thoughts from the weekend.

a couple of days ago matthew took the kids out all day so that i could deep clean. oh, it was so nice.

as i oiled our beloved couch i thought of the friends who donated it to our little family so many years ago. actually before we were even married. i composed a letter for them in my mind. "you'll never know what a blessing this couch has been to us. at our shabbiest times we always have had this one, happy luxury." i went on oiling, all-the-while singing praises for our beautiful sofa. i thought, i can't believe it hasn't been ripped in all these years.

then the next day finn took a pocket knife and gutted the poor thing.

it was like the time that one of the missionaries was bragging to us about his bike. this bike was his pride and joy. one evening he told us, "if my bike got stolen, i would go home."

and the next week his bike was stolen.

he didn't go home.

and even though i was super upset with finn at first, i caught myself in time. it's just a couch.

we put two twin mattresses on the stairs so that the whole way down is a bouncy slide. i think we might just leave it like that forever. it's so hard to get up those things with stuff in your arms, though, so there's a ton of junk waiting at the bottom of the stairs.

matt and i were relaxing on our bed when we looked over to see our baby girl come flying out of the stairwell, giggling all the way. we just laughed and laughed at the sight. she was so very pleased with herself.

last night we snuggled our liam in our bed and stayed up way too late reading books. (he'd hand-washed all of the days dishes). we told him how proud we are of him. how we know that it's hard being the oldest sometimes. we thanked him for his ability to forgive his siblings when they hurt him. we let him know that we couldn't lead this family well without him and that we know he was sent to our home for a reason.

after that conversation he was the kind of "proud" that a five-year-old should always get to be.

we drove to portland one bedtime this weekend. they weren't calming down so we got into the car and drove. matt took us to the temple, that lovely man. we walked the foggy grounds and touched the cold stone of the beautiful sanctuary. there is a pool that reflects the temple for the onlooker and we stood to see as a family.

i told the boys i would always remember that night. i would always remember that liam stuck his foot in the water to ripple the reflection and then was totally shocked when his shoe became wet. i would always remember that finn lost the privilege of wearing his superhero costume so he had to wear a coat for pants. i would always remember eveleen pretending to be out of breath when we all ran around, even though i was carrying her the whole time. i would always remember ossi.... that ossi said... he said something super funny.... dang i forgot already.

Comments

Valerie said…
you are a really great mom. your blog is so refreshing to read and I always walk away feeling better. I just wanted you to know that.
Laura said…
Good for you for remembering what is most important. Love the mattress idea. I remember doing that as a kid. Good memories.