A day at home with the kids and Drie.
There is always much to do around this little house- we bought it originally with the intent of gutting and fixing it before we moved in, but Drie's unscheduled pregnancy with Hyrum lowered our workforce by one and hastened the move-in. We were only able to drag all of the unuseables out of the house, fix to a usable level the things that were unserviceable, hope for the best, and move in.
Once you have six, followed by seven, soon another eighth and finally a ninth person sharing a (scant) thirteen hundred square foot house with a large german shepherd, not much renovation happens.
We have been able to put up some drywall, redo some plumbing, upgrade some wiring and reglaze the odd window, but that isn't all that should have been done. The first clue on that subject is rain in the bathroom whenever a storm lasts longer than seven or eight minutes.
The projects I was able to do this summer leave us better off for this winter than ever, but we ought to figure out something better as this horde grows bigger individually even if the collective is at its largest point.

I felt sick this morning but went to work anyway. It didn't last very long.
Yesterday was a day of struggle as my co-workers fidgeted and worked on tentative plans for the new arrangements that are coming with the new year, so I was feeling left out and unneeded. No, it was more like rejected and unwanted, as they were discussing new directives of the superintentents that included my absence in the school and a directive to abandon my little room that I have worked so hard to make into an inviting and comfortable place for the students and I.
The teachers at our school are naturally an independet lot, each strong in a way that enables them to work with our little angry and sad children especially well. To see them discussing ways to submit to the blessed administrators who really don't know a thing about what we're doing makes me feel angry and sad myself.
But what is a person to do? The tune is set by these middle-level men and they sing the songs prescribed by the higher ups who politik and set agendas that look as good as they can on the surface without showing through for the fakery it really is.
It is all fairly pathetic, and pathetic is what I really feel as one low man in need of approbabtion and money so that I can keep my family fed and clothed.
It is hard for some people to walk in such a way to impress the people who have accumulated power and acclaim by impressing those who had power and acclaim before them, but that is how things work, that is the order of things.
Rewards are given for increasing the power, prestige and riches of those who already have them.
I went to work today, but I couldn't stay, so I went home for a while and then drove around to see things and listen to music.

Jerusha, Jesse and I went swimming yesterday with our friend Chris and his son Madoc.
Nearly every Saturday, Chris and Madoc head to Nephi where there's a hotel pool in a glass enclosure. They swim together in bliss and privacy. They decided to share their secret with us yesterday, and we enjoyed every minute of it. Bless their hearts for that.
You learn to appreciate the little things here in Central Utah, I'm telling you.

The Yellowstone Fellowship is up and running, well, perhaps a better adjective would be crawling (or even slithering, in its present obsolete format).
At any rate, the project has officially begun. Wish me luck.
Else? Not too much- though I was able to make it up to Heber to see my brother Tyler's new house yesterday. We moved a few things around and I was able to spend some time with my brother, so it was a good and productive trip. He sure has a great place up there, possibilities abound in that little valley. It'll be fun to see what happens.
I also ran into some old friends at Costco quite fortuitously, and was able to stop in and visit them in the Springville area. The Rasmussen family has been hard at work building support and financing for Charter Schools and other projects, and we caught up in other areas and exploits.
We spoke until one in the morning and was able to top off a fine travelling Friday with an uplanned surprise and quite the uplifting speak session!

Here's an article on desert sheep in central and southern Utah from yesterday's SL Tribune. I've not seen any sheep out there for years. I'd better get out more often...

Whatever shall I do?

In a world with opportunities and ideas for profit and gain coming out of the worm-holes and pockmarks like so much accompanying, …stuff, I am in the middle of decisions and questions about my and my family’s well-being and temporal welfare.

While the statement about opportunity and money above is true for so much of the world, here in wee little Sanpete County, the abundance is quite a bit leaner. Does this reflect a can-do attitude so necessary for ‘success’ in our go-get-em society and world? Probably not.

Balance between reality, what one has experienced in one’s perception of reality and the reality that one wants to create within the at-large reality is not always easy to acquire and even harder at times to maintain. Perhaps it is easier for some, but I for one have not arrived at that point. It is something I aspire to, though.

I have two dear friends who have recently struck out on wild paths of self and familial fulfillment who have been rewarded handsomely for their efforts. While their goals are only slightly different from mine, the variation of core values and how to fulfill those hopes takes methodology of fulfillment to potentially radically different places. That’s where things get hard for people of my ilk.

Rigid ideals can be punishing taskmasters. I’ve learned that, and compromise comes from equally toilsome effort as well.

Nevertheless, I’m coming to a crossroads. I’ve especially recently compromised and worked to keep my ideals and responsibilities satisfied somewhere in the middle, but all the same, I might have to compromise and pay the taskmaster even more. That isn’t a happy place for me at this point.

Happy things are what I’m hoping for. I yet have faith in hope. There is so danged much that I don’t know or see in the future. I’ve no idea how things will work out.