Midsummer Night Eve

Did you know that today is a holiday? Today is Midsummer Night Eve! Traditionally summer solstice celebrations occur on the 24th of June, making the 23rd the Eve of the longest day of the year. Apparently, the 24th is no longer the longest day of the year. Over time, it has moved to now be the 21st of June. Nonetheless, summer solstice celebrations are often celebrated on the 23rd and 24th, and from reading Wikipedia, I learned that a variety of countries have midsummer celebrations, most of which involve bonfires. In Latvia, it is a national holiday and almost as important as Christmas! So, I bring all this up because Ben's family has always had a Midsummer Night Eve celebration themselves. Since much of the family was going to be out of town this weekend, we celebrated last Sunday, while we were together for Father's Day. Their tradition is to 'float a cake', while singing songs and taking turns reading a favorite poem or piece of literature. Here's a video of our cake float; we sang a few songs, including "I'm So Glad When Daddy Comes Home" in honor of our wonderful fathers. The best part is then getting to eat the cake!

So, I started a new job this past week as a playground/premise inspector for the Arizona School Risk Retention Trust (also known simply as "The Trust"). They are basically an insurance company for Arizona schools. It's an interesting, but great summer job. I'm coordinating Emma watching with Ben and Emily (who is working as an inspector as well!). I inspected my first schools this morning. I woke up at 4:30 and was out the door at 5:00. I went to three schools near downtown Phoenix area. It was pretty quick, but it should become even smoother as I visit more schools. It was actually pretty fun! I just take pictures of safety violations and jot down notes and sketches of the playgrounds, in addition to filling out some checklists. I also check janitor closets and locker rooms for water damage and mold. Yipee... mold! :) After inspecting the schools I have to put together reports. That is what apparently takes the most time. There's a lot of forms that need to be filled out and pictures to organize. The good part is that I can do it on my own time, like after Emma goes to sleep. I'm grateful to have found a flexible, decent paying job to get us through the summer!

Happy Father's Day!

Hooray! It is Father's Day. Don't we all just love our dads?! It's fun to have a day to celebrate their greatness. This post won't be long, because most of what I have to say I've recorded as an audio clip. In it I recite a Father's Day poem, entitled, "My Dad" (not a very clever title, but hopefully the poem will make up for it). This poem can be listened to by all, but it was written and recorded specifically with my own "Dadoo" in mind. :)


To view in a written form, click here.

Happy Father's Day!

Flag Day

So, yesterday (June 14th) was Flag Day. Flag Day celebrates the "birthday" of the American flag. It actually didn't become an official holiday until 1949, but was unofficially celebrated for many years prior. It was on June 14, 1777, that the Continental Congress passed the first Flag Act, as a means of officially establishing a flag for the United States. Anyway, the tradition in Ben's family was to make a flag cake on Flag Day. So, I did. It was officially my first time making such a cake. Technically, I guess you should use blueberries, but I used blackberries for the corner... because I don't really like blueberries. This was Emily's suggestion, as she doesn't enjoy blueberries either.

I've started work on a new website, entitled Thoughts for the Home. You are welcome to browse it (through the link on the side), but be warned, it is very incomplete. Many links lead to nowhere. ;) I discovered Google Page Creator and I just had to come up with a reason to use it, so take a look. I have a large portion of the "cooking" section complete, but not much else.

As a side note, Emma swam in her pool this morning, and as you can see she had a lovely time!

Practical living

So, since I've been out of town for the last couple of weeks, I've gotten out of my routines. Yesterday, I decided to get back on track, so Emma and I were up and ready for our walk at 6:30 - stroller, water, snacks, keys, tennis shoes - the works. We stepped outside and... YUCK! HOT!... we quickly came back inside. I jumped onto weather.com and discovered that it was 85 degrees outside at 6:30 in the morning!! The high was to be 109!! Oh good grief.... so much for my morning walk routine, which I had proudly done for the last few weeks (before going out of town). I was quite distressed about this yesterday, but was soon rejuvinated from Enrichment last night. We had dinner and then classes focussed on organization, cleaning, and time management. It was very informative. I even learned how to make my own laundry detergent (powder and liquid)! During the time management class, we talked briefly about fitting exercise into our schedules. As part of the discussion, I shared my woes in trying to go walking that morning... many sisters excitedly shared their ideas, the best being 'mall walking'. I remembered Emily had mentioned she had been doing this recently. Apparently, our nearby mall (as well as most others, I am sure) opens at 6:00 am, even though most stores stay closed till 10. So, you can walk the halls of what I thought would be a deserted mall. This morning, I tried it out - it takes about 10 minutes to get there, but it was very worthwhile. I loved it because it was air conditioned, and Emma loved it because of the music being played over the loud speaker (she danced in her stroller much of the way). We were there from about 7:30-8:15 this morning. There were a couple of things open... Mervyns, and Paradise Cafe. I was mostly surprised at how many people were there walking - it was mostly old women, but also a handful of stroller pushers, couples, and lone walkers with their headphones on. It was quite pleasant. And the children's play area was even open for use, so next time I think I'll leave 30 minutes earlier so there is more time for Emma to play (and get her exercise) as well!

Anyhoo, that is my story. Today, I don't have a whole lot planned. I need to make a meal plan for the week. I may even try making a monthly meal plan - it was one of the suggestions at Enrichment last night from the time management class. I've already made a list of our favorite meals; now I may try putting it into a calendar. Oh, the joys of motherhood and of being a wife... I'm always surprised at the things I find to make mundane tasks new and interesting. It's definitely important to keep busy. Speaking of busy, I have a new tutoring student that I've started working with a couple times a week. I'm helping his mom prep him for Kindergarten in the fall. I also start training next week for a summer playground inspection job. So, I'll be plenty busy this summer!

Oh, here are some of the cleaning solution recipes I received last night:

Powdered Laundry Detergent-
1 cup grated soap
1/2 cup washing soda (can find this in laundry isle, and comes in a 55 oz yellow box, made by Arm & Hammer, but very different from baking soda)
1/2 cup borax
Put ingredients in a container and shake up. Apparently you only need to use a Tablespoon of this detergent for a light load and 2 T for a large or heavily soiled load.

Laundry Softener-
2 cups white vinegar
2 cups baking soda
4 cups water
Combine slowly and carefully over sink. The baking soda and vinegar will fizz. Pour into plastic bottle, cover, and shake.

All Purpose Cleaner and Disinfectant-
1 teaspoon borax
1/2 teaspoon washing soda
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
In a spray bottle that will hold at least a pint, combine the ingredients. Add 1 cup very hot wather and shake well, mixing and dissolving the dry ingredients. To use, simply spray and wipe. This can be used indefinitely.

Automatic Dishwasher Soap-
2 cups borax
2 cups washing soda
Mix the washing soda and the borax and store in a plastic covered container. To use, add 2 tablespoons to the dishwasher soap compartment. If you have hard water, add 1 to 1 1/2 cups white vinegar to the rinse compartment (in place of Jet Dry) before washing.

This is just a handfull of the cleaning recipes I gathered last night. I was amazed at how they all basically use the same set of ingredients, so this would be very cost effective! I haven't tried any of it myself yet, but the lady who taught this portion swears it all works wonders (just as good or better than store bought products). Let me know if any of you have a different cleaning recipe or advice or thoughts on any of the ones listed above.

Guatemala!

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Above are all of the pictures that Ben took while in Guatemala. To view the pictures individually just click on the slideshow or the link under "Pictures" on the sidebar.



Ben finally returned from Guatemala last night. His plane was delayed, so Emma and I had a late night; we picked him up from the airport at 10:00 pm. It was a very happy reunion, for we haven't been together as a family for a week and half. That can be a long time. Anyway, Ben came bearing gifts of curious workmanship. I received several necklaces, one of which is pink quartz with matching earings from a well known jade factory in Antigua. It is my early birthday present. Ben is so thoughtful. He also got Emma a cute summer dress, himself some sandals, and a couple Mayan masks and a set of weights that use the same system as described in the Book of Mormon; Guatemala still uses this system of weight and volume today. Very interesting, eh?

So, I'll post some of my favorite pictures taken from Ben's trip with this post. My favorite pictures he took are of the people in the areas he visited. He says that they all (even the poor) wear the bright colored clothing. It is quite striking, especially with a large crowd.



This picture to the right shows the crowd that was in line one morning to see the doctors Ben was with at the clinic. He said that it was a contant line of people. This picture was taken at the clinic in San Antonio Polopo. Ben said that this area was the worst regarding the health of the people they saw. They were the most malnourished of the places they went. They spent two days in San Antonio and two days in Chuacruz, serving in the medical clinics. The other few days they spent touring in Panajachel and Antigua.

This is of Ben and Jim, the doctor he translated for during the week. He is in his 40's and has kids Ben's age. He is LDS, attended BYU, and is now an ER doctor in Washington. Ben says they had a good time working together and he was glad for their similarities, since they had to room together as well. This picture was taken in Chuacruz.

This is the hotel that the group stayed in during most of the week. It is located in Panajachel, which is is about 30 minutes from San Antonio and 45 minutes from Chuacruz. They spent the nights here and would drive out to the areas they would do medical work in. He says the hotel was nice and they were quite comfortable during their stay.

The picture at the top of the post was taken in Antigua, a tourist city that hundreds of years ago was the capital of Guatemala. Guatemala City is now the capital, and it wasn't until 50-100 years ago that Antigua was restored and remade into the beautiful city it is today. Ben and his group spent a couple days at the end of their trip touring and shopping Antigua. I love the bright colored buildings! Below is a picture of the majority of Ben's group after hiking to a hill overlooking Antigua. Ben says the group he was with were all wonderful and great to work with. He was really glad for this experience and chance to visit Guatemala again after serving his mission there.

Past the long necks and over the rivers that burn.....

So, I've been gone the past week and a half to play in Utah. I got to spend a lot of time with family, which was especially nice. While I've been in Utah, Ben has been galavanting around in Guatemala, performing medical service and providing translating help. What a good young man he is! He gets home tomorrow and I just can't wait to see him! He got priority to take the camera, since he was off to a much more interesting place, so sadly I have no pictures from my Utah visit. However, Monday I will post some pictures from Ben's trip to tropical Central America. I'm sure they will be culturally uplifting!

So, I did some fun things this past week, while playing with family. For one thing, I visited the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi. It was a great place! It was especially fantastic for the kids. They had some very impressive exhibits and activities for young ones to do (and I had fun with them as well!). To play some silly dinosaur games, click here. Later in the week, we rode on the Heber Creeper up Provo Canyon and back. I don't remember ever having rode on a real train before. It was very fun, but also made me thankful that we now have cars, because they sure are a slow and bumpy way to travel!

Oh, Dadoo just emailed me some pictures taken while visiting the Hogle Zoo, one of the many fun outings I had while in Utah. And I forgot to mention, that I also visited Wheeler Farm! Emma thought the chickens were the greatest. By the way, the picture to the right was taken while aboard the zoo train. Sarah kept busy by taking documentary footage of our travels.

Anyway, I hope you are all doing well! I'll post again soon...