This is long and you may not be interested, but here it is...
1. Indulge My idea of a perfect day could be any number of scenarios. Friday was one of them. My amazing and perceptive sis-in-law, Elaine, came in the morning and gave me the day off. What do you do with a day all to yourself? The possibilities are endless! I had so much fun and treasured every moment of my alone time. I got a haircut from the amazing stylist Erin. Then I went shopping at the mall and tried on lots of stuff without a stroller in my dressing room. I went to the school and did Aaron's class's fun Friday. This is their reward at the end of the week for no missing assignments and I had signed up to do it this time. We did three legged races and wheelbarrow races. The catch was they had to do the races with a big marshmallow in their mouths and not chew it until the race was over. They loved it! Thanks for the idea Rich and Heather! After the school, I went and got a facial. I've never had one before now. It was sooooooo relaxing and my skin loved it! After my facial I did some more shopping. When I got home, we got in the car and went to a BBQ. It was at my friend Kristin's house (some of you may know her as Kristin Jex!) . It was so fun to see everyone and visit. Kristin was a fabulous hostess and we had such a good time. Thanks babe! So that's what I did with my day off. It means so much to me that Elaine would come and spend her day off of work to give me a day off. Her time is so valuable, I just can't express my gratitude adequately. Thanks, Laney.
Another thought on my day of Biffy - I had twinges of guilt during the day for doing all of these selfish things. I know all of the reasonings about how you should take time for yourself, blah, blah, and I believe in them. But this day off kind of came out of the blue and I didn't really feel like I had done anything to merit such an indulgent day. Of course I wasn't about to turn it down, but still....I kept having to swallow my feelings of selfishness. Go figure.
2. Struggle This morning (Saturday), Aaron had his first swim meet. He was extremely nervous before he got there. Greg took him early for warm ups and such. When I got there you never would have known Aaron had been nervous before. He was so cute. He had his heats written on his arm (thanks to his genius father, Greg) and was so responsible! I couldn't believe how he kept track of when it was his turn and went down and got himself ready without an adult right there telling him what to do! His first heat was the 50M backstroke and he finished it great. He was the youngest (therefore, slowest) racer and I am so proud of him for going out there - he was having fun. A while later he swam the 50M breast stroke. He got down to one end of the pool, turned, and went about a third of the way. He struggled. He stopped and grabbed the lane rope. He simply ran out of gas. We were cheering him on. He told me tonight that he felt like his chest would explode. By this time he was the only one left swimming. He stalled again and the whole crowd erupted, cheering him on. I cheered through tears as I watched my little boy struggle hand over hand with the ropes just to get to the end of the pool. Everyone cheered so loud for him as he reached the edge. It was heartbreaking to watch and he was very shaken. Greg went down immediately to be with him. We have talked a lot today about doing your best and just trying to get better every time. This was a hard experience for him and for us as parents. Hopefully we'll all learn from it.
3. Daydream Kate, Holly, and Arianne (cutie-pie neighbor) spent the entire afternoon making fairy houses on the north side of the house today. They made them out of leaves, flowers, rocks, and sticks. The houses are for the fairies to live in when winter comes. I love to see my kids get swept away in imagination. At one point, Arianne said, "Well, where are these fairies, anyway?" To which Holly replied, "They'll only come to their houses at night when it's dark, of course." Arianne's response, "Those fairies are sneaky little things, huh?" Shauna (the cutie-pie neighbor's mom) took these pictures. If you enlarge them, you can see the paper clothes they made for the fairies.
4. Partake I just got back from the Relief Society general broadcast. I am so grateful I went. I feel so uplifted and motivated by the speakers. I am declaring this next week of my blog the Week of Spiritual Boosts. There were so many things that struck me tonight and I want to share them all. For now, I will leave you with a thought (not verbatim) that President Uchtdorf said (and he was quoting Peter Pan :). "If you scatter sunshine, you can't help but get some on yourself." How genius is that?
ps. If you know my friend Kristin, did you see her singing at the broadcast? She was in the choir and it showed her for a while during the first song. Awesome! We were with her last night and she never mentioned she was singing tonight. She looked like an angel!
1. Indulge My idea of a perfect day could be any number of scenarios. Friday was one of them. My amazing and perceptive sis-in-law, Elaine, came in the morning and gave me the day off. What do you do with a day all to yourself? The possibilities are endless! I had so much fun and treasured every moment of my alone time. I got a haircut from the amazing stylist Erin. Then I went shopping at the mall and tried on lots of stuff without a stroller in my dressing room. I went to the school and did Aaron's class's fun Friday. This is their reward at the end of the week for no missing assignments and I had signed up to do it this time. We did three legged races and wheelbarrow races. The catch was they had to do the races with a big marshmallow in their mouths and not chew it until the race was over. They loved it! Thanks for the idea Rich and Heather! After the school, I went and got a facial. I've never had one before now. It was sooooooo relaxing and my skin loved it! After my facial I did some more shopping. When I got home, we got in the car and went to a BBQ. It was at my friend Kristin's house (some of you may know her as Kristin Jex!) . It was so fun to see everyone and visit. Kristin was a fabulous hostess and we had such a good time. Thanks babe! So that's what I did with my day off. It means so much to me that Elaine would come and spend her day off of work to give me a day off. Her time is so valuable, I just can't express my gratitude adequately. Thanks, Laney.
Another thought on my day of Biffy - I had twinges of guilt during the day for doing all of these selfish things. I know all of the reasonings about how you should take time for yourself, blah, blah, and I believe in them. But this day off kind of came out of the blue and I didn't really feel like I had done anything to merit such an indulgent day. Of course I wasn't about to turn it down, but still....I kept having to swallow my feelings of selfishness. Go figure.
2. Struggle This morning (Saturday), Aaron had his first swim meet. He was extremely nervous before he got there. Greg took him early for warm ups and such. When I got there you never would have known Aaron had been nervous before. He was so cute. He had his heats written on his arm (thanks to his genius father, Greg) and was so responsible! I couldn't believe how he kept track of when it was his turn and went down and got himself ready without an adult right there telling him what to do! His first heat was the 50M backstroke and he finished it great. He was the youngest (therefore, slowest) racer and I am so proud of him for going out there - he was having fun. A while later he swam the 50M breast stroke. He got down to one end of the pool, turned, and went about a third of the way. He struggled. He stopped and grabbed the lane rope. He simply ran out of gas. We were cheering him on. He told me tonight that he felt like his chest would explode. By this time he was the only one left swimming. He stalled again and the whole crowd erupted, cheering him on. I cheered through tears as I watched my little boy struggle hand over hand with the ropes just to get to the end of the pool. Everyone cheered so loud for him as he reached the edge. It was heartbreaking to watch and he was very shaken. Greg went down immediately to be with him. We have talked a lot today about doing your best and just trying to get better every time. This was a hard experience for him and for us as parents. Hopefully we'll all learn from it.
3. Daydream Kate, Holly, and Arianne (cutie-pie neighbor) spent the entire afternoon making fairy houses on the north side of the house today. They made them out of leaves, flowers, rocks, and sticks. The houses are for the fairies to live in when winter comes. I love to see my kids get swept away in imagination. At one point, Arianne said, "Well, where are these fairies, anyway?" To which Holly replied, "They'll only come to their houses at night when it's dark, of course." Arianne's response, "Those fairies are sneaky little things, huh?" Shauna (the cutie-pie neighbor's mom) took these pictures. If you enlarge them, you can see the paper clothes they made for the fairies.
4. Partake I just got back from the Relief Society general broadcast. I am so grateful I went. I feel so uplifted and motivated by the speakers. I am declaring this next week of my blog the Week of Spiritual Boosts. There were so many things that struck me tonight and I want to share them all. For now, I will leave you with a thought (not verbatim) that President Uchtdorf said (and he was quoting Peter Pan :). "If you scatter sunshine, you can't help but get some on yourself." How genius is that?
ps. If you know my friend Kristin, did you see her singing at the broadcast? She was in the choir and it showed her for a while during the first song. Awesome! We were with her last night and she never mentioned she was singing tonight. She looked like an angel!
5 comments:
Sounds like a very eventful weekend! That's awesome Kristin was in the chior.
Biffy, there are things kristin didn't mention to us at all! Did you know she decorates homes for "parade of homes?" My sister told me that. Kristin is an amazing woman! It was so great seeing her on Friday night.
You looked absolutely gorgeous
on Friday night by the way! Where did you get your facial? You must have a very sweet sister in law.
JAlso, congrats to Aaron. That's a big thing for someone that age!
What a wonderful blog post! LOVED your fun day off. What a treat! LOVED the story of Aaron's swim meet. So many sweet life lessons. LOVED the fairy houses. I can TOTALLY see my girls doing that. They are busy doing some sort of imaginary play right now. LOVED the broadcast. I've been listening to it again this morning. Can't wait for all your insights this week. You rock!
i liked this post. glad you could have a day off. and i completely understand the guilt thing. i feel bad for being gone for 2 and half hours just to get my hair done. i'm glad aaron did his very best and that the crowd was behind him. kate looks like a model and i liked the fairy houses.
Hey! Next time your girls and Arianne are outside playing, call me and I'll bring Kaela over to play... if that's ok. She would L O V E it to have some fun girls to play with.
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