MauldenNews - July/August 2012

Here we are again. Summer is almost over and we are already back to school. Sam - my baby- started kindergarten.

 It might look as if Papa had to drag him in, but no. They're just having fun.

 Sam with his teacher. He's not crying, just bashful about having his picture taken. Really!

Alle declined to be photographed on her first day of second grade, but this morning she gave me a most beautiful pose:

She was proud of the way she fixed her hair. :-)

The year started a little bit rough around the edges as both of them adjusted back to the routine. Sam was sent to the principal's office within the first week for losing his temper and disobeying the teacher. Luckily this past week was better and we just hope things go well. We are really grateful for Sam's small class size (12) and for the loving and patient people at this school.

Backing up a bit...Labor Day weekend was spent with church friends at our all church camp in the mountains. Loved it...sorry I didn't take any pictures, (totally loafing and neglecting my mom-role) but it was fun and relaxing. :-) We had a huge thunderstorm and the kids were excited to get to really use their umbrellas (hard rain and umbrellas are kind of a novelty in Utah). Sam told everyone he got to sleep "on the top shelf" (top bunk). Alle completed a challenging hike to the top of a mountain with me and friends. This girl is not afraid of heights!

Speaking of hiking, we also made it up to Cecret Lake (that is the correct spelling, I'm afraid) for the kids' first time. 

 Detour from the trail - this log was made for balancing on!

 Paintbrushes in bloom.

 Alle being a mountain goat.

Cecret Lake.

We also celebrated Alle's 8th birthday. Her birthday wish list included

• scotch tape 
• wax paper 
• a Nook 
• a baby squid
• wrapping paper
• Skittles
• shaving cream

and a few other odds and ends. She did not get the baby squid, but did not seem too disappointed. The look on her friends' faces when she unwrapped the wax paper was priceless. She was delighted and has used it to make several creations, as well as to display her stickers which she can then peel off and re-use. 

One of her friends asked why she wanted shaving cream, and Alle told her it's fun to play with in the bathtub. She used the entire can of shaving cream in one super-fun bath and declared it "the most FUN bath I ever had!" I heard later from the friend's mom that she had also requested shaving cream for the bathtub and had a very giggly bath herself. :-) 

The party would not have been complete without a seahorse pinata...

(at this point, Alle noticed me with the camera and wouldn't let me take anymore, but we did sing to her and enjoyed her excellent taste in birthday cake: cheesecake with raspberry topping.)

Other news...I finished my third marathon and it was fantastic! I got lucky with the weather and took the pace slower than my first two. Guess what-- it hurt less at the end. I ran the last mile without walk breaks and finished strong. Happy!

Last but not least, on going to bed a few nights ago I noticed a pair of toenail scissors and a bunch of short black hairs on my bathroom counter. I deduced that Sam had cut his hair and was very curious to know what it looked like, but since he was asleep I had to wait until morning to find out. It wasn't disastrous, but he did make a notch in the front. You can look for it in his school pictures coming up next week. 

Hope all is well with everyone. 

With Love,

Sarah

MauldenNews May-June 2012

News bites from May and June...


Alle finished first grade and Sam graduated from preschool. His teacher is retiring after 30+ years (hopefully not because Sam pushed her over the edge???)  Alle managed to earn her "Master's Certificate" in reading just one day prior to the end of school. (Luckily I remembered to e-mail those last 85 reading minutes on time - we scored a free ice cream cone!) She is really a fantastic reader and we're so very proud of her. She likes reading chapter books to me, and I am reading the Little House books to her. We also read the Indian in the Cupboard and watched the movie together. It's fun discovering "new" (old) children's books and revisiting some of my favorites. The kids also finished another round of swimming lessons and are very proficient little fishies in the water. We got them scooters so now they have some wheels that fit in our car for rides to the park.


We greatly enjoyed a visit over Memorial Day weekend with mom, dad, and Tim. Tim inspired us with tales of geocaching; not having a GPS, we tried letterboxing for the first time (see AtlasQuest.com) and it was a great success - we found 3 of 4 boxes and had a great time exploring Memory Grove Park. 


Training with the Salt Lake Galloway group is going well and I'm LOVING it! My latest race was a 10K Wounded Warrior run benefiting those wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. Two of our group members had lost their sons there so it was an especially meaningful run. I also must brag about hitting a new PR in my mile time - 8:14. Some people run a 4-minute mile, but I'd be thrilled to run one in 8!   I'm looking forward to the Timpanogos Half Marathon in July and the Nike Women's Half in San Francisco in October. 

Alle kindly made this sign warning passersby about the potential for bees in our yard.


We had a fantastic week with family in the vicinity of the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. This was not our cabin, but ours was similar. I loved the views on my daily run-walk workouts. The terrain was steep and challenging but did not stop me. :-)

Rafting the lower Pigeon River - class 2 rapids were just perfect for us. 

A 2.5-mile round-trip hike to Grotto Falls in Smoky  Mountains National Park. It was green and cool and beautiful. No bears, but we saw lots of cool insects and Alle made friends with a snail. I saw something like a little salamander or newt but it quickly retreated under a rock.

The Clan.

The last morning there, Sam got up before anyone else, got cookies from the kitchen (of course!) and while climbing up to turn on cartoons (?) fell against a sharp table edge and sliced his ear open. Here is the wound bathing in topical anesthetic...

The doctors, PA, nurses and Child Life specialists were very kind. Sam bravely played games on an iPad while getting 10 stitches. "5-0 vicryl please."

Recovering from an exhausting battle with Versed withdrawal. The remainder  of the dino kerlix made for good entertainment on the way home.

I love the Knoxville airport. The waterfall is soothing and you get to relax in the rocking chairs while awaiting your plane. 

That's all for now. Shalom...

MauldenNews April 2012

This April was warmer than usual and quite beautiful, with many blue-sky days and flowers. We've even had some warm evenings. 

I really liked this picture by my friend Tammy.

Had a WONDERFUL weekend with 2 of my sisters...here we are in order, by age and inversely by height...aren't we gorgeous???

We went to an Easter egg hunt at Sugarhouse Park with friends...love the expressions here...

and we made our own colorful eggs with good old Pabst tablets and vinegar. 

Sam turned SIX with a swimming pool party...

and then we had 2 totally awesome weeks with Nana (Bryan's mom). She is wonderful beyond words. 

Finally...even though April may be over...as you can see...

...the fun never stops around here.

See you next month! Love you all,

Sarah

MauldenNews March 2012

This month we enjoyed watching winter transform into spring.  I try to remember to enjoy and appreciate the little ordinary things...a warm cup of coffee, first flowers blooming, the longer evening light, a good night's sleep.

The kids still like to sleep on the floor, bundled up burrito-style. I frequently find Alle curled up on top of her heater vent in the morning.


Bryan and I celebrated our birthdays this month. Both of us were lucky to be able to take the day off from work. We're grateful for another year of good health, good fortune, and the gift of family and friends.

 The candle-lighting is always fascinating.

Isn't he awesome?!?!? 


Other fun activities this month:


- kite flying! We finally got some good windy days and successfully flew our shark kite. It eventually ended up high in a tree, irretrievable, but it was a learning experience. :-) We have also learned that a $3 Spiderman kite from Walmart can be worth hours of fun.


- workouts - I completed my 90-day P90X challenge with stronger abs, bigger shoulders, and the ability to do kickboxing moves without falling over as much. It's a good home workout program and I'll probably do it again, but for now I'm really happy to get back to running. We have a new leader in our Galloway program this year and she informed us that we'd been miscalculating our walk-run ratios last year. So I'm starting over with new information and new training tactics and it will be interesting to see where it goes! I'm hoping to run another marathon in the fall - I want to run 10 marathons in 10 states, so I need to find one outside of Utah, Nevada and Arizona. Anyone want to meet up and do the Denver Rock & Roll in October???


Book(s) of the month: I really enjoyed the audio recording Being Peace by Thich Nhat Han. I also started reading Wild by Sheryl Strayed - her account of solo backpacking on the Pacific Crest Trail when she was 26. Her only weapon was "the world's loudest whistle" and she hiked for days at a time without seeing a single person - I bet it's more heavily populated now. I have actually hiked portions of that trail above Donner Lake and in the Desolation wilderness area. It makes me want to do another backpacking trip someday. My last attempt was sometime around 1994, when we tried to go with my dad to Yosemite and got snowed out in September.


And that's all the news. See you next month!

MauldenNews February 2012

Hello all,

We've had a good month - mild weather...not much noteworthy. Things are peaceful. 

I'm continuing P90X (home DVD workout program) and I've been able to stick with it pretty well, only missing a couple of workouts. I miss running, but it's also nice to take a break and it's definitely convenient to work out indoors in winter.  I'm now starting week 9 (of 12). The upper body work is paying off nicely - I find snow shoveling is getting much easier and doesn't leave me sore afterwards anymore. 

Bryan and I have been volunteering at the kids' school by helping in the lunchroom. I've heard that Bryan is very entertaining to the kids. I'm probably more boring, but it's fun to see all the kids and watch them interact. It's also interesting to see what they bring and what they actually eat. Their hot lunches are better than what I remember having as a kid.

Here are some pictures from a visit to the Aviary with Sam (and a few friends).

I think that's all I have. Hope all is well with everyone.

MauldenNews January 2012

No pictures this month...camera fatigue from Christmas, perhaps? Sorry, you'll have to use your imaginations...


Every new year brings new experiences, some anticipated, some not. A few things that were new for us this month:


- We started speech therapy with Sam. He tends to "stutter" when he gets excited, only I didn't really recognize it or think of it as stuttering.... he often repeats a whole word or phrase several times, often at the end of a sentence more than the beginning....anyway, we are learning and playing new games at home, and Sam is happy to have new ways to earn lollipops.


- Alle's new thing is selling Girl Scout cookies for the first time. She had her whole sales spiel memorized and performed it for all the neighbors and anyone who would listen. She even told everyone what cookies she thought they should buy. She really wanted to earn the prize for selling 1000+ boxes...funny how they have NO idea what is realistic at this age. 


For some reason being the mom of a Girl Scout feels like such a new and foreign phase of parenthood to me. But it's good. I like her cute little Daisy troop and I feel very domestic when I iron the patches on her uniform.  We sold 61 boxes and I took the opportunity to order all the kinds I had never ordered before. Now I need an excuse to have a cookie party.


- We tried a couple new foods this month -  fresh fennel (in salad with oranges & red bell peppers) and parsnips (julienned and roasted with rosemary and thyme). I thought both were good, even though I'm not a big fan of anise flavor. Why a green bulb should taste like black licorice is beyond me. Sometimes it's like a game to find new stuff in the produce section, since a lot of it is not labeled, at least here. It's also fun to stump the checkout person when buying weird vegetables. Next time I might try rutabaga if I get brave.


- I've taken a break from running and instead I'm doing a new workout routine called P90X. I'm 3+ weeks into the 90-day program. It's a good change and good for core and overall fitness... The strategy is "muscle confusion" ... I think I'm successfully confusing my muscles. I was skeptical about the kenpo kickboxing, but I'm even enjoying pretend-punching and kicking more than I thought I would. 


- Status update on my 21-day challenge: I'm still at it! My wristband is wearing thin, but my complaining frequency has definitely gone down. Yay! It's amazing how automatic complaining is for me. Sometimes I just can't think of anything to say that's not a criticism or complaint so I am learning to just...be quiet. I liked what one finisher said - when we keep our complaints quiet, it's easier to hear God speak to us. 


- I'll close as usual with my Book Pick of the month: Mudhouse Sabbath by Lauren Winner. The author grew up Jewish and is now Christian. Really liked her interesting perspective on Jewish practices like keeping Sabbath, lighting candles, mourning, prayer and others. 


- May you all be happy and at peace. Keep in touch.

  

MauldenNews December 2011

Greetings and Happy New Year to all!

This year, I read a book about unplugging the Christmas machine. It inspired me to scale down and slow down. We did a bit less and I think we enjoyed things a bit more. We celebrated Advent with a wreath and candles this year, as well as the traditional Advent calendars. Sam went on a binge one night about mid-December (unsupervised) and ate all his remaining advent calendar chocolates. Alle took the opposite approach and saved them up for days. Two different approaches to life.

We celebrated the halfway point of the school year with a little "Awards Dinner" for the kids. Alle got prizes for honesty and truth telling, becoming a super reader, and overcoming stage fright (joined her class in the school Christmas program this year). Sam earned his seatbelt award (he buckles and unbuckles independently), as well as awards for awesome dancing and unbridled enthusiasm for life.

Other holiday stuff- we tried baking new cookies - Dutch spice cookies (speculaasjes or windmill cookies) and my new favorite, Nigerian sesame seed cookies. We made a lemon raspberry birthday cake for Jesus too.

We had a wonderful Christmas - in fact, we had two. We opened gifts at home and then flew to Little Rock to spend a week with Bryan's side of the family. It was wonderful to reconnect with them and they were very gracious hosts, especially when our plane was delayed and we ended up staying 3 days longer than planned. We sure soaked up the sunshine and warm weather. I enjoyed bird (and squirrel) watching, especially the cardinals, downy woodpeckers and others we don't see in Utah. I even saw my first great blue heron while running on a wooded trail by a stream near the house. I love Utah, but I have to admit I could handle Arkansas winters!

I've been listening to a series of essays called "This I Believe" on NPR - the idea is to summarize your core beliefs in a few hundred words. The series includes a number of essays by famous Americans from the 1950s, when the concept was first introduced and the essays read on the radio. (Examples: Helen Keller, Eleanor Roosevelt, Jackie Robinson, etc.) There are also essays written by ordinary people in the present day.

I have yet to write my essay, but here are a few things I believe in:

I believe that even in the digital age, books still make some of the very best Christmas presents.

I believe in spending time with your family at Christmas.

I believe little boys and their daddies need to stick together.

I believe creativity and artistry are innate and to be enjoyed by all.

I believe in surrounding ourselves with beauty. Thanks again to Chris Allec for this masterpiece. I feel serene just looking at it.

I believe in SLEEP!

Last but not least, I believe in reading good books. My pick of the month is called Sabbath by Wayne Muller. This is one of those treasures you have to read slowly and savor. There's a lot of wisdom behind the concept of a set-apart time for rest. May you all experience the joy of finding the right rhythm between work and rest  in 2012.