Drops of Joy

Ryan participated in the Circle the Stat with Song program this past weekend. It is invitation only at his school so it was a big deal. He has been attending extra rehearsals and working on his music in the car. Saturday, all the students from 11 schools gathered and spent the day working with some very skilled music directors from 9:00 - 3:00. At 3:00 they performed a concert. It was amazing. These weren't silly songs - they were very difficult pieces and some in other languages. I was blown away at how good they sounded. You could understand every word and I was stunned at the range, the parts and the unity of the choir. For a long while I just closed my eyes and let the sounds of joy wash over me. 

I mentioned the phone fiasco yesterday in the previous post. Here is what I didn't mention. I walked into church carrying the posters and fliers for the next ward social. I had spent 3+ hours of my morning trying to accomplish a 30 mins. task due to wonderful printer issues. And font issues. And glue issues. You get the picture. Finally finished the project, loaded Ryan, and drove to the church. On the way there, Ry mentioned that his goal for this Sunday was to not get his phone, wallet or keys taken away by his Sunday School teacher. What???? Mother of the year discussion unfolded. We arrived at the church and I managed to get my posters into the building unscathed even though we were having hurricane force winds (well, it felt like it) only to be told as I enter that the posters weren't needed as the activity had been cancelled. Grrrr. I sat down and 3 mins. later cell phone fiasco ensued. Why do I even bother sometimes????? I was so ready to leave and I had only been there for 5 minutes. I sat there for the next 20 mins. holding many conversations in my head. And then the drop of joy. The children had been asked to sing two songs and as they went up a dear, sweet little three year old was a bit upset and spoke. his. mind. It was wonderful. I felt all the frustrations I was feeling lift off my heart and find expression in his emotions. I envied him his freedom of expression at the same time feeling so grateful for the blessing of his words. 

My WW goal for myself this past week was to go to bed by 10:00p.m. I have not slept well for the last two years. Part of it was not enough time, a bigger part was not being able to sleep or having horrible, surreal dreams that left me feeling very disorientated. I prayed that I would be able to get things done or let them go so that I could go to bed, that I would fall asleep and that I would not dream. I made it almost every night. And I slept! I slept. Huge, thick, healing drops of joy. 

Lastly, we had Family Home Evening tonight. Ryan planned most of it. We listened to a John Bytheway talk - "How to be Totally Miserable", played a few rounds of "Seek" (scripture trivia game) and had oreos and milk for dessert. It wasn't what we did, it was the joy of enjoying each other and doing something together.