Last week we were able to celebrate Mav’s 3rd birthday! I can’t believe he’s three, well truth be told I can and I can’t. He definitely acts three, and has for a while, but the past three years have flown by quickly. He is my comedian, my sweetheart, he has a very active imagination and he’ll be a heartthrob for sure. I get a kick out of all the things he says. He is currently obsessed with Minecraft Zombies. Today was the 100th day of school for Max. I’ll admit, we kind of had a rough weekend and a rough start to the day, but it all worked out. He woke up kind of moody (it happens even to the best of us). I put his “100 day” shirt on that he had made, which had 100 stickers. Stickers instantly started falling off and my darling OCD kid started freaking out. I made his breakfast (why can’t he just eat cereal like the rest of kids), his lunch, got his shoes and toothbrush ready for him and got to work making a new 100 day shirt that wouldn’t fall to pieces. I did it partly for him, partly for his teacher, because I know my child and I know how every time one of those dumb stickers fell of he’d freak out and heavens knows a kindergarten teacher has enough on her plate than a melt down from one of her students over a shirt. It took me way longer than the five minutes I had so I had to drop it off at the school on my way to a playdate with my good friend, Katie and her darling kiddos. Mav had a good time with his friends and Max came home happy from school, wearing his newly designed 100 minecraft items shirt. Bev has been particularly moody and extremely clumsy lately. I’m pretty sure Max and Bev are going through a growth spurt (maybe Mav too) because they’re all going through extreme clumsiness. Today, for example, Bev scratched her gum, right above the tooth that she had chipped last week. She has a black eye, a bruise on her forehead and cheek and maybe somewhere else I’m unaware of. She is constantly climbing things and due to her current state of missing coordination, she is constantly falling and hurting herself. Mav somehow managed to flip off of my friend’s couch and land head first on her tile. Miraculously he didn’t even have a goose egg. Weird. Max currently has a bruise on his arm from falling backward off a pew yesterday in church (WHY can’t my kids sit normally??) and then scratched his face running into a tree while playing with friends, plus he fell off his chair at the restaurant we went to to celebrate Andy’s birthday. Confession time. I have a very hard time not jumping to, “I told you so, stop doing _ . or “don’t you see why I tell you not to_” instead of consoling my injured children. Sometimes I do both at the same time, because I am tired of my kids hurting themselves! I may order an extra roll of bubble wrap to use for them and then reuse for the move. My mother in law came to visit last week. It was nice to have her here and she treated us to quite a few meals. A welcome change to my constant meal making. We enjoyed chatting, running errands, and playing with the kids. Mav was super excited that she brought her homemade gourmet style sugar cookies in the shape of 3’s and spidermen. He was pretty excited to have spidermen cookies. I continue to enjoy the 2 hr length church. This Sunday I taught the miamaids and beehives. It was my first lesson for the new year and I really enjoyed it. I basically have an entirely new set of girls because of all the ones who moved up to their next class. We talked about the pre-earth life. I am amazed at the way the spirit takes over the lesson and adds to things I didn’t necessarily plan when I am prepared. I have learned to take a little material, but focus on HOW I’m teaching so that it creates an atmosphere of interaction. I have some work with these girls. They are already very shy, quiet girls, so I need to be super creative on how to get them out of their shells. Andy is finishing up a 5 day streak of night shifts. Tonight is his last night before he switches to a gross anatomy lab for the month of February (cake!). He is worn out. It is hard to keep the kids quiet during the day so he can sleep, but luckily he sleeps through a lot. I have been trying to change some personal habits. And I’m realizing the great self-discipline it takes to do this. I have been trying to have the Lord help me and I feel like when I put him first in my life he does. It maybe physical goals, but they in turn help me draw nearer to the spirit. One of those goals is writing weekly here and daily in my journal. I’m getting better about this, but I need to work on the daily journaling. I get frustrated with the lack of instant change sometimes, but I look back at the last year and I wanted to implement couple council. Andy and I now do it religiously every Sunday night. This is a testimony to me that I can change and that I need to be patient, but persistent. There was a great article on LDS.org [https://www.lds.org/ensign/2019/01/young-adults/keeping-your-goals-from-getting-in-the-way-of-personal-growth?lang=eng&_r=1&fbclid=IwAR1nuUmSjhn2JcI_rd3ZjtbbtxwM9nSIPLfkiDbn9igddb4MMp9Z7diyZU0] about goal setting and not allowing the lack of progress keep you from progressing. Hope yall have a great week!