Summer Highlights

"If odour were visible, as colour is,

I'd see the summer garden in rainbow clouds."

~Robert Bridges~

I always have mixed feelings about summer. First of all, I really don't enjoy temperatures anywhere above about 80 degrees, and even then I need a breeze. Somewhere in the back of my mind I have this ingrained idea that summertime should equate to "the lazy days of summer," yet I don't seem to have many of those, and that idea is in direct opposition to Aesop's fable of "The Grasshopper and the Ants," which is also ingrained in my head. This often leaves me feeling raw, as if I'm in the middle of a great tug of war between multiple personalities!

Being a baseball family, summertime is packed with travel, travel, and more travel, and a lot of late nights under the lights of ballfields. While I love the inspiring changeup of seeing the world through a roadtrip and being in different places, and I love watching my kids play ball, the work is stacked up when I get home and all those late nights make it hard to get up and get the outdoor chores done in the cooler morning hours.

I love a rocking and rolling summer thunderstorm and the positively delicious aroma of rain on the wind as it kisses the dry earth. I love the heavy perfume of a patch of petunias and the invigorating smell of a just-mowed lawn or a field of cut hay. I don't like mosquitoes, earwigs, grasshoppers, and fruit flies. It's a mixed bag, for sure.

I wouldn't trade four distinct seasons for anything, though. Each has its blessings and banes. As always, gratitude and attempts at balance go a long way in a happy life.

As August slips away, I like to look back and see where I've been and what I've done so I know the summer didn't just pass me by and leave me wondering "Where did the summer go?" Even acknowledging small delights and happy surprises keeps the scales of joy and contentment tipped in my favor. Here are a few highlights of this year's summer.



A round of family Frisbee golf in a canyon park, with the inevitable retrieving of a stuck Frisbee,
which was followed by the inevitable Insta Care visit for a tetanus shot:

Ma and Pa Swallow, returned to raise another brood on my front porch:

Encountering an entire bush in motion with moths...

...and catching one!

Embracing gravity with friends:

Reflecting on the ways that God keeps his promises:

Seeing sacrifice and perseverance pay off:

Summer night lights:

Shoshone Falls:

Seeing, smelling, touching, tasting red:

Simple joy in a cute pair of festive shoes (and, no, I don't have another pair exactly like this :) )

Field trips and  bucket list destinations:

Watching my stars shine:

FINALLY having a close encounter with a muskrat, after nearly a dozen wetland field trips:

Being torn between watching the ball game and watching the osprey who were watching the ball game:

Experiencing triumph in tests and trials, gratitude for miracles and medicine, recognition and respect for the power and reality of the priesthood, and witnessing the wonder of the human body and its ability to heal:

My first (very cool) encounter with a Western Tiger Swallowtail caterpillar:

Apricots! Early spring weather finally cooperated to give us a great summer harvest:

Peachy paradise in crepes and smoothies and in juicy goodness dripping down my chin and wrist:

A sweet-tart plum harvest turned into jelly and fruit leather and more smoothies:

Watching my boy bloom where he's planted:

Celebrating another year of marriage:

Discovering a "new" swimming hole:...

...and meeting the swimming hole's local residents:

Conquering some personal fears and inhibitions and loving it:

Getting one missionary ready to leave:...

...and welcoming one missionary home:

Having the whole family together again:

Some additional highlights include some media that was particularly special this summer.

Here Comes the Boom is not a new movie; it's been around for a few years. We didn't know anything about it, though, until one of my kids saw it on the shelf at the library and checked it out. We. Love. This. Movie. Besides being funny and entertaining, it has some good messages and things to think about, especially in the realm of education and inspiration, as well as the American Dream and citizenship.

The following videos are to songs that meant a lot to me this summer. I'm not necessarily recommending the videos because as I've posted previously, videos often ruin songs for me (though I do like these ones). But they're the easiest and most legal way to share music. So, if you don't want your perception of the music influenced by the videos, play them and listen with your eyes closed.

The first song is "Humble and Kind" sung by Tim McGraw. I don't normally listen to country music, but I love, love, love this song and it has influenced me greatly this summer. I came to listen to it while driving my son to a doctor's appointment. The song came on the radio and not knowing it but realizing it was country, I switched the station. My son said, "Don't!  Go back. I like that song." Naturally I wanted to hear it if he was so insistent, just to see what he liked about it. And then my whole world changed, along with how I look at my son.

These next two songs are by Paul Cardall. Interestingly, they are on a CD I have had for years but not listened to. I got the CD for free during some promotion, listened to it once, and at the time decided there was only one decent song on the album. This summer I was cleaning out some things and was about to toss the disc in a giveaway pile when I decided to listen to it one more time to be sure it was junk. What I've come to believe is that I was meant to have this CD but I needed to really hear it for the first time now. I wouldn't have purchased it, then or now, so it was given to me. I think I had a sort of stupor over it when I received it so that when I needed the message in these songs, they'd be "new" to me and therefore have more of an impact.

Well, summer is over. It would be a sad, sad thing if summer ended and there was no autumn to trail it so gloriously. I hope your summer was blessed. If you think it wasn't, or that it was over too soon, make a highlight reel for yourself to count your summer blessings.

Life's Other Lessons

It has been a very long time since I have posted anything. That's not for lack of things to post; on the contrary, there are so many posts that I planned and wanted to share that my brain feels the high-powered pressure of being jam packed with things needing to get out so I don't have to store them cerebrally anymore. I am frustrated because many of them were things pertaining to autumn or certain days or lessons this past autumn, and I like things to get posted neatly, tidily, and in chronological order. But there hasn't been a single neat, tidy, chronological stitch in any facet of my life since September, so why should my blog be any different? 

You may recall our September disaster wherein a dishwasher leak ruined my kitchen. We are just now getting our kitchen back--went three months without one. It has been...an interesting experience. All of the real business of tearing the rest of everything out--the rest of the cabinets, flooring, etc.-- happened the day before Thanksgiving, which made for a real memory-making holiday. Getting everything put back into place wasn't the jubilee I thought it would be, either. Part of that is because we took on tiling the floor ourselves; part of that is that just because things are new, it doesn't mean they are perfect. And a house full of people living their lives makes all new things "lived in" in a hurry.

In some ways all of this was an interruption. There are definitely some plans that were waylaid. In other ways, however, we learned many lessons that couldn't and wouldn't have come any other way, and those kinds of lessons are almost always way more important than anything I might have planned. 

There were real-life applications of subjects learned:

Even a kid had to measure and draw lines for cutting the tile to fit certain places.

So glad to have an older son who was experienced
with tools and machinery from some manufacturing
and construction classes so he could cut tile.

Working together, everyone with their own responsibility, to get the job done.

We learned how to really work together as a family. If every single one of us hadn't picked up some tools and rags and whatnot and pitched in, my poor husband would probably still be laying tile. We were ALL up into the wee hours almost every night for a week, under the pressure of rented things needing to be returned and the deadline of upcoming installations. It was hard work. It wasn't fun at all. But I am so proud of how everyone just did it, and that we did it together. None of us knew much at all about tiling a floor before this, but we sure know a lot now. We also learned that things are just things. That life can be fulfilling without them, life can go on and even happily in any state, and that even in a state of complete chaos there can be peace and joy and fantastic moments that cement not just tile, but a family together.

The Spirit of God

It kind of feels like Christmas. That full, happy, peaceful feeling at the end of something wonderful and enriching, where you're standing at the intersection of holiday and tomorrow, blissful and still glowing but ready to cross the street to the "regular" days afterward. After a refueling, renewing weekend of General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I am always ready to go to work, at being better and doing better.

I continue to be amazed at how much Conference is filled with the Spirit of God. So much so that just a couple of chords from the organ at the Conference Center can start the tears flowing as I feel an enormously warm peace envelop me with the feeling that I am as close to "home" as I can get here on Earth--home being that Heavenly Home in the presence of my Father. There is something so powerful in the unity of the gathering of the faithful and the outpouring of  direction from prophets, seers, and revelators; try as I might I cannot find words to describe what I feel, but I know when I feel the Spirit of God.

If this isn't the sound of Heaven, I don't know what is.

A Human Master and Example

I am so impressed with Jake Weidmann and cannot wait to introduce him to my children next week when we begin the next phase of "Make the most of yourself..." The videos below are inspiring!

I have been lamenting the demise of handwriting in schools for a while now and even in our homeschool no argument I've given thus far has spurred all of my children to believe it necessary. If this guy doesn't inspire them, nothing will! Mostly my arguments have centered on handwriting being a "language." After all, if you know nothing of handwriting you can't read Grandma's letters, or anything in your family history papers that isn't an official document. And I think it a terrible travesty if one cannot read the Declaration of Independence--one of the greatest things penned in the history of the world--in its original form. But some of my children have been certain they will never need that skill and thus think it a waste of time to develop it. Jake has compelling reasons for every child to learn handwriting. 

I've also been arguing more and more frequently against the mechanising of people. While I do love my washing machine and dishwasher, and I'm obviously finding a (hopefully) good use for a computer, I mostly adhere to the adage, "When you create a machine to do the work of a man, you take something from the man." We are human beings and shouldn't be reduced to informational texts (no thanks, Common Core) but should relish in the creativity, honesty, and humanity of excellent literature; and while there are many useful blessings of technology, it should never replace the face to face, real human touch. Again, Jake's example of mastering a human skill is breathtaking.

"One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men.

No machine can do the work

of one extraordinary man."

-Elbert Hubbard-

Work Like a Beaver

I believe that every one of God's creations has a purpose. Some, it might seem, are simply to fuel the food chain, and I admit there are creatures that repel and baffle me. But many more intrigue and delight me--and I believe that a portion of the measure of their creation is to teach valuable lessons.

Take the beaver. Second only to human skill, beavers have the amazing ability to manipulate and change their environment. How do they do this? They work! Occasionally beavers will burrow into muddy banks, but more often they work to transform less suitable habitats into happy homes. And how do they work? Together...as families. 

A group or family of beavers is called a colony. The dam or dome built is home for extended families of monogamous parents, their young kits, and yearlings born the previous spring. Each member of these families has a job to do to contribute to the home. Don't believe me? Watch the video below. 

I was fortunate on my trip to Alaska to be able to watch a beaver family hard at work in the late evening (10:30 p.m. as it was in the Land of the Midnight Sun) and stand just five feet from the adult beaver featured here with my camera.  There were two other grown beavers busy in the immediate area that I could see that I didn't film. Listen closely for the little kits' childlike noises and observe how even the youngest members of this family do their part as they are able. (Occasionally the camera will go out of focus as the beavers move, but it will clear up quickly.)

Chapter 13 of Strengthening Our Families by The School of Family Life at Brigham Young University is titled, "The Meaning and Blessings of Family Work." It is packed with so much. Here are a few highlights:

• Some people think that it was Adam and Eve who were cursed when they left the Garden of Eden. It was the ground that was cursed, FOR THEIR SAKE, meaning that the hard work of eating bread "By the sweat of thy face" was meant to be a blessing. (See Moses 4:23-25)
• Likewise, the labor of bringing forth and caring for offspring was a blessing unto salvation for Adam and Eve (and all of us).
• "Family work links people. It does so by providing endless opportunities to recognize and fill the needs of others. In every dispensation of time, in every culture, whether in poverty or prosperity, people need to be fed, clothed, sheltered, and succored. Family work is universal and, by its nature, can bind us to one another."
• Working together side by side builds relationships; it gives opportunity for heart-to-heart talks, object lessons, lighthearted banter, and making memories.
• "Before industrialization, most men learned the trade of their fathers....To them, freedom came not from choosing what they wanted from many options, but from choosing to do well the work they were called to do. Indeed, the word vocation is derived from vocatio, a Latin term for a calling. As fathers began earning a living away from the household, the notion of work as a calling began to disappear. Where a son once forged ties with his father working side by side as he learned farming or the family business, he now followed his father's example by distancing himself from the daily work of the household....By the 1950s, fathers had so fully left the domestic circle that they became like guests in their own home.
• "As homes shifted from centers of production to centers of consumption, the role of children reversed. Prior to modernization, children shared much of the hard work of family life, laboring alongside their fathers and mothers. This work was considered good for them; it was part of their education for adulthood."
• "In contemporary society, we are encouraged, in fact expected, to apply business principles at home. We are taught to seek measurable results (a clean house), to employ efficient use of resources (no wasting time or money), and to manage by maintaining control (reward good workers, penalize shirkers). The 'bottom line'--money--guides much of our thinking. For example, we are told to consider the dollar value of a mother's time to decide how much family work to do. Why make a dress when we can buy one, or cook a meal when it is 'more economical' to serve convenience foods?...But business thinking is not necessarily effective in a gospel-centered home. How does one divide 'striving to be of one heart and mind' into applicable tasks? how does one measure progress towards 'serving the Lord with all of our might, mind, and strength'?"
• President Spencer W. Kimball addressed the fallacy of assessing the value of family work by temporal standards:  "I hope that we understand that, while having a garden, for instance, is often useful in reducing food costs and making available delicious fresh fruits and vegetables, it does much more than this. Who can gauge the value of that special chat between daughter and Dad as they weed or water the garden?...And how do we measure the family togetherness and cooperation that must accompany successful canning?...Perhaps the greater good is contained in the lessons of life we learn....Even if the tomato you eat is a $2.00 tomato, it will bring satisfaction anyway and remind us all of the law of the harvest which is relentless in life....We do reap what we sow."

In another *fantastic book, Created for Work, author Bob Schultz begins with, "In the education of boys today we've lost the importance of work as a most effective tutor. What is the good of knowing how to read or write if a young man doesn't have the heart to work, to produce, and to create? Boys are often forced to sit for hours, year after year, in front of books. Modern child-labor laws hinder and even prevent them learning to enjoy strenuous work. Then, after twelve to sixteen years of inactivity, folks wonder why all their teenager wants to do is sit on the couch playing games....

"Within every man is the desire to work to produce. Some men don't even know that it's there.... I hope that Created for Work encourages you to appreciate your Creator Who is always at work and Who has made you in His image."

He continues later, "Work isn't just a job you are required to do; it's aligning with God to make increase."

Whether it's for an increase of wisdom, of muscle, of goods, of love, of spirituality, or of all of this and more, work is what makes it happen. Certainly individuals need to work for themselves, but to build a strong family, families also need to work together.

Here are some of my favorite "working memories" with my children.  Each photo is of one child, but these are some of the family chores we do together, and they are happy in their work.

*I highly recommend Created for Work, but I need to tell you that I crossed out a little bit of the text. I esteem Mr. Schultz as a very good and wise man, but latter-day revelation in the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ has restored knowledge of beneficial truth regarding Adam and Eve.  Therefore, I crossed out chapter 7 on "exit strategy" because I believe that Adam and Eve were married for eternity. I also crossed out a portion of chapter 14 because Adam and Eve's partaking of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil had nothing whatsoever to do with greed.

What Can You Do with What You Know?

You've heard the adage, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."  I recently found an educational quote that is similar:

"Much education today is monumentally ineffective. All too often we are giving young people cut flowers when we should be teaching them to grow their own plants."

John W. Gardner

I can think of at least a couple of interpretations/discussions to have over the above quote, but today I am focusing on recent goings on that have caused me to ponder, yet again, on learning that is most valuable.

We live in a world where an overload of information is available at a moment's notice.  Yet how trivial and meaningless is much of that information?  Pretty darn.  While I'm not advocating a return to the dark ages, I do want to pose the question, "What can you do with what you know?" Will it change you?  Will it build you?  Can you do something positive with it?

My birthday was a few weeks ago and I wanted to get out in the great outdoors for it. The kids had "fishing" listed on their summer bucket lists, so we loaded up some poles and tackle, picked up some Jamba Juice, and headed into the canyon. 

Now I like the activity of fishing, and I like being places where there are fish, but I don't particularly care for dealing with poles and bait and all that myself. But if we waited around for my husband to go fishing with us, the kids wouldn't get to fish much because he just doesn't have the time (or, let's be honest, the interest). But I have boys who KNOW how to fish! They know how to rig a pole and switch hooks or add a bobber. Thanks to Scouts and grandparents and their father and a friend, they have learned all sorts of things about flies and lures and salmon eggs and Power Bait and the set up and technique for each. There have been so many days where I just stand back and marvel at all they know about fishing and it is so pleasing to me that they have that knowledge and skill. It has value.

Because of their know-how, I was free to just keep an eye on them from the opposite shore as I took wildflower photos.

After our excursion, it was time for... a baseball game. This particular day had only one boy playing and everyone else said they wanted to stay home. When I returned, I found my house cleaned, dinner made, a cake baked, a festive table laid, and hand-written birthday letters waiting for me! There was a lot of valuable knowledge displayed there, for if you can't feed yourself and express yourself, and use what you know to bless others, what's the point?

A case in point is this:  A week later it was my husband's birthday and I later saw a card my daughter made for him. I was so sad when I read what she wrote:  "I love you so so so so so much.  I want to bake a cake for you but I don't know how."  Being the youngest, she hasn't been turned loose in the kitchen yet to cook on her own and even though she's helped a lot, she wasn't confident enough in her skills to just go bake a cake. (Later, for Father's Day, a brother did supervise her making brownies.)  My point is that she had a desire to do something but she didn't have the knowledge she needed to do it and it held her back.

Changing gears to some observations of this week, I have to say that my now "adult" son floored me. He was preparing for a Scout high adventure, and whereas in the past he would have asked a lot of questions and needed a lot of help gathering and packing, this time around he had it so figured out he even took the initiative to repair some items on his own that I would have actually tossed. He decided to take a hammock for sleeping in, but when he pulled out the gear, he found the mosquito net torn. I wasn't really paying attention to all his movements, but at one point I stopped to look and found him SEWING the net back together! Then, the night before departure he found his old water shoes, only to see that the toe was separating from the sole. With no time or money to get a new pair, he decided to try to stitch it back together.  Again, I was doing my own thing at this time until I heard him shout triumphantly, "There is NOTHING a needle and thread can't fix!" I went to see what he'd done and I was so surprised. My son... a cobbler. HA! I have always thought everyone should know how to use a needle and thread and so I've had my kids do little (seemingly trivial) projects over the years; what a lesson in the value of this skill that he turned to it in a time of need to accomplish something necessary!

A day later was this scene:

You know what?  I LOVE seeing my boys with a screwdriver! It might sound odd, but seeing a young man with a tool and the know-how to use it actually thrills me. This boy's chain had come off and he was using the knowledge he had to diagnose the problem and to get to the parts that needed fixing.

He ended up having to call a big brother in (out), not because he didn't know what he was doing but because he needed a little more muscle.

Interestingly, this happened the day after I hired an entrepreneur-minded neighbor kid to fix everyone's tires. He had come around with fliers for his bike fixing business in the spring and I figured we were so busy it was money well spent to have him just come take care of all the flats. My kids watched him and asked him questions and, according to them, they learned that he learned everything about bikes when he asked his dad for one and his dad took him to a thrift store, bought him four bikes in various stages of disrepair, and told him to put together a working bike using what parts were there, and what he could learn from the four different bicycles.  Genius, if you ask me. Hopefully my children learned more about bicycles and tires, etc. from him as they watched him repair their bikes, but I know that I was reminded about the value of knowing how to fix things and having a marketable skill.

It's things like learning knots in Boy Scouts; some may laugh, but there have been many, many times that I needed something rigged and one of my boys was able to lash together something perfect using just the right knots. It's me having too big a to-do list before an out-of-town baseball tournament and being on the road and realizing I didn't get the other half of the garden planted and being able to call home to my 13- and 11-year-olds with the confidence that because of years of planting gardens together I could ask them to finish it and it would turn out great.

Knowledge is power, but different kinds and topics of knowledge have varying degrees of importance and value.  What can you do with what you know?