House O' Sullivans

For the past three years I've had a calling in the stake young women's presidency.  I have loved getting to know the amazing youth and leaders in all of the wards around us and it's been fun to plan the stake youth activites and speak on the circuit.  Casey's been our ward's young men's president FOREVER--nearly 7 years, to be precise.  Somehow, in the past few weeks we've swapped places.  Casey got called onto the high council and my bishop just called me to be the ward YW president.  My first question to the bishop was, "Do you really think I have time for that?"  I've concluded that I'll just need to haul my kids with me to activities and rely on the Lord's grace.  I've made a practice of accepting whatever callings come and even though I've internally struggled with some of them, eventually I've grown to love serving in each one.  The Lord has interesting ways and means to stretch our capacities if we are willing to ma...

One morning this week I heard Hallee in the backyard sobbing--short sections of silence punctuated by outbursts of uncontrolled sobbing.  I went out to see what the trouble was and found Hallee cradling Black Bill in her arms, carrying the chick around the yard. She was obviously distraught.  Black Bill's neck feathers were pulled into a pink flower clip--the same one that I'd put in Hallee's hair just minutes earlier.  Hallee explained to me that Black Bill had scratched her arm (probably during the beauty treatment) and showed me where it was bleeding, and then said through her tears, "But I love him so much."  Even though this chick had scratched through Hal's flesh, she loved it and cradled it just the same.  I couldn't help but think about the nature of motherhood--how the loving continues no matter what.   And then about the Savior's love for us.  No matter how unruly we are, he still loves us through the tears...

This afternoon, I went outside to check on the kids.  Things had gotten pretty quiet, and as all mothers know, this is a possible signal that extreme chaos is brewing.  When I got into the backyard, I could hear Zeke talking quietly to himself and found him laying on his back underneath the cool of our big maple tree, gazing up into the sun dappled leaves, watching them flutter in the slight breeze.  I asked him what he was doing and he quickly replied, "Waxing, Mommy."  It took a bit more conversation and decoding to figure out what he was trying to say.  ("I'm relaxing, Mommy.") Zeke doing a bit of "waxing" under the maple tree I must say that today was a good day to "wax."

On Thursday I decided that we needed an adventure, so after breakfast, I walked Sophie, Hallee, and Zeke down to 900 East where we caught the UTA for a ride downtown.  This, in and of itself, would have been excitement enough, but add to that visiting the children's exhibit in the Church History Museum, walking through temple square to enjoy the dazzling array of spring flowers, exploring the new City Creek Center, and dining by the waterfall (man-made, of course).  The kids were so cute on our little trip.  I'd prepped them about proper bus etiquette and behavior and they were perfectly sweet and well-behaved. Listening to church bells while waiting for the bus to come pick us up by the Cathedral of the Madeline Zeke-Horse, Sophie, and Hallee, letting loose  at the Church History Museum:

After a couple of rotations around the driveway on a wooden "Skuut" trainer bike, our 5-year-old Sophie took her freshly de-training-wheeled bike and rode it like a champ.  Hallee (barely 4), motivated by her sister's quick success, attempted the same feat with less success, although she did ride for a short stretch unassisted. 

A few scenes from this week at the Sullivan's: On Wednesday night I went to teach a student for a couple of hours and came home to this amazing driveway development: Sophie, Hallee, and Zeke pulled out a bunch of scrap wood and other sundry garage junk and built what they called an "amusement park."  They were so thoroughly engaged in their work and happily demonstrated the features of each "ride" to me when I arrived on the scene.  I tried a few out and "WOW" is all I have to say.  Lots of teeter-toters, balance beams, and log rolls in the mix.   Notice the wire baskets, carefully affixed to the chain-link fence.  Genius! Casey and I re-purposed some wood that he scrounged recently near his office and created three giant grow boxes for the west side of our driveway.  After removing a bit of turf, we filled the boxes with rich organic material (including our very own compost and chicken poop and some composted horse manur...