I love....

I love that Livia and Sonja went straight to playing in the mud when they asked if they could play outside (even if Livy was wearing a white shirt, new at that.)

I love that Livy has two cousins that live close that are her age.

I love that Jackson LOVES books. Thomas the Tank Engine flap book is the highly requested one these days. Don't know where it came from, but glad we have it. (I think I owe the thanks to Jonna....)

I love that Ben loves his job.

I love that Brooke likes to tell me everything that happens at school...as long as I don't ask. She will usually open up the next morning and tell me everything.

I love that my exam for zoning is a week away (well that is a love-hate relationship. Love that it will be over soon, hate that I have SOOOO much studying to do.)

I love our neighborhood (i know i say that a lot, but really, I do....love, love, love it!)

I love that I get to workout in the mornings with great ladies. Even if I only got three hours of sleep with a crying baby the night before, hey, I was going to be tired anyway. At least this way, I am tired and exercised.

I love my new washer and dryer (new to me, that is)

I love that my kids have such an amazing relationship with their grandparents. (Nana and Punka, you are missed dearly.)

Life is good! No, Life is Great.

Thankful Tree

Last night for Family Night we did our annual Thankful Tree. It is always a huge hit with Brooke. She loved writing things on the leaves and Livy especially loved gluing everything on...even if she did use the entire glue stick for three leaves, it was a joy. Brooke kept saying, "Mom, I just love this! I am so thankful for...." It is a great feeling to think that she enjoyed something so much that it might actually be sinking in.

Last night we also gave the girls awards. I am trying to do things to recognize the little things and praise my kids more. So Brooke got the Superstar Award! She was ecstatic. It was for her determination in making sure the toy room was clean and her room was picked up. And then even looking for other jobs to do. I love it when she gets in those helpful moods and says, "Mom, is there anything I can do to help you?" Love it!

Livy got the Princess Award for being so happy yesterday. She was very quick to say thank you for everything. And then saying "That was good manners, huh Mom."

Ben has been doing such an awesome job of being organized enough to remind me and talk about the FHE lesson on Sunday afternoon. Rather than scrambling to think about something on Monday evening. He is even so awesome that he has been planning the lessons lately! It is AWESOME to say the least!

But when we still have those times that we are scrambling I like to think of Elder Bednars words from a few conferences back.

Sometimes Sister Bednar and I wondered if our efforts to do these spiritually essential things were worthwhile. Now and then verses of scripture were read amid outbursts such as “He’s touching me!” “Make him stop looking at me!” “Mom, he’s breathing my air!” Sincere prayers occasionally were interrupted with giggling and poking. And with active, rambunctious boys, family home evening lessons did not always produce high levels of edification. At times Sister Bednar and I were exasperated because the righteous habits we worked so hard to foster did not seem to yield immediately the spiritual results we wanted and expected.

Today if you could ask our adult sons what they remember about family prayer, scripture study, and family home evening, I believe I know how they would answer. They likely would not identify a particular prayer or a specific instance of scripture study or an especially meaningful family home evening lesson as the defining moment in their spiritual development. What they would say they remember is that as a family we were consistent. (More Diligent and Concerned at Home. October 2009. click here)

Today I am thankful that we planned a Family Night Lesson that was so fun for the kids!

Grateful

I am grateful to awesome Nursery, primary and pre-school teachers that help teach my children good values and really fun songs. My girls love to sing. And Brooke is always singing a bunch of songs I have never heard. FCNS is so great about teaching kids with music!! And now I hear Livy walking around singing parts of the songs Brooke sings. They both love music and have really good memories when it comes to music -even if some of the lyrics are a little off. The makes it even cuter.

Gratitude

I have had a "D.I. pile" (goodwill) for a really long time. And when it gets a little too high, Ben spontaneously takes it to the trailer when he goes to seminary. Well a little while back, a friend of mine gave me a bunch of clothes (can I tell you how awesome it was!! It reminded me of college, when my roomates and/or teammates would all go through their closets and we would put stuff in the locker room and people would take what they wanted. Loved it! Especially since most of my teammates bought WAY more expensive clothes than I did.) Since I got a bag of "new" clothes, I had to get rid of a lot of mine. (Our closets are really small.) So I went through my stuff and got rid of some thing. I sent a box to my sister-in-law, since a lot of it was stuff that wasn't in bad shape, i just found myself not wearing it very often. She was so grateful for it that it made me want to look for more things to get rid of and send them to her.
Recently, I did the same thing with Brooke's clothes. Again I had been given a few things from some older girls. And what didn't fit Brooke I gave to another friend, along with some more of my things that I didn't need anymore. Again, she was so appreciative of it, that it makes me want to go through and get rid of more clothes just to give it to them. It made me so glad that she liked it so much. Especially since some of the clothes were things I still really liked, but I just didn't wear it anymore (isn't it funny how we get attached to little material things). It just made me so happy inside they liked it.
Today I was thinking about blessings. I think that is how it works with the Lord. When we show so much appreciation and gratitude and bless others with what we have been given, He really wants to give us more. Just like I was so glad that my sister-in-law and my friend were so grateful for something so small, but it made me so happy that they liked it, that I wanted to do it again (just wish I had more things to give away.). Again, i think that is how it is with blessing from the Lord, of course on a much bigger (and sometimes smaller) scale. The more we appreciate the little things and show gratitude for them. The more He wants to give us. A simple lesson that I have always known, but sometimes you are reminded of it in new ways.


Like the signs say: Count your Blessings. And: Be Grateful, It's Contagious.