Mama Week

Mama Week-

Monday Tom and I drove to the Tulsa airport… via a few stops. He wanted to show me the ReStore in Fayetteville. So we left early and took a detour there. We arrived about 15 minutes before it opened. About 10 minutes later a guy came out with a sign. He asked if we were waiting for the store to open. We said yes. He said they were closed for the day because of computer problems.

Tom jokingly said, “I’m really disappointed. We drove all the way from Mountain Home, and if we can’t shop here, I’m going to have to take my wife to ½ of ½ where she’ll spend her money on clothes!”

The guy said, “Well, park over there and come on in. But you’ll have to use cash!” So we got to wander around the store and look at all their great stuff. We bought some door knobs…which is what we had been looking for. And went on to Deborah’s in Springdale. We visited with her for about an hour. Then I had about 35 minutes at ½ of ½ to look at all their sale items before dashing back to the car and heading to Tulsa.

It was really windy on the drive. It pushed the car around on the road. But we got to the airport in plenty of time. Tom dropped me off and headed to Miranda’s. He planned to spend a few days there working on their house. They changed the lighting in the kitchen and made the ceiling level across with LED “can” lights. Miranda scraped the popcorn off the ceiling and I guess will re-texture it and paint it. Tom and Dan also worked on putting some trim and baseboard back up. I don’t know if the painted… or if Miranda and Dan had already done that. Tom headed back home on Friday.

Our neighbor Barb is great about feeding cats and chickens and watching our house when we are gone.

I had an uneventful flight… except no baggage on the Santa Ana end. Cynthia and Jim picked me up and took me to Mom’s. I was tired and went to bed early. Apparently South West called and asked if they could deliver the suitcase before 2am. Mom said yes… and thought she stayed up until 2am. Bless her heart! As Jim says, “Always the Mama.” However, I was awakened about 1:45 with the phone ringing. It was the baggage delivery. I’m thinking, WHAT?? It’s stinkin 2AM in the MORNING! And I only have garments on and you’re going to be at the door in 2 minutes? So I threw on the only clothes I had and got to the door about the same time as the delivery person. I was too groggy to even think about tipping.

I did go back to sleep. And I was grateful in the morning that I had clean clothes and my sundries so I could shower and put on deodorant.

My goal was to keep on Arkansas time. Go to bed by 9pm and get up at 5am. Then work for a good four hours and be finished by 11 or 12 so the rest of the day I was free to do mama things. It actually has worked out well. I get up/dressed/scriptures and prayers. Then work for about an hour. Stop and eat breakfast and exercise a few minutes. Then go back to work. When Mom comes out, I’ll stop and eat some fruit while she has breakfast, and then go back to work.

I got the intro and first chapter done on the book and sent off on Saturday. I’ve had some interviews and started on the autoresponder series for the financial manager. My goal is to finish this in the next few days— at least the first draft.

In the afternoon one day, Mom and I went to her physical therapy and shopping. One evening we went out to dinner. Thursday some old friends from the Valley came to visit. Doreen had been friends with Mom and I had known her daughter Barbie. They brought a delicious lunch and we had a lovely visit. Friday Theresa came over and took her out to doctor’s appointments. Then in the afternoon, we went to her safety deposit box. I wanted a picture of the Roaring Camp stock certificate for the book and it was in the box.

Saturday I went to the temple in the morning. It’s always a delight to go! And I was grateful I had the chance. In the afternoon, Sally came to visit and we had an enjoyable time. Cynthia and Jim had escaped to Palm Desert and returned on Saturday, so we went to their house for dinner that night. Delicious hamburgers. I’m going to get Jim’s secret sauce.

Sunday I went to the Aliso Viejo ward. The Stake is going to rework the boundaries in several of the wards— including the 700 member Aliso Viejo ward. So it was kind of an emotional time with everyone wondering what the changes would be. They were to find out at a 3pm meeting. Nevertheless, I was so impressed with the talks and the strength of the testimonies and comments from members in the classes. So nice to see the church can thrive in Babylon.

After church, Mom and I drove to Pasadena to Stephanie’s tea. She was the former pastor of Mom’s church in the Valley and she’s a delightful person. She decorated beautifully and everyone brought some goodies. We had enjoyable conversation around the food. I think Mom had a hard time hearing all the conversation. But she is always so gracious. Traffic was mostly good on the drive. Not a lot of trucks. Mom thinks they were all home for President’s Day holiday. We arrived home about 6pm. Seemed like a long day.

It's great to get letters from others sharing their activities for the week. Thank you all for writing.

Moving forward

This was a productive week on many fronts.

While I had been waiting to see if the book writing job would come through, I had responded to several other invitations for jobs— one on Upwork, another through LinkedIn. One of them came back with a signed fee agreement and check, so that’s a go. Nice guy. He’s a financial manager looking to gain more clients with an email autoresponder.

The second one is a recruiter— head hunter— who wants a sales deck. He said yes— but so far no $$. Fortunately both of these are fairly quick jobs. But I spent a few stressed out days wondering how I would manage everything.

I had a phone meeting with the book contact in Israel and some of the other people working there. Seems like a nice group of people and I began researching the book and doing some writing this week.

I somehow stumbled on The Urban Monk. He’s a guy who was a Tibetan monk, then did martial arts, and then went into medicine and ran a wellness clinic. I like his low-key holistic approach. I started by watching his movie “Origins” which had great African scenes. Then he sent a 7 day program (www.theurbanmonk.com ) and I probably spent 10 days and didn’t get through it all. I did start with his eating program and felt good and lost weight. I like his exercises for people that sit all day (because I do) and that they are short and effective at waking up the whole body and mind. I encourage you to look at his stuff.

We’ve seen progress at the house. Tom tiled the wall of the small bath that we enlarged. I came back and grouted it. It really blended well with the existing wall tile. He also finished putting in the door frame and door to the bathroom. Funny story. He asked for my help making sure the door was level and lined up. He’d already put a board across the door opening on the inside of the wall, to act as a stop. I went inside the bathroom and shimmed from the inside as Tom did the outside. He put the nails in to secure the door.

“Okay,” he says. “Open the door and see how it goes.” Hmmm. The door opens in. And there is a board across the opening screwed to the wall. Tightly screwed to the wall. Tom hands a screwdriver through the door knob opening. Did I mention the screws were in tightly? I couldn’t move them. There was no way to get me out… or the screw gun into the bathroom. We laughed! We had to take the door out so I could escape. Actually, he handed me the screw gun and I made sure I could take the screws out… and then we started installing the door again.

Tom painted the second bedroom with my second effort. We both liked the result so we went on to paint the hall and the hall closet. In the meantime, Tom painted the bathroom vanity, finished painting all the doors, and started on the kitchen cabinets. We painted the bathroom… so now it’s ready for tiling the floors and the tub surround. I’m really pleased with the way the colors are coming out. And it’s so nice to get a room or closet done and get the shelves back in. You start to see the clutter in the house decreasing. Saturday we rehung the doors. They will get unpinned when the flooring goes down, but for now, they look finished and are out of the way.

We got a new sister missionary this transfer… so they came over to visit and meet us Thursday evening for brownies. Then we got a text as we were finishing up painting on Saturday. The sister training missionaries were in town, could two of them come over for dinner tonight? They texted about 2:30… we checked messages about 4:15…. Um…. Sure! Fortunately I’d planned a pretty quick meal for us. We were able to enlarge it and it worked out well.

It was a good day at church to day. We had testimony meeting, then talked about how to receive revelation and how the gospel of Jesus Christ can turn bitterness into love. It’s a great antidote for our angry world.

Catching my breath

This week has been a quieter week for me. A time to tie up loose ends and prepare for the business to come. I finished a website and a publicity article for a new kind of cloud storage place— a green geodesic dome that heats and cools the banks of data files without AC or heaters.

I have been hired to write a book on investing for a fintech company that is a social trading platform. That means you can look at other people buying and selling stocks, bonds, bitcoin, metals, etc. If you find an investor doing a good job, you can allot a percentage of your investment capital to be bought and sold just like their portfolio. And it will happen automatically.

I will be immersed in writing this book as it has a fairly short deadline. Additionally, we are still working on the house to flip. Tom bought a paint sprayer. It’s been a good investment, in spite of the fact that I came over one day to see paint splatters all over his face. I guess cleaning it can be a bit of a challenge. He’s gotten most of the doors painted and a lot of the trim. We took doors off the kitchen cupboards and they are ready to be painted.

I want to paint the house a dove gray with the white trim. The gray has to be dark enough to contrast the trim, but light enough to keep the house bright looking. I bought a gallon to try in one bedroom. Nope, a little dark. I went back for another try. It looked SO light; I had them add a little more black to one of the gallons. We’ll try it on the second bedroom. We better get it right by the third bedroom, because then we just have the hall that flows into the living room. The kitchen/laundry/dining room will all be a yellow or wheat… now if I can just find the right color.

I’ve been working on Stake Relief Society business. We have a Women’s retreat coming up in April. I also wanted to coordinate a trip to Nauvoo. One ward said they had some sisters that wanted to go, but couldn’t get there on their own. I sent out a request to see who was interested. No response. I sent out a request again… and now about 100 people want to go! Aak! The stake’s money would go further if only the 45 or so I’d imagined were going. I need to get more specific on costs so I will know what we can do and what the sisters will have to come up with.

For the retreat, I wanted to make heart necklaces to complement the theme “Create in me a new heart.” I got the last of them cut out— 140 total. Now to bisque, glaze and fire them. I’m going to my pottery friend on Tuesday to start that process.

Tom went to prison for a Bible study this week and back down for a meeting about building a new chapel at the prison. Interesting, about 75% of the prisoners use the chapel for anger management classes, reintroduction into society classes, training and church… but the state will not fund the chapel. It seems to me that all the good things that happen in the prison go through the chaplain. Are they trying to eliminate that and have more bad people? It doesn’t make sense to me.

On that note, one prisoner got out with time done. He was to go one place, and Tom was to help him get settled in. But he never called after he got out. A month went by… we knew he’d had to go to another place, but that was it. We finally got a letter. He’s in a halfway house where he works 11-12 hours a day— but 95% of the money goes to room and board, no phone privileges, and can seldom get away. He doesn’t need the halfway house, but he does need someplace to live. Now that we know where he is, we can help him get to a place where he can go to church as we wants and will find more supportive help in a better environment. It’s nice to know he’s still trying to hang on and trying to do good.

I had a few tiny miracles this week where inspiration had clear results.

  .          1. I’ve been visiting a sister for about 3 years now. She comes fairly regularly to church but only stays for Sacrament. I’ve invited her to stay for Relief Society and she always agrees it’s a good idea … but doesn’t. This visit, she said, “I need to start going to Relief Society.” And today she did!
2. 

2.       2.  I have another sister who hasn’t been to church for years and has no intention of changing. Her husband is anti-religion. Often we just chat about quilting, her dogs, or their efforts to sell their house. But this time, I decided to take the conference issue of the Ensign and give a lesson. Which would speak to her? There was one on prayer that had a great story. I decide to do that one. When I mentioned the story took place in Machu Picchu, she said, “I’ve been there!” The story was a great lesson on faith, answered prayer and the Holy Spirit. And she was very receptive to it!

3.      3. Finally, my neighbor hasn’t been to church in months. But Saturday night I thought, maybe this is a good time to invite her to church. Then Sunday, I thought it again. So I called her and told her the Stake President would be there. She really likes him as he came to visit her once. So she was delighted with the invitation… and came to church AND stayed through all of Sacrament.

I wonder if, in all my business, I am not taking enough time to listen to the spirit and act on its promptings. And since this was a slower week, I heard and responded and felt the accompanying joy. I want to remember these small blessings and remember how many blessings every day the Lord gives us.

Progress

In most areas things are moving forward. After several weeks of on-again, off-again health, we seem to be getting energy back and not emptying the kleenex box in record time. It's good to be feeling more energetic.

We are also making progress on the house. All the walls and cabinets are washed and awaiting painting. Tom started working with the paint sprayer and painted a number of doors, the fireplace, all the baseboard trim, the closet trim and the door trim.  He hand-painted the window trim. We still have several coats and several sides of doors to do. The former owners put some high-gloss varnish on some of the trim.  We did an insufficient job of sanding that... so will either have to sand better or replace those trim pieces. And we don't yet know how the sprayer will do on the cupboards. However, the bedrooms are about ready for wall paint.

On the writing side, I've been working with a trading company in England on writing a book on investing.  We have been going back and forth on the contract. They want me to assume all liability... for copyrights and regulatory compliance...and I'm not inclined to do that. We are also discussing the due date as they want editing and revisions included in the original timeline. Since I have no control over how much editing or how long it will take for them to review and return... we haven't come to an agreement.  This could be an intense writing period. Or it may fall through. In the mean time, I have two other calls on Monday for the possibility of other short work and ongoing ramping up for the Hospitality company that is launching the end of this month. So it could be feast or famine.

We were excited when Nathan got the job at Baxter Labs, even though it was temp to perm. He went in for orientation on Monday and went to his first day of work on Tuesday. Unfortunately, his depression kicked in and he felt overwhelmed and suicidal on Tuesday night. I was sad that he finally got a job that could lead him to all the things he desired, but he was not able to do it. His goal in coming to us was to try to get him moving forward. But he really was no better than when he came home from his mission.

Nathan and Kera determined he really needed a full evaluation and to make sure he was on the right meds. He was supposed to take care of that himself, but clearly it was beyond his abilities. So he returned home to Russellville on Thursday and they will see that he gets evaluated and the correct treatment. It will likely stink going back to being a "kid" after he had all the freedom he had here, but that's probably what's needed now.

Friday Tom and I went to the temple. It was a nice day. We drove in the van with about 10 other people and had good visits up and back.  On the way home, Bro. Powell, the usual driver (Tom was driving at the time) got really sick. So we stopped at the Rolla ER and waited about an hour to see what would happen. In the car we had a great discussion about signs of the Second Coming.  Then we decided to continue home because the doctor still had not come to evaluate him. We were about 15 miles down the road when we got a call saying they were releasing him. So we drove back and picked him up. They'd alleviated the pain and he was feeling much better.

Saturday we worked on the house and then Tom went to Super Saturday in West Plains.They had a talent show and he was impressed with the talents of the kids.

Today was a good day at church. It was much more relaxed that last week. I studied the lessons ahead of time and that helps. A lot of the Sunday School and Relief Society was about the restoration of the Gospel and the Book of Mormon.

This evening Tom and I worked on some family history. Then he went out home teaching.

And so life moves on.

More work on the house

This was more of a relaxing week.  I think that's because both Tom and I... and Nathan were still feeling a bit under the weather. Speaking of weather, it was chilly this week... and rainy and foggy.  So it was a great time to stay inside in front of the fire.  And there's a lovely sofa there that may have been used for some napping.

I really had no writing work that had to be accomplished.  I was waiting for a book contract to come through.

Tuesday, Thursday and Friday I went over and worked on the house.  Most of the destruction is finished and we are on to cleaning in preparation for painting.  Although as you clean you see that a door trim is not set properly and so the hero comes in and dismantles the door frame and fixes is.  Or there needs to be caulking in this place or that...  But it almost feels like we are moving ahead.  Tom painted some of the gold fixtures a pewter color and they look much better.  So we took down the elaborate crystal chandelier and dismantled it and painted it.  Now we have to see if we can remember how to put it back together.

Tuesday I took a sister to her dental appointment.  Friday I had volunteered to take the sister missionaries to West Plains for their meeting-- RS was to do the lunch for them-- but they were predicting ice and so I chickened out.  Probably it would have been fine... but... the sister missionaries drove themselves.

I got some books for Christmas and have stayed up late too many nights reading them.  I've finished them all now, and so it's time to get back to work.

Sunday was a busy day for me. I left the house at 6:40am and drove to a ward conference about 1.5 hours away. We had early morning training, then meetings— I taught the Relief Society lesson— then lunch, visits to sisters that needed visiting, then Stake council meeting. I left there a little before 5 pm. It was a long, dark, foggy ride home. I had to travel slower to be safe. But on the trip up and back I got to see a variety of deer including about 6 deer crossing the road and a flock of turkeys wandering on the road.

The lesson spoke about the blessings of the restoration. There are things that we know as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that no other people know. We have priesthood authority in an unbroken line back to the Savior. We know:

• ·         The nature of the godhead— that God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are distinct personages and God and Jesus have bodies and look like us.
• ·         The Book of Mormon as a companion to the Bible and proof the Joseph Smith was a prophet, Jesus Christ is our Savior, and this church is His church.
• ·         The eternal nature of the family- that it is an essential unit on earth and in the eternities.
• ·         That little children are innocent and not accountable for their sins until they are 8 or know right from wrong if they have mental disabilities.
• ·         That those who died without the knowledge of the Gospel can learn it and be saved.
• ·         That as children of God we are His literal children and heirs. We are not mortals having a spiritual experience; we are spirits having a mortal experience. As His children we have the promise to grow up and become like Him if we are faithful.
• ·         Modern revelation— God still speaks to his prophets today to guide and bless us.

    To me it is a source of great joy and hope.

On We Go

Monday was a nice start to the year. We still had Miranda and Dan here. I went out and worked on the house with Tom for about 1.5 hours. Then we came back and had the missionaries over for dinner. It was kind of a relaxing day.

Tuesday Miranda, Dan and family headed home. Sigh. A quiet house. Oh, funny thing. After Jonathan and Kristy left, they stripped beds. I washed sheets and made the upper bunk... the worst bed in the house to make. Tuesday, Miranda said... I stripped the beds for you... Yes. It was the one I'd made. Bless her heart, she remade the bed for me. She is wonderful and helpful! And she made another one to make up for the one the sheets would not be done in time to make.

Suddenly the house was quiet. We still had the tree and the trimmings, but Christmas seemed to be over.

I was hired to write some plant descriptions. They want lots of research and detail. I think it will be interesting. I'm already finding trees I want to buy. If this becomes steady work, it will produce a nice paycheck.

Now that the new year is here, I'm suddenly aware that we need to be working NOW to prepare for our Relief Society Women's Retreat. We had tentatively scheduled it in mid-March. But I think we will push it back to early April. Otherwise, we'd need posters and invitations out by the end of the month. So I worked on that a bit and Sunday evening had a phone meeting with most of my presidency.

Wednesday Tom worked at the house and I logged about 5 hours on the plant research. We are also studying the life and teaching of the prophet Gordon B. Hinckley this year and so I read the introduction to his life. I always have a goal to read all the lessons ahead of time. I start out well at the beginning of the year and then taper off. Perhaps this year I'll do better. I even got the Sunday School lesson read ahead of time.

Thursday was more writing, more working at the house, and an evening relaxing in front of Superman Returns. Nathan went job hunting, in spite of the cold he and Tom are sharing. He wrote up a resume and sent it to Baxter Labs. He took a preliminary test and went for a job interview on Friday. He has a tour of the plant on Monday and another test of some kind at the college on Tuesday. I believe he may start working there on Wednesday. It will be full time 3-11 M-F. He starts off as a temp worker. I guess if he does a good job, eventually they hire him and he gets benefits. Unfortunately, his transportation seems to be more tenuous. The transmission is acting up. I hope it can limp along for a while. The Elders Quorum pres. will look at it this week and we'll have a better idea how serious it is.

Friday evening Tom took me out on a "redneck date." We went shopping at Walmart.

This week saw the tub in the large bath with greenboard surround in-- and a cut-out for a cubby in the side wall. The tub got plumbed and the shower raised from above chest level to a more suitable height. The small bath got plumbed for the sink to move. Tom had moved the wall out about 16" extending the size of the tiny shower/toilet/sink area. A larger door makes it seem more spacious, too. And we have a lovely pedestal sink to put in there. With the plumbing done, Tom was able to finish putting up the drywall. Now we have to either buy new tile or clean the old to finish out at least part of the tile wainscoting on the walls. It's 4 1/4 inch white tile. You'd think it would be easy to match. But today's 4 1/4 in tile is actually about 1/4 smaller. It might work if we used wider grout lines, but I think we'll try to salvage enough to finish out the extension of the walls.

We had someone come in and paint the ceilings. That's a literal pain in the neck. The guy did a good job. And Tom and Andy got lights working in the bathrooms, laundry room and a new light over the sink. These new can lights are so fantastic! Tom replaced one of our old ones over our kitchen sink and AHHH! The light is so much brighter. I think these are the same kinds of lights Mom put in her kitchen.

I also made flight arrangements to visit mom Feb 6-16. It will be nice to see her.

Tom had a busy day at church with all kinds of youth meetings including Bishop's Youth Discussion at our house after church. We had 19 youth there. He'd made dozens of cookies and deviled eggs yesterday and they were appreciative. We'll have half a dozen more deacons coming in next year. We may outgrow our down stairs!

Tom and Nathan are still a bit under the weather. We hope they will improve soon.

Happy New Year

Monday and Tuesday we worked on the house. Tom got the old bathtub out and prepped the place for the new tub. He moved the wall in the small bath and got that sheetrocked, except for where the plumbing needs to be changed. On Tuesday I finished getting the last of the layers of contact paper off the shelves and sanded the cupboards and trim in the kitchen, dining room and laundry room preparatory to painting. It's possible to see progress, but the prep work doesn't have the satisfaction that painting brings.

Most of the week has been taken up with FAMILY!!! Miranda came to visit on Tuesday. Thursday we went to Silver Dollar City with Andy and Kera, Miranda and Dan, Nathan and Madalyn and Isabelle and David. We also took a young man from our ward since we had an extra ticket.

The weather has been pretty mild and so it was a nice day at SDC. Jonathan and Kristy dropped their two off on their way to our house. So we didn't stay late. We headed home to be with them... after a few stops.

When we went up to SDC, we stopped at Menards to buy a few more things for our new house and to return some ceiling popcorn spray that didn't work. Then, after SDC, we stopped at the Tool Store to buy a new drill and battery, since one of Tom's died. And we'd hired a guy to paint the ceilings in the house. He called to say he'd run out of paint. So we stopped in Harrison to buy more paint. I think our young man thought he'd never get home.

After SDC, Andy and Kera came to spend a few nights, and Nathan brought his girlfriend, Madilyn Home for the family to grill...er... meet. So there has been much merrymaking and hilarity at our house... and a few squabbles. People brought board games and tasty treats. 

Friday morning we went out thrift shopping and took a detour by the new house for some paint color advice and for Kera to see the expanded bathroom that she had recommended last time she visited. Friday night Tom took Isabelle and Katie to the youth night-before-New-Year's-Eve activity. They seemed to have a good time. We had time to talk with Nathan and Madalyn and bestow words of advice on them. And they seemed to take it well.

The kids had a good time playing together and then Andy and Kera and family left about 1pm on Saturday. Nathan went to work and then followed them to Russellville so he could help return Madilyn to her family in Mississippi on Sunday.

Jonathan and Kristy helped create their traditional New Year's Eve feast of all kinds of snacking foods. So we played games, watched movies, and munched on goodies. Most of us stayed up far too late... some past midnight. That made for a slightly grumpy Sunday, except for those who napped.

We had a lovely fast and testimony Sunday. One lesson was on Lot's wife. We talked about looking back to times and places where we were comfortable and the need to look forward to growth and change. We can't become more Christ-like, if we want to focus on the past and stay where we are. The message was to learn from the past and grow into the future.

I think 2017 will be an exciting time! I'm looking forward to it.