Category: Extended family

After the storm

I drove through a heavy rainstorm on Saturday to attend a niece’s temple endowment. I was flustered by my commute and ran from my car to the unfamiliar temple in the rain.

I was greeted in the usual way by young and old temple workers, ushered through new halls, and given spiritual assurances that my visit was important.

You’d think that after years of temple attendance that these things wouldn’t surprise me, but that is the way with joyful things.

“Surprise!” Joy cries, as it jumps out from a hiding place such as a rainy day or a challenging relationship.

There was a time when I didn’t think I would ever see this niece again because of family difficulties, but I was invited to be with her on her important day. Poised and happy, she greeted me in the celestial room with a hug.

Later, when I walked outside, the clouds were gone and the brilliant afternoon sunlight descended like a confirmation.

Surprise!

Surprise!

Last week, I misinterpreted my dad who I thought was inviting the young men of the family to help pour concrete for a new shed on Saturday morning at 10:00 am.

Mark and I drove down to my parents’ house on Saturday morning to discover that the extended family wasn’t gathered and someone had poured some concrete the night before. My parents were surprised to see us, but my dad, being the eternal Boy Scout, had just gotten home from picking up another dozen bags of concrete from the hardware store. At that moment, we had shade, helpers, and materials. So, even though it wasn’t in his morning plan, my dad built the forms and Mark began mixing concrete. Mark also got a few more cousins to come over and help, and just like that, another piece of the foundation was complete.

While I don’t like to surprise people into doing big projects, I am glad that my parents didn’t end up pouring concrete on their own on Saturday night, as my dad later confessed he was planning to do.

Work

Mark hopes to spend a few days a week this summer working at Spring Lake. Last week, he left on Tuesday afternoon and came back Friday evening. I heard very little from him. This was the text exchange of the week,

I am thankful to my parents who welcome Mark to come and learn new skills.

Accessible family history

This Instagram reel is an experiment to make my Grandpa Stewart’s home movies more accessible to my family.

One thing I have learned from watching his movies is that my grandmother was the star. ♥️

This was taken at the Spencer home in Salt Lake City at Christmas time in the late 1960’s/early 1970’s. My mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother are beautiful in this clip. Carol is in the pale pink dress, JoAnn is in hot pink, and Lucille is in red.

I don’t know, I just really needed to see this film today.

I will post more short clips with music now and then. I look forward to sharing some very special family times with you.