Welcome to our World

Remember how I mentioned the neighborhood kids were playing together every day and summer plans kept being canceled?  When I asked my children what they would really miss one of the things I thought I could make happen and social isolate at the same time: swimming. Using the money from our canceled 3 day Bahamas cruise, we rented an Airbnb in Arizona for two weeks. Even though the children are still distance learning we decided to go now before the weather was hot enough to melt us the minute we stepped outside. We drove straight through — I’m pretty sure the longest my children have ever gone in a car in one day — complete with our dog Piper. Having a pool in your backyard with a huge fence is pretty amazing!  Our family used that swimming pool every single day and loved the different flora and fauna and NEWS flash! Piper is a really good dog when she’s not around Maisie (who is staying with my parents while we are away)!  It would be a shocker if the dog trainer hadn...

Many of you know my middle daughter’s name and would like to acknowledge there are many wonderful women who share her name. One of them is someone I hired to change my life and she did.   I was listening to a life coach podcast and the thought occurred to me to look for a life coach that specialized in adoption and I am so glad I did. I found someone absolutely perfect for our family.   Michelle  knows both what it is like to be adopted and what it is like to raise both biological and adopted children. She is full of warmth, light and wisdom. One thing I really appreciated about her was the lovely emails she sent to me after each session.  They were another wonderful way to remind me of what I wanted to focus on in the coming week.   Of many things, she helped me find that I treated my adopted children as though they had been handed the short end of the stick for the way their life story began. Not only was that untrue, but it had affected the way I treated the...

One of the cookbooks I ordered as a Mother's Day present arrived early and we have been trying out all sorts of recipes (especially the desserts) and have been loving it.  I've liked baking for years but as it turns out, I don't mind cooking when I'm not rushed and don't have a to-do list a mile long!  Who knew?  Even though we are having a lot of disappointments about activities being canceled I really enjoy not having places to be on a daily basis.  Our most recent cancelation sadness: no in person school for the rest of the year (I feel sorriest for my middle children since they will be switching schools in the fall), no CU sports camps for my two oldest (and no BYU volleyball camp for Kate), no Girl Scout in person day camp or our troop camp out scheduled for a return to Twisted Pine or touring Backpacker's Pantry, and no Project Launch for my youngest (which she actually cheered about).  Natalie likes having us all together and no where to be! One of the...