new things

M played in a recital with other studios rather than just her own teacher's studio.  She played Grieg's
"Puck".  In February she'll be doing Student Day for the state music teacher's association.  This involves playing 3 pieces and doing theory tests and sight reading. 

I'm so glad she has an opportunity to perform with other advanced students and be exposed to kids who are weird like her.  Weird awesome.

Pants, Pants, Pants!

M doesn't like pants and hasn't liked pants since she was about 6.  She needs pants because of her band uniform and, um... winter.  We've gotten a few pairs of jegging type coverings... yay this year.  Each time she has a band concert there is a frantic scramble to fit into one of G's old or current pairs of church pants. 

She has a concert coming up and I mentioned that now would be a good time to go to a thrift store and find a pair of black pants.  We made it to the store and a pair that was sufficiently comfortable around the waist was found.  It seemed to bee long and wide in the ankle with possible bleach spatters too.  But I sewed them slimmer and hemmed them 3 inches.  The splatter is minimal speckling and it only cost $1.   And she likes them.  Wow!

Many fun times

 We got this wig, an orange wig, and a green morfo suit from the thrift store. 

 G and M have a good time at the library.  We've begun going on Monday nights after FHE.  Dad goes to work and we head to the library.  It's interesting how different seasons of our lives our library visits are different.  It's nice to find a rhythm to go together and enjoy this wonderful resource.

M's piano teacher is a fantastic example of life long learner.  She has so many cool music teaching ideas and ways to motivate students.  The dots on her wall represent songs her students have sight read.  It's so important to track things.  Above the mirror it says "Nothing is Hard, just New."

Frozen things and teaching piano

M was working on reading the Book of Mormon for her personal progress.  She went turbo when I offered her a Checker's milk shake to finish it.  Way to go M!

She has had a few gas station slurpies too for science and because she had the money to buy it.  She dubbed this the year of frozen things.

M has two piano students.  R is 7 and M teaches him in exchange for attending the gymnastics class his mom teaches.  M's other student is 14 and pays her $10 weekly for a 30 minute lesson.  They are both awesome students and she is reaping the benefits of 6 years of studying the piano. 

Phone Skills

P got a job teaching statistics so, as is our custom, we planned to get BBQ to celebrate.  We have celebrated each of the 6 changes of position within his company in this splendid manner. 

M was hoping we would do this tonight but I mentally crossed it off the list of things to do today because it was raining.  The BBQ place has an old truck and M hoped to eat on the truck bed as we did back in 2011. 

I planned another dinner but M was persistent.  Persistence, Yay!  So I told M that if she would call the BBQ place and ask if they were sold out, I would consider it.  Phone skills are something I think are important to develop. 

M called and was told they still had food.  So after prepping dinner M and I went to the BBQ place.  On the drive we talked about the four agreements:
Be impeccable with the word.
Take nothing personally.
Assume nothing.
Do your best.

It turned out that the BBQ place was out of brisket and ribs.  Brisket was the one item P requested so we turned to leave.  I told M that I thought dad would want to wait for another day.  I caught myself and pointed out that I was making an assumption.  So we called dad.  He confirmed that he would like to wait for another day.  Phone skills for the win!

Books

This is what M is reading now.  She's a sneaky reader.  She isn't as often reading where I can see her but she is often reading and I'm always surprised by all she has read.  She can answer questions too.

Summer of Camps

M is at girls camp right now.  This is her first stay away camp and 3rd of 4 camps she will attend this summer.  She has been saving all year to pay for the camps and I'm really pleased that she kept up with that goal. 

The first camp was at the fort and only cost $25. They spent their days learning about nature, ecology, history and playing games.

The second camp was lifeguarding and she paid the $150.  That camp was intense, including work outs on the beach, deep ocean swimming and jet ski rescues.  M says she did a back flip off the back of the jet ski.  I wish I had pictures of that but I'm glad I don't.

Our ward did a spaghetti dinner fundraiser and M was able to earn her $150 for girls camp that way.  She made calls and sold tickets for the event.  Then she offered a service of making home made bread to earn the money for camp.

After girls camp M will attend a gymnastics camp in July.  I'm so glad she's having this amazing summer.

Last night M was getting a ride home from activities.  The person giving her a ride asked if they could go home to open her son's mission call.  The H family was there and M interpreted for them.  Mrs. Y sent us a movie of the event wih M standing there interpreting for the deaf.  She sent this message:
I'm so grateful for M to have interpreted.   I got so emotional watching the entire scene play out.
D had a friend here who probably signs "better" and even said she could have interpreted, but she said she was too embarrassed (she's not a member.  I get it).  But M absolutely shined.  Oh how I proud I am of her.  We talked about her using it as a write in experience for personal progress.  I'll happily help her find a place for it and sign her off.  Thank you for raising such a lovely girl who isn't afraid of being who she is and is willing to share her gifts with others, in many ways.  ❤️❤️

She is wonderful.  She's "making cookies all by [herself].  She's not needin' help, nooo."

Happy Birthday

I had a daughter

We planned her name, M, 7 years before she was born

But then, born on a Tuesday we Named her M Tuesday.

Like a fairy godmother’s blessing this literal naming habbit

Came to pass in Margot’s life as her stuffed animals were given

Names like Cat the cat, Beary the bear and Rabbit.

She came with an “oops, try again attitude” and a sit on the

Front row and sing loud mindset.  She makes me laugh with

Her confidence and

overcoming fears like the vacuum

vampire bats in the publix parking lot

and, no that’s all the things she ever feared.

When I give her a year to complete a 4 year program she

Makes a plan to finish it in 6 months.  She has learned that

There is no hard, just new.

We’ve had to clip her wings with silly rules like

“Don’t climb higher than the roof-line” because she has and would

gladly do so “in song form.”

She knows her dad is really smart and knows what to do about

Missing cat posters.  She knows that there are beautiful horses

Like me, her mom.  And she knows that if someone calls you a

“Rude Dude” it’s best to say “You don’t even know what a dude is.”

She knows that if someone pushes your slow button you go… slow.

She knows that Llamas don’t grow from lima beans.

And if you tell her that your favorite candy is sweat hearts, but there

Are none left, she will Find one, in her mouth, and give it to you.

doing things

We went to a planning meeting for our homeschool group yesterday, at the beach...  It was beautiful.  L had thrown up that morning from the smell of citronella I spilled...  Thankfully P was able to give us time from 10:55-1:15.  We had such a lovely time at the beach with friends and got a lot of good planning done with the moms.  When it was time for our family to head home I gave the kids a 5 minute warning. 

M's best friend's (PF) float got blown away and she went after it.  My best friend (Q), M's best friend's mom, went after her daughter.  A short while later, I looked and saw that M had gone too.  PF has done competitive swimming and did lifeguard camp last year.  Q is an avid swimmer.  When they realized M was following them they chose to come back because of her safety. 

I didn't realize the danger she had been in and was just annoyed we were really pushing against a hard time limit.  I'm glad she is OK.  I'm glad she had the good sense to do all her work when we got home and write a letter to Q apologizing for the situation. 

M made some cards to invite girls from school to her birthday party.  She looked up the address and hand wrote, on cute cards, all the details.  I love it.

forever young

 A bag of things from the floor was recently returned to the girls and they were happy that their onesies still fit. 

M was wearing her choir shirt and wanted to eat so she squeezed herself into one of these bibs.

She has so much joy.  We went to see the musical Grease at her middle school with our friends.  These shirts were made and worn by the 5 of us.  A bedroom scene made us uncomfortable so we left at intermission and our friends took us out for cold cow.  Yay!

opportunities

M's piano teacher mentioned that she could soon start teaching lessons herself.  I had been asked previously if she would teach but for various reasons I didn't start her on that path yet.  The children were too close to her own age.  They were beginning and what if she taught them wrong!  They weren't very docile children and I didn't want her to have a bad experience.

So after a nudge from her teacher about how she could take lessons and also get coached in teaching lessons, we decided to proactively seek students that would be a good fit for her to start with.  I mentioned this to some friends and a family contacted me.  Their 5 and 7 year old are already taking lessons but their teacher is away for 2 months.  M will have the opportunity to help them progress on the lessons their teacher assigned them.  They already have a good start.  It's just 2 months.  Yay!

I'm so grateful that the Lord provided this way for her to start teaching.  M has sweetly already looked up their lesson plans and compared it against our own sets of these books.  It's music she already played for the 7 year old, and that lP recently played! 

Astronomy

M has had an awesome astronomy class this year.  She's been very blessed to have this class offered at the homeschool co-op.  The teacher has lit a fire of love for science in M's soul.  She loves it so much.

Paintball

M's friend P had a paintball adventure for her birthday party.  I can't even tell which one is M except for knowing her shoes.   She's the one on the far left with green pants and green boots.

I'm so grateful for M's friend P.  She's a smart, motivated, kind kid who lives in our neighborhood.

Life can be so lonely and it is rare to find such a friend and literally a miracle for her to live so close.

initiative

M is a go-get-er.  She works on things privately and surprises us with a finished project.  She stayed on top of the Faith in God program and had it done 8 months early.  When the announcement was made that she would start Young Women's 6 months early we just said "Good thing!"

We learned that the personal progress program will be changing at the end of this year so she's going to get that done in a year, or 6 months.  She brings her book to me and asks me to sign off activities every week.  I ask her if she really read the scriptures or did the journaling.  So far she is able to tell me all about it. 

I'm glad she has such a super power for sneaky goodness.

better living through communication

M has lived in G's wake her whole life.  Things we explained and walked him through, we let her experience with less guidance.  Some things are effortless for her but in other ways she is a normal kid going on to the tweens.  So there are some new things and we need to spend more effort helping her navigate. 

She had a math project due that she couldn't do via the scheduled route because it was only offered while she was at band.  The written option she refused to do, dissolving into resistance.  Eventually she emailed the teacher who gave her options.  She also let me know that it was a technology problem, not a knowledge problem with the written option. 

Communication is hard, but improves our lives and gives us opportunities to get help.