What's up in May?

I have been working on my Spanish!  I have a goal to have basic fluency by the time I turn 60 which is July 2022... so I basically have a year to get it done.  I finished the Rosetta Stone Spanish course and now I'm in Duo Lingo every day.  Hopefully by this fall I will have an online tutor who converses and helps me converse on the daily.  Me encanata el Espanol!

Alfie and Poppy did their first lemonade stand with special creamy lemonade that Addison made and perfect chocolate chip cookies that Bre made.  It was funny.  Alfie was fine talking to people he knows, but when the first stranger stopped to buy he didn't know quite what to do.  He wanted Addison to sell the stuff..but Addison told Alfie it was his stand.  Alfie got his courage up and did great.   Poppy was yelling at all of the cars to stop and when they didn't she took it very personally....too funny.  They made $40.00! 

Wayne performed another YSA wedding.  This time for Mallory Moore and her airforce fiance.  It was a small wedding up American Fork canyon at Silver Lake.  Beautiful setting...and then at the end of the ceremony that Wayne performed in Spanish and English, a bald eagle swooped down into the water and got a fish in it's mouth.  America!

Tru and I went to stand up for LGBTQ rights  for kids in K-12 schools, at the Utah Capitol.  It was an empowering thing to do.  Oh, and Tru dyed his hair a neon reddish pink.  

 

I ended my 13 days of Sharing Sheri by placing dollar bills all over the dollar store with a note attached saying have a great day.   FUN FACT_. One was found and posted about on Facebook.... I cried.

I am loving riding my bike again this year.  Wayne gets on 3 days a week and continues to put in atleast 35 miles a time.  I like to do two days a week around 20 miles.  So glad we started this hobby in our 50's. 

Monson and Lexi took their family to ALASKA to celebrate Lexi's dad's 50th birthday.  He owns a lodge in the outback and a helicopter to fly all over and see the sights.  They met up with Lexi's sister Kaitlyn and her two girls.   They were so glad to have this time together. 

Rub a dub dub... three of Monson's girls in the tub.  Tayla is 5, Lady is 3 and Elsie is 1.  

Laila had her 8 days with Markus while he was between Marine assignments and she LOVED it. Markus is now in Oceanside California and they facetime or talk on the phone every single night.  

 

Utah Online K-5

 

Row 1:  Andrea Charlton, Tara Criddle, Gloria Kelly, Julie Baggaley, Summer Johnson, Kathy Erickson, Jen Larsen, Me.  2nd row:  Deanne Stratton, Julie Morales, ( new Sped teacher) Mindy Taylor, Paula Finlinson,  Jessica Everett, Jacklyn Kofford, Sariah Harris. Row 3:  ( 4 Speech teachers) Chris Maxwell, Hollie Bybee, Brooke Brown.  Row 4;  Laura Belnap, Sara Souza, Annett Eiting, Carolyn Black and Audra Roberts.

This is my K-5 team for Utah Online.   It's a great bunch of people and I'm so grateful for this job.  One of the best decisions I ever made was becoming a teacher.  I have been an online teacher for 17 years.  I miss my time in the classroom, but serving the different families over the years, watching students grow and learn AND being able to work with such amazing women, it has all been worth it.  

We all showed up one day with our animal print on....and of course, we had to have a girls gone WILD pic.

  

What makes our school so great is the culture.  We all bring different talents and expertise to the table and we all feel valued.  We are not shy on complimenting and helping each other.   We take the time in our weekly staff meeting to share a bit of our lives.  IT takes time, but it's worth it to connect.  Our admin is the best...Laura Belnap and Annett Eiting really take care of us, and really go to bat for us with the district and finding the best curriculum to help our students.

Being an online teacher has many advantages:

1.  Get to be in charge of my own schedule -- I work when I work and just have to get my job done.

2.  Able to help so many families that traditional school didn't work for. 

3.  Keep up with and learn new technology

4.  Get to brainstorm and try many different things to see what works in this setting.

5. Trips to St. George and other fun places like San Antonio, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Denver etc... for ISTE- technology summits.  

Life is in the Transitions book report

 I just finished the book "Life is in the Transitions" by Bruce Feiler.  He's the same guy who did the Life Story Project.  He interviews thousands of people to hear their life stories.  He interviewed many older people and also young ones, and people at all stages of life.  

Here are some of his conclusions taken from his data that I found fascinating.  It really got me thinking about my own life and how important our stories are.  These are my notes:

ABC of story. Everyone's life patterns fit into these buckets. 

Agency

Belonging

Calling

We need to sit down and talk to each other more.

1: The telling of a life story generates the meaning you need at the moment. Retelling our story accelerated recovery. 

2: Stories connect. Interaction of teller and listener. Any age works with this. Everyone has a story the sharing is what brings out the surprise 

3:  Meaning-making.  Meaning makes us more human and more humane.  Our society needs to return to the front porch and campfire.   Meaningful experiences. 

What shape is your life?    He found out when he asked this question at the  end of each interview these also fell into 3 buckets that closely aligned with the ABC of story.  The Agency shapes all had movement with no end in sight... siz zag, mountains and valley, arrow etc.   The Belonging shapes were definite bordered shapes like a heart, star, box, cup, house.    The  Calling shapes all varied...like a tree with roots or bird wings or...just anything.  

Telling your life story is so healing as we grow older.  

Healing power of story for older people.  Review your life. Tell stories. Make sense of past. Construct a narrative of life well lived.   Telling your story is good for young people as well. 

When asked "What’s Theme Of your life? "   He could categorize it down to 5 areas:   

1. Struggle. Ups and downs.  50/50

2. Self actualization - true to self. Independence. Accept self. Be genuine. 

3. Service. Making the world a better place. Make a difference. 

4.  Gratitude. Lucky. Joyful. Happy where you are. Everything is possible.  God’s Grace. 

5.  Love. Built around relationships. Dedication to family. Err on side of love 

We all think we want and need a linear life...where it all makes sense and we know what we are supposed to do next.  But that's not true.  We experience so many things and feeling alive - uncertain, uncomfortable, ready for what's next in our lives happens in the transitions.

5 truths of transitions:

1.  More plentiful. Linear life is misleading. 

2.  It’s connect the dots. Free style.  Coping mechanism. Life time sport. 

3. Takes longer than you think but not longer than you need 

4. Auto biographical occasions.  Narrative breaches.  Revisit and revise 

5. Essential to life.  Rebrand transitions.  See has fertile ground instead of hostile. 

First motorcycle ride of 2021

The open road was calling, and even though it was still chilly we got on our bikes and went for it.   I love motorcycling with our friends Tim and Linda.  We go to many places.  Some of our favorites are up to Pineview and around that lake.  Or up to Bear Lake and then down Logan Canyon.  We like going up Weber Canyon to Taggart's restaurant.  We love heading to Park City and riding around there.    We head out to Antelope Island and greet the buffalo.  It's all gorgeous.  

Pie Dump with my Carols

 The Pie Dump is a total mom-and-pop cafe in Tremonton, Utah.  Maurie grew up in Tremonton and always talked about the pastries and rolls and food here... SO we finally got out act together and went.  

It was delicious.  What they are known for is their homemade rolls dipped in Gravy.  they give it to every new customer who shows up.  It's divine.  It's heavy and amazing and reminds you of Sunday dinner goodness. 

Me, Julie Blatter, Jan Smith, Maurie Tarbox. 

The owner is so cute.  They are only open from 6 am to 2 pm every day.  We sang songs in the booth, laughed a lot and moaned over rolls and gravy, mashed potatoes, gigantic cinnamon rolls, and turnovers. I love my Carols!

Mother's Day

Happy Mother’s day and my momma’s birthday.   

I love this day.  I love it because my mom always loved it...or if she felt differently she never made it known.  She loved being a mom and she knew she was great at it sometimes and fell short at other times and it was all okay.   

I learned the following from my mom and from the life coach school (Brooke Castillo)  and it rings so  true about Motherhood:  Stop trying to be a good mom.  Just embrace the mom that you are.  You ARE a good mom in many ways but you are not a good mom in other ways, or on certain days or in certain situations.  Now what?  You are not a robot.  You are a hunan.  You have strengths and weaknesses.  You have the entire range of emotions.   It’s ok to not be good at all of it.  It’s ok to be half strong and half weak.  It’s ok to be half giving and half selfish.  It’s ok that we are a work in progress.  It’s all ok.   

My life coach mentor Jody Moore taught this:    From this place I ironically became a much more pleasant mother.  Only it’s not ironic at all.  It’s the natural progression for choosing compassion.  You cannot be compassionate toward others when you’re standing in a fog of judgment and shame towards yourself.  You must step into the sunlight of compassion to be compassionate and then offer compassion.  (This is true for mom-ing and for dad-ing.)  

Mom’s birthday also starts our 7th annual Sharing Sheri event.  13 days of Sharing random acts of kindness in mom’s honor.  We start at her birth date and end at her death date on May 21.  I love doing ROK and thinking of mom as I do it. 

Mother's day was glorious.  I'm really good at being an okay mom and patting my own self on the back.  Plus I got some great gifts... an outdoor rug to cover our old deck, new king-size sheets for my bed, a Sunday dress, sparkly shoes, a rainbow kimono and white pants and some awesome earrings.  My kids gave me earrings, two LGBTQ prints, flowers, yard work, a beach hat and bag that says Meema and homemade cards.  Loved it all.  I made Grandma Butters cinnamon Bundt cake with brown butter frosting in honor of her, and we pulled scones in honor of my momma who was the scone queen!   They all came for BBQ, laughter and games.    AND obligatory pics with me of course.   Everyone was here except- Andrew and Sophia who are always with their mom and Monson who was sick.   I even got to have Laila's boyfriend Markus here to celebrate.  He's on a week leave from Marines before being stationed at Camp Pendelton for the next three years.

May birthdays

 

We celebrated Sophia turning 12 and Lexi turning 27 on Cinco de Mayo.   It's so fun these two have each other.  

We danced and played a balloon game and had Brunch.  It's always fun to be together.  

Sophia is a hoot.  She came out as an Old person with her glasses on her nose and her pants pulled all the way up.  She said in an old voice that she is 21...and that's backwards for 12.    

In Brazilian birthday tradition, the birthday girl gives out the first piece of cake to a favorite.  I got the cake from Sophia.  I felt very honored.  It's brigadero chocolate cake that Grandma Sonia made with a strawberry cream filling.  It was delicious. 

It's Raining Men

 

We had a gender reveal party for Add and Bre and baby #3.  Add and Bre were at odds about this since a gender reveal is so stereotypically blue and pink-- and Addison does NOT like this.  He wants ALL colors for all genders...and as an artist it's important to him.  It feels like a message with a mission for him... so the pink and blue had to go.  They did it all with rainbow colors instead.  With a boy and a girl already this #3 baby has no expectations.  It was fun to find out he's a boy though.  They are naming him George- after our beloved George Sharkey and a great great Grandpa George Sylvester Heiner.  They are still figuring out a middle name.    Alfie was not happy.  He debated for a long time about where to place his pin..on the girl side or the boy side.  He picked girl and when the blue confetti came down he started crying.  It was pretty traumatic. He felt like he lost the game.  And his confetti cannon didn't go off like he wanted it to.  Alfie knows what it is to have a little sister and having a little brother is stepping into the unknown.   He got excited thinking about what he would call his little brother..and he is now getting used to the idea.