Random Sunday Thoughts...

Here I sit at my computer on a wonderful Sunday afternoon. Had a great morning at Church. Visited my Mom during Sunday School time. She slept through most of the visit sitting in her wheel chair at the lunch table. But there were periods when she held my hand or responded with mumbles while I read to her from the Ensign Magazine. Tried to hold choir practice but that didn't work out well. Chorister is on a trip and we finally just canceled and headed home. Had a nice lunch with my hubby. Now we are home, he is napping and I'm computing.

It was a really cool morning. It will be in the 70's today but when a body is used to 90+ temperatures the 20 degree difference really seem a lot cooler. I could have actually worn a sweater today to be more comfortable.

My life right now is full of stuff to be done. In fact, it often seems 'out-of-control'. But I keep trying to look at it as bite-sized pieces that I can manage.

October 9th we are having 'Comin' Home' to celebrate the 130th birthday of Sadieville. I spent a good deal of time Friday afternoon working on the KidsFest portion of that day. I did manage to get all my ideas and lists off to Miriam Reese. She is taking those notes and ideas to a meeting with the ladies of her Church today. They have agreed to help with the Kidsfest portion of this day long celebration. That is about 2 hours of kids games. I hope to hear back from her tonight so I can take our plans to my meeting tomorrow with the Friends of Sadieville Renaissance workshop to finish up the planning for October 9th.

I spent Saturday completing the cutting out process for Hayden and Bailey's Halloween costumes. Hayden will be Peter Pan and Bailey has chosen to be a dinosaur. I have the body part of Bailey's all sewn except the facing on the neck and the elastic in the sleeves and legs. Then I need to make her head covering, her mittens that are claws and her feet. I haven't sewn any on Hayden's yet. They promise to be really cute costumes.

I'm diligently typing a little each day from my Mother's journal. Papa gave me one of the notebooks he finished reading. Tuesday when Papa was so sick I covered his shift at the Family History Center with Claude. I took this journal and began typing it during my 3 1/2 hours there. I'm to July 1996 when Papa had his open heart surgery. It is always interesting to go back and read someone's perspective of how things transpired. Since we all come at things from a different place in our life, we sometimes see things a bit differently. Since my Mom can't communicate with me anymore, it is a delight to read what she felt important to record.

My father says I am my mother's daughter. I've always felt that when I look at my hands which are exactly the shape of hers. When I wipe a counter it is like watching my mom's hands wipe a counter. I have found as I've read and typed at her journal that she and I are more alike than I thought. One 'for instance' would be her recording all the things she accomplished in one day, then ending her entry with "It was a good day." 

My parents taught their daughters how to work, how to do lots of things to run their lives. I learned to clean and some cooking. My mother really did all the cooking but she did teach us each how to make homemade buttermilk biscuits. We did learn the basics of cooking so I could read a recipe and follow it. I learned to sew, crochet, and play the piano. I learned to enjoy a road trip in a car and to read a road map. Surprises me the number of people that don't read a road map. Now we have GPS's (I think that is right) and a lovely voice can tell you where to turn. I learned to enjoy really good music with great harmonies. I learned to love reading my scriptures and studying the gospel. I was taught good moral and ethical standards by which to live my life. There is lots more they taught us while we grew up in their home.

I find that I do feel best when I get to the end of my day and I have filled it with what I needed to do or maybe a day of things I just wanted to do for fun, but I filled it up and at the end of it I always say, "It was a good day." See, I am my mother's daughter.

I'm crocheting 2 projects right now. They are both very enjoyable, not something I have to rush to get done because I am ahead of the game on them. They are just a pleasure and that is how I like to crochet best. Just for the pleasure of it.

I started reading a new book last night. Not sure what I think of this one but I'm only on the 2nd chapter.

I'm reading my New Testament and my Book of Mormon. I just love reading the scriptures. I can't tell you how many times I've read these profound books and every times something new pops out, my understanding increases, and I feel like I'm growing spiritually.

My Stake Relief Society Presidency is in the throes of preparing for a stake wide Relief Society event on October 23rd called Circle of Sisters. I got a few more things ticked off this week in my portion of the preparation of this great event. Today in Relief Society our sisters practiced singing the words to Circle of Sisters that Lisa Adams, my great 1st counselor wrote to the tune of "It's A Small World". What fun it was to hear it sung with lots of voices. We practice it as a stake Relief Society presidency each month when we have our presidency meeting but there are only four of us when we sing. Today the room was full of sisters and they sounded so good. Lisa would have had tears in her eyes to hear them sounding so good. Lots more prep work to do for this event but it is coming together nicely.

Claude was sustained today as a High Councilor in our Lexington North Stake. This will be great fun for him. He'll get to be out in our stake and learn something of the other wards. The High Councilor's speak in the wards on the 3rd Sunday of each month. In October Claude will speak in "Georgetown Ward". That is funny because that is our home ward. He won't have to travel any further than he usually does. We both got a chuck out of that one. He will work with the Owingsville Ward and will also support the Emergency Preparedness and the Employment efforts within our stake. I'm really happy for him. He'll do GREAT!!

I sent out the envelopes requesting donations to the American Cancer Society. I do this every year. It is not the most huge things a person does but it is often the little things that help in greater ways. So each year I get their packet of envelopes and things to stuff in them. Then I mail them to our neighbors and then return all our donations in one envelope. It's a little thing but it really feels good to help a very good cause. Cancer had touched my life and the lives of my family members and this is one cause I feel very good about helping.

A new couple showed up for Church today. I introduced myself and then learned they are the parents of a new couple in our ward. This couple knew they would arrive at their home today but they didn't expect to see them at Church. It was fun to watch Karlee's surprised look when their family entered the chapel and found her parents sitting near the back.

Laura called me the other night to go look from my patio. I did so and there was a beautiful full moon in the sky. What a lovely gift to give another...stopping to notice the beauty around us.

The night before Claude called me out to the front porch. He was watching a gorgeous sunset and he thought I might want to take a picture. He was right.

I awoke two nights before that at 4am. Such is the nature of growing older. Sleep eludes you at times. I realized there was a shadow on the deck and in the back yard of my house. It was almost like the shade you get from the sun being behind something. Only this time it was the moon that was casting the shadows. I went to the dining room to see it and couldn't find that moon up in the sky. I went to the spare bedroom which stands out further than the rest of the front of the house. I could see it from there. It was gorgeous. It also had a star down from it that was very bright. (I need to ask Jake about that star below the moon.) They were the only two objects in the sky visible from that bedroom window. One of the beauties of living in the country on a street with no street lights is the view of the stars in the night sky. I snuck back into our bedroom and got my camera. I headed to the front porch and driveway to try and take a few pictures. I did but they really didn't come out. I'll just have to keep that image for myself in my brain. But I will tell you, if you wake up and there is that much moonlight, it is worth getting up to enjoy the view.

One night as we settled in for the new season of TV viewing in the evening, I happened to walk out on the deck before we settled down. There were a few clouds in the sky and the moon was behind one of them. It was a very light clouds kind of stretched across the sky instead of being puffy. It was gorgeous. I hurried for my camera but by the time I got back to the deck the cloud have blown past the moon.

Papa has been sick this week. He missed 5 days of feeding Mimi. He is much better now and even doing his walks again. He did want to get out in the fresh air by Friday and he ended up driving out a country road this direction and then coming to our home. He sat and drank a Dr. McGillicuddy root beer while I did my ironing. We had a nice chat but when we got through he was quite ready to go home and take a nap. He looked good at church today and I was truly grateful to see him in such good spirits.

This last Wednesday Papa and I did not sing at the nursing home. He was WAY too sick. I went to his apartment and he gave me a DVD of a Country Western music show. I took it to the nursing home to play for the residents in lieu of his singing. One of the residents called me over as I was setting things up. She had me come down to her ear to hear what she needed to say. Then she whispered in my ear (very loudly), "I need to go to the out-house!"  I went to find someone to help her get to her room. As I went I thought, "That was an interesting way to phrase that request!" I was quite amused by it actually. Having had grandparents who had 'outhouses' I knew for sure what she was talking about. Just another cute moment at the nursing home.

I learned this week that the word "Blog" is really a shortening of the words 'web log' that are written together for 'weblog' and then shortened to 'blog'. That is another wrinkle in my brain!! (That is what my mother used to say when we learned something new, it made another wrinkle in our brains.)

So I'm going to fill the rest of my Sunday afternoon with typing, reading and maybe a bit of sewing. I'm happy to report, "It was a Good Day!!"