Miriam's 15!

Miriam turned 15 on Friday! 

She (and Rachel) had some friends over for a game/movie night so we had her birthday dinner and cake on Saturday, but she still opened her presents on Friday. She didn't have much on her list, but asked for some new clothes, some novelty pins, and a book. Most of what was on her list was actually marked "maybe for Christmas?" but that was probably because she only got me her list a few days before her birthday and knew those items would need more time to ship. 

For example, she wants new organ shoes. I can't find or ship those in a couple of days. 

Last time (or the last couple of times) we just got her (boys'/men's) latin dance shoes because they're cheaper than actual organ shoes but are...along the same lines. But now that she thinks her feet have stopped growing she wants real organ shoes. So we'll probably look into that for Christmas. 

Anyway, here's Miriam opening presents, with Phoebe right beside her so that Phoebe can be in charge of telling Miriam which order to open her presents in:

"I've made a huge mistake"

As emotionally exhausted as I was from this week (and despite having a lot of reading and writing to do), Andrew encouraged me to go to bed around 8:30 this evening, shortly after I finished reading bedtime stories to Alexander and Phoebe...and subsequently fell asleep on the couch after they skipped off to roast marshmallows with Daddy.

Here's the thing—it's Friday night! And Miriam's birthday! 

And although we decided to hold off on celebrating as a family (because (a) neither Rachel nor I had time to put a cake together this week and (b) the girls invited friends over so we'd have to rush through our family stuff and I don't like rushing through family stuff) the girls did plan a little fire pit/game/movie night with their friends. 

In a brilliant move, the mother of one of the girls' friends invited Benjamin and Zoë to hang out at their house with their pre/teens, so those two weren't feeling left out.

But Alexander and Phoebe kind of were. 

We had intended to get outside and let them roast some marshmallows before coming in for bedtime, but one thing led to another, and then it was too late to go out to roast marshmallows because the teenagers had moved on to other activities and we didn't want to interrupt. So instead Andrew got out our little "table fire" thingy (which Alexander was a little afraid of because the last time we used it he grabbed the grate without realizing it was hot and burned his poor little hand so badly; fortunately future problems are easily prevented by remembering that everything about this production is hot) and roasted marshmallows inside with those two. 

And I fell asleep on the couch and was subsequently put to bed at the same time as Phoebe. 

When I protested, Andrew said, "But doesn't 12 hours of sleep sound glorious?"

Now, that's true. 12 hours of sleep does sound glorious, but as tired as I am theoretically...my body is also used to getting up and going after five hours of sleep or so. And that's typically five hours of interrupted sleep because Phoebe still doesn't sleep through the night consistently.

Anyway, around 2 AM my body and brain were like, "Time to start another day!"

Turns out going to bed at 8:30 was a "huge mistake."

So I got up—and took a melatonin—and read an article that wasn't on my list of things to read, but which felt important to read anyway, and about half of another article, and did Duolingo, made some edits to my mom's paper, and now I'm finally feeling like I could maybe fall back asleep, so perhaps I'll try it.

Twelve times I've cried this week:

(more truthfully in the past two days)

After a particularly rough meeting with a professor. After a particularly cheering meeting with a different professor. While adding another cousin to the spreadsheet of relatives with the BRCA gene mutation. When Matthew Cuthbert died. When Anne found renewed pleasure in life. When a friend texted to apologize for a lapse of compassion years ago. When that same friend suggested she take my younger-older kids to hang out with her younger-older kids while the older-older kids are hanging out at my house. After my oldest-older kid submitted her college application. When a cousin texted me out of the blue. When I listened to a new arrangement next-to-oldest-older kid is making of a Christmas song. When a girl in my class put her hand on my shoulder after my presentation and said that I did wonderfully and she appreciates having me in class. While reading about the needless destruction of the Jaredite nation. After seeing images of people sitting in the dirt, held at gunpoint, wearing nothing but underwear.

Maybe you've guessed it, maybe you've not...too bad.

While my days on campus are very quiet and I am able to get quite a lot of focused reading and writing in, I also tend to feel rather nervous about going to class while also feeling guilty about not being home with my kids. It's complicated, I know.

But, I always leave them with a long list of things to do and they do just fine with Daddy at home. 

My favourite part is when they email me (or text me or send a discord message of) little bits of assignments, to prove to me that they're doing their assigned work. 

Today I asked them to read some Halloween poems (their choice) and then to revisit their Halloween poems from last week to see if they wanted to revise their poem or perhaps write a new poem. 

Inspired by Phoebe's relationship with her pumpkins, Zoë wrote this poem. To give you context, Phoebe has been sleeping with not one but two pumpkins every night for weeks now. She carries them around and plays with them all day, pretends to feed them, takes them outside with her, drags them back inside, brings them in the van when we go out, reads them stories. It's...it's a lot. So read this poem knowing that we tuck in Phoebe and her gourds every night:

My best friend’s suit is bright orange, but has no tie at all

His nose is always yellow, and always set aglow.

His eyes are cozy triangles; but do not bring him in bed—

He’s round and hard and lumpy, as everyone has said.

Maybe you’ve guessed it, maybe you’ve not, but…

My best friend’s a pumpkin, and he’s the only friend I’ve got!

The attention to meter and rhyme is spectacular. There are a few places where the language could be tweaked, but overall I was so impressed that I thought for sure she had pulled out a mentor poem and simply adapted it. But evidently this was all her work.

Space heater

It's mid-October and sometimes chilly, but we're firmly decided on not turning the heater on until November. Just to see if we can (we totally can). 

Andrew (the cheater) moved a space heater into his office and when he turns that puppy on and closes his office door, things get pretty roasty-toasty inside. 

I was in the kitchen just now and he left his roasty-toasty office, leaving the door wide open. 

When I left the kitchen I had a moment of panic when I was hit by a waft of warm air, right in the face. 

"What in the world?!" I asked to no one in particular, sniffing the air. "Is the heater on? What is going on?"

Rachel and Miriam came to investigate with me (the little kids, the younger kids, the kids from Benjamin on down were taking care of Luna) and they agreed that the air was certainly much warmer at head level than ground level. 

This makes sense...because hot air rises. 

But where was the air coming from?!

It was Miriam who pointed out that Andrew's office heater was on and that air was spilling out of his office into the hallway. On his way back to his office he encountered us all bobbing up and down in the hallway, "Warm. Cold. Warm. Cold. Warm. Cold."

The difference was astounding. 

Quadoculars

Phoebe found a toilet paper roll ("toy-yet paper roll," as she says) and coloured on it and started using it as a telescope, only she wasn't satisfied with the idea of a telescope. Only one eye? How lame is that?!

"These 'noculars are broken," she insisted. "I need another toy-yet paper roll so I can fix them into real 'noculars!"

I didn't know where another toilet paper roll was off the top of my head (because I'd just donated all our toilet paper rolls to Alexander's recycled art class at co-op), but Miriam said she and Rachel had a toilet paper roll (or two or three) kicking around their bathroom. 

She brought them up and Phoebe was in toilet paper roll heaven. 

Do you know what's better than a lousy single-lens telescope? 

Binoculars.

Obviously.

Do you want to know what's better than binoculars?

Why, quadoculars, of course!!

A costume party

Our next door neighbour had a birthday party last night and both Zoë and Alexander were invited. It was a costume party, which is always fun, but always a little bit frantic because it moves my costume deadline from Halloween to...whenever the party is. On a more positive note, two halloween costumes are completely finished so that's a little bit off my plate the next ten days or so!

Zoë wanted to be Fleur Delacour this year. I ordered a dress for her that she felt matched the Beauxbatons vibe. She has been living in it for a week—sleeping in it, playing in it. We basically have to wrestle her out of it in order to wash it.

Primary Program

We had our primary program today and (it ran a little long but) it went great! 

Phoebe made Grandpa take her onto the stand to join her nursery class in singing "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam." Zoë played "Book of Mormon Stories" while the rest of the primary kids sang. We had a mother-son duet. Another family sang a song with ukulele accompaniment. We sang a song with sign language ("I Feel My Saviour's Love"). We even broke out the handbells for one of our songs ("We'll Bring the World His Truth"). The kids did wonderfully!

Everyone also had a speaking part and did great!

Homecoming queen

Rachel's friend Hunter invited her to go to homecoming at her high school. Hunter and her sister came to live with their aunt (who is in our ward) a few years ago. Hunter is the other senior young woman in our ward and for a long time she refused to come to anything because she thought she'd be all alone at activities. But then her sister threw herself a birthday party and both Rachel and Miriam came and Hunter was like, "I forgot about Rachel!" So now she comes to church activities and dances and game nights and both Rachel and Hunter are happy to have another "old" young woman around (since the next oldest young women are (a) Hunter's sister and then (b) Miriam, who are both about two years younger than Rachel and Hunter).

Anyway, Hunter's sister is rather gregarious and talkative. She has a ton of friends at school and wanted to go to homecoming with them. And Hunter wanted to go to homecoming since it's her senior year of high school...but Hunter is not as gregarious as her sister. But she knew that she had fun hanging out at church dances with Rachel, so she asked if Rachel would come with her. 

So those three girls got together and took pictures and had dinner and then went to the dance. They had a fun time (though they all not-so-secretly agree that church dances are superior because (a) the music isn't quite as loud, (b) they allow kids to go outside to get some fresh air, (c) they play complete songs rather than snippets, (d) they play at least a few slow songs, (e) people aren't making out all over the place). 

Rachel drove herself over to Hunter's house, where she found that she (Rachel) and Hunter's sister had picked out matching dresses. In all the pictures they took together they put Hunter in the middle, flanked by dark green dresses. I don't have those pictures, but I do have a few I took of Rachel before she left. 

Here she is holding a white pumpkin, poor Yorick:

Phoebe the caboose

I snapped this picture one fine morning when we were all having a little sleep-in together. "Little sleep-ins" is how we survive because this little girl is still not the very best sleeper. We take the sleep when we can get it...and where we can get it. 

She enjoys being close by, both a night and during the day.