Pinewood Derby 2011

Here’s the shiny Pinewood Derby track from last night. I filled in for our Cubmaster at this Pack Meeting. We did the cheese grater cheer, the race car cheer, the rocket cheer, and the big canary cheer. These photos were taken by Phillip Flores, one of our den leaders.

Here is Timothy with his awesome car. He has a Lego man inside.

Richard’s computer program kept track of race times and generated the order of races. We projected the race stats from the computer to a big screen. It was very cool.

Trying to contain his delight…

This boy won 4th place!

He earned his Bobcat, too!

A Few Thoughts

Richard took the boys hiking yesterday and then spent time with Timothy working on his pinewood derby car and with Daniel working on a computer programming lesson. What a man.

With all the time I had without family yesterday I cleaned the house and then read a book. I haven’t read Anne of Green Gables in years. Reading it now that I have a teenage girl of my own puts a new dimension on the words and feelings of Marilla and Matthew. I think I cried seven times.

My Sunday plans include more time reading and attaching stamps to a stack of letters and notes that have been accumulating for two weeks. I love sending and receiving letters.

I am no longer teaching the 3 and 4 year olds at church. I will never forget them, but they have already forgotten me.

Paige played music from the Phantom of the Opera on the piano all morning. What a nice thing to have children who can play the piano.

I’ve lost them

I see myself trying to live life in every direction. This gets me in trouble because it makes me a little skatter-brained.

I get so frustrated by my own ignorance, especially when I know I have learned something before and forgotten it. I’m always reading and writing to try and fight my own ignorance… or dementia.

“Enthalpy or Entropy?” I asked myself  when I opened my messy kitchen drawer this afternoon. By the way, a real science teacher would never have to ask herself this question.

Richard overheard me. (I guess I wasn’t asking in my head.) With a swagger (the kind you can put together while sitting in a chair,) he effortlessly said, “Entropy.”

If I lost you in the above paragraphs, please don’t be concerned. Let’s just pretend it didn’t happen. I’m brilliant. I’m together. And my kitchen drawer is not a mess.

Back to the beginning. You know, about living life in every direction. I feel driven to know more. So much of my life is neglected, but I read books with heft…whilst teaching, eating, and writing this nonsense on the blog.

Today I misplaced 8 pages of notes I have taken from my reading of the latest smartypants book. I lost the notes in one of the following places:

1. The dentist (45 minutes away)

2. Michael’s craft store

3. McDonald’s drive up (My, this is a confession tonight.)

4. Library drop-box

5. Somewhere in the van

I would really like to find the notes in the van, but it isn’t happening.

It could be dementia. I need to do some more crossword puzzles. Do you know that tonight one of the missionaries we invited over for dinner asked if I had a SON in the MTC? That would make me, well, a little bit older than I actually am. Ok, not much older.

It’s 8:30. Time to recharge the hearing aids and give the dentures a good soak!

And whoever sent me a text today giving me a hard time about passwords on my blog,
identify yourself. Just type my middle name if you know me, silly.
You should also know that I have only sent a text about 4 times in my life
and it was only because Ray had cancer. Nothing else can impel me to type with my thumbs.
Respectfully,
-A.R.

Daniel’s Book Recommendations

A few weeks ago I shared a list of book recommendations with someone who was shopping for an 11-year-old. Daniel and Paige came up with this list of current favorites. I thought I’d share it with you.

  • The Mysterious Benedict Society books (3) by Trenton Lee Stewart
  • The Stoneheart Trilogy by Charlie Fletcher
  • Peter and the Starcatchers series (4) by Dave Barry & Ridley Pearson
  • The Lord of the Rings trilogy by JRR Tolkien
  • Dealing with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede
  • The Mirror’s Tale P.W. Catanese
  • The Drift House: The First Voyage by Dale Peck (don’t bother with the second one)
  • The Diamond of Drury Lane by Julia Golding
  • The Companions Quartet books by Julia Golding (Secret of the Sirens, The Gorgon’s Gaze, Mines of the Minotaur, The Chimera’s Curse)
  • Tunnels by Brian Williams and Roderick Gordon
  • Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes

Sweetie

Richard has been going through pictures this week and he asked that I cull oh, about most of them. This one survived the cut because it shows Timothy really enjoying his time on the bumper cars with Daniel and his cousin Ray.

Timothy will jam his tongue into his cheek to suppress a smile if he thinks he is the only one smiling. He’s a soft-spoken sweetheart of a boy. He is very funny when he feels comfortable. I am glad that he has so many cousins whom he calls friends.

Look out, Timothy. I’m coming to hug and kiss you for no reason.

I choose optimism

Richard and I watched a movie called Invictus on Saturday. It was an interesting choice for us. It was about the South African Rugby team and Nelson Mandela’s early presidency. It followed President Mandela’s efforts to unite his country, divided by hatred and mistrust. Mandela devotes a lot of energy furthering the interests of the Rugby team. He saw that this team could help unite his country.

My favorite scene takes place at Mandela’s home and his adult daughter shares her hatred and mistrust for the Afrikaners, as they were the ones who had imprisoned her father. He tells her that it is a selfish thing to look at the world and judge it through the lens of her own pain. In other words, she needed to forgive. She needed to open her mind and heart; she needed to look through a different kind of lens.

A lot of people have been saying what a terrible place Arizona has become. A lot of people want to blame someone for the shooting. An associate of mine is seething in anger towards anyone who listens to conservative talk radio personalities (one in particular). It is unfortunate that this person is choosing to look at the situation solely through the lens of her own pain, distancing herself from people who could be her friends, despite political differences.

I have chosen to not be discouraged about the whole world, based on the horrific shooting on Saturday. Timothy was baptized at the time this horrible event took place. I was surrounded by people who came to support our family. We had neighbors, friends, and ward members all around us. I felt surrounded by love. The day before, a friend listened with patience and understanding to me. The day before this, a friend unselfishly came to our house to watch Mark while the older kids were at piano lessons so Richard and I could go to the play. On Wednesday, I saw parents, my bishop, and many scout leaders join together to help the little Cub Scouts make their pinewood derby cars.

These people do what Christ would do if He were here. They minister to me and my family.

Every day I am surrounded by my children. Their innocence gives me a hopeful perspective on the world. I see that my parenting and love is more powerful than the hatred of the world in their lives. This hope and perspective allows me to see that the Lord still intervenes, helping us to weather the troubles and see the world for its goodness, despite everything else.

See the trailer for Invictus here.