A Quiet Sunday

Brian and Jake stayed home from church to take care of Lila today. I was teaching the lesson in Relief Society (yikes!) so I needed to go, and Evie asked to come with me. I love all my children very much, but I have to admit that it was incredibly pleasant to go to church with only one. She sat and colored quietly and I could actually listen to the speakers and review my lesson. It was a lovely, restful feeling. One that I had almost forgotten you can feel during Sacrament meeting.

My lesson went well enough, at least from what I could remember. I was teaching from Pres. Uchtdorf's talk Of Regrets and Resolutions and I felt like his words did most of the work. The hardest part was trying to keep my emotions in check as I suffer from Madsen genetics where our tear ducts are tied to our vocal cords. I had several sisters stop me afterwards to tell me that I did a good job, so I think I must have at least made sense. :)

When we left church it had started snowing in earnest and I thought, "Oh dear, I wish I'd put something in the crock-pot. This is the kind of day you'd like to come home to a warm meal." Imagine my surprise to walk in to Jacob announcing that he had made soup and it was just finished! He had prepared Potato Cheese soup (a dry mix where you add water) all by himself and hadn't burned it or anything else. It was delicious and just the sort of thing you crave on a snowy winter afternoon. He went out of his way today to be helpful and kind to all of us, running and fetching for his father, teaching Evie the finer points of switching over batches of laundry, doing everything in his power to keep Lila calm and happy. He even took it upon himself to clean up most of the mess when Lila got sick after a particularly bad coughing fit. He is a pretty amazing nine year old, and I don't know what we would do without him.

Evie was just as eager to be a helper. She has decided lately that doing laundry is her favorite chore and without being asked will often sort the dirty clothes and bring up the clean ones from the dryer. Sometimes I have to re-sort as I am putting in more to wash and sometimes the ones she brings up aren't quite finished drying. But she never seems to get discouraged by her mistakes and just cheerfully sets about trying to remember to do it better the next time. I adore that characteristic of hers. She too has been so kind and patient with Lila and willing to get her drinks, popsicles, blankets and changes of clothing anytime she is asked. Evie actually started to cry when we had to take Lila to the doctor on Friday night, my tenderhearted girl gets so sad when someone else is hurting.

Lila is doing a little better. She is not fond of the medicines she has to take and cries and begs me not to give them to her, but she doesn't fight me and drinks them right down when it comes to it. She is still feverish off and on, and prone to be a little on the clingy and cranky side especially when she first wakes up. But once the medicines start working she gets so funny and chatty. She's also taken to calling me Chris, which cracks me up even though I don't let her get away with it and insist on being called Mom. (It's probably because she sounds exactly like Brian when she does it.) She told Brian today that she was sad because, "Today has not gone at all how I dreamed it would..."

All in all I thought it was a lovely Sunday. Lots of time laying around and watching movies together, it was a nice and relaxing day. Just what we needed before plunging back into another busy week.