Today

Today is Columbus Day, October 8, 2012.  

Here's what happened around our house:


Today Ben left for 5th Grade Camp.  He's been so excited to go.  He will be gone for 3 days and 2 nights.  I miss him already.  (And yes, he chose to take the pink duffel bag.  Pink seems to be all the rage for boys these days.)


Today Sarah got an early Christmas present:  a new piccolo.  She's been wanting one for quite a while and the circumstances (and upcoming concert) in band this year necessitated her getting one sooner than the end of December.  She spent the afternoon trying out her new instrument.  (For anyone that doesn't know, the piccolo is not fun to listen to all by itself, even if the piccolo player is pretty good.)

Today I ate leftover pumpkin waffles with apple cider syrup for both breakfast and lunch.  I made the waffles for breakfast yesterday before General Conference.  They were amazingly delicious.

Today I took William to story time and he had his friend Porter come over to play after lunch.

Today, David had the day off work since it is a government holiday.  He cleaned the garage, ran errands and helped me drive the kids places.  We stopped in a store together so I could return something.  William ran off to hide in the clothes racks and then had a huge tantrum later as David held him so I could talk to the store clerk.  We thought about going out for lunch but decided we didn't want to take him to any other public locations.

Today I listened to a book on CD as I drove kids around.  I am near the climax of the book and found myself driving slower so I could find out what happens.

Today after school Kate read books to William as part of her homework assignment to read aloud.  After she finished reading, I found them like this on the couch together.  They have such a sweet relationship.

Today Rachel had a violin lesson and Sarah and Rachel had piano teams practice.

Today for dinner I made Shepard's Pie.  Kate was not happy about this meal choice and wrote this note for me:

 This is her pouty face letting me know that she does not want to eat her dinner.

Today at dinner William learned how to spit out a mouthful of milk.   On purpose.  At his sister.  So much for their sweet relationship.

Today I made cinnamon rolls for Family Home Evening treats.  They smelled fabulous as they were baking in the oven.  The cinnamon rolls were enough motivation for Kate to eat a few bites of her Shepard's Pie. 

Today was not a perfect day, and in some ways it wasn't ordinary (we don't get new piccolos around here every day), but it was a good day.  This is real life in our house.  And it is good.