Choosing Priorities

I've mentioned before that I'm trying to work on finding balance. Part of finding balance is prioritizing, deciding what things need to be put first and what things can be sacrificed. Sister Beck, the General Relief Society President for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, talked about essential things, necessary things, and nice to do things (see my link above). There are times when some of those nice to do things must be sacrificed. As much as I like blogging, that is one of those things that has to be sacrificed from time to time. So do a lot of other things on the computer.
Yesterday, I sacrificed some of the necessary things, like laundry, in order to focus on something very essential- my relationship with my children.
It's vacation- Thanksgiving Break. Jeremy was out of town working all day so the kids and I had a day for us. Luckily, lunch and dinner were taken care of since we have plenty of Thanksgiving leftovers. Making meals is one of those necessaries that takes up a lot of time for me, but not yesterday. After we got ready for the day, including scripture study and family prayer, we took turns picking activities to do together (although I admit during some of the activities the kids didn't need me for, I did some dishes), and had a full day of fun.

We painted mini pumpkins.

Before and After

Jr. Jr. really wanted to do what his brother and sister were doing so he got a dry paint brush and pumpkin and enjoyed getting to do the same thing.

We played Disney Junior, Wii, and Game Cube.

We read books.

We watched a movie.

There were other activities we did as well but I didn't get pictures of everything. And there were times between activities or when I was taking care of the baby that the older two kept themselves occupied.

At the end of the day, Nichole and Jr. fell asleep in my bed. Jr. Jr. had kind of a rough night, so I spent some time in my bed with the kids and some time holding the baby, trying to help him sleep.

It was a good family day (though we missed Jeremy).