Overdue update

I didn't die, but my computer did, which made any emailing/blogging hard, as the one usable computer is housed in David's office/Lucy's bedroom, which gives me between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. to use it, which is just about the time I am doing a thousand other things at once to feed people and get them in bed.

Yesterday, after a wonderfully long, hard day (more on that below), I told David I was tired. He said, "Well, tomorrow you only have two things to do: get up with everybody and do everything." What a sweet guy.

Ben is loving his life, he is so free and running around all the time, it has helped his behavior. He is happier, and I see him a lot less, and I don't know if that is a coincidence or not.

Sophie is great, looked so grown-up in her brand-new "Easter" dress (ie., week-after-Easter-is-cheaper dress). I'll have to get a picture for you. Her hair and legs are just growing longer and longer. Ma-in-law tested her and we have officially determined to have her stay in the Utah age range and do 1st grade over again next year. We applied to have her in Ma-in-law's class, and so far are approved to get her in that school, but waiting to hear if she'll go in the class. The school is way on the other side of town and probably not a long-term place for us, so if she's not in grandma's class, I don't know that it would make sense.

Noah is also just thrilled with his new life. He and Lucy are just out there with the rest of them, playing with the neighbors in back (we share a backyard fence, and they run around together all day) or the neighbors on the other side of the pasture, where Ben plays quite a bit, and their 3 YO Colton comes over often to play with Noah. He says he asked his mom, but I'm guessing it doesn't really matter since they are just outside in the pasture right between our houses. It really is a dream, I actually can just say, "I'll call you in for dinner." I was going to sign everyone up for various sports and music lessons, but I'm waiting. I'm enjoying my empty schedule and not spending that money.

Lucy's main word is "Shu!" Shu!" Which is her demand after being dressed each morning, because she wants to go outside and knows she needs shoes to do it. I assume she'll start talking more eventually.

I start a new job tomorrow as an instructor at a local charter school: Legacy Preparatory Academy. I'll be working PT in the mornings, mainly with the elementary kids doing 1-on-1 testing for end-of-year. Then it looks hopeful that I'd have a job teaching Jr. High English there in the fall FT. It pays about half of what I'd ask for if I went back into dumb corporate life, which is lame, but we think it will be more family friendly hours-wise. If I have to work, it seems like a better long-term solution.

It was a great confidence booster to be offered the immediate position in my interview! The interview had between 2-3 interviewers and was 90 minutes and rather rigorous ("Please summarize for us the last book you read," and "How would you incorporate the Logic phase of the Classical Trivium when teaching Call of the Wild or Lord of the Flies to Jr. High students," Thank heaven I'm well-versed in the trivium--thanks, homeschooling!). I stood up after having the short-term offer and said, "Well, I've had worse interviews," to which one of the interviewers, the only man, responded exasperatedly, "So have we!" Maybe I shouldn't be flattered, good teachers are maybe just hard to come by.

The school has a reputation of being a little bit snooty. However, the school is based on the classical education home schooling philosophy I've always held as my standard of education for my kids (outlined in The Well-Trained Mind). So, that's exciting. I'll be working on my credential as I go, with a provisional license from the state until I'm done.

Yesterday was the best day. It was finally warm enough to work outside, and we did, all day. I worked mainly on the front yard, although we did end up planting lettuce, peas and spinach in the west garden just as the sun went down. When we finished, I stood up and walked around the yard and pasture in the almost-dark, just amazed at how it's such a glorious dream come true, and realizing that I couldn't remember a day where I was sad to see the sun set on it, because I so loved what I was doing. Beats out Prozac any day (although today proves it only has short-term efficacy.)

On a sad note, I learned today that the owners of our home are in the process of buying the house and land just north of us, which means they will have access to their land-locked space in the middle of the block, so they'll now be free to build house to house and develop all these lots to death once our lease is up in 2 years. I've been holding out the unrealistic idea that I'd be in a position to buy this place at that time, so I'll be crying myself to sleep over that tonight. I secretly hoped we'd never have to move again, and can't bear the thought of making the kids leave here.

Well, back to brighter things, I have some pictures for you. This is a gigantic, old grape vine that is crawling up one of our gigantic, old pines. I'm going to try to get it down and retrain it to something more accessible than a 50-ft tree.



Just last week or so, it snowed, and my kids (unlike all the other kids here, who are DONE with snow) enjoyed it thoroughly. Here's Noah and Sophie.


This was our yard before, covered with about 2 year's worth of maple leaves:

We started the long process of putting them in pilesDavid trimmed the hedge (thanks for the hedger, Mosses!)
Lucy and Sophie bagged leaves (well, about a half a bag between them)
From the front yard alone, there were 10 huge leaf bags. We put them in the "forest" on the right of our driveway.
Here is our glorious new front yard!
Leaf free path!
Still has this random, ivy-covered monster on the left. I'm waiting for some buds on it to bloom and try to impress me before I hack it down and replace it with something else.
We decided to use most of the existing henhouse structure, so the pictures won't be as dramatic. Here is before (covered in even more grapevines!).
And here is after, roof-free.
Inside view
That night, I started all my tomatoes, 72 plants. Although I should have done this weeks ago . . .
Here is the project for next Saturday, and you can't even see really how huge this pile of old random wood and logs is. We have to clear the area around the henhouse, as this back, third space is better for chickens, we decided. What is in that old drum? I don't want to know. My guess is the henhouse has to be at least 50 years old, but I can't be sure. We are basically going to nail another exterior to the outside of it.

So, life is bittersweet. But what is new?

And it must needs be that the devil should tempt the children of men, or they could not be agents unto themselves; for if they never should have bitter they could not know the sweet—
Doctrine and Covenants 29:39

Well, tomorrow my Prozac will be trimming the skirts of the huge pine trees in back, we're going to take the branches off about 4' up to clean them up a bit.