Good day or bad day?

September 06, 2017

Good day or bad day?

(Another catch up post from 2015!)

I was remembering when I first started a journal when I was a little girl. It was right around the time our family first moved out of the country, when I was eight, and I was experiencing so many new things that I had to write them down.

I remember writing not just about events but about feelings, and trying to figure out the 'secrets' to what made it a good day or a bad day. At the bottom of each page I would give the day a little assessment as to how good or bad it was.

Over the years, through dozens and scores of journals, my style of writing has changed. But I think deep down I still mentally do sort of the same thing - assessing the kind of day I had based on events and feelings.

But lately - it's taken me how many years to figure this out? - I've had an epiphany.

Good day/bad day really has very little to do with what events happened or feelings I have. Really, it has almost everything to do with the choices I made. Each day brings it's own gifts and it's own challenges, some better or worse than others. But what 'makes it a good day' is somewhat suprising.

Lately I've been trying to figure out how to help my children understand the importance of finishing all their school subjects every day. When their (and my) attitudes are good, we can get through our entire plan and have a great day. When attitudes are poor, we're tired or grumpy, it's a lot harder to do that, but it's completely possible to still 'turn the day around' and have a good day.

Here's the epiphany:

Finishing school (or any other task) is important, but that is not what really matters in the long run, to God. What really matters is - did we treat others with love and kindness today? Did we repent quickly if we made mistakes - including saying sorry to others we hurt? Did we comfort and strengthen one another when weak? Did we turn to the Lord for help when we were weak? Did we take time to think, to feel, to learn, to try something hard with God's help?

If I can answer yes to one or more of those questions - it was a good day!!

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Quotable Kiddos

C: "Mayman is donn" (mailman is gone)
E: "Mom, is heaven inside of mommies' tummies?"
C: "watee" (his word for water)
E : "Mom, will you sit on the lovey couch with me?" (referring to the loveseat)
Nate to N: "You're being argumentative." N's reply: "No, I'm not!"
E: "Dad put on his cape and flew to work. He's superdad!"
C's first sentence: "Hi, Bird!"
L: "maybe C will be a Lampaterian! He loves lamps!"
Nate to E: "are you doing jobs?" E to Dad "No, I just want to play at parties."
C: "nah-norn" (his word for popcorn)
L: "Dad, do you know about the Nerf System?" Dad: "I know about nerfs, but not a system." L: "Oh! well we know about the nerf system inside of your body!"
L: "Mom! 'incorrect' is the password!!!" (thinking he figured out the password when it gave him the error message 'the password is incorrect')
E: "people who have glider suit pajamas can fly at night!"
E: "mashed topatoes"
Nate to the kids: "I'm busy right now. Busy lying down."
E: "When I was like baby Christian, I cried with pear in my mouth. That was so funny when I did that!"
L:"I think I'm never going to be a grown-up. Because it takes me too long to have a birthday!"
L:"this is a mother board and that is a fatherboard" (speaking of the computer parts from Nate's old computer)
L:"I ate so many bites my tummy is gonna blast off into space and break my bones!"
L: "This is my work. When I do this, fire comes out. It's a fire-work!"
L: "We can't put anything in our noses. But we can breathe air in our noses!" (reinforcing 'the new rule' after getting a lego stuck up his nose)
N: "We're just not tired. We have no tiredness in us. We just have hundreds of energies in us and we don't know how to get them out!"
N: "I'm putting up the toppy tip of the tree!"
L: "I am NOT a highness!" (after N called him "your highness")
N: I'm getting tired of cleaning tables!"
L: "Mom, I'm done with my ice cream, now can I have some zucchini?"
N: "I'm a brave girl. I can do without dinner."
N: "Wait! I forgot something. I love you."
L: "someday I will have three babies. I have eight muscles."
N: "I think I just saw dreamland! up on the moutain. It was a very small dreamland."
M to N: "can you close the door please? It's kind of loud." N: "I can. I'm going to close it right now. I'm going to get married quietly."
N: "That smells like our freezing cold campout. I can smell really good because I have good 'sense' - 'Lijah has really small sense."
L: "how old are my toes?"
M to N: "i need some peace and quiet right now, please" (while preparing FHE lesson), N: "I want to help! Can I help with peace and quiet?!"
N: "They were the Nephites' anenomes" (when asked who the Lamanites were)
N: "Is today Sunday at Grandma Goldberg's land?"
N: " I just mowed the lawn. Doesn't it look mowful?"
D to N: "Who remembers yesterday?", N: "Everybody in the whole wide world!", D: "Are you sure? there's somebody in the van who doesn't remember yesterday." N: "Dad, of course!"
L: "I know the muffin man, he knows the way!" (singing a mixture of "do you know the muffin man?" and "follow the prophet")
N: "Look at all those sticks!" (pointing at a bunch of sticks on a big piece of farmland) Dad says "It's a stick farm!" A few minutes later N sees an empty piece of farmland and says "Look- it's a dirt farm!"
L: "hey mommy, when our car's a train, we can drive on the train tracks!"
We were talking about campfires and what to sing around them, and L said "some people call it a marshmallow song! we'll sing happy birthday to the campfire." N: "and we'll have to get some water", L: "and we'll just have to get some cake!"
N: Can you tell me when my quiet time is done? It's supposed to be an hour." L: "can you tell me when my quiet time is not done?" Dad: "Are you the little contrarian, Lucas?" L: "No, I'm not!"
L: "someday I'll be a daddy! And I can reach up high to get my green stapler!"
N: "overneath"
N: "Mom, noone knows anything. Except Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father know everything."
L to N after flushing the toilet for her "it was really nice of me, Natowee!"
N after getting a recipt from the lollipop she got (we were 'learning the value of money') "...and I got a RECEIPT!" M: "so which do you like better - the lollipop, or the receipt?" N: "the receipt!!"
N: "is that the bay? (yes) so...all the toilet paper is there, right?"
L: was asked during FHE lesson on service "who can we serve to today?", L responds "Mommy!", Mommy asks "how can you serve me?" L responds "I can serve you ice cream, and I can serve you cake!"
L: "watch out for kid-year-olds!" (while jumping on the couch)
N: "you're boiling cold!" (to Dad while playing hide & seek)
N: "that's not agua - it's water!!"
N: "I'm trying to make the best fort in the holy world!"
L: "I'm not a human, I'm a humidifier!"
N: "I can't do it 'cause my leg is all hurted up!" (an excuse for not wanting to do her sweeping job)
L: "I've got my lawn mower, I'm going to lawn the grass!"
N: "I have half a tummy ache...after dessert I'll have a full tummy ache"
N: "Do you know you're a prophet baby? Prophets do not cry!" (to E)
N: "Lucas, if you cry, I'll still be here"
N: "Even babies are humans. Human, I like you!" (to E)
L: "I'm going to drive to work - I'm going to get some pizza!"