Of Good Report

Today was the last day of school; it lasted a total of 90 minutes. The jr.high kids didn't even bother going and I didn't even bother going home after dropping off the girls until school was over. Emma asked if I would come to her class; they were having a breakfast party. I did and I am glad that she wanted me there. Emma actually told me she was bored 30 minutes after we got home from school. I, of course, told her I had plenty of things I could suggest she do. She went to the neighbor's house instead. Estelle went with her. Sarah is at another neighbor's house playing in the water, a must-do for the first day of summer vacation. Taylor is slogging through his assigned school work for the day and I just dropped Spencer off at boy/girl end of school party. That was a big step for both of us, for me mostly. Yes, I know he could be dating in less than three months; yes; he has been going to stake dances; and yes, he has had a couple of crushes this year. Still, it is...

For most of my life I have read scriptures at night before going to bed. Recently, I decided to change to reading them in the morning. Today, however, due to a lack of sleep in recent nights I could not keep my eyes open and focused on the page so I pulled out my iPad, my preferred method of scripture reading and decided to read a conference talk. I read the words of Boyd K. Packer from his talk titled, "The Witness." It was an instant reminder that the Lord is aware of each one of us in intimate ways. I have been quite pensive lately and today I was thinking of the many things I have learned in my 45 years of living. I've learned a lot from a lot of different places. I read, listen, observe. I take classes and have earned degrees.  I experience and I receive revelation from God. The latter ways are the ones that are the most meaningful for me. The truths I have received through living and from God have been, sometimes, painful and long fought for. Yet, they are the mos...

So, when I was growing up as the oldest of six children, parental dating and childhood babysitting looked a whole lot different than it does today. My parents began leaving me to watch over my younger siblings when I was the ripe old age of nine. At the time I thought I was mature enough to handle it and apparently my mom did too; in fact, her friend thought I was capable as well and she would hire me to babysit her children. I have a nine year old and I am pretty sure I wouldn't leave her to take care of just herself for more than a few minutes and I wouldn't go much farther than next door. Over the years that I was left in charge of my siblings, my brother swallowed a penny, my sister got hit by a car (not as bad as it sounds), another brother fell in a swift flowing creek with his bike, my sister (same one) fell off of a bike and damaged a tooth and her gums so badly the tooth eventually had to be pulled out, the river brother also fell out of the back of a truck and land...

Destry and I were talking about what to have for dinner and he mentioned that a BLT sounded good. He also mentioned that he didn't like the olive oil mayo that we had in the fridge and that he preferred Miracle Whip. I was incredulous at this declaration! I had grown up on Miracle Whip and I saw that his mom had mayo at her house and for some reason or another I had had a conversation with his sister, JuNette, who said that she did not like Miracle Whip at all. I assumed that he came from a mayo family so that is what I have been buying for the past 17 years. Honestly, I don't love either of them and I prefer mayo if I am making certain salads like potato or broccoli, so that is what I keep on hand. He thought that I must have come from mayo-loving stock and just used it on the rare occasions that he ate a sandwich. Who knew? I really was dumb-founded by this recent revelation. He is not one to keep his food preferences to himself and I could not believe he had kept this a secr...

So there is a song in the Primary Children's Songbook called, "Our Bishop." I was just listening to it with Estelle and Sarah as I was putting them to bed. Estelle mentioned that there was a part in the song that sounded like this, "He's so viscous." Then it talked about "kindly words."  She asked me if they were saying, "unkind words." Then she wanted to know if the song was about Satan, which, by the way did not make sense to her. We usually sing songs about Christ and families and love in Primary, not about Satan and she could not believe that there would even be a song about Satan. I proceeded to explain to her that in fact the child was singing, "He's our bishop." I immediately started the song over and sang it as best as I remembered it from when I learned it in Primary. We both had a good laugh about it and I'm sure that song will bring a chuckle to my lips every time I hear it in the future.

Today I received some much needed training at the PTA convention. I got to spend  time with several of next year's board members and learn a little bit about what I didn't know I didn't know. I do know that I have a lot to learn the next year as PTA president-elect so that I don't completely flounder as the president the following year. I have some big shoes to fill so to speak, or another way of looking at it is I get to continue a legacy started three years ago by capable women. I look forward to the opportunity to learn and to serve and to make new friends while attempting to make a difference. My kids are all getting older now and can be relatively self-sufficient for short periods of time. I left before they went to school, but they were close to being ready. Destry was prepared to do carpool. Each child had a responsibility to fulfill in addition to the usual homework and walking home from school today. Taylor was to clean up the kitchen and keep the laundry mov...