A Week in Review

Our Master Mind
"Master I" made a kookubura costume for his 1st grade school play

"Master I" lost a tooth. When I looked underneath his pillow I found that he used my one and only nice thank you card to write a message for the tooth fairy. The tooth was enclosed and this was the message of the note:

For tuth fary
I Hhve lost a tuth
ples give me $15
Love I.....

















Miss R
"Where are my grippers?" Grippers are scriptures and she claims as her own her dad's very small copy of The Book of Mormon. It fits perfectly in her hand and she loves to carry in arround the house.

"Miss R" loves playing with her older brother and keeping him awake. They stay awake for hours after we have put them down because she is always tring to playing with him and make him laugh. Playing in this way comes naturally to her in a way that wasn't true for him. He finds joy in her and so the cycle perpetuates itself. So, when his friends come over she thinks that they have all come to dote on her.


"Master W" with Zacky.

Mandy's Musings
When I went to Red Butte Gardens this week I was amazed at how quickly nature changes. I was disappointed when I found that the flowers that I had enjoyed so much in the previous week were already beginning to fade. And yet, I was suprised by the beauty of the flowers that were just starting the week before. I couldn't have guessed that the new flowers would have taken the center stage of those flower beds like they did. I wished that last week flowers could still be in the height of their glory along with the newly bloomed flowers of this week. Then I thought to myself, "But, that isn't how it works, is it? The beauty in nature is fleeting and always changing. We must enjoy the current stage because it will not last."

Something about that reasoning was so familiar to me--a lesson that I already have learned in a different context. Children grow quickly for better and for worse. Their annoying phases... fade, but so do the darling things that they do. It is perishable fruit in its perfectly ripened state, demanding to be enjoyed today. And so in this state of constant good and bad we must choose what we will focus on. We must learn to savor the good, even while there is much that needs improvement. We cannot wait until everything is perfect with our children to enjoy all that is wonderful in them because childern's stages are perishable.

It has been a simple and sweet experience this week to have the lesson come to my memory many times when I look at my children or when I look at the nature that surrounds me. I remember that I can't be mourning the loss of the daffodills or spending the energy of my heart yearning for lavendar that have not yet bloomed because today I must enjoy the honeysuckle. Tomorrow the honeysuckle will fade and the green hills will turn golden. Even more regretabley, tomorrow Master I will be more careful about what comes out of his mouth, and "Little Ms. R" will realize how captivating her happiness and beauty are, and "Master W" will stop coeing and scrunching up when he sees me. They demand to be enjoyed today!

So, come out and visit us darn it!