The Quiver

From a chance encounter at the Pleasant Grove Promenade (think “farmer’s market”) a couple of months ago, Soap Queen and her little soapy business got written up in the Herald Extra, a local paper.  She got lots of good comments from the newspaper article and friends, and even got a little extra business out of it. (Score! ) )

Then about two weeks ago, another local paper, the Deseret News, called to ask if they too could interview her and do a write up on her and her business.  They came and did the interview and took photos while I was off in England for work, so I’d kinda forgotten about it.  Apparently the article came out this morning because the phone has been ringing off the hook!  (There was also a teaser article (with my favorite of the photos included below), which takes you to MormonTimes.com for the longer article (virtually identical to the Deseret News one above.)

Congrats, my Love!

Concentration

The SoapQueen and her partners in Primary crime organized a Pioneer Day for the kids in our Ward. They had three different activity tracks: life on the move, living in tents, building homes, etc.; a day in school for pioneer kids; home ec (basic home tasks) for the pioneers.

Storytime

The kids learned about having to live in a lean-to; being sick from the poor conditions; building a log cabin; working as a black-smith; living in a real “frame” home. They also heard stories about crossing the plains, and arriving at the Salt Lake valley.

Pioneer home ec.

The pioneers out on the prairies, in the woods, crossing the plains, etc. didn’t have access to a dry-goods store and had to make much of their own … well, everything. They had to make their own soap and candles, they had to bake their own bread, and if they wanted something special, they had to make their own candy. Some flavors were better received than others.

School … well, recess for the pioneer kids

Once the pioneers settled down into small communities, one of the most important things they did was to build one-roomed school houses. They showed the kids how the boys would sit on one side, the girls on the other, youngest in the front, oldest in the back. By far the most interesting was the “recess” demonstration. There was stick-pulling, arm-wrestling, and hoop-rolling.

The kids had a fine time. We actually got very good reactions from all of our kids when we asked them about it. Several mentioned the “lean-to” stories as their favorite part of the day. That was the part that my brother- and sister-in-law were playing the poor souls suffering from illness and cold while living in a lean-to with their meager little fire. OK, maybe the fire was the highlight. (It was just a fake fire made from logs, a light bulb, a fan and some red streamers that we borrowed from the Scouts.)