The Olympics

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My Team USA hat from the SLC 2002 Olympic Games

It takes the Olympic Games to get us to watch television at our house. We’re excited to watch many of the competitions and I am looking forward to seeing some news pieces about Russia and to see some views of landscapes. I just read War and Peace, remember?

The boys are skiing on this day off from school. I hope they don’t try anything crazy after watching those athletes make it look so easy.

The last summer Olympic Games we spent in Arizona, packing and painting. I have lots of memories associated with the Olympics. Perhaps things become more memorable when I’m surrounded by my family and the world feels more friendly and amicable. I love my 2002 USA hat. I wear it often.

Smile!

DSC_0739“Maybe you’ll find some money when you get home from school today…” I meekly replied to Mark when he discovered that the Tooth Fairy had forgotten to take his tooth.

You’d think that the Tooth Fairy would be able to remember to leave some money for this boy (he lost the tooth right before bedtime) but no, that Tooth Fairy is always running behind schedule with our family. The kids sometimes wait for days. We began leaving the teeth on the mantel so the Tooth Fairy might remember better, but that Tooth Fairy is incorrigible.

I just checked. There is money on the mantel! Better late than never, Tooth Fairy.

Sick day

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I guess my day will be spent with the Portuguese court, soft tissues, blankets, and throat lozenges.

It’s a small cold, but I think I need the rest. Plus I am sad because we just found out that my grandfather has cancer.

I need a day and then maybe I can do something again.

Love is

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…shoveling your wife’s side of the driveway at 5:30 a.m. before you rush off to work.

I love the snow. It’s the incessant days of school and work, just after we get reconnected at Christmas that makes January feel long.

I am going to make something to hang from a ceiling today because garlands and buntings always make me smile.

Never mind. I just got a call to bring treats for the fifth graders in a couple of hours. Eek.

And then Richard and I will go out to eat and celebrate new snow, a month over, Mark feeling well again, and the stain that I finally got out of the carpet.

Trust

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Mark has a cough this week. Boo. Tonight after reading to him I had the impression that I should stay for a while longer. It was the right thing to do because he ended up coughing until he threw up.

He asked if there was any medicine that would make it all go away. I reassured him that he probably wouldn’t have the same trouble again tonight and that his experience was pretty normal for croup. That seemed to calm him.

I am awake in the bed beside his, listening to him breathing softly and enjoying the cool, moist air from the humidifier. I was thinking how the years have taught me how to care for a sick child. How little I knew when Paige was born. How little I still know sometimes. I have learned that in these times when I don’t know what to do, I can trust the impressions that I have from our Father in Heaven urging me to go to the doctor or to sit with them a little while longer.

Hope

IMG_20140129_073833I spent a few minutes yesterday reading my journal from 2001. What a heartbreaking year that was. I’m pretty sure it was one of the most difficult in our lives. It was the year that I said goodbye to teaching seminary (I mourned over that) and I had my 3rd major surgery in 3 years. I was in pain for months and there were other troubles that I won’t list here. I’d get over one trial and another big one would emerge. The terrorist attacks affected the mood. Some of my entries were so sad. Other entries helped me see how I got through that time. I maintained hope that things would get better; I maintained hope in the power of prayer and faith. I clung to the written word from Church magazines and the scriptures. I believed that my problems were known and carefully measured for my good. I took time to realign my priorities.

I have been thinking about hope this month. I found a nice article about it in the September 2013 Ensign and I highly recommend it. Here is my favorite quote from the article and a quote by President Uchtdorf for you today.

Profound and sustaining hope is more than an attitude; it is an orientation of the spirit toward God.

-Vaughn E. Worthen, “The Healing Balm of Hope,” Ensign, September 2013.

 

There may be some among you who feel darkness enroaching upon you. You may feel burdened by worry, fear, or doubt. To you and to all of us, I repeat a wonderful and certain truth: God’s light is real. It is available to all! It gives life to all things. It has the power to soften the sting of the deepest wound. It can be a healing balm for the loneliness and sickness of our souls. In the furrows of despair, it can plant the seeds of a brighter hope. …It can illuminate the path before us and lead us through the darkest night into the promise of a new dawn.

-President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “The Hope of God’s Light,” Ensign, May 2012, 75.

January 28, 2001

I don’t feel like writing anything about today. How about I go downstairs and pull out my box of journals from storage and see what I was doing on January 28th sometime in my life?

Oh, look, here is my red suede journal from 2001 and there is an entry for January 28th.

Sunday, January 28, 2001

 

Doing well…

 

Working on patience with my children

Working on keeping the television turned off

Working to be more well-read in many books

Family is doing a marvelous job reading the B of M every day

Children going to bed earlier

The laptop works

Richard is supportive of seminary

Scripture study and lesson plans [for seminary] are good

 

1 degree off flight plan [makes] 1 mile difference for every 60 miles travelled (sic).

A flight plan parallels the mortal experience– am I on the right course

Punctuation and spelling are irrelevant to me in 2001. I was teaching the New Testament in seminary that year. I think that flight plan stuff came from a talk by President Gordon B. Hinckley. Incidentally, in 2001, I thought his last name was spelled, “Hinkley”. All of my seminary handouts carry the incorrect spelling.

I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read on the train.

–Oscar Wilde  (The Importance of Being Earnest)

Weekend Recap

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The weekend was good. I hope yours was, too. Richard and I went to Lamb’s Grill (est. 1919) after I picked him up from his business trip. We watched the documentary, Mitt. We went to the temple. We took the kids out for Italian food because Mark wanted bread sticks. Richard was busy with church stuff and I worked on the family album. Timothy had a friend over most of the time. Daniel kept the house filled with music from his computer. He’s been listening to movie soundtracks lately. Paige worked on projects in her room. We miss her a bit. Mark began a new piano piece called Creepy Crocodile and changed clothes every few hours, as usual.

I am looking forward to a visit with my parents tonight and reserving tickets to attend the Sacred Gifts exhibit at BYU.