I could read this week. At this rate, I should finish my book by Christmas. Something I did for myself was attend the New Testament Commentary Conference at BYU on Friday afternoon to hear my friend Julie speak. I stole the photo of Julie from Facebook.

A favorite moment was with Paige and Richard when we took a drive to the Albion basin to see the wildflowers. At sunset, a bull moose emerged between the trees. Its long legs made its leisurely walk as fast as our truck as we moved along the road trying to get a blurry photo. That evening I saw flowers; Richard saw the slopes he normally visits on his skis. We wove two separate themes as we talked. “Oh, look at that shade of pink…and those purple flowers! I’m dying.” To which he replied, “I can’t believe I ski over all of those boulders!” spoken with an equal sense of wonder.

Another adventure we had was weeding and planting carrots at the Church garden. The missionary in charge of the carrots kept handing us carrots for breakfast. Not wanting to hurt his feelings, we rinsed them with our dirty hands in the sprinklers and munched as we weeded. “They taste like carrots,” Richard said. We spent two hours with our whole family, working and laughing together, so I was happy.

The kids enjoyed time with 20 cousins this week, bouncing, splashing, and running. Ours is a family with cousins in perpetual motion. In the kids’ cubbies at Spring Lake, we found notes that Grandma had encouraged the Sanchez cousins to write to one another. Here are a few:

Dear Paige, I love you.

Dear Mortiky, Hi, I’m David. I love you!

To Timothy [puppy drawing] signed DAVID

A top secret note from Hogwarts School, sealed for Mark

Dear Paige, I love you. You’re my buddiey.

Dear Daniel, I painted you a picture. You’re welcome. <3 Paige

We watched the most lingering sunset ever on Saturday night. As the late summer evening darkened, the Payson temple began to glow. Watching this heavenly Changing of the Guard in silence, the light source changing from sun to temple, fed my soul.

Newport Beach

Are you in the mood to look at beach pictures?These triennial beach trips have become important markers for the progress of our family. Mark was a newborn and produced his first smile on the first beach trip we made with Richard’s family. Over the years, Paige towered over her brothers in height, until suddenly she didn’t. This is the last family vacation before she leaves home. When we go again, Daniel might be on a mission. The early beach trips with Mark kept me in the waves, holding him tightly because he loved the rush and pull of the water. This year he spent most of his beach time in the water, not needing my hand, and not caring how far the water carried him down the beach from the group. I watched him with squinty eyes from a distance, his jaunty walk and hop over the waves matching the imprint I have of him in my mind. Courage and skill have grown in all of the children. Interest in sand castle building has remained a constant, whether their legs are short or long, and whether they own a cell phone or not. I like constants like that. Some years we can find sand crabs. Timothy’s area of interest is always the wildlife. This year the treasure was sand dollars and on the final night, a tiny octopus in the tide pools. The boys are lucky to have cousins that match their ages and interests, and these cousins gathered for card games, baseball, amusement park rides, and electronics. Richard and his brothers always make me smile when they joke around together, which is almost all the time, except when they are working on a computer issue or shopping for something online. Then things get very, very serious indeed.

Walking on sand with a broken toe is a bad, bad idea, so I didn’t do a lot of that. I sat on the deck and looked out over the palm trees, stitched hair on a doll, and thought about Relief Society. On the days that I ventured to the beach, I spent the whole afternoon there to avoid having to walk back and forth over the sand. I’m normally pretty terrible at doing nothing, but sometimes it’s good to be still.

Here we go

Hello, July! We’re off on adventures, every one of us. Richard and the boys’ adventures are the outdoorsy type. Paige’s adventures are of the summer job and preparing for college type. I broke my first bone and was called to be the Relief Society President last week. I found myself saying this over and over as we faced new things, “Here we go…” (kind of like what you say before you jump off the high dive or speak before a crowd) and so far the shock and adrenaline have been great helps. So has my family. Paige and Daniel cooked while I had to rest with my foot elevated. My sister Susan came and sat with me on the day I was so nervous that I was sick to my stomach.

Independence Day is a blur to me, but according to the camera, we had tank wars with my sister’s family. Instead of focusing on the fireworks, my mind dreaded that moment when my name would be read in church the next day and that title would be added to my name and all kinds of expectations and associations over which I have no control would descend on me. It felt heavy, and made me feel a little solemn. I know that many women don’t know me at church because I have been working with the Young Women since we moved here.

Despite the initial shock and nervousness, I feel like I am coming to the calling of Relief Society President with a full lamp. I feel prepared; not fully capable, but strong in my testimony and at peace with the life I have been given, including some challenges and heartache. I know I will have lots of help from many people and God’s grace will carry me. Also, I love serving in Relief Society. I love visiting people and connecting with others on a deep level. I love teaching. So the calling, while heavy, is also a gift; Heavenly Father has said, “Here you go,” and I am glad.

Escape

2008 feels like it wasn't really 7 years ago. — 2008 feels like it wasn’t really 7 years ago.

We made our escape to the cabin on the Smith and Morehouse river for twenty-four hours to inaugurate summer. Somehow almost all I did was sleep in the warm sun coming through the windows of the porch bed, my book open but unread, my doll ready to sew, but untouched. We took a hike Monday morning up the mountain. Later I took a stroll down the tree covered lane to the family cabin and felt my memories whispering inside of me. I felt an ache for family members who are gone and a sadness that the flowers continue to bloom without them. The summers of my childhood played again in my mind as I moved among the trees and flowers at the ranch. As the breeze brushed past, so did the memories; the feelings they invoked so tangible that they tugged my heart until it hurt. Glorious stuff.

Our plans this summer allow for a lot more time in the woods, plus some time jumping in the waves. My computer is not working and I type this post with my thumbs and forefingers on my phone. I am taking it as a sign that I should take a break from the blog for a while. I go through times when I feel foolish for needing to write an insignificant blog. I’m having one of those times. Plus, the clutter in my house needs some attention. Does anyone want about 1/3 of our stuff?

I hope you know that I appreciate you stopping by. Thank you!

-A