7.28.21 photo catchup

Harold has been working on his hair cutting skills. This last time he learned to more closely check the guard size as he cut Merle's hair pretty short. I guess it just lasts longer that way. Overall he does a really good job, cutting his own hair impressively. 

The kids enjoying time with Papa. Trey is teaching Livy how to play chess. I think the concentration would be excellent for her. 

We sure love going to Aunt Annie's swimming pool. A major benefit of John taking summer drivers ed was the weekly reason to go swim while he drove. I really enjoyed the time with just the younger kids and watching them get more confident and skilled in the water. 

Our annual 24th of July party was different this year. No swimming and potluck but some races and even a pig scramble. The best part was not taking home a little pig but rather a package of bacon if you caught the pig! That was a committee that thought! The kids had a great time chasing those little pigs around the pen. 

And the Olympics are upon us. After seeing what was going on in Tokyo the grisl were inspired to try some tumbling. Let's just say it's not as easy as the athletes make it look. These handstand/ somersaults were major accomplishments. Not that we spend much time on athletics here but I admire their zest to try!

And after teh ordeal with Mark I may be hyper about injuries so I really appreciate their thoughtfulness to put down a pillow trail to cushion the learning. I really hate seeing my kids do anything even semi-risky at this point I loathe the thought of taking any of them to any kind of medical help. I just want so desperately to be left alone to do our thing how we choose to do it. The real root of the impending school year join the "socialized!" norm and benefit from less responsibility or control. Choices and more choices then consequences the two are so closely related. Life is good and thankfully lots of open doors. 
 

7.27.21 New adventures

With Mark on long term antibiotics and America steadily declining into socialism basic supplies are getting harder and harder to find. Now grocery store shelves aren't just bare they are cleverly rearranged and previous staples are no where to be found. Baking items have taken a hit, yeast and cooking spray are a few I have had a hard time finding these past few months. My mom has been working to master sourdough since the pandemic started over 18 months ago. Finally, I agreed to try to learn how to work with sour dough.

The first batch made with her was impressive. 

A major difference between sourdough and quick yeast is time. Sour dough just works slowly where rapid rise must be watched and moved along. Both have their place I like both breads now if I could get my sourdough to be that fluffy and perfectly textured! I love the waffles and pancakes someday I want to try the biscuits. I enjoy when I have time in the kitchen unfortunately the sheer demand lessens that joy. 

One night we had the opportunity to join our cousins for a swimming outing. We love summer birthdays as they are much more conducive to easy parties. After the cool swim we enjoyed the birthday girls favorite chili and cornbread. Yum. 

Addie really enjoys interacting behind the cameras She is able to discretely capture the action. I love the snaps she gets of the family showing us as we are. We are blessed to be able to gather together for occassions. We appreciate the effort and diversity of talents, opinions, and thoughts of each part of our family. We are lucky to have such great and interesting extended families as well. We are blessed. 
 

7.27.21 Summer dreaming

The older kids usually run the show here. Their big important activities are what determine the tempo of our days, of course that's not to say that these younger ones just sit and wait for life to happen. They move grow and refuse to sleep with the best of them. One night Aliza went to get a sibling working on shredding wheat stubble. She was surprised by this large moose statue. The kids were all to happy to take a picture by it.     

Another favorite pastime for the younger crowd are paper dolls. Grandma Saunders has several patterns she shares with them periodically. They have lately been designing their own dresses for the dolls. I love the creative side of their minds. 

I use to love to design dresses when I was a little older than them. I loved to imagine being fancy and beautiful with a special place to go. 

 Livy and Afton will spend hours dreaming, drawing, and coloring these gowns. It takes a while to pick up all the paper that is shed in the final creation but it is worth the mess. Summer is such a great time to take time and dream. I'm thankful we still have kids that are in the age of dreaming they have the blessing of time right now soon enough the rush will be on to make money, develop skills, be of good to mankind, learn more, be involved etc but right now it's so important to breathe, develop, and grow. Life is good. 

7.23.21 Temple

Life is moving very fast. We have 17 days until Harold starts his mission. This week we finally made it to the temple with him. As usual it was hectic and we were a bit late. Yet, the nice part of the temple is the peace that covers all the craziness going on outside the walls. I had worked with Harold going through the temple prep lessons trying to make sure he would be prepared. This coupled with the obligatory list of shopping for his mission and a rushed trip to Boise for things we couldn't order.

It was a parent pay-off experience to be in the celestial room with Harold. He was impressed with it all. We are thankful for all the family support that came to be with us that day. 

Grandma Lasley gave Harold Grandpa Lasley's temple bag. 

 Harold had a fun evening boating with these cousins a few weeks ago. He had an extra spot and invited them to come share. It was delightful to be surrounded by family in the temple. I'm thankful for the man he has decided to become. I'm nervous about the upcoming separation but I know he will learn a lot and come home even better. So we continue to march toward the big send off and pray that all will continue to go smoothly. Life is good.   

7.14.21 Pig work

Fair time is coming fast and it's time to start training the pigs. They are big this year and time is running at a sprinters pace. Thus the kids decided they must try walking their pigs. This is always a courageous act to urge their pigs to leave the respected confines of the pen. Yet, the requisite muscling and response to human contact is a must for fair work. So Addie dug out the gate arc and they shooed their pigs out the open door. Some love the freedom some just keep pressing to get back in the pen with those still in captivity. Usually once the pigs get a taste of no restrictions they kick up their heels and run free. Pigs are fast! Pigs are big and not easy to dissuade or corral. Pigs smell a lot! Their odor is distinct, lingering, and requires serious work to remove. 

Reed got pretty frustrated, but in the end got close enough to start scratching his pigs back and belly and thus got his pig and himself calmed down. He's a natural but has a lot of responsibility on his plate this year. He is working extreme man hours, it's interesting to see who he is becoming. 

After a reasonable amount of time walking/running at will it was time to put the pigs away. We tried to help by offering some barriers or visible direction to how they should get back in their pen's. Aliza works with hers calmly and persistently. Her experience shows. The younger kids are still pretty worried by the large fast pigs. 

Merle is such a fearless little guy. He has his stick and loves the pig whips. He was all in watching and helping with the pigs. I gave him to Livy and Millie who were all too happy to escape back into the house far away from the frustrated pigs. At the end of being out Addie fed the ones in the pen, the working ones outside the pen wanted to get in on the grain ration. 

The pigs gained quickly and compactly this year they were fair weights a few weeks ago. So they were put on a diet of hay, weeds, and limited grain- not all you can eat whenever you want to eat. With fair only 2 weeks out and confirmed weights the pigs can go back to twice a day grain but still monitored. It's good to work together, it's good to draw on each other's strengths. We live in a beautiful place although the smoke from the raging fires in the west is irritating literally. We are blessed. 
 

7.13.21 Mark's Progress

We had the long awaited much worried about bone doctor appointment last week. He left us in June thinking a bone graft might be our next step. Those were ominous words as that would be another lengthy hospital stay. Thus all of June Mark took handfuls of herbs, vitamins, and medicines. We were very careful that he did little. He slept in later, drank lots of water, and we prayed. A lot of people continue to pray for us. 

The night before the appointments we were both pretty wound up. Harold was going to come with us to shop for his mission in between appointments.

I must say Harold has a more diverse entertaining approach to sitting in waiting rooms. They watched several YouTube selections while we waited for almost an hour at the plastic surgeons office. The PA was impressed with the healing and we have a target date of August that Mark can get in a swimming pool. His leg is now completely closed no more bleeding or weeping. He still wraps the tender skin when he wears jeans but was instructed to open the site when just sitting doing school. 

After a very rushed but efficient shopping excursion, 1 suit, 2 slacks, several ties, and all his temple attire we were back at the doctor's. The worrisome doctor. Mark was x-rayed and we waited. We could hear the doctor he seemed to be in a good mood. He came in smiling and told us he was happy with what he say that the bone had started to heal. 

Broken bones are healed as the body creates a paste like cover of the hurt site. That paste calcifies into healing and hardens. This works from the outer part of the bone inside. We could just see the outside being outlined by that process!!! We were all smiles. 

The doctor also told Mark that he could walk. An after picture. The healing in one month is truly impressive the site went from white to this closed healthy pink. There is littler perforation left, the skin is thickening and becoming solid. The human body is truly miraculous. 

We were impressed with this X-ray and the fine filaments and floating things. We think it shows some of the attaching of his blood vessels and arteries. As one was hooked together with magnetic clips. And the thread was magnetic because the needle pulls it magnetically. 

So Mark moved from fast progress on one leg to cautious hobbling on two. 

We are so grateful for the skilled medical people, the faithful prayers, the medicines and herbs. Mark has also grow a couple of inches at least 2 in this time period. We know we are blessed and hope to remember the lessons this has offered. Life is good- even better on two legs. 

 

7.12.21 Family Reunion

This past weekend Greg decided to attend the annual family reunion. I was very leery of leaving especially since a gear box broke down at 1pm before we were to leave. The kids worked together and got the repair accomplished. The younger girls worked with me matching socks to prepare for packing. It's hard to manage packing for 14 especially when we don't practice very often. We started stuffing clothes trying to get essential socks and underwear. The car finally came home from getting fixed and the kids began packing. I decided to take two vans so we could haul all the camp stuff, 

The kids were so excited. There was just more and more and more that had to be addressed. Finally after 10 pm cars pulled out the driveway. We listened to the end of Casey McAllister book. He is exciting to listen to and kept most of us awake. 

We arrived in Twin Falls around 1:05 a.m. Most of us were ready to sleep unfortunately Merle was not in that boat. He cried for about 45 minutes. So around 2 a.m. we were able to sleep. At 5:00 a.m. Harold's alarm went off. He had planned to nap then head off to the family reunion. I knew this was his plan but was not happy to be the one turning off the alarm and then waiting for the boys to get up. Of course we should have talked about travel schedule, but in the mix of settling everyone, being so tired, and scared toddlers it didn't happen. At 6:15 Harold had his brothers up and into the car. They called as they pulled out of the driveway. I groaned and told Greg I missed the days when the kids actually slept en masse. We roused the rest of the kids and were on the road by 7 a.m. We arrived in Idaho Falls around 9:30 to a delicious pancake breakfast. Addie took my phone and went to work. These are in reverse order last to first. 

We had approval to have family church as one of the cousins is in the stake presidency in that area. 

The cute deacons and teachers who passed sacrament. There were over 150 people at the meeting. 

Cousin Jon who taught a quick Sunday school lesson. 

Attempting to keep Lia quiet during the meeting. 

Trenton, Bruce, and Zane! 

Millie helping with breakfast.

Sunday breakfast is always cold cereal or granola.

Ultimate frisbee

The water slide kept all the kids busy for Saturday. 

Millie and Brooklyn

It was so good to see Anna, it was really hard to come home without her.

There were two wading pools for the younger crowd who weren't as into the water slide. 

Volleyball is always a highlight my kids look forward to their annual game. This is the one time a year they play and love it!

Lots of visiting. 

John trying out a cousins whip. 

Cousin Millie whom we named our Millie after. 

Riding atv's is one highlight of the visit. 

Traditional wagon rides. 

The line for the waterslide. 

Top of the slide. 

Bruce and Zane

Obviously food was plentiful and delicious. The organizers and kitchen people were always busy they may have sat down for an hour between lunch and dinner. It takes a lot of preparation and work to feed a crowd over 200. 

Addie with our cousin Steve. 

Always lots of good stuff to drink. Juice, homemade rootbeer, mint lemonade. Cold water. 

I treasure conversations and instruction from the wise cousins. My kids are friends with their kids nad I love learning from them. I'm thankful we all make the trek wherever the gathering place is. 

Greg talking with brother in-laws Richard and Ben. 

I'm thankful to see him independently upright. He limps but is able to keep up. The family was impressed with his story and scars. I'm glad he is getting back to normal- well mostly the teasing is not a welcome return. I'm also thankful we have Harold ahead of him because Mark's pre-accident pants are WAY too small he jumped right into Harold's. I'm thankful for my strong, healthy, kids.

 I never want to go but I'm thankful we do. It's not a vacation for the mom but it's edifying to learn I'm not alone, to see others who are farther on the path encouraging endurance, laughter, forgiveness, and insights. I'm glad for a change. I'm thankful for a washing machine and lots of heat to wash the mountain of laundry we always seem to make. Life is good lots of great memories in the books.