September 11

Underfoot: Underfoot remembers riding with Grandpa K. in a dump truck. I played. During Church today Underfoot wrote out the entire alphabet, all by himself. This is a first for him, and it is a great relief to Mama who is ever concerned that he won’t be ‘ready’ for kindergarten. Underfoot read lots of books this week with Mama.

Hurricane: Two things Hurricane announced this week: His name in its entirety plus his brother’s name in its completeness, and he announces his best friends - Kjetil, Underfoot, Thomas the train, his stuffed puppy dog. He knows his name which is pretty cool. He is also starting to repeat what he hears his brother say about personal relationships. Hurricane will wake up in the morning and announce he is spending the day at the neighbor’s house when Underfoot goes to Joy School. I have started to play more with him instead of taking care of my own “tasks.” One day we rode bikes. Another day he and I played pass the ball. The third day a neighbor boy came - they beat each other most of the time.

Mama: On Labor Day, we labored. It cooled off though and we worked outside in a 91 degree heat. It was such a tender mercy as we shoveled out garden beds and cleaned up outside. The boys were very good workers too. We are looking at starting our fall/winter garden soon. We think we are going to plant bok choy, Napa cabbage, and some other fun things including herbs and lettuce, spinach. I think my vanity wants a nice looking yard after the summer heat.

We have set a new rule around here that computer watching (a.k.a. watching movies) only occurs when I iron or it is deemed a family movie night. The boys and myself have been going through withdrawals, but we have replaced it with playing games together, riding bikes, spending more time outside, and working together. On Saturday night we went to a youth roadshow through church. A roadshow is doing a play in 6-12 minutes. The theme chosen by the youth leaders was musicals. The boys enjoyed the shows very much. Underfoot asked this morning on the way to church if we were going back to the shows.

L4: Work has been stressful of late. I’ve been asked to do some very hard, complicated things which have boosted my stress level considerably. I worked on Friday (even though it was my day off.) I received some  divine assistance and made a key breakthrough. I drove the Scout and the trailer in to work so I could
get a load of steer manure (the manure depot happens to be across the street from work.) I had planned to move the manure into one of our garden boxes after work, but we got an incredible lightning and rain storm instead.

Saturday morning I moved the load of steer manure. With the trailer still attached, we all climbed into the Scout and went into town to get a load of garden soil. I wish we had known about the quality garden soil 3 years ago. It is far superior to the soil we originally got. By about 5 p.m. on Saturday I had the soil moved into the boxes. 1.5 cubic yards of steer manure and 2 cubic yards of garden soil moved by hand equals a very sore daddy! One benefit of the intense physical labor is that it gives my mind time to relax and think clearly about the problems I’m dealing with at work. I’m sure Monday will be a very productive day at the office! Mama says that I’m also much more pleasant after a hard day in the yard. Fortunately, the Tucson summer fever finally broke, and the temperature has been under 100 degrees for the last few days, with the nights getting below 70! Hooray for cool nights!