Keep At It

Progress doesn’t come from stasis, and things here are far from steady.

At the end of July, we moved into our house—a house that had one full working bathroom in the basement, no functioning laundry, no countertops or sinks or appliances. We had a microwave and a refrigerator in the garage.

The first weeks were rough. We used a ton of paper plates, plastic utensils, and plastic water bottles.

We carried in boxes that we couldn’t unpack because we didn’t have cabinets. We slept on mattresses on the floor.

But as the weeks went by, things got a little better. A couple more toilets were installed. Then countertops and sinks and cabinetry. We now have three working showers. Each week we make a little more progress, but it’s slow. 

As if moving in to a partially remodeled house wasn’t enough the second week of August tested our limits. While I was out of town with Makayla, Rick came down with a horrible cold. (Not Covid—just Misery). He struggled to keep the kids alive and fed while also preparing his class at Penn State. In the middle of the week, Ricky had a car accident, totaling our Honda Odyssey. He and Andrew were okay, but we were down to two cars for four drivers. The next day, I was called as an early morning seminary teacher (zoom call with Rick in PA and me in UT). Rick looked like he would throw up thinking about how he would manage the kids’ morning routine while I was away teaching seminary every morning, but he kept it together and said it would be a great thing for our family. A couple of days later, Rick lost keys to the big van when he took the kids to Hershey Park to celebrate Gavin’s birthday (Makayla and I were traveling home from Utah and had to get an Uber home from the airport). Can I just say it was an awful week?

But we got through it. Nobody can say that we haven’t had a lot of practice lately at being flexible, thinking outside the box when problem solving, or being patient when we’re faced with unexpected circumstances. Sure, I get grumpy and Rick gets grumpy and the kids get grumpy, but so far we have been able to take turns being grumpy (mostly). When one is grumpy, the others share encouraging words and recognize progress. For the most part, the kids have been very resilient. 

Since the last post, swim team ended. 

Rick and Brooklyn went to Utah for a sports camp.

Less than ten hours after Rick and Brooklyn came home, Makayla and I went to visit Emily in Provo and help her move to a new apartment.

The next picture is me helping with decluttering by modeling my niece’s left-behind overcoat. I think I could make a good spy. 

School started. Here are some lovely firstish day pics:

Obviously, I’m not much of a picture planner so I completely missed snapping a picture of Sean. He was thoughtful enough to leave some selfies on my phone just in case I needed them for a back-to-school social media post. 

We ended the month by acquiring a kitten (because we don’t have enough to do). His name is Klaus. Friends of ours knew Makayla wanted kittens and that she had approval from Rick for an outdoor cat. We had the shelter ready, but no time to go on a search. So when these friends rescued a kitten from a storm drain, they thought of Makayla.

The other kids like him too and he has adjusted pretty well to his people and his space.

Last bit of good news—Makayla has a job at a local fruit farm! I wish I had a picture of her in her cute fruit farm shirt. She had her second day today and loves it.

My goals for next month—increase my capacity for preparing for and attending seminary each day, get my desk painted and organized—maybe even unpack office supplies, make sure my kids and husband know how much I love them, and try not to think too much about the season that comes after fall.