For family night this week our family had the opportunity to work on beautifying the temple grounds. For many years, the building coordinator's priority has been frugality. The temple grounds were very unremarkable, mainly shrubs and grass, and not always well maintained. We have a new building coordinator, Ray, who feels the temple needs a jewel box setting. A senior couple has been called to oversee the landscaping.
The senior couple have supervised some massive projects-- removing dead trees and bushes, redesigning every flower bed, digging out tired and overgrown ground covers. Besides the big projects, they put in about 20 hours a week maintaining the grounds. We joined Ray and Andrea's family and helped the couple until dark.
Abe, Helen and Gibson helped dig two ditches to improve drainage. Sofi fertilized the last of the summer blooms. Becky deadheaded zinnias, coneflowers and cosmos. Brandan fertilized boxwoods.
Abe is just making a fierce face for the photo. The reality is working at the temple is delightful and our evening was over too quickly.
We loved working in the shadow of the temple. Brandan was thinking of a story he heard at church about President Eyring's dad. "I wasn't there for the weeds."
Our other big event this week was the kids heading back to school. This is Gibson's second, milder hairdo! Gibson started 2nd grade and loves his teacher, one of only 2 men at the school. His teacher incorporates lots of technology and science in his class, two of Gib's favorite interests.
Helen is a 4th grader. Her teacher gave the kids owl pellets to dissect this week and Helen brought home the mouse bones she found.
Abe made a smooth transition to middle school this year. Besides school, he is on the cross-country team and playing soccer.
Sofi is a junior and has an exciting schedule. She is taking an international humanities block-- a 2 year course that will culminate in a trip to Latin America her senior year. She is continuing in Chinese and Spanish. Chemistry and AP Statistics round out her schedule. For electives, she is taking Zumba, yoga and creative writing. It's been a great first week of school, with lots of foreshadowing of good things ahead.
2 comments:
Love that photo of your kids. They are so beautiful. I didn't realize you and Andrea's family did all the planting! The grounds are beautiful. Sofi is so lucky to be such a world traveler.
Our family didn't do any planting-- we only worked for a short time. I'm not sure how much time Andrea's family spends at the temple.
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