Back to School

The BIG DAY finally arrived on Sept 5, 2017! 

I took pictures of their shoes, just to be a little different from the traditional first-day-of-school pics. The more I look at these shots, the more I realize how the boys' shoes really tell a lot about them and how they felt on their first day of school. 

Tanner's shoes perfectly illustrate his constant struggle to find the right fit with anything he wears. These beloved shoes were found at a consignment store and became his favorite after a few tries. He wore them until the soles were flapping off his feet as he walked. He was devastated to give them up several weeks before school started and he refused to go shopping for new shoes. So instead of tossing them, I paid a cobbler to sew these shoes back together. When Tanner got them back, it was like he had won the lottery. I love how this shot shows his feet long and slender, belonging to a boy rather than a preschooler. With one foot forward, it seems he is willing to step into a new adventure, but with his narrow gate, you can almost sense his hesitation and anxiety. 

Dallin's shoes are one of dozens of pairs that he has inherited from his big brother. DJ chose these shoes today because they are quick and easy to put on. (He doesn't like spending time getting dressed). The shoes kind of have a goofy look to them; I keep thinking they are on the wrong feet! But they are actually on correctly. Maybe this is one of his silly, practical jokes. The next thing I noticed is that Dallin's stance is evenly planted, as if to say he is confident in himself and what lies ahead. His extra short pants show that he had absoltely no care about what he was wearing that day, he was just super excited to get dressed already and get on his way! 

In case their shoes weren't enough proof of how they felt on the first day of school, I got a couple shots of their faces, too! That is Tanner's "I'm not entirely sure about this, but I think I'm excited" face, and that is Dallin's "I'm a complete goof and can't wait to go have fun" face.

I decided to get a shot of my own feet! I discovered how hard it is to take a picture of your own feet without getting half of your leg in the picture, haha!

This was just a spur of the moment idea to take a picture with my own stats. It took me awhile to figure out how many years I've been teaching. That was the real shocker for me on this first day of school. Not that my oldest child was now in Kindergarten (it was more of a "finally!" kind of feeling), not that my youngest was in his first and last year of preschool (he was so ready for it). But that I have done this "first-day-of-school" thing as a teacher 16 times. Wow. So THAT's why it feels like I've been teaching for so long. 

I found myself reflecting a lot during the subsequent week. All the different schools and classrooms I've worked in. All the students I've ever encountered and taught. I actually tried to count the kids, since I have my class sizes and school sizes memorized. But I got tired counting and computing after 3,500. I don't even want to know how many rediculous hours of lesson planning my life has been devoted to. Instead, I can focus on all the songs I've used in those lessons, which I know is in the thousands. Hey, I probably average one song taught per student that I've taught!

I recalled the many coworkers that were uplifting, along with the ones that weren't. I thought about my teaching life before marriage, then as a newlywed, then before having my own kids, all of which were so different from teaching now. I realized my first year of kindergarteners are in college now! I thought about the years I taught while pregnant and breastfeeding because they were probably some of my most challenging--and most rewarding years of teaching. It's wierd to think that my kids are only 4 and 6, but at the same time they are so big. Teaching while being pregnant with them feels like several lifetimes ago! 

I'm excited for this year of teaching opportunities. One of the best things about this year is that I got scheduled to teach music both in Tanner's class and Dallin's class!! So I get to be in their classrooms every week, and get paid for it. I also get to grow my reach with even more students in this community. Looking forward to many more teaching years to come!

So this year I am working 4 days a week with MacPhail Center for Music as an early childhood music teacher at roughly 7 campuses in town, with about 410 students. I'm also working as a substitute teacher in the school district on days that I have time. And I've started doing piano lessons again for beginner students, using a very child-centered approach to music literacy, which has been super fun. Needless to say, with this kind of schedule, I needed to up my game on planning and being organized. I also got a special magnet board like the one above for making to-do lists and schedules with the boys; it's been awesome helpful. I also got this meal planner. I like it better than ones I've had in the past because it includes everything the family eats each day, not just dinner.

I also spent a week organizing my storage space in the garage so that I can better access all my teaching supplies. It wasn't the funnest of tasks, but I was really happy to have a functioning space again!

Before

After

Before

After 

The rest of the pictures in this post show some of the things we did before, during and after the first week of school. Also, note that we had multiple AirB&B guests during this time.

Playing nicely at the HHH.

Can you find my kids in the tree?

Our Labor day weekend was very low key.

Dallin at church.

Getting wiggles out before bed!

Inventing a new game. 

Dentist visit. Dallin was so adorable reading the sports illustrated magazine in the waiting room, identifying the team colors, mascots and numbers on every Jersey that was pictured.

Carpool Buddies 

Birthday party for Angie's son! 

Had to get a shot of my sweet babies sleeping, all tuckered out from their new school schedules.

I helped host a Clifford event at the HHH. 

These butterflies look a lot like monarchs, and they are called Pretty-Ladies. We had dozens of them in our yard for about a week. Notice the nicely mowed lawn? I was the main lawn mower this year.

Staining the porch swing

There are about 15 butterflies in this shot in our garden. 

Tanner sometimes makes up worksheets for himself so he can practice making words. 

I had the chance to take Dallin out to lunch with me one day. We went to Grinders! 

We managed to do another bonfire. September evenings are so beautiful here!

This is seriously the best sandbox a mom and two boys could ever have. 

We didn't eat outside much this year because our table was broken. Then we got a new one and tried to enjoy a meal with it. But all our food got covered by knats. Sigh.

The boys decided to use our garden hose and water to turn their awesome sandbox into a wading pool! We've wasted so many gallons of water from our boys playing with the hose.

The boys rode their bikes to Japan Panda one night.

I found the ninjas.

Our sweet friend Alainea.

Drumming time during family home evening.

Working hard to trim the bushes so that our house could be painted.

Dallin was really proud about the way he arranged these toys, and he asked me to take a picture.

DJ helped fold laundry and was so pleased with his stacks of wash cloths that he asked me to take a picture. I gotta say, having a phone that takes limitless pictures is really amazing.

Air B&B Hosts, Q&A

Here is a typical conversation we have with friends when they find out that we host our basement bedroom and bathroom to guests on Air B&B:

Curious Person: Wow, so you let strangers come into your home? What's that like? Aren't you worried for your safety?

SarahLynn: Actually, we aren't worried that much. We get to choose who is allowed to stay in our home. We read the guest's profiles and reviews before accepting their bookings. We've had over 120 guests, and every experience has been very positive. We also don't accept any guests unless both of us will be home the evenings they want to stay with us.

Curious Person: So like, what kind of people use an Air B&B in a small town like yours? Do you get much business?

Jeremy: We didn't think many guests would use our home since we are in such a remote community.  But w live in a place that's the perfect pit stop for road-trippers. People are on vacation or moving cross-country, on their way to weddings or college or to pick up rare breads of goats for their farm. They arrive in the evening, often after the boys are asleep, and they leave in the morning, usually before the boys are awake.

We have also had guests that come specifically to our town for things like family reunions, HS sports tournaments, and work. We have had a railroad diagnostic worker, traveling nurses and doctors, technical support staff, and union advocates. These kind of guests spend 3-7 days with us to do work here. We've also had new move-ins that need a place to stay for a few nights before their housing contracts begin.

Curious Person: How does sharing your space with them work? Do they just come in through the front door?

SarahLynn: The guests do come through our front door and they have access to our kitchen and fridge. We've had renters in our basement before, so it really doesn't bother us to have other people coming and going through our home. Since most of the guests are road trippers and don't need to use our kitchen, it's really not a big deal. For the guests that stay several days or longer, we visit with them as they come and go, sometimes share the kitchen, and it's been wonderful. 

Curious Person: So you don't feed them breakfast, then?

SarahLynn: Nope. There are lots of Air B&B hosts that don't offer any kind of breakfast. It's not a requirement. There's no way I could put together a nice breakfast for people all the time.

Curious Person: I don't think I could even let people stay in my house like that. It must be so much work, even without doing breakfast. All that cleaning and laundry!

Jeremy: I do almost all the work to keep the room clean and the laundry ready, and it's not too bad. People are actually really clean, and sometimes they clean the room and bathroom before leaving, it's actually really wierd. I've started telling guests to just leave the room messy. 

It's nice because I have a lot of control over the whole situation. I can keep the business from becoming too much. I block out days that we know are too busy for us to have guests. We don't allow same-day reservations unless the room is ready. And I even raise the price on weekends or days that I know it will be less convenient to host someone.

Curious Person: Oh I see. So then how often are you hosting people?

Jeremy: It depends. During the spring and summer season this year, we were busy, like 3 or 4 different guests a week. We actually had a stretch of 10 days of guests with 7 of those nights being a new guest. One cool thing is that several guests have returned. 

Curious Person: How do the boys respond to all if this? Do you try to keep them quiet? How do the guests feel about kids being at a place where they want to get rest?

SarahLynn: We have always had visitors, renters and guests at our house, so starting Air B&B was not much different from the norm for our children. We always tell the boys about the guests that are coming. Sometimes the boys will help Jeremy prepare the room. Sometimes they are super interested in getting to know our guests (esp if they have something cool like a motorcycle), and other days they are too busy playing or watching a movie to care about the guests. 

As far as keeping them quiet, we do make an extra effort to whisper and walk instead of run and talk loudly. The boys are really good about this. They play in the library and outside instead of the basement and family room. They watch TV in my room. Some of our guests have mentioned in their reviews how quiet our home is while they stayed here. We've even had guests bring gifts for the boys to show how much they enjoyed them. It's really amazing how kind people are! 

Jeremy: And in the rental description, we make it very clear that we have two small kids and it is a house rule that they must be nice to our children. In fact, before they book with us, they have to click something that states they understand that we have kids. So if they have a problem with children, then they can go to the other Air B&B's in town.

Curious Person: Are you serious, you guys have competition?

Jeremy: Actually, yeah! There weren't any Air B&B's in town a year ago, and a few months after we opened up, someone else did, too. There are actually two other places in our town that are doing Air B&B off and on. One place offers free coffee and cuddles with her cats. The other is a historic home with no kids and two separate rooms to book with a shared bath. We are the only place with a private level and private bathroom, so that makes us unique.

Curious Person: So what gave you the idea to start this in the first place?
Jeremy: Well, like SarahLynn menitoned, we had a friend renting from us for about 6 months, and after she left, our house felt really empty. We missed the extra company, and it was nice to have the extra income. So we were trying to figure out if we should rent out to other people. Then one day I was reading an article in a business magazine about Hormel's 125th anniversary. They were commenting on how remote it is, that we are decades in the past, not even an Air B&B within 30 miles. I couldn't believe that, so I looked it up. Sure enough, no Air B&B anywhere near us. I figured it was worth trying. So we opened for business in July 2016. Once we got a few positive reviews, things picked up a little. We then rented to a cute couple for about 10 weeks last fall. The winter was slow. But as soon as the snow melted this past spring, business really picked up. So yeah, it defintely was worth it.
Curious Person: Sorry to ask so many questions, but I'm curious, like how much do you charge a night?
Jeremy: Our rates change depending on different factors, but it's anywhere from $40-$55 a night. Plus a $5 cleaning fee. This is way cheaper than the motels in town that are more like meth dealerships. It's a win for the guests that want a clean and inexpensive place to stay and a win for us. Our Air B&B earnings this year paid for our anniversary trip.
Curious Person: Oh man, that is so cool that you guys do that. I've never even tried Air B&B before.
SarahLynn: Well, we know of a good place in town where you could stay!