Mom is boobah

We had a funny two-year-old moment this week. We were in the car and I was looking at myself in the mirror. I turned to A and said, "Mom is beautiful. Can you say that A. Mom is beautiful." In his best immitating voice, he said, "Mom is boobah." Jim and I burst in to laughter. For those of you who have never enjoyed the endless entertainment of the pbskids.org website, Boobahs are large colorful dancing blobs of goo (or something giggly). A love them and always ask for them when we are sitting in front of the computer. So in short, I am a giggling dancing blob of goo!

Black Friday

I went out shopping this morning to work through my list of post-Thanksgiving sales. I found almost everything I was looking for and got some great deals.

We found ourselves at Home Depot looking for a birthday present for my sweet, do-it-yourself husband. We saw a train set almost as soon as we entered the store. We've been looking for a train to put under our Christmas tree. Of course A loved it. But even more than that, Daddy's eyes just lit up as he watched the train round the track. We didn't immediately pick up a train set to put in our cart. There were eight or so boxes and didn't think much of it.

After a half an hour of looking around the store for the other items we wanted and debating about how much we could really afford to spend, we went back to look for the train set. But to my dismay, they were all gone! My heart just sank as I watched my husband's countenace fall. Just then a woman walked by with a train set box in hand. It was one of the saddest moments for me in a long time. It's funny. It was just a little train set, one that we could probably find some place else at some later date. But I think Dad was just so excited to share something with Son that my husband's disappointment broke my heart. I'm so greatful for a husband who love his son so much and wants to provide special moments of love and sharing with him.

To put a happy ending to this story, I went and asked the customer service desk if they would sell me the display model and they said yes! It always helps to have my happy little two-year-old in the cart when I'm trying to convince a bunch of women to sell me something. So at the end of the day, we brought home the train. Dad and son immediately set it up in the living room when we arrived at home. A walked around for the rest of the afternoon saying, "Choo, choo. Train on, mom. Train on, please."

A family birthday

Yesterday was A's birthday! We had a fun little party just the three of us. I can hardly believe that two years have passed. My how my baby is growing into a little boy. He's sporting a new haircut thanks to dad and his vocabulary is exploding. We've been working on learning to pray, say please and thank you (without having to be reminded), and say "I love you." When grandma called last night to wish him a happy birthday, he said "bye grandma, I love you" without any extra proding. It's suprising what a proud moment that was for me.

As we put A to bed last night, I felt such love for him. I just wanted to hold him close and tell him how much I love him and how proud I am to call him my son. We always hear that the little spirits that Heavenly Father is sending to earth at this time are stronger and brighter than ever before. Rather than finding that an intimidating responsibility to raise a child with such potential, I actually find peace in knowing what a partner I have in my child in trying to do what is right and make a difference in the world.

We can do this! Happy brithday my beautiful bright boy!

To Have Enough

This week I've been thinking about what it means to have enough.

So what is "enough" and how do I know when I've got it? How do I say, "that's enough" and be satisfied. In Latin culture when you are full at the end of a meal, you do not say, "I am full." Rather, you say "I am satisfied." I read an article in the newspaper about how the price of food has risen significantly in the last year. What a normal family could count as "enough" just 12 months ago, may not be enough today. I called the local food bank to work out details for a youth service project I've been working on and they said that this year our county has a significant need for donations of all sorts.

It is easy to say, "Well, they should have known better and managed their money better and not complained so much." But we'll never be in their shoes. We hear the endless list of welfare needs or we look at our own pocket books and think of all the sacrifices we are already making and it is tempting to just say we can't do any more.

But what if this year we did things differently? What if this year we suspended all, and I mean ALL, judgment and we dug a little deeper to give up one of the special things WE want (or that we want for our children ) in order to give something special to someone who does not have enough, regardless of why they don't have enough?

I suppose they wouldn't call it sacrifice if it didn't pinch a bit.

The New Computer!

After weeks of dealing with our computer spontaneously shutting off, we finally got a new computer! (Who knew that computer monitors could be so big!) It's nice to finally catch up on everyone's lives and see what fun things others are doing. You don't realize how much you use your computer until you don't have one--looking up phone numbers, googling a recipe, mapquesting an address, working on a Sunday lesson, you name it! So it's back to the electronic grind.