Swensen Sentral

Well, 2020 has been a crazy year! And we are now heading back to school, thank goodness. Jordan School District decided to open on a 4 day a week schedule with Fridays optional and masks mandatory. It will be a very different year with social distancing measures, but I’m so grateful we are returning these kids back to some normalcy and friends. They need it. And heaven knows parents need it as well. I’ve never been so grateful to be a stay-at-home mom to navigate these crazy times for my kids.  Both Rick and I drove them to their new bus stop this morning. Rick played an embarrassing back-to-school tune and rolled down the windows for the neighborhood to hear. Amelie was mortified. Chase took it in stride. This will be their first year attending South Jordan Middle School while living in South Jordan. So no more 45 min car rides to school and scooter-tram rides home to Salt Lake. We are all happy about that.  Love these two kids so much and proud of who they are becoming, but ...

These two kids make me proud. They work hard to do well in school and get good grades. Tonight they were honored for that achievement. I’m proud of their efforts. And I told them if they keep it up that paper will turn into money someday!

This boy stole my heart years ago with his baby blue eyes. He may be getting older and wiser too, but when he looked up at me yesterday with those eyes I saw that baby I fell in love with. I couldn't have asked God for a better son. 

I had "Museum Day" at school. Each student is given a famous person in history to represent and they have to dress like them and recite a short speech about them and parents are invited to come to the "museum"!  Chase had Benjamin Franklin and he did a fabulous job getting into character. He had so much fun with it. Acting is definitely up his alley. I also had fun reading books with him this last week about Ben Franklin that we checked out from the library. It was really fun learning about such a great man in our country's history. Made me feel very patriotic and want to be a better person reading about how much he gave of himself to others.  What a great country we come from with so many wise people that have lead the way and taught us to be brave, loving, industrious, steadfast, and so many more great things. I'm proud to be an American!

Amelie reading Soleil's potty book to Sawyer: "And see he has a penis so he stands up to pee."  Me: so Amelie what do girls have? Amelie (very matter of fact): Girls have chinases so they sit down but boys stand up cuz they have long things.  (China and long things huh...) ******************** At family home evening talking about eternal families and being sealed in the temple.  Me: So you know your cousins Saffron and Willa and Cyrus? They didn't come from Emily's tummy so they went to the temple as a family to be sealed together.  Chase: Wait! Cyrus? He did too come from Emily's tummy.  Me: No he didn't.  Chase: Yes he did.  Me: Really? With brown skin and black curly hair? Chase: Well...yeah Me: And how did that happen? Chase: Well I thought since they adopted two girls with brown skin then Heavenly Father sent them a baby so it could match.  (Good thinkin')

I have gotten really behind on the blog this past month. Here is a quick catch up working backwards. 1- Chase and Amelie wanted to have a little garage sale with their toys. The bad news is, they didn't sell one thing :(. The good news is we learned what to do different next week. 2- Sawyer is so goofy. He took these funny pictures of himself on my phone all by himself. 3- Amelie and I at Mother-Daughter homemaking night. We did crafts together and ate yummy food! 4- Chase lost his second tooth! He was so excited. Pulled it out at school, said it bled all over and it was so cool. Boys! 5- My Mothers Day present. Ain't it cute!? I know a toaster isn't exactly the best Mothers Day gift but I'd been wanting this for a while. Now I can make my toast in style! 6- Took the kids to Magic Mtn for the afternoon. It was so fun! Love that we are so close to it. We went after lunch and came home for dinner! Way better than Disneyland for that factor. 7- Soleil just ...

Chase is like obsessed with his light blue blanket that Nana made him as a baby.  Ok, maybe not obsessed because he CAN sleep without it at night and he doesn't carry it around the house or anything (thank goodness, cuz that would be weird for a 7 year old boy to do).  But he DOES love it a whole lot, and I catch him sniffing it every so often and snuggling it to his face when he's not aware I'm looking.  So the other day he told me this... "Sometimes when I smell my blanket I have tears of joy....and I can't get my nohse off cuz it smells so good." ...I busted up laughing.

So Chase was asking to watch a movie, and I suggested one thing and Rick suggested another. Chase liked my suggestion best but Rick said no so I consented. Chase wasn't happy with that so he said, "But you said yes mom!" To which I replied, "but dad said no", to which HE replied, "Well you're the mom and moms are usually in charge of the house." Looks like the whole feminist movement worked.