Mother's Day

 Today I am especially grateful for my mom. She is someone who loves to serve others and is willing to do whatever she can to make other people feel loved and happy. She is spunky and fun and a great cook. She has taught me to make delicious bread and cinnamon rolls and I'm still working on pies. She has a strong testimony and taught us the gospel through regular family nights and her example. When I was little she was always in charge of large missionary conference lunches or special dinners for visiting general authorities (one time she even asked Sister Hinckley to help with the dishes before she realized who she was!) or ward Christmas parties. She also taught seminary for many years and has been a missionary in Hong Kong, served in a prison running meetings with the inmates and supported my dad as a bishop, stake president and Hill Cumorah Pageant president for many years. She is wonderful and I'm so thankful for all she has taught me about womanhood and motherhood as well as being a disciple of Jesus Christ.

My mother-in-law is also a wonderful lady who is kind and whimsical (her favorite word) and she raised the best man I know so I give her a lot of credit. She is a super fun Nana and she has never criticized me or made me feel insufficient in my motherly duties. I'm grateful for her and her very positive influence in our lives. 

I am also grateful to be a mother and to have four wonderful, capable, independent and good-hearted children. It is such a blessing and I have felt especially grateful for my kids this week as they have performed in all their activities. They work hard and are talented and contribute good things to their classrooms and teams. 

It was another busy week but a good one. With my piano recital coming up in just a few weeks, I've really been pushing my students and most of them are in a good spot. I am most worried about Curtis because he picked a hard song but he assures me he can learn and memorize it in time. We'll see. Tuesday it rained so that cancelled our baseball game and practice so I was able to go to the RS activity and play bunco for an hour before getting Emma from dance and that was nice. Wednesday I went to the gym with Leisa and talked/shopped with her for an hour afterwards. We went to Curtis's band concert and he played well. He had track practice that afternoon and had been doing the high jump and apparently gotten a bad headache so he had a hard time playing his trumpet but I couldn't tell. The songs were fun and as soon as it was done we got him home and to bed with some Advil. I am glad my kids like to play music though; it makes me very happy and I think it will be a blessing to them their whole lives. 

 

Brandon had a game Thursday night and we all were able to go so we got Chick-Fil-A on the way. He hasn't been doing too much but I like all the other parents and it was fun to all be in the same place for an evening. Friday was a a virtual day so the big kids went to hang out with friends and do school work, the other two came to the library and strawberry picking with me. 23 pounds later we have lots of jam, have eaten a bunch, I froze five pounds and we still have more! They are so delicious though. We also got plants and flowers that we will need to put in the ground this week. 

 

Saturday I went with Lily to her dance recital. All of the little kids plus the tap numbers are in the recital and then the show (Peter Pan) is all the ballet, jazz and contemporary dances put together in a story. I volunteered to sell tickets and then watched her tap dance and she did such a good job. I was really proud of her and watching her dance brings me a lot of joy. I also got to hang with baby Benny for a bit before the show and I sent Lily a picture to make her jealous. :) Olivia was sweet and brought Brandon to his game so after the recital I met them there and got to watch the second half. Ralph took Curtis to his game in La Plata and then they met us at Brandon's too. I am so grateful for all of the help we have received this week. So many people have driven my kids around and it means a lot to me. We are in the home stretch! It gets tiring to ask but I'm thankful for people who say yes when I do ask. We had dinner at the Ainas that was so delicious and it was fun to chat with adults and have the kids occupied with friends for a bit. 

 

I don't love Mother's day but my kids were sneaky and worked with Sam to get me some beautiful flowers and Lily made an oreo pudding dessert and we got ice cream after church so it has been a nice day. We talked to my mom and mother-in-law and the kids all practiced the piano and played pretty nicely together. They sang We Are a Happy Family to me this morning when I went to wake them up; it was super cute. Love my kids and I love Josh so much; I wouldn't be any good at mothering without him as my companion.