I forgot a bit how chill summer is. Fewer places to go, more opportunities to have fun. My garden is mostly planted, and I’ve caught up on a lot of work projects too. I finally feel like my task list is getting manageable instead of getting longer.
We’ve gone swimming, visited the library, and played at the park. Joe and I went on an anniversary date and went to the movies, and down to the Krishna temple. We hiked to a waterfall with friends. And we tubed down Dry Creek at our local park. I’ve wanted to do this one for ages, but the water level at the park is usually too high or too low. We found a day that was just right. It was a shorter tubing run, but easy to walk about and repeat a few times.
My boys occasionally watched Jet Lag: The Game on YouTube, and they came out with a physical game of hide and seek that we’ve quite enjoyed a couple of times. It includes hiding in a wide area (our small version of the game lasted about 3 hours), and taking pretty awful selfies. I recommend the show and the game.
School is done, with the rash of year-end projects, parties, graduations… Lots of pictures of Zack, because he finished up Kindergarten! He has grown so much, from being unable to read anything other than very easy words to being pretty capable of both reading and writing simple things. The other kids had great years. Curtis transitioned to Junior High, and learned that he did have to do homework and squeaked out a 4.0 for his last semester. Peter thrived in 9th grade; he had a 4.0 and took an AP Geography class. Henry enjoyed his first year in the gifted program. We ended most spring sports, now we have t-ball, still basketball, because Peter is always playing basketball, and summer camps are coming up.
I’ve enjoyed flowers in my garden and flowers out hiking. I went to the Three Falls area with friends to catch the show of arrowleaf balsamroot, and with my husband to the suspension bridge in Draper. We also enjoyed a game of Jet Lag, where we spent three hours playing a game of hide-and-seek across our city. My team lost, but only because the other team pulled a move card right before we found them and were able to move around.
It’s really been a great season, and I have a great life!
Every spring feels a little manic and busy. It’s usually when my business is the busiest, there’s gardening outside, the kids have activities and are finishing up the school year, and there’s summer to plan.
I wish I had great advice on how to balance everything. I don’t think there is a magic formula: just consistent effort. And sometimes things don’t work out the best: my lawn looks awful, my veggie starts are behind, I take too long to get client work done, and I forget to do homework with my kids. That’s okay.
For Earth Day today, I went out and spent nearly three hours gardening. A couple of hours in my own garden, mostly pulling weeds, and another hour volunteering at the school garden, and trying to guide kids from having zero success to maybe a little bit of success.
Spring has been great. Lots of time outside. There have been the normal activities: sports games, playtime. We did a mini-art show at the library, visited lambs, and spent time with friends and family.
Easter was nice this year. I tried a lot of new things, mixed with old traditions. We did a normal egg hunt, resurrection eggs, sang in the choir at church, dyed eggs, and had daily devotionals about Jesus. I also gave up most social media for Lent, flew a kite, bought some Easter decorations, did a puzzle of Jesus, went to an Easter display, made a flower arrangement, went to the temple, and walked in the cemetery at sunrise. My favorite might have been that early morning walk: it felt so significant to think about the resurrection on Easter Sunday in the cemetery, and at the same time of day that disciples found out that Jesus was risen.
I think it’s easy to wonder why you would leave your comfortable home and drive over 16 hours simply to sleep in a sleeping bag in a tent in freezing weather.
When we originally planned this trip, I knew the weather would vary in April. And I decided if the weather was bad, we would cancel. And then the weather was bad, but I didn’t want to miss out on the adventure, so we went anyway. We did decide to only camp one night instead of two.
I was very nervous, but thanks to a few new sleeping bags and a buddy heater, most of us stayed warm. It was hard, but it wasn’t that hard. And besides that, sometimes I think our modern life provides us with so much ease and comfort that we need to shake it up and go and do uncomfortable things. Things that test us and are different and hard.
For our trip, we stayed a night in Kanab and visited The Belly of the Beast and Sand Caves. My brother-in-law grew up there and thought it was a little odd that these man-made areas were now tourist attractions, but they were fun. We met up with my sister and her family for most of the trip.
We went down and camped at the south rim of the Grand Canyon. The first day, we enjoyed quite a few overlooks, visitors centers, and set up camp. FYI: Bring extra stuff. So when a sleeping bag has a broken zipper, you have an extra, or when your rain fly got left out because it was wet last time you camped and you forget to bring it, you can use a spare tarp.
The next day, my sister and I went and saw the sunrise, and then we all hiked down the Bright Angel trail and wandered around the village.
Then, we spent another night in Kanab and drove home. We also stopped by Navajo Bridge and Lee’s Ferry for a break. It was General Conference, and we were able to listen to most of it on satellite radio, which I recommend. Not a bad trip.
There’s been talk on my purusing of social media if parents of young children are happy.
Having kids is hard. We went to the Ogden Nature Center last Saturday. It’s a great place with lots to do. But the kids struggled to walk even a half-mile. They’d complain that their legs hurt or just cry, and we carried Evie most of the time and Zack for some of the time. This part of parenting doesn’t have a lot of joy.
But then we would get to our destination: treehouses, playgrounds, ponds with birds. The kids would run off, their tired legs forgotten, and enjoy themselves immensely. And I got to join in that joy. A treehouse for an adult is not that fun, but with a child, it is magical. I’ll take the hard walks for those wonderful moments of happiness and joy at the end.
It’s been busy. Peter has a million sports practices doing club basketball, high school basketball, and soccer. Curtis finished up his basketball and started 7 on 7 football. Henry has been in a play that did performances last week. Zack has had swimming lessons. I’ve had garden design clients and gardening. Joe’s been sick for a few weeks but is finally on the mend after getting meds. It’s crazy but in a good way.
I went on a field trip with Zack. He wanted me to go so badly, and I surprised him. He loved it. I did not, but sometimes it’s worth making your kids happy.
And there is still lots of leisure, we got a new couch that has been getting lots of use. And it looks exactly like our old one: the problem wasn’t the aesthetics but the couch breaking out the back, thanks to kids. Luckily, it’s also been warm outside, so it’s a lot easier to keep the kids entertained. Except for Evie, who thinks she’s old enough to ride her strider bike down the street all by herself: I have to keep a close eye on her and have lost her too many times.
Matthew 23:23 says, “You have neglected the weightier matters such as justice, mercy, faith, and the love of God.”
Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in everything there is to do: clean the house, take kids to places, get work done. But these are not usually the “weightier matters” in our lives, the things that really matter.
One thing that really matters is to feel the love of God in our lives and make time for this regularly. I think everyone experiences this differently: through service, worship, or meditation. My favorite way to experience the love of God is by spending time in nature, preferably with people I love.
My sister and I went out to Saratoga Hot Springs and it was the perfect addition to a busy week. It wasn’t a fluffy, fun add-on, it was the “weightier matter” that truly makes life worth living.
I was in the mood for a day trip, so I hauled my family down to Capitol Reef. We hiked Cassidy Arch, and mostly ran out of steam after that, and went home. Zack did get his junior ranger badge, even though we made it to the visitor’s center 5 minutes after they closed. Parts of that trip were hard: we had kids get lost and grumpy, but it was a beautiful hike and worth going to. Sometimes life isn’t about pleasure, but doing hard and beautiful things.
Some more pictures from the week. Curtis has had basketball, Peter’s done a bunch with band (that he doesn’t actually like, but he is pretty good at), and Henry made a model of the digestive system for school that he also accidentally broke the day it was due. No worries, his dad was around to glue it all back together.
Liz Braithwaite 