A is For All the Small Things

True care, truth brings. Always, I know, you'll be at my show.

Anyway. Here are some small things going on around here: 

One day me and Andrew went to seminary with the other half of our family. It was fun to hear Jim's lesson. 

Band concerts, band at football games,

Andrew's last few soccer games, soccer season coming to an end,

just in time because it starts to get cold and rainy right when it turns NOVEMBER.

Getting out with Roxanne for an hour here and there. 

She's got an uphill battle she is fighting. I miss her. I pray for her. 

She says it so so much work for such little progress. Vance's speech is not recovering as quickly as we hoped. But they battle on. 

This dumb disco duck gets placed throughout the valley and it's here at Blaine Marina, woopty do. 

One day after church, I came out to all the boys playing football while waiting for their moms to get done talking.

The leaves are so pretty, falling like snow. 

You know when you know there is going to be a rainbow outside before you see it? The lighting is just so, peaking out against the rain clouds and you get this spectacular scene. 

I yell for all the kids to come see this miracle. 

Twice this fall me and Avery got up early Saturday to drive to Arlington so she can take the SAT. 

For some reason I have good memories of it. She and I driving together, nervous, chatting. 

The first time we listened to Taylor Swift's new album, 

The second time we listened to Ty Meyers album (seeing if he's any good? he's alright.)

During the week we had parent teacher conferences we took the kids out to play on the early release days -

Mach 1, Galbraith mountain biking. 

There are some new sculptures out there. So cool. 

Primary program was today. It was so great, I loved it.

The finale was "I Will Be What I Believe" and I had the youth join us. 

Yesterday Galbraith was covered in fog. It was kinda rainy, and leaves were everywhere. 

So beautiful and so November. I feel so much love for this world. It's a beautiful season. 

I sub once a week. 

I do a puzzle every other day.

I've been reading good books - The Winter Soldier.

The World Series,

mushrooms. 

 

Is There Not Room Enough

This past week has been hard for my friend Roxanne. 

On Thursday they were mountain biking and at the top of the Galbraith, Vance had a massive stroke. 

They were thankfully at check point foxtrot, so the three ambulances were able to get to them quickly.

From the hospital, they flew him to Seattle. 

The next day me and Lisa drove to be with her for the day as she learned the extent of the damage and what comes next. 

It's a lot of unknown, highs and lows, big improvements! and patience as speech and communicating are still stunted. 

His physical progress and balance and fine motor have come back completely in one week! 

Wednesday night Roxanne texted the saddest most frustrating information about how Vance had no concept of time, money, his age. 

The very next day I was sitting in Evan's band concert and she texted this:

A video of Vance playing his mandolin! And he was able to communicate through charades questions about the government shutdown and how he will get paid. 

IN ONE DAY! Roxanne said he had turned a corner and "was himself". 

I just could not be more thankful. 

He still cannot speak or write or communicate without a 30 minutes charade session. He can't read. 

They came home yesterday. It was so fun to "talk" with him and recount with the whole family what happened that day on top of Galbraith. 

But Roxanne said it also highlighted the reality of how hard this will be - getting communication back. 

Let's pause here and discuss the scripture we are studying this week:

Doctrine and Covenants 117

This is the scripture that says -

What is property to me?

Will I not make solitary places to blossom and bring forth abundance?

Is there not room enough in Adam-ondi-Ahman?

That phrase "is there not room enough in Adam-ondi-Ahman" has become short hand for me Lisa that means: even during the hardest thing in life, even when very bad things happen - God does not work in scarcity. Only Abundance. 

Because FOUR YEARS AGO, when we were studying the EXACT SAME SECTION,

Joe and Roland were going through the hardest thing after the hunting accident.

READ THIS to refresh your memory of that awful time. 

We were hiking along, discussing "what is property to the Lord?"

Is there not room enough? 

Everything was going to be ok. Because abundance. 

So this exact week that Roxanne is going through the hardest thing, living in the hospital for the week with lots of unknown,

Joe and Roland were out hunting. And they sent this picture of their third deer of the week. 

This exact week that we are collectively studying Section 117. 

I just think all of this is the most amazing, most hard, most beautiful thing. 

Look how full circle it has come.

And what does it mean to Roxanne and Vance? I don't know.

 I know that it is easy for me to pontificate about from afar, 

but I also think it means everything. It's short hand for how much God is involved in our lives.

And abundance comes in places where there is so much scarcity.

May, You Be Wild

Guys soccer is over. 

I have a lot of feelings about it. Lots of contradictory feelings. 

Thank goodness for Lindsay. Thank goodness for our forest loop. That's who and where I dump all my insides about it all. It's a lot of little things that start adding up. 

I miss these girls, I am so glad I don't have to spend my afternoon out there with these girls. 

I feel like I am a great coach, I feel like I have so much to learn about coaching.

I wonder what I could have done different to make our season more successful, I know middle school girls don't care a ton about being successful. 

All of it. 

I have a lot of selfies from them stealing my phone,

and I have a lot of BeReals with them. Any time the alert went off during soccer, I made sure to stop everything and get the closest child in the picture with me.

This Marcella is one of my top favorites. She's a dark horse. Look out for her in the future. 

Quiet, doesn't demand attention, goes anywhere on the field I ask her to without complaining: goalie, defense, mid field. 

One game I had a lot of girls gone for Ranger tryouts, so I asked her to be center mid. She was the whole engine of the team and did amazing. 

Mother's Day

There's a lot to say about motherhood here in the teen zone when things have really picked up speed. 

 I really truly didn't know I was going to ever get to this phase. This was for older moms. 

It's so fun, and so nervy, and confusing. But also kind of easier? More fun, more annoying. You get more disappointed when they act like fools because they should know better! Like, why would you put the hand towel on the toilet after drying your hands? Little stuff like that. Forgivable for preschoolers, by why would a high schooler do such a thing? 

That just happened today, so it's the only thing I can think of. haha.  

I squint my eyes at them and wonder if they are going to make it in the real world. 

Haha luckily they still have time to figure it all out. 

I gave a lesson in relief society on mother's day. One of the things we talked about is how AMBIGUOUS it is being a mom. Starting with EVE and her decision. She had to use all her discerning powers to come up with the realization that there was more to life than the garden of eden. She had an innate ability to be in tune with God's purposes. 

Because it's impossible to sum up motherhood in any other way - the comparison to Eve will have to do. 

I say "I don't know" on the daily. Because there is no knowing. Both answers are right, both answers are wrong. 

You just have to use that God given gift to see beyond the literal into the divine. 

Good luck everyone!

Bea and Avery RANDOMLY got the appointment to get their braces off at the same time same place!

They both did not like their teeth once the braces were off. I can't totally figure out why. 

But they have come around. 

I think they look amazing. 

HIKES!

The weather this month has been perfecto. It's like summer, and we take all the summer we can get around here. Don't miss a sunny day. 

Lair of the Bear. 

We put our bare(bear?) feet in the water while Jim and Joe mountain biked. 

Prettiest light. 

Fragrance Lake. First lake jump in of the summer. 

Canoe up Dreyton Harbor.

The water was like glass because of slack tide. 

Whoopsie Woodle overlook. 

And yesterday Bob's Trail while Jim and Vance mountain biked. 

Hammock season!

First dock jump!

Still soccer season for Andrew. 

This stupid picture of Juno and Koda in a cone is fully loaded. 

This weekend, the Dicksons officially moved out of the neighborhood. The new people and new car are parked in the Dickson house. 

We are not ok.

We had Bea and Gus and Juno stay with us for a few nights while they are transitioning to the new house - homeless for a week. 

First of all, Juno and Koda cannot figure out who the dominant dog is. They both want to be Alpha, neither can back down. So we had a giant dog fight in our yard the other day. Koda got 5 staples, Juno had some puncture wounds, and Jim got a bite to the arm while trying to break it up. 

So dumb. Then the next day when we all got home from school, they got into it AGAIN. This time Evan broke it up by grabbing Koda's butt and Bea grabbed Juno's butt. 

Koda's cone sliced Juno's leg. So then Juno was also in a cone. 

Oh yes, and we have Scout for a few days and SHE HAS A CONE because of a hot spot. 

SO IF YOU'RE KEEPING TRACK: Three shepherds all wearing cones of shame. 

haha it's hilarious and I'm also crying. 

It's too much mostly because Lindsay is gone. 

So many times the past few days I was gonna ask her to do a loop with me in OUR FOREST WE CREATED TOGETHER but she's not there. She's not there. 

Lindsay is the friend who listens to me the most. Because we are out there walking our dogs every day, she is there for the EVERY DAY mundane. The every day stuff about school and sports and kid dynamics. The every little gripe and every little stage of growing children. 

We don't save up for the big conversations because EVERY DAY it's the little conversations. 

(but also we have had some BIG conversations)

I can't explain why the fact that we graduated the same school year and were influenced by all the same pop culture and wore the same baggy plaided grunge clothes makes her click in my brain as though she's been my friend my whole life.  

And then we have kids at the same stages of life, so she pretty much showed me how to be the best mom I could be. She takes all the ambiguity and filters out the nonsense. 

Since Avery was in 1st grade we have been talking it all through. She is my mom mentor. 

And don't forget the stupid covid years. MY COHORT. 

That is the best dang description of her - my cohort. 

I know it's nothing new to have a friend move away. It's also nothing new that IT'S HARD. 

I don't like it. 

She moved five minutes down the road, so it's not the end of the world. 

And we promised we would still take dogs for walks on the regular. So. 

Plus she's co-owner of the forest, so.