Today

Today I dropped off the boys at the gym so I could: sit in the steam room, shower, shave my legs (I never knew what a luxury shed legs was until I had kids), and paint my toe nails.

It was delightful, and probably the closest thing I'll get to a spa treatment for a while.

I have really become partial to the steam room. It's like my treat at the end of the day, and it has done fabulous things for my complexion to boot.

I fed the boys donuts for dinner-this usually happens when Cort is out of town and we go to the gym, the boys love to get donuts at the grocery store next to the gym. Oh, and I ate Lean Cuisine for dinner. Awesome mom.

I got the boys ready for bed and wasted time on my phone. With each passing day, I'm looking more and more forward to when Will starts school and we can ALL get back in a routine. Right now I just feel bushed in just about every category and my phone has been the outlet for my useless mind. That will change when school starts, I'm determined.

Duke fell asleep, but Will was still struggling. I asked him if he wanted me to read him some stories (usually he says no) and he said yes. We read three stories together and it felt so good. He usually has such a hard time sitting through a story, that I don't really push for story time at home because he is at school all day and surely got plenty of story time there. Reminded me how important it is/how much I yearn to have the boys on my lap each day.

We finished by turning on Tangled, or as Will calls it "Tangoed", and he was asleep in 5 minutes. I watched a little trash TV (as I also, usually do when Cort is away) and then sat at the kitchen table to read the Book of Mormon. Why do I always push this to the end of the day when I feel so good while/after I do it? I don't know the answer, but no matter how many times I try to create a routine, it always is an "end of day" task for me. But another realization that I need to spend more time with the Book of Mormon. I've been reading the New Testament, which has been lovely, but I'll be excited to dive into the BOM again soon. It's so rare that I'm wide awake after the boys go to sleep and for me to sit at the table (instead of my bed) and read the scriptures and have a legitimate study was, well, welcome. Again, I'm anxious for school to start so I can be in a better routine with this aspect of my life too.

Yesterday, I got a new nephew, Liam, and I longed to be with my family tending to the older siblings during all the commotion. It was Liam's older sister's first day of preschool the day he was born, and since her parents were MIA at the hospital, Grandpa stepped in and took Lu to her first day of school.


And the thought of living by my parents yesterday made me smile because we're not such a little family anymore, and having more adults around who you automatically trust would really come in handy...but this is still coming from the girl who feels like an island in VA. But nonetheless, I couldn't help but think about Will taking his grandpa to school...he would be grinning ear to ear showing off his grandpa to everyone. I kinda wish there was Take Your Grandma/Grandpa to work/school day. I severely wish my kids had more time with my parents, and their cousins in So Cal. Too bad we'd have to live there for all of that to be possible...

Things are getting exponentially better here in VA, and thankfully Heavenly Father has given me a lot of clarity on the situation, but I still don't feel like I really have a "place" in life here. Haven't found my niche yet. And while I don't love our situation right now, after much contemplation and prayer, I know what works for me,
and what doesn't work for me in VA. For instance, I like our neighborhood and would want to stay there, if we didn't live on such a busy street, so if we stay here another year, we'll rent another house in our neighborhood on a more kid-friendly street. And, I don't like our ward, but I think we'd be a great fit in the neighboring ward, which is the other half of our neighborhood. So my dissatisfaction is only temporary. And I can deal with that and be happy that my kids' needs are being met, even if mine aren't.

I went in to check on the sleeping boys and stumbled upon this getting through the door:


Sometimes God plants a smile in your path. How can you not love this kid? When did his legs get so long and skinny? And that dog is his new stuffed animal (his only stuffed animal, really) and when I asked him if he wanted to give it a name, he said "Dog". We're original over here. Will also recently got a real teddy bear and named him "Teddy". Neither Cort nor I are very creative so this shouldn't have surprised me at all.




Will lined all of these up yesterday and told me he was making a line.




And this was a picture Will painted of his Dad. I posted it on Facebook and Sassy said it would only be natural for Will to paint Cort with such a big smile because he's always so happy when he's with the boys, and Will never know his Dad without a smile on his face when they were together. Good imagery. And such a good point by Sassy, very true.

Over and out,
Me