Here are a few thoughts I’ve wanted to write about recently, but I don’t have the energy to develop them into “real” posts, so enjoy my extraordinary brevity.

1. Tonight I was getting ready to go to dinner with a lovely blog friend, and Grant was understandably curious since I put on make up and all.  I explained where, who, what, when, etc. and he seemed satisfied.  He paused from dusting my dresser (yes, I make my children do jobs while I get ready for a night on the town) and said, “You’d better hurry.  I wish you a good time.”  I laughed. What six-year-old says, “I wish you a good time”?  Such a silly boy.
2. Even though I spent most of today being more detached and lazy than I should be, I spent a little one-on-one time with each of my kids doing some cuddling/wrestling/tickling, and I watched their mouths really close while we talked and played.  I love their smiles.  The cute little teeth and smile shapes.  I felt a deep connection with each of them and wondered if I knew their smiles in heaven before any of us were born.
3. I know it’s sexist, but I’ve always kind of considered self-mastery to be more of a man’s problem.  Women are more disciplined it seems.  Well, I’ve been realizing lately that’s baloney.  Maybe men have a harder time not doing things they shouldn’t, but it’s sure been hard for me lately to do the stuff I know I should.  I joked with my friend tonight that we moms just don’t have the energy to do all the stuff we believe in and know we should.  Anyway, I concede that self-mastery is a universal problem.
4. Matt just played a country song for me (not my favorite genre) and told me that he wants to turn it into a heavy metal song and it will be his anthem to me.  I looked skeptical, and he said it’s called “She’s Got It All.”  “Oh, that’s nice,” I said, “but I’m not sure I want my anthem to be a heavy metal song.”  He said he’s got all the guitar solos and riffs and stuff worked out in his mind; he just doesn’t know how to play it.  What a shame.  It’s our tenth anniversary this weekend, and I think he’s right– I do “got it all.”  Still love that guy.  I thank my lucky stars often that I got that choice right.  I think I might do a “How I met Matt” series on my blog to celebrate. It’s quite a fun story. Would anybody actually care to read it?
5. For family home evening last night, the boys taught the lesson and we all did a role-play of David and Goliath.  Matt was the Goliath defeated by the brave and faithful Grant/David.  He hit him smack dab in the forehead with a little bouncy ball and it cracked us all up.  I guess Natalie even paid attention, but unfortunately she spent the rest of the night saying (in her mean Daddy/Goliath voice) “Come and fight me!”  Not exactly the lesson we were going for, but I’m glad she was listening.
6. Last week, the kids were on my black list after that hard trip I took with them to Nauvoo.  Matt helped me out by teaching our family home evening lesson on “the body of Christ” and how we have to work together as a family so we can be strong and happy.  We got out the whiteboard and they each took turns drawing a member of our family, and then we made lists of ways to have strong, happy families and what makes sad, broken families (obviously all in preschool vocabulary).  Check it out:

And here’s a close-up of the family portrait:

This is me right here.  The tarantula or spider monkey that Natalie drew.  It’s good to see what a prominent place I hold in the family.

7.  I sent out a lot of emails with Protecting Innocence Project assignments and I’ve heard back from several of you, but can the rest of you (who said you wanted to participate) hit reply and let me know if you’re going to be able to do your assignment?  No offense will be taken if you don’t want to/can’t do it, but it helps me to know what parts I still need to work on.  To those of you who are waiting on a response back from me on your initial research/work, I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.  Thank you, thank you.

So much for brevity.  Good night.