10/29/23

School Halloween carnival, School orchestra concert (Lucy), Lucy's last soccer game, and Anne's first school dance this week! Lots of fall fun! I filled in the water pipe hole we dug, mowed one last time and had the kids help me clean out the garden before our temps dropped 30 degrees! Dad met with a podiatrist this week about his 4th of July ankle, where they scheduled surgery for his long-stretched-out tendon and chipped bone. We had a killer date night Friday--getting to hear an Orchestra at Temple Square concert Friday night after a dreamy dinner at a delicious Afghan restaurant. Great food, music, and time together, and THEN they handed out tickets to the Tabernacle Christmas Concert at the end!! Lucy, Seth and I went to his friend Ryan's baptism yesterday morning, which was so tender, and we got to host Anne's 12 person dance group. Lots of moms were so sweet to pitchen in & they ate (copycat) Cafe Rio dinner, played CRAZY games, including America's Got Talent & the TikTok (table pounding, feet stomping) marshmallow game (Seth was in Heaven, and Brent wished they could respect baby bedtime!). They were SO FUN, and made my day breaking into singing "Country Roads" every few minutes. I've been grateful for repentance this week--I feel like I've wished for do-overs almost daily--getting huffy with the ENT making us wait an hour, making Jane go with my idea of doing her hair when she wasn't unloading fast enough, hissing at Seth to not run a racecar up and down the piano while I was playing at the baptism and other such dumb moments losing patience with things that don't matter. It's relieving to know we're here to keep becoming. And I've appreciated trying to do better at accepting mistakes and weaknesses as part of the growth proceses instead of using them as a bludgeon on myself. This quote from Elder Holland: "Please remember this: faith trusts that God has great things in store for each of us and that Christ truly is the 'high priest of good things to come.' (Heb 9:11) I loved reading in Alma 8 this week about Alma when he was feeling weighed down with failure, how an angel came, not JUST to tell him what was next, but FIRST to remind him of what things he was doing well with. Seth is always great at remembering what he is good at--and he told me after Ryan's baptism when we were talking about feeling the Spirit. First, he said "That's what Jesus feels like Mom." Yup, I think so Seth. Then he said, "Mom, you know my rocker songs? They feel like Jesus!" He has been shopping for an electric guitar all week, haha! Well, if we made you miss fall with all of our refreshing weather, we're definitely missing warmth now with highs in the 40's!! Love you, love you! Mom