happiness often feels like exhaustion

about 6 months ago i was called as the 2nd counselor in our stake relief society presidency. i know, i was pretty surprised, too. clearly, the lilburn, georgia stake has a labor shortage. 

as a presidency, we've talked to a lot of the sisters and we came to the consensus that the sisters want to do service and to socialize. we were thrilled that so many sisters wanted to be an active voice of service in our community. consequently, for our relief society birthday activity, we planned on each ward planning their own smaller service projects and then we planned 2 larger service projects on the stake level. the primary did a sticker drive for a local children's hospital and the stake relief society organized a clothing drive. we contacted a local women's shelter and they said they had a need for job interview outfits for women trying to get back on their feet after an abusive relationships or homelessness. we set our goal at 100 dresses, or 100 interview appropriate items. we also planned a big breakfast to meet the socializing needs of the sisters. 

 this is carol and koleen, our secretary and president. they are gems that i am lucky to work with.

i was put in charge of food, which i secretly dread, but i had lots of help and good input from the ward catering expert. we did 3 varieties of costco danishes and we had a build your own parfait section. also, because we had an interest in food for keto diet adherents, carol volunteered to make 30 lbs of bacon and bunch of no carb egg muffins. interestingly enough, none of the keto adherents showed up to the actual activity. this is why i don't take requests. but everything worked out really well, otherwise.

scarlett, danishes and me: a love story.

 scarlett was actually super helpful. i feel we've come to an age crossroads. a child that is more useful than not and requires little supervision. she worked all 6 hours we were at the chapel without complaining. she actually may have even said she liked it.

we had a pretty good turnout for having such a geographically spread out stake. reminds me a bit of the glorious days of my youth when the kansas city stake was 2 hours wide. we're not quite that big, but it's still difficult to convince people to drive 30+ minutes to a saturday morning activity.

i particularly love this table here. these sisters are in one of our spanish branches. we visited their branch recently and they are the most united, loving, loyal and service-minded sisters. i'm glad we are on the same team. i have much to learn from them. riverside unido!

scarlett and me and my visiting teacher, sharon. she comes every month without fail. she's almost 70 but looks 50. nothing is fair. i'm almost 38 and look 99. sleep is eluding me at this stage in life. 

we had everyone bring their donation and tag it with a short message and their name so that the recipients would feel love and support from afar. then we placed each item in dry cleaning bags so they would feel crisp and polished. i think next year i'll bring my portable steamer to touch up a few of the items for an extra va va voom. 

 

we ended up collecting over 150 items! it was a huge success. happiness often feels like exhaustion. i still have some reject items i have to drop off at goodwill. we had so many generous offerings and then we got a bunch of unwearable or weird stuff. we accepted everything but not everyone understood, despite our repeated requests, that we weren't passing along stained things or worn out, ratty blood drive t shirts or otherwise unwearable clothes. we were donating dignity to break a poverty cycle, not reinforcing their distressed circumstances. someone even brought an old bassinet that's now sitting in my garage. i had to convince athena blythe was not a new toy or an familial announcement. i'm hoping that it will find the exact person who needs it. maybe it's random appearance at the activity was all part of Heavenly Father's plan to get it to whoever needed to find it at my goodwill. that's how i'll look at it. i like being a participant in positivism. no coincidences, right?

the spirit of God like a fire is burning!!!

potato fest is better than it sounds

last weekend was a momentous occasion for our family. reagan turned 13 and we took a little weekend trip. 

what can i say about reagan that hasn't already been said? he's happy, he's particular, he possess no guile, he's a puzzle, he's a delight. 

on friday night, reagan wanted an alfredo pepperoni pizza(which he used to hate and now loves) chocolate cake and more framed family pictures. unfortunately, he told me that the night before his birthday and so i had no framed family pictures to give. i ended up getting him several new t shirts and a matching green jacket and sweatpants outfit, which he was not excited about at all and 3 bags of doritos and a jumbo bag of m&ms, which he was very excited about.

saturday we drove to waycross and we were able to meet thomas's mom for lunch at wong's palace. native waycrossians raved like it was manna from heaven. scarlett ordered the shrimp and lobster and as an added bonus it was served in a domed platter. i need to obtain a domed platter for the future entertaining. 

the reason that we made the trek down to waycross was so that thomas could reunite with his friends and revive their former band glory for one night only! thomas's friend jackson is the bishop of the waycross 1st ward and each year they host the potato fest. everyone brings potato themed food items and then everyone enjoys an amateur music night. potato donuts! potato soup! mashed potato and meatloaf cake! you know how most church talent shows are really long and uncomfortable and you don't know where to look because 90% of the acts are A-not funny. B- funny but not supposed to be. C- tone deaf either musically or politically? this music revue was the most talented church activity i've ever been to. there was one group that played music from ricky skaggs and kentucky thunder and i was in awe. they were so good. there was also and incredible lionel richie performance and the judds made an appearance and michael jackson and vanilla ice. 

thomas and his band dressed up as guns n' roses with thomas as axl rose. they performed "knockin on heaven's door" and i was so proud! all these years of reputable employment pale in comparison to this moment of musical preeminence. 

after the activity we had boys and girls sleepovers in our separate hotel rooms. it was so fun. especially since i got a whole kind size bed to myself and herschel was in the boys room. i felt like a teenager! a really cool teenager! the girls watched disney channel shows with no interference from reagan and hersch or thomas. everybody won! except thomas. he had to deal with hersch. 

we went to church the next morning and then headed back home. it was a short and sweet and really a great time was had by all. it wasn't very blog or instagram worthy but that's not why we do things.d

potato fest is now on our radar for a year trek. all the kids are discussing what musical number they want to do in the show. i'm hoping we can hit up the dirt track races too. 

the end.

a little bit about everyone in february

february dump

in honor of the olympics, herschel decided to go for all the points for terrible behavior. nothing is safe. the stereotypical, "if you can't hear your child, they are up to no good" rings very true with him. the emptying of alllll the supplements and vitamins has happened on more than one occasion. 

just last week, he discovered my hair cutting kit, which was rather well hidden. he smuggled the shears into the car with him. as i was driving down the road during rush hour trying to take reagan to school, herschel announced, "I CUTTING MY HAIR!" i have no photographic documentation as i was driving with one hand and swatting blindly behind me trying to carefully dislodge the scissors from his hands before he poked an eye out.

herschel is exhausting, 

YET

absolutely refuses naps, unless the circumstances are just right and i sit perfectly still and only take shallow breaths and i am holding him on my face, with he special blankie "just so" while he sweats and drools onto my neck.

but darn it to heck if he isn't pretty cute when he's not being a dictator. 

we also celebrated his 3rd birthday on the 4th. i made an ugly cake that i spent way too much time on. 

but that FACE!

scarlett and athena blythe went to the daddy daughter dance. i think it was pretty fun for them and yet if they were given the option of attending the mother/son bash complete with BMX stunt riders and pizza, i think they both would have wanted to go to that instead, but still wear their fancy dresses. i know thomas and i both would rather go to the BMX show. 

athena blythe even let me curl her hair. 

 

reagan did a special olympics volleyball tournament. i was on the edge of my seat the whole time! mostly because bleachers are uncomfortable and i have a flat bum bum. i'd start a flat bum support group but it would also be called a family reunion. hahahahahahahahha. best joke ever.

reagan's incredible teacher mr. reese. he is a gift and an answer to prayers. 

these kids are always fun to watch in action. 

athena blythe wrote this story:

"the best retaurant is chik folay. i love it becos ther is a play grand. i like the chick nugits." pulitzer prize!

athena blythe shoved this gorilla hook in a light socket. i pulled it out without thinking. miraculously, we both still alive. take that, darwin. 

5 seconds later:

athena blythe is able to earn some special rewards at school when her behavior is what it's supposed to be and she always chooses a trip to the habitat room when she earns all the "ants on her log". that is her specially designed for athena blythe award system and it works for her. but only at school. i do not possess the correct ants or log or magical power that the ants on a log system requires. 

big highlight for me: i wore sandals one day recently. this has been a long winter for us, we're normally well within sandal weather at this point in march. 

tip for those of you like me who eat a lot of meals in the car: wear an apron. i ate a pre-cut steak and roasted broccoli while driving down the highway with no spills. just another highlight from my month. 

thomas and i ate at a great restaurant and saw black panther. it was good. thor ragnorok is better. captain america drives me crazy.

 FEBRUARY!

toddler for sale

each morning while i do my hair and makeup, i listen to conference talks. the average conference talk is about 10-15 minutes long so it takes one talk for my makeup and one talk while i do my hair. today i was fortunate enough to be able to hear elder utchdorf's talk entitled, "grateful in an circumstances". i reflected upon the talk for a good while. it's chock full of good information and encouragement. i mentally pinned this talk in my head for future reference, you know, the next time something stressful happened to me. which was not going to be today.

after i had gotten reagan dropped off at school and herschel and i suffered through story time at the library, i made a pit stop at home to grab a quick lunch for herschel. it was raining pretty steadily, but i simply pulled my jacket over my head and braved the elements from my car to the kitchen, about 5 feet. upon my return with hersch's lunch, i discovered that herschel had somehow triggered the locking mechanism to my car and had secured himself inside, all while the engine was running and he was strapped into his car seat. i honestly don't know how he accomplished the feat. my guess is he attempted to open his door and the automatic child safety locks kicked in. naturally, when i purchased this car last year, there was only one key fob from the dealership and it would cost around $500 to have a new one made. sounds like a racket if you ask me. frankly, i hope to expand my business into this cash cow of a racket. 

 during this moment of unexpected stress, i couldn't help but reflect upon elder utchdorf's talk. how could i have gratitude in this trying moment? what could i be grateful for? i'm standing in a thunderstorm, locked out of my running vehicle with my three year old inside, who is making very feeble attempts to pull up the door locks and smiling and laughing all the while. i was late to lunch at a really good restaurant with really good friend, paula. i only had one key and it was INSIDE the car with my purse and my phone. 

but, i was also being blessed. 

1. i was able to go in to the house. i go to the bathroom every 13 minutes and standing in the rain only exacerbated this need. i'm grateful i could go to the bathroom at my leisure.

2. after i went to the facilities, i grabbed my tablet and emailed paula the situation so she would't be completely inconvenienced by my mysterious disappearance. i'm grateful i still had internet access and an understanding friend.

3. my neighbor was home and i was able to use her phone to call thomas. he didn't have a key either, but he's pretty good at jimmy rigging car doors with coat hangers and he's just nice to have around in a pinch. plus, herschel likes him more than herschel likes me. i'm grateful my neighbor was home that day and for a husband who springs into action.

4. after a few minutes the lightning stopped and it was just a constant downpour. i didn't feel like death was upon me anymore. i'm grateful i wasn't struck by lightning.

5. i was hungry so i ate 4 oranges from the kitchen. i'm grateful i was able to quickly grab food.

6. hersch was smiling and laughing or pretending to take a nap during his confinement. this proved to be a much better than the alternative of screaming hysterically. which i only did for a few minutes and i only said one swear word. sorry, mom. it wasn't crumb balls. i'm grateful that rotten child was in good spirits even if his attempts to unlock the door were feeble at best.

7. after about 2 hours of trying various methods to unlock the car, we called a lock smith. he arrived within 10 minutes and in the BLINK OF AN EYE got the door open. and refused payment. he was incredibly good-natured about this ridiculous situation he was dragged into. i'm grateful for people with business policies of unlocking cars at no charge when there is a child involved. it was truly a tender mercy. 

today could have been much worse and i'm sure is not the worst thing i'll even have to deal with by a long shot. i'm glad i have today in my book of experiences so i can reflect upon my blessings and have gratitude in all situations.