Our Ultimate Life: October 2023

First off: landscaping. After writing my blog last post, Justin called me outside to look at a few pieces of sod he has unrolled. The grass was yellow and in some spots, moldy. I became so frustrated because this sod had been sitting now for 10 days with no end in sight and nothing but empty promises. The very next day another 10,000 sq ft of sod was delivered, approved by Tim but without communicating to me it was happening and without communicating to the sod deliverer that not a single piece of the previous 10,000 sq ft had been laid. Dustin is his name so he called me and after I begged him to please take the load back because I wasn't confident where Tim hadn't laid a single piece yet, he told me to call him if Tim didn't show up. After yet another day of "We'll be there this afternoon!" and no show, and no answering his phone, I called Dustin and got in touch with a new landscaping company. Danny from Precision Landscaping came out the very next morning to look around and gave me a quote that same day. Guess who finally showed up to work that day? Tim - with promises to get all the sod laid that day but he had no way of doing any of the necessary grooming to the ground first. I was done. He left before I had a chance to talk to him so a phone call later and he was told to finish the sprinkler system so it would be ready to go when the sod was laid by my new crew coming on Friday. He was livid but I kept my cool when in reality I should have told him to hit the road and probably should have sued him but we're happy to have him leave in peace. He finished the sprinkler system over the next two days. Danny showed up with his entire crew on Friday and it was a feeling I can't describe seeing them go to work and lay every square foot of the 20,000 load plus our edging around the house. It didn't go the way we had hoped, but I'm honestly grateful it went the way it did because it opened my eyes to the incompetence of Tim and his team and was perfect timing to fire him and hire a new team. Danny will be back this coming week to finish the front of the house and edge the entire driveway. It will be a beautiful sight! That same week I did a batch of peaches with Emmett, he baked cookies, and we did a fossil hunting gathering with our homeschool co-op.

I mean come on! Look at that fossil!

I'm wondering if this is part of a crinoid

The following week our homeschool co-op hiked Fall Creek. Logan helped with the peaches this round. I'm making Come, Follow Me and central part of our homeschool and have enjoyed doing gospel activities with my kids each day. General Conference Tamara Runia gave the best talk about learning and teaching in our homes. I loved that talk and how it made me feel about the work I am doing in our homeschool this year. I came down sick (and am just NOW recovering finally!) which made for a low-key week overall.

Put on the armor of God

10 month picture

sick snuggles from my boy

painting and cleaning pumpkin activity - the sprinklers immediately came on after this

Let me tell you how excited those boys were to be using knives...

The following week we drove to Utah! We had family pictures taken so decided to make a field trip out of it. We took the kids to the museum of ancient life at Thanksgiving Point and it was incredible! We'll definitely need to go back when the kids are a bit older to fully appreciate all they had. We did pictures by my old roommate Grace down in Payson Canyon and the colors were unreal. We're excited to get those back hopefully soon! Our co-op that week did a simple play date at the park but it was brrrrr cold so we didn't last too long. The kids came down sick and I was recovering still myself, so rather than go with the youth for the temple/corn maze trip I stayed home. The silver lining was it allowed Justin to go to the pickleball tournament and he and his partner got first place! I thought we'd be able to watch the annular solar eclipse (up to 80% magnitude) but it was cloudy! Bummer! Oh well we'll save the solar glasses for next spring. I got to sub in primary teaching the sunbeams which was so lovely.

Emmett's reading activity. I love teaching my boy to read.

So much for observing the annular solar eclipse! Praying we have clear skies next spring in Indianapolis for the total solar eclipse.

Pickles for the grand prize

This week was busier. I either came down sick with something new or had a setback but I had a weird cough and very stuffy nose. We had rec volleyball practice all week plus our first game. Emmett does not like it at all, but we're having him stick with it. It's a scary thing to be put on the spot with all these new skills but it's good for him. I tell him every day of practice and games how proud I am. For the last three weeks the sprinkler system has been on nonstop to give the sod a chance to recover. It miraculously looks green and lush! We turned it off to get it dried up in time for Danny to work this coming week and finally got to enjoy being out on our back porch. I read to Emmett out in the sunshine in our camping chairs and it was so lovely. Friday I convinced Justin to take half a day so we could do a family hike at Palisades. The trail along the river gave several opportunities for the kids to explore. Justin carried Colby giving me a chance to be Beckham's helper. I loved every minute. We'll have to go back when the kids are tough enough to do the entire hike...and when we have bear spray on hand. We got famous square ice cream and then Costco and Halloween party shopping. Saturday we zipped down to Burley to do the pumpkin patch with Chase's family. Those kids have the best time together and I'm grateful to have them close enough to do fun things with. We had stake conference but Colby and Emmett came down with fevers and tonight Justin bit the same dust so we've got another week of sickness and recovery ahead of us. But we have the yard getting finished to look forward to.

The kids were playing at the church when one of their friends hit his head just right on a door and had to get stitches! We took him a feel better basket.