Pickles, Peaches, (Pre) School, and Clapping for Curling Wands

We were busy cleaning out lunch boxes, getting eye, teeth, and immunization checkups, and shopping online for school clothes and shoes, when who should decide the time was right, but our box of pears (ordered group discount through the ward) AND our peach tree!! Remember this little source of Spring joy?:

 It quickly turned into this:

And though I was hoping it could hold onto those peaches (they WERE small enough!) until we had everyone ready for school, I somehow squeezed in the time to bottle and freeze our first little harvest (I think our peach tree thought it was an apricot tree--they were more pit than fruit, which made for a lot more puree than pretty bottles, but we need the baby food and love fruit leather anyway :) ).  While we were at it, I finally tried Grandma Farnsworth's pickle recipe that I grew up with--(a neighbor was out of town, and wanted her cucumbers cleaned out, so we had a good stash), and it turns out the pickles were a breeze, and yummy! Besides, having the kids home to pick peaches that morning and help w/ the bottling was a bonus.

Even with that interruption, we made it to the first grade picnic, where I saw our favorite First Grade Teacher (that Anne didn't get), and was actually nudged into changing her class (something I vowed never to do, on the principle of learning to get along with others)! I think my heart was still raw from the news of moving, that not getting the one teacher that feels so much like family was too much pain for one week (that's for me, not ready-to-tackle-anything-Anne), and though Miss Hellewell's class was full,-- through uncharacteristic persistence on my part, and miraculous tender mercies and a patient Principal, she did get moved in just a few days before school started! It was a huge and unexpected comfort.

We took Emily to Jr High Orientation, figured out lockers and schedules and which friends have which lunch, and got her so excited/worried about handling everything that her only response after the first day was, "After expecting either greatness or misery, it was actually just kind of boring." :).  Maddie had to drop Orchestra at the last minute to take Chinese, which was a hard/sad decision (again, Mom cried--I think it took her 5 minutes to get over it), Spencer was excited to get one of the few male teachers at the school, and is one that raised 9 (?) children and NEVER loses his patience :), Brent is successfully getting to school an hour(!) early every day for Jazz Band that he's enjoying, and Lucy doesn't yell with only 3 people in the house :).  So we're making it.  I sort of forgot about first day pictures (we're getting our act together, but slowly!)--Here's one of Emily as I dropped her off-HA! and the Elementary were the last to leave, so I did get just them:

Then we got AFTER school pictures of everyone--which was a little more relaxed and fun anyway:

Actually, it was just plain silly--everyone had woken up WAY to early and giddy, that this is what it really looked like:

I love these guys :).  School started the week before Labor Day, so we were all ready for a 3 day weekend after 5 days (6 days into Brian's new job)! Anne-in that age of overflowing vocabulary, prayed the night before, "Bless us to have a good Leprosy Day.":)
*Speaking of skin conditions though, Anne just grew out of nocturnal enuresis (look it up, but think camel stories and pullups) about a month ago, and with it, her eczema has seemed to stepd down a notch!--still there, but every other day baths/wet wraps have been replaced with weekly, so great step forward!*
We did some yardwork that day in perfect weather, then went swimming at the local indoor pool, and came home to make HOMEMADE Onion Rings (YUMM!--may have to be a new Labor Day tradition!), hamburgers, and hotdogs.  We were so relaxed I thought of, but did not get up for, the camera :).

The children have been transitioning pretty well.  Maddie has a friend w/ similar schedule that she follows to not get lost (yes, it's her 2nd year there, but it is pretty big); Brent is getting expert at knocking out homework first thing, Emily is getting the knack of grade checking, and after a sick day this week (everyone but Mom has had a good cold---welcome back school days!) refuses to ever miss Jr High again--crazy homework!, Spencer has been sweet enough to (mostly) let Anne play with him at recess!!--siblings that WANT to play together?!--be still my heart!--and Anne is getting over this new nervous habit of licking around her lips (thank goodness for Aquaphor!) that school stress has caused--she acts like nothing's a big deal, but First Grade is lots of changes, and she did admit to getting a funny feeling in her tummy during the first fire drill.

As football season also started **GO COUGARS!!** (and we lost the boys), the girls and I rearranged our bookshelves.  Sister In-Law Katie had chromaticized her books, and when Mom said Sister In-Law Kristen had done the same thing at her house, I felt like it would bond me to my far away family.  It sure made the living room a mess, pulling off all those book jackets and grabbing random books from all over the house, but we loved the end result! (actually Spencer said it was hideous, but we weren't asking him ;) ). Two before pictures (of the shelf and Brent growing :) ):

and After:

We also sold our swingset this weekend (QUICKLY!) in an effort to clean up the yard/house for selling--this way we'll have time to grow the grass back, but even though it was my idea, I was sad to see it go!

I was a little nervous because even with children in school, I've still been showering close to noon (you can choose if that's before or after), and though I was excited originally, as I thought of adding Lucy's Home Preschool Group AND Dance class (each once a week) to our schedule, I was worried I would never get to all of the de-cluttering and packing I need to do! But I really LOVE the four year old stage, and I especially love Lucy, so when I started doing these things focused just on her, I was reminded of what good ideas they were, and how I often need to be nudged away from my lists, and back to that individual focus.  Lucy is one of our most physical children, so as we sat in on her first (so affordable and SO positive) little tap/ballet class, I felt so at peace, and actually confident that this was a good thing for her right now.  And though it wasn't my turn to teach, I sat in on her first day of preschool just to lend a hand and to be reminded of how it goes, and I loved seeing how SIMPLY alive they are at this age.  There are 5 in our group--all of them my nursery luvvies from a couple of years ago, and what a growing up difference 2 years can make! Here's Lucy in pink standing in front of the door and third on the bar:

Before these activities began, Lucy was forced to make her own friends since I'm hard to pull away from kitchen cleaning and laundry:

Here are some of my favorite Lucy lines:
-"I know why we have blue eyes--because we're the Duncans."
later..."I know why we have blue eyes, because we like BYU!"
-(every time she sees anything red, white, and blue, or w/ stars), "We totally need to get that since we're an America family"
-(as Emily was explaining commandments, "You know Lucy, like Obeying your parents, Paying your tithing--what else?") "Paying your taxes"
-(when our serpentine belt broke in the van, I was saying outloud, "What's that flapping sound in our van?"--the weather was hot and sunny) "I know!--it's the rain!--there's a storm in our van!"
-(whenever she matches someone, in clothes, or in this case, in how many classes in Primary, "What?--you have 2 classes too!?--We must be sisters!!"

She is so energetic and tender--loves to turn up the music as loud as she can, but can be so soft with Baby Jane.  She would tend that baby all day long if we let her--even with Jane screaming, she is never deterred or scared off or bored with her.  She runs to get toys, diapers, clothes, and bibs, feed her, drag her around (?!), or whatever she needs.  She is strong enough to open those baby food jars, can make her own lunch and breakfast, and is pretty good on the computer AND at taking apart and putting together ballpoint pens?! Of course she gets frustrated when we don't listen to her--if you were that competent, and then ignored, wouldn't you be? She is now wanting to grow her hair long, loves to have her back rubbed, and sings the Primary songs beautifully! I really do love having the time to focus on her for a little while, even if my showering is late.

Baby Jane, meanwhile, though still petite, is crawling out of baby stage as fast as she can! She has 4 teeth poking through, is sitting up, crawling, and just now pulling herself to standing already! She also learned how to clap this week, so we shot 57 pictures of her trying to capture it this morning.  She is still so cheerful, has this adorable little snuffle as she scrunches her nose, clings to Mom a bit tighter, takes great naps, is sleeping at least until 4 or 5 every night, and gets SO excited to see her family:

And, as if football wasn't enough to tear our boys away, there was also a Father and Son's last weekend--just a Friday night activity--to halfway make up for the canceled campout last Spring.  I had the little girls at a 2 hour trial study appt. for eczema cream that afternoon (We're becoming quite the guinea pig family--I hope all of you medical workers in the family appreciate our effort to contribute--this is Anne's 2nd study, and Spencer's about to start one for a new vaccine!)--and we had a few errands to run--ending w/ a quick trip to the mall (their FAVORITE) -- we actually found a great couponed deal on a dress and outfit for Anne (upcoming family pictures--she was the only one w/o a good color fit), new sweats and bedspread for Mom, AND a new curling wand  Laurie introduced us to! I was just thrilled to have such HAPPY shoppers, and to not end up with a headache myself--we actually had fun, and then picked up the older girls to use some Arctic Circle coupons for dinner together.

Besides the curls, we all tried new hairdos this week, so got Spencer to grab a shot of us--after all those pictures of brothers for so many years, it still throws me off (and thrills me!) a bit to be so surrounded by girls!! (I don't know what look Spencer was going for, but at least there are some smiles in there :) ).