As I was saying...

"I won't say that the call to prayer is ever disappointing to hear, but we've mostly heard it played quietly over the speakers in the mall or the library, almost like soft background music. We had high hopes that the muezzin at the suq would really belt it out...the way they did in Cairo when we lived there...but it ended up being much quieter than we expected (which was a little disappointing)..."

—me, like two days ago 

This evening was a bit of a circus with Andrew staying late on campus, me having meetings at 4:00 and 7:30, Miriam having a YW activity in one location (7:00), and Benjamin having a YM activity in another location (also at 7:00). 

After my meeting, Miriam and I heated up some boxed soup from France (so fancy) and we quickly ate dinner. And then I took all the kids on the metro down to the Corniche station and then walked Benjamin down to the soccer pitch while Miriam took an Uber to her activity (which isn't precisely on the metro line). 

There was some confusion about which pitch was which (the security guard was certain we* hadn't reserved the pitch we had so wouldn't open the gate), but since Benjamin was with his leaders and peers, we left him to walk across the street to the playground on the other side. It was quite the hike to get to the pedestrian bridge! It looked so close, but the access point was so far. 

* We is doing a lot of work in this sentence because here "we" means...the church? The YM leaders? I think actually the bishop reserved the pitch. We (as in me and the children) merely showed up. We contributed nothing to the logistics of the evening.

I was in a hurry to get to the park and send the kids off to play so I could hop onto my meeting. A lot of video call features on social media apps are blocked in Qatar (like FB is...even WhatsApp), but thankfully Zoom is not, so I was able to connect and have my meeting from the park, which was very convenient. But I wanted to make it to the park before my meeting, so was rushing the children along. 

And then I heard, off in the distance, the call to prayer. 

"Hush, hush," I said to the children. "Be still and listen and you'll hear the call to prayer."

"Oh, yeah! I hear it!" Zoë said. "Where...does it come from?"

"Well, you know the tall towers at the mosques? Those are called minarets and they have a special kind of balcony where a muezzin stands and sings the call to prayer, which is then usually broadcast over a loudspeaker..."

"Too bad," Zoë said looking around. "I don't see any minarets nearby."

"Me neither. Shhh...we'll just listen quietly for a minute."

Funemployed...in Greenland [Qatar]

We had been operating under the assumption that I could continue working remotely from Qatar, but unfortunately we recently learned that that will not be a possibility. Since I am moving for personal and not professional reasons (unlike Andrew, who is moving for professional reasons), UGA can't allow me to continue to work, which means that I lose my stipend and scholarship. 

Which is all...fine. 

It simply...changes...my path toward graduation a little. I'll still continue my studies, just...differently...than before. 

We're still working out precisely what changes this will entail. But it'll be fine. 

It is a little sad for me because I've liked my job, but it will also be nice to slow down a bit and focus more on being a mom and (Andrew says this part is important) having fun. 

To get a scholarship/stipend at UGA you have to work part-time (13 to 20 hours a week, depending on the contract) and you also have to take 12 credit hours (that's four classes; three classes is considered full time). Last semester, in particular, felt a little rough for me, so I think it will be nice to let that go...and then I can be more present during our homeschooling. The past couple of years I've really had to assign the kids their tasks and work on my own tasks instead of joining in on tasks with them (and honestly the latter can be much more fun—and sometimes effective—for all of us). 

So that will be nice. 

But Andrew also insists that I become like the fancy housewives from, like, a Jane Austen novel and just...frolic about the town...and have mid-afternoon teas...and whatever. 

He insists that it's funemployment rather than unemployment. 

Qatar (with the details)

We have been waiting a long time to share the news that we got this job! 

Andrew was offered the position on March 8 (the day we spoke in church, clearly pining to get the job and move, though we had not yet heard when we gave the talks) and then going through the negotiation process and waiting period, finally hearing back...the middle of the afternoon on Thursday (May 7)?

My timing is fuzzy on that because I'm here (in Austria) and Andrew is there (in Georgia), but we are very excited everything is finally finalized. 

Andrew has been working on making little flags of all the places we've (collectively) lived (he hasn't lived in Russia, I haven't lived in Italy). He actually started with the Qatari flag as...a way to...soothe his anxieties about offers being rescinded (we've had interesting luck in that department)...to manifest his desires. 

To share the news, he posted this picture with the Qatari flag on top:

Qatar without the details

Once upon a time...way back in August...Andrew saw a posting for a job in Qatar. 

It was perfect for him, almost as if they had written the job description with his CV sitting in front of them. He asked if he should apply, and I said that he definitely should. So he did. 

And life went on...and on...and on...

We began to assume we simply wouldn't be hearing back about his application, but they reached out on November 10 for a zoom interview. Andrew responded in a great hurry, saying:

(Hi! I just submitted form. All possible dates/times work great for me so I arbitrarily chose three, but if needed, the other times are also fine too. Thanks!)

He came upstairs and faceplanted onto the bed. 

"I just submitted form!" he mumble-screamed into the mattress.

"What?" I asked. 

"I. Just. Submitted. Form," he repeated and then showed me the email he had sent (which left out the "the" that a native speaker would have used). 

"I'm sure it will be fine..." I said (gracefully not pointing out that he used both also and too in the same sentence, which is completely redundant—he didn't need to worry about that, too!).

Grown ups come back

After a long week of Daddy being away, we sure are happy to have him home again! Here are the kids eating some wafer cookies from Thailand that Andrew brought back to share with the kids:

Although Andrew has never been to Thailand, he has partied with people who have. 

Thus the cookies.

Work

I haven't been into my office since November. I had a few packages waiting for me when I arrived on Tuesday morning...

I worked in the receiving department at BYU's library during my undergrad, so opening up all these boxes and processing the books brought back some fond memories. Getting to do some physical work (flattening boxes, for example) was kind of a nice break from all of the more academic thinking/reading/writing I do when I am on campus. 

I probably won't have a haul like this for a while since packages usually trickle in. But it was kind of fun to get to tackle this wall of boxes!

A day of leisure (kind of)

Tonight I made it to a get together with some ladies in our ward. In order to do that guilt-free I had to finish my essay for my qualitative methodology course...which I did yesterday afternoon. 

Without going into too many details, I conducted a critical content analysis on a serial publication produced by the church, looking specifically at how gender was portrayed. I noted one scene in particular where a young boy claimed that he would grow up to go on a mission while his sister would grow up to get married (as well as several other scenes indicating that this male child was a future missionary and finding no scenes indicating that the female child might some day serve a mission). 

I wrote about the mission ages at the time of publication (19 for males, 21 for females) and discussed the change in 2012 lowering the mission age to 18 for males and 19 for females. What, I wondered, would be so wrong with females leaving at age 18? If males could leave at 19...and then females could leave at 19...what made it possible for males to leave at 18 but not females?

I submitted that paper and dusted my hands.

Then Rachel texted this morning: "Mission age for women was just lowered to 18."

And, I mean, I don't want to take credit for that or anything...but...uh...the timing is suspicious. 

Anyway, because I had finished my paper and because the weather was so nice and because we're all healthy again (though I forgot to give Phoebe her last dose of antibiotics with dinner—darn! I'll have to remember that last dose with breakfast), I decided I could fill Phoebe's request to go to the town green.

She has been begging to go to the town green for quite some time, but it's just been so...busy.

But today we ran to the town green between a couple of my meetings (after one meeting, and in time to take my other meeting on a bench at the park—the town green has wifi...which probably means we should go there more because I don't have the excuse of needing the internet to work). 

Here is a portion of the park (probably about a quarter of what's available to play on):

What have I done?

This week I...

• Submitted a proposal to the 4'33" contest (Monday, October 27)
• Had a week full of typical school and work and extracurricular activities
• Celebrated Halloween (a doozy of a day, if ever there was one)
• Hosted a baptism celebration (Saturday, November 1)
• Attended a ward party (Saturday, November 1)
• Went to church, where we had a run-through of our primary program (which will be next week—and I think we can have a Zoom option on if anyone should want to join in). I also was roped into a meeting about the Christmas party, and went to choir practice (Sunday, November 2)
• Found out that I am one of 10 finalists for the 4'33" contest (today!) 
• There is an option to Zoom, I believe, if anyone wants to watch me receive my "prize"...which is giving a presentation... (Such lousy prizes in academia sometimes—right, Mom?)
• Turned in my second to last big project for my "designing qualitative research" class (today!)
• I don't mean to brag but, uh, it's 13,904 words (and I am so happy and relieved to have turned it in)

I also had to spend the entire week negotiating with the ultimate loop-hole-finder. Perhaps "ultimate" is too strong of a word because I find that most little kids are notorious loop-hole-finders.

Here and there

Our homeschool "not-back-to-school" party drew a pretty small crowd this year, perhaps in part because of how "chilly" it's been. The little hint of autumn didn't stop us from enjoying the pool, however! It was good to see so many of our friends—and to get to meet a few new families. 

I don't believe it! I'm on [page 24] of a magazine!

I had a dentist appointment this morning and when I walked into my exam room (following the dental assistant), I was shocked to find the room full of people. My dentist waved a magazine in the air. 

"I didn't know you were famous!!" she squealed.

Everyone clapped...and then dispersed and went about their business.

It was very embarrassing. Our dentist is...a really fun and wonderful person.

"My daughter went to UGA so I get this magazine! And I was reading it and I was like, 'I know her!' I highlighted your name and everything! It's just too bad that you're not showing your beautiful smile..."

Honestly, I'm a little crushed that of all the pictures the photographer took of me that is the one that they decided on...but...you know...whatever...it's fine. 

I had no idea my picture was in there! I saw the online copy that did not have my picture, so I was as surprised as anybody to see my face in a magazine! The copy with my face is also online, but in a different place. I only looked for it after I saw the magazine, which my dentist let me read (but not keep because she's keeping it).

And then tonight one of Andrew's colleagues at BYU (who was previously at UGA) emailed him a picture of that very same spread! So I really am famous now, I guess.

All the conferences

Today my brother Patrick sent a picture of himself presenting at a conference in Dresden (I'm pretty sure). His paper title is hilarious: Non-invasive Dating: A New Methodology.

It's about how to date paper not people, but it always takes people a minute to get there.

Here comes Simon! Here comes Simon!

We've been very busy with animals lately. 

The kids have been taking care of their own cat, of course, as well as the hermit crabs—which all had been on a deep dive under the sand, and only recently reemerged (much to Benjamin's relief). 

Then there's Luna puppy, who the kids still take out for a romp three times a week. But Luna had a friend over last week so the kids were taking out two puppies (bliss for Phoebe). 

And then Rachel has also been taking care of her former YW leader's cats the last couple of weeks as well. There are three of them: Simon, Xander, and Rose.

Last Tuesday as I was writing a list of things to do on the board before leaving for campus, Benjamin reminded me to put Luna up there, so I did. 

"Oh! And the cats!" I said. "Miriam's going to have to give Simon his shot this evening because we won't be home in time for Rachel to do that."

Two things you should know: Rachel drives me to campus and Simon's care includes twice-daily injections. There are just so many things to know in the world.

So, I'm writing on the board...

▢  Luna (lunchtime walk)

▢  Simon (next injection around 8:00)

And because I am me, I started singing while I was writing.

"Here comes Simon! Here comes Simon! Here comes Simon...my little funny bunny!" and so forth.

Doot-doot-doot-doot-doo

I've been the primary chorister for about two months now and feel like I'm starting to settle in. At any rate, I know the kids a little better and they know me a little better and we're all willing to have a good time together. The first week I left feeling a little bit like they'd eaten me alive...but things are going better now. 

We've had some fun and successful lessons/activities. And we've had a few activities fall flat. 

That's the way things go, right?

I can tell when an activity goes over well because then Zoë or Alexander will offer to teach Family Home Evening...using my music lesson from the day before. I think that's totally okay, though, because mimicking a lesson is an excellent way to learn how to teach. 

That's how I initially trained as a swimming instructor. 

When I started teaching swimming lessons I was actually too young to have gone through the Red Cross Water Safety Instructor (WSI) certification course that our recreation center required to teach. But I had said in my lifeguarding interview that I was absolutely interested in teaching swimming lessons. For some reason they didn't realize how old I was, so they just banked on me teaching swimming lessons that summer. 

Because I wasn't technically certified, I couldn't sign any of my own report cards or anything. But they still had me teach as a...co-teacher. I would shadow a certified teacher for the first swimming session of the morning and then would simply...repeat that same lesson the rest of the day with my own classes...over and over again...until my shift was over. 

And then I'd get up and do it all again the next day. 

Honestly, I think I learned more that summer of shadowing my good friend Sam than I did when I finally went through the process to get my WSI certification. I'm really good at teaching "level three" swimming skills!

It's a beautiful day

I took the kids to the playground this afternoon—for the first time in what feels like ages. I also brought a laptop so I could get some writing done because I have a number of writing projects that I'm absolutely choking on at the moment (that I really need to get going on). 

This evening Rachel walked in on me while I was transferring things from the laptop to my desktop computer (there's no internet at the playground, so I drafted offline and then just...brought the computer to my desk) and she said, "Huh. Do you have enough screens there? Could I bring you an iPad or something?"

She's a funny, funny kid.

So glad when Daddy comes home

Yesterday I was texting my sister and she was like, "How are you doing?" because that's a fairly normal thing to ask people when you're conversing. I told her that I was doing well, that Andrew had been out of town at a conference, and that I was excited for tomorrow (which is now today) because Andrew would be coming home. 

"So tonight is the last night I have to do dinner and bedtime on my own!" I said. 

Not that it's been terribly difficult. The kids have been fabulous and area typically good helpers. They cook, they clean, they play together. I mean, sure, it takes a little nagging sometimes and we've been known to experience conflict and sometimes devolve in to absolute and utter chaos, but they're altogether good kids. 

Still, it's nice to know there's a second parent around to usher kids off to bed while I'm nursing the baby (still nursing, yes...we're working on stopping but this week (when Andrew was leaving for a conference) was not the week to go cold turkey), or whatever. And...I'm really not great with dinners. 

Last night we had macaroni and cheese (from a box!) with peas and strawberries and chicken nuggets. 

"You really girl-dinner'ed us all, didn't you?" Rachel joked when she saw dinner.

She was busy finishing up all her school assignments, so didn't help much with dinner preparation (though Miriam was a huge help). 

Anyway, I texted my sister that last night would be my last night flying solo because Andrew would be coming home on Saturday, and as I sat there eating dinner with my kids I realized that while it's true Andrew would be coming home on Saturday...it would not be until well after bedtime. So I have another dinner and bedtime ahead of me. 

But this will be the last one on my own. For a while.

Not that it's been terribly difficult! Not only are my bigger kids helping out with the littler kids, we also have Grandpa! He had Benjamin, Zoë, and Alexander over for movie nights on both Thursday and Friday evenings, and then this morning he picked Zoë and Benjamin up on the tail end of his bike ride and they all rode down to the park together. 

Alexander desperately wanted to ride with them, but he's still pretty fresh and new on his wheels, so I drove him down to the park, where we met up with everyone else, and then he got to ride around the pond with Grandpa five times before we stopped to play for a bit.

Here he is zipping along, with Zoë (in orange) and Grandpa (in yellow) and a random jogger (in black) behind him (sorry, random jogger):

Polar plunge II (the last day of pool season)

On Friday afternoon I took the (healthy) kids to the pool. Miriam was feeling under the weather and, having rallied her energy to fulfill a few obligations in her schedule, wasn't feeling up to going to the pool with us (not even to lounge on the deck). So we left her at home while we headed to the pool to enjoy the very last day of swimming before admitting that autumnal temperatures are really upon us.

Andrew was out grocery shopping when we left (I figured he wouldn't want to come) but texted me to say that he was on the way to join us! The kids were all overjoyed because...dragging Daddy to the pool is quite the trick. He came with us once in May when the pool season opened...nearly drowning Alexander...and hasn't been back with us since. 

It doesn't help that we tend to go to the pool in the early afternoons before the schools let out so we can have the pool mostly to ourselves. Andrew is always having to work...

But Zoë wrote a story that guilted Andrew into taking an afternoon off to splash around with us. It's called Witching Hour and it goes like this:

Georgia Children's Lit

This is a hat that I'm both sad and relieved to be taking off. It has been so much fun (and work—but that's why it's a job, right?) to help coordinate the children's literature conference the past two years. Last year's conference was wonderful, but this year's conference was...even more wonderful. The group of authors we had this year was just spectacular to work with. They were all so gracious and encouraging, interested in each other's work and in the people around them at the conference. Perfectly engaging. 

Andrew was at a conference in Montreal all week, and the days before he left Alexander and Benjamin were out with a not-COVID stomach bug/fever/cough, and I had so much going on, and was getting up in the middle of the night with throwing-up children, and trying to pull everything together for the conference and get all my work done for my poetry class and finish a draft of the analysis section of my thesis and...and...and...I felt like I was about coming apart at the seams!

Reid/Grandpa kept the boys for us Thursday/Friday/Saturday and dropped me and the girls off at the conference center. Rachel and Miriam were expert baby tenders, and Zoë was also a very helpful baby entertainer. Phoebe, for her part, was a chaos machine. However, she was really quite well-behaved on Friday. By Saturday, however, she'd had it and was a little more difficult to manage.

Anyway, it was just a wonderful time! I got to meet Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed, which was really cool. I'm discussing When Stars Are Scattered in my thesis, so it was lovely to hear a bit about their writing experience firsthand. 

Interesting mishaps

The weather has been beyond beautiful the last little while and it had been too long since we'd had a good jogging session, so today the kids and I went to the park for a run. The three older children all made biking goals this year, so they all rode to the park together. This gave me plenty of room in the back of the van to load the jogging stroller, Zoë's bike, and two of Alexander's bikes (his pedal bike, which he didn't want to ride but ended up riding, and his balance bike, which he insisted we bring along and which he didn't end up riding). 

I have a baby seat sitting in the garage but it doesn't seem to be able to attach to any of our bikes, otherwise I might have been persuaded to ride to the park with the kids. But instead I drove the younger three and all their gear (and all the water bottles) to the park. We completed our jog, did some plein air painting, played at the park, and then headed home. 

Once there, Zoë and Alexander obediently grabbed "stuff" from the van to carry inside, dropped everything in a pile just inside the door, and went to get themselves a snack, left me outside to deal with everything else (bikes, screaming babies, the whole kit and caboodle). 

I got Phoebe out of her seat and let her toddle around while I started unloading the back of the van. I took out the balance bike and put that away. Then I took out Alexander's pedal bike and just about put it away, but then I thought I would put Zoë's bike away first, since she has an easier time moving his bike to get to hers (compared to how difficult it is for him to move her bike to get to his). So her bike can go against the garage wall and then his bike can lean against hers.

Like most things in our house, bikes have to be doubled up to be put away. There are just too many of them to store them single-file. So I left Alexander's pedal bike behind Andrew's car while I reached inside the back of the van to pull out Zoë's bike. 

Keep in mind that Alexander's pedal bike has training wheels, so it stands upright on its own. This is good, because it meant that when Phoebe decided to push it back over to me it didn't topple over on top of her. 

It was also bad because it meant that as I was backing my way out of the back of the van carrying a bike, I toppled over on top of Alexander's bike that was suddenly parked directly behind my ankles. I didn't even hear Phoebe do it (since I was too busy grunting and clanging in the back of the van as I wrestled with Zoë's bike)!

So, there I was, a Mommy sandwhich—one bike under me, one bike on top of me. 

Not my finest moment. 

An evening out

Since we're not off adventuring, I decided we could at least spend a little time at the park together this evening. I joined a "buy nothing" group on Facebook, mostly to get rid of our bassinet and bouncy chair and other things Phoebe has finished with but we don't want to store, but you know me and a good deal (free...is the only "good" deal)...

Last week I made Andrew go pick up a pair of rollerblades. 

Today it was a collection of books. 

And the park was so close to where the books were that we decided to all go. It's been ages since we've all been to the park together. And by "all" I guess I mean "with Daddy."

They talk about how grad school is hard. And we lived it. And it was hard. 

But we hadn't heard how hard starting out on the tenure track was. For the record, that's hard, too! There is always, always, always more work to be done. Papers to write, papers to grade, courses to revise, etc. etc. etc. It's not a job you can really clock out of. So learning how to achieve balance—especially in a pandemic (when he had to redesign his classes at the drop of a hat and so forth)—has been an uphill battle. 

Spare change

 I have so much that I'm behind in writing about, but also so much to do that I'm finding it difficult to find the time I would like to write here. Other muses are calling, but I don't want this one to lose its importance.

For now I'll share a brief story that I wrote up for the Hancock Hummer (the family newsletter that I do, and which has for years and years been published the first weekend in April and the first weekend in October, but which I have put aside until now, and everyone has been so wonderfully patient; it's like the family elders all took an oath not to harass me about it (in the past I've gotten emails the first Sunday of the month if I hadn't sent it out the Saturday)). Perhaps they did. One of my mom's cousins has been organizing monthly cousin meetings via Zoom. 

Anyway...this is what I wrote in about Andrew: