Everyone helps out with the construction when you go to Spring Lake. 
Richard had to work on the 4th, so I took the kids to Provo to see the parade and the fair and to visit Spring Lake. Daniel skipped the parade and worked with my dad all day at Spring Lake. In the evening a few cousins joined us for Tank Wars. It was a fun day.
We’re sheltered by a mantle of cool, rustling leaves, enjoying companionship of birds, breeze-tempered sunshine, and good books. It’s a Sunday afternoon reverie with Richard that I’m hoping to create again tomorrow on Memorial Day.
This yard is a perfect spot to relax.
Richard and I went on a little weekend getaway to Salt Lake City to celebrate our 19th anniversary. Over dinner we played the memory game. What do you remember about Los Alamos? Westwind apartments? Austin? We didn’t make it to Arizona or Utah because there is too much to say and lots of food to eat downtown. We’ve lived in 7 homes in 4 states. It doesn’t seem like I have been married nearly half of my life, but there you go. Life moves quickly. It’s a blessing to have lived with my best friend, and I’m not just saying that because he still thinks that I look good in a swimsuit. 😉
Mark met a girl at school last year who took an active interest in figuring out why I don’t have a job like her mom. She has talked to me about it and scolded me for just staying home. During our conversations, I have learned that I am hearing her father’s opinions (or her interpretation of his opinions) through her. At school she tells Mark that her family is rich and that she owns 50 horses.
Last night, Mark asked us, “So how DO you get rich?”
He had been thinking… If this little girl at school was rich, it must be because both of her parents work. He gently suggested that I could get a job.
Wealth, to Mark, we discovered, would mean having more video games.
That’s so funny that he thinks I would spend my paycheck on video games. Ha! Regardless of our wealth, I will continue to be the major impediment to a life of video game ecstasy in the lives of my children, for which they will thank me someday, but not today.
I think there are things we can do to teach the value of each person’s contributions in our family. I think we do this through assigning jobs to our children and Working Beside Them. We can show appreciation verbally for jobs well done. As a homemaker, I can express the joy this brings to me and the appreciation I have for Richard who makes our comfortable life possible. And we can be kind to those who belittle our efforts.
Now, let me say unequivocally that I am thrilled with the educational and other opportunities that are available to women. I treasure the fact that the backbreaking work and domestic drudgery required of women has been reduced in much of the world because of modern conveniences and that women are making such magnificent contributions in every field of endeavor. But if we allow our culture to reduce the special relationship that children have with mothers and grandmothers and others who nurture them, we will come to regret it.
-Elder Quentin L. Cook, Ensign, November 2013
These frames are at Michaels in the dollar bins. These are Easter time pictures of each of the kids when they were about two years old. They were all such little sweeties.
I still have so many blank walls in the house. It’s daunting for me to decorate because I don’t put something on the wall unless it is meaningful to me, and that’s a tall order. I’ve been working on a few photo projects to cover some of these empty spaces in the house. I found this collage frame and filled it with photos of Richard and me for our bedroom.
As you can see, it’s still not on the wall. I have so many ideas, but perfectionism gets in the way.
Look at this picture I found:
Tres chic, I know. The baby’s hat! The scarf! The distinguished young man!
In other news, Richard had a birthday.
I made him good things to eat. What did he ask for? Lentil soup, steak, and lemon bars. Steaks are for the weekend. The Young Men were short on rides to the mountains for a night sledding expedition, so that’s what he did on his birthday. He went night sledding with the neighborhood teenage boys.
Paige took her first sick day since going to public school this week. She’s working on an art project with this selfie. She’s feeling better today.
Daniel is working the microphones for the school play. He goes to school at 6:45 a.m. and comes home for dinner, then back again for the performance. He likes working on the stage crew. He got his first taste of it when Paige was dancing in Arizona:
He’s a lot taller now.
I am going to begin teaching violin lessons next week. You have no idea how I agonized over my inability, then my lack of time, and finally my monthly rate. All of my creative energy this week went into that decision and then I took to my bed for a day in exhaustion and with an upset stomach. I’m such a Victorian that I should carry around smelling salts. Despite my turmoil, I believe it will help me to be teaching again.
…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.
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.
Richard comes home this morning from Phoenix. I am so glad. We’re meeting for lunch in downtown Salt Lake City. How shall I do my hair? What shall I wear?
Decisions, decisions.
Here’s a parting thought for the weekend from a book that I am enjoying.
“It is an happy loss to lose oneself in admiration at one’s own Felicity: and to find GOD in exchange for oneself: Which we then do when we see Him in His Gifts, and adore His glory.”
Thomas Traherne
Centuries of Meditations
I keep a copy of this photo close by. My great-grandmother is on the far right. My great-great grandmother is on the far left. My grandmother is the little girl.
I keep this photo for several reasons.
I wrote the following post a few weeks ago, but I have been afraid to post it for a few reasons.
You can read it or skip it. If you don’t like it, that’s ok because I’m pretty sure all of these women in the photo have my back and they think that I am darling.
The Post I Was Hesitant to Publish goes like this:
We attended a party one day before the big church Christmas program in which I was to play the violin. As the entertainment for the party a violin professor with a PhD in violin performance played for us.
It’s not logical and it’s immature, but my confidence plummeted after hearing this violinist.
The next day I was moody and I had a bad rehearsal. How was I going to get my head back together so I could play that evening?
Then came the angels. They were people in my church congregation who stopped me in different settings throughout the day.
“What have you read lately?” one person asked, initiating a discussion that we began earlier this year. Our conversation turned to talents and gifts versus faith as we serve God. He said something like, “God uses people because of their faith, not necessarily their gifts.” This was something I needed to hear. He was the angel sent to remind me to have the faith to be an instrument, and not focus on proficiency alone.
All day people from the choir for whom I was playing the accompaniment were so kind and encouraging.These were the angels who lifted me over my insecurities.
Just before the performance, I ran into my friend who played Tevye in the production of Fiddler on the Roof earlier this year when I got to be the fiddler. We laughed over the adventures of that show. Here was the angel who got my mind off my troubles.
I asked Richard to sit near me while I played, just off to the side. His presence was angelic and helpful. My mom and Paige sat in the congregation and gave me another reason to play my best. Daniel, who was singing in the choir, always gives me a private encouragement before I play. It’s a tender gesture that always goes to my heart.
There were also probably unseen angels who helped me to play without shaking.
I cringe at this fear and weakness that I show when I have to play, but I have learned about faith, true friends, and angels through these experiences of working through it. Someday I’ll be able to get over myself.
The performance came and went. I played and it was just fine… not perfect, but sufficient. Looking back, how could it have been otherwise with such a team rooting for me?
Will Thanksgiving ever arrive? I’m impatient to see Richard again. Perhaps if we put up the Christmas tree early this year, it will seem like his homecoming will be sooner.
I bought a new tree last weekend. I placed the big box in the living room for a few days and stirred up all kinds of anticipation. We’re big Thanksgiving enthusiasts, but we are breaking all of the rules and decorating for Christmas early. There might be pilgrims and nativities, and pumpkins and stockings adorning the shelves and mantels for a week. We’ll do whatever inspires a pull of family connection and memory.