Letter - New Beginnings, Sick Day, Temple Open House

Monday, January 20, 2014

Last week was kind of yucky.  The girls and I were all sick.  Karalee missed school on Monday and Tuesday and Marlee missed preschool on Tuesday.  To make matters worse, I was also a single mother while I was feeling yucky since Chad had a business trip in Dallas.  It wasn’t really that bad, I wasn’t completely knocked out by the sickness, I was still able to function pretty well, but in the middle of the night I missed my tag team partner since the girls were up a lot.  I couldn’t lean over and wake Chad up and tell him it was his turn to help out.

At least Chad was able to work from home on Monday to help me take care of the sickies for part of the week.

 Last Monday I met with our ward’s former Young Women’s President and she gave me her binder, keys, the YW’s volleyball/softball shirts, etc. and told me about the young women that I get to work with now.  I’ve been overwhelmed all week.  However, after meeting with my new Presidency on Friday and then typing out our New Beginnings program on Saturday I feel better.  I think I was so overwhelmed all week because I knew I had a lot of new responsibilities but I didn’t know where to start.  After working on our New Beginnings program, Seek the Sweet: Come Unto Christ, I felt so much better because I actually did something.  So the moral of this story is, when you get a new calling jump in and work on a project, it will help you get acclimated more quickly.  I’ll have to tuck that life lesson away for the future. 

Tuesday night I taught the YM and YW the songs for the cultural celebration.  I had a sore throat and had to talk over the youth a bit so I was pretty worn out when it was done.  Tilly didn’t go to sleep until 11:00 that night and then she woke up the next morning at 5:00am.  Nice.  She made up for it on Thursday though she went to bed at 8:00pm and didn’t wake up on Friday morning until 10:00. 

Our backyard basketball court light was installed on Tuesday.  It's huge.  Way bigger than we were expecting.  I sent a picture to Chad since he was in Dallas when it was put it and told him we might have overdone it.  We'll now have plenty of backyard light though.  I'm sure we'll love it.  

Wednesday the only time I ever left the house was to take the kids to school and then Marlee Tilly and I had a Disney day.  I think we watched 5-6 Disney movies in a row.  I consider that a good education on a sick day.  I made sure I showed some of the classic Disney movies, like Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Jungle Book, to make our day more educational.   

 I made these cookies for an after school snack on Wednesday.  However, instead of shortening I used 1/4 cup + 2 T. applesauce.  It turned out really yummy without any type of oil or butter.  So they were healthier than normal, but still had lots of sugar.

Thursday night Chad came home around 9:00pm.  I had planned on and was looking forward to going to our ward’s Relief Society night where we were walking from our church building to the temple earlier than evening, but Tilly was still sick and was having a bad night and was crying a lot so I didn’t feel like I should leave her with Spencer in that state.  I was kind of bummed and I cried a little, but got over it.  Tilly’s worth it.

Friday night we got dinner from the new Taco’s and More that opened up across the street from us.  It was ok.  Saturday we worked around the house and the kids played with the neighbors for quite a while.  I made the kids mac and cheese for dinner (with almond milk of course since they’re lactose intolerant) and Chad and I went out to eat at Chen’s and then went shopping for Sunday dinner at Walmart for our date.  Not super exciting, but it was still nice to be alone together for a little while.

Fun night with the neighbors

The little girls love play-doh right now.

Yesterday I had a BYC meeting before church and then a New Beginning’s planning meeting with all the class presidencies after church.  I won’t have many lazy Sunday anymore.  That’s ok.  Yesterday evening I helped Bryant paint his Pinewood Derby car.  He decided to do a Perry the Platypus car so I ended up having to paint most of it, but Bryant helped too and was very excited about watching it come together.

Today Chad and I took our kids to the Gilbert Temple open house.  It was VERY busy.  It was very beautiful and I can’t wait until I’ll get to spend more time there after it is dedicated and not full of tourists.  I kind of want to take just my older kids back to the open house at a time when it is not so crowded to have more of a chance to linger and share my testimony and excitement about the temple with them. 

Even though there were long lines, they moved quickly.

My quote today is from the opening Hymn we sang in Sacrament meeting yesterday.  “Father, all my heart I give thee; All my service shall be thine.  Guide me as I search in weakness; Let thy loving light be mine” (Lead Me into Life Eternal, verse 2, Hymn #45).  

Love,

Mindy