Today

This is just about my favorite school break of the year.  There's no pressure to travel, so we usually don't, and although I love being with our Utah family for Thanksgiving, I really love just staying home, too.  We have a ton of stuff planned for the rest of this week, which I'm so excited about, but we had nothing on our Tuesday calendar, and that worked out pretty well, too.

The Temple

It was 39 degrees this morning when I woke up, and the absolute last thing I wanted to do was get out of bed.  But that little voice in my heart kept saying, "You should go to the temple today," and I could only manage to ignore it for about 20 minutes before I had to just get up already.  The temple was lovely, and not at all crowded like I thought it might be, and so much better than staying in bed.  I especially loved the Celestial Room where I lingered for a really long time, and the drive home with Diet DP and really loud Christmas music, where I also might have lingered a little.  

Turkey Hunt

I have had a little trouble finding a turkey big enough for the 11 people I'm feeding on Thursday.  So Emma and I went out again this afternoon on yet another turkey hunt...and we found it!  just kidding... 

We actually did find the perfect 19 pound bird who is happily defrosting in my fridge right now.  

The Park

It warmed up to 61 degrees this afternoon so I took my three favorite 11-year-olds to the park to play their newest obsession...frisbee.  They had three frisbees, and obstacles and invented some kind of adventure frisbee game that they played for two whole hours!  

Miraculous Ladders

About 10 minutes into our park date, one of the boys got his frisbee stuck in a gutter on the roof of the little pavilion.  Three boys and two frisbees is a slight inconvenience, although nobody complained.  I didn't even try to retrieve it because I'm only about 4 inches taller than the boys.  But just after everyone settled on a frisbee sharing rotation, this man came out of nowhere to work on something (I still have no idea what) and I asked him if he would please get the stuck frisbee.  And because he was so nice, all three boys had their own frisbee again.  

Dinner is currently in the oven.  Two out of four of my children have picked up extra hours at work tonight.  Everything is on schedule for Thanksgiving which means I can take the kids to the zoo tomorrow guilt free.  Inspiration and confidence were regained, a couple of blog posts were written, scriptures were read, thank you notes were sent, and music was practiced for DMCO.  I'm quite sure that had I chosen to stay in bed for two extra hours this morning instead of spending that time in the temple, the day would not have come together as well.  Something about making the effort to get there, and being quiet for the first few hours of the day, helps everything else come into perspective.  Ladders appear miraculously.  Turkeys are found.  Play dates fit into the schedule.  And I spend a whole lot less time running around doing things that don't matter very much, like dusting.  I'm so grateful for a temple that is close enough to get to on a spur of the moment impulse.  I'm grateful to have listened to that little voice.  And I'm grateful for all the tiny little details that made this day so much better than I anticipated.