Wednesday morning I thought we had Mary’s kindergarten assessment and interview. Turns out it is next week, but we didn’t find that out until we were actually there. I am the worst at dates and times and feel like I am always getting things like this wrong, even with the help of Google Calendar. At the same time–oh, well! I am reading, at the personal advice of my friend, Ashley, Brené Brown’s book, The Gifts of Imperfection. Liem and Phuong picked it up at the library for me yesterday, and I am so grateful. Most of my books come and go without me picking them up because I am so immobile, and this is one I would have been sad to miss.
I love being reminded through this book that I don’t need to be perfect. It’s great news because, as I know this blog regularly reflects, I am pretty flawed. Sometimes this can really stress me out, but this book has helped me see that I have made a lot of progress in self acceptance recently. I attribute this to the excessive amount of rest and relaxation I’ve had on bed rest. Even though I clock in at well over 200 pounds, I feel more body confidence than I did when I was in college and weighed almost 100 pounds less. I look in the mirror and see positive things first for the first time in…my life? It’s kind of amazing. I also feel a lot more relaxed about my children. I have spent way too long thinking that they need to be perfect to justify my choice to stay at home. But they don’t need to be perfect, and I can’t make them perfect. They are enough just as they are, tantrums and all. And also, I love them.
Anyway, my mom drove us to Mary’s interview and enjoyed seeing Mary’s kindergarten school, Kids’ Village. Mary loved it too.
After we came home, the girls made cookie dough with Abby, the babysitter, until Ammon’s nap time at 1pm. The babysitters go home during nap time, and so the girls ran across the street and had a neighborhood water balloon fight with all of the kids in the neighborhood. I have a magical spot by my window; I can sit here and hear everything that goes on in the cul-de-sac–and beyond!! I can even clearly hear conversations half a block past the cul-de-sac. I kind of feel like a spy, but it was very enjoyable to hear the kids having fun.
Then the kids came back home. Lydia French knitted while Mary had a tea party with Nana.
When Abby returned, the kids spent the rest of the afternoon baking and decorating cookies. Abby did a great job cleaning the mess, but the kids were still decorating when she left, so the sprinkles and icing all over the floor were left for my mom and Abe. They are heroes and cleaned it all up.
Also, Abe gave Liem and Phuong the Qualtrics tour today, and they ended by playing basketball in the lobby.
