. . . thankful #21 . . .

. . . today's primary program . . .

. . . and every primary program

i've ever heard . . .

{children pictured are not actual harmony park ward primary kids}

. . . truths are taught and reinforced

through spoken word

and {my favorite part} music . . .

. . . but today i had a flashback . . .

. . . kind of like on

the most recent episode of glee

where mr. schuester

was hallucinating from

some exotic strain of the flu

and after writing on the chalkboard,

he turned around to find

his high school students had shrunk . . .

{seriously, though, that mashup of "singin' in the rain" and "umbrella"

with gwyneth paltrow was amazing!}

. . . yeah ~ kind of like that . . .

. . . i went back to a time when . . .

. . . this darling cheerleader's chubby hands

sweetly signed the songs . . .

. . . and this scary witch

was more than a little bitter

because she was young for her grade,

had started junior high,

and was still in primary . . .

. . . when this tiny dancer

sang every song at the top of her lungs ~

with so much enthusiasm

the veins in her neck

practically exploded . . .

. . . and when drew

{he's the one in the pink shoes}

was waaaaaaaaaay too cool to sing . . .

. . . back to a time

when there were

literally hundreds of primary-aged kids

in our ward . . .

. . . a time

when primary music was my calling

and the children occupied all the choir seats

and half the pews in the chapel . . .

. . . and i perched precariously

{and very pregnantly}

on a rickety set of wooden steps

and gave them the universal motion

for "everybody stand up together" . . .

. . . and before they even started singing,

{that was the year i taught them "families can be together forever"}

my eyes welled up with tears . . .

. . . yep ~ just as they're doing right now . . .

. . . i had a little flashback today . . .

. . . and i liked it . . .

{mascara is overrated!}

{sunbeams are amazing!}