Glass Half Full

A few weeks ago, my friend had this great idea that she would get a bunch of us together and go ice skating down in Salt Lake at the Gallivan Center. It was so fun hanging out with friends. The kids did really well. Lauren and her friend Kimberly were little Sarah Hughes wannabes. Ethan, who is fearless in almost everything, took the bull by the horn and went right out to the middle and skated most of the night. Braiden, my thoughtful child, was a little more apprehensive and stayed close to the railing pretty much the whole night except for a few minutes when Dad convinced him to venture out to the middle with him. I skated a little, mostly holding onto either Ethan's or Braiden's hand and trying to keep them from ripping my arm out of it's socket (it's hard to stay vertical when you have so much weight pulling you down!). When I got the chance to skate on my own, I quickly realized that there are no Olympic medals in my future....But graceful or not, we were glad we went.

Look at those faces...so rosy cheeked and happy! The more I go through life, and the more busy we all become, the more I realize that I need to stop and cherish little moments like this. It was really no big deal, really. Just a fun little outing with the kids on a Friday night, but little outings with kids is one of the things that life is truly all about. I have to admit that I wasn't exactly "feeling the love" that night. I was stressed out with school, Primary, and general Mom stuff to really enjoy it. To add to that, I backed up into a car earlier that day after picking Ethan up from playgroup. Crunched both cars up pretty good. Look at my poor bumper (but DON'T look at how dirty my car is).

Anyway, I was kind of grumpy that night. But now that I'm posting about that night, I realize that little things like this DO NOT MATTER. Not one little bit. My bumper is getting fixed with very little inconvience to me. Life goes on. What really matters is my relationships with the people in my life. I need to do better at putting them first. My Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, Ryan and my kids are more important than any thing else. Period. I wish I could always remember that when life gets crazy, hectic and stressful. I need to do better at keeping my glass half full....because, after all, life is pretty darn wonderful!