Our "Olivia" Day...

One of my all time favorite books is "Olivia" by Ian Falconer In the original book it starts with, "This is Olivia, she is very good at wearing people out.... she even wears her self out." If there was a quote that could sum up our day today, that would be it. We woke up this morning, got Cameron off to bishopric meetings and then Aleksa and I had breakfast. She was very tired but would NOT take a nap. We tried three times but no go (Aleksa is usually very good about taking naps so when she refuses it is very frustrating for all parties involved). We got ready and Cameron came home to get us. She was okay during the sacrament, but today was the primary program. Major plus- Cameron got to sit with us, Major minus- Aleksandra saw all the kids going up to the stand and took off to go with them to the stand. When mommy decided to bring her back to the bench she was OUTRAGED! She was so mad that she could not be up there with the kids. Cam finally had to take her out. She still would not fall asleep. After sacrament Cam was set apart and Aleksandra cried until I put her down. Then she ran around the office shaking my keys that she dug out of my bag. Aleksandra was so tired but still would NOT sleep so we paced the halls all during Sunday school. When Relief Society came, I was hoping and praying that we could make it through because I love the lessons, but to no avail. We made it through the opening song when we had to go back out into the hall. Where she decided that she needed to push the giant can food drive box around the hall. I carried her away from the box numerous times but to no avail she remembered where the box was every time. The box had to be three times bigger than she was but she just pushed it around the hallway. When priesthood separated for their classes I grabbed Cameron to talk to him. I put Aleksandra down for a minute and she took that opportunity to run into the now full men's restroom- oh joy..... Cameron had to run in after her while all the young men giggled. On the way home she finally fell asleep, which brings me to the end of our favorite "Olivia" at the end of the day as Olivia's mom is reading to her she looks at Olivia and says, "you really wear me out but I love you anyway, and Olivia looks back up at her mom and says I love you anyway too." Isn't this true- Aleksa may wear me out and frustrate me but at the end of the day I would rather be chasing her down the hall at church than anywhere else. And Aleksa loves me despite all of my shortcomings too- thank goodness.

During my day I kept thinking of the words from my favorite conference talk by President Monson,

"If you are still in the process of raising children, be aware that the tiny fingerprints that show up on almost every newly cleaned surface, the toys scattered about the house, the piles and piles of laundry to be tackled will disappear all too soon and that you will—to your surprise—miss them profoundly.
Stresses in our lives come regardless of our circumstances. We must deal with them the best we can. But we should not let them get in the way of what is most important—and what is most important almost always involves the people around us. Often we assume that they must know how much we love them. But we should never assume; we should let them know. Wrote William Shakespeare, “They do not love that do not show their love.”3 We will never regret the kind words spoken or the affection shown. Rather, our regrets will come if such things are omitted from our relationships with those who mean the most to us."

Now I should mention the tender mercies that I experienced today, starting with a loving husband who, despite being gone all day long came home and cooked himself some dinner and gave me the evening off (hence the HUGE post), I was very upset about missing Relief Society and for some reason- very upset about missing the announcements- but what was in my inbox tonight? An e-mail of all the announcements in Relief Society today. A mother who validated my hard day at church and told me a few of her own stories which actually made mine seem mild- and let me talk her ear off until I felt much better. And the last tender mercy- a little girl who knocked on my bedroom door while I was having quiet mommy time until I came out to read her a story before bedtime. All in all a pretty good day.