Dear, Delightful Daughter

Thanks to our sweet little kindergartner, Hazel, Family Home Evening was an absolute delight this week. She loves to write and do projects and plan ahead and make up games and be in charge. She had a simple assignment, scripture, which most of us just kind of look up and read last minute when it's our turn. But she remembered that responsibility as soon as she woke up Monday morning and asked for helping in looking up the primary scripture of the month, with paper and pen in hand, ready to copy the verse down. To help us memorize it, she recopied the whole verse onto her white board easel.

Then she gave each of us a turn to erase a word or two, lavishing us with not only verbal words of encouragement and praise for erasing well-done, but also presenting each of us with a badge that she had made beforehand. I had no idea that she had put all of this preparation into it, and she was just so delighted to see it all come together as she carried it out and the whole family actually followed her every direction. These little reward "stickers" were cut, pasted, and even had little rolled up masking tape bits all prepared on the backs, with messages like, "Good Good" and "Good Jobe Good." Dad thought the badges were best displayed on the forehead, and that stuck (pun intended), so we were all reciting Mosiah 2:22 with little paper words of affirmation taped to our foreheads. Sweet moments!

Last week when we went on a walk through the spring-melt puddles, Hazel was super lucky and found a whole dollar on the sidewalk! I asked her if she thought we could find out who it belonged to, and since we couldn't think of a way, I told her she could keep it. Later, I found this heavily-taped, homemade, handwritten envelope that said, "To: Mom and Dad." When she presented it to me, I discovered her dollar and all of Max's money in it (a quarter and a nickel). I humbly asked why they were giving all of their money to me, and they said it was to help buy our new house because they knew it cost a lot of money. I was so touched by their generosity and selfless examples! It is truly no wonder that Jesus taught that we must become as little children to enter his kingdom.

Hazel and Max are best buddies. Watching them play and giggle together just melts my heart. When Hazel was not feeling very excited about going to the Saturday morning basketball skills session for K-2 kiddos at the school, remembering how she had gotten hit in the head with the ball twice at the last session and not made a single basket, I was at a loss for how to inspire her to try. I mentioned to her that next year, Max will be able to go with her and maybe she would be able to show him how to dribble, jump stop, and shoot. She perked up at that thought, cheerfully got ready to go, and did her best the whole time. I'm excited for them that they get to have lunch and recess together at school next year--one of the benefits of a little rural school!

I loved a tiny little note that Hazel gave Max last week. It was two tiny little hearts, decorated with marker and fastened together with excessive amounts of tape, naturally. Written on the back, it said, "To: Max, my BFF From: Hazel." That's all. But did she need to say anything else? These two interact so beautifully together these days, whether Hazel is reading him books,

playing with paper dolls (made by their talented cousins),

or playing dinosaurs, legos, sharks, or some imaginative princess-superhero combo "game." They are oodles of fun at this stage and so I'm treasuring it while it lasts!