smells like summer

Well, our warm weather has finally hit and will probably stay around for a little while.  I just might wear short sleeves at recess tomorrow!  It is supposed to get into the upper 80s for the weekend, which to us is a real heat wave.  In fact, they do send out heat advisories when this happens, which makes most people laugh.  I think the reason they do that is that we are so not used to, and maybe not prepared for even those kinds of temperatures.  For example, most houses around here do not have air conditioning.  In fact, the air conditioning in our vehicle has been broken for while, but I don't want to pay to fix it because we hardly ever need it.  I may be regretting that this weekend and this fall.  Oh well, the ocean was glistening today, I saw a whale breach as I was driving home, the sunset was beautiful, there was a certain warm-air smell outside, and we are bringing our fan out of storage for the occasion.  Just another way to say "Happy Autumn" everyone!

BLASTS FROM AUTUMNS PAST

Avonlea Janae Last

She is so adorable!  Mariah & Ross live in the Fresno area now, so Samantha and I took a quick visit there this weekend to meet her.  Reggie is hoping to soon, and I get to go back in a couple of weeks and stay a few days.  So Happy!

and that is that

Summer is officially over for us now considering I started school (work) again today.  I am actually feeling better this year than I ever have on my back to school day, and I'm not sure why.  I think I feel less torn/less conflicted now.  Luke is getting older and so independent.  I know that if he's sick he can stay home and take care of himself.  If he is ever so sick that he needs to go to the doctor I will of course drop work instantly and take him over there.  But that rarely happens.  Sometimes I get sad, thinking how I only have a couple of years of his childhood left.  But history has shown me that there's always something good about each stage of life.

When I first started back to work years ago it was for only 3 hours a day, but it was strange to have my time belong to someone other than my family.  I still had Mariah, Samantha and Luke in school and sometimes it was just hard.  But we knew it was the right thing for our family and it all worked out.

I am back in my old class now - the Special Day class for children with moderate to severe disabilities.  It is great to be with my co-workers again, and with little ones again.  I so appreciated my co-workers telling me how happy they were to have me back - I am lucky to be part of such a great team.

  But I've also been realizing the blessings of the last school year, when my circumstances changed and I was sent to work with a different set of children.  I got to know more of the teachers, counselors, psychologist and other staff throughout the school because of it and enjoyed talking with them again today.  I got new ideas of fun things to do with my family - in fact, all of the arts and crafts I did with my grandchildren this summer (which I blogged about below) are things I did with the kids during the school year to keep them motivated to do their work.

I think it's going to be a great year!  

spending time with Grandma Hanaike, "The Original"

Yesterday Reggie's Mom came over and we had a lot of fun.  Addy and Isla are a little confused, however, that she and I are both Grandma Hanaike - so I told my Mother-In-Law that we should call her "The Original".  Or maybe we should call me "Jr."

We got to celebrate a belated birthday with her.  It would have been too difficult to put all 18 candles on, so we just did 5.

We love you Grandma Hanaike!

to quote Sam Chandler for Christmas in August

I've been reading little sections of my Dad's history again, and I like how the following quote is history repeating itself:

"There was a heap of living' in our house!  Usually our family life spun and whirled like a toy top just released from a string by a wanton boy.  It never stopped or slowed down, not even when the children grew up.  But, we were happy in our home."

Summer Arts & Crafts (yes summer - I have a few days left!)

painting fireworks

Playdough

Homemade Sand

Oobleck

Slime

Christmas in August

Of course I have not forgotten about our monthly Christmas theme - for August it is "Home".  When Reggie picked me up from the airport after being in Utah we immediately starting talking about how crazy and wonderful and fun Christmas is going to be, and about how it is going to take some planning and organizing to make it all work.  Seven grandchildren under the age of 5 - CA-RAZY!  (Actually, I should mention this will happen a few days after Christmas as it is our girls' year with their in-laws for Christmas day.)  The anticipation of it is already bringing us a lot of joy.

To quote our Christmas Treasury book:

 "We always come back - even if only in our memories - to happy homes.  Home is so much a part of how and where we celebrate Christmas that we vividly remember the years we haven't been able to gather with family.  And we cherish memories of Christmas homecomings all the more."

So it's been a happy task this week to work on getting organized more than ever before.  I have FINALLY - and I mean after years of trying - getting to the boxes full of misc. stuff sitting in our basement.  Samantha has especially been a huge help.  We brought the boxes upstairs, put on some fun background noise and tackled it.  Turns out the boxes were full of papers; things I've been holding onto from the kid's school years.  We found school projects, certificates, graduation programs, letters to each other (including letters to all of us from Lester when he was on his mission), and one box full of just pictures.  This afternoon Reggie joined in the project, and it was just a bunch of fun!  And just to illustrate/confess my lack of organizational skills, we also found birth certificates, the pink slip to our vehicle, and savings bonds in the kids names from their Uncle Al.  Yes, I'm afraid organization will be a life-long goal of mine!

 Another way that this ties into Christmas is that we found poems that Samantha had written to each one of us for Christmas presents one year when she was little.  They were adorable and hilarious and made me as happy today as when she first gave them out. 

As it is the middle of August I hope to blog a few more times on this Christmas theme of Home.  I have enjoyed seeing how my adult children keep some of the traditions they grew up with and do some things differently in their own homes - their own spaces - their own sanctuaries.

summer rain

It seems our summer weather is about a month behind.  We never got our typical thick, wet fog in July, but it's here now.  We are especially having some drippy mornings, which is nice for the grass.

In Utah I took a walk every evening; once the sun went down the still 80 something degree weather felt pretty good.  In fact, there were about 3 nights in a row where there was rain, thunder and lightening.  It was pretty fascinating.

We had some fun park time in the middle of all this strange weather.  Something about stepping outside, even for just a little while, no matter what the weather, feels pretty good.

We found a park with a zip line!

free Jazz concert at Brigham Young Historical Park
across from Temple Square

                                               

A cute park with a refreshing creek 

and so it begins

It's officially a new school year for Luke.  Happy Autumn!  (I have 2 weeks left so I am strictly a stay at home Mom during that time.  So much to do!  But most importantly, maybe there will be milk and cookies waiting for him at the door this afternoon.  Oh, who am I kidding - there's always milk and cookies around here!)

I love this picture, even if it doesn't represent where we live.  It represents our beautiful world!

Pioneer Children sang as they walked . . . / my Hiking in August post

Of all my walking and hiking, "Big Mountain" in Utah is my favorite so far - I guess because I am so sentimental about my Pioneer Ancestors.  It is about a 45 minute drive from Salt Lake City - as the name says, way up in the mountains.  If I read the monument correctly, some of the trail was first blazed by the Donner party, before their ill-fated winter.  Besides the Mormons using and extending the trail, is was a route for the Pony Express for some time.  

  We had a nice mountain breeze as we took a very short hike on the thin trail with butterflies flying all around us.  It was beautiful.

Then there is Ensign Peak in the middle of a fancy neighborhood in the hills of Salt Lake City.  It has a wonderful view of the valley which, even though was just full of sagebrush at the time, the pioneers could tell would make a beautiful home some day.

I hiked only part of it, as the temperature was still in the 90's at 7 in the evening.  Someday I will go back and try to do the whole thing.