He's home!

 It's been a week! Josh has been away for work for the last two weeks but he came home last night and it is so wonderful to have him back. Two weeks was kind of a long time but he had a successful trip and made good use of his time. Last week was pretty normal other than him being gone. Piano lessons, band rehearsals, church activities, play rehearsal, basketball, and trip planning. I made copies at school one morning and did a lot of driving back and forth to dance. 

Saturday I took Brandon to basketball and Lily to dance and then Brandon and I went to Curtis's game later that afternoon. A cold has been going through our family and so there has been a lot of coughing and stuffy noses so I agreed to let the girls stay home and rest. It wasn't Curtis's best game but he did all right and his team won. That evening I went to the adult session of stake conference and it was wonderful. Our buddy Sam spoke and Sister Flake's talk on the power of covenants was so real and powerful and then I loved President Boyd's talk about loving people for who they are, not judging others or criticizing. He led a good discussion and showed some good videos and it struck me. He talked about how Satan wants to create discord and we can't let him. I have felt that the past few years and miss the unity I used to feel at church, but it is coming back. I feel like I have let go of some things that were making it hard for me to interact with some people and for the most part, I feel at peace with my relationships at church, but there is always room to do better and I felt my heart pricked that night. 

Sunday was the general session and it was really good too. President Boyd spoke again about the power of knowing the scriptures and even having them memorized and he shared lots of great examples from his life of how the scriptures have helped him. Then the kids and I hung out and I talked to my mom and then we went over to the Rays for dinner with the Ainas and it was lovely. I enjoyed the company and not having to cook and I was even super nice and by so doing Michelle won the game we played. So unlike me but she had just cooked me dinner. The kids enjoyed their friend time too and it was a lovely Sabbath day. 

Every day I kept telling myself I just had to make it to Friday. I really dislike getting up early and it was a struggle each day. Normally I have a week on and a week off since we take turns driving Lily to seminary with the Porters but with Josh gone I had to take Curtis to his bus stop so I still had to get up. I've been so tired all week I think with just the stress and weight of being the only parent around and no matter when I would go to bed, I would wake up feeling cruddy. So it has kind of been a long week but I made it! I got everyone where they needed to be, fed everyone (although we did have cereal for dinner last night), went to the gym and the grocery store and the house is even pretty clean. 

Wednesday Lily left for her Orlando/Disney adventure with the music program and is right now headed to the band workshop. She didn't sleep super well on the bus while they were driving Wednesday night but she had a great day yesterday in Magic Kingdom; she sent me lots of pictures and videos and I tried really hard not to be jealous. Emma also had her chorus concert and it was great. Lots of good songs and they sounded good and it was 25 minutes. Emma loves to sing and it was fun to see her so joyful. Then Missy was so nice and took Curtis to church for me and even brought him home. It was so kind of her and I really appreciated it. 

 

Yesterday Michelle and I went to the temple and it was so wonderful. I am incredibly grateful that I have a buddy to go with and that we get to go so often. It has been a great blessing to me in many ways. It is always so beautiful to be in the temple and I've been doing more studying in between our visits about some gospel principles. Yesterday I was worried about coughing a lot because now I have this annoying cough but between my cough drops and water, I did okay. I feel connected to God there and I had a powerful moment in the celestial room and then just really enjoyed talking with Michelle there and back. We made great time too so I got back in time to pick Curtis up and I was so proud of us both for making it through a tough week so I took him to Sonic to get french toast sticks and a milkshake and that was fun. He is a good boy and told me he loved me and we had a nice moment. I had a headache the rest of the afternoon from all the coughing so I read my book and took Curtis to practice and then we had cereal for dinner at 7:30 pm. Josh got home about 9pm and everyone was so happy to see him. I am excited for a pretty chill weekend.