Benjamin On Campus

After all the chaos that was today (though we're not even finished yet because the reason I went to the dentist was to have my attachments be put back on my teeth—they've been off the last couple of weeks because I had a tooth that wasn't tracking so I had to get new trays fitted to try to get that tooth to move...but two of my new attachments have popped off and I'm a little sad about it because it means I'll have to go back in again), Rachel, Benjamin, and I were finally able to leave for campus. 

Murder on the Orient Express was playing at UGA, we knew...because we saw it being advertised when we were looking for shows Rachel could go to for her class. We went to John Proctor is the Villain and Rachel really wanted to go to Murder on the Orient Express as well, but since it's just playing now and her semester is over...it wouldn't really work for her class. So she and Miriam and I went to The Addam's Family at a local high school. It was decent...

But then one of my classes hosted an outing to Murder on the Orient Express this evening so I thought I should go. And Rachel would go as well. And then I decided Benjamin should come along as well. 

At first, the outing was going to cover the cost of my ticket. But then I was told we'd have enough to cover Rachel, too, and I then thought for sure that I'd have to buy Benjamin's ticket...but no! They had enough tickets for him as well, so we sure lucked out there! 

We went to campus before rush hour traffic and had enough time to go on a little hike near campus along the Oconee River that Rachel and I have been wanting to try. We'd walked as far as the graveyard before, but pressed on until we came to these rapids by Easley Mill Dam—that was a treat to come upon:

"I really wanted to hit a widow with a baseball bat"

I realized that I completely missed out on making a joke about spring break! Because last week is technically when we took our spring break (though we're also almost through all of our curriculum so we're on, like, "school lite" right now...plus it's, like, the crunch time of my semester, so...). We had such a good spring break our spring broke!

Apparently that's an important bit, but it's all together again!

Surprise...surprise!

"You're going to want to sit down for this..." the plumber said on the phone to Andrew last night. 

Our water heater had stopped working. The plumber asked what year our water heater was installed. 

"2005..." Andrew said, and that's when he was told to sit down. 

Evidently the life of a water heater is not typically so long. The recommendation: a new water heater. 

Of course. 

So the plumber came this morning and he was like, "Wow! I haven't seen you guys in a long time!"

And I was like, "Thank goodness for that!"

It's been about two years since our last plumbing emergency. Our plumber laughed and said, "Yes—plumbers, dentists, lawyers...all people you never really want to see!"

So, as of today we have a brand new water heater. It's smaller than our old one (which was massive—75 gallons), but is function (which is helpful for running a household of this size). The price tag was a bit of a yikes (which is why we downsized) but, you know, we were living on borrowed time with that thing, I guess. 

These surprising and costly fixes are...getting a little less surprising as time wears on. 

Just Mommy and Me

We went to the library, just Mommy and me. 

"Yay! No kids!" Phoebe cheered.

That meant she got to feed every book to the hippo and choose every book from the shelf. 

FHE

Phoebe is our default FHE conductor. She just assumes that giving everyone the agenda for the evening is her responsibility...and she loves it. 

"Welpum to faminy night!" she'll announce. "I'm going to choose the song..."

Of course she's going to choose the song (like there's any other option).

"...and Mommy is going to say the prayer. I choose...Once There Was a Snowman!"

She used to always choose How Much is That Doggy in the Window, but we told her it had to be a primary song. Technically, Once There Was a Snowman is a primary song. It's just not a very reverent one.

So we sang that song while she twirled around in circles, shaking her little egg shaker, and having the time of her life. When it was time to get ready for prayer, she ran over to kneel by Daddy. 

She's so glad he's home!

Lavender/Lilac

Phoebe wanted to make soup for dinner, using some rosemary she picked in the garden. She even got out a pot and put it on the stove with the rosemary in it, but I got out a bigger pot and started dinner in that. We had a head of cauliflower that we hadn't gotten to yet, so I decided on cauliflower soup and even found a recipe for rosemary cauliflower soup...which I loosely followed.

We decided on a whim to add some red cabbage to the soup. Quite a lot, actually. Because one head of cauliflower isn't going to feed a family of seven and we had some red cabbage in the fridge. 

Plus, it was bound to turn the soup a delightful pinkish-purple, which felt very springy, very Easter-y. 

Phoebe was very pleased with the light purple we ended up with after everything was blended together. But then I decided that it could use a little more acidity. So I grabbed a lemon and squeezed it into the pot and...

While the cat's away...

Last Saturday Phoebe asked me when Daddy was going to be home and I wasn't quite sure, so I texted him to ask, and in response he Facetimed so he could speak with Phoebe. 

She was sitting on the potty—her question to me had been some potty-time chatter—but she's pretty open about her bathroom habits, even demanding sometimes that people (specifically Andrew or I) watch her while she's in the bathroom. Thus the reason I was sitting and chatting with her in the first place. So I figured she'd be okay talking to Daddy while sitting on the potty.

She seemed happy to see him but was very pithy about things—giving him yes or no answers only. 

Book of Mormon Read-athon

When I was in Young Women, our YW president was amazing. I still hang on her every word...and can...even have thousands of miles between us and have gone decades without seeing each other...because she's a wonderful author.

One of her most recent books—Buffalo Flats—spoke to my very inner being, brought me back to my roots, and was simply the most beautiful embrace of a book. 

I've been thinking about her a lot lately because when I was in YW she planned a Book of Mormon Read-athon. My memory is getting less reliable these days, in a way I never thought it would. I seem to have too many thoughts knocking around inside my brain to keep them all straight, but here is what I remember:

We began after school, probably on a Friday. 

Was I homeschooled then? Or was I attending the high school? I honestly can't remember what year we held the read-athon. But I do remember that I walked to the church from the dentist office, where I'd just gotten a cavity filled. My mouth was numb for the first little while, but that was fine.

We started out doing a pop quiz on the first few chapters, since everyone has read "I, Nephi..." a billion times. I remember there was a question about Sam and whether he was Nephi's older or younger brother and...I was one of the few who got that question correct. 

I remember that we were often in the primary room. We had a line of tables set up and a number of readers would come up to the tables to sit; they would each read one paragraph and then relinquish their seat to someone else. 

We accomplished a lot of our reading that way.

Somehow—magically—food would appear for us to eat in the gym. I'm sure there was an entire army of volunteers I was unaware of. I have no idea what we ate, only that we did. 

Sometimes we were broken into groups to read sections of the Book of Mormon. At one point we had to make a skit to present to everyone else about a chapter or two. 

I don't really know what happened on Friday versus Saturday. But at some point—late in the evening, probably 10:00 or so—we went home to sleep. 

In the morning people came around to pick everyone up—carpools had been organized to get us all to the church. My friend's dad dressed up like a gorilla and was "kidnapping" kids from their houses. 

We read and read and read. And discussed. And ate. All day Saturday.

And at the end we had read the Book of Mormon. 

It was exhausting. And long. And at times difficult. 

But it was also beautiful and uniting and good. 

I'm positive it was a lot of work...because we're hosting a Book of Mormon read-athon at our house right now. 

Sitting in the hallway

On Tuesday I didn't see Phoebe at all. 

She was a stinker on Monday night and had a rough time falling asleep and staying asleep. And then she insisted that Andrew stay in her hall while she worked to fall asleep at 2:00 in the morning, even though he had a plane to catch on Tuesday morning. I tried to convince him to just let her suffer through me sitting in the hallway, but he felt bad doing that because...well...it makes her angry to have me in the hallway.

"Mommy and I are just going to say our prayers and then one of us will come back to sit in the hallway for a little while," he reassured her. 

"One of you...but not Mommy..." she said. 

"Well," he hedged. "I have an early flight in the morning so..."

"Please not Mommy!" she begged. "It makes me angry to have Mommy in the hallway! I just want you!"

So he caved and sat in the hallway while she fell asleep. 

Then he woke up early and left for the airport. 

Rachel milestones

Rachel submitted her last paper for her last BYU-Idaho class (and thus her last class for high school graduation) on Wednesday morning. That means she's now officially a high school graduate!

On Tuesday morning Andrew flew to Utah for a week-long workshop at Utah State University. He took along a suitcase of stuff Rachel will need when she moves out there...including this temperature blanket that she finally finished. She started it in 2023, and I believe she finished it in January of this year, so it took her about two years to finish. It's long!