A Weekend of Little Things

I complain WAY too much.  I'm usually feeling overwhelmed at the activity level of my children and often find myself being less nice and less patient than I would like to be.  However, this weekend was different.  I don't think my children listened any better or fought any less than the day before, so maybe my prayers for patience were answered.

Saturday I didn't get out of bed until about 9.  (Well, I'm sure I was up for a few moments several times, but I wasn't up for the day until 9 ish.)  Let me tell you that I was GRUUUUMPY.  I find that sometimes I am more tired after more sleep, for whatever reason.  Instead of letting my mood get in my way, I got the boys ready and we went for a bike ride.  I am THRILLED with my new bike and trailer.


We biked to the park.  Luke actually went at a speed that didn't require my feet to scoot me along the sidewalk.  Up until yesterday if I stayed on my bike following him at a snails pace, my bike would have fallen over.  He is getting much faster!  After the boys were pushed on the swings for what seemed like FOREVER and I thought for the millionth time that there should be a law against swings in playgrounds (because they require work for the parent) they went to play in the sand.  As I watched them play, I decided to take a swing myself.

While I was flying through the sky, I took in everything.  The intense blue of the sky, the smoky white clouds moving by, gorgeous green leaves from the mature trees framing the scene. I savored the intense swooshing sound that the air made in my ears.  That same air blowing through  my hair.  The metal chain felt hard in my hands as I clenched around it and my biceps began to feel a bit weak as time went on because of their use.

On that swing I watched my three young boys, feeling so grateful for their presence in my life.  They truly are my joy and I don't express that to them enough.   They watched me and were excited to see how high their mother was in the sky.  Later, Jackson wanted to have a swinging race.  He wanted to see who could go higher.  I believe I won, but he would tell you otherwise.  While we were swinging I asked him to take a moment to really think about how his body was feeling.  I reminded him how grateful we should be that we can even swing and feel such thrilling sensations...so many others are not as blessed.  We talked about the beauty of the earth that we could see from the swing and how much our Father in Heaven must love us to have created it for us.

I made us slow down when I thoroughly believed that the poles were loosening from the ground.  He said that we would wrap around the top of the swing before that happened.  I don't really think either option was in our future, but it was fun.  Luke asked for a few more pushes and I obliged.  I asked him to look up while he swung and he squealed when he looked into the sky from his new perspective.  I love that he noticed seeing the world in a different way.

After we biked home, I asked if they would like to keep going and we rode around the neighborhood.  Grant fell asleep in the trailer.  That was a thrill for me, especially because I was able to put him into his crib and he stayed asleep!

Today, I got to teach the 3-11 year old children at church.  I love to give lessons for them.  They teach me so much and I often get to bear my testimony of gospel principles that I truly believe.  Today's topic was having His image in our countenance and how the Holy Spirit shows on the outside when we are living the right way.  We took a moment to put our hands over our hearts to remind us that the Holy Ghost speaks to our hearts, helping us to feel truth and comfort and joy.   With my hand over my heart, I knew that what I was saying was true.

I was asked to speak at a baptism tonight for one of the children.  He holds a special place in my heart as I spent my first year in Michigan being his buddy while at church.  He has Autism and has grown so much in the last few years.  Immediately, after we sang the opening song I heard him turn to his mother and ask (because of the lyrics to the song), "so after I get baptized I can live with God and Jesus forever?"  I knew that he "got it" and felt so privileged to have worked with him for so long.

Tonight the boys just played and Jackson did some reading for us.  They cleaned all of the toys out of the backyard.  Jackson and Grant gave up before it was finished but Luke came running in to me while I was cooking dinner.  Over and over again he asked me to go look at the yard.  (Glancing out the window was not sufficient.)  I would get out there and say it looked great, but then he would see one more toy and run off to get it.  Each time I went back to my cooking and he would return with an enormous grin, so proud of himself.  I love that he wants to do a good job for me.  His sweet little smile makes my heart skip a beat.

And, that was my weekend.  It was also mixed with grocery shopping and preparing for teaching and coercing a VERY rambunctious two year old into letting me change him into pj's.  It wasn't a glamorous weekend by any stretch of the imagination, but it was joyful and glamorous to me, and that's what counts.

So I will continue to work on lessening my complaining ways and see the greatness all around me, because it is there...everywhere I turn.