Our surprisingly simple May

Most years May is a ridiculously busy month. But for some reason this year it's been oddly simple for us. I guess that's what happens when "being in a play" feels like a default mode for your family. When no one is in a play everything feels so much simpler.

I finished my last post on Mother's Day morning. The rest of the day was just as simple. I went to church and then went to Wendy's and got a hamburger. And then I just hung out on the patio. It was so nice to not be in charge of anything. 

Brandon and the kids came home around 9:00. Charlotte and Lydia told me all about their day at Lagoon. They'd been able to ride the new Roller Coaster, Primordial. They actually got stuck on it for about 5 minutes. 

Everyone had a great time at Brandon's parents. Lydia needed to interview someone for her career's class. Brandon set everything up so that she could interview his sister Melanie. Melanie is an artist and Lydia wants to be a professional artist so that's why she wanted to interview Melanie. 

Monday was the busiest day of the week. I'm glad I'd had a whole weekend to myself because I'm not sure I would have survived it without all that relaxation.

When the twins were done with school we went to the DMV to try a 4th time to get their drivers license. The line was still a little long, but it moved fast enough that we only had to wait about 45 minutes. And I had all the documents we needed this time. We were able to get the permits. 

But it felt kind of anticlimactic because we don't get the permits.  They are mailed to the drivers school. We don't get the permits until the girls finish the drivers school. That doesn't even start until June so it was like, "YAY, we did all that for nothing." But at least it's done so we don't have to worry about it in June. 

We went home and I started making dinner. I knew Veronica had a ukulele concert at the elementary school that evening, but I'd never been really solid on the time. So I checked the flier again and realized that the concert started at 5:30 and we needed to be there at 5:10. Which meant we needed to leave at 5:00. And it was like 4:45 when I realized all this. 

So I hurried and got dinner finished and we started eating and then Brandon came home and then I hurried and took Veronica over to the school and a little later Brandon brought the other kids. 

The concert was really cute. There were about 20 kids with ukuleles in the front and then the rest of the 5th grade was in the back singing along. Veronica played ukulele for the first song and then switched with a kid and was in the back for the other two songs. 

Here she is getting ready to play. 

And another one of her getting ready. 

Here's a video of her singing the Ho Hey song. There's a little bit of accompaniment playing over the speakers, but you can here the ukuleles well. 

The concert was nice and quick so it was over before 6:00. We had to leave the lunch room quickly to make room for the parents coming in for the 4th grade recorder concert. 

This was our last elementary school concert. (Not that there were many. Charlotte and Lydia didn't have a ukulele concert because there were still so many covid restrictions when they were in 5th grade. And Derrick didn't go to music for a lot of elementary school.) 

I wanted all the kids to take a picture in front of this school sign, but Charlotte and Lydia were like, "we did you enough of a favor just by coming to this concert. Don't push it."  So it's just a picture of Derrick and Veronica.

We went home and I was thinking we were done for the evening, but then I realized we had time to run over to the Orpheum for the orientation for Veronica's Matilda play. I'd assumed that we'd have to go at an alternate time because the ukulele concert would overlap too much. But we had enough time. So Veronica and I drove over to the Orpheum and then hurried up all the stairs to the school room. 

Veronica was so happy to see a lot of her friends. They called roll and the kids came up to get their scripts. Then they talked about a few things. It was all really quick. Afterward we stuck around a few minutes and talked to people. My neighbor Diana was there. Her teenage daughter has done a few of the big kid plays. And her son is just barely old enough to start the Ovation program. So both her kids are able to be in this play together. 

Then we went home and I was like, "I can't believe all the stuff we did today."

I do a lot of driving in the mornings and Tuesday was no different. I drove Charlotte and Lydia to their middle school. Then drove across town to drop off Derrick at his middle school. Then drove back to my side of town to go to the Castle Therapy office. And then I drove to the Gaining Perspective office abotu a mile away. And that's when someone finally told me that I my back tire was going flat. 

Apparently Charlotte and Lydia had noticed that it was flat as I drove away earlier that morning, but hadn't thought to text me about it. 

I met with Cassy about her billing and then came outside to figure out my tire situation. The tire wasn't completely flat and I was only half a mile from Les Schwab tires. So I just drove over there. They were able to get the tire patched (FOR FREE) within an hour. And I was back on my daily routine without to much trouble. 

Honestly, I'd forgot about the whole thing until I uploaded the picture of the flat that I'd sent to Brandon. 

I continued to feel more caught up at work. There are still a billion things I need to do, but I'm feeling better about it all. 

Someone from another therapy company stopped by with fliers for the summer camps they are offering this summer. The other therapy place does things like speech and occupational therapy. They are offering camps for things like stuttering, trying new foods, social skills, using fine and gross motor skills, etc. They dropped the fliers off in case any of our clients would be interested in the camps. But I was like, "Oh this is perfect for Derrick!"

I've been looking for something for Derrick to do this summer. The girls are all involved in theatre stuff, but Derrick doesn't have anything besides boys camp at the end of July. 

The camps were for kids from 4-18 and would be divided by age so Derrick would be with kids his own age. They also take the Empowered Parent's Grant which we have again. (It's paying for the theatre stuff and the girls drivers ed.)

So I immediately emailed the therapy place about using the grant. By the end of the day I had Derrick signed up for a social skills camp, an outdoor camp, and a pirate camp. Each camp is 90 minutes a day for 4 days. A lot of them are at the same time Veronica is at Matilda Rehearsals. 

I also reached out to CSI about Derrick attending the Trade and Tech camp along with Charlotte and Lydia this year. The girls said they would be fine with Derrick coming with them and being in their group. So I checked with the people in charge of that to see if they would be cool with an autistic kid attending. They said it would be fine. So I got that all finalized by the end of the week. I went from barely having a plan for Derrick's summer to having him signed up for stuff for four weeks. That felt really good.

At home I took pictures of my irises. They are doing so well this year. 

And look at this pretty flax. We had flax in these beds two years ago and I made sure to spread the seeds in the fall. But last year there was hardly any flax that came up. This year though a lot of them came up. 

And here are my little violets that I love very much. Later in the week when we started another project I made sure to protect this little patch. 

And here is my lilac bush. I'm so happy with this. 

I was hoping to start working on digging trenches for our sprinkler system in the front yard on Tuesday, but the day was very windy and cold and I just couldn't motivate myself to start. 

Brandon was at CSI that evening. Veronica and I went grocery shopping. We were running out of everything at the house so it was a much needed trip. 

Wednesday was my day off. I started off the day with my scripture study group. Only Rachel could come this time, but we had a good time talking. She'd been at my mother's day luncheon on Saturday and she said it had been wonderful and had really helped her enjoy actual mother's day so much more than usual. 

In the afternoon I worked on some exponent auditing stuff and also took a nap. 

That afternoon Veronica and I went to Hobby Lobby so she could buy a sketch book. She picked one out that had a cool buckle clasp thing. She spent a lot of time drawing in it. 

Charlotte and I went to D&B to buy more chicken feed and I picked up some bags of potting soil. I'd told myself that this was the year I'd successfully grow flowers in pots and that meant getting good potting soil. So then I spent time getting the pots filled. 

I also got out the Mother's Day presents that Brandon had ordered for me before I'd decided that all I wanted for Mother's Day was to be alone. 

One of the presents is a rain drum. Derrick had seen a rain drum on instagram and showed it to me. He told me, "You want this for Mother's Day."  And he was right. I put it in a pot under a spot where we don't have a rain gutter. Derrick and I tested it out by spraying water on the garage roof with a hose. 

The other present was a solar fountain. I put this one in a pot inside a flower pot. 

That night the girls had an ice cream social for their youth activity. And Derrick helped with yardwork at a neighbors house. 

Thursday was probably the best Thursday I've had in a while. I don't know why but Thursdays have been feeling really cursed lately. I've been super tired, I've been dizzy, I've been depressed. But this time I woke up with tons of energy and I was feeling very on top of things. 

And then I got to Aspen Grove and I opened my email and my anxiety spiked. I don't know why - I read emails all the time - but this time my body was like NOPE, THIS IS DANGEROUS. I told myself to calm down. There was nothing to be afraid of. Like really there wasn't. It was all just run of the mill stuff. 

But it took me a while to get back to feeling normal. 

I did make it through everything and was actually able to get off work about an hour early. I went over to Fred Meyer and bought a bunch of plants to put in my flower pots. I also bought Veronica swimming suit bottoms because the suit I'd bought her online was just a top. 

Then I came home and planted everything.   Here's a hanging basket.

This is the pot with the rain drum.

The chickens are so made that I put these flowers just outside their reach. 

And here the solar fountain again. 

And then after potting all of those things it was time to finally start digging up the front yard for the sprinkler system. 

Our front yard originally had a sprinkler system, but at some point it started leaking and Brandon decided it was better to just rip it all out and start over again. And that's when I decided that if we were going to dig up the sprinkler system I was going to turn a third of the lawn into flower beds. 

The plan was to put the sprinkler system in that same fall that I put in the flower beds. But we ran out of time or money or both. So we vowed to put it in in the spring. And then Brandon made it into Treasure Island and I knew I wasn't getting a sprinkler system in 2024.

This year I was determined to make it happen. Anytime any of our theatre friends asked us about doing the June play I was like, "No, I'm getting a sprinkler system!"

The weather was supposed to be cool for the next week so this was the perfect time to dig up the yard and put in the pipes. So I started digging. 

Brandon had already figured out where all the heads were going. He drew me a rough plan which I basically followed. I dug everything out. 

And then regretted everything. Normally, I have a pretty good vision for my garden projects, but sprinkler systems aren't something I've done before. So I felt like I was messing it all up. Brandon had to keep reassuring me that everything looked exactly the way it should. 

Friday was a big day for Veronica. It was her 5th grade field trip to Nat Su Pah hot springs. We got all her stuff packed and ready. She had a blast!

Charlotte and Lydia also had a fun day. They had their carnival at the end of the day. 

I went to work and got a lot done. Want to know how I know that I'm feeling on top of things again?  I got the bank statement in the mail and had time to go over it the SAME day that it arrived. I've been getting to it the last week of the month every month for like the last six months. 

After work I went to the Orton Botanical Garden. This was the first day of their annual plant sale and I was determined to get a desert willow and two fern bushs. And I DID. I also got a Fire Cracker Penstemon, a golden current bush, Texas sage, creeping thyme, and one more plant I can never remember the name of.  

I came home and planted the Desert Willow right away. It doesn't look like much right now, but it's going to be amazing. 

This is what the flowers on the tree at the Orton Botanical Garden looked like when I saw it last August. I've wanted a tree like this in my yard ever since.

I planted the other plants as well. 

My goal for this area around the fire pit is to have it be very drought tolerant. 

Then I went to the front yard and went back to work on the trenches. On Thursday I'd used the spade to dig out the grass. This time I went back over everything with a small trench width shovel and made the trenches deeper. It was fairly simple. The hardest thing was the shovel was so narrow it kind of hurt to step on repeatedly. By the end of the night I felt like both my feet had huge blisters on the soles. (They didn't that just how they felt.)

Charlotte came out and hung out with me while I dug. We listened to a Big Flop episode about Tiger King. 

Brandon took Derrick and Lydia with him to Lowes and bought all the pipes, connectors, and valves. He got back just as I was finishing with the third pass on all the trenches. Then he went to work on making some of the trenches deeper and digging the hole for the box. Charlotte and Lydia helped him a bit. 

I was done with my part of the front yard so I went into the backyard and transplanted more sunflowers from the path to the area around the fire pit. 

Saturday was our 18th wedding anniversary. We'd had big plans to go kayaking from Centennial Park to Pillar Falls. But every time I thought about booking the kayaks a little voice in the back of my mind said, "Wait until you know if the weather will be nice."

It's a good thing I listened to that voice because the weather forecast was terrible It was supposed to be like 55 degrees and rainy most of the day. So there went those plans. 

Instead we went out to breakfast at Burger King because if one thing is consistent over 18 years its our love for Burger King. 

Then we went to Lowes and bought some more connectors that Brandon had forgot to buy on Friday. And then it was back home to work on the yard. 

It looked like we'd had gophers digging all over it. 

Brandon worked on the line that went from the backyard through the side yard to the front yard. 

I went into the house and rallied the kids to help clean. There was a little bit of resistance, but I was like, "You guys weren't hear last week and no one will be here next week so we need to clean today."  We actually got a lot done. 

It started raining so Brandon gave up on the yard and came in and got the laundry put away. 

That afternoon I took a long nap on the patio while it was raining. That was really nice. 

It stopped raining in the late afternoon which was good because Brandon had an Elder's Quorum activity happening around our fire pit that night. (Yeah, we scheduled it for our anniversary. I really wanted this activity to happen. Everyone's always like, "we should have an activity."  But they never plan anything. I was like, "JUST GET A DATE ON THE CALENDAR!" And the date that worked best happened to be our anniversary.)

Brandon put up a tarp over the fire pit in case the rain returned. We had fun working on this together. 

I helped get the patio all cute. Our friend, Derrick (who we call Grown Up Derrick for obvious reasons) came over and set up his tables. 

Brandon cooked hamburgers on the grill and we ate those as a family.  At 7:00 people started coming over.  One was my friend Carl who took some black berry starts earlier in the year. I had one more black berry pop up after I'd moved all the others. He said he'd want it. So I dug it up and put it in a pot for him. 

Then I went into the house with all the kids. We watched Episodes of Fixer Upper - including the Pit House which is always my favorite episode. 

Between episodes we'd go outside to get snacks off the patio. There were about 11 guys that came over. When we first went out there they were on the patio getting food too so I answered some questions about the yard. 

I've always thought of the yard as a joint project between Brandon and me. But in talking about the yard to other people I realized how much of it is my vision. Brandon just helps with the bigger stuff that I can't do on my own. And he builds stuff for me. But I'm the one putting in the plants and figuring out the overall plan. 

Another time I came out and all the guys were sitting around the fire pit talking.  This was so good to see. Guys have very few places to connect. They need opportunities like this. 

A lot of the guys were gone by 10:00, but the last of them didn't leave until closer to 11:00. We heard from so many people how much they enjoyed it. 

Today we had a relaxing morning. And then went to church. 

After church we went over to Jerome for Payton's 10th birthday party. I feel like she's been 10 the whole time I've known her, but she is finally 10 for real. The party was so fun. She'd had a party for her school friends yesterday. This was for her theatre family. And it really feels like a family. I was missing everyone a lot. It's been weeks since we've been with our theatre people. So it was wonderful to get together with everyone. 

And yeah, that sums up our week. 

Next week is the last week of school. And then we are going to YELLOWSTONE for Memorial Day. Also we need to get our lawn put back together. 

Thanks for reading!