My Friday Walk

Actually missed the turn for my typical bridge ending spot this morning so took a long range view of that bridge.  I crossed instead the tiny little stream with a little bridge to match it.

Gary actually was on one of the committees who helped with this park and our scouts did a number of projects to put in these little streams and things.  It is great to share the result of all of that work.  How was your walk today?

BOOKS!

I have already revealed that I keep way more than the 30 books that Marie Kondo suggests are needed in a household.  Books are something that bring me joy and even looking at them can bring me memories--both of the stories that are within their covers, but also of the times when I may have first read that book or the way that it impacted me...so many sweet things are connected to books.

However, due to our Little Free Library, we also had 6 totes and several boxes of books.  It was getting out of hand, so my main project on my first day of "no-work" was to organize and take care of the extra books.

As I posted on Facebook:  (two posts in two days is very unusual for me.)

"The Walnut Grove Little Free Library has clean windows and a complete change out of books and a few puzzles for these rainy days. Due to your generous donations of books, we also have a large tote of children's books for Davis Behavioral Health's little library, two boxes of children's books for a local shelter, and two boxes of adult books for the DI. This doesn't show the basket of books I took to the Children's Center yesterday to celebrate my last day for the kids who sit in our waiting room every day. I also pulled out a few to add to my bedroom nightstand stack. Thanks to everyone who makes the library such a success and KEEP READING BOOKS!"

To DBH.....

To the DI and the local Women's Shelter

 A few books I pulled out to add to my reading list---

                

My First Day of Non-Employment!

It was 6 years ago in 2013 that I took over as volunteer President for UDSF--accidentally as you may recall.  That was a 20-40 hour a week commitment that was crazy and I was so happy when I finally was able to create a part-time CEO position and hired someone to manage the foundation.  That was critical since I started graduate school in social work in 2014.  That I finished in 2017 and moved from my internship at The Children's Center directly into working there full-time. 

All of that came flooding back when I woke up Thursday morning and was thrilled with the idea that my day was totally under my control.  Not that I don't have a to-do this that is a mile long.  My house, yard, and desk have projects galore that need to be addressed and completed--many of them yesterday.  It was just that my mind and my focus for the moment could be on those things for a time.  It was freeing and overwhelming at the same time.  I still haven't decided what my weekly schedule will be--when I will clean and when I will work in the yard and what day I will run errands.  I am at a different stage of my life and I need to figure it out again what will work best for me.

One thing I knew I was going to do--get back to my daily walks in the morning.  It has been several years since I did that on a regular, daily bases and it was top on my list for Thursday morning.  Fortunately the weather was not raining at 7:30 and I was able to enjoy a walk at Jensen pond, just like in the "olden days."

 It was a bit damp and cold so mostly shared my walk with the ducks.

 The clouds and the greens was amazing....

While the other ducks didn't even move as I came close to them, this mother duck hustled her little ducklings away when I came close.

 Skies toward the west and Antelope Island.

One thing that has changed is all of the houses which have been built on the south and west part of this section of the trail......some people call it progress--good for the tax base and all of that. but I miss the open fields.

This is to the west.  It is hard to see but there is a man-made small lake over there and people have built these huge houses around it.

Back toward the east with the subdivision in front to catch the mountains with new snow and the clouds sitting on top of them.

 The all-important bridge where I try to end my walks at Jensen Pond.

A great way to start my first day of the rest of my life...................

THE REAL LAST DAY WAS MAY 22!

When I first decided that I needed to quit working at The Children's Center last November, I said it would be the first of May sometime.  As it got closer, I set May 9 as my official last day.  However, as I ended up seeing clients until May 8 and I got sick that night with a stomach virus which lasted 4 days, I was left with a mountain of paperwork which I still hadn't completed--mainly discharge reports which tend to pile up. 

In the almost 3 years I was there, I probably saw over 100 clients which is a lot of people and stories and memories.  The last six weeks of work I have mainly been having goodbye visits with clients and their families or doing paperwork--two things I didn't like about my job so the past several weeks have been a bit brutal.  Even doing discharge reports was hard as it brought back so many memories--good and hard of these little people who I had worked with.  Especially hard were the ones that dropped out of therapy and I don't have a sense of what was going on with them.  I got some sweet cards and gifts from clients as well who had purposeful and planned goodbyes.

My last full week in mid-May, I told Gary:  On Tuesday night I cried, because I was going to miss my clients and those I work with and how could I really leave.  On Wednesday night, I was so tired and just done and wanted it to all be over.  On Thursday, I felt a relief--a sense of freedom (that is the day I counted less than 20 files that I had to audit and write discharge notices for.)  That is a lot of emotion to end each day with---plus the above mentioned emotions that came each file I opened to audit during the day.

This past week, I worked Monday and Tuesday and then went in on Wednesday to say goodbye and have my final supervision with my supervisor.

The toys which weren't mine so got left behind
for the new therapist

The new therapist was in the office doing training,
so my last three days we shared.

 The view out my window

The last day this was on the wall by my office door---

My post on Facebook:  "My last day finally really happened. After almost three years, I finished my last bit of paperwork...saw my last client a couple of weeks ago...and said my goodbyes to The Children's Center. It has been great but I am ready for other adventures both as a person and a social worker. Still have about 1500 hours left to get completely licensed as a social worker (we call it getting our "L") so I will get a part time job somewhere doing something social work but for now I am looking forward to summer fun and home projects."

And so that part of my life ends.  I wonder what will be next?

Toys and Books everywhere

As I prepared to finish up my work at The Children's Center, I moved out of my office and bought home all of the toys and books that I had taken there.  As a result, I decided to spend the Saturday (May 18) reorganizing and sorting and clean up the toys and books in our downstairs family room.  It turned out to be a bigger project than I thought, but it was so nice to have it done.

View--mid-project----

More books to donate----

The books below I kept in my grandmother's toy closet.  These are the books that when I looked at them, they were connected to a certain child or children who loved them or they were stories I loved to read out loud to my kids, or some other memory was connected to them.  As you can see, more than 30 books--just in this closet--bring me joy!  (a reference to a popular cleaning guru who stated that you should only keep 30 books in your house "that bring you joy."--Marie Kundo is her name.) 

And it was so great the next day when we had Family Sunday dinner and the grandkids got to play with all of the "new" toys.  My doll house was a huge hit with Liam and Scarlett.  They were both too little to remember it being her before I took it to my office almost 3 years ago.

Here Scarlett and Liam are playing with all of the cars and the road mat I made over 30 years ago for Jessica.

I do have some new cars--police cars and ambulances which make noises and run smoothly and fast across the tile floor.  Scarlett and Liam rolled all of them at one point across the tile floor.

No pictures of the doll house this time, but Ben and Carter enjoyed having the baby toys all organized in a basket to check out.

James and Zander were not distract by new toys.  They enjoy the old stand bye--the dogie door in our kitchen.  It was rainy so they couldn't play outside but they enjoyed going back and forth to the deck.  Although our kids went in and out of the door occasionally, I don't think they noticed it or loved it as much as our grandchildren have.  Some of them only go out the door through it if they have an option.

Gary used to tease me about saving so many toys between the time Jena got too old for them and before Scarlett came along.  However it has turned out to be great, both for work and for this little people.  I believe the doll house is about 28 years old along with the people and the furniture.  They don't even carry things for that size anymore.  But lots of kids have loved it and now my grandkids will be able to enjoy it too.

Flock of Flamingos

No, we didn't jump on a plane and head to Florida.  We had a flock of flamingos in our very own front yard.

When Jessica and Elessia came back from the movie, they asked us why we had flamingos in our yard.  We didn't know we did, but there they were----

One of them had this note around it's neck--

 In case it is still too small to be read, I will review the highlights--  This was fund raiser for one of the girls in our neighborhood who is raising money for a Girl Scout trip to Washington, DC.  You get "flocked" because someone has made a donation (aren't friends wonderful?) and asked that they be delivered to your house.
"Your dear friend paid us to place these pink darlings in your yard! (Sweet!!)
BUT-
"Lucky for you, there is a professional flock removal crew in the area to take care of your infestation!
For a suggested donation, they will come and remove the flock from your lawn ASAP:
Flock Removal  $10
Relocation to a (victim) yard of your choice $5
Insurance against (retaliation) another flock attack $5
Identity of the "friend" who requested your clock attack $5
Staying anonymous to your (victim) friend $5

If you choose to do nothing, the flock flies away after 48 hours.

We immediately agreed to make a donation for all of the above services, but asked that they not be picked up until the morning as I wanted a picture for the blog.  So this is what a flamingo infestation looks like.

We had gone outside to take pictures in the morning (in our bare feet) and Gary noticed my footprint next to Liam's so he added his and then asked us to come and see our "art" work.  Gary knows me so well and how I love little things like this.

Now I had seen flamingos in the yard down the street that morning as I left for work, but had no idea what they were for and why they were at the Scovil's yard.  After the flock arrived at our house, Gary mentioned that in the late afternoon, he had seen them at Kevin and Jolie Watson's house, so we are pretty sure they sent them to our house.

No worries--they are not longer at our house, but made a trip to the beautiful yard of our friends--who will be nameless, because we paid to be anonymous!!!

I loved this.  It made me laugh so hard and it was so fun to talk about who we wanted to send the flock to.  The flock will be traveling around the neighborhood until June 2 when it heads back to Florida.

People are so clever...................................hopefully everyone else is enjoying it as well.  Something to bring the neighborhood together and have some fun.