Perspective

Good morning! It is a lovely day out. The sun is shining, the temperature is nice (remembering that it is still winter and there is still snow on the ground), boys are outside waiting for the bus, and Amena did not miss the bus. Not a bad start to a day or a week.

Saturday I did some reading that was quite interesting. Elder Russell M. Nelson said, “The aging process is also a gift from God, as is death. The eventual death of your mortal body is essential to God’s great plan of happiness. Why? Because death will allow your spirit to return home to Him. From an eternal perspective, death is only premature for those who are not prepared to meet God.”

That gives some food for thought. If death is premature only for those not prepared to meet God, then babies and young children are probably the most ready because they most recently came from Him. Our view seems to be, “Oh, the poor child, he/she had so much potential.” With an eternal perspective, don’t we all have eternal potential?

When I think of the deaths in my own family, we’ve really experienced a somewhat large gamut. We have Papa, who was 85, down to Daniel, who was 14, and in between Robert Lee, my dad, Uncle Mick. “Death is only premature for those who are not prepared to meet God.” I’m pretty sure Papa was ready. I’m pretty sure Daniel was ready. I’m pretty sure my dad was ready. I wasn’t close enough to Robert Lee and Uncle Mick to have an opinion if they were ready or not but in some way, they must have been.

Death is the flip side of the same coin as birth. Each is a passage to a new realm. When those we love die, we grieve. We miss them. Our lives are forever changed by them. When we are born, are there spirits who grieve for us because they miss us? Did we forever change the lives of those with whom we lived? Believing as I do, I think that in that existence we knew more of the eternal perspective than we do in this one. Because of this, I think that while there are those who miss us, they know that one day we will be together again.

I believe that. If I didn’t, I would lay down right now and die. Actually, if I didn’t believe that, I would have never gotten up from that hard table in the emergency room in Sioux Falls—with the death of Daniel, my life would have been over. But it isn’t. Life goes on, even in this sphere of existence, and one day I will be with Daniel, and my dad, and Papa, and all those who have gone before.

I am afraid this is going to be yet another relatively short post. While there is much that I could write about, there is little that I really want to. Sooooo, have a fantastical day!

544 Word Day

Good morning! It’s a lovely sunny day until you look at the ground and see the ice and slush. Yuck.

Yesterday was an interesting day. Actually, most days are interesting, depending upon how we look at them. Yesterday  morning we had Rachel and Sarah. They left around noon. Sarah first and then Rachel. Neither of their parents wanted to brave the ice in the driveway (I don’t blame them—I am not overly fond of ice in the driveway either). Then Amena was invited to a birthday party in Hardwick.

I needed to get gas and Joanna had given my $25 for gas but I figured I had enough to get Amena to the birthday party and then I could get gas either on my way home or when I went to pick Joanna up. I looked at google maps for directions and thought they looked alright. Then I used the GPS and what fun that ended up. It told me to turn on a road that is not maintained so we had to keep going and ended up driving in circles. That was a blast. I was about ready to give up but didn’t and we ended up being very close to where we needed to be.

On the way home I took another route that took me through Gardner so I got gas then. When I got home, Zak was here. He was going to take Joanna’s tire off. I showed him where the jack is and we found a star wrench but he couldn’t find the key for the lug nuts. Then it was time to pick Joanna up. Joanna hasn’t seen the key since she took it to Ray’s when he was working on her brakes.

I left shortly after 6:00 to pick Amena up. I wasn’t going to go the same way so I took off in the direction I wanted to go and made the GPS catch up with what I was doing. It worked and I got there and their driveway was a bumpy sheet of ice. Fun. It wouldn’t have been too bad if I’d’ve been able to park up by the house but there were something like four vehicles there already so I had to maneuver up the hill. I used the vehicles for hand rails.

The family of the girl whose party it was has goats and cows and an awesome wood cook stove in the kitchen. Maybe I should clarify; the goats and cows do not live in the kitchen, only the wood cook stove does. I would so love to have one like it.

I did get home later than I wanted to which kind of limited where Paul and I could go out to eat. We dropped Cedric off at the West’s because the Young Men were congregating there and playing video games. We ended up going to SS Lobster which was the way it always is—dirty tables that you have to wash and excellent food. We were going to pick Cedric up on the way home but when we stopped, it turned out that most of the YM were staying overnight so Cedric wanted to as well.

And that was the day, more or less. Have a great day!

Unnamed

Good morning! Yesterday morning it was beautiful outside. Today it isn’t so because yesterday we had ridiculously warm temperatures (in the 40’s for crying out loud!!!) that melted the top layer of snow and revealed the ugly brown stuff that had been plowed up. YUCK. Did I say yuck?

I had to take Joanna to work in the morning at 7:30 and then I had to go pick Amena up from Trivett’s at 9:00. When I was on my way home from dropping Joanna off, the roads were still pretty slushy and the turn onto Pitcherville Road was somewhat slick. When I was on the way back from picking Amena up, it was not as bad. When I went to pick Joanna up at 3:30ish, the roads were mostly clear. Even parts of Pitcherville were clear. Joanna had to go to school at 6:00. I decided to let her drive herself because Amena had Rachel and Sarah coming over and because the car was getting low in gas and I didn’t want to use more than we had to.

At some point after Joanna left, Sarah and Rachel arrived, and the time Paul got home just a few minutes before Joanna, I looked outside and the ground was white again. Then by the time Paul got home, it had turned to rain so it was slush. Yucky, man! It’s still winter.

I think today is supposed to be warm again. Yuck. It’s still winter.

In other news, Cedric feels much better. He was better yesterday but content to sit/lay on the couch all day. Today he’s been up and about more already than he was all day yesterday.

Right now we have a house full of sleepy people in spite of the fact that the boys and I are awake at the table and Paul is awake in the shower. There are three sleeping girls in the living room and a sleepy Zak and a sleepy Joanna. I only had to tell the girls once to be quiet. It is true that I could have told them again but I didn’t feel like getting up so I didn’t. Once I was ready to sleep, I slept, and I don’t know if they continued making noise or not. Seth told me that they woke him up at some point.

Today is Friday. I am glad. I thought for a while yesterday that yesterday was Friday and I wasn’t ready for that so I’m glad that today is Friday. Amena has been invited to a birthday party in Hardwick this afternoon/evening so I’ll be going there to get her there by 2:00. It’s over at 8:00 but I want to be able to go out with Paul so I’m going to pick her up early unless she can make other arrangements.

And that is all for now. Have a fantastic day!

Quiet Day

Good morning! It is a beautiful sunny day out this morning. However, it is supposed to get up into the 40’s and that is going to mean melting. That means sloppy mess and that means yuck.

The service activity we were going to do last night was postponed to next week due to snow. The roads in Fitchburg were really bad I guess and the church we were going to clean was not comfortable with asking people to be out. Since the roads should have been better by 7:00, it was decided to have mutual as usual.

I left Cedric and Joseph home watching NCIS and took Seth and Amena. I was hoping that there would be another YW leader there so that I could go home and be with my sick child. I was out of luck with that one. Because we were watching a movie, I really wanted to start on time but that didn’t happen. In spite of the fact that Amena and I were early, we got started late. Jerusha Peterman arrived very late and I thought, “Yay! I can go home!” But those thoughts were quickly dashed because she said that the roads were horrible and there was freezing rain; she was going to find the bishop and tell him about the roads, make sure that Megan, Christina, and Shawn had a ride home, and go home. She did. In the meantime, Diana Chunn arrived with popcorn. She said the roads were slushy but not bad.

Anyway, the decision to go home early was made and after watching less than half of Despicable Me 2, we left. We were home by 8:30, the boys were in bed by 9:00. Amena spent the night at the Trivett’s and I had to go pick Joanna up at 9:30. Quite frankly, I think I would have rathered just to stay home.

In the mail yesterday I received an unexpected package. I saw that it was for me and thought that it must be the movie I’d ordered so I began opening it. There was a lot of bubble wrap and then three objects wrapped up carefully. Christmas ornaments that I painted many years ago. Try 34 years and three months ago. What a lovely surprise! Thank-you, Auntie Deb! I actually remember painting them.

I don’t have anything else of great import to report.

Have a great day!

This

Good morning! It is a very pretty day outside. Earlier it was beautiful with the snow covering everything and the sun shining. Now the clouds have come back but it is still very pretty. The snow storm that was supposed to start early and last late ended up dumping about six inches of snow but started late and ended early. I love winter. Winter is supposed to be like this: a storm, clean up, a storm, clean up, a storm, clean up. Oh, yeah! I love this stuff.

Yesterday since I did get to work on the shawl Monday was going to be my work on the shawl day. It ended up not. Other than cooking and other domestic chores, I can’t think of anything terribly exciting that I did except proofreading for Laura; that’s always kind of fun. Anyway, I didn’t get any knitting done until after dinner and the resultant mess had been cleaned up and we had done prayer and scriptures and the boys were in bed. Then, I determined that I had to get at least one row done. Well, I got half a row done. I actually finished the row to the last four stitches and realized I’d made a mistake in the second half so I attempted to find the mistake and was not able to. I therefore decided to just take out the second half and redo it, hoping that the mistake was done away with and that I didn’t make any more. I went to bed before finishing the undoing and after reading for about 10  minutes couldn’t stay awake.

This morning Cedric wanted rolled oats so we all had rolled oats (with the exception of Paul who I don’t think ate and therefore is going to be grumpy when he gets back from plowing Ray’s). Kitty and Scooter were fed. I went to feed the goats and saw a wonderful pile of snow in the way; I couldn’t even reach their water bucket. So I set down the bucket of grain and kitchen scraps and pitcher of water and went back in the house, down to the basement, out the door with the shovel, and shoveled the path to the goats. I gave them their water as soon as I got that far and their grain when I got that far. I didn’t have to tip the bale of hay over today to get at the easier stuff which was nice because the walkway between the hay and the stuff by the door gets narrower each time I tip it over.

Once goats were fed and watered, I decided it was time to fix my knitting mistake. I did and now I am done with that row. Between undoing and finishing, I called Verizon.

What fun that was. I think I spent about 30 minutes on the phone only to find out that because, and I should have realized this, I used the upgrade from Laura’s old number, it isn’t due now for an upgrade for two years and I would have to pay a $250 disconnect fee. Well, isn’t that just peachy? So, I can either move the upgrade from my mother’s phone, which is due now, or move the one from my phone, which is due in September, and remove Laura’s old line today or in September.  It all depends on what I hear from my mother. I’m not looking forward to another call to Verizon but at least I can waste time on Facebook again if I do call.

This evening the Young Men and Young Women are going to Fitchburg to clean a Catholic church. I think that will be cool in spite of the fact I’m not sure how many of us will be going. I was just going to take all the boys because there won’t be anyone home to watch Seth and Joseph while I’m gone with Cedric and Amena. However, Cedric has a fever and I’m thinking he ought to stay home. I know Joanna works this evening and won’t be able to stay home with anyone. I’m not entirely sure yet if Paul is going to go to work or work from home today. If he works from home, I can leave the boys home with him and just Amena and I will go. If he doesn’t work from home, I might just have Amena go with someone else. I know that Cedric is 12 now but anyone who really knows Cedric also knows that he really needs someone else at home with him; I’d like to have a house when I get home.

Other than all of that, I am going to knit today because I really do want to get some sewing done and I want to get the kitting done first because if I don’t, it might get put on permanent hold and I really want to avoid that because I have too many other projects in that state of being; or unbeing. Soooooo, have a terrific day!

PS This is my 400th post!

and

Good morning! If we weren’t in the middle of Winter Break or February Vacation or Presidents’ Week or whatever the heck you want to call it, we might be having an early release or maybe even no school today. That in spite of the fact that the snowflakes have just begun their descent to earth. I’m guessing childbirth ed may be postponed for tonight as well but I’m not going to hold my breath.

Seth in his new fort.

I’m also not holding my breath about our plans for tomorrow night. I didn’t realize for some reason that we were going to be doing our cleaning the church this month so the Young Women had made other plans for the combined activity for tomorrow night. Those plans were put on hold, actually postponed, in order to clean the church (it’s a Catholic church in Fitchburg). The plan also was to park at the Valdez’s and walk to the church because it’s only a block or so away. I looked on Google maps yesterday and it’s actually about a mile and a half away so I’m glad we are considering parking in the church parking lot. The time has also changed. Anyway, I’m not one for holding my breath so I’m not.

Interesting to note, however, is that someone said that this church is close to the Beaudette’s as well and it’s about a mile and a half away from their house as well. And depending on how you go, it’s about a mile and a half from the Valdez’s to the Beaudette’s. Walking distance for sure but maybe not after dark when it’s supposed to be possibly raining?

Yesterday I went to the Verizon store and picked Elizabeth up on my way. Other than being at Verizon for more than two hours, it was nice visiting with Elizabeth. She and Jonathan are doing well. I discovered that they just live a couple of houses away from the Colon’s. I miss seeing the girls at church; especially Emily. I had her in my Primary class and she always had something interesting to say.

Anyway, I got a new phone. I wanted something that was not terribly expensive. Well, the one I got was free not counting taxes which were outrageous. There’s always the upgrade fee as well. The two together were $58.12. I kind of wanted to get a screen protector and case but they would have brought the grand total up to $98. Not happening. They wanted to sell me the add-on package which includes the screen protector, case, and car charger but I have a car charger that will work so I see no reason to get another. I did, however go for the free (all things are relative, you realize) tablet. I had to pay the taxes, of course, and I’m sure they’ll want me to get this and that to go with it. I’ll go for the screen protector but as for a case, I think I’ll get one off Amazon because they’re about $80 cheaper. Anyway, I got a Droid Mini which is somewhat awesome because I’ve wanted a Droid for a while (just because of the name which is kind of dumb but the way it is). The only problem is that Backup Assistant doesn’t work so all my contacts have to be put in again. That’s okay, really, it will just take a while.

Cedric just came in with two very large icicles. He reports that one of them was about a foot longer but it broke off and there are longer ones yet out there. He and Seth are outside right now devising ways to get icicles from the top of the roof; the ones Cedric got were just on the porch.

In other news there isn’t much to report. I wanted to finish the shawl I’m working on yesterday so I could sew today but the time I spent at Verizon somewhat precluded finishing anything so I’m hoping today to finish the shawl. I’ll give it a good go, at any rate.

Have a wonderful day!

That

Good morning!

How was yesterday? About as good as you might expect having had a snow day and a full moon. Actually, I’m not sure when the full moon was actually full. And, really, the day was pretty good, all things considered.

I kind of like this picture. The reflection to the left is from the window on the porch.

In the morning I was terribly mean and made the boys clean their room. What’s the point of cleaning it to begin with if we don’t keep it that way, after all? Then I was terribly mean and made them (and Amena) help pick up the stuff that always seems to accumulate around the edges in the dining room. The floors really do need to be swept daily but convincing anyone else of that (other than some girls who aren’t willing to do it every day) is nigh on impossible.

I really should use a tripod for these things.

When I went out yesterday morning to shovel a path to the goats, it was pretty easy going until I got to the pile Paul had plowed. I stood there for a moment and thought to myself, “Are you KIDding me?” Seth ended up helping me and we had that pile of snow whipped in no time. Seth also did an awesome job of shoveling off the front steps and helping to clear around the cars so I could move them so Paul could plow where they’d been parked. The goats were very happy to have food once they had some.

This is leading away from the basement door. The pile at the top is what Seth and I dug through.

And that reminds me of something else. We got round bales of hay because that’s all Paul was able to find. We kind of have limited space of them in the basement so they’re right next to each other and the one I’ve been using is also right up against some other stuff. That just means that the first quarter of the bale was easy to get at. Past that point, it’s not so easy because these bales are rolled up starting, as you might imagine, in the middle, and the outer layers don’t like to let the inner layers go without sticking in your hands and just generally being hard to get. I’d gotten this bale to about half used and yesterday I wondered what would happen if I tipped the bale over so I could get at the easier outer layers on the other side. Well, I pushed it over and discovered that it would indeed be easier to get hay off but it blocks the way to the door rather well. However, if I tip it over once I’m by the door, I can get out and then I can tip it back up. Win-win. Much easier to get enough hay for the girls without ending up with a piece of it stuck in my hands.

Don't they look happy to have some hay?

Yesterday I figured I should contact Verizon because I didn’t like the new phone I’d gotten and wanted to return it. Well, they told me online that yesterday was the last day I could do that and it would either have to be postmarked or returned to a corporate store. I didn’t know Verizon had such things as corporate stores so I said I knew where one was. As it turns out, I didn’t know where one was. I knew where a Verizon store was but not a corporate store. As it turns out, there is one not terribly far from where the one was that I knew about. Anyway, when Paul and I went out, we went to the first one and they told me where the one was I needed to go to. So, we then went there. That turned out to be good because Paul was able to take care of his phone as well.

While there, I learned a few things and asked a few questions and I think we’re going to switch to the share everything plan because it will save us quite a few dollars each month and I am in favor of saving as many dollars as possible. I’d also still kind of like to get a new phone because mine does have a cracked screen. They’ve got a promotional thing going on until Monday that if the weather is still decent then I’ll go take advantage of. I need to do it before Wednesday because that is the 19^th and that is when I can finally get Laura’s old number off the plan which will save a few dollars (but not quite a few, which is the goal). My goal is actually threefold: get a new phone, save money, not come home with my old phone.

Joseph is sitting here telling me that goose bumps are red and they itch. Where on earth does he come up with these things?

Have a splendiferous day!