Peter has done great in kindergarten. He’s brought home some of his old work from the beginning of the year, and I’m impressed by the improvement he’s made in writing skills the most. It was a bit of adjustment at the beginning. He doesn’t love school, but likes it just fine.

We didn’t have a lot of time, and then our hiking was rudely interrupted by some punks shooting on the trail. It was still fun. It was the first hike we’ve been on that Henry was actually able to hike, and he loved it! He walked farther than I thought he would.

This made my day today:

I’m not quite sure why it has taken me so long to go up to the hot springs. I haven’t been there since we moved here. The only other time I was there was when I was a kid for a family reunion.

We went with my sister and a bunch of kids and everyone enjoyed it. Henry was sobbing when it was time to get out. He did not want to go.

My sister came to visit. We wanted to go camping, but the weather was colder and my oldest is still in school. Instead, the tent was pitched in the spare room and we made a campfire over the fire pit in the backyard to roast hot dogs and marshmallows.

Either the kids were extremly tired, or the tent was a good idea, or a bit of both. Usually when the cousins get together, trying to get them all to sleep is a nightmare. But the two nights they were here it was no harder than normal.

I am often Joe’s motivator to go running. If it’s raining, I’ll tell him to go anyway. If he doesn’t run, I’ll ask him about it, remind him and convince him to go. Sometimes I feel annoying, but he usually thanks me.

His friend convinced him to sign up for a half marathon. Early one Saturday, he set off to go run. I met him a few hours later. We had planned to get out and wander around a bit, but it was pouring rain and we made it there after he finished. So I illegally parked and found my freezing husband and we left.

He did just as well as he wanted to, and better than I expected him to. He finished just under two hours. Peter asked, “Is Daddy going to win the race?” He didn’t.

I had slipped out of Primary to go check on Henry who isn’t technically supposed to be in nursery, but goes anyway because the nursery leaders are pretty awesome. While in there, the primary leaders came and found me and I knew that something had made Curtis upset. “Curtis fell and he needs his mom.” Yep.

I walked over and came upon a sobbing, bleeding boy. At first it looked like his mouth was bleeding, but I didn’t really see anything cut. Then I realized that he had gashed his chin. I felt a connection with him right then. I have personally gashed my chin open around four times and have quite a lovely scar there.

His cut wasn’t that bad. I found a band-aid, and cleaned him up. Curtis was still pretty shaken up. Instead of trying to go back to primary, we went to nursery and had fruit snacks. Fruit snacks can cheer up just about any small child.

Peter started kids club at the garden. We just got through planting everyone’s plants when the wind really started up and soon after the rain.

Today I was stressed about being stressed. And as soon as I realized that, I was fine. My mind can get quite silly.

I’ve really enjoyed studying mindfulness. It helps me be more aware that what is going on in my head is just in my head. I might think for a moment that my life is awful and I hate it, but I can look at my actual life and see a lot of goodness. All the negative isn’t real.

Sometimes my feelings help me to see areas of my life that I need to change. I feel overwhelmed and realize I don’t want to get too busy. I want time to spend with my children and doing the the things I enjoy. But others times my feelings are feeling stressed about stress. They don’t mean anything at all.