Not much to say by way of introduction. You know how May is: filled with a million activities as school wraps up for the year. Ours was just what you would expect, including . . .
Finishing . . . off the school year. Notable happenings included: fun run, 1st grade dance performance, AP world history test, band concert, choir concert, high honor roll activity at Classic Fun Center, 1st grade pool party, skipping school for most of the final week (Aaron), 4th grade Utah performance, junior high awards night, 4th grade opera, state debate, yearbook stomp, and saying goodbye to beloved teachers. I'll talk about a few of these in greater detail below.
Climbing . . . out of his crib. I knew it couldn't last forever, but boy was I sad when Silas came into my room after his nap one day, and I asked him, "Who got you out of your crib?" and he replied, "Me!" Hoping he hadn't understood my question, I asked, "Did Bradley get you out of your crib?" "No," "Did Clark get you out of your crib." "No. I did! I did it myself. Do you want to see me do it?" And so with that, we sadly switched his crib over to a toddler bed. He lasted two years and four months, which was longer than most of the other boys.
Starting . . . a new job. Maxwell decided to follow in Aaron's footsteps from last summer and applied to work at the snow cone shack. (Aaron, on the other hand, decided that one summer of snow cones was enough for him.) We have already stopped by to visit him and buy some snow cones to make sure he stays in business. Mike also started a new bonus job this month. It has always been his dream to teach classes at the college level, so he jumped at the chance when a former professor of his at the University of Utah contacted him and said they were looking to hire adjunct professors for a few summer classes. Mike is teaching one section of Design of Mechanical Elements. It is a ton of work. This is a class Mike never took as an undergraduate, so he is feeling a little like he is just trying to keep one step ahead of the students, which is not a super fun position to be in. It requires many hours of preparation before each class period, but he is so glad to get the experience and hopes it will lead to more opportunities in the future.
Competing . . . in state debate. Clark wrote a persuasive speech with the convincing title, "If You Smoke, You'll Regret It." He competed at the district level and then moved onto state. He had his speech memorized and had to give it three times to a different judge each time. He was competing against fifth and sixth graders, and he did really well. I was lucky to get to watch him at both the district and state tournaments.
Capturing . . . a whole colony of bees. I should have Mike write this section since I wasn't actually there for it, but I'll do my best. One afternoon (I was at the state speech and debate tournament with Clark), Mike was outside with the kids when a couple of boys ran up our street yelling, "Bees! Bees!" Sure enough, there were thousands of bees flying up the street--not in an angry swarm kind of way, more like, "we're looking for a new home" kind of way. More and more bees kept coming but instead of flying past our house, they began landing on our fence. As more bees came to the fence, they clustered together until they were finally one gigantic mass, a single entity. They had decided our fence was the perfect spot--at the very least, for a rest while the scouts continued to search for a new place. Mike has two friends who are both beekeepers and one of them had recently lost his hives, so he was only too happy to come to our house and collect the bees for himself. He used a very gently suctioning vacuum to pull the bees into a bucket. Then he waited around for the scouts to come back so he could get them too. The whole thing was so fascinating, and we feel pretty lucky the bees chose our house as a good landing place.
Reconnecting . . . with cousins. Mike has a lot of cousins. (69, in fact. We recently tallied them up because our kids were curious.) We will take any chance we get to spend time with any of them. They are all so great. And this month, Mike's cousin, Laura's oldest son was married, and his reception was just a few minutes from our house, so of course we had to go--not only to congratulate him but also to see Laura and several of her siblings and her mom and dad. So nice.
Watching . . . the snow. It snows in May more often than you might think. Luckily, there wasn't much accumulation with this one. Just enough to dampen our hopes for spring.
Saying . . . the opening prayer in sacrament meeting. Notable because Clark was the one saying it, and it can be scary for even an adult to get up in front of the congregation and pray without a written script, let alone a 10-year-old. He spoke clearly and confidently, and I was so proud of him.
Wishing . . . that Max's junior high band experience wasn't at an end. We went to the final concert of the year and enjoyed it so much. Being in jazz band has been such a gift for Max. When he started junior high, he had never even touched a saxophone, but he took to it quickly, and it became a part of his identity. He has loved the saxophone a thousand times more than he ever liked piano. I never, not once, had to wake him up for jazz band. He was always happy and eager to go, even when there was a foot of snow on the ground. There have been rough moments of junior high for him, but band was a consistently bright spot for him, and I'm so glad he had it, and I'm so sad it's over.
Giving . . . my dad a banjolele for his birthday. He had never expressed a wish for one, but I happened to see one at a friend's house one day and knew that it would be just the thing for him. It's a cross between a ukulele and a banjo, so you get the sound of a banjo but you can use all the same fingering as a ukulele. My dad was so surprised, even though he had accidentally seen the box at my house twice before his birthday (apparently I'm not very good at hiding presents) but never guessed it was actually for him. His birthday was on a Thursday, so Silas and I went over to their house for the morning. We gave him the banjolele (all of my siblings had contributed to it as well), ate cake, and then Silas helped him plant some flowers around a tree in their front yard.
Attending . . . Clark's class opera. This was such a treat. Clark's class wrote an opera: they developed the plot, composed the music, wrote the lyrics, made the props, put together costumes, memorized everything, and performed the whole program. Clark was a beaver and had a couple of solos. This was a project his class worked on for most of the school year, and I know it was so rewarding for all of them to see it all come together.
Getting . . . to be a guest speaker at the sewing group in my neighborhood. My neighbor invited me to come share some of my knitted projects with her sewing group, and I was honored to do so! I love talking about knitting, and these ladies were a sweet, attentive audience.
Accompanying . . . for a violin recital. I don't accompany much these days (except for church related things), but one of my friends had two kids in a violin recital, and their accompanist fell through at the last minute, so I agreed to play for them. It was actually so much fun, especially because I know their teacher from one of our past neighborhoods, and it was nice to reconnect with him. Accompanying is something I've always enjoyed doing, and this time I even made a little money!
Enjoying . . . a very nice Mother's Day. The boys made me breakfast and gave me some thoughtful notes and gifts, I got to go to Relief Society during church (a rare treat!), the boys all took photos with me without a single murmur or complaint, and we had my parents and a few siblings over for dinner.
Thriving . . . in junior high together. One of my greatest joys as a mom has been watching Maxwell and Bradley enjoy this year of junior high together. With Bradley in 6th grade and Maxwell in 8th grade, they have just been the best pals and done so many things together: cross country, jazz band, math counts, and tennis. Max has been kind to share his friends with Bradley, who somehow acquired the nickname of "Chadley," and now most people refer to him by that. I've watched the two of them walk to school every morning and walk home every afternoon. I've listened to them chat about teachers they've both had (particularly Mr. Featherstone and Mr. Snyder) and mutual friends and shared activities. I'm so glad they've had each other this year, and I'm grateful Max enjoyed having his little brother tag along on so many things and embraced it rather than felt threatened by it. I hope Bradley will do the same for Clark in a couple of years.
Beginning . . . violin lessons. With Ian finishing up his last year of Let's Play Music, I wanted to transfer him to another instrument. I planned to take on his piano instruction, but I thought learning another instrument with a different teacher could be beneficial as well. With all of the music in our house, we've never had any string players (unless you count guitar and ukulele), so I suggested the violin to Ian, and luckily, he was in favor of the idea. I knew it would be a bit tricky to find a teacher since everyone has waiting lists. But I reached out to several in the area. As I expected, they were all full, but one of them had a brilliant idea. One of her teenage students lives in our neighborhood, and she suggested that he start Ian on the violin with her providing some coaching for him. She also said that she would do a few lessons with Ian over the summer to make sure his technique was getting off to a good start. So that's what we've been doing, and it's been a great arrangement so far. Since I have no strings knowledge myself, I'm learning right along with Ian, going to all of his lessons with him and helping him practice every day. I'm kind of amazed that anyone actually learns how to play the violin because it's a steep learning curve, but Ian is making steady progress, and it's been quite rewarding to see.
Making . . . friends with all the teenagers. Silas has quite the fan club. He is well liked by many of the teenagers in our neighborhood, and he is happy to give all of them high fives, waves, and bones. Amazingly, he knows most of their names and will call out to them if he sees them walking home from school or playing in band or passing the sacrament at church. It lights them up in a way that teenagers don't often show, and I just think it's the cutest thing.
Passing . . . all of his post transplant tests. Aaron had his annual appointment at Primary's, and everything looked great. (We took a peek at his blood test results beforehand just so we could rest a little easy.) When his doctor walked into the exam room, he said, "I guess this will just be a social visit" because there wasn't anything of concern to talk about. Biggest blessing.
Celebrating . . . Clark's 10th birthday. A whole decade with our adventurous, enthusiastic Clarky Jo. He helps us all see the delight in the ordinary, and his birthday was no exception. He was pumped to get a leash for his bunny and immediately took him on walks all around the front yard (although which one was being walked, Ferb or Clark, was debatable). Mike made him a cake from Bad Batch. Aaron also made him a mug and a shirt from Bad Batch (it's a show that the two of them love to watch together, so it felt extra thoughtful and special). Later that week, Mike and I took him out for lunch at Five Guys followed by ice cream at Menchies. Besides Clark and my dad, we also celebrated our other May birthday--Mike's mom--with a family party at the park.
Sewing . . . an apron. Clark did some sewing last summer, and he has been wanting to sew again ever since. So I cut out all of the pieces for an apron and gave them to him for his birthday. We worked on the apron together, but his interest waned a little bit at the end, so I ended up finishing it for him, which was fine. Besides the apron, I also finished knitting a vest (it had been on my needles since September), and I also sewed a new t-shirt. In other crafty news, I taught one of my friends how to knit, and I dreamed up a million other projects I wanted to knit and sew (this is a constant problem).
Visiting . . . Alisa's grave. Mike and I spent a Saturday evening with Sonja and Rob going to the cemetery and then out for tacos. The next day, our kids asked, "Aren't we going to go to Alisa's grave?" They know we usually make sure to visit it in May. I hadn't thought they would notice, but I was so glad they did. So we stopped by the cemetery a second time.
Kicking . . . off summer with our first trip to the pool. As soon as we step across the threshold of our neighborhood pool, the comfortable familiarity just brings back all the summer vibes. We'll see if I can ever get the older boys to go, but for right now, the younger half are loving it.
Marveling . . . at our green spring. Everything has been so vibrant this year. We went on a couple of hikes to enjoy it while it lasts (on one of them, we randomly ran into Sonja and Rob, which was fun). As of this writing, the green has already started fading to brown, but when it's so green, it's kind of hard to believe we're in Utah. So, so pretty.
Feasting . . . on pizza. Mike has been watching the classifieds for a pizza oven. He knew exactly what kind he wanted, so when one came up for a good price, he snagged it, and we've been enjoying homemade pizza ever since.
Spending . . . time together at a family reunion. My family scaled back their reunion plans this year, and we spent the Sunday and Monday of Memorial weekend together. We decided not to rent a place that could accommodate all of us and instead just did a bunch of activities close to home or at my parents' house but slept at our own homes. Reunion activities included book club, hike to the Alpine poppy field, ice cream at Bubba's, pinewood derby races, paper rocket launching, walks, games, and eating. All in all, a fun low-key time that proved you don't have to go big or fancy to still make great memories.
Having . . . a slow reading month. For whatever reason, I didn't get as much reading done this month. One funny story from the month though was when our family was trying to finish up the book for the family book club at the reunion (which is not on the list, btw, because we didn't finish the last chapter and epilogue), and I tried to read it aloud at double speed. I couldn't quite manage that speed but I maintained a pretty good clip for several chapters). Here are the books I did end up finishing:
Hello, Beautiful by Ann Napolitano (I read this for my duo book club with my friend, Sarah. It was so good. Just the kind of multi-generational family drama I love.)
The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune (I know many people love this book, but it was a miss for me.)
One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle (I mostly loved the setting of this novel; didn't really love the main character.)
Crenshaw by Katherine Applegate (This was a short novel, and it took me nearly two months to finish, so I guess that shows how I felt about it.)
Taking . . . a photo of my outfit every day in May. I decided to participate in Me Made May this year, which is just an annual social media challenge to wear your handmade items. I surprised myself and was able to wear something handmade every single day, and I didn't have any repeats until the final three days of the month. It was fun to get a little more creative with what I wore every day and to pull out some older things I hadn't worn in years.
That concludes this month's recap. Thanks for reading!
