Our weekend

This weekend I had grand plans of accomplishing lots of things, and then reality set in. We were able to get a lot done, but there are still some boxes on the 'To Do' list that need to be checked off. I got Mason and Ella to help me with the laundry! They did great pulling clothes from the washer and shoving them into the dryer. Next week we work on folding and putting away!


I told Ella she is just like Cinderella when she is doing chores. "Remember, Cinderella did laundry, and washed the floor, and cleaned her room? Don't you want to be like Cinderella?"
Then I encouraged the boys to help weed the front yard. Ok, I told them they could earn money if they helped make the front of our house look more like our neighbors and less 'white trash'ish. See, in Germany you are responsible for the sidewalk in front of your house, and three feet into the street. You see people sweeping the streets and sidewalks ALL the time. Man, I have a hard enough time keeping the inside of my house clean, now I have to worry about the outside too!

Ella and Mason played outside while the boys pulled weeds and swept. I was inside baking billions of cookies for my RS lesson today. I figured it wouldn't matter if I didn't do a great job because the ladies mouths would be so full of cookies they wouldn't complain. It worked. The lesson was on Patience. President Uchtdorf gave a great talk on it in the Priesthood Session of GC last April. And the funny thing is this past week I had all these little annoying things happen to me to test my patience and I'm sure it was all prep work for my talk. Trying to do the self check out at the commissary and having the scanner stop working 5 times while I was using it was a great opportunity to try using my patience. Ella breaking a glass all over the kitchen floor while we were cleaning up dinner was another fine chance for me to exercise patience. Trying to plan my lesson and having children refuse to go to sleep was once again a time for me to be patient. I learned a lot from the lesson; I think that's the way it usually goes, the person giving the talk or lesson learns the most and is the one who needed the insights the most. I learned that there is a difference between being patient and being indifferent. Patience requires actively waiting and hoping and exercising faith. Yesterday we saw The Karate Kid: note to self: not a movie for an almost 3 year old. Jackie Chan said a great line that I used in my lesson: There is a difference between being still and doing nothing. Sometimes we need to be still, slow down and realize that the Lord's time frame is different than ours. He knows more than us and when we expect things to happen in our time frame, we are questioning His omnipotence. Not a good idea. So, I will continue to actively wait for things that I want and hope that I will be worthy to receive them. Because being a patient mother to this guy:

and this sweetheart:

is more important than anything else.