From Heart to Heart

President Thomas S. Monson passed away the first of January. It's a little strange to have him gone since he was such a stalwart member of leadership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for so long.

President Russell M. Nelson has now taken the helm at the young age of 93. To look at him you would not believe it. I had a colleague tell me he still snow skis which is quite remarkable. After all he was a heart surgeon and knew a little something about how the body operates to keep it healthy and functioning.

Many years ago my father-in-law, who was a book binder by trade, pulled from their scraps at work a damaged copy of President Nelson's autobiography. He must have commissioned the bindery to print and bind it for his family because you can't find it anywhere.

Heart to Heart -- Top Right Corner

I was allowed to read this book and fell in love with President Nelson who was nothing more than a man, husband, and father at the time. I was intrigued with his insights he gave on the various organs of the body and their functions. The manner in which he described these left me with no doubt that the body is remarkable through the processes and systems that all work together seamlessly.

The following "event might serve to illustrate that men can do very little of themselves. With an education they can do a little more; with advanced medical degrees and training, a little more yet can be done. The real power to heal, however, is a gift from God, and he has deigned that some of the power may be harnessed via the authority of his priesthood to benefit and bless mankind when all man can do for himself may not be sufficient to accomplish all that may be needed that His will might be done.

When doctors attend social functions it is not uncommon to hear someone lightly jest, 'Isn't it nice to know there is a doctor here; he'll know just what to do if there should be trouble.' Medical training can indeed inspire confidence when people are in need. But I recall an occasion when many doctors gathered together could do little but stand helplessly when one of them was suddenly stricken.

This circumstance occurred in Manzanillo, Mexico, in February 1978. Dantzel and I were attending a medical meeting there with colleagues and classmates from our graduating class. Suddenly, one of the doctors became gravely ill with massive bleeding into his stomach. Around him were his learned colleagues representing a wide spectrum of medical specialties and with experiences, skills, and wisdom that each had accumulated in over thirty years of practice. Our colleague was bleeding! As we watched life's blood being projected from him, we helplessly realized that we were in a resort hut in a remote fishing village. there was no hospital; the nearest was in Guadalajara, many mountainous miles away. It was night; no planes could fly. Transfusions were out of the question because of lack of equipment. All the combined knowledge and concern there could not be converted to action to help our friend as we saw his life ebbing before our eyes. We were literally powerless to stop his bleeding.

He knew this. Ashen, pale, and clammy cold, he asked for a blessing. Several doctors there held the Melchizedek Priesthood and eagerly responded to his request. I was asked to seal the anointing. The Spirit dictated that he be blessed that the bleeding would stop, that he could continue to live and return to his home and his profession to continue to bless the lives of those who needed him.

The following morning, he was better. The bleeding had stopped. His blood pressure and heart rate had returned to normal. He was able to return to his home and his work. How he and we gave thanks to the Lord for this remarkable recovery.

Important as the body is, it is merely the place in which one dwells. The spirit inhabiting that tabernacle of flesh and bone is supreme. The gifts of the Spirit such as faith, love, knowledge, kindness, courtesy, charity, compassion, and gratitude are all nurtured by prayer and strengthened by daily exercise. Spiritual supremacy is achieved by contact with the Father of our spirits through daily prayer, study and pondering of the scriptures, and obedience to the commandments given us by God that we may have joy."

I imagine that many parts of this book will be put into his official biography which will allow many to read what I've read and loved.

January . . . so far

Two weeks into school and I'm a little surprised at the work load. Every night it's homework. As I try to get ahead, they just throw more stuff at me to read and respond to. I had someone tell me, "Well, if it's online you can kind of BS your way through." True. But that's not me. I really want to learn all that I can and find myself researching and reading more than is needed. On a scale of 1 to 10, how busy is life right now? Definitely a 10. A good 10.

Kiersten finished up her first semester and found herself a job and a boyfriend all at once. Her manager at Costa Vida sent her to clean the lobby, baseboards included. Afterwards he told her that she did the best job of anyone he's had. As she was relaying this story to me, she told me it was because of all the cleaning I taught her to do, baseboards included!

Erik loves all things vinyl. I was walking with my school kids during lunch and caught him putting up some vinyl at the school we share. I'm sure he loves his mom stalking him. He's got four college classes this semester. I can't believe we'll have two graduated from high school soon.

The mail coming to our house now has Nate's name all over it. Apparently he scored a perfect score on the math section of the PSAT test that the sophomores take and alerted colleges big time.

Ash is our social butterfly, full of all things good. She loves to babysit and is excited about her upcoming job shadow where she gets to go to preschool. She and Alex also have made it their duty to help fold the programs at church and pass them out among the congregation.

Alex is our Owl of the Week at school. The greatest time saver I've come up with as a mom is to keep those All About Me birthday posters. I pulled out the one we used last year and in kindergarten, swapped out an old picture for a more current one, and included his form. Wallah. We have a board that took me one minute to put together. The form had a section for who his hero was. He thought about it for days and finally put down Nate because Nate practices to be good at everything.

Tyler finally has an real, in person interview this week. That is something to celebrate around here as the waiting continues.

This winter will go down in my books as ideal. Snow on Christmas and then warms back up for January. The past couple of weeks have felt like spring, enough that we took "the littles" (that's our new name for Ash and Alex since the three older ones are either not around or don't want to participate in our activities) to Antelope Island. The last time we were there was end of summer many years ago and we competed with bugs and spiders and gnats. On Martin Luther day we went again and didn't have to deal with any of that.

Our neighborhood is also changing. They've begun developing, something we thought would happen two years ago. New neighbors, new friends. Lost view.

A day in the life of me

Okay yesterday might have been a little abnormal, but it might become the new normal.

5:30am -- Alarm goes

5:40am -- Finally get out of bed and go put laundry from washer into the dryer and a new load in the washer. We may have been forced to get a new washer last year but I have to admit this one is a time saver just in the fact that it has a delay feature. Monday night I put a load in and have it finish washing just in time for me to get up and put it in the dryer.

6:45am -- Get ready for the day and fold a batch of laundry while we listen to our scriptures on this particular morning. (Most mornings we sit outside Erik's bedroom and read them to him.)

7:00am -- Breakfast and clean up kitchen.

7:20am -- We are all out the door to work and school.

2:45pm -- Off work and stopped at the store for a great deal on chicken.

3:00pm -- Home and folded a batch of laundry and put another load in before making Chicken Enchiladas for dinner.

4:00pm -- Two piano lessons because Monday was a holiday.

5:00pm -- Finish up dinner while kids fold a batch of laundry. In goes another batch. Can you tell Tuesdays are my laundry day? Ate dinner and cleaned up the kitchen.

6:00pm -- Bottle some chicken and put it in the pressure cooker. I always forget that it takes time to build pressure and cool down.

7:00pm -- While chicken is bottling, I do piano lessons for Ash and Alex.

7:30pm -- Fold another batch of clothes.

8:00pm -- Chicken is almost done. While I wait for it, I do some homework but decide I'm too tired to try writing anything sensible. That will have to wait until tomorrow. Tyler also folded the towels. I helped Alex with some spelling.

8:30pm -- Took the chicken out and loved hearing the pops. Such a relief when it works.

9:00pm -- Watched a few videos I needed to for school.

10:00pm -- Read my scriptures and fell into bed exhausted.

I will report that today hasn't been like yesterday. I actually came home and did some piano lessons but got right to work writing while I was fresh and my mind was not mush.

My new juggling act

It's official. My title now says wife, mom, taxi driver, piano teacher, cook, laundress, paraeduactor, maid, bill payer, and now student.

I'm on my way to getting my teaching license and completing a masters degree.

I won't lie. I'm a bit nervous.

Not about the schooling. I love to learn and read and research.

Just about juggling it all, being able to keep up. Twenty years ago was a piece of cake (not that I thought so then).

My plan was to go back after a few more kids left our cozy little nest. But God seems to have other plans.

After our job loss a year ago, I  knew this was what I needed to do, to take advantage of all the education afforded me. It's taken awhile to get to this point . . . passing my Praxis exam, getting a job that would qualify me for getting a license, applying to Weber and jumping through all their paperwork hoops, paying some fees . . . and then waiting. Waiting can be so hard.

After learning that classes were most likely going to be on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, I was deeply troubled that I wouldn't be able to support my boys in their after-school endeavors like basketball and tennis. Only a week ago I learned that my classes would be Wednesday and Thursday instead, allowing me to go to most of the boys tennis matches. I also learned that their basketball games were being held Saturday mornings instead of the traditional Thursday nights.

Can I just say what a tender mercy? Heavenly Father knew my great desires and he orchestrated a way to make things happen.

And then just tonight after my first class, the professor let us know that these two classes would be more online. We will only be meeting four times in person over the next twelve weeks and doing most of our exchanges over Canvas.

I'm beginning to think this might be manageable.

Reading challenge

Last year I gave Tyler a vinyl wall hanging for Christmas and it sat in his office as we meandered through the dark, wondering where life was taking us.

This year I regifted it again for Christmas and had our expert graphics guy, aka Erik, position it and hang it up. Oh, how I loved the finished look it has given our library area. I gave Ash an assignment one day to count how many books we had. She gave up after 1000. I believe I own books I may never read and that is okay. Last year I simply wanted to read more and write more and I came off conqueror.

I finished 40 books in the course of a year. For some that may be a little and for some that may be a lot. For me, I was surprised when I pulled up the number. Especially given this past year and the busyness of it. I read several books devoted toward school stuff. And I began reading more young adult books which don't require as much digestion as adult books tend to. Nor are they as lengthy.

My stats say I read over 10,000 pages. That makes me feel like a wimp as I recall my 4th grade year. I had a teacher, Miss Maxwell, who issued a reading challenge. For anyone who read more than 10,000 pages in a term, she would take them out to lunch.

*Surprise birthday party Miss Maxwell came to.

Well, you didn't have to ask me twice. I was all over it and ended up being the only one who actually accomplished that goal.

So far this year I'm finishing up an audio book (Lone Survivor), trying to complete a book club read that may not happen (The Killer Angels), and have started a novella by an author that intimidates me (The Shawshank Redemption) -- Stephen King.