My friend P. moved away this year and I finally made it across the valley to visit her with another friend. There are many things I love about P., and one of them is how fully she celebrates holidays. Her small space was decorated for Halloween and she was wearing Halloween socks and a cute sweatshirt. For lots of reasons, my heart ached when we said goodbye.
Is there anything more affirming than a friendship bracelet with your name on it?
Mark made this friendship bracelet for me when he was five years old, I am sure with help from Paige. I have worn it through the years when I need a reminder of who I am or when I need courage. I have hidden it within a pocket when facing personal challenges, and it broke last month inside my pocket.
I can fix it, and I am grateful it wasn’t lost. The loose beads remind me how different it looks to be a mother now, and how this year, in particular, has felt like a scattering of all known things. I will fix the bracelet and keep it as it was, but this experience also reminds me that when something breaks, it’s an opportunity to fit in some new letters.
G A – M A
W R I T E R
D I S C I P L E
H O S T
W H O L E
These two are a set each football season, usually in our living room. Tim got tickets from work to the BYU v Utah game last weekend and invited Richard.
Richard sent me this photo and said to notice the prominent Provo Rock Canyon temple under construction above the stands.
I know football pretty well. I hear the games and the podcasts and analysis, but it’s usually while I do some hand sewing or reading. I didn’t watch at home, but monitored the score to know how happy or disappointed Richard would be, and I smiled when BYU won.
I forgot to post the dolphins. It is hard to see them at first (so just enjoy the ocean sounds), but I zoom in towards the end.
The first two mornings of our trip we saw dolphins. I believed I would see them again and didn’t try very hard to capture them with video. There’s our life lesson for the day, don’t take any moment for granted.
Paige’s family drove down from their home in Alabama to meet us in Florida just a few days after Tim and Queenie’s wedding.
I was so stretched before this trip that I did some research about what a person needs in order to reset. I liked this list of three things,
Is anyone still with me after this long break? Here are some photos of Tim and Queenie’s wedding day at the Draper temple, the wedding luncheon, and the reception. We were busy, we were joyful, we had fun; my heart ached because Mark wasn’t with us.
We love our newlyweds!
I am taking a break from updating my blog during the next few weeks. Weddings call forth many private emotions and so many errands. You can picture me in the aisles of Hobby Lobby on (another) “last trip for the wedding,” running errands, facilitating a big luncheon for family and friends, and preparing church lessons, etc. It’s a time to celebrate Tim and Queenie and to cherish the covenants of the temple sealing. While I am busy, I know that no detail of the wedding matters more than those few minutes in the temple being sealed as husband and wife for eternity.
Dale and Richard greet each other on the phone with this drawled phrase, “Now, what’s goin’ on?”
Richard decided he wanted to spend some time with his parents over the weekend so he made it happen. Happy faces.
I didn’t thin the sunflowers this year as they popped up in a great company of heart-shaped leaves. They continued to grow and blossom through the summer, and now the flowers begin to fade. The bees that collected nectar begin to close out their shift as small birds come to snack on sunflower seeds.
As I have mentioned before, I interpret these unintended sunflowers as the Lord’s cheer and encouragement to me as he cares for my missionaries. To me, quite literally, they are my “son-flowers.”
They bloom in my backyard, but I see them everywhere this time of year. Looking through photographs, I find them in the background of Daniel’s wedding pictures, and now, Tim’s. I collected the round, burr-like remnants of Mark’s first-year missionary sunflowers last winter to keep in a glass box on a shelf.
We need the rhythm of seasons and the predictability of daylight and sunset. Yet with all this predictability, there awaits a perpetual wonder inspired by the beautiful creations of God. I smile almost every day when I see how that one little sunflower that appeared while Daniel served his mission has become this array, reminding me of a glorious God, who blesses us with a “multiplicity of blessings.” (See Doctrine and Covenants 104:2.)
Each year, Paul adds new calls to our dance, and these pictures show that this isn’t your grandma’s Virginia Reel. (I’m pretty sure our grandmas would love it, though.) We had great participation this year at the Sanchez reunion.
What you see here is my effort to be a better family member. I wear Grandma’s red boots for this annual dance and I fiddle my hands off to offset the classical violin music I foisted on the family in the past, as well as other annoying firstborn behavior.