Post-bath routine. A little Listerine. Or Wisterine if you're name is Kate. Swish, rinse, repeat.
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finding gratitude
A couple weeks ago I was listening to a podcast and heard a great quote. Matthew O. Richardson said, "We can't appropriately prepare ourselves and celebrate Christmas without preparing through Thanksgiving." Isn't that true?!!
We are speedily moving through November! Thanksgiving is going to be here too quickly. I haven't been focusing on gratitude and truly having a thakful heart the way I want to. We've got TEN DAYS to prepare for Thansgiving! We're going to do it! Tonight for Family Home Evening, we read a few quotes from President Eyring and President Hinckley that I love:
"It is a challenge to count our blessings, because we sometimes take good things for granted. Most of all, sometimes it is hard for us to be sufficiently grateful for the greatest gifts we receive. God the Father gave His Son, and Jesus Christ gave us the Atonement, the greatest of all gifts. Only with the help of the Holy Ghost can we begin to feel what those blessings mean for us and for those we love. And only then can we hope to be thankful in all things." -- President Henry B. Eying
"There are two little words in the English language that mean more than all others. They are 'thank you.'" -- President Hinckley
We used this ABC blessing printable to play "Count Your Blessings." We tried to see how fast we could use the ABC's to count our blessings. Some of my favorites: Apples products, elephants, Jetta, library, naps, otter pops, toilets, quarters, and washing machines.
Then we hung up our Gratitude poster to write on every time we walk by until Thanksgiving. There are some pretty great blessings written on that thing already. I'll share a picture on Thanksgiving :)
A couple small things from the last few days:
Bridger was sitting at the kitchen table coloring this afternoon. I started getting out all of the stuff to make cookies. He jumped up and said, "I'll help you with that! Mom's like it when their kids help so they don't have to do all the hard work." Amen. I think it was really just his excuse to crack some eggs. We were going to share these cookies with some new friends, but his egg cracking still needs a little work. I couldn't quite fish all the egg shells out :/ The kids have been cautiously eating cookies all evening.
I took this picture one morning last week while we were waiting for the kids' ride to come. Ellie was trying to get her fresh morning manicure to dry, while Bridger was running around looking for bugs. Our morning are generally pretty rushed, so I was grateful for a few minutes of happiness before they left.
I got a tiny, little cut on my finger that produced a tiny amount of blood. I showed Kate and she immediately got a look of shock and concern. She said, "I'll fix it! I get you a Stuffins band-aid!" She pushed a chair over to the cupboard and climbed up to get me a Doc McStuffins band-aid (her current favorite), and then worked for a few minutes to get that thing out of the wrapper. It made my heart happy to watch her two-year-old compassion :)
Here's to TEN days of finding Thanksgiving spirit. I'm ready :)
this girl
First of all, has it really been OVER A YEAR since the last blog post? Wow.
Instead of trying to backtrack and get caught up... I'll just start from where we are. Today.
Tuesdays have become one of my favorite days. Mondays are usually a little rough. Bridger and Ellie don't have school on Mondays, but have PLENTY of homework to fill our day. Add in laundry, errands, and cleaning up the weekend aftermath, and, well... Mondays don't always end on a high note. But Tuesday! I'm feeling all sunshiney and ready for a good week.
This morning we went to Costco. She loves Costco. We go straight to the toys, she picks a baby to carry around, and we do our shopping. She loved the sample of mashed potatoes, spit out some weird little muffin, and ate a couple chips. When we got home, she kicked off her flip flops, pulled her pony tail out, and wandered around the house. A little bit later, I heard her calling for me. She came and grabbed my hand. "I wanna see my little people!" She led me to where our sweet little wood family that Suzanne made us sits. I handed her the people and sat back and watched her.
Her little chubby fingers trying to gather them all together and then set them up.
If she knocked one down, she'd say, "OH DEAR!" and giggle.
Once she'd get them all standing, she'd stand back to admire them.
My favorite was when she'd get down close and whisper to them.
"Hi sister."
"You doing ok?"
"You want me to hold you? Ok? Ok."
She's pretty great, our Kate.
:)