blessings...

Have I ever mentioned my love of BBC? It's the best world news online; amazing pictures, and good background information on events and places. More of a broad worldview than I've found on other news... I also like the movies and TV shows I've seen by them. It's cool to watch a good drama of a story I've enjoyed reading in a classic novel. Bleak House was hauntingly brilliant... Last night Kirby and I watched the last of a mini-series we'd gotten through AppleTV. So satisfying... aahhhh. :) The other happy thing I'm thankful for today is that we just received glowing reports for Mary and Emma's Royal Conservatory of Music exams, which they did last month. I am their teacher, and I am still a student myself, so I wasn't sure how we'd do... My own teacher is brilliant. She has been asking me about my girls' results, and I will be pleased to tell her at my next lesson that they both received First-Class Honors!

Thank Heaven it's over for 10 days... no school! And for once, Kirby isn't snowed under with papers to mark! No 6 am alarm clocks, and no sending my family out the door in the mornings... Yes, I am definitely good with reading week! I am, of course grateful for the work my husband can do every day at his job, and the educations our children are receiving at their schools... But mostly, I really like it when we can be together! Kirby says he will support me to try and finish with insomnia and sleeping pills while our schedule is so relaxed for the next week and a half. I am pretty excited about that- we'll see how it goes! I am looking forward to experiencing a night of un-drugged sleep! (Still, thank Heaven for sleeping pills in the meantime! :) Tomorrow night we are all going to a university basketball game, which is always a good time. Nothing could entice me to run and sweat and struggle for a ball, but it's fun to watch and cheer people who are motivated and skill...

This afternoon Emma's grade 5 basketball team, the Canyon Cougars, are having their first game. I, however, will not be walking down the hill to watch. I will be getting a lift with a good friend who will be leaving my home at the same time I need to go down to the school. The reason is that we've had a few calls this morning- one from the elementary school, and two from concerned friends who know of my walking habits- telling us that there has been a cougar sighted very close by. In the winter we are safe from the hibernating bears, but not these cats. :( Needless to say, the children were driven to school!) And I am thankful for the silver lining on this large feline cloud that has fallen over our little neighbourhood... :) I can't take a walk today. I am very tired, so I will happily take this opportunity to replace my morning exercise with another healthful activity, and take a little nap before I fold the laundry.

Simply this- I love the shelves Kirby put up in the family room last weekend. This afternoon after my piano lesson and some housework (I am somehow still amazed at how messy and dirty a house can get in a day...?) I arranged books and pictures and some other beautiful things on the sturdy pine. It is very simple, and matches perfectly with the other trim down there. The books were heavy- as books are- but I felt kind of artistic, placing everything just so. A few years ago in a conversation with my aunt, she said (and I quote), "Yes, men are useful..." Truer words were never spoken. I suppose we are all useful in different ways, especially if we decide to be. I am very blessed to be with Kirby, who is terribly useful in many ways I am not. Thank Heaven for relationships in which people fit together like puzzle pieces... :)

This is all true. On Monday afternoon we all went (our family) out to the hills with the dog, and rambled around. It was great fun, especially the part where Jack and Emma showed us the treacherously steep incline down which they like to run/slide into a ravine. I really liked how they expected me to join them in this refreshing sport!  Heh heh. :) But, really, it's wonderful to have the hills so close. They love it, and I love it. And the dog loves it... Speaking of which, Jasper got tons of burrs in his hair, and when we came home, Jack and Mary decided to clean him up, which was fine. Good that they felt inclined to go the extra mile, when all I required was some heavy-duty work on him with the dog towel. They got right into their grooming and decided that they should use some scissors (which were easier to locate than Jasper's tangle/mat comb). So they went to work on his tail. I am serious. It was butchery! They hacked off most of his plenteous tail hair, and left him lo...

In grade 11 our English teacher, Mrs Sonnenberg had us each write a sonnet. It was a challenge, but I really liked it. I don't know where it's gone now; I probably don't have it anymore... but after 16 years I finally made another attempt. I still enjoy it. :) I wrote it for Kirby, as a Valentine. He likes it, too. I picked it because sonnets have 14 lines, and the day of love is the 14th... awww :) I feel blessed to have words and language and poetry... It's a way for me to know what I feel and think; sometimes when I feel all muddled, I can talk (pity the listener :) -or write. When I do, it seems like I am untangling a big ball of wool from out of my head, through my hand and pen, and onto the paper in a line that makes sense. It's a relief when I can sort myself out like that. And it's a sweet pleasure to be able to express myself in a personal and meaningful way to my husband. I like knowing that what I gave him is one-of-a-kind, just from me to him.

I love the feeling of waking up to the howling wind shaking the whole house, especially when a sweet little girl comes and curls up with me for a cuddle.... and deciding when to rise and shine (without the unwelcome aid of an alarm clock :) It's such a luxury to all be home together for the day, even though we have things to do here; that's just part of living in a house. And to tell the truth, I have to agree with Marjorie Hinckley, that ironing is the most pleasant of all household tasks! Except maybe watering the plants- that's pretty relaxing. Most housework isn't actually so bad, except cleaning bathrooms and scouring the stove with all it's nasty burner trays and those yucky bits. I don't like that. The nice part today is the energy I feel when we are all here, puttering at our responsibilities at our own pace, (and quite randomly, on my part! Who says I have to finish one job before I begin the next one? :) I am teaching Mary and Emma their piano lessons ...

One good thing about the place I live is that the air is so pure. This morning we were all sitting together in the living room, when Kirby cupped his hand to his ear, tilted his head toward the window behind him, and dramatically said, 'What's that I hear...? No wind??' We've had a few days now of the kind of wind that separated our car door from the handle panel once, when trying to close it in a local parking lot after grocery shopping. It's great. It's mellowed out a lot just now, but yesterday morning when I was standing on one of the boulders at the top of the canyon, watching for my girls on the school playground below while I waited for my walking partner, I had to catch myself from being blown right over in the howling breeze. Delightful! Looking on the bright side, we can get a pretty intense workout from a simple walk by the creek... if we're going west. And then, if we are heading east, it's power assisted walking, so even hills are relatively...

I have some good new medicine and some great new vitamins, so I haven't had such frequent or severe migraines recently. But yesterday afternoon one came. Thankfully it's over now, but it amazes me how quickly I get used to feeling well, and how easy it is to take it for granted. We all have some complaints with our bodies, but I think I should appreciate a little more often the life I have in mine.

Sadly, I am not much of a home office person. I rarely tackle desks or other little out of the way areas, which can very quickly become a bit cluttered with 'all manner of paraphernelia'... as Dad would say. It's not that I like messiness- I just don't really prioritize these things. For example, I will make the startling confession; on this very desk there is a wooden filing/drawer thing, on which sits a Christmas angel ornament, a small orange car with no people in it (from the Game of Life), a pin-on poppy left over from Remembrance Day, and other such important and timely objects that are very useful to our family as we pursue our day-to-day life. Sometimes I wonder if I was switched at birth- my mother is easily the most organized person I know. I, on the other hand, have several mysterious spaces in my home, wherein a wide variety of items may or may not be found at any given moment. I have little to no interest in most of what comes in the mail, what numbers awai...

Yesterday Kirby and I went with Jack and Mary to the temple. It was beautiful to be there together, and it won't be too long before Emma will be old enough to come with us, too... Mary loved it- it was her first time- and she told me this morning that she wishes she could go every day.  :) I feel very blessed to have a holy place where we can go and feel such peace. It reminds me of how Heaven must be. I am grateful for such a sanctuary... And I hope and believe I can and should make our home as much like this as I can- Life can be tough, and I think we all need a rest from our cares sometimes. Now we have a little extra strength and eternal perspective to bring into our everyday lives this week...  :)

Outside the wind is howling like crazy, but here inside it is cozy and quiet. Except for the sound of the howling wind... ;) I am so grateful this morning for the gift of time... to think, and keep in touch with loved ones, and play happy homemaker all the while. I love my plants that make me feel like I am in a balmy green climate, and the beautiful furnace which keeps us warm right through gale-force, blizzard temperature winds. Really, I was thinking the other day as I luxuriated in the steamy shower, of how many people in how many places have never had that simple pleasure. How blessed we are. I wish I could share these comforts with everyone. I can wish naiive things like that, if I want to. And I do... Yesterday I watched my sweet little daughter sitting with a very old lady she had happened to meet in a local old folks' home... she was so intent and caring. She listened to Eileen's stories of hiding in bomb shelters in London during the war, when Eileen was 12. I cannot...

I am happy today that I could have a chat with my sister-in-law. We are both pretty busy with our lives and families, so we don't talk as often as we'd like, but when we do connect, it's like we are right there together. We talk about our children with each other, and it feels so good. We listen to one another and   understand each other... It's great. I think it's refreshing to connect with another woman who walks the same kinds of roads and shares the same perspectives... And I love her children... the ones who are now grown have been such a blessing, so loving and such good friends and examples to my own Jack and Mary and Emma. And, of course, little Carli is so much fun for my girls to hang out with whenever they do get together. Looking forward to the end of the month- hopefully they will be here for a visit! Thank Heaven for family... :)