About two weeks ago I realized that there's a Blogger app for the iPhone. I installed it on my phone and each night I read my scriptures then add a little bit to my weekly blog post about what I was thankful for that day. So I did this all week, but then I really wanted to just shorten it to the tender mercies I received this week. I'm terrible at editing though, so I'll start with the short version, but I'm still going to include everything I wrote this week for my own journaling purposes. And of course there will be pictures from the week sprinkled throughout this post :o)
When I started this post on Monday I titled it "Rough Start." Yesterday I changed the post title to "Rough Start and a Rough end." Then I listened to Stake Conference today. I was reminded of tender mercies and I couldn't help but become very aware of the tender mercies I experienced this week.
I had a very trying start to my Monday as Lila threw the biggest tantrum EVER after her swimming lesson at the gym. I ended up in tears myself as I struggled with Lila to get her dressed and out of the gym. A kind woman in the locker room, pushing a double stroller herself, pushed my stroller and her stroller out of the locker room and the gym for me as I carried out a flailing and screaming Lila. It was such a tender mercy to have another mother, her own hands full, willing to help me out in my moment of despair. Through my tears I thanked her as we arrived at my car, and she just said that she hoped someone would do the same for her someday. It was no small struggle to get Lila buckled up at this point, but I managed, and with two crying children in tow, I headed home. I struggled to keep it together the entire drive home, and then we pulled up to our street and we couldn't get in to our garage. The foundation was being poured for the house next door and the street was too full of construction vehicles for me to even park along the street outside of my house. I was devastated. More tears came running down my cheeks. If it had been a normal day with Lila dressed, and not crying, I would have just gone to Target or the library to kill some time. But on Monday, that just wasn't going to work. I quickly sent a couple text messages to friends in my ward asking them if they were home. No luck. I drove around for 10 minutes and came back to our house, just hoping that maybe all the trucks would magically be gone. No luck. I decided to call a sister in my ward that lives in the neighborhood right next to ours. I didn't know her too well, but she has four young children, so I was betting she would be home. I guessed right, she was home and said we could come over. Another tender mercy. I was so thankful to this sister, who hardly knew me, and had her in-laws in town, but still let me spend an hour at her house while we waited for the construction workers to be done. Lila was even a complete angel while we were there. This act of service turned my whole day around.
...Lila remembered the story we read from the Friend the night before and made a game of it. The story was "Bad Day Better" and in her game we had to take turns saying something that would make a bad day turn good. It was really cute that she came up with this little game. She knows how to make my heart happy, especially after a difficult Monday.
...Darren was home and able to care for me and the kids when I became ill.
...it was Stake Conference today and we were able to watch it at home via an internet broadcast. I was so thankful that we could watch it at home. There were some wonderful talks that I needed to hear; I'm so glad I didn't miss them!
My original post for the week:
Monday: sometimes it takes a bad day to realize just how good every other day is. Maybe it wasn't a bad day anyway...It was a hard morning that turned into an easy afternoon. Thankfully we have amazing people in our ward that we get to call our friends. They rescued the day and made my tears melt away. And even though it was a hard morning, it led to a great parenting discussion with Darren.
I finally got the house vacuumed and mopped! Clean floors make me happy.
Lila put herself down for a nap and Walt had a 3.5 hour nap.
Tuesday: for the third day in a row, Lila willingly put herself down for her nap.
I spent an hour crafting. I don't think I'd done this since Christmas time. I had baby gifts to make, so I made my first boy craft, a cute little bow tie, and a couple of headbands. It was nice to take a little time to create.
I attended a double baby shower for 2 friends from my ward and it was nice to get out and socialize with some other women.
Darren only went downtown for a half day of work. It was an allergy shots day, so he spent some time working from home. Even if he's busy working, it's still nice to have him around for a few more hours of the day!
Darren's app, Make It Pop, had a sales spike last Thursday and has been holding steady since then with above average sales. Today I found via Pinterest the reason for the sales spike. A blogger and educator blogged about Darren's app last Thursday. We're grateful for the endorsement.
Wednesday: swim lessons went well; I learned my lesson and I didn't even attempt to get her showered and changed at the gym. We came home and showered and dressed with no problem at all.
I baked 3 loaves of wheat bread, a lemon zucchini loaf, and a dozen buns.
Thursday: I offered to give Lila a piano lesson and she enthusiastically accepted. I'm pleased that she's shown an interest in music and that she can match pitches. She's my little vocalist in the making.
Without saying a word, Lila climbed in her bed and took her nap while I put Walt down for his nap.
I went to a Relief Society swim and sample party. It's always nice to get out and socialize. And I brought some delicious and totally adorable salmon sliders, but you'll never know how cute they were because I forgot to take a picture :(
Friday: we went to the pool for three hours with friends from our ward. It was a nice neighborhood pool with a covered shallow pool for the little ones.
We picked up Darren downtown and went to Five Guys for dinner. I'm always thrilled for a break from making dinner :) On our way home we hit Crate & Barrel (they finally had the dish towels I've been wanting on sale) and walked around Best Buy.
Saturday: I stayed in bed ALL day. At 4:30am I woke up and felt sick. Walt had been asleep since 10pm, and he was just starting to wake up a little for his nighttime feeding. I quickly fed him, swaddled him up and put him back down, then spent the next several hours by the toilet. Not fun. at. all. I had some kind of viral gastroenteritis. Apparently it's been going around in my ward, and even though we didn't go to church last Sunday, I think I may have picked it up at the Relief Society party I went to. At least that seems to be the most reasonable answer since I'm the only one in my family who got it. Anyway, it was miserable. Worse than having a baby. It seemed like it was the first time I've ever stayed in bed the entire day (I at least sat on the couch for awhile the day Walt was born). As you can imagine, Darren was the champion of the day. He took care of me and the kids all day without complaint. He brought Walt to me throughout the day whenever he needed fed, brought me all kinds of stuff to drink, and made us chicken noodle soup from scratch. I'm so grateful for a caring husband.
Today: I woke up feeling SO much better than I did on Saturday. I was so grateful to be feeling better and have an appettite.
When I started this post on Monday I titled it "Rough Start." Yesterday I changed the post title to "Rough Start and a Rough end." Then I listened to Stake Conference today. I was reminded of tender mercies and I couldn't help but become very aware of the tender mercies I experienced this week.
I had a very trying start to my Monday as Lila threw the biggest tantrum EVER after her swimming lesson at the gym. I ended up in tears myself as I struggled with Lila to get her dressed and out of the gym. A kind woman in the locker room, pushing a double stroller herself, pushed my stroller and her stroller out of the locker room and the gym for me as I carried out a flailing and screaming Lila. It was such a tender mercy to have another mother, her own hands full, willing to help me out in my moment of despair. Through my tears I thanked her as we arrived at my car, and she just said that she hoped someone would do the same for her someday. It was no small struggle to get Lila buckled up at this point, but I managed, and with two crying children in tow, I headed home. I struggled to keep it together the entire drive home, and then we pulled up to our street and we couldn't get in to our garage. The foundation was being poured for the house next door and the street was too full of construction vehicles for me to even park along the street outside of my house. I was devastated. More tears came running down my cheeks. If it had been a normal day with Lila dressed, and not crying, I would have just gone to Target or the library to kill some time. But on Monday, that just wasn't going to work. I quickly sent a couple text messages to friends in my ward asking them if they were home. No luck. I drove around for 10 minutes and came back to our house, just hoping that maybe all the trucks would magically be gone. No luck. I decided to call a sister in my ward that lives in the neighborhood right next to ours. I didn't know her too well, but she has four young children, so I was betting she would be home. I guessed right, she was home and said we could come over. Another tender mercy. I was so thankful to this sister, who hardly knew me, and had her in-laws in town, but still let me spend an hour at her house while we waited for the construction workers to be done. Lila was even a complete angel while we were there. This act of service turned my whole day around.
More tender mercies this week...
...Lila put herself down for her nap several times....Lila remembered the story we read from the Friend the night before and made a game of it. The story was "Bad Day Better" and in her game we had to take turns saying something that would make a bad day turn good. It was really cute that she came up with this little game. She knows how to make my heart happy, especially after a difficult Monday.
...Darren was home and able to care for me and the kids when I became ill.
...it was Stake Conference today and we were able to watch it at home via an internet broadcast. I was so thankful that we could watch it at home. There were some wonderful talks that I needed to hear; I'm so glad I didn't miss them!
My original post for the week:
Monday: sometimes it takes a bad day to realize just how good every other day is. Maybe it wasn't a bad day anyway...It was a hard morning that turned into an easy afternoon. Thankfully we have amazing people in our ward that we get to call our friends. They rescued the day and made my tears melt away. And even though it was a hard morning, it led to a great parenting discussion with Darren. I finally got the house vacuumed and mopped! Clean floors make me happy.
Lila put herself down for a nap and Walt had a 3.5 hour nap.
Tuesday: for the third day in a row, Lila willingly put herself down for her nap.I spent an hour crafting. I don't think I'd done this since Christmas time. I had baby gifts to make, so I made my first boy craft, a cute little bow tie, and a couple of headbands. It was nice to take a little time to create.
I attended a double baby shower for 2 friends from my ward and it was nice to get out and socialize with some other women.
Darren only went downtown for a half day of work. It was an allergy shots day, so he spent some time working from home. Even if he's busy working, it's still nice to have him around for a few more hours of the day!
Darren's app, Make It Pop, had a sales spike last Thursday and has been holding steady since then with above average sales. Today I found via Pinterest the reason for the sales spike. A blogger and educator blogged about Darren's app last Thursday. We're grateful for the endorsement.
Wednesday: swim lessons went well; I learned my lesson and I didn't even attempt to get her showered and changed at the gym. We came home and showered and dressed with no problem at all.
I baked 3 loaves of wheat bread, a lemon zucchini loaf, and a dozen buns.
Thursday: I offered to give Lila a piano lesson and she enthusiastically accepted. I'm pleased that she's shown an interest in music and that she can match pitches. She's my little vocalist in the making.
Without saying a word, Lila climbed in her bed and took her nap while I put Walt down for his nap.
I went to a Relief Society swim and sample party. It's always nice to get out and socialize. And I brought some delicious and totally adorable salmon sliders, but you'll never know how cute they were because I forgot to take a picture :(Friday: we went to the pool for three hours with friends from our ward. It was a nice neighborhood pool with a covered shallow pool for the little ones.
We picked up Darren downtown and went to Five Guys for dinner. I'm always thrilled for a break from making dinner :) On our way home we hit Crate & Barrel (they finally had the dish towels I've been wanting on sale) and walked around Best Buy.
Saturday: I stayed in bed ALL day. At 4:30am I woke up and felt sick. Walt had been asleep since 10pm, and he was just starting to wake up a little for his nighttime feeding. I quickly fed him, swaddled him up and put him back down, then spent the next several hours by the toilet. Not fun. at. all. I had some kind of viral gastroenteritis. Apparently it's been going around in my ward, and even though we didn't go to church last Sunday, I think I may have picked it up at the Relief Society party I went to. At least that seems to be the most reasonable answer since I'm the only one in my family who got it. Anyway, it was miserable. Worse than having a baby. It seemed like it was the first time I've ever stayed in bed the entire day (I at least sat on the couch for awhile the day Walt was born). As you can imagine, Darren was the champion of the day. He took care of me and the kids all day without complaint. He brought Walt to me throughout the day whenever he needed fed, brought me all kinds of stuff to drink, and made us chicken noodle soup from scratch. I'm so grateful for a caring husband.
Today: I woke up feeling SO much better than I did on Saturday. I was so grateful to be feeling better and have an appettite.
Other pics from this week
Baby Walt wearing his bib like a cape :o)
Lila playing at the pool with friend Sophie
Isn't he so handsome?
Lila the recording artist. She's been working on recording some things for Darren's next children's app.
Sweet little Walt comforting his sick momma.
The only pic I took with the Nikon this week, if you couldn't tell!
P.S. I don't think I've mentioned it, but you may have noticed that I've left Facebook for the time being. It's such a time-suck that I don't have time for right now.
Comments
I've been having weeks like that where all I want to do is eat a tub of Ben and Jerry's and cry. McKay and I miss you guys. I was creating a list of friends to invite to my friend baby shower and was sad because I remembered, "oh yeah, Adria doesn't live here anymore." :( I'm glad you're feeling better and Darren is liking his new job a lot better.