overall good

Have you ever woken up naturally? it is just plain splendid. No alarm jolting you from a peaceful rest. No one crying. No one is late. No one needs anything or any accidents happening. No emergencies. Just... good morning.

that happened to me today. 6:30am. of my own free will and choice. just woke up. because. my body decided to. it was done sleeping. I still can't get over how great that was.

I almost didn't know what to do with myself. 

I sat down and planned out the day. gosh, it looked glorious. I was excited for the day. it felt like MY day. a day just for me. It was going to be low-key and get stuff done and it was just going to be amazing. I blogged. I did some homework. I even ate some oatmeal. just me. alone. enjoying breakfast.

at 9am, after a few kids had trickled into the dining room, I decided to wake up everyone and officially start our day. cereal breakfast and devotional. then it was on to chores. Laundry. Saturday deep clean for the kids, and then... I got a text from my husband. He was at the Oakland California temple. 

to say it brightened my spirits would be an understatement. He was at the Lord's house. He had made an effort to draw close to God. He was using his day off, his Saturday, to be at the temple. I was thrilled. the day was cloudy and rainy where he was. he went inside the visitor center and listened to the Christus presentation. my FAVORITE. I miss having that in the Mesa Temple visitor center. He said they had cards of the scripture references for the presentation, a script of it all. He promised to send me one so I could have it in my scriptures. what a gift!

things got hairy during chores. WWIII broke out between Evelynn and Sally. a fight from yesterday came up again and exploded like a volcano. I had no choice but to sit down and try to resolve it. A half-hour later, I felt a whole lot better but they were giving each other a staring/silent treatment. Later, I made them spend an hour together. They played battleship. no one won.  

Just when things felt peaceful again, I got a few text messages. the day was picking up speed. Now we had two playdates happening one after the other. I was excited because I like being the hangout spot, but stressed because I wanted it to be awesome... and I still had stuff to get done.

then I turn the corner and see... A baby in the mudddddddddddd.

which led to a baby in a BATH...

I ran to the store to get a few things I needed... and decided to spoil myself with a bouquet of discounted flowers. something about flowers really gladdens my heart and cheers my soul. so... i did it just for me. a little delight. for no reason at all.

then Walters friend #1 showed up. it was game time. LEMONADE STAND. i swore I would never ever do it again. and yet, here we are. it is so dumb. I love and hate this thing. First they made it. Then took a break. Then they sold it. 

and then we divided the cash among the four boys and alone came playdate #2. First up was an epic neighborhood game of tag with all the boys and a couple of the girls. Then it was time for a pow-wow and clean up before a pizza dinner. and then Walter finished his tech time by sharing it with our guest and playing Mario cart.

After that, it was bath time. our guest was patient while everyone did their thing and then I put everyone to bed (except for Evelynn who snuck out with a friend to go to a Saturday night stake youth dance) and then I let the boys stay up and eat ice cream and play more games. one of which was headbandz.

When our guest left, he had a smile and I felt successful. Then I let Walter play laser tag out front in the dark with his neighbor friend until his mom called him in. 

I waited for Evelynn to get back and called Jeff. we read THIS talk about revelation and discussed it for a good while. and now I am gonna do some bedtime yoga and hit the hay. it's been a very fulfilling day that I never anticipated, but feel truly happy about.