For Mother's Day...

Kate tried to give me a heart attack... again. We had my family all over for a BBQ at our house, which was so fun and relaxing. The men were enjoying a game of dunk ball while we were watching and the kids were playing in the yard. I realized I hadn't seen Kate in the madness. She frequently disappears so I roamed the house and found the swimsuit she was wearing and had obviously changed out of. I looked in the cars (she likes to get in unsuspecting peoples cars to eat all of their gum) and no Kate. Checked with my sweet neighbor. No Kate. At this point, I'd been looking for 10-15 minutes and was starting to feel my heart in my throat. All 40 of my family members were looking down canal banks, inside neighbors shops, etc. and no Kate. Mark thought he'd call his Mom real quick. BY HERSELF, she walked down the side of the road, and down over a 1/2 mile ditch bank (with a huge canal on the side of it) and mosied into my in-laws house, where she told them with a giggle and a smile on her face that she had sneaked away from her Mom. All by herself. She is a whopping three years old. Mark was trying to call them as they were calling him. The worst part, you can't even punish her. She is 100% oblivious. I've tried multiple times to have serious conversations about it. She can't focus for more than 30 seconds before she's onto another subject. Two months ago, we were discussing the before mentioned canal and how soon there was going to be water in it,and what she should do when there's water in the canal. She told me, "um.... swim!" We talked about strangers telling her if she'll get in the car she can have candy. What should you say? Her response, "Yay!! Candy!" So we have Kate with not an ounce of caution in her bones (I blame Mark. He pulled similar shenanigans). Then, there's Launa. She told me the duties for morning recess have been showing up late and did I know that since they weren't there when they were supposed to be someone could just pull up and steal her?! She is EXTRA cautious! I'm looking forward to summer when she can be an extra set of eyes and ears for her sisters!! Besides that little incident, however, mother's day was lovely. Launa gave me a sweet gift and kind words (the best gift from her really), Mark spoke in church and I taught our relief society lesson on "Becoming Joyful". It was good for me to prepare that lesson because it made me think about the joy that I really do experience in my life. My children do bring me so many spurts of absolute joy every single day. Our take home handout said "choose joy", and I felt like the first step to doing that was gratitude. There will always be struggles and frustrations, but even in the midst of those, I still have so many reasons to be joyful.