School for the baby

Amelia, the baby for now, is in preschool.  We are doing a neighborhood co-op preschool  like we did for Malan in North Ogden.  We have 6 kids in the class so my turn to teach comes around once every 3 weeks.  She loves school!  She is excited about learning her letters and all the other cool things that "big kids" know.  Although I have a hard time not thinking of her as my baby, I am trying to prepare her for not being the baby anymore.  I think she is excited to be a big sister, but when the reality that someone smaller than her is going to take some of my attention away from her sets in, we may have trouble.  

This photo is from our trip to Island Park with the  Ostlers this summer.

Malan Ruth

For Malan's kindergarten class we had to write the story of how Malan got her name.  This is something I had planned to do for all the kids at some point, so it was nice to have a deadline to get started on at least one of them.  Here is her story. 

Malan Ruth Ostler

Malan comes from a family of mountain lovers. Her mom and dad met and dated mostly in the mountains rock climbing. Malan and each of her siblings got their first names from mountain peaks. Malan peak is located in the beautiful Wasatch range in Ogden, Utah. It is not a high peak, but it is a beautiful partial day hike that offers great views along the way and from the top. Malan’s dad proposed to her mom in a boulder field near the base of Malan Peak. Now Malan enjoys learning to rock climb and is a great camper.

Malan’s middle name comes from her great-grandmother Ruth Johnson. Grandma Ruth was cheerful and loving and enjoyed making the world more beautiful. Grandma Ruth died in April 2008 at the age of 95. Malan carries on grandma’s legacy with her beautiful and often present smile, frequent hugs for all, and strong-willed love of life. Malan is our home’s resident “beautifier” making sure our tables are well-set and our house is well-decorated with flowers and art work.

Malan’s last name, Ostler, comes from England where it originated as an occupational surname referring to inn-keepers. We don’t know if the family tradition started way back then, but in recent history the Ostler line is full of gracious hosts who love to make guests comfortable in their homes. Malan is definitely carrying on that tradition by warmly welcoming all who come to visit.

Time for school

Right now the major time consumers in my life are kids and kids' school.  Logan and Malan are attending a new school since we moved from North Ogden to Salt Lake.  They go to a charter school called Open Classroom.  It is a co-op school which means that I spend about 8 hours a week in the classroom and about 8 to 10 extra hours a month in parent and committee meetings.  It has been great to be so directly involved in the kids' education.  Of course we still have the unnumbered hours of reading and homework to do after school, which isn't always fun, but I'm hopeful that things will improve in that department also.  

Logan is in 4th grade and does well once he is able to focus his energy on his work.  He is so active physically that he struggles to sit still for long.  He is very athletic and loves just about every sport.   This is a photo of him at the City Of Rocks from our family climbing trip this summer.

Back to it?

Ok, so I have been deliberating over how to handle this blog thing.  I don't want it to be a pain for the people that I want to read it, yet at the same time, I don't really want to spill my guts to anyone who might happen along my blog.  So I have just left it alone for the past 5 months.  But now I think I have decided that I will go ahead and post when I can and make logging in a requirement for those who want to read.  Maybe at some point I will make another blog that I can make more public, but for now, this is all I can do.  

I think I've also decided that I can't try to "catch up" on the last 35 years of my life, or even the last year of my life, so I'm just going to post what I feel like posting, when I get around to posting.  This means there will be major gaps in time and events... and that will really bug me, but I am going to resist my tendency toward "if you can't do it thoroughly or near perfectly, don't do it at all" and just do what I can.   That is kind of my new motto in life.  I realize that I can't do everything (although part of me deep down still thinks I should be able to), so I am working on being happy about what I can accomplish.  Sometimes it's just "I managed to feed the kids today" and sometimes it's a lot more, but somehow I have to be ok with whatever it is.