I’ve felt very busy lately, and often wonder if I need to cut back in life. And I sometimes do, to things like YouTube videos and surfing the Internet. But the core of my life is amazing. I love doing fun things with the boys: activities in the house and going on adventures. I like taking care of my home and garden. I get to spend the majority of my time just doing that, and I’m glad it doesn’t have to change. PB misses kindergarten by a month and half, and I don’t really see the point in preschool for him, so I’m excited to continue to have all my kids home. We can keep doing fun things like Legos, watching the chickens, and reading books together.

Our cousins came by for a quick visit, and the chickens were kind enough to allow them to get pretty close. (The scratch helped too.)

We had a Lego week during our school time, and here we painting pictures with Lego prints.

Legos + blacklight + water. It was fun to see what Legos glowed (our orange ones did).

We went to the Ogden Temple open house. C enjoyed himself. PB not so much.

Last year, we attempted to drive up Willard Basin but ended up with a flat tire only a few miles up. We decided to try again this year. The road is supposed to be only for 4-wheel drive, off-road type vehicles. That doesn’t exactly describe our Ford Freestyle, but we decided to go for it anyways and if it got too rough we would turn back. The road wasn’t horrible, and we made it to the top. It only took a couple hours total, and is well worth the drive if you are in the area.

PB had a lot of fun taking pictures on top, and many of the pictures below are his.

This is our first year of entering the world of city recreation. I signed PB up for t-ball, and then later for swim lessons. C and I took the mommy and me class as well. T-ball was fun. PB was often found sitting down and digging in the dirt. C liked the dirt as well, they were always fifthly after a game. PB loved to get the ball, and had a tendency to get upset if someone else always got it. He didn’t quite get the idea of teamwork. Sometimes it was hot, boring, and a little long. But sometimes PB did a great job of chasing balls and swinging too.


Swimming lessons was well worth it. PB went from having no desire to go under water at all, and freaking out if he did, to voluntarily dunking himself. He wouldn’t go down the big slide, sometimes even with a parent, but now he goes down by himself again and again. Mommy and me was actually pretty good. Curtis squealed in enjoyment most all of every class. He loved everything, except getting dunked but he’d tolerate that.

We found a new park, and it just might be our favorite. It’s twenty minutes south of us in Harrisville. I first found out about it when I drove by and saw disk golf stands. My husband and I, and sometimes our children, like to go disk golfing, so we are always keen to try out new courses. (By the way disc golfing is a wonderful hobby. The whole family can enjoy it, it is very inexpensive with startup costs of a $7 disk and you really only need one, and doesn’t take a whole lot of time. And you can do it anywhere, coursers are located across the country, which makes for some fun adventures on trips.) When I was looking up the course, I found out that not only did the park have a new disk golf course but it had a splash pad as well. Double win.

So last Saturday we spent the day in the park, throwing disks on a pretty good course, playing on the playground, and finishing up with the splash pad. This time the kids actually got soaked (last time we went to a splash pad they didn’t even get wet). It helps that Daddy decided to get his swimsuit on and play with them.

There has been a lot of talk about the equality of man and women. Empowered women want the same privileges, responsibilities, and roles as men. I have never felt a need or desire to join any movement of these feminist women, for I have never in my life felt like I was less than man.

It is good for women to get paid the same for men for doing the same job. It is good to not be discriminated against because of gender. But I do not desire or seek the responsibilities of men. I don’t want to sign up for the draft, I don’t want the priesthood, I don’t want to have to make a living for my family.

I am a stay at home. And it is not a degraded role I am stuck in. It is career and a calling I choose. I can grow children inside of me, I can feed my babies, and I can care and nurture for them in so many ways. What higher calling is there of being a mother? And no man can grow a child, or nurse. It is a privilege only for women.

So I am not concerned that men are stronger, more adapt at physical labor. I am not concerned that men hold the priesthood and not women. I am not concerned that there are more men in the workplace and in leadership roles.

Because I know I have been given a beautiful life, that is as important if not more so, than any of that. I have the opportunity to raise and shape the next generation. I have never felt like I was unequal to men, many times I have felt more valued.

If women demand the same roles as man, where does that leave men? Already education rates are falling in men. We should encourage them to step up and work to become the providers and leaders of our families, communities and countries. We need them in the more visibility leadership positions, in positions of strength.

So that I as a women can work in a hardly visible, but much more important supporting role. So I can shape my growing boys, so I can create a great Home that all people come back to and need.

I think I can understand that feeling about a housewife’s work being like that of Sisyphus (who was the stone rolling gentleman). But it is surely in reality the most important work in the world. What do ships, railways, miners, cars, government etc exist for except that people may be fed, warmed, and safe in their own homes? As Dr. Johnson said, “To be happy at home is the end of all human endeavour”. (1st to be happy to prepare for being happy in our own real home hereafter: 2nd in the meantime to be happy in our houses.) We wage war in order to have peace, we work in order to have leisure, we produce food in order to eat it. So your job is the one for which all others exist…C.S. Lewis (pg 447-Letter of CS Lewis 1988 ed.

When our lives are over, and if I spent all my time simply giving birth to raising my boys, and serving people quietly as a women, will my influence be less than a man’s? I think it will be greater. Anyone can be a CEO of a major company, but only I can bare and raise my children.

Unlike most of my life when I don’t use my camera, I remembered that I had a firework setting on the fourth and actually used it. It’s pretty fun to take photos of fireworks because it is very easy to get a good picture.

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We had a family reunion for my Dad’s parents on the fourth. It was a lot of fun with swimming, food, cousins I haven’t seen in years, and the great firework display. The next day we went to Seven Peaks and did even more swimming. It doesn’t get old when it is over 90 outside.

Apparently I was meant to mother boys. We have another one coming in December. The doctor was doing the ultrasound, and he stopped at one point and I looked at it and knew before he said anything that it was a boy. I was hoping a bit for a girl, but I’m not disappointing over another boy either. I love the ones I currently have so much, I don’t mind another.

These pictures are from a recent trip to Bear Lake that was a lot of fun. And my boys love sand. They are out playing in the sandbox for hours, and still adore beaches.