A Message from Thomas

Dear Person Who Reads Mommy's Blog,


Did you know it is hard to be the baby to four brothers? Take today, for example... I had to go all the way to Augusta to watch my big brother talk to people. Not even there an hour. It totally messed with my nap time, and I didn't even get to have Dustin hold me. I did get to see Pepere and Grammie though.

When it all gets too hard, though, mommy knows just what I need. A little time in my bubble, you might say. Nobody holding me, bouncing me, or restraining me in a car seat.

Ah yes, just me and the three bears on my mobile. Occasionally a brother shows up to wind up my bears for me, but other than that it's nice and quiet, and peaceful. Just what a baby needs after a long hard morning.

Love,

Thomas

My boys

**Edited to add**
The dome will be used as a greenhouse.

My kids are amazing, and I have had one of them astound me yet again. Dustin and Erik are in Geometry together, and because the Middle School now has two math periods every day they are flying through the material at twice the speed. To deal with this, their teacher (who happens to be Erik's dad) opted to supplement the Geometry material instead of encouraging them to Algebra II, as they are not ready for that kind of jump. One of his decisions in this regard was to have them help him write a grant for a geodesic dome to be built onto the Middle School. If you are wondering (as I first did) what that is, click here.

We just learned today that their grant was funded. The two of them (and the teacher) will be going to Augusta on Thursday to receive the grant from the governor.

Twenty years from now, when he's home from some big city to visit he will drive by the Middle School, point to the dome and tell his kids he helped make that possible. He amazes me.

Perfection

Many of us long for perfection. We are supposed to, I think, because it is Father in Heaven's way of inherently helping us to improve constantly. I enjoyed thoroughly a talk given at church a while ago, and want to share the concept here.

It was stated that often in our church we talk of striving to be like Jesus, who was perfect, and therefore we strive for perfection. Almost always it is concluded with "But Christ was the only perfect human being, and therefore while we strive for perfection, we will not achieve it on Earth. But we should keep trying."

Well, the occasion I refer to was different. This person, who has taught me so much through the years by bearing his testimony with the Holy Spirit present, gave new insight. It is daunting to always be striving and never achieve. Yes, we have small encouragement as we improve slowly, but still we are always needing to improve in that mindset. The new paradigm is to look for the perfect moments. No, we may not be perfect in all things ever in this life. But we should look for the moments when, for this moment, we are perfect in this thing. Christ was indeed the only person to walk the earth who was perfect in all things all the time, but on occasion, here and there, we can achieve perfection. We can be the perfect spouse, parent, child, friend, for that one moment, when we nail it just right.

We are perfect in the moment when we say or do just the right thing, or don't say or do anything at all... and we must focus on those moments long enough to gain strength to try and do it again. If we never reward ourselves with the joy, we truly set ourselves up to fail. I am grateful for the person who gave me this insight, and for the Spirit that has testified to me of its truthfulness, and I pray it might speak to you, dear reader, today.

So hard to be a baby...

Ok Mommy,

I'll do my best,

I think I almost got it,

Oh, this is SO hard,

Wait for it,

Ummmm,

Yes!! I smiled!

How do they pack so much personality into just seven little weeks?

He sneezed!

And I got it on video. I don't know if there is much in the world that is cuter than a baby sneezing!