Y'all, chip drop is no joke.

 So this one time, I was watching Jim Putnam on HortTube and he mentioned something that sounded amazing-chip drop. All you have to do is sign up, and someone brings a pile of wood chips to your door for free. "What's the catch?" one might ask. Well, the catch is they don't tell you ahead of time when it's coming, the mulch is a little rough-just trees through the shredder-and it's a lot. A lot a lot. They explain this to you in the video about why you might not be a good candidate for chip drop, but I said, "Bring it on." Sometimes I can get a little enthusiastic about whatever I'm obsessing about, and I admit I'm obsessing about gardening right now, but I wasn't afraid of a little pile of wood chips. That is, until Wednesday when I was at work at the nursery and I got a text that said, "Chip drop today." A little while later I got another text, this one from my neighbor, "Did you order some mulch to be dropped in the cul-de-saq?" Now, this is a very patient neighbor, not one to be alarmed, but she sounded, shall we say, concerned. I got a little concerned also, but admittedly excited. I drove home, and as I turned the corner to my driveway, I saw why my neighbor was nervous.

This pile of woodchips was as big as a truck and extended halfway into the cul-de-saq. Of course it was the day before garbage pickup, and I knew there were going to be some unhappy people if the garbage man couldn't circle around the street. I gathered my courage and determination along with my pitchfork and rusty wheel barrow and started moving wood chips. It smelled delightful. The weather was cool and perfect for shoveling, but the task at hand was daunting. I worked hard for a couple of hours and made what I thought was great progress as the 4 foot tail on the edge of the pile was now spread around my bushes. Considering how much time there was until sunset and how much mulch was still on the street, I was feeling like maybe I overestimated my abilities. My son came out to join the fun and our production stepped up a bit. Earlier I had invited the neighbors to help themselves to chips, but so far no takers. At about 6:30 my awesome neighbors, Taran and Mike Swanson came out of their house with shovels and their not rusty wheel barrow and jumped in to help. I wanted them to take chips for their yard, but first they worked on mine.

Can we stop for a moment and talk about how much  it lifted my spirits to have these good people join me in my chip job? They brought fresh muscles and smiles and friendship. Then my neighbor Casey came out. He didn't have a wheelbarrow, but he's a smart engineer for real and we filled his recycling bin which holds a lot of woodchips and has wheels. With all of us working together, bit by bit, the pile grew smaller and smaller. The street light came on as the sun went down, and who knows where we were dumping the mulch exactly. But the street began to clear until there was plenty of room for the garbage man the next morning. We were tired, but no one wanted to be the first to quit. We finally called it a night, and I had to admit that it had been a really fun evening. 

The next morning the garbage was picked up on schedule and no one even came knocking on my door asking why the heck there was a pile of wood chips on the street. I was sore, as in my legs wouldn't move, but there were many wheelbarrowfuls to go before I could sleep, so back to the street I went. Gabe helped some more and we convinced the other neighbors that they would definitely benefit from a little mulch along their borders. The next night Angela and Carter came to join the chip party, and I got to catch up with them and their sweet family. After a few more pitchforkfuls our monstrous woodchip mountain was a little mound of chip dust.

 

Tomorrow I'll sweep the street and all that will be left will be the wonderful memories of being with my lovely neighbors, and the knowledge that we can do big things if we work together and just don't give up. And someday, I'll forget how sore my legs were and sign up for chip drop again, someday in the far, far, far distant future.

When Covid-19 makes dreams come true.

My mom, Janet Miller, didn't have the opportunity to learn the piano when she was little, but she made sure all of her children took piano lessons. We all ended up with varied ability to play, but we all love music and use our skills in family and church settings. After her children were all grown, Mom decided it was her turn to learn to play the piano. 

I remember visiting her in her Manti home a few years ago where she showed me what songs she was working on. I was so impressed with her desire to continue to develop her talents. When she lived in the skilled nursing facility with Dad, she practiced on the piano in the commons room. It was fun to go to church with Mom and Dad there. Mom played the prelude every Sunday. Dad was so proud of her and so was I.

Now she lives with me and still practices the piano. A secret dream she has had is to accompany the congregation at church. We have a large congregation with many accomplished pianists, so it is unlikely that she will have that opportunity at her age of 84. Enter Covid-19. All the families in our church were asked to worship at home as the building was closed to keep people safe from the Corona virus. Every Saturday Mom prepared the songs for the next day. She wrote the list and handed it to my husband who conducted our home worship service. We sang and she played. "God Be With You," "We Thank Thee Oh God For a Prophet," "There is a Green Hill Far Away," "Oh God, The Eternal Father," "Count Your Blessings, " and "Abide With Me" have become some of my favorite hymns. It warms my heart as I realize that Heavenly Father is answering her prayer and the desire of her heart.  Even though she plays the simplified version of the hymns, when I hear the music I feel the spirit of God and love fills my soul. Isn't Heavenly Father kind?

Done and done. Our last senior picture.

 Well, we finally got all the senior pictures taken and hung on the wall. This kid didn't make it easy I tell ya.

When Gabe was a senior we decided that we would wait until he got his braces off to get his picture. That sounded reasonable. Well, that didn't happen until minutes (exaggeration) before he left for college. So he slipped away without sitting for a photographer. He came home for break and my chances were looking good and then covid...Somewhere between "After my braces come off" and "Now's a good time." child #9 decided he didn't need a senior pic. "You've already got 8 kids on the wall. It looks good." What in the world? I decided to act casual. He'd change his mind. "Tra la la" "I'm not worried" "Whenever you're ready." Unfortunately, after many months, Gabe was getting further  rather than closer to agreeing to have his professional picture taken. Being the good--scratch that--mother that I am, it was time for me to take action. To show that it mattered to me, I changed the picture frame configuration from 4 X 2 to 3 X 3. I then proved that I meant business by blowing up a snapshot of his grad night and putting it in the frame. 

He expressed his annoyance that other people were in his picture, but he did not consent to having his own picture taken. 

My next course of action was to leverage. 1. Gabe needs to wear his retainer to work everyday. I told him that if he forgot his retainer, and I had to bring it to him, he would owe me a picture. Well, his retainer had perfect attendance at work. 2. Gabe always takes a nap when he gets home from work in the afternoon. He tends to sleep too long making it hard to sleep at night. Then he's tired in the morning so he takes a long nap, making it hard to sleep at night...I told him he needed to be awake and offering to help with dinner at 5:00. If he slept longer than 5:00 3 times he would owe me a senior picture. That kid was downstairs by 5:00 every evening. I thought I'd never get his picture, when a couple of weeks ago he came to me and said, "I'm going to give you a senior picture for your birthday, and I'm going to pay for it." That was music to my ears. What a wonderful gift. Smile, smile smile. Of course I jumped right on it. The whole event was scheduled and complete in 5 days.

Now, I have all my children's picture on the wall, and I'm a happy mom. Oh, and Gabe gets to sleep until 5:30 undisturbed. As the saying goes, "Win win."

Connecting with family-Covid-19 style.

 Covid-19 blah, blah, blah. I feel like all I’ve done for the last 5 months is talk about Covid-19. It’s new, it’s scary, it’s inconvenient, it’s life changing, it’s life taking, it’s polarizing.  All those things are real and true, but I believe in looking for the good in all things. One good thing that I’d really like to remember this summer is our family theme picture activity. We took turns choosing a theme each week. Every family member and their family created a picture according to the theme. Some weeks we guessed, other weeks we captioned. There were usually awards, but there were always smiles and love and a tiny bit of competitive spirit. The themes and entries were as follows:

Week 1-Blue. (Chosen by Laurie)

Week 2: Inclement Weather (Chosen by Daniel)

"Tornado came through!"

"We had to make our own rain. Not sure how helpful umbrellas are for horizontal rain."

A Spring Day in Georgia: Frost warning in the morning. Thunderstorm warning in the afternoon followed by a heat advisory.

Hurricane's a comin'

"Sometimes the weather needs a little outside help."

Week 3: Colloquial phrases (Chosen by Brandon)

"Stop and smell the roses."

"Keep me posted"

"Cute as a button."

"Best thing since sliced bread."

"Better late than never."

"Under the weather."

"Bob's your uncle."

"On the ball."

"Ignorance is bliss."

I'd rather be...as in not quarantined. (Chosen by Nathan)

Graduating

With my family

At the temple

Playing video games with my brothers

On the lake

At the French Open

Swimming

At Disney World

At the zoo

Camping

In Quicksand "Read in sassy 'I'd rather stick pins in my eye' voice."

 on a date

Week 5: 80's song lyric (Chosen by Aaron)

''Ice, Ice, Baby."

"Another One Bites the Dust."

"We Didn't Start the Fire"

"We Wear Our Sunglasses at Night."

"Every Breath I Take."

"Jump"

"Welcome to the Jungle"

"Country Roads"

"Ghostbusters"

Week 6: Comics (Chosen by Jacob)

Who Ate the Lasagna? (Every Garfield Comic Ever)

Week 7: Optical Illusion (Chosen by Eliza)

Week 8: Mascot (Chosen by Andrew)

Griffindor Lion

Timberwolves

Walla Walla Sweets

Boilermakers

Sacramento Kings

Eagle

Week 9: "Knock Knock Jokes," (Chosen by Rebecca)

...Olive... Olive you

Knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock...Octupus

...Iguana...Iguana hold your hand

...Broken Pencil...Never Mind. It's Pointless.

...banana...banana...banana...banana...orange you glad I didn't say banana?

Week 10: "20 second dance video." (Chosen by Gabe.)

Fun times. And now it's August and school's going to try and start, and we're just going to roll with the pandemic and riots and dechero storm and fires and all the other opportunities for refinement and reflection that are being afforded us right now. And hopefully have a little fun along the way.