Introverts Unite

...separately, in your own houses, alone.

I am an introvert.  And the past few months have only intensified my desire to be alone, in my bubble, doing my thing.

I've also picked up a new hobby--hiking.  Turns out hiking is perfect for an introvert because that's what other introverts do so if I happen along someone on a trail, we wave, maybe have a short conversation and move on. 

Also hiking, just feels good.  Usually the phone reception is poor so that little stressor is gone.  The air is fresh.  The nature is perfect.

Two weeks ago, Greg and I chaperoned the 4th level hike for Girls' Camp.  It was an 8-mile over-night hike on the Appalachian Trail.  It was perfect.  Well the trail, not the girls.  You know there are always those 2 girls that just should not have been on the hike.  We ended up being spread out over about a mile worth of trail because we had two girls who had never hiked before and over-packed their packs.  Greg ended up doing close to 12 miles from doubling back so much looking for those of use prodding the stragglers along. 

Add to that, about half way through the hike we got hit by a server thunderstorm that hung around for hours--they usually blow through in 30 minutes or so.  By the time we got to our campsite, it was a river, so we had to do an extra mile to get to the nearest town where we rented platform tents to get out of the rain.  We then rustled up enough quarters to dry some of the girls' sleeping bags, which were literally dripping wet.  My stuff was all day because I covered my pack with a trash bag when I heard thunder and Greg had a high-end pack with a rain cover so his stuff was dry too.

Greg and I volunteered to go again next year, only next year we'll do mandatory bag checks for those girls who feel like they need to bring everything and bring our HAM radios so Greg doesn't have to double back so much.  Not sure why we didn't think to bring them the first time, but whatever.

One more quick story about the hike: we were nearing the end, I was in the back with the other female leader and the one girl who couldn't walk more than 20 steps at a time.  It was getting dark; we were soaked through; and we were ready to be done.  The other leader sent me ahead to the campsite to help with the other girls and also allow her husband to hike back to her to get this girl's pack to help her finish the hike.  I started off and realized shortly that while the trail was well-marked, the camp sites were not. I could easily walk right past it.  So, being at Girls' Camp, I did the camp thing and prayed--don't let me get lost.  I decided to set the timer on my phone for 5 minutes.  If in 5 minutes I had not found the camp site I would turn around and re-search the area I'd already passed for the camp site.  I took out my phone and took it out of airplane mode so that if I did get lost, at least my phone would be sending a signal.  Turns out at that exact spot I had just enough signal to call Greg who was at the camp site.  I didn't get through but was hoping he'd see my missed call and come looking for me.  He did.  He even called back but by then I didn't have signal again.  But guess who I happened along the trail just as the 5 minute time on my phone went off?  Yep, you guessed it.  Greg.  He had also realized that with the rain and blah blah blah any girls coming behind him would not be able to find the camp site so he came back up looking for us.  Prayer answered. 

Other observations while hiking:

1. The Lord works in small and simple ways in the same way he asks us to do same and simple things.  (Hiking allows for lots of time to ponder).

2. At one point I was running, literally running, down the trail with my full pack trying to catch up to a group of girls and realized that I can't possibly be as sick as I want to believe if I've running with a full pack on a mountain in a thunder storm.  (Something about feeling totally fine one morning and ending the day in the ICU really messes with your feeling of well-being.  I am fine; I just have remind myself that I am so don't worry Mom).

3. There's a reason why God is in the mountains in the scriptures and not at the beach.

And now pictures.  I didn't take very many because of the rain storm--I didn't want to get my phone wet and ruin it, which is exactly what Greg did.

One of my all-time favorite Young Women. I gave her lots of bad advice while hiking.

The approaching storm

Noteworthy Week 4

This week was Cub Scout Day Camp.  Everyday from 9 to 4.  I volunteered the entire week so that Alice, Henry and Zora could go to--they have a day care for the children of volunteers and those kids get to do many of the same activities as the scouts.  I thought it sounded fun.  It was an exhausting week.  We left the house at 8:45 every morning, got home around 4:50, just to change into swimsuits and head to practice or a meet.  

This week's focus was answers to prayers.  

Monday, June 11: I was a Den Leader and was assigned an assistant den leader from another ward--a woman I'd meet in passing several times.  She reminded me a lot of my Aunt Traci.  She was an answer to prayer--she gave me a really great pep talk on prayer and on dealing with hard things in life.  She was an answer to prayer.

I didn't get a picture of us together because I'm not like that so here's one of Alice getting ready to do the rock wall.

Tuesday: I've been trying to serve others more lately so when a lady from our ward asked me to watch her kids so she and the husband could go to a work party, I said yes.  They played well with Henry and Zora while Greg took the big kids to swim practice.  That was an answer to prayer.

Wednesday: By Wednesday, I had a new assistant den leader as the one from Monday and Tuesday was going to Mexico and needed a few days to pack.  The new assistant den leader was less entertaining so I spent the time the boys were doing their activities reading conference addresses. A few things stuck out to me as answers to prayers.

Thursday: By Thursday, Zora had a fever from lack of sleep so I asked a friend if she could watch Zora so she could get a nap.  (They don't do naps at Pixie camp).  Zora had a great time with Aunt Rhea and enjoyed being the center of attention of the 6 adults/teens at the house (Rhea, her husband and 4 of her grown children).  The next day Rhea offered to watch Zora again and Zora requested Rhea by name.  While I didn't specifically pray about Zora and her nap schedule, I was concerned about it and am glad that Rhea helped out.

Friday:  We finally made it to Friday!  This was an answer to Rex's prayers--the Wheatley's arrived safely in North Carolina and his Derick was back!  I took a few scouts home with me and they played in the Wheatley's pool until 8.  It felt so good to have the compound full of my people again.

Saturday: By Saturday, my house looked like a bomb had gone off, we had no food, and I was so tired I felt like my eyes were slowly burning out of my head, so I failed to look for answers to prayers on Saturday, but here are a few more of the kids at Day Camp. 

Day Camp is fun, but just so tiring.  I'm debating if I'll go back next year, but, let's be honest, I probably will.  I always liked when my mom came to stuff with me.

Noteworthy week 3

This week rather than just make a chronicle of what we did, I tried to focus on small moments that brought joy.

Monday, June 4: Everyday after putting Zora Jane down for her nap, I find Henry patiently (yes, actually patiently) waiting for me on my bed with a pile of books.  It's my favorite time of day.  On Monday, he picked Would you rather be a bullfrog? by Theo. LeSieg and he explained of his choices to me in great detail. Talking and snuggling and reading with Henry brings me joy.

 Tuesday, June 5: Henry picked to go to the pool on Tuesday.  During one of the safety checks we sat down to eat lunch but Zora was mad about something and ran off so I left Henry with the lunch to go get her.  While I was gone, he set out both of their lunches. I thought it was sweet that he didn't try to eat all the food and set hers out of her.  He did eat her food later though, with her permission.

 Wednesday, June 6: We made our summer bucket list.  It was bittersweet.  Sweet because, well, summer.  And the kids worked on it together just long enough for me to take this picture.  But mostly bitter because I had planned to have a baby this summer.  The future is hard these days because I had it all planned out and now it's gone.

 Thursday, June 7: We spent the afternoon at the Wheatley's.  I miss the little bike parking lot my kids set up at their front door.

 Friday, June 8: These naughty kids played in our little pool fully clothed.  Watching them all play together brings me joy--I'm not the worst parent if my kids can handle playing together for more than 10 seconds.

Saturday, June 9: Zora Jane bit Henry on the check and left this wicked bruise, which isn't the joyful part.  The part that made me smile was when Henry told me about it: "Zora Jane bites me all the time.  Whenever I push her, or take her toy, or be mean to her, she bites me."  Well, Henry...

 Zora's naughty-ness level is reaching Henry's.  I was cleaning up the goldfish she had dumped out of the van when she got into the pool fully clothed.  She thought she was pretty clever.

Not to be outdone in the naughiness field, Henry quickly joined her.

 Saturday night we partticpated in a Noah tradition and burned all of Rex's schoolwork.  We were going to burn Alice's too, but then it was bed time.  Sitting around a fire on our little compound brings me joy.

Sunday, June 11: I went to bed at 10 last night (which is several hours before I usually do) and then look a long nap today. I feel much better.

Noteworthy Week 2

I'm starting on Sunday of last week even though I included it in my last week of Noteworthy things  because...

Sunday, May 27

...my old roommate from Foxwood came to visit.  She moved to Myrtle Beach about a year ago and decided that we should be friends again.  And I'm so glad she did.  There's a lot to love about Paige but one thing I really love is that you cannot phase her. She just takes everything in then spits it back out in a way that makes lots of sense.  Plus she has a gaggle of boys for my kids to play with.  We had a great time and are planning to visit her in July.  The visit was definitely worth noting.

Monday, May 28

We had a ward party in our backyard.  I love that our yard was big enough for everyone.  Greg spent the day before setting up lots of tarps since it threatened to rain and everyone stayed nice and dray.  A ward party in your backyard is definitely worth noting. 

 Tuesday, May 29

This girl turned 2!  That should be it's own post, but she loves animals, especially cats so we went to the aquarium in the morning and then had a cat-themed party when the older kids got home from school.  Everyone notes this adorable girl.

Wednesday, May 30

After 5 months in escrow, we finally closed on our house.  It was a little anti-climatic since we had lived in it exactly 5 years minus one day when we signed and when I asked the lawyer where to send the mortgage checks he didn't know.  Seems legit.  And so in that envelope is the deed to our little piece of heaven (I really like our house and property).  Definitely worth noting.

 The Bear Scouts (I'm the Bear Den leader in the ward) also made birdhouses without killing or injuring anyone so that worth noting.

 Thursday, June 1

Alice's class went on a field trip to the park near our house so we just happened to run into them there.  It was pretty muggy, but I loved that Henry just lined right up with the big kids like he was one of them--he fit in pretty well.  He's the one in the green.  While not a big deal, it made me smile and take note.

Friday, June 2

By the time Friday rolled around I was physically and emotionally exhausted.  2018 has been a long hard year for me.  I was done so, against Henry's wishes, we stayed home and played.  And noted lots of lovely moments throughout the day.

First I caught Henry and Zora as they took off to the moon.

 Then I caught this fun picture of which I have a nearly identical one of Rex and Alice from when we moved in five years ago.

 I found a turtle hiding in our backyard.

 And then we toured the property to see how our food-growing was going.  Pretty well.

Peppers, peas, and green beans

Peaches

Blueberries,  We also found lots of wild blackberries getting ready to be picked

 Henry sounded out and wrote "glad"

Saturday, June 2

Alice has been begging for a pet for years.  I told her for her birthday, but she couldn't wait so she saved up her money, made a plan, and bought a bearded dragon.  Rex pitched in a bit too.  They named him George Puff.  George because we have friends with a bearded dragon named Fred (Fred and George Weasley from Harry Potter) and Puff from Puff the Magic Dragon. 

Alice was more than a little excited, which was worth noting.

We also went on a hike with the Bear Scouts, and again, nobody died, which is always worth noting with a group of 9-year-old boys.

Sunday, June 3

I forgot to take any pictures today.  But Greg and I took a hike on Sherman and left the kids at home.  We got back and the little 2 were screaming bloody murder but they weren't dead so that's worth noting.  

Noteworthy Week 1

In an effort to be more positive, I am starting a new weekly series called Noteworthy where I put one picture (or sometimes more) of something worth noting from each day of the previous week.  It doesn't have to be anything big--just something worth noting and maybe even a pat on the back about.

Without further ado, Noteworthy for the week of May 21 to 27:

Monday

I've been working on cleaning up our backyard and planting spring flowers, etc.  I found these little flamingos at the Dollar Spot in Target and they just make me smile.  They are noteworthy.

 Tuesday

I didn't really set this goal out loud ever, but I love that all my kids love to read.  I spend hours putting their books away, but at least they're reading.  I found Henry and Zora having quite the story time on Tuesday.  It was noteworthy.

 

Also on Tuesday, I noticed that my garden is coming up.  In less than a week.  It was noteworthy.

Wednesday

Henry "graduated" from our co-op preschool.  We had such a fun year and I loved having those girls over with Henry and they were so good to him and they played so well together.  It was noteworthy.

Thursday

Henry wrote a word on Thursday.  He sounded out and wrote "bat."  I'm working on reading with him, but he really hates writing or any sort of fine motor activity so the fact that he wrote anything, let alone a word is noteworthy.

And then Henry and Zora played well together for a good five minutes.  So well that they were laughing.  Noteworthy.

During Zora's nap, the big 3 kids and I played 3 card games without any fights and without Henry knocking the pile over or stealing cards or making anyone cry.  Noteworthy.

Friday

The pools finally opened so although it wasn't actually hot and in fact was a little cool and threatened to rain, we had pizza at the pool.  Noteworthy.

 And then honestly, pigtails and goggles with a flamingo bathing suit: honestly.

Saturday

We did sealings at the temple with one of my old Young Women who is leaving on a mission in August. That's 4 missionaries and 2 temple weddings out of the five years I spent in Young Women's.  Also that's 2 temple trips in the last 2 months--noteworthy.

Sunday

The three big kids and I went on a short hike on Sherman without any complaints.  Definitely worth noting. 

As an end note, I quit all social media because no body gets off social media feeling good about themselves--at best you waste a bunch of time, at most you realize everybody's life is better than yours. So I quit a few weeks ago, and not only do I not miss it at all but my life has significantly improved. So if you have any big announcement of awesome picture you want me to see, you'll have to call me--or text because I'm not big on talking on the phone.