Peter's experiment

A few days ago Peter spent a few hours (yes, a few hours) in the kitchen making experiments. I think this is a mixture of pickle juice and grape juice. I laughed so hard when I discovered it. I love being his teacher so much.

Country Wedding

My cousin got married recently to that greatest gal. Her family lives on a farm and they had the most amazing country wedding ever. It was actually the first country wedding I've ever been too, but I think it was worthy of a full cover spread in a magazine. When we got there two horses were even hitched up and ready to take the bride/groom where ever they needed to go. I love weddings so much. They are always such a good reminder to me of the wedding promises I have made. I also helps me to pause and take a moment to reevaluate how I am doing on those wedding promises. Mostly though, I just end up feeling a whole lot of gratitude for the person that found me.

Loving others more

I've been thinking recently about sin, especially in regards to the things I believe in as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It's been on my mind due to some things that have happened to people I know.

Once upon a time, a long-long time ago I was also asked to serve a large organization of women and I came to this same conclusion while I helped some of those women. The vast majority of people already know that when they sin, they are doing something wrong. When other people call them out on their sin it is like rubbing salt into a wound that is already very painful. So, in the vast majority of instances I choose to love the person instead of focusing on the sin.

After all, if the Savior was standing beside me, I know he would be doing the same thing.

Utah Lake

On a whim I decided to take my boys out to the Utah Lake Marina. I'd never been out there so we went and explored it together. Here are a few of my favorite pictures we got there:

Provo Airport is nearby. We saw 3 airplanes land.

 

 

Peter decided to take a selfie.

Lots of puzzles

Brandon and I have been on a puzzle craze the last month or so. We've added this card table to our permanent furniture in our bedroom. It's been so much fun to have something to work on when we have 5 minutes here or there. We thought this puzzle would be easier then the 1,000 piece puzzle we did, but all the blue/orange made it quite difficult. I think it took us almost 2 weeks to finish. We finished it at the perfect moment because next week we'll be learning about ocean habitats.

Pigs and Noodles

Each school morning the boys and I work on memorizing a part of a poem. This is a poem we finished memorizing a few weeks ago. It's such a funny poem, and we have all loved it.

Homeschool Views

A few of the many views of homeschool this month.

Growing butterflies

A few weeks ago I wrote about the eggs we were trying to hatch into caterpillars. Yeah, they never hatched. So, I resorted to buying caterpillars off the internet. We've had them for about three weeks, and it's been so fascinating to watch their progression. I have been blown away by their transformation, and the boys just think it's been cool. We've had 4 of them hatch so far and they last one should be emerging on Sunday or Monday. If we were headed towards warmer weather I would totally do it again. It has been such an incredible project.

Time for a new dishwasher

This dishwasher has been such a workhorse over the past five years. When we first moved into our home, I was super disappointed in the quality of this dishwasher. It was worse then the one we had left in our "newly married" apartment.

Over the years we have done everything we could to get the gunk out of the sprayers and try to stop the bottom rack from corroding worse then it already was.  It never did any permanent good. Then the seal around it failed and we ended up with pools of water on the floor. After that the dispenser failed so the past several months I've just taken the detergent and shook it into the door. It's just been limping along.

Months ago Brandon sat down and did some online research about good dishwashers (according to online reviews). The dishwasher at the top of the list became our goal. I was not willing to pay full price for it, so I waited and waited and waited until Labor Day to come. Thankfully, "our" dishwasher went on sale. So, off I went to purchase it. I shocked the lady at Home Depot when I walked in with the printout and told her I wanted to buy this dishwasher. It was so funny.

The night before the dishwasher came we unhooked the old and pulled it out of the way. The instalation guys were so impressed - in all reality, we were just doing what the instructions told us to do. Apparently, it was the first time they had ever arrived at a job and had the dishwasher completly unhooked.

The new one is so....shiny. I am a little intimated by the thing, but I know I will get used to it soon. I'm not a big fan of the handle on it. It is bulky and sticks out quite a bit. I can just barely open the cupboard drawer to the left. But, I am thankful that it was installed smoothly, and it's gone though 2 cleaning cycles like a champ. I feel so blessed.

Parents

Over the past three weeks a lot of changes have occurred for my parents. They realized their financial situation was no longer going to be able to sustain them in the coming months. So, they got busy, put their home up for sale, and moved. I am still in shock that they are actually gone. I'm even more surprised that the right decision was for them to move to Missouri to be near my sister, and to hopefully improve my Mom's health.

Thank goodness pictures can bring back so many happy memories. I will miss them so much, but I know that this was the right thing for them to do right now. My Dad was is so excited for this new adventure. Mom is excited to be close to Lisa and her kids.I told Brandon he is going to have to put me on a plane once they are all settled in.

Mom jammed her toe so bad she could hardly walk.

The old hen house

The "Farm"