Great days...

You will all be happy to know.......

drum roll please.......

YES, I will be getting a new phone.  Just wait for all the great pics then.  I am always thinking about how beautiful it is here or what fun we are having and wanting to take a picture to share and just cannot with the phone I have now.  No more!  I am coming along, slowly but surely!!

Oh God - change....learning something new!  I suppose a new phone should not bring on anxiety about things shifting and changing, so it will be a good test of patience on my part.  My mom will be the first one to tell you trying to teach me math was a total pain and I am sure that I threw my math book onto the floor more than once.  Boy, I tell ya what....did I birth that child myself or what!!!  Sounds like Hunter?  Guess I have to take some responsibility for that!!  Anyway, my point is I just do not like being out of my comfort zone trying to navigate my way and not really knowing what I am doing.  Thus, thinking about the new phone.
But I have great tech support, don't I?

The summer is coming to a close.  I can feel it in the air as the nights grow cooler, the winds almost seems to shift into something different.  As though, the Life of things born in the Spring now are closing and the winds pick up knowing its damage is minimal to all those little growing things that are now close to their end.  It's as though it makes no difference and the wind can be center stage.  And so it just seems different.  It's nice.  The changing of the seasons is actually one change I enjoy.

The kids have finished swimming lessons.  Hunter is THE BEST diver and can even front crawl back to the side.  Katie's instructor said with bright eyes that she has "really strong legs and is quite talented" which was rather surprising to me because I never really thought of her as the swimmer of the family before.  Ben was cute as a button as he walked backwards in the pool practicing his standing back stroke!

Thank our lucky stars that each of the kids were in groups with other children their ages and we hit it off with one family and guess what?  It's official......we have Utah friends! Not just people we know, but people we really enjoy hanging out with.  And what is even greater....they like us too!

Katie and the little girl her age are two peas in a pod.  They get along great and enjoy each other's company and it's lovely to see Katie unfolding again in a social way.  I guess something I realized was how THAT was missing and then when it popped up again, it was obvious how much that fills her spirit with joy - having a friend.  She is like I am.  There are also 3 boys and so we have a crew when we get together but it is just the right mix of energy and spirit.  The mom is wonderful, fun and we just sort of click and "get" one another - which is quite refreshing.

I am hoping we do not seem like sticky boogers, but it has been loads of fun hanging out and they are certainly a family we connect with.  Yesterday, they invited us to the Young Living Farm.  Most of you do not know that they are closed on Sunday, but we had an "in" and they invited us to picnic there with them.  There is a little western town and the kids had the best time arresting each other, playing "saloon" (Hunter ALWAYS ordered whiskey - I think he has it in his head that's what cowboys drink!), rock climbing, paddle boating and all sorts of fun stuff.  Although the kids were a little melt-downish on the way home, they were glowing with the left-over joy from an awesome day!  (and might I mention Hunter slept until 730 without a peep and Katie and Ben  -  until 9am!!!)


We had a play date this morning and then all had lunch together.  After they were heading home, Katie asked me if her new friend could join us for home schooling one day.  I said I would have to talk to her mom.  Then Ben said he wanted his friend to be in his "class".  My response was if that was the case, we might as well just start our own Waldorf school out here in Utah.  And Katie goes, "MOM!  That is a great idea.  We can post it on the bulletin board!"  Can I just say that although seemingly meaningless - that statement makes us pretty close to being "locals".

OK.
Now if I have not explained this yet, here it goes.  It appears that the best and most common way to communicate things in our community and those around, it to post things on this local bulletin board. Ours happens to be right outside of the post office, but I have seen others outside the library or city offices.  There is anything  up there from an upcoming "official" events, to a thank you to the fire fighters, to an paper airplane competition at the park, to lost dogs, etc.  We even scored an awesome butter dish (something we were in need of) because apparently, you can also leave stuff there in a box marked "free".
Who knew?
And this is how people know what is going on around town.  So, when Katie says " hey mom, let's post it on the board" you know we belong here!!


On a different note -
My new school curriculum arrived today in the mail......oh yah!!  It's gonna be like Christmas.  To be honest, I was really kind of getting into a place where I was starting to fret about it.  Kind of get feeling overwhelmed, then panicked, then doubtful.  But now, I am just putting that aside.  Katie is my first born for a reason.  That girl believes in me!  And she is excited about being home schooled so I cannot help but be excited too.  Besides, I put too much pressure on myself.  Not that I am a perfectionist, I am FAR from that.  It goes back to not knowing and being in that uncertain place, however, have decided to embrace that part of this journey because I think there is something valuable for my kids to watch and learn from me figuring out and feeling my way through things.

What good comes from always having the answers?  So I am just accepting that I don't.

Anyway, we are at the park (because the internet is supa fast here).
Will it be weird when the winter rolls in and I am blogging at the picnic table at the park in my winter coat, hat & mittens???

Maybe I could post something on the bulletin board.

Something like:
Looking for a warm place to sit and blog during the winter months.  
Must have hot coffee
(well, maybe not the part about the coffee because that might narrow it down a bit).

Lots of love to all!!!