Some favorite things lately: 

• On Saturday we went on a family coupon date. The kids have gotten a bunch of coupons to different foods places around town from various school events, and they've really wanted to use them. So, we used some at Chick-fil-A and a smoothie place close to our house. It was very fun to go out together. The kids loved it. The boys got to play at the play place at Chick-fil-A, and they took the cutest selfies at the smoothie place. Also, they all had to wear baseball hats. 😍😂

• Brooke and Camille have decided they really want to share a room again. Saturday afternoon they got together and made a plan and wrote essays about why they should be able to share a room. 😂 Then they gathered the family and presented their essays. It was so cute and funny. (For the record, we had decided that it was probably time to move Jack out of Brooke's room and put Camille in there. It was just a matter of figuring out the right timing. We'll probably end up doing it in a few weeks.)
• Brooke started crocheting a new blanket today that has zigzags. It's very cool. She got the idea and pattern from a book she's reading, a novel, of all places. She also has a fun news hobby that is fun to see her do: she's whittling. 😄 She got a whittling kit for Christmas from Gramma and Grampa Holbrook, and she designed and carved a cute little gnome. And now she's working on a bird. It's a bit of a messy hobby, though. Shavings everywhere. 
• Camille has been doing such a good job controlling her emotions and anger lately. I'm really proud of her. I don't know what changed, but she doesn't blow up at people as much anymore, and is so much more reasonable to talk to when she's upset. We're still working on not getting upset over little things. But she's gotten much better. 
• This is not a favorite thing, because it's a bit challenging. Jack is so materialistic. He loves things and wants all the things. But he's not willing to work for money to not the things he wants... he just wants me and Daniel to buy him whatever he wants, and he gets a big attitude about it sometimes and says we're the worst because we don't do that. It's been hard trying to teach him about work and money and saving, because he just doesn't want to put forth any effort, and he wants everything. I know he'll figure it out someday. But in the meantime, we have many tear-filled discussions. And he'll ask to look up things on my phone, and I often don't want to let him because I know it'll end badly. 
• We deep cleaned Jack and Brooke's room on Saturday, and it feels lovely. We dejunked and threw a lot away, reorganized, rearranged the furniture, put a bigger bookshelf in and filled it with kids books, vacuumed and dusted and cleaned the walls and washed the window, took out all the things they don't need (I had a much of clothes hanging in their closet that weren't for them... I just want to find another place for those so they're not just taking up space in their room). It is currently messy again, but I like the arrangement of their room much better. And I think it'll be great when Camille moves in there. They were so funny about the bookshelf, because they didn't want it at first, saying it was ugly. But when I suggested we paint it, they got so excited about it and made all kinds of plans about making a library in their room. 
• This morning when I was finishing up getting ready, I chose a necklace to put on, and directly after I put it on, Sawyer said, "That's lovely!" He's been an absolute delight lately, just so sweet and fun. We've been doing a lot of our mommy time in the kitchen lately, making treats, and it's been fun! 

How I've seen the hand of God in my life: So, my father sends little trivia questions to the whole family every few days. He does this with his racquetball buddies. They put the question on a dry erase board with some multiple choice answers, and he takes a picture and sends it to us. Well, I try to participate in the game, because it's no fun if no one plays, right? And there are plenty of the family that won't ever participate (mostly the in laws, I've noticed, haha). This is what happened with the game earlier this week: 

I don't even remember what the question was... oh, I think it was "What year did the Star Spangled Banner officially become the national anthem?" But dad's comment just came out of nowhere, and really hurt, actually. He's never done anything like that when people get the wrong answer, so I felt so singled out and humiliated. And this is something that he's never been able to let go of. Yes. I got a C grade in my first class at BYU. It was a difficult class, and I was just trying to get my feet under me at university. I'm okay with it. It's not ideal, and I was really frustrated at the time, but one C grade isn't the end of the world. And it would've been fine, I would've gotten over it in time and moved on... except that dad will not let me forget about it. He brings it up, usually in a very public setting, every couple years. Actually, I think last time he brought it up, I got upset, and he hadn't brought it up in a long while, so I thought he'd finally just dropped it. But I guess not, because here we are. (As a side note, he often says he doesn't have a good memory and can't remember things... why is this something that he's remembered? Like he really just can't let it go, for some reason. But why does he need to continually bring it up?)

Anyway. On this particular day (now, understand, I'm in my downward hormonal cycle, going to start my period in a week or so, so I'm already feeling down and doubtful about myself), it felt like a punch to the gut. I read the text just as I was kneeling down to pray, and I was so upset I was having a hard time praying. But I prayed that I would not be too hurt, that I would be forgiving, that I would answer with grace. I waited a while, after there were more responses. And then I gave an answer, and I think God blessed me to feel okay about it and to respond with humor and lightness. I don't think it betrayed any of the hurt I felt. And after a few hours, I felt better about the whole thing. I believe God helped me to school my emotions and have a clear head about it, and to love my dad despite this silly thing.