Without a doubt, one thing that has helped me in the past year, was the semester that I had the opportunity to teach Seminary. It was never a calling I would have aspired to-- neither the prospect of teaching FIVE DAYS a week at SIX A.M., nor of trying to reach sleepy teenagers who'd rather be at home, were things that ever excited me. To be quite frank, I have been terrified of teenagers ever since I was one, and I always thought that if I had to work with them, they'd probably eat me alive! However, I really loved that semester of teaching Seminary. I loved immersing myself in the Gospel, and I love my students. Obviously, they didn't eat me! :) So when I thought of what I'd like to do for Isaac's birthday, one of the first things I thought of was my former Seminary class. While I was pregnant, I rather spoiled them by baking lots of goodies and they always seemed to appreciate it. If I were a really great Mommy blogger, I'm sure I would have fed them delicious, fresh, home-made, from scratch cinnamon rolls or something. And I would have arrived an hour early to decorate a lovely table setting for them with matching plates and napkins. But, let's face it, I'm not! And with a new baby, I'm still tired a lot of the time. So I settled for bringing them donuts, cereal, milk, juice, bananas, and candy (gasp! so bad of me, I know!) You can see from the photo that I won't be putting Martha Stewart out of business any time soon!
I did explain to the kids that it was Isaac's birthday, and that I was spreading sunshine in his honor. I gave them each a little picture of his sweet, smiling face and challenged them to do something for someone else that day, too. They seemed pretty happy with their surprise breakfast, despite its lack of fancy-ness. I did get a picture of them smiling, but I had to promise them that I would never post it anywhere since most of them were still in their pajamas! So you can just pretend these are my Seminary students-- minus the bare midriff, of course! ;)
(photo from Microsoft's clipart website)
After I got back home, the Daddy-O and I went to the Temple. Just like last year, we paid the toll for the next four cars behind us on our way there. The Temple is always a peaceful place for us, and where I often feel closest to Isaac. It is particularly poignant when we go to do sealings, because almost every time, we participate in sealing a child who died very young to his or her parents. Our Temple marriage is something that gives us great comfort as we strive to be worthy to see our Isaac again, and we feel gratitude to be able to extend that opportunity to others whose dear children passed away.
After the Temple, we stopped briefly at home to change clothes and pick up Kiddo and Little Friend. I have to say that our children are incredibly good travelers! It's about 90 minutes or so from our home to the cemetery where Isaac is buried, so poor Little Friend spent several hours that day like this:
We
took flowers, a balloon, and cards to sweet Isaac's grave. This was the
first time we had taken Little Friend, who actually slept through the
whole visit, even though I took him out of the car seat for a few
minutes! We sang "Happy Birthday" to Isaac, but had to leave shortly
after because some little person needed to "go potty!"
"This
is ya bad cousin [Kiddo]. I want my dinosaur back." I honestly couldn't
help but crack up, although I told him that asking for a gift back is
rude, but it doesn't make him bad!
Most
of the times we have eaten at this restaurant, we have had
exceptionally good service, but out waiter was really only adequate. I
mention this because I had originally wanted to spread some more
sunshine by giving him a HUGE tip. So we compromised by giving him a
dollar more than we normally give. :) At least it was something, I
guess!
By the time we finished eating, we were all pretty tired so we got in the car and headed home, where we had some strawberry ice cream in honor of Isaac (it was my biggest craving while I was pregnant for him, and even when I was nursing him). Then we all crashed.
Don't worry, Little Friend got to get out of his car seat and sleep in bed! :)
Next year, I imagine we'll do things a little differently. I realized a few things this year:
- We need to involve the boys more in our planning. I was excited when Kiddo gave away his dinosaur, because I thought he was "getting" what we were trying to do. I realized when he wanted it back that I hadn't really explained to Kiddo much about our plans, nor did I involve him by asking HIM what HE'D like to do for someone.
- I didn't spend enough time just loving and cuddling my boys that are still here. I was so busy all day that I didn't take the time to just snuggle them and tell them just how much I love them and how grateful I am to be their mommy.
- We were so tired we didn't do our regular nightly routine with Scripture Study and Family prayer, followed by story-reading. This is another time of day when I have felt closer to Isaac, and of course, it is a time when we as a family feel closest. I felt like missing out on this was a major failure for Mommy.
- It is very hard to fit the Temple, the cemetery AND meaningful service into one day. We will either need to plan our schedule better, or spread these activities over multiple days because I really would like to include ALL of them as much as I can.
- If I want to involve others in Isaac's day, I really need to post the invitation a bit earlier!
