Garbage Baby

We went in to St. Andrew's yesterday to visit the Panama City Publishing Company Museum (which was fantastic, by the way), but we arrived a little bit early so we did a little self-guided walking tour to see the Oaks By The Bay park and to look at the marina and things. 

On the boardwalk just behind the park, Phoebe spotted a baby (doll) that had been left by the garbage can. 

"I need to rescue that baby!" she said. "Can someone help me to rescue that poor garbage baby?"

Benjamin went to pull it out of the weeds. It was a little waterlogged but otherwise in pretty good shape.

And Phoebe fell in love.

Funny kids

Phoebe is always so happy when Daddy finishes his meetings (teaching classes is what he's mainly doing) and joins us at the beach. Look at her grin when she gets in his arms!

Mega Beach Day: Monday, May 19

I've decided that I'll upload videos later since there are a few more steps to that and I...miss my desktop setup. So for now pictures will have to do. 

We spent the entire day at the beach on Monday. Grandpa and Darla headed out to the beach with the littler ones as soon as they got up in the morning—which was quite early because the sun rises at 5:45 am (and not until 6:30 in Atlanta). The sunset feels early as well. And I'm still trying to figure out the tides because...what is happening tomorrow? Some kind of reset button or something?

Here are the tides for Panama City Beach:

Look how small the difference is between the high and low tide! We have hardly been able to notice when (and whether) the tide is changing—it only comes in/out 2 feet over the course of the entire day! 

Calamities of various proportions

Nothing untoward happened on Monday...except that several of us got a little too much sun. But Saturday, Sunday, and Tuesday have certainly had their moments of excitement!

On Saturday, Grandpa bent over to get something out of the fridge and when he stood up he bumped a shelf with his shoulder and sent a jug of orange juice crashing down to the floor. It split open and went all over the floor. It took two full bath-sized towels to mop it up (and then some). 

I was just glad it wasn't my kids who made the mess. 

On Sunday, Darla went to get a bowl out of the cupboard and the shelf—which was missing one of its pegs—tilted and an entire set of dishes came crashing down. Honestly, I'm a little vague on the details here because I was in the bathroom when I heard the crash. 

My first thought was, "I hope that wasn't my kids!"*

*Technically my first thought was, "I hope no one is hurt!" But that thought quickly passed because there wasn't any associated screaming. So it was clear that something had broken and not someone. So my more permanent thought was, "I hope that wasn't my kids!"

Sunday splash

So we took the kids to the beach.

 

St. Andrew's State Park (a good park for the Sabbath because it's named after a saint)

We had the option of attending church in person at 10:00 in the morning, but the girls' friend Jessica was giving her mission farewell talk so we decided to Zoom into our ward. Our home ward meets at 9:00 AM, which is already early enough...but we're in central time currently so that meant church was at 8:00 AM for us (which felt really early to have church during vacation, but it was a wonderful service). 

After church we packed a picnic lunch and got ready for a visit to St. Andrew's State Park. Grandpa doesn't feel we should swim on the sabbath, so his plan was to not to. We had no problem making alternative-to-the beach plans with him, though I don't have the same qualms about the beach on Sundays. I mean, we don't typically go to our pool on Sunday—because we do other things to keep the Sabbath holy that day—but the beach feels different to me somehow. 

Maybe I would say no to the beach if we lived at the beach, but we don't live at the beach so...it feels okay to me to marvel at God's planet on the sabbath...even if we happen to get wet doing it.

Anyway, we went to St. Andrew's after church and hiked a little trail by Alligator Lake (where we saw only one gator). Phoebe got to ride on Grandpa's shoulders for quite a while, which she was very happy to do.

Infantry Museum

We left for our trip quite uneventfully. Alexander and Zoë rode with Grandpa and Darla. Our van was quiet with the rest of the kids in there. We listened to Hamilton until Columbus, where we stopped at the Infantry Museum (which has been declared America's #1 Free Museum for several years in a row). It was a pretty good stop to make, especially on such a rainy day—we had plenty of space to stretch our legs inside and by the time we were ready for our picnic lunch things had dried up a bit.

Favourite things

Phoebe and I were snuggling in bed the other morning and I decided to ask her about her favourite things. Just to make conversation. 

"What's your favourite colour?" I asked. 

"Umm...all of them!" she said. 

"I feel that," I said...because she seems to have inherited my own dis/satisfaction with everything in the world. I simply don't understand how to choose a favourite colour. That feels like too big of a commitment. I admit to feeling drawn to certain colours of certain items at times, but I don't feel like I often seek out specific colours for things...if that makes sense. All colours are beautiful. 

"What's your favourite animal?" I asked next. 

"Ooooh! Dood question...all of them!" she said. 

"All of them?" I asked.

"All of them—dogs, cats, horses, giraffes, lions. Just all of them."

"So what about spiders?"

"Not spiders! I do not like spi...well...nice spiders. I still like nice spiders."

"And snakes?"

"If they're nice."

"So you just like animals in general?"

"Yup. Hey, Mom—you know, like November, January, February, April, June, May, July and August?"

"The twelve months of the year? Yes, I'm familiar. Should we sing them?"

"Yes. But first, what's your favourite schedule?"

First week of swim team [check]

Phoebe just ran up to me and said, "Mom, can I...actually, not you!"

And then she ran down the hall and said, "Dad, can I play Minecraft?"

She knows precisely who to ask for what. And she's brave about asking about things as well. 

*****

At swim practice this afternoon she noticed the team manager getting out some freezies when we were walking toward the restrooms.

"I want a pop'skull!" she sang. 

"Those are for the kids..." I said (like the dream-dasher that I am). 

"I am a kid!" 

"Oh, she can have one," said Ms. Julie (the team manager/popsicle lady).

Official Canucks!

Something else that has been taking up a fair bit of my time lately has been getting all our paperwork in order to apply for proof of citizenship in Canada for the kids. They've all been citizens since birth...I've simply never registered their births with the government...if that makes sense. So they are Canadian by right...but had no evidence of it.

It was not unlike the process we had to go through to get Miriam her American citizenship of birth abroad record. She was never not American, but she doesn't have an American birth certificate. She has a record of birth abroad. Her birth certificate is Egyptian. But she doesn't have Egyptian citizenship.

I submitted her birth abroad certificate when I applied for Canadian citizenship, but that didn't count. I had to send in her Egyptian birth certificate (along with a translation...and an affidavit from the translator...who was Andrew). It worked out fine.

Other than that we had to provide:

• my birth certificate
• our marriage license
• birth records (ideally certificates of live birth) for each of the kids
• (digital) passport pictures from the last six months
• an affidavit or receipt from the photographer proving the photos weren't manipulated
• copies of our passport ID pages
• along with copies of any stamps/visas inside
• a second form of government ID
• driver's licenses for the girls
• a valid immunization record on Georgia letterhead for Benjamin

And then I had to fill out a million forms online. It was quite a bit of work, but it all came together!

I was only able to do the three oldest kids (because you can only have three applications open online at a time), so I'll do the younger kids in a bit (after their older siblings are all official and before their passport pictures "expire"). 

Benjamin's application was the first to be approved. He was rather proud of that!

All the important information is on the back of the certificate (sorry, scammers)

Giant beaded lizards

To say nothing of Andrew's work schedule (which doesn't always populate on my calendar), today...

• I had a meeting from 10:30 to 11:15 
• I had a meeting from 11:15 to 11:45
• I left with the boys and Phoebe for the pool around 2:30
• Zoë had piano at 2:45 
• Miriam had piano at 3:45
• Zoë and Alexander had swim practice at 4:30
• Benjamin had swim practice at 5:00
• The big kids had mutual at 7:00
• The medium kids had an activity at 7:00
• Alexander had his baptism preview event at 7:00
• We had to record a song for my mom at 8:30

It was a busy day and—aside from "leaving for the pool around 2:30"—that is just the official stuff that made it onto the calendar. We did other "stuff" as well!

It was also the last of a lot of stuff, which is why I don't mind sharing our calendar publicly. Swimming, piano, and church activities will all get switched around beginning next week...so this is the last day we'll have a schedule like this. And it may have been the first day we've had a schedule like this. 

Swimming

It's not unusual to see some swimming regression in young children at the start of the swim season. Typically I've made my kids pass a little "swim test" before I unleash them in the pool, but with a season of competitive swimming under their belts, I wasn't too worried about Benjamin, Zoë, or Alexander this year. In fact, I told Benjamin that he's 100% in my worry-free zone (along with Rachel, Miriam, and honestly Zoë). Alexander was a bit of a grey zone for me, but he jumped in the pool and started swimming like a champ so I think he's fully confident.

Phoebe, on the other hand, who has been asking "When's it gonna be May?" and begging to go to the pool since the beginning of October (the pool closes at the end of September), was a little less confident when she dipped her toes into the chilly water earlier this month. 

And then we had a spate of unseasonably cold weather that prevented us from going to the pool at all...so we've only been to the pool three times this month (maybe four)!

The first day Phoebe would hardly do anything. Yesterday she saw some of her little friends from co-op (who are a bit older than her) doing things like bobbing under water to look at each other and they invited her to join in their game...and she did! They'd count out—1, 2, 3!—and then all the little girls would go under water, blow some bubbles, and bounce back up to yammer about how good they all were at holding their breath. It was cute and really helped Phoebe feel brave again.

Today she declared that she "can swim now!"

And she's really doing pretty well—she even held a back float for a few seconds!

Driving at midnight

Once a minor gets their license in Georgia they gradually earn more driving privileges. For the first six months they have their license they can only have immediate family members in the car. For the next six months they are allowed to have one (1) non-family member in the car. After that they can drive up to and including three (3) non-family members around. Also, they are forbidden from operating a vehicle between the hours of midnight and 5:00 am (with no exceptions—Rachel told me in the driver's education course she took they said they would take your license from you on the spot and cut it up right in front of your eyes). 

Tales from the garden

My garden has been neglected this spring. 

A very wise mentor of mine recently told me to leave myself room to fail—and I have! I have approximately 72 square feet of failure in the front yard (plus, you know, the rest of the yard)!

Sure, the annuals we planted have been pulling their weight. And little bits of zombified compost have popped up through the soil, reanimated tendrils lurching toward trellises—they're sure to offer us a surprise harvest of sorts. And friend who started too many tomatoes offered me her leggy cast-offs.

So it's all chaos out there, but that's okay because it's a beautiful, wild failure.

*****

The same friend who gave me the tomatoes gave me some clustered mountain mint last year.

When I say friend, you should know that this friend and I met on the Buy Nothing Group and our entire friendship is just...the exchange of plants and advice. And it's mostly me taking because—let's face it—my garden is pathetic and I need all the advice I can get.

She's been trying to increase the number of local plants in her garden—mountain mint being one of them. 

Like most mints, mountain mint is a prolific spreader, but it's less of a problem because the shoots it sends out tend to not root very deeply, so it's controllable. Also, it's native, not invasive. 

That mountain mint took to our hillside like it was coming home after a long day and has spread significantly since I planted it at the end of last summer. And that's fine by me. Bees love it—wasps and butterflies, too. It smells delicious.

"Is it edible?" Rachel wanted to know.

"I don't know," I told her. "Most varieties of mountain mint are, from what I've researched. But some aren't and..."

Long story short, Rachel picked a leaf and ate it. 

And she didn't die. And she didn't get sick. 

You tell me

Yesterday we were going around the table, asking the kids what they'd learned in church that day. Phoebe was first. And sometimes (like yesterday) she's just not in the mood for discussion.

"What did you learn at church today?" I asked.

"I dunno. You tell me," she retorted.

"I can't tell you what you learned, because I don't know what you didn't know before. Only you know that."

She eventually told us that they played a game in class, but she doesn't know the name of the game or how the game goes. And she didn't want to mention a favourite part of the day, either. So...we moved along to Alexander...

In which I take a mother's day nap and Phoebe discovers "burst mode"

Phoebe had some iPad time while I was taking a nap after church. Technically Daddy ended up having a nap after church as well (only he napped on the couch).

She took many, many pictures of the carpet before deciding that she was a better subject—not in a vain way, I'm sure, but in an artistic, self-exploratory sense. Probably.

Her curls...still smite me...

In which half our family speaks in church

Today Alexander, Miriam, Andrew, and I all spoke in church. Miriam also played the organ. And I led the primary children in singing a song. So...it was...busy. Rachel sat with Phoebe (and the rest of the kids) on our bench and they all did great. I joined them after the primary kids sang because...I had to move places to conduct the primary, anyway.

Miriam did beautifully. I trembled like a leaf. Andrew made on-the-fly adjustments to fill the remainder of the time left in sacrament meeting. And Alexander spoke a little later in primary and did just great!

Also—fun fact!—I used the word "been" nine times in my talk and apparently that it is real tell for a Canadian. I say it so that it is homophonous with "bean," not "bin." To me it rhymes with "seen," not "sin." And apparently that's a dead giveaway!

Here's what Miriam had to say:

The-lone-orphan

By the time I rolled out of bed this morning we'd:

(1) been hit by the atmospheric river, which is apparently a thing—it's still raining

(2) experienced an earthquake, kind of—technically it was in Tennessee

(3) arranged for Rachel to babysit for a friend whose car was totaled earlier in the week, and who wanted to go look for new cars without her twin preschoolers in tow

Busy morning. 

But, Alexander and Zoë had taken Phoebe downstairs, pulled the baby gate (the international symbol for "don't go upstairs," typically used during meetings but also for needed naps), got her breakfast, and then started a game with her using the magnatiles and teddy bear counters.

It was very nice to have a sleep in. 

When I went downstairs the kids rushed over to meet me at the bottom of the stairs, telling me about some "weird pink milk" in the fridge.

"Weird pink milk?" I repeated.

"Yeah! We tasted it and it was disgusting!"

"Well, was it very...old?" I asked.

"No! Come and see! Come and see!"

Rachel's Graduation

Turns out graduating is pretty low key when you're a homeschooler.  

To be fair, I skipped my high school graduation...so I'm not really clear what all the fuss is about. And Rachel tends to be pretty laidback about these kinds of things. 

Georgia's Museum of Natural History and other campus things

While Andrew was in his meeting on Monday afternoon I walked the kids up the street from my building to the natural history museum (after sending Rachel outside to wait with the other kids while Zoë helped me in the book room for a little while). 

It's a pocket (of a) museum—a tiny little space—but the kids had a good time and learned some things. 

Zoë and Alexander did the little scavenger hunt they have for kids:

Botanical Gardens: Everything but the graduation pictures

As I suspected, the playground at the botanical gardens was a huge hit with the kids.

An amount

 

This afternoon Phoebe was recounting our trip to campus...

"Yesterday our whole entire family went to Mommy's campus and there we saw an amount of bugs!"

Graduation! Graduation!

Seminary graduation was held early this year—May 4th! 

The girls have been attending seminary in the Roswell Stake. We're in Lilburn Stake, but are geographically closer to a lot of buildings within the Roswell Stake than we are to buildings in the Lilburn Stake and when it comes to early morning seminary, commute time matters. Plus, these seminary kids were kids that we met when we first moved here (before we were split off of their ward and then off of their stake), so...anyway...

Last year was the first year Rachel and Miriam attended in-person seminary. Grandpa was their teacher, along with Brother Moser—who is being released at the end of this year after four years of teaching early morning seminary. This year it was Brother Moser and...someone else.

Here's Rachel with Rachael:

Burning...Burnaby...Bertram...

On Saturday night the girls had (almost) all the young women in the ward over to play games. It was a little difficult for Benjamin to be excluded (but if he wants to plan a games night with the young men, he's more than welcome to do that). Rachel and Miriam have just felt like the younger young women were in need of some...fellowshipping...so that guided their invite list. 

We had a big storm that evening. 

Phoebe woke up when most of the girls were leaving (and so many other times—she hardly slept that whole night, I feel like, so the night's events were even more of a surprise to Andrew and I, the guardians of the night, who took turns putting her back to bed and putting her back to bed and putting her back to bed).

Anyway, Phoebe woke up when the girls came up to the entry way to put on their shoes. 

"Goodness gracious!" she whispered to me from her bed. "They are going outside right now?! In a thunderstorm!!"

"Well," I explained. "Yes, but only because they're going home. Their moms and dads have come to pick them up so they're just...running from our house to their cars really quick. They're not going out to play."

"Okay, good!" Phoebe said. "Because that would not be safe. 

It was very thundery on Saturday night. And Phoebe, as I mentioned, had an awful time sleeping. 

Getting up for church on Sunday morning was a real drag, especially because I woke up earlier than my alarm when I heard the power shut off. I checked the area to see if there was a power outage, but nothing was mentioned, and soon enough the power came back on. 

We got ready for church and headed out the door. 

Our neighbour texted me just before I went in to primary to tell me that Filthy (Fil) the Clown's house had burned down! She had driven past on her way to mass. 

Evidently, Andrew and his phase of church-goers (the prelude players) had seen firetrucks and things. 

My phase of church-goers (the stragglers) really didn't. Or at least I didn't. My passengers report seeing a few vehicles. 

We drove home that way on our way home from church and were shocked—shocked, shocked, shocked! It was so much worse than I imagined. There's just...nothing left inside. 

Easily excitable (or, finding joy in the small stuff)

 Once upon a time (within the last year) we were driving to Grandpa and Darla's house when Phoebe excitedly squealed, "Ooooh! Lookit that parking lot!"

We were, at that moment in time, driving by the parking lot of a golf course. It wasn't the most exciting thing should could have pointed out, but we have enjoyed sporadically pointing out parking lots to each other ever since. 

*****

Today we had a BLFA (big long family adventure), which culminated with a trip to campus so that Daddy could use my office for a meeting that he couldn't miss and for me to meet with one of my professors. 

Soon after we crossed the street from the parking lot (!!!) Phoebe gushed, "Oh, yay! Dumpsters!"

"Dumthurth" not being on my mind, I wasn't quite sure what she had said, so I asked her to repeat herself. 

"Dumthurth!" she said, pointing. "Look!"

*****

All that is to say, I suppose, that life itself is such a wild adventure for little kids. You don't have to concoct wild, magical adventures...though those can be nice as well, sometimes. You just need parking lots and dumpsters. 

And hopefully some ladybugs and cool leaves, too. 

Field Day

On Wednesday morning we finished reading our last school novel for the year, and a few of the kids had to finish up some lessons, and I had to do some work on a few projects...but Phoebe also wanted to know if I would read a story to her in her little tent.

"I don't know that I'll fit in there with you," I said. 

"It's okay with me if your legs stick out," she said.

Pool Season is Open!

It's the first day of the pool season, so of course we went to the pool!