Easter, 13, Guild, Mother's Day

We had one last holiday dinner with the Brimleys before they move far away. We have been very lucky to spend so many holidays in Texas with family (or practically family). The Brimleys are definitely honorary cousins. And when we get together, the food is delicious! I got pictures of the table and the food, but not the people. I guess you can tell what really matters to me. And Amanda is really good at her table decorations. We even had real jasmine garlands.

Scotty is a teenager! This is definitely his last year being the shortest in the family. He's 5'4" and growing. Scotty's biggest passion in life right now is basketball. He can't get enough of it. For his birthday he requested a BYU basketball t-shirt and a basketball. Also tickets to a Spurs game, but that was a out of the birthday budget. Scotty also loves Minecraft and math. He finished his Art of Problem Solving class and can't wait for his next one to start on May 20th. I suspected he would love math, but it took him a little while to figure it out. We're very glad to have found AoPS for him. It's the perfect fit.  

The kids completed another year of Guild. I think the official name is the National Fraternity of Student Musicians. On Friday they played their pieces for the judge. From my spot in the car waiting outside, they sounded great. I'm really proud of their hard work on it. Aaron said he got sick of their pieces, but I still love hearing them even now. Their recital was on Saturday. We're so grateful for their amazing teacher!

And here I sit blogging on a lovely Mother's Day. It has been in the 70s this week, and we are just soaking it up. 100 degrees...it's coming for us on Wednesday. It's that time of year again. But today is perfect. I love these two kids I get to mother. They are fun and interesting and smart. I like them a lot. Annie and I went to Joann's yesterday to hit up their going-out-of-business sale. We found some awesome stuff, including fabric that is ready to make into a dress, you just need to sew up one side seam and hem it...At least that's how they made it sound. So Annie made us these matching dresses last night. She was up until 1 am. That's how sewing projects go, isn't it? Matching dresses was a dream come true for me. Didn't happen until Annie was taller than me, but it's still fun, right?

Today in Relief Society we counseled about feeling like you're not enough. Women feel this way a lot. As I thought about it this week, I realized we AREN'T enough. But Jesus is! We can rely on Him completely. Jesus doesn't offer us plain enough-ness. He offers us wholeness which is way better. Enough-ness just asks if you did the right number of things, served the right number of people, met the right criteria. But wholeness looks at the whole picture of who we are. It takes the mess and the miracle of us and loves all of it. Christ sees all of us, and He loves what He sees. Yes, there are parts of us that need cleansing and healing, but He's here for it. He is the way for every step of the way. In the scriptures, Christ is called our Advocate. Satan is called our Accuser. I want to do better at talking to myself like Christ would, as an advocate instead of an accuser. Satan wanted to "save" us by making us enough--he wanted to force us to do the right number of the right things. But Jesus wants to save us by making us whole. And how did He do that? By experiencing the whole of the human experience and redeeming that experience for each one of us individually. Isn't He amazing!?