Hey June

If we weren't good at being creative before being locked inside for three months straight, it's second nature now. 

We've spent a lot of time in our front "yard," either making trains out of garbage or filling up water squirters for the only "fireworks" show we'd see this summer.

We have started venturing out to parks in the morning now that they're opening back up. The boys happily played for three hours at the first park we went to, and it was a beautiful morning.

We do better getting out of the house because this is what happens if we are in the house unstimulated for too many hours straight. They pulled literally every game out of our closet and dumped every game in one spot, mixing up every piece of every game we own for a fun afternoon of learning about sorting.

When all else fails...brownies.

We found a fun picnic area up the mountain that's our new favorite spot.

We also found a nature sanctuary place that was fun to explore one afternoon.

Carson is still the facial expression master.

I'm always trying my best to bring the scriptures to life for the boys, and finding ways to "liken" the scriptures to their lives. One Sunday as I was preparing my primary lesson for them, one idea led to another and through a quick series of inspiration I came up with this game that was one of my more successful Come, Follow Me ideas.

The scriptures we were studying went along with The Plan of Salvation, and I focused on Alma 12:31-37, particularly the part about acting and being acted upon: "Placing themselves in a state to act, or being placed in a state to act according to their wills and pleasures, whether to do evil or to do good."

How it worked was everybody started at...the start. Before rolling, you had to choose the "act" path or the "acted upon" path. All four boys recognized the danger of Bowser on the "acted upon" path, so they opted for the longer, safer route. Jeff and I went the Bowser way for entertainment and learning purposes.

On the "act" path, you got to roll two dice and choose which number you wanted to use. On the "acted upon" path, you only got one roll and it was with a die that could only roll a 1, 2, or 3. Every time you took a turn, you got one coin, and the "act" path had many opportunities for extra coins as seen by the +2, +5, and ? spots. The "acted upon" path had unexpected dangers with the ! spaces that made you roll a die that resulted in a loss of coins, moving a space back, or losing a star.

If you ran into Bowser, you lost all your coins, and when you made it to Toad, you could get a star as long as you had 20 coins. You could continue on the path and decide again at the start which path to choose again, and you weren't locked into either path after choosing one or the other the first time.

There were so many good mini-lessons in this game and the boys picked up on a lot of them all on their own. As we talked about the game afterward, these are the things we noticed:

1) The whole game revolved around choice. You could choose which path you wanted. On the "act" path, you got to have two dice and choose which one you wanted to use, once you chose "acted upon" you lost your choice and were stuck with whatever you rolled with only one die.

We likened this to keeping the commandments. We are asked to do certain things that keep us in control of our own lives and allow us to act for ourselves. The road to acting for ourselves may seem longer or not as fun and exciting (running into Bowser had a certain level of excitement), but the act path was safe and kept your coin bank full and growing. The "acted upon" course gives up our agency. We were forced to use the roll of just one die and didn't have options to pick where we landed. Like in life, when we choose to not make good choices, those things have consequences and when we choose to make bad choices, we become slaves to our consequences.

2) The "acted upon" path is shorter and may seem like a better way to make it to the end of the course. However, if you take that path you aren't prepared to "Meet Toad" because you haven't gathered any coins along the course, or if you have, you quickly lost them. If you take the "act" path, it takes longer, but you spend your time gathering coins and preparing to get to Toad.

We related this to choices we make on earth. We can take shortcuts or do the things we know we shouldn't do, but when we do that we miss out on opportunities to grow our testimonies and gain understanding that will prepare us to meet Jesus Christ. It may seem hard or unfair to have to go the long way when we see people choosing what appears to be a shorter and easier path, but by taking "the long way," we are avoiding danger and are able to gather what we need to spiritually succeed on earth.

3) While Jeff and I were on the "acted upon" path, Eli came around and was able to choose again which path he wanted to take. He picked the "act" path the first time, but through peer pressure, Jeff and I cheered him on and encouraged him to join us on the road to Bowser. Eli ran into Bowser that time through and Jeff and I were sure to tell him, "Too bad for you!" "That's just bad luck!"

We talked about how people might encourage you to make bad choices in your life, but when it's time to face the consequences of those choices, they're not there for you and you have to live with the consequences of your actions. We talked about how Satan loves to make us feel like he's there for us, but when we're in trouble he leaves us to ourselves and is not a true friend or support for us, so we'll find ourselves staring our "Bowsers" in the eye, feeling alone and abandoned.

4) There was one time I took the "acted upon" path and I was able to avoid all the bad spaces, so I made it through seemingly without any negative consequence. However, I soon approached Toad and only had two coins, which meant I wasn't able to get a star.

We likened this to someone maybe not keeping commandments or not doing the things we should be doing, and seeing them live life with what appears to be no negative consequences. It seems unfair to the person who took the long path to see someone taking the "easy way" with nothing bad happening to them. The trouble doesn't become clear until they reach Toad and realize they've missed the opportunities to gather coins by taking the "easy way." We likened the coins to be faith-building experiences, opportunities to grow our testimonies, or covenants we make with Heavenly Father. As we go through life accumulating these things, we prepare ourselves for "the star" of eternal life.

5) I took the "acted upon" path once and then rerouted to the "act" path for the second lap. I was able to complete the second lap with 20 coins and get a star.

We talked about repentance and how just because you chose a certain path before doesn't mean you can't choose a different path and still get the same reward as everyone else. Choosing the "acted upon" path doesn't make you stuck in a Bowser loop. You can decide to change your path if you don't like the results you're seeing with the path you're on. Because of repentance and The Atonement of Jesus Christ, we are able to pick a new path and can still be prepared to meet Jesus Christ even if we have made bad choices in the past.

6) Jeff never chose the "act" path and as the game ended he didn't have a star when the rest of us did. The boys began to recognize he wasn't going to have a star and tried to find ways to get him one. They wanted to share one of their stars, they encouraged him to take a different path, they wanted to pool their coins together to give to him. Unfortunately, the coins and stars are non-transferrable, so Jeff was left at the end of the game with what he had gathered, which was not much.

This felt like watching someone you love make choices that are harming them. You may want to help and hope they choose to make the right choice, but at the end of the game they have to have gathered their own rewards. We were sad to see Jeff had no rewards at the end of the game and wanted him to join us in our happiness and excitement, but no matter how much we wanted it for Jeff, he had to choose for himself and he continually chose to be unprepared.

It was an unexpectedly beautiful depiction of The Plan of Salvation. The way the game worked perfectly and the lessons we were able to pull from it made it obvious the idea was inspired. Recognizing divine inspiration as a mom is one of the most fulfilling parts of the job.

You'll know we went to the orthodontist anytime you see Jonah with a Gatorade mustache. We can't go in the office anymore while Eli gets his work done, so we sit outside in the heat, watching movies and slurping Gatorades in the Vegas heat.

A local community center was offering a free drive-in movie of The Lion King. I've always wanted to take my kids to a drive-in, we hadn't seen The Lion King yet, and the price was right, so we gave it a try.

It took us 20 minutes to achieve the complicated stadium seating arrangement seen below, it became increasingly obvious the kids were up past bedtime with each passing minute, the sound was echo-y because it wasn't synced up from the main speakers to our car. Unfortunately, we didn't realize until halfway through the movie that we could just turn the sound off in our car to fix the problem.

And then there was the part where Jonah, being freshly potty-trained, ran away to the port-a-potties as soon as it was nice and dark. A series of strangers had to point me in his direction before he was finally located. Also Eli every 5 minutes was requesting to sit on top of the car for more optimal viewing. And then the cherry on top was my cockroach panic setting in as it got darker and darker. I began nervously visualizing the nocturnal bugs emerging from their homes to crawl up my legs in an attempt to get a share of my popcorn.

Luckily the cockroaches stayed out of sight, but so did we after having enough of this scene, swearing off drive-in movies for the rest of all time. Netflix at my pest-sprayed home, on the couch, with easily accessible bathrooms, watching a movie with one set of speakers at a see-able distance BEFORE bedtime wins every time. But cute picture, yeah?

Well, the one thing the drive-in had that my house doesn't is a speed bump. We had to get there 45 minutes early or they'd give our spot away, so we sat out on the grass for an entertaining hour of watching cars go over a speed bump. The boys would cheer every time someone rolled by. Speed bump > movie.

And then it was Father's Day.

We went up the mountain for a Father's Day picnic after church. Boys in the wild are the best kind of boys.

I'm so grateful my boys have such a great dad to look up to. Jeff loves our family above everything else and it's my favorite thing about him. He loves being with us and is so sweet, compassionate, understanding, and gentle with all his boys. He's a good daddy.

Now that it's getting hotter, we're heading to the mountains more and more. It's 20 degrees cooler up there and only a 30-minute drive, so we just can't help ourselves. This is our favorite hike, Little Falls.

Homeschool's Out, Homesummer's In

Three months of homeschool later and it was the last day of school! Carson's teacher had a camp-themed last day of school Zoom call where she encouraged them to make a tent and bring camping snacks. I loved the touch of the two trees Carson added to his campsite. 

I recognized and appreciated that school filled a good portion of each day March through May, so I was feeling nervous about how to occupy little boys' minds and time without the positive influence of daily learning as school drew to a close. Before the boys could even think about enjoying a carefree summer moment, I had a chore chart, schedule, and command station put together to help us succeed through summer. 

Come to find out, the boys weren't too keen on not even having a day to breathe before I was breathing down their necks with summer to-dos and to-don'ts. They let me know I had infringed upon their rights with my schedules and demands. I gave them a week off, learned from my mistake, and re-presented the summer plan after they were good and bored.

The schedule has been the least effective part of our command center, but we had a good month of filling out incentive charts for behavior that needed improving, and the chore wheel is still going strong. We move the chore wheel once a week, so each week the boy has one chore they help with. It's been so nice to not be responsible for EVERYTHING especially while we are all constantly home getting everything dirty all day. The yellow chores are their Saturday chore and the orange ones are the daily chores. They also have days assigned to them which are their days to be my kitchen helper and the prayer person at family dinner. It's been a good system!

As things started opening up again, we ventured over to Utah to wish David a happy birthday. Mary threw him a Golf Par-Tee and it was refreshing to see people again!

Jeff took the tractor for a spin. 

Like father, like son. 

 There we go.

One pair of gardening gloves later and Jonah was a full-blown motorcycle man.

What I need you to notice here is that Jonah's elbow is not resting on anything. 

Here are the little guys working on their weekly chore of dishes. How do they do it, you ask? By transforming into garbage trucks, of course. They position their arms at right angles and find each dish's correct home in a machine-like fashion with sound effects to match. It takes them a half hour, but it's a fun game and they get the job done!

Hiking is one of the few virus-friendly, out-of-the-house activities we've been able to enjoy. This one was a new one for us. 

Carson always, always, always has to lead the pack, whether it be on a hike, on our way home from school, or walking through the grocery store.

I took my ring off to work out and this is how I found it after my shower.

One Sunday Lincoln was frantically searching the house for his bow tie. When we asked why he couldn't wear one of the other ties we had, he said, "I have to wear a bow tie so I can look like the President." 

It took me a while to figure out how he got the idea that the President has to wear a bow tie, but I think I finally got to the bottom of it. Here's a book we have on presidents and look at Mr. Abraham Lincoln. 

Eli's birthday is always the first sign of summer fun. We had to get creative again for our third quarantine b-day. 

We did another present scavenger hunt. It requires flips to find under-the-couch gifts. 

All the goodies were found! Eli got two extra Nintendo64 remotes so we can play with four players now, a laser tag set, two book series (Percy Jackson and Warriors), a few Lego sets, and some G.I. Joe-ish army guys. 

There was no delaying testing out those extra N64 controllers. 

We had a pool party in the back. (I set the pool up all by MYSELF this time, thank you very much.)

Oreo Cream Pie for dessert (Potstickers for dinner). 

Then we ran across the street to use the landscaping as a COVID-friendly laser tag course. 

Eli is TEN! That seems so old! Eli LOVES reading. He can read a chapter book a day when he's really hooked on one. We often find him crazy-eyed, reading in his room, at 11:30 at night and have to sometimes rip books out of his clutched fists before he'll agree to go to sleep. Eli loves his family and loves making those around him happy. He is thoughtful and sweet and notices how to help when someone around him needs something. He gets along great with all of his brothers and rallies them together for games and activities. Eli is a joy and it's so fun to see who he's turning out to be.