Rain

Just a "note" from the Lloyd family this week...

It has been raining outside our home as well as inside!  It has not been the best week-nor has it been the worst.  However, sometimes I feel like I just am not the greatest mother...

Nathanael has been doing his soccer training this week-although a couple of them were cancelled due to the bad weather.  He has also been getting ready for a solo and ensemble festival with a small group of boys from his choir.  Nat is doing okay and I believe he is the only child that has not really been mad at me this week (yet).  Thank goodness!  (Travis was asked to help out with coaching the Lone Peak freshman team-he was so excited!)

Last Saturday Lindsay's Young Women's basketball team won the Stake championship!  Lindsay also started out the week well by telling us that she made SSA for next year (the girls choir in her junior high).  However, later in the week she decided that she really, really, really wanted a cell phone.  Our answer was "no".  She does not need one at this point.  When she is older and driving and dating and has a job-that is the time for a cell phone in our family.  She did not like that answer at all and there was much " weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth!"  She has now softened a little bit (It only took her 3 days!)  It was just difficult to see her acting like a teenager!

Ethan was in the school play, "Young King Arthur" this week.  He played his little part as an evil minion very well.  We had fun putting a beard on his face and a scar.  We also did his hair "spiked up" on top.  We call it his "angry hair."  We thought that it added to his minion character.  This morning I did his hair that way for school-that way we just have to worry about the make-up tonight.  He did not like that!  He slammed the door when I dropped him off this morning at school.  Lovely.

Clarissa has been mad at me this week because I have decided that she is not allowed to play dollhouse or anything else until her room is clean.  I have spent hours helping her clean her room and it is not that hard (in my opinion) to clean it up when you are done!  I do try to tell her to clean her room often and she does go in there with the best of intentions, however, minutes later she is distracted by putting on a show for her dolls or reading them a story.  Maybe I need to hold her dolls "hostage" until it is done.  Needless to say, there was also much "weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth" from her as well!

Zachary is learning to speak more and more words.  This week Travis was taking him while he dropped the kids off at Young Mens and Young Womens and said "Let's go!"  I was told that Zac started walking towards the door saying, "Let's go!  Let's go!"  Maybe there was a little bit of sunshine amongst the clouds this week!

The week did not start out so good.  I was kind of ill on Monday-but not so bad that I had to stay in bed.  I got up and got dressed and put gas in our van-which only had one mile left to empty and then ran over to the junior high to pay for Nat's AP test coming up.  I thought that I was doing good until lunchtime.  I realized that I had forgot Moms and Muffins at the elementary school.  They have had Dads and Donuts for years where the dads get to go and read to their children and have donuts.  This was the first one for moms and I forgot!  It was on my calendar-but I did not look at my calendar until it was too late!  I felt awful!  I usually NEVER forget things like that!  Ethan and Clarissa were so hurt and sad when I picked them up and I pictured them at school looking at all the other kids' moms and felt a little sick to my stomach.  I tried to make it up to them.  I picked up some big, chocolate yummy muffins and brought them home.  We ate them together and then I took Clarissa and read to her snuggled in my bed with no one else around for thirty minutes.  I then did the same with Ethan.  We had a great time and the kids forgave me but I still felt bad.  That is the day it started "raining" in our house and the clouds have not really gone away-hopefully the sunshine will come out soon again!

Despite all of the rain, I did have a "moment of joy" this week when Clarissa told me that she forgave me for forgetting Moms and Muffins because that is what we are supposed to do-forgive eachother.

Cathy