Today was another incredible Sunday. This morning I walked Basil, rested some more, and then had a wonderful deep values prayer/meditation. I’ve had a lot on my mind around my work-life balance, and if I have the right perspective about what really matters. One of my favorite sayings from Thomas S. Monson is that the most important lessons in life are those lessons around what is most important and what is not. Lily and I also had such a good time meeting up with Matt and Diana last night and Matt and I talked about work a lot, and that triggered even more pondering about my job, and if I’m giving too much, or if I’m having the right perspective about work. My prayer/meditation yielded a lot of clarifying thoughts that I spent a lot of time putting in a journal, and that was a wonderful way to start the day. In short, I reconnected with the awareness that my family, and doing good for the world are the most important things to me, and that my job, as much as I enjoy it and love throwing myself into it, is primarily a means to serve my family, and I should never let it become or feel more important than my family.
After meditating, the kids and adults listened to church, and I made waffles for everyone for a yummy brunch. Also, Lydia made caramel and custard, and even though I was too hard on her about the mess, I really am impressed at her initiative to keep learning so many skills, like baking.
Mid-day, the kids watched TV, and I watched an episode or Mr. Rogers with them, which I love to encourage because it is some of the most positive behavior and thinking modeling I have ever seen. Mr. Rogers was brilliant! We watched the last episode of season 1, which had surprisingly amazing special effects, being that it was a kids show from the 1960s.
Then we all went to the park near our rental property to fly kites, let Basil run around, bike, scooter and see friends. Liberty came with her dog peaches. And Eli, Meghan, Emily and Matt came with their dog Daisey. We also saw Michelle Jaramillo and her son. It was so much fun. I love that park. I get to see friends, as do the kids, and people get to do a variety of activities while Basil runs around with other dogs. Since many friends from the old neighborhood live minutes from the park, its super easy to meet up with people whenever we go there.
We did have some kite drama. Eli let go of the bird kite and I had to get on top of someone’s garage and use a rake to reach it (in a tree) to get it back. That gave me enough kite drama for one day, but our kite troubles weren’t over. Clarissa then let go of the bird kite, and it floated away until I couldn’t see it anymore. I gave up on it, because I had my hands full with 4 kids and Basil (Lily was catching a break at home). But Matt and Eli didn’t give up. They got in their car and hunted it down. Eli spotted it in the sky several blocks from the park, and drove until they found it wrapped around a powerline in somebody’s street. Matt told me where to meet him, and when I got there, neighbors had already erected a ladder to help with the cause. We eventually got it down. It was so heroic of Matt and Eli to chase it down for us, and I was very suprised to get the kite back. It’s been a great kite, so that was very happy. Thank you Matt and Eli!
We had subway for dinner, and then went to menchies, took some to Georgia, and at a bunch of it at home (ice-cream cake). Then we watched the Disney Hunchback of Notre-Dame, which was beautiful and all started settling in for the night. It was really good to chit-chat with Lily before retiring as well. What a great Sunday!