Reflection

Well, I'm reflecting on my day, and just the word reflection makes me think of how many times I caught John looking in the mirror today. He just loves to see his empty spot! It was so cute!

I know I need to post pix and I have them, I just have been too lazy to upload them...

Oh, I remembered what else I was thinking I should post. I am grateful for my family who is being pretty patient with me lately. You know you spend too much time on your calling in a three-day period when you realize you fed your family pizza bagels on Saturday, a frozen pizza on Sunday and Little Caesar's on Monday night. I kid you not. Hopefully the Hawaiian haystacks today made up for that a little bit--they really hit the spot for me! :o) I might have to go have a little more...

Big News

I love to make a teaser title like that, and no, I'm not pregnant. Isn't that what people always assume? Anyway, the "big news" is that John lost a tooth today! Hey, it's big news to him! Remember his crash on Easter three weeks ago? Well, that plus an apple today knocked one of the bottom ones right out. Too bad it didn't knock out the top front one that has turned grey from the trauma. I don't think I've blogged about that, but one tooth turned grey last weekend, but our dentist doesn't want to do anything since it will likely fall out soon anyway. Fingers crossed, not that the grey thing isn't a good look for the little guy...

We were driving with one of my YW counselors to go to our Girls' Camp location to scout it out, and he says to me, "Mom, this apple has a yucky part," and hands it to me. I was surprised that he was not giving me a gushy, dark bruise, but a tooth! He was pretty stunned when I told him it was his tooth! Luckily, there was just a teeny bit of blood, and it obviously didn't hurt him or anything, but he seemed kind of scared, so I was trying to convince him how cool it was. After checking out the new John in my compact mirror several times, he seemed proud as a peacock! He kept smiling at every adult we met in our day, expecting them to immediately notice the missing tooth--it was pretty cute. They are very excited to tell all their friends (yes, Sara felt certain that her Primary class would just love to hear the news!) :o)

And, as far as my "grateful journal" goes, I've already missed a day, so I'm off to a great start, huh? Sigh.

Well, yesterday I had a camp meeting with all my YW and parents, and so I feel very grateful for their support and kindness to me and my other leaders. They offered many helpful ideas and suggestions for all kinds of things and volunteered time, and I feel so grateful for the help. Anyway, it's great to be a part of this.

Today I feel grateful for the beauty of this world. We went to a state park, and it was so peaceful and serene. It also made me feel more peaceful about planning camp, because nature itself will be such a powerful way for the girls to be able to see the evidence of God's love for them. I don't need to plan flashy entertainment--I cannot do better than what He has done for them... and for me... and for you.

The Hand of God

As I prepare a lesson for YW tomorrow about journaling, it recommended a conference talk given by President Eyring called "O, Remember, Remember." He talks about how he began journaling each day when his boys were young, specifically with this question in mind, "Have I seen the hand of God reaching out to touch us or our children or our family today?"

As I was feeling guilty for not being much of a "journaler," I realized that this is my journal, so I quickly wanted to put on here the challenge to myself to do better at journaling about things I am grateful for, and I know this will help me see the hand of God working in my life.

I can't help but mention the gratitude that I feel for my friendship with the amazing Hess family, and though I have few words to offer right now, I know that they are a perfect example of looking for the positive, and remaining grateful and noticing the hand of God in their life. May they be able to feel Him near at this time and always.

And I'll add just one little thing from today: We decided to drive to some army surplus stores in Minneapolis (and yes, this was my idea--I'll explain later), and then Sara kept asking Jared to show her when we got close to his work. So, he decided to take us all in and have a look-see. It was very fun to see more of what he's up to each day, and that is something I am so grateful for--his good job! The kids were excited to find his desk by seeing the picture of them, and they loved getting to have a piece of gum from his drawer, and the danish from the breakroom (which I also loved BTW).

Anyway, I better get back to my lesson prep, but I just wanted to write that down so I will remember, remember.

Kiddle museum again

So, I totally do not have time to post much right now, but I'm doing it anyway. I have to get dinner ready and myself ready for a temple trip tonight with the youth, and there's a piano student coming somewhere in there, too. I'm very excited for the trip with the youth, I hope it will be a great experience for everyone. And, for whatever reason, I just remembered my pictures from last week and decided I should do a blog post. Last Thursday after school we went up the the MN Children's Museum again, and this time it was not nearly so busy, so we really had a fun time. I felt like I've been ignoring the kids a lot lately to get some stuff ready for the YW fundraiser, so when we went up, I tried really hard to play with them and do what they wanted. I even drove to the top of the parking garage, just because John thought it'd be cool, so I'm giving myself some points for that one. :o) (Not that it was a big deal, just that it took several extra minutes and was a hassle.) Anyway, I sure love those kiddles!

And, for a YW activity, we made necklaces for the new logo pendants, so here's mine:


And, there you have it. What have you been up to?

And that hurt, too! (And all the Easter goods...)

I can't believe I'm back with another report of a wounded child, but I am! John busted his lip open last night at our friend's house. Ouch!! So, I'll lead with that drama. The pictures don't really do it justice. I should have taken a picture of the blood covered Father/Son duo last night! Through the sobs and blood, the story we gathered was that he was standing on a chair playing with the Lego stuff on the air hockey table and reached far enough to get himself off balance and fell into the table. The cut on his lip was pouring blood, and he was so surprised and hurt, he was literally shaking. That was not fun to watch--poor guy! He was pretty sad as Jared tried to get him to rinse and spit out the blood to assess the damage. On one of the spits, he forgot to aim back into the bowl and completely sprayed Jared--shirt, face, the whole deal. That was actually good for a laugh, especially from the whole crowd of three other families there. Anyway, Jared tried to check his teeth, and one feels pretty loose. We decided the cut on his lip wasn't deep, and Sara had a check up scheduled for this morning anyway, so we just took him home to calm down and go to bed. We did give him some ibuprofen, and he calmed down pretty well and went to bed. This morning it already looked much better, and the doctor wasn't too concerned, although she said to watch the teeth. I checked again, and one on the bottom does feel loose, but I guess he's getting close to that age anyway, right? Sheesh.



So, rewind to the beginning of Easter, and here you have the kids discovering that they have to hunt their baskets by following their string--tricky bunny!


Success! (And I didn't capture Sara finding hers in the dryer...dang.)

A tube of knights and dragons--so awesome. What a cool bunny!


And I think Sara liked these people that go with her dollhouse--just a little. :o)



And the goodies from G&G Morton--they loved them, too! Thanks!


And now to fill those baskets with the eggs hidden around the house...



And this next picture shows my idea of heaven...it's the unwritten rule to have ham and potatoes on Easter, right? Well, my family does the BEST potatoes ever, and they are my favorite favorite, as my kids would say. And I totally LOVE asparagus as well, so I love this meal. And Jared did a great job on the ham (I should let him tell how he glazed it to perfection on the grill of all things), so we savored every bite. (If you want to know more about these to-die-for potatoes, listen to the ingredients--potatoes, cream, salt and pepper. That's it. Might sound a little odd, but it is soooo delicious.) And since my other favorite favorite is strawberry shortcake, that's the dessert I took to the doomed game night. I didn't get any picture of that, but it was also heaven. Cream for dinner and dessert!! And, no, I didn't exercise today, but we did play capture the flag last night--that should count for something.

And the egg dying...

They kept wanting to mix colors, so several ended up being strange brown shades, but we had fun.
And then the egg roll (which we actually didn't end up doing till today--it's hard to fit stuff in around ten hours of church in one weekend--but wasn't conference amazing?)...but we didn't do it as officially as last year at Justin's, so I'm not sure who won. I guess we all did, since it was so fun!


I'm realizing now that we didn't do any egg hunts outside (I guess that silly bunny didn't want to go out in the dark), which we should've since we may never have an Easter here again with such mild weather. It's been so nice, and I guess this was the first March on record with no snow. Thank you, MN!! It's been so fun to be able to go outside again, and Jared put up the swingset this week, too, so we've been loving that! We may still have snow coming, since usually the last frost goes into May, but I'm just happy it has been so perfect. A little on the cool side (which I like), but it hasn't been a really wet Spring, so we've been able to get out a lot. Last week we even took a family adventure into the wetland/preserve/field thingy we've got going on behind the house and flushed out three pheasants. We also found some nests, and a lot of feathers, but we didn't see the turkey we've seen before. We also went to a park in Minneapolis with a cool waterfall a week ago (where we actually did see a turkey on the grass in the middle of a round-about, and I hope it figured out a way to dodge the traffic when it was ready to leave), but I forgot my camera. There was still some frozen ice around it, which was so beautiful. Anyway, we've been enjoying things around here! Happy Easter!