Nothing Grand Here-- Just Us Doing Our Thing

 Today was a fifth Sunday. That means no meetings. It was so great. I took my time waking up. We took our time in the morning getting ready and went to church together. It was so nice. Gaupo probably didn't love it quite as much because I got the Lego's out which in our house just means the kids need a lot of help. Some families love Lego's and their kids just build and build and play, but not here. It takes some work and it doesn't last, but I still love to get them out because my kids do some good thinking and it brings back good memories for me. Anyway, having a meeting less Sunday made it feel like this is what I could do right now. There are honestly quite a few things that I could do instead like make an agenda for my presidency meeting, make some phone calls and texts about ideas I have, or make some food, but really I just want to revel in the quiet moment.

Quiet is not something our house is good at. I thought that once the big girls went back to school that I would have so much more quiet time, but I don't. At least not as much as I would like. I only love quiet because so much of my life is noisy. We always have chatter, laughter, yelling, screaming, music, talking, and what not going on it seems like, but I love it because I want a home where people live and do. Anyway, I don't have as much quiet time as was originally planned because the last week of summer Tia and Kylee taught Abby how to get out of the baby bed where she was taking naps (in order to keep her away from Kade) AND how to open the baby gate which kept Kade where he could sleep. So, now I get to do my scripture study at the top of the stairs until Kade is asleep. Gratefully Abby leaves him alone once he is asleep and then she usually falls asleep too, but when they party they party and they will not sleep if they can help it. The other reason 'my' time is shorter is because I have a bad habit of playing to long and letting lunch last a little long. So, the twins are down for a nap late. However, I love this time of year when it is warm, but not hot and playing at the park and riding bikes is fun. We take forever to get home from taking the kids to school because we play along the way and I usually talk to someone. I love it. I really do. I love seeing people. I love that my kids can run, jump, climb, and bike. I love that the twins are 2. For me it is a magic year, because nobody expects anything of two year olds. They don't expect them to know numbers or letters. They don't expect them to sit still. They just expect them to be kids and it is so freeing because I love letting kids be kids. I love just going with the flow and playing. Being with the twins is really fun. I am glad we get the chance to be together even if it maybe for only a short time.

The girls are in school, and there school days sound like they are going well. For the first time ever, I hear a ton from Kylee about school and not so much from Tia. I wish I got to hear lots from both, but hey at least I get some. Kylee has her first boy teacher and is loving it. I don't know about his teaching, but he sounds like a pretty funny teacher. Tia's teacher is a really good teacher, but not so openly funny and silly, so that is probably why I don't hear as much. After school, is still a little bit hard. Tia pretty much just has reading for 20min. I think she will get homework later, but hasn't gotten much yet which is totally fine with me. However, Kylee has reading, homework, and piano practicing, so she feels pretty jipped in the amount of time she has to play. It makes for some hairy days after school, but she has made a goal to not go to summer school, so she has work to do this year. With the start of school we also started gymnastics. I found an affordable play to do it and so they are both loving that. Kylee really wanted to do it and for the first time in a long time I limited Tia's choices and did what Kylee wanted. They both really like it though and even though we have to rush right from school to there we are done by 5 so it is totally worth it. I love that Kylee is getting to do something she has heard about and wants to do and I love that Tia is using her strength in a focused way. 

Guapo is working at the library. They were going to open up to full hours but with the new strains of Corona developing they might not open to full hours just yet. Its great because he wont work any nights or weekends, but its a big thing for the library to be open so people can use it. I know we have loved be able to go in again and pick our books, watch the train, and see our dad at work. He is busy at work though and still seems to really like it.

Me, I keep our show rolling. Sometimes maybe not as a well as others, but that's okay, I think. My house isn't very tidy most days because for the first time in 4 kids I have kids that play with toys and so they are always out and I don't always get around to getting them picked up. Sometimes it isn't very clean because when I clean I want to be left alone and that doesn't happen very much, so I just play with them instead. Its okay. One day I will probably have more time than I want for that kind of stuff. But when I am not being a mom and often times while I am being a mom I do young women's stuff. Its been kind of hard lately and I think its because I was believing that the young women did't like me. Now I don't know if its true or not because they haven't told me and neither have their parents, so I need to stop thinking that way. They don't have a reason not to like me and if they think they do its because they don't know me. I care a lot about them and that just might be the problem. I discovered this 'problem' of mine yesterday as I was listening to a podcast a friend referred me to and so I don't know if it will make this week better, but I have decided to give it a shot. Try to let of the lie that the young women don't like me, and instead try to get to know them and not be afraid of them. I am not afraid of them per say just more afraid of making things awkward and uncomfortable, but I got to get over that too. I am sure they will let me know on that account. Anyway, yw is teaching me a lot. I hope the yw learn about their Savior as much as I am.

I know the Lord love my family and these young women. He continually works in small and simple ways to bless their lives. He gives me patience when I feel I have no more. He answers hurriedly offred pleading prayers. He provides me with strength and love and testimony as I read the scriptures. He gives me courage and hope when I just want to give up and not do hard things. I am blessed and watched over, and I can do hard things as I continually lean on the Lord and those He gave me to lift and help me.

Summer Nutshell

 We have exactly two weeks of summer left and I am so glad to have 2 weeks. Every time I have finished up one thing, I have felt like school would be starting, but nope we still have summer. I am loving it. We kicked off our summer in Swanlake. We spent almost 10 days there. It started off with a huge Merrill Family Reunion. All of Grandpa's brother's and sisters and their kids came. We played on the pond, ate food, and visited. It was so fun, but also kind of exhausting. We were glad to have the farm to ourselves once everyone left. We enjoyed the pond, four-wheeler rides, cousins, and Grandma and Grandpa. It was really fun. 

After our visit to Idaho we came home to take on Summer School. I swore a couple of years ago I would never do it again, but it was the right thing to do this year, so we did it and the kids loved it. Kylee came home happy almost every day. There was no homework, so we just did reading and then played. Plus, it is summer so we stayed up a little later. My favorite part was them riding the bus with kid from our neighborhood. We don't get to do that since we don't go to our home school, but it was a great opportunity. I asked Kylee what the difference between school and summer school was and she said it is that the kids ask her to play with them. I think school is a little less intense too, but what she mentioned is friends. She has mentioned trying to be a little more outgoing this school year so we will see if she does.

During the last week of summer school I had girls camp. It was a day camp in Lyons. I just went one day, so we wouldn't have too many leaders involved. It was good to be with all my Young Women to see them interact and play. I learned a few things about myself and the girls. I was grateful Gaupo could stay home so that I could go.

On the last day of summer school, we took off for Idaho again. We went to the Brady family reunion. It was regular style this year so 2 days 1 night. My big job was the float. It was a big job, but I think people had fun helping and the teens had fun riding on it. I had fun riding on it and I learned what family means for me. My cousin Colten summed it up when he said, "I can be silly here, because these guys know and will love me anyway." Family is somewhere you don't have to pretend you can just be what you are. Sometimes you have it together and sometimes you don't and family loves you anyway. Reunion is always tiring, yet too short. However, it was very fun and I think everyone had a good time. 

After reunion we went directly to Arizona. Gaupo drove my parents car to Colorado and my parents and I drove our van to AZ. We broke it into two days, but it was still a long drive. However, the kids were troopers and did really pretty well. My Arizona vacation was probably one of the most relaxing it has been in a couple of years. The twins loved kicking around the pool in their puddle jumpers, so I wasn't constantly hanging onto two babies. The girls had fun play sharks and minnows, doing handstands, jumping in and Kylee learned how to do underwater flips from Betty. We swam at least once a day for and hour and a half. We saw all of our Arizona cousins. We got some time with just Oma and Papa. The kids adjusted pretty well to the time diffidence. We just lived there and had a great time. They also had a pretty good monsoon season and so that was fun to see all the rain. One time, Uncle Seth helped us catch tadpoles in various stages and we watched them grow over the following week. We had Betty stay a week with us by herself. We watched TV and had some special treats. It was a great 3 weeks.

Now we are home. I just finished a 3 day 2 night youth conference. I almost cried when it was over just from relief it was over. It had a huge service project that I helped the youth put together. It involved boys and girls camping out, a trip to Waterworld and lots of Nine Square. It was fun, but it would have been way more fun to not be a leader, but I was and the youth were pretty good, so I call it a win. There was a huge rainstorm on one night and so almost everyone ended up in the house. We had a group of girls in a camper and another group of girls that wanted to sleep in their tent despite it being wet. They were so funny the next morning when they insisted it was great. I think they loved it but it must have been a cold night. It is kind of stressful being in charge, but it was good to watch the youth be together and get to know a lot of them.

This week we don't have anything and its been great to just be home, have some friends over, clean the house, and just be. Its been a summer worth living so glad I have had the chance. We have one more adventure left--family camping trip for 3 days 2 nights. We will see how it goes. I am excited but it could be a little crazy. Oh well, that seems to be the name of the game lately.