Aunt Linz, Harris Bday, Gettysburg, and Everything Else.

Harris turned 4!!!!!

As per usual, the name pancakes. Though Dan has decided that my efforts to create the letters from the batter are futile and thus has decided to cut the letters out of existing round pancakes with a pizza cutter.

He's kinda right. That does look a lot better. You can actually read his name. Though it does crush me at the same time. I look forward to trying to flip over a ridiculous letter every single time. H's are really hard, for example.

I made my famous chocolate cake again, except only two layers instead of four like for June's birthday. Because we ate June's birthday cake forever.

Presents!!

In other news, we finished up our school year. YAYAYAYAYAY!! The last three weeks of school, we did nothing other than math. Because we need lots of math help in this house. So we spent all day everyday doing math. Math math math. It was exhausting. I ended every session needing a nap. BUT. We did it. The girls each finished their last lessons, and then on the final day they each had to take a (1) chapter test, (2) unit test, AND (3) and final test, encompassing what they learned over the whole year. June got 100% on that final test, and Gwen missed one. I almost cried. Tears of joy and tears of exhaustion mixed together with snot from allergies did not a pretty Heather make, but no matter. It's over. (For now. It's never really over.)

June's last chapter was on reading gauges which was a welcome change after many weeks of 4-digit and then 5-digit subtraction with regrouping. Reading gauges was the best chapter ever. June made this last gauge into a pie for fun.

Except pie is rarely fun. Rarely. Not fun to make or eat. In the fruitcake category.

Dan came home from his workout at the YMCA the other day to inform me that a free soccer clinic was starting that day for kids Harris's age. Free is my price, so I signed him up and actually had the forethought to ask if Gwen could come as well. Gwen was supposed to start soccer last year but then her season went online with Covid. As you can imagine, online soccer is the worst. So they let her join in on Harris' group, which was awesome because of course Harris refused to actually participate. My favorite drill of the workshop was the one where I had to drag his comatose prostrate body off the field so that other excited and willing-to-play soccer participants could actually, you know, play soccer.

Gwen was one of the willing. She loves to play. She and Harris go every week, and Gwen runs and kicks and plays and Harris whines and sits and lies down. 

More amazing Come Follow Me lessons by Dan. Dan is a huge fan of the explaining the organization of the church using cups like he did on his mission, and so these red cups he labeled for our own family get a lot of use.

I didn't know what to expect with this portion of the lesson with a tent and Dan carrying a lot of balls, but he ended up talking about the hard challenges we face in life, calling examples out by name, while pelting the balls at the kids. "War!" Pelt. "Disease!" Pelt. "Loneliness!" Pelt and pelt. Effective. And scary.

Aunt Linz came into town, and it was the best. We had a visitor! It always feels special but especially after this past year. It was so fun. We went to Gettysburg, Amish Country, and just hung around the house.

It was somewhat chilly but sunny as we drove to Gettysburg, and then suddenly a snowstorm hit. Five minutes later, we had blue skies and no sign of the snow. It was a crazy drive.

At Devil's Den at Gettysburg. (No, I don't generally have my kids wear masks outside. June just likes wearing a mask whenever she thinks it smells bad. Which, when you live in rural Pennsylvania, is kinda often.)

Right after going to the museum:

Linz said that the film shown was amazing. I am hoping to see it one day, but if Beck's with us, it won't be that day.

Beck! 

Beck is a total KOOK. We thought we were setting records for how early he needs to be taken out of Sacrament Meeting, but now we have to take him out before it even starts. He's LOUD and ZANY and MISCHEVIOUS. If you say, "Beck, come here!", he looks back at you with a devilish grin and runs away faster. He hits. He bites. He is very very cute. He's all of it at the same time.

And I had an early meeting today, so Dan got the kids ready AND even remembered to take a picture. What a guy.

THE END.

Back It Up.

 I have a lot to catch up on. 

But first, I had to document this pivotal moment in Harris's life this past week when he scaled a mountain by himself and needed help getting back down. Here is that dangerous mountain:

After he climbed up and realized how high up he was, he screamed and cried and begged for help. Of course I, being full of compassion and motherly love, couldn't get my laughing body off my bed to help him. I kept calling out, "Just step down!" and he would yell, "I can't!!!" This went on for awhile, I'm ashamed to admit. It was just the laugh I needed at that moment.

In other news, the weather is getting so much better. SPRING! And with Spring, we have been doing many outdoorsy things.

First off, hundreds of thousands of snow geese stop at a wilderness preserve about 20 minutes from our house every spring on their way back home from their winterly migration. And with the hundreds of thousands of snow geese come hundreds of thousands (not really, but lots) of Pennsylvanians to watch them fly around.

Yes, I was partially covering my head because I was afraid they would poop on me. That has happened to me before, both literally and metaphorically. 

Entire green hilltops looked like they were snow-capped from all of the white geese sitting on them. It was fun, it was beautiful AND this homeschooling mom got to check the box for science that day with ease. 

Because we all know that I'm amazing at science.

We have also done many, many trips to the park and creek by our house. The first time we went after it turned warm, June was doing what she does--observing nature. And so the second time we went back, she came prepared with rain boots and jars and a backpack full of "equipment". She waded out into the creek and collected shells and water samples and cattails and a bunch of other things. That girl IS a scientist through and through.

We also were able to dog-sit for 45 minutes one day. VERY exciting.

I'm beginning to feel myself cave on the dog front. I have so many people telling me NOT to do it because they are so much work, and I have a plethora of small children that already need help. But I could see a dog being extremely beneficial to June. Thoughts?

Also, we bought a butterfly kit on Amazon, and after two weeks all of the caterpillars formed their chrysalis:

Here you can see all of them in the chrysalis except for the one on the very left, who hadn't formed it yet but was in the preceding J-shape. Wouldn't it be amazing if they emerged on EASTER DAY!!?!?

Science lessons? Check check check. I've found that I am not the best science teacher but I'm a decent science facilitator. I will provide the experiments and the materials and the books. Luckily, my girls are both very self-motivated in this area.

Last week, we studied about the armor of God, and of course Dan went all out.

June turned 9! Gwen made her a birthday crown.

And Gwen and Harris and I made her a candy bar poster.

I feel like birthdays should be fun and spontaneous and full of adventure, but I came up with an idea that kinda kills all of those ideals but also guarantees a good experience. I made up a worksheet for each birthday kiddo to fill out at the beginning of the month where they can pick their family activity, type of cake, type of presents, and what they would like for birthday dinner.

June picked to go to the movies. Of course, we are lucky to have a best friend living next door and he's always up for our shenanigans.

And she had her favorite dinner of shrimp, cheesy grits (which were burned and yes she did notice), corn on the cob and a super duper chocolatey cake.

Which means I have been a mom for 9 years. What in the world. 

The End.

The Truth Is I Like Little Kids.

Whenever I babysat in my teen years, I would literally count down the minutes until the parents of my charges would come home. Starting the minute they left. And if they came home later than they had told me, I would get upset. Not outwardly, because I needed to keep making money. But inwardly, I was seething.

I didn't like little kids! I didn't know what to do with them. They were whiny. They had lots of questions. I couldn't be bothered.

When I was on the hospital bed and ready to push June out, I said to Dan, "I don't think I really want to be a mom." That is a true story.

My kids have been a great pleasant surprise. Not immediately, and not all at once. I mean yes, of course I loved my babies as they came to me. But I was still convinced I was not a little kid person. In my mind, I was waiting until they were older when we could have better conversations and fun experiences together. Because little kids are still whiny and they still have lots of questions and I still don't like being bothered.

(June and Gwen enjoy hot chocolate after a cold day outside. With marshmallows AND whipped cream. Of course.)

But something has happened this past year. Maybe it's that I have a baby that I can actually enjoy because I'm not pregnant with another one. Maybe it's because my kids are great ages for making friends and for playing and they are each other's best friends.

(Beck, self portrait.)

Maybe it's the homeschooling. It has made me get to know them in a different way. I used to send them to school and be relieved at the quieter time when they were gone. Now there is no relief and no real quiet time. I had to settle into that feeling and grow into it.

(Harris, self-portrait. Apparently, my kids steal my phone a lot.)

Now, I will always be the kind of person who needs alone time and time to recharge and all that. We hire babysitters and go on dates and take our kids to activities and to play with friends. We all have boundaries.

But I really love being around my little kids.

Here are some pictures of me growing up. I don't know why I wasn't in more Gap commercials. Or any Gap commercials.

That humongous duffel bag looks convenient!

Why was I in such a bad mood when I was having such a good hair day?

Here's a pic of RIGHT NOW. June reading over my shoulder while I blog. She just said to me, "Maybe you were upset in that last photo because the school bully had picked on you that day."

Probably, June. Probably.

Happy Sabbath!

THE END.

VALENTINE'S DAY 2021

 Some fun things from this week:

June had to take a standardized test via Zoom this week. Yeah I was excited. Standardized testing PLUS zoom? My favorite. It's a requirement here in Pennsylvania for homeschoolers in the third, fifth and eighth grades. So we zoomed it up with a nice proctor on Friday. I so badly believe in my heart that each kid is different and so badly want to NOT care about test scores. But when I received the results and they were better than expected, I admit that I was relieved. We have been extremely diligent with our homeschooling but I do feel like if things don't go perfectly, the first response by some will be "Oh that's because they homeschooled." Silly, I know. I need to not worry about that.

Anyway, there were some great Juneisms during the test. 

One of the questions was:

There are four hotel rooms and three people in each hotel rooms. How many people are there in all?

June's response: There should only be two people in each hotel room.

June also did what June does best--called the shots in an adorable way. When she didn't like one of the multiple choice answers, she told the proctor to cover it up. Sometimes the poor proctor was trying to hold up the book of pictures for June to look at, while also trying to cover up three of the pictures. She was kind and patient.

Other times, June told the proctor that all of the multiple choice answers were wrong and that she should really fix that.

Halfway through a segment on graphs, June declared that she was "bored" and wanted to do a section where she could read funny stories.

On another math problem, the proctor asked June "How many times does 3 go into 18?"

We have not approached division yet, so I wasn't expecting much here. June said, "Well first I think I need to figure out how many times 3 goes into 8."

"Okay," I thought to myself. "This is about to get wild."

June pulled out eight fingers and counted them in many weird ways. And then at the very end of it, solemnly said, "4 +2=6. The answer is 6."

Which, of course, WAS the correct answer even though she didn't get there by any logical means. I could tell the proctor felt a little weird giving her credit for that one.

At any rate, we survived, and it was a little better than expected.

In other family news, we watched "Marley and Me" for Friday Fun Night. My kids want a dog SO BADLY, and I cannot handle that right now. So Dan questioned my movie choice for the week. 

"You know this is just going to make them want a dog more, right?" he asked. This is fair, but I also just wanted to watch something we hadn't watched before. There were many times in the movie where I felt completely justified in my hard stance against the dog. That Marley was messsssssssssssssssy. But I could also see the value that Marley brought into his family's life. At the end, when he had to be put down, everyone was a mess. My kids, who had previously been loving every second of the movie, were extremely mad.

"BAD MOVIE BAD MOVIE!" Gwen screamed.

June declared, "Whoever made this movie must have been a MISERABLE! PERSON!"

So I guess that was a bust?

And in closing, we had our annual Valentine's Day breakfast this morning.

A heart trail leading down the stairs . . .

And to the kitchen!

And church!!!

Harris refused to be in the photo. Of course!!!

The ENDDDDDDDDDDDDD.

Just Real Quick.

Dan and I have had many talks lately about priorities and what we need to let go of and what we need to spend more time on. We are both very busy with church callings, and our Sundays are very full. Sundays are my usual blogging day, but lately they have been full of so many meetings for the both of us that I have let my weekly blogging slip. Dan told me not to be too hard on myself and change my weekly goal to monthly. But I just want to do it more than that! So here's my attempt to do a shorter blog post.

Sometimes I feel like my kids are not very independent. I think about all of the chores I want to teach them to do, but then they don't happen because having a kid do a chore takes 39284723 times the number of minutes and the amount of energy than just doing it myself. But June asked to make lunch for everyone this week, and I said yes. I was nervous because June LOVES messes. We clean her room almost every day because it's so messy and hard to navigate.

She and Gwen have been poring over Cooking with Clifford, which the kids convinced me to buy from a garage sale or library discard pile or something awhile back, and now it has come back to haunt me. Because the recipes are not good. But all by herself, June made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, rolled them out with my rolling pin, and then cut into shapes with our cookie cutters and served them to Gwen and Harris. Gwen was delighted to eat a butterfly-shaped smooshed sandwich. This week we are doing jello because Cooking with Clifford even makes jello seem exciting.

Also, Dan had the chance to take the kids out on the loop one day, and being Dan the Fun Parent, as opposed to Mom the Enforcer, he came up with this genius idea:

That is Harris on his big wheel pulling Gwen on her rollerblades. There has only been a little crying.

We continue to work on the human body for science. We are taking it really slowly because June actually likes to learn about each and every little thing. I had checked out a book about digestion, but June had read it before I had the chance to read it to her. She has loved explaining over and over how poop is made.

I constantly play classical music at my house. We study artists and musicians. We read tons of literature. But learning how poop is made will always win when it comes to subject matter.

And church today:

The kids were pretty good at church today. Beck is always hard, but the others did fine. As hard as he is, I find myself getting sad that he's leaving baby stage. 

The End.

Getting It Done.

My goal for 2021 is organization. That is my only goal. I have a good workout routine (not great, but good), I'm reading some books (not a ton, but a few). My desire to strengthen my piano playing skills and re-learn Romanian have been moved to the backburner. I'm 36 and finally accepting that I cannot have multiple goals while also raising young kids. Raising young kids IS the main goal and whatever goal I pick has to feed into that. Especially while we homeschool. I have so many mixed feelings on homeschooling but that is a post for another day. (Short version: It's the best and worst. It's working but I'm tired. I burn out easily, but I'm learning how to better avoid that.)

Not only can I only work on a very few things at a time, I have also learned that I was often setting up competing goals. Dan often tells of a story he read about NASA. One year, NASA had goals to be more efficient, more frugal, and stronger that ever (I'm butchering this story but stay with me). But of course if they wanted to be more stronger, they would need to spend more money. This hurt their goal to be frugal. If they wanted to be efficient, they needed get rid of some of the programs that were making them stronger, but taking up more time. And so on. 

That's me. I am NASA. Every year, it's like "I'm going to be so healthy and only cook meals with real foods and also we are going to save so much money while also spending more time outside." And then I remember how it costs more and takes more time to eat those supposed whole foods and that robs us of our outside time. And the vicious cycle continues, and I can't keep it up.

So this year. Organization. That's a broad topic, but it's my focus. I want to pick one facet in my life and organize it a little. No overhaul. Just a little bit. And not move on until I'm ready to.

So many of you have been unable to sleep, tossing and turning and wondering, "WHAT IS HEATHER'S GOAL FOR THIS YEAR?" And now you know. Aren't you glad I took the time to be longwinded and tell you every single thought that has ever occurred in my head?

School is back in full swing for us. 

Gwen has become proficient at labeling the Eastern United States, but I discovered this week that she doesn't always know what the abbreviations stand for.

Rollerblading continues. Dan set up an obstacle course to help June learn to turn better.

We didn't have church last week because of a snow storm. It felt great to go back this week, especially since I am no longer playing the organ at church. I actually love playing the organ, but our kids need two adults to sit with them. Beck is usually screaming, so Dan takes him out and the other kids are left to their own devices.

And their devices are juvenile delinquency. 

Beck couldn't decide if he wanted to be in or out of the photo this morning, so we have both for your viewing pleasure.

And then the girls asked me to take pictures of their bums jumping up and down. This is a weekly ritual.

The End.

Jolley Christmas Letter 2020

 

November 26, 2020

Dear Friends, Family, and Foes (Now you’ll wonder which you are!),

Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year from the Jolleys! I have half-dreaded writing the newsletter this year because of the Covid pandemic. I’ll keep it simple and say this. I’m grateful for the gift of being alive in the year 2020. Truly we have learned a lot this year. And one of those things is that Jesus Christ is the only constant in our lives.

We moved to Pennsylvania in January and bought our first home. We have a wonderful community here. The pandemic has slowed down our ability to make deep relationships with many people, which means people don’t know us well yet. Thus, we may actually be able to stay here awhile. We have been homeschooling this year, and while we have had some of our highest highs, there have been some hard days with plenty of tears shed. And a couple of times the kids cried too.

Dan loves his new life with the Hershey Chocolate Company. He is living his best middle-aged, father-of-four dad life, complete with showing up to any and all family functions in a polo with a work logo on it.  He has met the challenges of working from our loud and chaotic home with ingenuity. The biggest challenge was our resident creepy crawler (baby Beck) covertly entering the office and climbing underneath the desk to pull out Dad’s leg hairs during Zoom meetings. Dan corrected this by building an extensive barricade in the entryway of our home. It looked like the set of Les Miserables for a while until we could get some doors installed there. To top off the “dadness” of it all, he gives me a weekly report on the patches of dry grass he’s worried about on our lawn. I didn’t know exactly when we would become our parents, but this year was definitely it. 

June turned 8 this year and was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Dan enjoyed listening in on her interview with our pastor, which conversation veered from the promises we make when we are baptized to the number of survivors on the Titanic. Because June loves a good Titanic conversation. June also became a full-on, no-training-wheels-bike-rider this year and often loves to go ride “the loop” our house sits on when things at home are just too chaotic. She also reads more than anyone I know, which has been a good problem except for the one morning I woke up and realized that June had never gone to bed.

Gwen turned 6 this year and is just like her mama. She tells you more than you would ever need to know and she laughs harder and yells louder than anyone in the room. She loves playing the piano, listening to books, and doing crafts (okay, the similarities stop there). Gwen never likes to be alone and will join me in the early hours for a workout, where she will offer such helpful comments as “You’re not doing it right.” She keeps us laughing, and we need that.

Harris turned 3 this year and loves saying no to just about anything you could ask him. He insists on wearing the same t-shirt and shorts almost all of the time. He loves to help me cook and has even been learning to flip pancakes. Like any 3-year-old, his independent streak is a bit stressful. It’s so great that he wants to learn things; it’s not so great that he insists on carrying the cookie pie to the new neighbor’s house (which ended up face down on their porch).

Beck turned 1 this year and is a good sleeper but crazy when he’s awake. He’s the reason I have asked to leave the tree undecorated this year. I’m wondering if we should go even farther and turn the tree on its side all December. He still doesn’t talk a ton, but has mastered the one word worth yelling at all times-- “MOM!”

I want to make a joke here about how there is no room left for me, but when I go back and read what I wrote about everyone else, I see that I subconsciously inserted myself throughout. Now you know how things really go around here. It’s the Heather show, and I’m grateful to my family for loving me anyway.  Our family is blessed because of Jesus Christ and also our associations with all of you.

Love, The Jolleys