Don't slow down

I can not believe we are almost done with the school year.
Briggs had one final ballroom competition.

We also had the ballroom end of the year banquet.  Adam and I made smoked pork for everyone for the banquet.

Ila had her final school performance.  And they show off the kids art.

Legacy puts together a special breakfast for the 9th graders and they have all the parents bring in a poster to be hung in the lunch room/gym.

For Memorial Day weekend we drove up to Island Park Idaho.  We have bought a lot and we are planning to build a rental cabin on it.  We wanted to see if the weather was good enough to start work.  We probably won't finish the cabin this year so we are just trying to get the exterior done before the snow comes.
While we were camping we did some fishing, shooting and we went to Yellow Stone.

This is our lot

This is Yellow Stone ...



There were a lot of animals and tons of baby animals.

The trip was a little cold and wet but it was still fun.  Unfortunately when we were packing up to go home Briggs was using a power tool and slipped and hit himself in the chin.  On the way home we had to stop by the Rexburg Insta care for some stitches.

Get a Job

An interesting opportunity came up this past month.  Jake told me about an online job through BYU pathway.  It was a great part time job and I would be doing something I really enjoy and believe in while also serving others.  I went back and forth on the job until finally I decided I would apply.  I had a couple of interviews and had started the process to getting hired.  Ideally one would look at my life and think of course I could pick up a part time job while my kids were in school.  Ila will be going into 4th grade this coming year.  I would even have summers off.  My callings in church are youth Sunday school teacher and Im on the RS activity committee.  Even as I type this it is almost baffling why I can't work out my schedule to pick a 20 hours of work.
I started thinking about the kinds of things I have been involved in this past year:
Both my boys receiving their Eagle Scout award


Countless hours sewing costumes, making food and attending performances for ballroom.

The food I have prepared and served for the kids.  More importantly the relationships built with my kids peers while I fed them.






The school projects/ reports I have helped with.
(This is the model Ila and I used for her diorama)

The homework assignments I have done with my kids.  The communication and involvement I have had with my kids teachers

And the play that I helped with by feeding kids, running concessions and most importantly helping Briggs prepare to get this part and perform it.


I know all these things are above and beyond what I "have" to do as a mother but this is the only time I will be able to do these things.  So I turned down the job and decided to keep my focus on my kids.  
I haven't mentioned the summer lawn jobs I get to help my boys with each week (5 hrs of time) and the summer school classes I will be doing with my boys.  

Spring finale

Briggs had a ballroom performance this past week.  All of the dance programs at the school performed in this show.  It was a lot of fun.  It is also a send off for the senior kids in these dance programs so it was also a really emotional couple of nights.

School news

Briggs had a spring show this past month.  It was called Pirates of the Carabeaner. It was a comedy Briggs was "Dead Eye".




Ila had a little performance at her school.

Eagle

This past month we had an eagle court of honor to celebrate 10 boys in our ward that have received their Eagle Scout award this past 9 months.  Avram and Briggs both completed their award last August.  They also received 3 palms.




Between Brent Kenny and Adam one of them were the scout master for both my boys while they were in scouts.


Briggs ended up Giving me his mentor badge.  Avram gave his to Adam.  Adam also received a mentor badge from Joe Cochran, another boy in our ward.




We worked really hard to get both boys done with scouting while they were young.  Im so thankful we focused on it when we did because life just gets more busy as they get older.  I know a lot of the eagle award is because the parents pushed it but Im so thankful for the experiences, camp outs and opportunities that my boys had in scouting.

Our commity chair shared a talk at the end of the meeting.  She talked about The story of Sodom and Gomorrah.  She said the Lord would not have destroyed the city if there were 10 righteous people.  She went on to talk about what a difference 10 righteous men can make.  She then challenged the boys, because there were 10 boys receiving their eagle award, to make a difference in the world.