Solar Eclipse, Quilts, and Goodbye August

I cannot believe that we are at the end of August. I feel like June just began. 

I was looking over my bucket list that I made at the beginning of Summer. I don't think I did too shabby. Most of the ones that didn't get done were books I wanted to read. They never came in at the library. Oh well. I did plenty of the more important things on my list :)

All four of my quilts are completely done!!! I am so, so excited and I can't be happier with how beautiful they turned out thanks to Pat Holling, the sweet lady who stitches them together. She just has such a talent and is always so willing to do my quilts free of charge. She wrote me this sweet note this week before I went to pick up the four quilts from her house:

"I am grateful for the opportunity to help you with these quilts.  There is a special feeling with each and every one of them that is dear to my heart.  Any time you need some done I
am most happy to help."
Made my heart swell and brought good and happy tears to my eyes 💓

 

Aeva, Myles, and Elsa spent some time playing cards this week out on the trampoline with Meg running circles around them.

I had forgotten about these couple of photos from last week.  Aeva's shadow looking very long legged

Meg attended the Webelos outing with Chris and got to sit in the firetruck at our local fire station.

This was from last Saturday of Myles and the gentleman who was giving him a lesson in flying a remote control airplane. Myles and Chris spent yesterday morning flying again, this time with their very own plane.

We all got to enjoy the solar eclipse one way or another this last Monday. One of the guys Chris works with brought in his telescope to work and set up a projection to watch the eclipse. Chris took off the auto darkening filter from a welding helmet to view the eclipse. We played it safe by watching the actual eclipse on tv, and we went outside to see Venus.  It was so interesting how dark it got inside the house and the change in light outside.

See that tiny dot??? What a neat thing to be able to see.....Venus in the daytime!! We also got to see all the ripples and waves (shadow bands) that were made. We could see them on the house next door, the grass, and the street. Pretty cool!

 My little girl with curls. Love our little spitfire. It's official, no more pull-ups at night. It's strictly undies 24/7 now for this big girl. 

Meg and I have matching toenails this week.

Thursday for Young Women we had a talent night with the sisters 50 and above in our ward. It was so much fun!! I made this pie for it. It was scrummy!

Chris and I went to the temple on Friday. It was so wonderful💗
There wasn't too much traffic, and I had fun taking pictures. I love going on this bridge.

 

And Molly finally got her haircut. She always looks so much cuter when she is all spiffed up! We've been trying to train her with her barking when people come to the door. She totally traumatized the little neighbor girl last week. So far so good on her training, but it's only been us coming to the door.

The youth in our ward at church went on a hike to  Siouxon Falls yesterday morning. It was a four mile hike with lunch by the water. I wish I could have gone, but too much to do  and only one me. Aeva had a great time though!

This week we are wrapping up summer vacation, getting college books, and making sure all is in order for home school 2017-18. It's almost time for beginning of the year pictures. I can't believe that Rhaevyn is officially a college student, Aeva is a senior, Myles is in 6th, Elsa is in 3rd, and little Meg has one year left before she is a Kindergartner. My littles are growing up so fast.
So goodbye August and hello September! Here we go!!!!

Summer is Fading Fast!

It was a week filled with jobs and get-togethers.
Rhaevyn had a lot of work this week, which is an awesome thing!
Myles got to go to a friend's house on Monday and play for several hours. They have a family of all boys, and he was having a blast! He loves his sisters, but sometimes it is just nice to have some boys to run around with. Friday morning Sister Lee stopped by to pick up Myles unexpectedly, and they got to spend some time together making finger puppets. He cam home with his own tub of Ben and Jerry's ice cream as a treat. We had some friends over to play on Friday afternoon. It was hot, so they threw some water balloons.
Friday afternoon I helped Rhaevyn do some cleaning. This was for one of the families that has hired her on a weekly basis. They left early that day to head out on vacation, and we just came in so they could have a clean house and washed dishes to come home to. We had such a fun time talking, laughing, and working together. Afterwards we had a date night together. She was on the look out for jeans. She has not had a new pair in over a year, and the three pairs she has have been sewn in several places so many times that they just could not be sewn anymore. She was able to find three pairs that were on sale and fit great. She was a happy girl! Then we shared a frozen custard dessert. Such a great night with her :)

Tuesday the girls had an evening at their former seminary teacher's house. She had invited all her seminary kids to come play games, visit, and make s'mores. There were even some students that came that were from the previous year's class. They had a great time visiting with friends.

This picture was from their ice cream outing from two weeks ago.

Myles and Aeva made masks this week.
Aeva used paper mache for hers. It ended up not working out the way she had hoped. She is going to give it another go though. This was the start of hers.

The little ones got a surprise in the mail this week from Grandma and Grandpa Lindsay.
The little girls love their solar butterflies!
 
 Myles got a remote control airplane. He couldn't wait to fly it! He was able to get in some flight time  two nights in a row at the soccer field before it lost it's steering magnet.
With the steering magnet gone it became almost like a boomerang and then had a fatal crash landing. Myles was heartbroken :(  He made a little grave site for it in the backyard.

Myles and Chris got up before the sun was up on Saturday to go to the Evergreen Airfield. Myles got to fly this remote control airplane.The airplane itself is made from Dollar Store foam. Myles and Chris are going to try and make one together.

My third quilt has been put together. The detail of the stitching is absolutely amazing and beautiful. It makes me cry...................good tears. There is one more to go before I put the binding on all four quilts and deliver them to the hospital.

Myles is learning a new song on teh Cello. It is called far far away

but sounds like the hymn Ye Elders of Israel. This is the only video I'm able to upload and my camera did not record all of it, but here is a snippet.  Rhaevyn is playing the violin, and Aeva is playing the piano with him. Myles is also working on Bach Cello Suite No. 1. 

And that, my friends and family, was our week in a short snippet :)

Lazy Dayz

 We have spent a majority of the week just hibernating inside due to the heat. It has been a week of not doing much. We've been reading some Beatrix Potter, which the kids have absolutely loved. They look forward to a new story each day. We've done small outings here and there, but nothing grand. It was pretty much just the normal day to day routine around here with chores, Rhaevyn's three jobs, cello lessons, and just hanging out together. Aeva put together a little bin of Legos specifically for Meg, and Elsa has spent time playing Legos with Meg, which she has loved. Rhaevyn was in search of some new jeans this past week; we decided to check out Goodwill one night. Chris and I went on a date Friday night. I took Aeva to get two new shirts for the school year and a free frozen custard Saturday afternoon. Myles spent Friday afternoon with Sister Lee while Rhaevyn and Aeva went for ice cream and to an antique mall with their former Seminary teacher. While those three were off having fun, the little girls and I went to Costco and then to Maddogs Gourmet Hot Dogs since Elsa had gotten a $5 gift card from the library summer reading program. Saturday morning we tidied up the house and had the missionaries for dinner that evening. Sunday was church, and Rhaeyvn and I went to a missionary farewell.  While there wasn't a whole lot going on, it was a pretty lovely week. 

Rhaevyn made an apple pie for dessert Saturday. It was absolutely divine!

 

 A bit of Molly from the week:

 Waiting for a blueberry.

 Myles giving Meg a horsey ride

 Enjoying a blueberry mint lemonade at Maddogs. It was good on such a warm day.

 I'm so excited about the new fabric I got from the very generous lady who designed it. I can't wait to make some quilts with it, as I found some new patterns I want to try out.

This week will be spent getting school organized for the coming year, and finding Rhaevyn some new shoes for the school year. I'm not quite ready to let go of summer, although I'm definitely ready for the fall weather :)

Comfort Zones Shattered

What a crazy, busy, thrilling, exciting, neat, scary, and comfort zone shattering week it has been. 

It has been one that has been filled with some tears and laughter, and a lot of smiles and growth.

First off, Myles found two caterpillars in one of our trees out front. He would check on them every hour to see how they were doing and if they had moved at all. Most of his reports to me were about how they had finished off another leaf. 

Our ward youth conference started Friday night. Saturday morning we met at a small local cemetery to clean the headstones and upload pictures to BillionGraves. We decided to take the whole family. Aeva worked with a group of her friends,  and our little kiddos really enjoyed helping to clean the headstones with some help from Chris. I took the pictures, transcribed, and uploaded. It was a well spent Saturday morning.

Saturday afternoon the youth worked on an activity which was a puzzle of sorts. They had to be family search detectives. They  had to read and decipher documents like birth, death, marriage and divorce certificates in order to locate and match children with parents. I was in charge of the dinner, and I am so happy it all went off without any hiccups. I stayed under budget, and I think the decorations were a hit. I think everyone enjoyed going around looking at the pictures and seeing if they could identify what picture belonged to what youth. The evening was finished up with a fireside where all the youth got to share a story about an ancestor, and then they cleaned the church building. It was a very simple youth conference, but it was really a lot of fun.

Monday I sent Aeva off on a transit bus down to Portland. This was a huge baby step for me. Portland is pretty crazy, and I wouldn't call it the safest city to be in. It was a bit nerve wracking. We hear daily about stabbings on the transit system and shootings near parks, a lot of homeless people on the streets and people smoking marijuana out in the open, etc. I knew this would be a wonderful experience for her, and I just had to put my trust in the Lord. I knew she'd be with a big group with four chaperones in the afternoon while walking downtown Portland, but she had to ride the bus there and walk six blocks to get to the building. The first day she did have a host mom who rode  down with four other exchange students to show them the route to take. Her anxiety was starting to get the better of her Monday morning, but she kept saying "I've got this!".  She made it down just fine, walked six blocks to the education center, and she was assigned to a classroom, a teacher, and three Japanese exchange students. She was assigned to the classroom of students that were beginners, as far as speaking the English language. Monday afternoon they walked to Powell's Bookstore (her new favorite place)  and Voodoo Donuts. Tuesday I picked her up at noon because it was going to be in the 100's and they were supposed to go to the amusement park in Portland. I am so thankful I had my trusty copilot, Rhaevyn, because it is insane driving in Portland (especially in a Suburban). I felt like I didn't breathe until I got back on the freeway to come home. Wednesday, Aeva ended up staying home to her disappointment. Between the heat (105 +) and her anxiety wreaking havoc on her body it was a day to give herself permission to recover. I talked to the teacher she was helping, who was so understanding, and she was saying how much the students loved Aeva. It was so helpful for Aeva to be able to understand and speak their language. When they did not comprehend a word she could give them an example in Japanese. This was also helpful when they were playing games like Apples to Apples. The Japanese chaperones were surprised how well she could speak too. Thursday was filled with some tears in the morning, but we did a lot of positive self talk. She was able to finish out the week. Thursday afternoon was shopping day. The group spent several hours at the mall shopping and ice skating. Aeva made some new friends who were in the more advanced speaking class. One of her new friends is this student, Kanon. She helped another student, Mei, ice skate. 

 

Friday afternoon was spent bowling. The group of girls that Aeva hung out with decided to test her on her knowledge of the Japanese language. They were so surprised at how much she knew and asked if she had been able to understand all the conversations they'd had between each other in Japanese. When she told them "yes" they were astonished. The group of girls each wrote her really sweet notes on Friday. She was able to talk to her three students in her classroom about some common interests they had like Ghibli movies and books. Aeva is so glad that she decided to be a volunteer for this program this past week, but she is glad she has this coming week to decompress. She hopes to be able to do this again next summer. 

One of the Japanese Exchange Chaperones

So this was such a big growth week for Aeva, and she did something really neat and fun, but also a bit scary. She rode a bus down to Portland for four days and walked six blocks each day, plus all the walking they did after classes in the heat of over 100 degrees. She worked through her anxiety and all that comes with that. She made new friends, put her knowledge and love of the Japanese language to use, and she learned that she could do hard things. And I survived putting her on a bus and sending her into Portland!!! We both shattered comfort zones this week! 

A group picture of the exchange students and volunteers.

The really short student in the third row on the left was one of the students she worked with.

 

 While shopping Aeva found this puzzle. She has been wanting to work on a puzzle for a while. I figured since it had been a bit of a rough week, emotionally,  I'd send her with a small amount of spending money. I cautioned her to use it wisely. She also bought herself a pair of cute socks.

 She invited the whole family to help her put it together. Everyone had fun working on it.

 And it's all done! It took four days of working on it a little at a time.

It's time to take a breather and have a relaxing week :)