My mind has been feeling so unsettled lately. Mostly because I am worrying about Joel's job interviews and wondering where or IF we will be moving and if I should be collecting boxes or not. I really dislike not knowing what the next few months will hold because it makes it so hard to make plans. Do I start to raise some chicks, or not? Should I dig a small garden area here, or not? Should I sign Torsten up for Drivers Ed. here in Hagerman, or wait? On grey windy days, the weather doesn't help and I get depressed about it all. I never realized until the last few years that my mood is affected so much by the sunlight, or lack thereof! But today---- well, it was a BEAUTIFUL day!! So sunny, no wind (amazing!) the lilacs are blooming and the birds are out in full force, and this morning it was warm enough to do school on the trampoline. (That is no easy task, between the inclination for the kids to bounce when someone is trying to write, and then the cat attacking Heidi's feather pen and scratching Reagan. :-) Then this afternoon, we went to Great Grandma and Grandpa's house so the big kids could mow the lawn and do tractor work. While they worked on that, I took the 3 younger kids and the 3 neighbor kids to my parents so I could plant flowers. The combination of the dazzling colors of the dahlias and gerbera daisies and smelling fresh dirt, and hearing the kids happy chatter as they explored the canal and found snakes, snails, and plenty of mud, made for a light and happy heart.
Later in the day, I took the kids to their Wednesday night activity, which was loading and hauling wood for a widow in the ward, and as I drove down the sun dappled street, surrounded by green trees, fields,plateaus and crossed over pretty Billingsley Creek, I realized no matter where we live, it's all good. It's a beautiful world!

Recent happenings: Grandpa Pearson came to visit us for a week for Taylor's birthday. It was so fun to see him.He brought boxes of grapefruit and oranges from his back yard. Yum! I've made a gallon of fresh squeezed orange juice.

Torsten trying out our new 100 dollar mower. We now own 4 working mowers which comes in handy for mowing at all our grandmas' houses. All these mowers have been either free or very cheap and just required some tuneups and small parts. Yay to Joel for being such a handyman!

Big Leif baby, admiring one of his favorite people in the world.
The combined birthday party we had for Taylor, Kyler and Mom.Life is truly good.

Recent projects

I've been in the sewing mood lately and it's been wonderful to get some projects accomplished.
Here is a picture of an owl purse that I actually finished at Christmas, but I thought I'd show it with the kitty purse that I just finished this week. I think I got better with practice, or maybe I just like the kitty fabric better..... or something. The owl was for Heidi who is not into pink anymore (sniff...sniff) and the kitty was for a sweet 5 yr.old friend of mine.
I sewed 2 pillows for Hailey and Heidi's room- the other 2 are from TJ Maxx. We've been working on their room lately, trying to make it more to a 13 year old's liking.
I started the flower pillow quite a while ago, but wasn't sure how I wanted to finish the edge. I wasn't happy with the zigzag applique look. I ended up doing a blanket stitch for the edge. I didn't get any photos of the Shakespeare costumes I've been sewing-- I will have to take some pictures tonight at the play. Torsten and Hailey are in "A Midsummer's Nights' Dream" production and it's playing at the Oakley Opera House today and tomorrow. I used to DETEST sewing costumes and grumble and moan the whole time, but now I find them kind of fun. Kind of. At least I find satisfaction in them when I am done instead of looking at the finished costume with resentment!

Currently I'm working on a baby quilt, bibs made from my scrap bin, and trying out scrappy paper piecing blocks . These are my favorite types of projects to do!

Lower Malad

Taylor and Joel went over to look at the big flume at the Lower Malad power plant. The flume, which is a deep concrete ditch-like structure that normally transports water to the intake of the dam, was empty because the water was being diverted. So, of course, Joel and Taylor wanted to see how it looked without water in it. At the intake the water is usually about 30 feet deep.The water is sent down the hill to the power plant in this big pipe. Actually, Joel informs me the more accurate word is penstock. :-)The view north from the flume. The next dam down the line is the Bliss dam.
Joel strikes a pose.Grandpa Pearson, I was thinking of you when I posted today. I thought you'd enjoy seeing a bit of Joel's workplace.

Leif loves to put on his little yellow galoshes so he can go outside and pet the dog or splash in the big mud puddle in our backyard.

Other times, he puts on Reagan's snow boots and stomps around the house, just for fun.
But his most favorite thing of all is daily rides with Dad on the motorcycle.

Hailey and a friend, Hank, displaying the pictures they painted at the Creative Arts Center. My Modern Woodmen service club decided to make artwork for the Veterans hospital in Boise as the activity this month. I thought many of the projects turned out beautifully and hopefully they will help brighten up the halls for our Idaho servicemen who are staying there.

Box Canyon Hike

We did a fun hike last week during spring break. I've been wanting to hike to Box Canyon Springs for quite a while now, but I kept putting it off because I'd heard it has lots of poison ivy (poison ivy and I go way back and it's not a good relationship) and really the trailhead is not very inspiring--- it looks like you are going to hike through an old dried up farm field, which you do for quite a while. But finally, it starts getting a little more interesting. Some lava rock outcroppings and fissures in the earth appear that are interesting to climb around and explore......Then the springs themselves come into view, where they mysteriously come up from the floor of the desert. The beautiful clean spring water around here always amazes every time I come across it. What a refreshing change from the Snake River.
The trail follows the rim of the canyon for a while, with a view of the creek in the valley below.
Then the trail descends to the valley floor-- can you see that lone figure down on the trail? It's Heidi.
Okay, I'd heard that Box Canyon was cool, but I really wasn't prepared for this gorgeous waterfall. Look at all that water!!
Mom, if you're reading this, I think I actually underestimated the width when I was describing it to you. :-)

I loved how green and lush it was by the falls, contrasting with the gray dormant hues of the desert.

I would brave the poison ivy in the summer to come back again to this little corner of Eden.

Washing coyote teeth

Doing the laundry for a household with many kids can mean lots of rocks, sticks, bottle caps, crayons, gum, permanent markers, and coins make their way through the wash. But today when I pulled a coyote jawbone out of the dryer, complete with a furry nose and some canine teeth (that I had to disentangle the dryer sheet from--eeek), I decided I've seen it all! At the bottom of the dryer and washer I found a various assortment of coyote teeth that must have fell out of the jawbone during the spin cycle. :-)