Pleasant Ordinary Days

So Jared came home for the weekend and stayed through yesterday morning.  The rain stalled potato harvest so as work ground to a halt at the farm, he was able to be here with us for a few days.  Absence does make the heart grow fonder.

Over the weekend, it rained and rained and we enjoyed working on projects around the house and just being together. Isaac, Eliza and I painted some shelves and had some good talks while doing that. Jared and Ashton scoured and sealed the grout in a bathroom that needed some help. The twins and I went shopping for new shoes and had a great lunch together (they were due for a mommy date).  I swear, kids' shoes are so poorly made lately!  The kids can barely get a couple months out of their shoes - and the more expensive shoes seem just as bad as the basic Target and Payless ones.  When we were in France when Ashton was a toddler, I bought him some little shoes at a children's shop with a great sale going on.  I debated whether to get a second pair but decided against it. You know how you you regret certain decisions for a long long time?  When I saw those lovely little shoes make it through ALL of our children, I sure wished I'd bought a whole lot more!

Sorry, I'm tired - I'm totally digressing.

It was wonderful to have Jared here to coach Ashton and Isaac's last flag football game on Monday. He was sad to have to miss a couple of their games last week.  Jared's been a great coach and the team has come a long, long way. I, on the other hand, still can't figure out the rules - but maybe that's partially because I've got Oliver and Silas jumping all over me and asking me things for a good part of each game. My parents came up to watch the last game and the kids were in heaven to have a couple of their favorite people in the whole world with them for a few hours.

Before the game, my mom and I had a wonderful lunch together - even though we live just an hour from each other now, we're still going separate ways the vast majority of the time and I cherish time with my great mother.  While we lunched, the twins were overjoyed to go with my dad to visit sweet Grandma Great in Logan and ended up being part of a radio show that my dad sort of forgot about and had to do over the phone on the way back to Ogden.  He had them sing a song for the whole radio audience. I'm not sure what it had to do with the radio show topic but I'm sure it was very cute.  When my dad used to bring me with him to give speeches when I was a little girl, he'd always have me come up and sing something.  I guess some things never change.

Again, I digress.

Here's one last tidbit:
Oliver and Silas had their first "Itty Bitty Jazz" basketball practice last night.  They were so serious about it - and so excited. I had to go teach scouts so Ashton stayed with them and reported that they listened to the coach and did everything "perfectly." All three boys were so excited to tell me all about everything after the game - and the twins insisted on wearing their new jerseys to bed (Ashton took cute photos but I can't figure out how to get them off his phone and onto this blog).  Ashton pulled out his old jersey from last year's basketball season and Oliver and Ashton did a little happy dance together when they realized their jerseys both had the number 24 on them.

Anyway, this is a snippet from Oliver's prayer tonight:
"Please help us so that we can play really really well at our game on Saturday and that we can not use both hands at the same time when we dribble the ball.  Please help us to win and if we don't win, please help me not to get all sad and cry a lot about it like I sometimes do because I know I'm supposed to be a good sport and all that stuff - but you know how it really is so sad when I lose.  But help me to be nice about it."

I wish I had that prayer (and a lot of Oliver's prayers) recorded.  Oliver really does have an issue with losing.  But I didn't know it was something he thought about and was working on.  Nice when your kids recognize and want to work on their own issues!

And one totally final tidbit:
As I tucked Silas in, he gave me the compliment of a lifetime.  "Mommy, I love you so so much.  I think I even love you more than Hobbs." (Hobbs is our neighbor's dog.)