Just another one of life's blessings. . .

Last week my daughter told me she was going to the school dance recital to support a friend of hers who was dancing in it. I remembered that one of my Sunday School girls was also in the recital, along with her younger sister who had been in my seminary class, so I asked my daughter if she would mind if I went with her. She told me she would love to have me go--and not just because she knew I would pay the $5 entrance fee. :-)

I appreciated that. I knew that when I was a junior in high school I would have preferred death over attending a school activity with my mom. I mean I love my mother but going to school with her did not register at all on the "cool scale".

But my daughter and I went together and she even sat next to me instead of with her two very good boy friends who sat in front of us. And I wondered a bit if she were just a little uncomfortable with having her mother there with her.

Then I looked around. Also in the room was our ward Young Women's president who came to support the girls. And across the room sat their seminary teacher. I realized that my daughter probably didn't care I was there at all. She was used to having supportive adults at school activities!

My heart swelled with love. Not just for my daughter, nor just for the girls I came to support, but also for their wonderful leaders who gave up their busy time to be there as well.

And I thought of the words, "their hearts were knit together in love".

How grateful I am for a daughter who doesn't mind going to school with her mother. And how thankful I am for church callings that give us the opportunity to serve each other and thereby come to love and support each other.

Earthly Poor, But Heavenly Blessed

I wrote this last year, but felt it could bear being posted again. It is one of my favorite memories and one of my favorite posts as it is one of the few I took a great deal of time to write. I hope you enjoy it.

While sitting in my daughter’s house this past week, I noticed her Christmas tree—sparsely decorated with two dishtowels where a tree skirt should be. It quickly took me back in time to my second Christmas with my husband.

We were married in early July and had our first child, Camille, in April. In the fall, my husband quit his job to attend graduate school, and we lived off a student loan and what I could make selling Tupperware.

Going back to school necessitated moving into a less expensive apartment. We found a duplex, set back from the road and nestled in a grove of trees. It had a bright, cheery, orange door, but once inside, the apartment lost most of its charm. Green was everywhere. The sea foam green walls were devoid of artwork and emanating from the forest green, shag carpet was a musty, tobacco smell. The kitchen linoleum was so worn it was difficult to determine its original color, but the green walls, olive green appliances and dark brown cupboards gave the room a dreary and depressing appearance.

Beyond the kitchen was the laundry room, where we placed our daughter’s crib, and directly across from it was our bedroom. Next to the bedroom, in stark contrast to the rest of the apartment, was a bright, yellow bathroom from which we could easily hear the neighbor’s conversations drifting through the vents. We filled the kitchen cupboards with cans of turkey chunks from the church cannery (a gift from my sister) and the freezer with hamburger meat purchased on sale from the butcher. We placed our worn, and I am sorry to say, green sofa along the wall that separated the kitchen from the living room and across from it we put our oak rocking chair, which was on loan from my parents.

I walked from the bathroom to the kitchen and around to the living room and sat down on the floor. Looking around the apartment I realized there was no longer any use denying it. We were poor.

Fall turned to winter and the bright colored leaves lay slumbering on the ground under a blanket of snow. It was December, and while the outside world bustled about preparing for Christmas, I was in bed recovering from surgery.

Then came a knock at our front door. First entered my neighbor Melinda, followed by her husband Kevin, arms laden with simmering hot casserole dishes and freshly baked rolls. Next came our neighbors Doug and Linda, returning our laundry smelling freshly washed and looking neatly pressed.

As we gathered in the living room to visit, I looked around, silently absorbing the scene before me. Dominating the room was our Christmas tree; a poor, scraggly, little thing propped up rather unceremoniously in an empty ice cream bucket and supported by river rock. Its spindly branches were draped with silver, metallic icicles in an effort to disguise the sparseness of their needles.

I sat next to the tree in the rocking chair, rocking my baby, now eight months old. My husband sat cross-legged next to me on the floor and our four guests, who were providently thin, scrunched in next to each other on the couch.

I could hear sweet musical laughter as stories were shared. I could smell the aroma of freshly baked bread in the kitchen begging for my attention, and I could see the Christmas tree lights twinkling next to me. I felt the warmth in the room, first on my skin and then deep down in my soul.

Suddenly it hit me. We were rich.

Life has changed much since then. We moved to Arizona, added four more children to our family and our worldly possessions increased. And yet many years later, we still count as our greatest blessings---and hence the source of our greatest wealth---family members and good friends who have brought such great joy, and richness. . . to our journey.

I am feeling very "rich" right now as well. My house is filled this week with my children, in laws and even a baby. What a great blessing this is!

May you all have a very Merry Christmas!

TGIF and Nine Other Things I am Grateful For

I have heard it said that a good thing to do when life gets challenging is to count your blessings. So since this past week in many ways qualifies for the definition of "challenging" . . . here goes.



I am grateful that . . .



1. Today is Friday. That means that for two days I get to sleep in past 4:30 a.m.!!



2. Our weather has finally dipped below 100 degrees!! Hooray for that!



3. With cooler weather in the morning I started taking the dog for a brisk walk after seminary and that has proved to be the secret to better behavior all day!! After the walk she is content to lounge around until Michelle gets home at 3.



4. I am going to the temple this afternoon with my sweet husband. And afterwards we will go to Rosa's for Mexican food. The food there is good, but the tomatillo salsa alone is worth the two hour round trip drive.



5. Speaking of my sweet husband, he is also incredibly romantic. He sends me a sweet love note every morning when he gets to work (via email) calls me at lunch time, brings me flowers a couple times a month, treats me to lunch every Wednesday, writes sweet notes for me on sticky paper that he leaves on my computer in the morning, gives me foot massages. And he helps with the dishes!! Am I lucky or what!??!



6. Tomorrow I get to attend a baptism and the Relief Society Broadcast. I love that meeting!! It is always so empowering and enlightening.



7. I am so grateful for friends who do not let me retreat from the world when I start feeling down. Thanks to you all for telephone conversations that make me laugh and thoughts you send that bring comfort.



8. Facebook. Okay, I really only got on to spy on my kids (wanted to see pictures of all those things they are doing while away at college) and now I love it!! Not only can I send them little messages during the day, see who their friends are, keep up with friends from high school, etc., but at 11:30 at night when they are still on FB, I can send a message saying,"Go to bed!"



9. Trials. Yes, I am even grateful for them since they make the blessings we have oh, so much sweeter.



10. We have made it through one more week with everyone healthy, happy, and employed


So what are you feeling grateful for?

Weekend Wind-up

This has been an eventful week. Here are some of the highlights, and one low light.

First off we had stake conference. One of my favorite stories told was of a woman who had two clay pots that she carried to the well each day for water. One had a crack in it, and by the time she returned home, her pot was only half full. When asked why she used the pot with the crack, she pointed out all the flowers that grew along the path to the well that were watered each day with the water from her pot. I think that story has a lot of applications. I will let you make your own. :-)

She's a working girl!

Our daughter Kathryn got a job at the newly opened (this past Monday) Corner Bakery Cafe. I love that she has a job as she needs to earn money to afford BYU this fall, but I do NOT like her hours! She didn't get home until after 11:30 p.m. all week and I couldn't go to sleep until I knew she was safely home. Since we are all up at 4:30 for early morning seminary, it has been a long and tiring week--and one that required a Saturday afternoon nap.

Lunches, Lunches, Lunches.

I love going to lunch with family and friends, so this week was a great one for me. I had lunch with Amy and Karen when we went to the temple Friday, with Jenny on Thursday, Wes on Wednesday, Kathryn on Tuesday and Lisa on Monday. Lisa and I went to Pei Wei's for Chinese food. I picked up one fortune cookie to open for my fortune but saw Lisa with a pile of them. When I asked her what she was doing, she said, "I'm going to pick my fortune!" She wasn't taking any chances on getting a bad one. Even so, we didn't really find any that were all that exciting. What is up with the fortune cookie writers?

I love flowers!

My most favorite flowers are Tulips. These came from Lisa who loves to buy the bulbs when they are available at Costco and share them with friends.


And these are from my dear, sweet husband who is just thoughtful and kind.

When did cell phones become such a necessity?

While in Utah a few weeks ago I used up all my minutes. I usually have plenty for the month, but being in constant contact with family members consumed them quickly. So for three weeks I could only use my phone on weekends! That was awful!!!

Yes, I know I could purchase more minutes, but I am also very cheap.

So, instead I just suffered, and counted down the days to March 5 when I had minutes again.

Hooray!

And my one low-light. Our well.

This is where we get our water. It serves four families in our neighborhood and normally serves us well. But lately it has been very temperamental and frequently we have been without water--and always at the most inopportune times--like right before you want to shower on a Sunday morning, or just before starting dinner that you are making for friends.

Today was another day the water went out. Hopefully the pump can be fixed once and for all!

So of course I also taught seminary every day, went walking three days with my friend Susan, did grocery shopping, cleaned the house, picked up my daughter every day from track practice etc. etc.,

But for the most part . . . this was my week. Not overly exciting, and definitely lacking in sleep, but also filled with fun, family and friends . . . those things that always bring . . . joy to my journey.

Day of blessings and miracles

Yesterday, Saturday, February 7, was a day of blessings and miracles. I began the morning by attending the sealing of one of my former seminary students, Ciara. I can remember when Ciara was born. Her mother and I served together in the young women's program and were expecting babies at the same time. We later moved away, but then Ciara's family also moved to our stake and I had the privilege of teaching her in seminary when she was a freshman. It has been fun to watch her grow, go away to college, serve a mission and now be married to her sweetheart.

I was so happy to be able to attend the sealing, but what brought even greater joy was to look around the sealing room and see five of my former students there. Besides Ciara, there was her older brother Jordan and three of Ciara's good friends. I was talking to the friends after the sealing and one of them, Natalie, said to me, "Isn't it so wonderful to all be here together in the temple?" It was. So much so that when I saw them all there it made me cry. What a wonderful sweet blessing that was.

In the afternoon, I was able to help set up for the reception. This brought such deep feelings of gratitude to me for the women in my ward. We joked that it was a "United Order" reception, in that many people brought the decorations they had, and all together it was absolutely beautiful. There were so many wonderful women, willing to dedicate their time, money, and resources to make the reception a success. I was so touched by all their selfless service.

And then in the evening we received a tremendous miracle. The weather report called for rain beginning around 6 p.m. and the reception began at 6:30. Everyone involved had prayed during the week that the rain would not come during the reception--as it was being held out doors. Michelle (Ciara's mother) told us she explained in her prayer that she didn't mind cleaning up in the rain, but asked that it not rain during the reception.

The reception ended at 8:30 and at about 8:20 we started feeling little sprinkles. By 8:30 it was a downpour. The next hour of cleanup was wet and cold, but there wasn't anyone there who did not appreciate the miracle that had occurred, especially when we heard that around 7:30 it was pouring rain only a half mile from where we were. What a sweet blessing that was and what a wonderful day I had.

Lastly--as long as I am writing about blessings, I want to add one my father received. While on his mission in Argentina nearly 60 years ago, he tracted out a home where he left a pamphlet with the teen aged daughter who lived there. He then was transferred and never knew what happened with the family. Several years ago, while teaching at BYU, he met an MBA student from Argentina who told him his mother was the girl he left the pamphlet with. She joined the church, married and raised her family in the gospel. Well, a couple weeks ago, my father read in the Church News that this same young man was just called to be a mission president.

So you never know what influence you might have on others. Leaving that pamphlet that day was such a simple thing, that did not appear to bear fruit, and yet, sixty years later, people are still being blessed because of it---and will continue to do so.

And there you have my day yesterday, and the many blessings that brought great . . . joy to my journey.