No Rainy Day Blues...

If you haven't been on a walk in the rain with a four-year-old lately, I highly recommend it. Umbrellas are optional. Splashing in the puddles is not.

Fashion Sense

Black ballerina dress - (free from cousin Addie), pink tutu (Walmart -$10), white gloves (mmmm? Not sure), pink princess shoes (Walmart $3), Princess backpack (c/o Grandma Budge)

White summer hat (c/o Aunt Julie), heart swimming suit (c/o Cousin Addie), pink tutu (used to be Mom's) Purple top (gift from Trevor's co-worker in India)

A friend of mine used to joke with me that you knew you had given up on life when you started wearing sweats to go grocery shopping. I haven't resorted to that yet (after all, why would you wear sweats, when you can wear yoga pants), but after two years of pregnancy, breastfeeding, and basically putting of any major clothing shopping, things in my closet were starting to look kind of shabby (and definitely not shabby chic).

So, with spring in full bloom, I decided it was time to replenish, my dwindling wardrobe. I am by no means a fashion expert, but I can't explain how much better I feel about myself when I have a fresh t-shirt and a new pair of flip-flops. It's the little things right?

I used to spend a good chunk of my hard-earned teaching money on clothing and on looking professional. I started teaching when I was 22, and I felt I had to dress up so that I wouldn't look like a high-school student sneaking over to the junior high school (as a student-teacher at Sky View High School I had been sent "back to class" by one unknowing teacher). When I quit teaching, I slowly sorted through the dress pants, the skirts, the collared shirts blouses and after four years as a stay-at-home Mom, I have given all but a few pieces away. The bulk of my wardrobe now consists of jeans, shorts and t-shirts.

I like the casual dress-code of motherhood. It is fitting to dress down for diaper changing, training toddlers to self-feed, and playing at the park. But there is something about putting on a skirt, a bracelet, and a fresh coat of lip-gloss once in a while. Just because I'm casual, doesn't mean that I have to wear sweats.

Floating over clouds

I didn't fly on an airplane until I was twenty years old. It was a day of anticipation, and excitement. I savored the newness of that day. Watching the world below. Sitting and chatting with a stranger. Seeing the comings and goings of so many people and dreaming of my destination.

I've flown many times since that day, until the energy and buzz of the airport has become ordinary. Second-hand. But today was different. In spite of several flights Katelin has taken before, she absorbed each moment of the day -- observing, watching, wondering.

I want to remember her enthusiasm. To memorize her face and her words.

"Is this our plane?"

"I think we're flying."

"This is so fun."

I want to remember the way she studied and asked about the safety information packet. The way she waited anxiously for each snack, each drink. The way she enjoyed her special pillow and blanket. The way she said, "Blast off!" when plane started to rise.

I enjoyed the day with her. We watched through the small airplane window as the cars below grew smaller and smaller. We talked about flying through clouds and then we gazed in delight at the piles of puffy white stretching below us. I felt, just a little, like I was flying for the first time.

Interestingly, Seth actually was.

Three Billy Goats

Katelin playing The Three Billy Goats Gruff at the Park

"Katelin, can you be quiet while I am on the phone? I need to call Mary's mom."

"You mean Jesus' mom?"

****

After a lot of hammering and noises in the apartment upstairs Katelin said, "I hear the three billy goats... but there's no troll."

Have Miracles Ceased?

Sleeping Soundly at Two Months

Today is a red letter day! A red letter day is a day SO SIGNIFANT... SO IMPORTANT--- that you write about it in your journal using red ink. Grandma Winward used to send us the "Red Letter Letter" yearly. It gave us a list of all of the big family events of the year -- new babies, marriages, baptisms, ordinations, and so on. Consider the fact that she had twelve children, sixty five grandchildren, and as a result, oodles of great-grandchildren and posterity in general and you start to understand what an undertaking the "Red Letter Letter" might have been. I miss the Red Letter Letter and my Grandma for that matter, but back to the point.

Why the red letter day today? Today, my children, went into the same bedroom, at the same time, laid down in their beds and, without any noise, or crying, or complaining, they eased themselves off to dreamland... simultaneously.

ISN'T THAT JUST AMAZING!!

Now maybe my red letter day wouldn't have made it to Grandma's cut, okay it definitely wouldn't have made it. After all, she did have oodles of posterity and had to keep red letter days to a minimum - otherwise everything would have been written in red ink. But considering my limited posterity - Katelin and Seth - I think I can include this. Let me explain why.

Today's red letter day comes after weeks of begging, pleading and crying in attempts to keep my sweet three year old in her bed after bed-time. It comes after months of trying to "teach" my baby how to sleep through the night, self-soothe, and usually, waking up with him several times through the night as a result.

It comes after experiencing sibling rivalry, jealousy, and outright meanness at bedtime.

And it comes after a lot of prayers for the health of our children, and for my sanity as a mother.

To some this may be insignificant, and I don't expect all days to go so smoothly, but it seems to me that someone is listening to my prayers. He answers on the small things. He answers on the big things. And there is nothing insignificant about that.

Note: See Moroni 7 for more on miracles.