Lessons Learned....

This week I learned some hard lessons. I think that the Lord decided that I really needed to be humbled this week. I have a wonderful family, and all too often I take them for granted and expect too much out of them.

Anna has been potty training and we had thought her mostly potty trained. But over the last couple of months she has been making it clear that she really wasn't potty trained. This week it got really bad. She was having 1-2 accidents every day! Some of them with in an hour of her last potty trip. This was making me VERY upset. Between morning (who ever thought of calling this 'morning sickness' was totally off base!!) sickness and hormones, Anna was seeing a sharp side of my temper with each accident. On Saturday I lost it with her completely, I sent her to the bathroom and told her to stay there until I said she could leave. As I steamed and stewed over this I just got my self more and more worked up until (as I was trying to get lunch ready) the though occurred to me just what I was doing. I couldn't believe my behavior and just how totally off it was from how the Savior would have me treat my little ones. Pregnancy hormones then exploded and I broke down sobbing. I went to find my sweet little accident-prone girl and apologized to her and snuggled her and loved her. Eileen saw me upset and it upset her. She also started crying and when I asked her why she was crying, she told me that she was "worried about" me. So all three of us snuggled for a while (while Aaron tried to eat his sandwich and made a HUGE mess!) and then Eileen looked up at me and said "Mommy what does 'worry' mean?" So my day got a bit better. I had a new mind set and was not so ready to snap at my kids. The problem was that all this getting my self upset had just exhausted my body. I couldn't make myself get up to do anything. When Dan got home from the wrestling tournament around 7 pm he found me curled up on the floor and the kids running amok. He sweetly took charge, got the kids bathed and to bed and got me fed so I felt a little better. This was not exactly the way he wanted to spend an evening, after spending his whole day (starting at 5 am) working and worrying about me. Later that night came self realization number two. Dan and I had a nice long talk before bed and I realized (not because of his words!) that I had been being very selfish. I had been thinking of my self and my problems and my morning sickness and not about the needs of my family. Our scripture study that night was talking about Christ's atonement and all I could think of as we read was how grateful I am for the chance to be forgiven for my mistakes. The chance that I have to wipe the slate clean and start over. I am also very grateful for loving kids and a patient husband.

Ok so the end of the drama! Other fun stuff this week. I took the Eileen and Aaron to get their pictures taken. (a little late for birthday, pictures, but hey, better late than never) Eileen just loved it! She is such a ham for the camera! She had tons of fun posing and looking pretty! Aaron was less cooperative! He didn't want to leave his mommy! And the few times we managed to get him off of me, he still wouldn't give his beautiful smiles for the camera. We did manage to get a cute shot anyway. Will show those when I get them! Until then her is them just being cute with bubbles!