May 2024

I heard the phrase this month that "May is actually May-hem," and it rang true for me. It was a little loco this month. MCO concert, school concerts, yard work, Lake Powell trip, Prepping for Goblin Valley, end of school, Holland's birthday, Mother's day. It was a lot. Another activity that took more time than you'd think was setting up our garden this year. In order to rotate crops we had to adjust/recreate all of our garden drip lines. We also had to adjust and adjust and adjust the existing drip lines in our flower beds. It was not a small task. 

One of the first activities of of the month was the MCO concert. This Easter time concert was Patriotic and Restoration themed, obviously curated for the upcoming Boston/Palmyra trip. It was fun to volunteer with a practice and get to hear the songs a little more. As always the concerts are truly fantastic, but the hassle sometimes feels unreasonable. It was funny to hear the conductors interrupt and give instructions mid song. So many moving parts to those concerts. To be honest, it was agonizing and awesome. I loved the little preview of the concert and chatting with the teens. One actually thought I was a teenager. :) But it was ridiculously chaotic. 

At the actual concert, we had excellent seats. John always gets us the best seats. The General Young Men President, Steven Lund, sat right behind us with one of the founders MCO, Greg Trimble. This was all fine, until it was time for the songs to start and I needed to film all of my girls singing, and Miriam was at the back of the concert hall. So I had to keep turning around in my seat to film her, and President Lund would duck out of the way. All of the songs were fantastic, but I think Eliza liked "Paul Revere's Ride" best. Holland liked "George Washington." "The Vision" truly blew me away and moved me to tears. That one was Miriam's favorite too. It was all so so good. It is fun to have kids in so many choruses because they are in so many of the songs. They love performing too. They talked about their concert high. I loved volunteering with Eliza's group. 

Darcy and I joined Jenessa and Samuel for a donut run one morning. It was so random and fun!

Starting to plant in the flower bed in the retaining wall. 

The day after the MCO concert was my first time teaching gospel doctrine. It went pretty well! I had way too much material, but that's okay. There were lots of comments. It was on King Benjamin's address. I love that teaching makes me dig into the material and really appreciate the scriptures.

We had one day off from the hustle and bustle that Monday. It was a nice, rainy day. Then we started on more concerts. First was Miriam's band concert. I love that she tried the clarinet this year and worked so hard to learn it. 

Later that week was Miriam's Grand Concert for choir which was so lovely. They did a great job! That day was also my parents' anniversary, which was more emotional for me than you'd think. I was always the person who my dad would ask to wrap the present to give to my mom. I would always call my mom and wish them a Happy Anniversary. 

We found out the next that we have more choir concerts coming our way. Miriam got into the highest choir at her school - Acapella. She was so excited. I was thrilled that she saw pay off for something she had been working hard towards. 

That Saturday we worked on our garden, but then we had a fun break when the Jacobsons came to visit! They are always fun to hang out with, and the kids were a little awkward around each other at first but then they got it together a little bit by playing some games in the basement. That evening we headed to my Aunt Carol's 90th birthday party. We were a little late because of the visit with the Jacobsons but it was still good to see her. Our family played lightening which probably was annoying to others but we had a great time. Before we headed back to Provo we stopped by my parents' house and saw the remodeled kitchen. It turned out great. It makes me sad that Mom never got to do it or see it. I know that is something she wanted to do. 

Holland's birthday is coming up!

Sweet teacher appreciation card.

Before and after a room clean up. 

Mother's Day was lovely and hard too. I missed my mom. I am acutely aware of how fleeting my time is with my children at home. I loved that they all wanted to climb on me and cuddle first thing in the morning. Darling Darcy and Holland and in Sacrament Meeting. I love their bright smiles and singing out. We took some family pictures after church. We even took one for Father's Day because we knew that we would be in Boston for that day. We ate the best food. Parfaits for breakfast. Crescent bread and shrimp scampi for dinner. My goodness it was delicious! The girls gave me cute and loving cards. I got a new touch faucet as my main gift, and Darcy carried it around. It was the whole length of her arm. I loved when they were showing me their interview questions, and they wanted to explain their answers. They are the very best part of my life. When I think about my ideal day as a mother, I picture spending the whole day with them. We work together to do productive things. Then we play together. We see something beautiful outside. We eat yummy healthy food. We play board games. We end the day in the pool floating, playing, and chatting in the toasty water. We talk and laugh and play and even work a little to maintain and improve our home. I love to think about how I could potentially show up in that day--staying calm and happy and leading with the emotion I want to spread. 

Like I said, Mother's Day was hard too. I went to go pick some peas and lettuce for dinner and just talked to my mom in the garden. I don't know if she could hear me but I think it was good for me to talk to her. I miss her more than I can say. 

Parfaits for breakfast!

Holland envisioned this picture so we set it up.

The next day was Holland's birthday which was so much fun. Love that kid. I will talk more about it on her birthday post. 

The next little bit was full of trip prep and garden planting. We booked ourselves pretty tight with a trip every other weekend for about a month and a half. I read a book called 4000 Weeks, which was all about how short life is, and it was a great reminder to do things that bring joy every day and to not always focus on being productive. Today is all we really have. I also believe that there is life after death. But I think that the things that matter most in the long run also bring joy right now. I feel so lucky to have these truths. 

Trying to figure out a camping configuration.

I thought I had planted so many flowers. Ha! Later in the season this flower bed got so full. Loved that white poppy though. 

Bye bye old faucet.

Loved watching Miriam's pop concert. She seemed a lot more happy than she usually does on stage. I think that making a capella really gave her a confidence boost. 

I love that all of the transplanted iris bloomed this year! This peach colored one was my favorite!

The first peony that has ever bloomed in my yard! It was transplanted from my mom's yard. 

We arrived at a point on parenting that I have been looking forward to forever. We watched the 1995 version of Pride and Prejudice with Eliza! It is my favorite thing. Her squeals and laughs are perfect. 

We were invited to a front yard concert of one of our neighbors who is a folk music professor at BYU. It was freezing but pretty enjoyable. 

The last day of school was a good one. We went to the dance festival, made cupcakes, pizza and watermelon. We planted flowers, and played Rummikub. I am grateful that our kids had such a great school year. Holland will really miss her teacher Mrs. Clifford. She was so sweet with Holland. 

The next day there was a huge rainstorm that we got caught in at the nursery. We had to duck under a cover. We love the rain! 

End of school year cupcakes!

Roses from our yard!

These are projects came from school and are awesome, but a little too much to keep. 

Miriam had friends over for a firepit and banana boats. We sang camp fire songs with them, and I am sure the friends think we're crazy. :) 

Memorial Day yard work. I love seeing what we have created. I loved working and chatting with my family today, especially eating outside under the shade sails. 

We had a good scripture study lesson about choosing to do faith building things even when not feeling faithful. I need to stamp that into my whole heart and soul. 

Interested to see how these plants do in the summer. 

I love love eating outside. That poor Madagascar Palm in the background. It sure perks up in the summer!

Darcy is so much fun. I love being at home with her. I love how cuddly and kissy she is in the morning. I love her little smile/smirk when she is proud of herself. 

Here are some fun quotes from Darcy this month:

"I do most of the work at this house."

"I am going to marry Oliver in real life but only after we're grown up." 

"Only adults get stinky and that's why they need to shower."

"I have to listen to what Daddy says because Mommy is a girl and Daddy is a boy, and I have to listen to boys." 

"For my birthday I want a Christmas fox." 

"Your lego girl has cheek wrinkles." 

"Do you know what I forgot to do today? Feed my kids breakfast! But they are fasting today. So they don't need to go to the park today but we are going on a walk." 

"I am so worried about what my kids are going to do when Bearby and I go on a date. All of the parents are on dates. I thought I could just leave them with audiobooks but every phone in the house my kids ran out of batteries. So I thought they could draw but we're all out of paper." 

"We don't like naked people in our artists' room." 

"Did you know China is a country in real?"

"What romance stories did you used to tell me?"

One day she is was talking a lot in her sleep at nap time. I couldn't catch that many words, but I could tell she said 'girl' a few times. I have been loving reading her Princess in Black stories this month. She eats them up (not literally).

Homegrown strawberries!