I had a good week. Last Sunday, I committed myself to being a better mom this week. Specifically, I decided that I was going to try harder to not yell at my kids and to chill out and stop obsessing so much about selling the house. I had been concentrating too much of my efforts on keeping the house clean in case I had to show it, and too little effort on enjoying my kids and on controlling my temper. Dumb. So this week I did much better. I was reminded that if I have been praying for it, the house will sell when the time is right, and I've no reason to stress about it. So anyway, I'm cool, the family's cool, and this weekend was SUPER cool. On Friday, after the kids and I left the library, we met Brian (and practically every other young family in town) over at the bank that was serving free hot dogs and ice cream. We all just sat out there on the lawn enjoying the food and the perfect 70 degree weather. Does life get any better than that? Oh, yes it does. It gets better when you realize that your bank is giving out free ice cream too (AND they have triple brownie fudge), and you just happen to have a check to deposit. I only felt sheepish for a minute when I saw a couple I know from the gym in the ice cream line and it occurred to me that they had just seen me eating free ice cream at the other bank a few minutes earlier. My confidence returned, however, when I realized that I had also seen them.
And THEN when I drove through the tunnel on my way to Eugene to do some grocery shopping, I kept honking my horn at Janey's request and the semi in front of me honked in reply. And THEN I withstood the temptation to buy everyone a 4th of July tee shirt AND I put back the five pound tub of licorice that made it all the way to the register with me at Costco. And I didn't even hit traffic on the way home. And Jim and Deena called just minutes after I got back into town to invite us to go up the coast a little to build a bon fire and watch fireworks at the water's edge. SO AMAZING. And then yesterday, on our way to the ward picnic where I actually participated in the relay races, Brian pulled over at the scene of an accident and was able to offer his help. And to top it all off, we watched the fireworks AGAIN last night down at the river and the family sitting nearest to us gave each of the kids a glow necklace thing to play with. It was just one of those weekends when I felt like all that was missing was everyone holding hands across America singing Heal the World. You know what I mean?!
Other than that--we bought a previously-bank-owned lot just north of town (in the neighborhood where we built the spec house) on which to build our dream home when this house DOES sell. (By dream home I actually just mean a house with a side-facing garage) Brian ran about 8 1/2 miles on Monday. (Did I already mention that he got in to the St. George Marathon this year? Did I mention that he is NOT a runner? I'm so excited for him!) Me and the kids are loving going to the lake several times a week. Camp has been assigned Mrs. Griffiths as his kindergarten teacher for the fall, Danin goes around squealing "I see your bum," and I believe that some of Jane's fits have lasted an impressive 45 minutes or so. What a life.