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Sunday, June 21, 2009

In Praise of PA

I noticed something on TREK (more to come) that made me think of my own children in regards to their Dad. We had been asked to make sure the carts were clean before we turned them in, take a stick and clean the mud off the wheels, take the knots out of the rope etc. One of the boys mentioned that we didn't have mud on the wheels and I said that that was because Pa Pinette cleaned them every time we stopped for a break. They looked at me in surprise, none of them had even noticed. They hadn't noticed him cleaning up the campground after them, that he did most of the set up of camp, that he subtley checked with the kids to see that they were doing ok, and monitored the weather and encouraged them to eat right and put on sunscreen and drink lots of water, etc, etc.
My husband has always worked so hard to provide for the family, and did so many things quietly in the background for our comfort and safety. He works so ingeniously sometimes to serve us that I think they missed a lot of what he did while they were home. I wonder if they have any clue how much he worries about them now, how he pleads with the Lord for them. Doesn't help that mom is so outspoken either. He works constantly to take care of us all! I just want to say that my husband is an incredible man who serves daily all people that he comes in contact with, feels responsible for. His primary class, his employees, his wife and kids. . . . He is a wonderful man who happens to be a little on the shy side. And I love him dearly!!!

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Young Women Secretary


I have a calling!!! I am so excited! I was beginning to feel like the red-headed step-daughter: unwanted, unloved and useless.
It's my own fault I've been without for so long. Sweet C and I had a calling together, and when they called him to something else I panicked. I complained and somebody listened and passed my complaints on to the bishopric. I always panic at something new or different, and I complain until I get used to something. I fussed to the person who formerly had the calling, because I was afraid I couldn't do it as well as she had, worried to a mom,and complained to a friend. I think it was the friend, but she is the one I depend on to tell me to suck it up when I complain too much!
The bishop seemed to think I didn't want any calling. I'm not sure where he got that idea. I've only turned down a calling once. I still think I was right about that one, (long story - essentially I felt the spirit was telling me something else) but I have felt so guilty over it for years that I wouldn't say no again. I just felt scared that I would be too hard on the little boys without C to temper my strictness. We all know how I ruin little boys.
Anyway, I have had this calling before, for 2 weeks some 25 years ago. Then they called me back to the nursery. I have actually had a small number of other callings, but most of them I only held for a week, or two, or a month, not long enough to actually get into it, before I was called back to the nursery (19 times, through all the years my children were little and I was babysitting to earn extra money and I never saw another adult for more than two minutes at a time! I so needed to be with adults.) I loved the nursery, I just would have liked to do something else sometimes. Now would be a good time to put me in the nursery, I miss having babies.
I thought bishops had lists of who was allowed to do what, since the primary president would get released only to become the relief society president and the young women president would become the primary president and I would be called to the nursery in every ward we moved to and the only difference was whether I was ward nursery leader or stake, or both.
I was so terribly excited to be called to the library! But I was librarian, ward, building and stake for 15 years. When we moved to Reno I had no calling for 8 months then was called to be librarian! Actually, while I was librarian I got to teach sunday school too, and that is what I really loved. I taught the end of the New Testament and then the Book of Mormon - course 17. I so wanted to do the rest of the scriptures before I had to give it up. That would only have been 4 years, nothing like 15. Doesn't seem too much to ask. But it wasn't to be. I was called to teach Gospel Doctrine in Las Vegas just before we were to come home. And then because of the foreclosure had to leave that even earlier than I thought. I only taught 3 weeks, but I sure loved it. Sigh.
Anyway, enough of the old.
I get to be with the young women!!! I was already going on trek. Now I get to go to class with them! I get to get to know them! I get to have a calling that isn't nursery or library. I really want to do something new. Yeah!

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Bone-lazy cheapskate

My hands hurt, my feet ache, my back is sore and even my face aches. I have spent most of the last two days racing (hah!) up and down a three tier scaffolding re staining our house. We have actually been at it for two weeks, but since we are both working full time, well, you know. I had two days in a row off, and the rentals were due back. This started as a simple project of fixing some loose trim. However, as soon as we began to stain the trim it became obvious that the whole house was thirsty. Our house is entirely wood sided. We do a good job when we stain, so we haven't had to do it often, but it is a twenty year old house.
Sweet C says that not many women my age would take on a project that involved climbing scaffolding three stories high or putting a ladder on the top of the scaffolding to reach just that little bit higher. (I'm short) He is right. Most women are smarter than that. While I am, in reality, bone-deep lazy, I am also extremely cheap. I can never pay someone else to do a job that we are perfectly capable of doing ourselves, so I get myself, my husband and all the kids involved in these huge projects.
I am getting old though. Everything hurts more than it did when I was younger. The ground looks further away. Twisting myself around to reach something from the top of a ladder makes my back ache longer. I held a spray bottle in one hand and a brush in the other because the liquid is as thin as water and needs to be driven into the wood with a brush, so my hands hurt. And I was on my feet the whole time. Even in the house standing on a ladder makes my feet hurt. But why does my face hurt?