The Little Things

The last few days have been good. That makes it sound like we have a lot of days that aren't good. That's not true, but having a three-year-old is, er, trying. And exhausting. And sometimes infuriating.

I was thinking about what has made the last little while better. Here's what I've come up with:

• We've been having family scripture study pretty much every night. I always read out of the scripture reader during breakfast, but Bryan is rarely there. We decided to recommit ourselves to reading out of the actual scriptures with the boys and both parents everyday. While we haven't read everyday, it's been more hit than miss.
• I've been listening to my scriptures on lds.org while I'm tidying up after breakfast. It's one of the only ways I get a solid thirty minutes in. I know that I would get more out of it if I could sit down and read, but for me listening to a few chapters is better than reading a verse here and there.
• I've been spending less time on the computer. Setting up Google Reader really has sped up my blog-reading time.
• Since I'm not on the computer as much I've been reading more. I just finished The Lightening Thief, the first in Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson & the Olympians series. I enjoyed it so much that I'm already a few chapters into the second book. They are well-written and fast paced, not to mention really funny. I seem to be more even-tempered when I spend my downtime reading instead of staring at a computer screen. And yes, I do get downtime, I just rarely recognize it because it's used to read emails or check Facebook or do some other internet-related time-sucking activity.
  
• I have finally accepted the fact that Peter isn't a napper anymore. Yesterday I realized that if Peter wasn't going to sleep anyway then we could do quiet time a little later in the day, which would coincide with Cooper's afternoon nap. And that means that I get a little quiet time too. Today when Cooper woke up from his second nap we went to tell Peter that quiet time was over and found this:

So reading scriptures and taking the time to build my brain means that I'm calmer and therefore have more patience with Peter (and everyone else). It's funny how little things make such a difference.