I can't believe it has been a year since I have posted to this blog. Life is happening at lightning speed. And while I have still been documenting our family's life in other ways, the Spirit has been whispering quite often that I need to write. Instagram and chatbooks and taking pictures ... they just aren't enough of a platform for me to dig deep enough into my thoughts and feelings. I've changed the privacy settings of this blog. It is not the public sharing arena that it used to be.
It's hard to just pick up where I left off. Where did I leave off? How do I catch up? Alas, I don't know and I can't. I'm just going to jump right into life right now. A wonderful sister in our ward has taught me that our family stories are anything we can manage to record. Anything we record is better than recording nothing. It doesn't need to be chronological. It doesn't need to be without gaps or without pockets of time elapsing. It just needs to be written.
So here we are in April of 2017. Brandon is working at Hill Air Force Base still. It has been a wonderful job for him. We love the job security and consistency. The promotions and raises he has received have been well deserved and results of his hard work. He has a couple of friends that he likes to play tennis with during fitness leave. And not during fitness leave the like to pull pranks and make each other laugh. He is the Gospel Doctrine teacher in our ward now. That was a shocking calling. He has taught twice now. He has approached it with an amazing attitude, as teaching in that setting is actually quite scary for him. But he says it's only 30 minutes. He can't let himself be consumed with anxiety for days leading up to a short 30 minute lesson. I married an amazing person, for sure.
I am Relief Society president still, which is a very direct reason for the silence on this blog. But there are many things I manage to find time that aren't nearly as important as writing. So, I am back to writing. Being Relief Society president has been amazing. I have learned so much about myself, about how the Lord works, about His Gospel. I have learned of my many weaknesses and get the help to strengthen them. I have seen my strengths and hope that I am using them to the best of my ability. I try to help others. I want to help others. I hope I am helping others. Lately, I can't help but think so much of the purpose of this calling was for my own growth. I do absolutely love to be able to visit with the sisters one-on-one. It is my absolute favorite part of the calling. What amazing daughters of God I get to brush shoulders with!
On the homefront I am in a place of limbo right now, with Sam in his final year before he starts public school. He and I are buddies as I take him to the gym, run errands, do laundry, clean house ... I have to remind myself to take him to the park and do things just for him more often. It is hard to remember when he's the only one home with me. He'll go play in his room or get on the computer and I just see it as a chance to get some things done. It is definitely a much different struggle than what I faced when William was 5 and he had 2 younger sisters.
I am teaching piano lessons, as well. I'll to write separately about that. It could be a long one.
William is having a fabulous year at school. A perfect year? No. But he is learning some important skills with a teacher that cares about his needs and sees his talents and abilities. It has been absolutely refreshing to get to April and not be totally and completely burnt out from school. He has found his people in scouting. He loves to learn new things and scouting an incredible outlet for that. He has been blessed with some dedicated leaders, which I am so grateful for. Some members of the church can be so wishy-washy about scouting. I have a hard time with that, as it is a church sponsored program. I guess my perspective is different as I have watched boys lives changed and improved as my dad has lead them through the scouting program. So, I'm all in. And William is definitely all in. William is also playing violin and he's doing well with it. I can't get him to feel passionate about it yet, but when that passion hits he'll be unstoppable. I can see the talent in him. Whenever he asks why he has to play I tell him that if I didn't see any potential I wouldn't make him play. I would just give him piano lessons. That seems to appease him so far. I think he'll really enjoy being in orchestra when he gets to junior high school.
Marie is doing well in school, as usual. School is definitely not one of her challenges, at least not at this point. She is playing piano, taking lessons from me. I so enjoy teaching my kids music. Helping William practice violin and teaching the girls piano. Singing together as a family. Marie really enjoys the piano. She also loves to teach and help younger kids. She just glows at the thought of babysitting and can't wait until she is old enough to earn money doing it. I am so grateful that she is eager and willing to help Anne with her homework and reading, as it is not always easy for me to carve out time to do it. She is also dancing and is really blossoming in that. Brandon and I have debated entering into the "competition realm" just to help her to progress more, but we just can't stomach the cost or the time commitment. Right now, Marie isn't pushing for it, so we let it be. I see her more into student council and such as she gets older.
Anne is our creative little dreamer. Which translates to some struggles at school, but boy does she have us laughing and smiling often. My favorite moment this week was answering a knock at the door only to find her, home from school, with a huge bouquet of purple wildflowers (aka weeds) for me. She finds beauty in the ashes. She had some testing done and we were able to rule out any learning disability, she just doesn't like to focus on often VERY boring work placed in front of her by her teacher. It really is tediously boring. I started teaching her piano at the beginning of the year, but put it on pause when school started to stress her out more. It's calming down again for her, so I think we'll start up again soon. She also decided to try out tumbling and tap dance this year. She is a cute little tap dancer. She wishes she could just improvise though. She doesn't want to be limited to the small little steps she's been taught so far. So funny.
And Sam. My little sidekick. He's a fireball. He is independent and stubborn and curious and as loving as they come. He's in preschool this year and has quickly caught on to learning his alphabet and numbers. He'll be reading before we know it. He wants to play the violin like William. I don't think we'll start him at age 5, like we did William. We haven't found a Suzuki teacher up here and William's current teacher is geared up more for older students. Sam is trying out soccer and he's very, very slowly getting the hang of it. He didn't take to it as quickly as we had hoped he would, but I think he's done well enough we might consider having him play next year. We'll see.
Phew. Hardly complete, but an update nonetheless. And it felt so good to get that out and written down! Until next time.
