Checking in, Celebrating a Victory, and Mormons.

I hate to start my first line of this post with "Gosh, it sure has been a while," or "Man, we've been busy," but...I guess my creative juices are not flowing and can't think of a more creative, catchy or concise way to put --

"Yes, I've been gone, but I'm here and I'll be back again soon!"

There's a danger in getting so far behind (nope, still haven't blogged about Christmas 2011 but, whatever!) so I figured before I reach the point of no return I'd pop in and be completely okay with the fact that I STILL haven't unpacked from BYU's Education Week (awesome, btw), the kids are still not unpacked from our 10-day adventure back East, laundry is everywhere, every part of the house is pretty much a disaster....

...that's okay!

Despite the clutter and the craziness that the end of summer/beginning of school brings, it's also important to take a deep breath. I'm getting better at taking those deep breaths and focusing on matters that matter.  This does not come naturally for me by the way. For example.....

Yesterday after the cousins left Cade said, "Mom, can we invite Eden over to swim?"  Mind you it's not like my kids hadn't been having fun with their cousins for a good portion of the afternoon. I could have said, "you've gotten to play today, now it's time for Mommy to get some stuff done," and Cade probably wouldn't have batted an eye. After all, it was 20 minutes until 5pm. I had no idea what I was making for dinner either. I had a choice to make. Was I going to let the clock determine whether or not I was going to reach out and build friendships? More importantly, would I prevent my son from the opportunity to reach out and build a friendship? Eden was new to the neighborhood and school and Cade sat by her in class.  I want to encourage him to think of others and their feelings.

Turns out the timing was perfect. Eden's entire wonderful family was gracious enough to accept our last-minute invite. The children swam and we had a delightful time.  Turns out it did not matter that my house was a disaster, the laundry wasn't put away (is it EVER?), and dinner wasn't cooking. For 1 beautiful hour the kids swam and we all made friends and got to know each other.

I know it sounds silly, me proclaiming my joy over not being so uptight, but it's good to celebrate the small victories. And this was a victory.

Did any of you see the special on Rock Center (NBC) last night on Mormons?  It was great. I mean, of course I disagree with having John Huntsman's daughter who left the church {for a reason I find...umm...empty} answer all those questions about the church (they gave her pretty face a lot of face time) which were quite inaccurate. Buuuut, on the whole I felt it was very respectful (minus the shot of the garments. That lacked taste and respect) and they made a good effort to make it as balanced of a piece as possible. Would I have done it differently? Yes, of course. But it's easy for me to decipher what is accurate and what isn't because I AM a Mormon and I know what is accurate. It would be difficult to capture "mainstream" mormonism on a cultural level if I wasn't of this faith unless I had some very reliable sources. On the whole I appreciate when the media attempts to get the facts straight and learn more about my faith. I am sure to outsiders some of our beliefs seem quite strange and obscure, so when the media attempts to investigate, I happily welcome it.

In other news that I will be recapturing shortly, I got my 5th haircut since March ( I finally think this is the 'do I have been going for), I've read some great books, hosted our 2nd annual Bookette Day-Away at the pool, Ruby turned 2, I turned 30, Kyle is home (YES!), Cade started 3rd grade, Savvy starts Kindy on Monday, Ruby is, like, a talking, walking PERSON with a hilarious stubborn personality, aaand we had a great time in Virginia/DC...but we are all still catching up on lost sleep there.

Until then, good evening! Off to decide which mess to tame.

{Savvy and I...on my 4th hair cut here sporting my birthday watch}