My Hero

Yesterday I was busy and gone most of the day. This has been a hectic year school year with two kindergartners at different schools. Jack's school is a 15 minute drive one way so the drop off and pickup takes an hour of my day. I ran a few errands after I dropped him off at school and came back home with an hour to spare. I had a huge list of stuff to do before I had to go get him and was feeling quite overwhelmed. Jason was heading out of town so he left work early and called to see if he could help me out. He ended up picking up Emma and Jonah from their school, Eli from his school and then dropped them off at the dentist. Then he rushed to get Jack and then brought him home to me giving me and extra 45 minutes to get stuff done.

Service is so important in a family. I love feeling like we are in sync and in this parenting thing together.

Staycation

I've always been a big fan of spontaniety. When our friends the Huber's called and invited us at the last minute to go with them to a local waterpark and ski resort we jumped at the chance to go. It meant missing some fun things like a cooking class, shopping with friends and most importantly the school valentine parties, but opportunities for fun family memories are hard to pass up. We made last minute arrangements and headed off to one of our favorite ski resorts. We arrived on Thursday afternoon and had time to hit the waterpark for a couple of hours before it closed. We had the place mostly to ourselves and I marveled at the fact that all my kids are independent. We had a great time sliding down the slides and trying the surf machine. We headed to our hotel room at 7:00, had dinner, watched a movie and went to bed. We missed Eli who stayed behind with Jason's parents. He broke his collarbone skiing three weeks earlier so opted out of sitting at the lodge all day.

Friday morning we were able to sleep in a bit which is a big change for us. We felt so spoiled waking up, eating and leisurely making our way to the lifts. We had a near perfect day of skiing. The weather was beyond gorgeous. Sunny and warm all day long. We skiied all morning as a family which was fun since Emma and Jonah have been skiing with their ski classes all winter. In the afternoon the Huber's joined us and Jonah was in heaven having their two boys to ski with. We headed down a bit early so we could hit the waterpark again. We were there for several hours and the kids still hadn't had enough.

We returned home Friday night and ended the weekend with a fun Saturday Valentine's day. We woke up and had our traditional sweetheart breakfast. I think we have started a new President's Day weekend tradition.

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

The Good

Jason's mom, who truly is the best, took Lily all morning for a special date at Grandma's. Jack had school starting at 9:15 so I had the whole day to myself. I spent all day cleaning, doing laundry and trying to recover from my routines being thrown off with no school on Monday. I got so much done and feel back on track. I was feeling just a bit down in the dumps. Must be the mid-february slump.

The Bad
All the kids missed the bus this morning. It was so foggy that we couldn't see the stop and today was late start and I'm never quite sure what time the bus comes on these days. It didn't help that we didn't make lunches last night, had to dig through laundry for clean underwear, sign last minute forms, pack backpacks, etc. None of that got done because I sent everyone to bed, (including myself), last night after one of the children spilled a 12 ounce glass of chocolate milk, with lots of extra syrup I might add, all over the living room floor. It was so chocolatey and dark and left the BIGGEST brown stain. (By the way, we never drink chocolate milk but someone found some Hershey's syrup in the fridge and thought it would be fun to make and of course they were supposed to be brushing teeth and snuggling into bed at the time).

The Ugly
That would be me losing my temper over the chocolate milk spill. By bedtime I had completely lost all patience, and believe me I had been exercising it all day. Of course after the little children were snugly tucked in their beds, adorable as could be, I had such regret for what I had done. Today was better. Thank goodness for forgiving children and the chance to do better.

An Apology

As a parent I am constantly messing up and I am a firm believer that if I can humble myself and apologize to my kids it will hopefully make a difference. This morning a big apology was in order. Jonah is a great kid. He is easygoing, conscientious and basically a huge blessing and help to our family. This morning he had a 7:30 am piano lesson. He was up, showered and ready to go, as he always is. We rushed out the door and headed down the road when he realized he forgot his piano books. Instead of laughing with him and turning the car around I proceeded to overreact and lecture him on the benefits of being prepared and not being distracted as he leaves the house. We turned around and got the books and headed back to piano, now arriving 10 minutes late. I usually do a portion of my grocery shopping while he and Eli are in their lessons. I drove all the way to the store and grabbed my list, ready to power shop. Imagine my shock when I realized I didn't have my purse. It was sitting on the counter where I had left it the night before. I felt terrible that I gave Jonah such a hard time when I had unknowingly made the same mistake. I went back and got Jonah and apologized to him for overreacting to him earlier.

Diapers In My Temple Bag

We went to the temple on Saturday night. It wasn't easy to get there but we made it and it was one of those experiences that I'm glad I didn't miss. I can remember moving here 10 years ago and within months the announcement came in general conference that a temple would be built. We were so excited and watched the temple go up, attended the dedication and then attended many times over the years.

As I opened my temple bag on Saturday night I saw nestled in with my temple clothes two size 3 diapers. They have been in my bag since June 2004. I put them there the day we went to the temple to have Lily sealed to our family. They were there just in case she needed a diaper change and I haven't had the heart to remove them from my bag. They serve as a very visual reminder of a day I never want to forget, when heaven seemed within my grasp. When we walked in the sealing room there were our children, all dressed in white, looking like little angels. Lily became, what she always had been, a member of our family forever. The experience was repeated in 2006 when we returned to the temple again as a family, this time for Jack.

Saturday night we were surrounded by friends in the temple. It was a stake temple day so we were there with people we know but don't always see very often. There were several people in attendance that Jason has known his whole life. I was humbled by all the great people that surrounded us and the influence they have been on our lives. We are all tied together in one way or another and when we remember this we can also remember who we are. I'm grateful for two little diapers that remind me of this.