We made it back from St. George OK on Saturday night and are now back to real life. It was such a great break to be off my personal conveyor belt of driving someone somewhere everyday for Shakespeare play rehearsal, TJYC, orthodontist appointments, or Knights of Freedom. My six year old, Cowboy, was excited to see the “real wild west.” I am kicking myself that I forgot the camera when we went to the red rocks at Snow Canyon to get a picture of him in his cowboy gear in the wild west. But here’s one of him at the cousins’ house, before the dirt turned to mud.

He got muddy in the cousins’ backyard and I had to pry those dirty clothes off him by force and wash them in the washing machine, after he fished them out of the machine and attempted to wash them in the bathtub. “Cowboys don’t wash clothes in washing machines,” he informed me, “they use bathtubs!” He has been on a cowboy jag for over a month now and insists on wearing the same clothes, so those were the only clothes he brought, except his pajamas. The kids had a blast at a park by their cousins’ house. It has lots of cool playground toys that involve spinning and sliding. They also had fun celebrating their cousin’s birthday. She’s the same age as one of my sons. For the first time they didn’t play as much together, as they are being more gender conscious in their play I guess at age 9 and 10.

My son had a thrilling time at Elevation climbing rocks and I got to chat with Angie Baker, one of the pioneers in the TJED movement.

It was fun to see my sister-in-law direct her play that her commonwealth school advanced acting class is doing. They are performing The Odyssey this week. We had great chats about cooking, mothering,  TJEDing and making constitutions for commonwealth schools and voting on amendments. Her spring parents’ meeting was last week and mine is tonight. We are being asked to vote on some amendments. My sister-in-law told me to keep the structure of the commonwealth school as strict and pure as possible. A commonwealth school is not about pleasing everybody or having to take everybody like public school has to. I am eager to see what will happen tonight. Four years ago my husband and I were the only ones who voted not to split the school. We might be loners tonight again in some of our voting.

I haven’t had much time to blog this week because I am getting ready for my youth conference this weekend. I am so giddy to hear from Steve Russell about John Locke and vice, Aneladee Milne on families, virtue,and freedom, and Stephanie Servoss on the big picture of life, gender roles, and mission. The simulation Emily Black will do is going to be awesome.

My kids and I are making a playlist of songs for the Formal Ball that is the crowning event in the evening. It’s going to be only wholesome lyrics, and pleasant beats. For the first time I get to be DJ. I will control the volume and it will never be so loud that you can’t converse without raising your voice. Last week my nephew tried to convince me to do rap music at it. Sorry, Zachary. We will be actually ballroom dancing, not jumping or shuffling, standing, or sticking to the wall. I wonder if Cowboy will insist on wearing his cowboy duds and bringing his guns.

Families of all ages are welcome to come to the

Tree of Liberty Family Formal Ball.

Saturday May 7, 2011

8:00 PM to 10:30 PM

The Davis County Legacy Events Center (smaller building on the county fairgrounds south of the rodeo arena)

151 South 1100 West
Farmington, Utah 84025

Best dress, modest too please no sleeveless or backless

$5 a person

$10 a family if you already have youth attending the conference

$20 a family if you don’t have a youth attending

Clean wholesome lyrics and pleasant beats