Drain Monsters

It's a little early for Halloween books, I think...although we're already thinking hard about Halloween costumes over here, so perhaps not. Either way Phoebe grabbed a Halloween book off the shelf at the library the other day so...it's in our rotation. I think there's a Christmas book in there, too. 

She has no respect for seasons. 

Every time we go to the pool she says something about how she's "so glad it's May." It's not May (it's August), but she spent about October through April begging to go to the pool and we kept telling her that we could go "in May." So now every day that we go to the pool...is May. 

Which is different from "may can," which is her super polite way of saying "can I?" because one day at dinner I was making her correct all her "tan I have..." with "can I have" and then made a joke about how we'd finally get her to say "can" and then we'd have to break it to her that she should be saying may. 

She heard that and has started saying "may can I have..."

Anyway, to sum up, Phoebe has no respect for seasons, thinks "pool season" is synonymous with "May," and...she's terrified of drains.

This might be Rachel's fault. 

The kids in Utah

At this time last week we were either all weeping as we drove home in the rain...or were off to Kroger to do a snack run for a long road trip. 

The older kids have now been gone for a week and their whirlwind trip to Utah is just about over. Tomorrow is their last full day there (except for Rachel, who will be there for longer). 

Miriam has been enjoying her time at the organ workshop. She had a private lesson with Joseph Peeples (a tabernacle organist), which I assume went well. My mom went with her to that (because Miriam is a minor she was required to have an adult present at her private lesson).

Saying goodbye to Rachel

Yesterday was a painful day of waiting. 

The day had come to say goodbye, but the hour was not yet at hand. So we just...went through all the motions of having a regular day...which was really anything but ordinary...and yet was entirely ordinary.

I convinced all the kids to come to the pool with me, in part so I could take our traditional "end of season" pool picture. Although it's not the end of the pool season yet, it is the end of an era:

(Zoë apparently taught Phoebe and Ireland to make peace signs in pictures, so they've both been trying to do it since.)

First day and last day at home with Rachel

A little over 18 years ago we brought our brand new baby girl home from the hospital. We placed her in her bassinet and...

Packing up for college

Rachel's room is just about packed up. She's got a pile of boxes/stuff to take to college, a pile of boxes/stuff to put in the storage room, and a suitcase to live out of for the next few days. 

The kids are all anxious about her leaving—excited to take over her space and scared about how much they're going to miss her.

Things are tense, but sometimes better when Andrew's working with her than when I am. When Andrew's down there he and Rachel and Miriam tend to laugh and joke. When I'm down there we all tend to break down sobbing together. 

It's fine. 

Vacuum packing things is incredible. We put Rachel's entire dresser in one bag and shrunk it down to a little slab of clothing. We put all of her bedding in another bag, sucked all the air out, and now it's completely portable. Same thing with her closet. 

Rachel's 18!

Last month the ward choir sang on my birthday and this month we sang on Rachel's birthday. That means that (1) we get to sing, which is always fun and (2) we don't have afternoon practice, and it's kind of nice to get to have the rest of the day at home after church.

Rachel, Miriam, and Benjamin had a youth meeting after church, though, so they ended up coming home separately from the rest of us, anyway. And they brought Andie over to play games. 

Soon after Andie left, Grandpa and Darla arrived for dinner. Andrew and Benjamin had spent the entire afternoon making orange chicken (which was a whole lot of work, but which was also delicious). After dinner we opened presents, played Swoop (a game Grandpa and Darla played a lot on their cruise/bike trip through Europe this summer), and then had cake.

It was a very low-key birthday. Rachel also planned a few game nights around but not on her birthday so that she could hang out with friends but not have them do anything embarrassing like sing to her.

Here she is opening her gifts, which were all things for living on her own—a dough whisk...

It's. Hot.

On Tuesday the kids spent all afternoon in the neighbour's kiddie pool. This picture is just Phoebe...because at this moment all the other kids were sitting in front of the fans (they hauled up from our house) in the garage, dripping wet. That must have felt good! 

Home from London

Rachel and Miriam arrived home from London on Monday. 

Grandpa and Darla stayed behind to do a bike tour through France and Germany, so Rachel and Miriam travelled home alone. They all went to the airport together—both Miriam and Darla got pulled aside for extra security—before going their separate ways. Poor Miriam had applesauce in her liquids bag and apparently it didn't pass the vibe...so after running it through several tests, security had her toss it, and then gave her a pat down. She was rather upset by the whole ideal (especially since she had brought the applesauce from the States...bug couldn't take it back to the states). 

Anyway, the girls had quite the journey—their flight ended up being delayed, and then they were switched to a new flight, and then their flight switched back. They finally arrived home about four hours after they were supposed to. 

We made a poster to welcome them home:

Flying to London and Fireflies

On Sunday afternoon, Rachel, Miriam, Grandpa, and Darla piled into Grandpa's car to head to the airport. Andrew was their chauffeur. 

They made it to London without a hitch...except for the fact that their accommodations fell through. 

Up with Phoebe

Last night Andrew put me to bed at 9:00 pm. 

This sickness has wiped me out, but I finally think I've rounded the corner. I slept so well last night and woke up feeling much better. I took the little kids to the pool for a little while in the early afternoon and managed to finally get a draft written for a writing project. 

"Did Phoebe sleep well?" I asked Andrew when he came home from taking the kids to swimming in the morning...because not only did he put me to bed at 9:00 last night, he also got up to take the kids to their early morning practice.

Except for Benjamin, who is away at camp this week...missing out on his birthday...which was today. 

"Not at all!" he said. "You should know! You got up with her around midnight. And then I took over and sent you back to bed and she didn't really go back to sleep until around 4:00 in the morning."

"I got up with her?"

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. 

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. 

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:

Georgia Botanical Gardens

I had to go to campus again today on a two-fold mission: (1) to attend the awards luncheon for my program (I didn't win anything this year...but they wanted people to come support those that did), and (2) to pick up the poster I had printed for a conference on Tuesday. 

The awards luncheon was at the Botanical Gardens and...wow!

I mean, we've seen the signs but we just...never knew. It's like Duke Gardens...but better somehow? Except that it's not connected to campus directly so it's a little less accessible. But it's pretty awesome. 

They have beautiful plants...

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...

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!

Phoebe-Q

Phoebe found some lip gloss this morning, and having liberally applied it (+/-) to her lips declared herself "boo-i-ful." 

She insisted on wearing two skirts to the library.

I warned her that it might be a little chilly for a skirt, but she insisted she'd be fine. We came home and took Luna for a walk and when we came home Phoebe decided she'd rather wear pants—it was a little chilly with bare legs. So she went upstairs to get some pants.

I watched her awkwardly waddled down the stairs, but couldn't quite put my finger on what was wrong with her.

"I think something's wrong with your pants," I said. "Let me see..."

The issue she was having is that she was wearing not one, not two...or three...or even four pairs of pants. She had put on five pairs of pants. 

Jump start

On Wednesday last week, Rachel drove the kids to mutual and everything went fine. But when they got in the car to come home...it wouldn't start. So Andrew drove down to the church to rescue them. Fortunately it was a battery thing, so he gave them a jump and Rachel was able to drive home just fine.

And she went to seminary the next day. And the next. And then on Friday she drove to Athens and home again. And on Saturday she drove to Andie's house (to get a ride to a dance). And then drove home from Andie's house after the dance.

And then drove to seminary on Tuesday. 

And every time she turned on the car, it started a bit rough. It was just a little...hesitant to actually start...which was concerning. But we had a plan in place to fix it...but not until Wednesday. 

We just had to get to campus on Tuesday first...

So on Tuesday after Rachel got home from seminary, we hopped in the car, which choked to life, and started on our way to campus. 

We had to stop to fill up on gas, choosing a different gas station than we ordinarily do because...

Garage Fridges, Grandma Dresses, and Dandelion Puffs

After being away from my kids all day on Friday, I didn't really want to leave them to go to the Relief Society "Super Saturday" but I went anyway (mostly because Miriam and Rachel wanted to go, but also because I could get rid of that tied fleece blanket you see in the corner behind Alexander and Phoebe, which I meant to donate in, like, November). 

When I left, Alexander was busy reading Fancy Nancy with Phoebe: