Summer Week 6

 Susan picked up the kids for swimming on Monday, and I took advantage of the free hour to do a good cleaning of the kitchen before getting into cooking mode. I then made a double batch of chicken tortilla soup to dehydrate. In the middle of the day, the kids and I went to different library than the one we normally frequent, and then swung by to pick up school lunch. Abraham went over to the Jolley's in the afternoon, and in the evening Matthew started the process of replacing the shed roof. The boys all stayed up later than usual playing Fortnite.

I took everyone to swimming on Tuesday, then in the mid-morning had my last seminary training meeting. We went grocery shopping after lunch, then in the afternoon Hyrum went to the Jolley's and Riker came to our house. I spent the afternoon making a chicken coconut curry to dehydrate. Matthew worked some more on the shed roof in the evening while Mercy spent close to two hours out on the old swimming pool ladder pretending to be a lifeguard. Even though we are in the middle of a unique heat wave, Mercy wore that wool beanie all day to help her remember not to pick at a scab on her head. 

While the kids swam on Wednesday, Hannah and I went on a bike ride. It was a leisurely 6 miles, leaving from the pool and riding up to Unser and Tierra Pintada and back. I haven't been on my bike much this summer, so it was nice to back on the saddle for a bit. Mercy and I took quick showers when we got back, then were out the door again headed to speech therapy. We picked up park lunch on the way home. In the afternoon, Mercy passed the course challenge for 3rd grade math with 100% on her first try! For her reward to chose to not have to practice piano for the rest of the week. Abraham spent the afternoon at the Jolley's, then they took him to primary activities for boys at the church in the evening. I dropped Mercy off at the park for primary activities for girls, then raced home to sit in on a virtual ward youth council with Hyrum. I've been asked to help plan and attend the ward youth camp in July, and this meeting was set to discuss details. Matthew took a break from the shed roof to go collect Mercy, and the Jolley's brought Abraham home.

After swimming on Thursday I cleaned up the kitchen (again) and finally got around to tidying up the bookshelf which has been driving me crazy. It felt nice to put away all the homeschool stuff and bring down a shelf full of board games. The kids spent the morning getting their chores done, then played video games most of the afternoon. I picked up school lunch, then spent some time in the afternoon filming myself packaging the dehydrated meals I had made earlier in the week. We've decided to try our hand at making a short documentary of the elk hunt and plan to enter it in the full draw film festival. Our angle is how hunting really is a family affair, hence the filming of dehydrated meals. I also made some scones, just because. In the evening I went to help with Violet's final move. Jenny and I met a couple men from Violet's new ward at her storage unit and together we got all her stuff out and drove it over to her new apartment. The plan was to unload everything into her place, then she'd be collected from the motel and brought over the next morning. Much to everyone's surprise, a sister from the new ward had been running errands with Violet and they were there at the apartment when we arrived. Her presence made the process much longer and more involved than planned, but we found a reasonably satisfactory place for everything and now she is officially established in the Cibola ward.