I am finally starting to feel (almost) normal again. I'm still congested, but since I'm always congested with allergies, it'll be hard to know when I'm "normal." This has been a quiet week--especially the weekend. Friday, Roy took Hyeji and Gunnar ice fishing with him, so I've been alone. I spent some time with Adrienne's kids on Thursday, and offered to help Nick with his on Friday or Saturday, but he didn't take me up on it.
I came across a quote by President Maxwell in my studies this week, "The strait and narrow path, though clearly marked, is a path, not a freeway nor an escalator. Indeed there are times when the only way the strait and narrow path can be followed is on one's knees! And we are to help each other along the path." A Brother offended
I'm grateful for a family that desires to be on the path, and help not only their children, but their siblings also.
This quote got me thinking about prayer. We all know how important it is, so why is it sometimes so difficult. A sister in our ward in Atlanta suggested (years ago) that it might be hard because we lack faith. That didn't make a lot of sense to me at the time, but we do have to have faith that we are being listened to and heard. I also think it's also difficult to think of what to pray for. I've mentioned in this letter before that when we were in the singles ward, we'd have ward prayer each week and before the prayer was said, the person who'd been asked to pray, would ask for names of people who needed our prayers, then they would pray for each person on the list individually. I guess that's kind of what we do in the temple. The names are not read out loud, but it is still individual. I have made a lot of notes in conference talks and in my scriptures of suggestions of things we can pray for. This doesn't make it easier for me because I realize that it takes work to stop and meditate on all the things I need to pray for each day. I think the important thing is to at least attempt to make the effort to think about what we are going to pray about before we get on our knees. If we don't have time, then we should get on our knees anyway. It's easy to get going on all the chores and obligations of the day and fail to do one of the most important things. We need our Heavenly Father more than ever in this day and age. We also need to learn to listen for answers. President Nelson has been emphasizing the need for us to recieve and recognize personal revelation for some time now.
It's fun when I read a quote or a passage from a general authority and I immediately know who is writing, just by the writing style. Elder Maxwell is easy to spot, as is Elder Holland, and I can even recognize Hugh Nibley's writings. I used to think he was difficult to understand, but he is pretty straight forward and is almost conversational. This is how Janet Porter found all of the "Goshen Papers"--bishop's notes by our ancestor Phineas Wolcott Cook. But they were much more than notes of a bishop, they were another journal and have given us so much more information about my 2nd great grandfather. His testimony came out on every page. I helped Janet transcribe these papers for our family history. Where I would have given up (he had limited amounts of paper, so when he'd feel up one with small, cursive writing, he'd turn the paper sideways and continue), she continued and painstakingly transcribed every word.
I wrote a letter to Jeri Briem this week. She was the pre-school teacher for Nick, Dan, Elise and Adrienne and she was wonderful. She was in our ward in Georgia and she had a little pre-school in her home. She wrote back and shared this cute story (incidentally I have no recollection of this):
"Then there was the day we were having a birthday party for my dog "Lucky." I gave all the children something to wrap-up and give to the dog. The dog loved to unwrap stuff. Nick had a can of dog food to wrap. Lucky wasn't too excited about unwrapping the dog food can, so when you came to pick Nick up, he had the can of dog food to take home. You asked him why he was taking dog food home. The answer was simple, Nick said, "Well the dog doesn't want it." "
I have many memories of our times with Sister Briem and I had mentioned one to her in the letter I had previously sent to her. One afternoon when I picked Nick up from school, the TV was on in the family room. The Challenger had just exploded in space. I stayed and watched, horrified. After I mailed the letter, I saw an article on KSL News. It said it had been 35 years since the Challenger disaster. I cannot believe it has been that long, even though Nick was a preschooler and now he's 39.
Pictures from the week:
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| Breakfast (Hyeji even draws on her menus) |
And back in Georgia:
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| It's Maxes turn to get hurt. Mav through a big tonka truck down the slide and Max was at the bottom. |
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| And the cat came back (isn't there a song by that name) The cat had been missing for three weeks, they'd pretty much given up hope. |
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| Harvey: Nothing cuter (or better) than a sleeping baby |
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| And now there are 5! Hyeji, Yuli, Dojin, Doyeon, Yuna |
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| Hyeji's new haircut |
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| Effie escaping the confines of home with a trip to the dinosaur park |
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| Yuli |
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| Jennie said to Effie, "Let's take a selfie together." Effie immediately smiled for the camera and then asked, "What's a selfie?" |
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| And happy birthday to Andy today. He also got bonked in the head this week. He got hit by the tailgate of the car. He had to have a couple of staples. Above: Mav, Max, Bev and Andy |
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