catching up

Sep 9, 2012

Yes, it has been a week since I have posted. No time. Not a second to pound out a post. So, now I will catch you up on the happenings of my life.

Sunday:

Church services were wonderful, the Spirit was strong, our ward felt unified, and I tried to share the love of Jesus with my ward members. Then we had Grandma’s birthday party that night. I read stories from her life and shared her testimony of Jesus with our children. Then we ate some delicious rice pudding…recipe coming!

Monday:

We went to Bear Lake for our almost annual sand and swim adventure. We kayaked, played volleyball, built a huge sandcastle, ate lots of food, swam to the bouys, got sunburned, hunted for frogs (and brought said frogs home), and had a wonderful time with my extended family.

Tuesday:

I realized that iFamily was beginning in less than 24 hours so I hurriedly put all the last minute stuff together for my two classes and all my board duties. Then, I started a new learning adventure for ME! I am taking a class from the Ten Boom Institute and Tuesday was our first conference call. Ahhh, it fed my soul! My brain and my heart were challenged and renewed. The best part of all? My dear friend, Heather Burton, is also in the class with me. It was a complete surprise to hear her voice and I admit, I shrieked a passionate hello and frightened all the other class members.

Wednesday:

FIRST DAY OF IFAMILY!!! Yes, I am screaming. It was such a splendiforous day! All the classes went well, children made friends, moms made friends, hearts connected, smiles were shared, and all the Boards’ hard work paid off. My two classes, Hullabaloo and Further Up and Further In, went well. Hullabaloo is going to be a blast. I have 25 children I get to teach new games to each week. This week we learned Cat & Mouse, Crossing the Brook, and Drop the Handkerchief. We had so much fun running around in the sun!

Wednesday evening Blythe’s lifelong dream to take ballet came true as she and Keziah started dancing in their pink tights and black leotards. A woman from iFamily has a ballet studio in her home less than one mile from our home and started a Beginning Teen class after months of my begging and pleading got through to her heart. Blythe danced and smiled and danced and smiled and danced. She has such good form that part of me wishes I had allowed her to do ballet years ago, but it never felt right and now it does, so I am going to try to make peace with the choices of the past. Keziah doesn’t love it the same way Blythe does, but I enrolled her because I think it will give her a good workout, grow some muscles which will help her running, improve her posture, and be challenging in a good, supportive way. She needs to be challenged by someone other than me. So many things come easy for her that when things are hard she sometimes stops trying. It is a trait I share with her and one I don’t feel is serving her well, so this is a small way of rooting it out.

Thursday:

EEEEEEKKKK was how I felt Thursday morning when I realized gymnastics was starting the next day and I had a gazillion things to do to get ready for it. The children read and studied and built things around me while I got everything ready for our first day at gym. It was sooooo long. But it was worth it because gym went really well on Friday. Thursday night we had our adult book discussion at our home on Kisses From Katie. Let me shout it out. READ THIS BOOK. Today. Read it and let your heart be moved to follow Christ with all your being. I love Katie. I love what she has taught me and shown me and given me. I love her example of loving Jesus.

Friday:

First day of gym. Wowsers, was it busy and hard and busy and wonderful and busy and pretty much exhausting. I vowed I would not DO anything. That I would direct and guide, but not move or jump or roll. Five minutes into the first class I broke my promises. I ran and jumped and rolled like a pro. I enjoyed myself thoroughly. It was so, so healing to my soul to be back in the gym with my students and to be able to DO things. For my body to work. And then, I hurt. By the fourth class I was limping and stopped jumping and rolling. My entire hip area was on fire and the pain radiated across my back and frightened the daylights out of me. I felt as if I had stepped back in time five months to when my back ached so terribly I couldn’t move faster than turtle pace. So I made it through the last couple of classes by having my assistants do everything and the pain settled down quite a bit. A few hours later it returned with a vengeance and I spent the evening lying on Jessica’s couch with an ice pack on my hip. Our friend, Jessica C., from Colorado, was here visiting Jess and I, and we ate pizza and laughed and caught up on each other’s lives while the children played Knights and Prisoner and Legos and chased goats for hours on end. Fun times.

Saturday:

Oh my. What a long, busy, wonderful, and awful day. I need to share my thoughts about it in a separate post, but for now I will give you the highlights.

Farmer’s Market for the first time of the year…and last year as well. What used to be a weekly occurrence has become a biennial event. How did that happen? Oh yes, we have been in survival mode for the past 18 months. We bought some of our favorite tortillas, some corn on the cob, and some yummy dipping sauces and sampled fudge, chicken sausages, and bread. The kids found some awesome stuffed lizards and dragons made by the cutest little Asian woman, but they had no money so they just had to window shop (booth-shop?).

Dress shopping for Blythe for her upcoming date..huge success, beautiful gown, and lots of fun.

Huckleberry Ice Cream and playing in Fairyland…another former weekly occurrence that hasn’t happened since 2010.

Temple trip for me. No words for how wonderful it was.

Symphony in the park…great music, great friends, so nice to lie in the shade and listen to our amazing orchestra put on a rip-roaring show.

Children fighting, arguing, whining, complaining, yelling, blaming, and hurting one another…did me in. Last night I went to bed and told Richard I was done with mothering. I was obviously completely failing and I was done trying when the results were oh, so awful. Awful nightmares all night long, broken heart, and no hope.

Sunday:

I am ready to try again at this whole mothering thing, but have come to some new realizations about what I need to do. More later.