such a sweet girl

M was able to sing with the combined ward choir last week for a Stake Conference broadcast.  She takes her role as a growing musician very seriously.  I love singing warm-ups and harmonies with her.  lP started piano this month and M started figuring out the teacher accompaniments.  Brava to her.  She's such a delight!

Dreams

M loves animals.  She goes over to my friend's house weekly to sweep bunny poop, change bird bedding, etc... so she can have time with pets.  I love her work ethic.  She does get to play with the animals, and the work gets done. 

I recently realized that there is something called a Veterinarian Technician.  It's a 2 year path to a job working with animals.  I'm a vocationalist.  So I'm always thinking "What can the kids do in a few years that will get them to a job."  I'm not so interested in them going into debt to learn something that they won't necessarily use as a job.  I know that many degrees lead toward opportunities that are nice...  I've just known a few women that graduated with debt, and no job.  And I like being a mom.  I'm grateful that my degree led to a job, and that I didn't have to go into debt for school.  My parents helped pay for school, and I always had scholarships and a part time job.  Getting bad grades was never an option because then I would loose my funding.

M wants to work with animals when she grows up.  So we'll be keeping a look out for volunteer opportunities while she's young.  Maybe someday she can work in a pet store.  And I hope she can study something she loves.  I hope she can also be a mom.  I love being a mom.  Many women work and have kids.  I love being with the kids and teaching them.  I hope M has that opportunity.

the costume that never was

M doesn't decide what she'll be for Halloween.  About a week before the date, she'll suggest something.  Then the day of, she'll change her mind 5 times.  Actually, all this process is spaced even further out from the day.  There are a lot of festivities here for Halloween.  We had a carnival at the Library and trick or treating at the local college on Wednesday.  M dressed up like this on Tuesday.  Then on Wednesday, she wore a horse costume that was too small. 

Friday night we had Trunk-er-treat at church.  M wore a lion costume that is too small. 

Tonight is Halloween.  We're going out in about 30 minutes and she's talking about riding bikes around the block.  Not riding bikes for trick-er-treating.  Just going on a bike ride.

animal lover

M loves animals.  We are not the sort of parents to let her have a pet.  But we try to seek out opportunities for her to be with animals.  This weekend she got to feed a cow named Penny.  On Fridays she goes over to a friends house and cleans cages to get some pet time.  The friend has 10+ bunnies of various ages.  She also has 3 birds, a frog, fish and snake.  My friend has MS, and her 10 and 7 year old boys aren't into cleaning cages.  My friend loves how M says "This is the best day of my week." as she sweeps rabbit poop.

acrobat

M's really enjoying having a strong and healthy body.  She can climb up to the top of the swings at the library playground and terrify all the parents.  She can do 10 pull ups.  She's so able.

Tonight when she used her fingers to get a slice of peach out of a can, that she had opened, she got in trouble.  She rarely gets hurt so she doesn't know that she could have cut her finger severely with that move. 

Piano Money

M's piano teacher is in Germany with her family for a 4 month sabbatical.  We told M that she could keep practicing and learn the songs I chose for her from the hymn book.  In return she could use the $50 a month we pay for piano lessons (a great deal) to have other adventures. 

We started planning the adventures a month before the teacher left.  M has always wanted to do cool things like horse riding, rock climbing etc...  Her greatest wish is to do gymnastics.  Fortunately we did do that for the summer when she turned 5.  But it's so expensive...

So far M's piano money has made it possible for M, G, P, and lP to go to Seaworld.  A BOGO ticket + free teacher ticket + free preschooler ticket.  It was great.

M has also been able to do a 6 week Tae Kwon Do experience through the studio that did free classes at the library.  That is also a prohibitively expensive activity but they had a special and knew we were looking for a short term commitment.  Lucky!

M was able to go rock climbing last week for 2 hours through a homeschool group.  She had a blast.

Today I dropped M off for the choir she is joining for the next year.  I'm very excited for her to have that experience.  She's got some friends in the choir.  She also loves to be little miss independent.  When we pulled into the parking lot, I told her that we were going to walk her in.  She insisted she knew where it was and that it would be hard for all 6 of us to go because of the stairs.  So I gave her my phone and let her go.  "Have fun at college!"  I exclaimed as she walked away.  Then as we pulled away I saw that she was hiding in the corner by the door.  As another group of people went by, she joined them.  Ack!  Why does she have to be so brave?  I'm so glad she is.  But sheesh!  She could have come out and let me know she couldn't get in, or whatever reason she was not going in. 

The problem of homeschooling, among many, is that I've never had to let go because I'm always there.

learning

M is very interested in human development.  She is always choosing books from the non-fiction section at the library.  I'm glad she has so much motivation to learn about things.  There are so many good things you can learn from books.  The subject of human development and sexuality is often just learned from whispered jokes among children and worldly media.  I'm glad M is able to read books and get more accurate information.  But still, the library books don't contain the gospel perspective of temple marriage as the proper context for intimacy.  She's such a smart, beautiful, kind, and funny girl.  I'm looking forward with excitement and dread, to the woman she will become.  Obviously she'll be amazing, but who will cook the pancakes when M grows up?