The Pope Press
a biweekly-ish update of life on the home front, here in the woods of north idaho
Poppy’s Memorial
We travelled to Oregon at the beginning of the month to celebrate the life of Ben’s maternal grandfather, Philip (Poppy) Griffin. Though attending a memorial with five kids 7 and under felt like a bit of a sweaty marathon, it was worth every minute. The service was beautifully done, and I learned so much about Ben’s late grandpa. He was a wonderful man who led many to the Lord, even as his Alzheimer’s progressed. Ben played guitar for the memorial, and in closing he invited all the grandkids and great-grands up on the stage to sing “You Are My Sunshine.” Our kids thought this was the absolute coolest thing ever. Well actually, the coolest thing ever was the pool at our TravelLodge motel, but being on stage was a close second. See you soon, Poppy!
A Dam Good Time
I’m not a dad, but I had to make the dad joke there. On our way back from Oregon, we stopped at Bonneville Dam, home to the Bonneville Dam Sturgeon Viewing Center, among other really spectacular sights. We descended a flight of stairs to find ourselves “underneath” the sturgeon pond, where we got to watch 80+ year old (massive) fish swim around like barges. They looked like giant catfish. The Maker makes neat creatures, that’s for sure. We then watched steelhead salmon swim up the fish ladder through a viewing room down, down, down under the dam. And then we took a tour of the control room and saw the massive generators that run the thing. Ben and I could have stayed and read things all day long. We’ll have to do a homeschool unit on dams sometime and then take the kids back.
Eloise Turns Four
We had a really sweet backyard BBQ birthday for our spicy Eloise Penelope. Four is one of my very favorite ages, as well as three and two and…well, you get the picture. I’m a yummy mummy, sue me. I love all the ages and all the days in between. She and her friends busted open a $7 Dollar Store Pinata (make it make sense,) and some of MY friends brought food to share so I didn’t have to make meals for my children all day and then also be 100% responsible for feeding everyone *else’s* children dinner. I have nice friends. Ben and I (mostly I) gifted her my childhood American Girl doll, which looks just like her. She named her Liberty June, which I would totally steal if we had another baby girl someday. We all stayed up too late roasting s’mores over the fire pit Ben built for his parents when we first got married, which has now been given back to us, and it was just perfect. I really do love little kid birthday parties.
My Second Favorite Day of the Year
It happened. Wood splitting day. Only my birthday can top it. The dopamine is UNREAL. I borrowed $900 from Ben’s business when I was pregnant with Gregory and purchased a wood splitter. He owned a tree service at the time, so he’d bring home rounds from his jobs and I’d split them while Daisy napped inside. I’d stop periodically to listen to the baby monitor that just barely reached from her bedroom to me. I paid back the loan in one season and turned some profits selling cords of wood at $150/cord. A cord is 8’x4’x4’, which is a lot of wood for only $150………..
Needless to say, I now get to split it to keep our little family warm all winter, and that just tickles me pink! I had my grandma come hold Willaby for the morning, and we got all the kids bundled up and put them to work. It was a beautiful autumn day, with that cool October sun peeking through the trees. We started out with Ben splitting and me stacking, but after several times of passively aggressively asking him if he “needed a break,” he handed over the splitter to his wife. He’s way better at stacking than me, anyway. The kids grew so weary they were laying on top of the pile, but when we gave them a five minute trampoline break they somehow recovered all their energy rather quickly. We commenced with chili that had been simmering in the crockpot, and homemade cornbread. We’ve got 3 or 4 cords put up for the winter, which should last us for a good while.
A Cat Situation
We suddenly determined we needed a cat, when several fat mice ran on the mat in front of my feet…again. I didn’t want to raise a kitten (or pay for spaying/neutering,) so I glossed our local “home to home” website and came across Mango. We went and picked him up, brought him home, and the next morning I let him out in the yard to go potty. He sauntered over to the fence line, ducked under, and kept on walking. I figured he’d come back for food. We haven’t seen or heard from Mango since.
But mama didn’t raise no quitter, and I still didn’t want mice running across my feet, so on my way home from town a few days later, I swung by the animal shelter with 30 minutes ‘til closing time. But first, I grabbed some random scraps of fabric from my grandma’s sewing bin and put them in a plastic sack and took them to the thrift store, so I could get a “free adult animal adoption” coupon. I then walked my coupon and my five children into the animal shelter and sheepishly told the front desk girl that we were looking for an “outdoor mouser.” I thought they’d call PETA on me for daring to suggest we wanted an outdoor-only cat, but to my great delight, they were THRILLED! I had envisioned the whole thing being a catastrophe, with me wearing a baby while wrangling a toddler and negotiating with three children who all had different opinions about which caged feline to bring home. Not so! The lady walked us right back to a room and said “this is Creamsicle—he’s a great mouser,” and I said “we’ll take him.” I ushered all the children back out the door only to find one of them (can you guess who?) was still in the cat room and had *climbed on top of the cat tower* to get a black cat down. This cat, however, seemed perfectly happy letting Eloise hold him upside down and backward, so I said, “we’ll take him too.” They set me up with a coupon for a *free 15 lb bag of food and up to $10 in cat treats* AND a free first vet-appointment. All of that and two cats for a bag of fabric scraps. And that’s the story of how I went to town without any intention of stopping anywhere and came home with two felines. We’ve named them Jeff and Roger, and as of the writing of this email we can only find Jeff. Sigh. Cats are hard to keep around in these parts, but we shall persevere. Do you think the shelter keeps a record, because that experience was so good I’m tempted to go back…
Well, I’ll be back with more newsy updates in the not too-distant future. I’m happy to be writing this again, ya know? I might be less long-winded next time, but I had a lot of catching up to do!
