Patio

We have poured the patio. My brother Jay's family got to be there for the occasion and it was very entertaining for their kids. The night before I came home to see the holes dug for the pergola and kind of panicked it was so big! The patio is already quite a bit larger than I had expected, 20'x20' and the pergola was almost the same size. Our contractor came over-- from across the street where he lives:)-- and was very kind and dug new holes in the dark so the pergola wouldn't be as large. It will be 16'x20'. I was very relieved.

Other than picking carpet or paint we have never made a decision in a design of something having to do with a home improvement, so this is completely new territory for us. We had been putting off getting bids but finally did it. It was pretty painless.

Ground prepared, rock added.

Cement mixer arrives, creating a crowd of neighborhood children spectators.
Very grateful it didn't crack the driveway.


Brackets in place for pergola


We make our mark.

Top color

Stamping

Now just don't walk on it!!

Later the next day Sonny came to power wash the cement to create a distressed look and now we are just waiting for it to be sealed.

Hard school year

This school year has been a tough one for Rebecca and I. A tremendous amount of effort from many sources went into her education after she was finally evaluated and it was agreed she has some learning disabilities. She spent the entire year being pulled out of class for 1/2 hr of math and 1/2 hr of reading every day designed for kids with learning problems. Sometimes that meant she missed things she wanted to do. It was a lot of work. Then she entered a program on Tuesdays and Thursdays after school for an additional hour of math.
This from last year where she was excelling at math. Very frustrating. Turns out when math moves from counting to memorizing Rebecca is lost. The numbers seem to be coming from nowhere.
Here's the thing. I feel that 6 hrs. of school is enough. Then to have even more in the form of an additional class after school is pushing it. But then homework on top of it? Are you kidding?
Rebecca did catch up in her reading but the math is a project for the summer in the form of 3 different home programs, multiplication to music, and tutoring.
So this brings me to my point: I lost it with her teacher last Friday. Completely. Rebecca got into the car devastated again. Feeling like she can't meet the expectation. Again.
Gripping my steering wheel and clenching my jaw I dropped off the carpool of kids with a friendly, "Hurry up and get out!" and then tore off back to the school.
In my mind I made a choice. Either I waited until I calmed down and probably would never say anything, or I just went in now and lay it all out on the table. Obviously I chose the first.

Though I said a lot of things there were some key issues I had--

1) No one can expect every child to be able to accomplish the same thing as every other child. This no child left behind thing is crap. Incentives and prizes were great for my first two children who did their assignments with little brain effort. I never thought about the poor unfortunates who worked their butts off and still couldn't meet the expectation--until now, when it is my daughter. And it is not fair. I don't care that life is not fair. She is my daughter and until you are a mother who has watched your child's happy image of herself slowly be chipped away by every failed attempt to meet an expectation she cannot possibly understand. DO NOT TELL ME ABOUT LIFE BEING UNFAIR. I get it.

2)What is the point,exactly, of learning about how many liters is in four gallons? What about an isosceles triangle? Does this really apply to everyday life? Before she can properly read is it important that she know what a synonym, antonym, prefix and suffix is? Why does she need to know this in 3rd grade? Why am I having to rack my brain or search the internet to help my child do her 3rd grade homework? Did I mention I got all A's in my English classes I took last year at BYU? Who came up with these requirements? Does the public system know there is no such thing a well-rounded curriculum? That in California you build missions from sugar cubes, the same way that Texan children build the Alamo, or Alaskan children build igloos? Is is really important for cognitive development to build something from sugar cubes?

3) This is the most important thing. If nothing else. If no change whatsoever occurs and the halls of Art City Elementary are filled with the whispers about that ranting, crying, mess of a mother who came in and flipped out the other day knowing there were only 3 1/2 days of school left. Just remember that my daughter knows I thought she was shortchanged and I fought for her. And in the end that is really all that is going to make a difference for Rebecca. Not that I believe in fighting all of the battles my kids are going to face. I've never done anything like this before. Ever. But everyone has their limits and Rebecca needed to know it was not ok with me and I thought she worked really hard.

After I came home the kids just looked at me with wide eyes.
Then Peter, who was loading the car up for Fathers and Sons camp-out came up to pat my shoulder and walked away. Smart man.
Sarah had a friend over for a sleepover and Rebecca and I left to celebrate her school year. I gave her the brand new baby doll I bought at a yard sale where the lady finally threw in one of her homemade outfits to sweeten the deal and Rebecca was thrilled.
Then we went to Red Lobster, her favorite restaurant. The manager set her baby doll up in a high chair while we ate lobster/artichoke dip and ordered the biggest platter of seafood with the lobster tail, crab legs, and two types of shrimp. Then we ate it all. Rebecca said she wished she would never get full. We talked about how dad and I met and how he asked me to marry him. We talked about when she was a baby and about how hard she was as a toddler and how great she is now.
I did not send her to the two hour long awards ceremony on Monday where she would not receive an award. We stayed home instead. I cleaned while she watched movies and played outside. Safe from a damaging day of wondering where she messed up.
Am I sheltering my child?
You bet.

John's Preschool Graduation

Face of the boy who brings joy and variety into our lives.

Miss Peggy's Preschool graduates 2010

I want John to marry this girl in the pink. She is so adorable I can hardly stand it.
She even seems she has taken a liking to John.
Score!!

6th grade graduation

Sarah graduated from 6th grade last week, which Peter calls a "celebration of mediocrity." At least that was his excuse for playing with his itouch until I would jab him and say, "Get this one!" He was supposed to be manning the video camera while I did the still pictures. He completely missed them calling her name and her baby picture up on the overhead. Very annoying.


They sang a whole lot of songs, including "There Can Be Miracles" from Prince of Egypt, which kinda got me teary! This is the girl's number from Sarah's 6th grade program. Forgot the name of the musical--something Molly--and the boys did one from "Newsies." The last song, which is always a big production was "Footloose" and had kids doing flips down the aisles and girl/boy dancing which got the audience all hooting and howling. Peter and I had to stand through the whole hour and a half program because of a major lack of chairs. Plus we didn't get there an hour in advance.

The kids were SO glad to have this thing over with!!
And I think the teachers and parents weren't too sad either.

My new bird feeder

I hung a bird feeder over the front porch so we could see it out the living room window. It has been really cool and Peter took these pictures of them, which came out pretty good considering they were out of a window!



Silly birds keep getting stuck in the feeder when the birdseed runs out and they crawl through the holes. Then I have to go and rescue them by pulling them out the top.
This bird is looking at me like heh, are you going to do something about this or what?

Track 2010

Nathaniel finished track recently. He ended up with both jogging class and PE in the same semester and so with track practice after school he would run up to 5 miles a day on top of doing P90X in PE. I was very impressed that he did all of this and it has definitely created a more lean, even more ravenously hungry boy.

Almost looks like he is smiling here! The boys in front are fast. Some of these kids regularly run in triathlons and marathons. They are very competitive as you might imagine.

This last event was kind of left to those who stayed for the whole meet because by this time everyone is exhausted and just wants to go home. Needless to say the boys weren't going their fastest. The meets ran at least 3 hrs and the last one went all day. Peter and I took turns on that one.
He did well, scored some good points for his team and plans on doing it next year. I asked him if he was planning to try out for the high school track team (the Jr High goes through 9th grade, but you can run on the high school team if you qualify) and he said no. He wanted to be able to show up all those 7th and 8th graders. Oh Nathaniel. You kill me.

My first goaround with the Bosch

Kind of sad I didn't get to use this until yesterday, but with Peter gone this week it just didn't happen. The bread came out divine and quite light, and trust me I've made a lot of bricks so I think I can judge this with some authority.

Some people have been impressed that I actually grind the wheat. It isn't because I'm Molly Homemaker (though I try to be:) and really there are three reasons.

1) I actually get to use my wheat! We have always used our food storage in one way or another because it is easy to use beans, or sugar, or flour, but wheat? I just didn't fall in love with the smorgasbord of wheat delights we were able to sample at this Relief Society function I went to one time. Wheat cereal in my crockpot? Wheat chili? Wheat meat? Are you serious?
But bread is something we can all love and I'm kinda hard on my kids about eating whole wheat. Of course I didn't know about the difference between red and white hard wheat until I moved here, which would have been nice to know--I never would have bought so much red. I've also starting buying it in buckets instead of canning it and that has worked lots better too. I've almost gone through a whole bucket and this makes me more proud of myself than it probably should.
2) Grinding it fresh makes better bread I think. But grind it right before you use it.
3) It is SO much easier than I thought it would be. Sincerely and truly. I have a Whisper mill and love it. Works great and cleans up very easily.

Of course in here in Mormonland I have lots of neighbors who actually grind their wheat and make their own bread all the time, and have for years, which is probably what gave me the confidence to finally use my wheat grinder for the first time. I guess I thought it would be complicated and awkward to set up and take down. It's not. I promise.

The batch I made gave me 4 loaves, which is currently all I have pans for. Guess I should get more. Everyone has been devouring them and they are almost gone already. Even Mr. John picky man has been eating it all day. Very positive sign. Except that is all he will eat today.
And yesterday.
I'm wondering how this is going to affect the system...hmm.