Children

There is nothing like taking child number 6 to the temple to make you realize just how blessed you are. I was there with my husband and son number 4 and his wife and I realized that all my children had been to the temple and so had started on their way back to their Heavenly Father. I have witnessed 5 temple weddings and they were wonderful too. That means that from our very humble beginnings as a family 40 years ago we now have 24 descendants. As each person joined or was born into our family they blessed us and added to us. I love the people who chose to join our family. We are a fun family but we get goofier all the time. I really love the children who were sent to our family. From number one (Yeah!!! Nathan) to number 13 (go Charlie) they each contribute in their own way. What a blessing each one of them is. I have loved being there for my children's special moments. I feel so blessed to know that they have all made such righteous choices and have achieved so much. I am so blessed to know that the Lord had enough faith in me to send me 6 wonderful children and that those 6 children would make good choices and achieve great things and do wonderful things. When John and I met over 40 years ago in University and we decided to get married before we finished school, I don't think anyone expected our marriage to last. I didn't intend to have more than 2 kids but the Lord sent us twins right off the bat so ..I needed to try again. I think I missed a few things the first time, I was kinda busy. So along came number 3 and he needed a friend so along came # 4 and then Ian decided we needed a girl so we got one. The Lord decided we needed #6 so we got him. What a blessing that last son has been. As I sat in the temple and contemplated my blessings I knew that the Lord loves me and always has. I am so grateful for each one of the 24 descendants and I am looking forward to number 25.

where have I been for the past year?

I didn't realize that it had been more than a year since I had posted in my blog. I guess I kind of lost interest in blogging. Last year was not a year that I want to repeat. I feel like I spent the year keeping the house clean and throwing stuff out. That is stuff I like to do but not continually. We decided to sell our house and move to the city. But no one bought our house. We kept it tidy and clean and organized for ....nothing. Lately with a new realtor we seem to be having a bit of interest in the house but we have really dropped the price a lot. We wanted to be in the city so Owen didn't have to spend so much money on gas going to work each day but that didn't happen. We wanted to get out of debt by selling our house and buying a smaller cheaper one. That didn't happen. We have been waiting and waiting to be paid by many different people whose work we did but they didn't, wouldn't, couldn't pay us...so we wait. I did discover Pinterest and found all kinds of neat things to make myself that saved money. I love to learn to do new things so that part of the year was fun. I guess the best part of the whole of 2011 was Charlie. Our 7th grandson arrived a bit early on December 20th. He's great. There is nothing like a new grandkid to make you know that family is what matters the most. Actually Owen getting his mission call was pretty spectacular too but South Africa arrghh!!! that is not a missionary Mom's dream call believe me. I will be excited and enthusiastic but I'm not there yet. I am trying to remember each day to find the joy in my journey but some days I have to look really hard..but the joy is always there somewhere. Hopefully it won't be another year before I post again.

I am feeling blessed today

This is conference weekend and we have made it a habit to watch the conference sessions from home. We have the computer technology to do that so we do. This morning's session was really remarkable. I particularly loved Elder Holland's talk although I don't usually enjoy his talks. I realized tonight that my husband, my five sons, my son-in-law and my two oldest grandsons will all be at the priesthood session of conference. How truly blessed I am to have so many worthy priesthood bearers in my family. How blessed I am to know that my sons have married wonderful women who support and sustain their husband s and their sons in their priesthood responsibilities. A great day.

anniversaries

Today is our 39th anniversary. I have liked, loved and been married to the same man for 39 years. It doesn't seem that long. We met in University and married before we finished our degrees. We were young and in love and had no idea of the journey we were embarking on. I doubt that many people thought our marriage would last but it has and it will because we want it to. We have not had happily ever after but some years have been wonderful, some years pretty tough and some years fairly uneventful. We have had some funny anniversaries over the years. The first year we lived in a basement apartment and we had a garden plot on the university grounds. We had a lot of cucumbers so I decided to make pickles. When John came home from work the apartment reaked of vinegar, it was hot and I was tired, hot sticky and smelled of pickles. One year we went out for dinner then went to Canadian Tire and bought a clothesline. Some years we just cooked a nice dinner at home and some years we went out. This year we had plans for a day trip to see birds and animals and interesting things and have a picnic. But.. the wheel bearing on the car went and the car is in the shop so we took the other car and went and bought groceries then came home and repaired and painted the front step. Owen needed the car for work. How could the years have gone by so quickly? I don't usually feel old enough to have been married that long. I only lived with my parents for 18 years but I have lived with my husband for more than double that. We've been through lots of ups and downs together and I am sure we'll go through more but that's okay we can do it together.

Where is my happy husband?

Well I finally decided not to attend the memorial service for my Father-in-law. I doubt that I was missed. Andrew went with John and I am very grateful that he did that. John has been an emotional wreck since his Dad died. He has written reams of stuff in his journal and he has talked to all his siblings at length. He was very upset when one sister decided hymns were needed at the service but everyone knew he didn't want anything to do with the church. John finally received sort of an answer to his prayers in that he felt that he needed to do his Dad's temple work and he had to make that abundantly clear to all his sisters that he was doing it no one else. His sisters usually conveniently forget that John is the Patriarch of their family unit. Since the service John has finally realized why his sisters were all broken up about his Dad dying. They had done things with him, he had taken them places, he had applauded their efforts, he had been a Dad to them. they now realize that he was not that to John. John has no memories of trips or museums, or projects or his Dad building anything for him, like he did for the others. It's been an enlightening time for all of them. But when all is said and done John is still hurting. He is distracted, grumpy, stressed and down on himself. He did talk awhile with our son-in-law last night and that seemed to help. I don't know what to do. I want to give him a swift kick in the back side and tell him to get on with his life but I doubt that would produce the results I would hope for. I would just like a little joy in his journey, an optimistic outlook on life. I have been praying for those things but it hasn't happened yet. I would like my happy husband back.

winging it

What a weekend. We spent Friday travelling to and from Regina to see our new granddaughter. She's great and we had a wonderful time. Saturday started off pretty ordinary, a trip to the city that seemed to go on and on. First a quick trip to the church to help clean it turned into a marathon of cleaning because no one else came. then shopping seemed to take us from one end of the stores to the other. By the time we got home it was threatening rain and John decided to put the caulking under the deck where the window seems to leak. so he's outside on a ladder while I stand around trying to appear competent and useful but mostly I just handed him new tubes of caulk and gathered up the other ones. Then it really started to blow and to rain and it sounded like the roof was going to blow off. About then John got a call telling him his Dad was dying and he should think about coming. Since I have never been especially fond of my father-in-law mostly because he was never very fond of my husband, I was against this idea. But, I got outvoted. So I packed and gathered and loaded and tried to see if I'd forgotten anything. Since he had told Owen he would bring him home from work he waited about twenty minutes. During those twenty minutes my sensible brother-in-law called and said don't travel in this awful weather wait for morning. Thank goodness he called. So John got a nights sleep and left this morning at 5:00 a.m. He still drove through strong winds and rain but at least it was light out. He had just called to say he was near Medicine Hat when his sister Cathy called to say that their Dad had just died. Once again John didn't get there in time. The first thing he said was "I can't do anything right". So there I am trying to think of encouraging things to say when all I wanted to say was at last he's gone and now you can get on with your life. John's Dad spent a good part of his life making John feel like he never did anything right. He always put down the church and the people who felt the church was important. Interestingly enough John's sisters cried over this arrogant, mean, demeaning, nasty old man. So now I don't know what to do. I think a memorial service would be such a hypocritcal piece of work. John decided to come back home today because the obituary was getting a little out of hand when they wanted to put in lovingly remembered by his children. He was not easy to love. A couple of the women he married were lovely women but he was arrogant and mean. He went out of his way to make sure John knew that his Dad hated everything about the church. He never mentioned any of his grandchildren or their accomplishments and there are plenty of accomplishments. He was only interested in himself and his work. The last few years he was stricken with Alzheimers a disease I wouldn't want anyone to get. He was hard of hearing and confined to a nursing home. When he was still cognizant he still was not interested in his children or grandchildren and he still managed to make John feel useless and unaccomplished. I have no idea how to help my husband mourn this man. That's why I'm winging it.

the month of May

The old saying April showers bring May flowers may not have been totally accurate this year. We had some pretty awesome weather in April and some horrible snow storms and stuff as well. Then we got to May and it rained and rained. The May flowers are finally getting here and the trees are finally almost all leafed out. My apple tree is blooming and last evening I saw a humming bird in that tree. I have never seen one there before. But the best thing about this particular May is babies. We now have two new babies in our family both born this month. How wonderful it is. When Jessica had her baby she called a few minutes after he was born and she told me all about him and she was ecstatic and excited. It was great. When Ian's wife Christine had their beautiful little girl Ian called me an hour later sounding shell shocked and basically told me they had a baby. No details, no beautiful, no she has lots of hair. How different males and females are. But at least after Ian got some sleep I did get some details and he did put some pictures on facebook so we could all see her. I am so grateful to be the mother of 6 wonderful children and the grandmother to 12 grandchildren. I love the women my sons married and I love my son-in-law. I feel particularly blessed this month and always.