Loving my life.

I love my everyday life. Life is so full and blessed. It is a time of peace and joy in our household and I am soaking it all in. I have five beautiful children. Three of whom I am enjoying raising right now and sharing in their experiences. They are all at such fun stages doing such amazing things. I love getting to learn about them as individuals and watching them interact together as siblings. They each bring something wonderful and unique to our family. I am having so many new experiences as a mom and my life is busy and I love it. I will always take the busyness over the overwhelming quiet and emptiness that I have lived through before. Thank you for the busyness. This week has been particularly exciting for me in mom world. Last year since the wouldn't allow volunteering in his school I never got to be in Hunter's classroom which was really hard for me. This week I was able to volunteer in his classroom at his new school for a couple of hours. I went in and helped with reading groups which was so much fun. It is so neat to watch Hunter interact with his peers and yet a lot of his behaviors are exactly what I figured such as the incessant need to socialize :) He is such strong reader I am so impressed with his reading skills. When asked by his teacher to introduce me he loudly announced that this was his mom MeKell Rose Burch and that they should call me Mrs. Burch because that is respectful. Thanks bud, nice intro :) It was nice to finally put a face to the names of all the friends I hear about afterschool and meet the "friend that is a girl" that he has been talking about. Quick side note: the second or third day of school he came home and told us that he had a girlfriend and all about her. Deke and I discussed that it was okay to like girls and have friends that are girls but that we don't need to hold hands or kiss or have girlfriends until we are old enough to date. The next day he came home distraught and told me that this little girl was now mad at him. When I asked him why he told me because after our talk he had gone to school and told her that he wanted to break up and then to his astonishment she got mad at him. First of all we never used the word break up so I can only imagine this was an education given to him by his peers and second of all he obviously didn't understand the term fully because he was confused as to why this upset her. We sat down again and explained. Two days later he came home with a bracelet on his wrist from her and announced that they were okay again and that she was now his friend that was a girl. Okay that will work. Also to be noted he has worn that bracelet from her like everyday. Anyways then we headed to McDonald's to have lunch just the two of us and over a Big Mac and happy meal a riveting conversation about the complexities of first grade. Pure mommy bliss. Two days a week I am doing a preschool with five other mom's in the ward for a couple hours a day. Avery is absolutely loving it, so is mom. The other day sensing a much too quiet moment I wandered into her room expecting mischief and saw this: a tea party in progress on her bed. Oven mitts on her hands as she applied ketchup to the hippo's hot dog and asked Squirt if he would like another bite of peas. I snapped a quick picture and then left her in girly happiness only left wondering why the coveted Moo cow hadn't been invited to the party and remembering my own tea parties as a little girl. Contentment. On another day of this eventful week Hunter at school and Avery napping I am finding quiet time for me and the littlest one of this bunch. Laying on the floor in a quiet house with blankets reading story books and playing on the floor with toys of all sorts. By the way Miss E has finally decided to start rolling over for us which is so cute. Can't believe she is starting to move, not quite ready for that. Enjoying her little giggles as she plays and this quiet time without noise or distraction to take in all of her new little facial movements and watch her display her new skill. In the quiet overwhelming feelings of gratitude and love for this tiny daughter. Loving my life. Grateful for my life.