TWIST & SHOUT

I talk a lot.

I strike up conversations with complete strangers.

I'm one of those persons who always raises their hand in class (I know, it's irritating, isn't it?).

I always have an opinion, and I never hesitate to share it.

Except for this past Sunday.

We had a lovely lesson about President Uchtdorf regarding regrets we may have at the end of our life, and how to make resolutions now to avoid them.

Very nice discussion about spending more time with those we love, and letting ourselves be happier.

But this comment was made by a lovely sister who I completely respect and admire.

In relation to finding time for service to others, she mentioned having an epiphany this past week while doing her housework - if she got ahead on preparation (for the Christmas season, was the example being used), she would then be free to accept opportunities to serve.

And I literally had to sit on my hands to stop from jumping up and shouting -

"THAT'S COMPLETELY  BACKWARDS!"

Service isn't something we do only after all the silverware is polished, the carpets are all vacuumed and the laundry is taken care of.

It counts, at least in my internal books, when you do something that is a sacrifice - that you give up something possible good for something better.

I can't imagine Christ saying, oh, no, I have to finish this cabinet before I can heal you.

It might be easier for you to leave the household duties if you are "ahead of schedule", but you are missing the entire point.

We are supposed to "put aside worldly things" - to me, that's not just politics, R-rated movies and coffee.

Worldly things include the floor getting mopped. Making that cute little handout for your next lesson. Getting the mending all completed.

I take it as jumping and grabbing the opportunity to help a family move, to sit with that grieved sister and just listen, to pick up trash at the school's playground and cover the graffiti on the walls.

Not because I have the rest of my life in order - but to PUT my life in the REAL order it should be.


But I didn't jump up and shout.

I waited until I could holler in this blog.

ONE OF THOSE NIGHTS

Some nights are simply not good.

Certain memories become resurrected and weave through your dreams and waking moments - not happy, cheery moments of goodwill and laughter, but those you wish sincerely you could go back and live again and somehow correct this time the ugly words spoken aloud, overcome the feelings of helplessness, and calm the angry shades of exhaustion and sheer despair.

The entire year of 1994 seemed to be one bad memory. My husband was overseas in Korea, succumbing finally to his depression enough to be hospitalized and to begin treatment. My mother had moved in with us following her radical mastectomy for breast cancer. My oldest daughter had just begun college back west. Just after purchasing our first home, I had lost my high-paying job as a legal administrative assistant and was now commuting down to D.C. daily for a rather high-pressure sales job.

And I taught early morning seminary to a group of teenagers.

Now getting a group of young people together at 6 a.m. every weekday morning is quite an accomplishment - but teaching them from and about the scriptures at that hour is almost an impossible task.  I had attended a week-long seminar back at BYU to help me plan and execute lesson plans, but when faced daily with derision, attitudes, rudeness, especially at an hour that was NOT my best - following not enough sleep, two+ hours of my daily commute, being a single parent of two teenagers, caring for my own insane parent, and trying to deal long-distance with a suicidal spouse.....

It was not a good year.

And the worse part of it was that I did have a few students who actually did want to learn - who came daily to "feast" on the scriptures and were subjected to my impatience and irritation at the class' inattention and right-out rude behavior.

I felt, and still do feel like, such a failure.

And tonight those feelings are hanging around like dark damp drapes of emotion.

It's helped to write some of this out - thanks, blog.

MELTING POT

Yesterday we had the perfect Thanksgiving feast; just one day early.

Let me first of all state that I do NOT like cooking.

Eating, yes. Cooking, no.

My husband took over Thanksgiving dinner a few years ago when I declared I would not longer be making meals after some 30+ years of cooking.

So it then became a yearly tradition to have way too much turkey, way too much ham, way too many vegetables, and way too many pies.

(But not too much cornbread stuffing. You can't have too much stuffing)

My husband had been raised by a single mother and times had been extremely tight. Thanksgiving in particular seemed to be skimped on, so his childhood fantasy of having more than enough food was acted upon each November.

And since our family is rather small, this resulted in loads of perfectly good food being thrown out.

So back to the perfect meal.

In the interest of economy and marital harmony, we now go to an "all-you-can-eat" buffet place in town, so then Wilt can have his too-much-of-everything, Joy and Josiah can have too much turkey meat, and I can load my plate with stuffing and apple pie.

But yesterday in particular I noticed something exceptionally wonderful as we all stuffed our faces and tried to listen politely to my brother's arrogant blustering.

As the place continued to become packed with other families (obviously doing the same death-by-turkey feast that we were), it was a wonderful mixture. For example:

• A family with two mentally-handicapped adults.
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• A family with their grandmother in a wheelchair.
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• One same-sex couple.
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• A family with five children under the age of six.
• 
  
• Multiple families that were of mixed race; not just black and white, but every shade of brown, yellow, red and cream that could be imagined and all the shades in-between.
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• Several older couples by themselves.
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• Several older couples with other older couples.
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• About eight people with canes (including my own daughter and brother)
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• And last but not least, a wonderful variety of employees in age, race, and mental abilities.

To me, that is what made this Thanksgiving special - that we do live in a society which, although it still has a ways to go, embraces the family regardless of its form, shape and/or color.

Just not quite enough cornbread stuffing yet.

STOP THE PRO-LIFE/PRO-CHOICE SLOGANS PLEASE

Abortion shouldn't be an easy or first option. Ever.


But I want some answers from all the pro-life people.


* Because if contraceptives aren't easily available, especially to young people...


* Because if birth control is not allowed to be taught in our schools...

* Because teenagers/young adults will continue to have normal hormonal levels...

* Because rape can result in pregnancy....

* Because young girls can be talked into sex against their better judgement...

Then who is going to take care of the babies who are born?

Does the responsibility lie solely on the unwed young mother?

Will society provide her with enough money and stability to either 1) stay at home with the young child, or 2) provide stable, loving and nurturing professional day-care?


Will society provide the medical care necessary to ensure this young child's healthy upbringing?

Everyone that are all pro-life also seem to be anti-welfare.


All the Christian "right-to-life" supporters only seem interested in that fetus' future until it is born.

Then suddenly it's a "drain on the system"

It is "illegitimate children"

It is then the problem of "single parent families".



Can you please come up some way to be not so incredibly two-faced about this?



If you want to decrease abortions, then teach young people about contraceptives, and encourage them to use them. You're not going to increase the number of teenagers having sex - you just going to prevent more pregnancies.

Take care of the babies who are born unplanned, out of wedlock, etc. Are there enough families to adopt (not simply foster-care) them? Make the connections happen, and make them convenient and cheap enough that it can happen quickly and actually make a positive impact in the infant's life.

If you are against abortion, then YOU volunteer to adopt one of these babies.


 
There are no easy answers - but it is also not a black and white question. Quit making it such.

I CAN DO ANYTHING BETTER THAN YOU....

I was reminded this evening about the insecurity of human beings.  

Or at least human beings living in my household.

I had our pair of sister missionaries over this evening for dinner, and each one of them sat down at our piano for a few minutes to play.

And my elder brother, who can NEVER been quiet about anything musical (or almost anything else, now that I think about it), first countered by playing the keyboard in his room.

Then it got just a bit louder.

And then his guitar.

Which got louder.

And then his TWELVE-string guitar.

And then came BURSTING out of his room to 1) comment on the tuning situation of the piano, 2) demonstrate how to 'correctly' play this particular piano, and 3) basically get both of the sisters off playing and then having to listen to his version of reggae and jazz.

So here is some one's YouTube of Sherlock and Dr. Who doing their own version of comeuppance - enjoy:

WHACK WOMP WHACK

I've been burned before by people going door-to-door trying to scare up work.

Because of my husband's long-term involvement in law enforcement, I am painfully aware that it's one method of burglars use to check out a potential theft. And living in as remote an area as ours, it's been used around here before.

I had a friend of a friend of a friend who offered to build a horse shed for me; talked me into paying him half of the money in advance (to purchase supplies, in theory), and then disappeared with it. 

So when a couple of guys came around yesterday, offering to do whatever yard work or hauling stuff that I wanted done, I looked them over very carefully - skinny father-and-son pair, pronounced Southern accents, and both of them put together shorter and lighter than I am.

So I walked them around one acre or so around my house that is covered - no, saturated with weeds, Russian thistle, full-blown tumbleweeds, obscure Arizona grasses and various cacti - enough that it's waist-high and solid enough that you can't see the ground.

When they didn't run screaming away, and offered me a pretty reasonable price for clearing everything out from the house out about 10 meters, I had them come back.



And made VERY certain that I didn't pay them until the job was complete and done to my satisfaction.

It was nice to have all my suspicions NOT confirmed.

MARRIWAGE...THAT DWEAM WIFIN A DWEAM

Someone, actually a very nice young woman I know quite well, posted this on Facebook this morning:

Marriage is between one woman and one man. That's bibical. Anything else is something, but it's not marriage. If you believe this, LIKE and SHARE.  What do you think? Share your thoughts with us.

I know that anything I write/post/scream will not change hers or anyone else's point - I'm so tired of all the election-shouting that has been going on - but here in my own little personal blog, I can blow off some steam.

And I NEED to.

"Marriage is between one woman and one man. That's Biblical."

Hmm. Biblical.



Well, so is polygamy. (Genesis 4:23 And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice; yewives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt.)

If a man marries a divorced woman, he is guilty of adultery. (Matthew 5:32 But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery)

There is also allowing your daughters to be raped ( Genesis 19:8 Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them asis good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof.)

And get your daughters pregnant ( Genesis 19:33 And they made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose.)

You get my point.

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The Bible is a collection of records - some very spiritual and enlightening - some simply the records of what people do - and it ain't all pretty.

And I have no problem with using a particular reference or scripture to prove a point.

But then don't try to hide behind the term "Biblical."

And this "ad" is obviously pointed towards the heretics who support same-sex marriage.



Yes, I agree, same-sex marriage is not ideal - it may even be sinful.

But if we are going after "sinful" stuff, let us as a society PLEASE tackle the much more prevalent problems of martial  infidelity - cheating on your spouse - spousal abuse - child abuse - sexual abuse - sexual abuse of a child - WAY before we try to stop two people who care enough about each other to want to be married, share property, insurance and benefits.

IN ANOTHER FOUR YEARS

You know how I want the presidential elections to be run?

1. Each candidate presents a detailed plan for conquering the energy/ economic/ ergonomic crisis - what the problem actually is, how they would solve it, and (importantly) where the money will come from to pay for it.

2. The debates would be conducted civilly, with rules and penalties for not conforming to the guidelines. The candidates would take turns, speak only for as long as allotted, or forfeit their next turn.

3. For the rest of the campaign, each candidate would be allowed the same amount of money to create the same number of commercials which would run for the same amount of time. And each commercial would only be about that candidate, what they were going to do, and why people should vote for them. No negative comments about the other candidate.

Yeah, well, I can dream, right?!

WONDER WOMAN STRIKES AGAIN

It's amazing what we can do when we have to.

You hear tales about mothers who are able to lift an Oldsmobile off their trapped son/baby/husband/dog.



People who survive on the high seas for weeks without resorting to cannibalism (I think the ones that do turn to cannibalism aren't really given much press).



And tonight I RAN the entire length of our driveway, chasing our greyhound (an experiment in futility, I fully acknowledge).

 If you knew what poor physical shape I am in, you would realize this is amazing.

DISASTERS

There was a lot of press coverage of the public preparation for Super Storm Sandy, and it made me think of what kind of different preparations I would have to make here in Arizona for a disaster scenario:


* Water would have to be a major priority - and we have six 55 gallon drums filled and waiting.





* Our electricity goes out fairly often, so I already keep the refrigerator pretty full at all times to help it maintain the cold when the power is off (it just never looks this nice). We almost always have a pretty steady breeze, living so close to the mountains, so even in the summer, the A/C being off isn't that big a deal.

* Our food storage is very helter-skelter; huge bags of rice, odd can's of fruit and tuna as well as ancient boxes of Hamburger Helper - and not even remotely as organized as this photo. You might be able to survive on all of it - but the question really is, would you want to?

* If all the transportation fails, I have three horses that are VERY loosely called "ride-able",   so we could fall back on that.





* One of the goats technically will be providing milk soon, when her babies are born - but I'd feel like a thief literally stealing from the kids!


But so far we've only had the fall-out (literally) of a couple of hurricanes and tropical storms - a big wild-fire that got to a couple of miles from our home -- flooding a few times. Let's keep our fingers crossed, okay?