Broken Boots And A Love Note

~the love note~

Yesterday was plain crazy! I volunteered in Eli's class and helped a group of kids sort out the short u words from the short e ones, then made sure that they wrote their organized words on a white board using two different colors. One color for the e words. Another for the u words. It was nice to be in the classroom, not doing clerical work. Don't get me wrong, clerical work is necessary and I don't mind making a bazillion copies, but I really prefer being in the classroom.

After volunteering I stuck around at the school and put up a bulletin board for Art Lit. The featured artist this month is Claude Monet. I wish I would have taken a picture because I really like how it turned out. I took one of Monet's waterlily paintings to gain inspiration, then created my own impressionist waterlily pond. I'm happy with the outcome! Especially how the lily's stand out.  But I created it, so of course I like it. Kind of like having a child with a face only a mother could love. Maybe today when I walk up to the school I'll take my camera and snap a picture of it and then you can be the judge.

After the kids got out of school I took Eli and his friend Conner to their first ever cub scout meeting. Eli was so excited and I'm sad I didn't take a picture of him in his snazzy uniform. Conner just went along for the ride to see if cub scouts might be something he wants to do. Well, because Eli took a friend and his friend isn't registered to be a scout I was informed that I had to stay the entire meeting and be a guardian. That's fine and dandy and all, but my plan was to go home and make soup for the dinner taking place before the ward temple trip. And it was the only hour I had to do it. I called my friend Sarah and told her I was stuck at the church and would not be able to make my soup. And I wouldn't be able to buy the bread either. And Sarah wasn't mad, even though the dinner was happening at her house in about an hour and a half. I apologized for being a double flake. She said that I should not worry about it and that she would take care of everything. And I knew she meant it. I love Sarah for being such an understanding and compassionate person! After scouts I ran Conner home where my other kiddos were hanging out. It was supposed to be an easy exchange of kids, but we couldn't find Ivy's boots. Her brand new boots that I had just gotten out of their box that same morning. Finally we found her boots. One of them had been snagged by the 6 month old puppy and was completely mangled. The zipper was totally chewed through. The leather was chewed through. The straps were chewed through and broken. And they were covered in dog spit. It was so sad! Needless to say, we never made it to the soup dinner. I got home just in time to say hi to Matt, throw leftovers at my kids and get ready to go to the temple.

I had tried to stay clam through the events of the afternoon, but I was feeling pretty frazzled by the time we left. Ivy was hanging on my leg and crying as we tried to get in the van. It was only my overly excited offer to let her close the garage after we backed out that got her to detach. I was so grateful that once we got to the temple everything just felt calm. The temple truly is a place where I can get away from the business of my life and focus in on what's truly important. It's so easy for me to get focused in on everything that needs to be done in a day and lose focus of the bigger picture. That eternal perspective that fills my life with much hope, joy and peace. I don't want to lose that. In the temple I felt no stress. Just happiness. I felt like I could hear myself think. It was wonderful to be at the temple with our ward family. And there were a lot of us there. It was an amazing turn out!

 When we got home last night Rylie had done an excellent job of getting the kids to bed. The kitchen was cleaned. The house was quiet. Matt and I turned off the lights and went upstairs to go to bed.

On Matt's pillow was the love note. I still don't know who made it, but  I think I have a good idea. It made us smile that this child took time to create the love and then place it where we couldn't miss it. We have some amazing kids!

And this morning as I walked the kids to school, my friend, who's dog chewed up Ivy's boot, was excited to share the news that she had gone to the store last night and found a replacement pair of boots for Ivy. The exact boots! I was thrilled because I thought I had gotten the very last pair in Ivy's size. And while I am so glad that Ivy will have these boots to wear throughout the winter, I am even more glad that I have such great, honest and caring people in my life.

The good boot. This picture is just to show the cuteness of the boot...though this picture isn't the best.

The chewed boot. This is just a shot of the zipper damage and some of the strap damage.