Monday night we celebrated Myra going to school with a fun dinner complete with crowns, a family theme for the year, and then ended it with Myra getting a special blessing from her daddy.
The theme we picked for the year is, "And finally, in all of living have much of fun and laughter. Life is to be enjoyed not just endured." I picked this theme for all of us, but especially for me. I too often get into ruts where I am just doing what I can to get through life and I don't enjoy it like I can/should. Yes, things can be hard, but I need to focus more on the things in life that I am grateful for and just BE HAPPY. I want to LOVE life and enjoy it despite the challenges. I married someone who is fun to be around and so happy... I want to be that way with him instead of dragging him down.
I taught a lesson to the Young Women on Sunday about preparing themselves to be righteous wives and mothers someday. I talked to them about a quote I saw awhile ago on Pinterest that said, "You are the only one that can give your kids a happy mom." And it's so obvious, but when I really think about that it makes me dig down deep and try to be that happy mom that they deserve.
So every Monday on family night we will repeat our theme together as a reminder for all of us to be happy and have a little more fun. To pop popcorn with the lid off, stay up past bedtimes occasionally and go to Disney, play games together instead of looking at screens.... I want us to be a happy family, and I recognize that that has to initiate with mom.
Then on Tuesday, Jordan stayed home for the morning to study so that we could all drive over to Myra's school together and drop her off. She was nervous and was having a really hard time when we took her out to the car, but I talked to her on the way over about how much fun she would have and that she would be safe there. She calmed down just in time as we dropped her off. She walked into the classroom with no fuss and never looked back. I just hope she stayed that way. haha
Her teacher said she did great and that she LOVES to color so she spent most of her time there coloring.
Off she goes...
When she got home we enjoyed warm cookies together while I tried to get her to tell me about her day at school. She didn't tell me much, but maybe a few years from now she will start to share more! And do you see all that sweat on her head? The poor girl was SO hot when I picked her up since they spend the last moments of the day on the playground. Tomorrow, I will send her in clothing that isn't Utah fall clothing... Sometimes I forget we are in Florida. haha
I also want to mention how grateful I am for other bloggers. I know that sometimes people have a lot of not-so-good things to say about successful bloggers, but I am eternally grateful for many of them. I get so much inspiration from some of them.. not just on things to do and make, but also on the kind of person I want to strive to be more like... and that makes my life (and my family's) much richer than they would be with out it. A lot of our family traditions have been taken up into our home because of their good examples, and I believe family traditions play a very LARGE part in making a family close.
Yearly back to school dinner and family theme idea came from nieniedialogues.blogspot.com and cookies after the first day of school to chat about the day came from 71toes.com.