Memorial Day week long celebration

During the week of Memorial day I felt better than I had felt in a long time.  So what did I do as soon as I got my energy back?!  Well, for starters I took one day of the week and worked on one room at a time.  I cleaned out our winter wardrobe, boxed them up and put them in the shed.  I washed walls, doors, and cleaned bathrooms like never before.  These are chores that my kids had been doing for months, but truth be told my hand was truly needed.  I cleaned out closets, drawers, and organized my kids' school work.  And I did some blogging; it feels good to be caught up with family's record keeping.  I was grateful to Heavenly Father for giving me some of my energy back, so I could take care of my family, and the house before my mom gets here, and before the kids get out of school.

I also felt such great love and gratitude for my sweet Charlton.  When he didn't have preschool, he would stay home with me, and instead of complaining for lack of my attention, he would silently follow me in each room I was working and would find something to play on his own.  It truly made my job so much easier.

On Friday before Memorial Day weekend, Charlton had his last day at Pre-K.  That night, Mrs. Perona's all of four classes had prepared a program where they each shared something they had learned and sang a bunch of songs that they had sung during various months of the year. Charlton's favorite part was the time when he got his diploma;  he kept telling me afterwards that he was ready to start kindergarten right away because he already graduated from Pre-K.  In the end of the program, a friend of ours had compiled interviews from each child about their thoughts of Mrs. Perona.  It was very touching, hearing funny and sweet things come out of the mouths of babes.

Charlton has grown so much this year. He has loved his teacher, his classmates, and especially his best friend William.  He is so ready for Kindergarten, and although he is the youngest, he knows how to make his voice heard.  He loves to color and cut, just started writing phonetically, loves to do homework ( various work books), and is so ready to read.  Hopefully this summer, he and I will be working on his reading book a bit more systematically; he's halfway done.  However, my favorite part of Charlton is the fact that he has matured so much as an individual.  I love it that he can already sense and understand situations and people.  This is a funny age where they are so concentrated on themselves they are at time oblivious to what's going on around them.  Charlton has his moments with this, but I think because he observes how his older siblings work together and think of others, it has made him way more thoughtful than his age allows.  I'm grateful for that.  We live in an age where thoughtfulness and kindness has to be scheduled, but if I want one thing for my kids to adopt from their heritage is charity for others: kindness, thoughtfulness, love, giving, understanding, accepting, service, forgiveness, good manners.  My other three have taught each other by example; there isn't a day that goes by when I don't receive some kind of loving service from my children.  I hope Charlton learns these lessons from his parents and siblings as he grows up and becomes a very thoughtful and kind young man.  He's already on his way.  I'm so proud of him.

This past Saturday, after sleeping in and having a delicious breakfast prepared from my husband, we joined forces in cleaning up the house and getting it ready for the Sabbath.  After which, the kids and I headed out to the pool and stayed there till dinner time.  The weather was perfect, I felt good, the kids had friends and water guns to play with, and my friend, Christina, came and chatted with me.  I swam 16 laps, sun bathed, played with Charlton, read, and took a nap.  Best Saturday I had had in a while!

That night, a friend of ours organized a movie and popcorn in their backyard inviting a bunch of us and kids.  I was exhausted from swimming, but it was fun seeing all the kids getting excited about watching a movie together.  Gillian kept giving me hard time for wanting a picture with all of the kids, so I'm putting a picture of her making faces in case it will help her not to do that again.

We had planned nothing for Memorial Day, thinking that I didn't feel well and wouldn't have enough energy to throw a party.  Well, I did have energy, and the lack of plans didn't stop us from having fun as a family.  We headed out to the pool again, played hard, had Elijah join us for a picnic dinner, and then came back to a clean home.  Not very eventful at all, but positively relaxing.  I hope you all had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend with your family and friends.