Church stuff

Thanks, J, for the artwork (made using markers on a white board).

Sunday, J passed the sacrament for the first time (and did a good job) and T sat at the sacrament table. That was something new and different for our family to have both of them assisting with the sacrament.

I think because we haven't had deacons to pass the sacrament thereby necessitating T & his age group to pass the sacrament for four years, and because of T's size, it has held T in people's minds as his being twelve. Now, ward members are surprised to see the little guy as a priest (in what must seem to them a sudden transformation from twelve to sixteen) and his younger but bigger brother as a deacon. It seems to have taken ward members by surprise.


Having both of our sons involved in the sacrament on Sunday reminds me that last time the youth did baptisms at the temple, our whole family was there--from B on down to J. The bishop said he couldn't remember a time during his tenure as bishop that an entire family (parents and children) had been all together at the temple for youth baptisms.

K invited L & NB to go with K and K's mother D to the General Young Women broadcast in SLC this weekend. It was a great opportunity and L had a great time. I scanned the big screen at the chapel, as I watched the broadcast here in the Tri-cities, in an effort to see L in the conference center audience but I had no luck seeing her amidst the 21,000 attendees.

J was dying to get the new Pokemon Platinum game and had money burning a hole in his pocket, so I recruited the family to see the brand new Walmart in one of the Tri-cities, and we called it family home evening. It is not that I am overawed with Walmart. What is amazing is that so many items are available so close to home. I think I could say that most people on this side of the county are accustomed to driving the one-hour round trip (and that trip is becoming longer and longer as stop lights are installed along the route) to purchase many of the things that are now 10 minutes away from my house. In my youth, we had to go even farther away to purchase some of these same items.

I taught the lesson "Sustaining Priesthood Bearers" to the young women (combined) on Sunday. It was not such an overwhelming and mind-numbing topic (in terms of preparation and bursts of insight on my part) as my first lesson topic in December ("Choosing a Vocation"). I thought the lesson Sunday went OK, not bad but not great, just OK. I won't need to give another lesson to all the young women for four more months, but I am going to pick up teaching at least one lesson per month to the Laurels as I try to fill the weeks with substitutes. I have April all planned and all of May, other than one lesson. Once May comes to a close, that will be five months without a Laurel advisor. Surely someone will wander into the "picture" by then (but that is what I thought at the beginning of the year, "Surely someone will be Laurel advisor by the end of March!"). Our ward is SO strapped for people to call to positions AND I want to feel the person is the right one for the job so those are the reasons for the delay. Oh well.

So as not to leave B out of this post, :-) he took J to collect fast offerings, cooked a great Sunday dinner and went home teaching on Sunday. :-)

I need to get ready to do my visiting teaching (yes, on the last day of the month! I've tried and tried to get the sisters; one was ill and two were out of town).

Mom's about the same

Yesterday, I visited with Mom and she seemed to be doing about the same as she has been for months now. Whatever stomach upset she was having for several weeks seems to have ceased. She is content with the place where she lives but, since her friend G moved away at Christmas, Mom does seem to be a bit lonely. She and G would spend a lot of time together, dozing on the couch in the facility's front room. G was more impaired than Mom so Mom would look out for her.

Yesterday, when it was time for me to leave, Mom took both my hands and said, "When will I see you again? Soon?" Since Mom moved into this current facility, we haven't had that kind of querying until G moved away.

Earlier in my visit, after asking about my family, we looked at my family photo and discussed each person in the photo, particularly each of the kids. She was very pleased to hear J & L are taking piano lessons and that T is in the band. Mom said my husband looked like a good guy. I said he is a good guy. Then, Mom asked me, "How's our mother--you know, yours and mine?" I guess she thought I was her sister, so she at least knows we're related (I choose to see that as a positive thing). I normally can't do theraputic lying but I said, "She's fine."

A friend sent me this good quote . . . .

If one should give me a dish of sand, and tell me there were particles of iron in it, I might look for them with my eyes, and search for them with my clumsy fingers, and be unable to detect them; but let me take a magnet and sweep through it; and how it would draw to itself the almost invisible particles by the mere power of attraction! The unthankful heart, like my finger in the sand, discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day, and as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings. --Henry Ward Beecher

Desert beauty

This was a cactus flower by our hotel in southern Arizona. There was a time when, if someone had said the desert was beautiful, I would have answered about like J did the other day on our trip, "It's boring. There's nothing there." However, as I've matured, I've come to appreciate the desert's beauty. When I was in Germany and would tell people I lived in the desert, they would ask, "Which is more beautiful, Germany or the desert?" I would have to answer, "Germany and the desert are both beautiful but each is beautiful in its own way."

Road trip

We just got back from a spring break road trip, with "road" being the operative word. B did lots and lots of driving: approximately 1111 miles. We took the dog along. That added a logistics dimension to the trip. We had to find dog-friendly hotels, and then eating "out" was a trick because someone needed to be with the dog but the dog could not go into a restaurant. But R the dog came thought pretty well. We humans came through pretty well, too.

We spent two fun days with my brother and sister-in-law and their children (and dog) as well as other assorted relatives. We had a great time. We were sad to leave.

We're not quite ready to sell our holdings, buy the RV, homeschool the kids and travel the US (although I suggest this concept regularly), but seeing the country does hold a real appeal and I think traveling places is one of the things that our family really enjoys doing together.

Spell check

Another gadget I should purchase is some kind of spell check that keeps me from:

1. making all the spelling errors on a post (where the word is actually spelled correctly but isn't the right word such as illusive/elusive and isle/aisle, but
2. not finding the errors until much later and
3. then just happening to catch them one by one over a period of hours, and
4. having to correct each one after the post has already been seen by anyone who sees these posts!

A couple of things I'd like to purchase

There are some gadgets I'd like to purchase. Here are two.

First, I'd like to purchase a mind-reader. I don't want to know what people are thinking every minute because I think that would eventually be like Twilight Zone--so much more than you bargained for--but I'd like the capability to tune in as needed and read minds when people are particularly vague, cryptic, or elusive, when I need them to be specific, open and direct. Get everything clarified to my satisfaction, and then tune out again. Lately, I've been particularly in need of a mind-reader. However, I would need one with a negativity filter. Are there bad thoughts about me? Sorry, no-can-read. I need "just the facts, Ma'am."

Another gadget that I'd like is the invisibility cloak. I wouldn't care to spy on people, unless my mind-reader was out of service, but I would like the cloak so that I can be, at times, unavailable. Phone rings? Oops, Mom isn't here. Dinner to cook? Oops, can't find Mom. The dog has an accident on the front carpet? Oops, can't find Mom. Church gets boring? I drift right down the aisle and out into the hall. But then again, who ever heard of church getting boring? That is too far fetched. It would also be great to be invisible when you're late for something or when you need to see and not be seen.

It would also be great to use the invisibility cloak in concert with the ability to levitate. Put on the cloak and levitate while you wait for the bus, or wait for something or someone. Once again, while you're at church, you could levitate invisibly and perhaps even get a little sleep. When you stand in line, you could be standing up but levitate enough to take the weight off your feet. This would have been particularly helpful when I had the terrible problems with my feet, which is probably when this whole notion of levitation first formed in my mind. But it is not enough to levitate, if you levitate in a horizontal way, because that would be embarrassing, particularly in a Sunday dress (although the gal in the picture, above, is pulling it off). You also need to be invisible when you levitate in public--hence the need for the invisibility cloak.

I guess I'll start saving my pennies.

To the best of my recollection, and by the time I'm 50 years old, I will have been to the following states: 1. HI, 2. OR, 3. WA, 4. CA, 5. NV, 6. AZ, 7. UT, 8. ID, 9. MT, 10. WY, 11. CO, 12. UT, 13. TX 14. KS, 15. NE 16. IA, 17. MO, 18. TN, 19. KY, 20. VA, 21. WV, 22. IL, 23. IN, 24. OH, 25. PA, 26. DE, 27. MD, 28. PA, 29. CT, 30. RI, 31. NY, 32. MA, 33. VT, 34. NH, 35. FL, and 36. NM (as well as Washington DC, which I know isn't a state). That leaves: 1. OK, 2. LA, 3. AR, 4. MS, 5. AL, 6. GA, 7. SC, 8. NC, 9. ND, 10. SD, 11. MN, 12. MI 13. AK and 14. ME. It will probably take me the next 50 years to visit all of the rest of these states!

Taxes and then taxes

I've been working on getting all of my information together for our taxes--sorting, organizing, searching, pondering, scribbling, erasing, shredding, etc. (I don't mean I'm covering my tracks by shredding :-)--I'm just sorting vital from non-vital tax information and tossing out all that paper that isn't vital.) Although I have everything filed, I don't have things organized within the ten or so "dump" files. Every year, I think, "I'll be more organized next year." But I don't do a thing about it until it is "next year"--at tax time--and then I think, "I'll be more organized next year." Once I finish this outlining of all our tax information, then I need to get my mother's information ready for her accountant. Fun times, fun times.

Faith

My friend AA, in her comment to my last post, suggested that I write something about each of the YW values to perhaps break up my mental log jam. I decided I would take her up on that suggestion with one modification. I'll write about faith this month because that is our theme and divine nature next month because that will be our theme next month, and so on--assuming I remember to do it in the succeeding months.

I want to talk about faith in God. While I don't claim to know everything about faith, I know that faith is a real power. I know that faith has to be grounded in truth to be powerful. Faith in false notions will never yield a powerful faith. I know that faith grows as we are obedient to God. Our faith will never outstrip our obedience, or in other words, our level of faith will never be greater than our level of obedience to God, His teachings and His commandments. It isn't necessary to understand all things in order to have faith and our faith can start small and increase as we learn and grow in faith. Elder J. Wirthlin said, "Truly understood and properly practiced, faith is one of the grand and glorious powers of eternity. It is a force powerful beyond our comprehension. . . . Through faith, waters are parted, the sick healed, the wicked silenced, and salvation made possible. . . . Faith is not so much something we believe as something we live." Ensign, Nov. 2002, 82.

Report on Personal Progress night

(This is a mouse we made at L's birthday and not tonight but it represents CHOCOLATE as the "food group" we had tonight at YW.)

Well, I thought I wouldn't leave you hanging, wondering what in the world happened tonight at the personal progress night! Let's see, there were nine young women and one young woman visitor who attended. So that must mean that it was a success, according to my attendance standard. :-) We had all the regularly attending Beehives and Mia Maids there. (That wasn't a total surprise to have those YW there but I was pleased.) One of the Beehives has already earned her gold medallion and, tonight, she said she was going to go through personal progress again and earn the medallion a second time--in our stake you can get a silver medallion for that. I was impressed and I think she will really accomplish that. We also had four Laurels (and one visitor). Two of the regularly attending Laurels had to work tonight but they have both earned their medallion anyway. The visitor and one Laurel left after the introductory chocolate eating--we had melted chocolate and lots of goodies to dip in the chocolate. Then we got down to business and divided into three different groups, with each group working on one of the required Faith . . . whatchamacallits. There was just one YW working on the 3rd. . . whatchamacallit so I visited with her as she prepared her family home evening lesson visual aids. Next week, since it is spring break, we don't have a regular mutual activity so we will have another personal progress get-together--a breakfast here at my house. Normally, we'll have these get-togethers just once a month for eight different months, unless we have more gaps in the mutual schedule like we had this month and maybe this will be the gap-filler for any month of the twelve that has Tuesdays without an activity and instead of working on a particular value, we'll just do Wild-Card value work (I just made up that expression).

My mental log jam

I'm still here with my mental log jam. I'm trying to think of something to unjam the jam, because once I get my thoughts flowing again, I think I can be over the log jam. I thought I had a quote I could include here to sort of help me unjam my brain but I vetoed that, too. So I'm just jumping in with what's on my mind right now.

Tonight for Family Home Evening, we put the family room back together--put away the tables and chairs from J's successful birthday party and we brought back all the furniture and set the room up again. We read an article from the Era by John Bytheway and had sherbet and Rice Krispies treats.

The young women are meeting at my house tomorrow to work on personal progress and eat chocolate. Normally, we wouldn't have a meeting on Tuesday because we have an activity this Friday but I've felt that we need to set aside some time to jump-start personal progress. So, we have eight values and we've assigned eight different months one of each of those values. This month is "Faith." We meet again next week to work on Faith just because it is spring break and we wouldn't normally meet. We'll have breakfast together here and work on Faith again.

If these personal progress events are successful (and if anyone knows how to define "successful" in conjunction with Young Women, tell me), then we'll continue to have at least one personal progress meeting each month, separate from our regular meetings. We may continue to have one each month even if it isn't "successful." Even if the girls do just part of their personal progress, it will still be a blessing to them, so I guess anything accomplished will be a success. I think I usually define success by how many young women come and that is a very inaccurate measure perhaps and often a very discouraging measure. We have twenty young women and I'll count it a success if five come and the maximum I would imagine at all would be twelve.

Well, I'll let that go as my unjamming post. TTFN.

Blogger's block

I am experiencing a phenomenon called Blogger's Block. The past week, I have vetoed just about every topic I have thought of to post on here. If this keeps up, I'll be a blogger-has-been, even before I've blogged six months!

The happy couple . . .

Here we are--Mr. and Mrs. Retirement--looking too young to be retired. Right? :-) This was taken at Pioche, NV.

What they're up to.

Someone is having a big day tomorrow! We'll celebrate later in the week and that is the big topic of conversation here at our house now. He's finished his Faith in God (he was very self-motivated with that). He'll be ordained a deacon on Sunday during the third hour of church and he's disappointed that he can't pass the sacrament until the 4th Sunday because the 3rd Sunday is stake conference. Our ward really needs deacons (we have one deacon) so J will get LOTS of practice. He is also starting soccer this week.

Just last week, L finished playing church YW basketball and the end-of-the-season party is Wednesday. She's hoping the next YW sport that we do will be futsal (sp?) instead of dodgeball. If they play dodge ball, and a ward shows up with just three players, then only three players from the opposing team can play and there are no substitutions so you might show up but not get to play. I hope the stake takes that into consideration. She is the only active Mia Maid for just two more days! She's been on a reading streak lately.

T has had a few fun events lately. Last Thursday, T and a girl in his band class played a duet for a judge (T is shown here submitting his music to the judge). Last Sunday, he was ordained a priest by his dad and he went out to the shut-ins in our ward with other priests and, according to T, blessed the sacrament at least five times in a row. This Sunday, he helped with the sacrament during sacrament meeting (and you could only see his eyes and hair over the top of the sacrament table and he was sandwiched between two taller priests!) and he taught the priesthood lesson to the priests. Sounds like baptism by fire. He got his learner's permit today. If I'd really pondered the reality of what that will do to our insurance, I think I might have waited until summer! :-)

A generation

There are several definitions for the word "generation." However, I'm thinking of a time period of about twenty years. That is the length of time it takes for one person to become an adult and have a child (well, other than the people pictured above [my parents] including yours truly [the baby]).

At the recent funerals, I've thought how it takes about one generation for people who are related to one another to become relative strangers and, in the same breath, for their children to be complete strangers. Distance also helps that equasion but it just takes one generation. A person can see that this is the course of life by looking backward at generations in the past who surely knew one another but whose posterity is completely unknown to one another today. I guess that is why we have genealogy!