may days

The seventh family in our ward announced their imminent departure today- a total of 27 kids leaving, many of them my kid's ages. We are losing our Bishop, our Superintendant, our principal, our dance teacher, and the administrator at Whitman Medical Group. I'm sad to see so many great people go, but truth be told, I'm jealous. Tony is so burned out on work he would leave in an instant. I could walk away from everything in my house except a couple pieces of art. But, it is not our time to go. Until it is, there is plenty to keep us busy.

It is an interesting time to be on the school board. The hiring of a new principal was time consuming, but fruitful. We found a great guy from Sellah and will share a Superintendant with Lacrosse.

Mother's Day was nice. Since my "power of moms" paradigm shift I embraced a day of valuing my profession. I got breakfast in bed and a lovely steak dinner. The following weekend was the annual mother's day bike ride. There were just four of us and we cut it back to 40 miles this year. Between a nasty headwind, a moose on the trail and a least a million snakes to dodge, the ride was a darn good workout.

Last Friday I got a call from the principal requesting my immediate presence at the junior high school. Wilson was suspended from school for 5 days for participating in the making of an obscene and inappropriate video in the computer lab. I'm not sure who thought it was a good idea to leave a group of 8th grade boys alone in the lab. It was your basic "Lord of the Flies" breakdown of decorum as the boys began one-upping each other in crudeness and grossness. As far as I know, there was only one boy there who had endured multiple family home evenings, primary lessons and priesthood lessons on appropriate behavior. One boy, my boy, knew better. It was another very low mothering moment. Since we didn't want suspension to be confused with vacation, Wilson got to spend the week jackhammering and sledgehammering the driveway to prepare for new concrete. The weather was miserable, either cold and rainy or really hot. He worked long hours until his hands were blistered and bleeding. His only breaks were to do homework, although we did let him eat. Here is the problem: He loved it. He went to bed every night exhausted and fulfilled. He was totally pleasant to be around; obedient, submissive and humble. The fact is that for a kid like Wilson, there isn't a punishment out there that is worse than attending school. Not even busting and hauling rock.

I took Eliza to see Wicked on Thursday. It was an awesome day. We went with several girlfriends-- a total estrogen day. In our predominantly male family, I have to remember how valuable those days are.


This is what went on while the Dads were in charge: