You can be jealous of my life, but you have to be jealous of my real life.

So I do a lot of posting of fun travels and awesome family and many blessings which are all real. But I don't usually fill in with the boring, disappointing, or painful moments. Mostly because who wants to read about that? Then I realized the answer is maybe someone who is living a boring or disappointing or painful moment.

So here is the good news and bad news of my real, awesome, recent life. I will start with my birthday. It began with these sweet notes being placed by my daughter in my room while I was taking a shower.

Then my awesome friends with whom I teach seminary and attend the temple every Wed. (unless we change it to Tues.) and I rode up to the Atlanta temple in a sweet birthday ride. Best surprise ever.

I also was treated to lunch by a friend the next day and received calls and some cards from my family, and my facebook friends never disappoint. I was definitely spoiled, but luckily I have a large family, because not everyone in my family remembered. I know they love me, and I've forgotten birthdays before, but if you were feeling jealous because I was remembered by my husband, 9 children and 9 siblings, that would be inaccurate. Be jealous that a solid majority of my loved ones remembered my birthday.

With my birthday behind me, I enjoyed a darn right pleasant weekend. Paul and Gabe went camping with the scouts. The bad news is that Gabe always grumbles about camping because there are wasps and hiking and not enough cheese sticks. The good news is that his Dad went with him to help him set up the tent and sleep between him and the potentially dangerous wildlife and take the edge off of the anxiety of camping in the wilderness. I stayed home and watched "Merlin." I realize that I was not being super productive, and I felt a little guilt when my daughter walked in from an orchestra performance with her viola friend, and I was sitting on the couch ignoring the kitchen with the remains of what you could hardly call dinner on the table. I did get up and put a few things away and then went back to the show. True story.

OK Saturday night was good news, not gonna lie. We went to the evening session of church stake conference which was inspiring.  Then for the closing hymn the youth choir performed a hymn that had been arranged by Rebecca and her cello friend, Jefferson Downs. I had heard it a few times before when they played it on the computer program, but with the vocals and piano and violin and cello and the angels that must have been there, my heart melted at the beauty and power of that sacred music.

Sunday was church. I love church. I love the Spirit, the renewing of covenants, inspiring messages, fellowship,  music... You can be jealous of my church, but speaking of music, I have been asked to play the piano in Primary. This is fun, because children are adorable and singing children are super adorable. Children are also forgiving. I am not a great pianist. You can be jealous that I can play a little, but that's where it has to end, unless you're one of those people that loves living on the edge. It's like extreme accompaniment. Sometimes I play correctly and all is well, and then the very next time I play, some dangerous notes come out of nowhere and undermine the whole musical experience. For those of us who are shooting for more peace and harmony in our life, this is not an enviable state in which to live. I am, however, practicing daily, as the date for the Primary program (when the children sing in the main worship service, accompanied by...yours truly) is approaching quickly, I would appreciate any prayers on my behalf.

Monday through Friday go like this: I wake up at 5:30.(4:30 if I am stressed about my awesome life) I hardly ever want to wake up. I shower and dress and attempt to control my hair through heat. Then I eat a banana and Frosted Mini Wheats. (I know the frost isn't super healthy, but the wheats contain 90% of the daily recommended iron and some fiber.) This is where I need to mention that I try and nourish my body, but once that's done I reward myself with treats, and I'm not afraid of sausage. There. Now you know. And I walk outside, and the GA humidity returns my hair to its natural state of random activity. Then I go here:

To teach about this:

to them:

And I'm almost always glad I did.

Next up is walking with the other seminary teachers from the building except one who is a man and isn't invited. He leaves to support his family anyway and doesn't even know what he's missing.

This is awesome, and then the rest of the day is decidedly less so. I clean some, but usually not enough, I launder, I grocery shop. I do food. I'd like to do better food, and fall brings a renewed desire to improve so here's hoping, I prepare for the next day's lesson, then at 3:30 I'm back on mom duty. It's a good duty and I'm thankful, but it entails a lot of homework and motivational speaking and listening and worrying and yeah. Actually, it's exactly what I want to be doing so you can be jealous.

This week my Wednesday temple friend was my sweet, funny, talented cousin. It's just as nice as you'd think it would be to have a cousin living nearby. We go to lunch and antiquing and remember the same grandma and grandpa.  Even though we didn't spend much time together as children, being with her always feels like being home. No bad news, only jealousy.

And this week my husband moved home.  He's been commuting from Memphis on the weekends. His job ended and that solved our fatherless children problem. The employment problem remains, but Heaven is kind and my husband is well-educated and experienced so hopefully he'll be gainfully employed in the Atlanta area very soon. It's nice to have a husband home during the week again. I'll try not to nag too much about his leaving stuff around, but I might not be perfect at that yet. 

And tomorrow I'm going visiting teaching. That's a program in our church where we are assigned companions and women to visit every month. We share a message and visit and make ourselves available to help, although it seems that the women I have visited have helped me more than I've helped them. I've been able to form friendships with women who I might not have had as much contact with and I love it. So tomorrow will be fun. I might even get to watch a couple more episodes of Merlin. Be jealous.