A successful Sunday

Tonight as I read H "Froggy" books in his room (I can't stand Froggy books, by the way), Sweetie came in, sat beside me, and whispered an apology for throwing a slam-the-door fit after I made her have a princess toothbrush instead of an adult toothbrush (mean, mean mom!). I put my spare arm around her and pressed her head against my shoulder. My frustrated, angry attitude toward her changed instantly as I remembered what a sweet, kind girl she is. I think being a good mom--and being a good person, really--is all about that. Trying to hold onto the good in people and life. Trying to remember Sweetie's apology, her laughter, her offer to grate the cheese for dinner instead of her fits. I wish I knew the secret for always super-imposing the image of the contrite little girl, warm against my side, on top of the image of the lip-curling little girl with the angry eyes. I imagine the trick to doing so has everything to do with me and not much to do with her.

Today was a good Sunday (they aren't all good, especially with 1:00 church and no naps for H!).  Good, despite my being called as Primary president and experiencing again that new-calling, thrown-into-the-pool feeling. Sure, there were some glitches in our Sabbath--the toilets needing to be plunged thanks to H's fascination with the toilet (a fascination, remember, that has not extended to his actually going in the toilet). But dinner was an easy grilled pork tenderloin, green salad, twice-baked potatoes, and jello, so instead of standing in the kitchen for an hour, I played hide-and-go-seek with the kids, which is one of the games I actually enjoy. You'd think we'd run out of places to hide, but never underestimate my ability to fit into a tight spot :) We ate chocolate chip cookies and played kids' Yahtzee for family game night, which we followed with a "Tik Tok" dance off, due to H's insistence, and when Keene's "Somewhere Only We Know" started playing on the I-Tunes playlist after "Tik Tok," J and I showed the older kids how to slow dance. It reminded me of Sunday evenings when I was growing up, when we'd all dance around the kitchen.

I also started this practice this morning, hoping to get the older 2 kids more excited about reading the scriptures on their own:

We made a "scripture-reading nest" with the couches and pillows. I gave each of them 2 plastic eggs filled with candy to eat while they read on their own in the nest. They're following the reading outline from "The Book of Mormon Feast" in January's Friend. It worked fine today. H's attention span in the illustrated scriptures left much to be desired, but, fortunately, he has this odd fascination with Jesus Christ being baptized, so when I got out the illustrated New Testament, he calmed down a bit. So, all in all, a good Sabbath. I end it feeling very blessed.