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1. My primary lesson on Sunday went really well.  The bishop has given me permission to leave my little harp at the church so I will be able to use it in my lessons every week!  And I'm going to bring food whenever I can.  With food and the harp, I  am more able to keep the kids' attention.  This Sunday was especially good, though, because Scott came to our class as a special visitor.  He taught the kids about how baptisms are performed.  He is a really excellent presenter and the kids were really drawn into what he talked about.

2.  Now that I am free from the pull of Dragonlance, I have been able to catch up on housework this week.  I think the nice weather is also very inspiring.  The whole world is clean and fresh and so is my home.

3.  On Sunday, I told Carl the story of Jesus calming the storm during the sacrament.  He really liked it and asked me to tell it over and over again during the meeting.  He has been requesting it all week and I haven't yet gotten tired of telling it.  I think it is sweet when he says, "tell me the story of Jesus and the storm."

4. Some old friends from high school came to visit on Wednesday, one of whom I hadn't seen for two years.  It was fun to catch up and see how their families have changed and grown.  They are both much more involved in the artistic community than I am so it was fun to be inspired as well.

5. Today I told the kids the story/rhyme of the three little kittens who lost their mittens.  They were absolutely enchanted with the story and it immediately exploded into their play.  They spent the next half hour "loosing" and "finding" their mittens, sometimes taking them outside to "wash" them.  After that, Soren got bored with being a kitten and decided to be the mommy.  He became very involved in making pies for his "good little kittens" so I had to take back out all his kitchen toys for the baking.  It was very rewarding to watch them engage in new, imaginative play.

6. Scott and I watched "Captain America" this week. I am soooooo excited for the Avengers movie to come out this summer!

7. I have been practicing saying "yes" more often this week.  Too frequently, I find myself being The Mom of No.  I say "no" to everything just because of laziness, preference, or habit rather than only saying "no" when its important.  So this week, I have tried to say "yes" more often and to turn my "nos" into a different kind of yes (like "later").  And I'm not sure whether or not this is related but I feel like the boys have been much more cooperative in general this week.  It certainly helps that I'm not fighting dumb battles.  Scott is always telling me that Soren and Carl need to be able to trust that they will get what they want sometimes.  So I'm trying to lighten up, be flexible, and say "yes".

8. I had a great vision of what our yard could be this week.  We'll see if next week sees any of those plans come to fruition.

9.  I am really enjoying 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

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