There is no photo documented proof, but today was a great day.
The kids did fantastic at their yearly primary performance. Byron, who would rather eat a worm than speak in front of an audience said his memorized lines slowly and deliberately. His part even included a scripture this year, and I know his heart sank when he saw how long it was...but he did it! He also had a seat in front on the raisers. The boy who doesn't like groups of people looking at him sang, and did sign language up front and center. Miriam had a solo in I Stand All Amazed which was beautiful! I was so proud of her. I love her sweet voice and the beautiful confident way she holds her self, but what I am most proud of is how hard she worked on that song! She worked hard....sang the song a million times and it payed off.
And Soren....poor little Soren who loves to speak in the microphone, and sings his heart out in primary every week had a bad case of Hand Food and Mouth. The fever and sore throat are long gone but the sores are still healing up so he stayed with Dad, Grandmas and Grandpas and watched. He sang the songs from his seat and was a good sport about it all. It certainly helped that there were gifts given....hot wheel cars, dry erase board, and halloween books, Grandparents are awesome.
We had a fun dinner with Grandparents afterwards. Darin helped me with the cooking so it was all so easy and seamless. Damon and Gwen stopped by for peach cobbler and some visiting. After everyone left Darin and I took a glorious nap.....can a Sunday get any better than that?
I mean seriously....
The day before though.....whew it was a rough one. Worry + stress + anxiety (add some hormones in there for good measure) makes for some nit picking/sarcastic/sensitive discussions around these parts. Long story short, I ended the day in tears and was reminded once again that it's best to keep things simple and let go of the things you have no control over (ie...buy the dessert for Girls Camp fireside, stop worrying about daughters solo, sons anxiety, and other sons disappointment/sickness). I just really don't like sadness and disappointment and other dark cloud feelings. I badly want to control the environment so my kids won't feel those pesky emotions. It's a useless desire. Amidst all those worry for others feelings the biggest and scariest one of all is that I myself am not doing enough, that I am not a good enough mom/cook/teacher/ and that if my kids make mistakes it is my fault. Once I could let go of the control (with much help from Darin) I never had in the first place it was so much easier to enjoy the day.
And then miracles of miracles, the day turned out wonderful!
School is in full swing now. Weekly spelling tests, reading minuets, starting on science fair, there is not much of a warm up! It's good though, I enjoy the rhythm and focus school brings to our lives. I am serving as Byron's class room mom. It's something I kind of fell into half-heartedly, but I really like having lots of communication with his teacher. If you ask Byron what he likes about school he will say #1 recess, #2 lunch, #3 sometimes they get snacks, not a glowing report but, he goes happily off to school and hasn't complained about anything. We will call that a win. He is a bright kid. Miriam loves school, loves her teacher, loves her friends. She still has super duper test anxiety but she preforms well through it, I just wish it didn't cause so much worry in her. She comes by that worry honestly though, at least she has very understanding parents.
So now it's just Soren and I all day long. What in the world do we do with ourselves, especially because it feels like we are the only people in the world who don't send our kids to pre-school. I won't say it's always a piece of cake, but we keep busy. A good illustration of what our days are like could be summed up in what Soren said to me today when I told him to go wait for the kids on the porch "But Mom, nothing is fun by yourself". He plays by himself fairly well...but in whatever room I happen to be in. He also wants to give me a constant commentary of what he is doing. It's very reminiscent of my days alone with Miriam.
It's getting easier as we get a rhythm to our days as well. He has his Rusty and Rosie school time every morning, Tuesdays we exercise at the church, I teach every other week and Soren runs around the stage with the other kids who show up. We might start going MWF as well....although we haven't made it yet. We are starting up a park lunch playgroup on Thursdays, Wednesdays are story time at the library and shopping, sometimes we meet friends for adventures on Fridays.
And there are lots of fun Fall chores to be done this time of year.....
My father-in-law brought us another load of apples, pears, and peaches so we will be doing some more peeling, slicing, stewing, baking in the coming weeks!
