This Week in Review
We started out this week in Dallas because Robert had a court
appearance in Fort Worth. We were able
to spend the weekend with my parents and even got to go on a date for our
anniversary. During our approximately
8-9 hours of driving we decided we needed to do a better job of keeping up with
family and that led to the restart of our blog.
I’m planning to start some summer preschool activities with
the kids and we determined that to really make this work we needed to change
our morning routine. We are now waking
up in the morning for scripture reading and chocolate milk drinking and it’s
amazing how much smoother it goes when the kids are just starting to wake up
and occupied with their chocolate milk.
Hopefully, not only will they sit more reverently, but maybe learn a
little more too.
This week Benjamin has been working on writing his letters
and coloring. It’s amazing how much his
handwriting and coloring in the lines have improved in a relatively short
time. Bekah Mae has enjoyed identifying
letters. We put up a banner on the
mantle in honor of Father’s Day and she is excited to call out all the letters
she sees. Zachary is improving each day. It was only a couple of weeks ago that he
first started to pull up on us and the furniture and now he’s pretty much
standing all the time and walking along anything at his height. He’s started to let go and try to stand on
his own. He falls, but I still see it as
a good sign that he’s not afraid to try.
Our Cute Kids
Ben and Bekah Mae did something really sweet for us this
week. Friday evening Robert and I were
being a bit selfish and decided to watch a grown-up movie out in the living
room. We figured the kids would quickly
lose interest so we put on a show for them to watch on our bed. They were pretty quiet for a bit watching
their show and then Ben came out to tell us they had done something to our
bed. I’ll admit that my first thought
was that they had probably spilt the popcorn we gave them all over our
bed. After our movie was over I checked
to see what they had done and they had made our bed. It was so sweet because it’s probably the
first time they’ve decided to do something nice for us on their own.
Thoughts
I thought I would explain the reason for the quote at the top
of our blog. General Conference with
little kids we’ve learned is a rather complicated situation and trying to
actually listen is much more so. I did
my best to try and listen, but mostly busy trying to keep the kids busy. Despite this, there was one talk and one
particular quote that stuck in my mind and that was the quote from President
Uchtdorf. It just seems so easy to get
caught up in how complicated our lives are and how things aren’t quite the way
we hope, so we end up just waiting to be happy until we get a new job or lose
weight or have kids sit quietly through sacrament meeting. None of those things are bad to hope for and
I truly believe at the same time that Heavenly Father will bless us with those
and other things. But if I’m only waiting
for those things to happen then I’ll miss out on appreciating when Ben and
Bekah burst into song at random moments, Zachary’s smile when he looks in my
direction, playing with only Zachary when he chooses not to sleep at the same
time the other kids do, listening to all of Ben’s “stories” and how creative
Bekah Mae can be while playing with her dolls.
Every moment we have no matter what is happening is a
blessing. The good and the bad all help
us become who and what we are. It’s hard
to be grateful when the house is a mess and the kids are fighting and Zachary
is screaming, but it’s still worth trying to remember to be and I think that is
why this quote has stayed with me so long.
“Being
grateful in times of distress does not mean that we are pleased with our
circumstances. It does mean that through the eyes of faith we look
beyond our present-day challenges.
This
is not a gratitude of the lips but of the soul. It is a gratitude that heals
the heart and expands the mind.” – President Uchtdorf
Grateful Under Any Circumstance - link to a short clip