Success!

I am so proud of my kids and their piano lessons. They take from me, which isn't ideal but it's cheap. Stop laughing. Mila will probably start with a "real" teacher sometime this spring. They are using Faber Piano Adventures books, and I have them use all 4--lessons, theory, performance, and technique & artistry. They even both asked for the special Christmas book, which they worked on for December. They both just finished up their levels today and started on their new books. Mila blew me away by playing the last song in her book--appropriately enough it was "Auld Lang Syne"--and then TRANSPOSING it into a different key. I was flabbergasted. I have learned so much . . . and the kids are sounding pretty good, too.

Answer to Prayers

My big boy went to scouts for the first time today. He is such a good boy. He was baptized and confirmed last Saturday, and I've been concerned that he's such a goofball . . . I really want him to be able to feel the spirit and recognize it. I love him so much, and I just see so much of myself in him . . . I know how unserious I was and how I wish I'd been more thoughtful. So I worry about him.

Today he was going out to play on the snow hill and I noticed he had no gloves on. He said he couldn't find them. I told him he couldn't play outside without them . . . if he would put them away when he came in, they would always be in the same place. Such a simple concept. He searched, but couldn't see them. The he said he was going to say a prayer. I begged in my heart that his prayer would be answered--that his faith would be strengthened, that he would feel the spirit and understand. Not one minute later he came triumphantly into the hall with the gloves. Oh I was thankful!

Shorts and undershirts

Merry Christmas! 

As I've been cleaning house in preparation for the holiday season, I found a little box of gently used clothes I was probably saving for Ellie. They might be too small now, though. Does anyone want a really cute pair of girl's tan shorts (knee length) and 4 white undershirts all size 6? 

This habit of mine is just my way to channel Aunt Janet. 

Hwathwugu . . .

Well, I know it has been forever since I posted anything, but I have been busy. Homeschooling, nursing every few hours, doing some freelance editing work, taking over the sewing project for One Heart, and doing some research for the Sugar-Salem education foundation . . . . I'm busy. Add to that Thanksgiving coming up and Christmas around the corner and I am going to have a nervous breakdown. Luckily Devan's mom, Ruth, has been coming over every Friday to help me and last week cleaned all of my cupboards. Love her.

We are excited to go down to see Meredith sealed to Ali and Scott this weekend, and then next weekend we'll go to Herriman to visit with Beebs and her family for a week. Looking forward to seeing everyone.

Rowan is Here!

After a long and distressing pregnancy (can you say "cankles"? I actually saw a NEWS REPORT about cankles during my last week) the boy has arrived. Rowan Spence Barker was born Sep. 1 and is as cute and sweet as they come. Delivery was OK, recovery not so much . . . but I'm slowly getting better. He's eating better, too--I am nursing and was producing nothing for several days. But now I runneth over. His "bris" site is healed . . . and his belly button no longer looks, as Mila said, like a raisin. She suggested that we all tape raisins into our navels in a show of solidarity. It's so fun to watch her with him--she is so gentle and sweet. Tallis also loves to cuddle his little brother and is really a wonderful big brother.

Well, that was short, but I must run. Or waddle, at least.

Rocks, Anyone?

Mila and Tallis have been engaged in entrepreneureal pursuits lately. Yesterday Tallis and his buddies had a rock sale and netted about $12. (No overhead!) Today Mila and her friends made cookies, lemonade, and picked raspberries . . . they sold their wares and brought in about $10. They both had a lot of fun, too . . . there are such good kids around here. Good kids who want to hold a rock sale, and good kids who will stop and buy a rock for ten cents.

The Exodus of the Pigs

The pigs have moved . . . out of Mila's bedroom into the garage. While one pig was not too smelly or messy, three pigs were a different matter altogether. They spend much of their day outside anyway, in one of those wire dog kennels that we turn upside-down so the mesh isn't too big for them to tunnel under. I'm not sure if pigs DO tunnel, but it is better to be safe than sorry.

Yesterday Devan moved the piggery down into the bay of the garage where he keeps his tools, and Beanie takes them out every morning when the grass is dry and we move them back in at night. Now and then we move their kennel around on the lawn, because they nibble the grass down so we have rectangular areas of very short grass; but they also fertilize the lawn, so in a day or two we have rectangular areas of very lush grass. They are quite sensitive to heat, so we have to keep them in the shade . . . otherwise we'd move them every hour and by the end of summer they would have mowed the entire lawn.

I enjoy taking them out little scraps--carrot tops, a slice of orange, salad too small to put back in the fridge--but my favorite is to watch them eat dandylions, which are their most-loved food. The other day one got hold of one end and another started at the other end and they met in the middle, just like on Lady and the Tramp.