Looking through a glass darkly . . .

Like most of the world--or at least most of the United States--we were captivated by the solar eclipse that happened on August 21, 2017. The community college where I teach offered an eclipse event free to the public, so the boys and I signed up and went. We had pre-registered, so we picked up our special viewing glasses and headed in to the auditorium.


As the room filled, the stage was showing the passing of the eclipse through other areas--Oregon, Idaho, etc. At one point the site we were viewing had so much traffic that it shut down. (I'd never seen that before.) The directors or the Challenger Learning Center gave us a run down on what an eclipse is, why they are so rare, and how to keep ourselves safe while viewing. Then, with a hope for clearer skies than we had going in, we headed outside to view the partial eclipse.

The glasses darkened everything but the sliver of sun and the oscura. It was interesting to think how specialized they must be. The boys were fascinated for about 5 minutes. Then F, A, and N were stir crazy and started wandering around--not that conducive to a positive viewing experience. We lasted until the sliver of sun we saw switched sides and then we headed out.

While in the minute of wanting to view and dealing with three boys who were stir crazy and, frankly, disrespectful of other viewers, I was frustrated. But looking back I wonder if I had blocked out everything but the misbehavior in the same way that the glasses blocked out so much of what was going on in the world around me, letting me focus on what I wanted to see.

My friend Luke

My mom has one of those home movies from the early 80s of my oldest sister tearfully playing with puppies and showing them off to the camera in the kitchen of our California house. The only light for the movie comes from a lamp. She tells the story of a heart-broken 7- or 8-year-old who was losing puppies the next day and couldn't sleep because she would never see them again, and she "didn't even have pictures to remember them by."

Enter Luke.

F and I found a grasshopper in the tomatoes one day (really it was one grasshopper giving another grasshopper a piggy back ride) and he took it to preschool to share and set it free there. S was sad he didn't have a grasshopper to show so he went outside with his papi and caught one. The poor grasshopper lost one of his back legs in the process. But S was so excited, he named his grasshopper Luke and took him to school the next day. Then when he got home, we decided to let Luke go free.

The next day he caught a caterpillar of some kind. And it died.

Two days later, S looked for Luke again, found a grasshopper (who might have lost his back leg in the catching process or he might have really been Luke), dumped out the dead caterpillar, and caught it in the jar he had already labeled with Luke's name. 

While he was working on his homework, I heard the poor grasshopper jumping into the lid and the glass wall, trying to escape his confinement, or maybe trying to get away from the stench of death, and encouraged S to let Luke go back to his family. S was sad. "I never get to have anything little to love," he said.

I told him the story of his aunt, and we decided that we would take a picture so that he could always remember his pet grasshopper, Luke. 

Even with the picture, he cried himself to sleep. But Luke didn't commit suicide trying to escape the wall of his glass house.

Because I think I can fly

So one night, R was playing with the boys. They called to me to come watch as they performed daring feats of acrobatic bravery. First, they tried to jump onto R's shoulders from the bed.

Then they practiced "flying" from the bed into their papi's arms.

I sometimes have to remember that they are just little boys and, as such, need to exert their physical selves more often. I also sometimes wonder if they are just testing out their super powers.

Rader Family Farm

We headed to the pumpkin patch/fun farm last week and the boys had a wonderful time. We were there with friends so the boys took off on their own (with their friends) and there were few enough people there that it wasn't a worry. So here is a happy autumn to you all.

It's Autumn-time . . .

I think I may have used that title before, but since it is 2012, I thought it was perfectly appropriate to use it (again). After such a hot, dry summer, we have cooled down and gotten some rain. I've been pulling down the veggies and preparing the gardening bed for winter (and trying to kill the bind weed that still lingers). I've been trying to eradicate the raspberries and blackberries from the netting that I put on to protect the fruit from the birds (and neglected to take off or loosen). Hopefully the brambles will survive. I've also tried to freeze or preserve whatever remains from the summer harvest.

The past week I've been inundated with green tomatoes. We had four plants, and the summer heat/dry weather meant that we didn't get a lot of fruit. But the plants were fairly hearty, especially the Roma which took over the side of the house and tried killing the lawn. With frost threatening, I pulled the plants out. I was amazed at the root systems. I had never seen tomatoes with such extensive root systems. Even though I threw many a green tomato into the compost pile, we had oodles of green tomatoes. So I canned.

Green tomato salsa.

Green tomato chutney.

Green tomato bread.

Red tomatoes in juice.

Dehydrated red tomatoes in oil.

I couldn't bring myself to try green tomato cake or pie or anything that tried treating tomatoes like apples. (Call me a purist.) I'm glad it is almost done so that I can put everything away and start enjoying the cooler weather.

Family Pictures

Without family close by, we are limited in our photo opportunities. We try and snap them as we can, but they don't quite live up to the standard set by our photographer-brothers. This Sunday, we grabbed an unsuspecting ward member and got him to snap a few pictures. I hadn't realized we were so shaded, but the pictures works none-the-less.

Granted, we did have to bribe the boys with candy for wearing the nice clothing and for taking the pictures. But it helped make them smile. (I don't remember if my mom used candy when we were little.)

After Sacrament Meeting (1st hour of church) was over, I piled the boys on the pew and snapped a few pictures of them together. F was a little sad and kept hiding behind Baby N. But I did get this one. 

 My favorite by far, however, is this one of the boys and me. I had wanted to try and get one of the boys all jumping, but it didn't work out. Instead I got them all lined up letting their personalities shine forth. Can you tell how big they are getting?

I never thought I would be a mom of boys (much less four boys and only boys), but I love all my boys. I'm lucky to be a mom.

Meet N

Meet N

 He was born at the beginning of the summer . . .

and he slept through the night once at 2 months,

and his quilt was finished before he was 3 months old.
(All records for this mama.)

He was blessed at the beginning of September is my old blessing dress.

He is such a happy, peaceful baby. We are so glad that he is part of our family.

 Welcome Baby N!