Paige’s little boy loves to be outdoors. During their visit, we spent evenings in the backyard catching bugs, studying the I-spy quilt, and holding his hand as he walked around. When the crew arrived to take down our old fence, he and Richard spent some time watching the process. Later, when telling us all about it, he imitated the sounds of the fence crashing down. Who needs a lot of words when you can imitate the sounds of tools and workers so well?
Those tiny moments together this week amount to more than most events of my life.
We’re getting ready to entertain two young families with babies. Paige and her family are coming, and Celina and her young family are coming to stay with us. Celina and Paige became friends 19 years ago in Arizona and have remained close. It’s time for their little boys to meet. I am populating shelves with toys and books in anticipation. Hooray!
I guess I needed a 1980’s week without posting on the Internet. I have been doing invisible home maintenance things and I’m blessed to have the time and energy to do them.
Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.
Lives full of praise, music, and thanksgiving are uniquely blessed. Being joyful and relying on heavenly help through prayer is a powerful way to be peaceable followers of Christ. Striving always to be of good cheer helps avoid being cast down in spirit.
A friend asked me recently if I am keeping busy these days. She said that it’s funny how you can be so busy raising children, and just like lifting a hand from a bucket of water, immediately the gap gets filled when they are gone.
It was a good analogy, a hand lifted from water. Things just slide in to take over the days. This is not to say that the transition is easy or without complexity, and I think the process has aged me. The process is also transforming me. There are many things to do in life, and they come rushing at me each morning in ripples of ideas and possibilities. So, I keep sloshing along, not in a hurry, but finding meaning in a few new things. Fluid is my favorite metaphor for life right now.
Working on a gallery wall arrangement means that I am taking lots of photos of different art configurations.
My decluttering project last week was to get rid of unwanted picture frames and to frame some treasures in the basement. I matched art to frames and collected a big box of frames for donation. I completed my goal to declutter, but the basement floor is covered in art, so it’s hard to tell.
Sometimes I wait for permission to do something that would make me happy. Here is a superficial example. My favorite color is red, and I love interior design, but red has been “out of style” for a long time. So, dutifully, after Christmas, I have ushered out most of the red from my house. This year, someone gave me permission to keep some red things on the shelves in January. Four red plates and my seasonal red seat cushions are all it took to make me smile at my January kitchen.
The trends are mainly fueled by consumerism, so here is permission, if you need it, to put whatever you love on your shelves. To ignore the trends. To ignore the noise that tells us we are not stylish enough, sophisticated enough, or tidy enough.
On another level, here is permission to ignore some of the calls to listen to podcasts rather than seek our own revelation from God about life, faith, and joy. Our time is limited. Do we want a life diluted by noise?
There is a universe of possibilities within each of us. It’s a shame when we allow the world to dictate to us that we are inferior and the answer is to chase after relentlessly changing trends. Here is permission to follow the simpler and better way.
My plea to you this morning is to find rest from the intensity, uncertainty, and anguish of this world by overcoming the world through your covenants with God. Let him know through your prayers and your actions that you are serious about overcoming the world. Ask him to enlighten your mind and send the help you need. Each day, record the thoughts that come to you as you pray, and follow through diligently. Spend more time in the temple and seek to understand how the temple teaches you to rise above this fallen world.
Ah, home ownership. When the stop-and-waste valve broke this month, Richard shopped around for someone to replace it. The estimates were so high that he decided to dig the hole himself and just ask a company to replace the valve and not excavate. This saved us a lot of money.
Richard is really good at finding solutions like this, and this is one of the reasons the kids and I have lived a comfortable life.
