Grateful Friday

 Last night when I was leaving the school after a loooong night of parent teacher conferences, I said goodnight to a kindergarten teacher.  She said, "Happy Friday.  It's Friday now."

And I'm ready.

(It wasn't actually midnight but truly felt like it.)

A week of so much makes me grateful for the ballast in my life.

We're studying the Doctrine and Covenants this year, which I'm enjoying, but I listen to the Book of Mormon while I get ready in the morning.  It's like an old friend I never get tired of.

I'm grateful for prayer and faith.  I'm grateful for the faith of my mother.  She is definitely ballast.

I'm grateful for Adam.  His encouragement keeps me upright.

Today we're wearing orange to school. The teachers have matching orange t-shirts with the name of a kindergartner who has leukemia.  Today we're showing our love and support for him.

That heartbreaking diagnosis makes me feel grateful for my healthy children.  Even though my youngest has reached adult status (what?????) being a mother is the identity that matters most to me.  Those three are my thing.

Mark told us about a study (he read? listened to on a podcast?) that found that the more egalitarian a society was, the more distinct types of jobs men and women had because people could pick jobs they wanted.  He said that the same thing happened in families.  In nurturing homes, children pursued their own passions and in more abusive homes, all the children basically end up doing the same thing.

Who knows if any of this is true or not.  There's a study for everything and often they contradict each other.  Adam and I decided we're going to choose this study as truth because it makes us out to be nurturing parents.

Our evidence is Braeden, who is applying to PhD programs to study political science which I more or less understand (less, I understand less).  Mark follows the stock market and explained the whole Reddit/Game Stop thing to me.  Emma is the one who is taking a comedy and satire class.  They were supposed to write jokes in the style of Mark Twain.  She said her sense of humor was broken and they kept getting worse, for example:

Money can't buy happiness, nor can it buy back the limited edition Yu-gi-oh cards my ex-wife got in the divorce (I already asked, she said no).

Whether or not it reflects well on us as parents, I'm glad our kids are so unique.  If for no other reason, they entertain me and help me understand stuff.  

I'm every day grateful they are mine.