Our Heavenly Father Does Work in Mysterious Ways

Last night I finished reading Anita Stansfield's A Time to Dance. I really enjoyed reading it and its prequel, Timeless Waltz. (Thanks Tanya for lending them to me.) The part that really jumped out at me was on page 195. The father of the main character, Alex, had had an affair 23 or so years before and caused his wife to divorce him and Alex to hate him for 20 or so odd years. That was the subject of the first book. Anyway, Neil (the one who had had the affair) had recently found out that he had fathered a son whom he had no clue of until Wade revealed himself as his son. Wade had been raised in a loving family and just recently found out that the man he had known as his father his whole life was not his biological father. It really threw him and his life into a tailspin. The scene is Neil and his second wife Roxanne and Neil's two daughters and two sons, Alex and Wade at the dinner table. Neil said, "....it wasn't until recently that I finally grasped the reasons why this sin is often compared to murder in its grievosuness. When murder is committed, a life is taken, and it can never be given back. In this case, a life was created and it can never be undone....." That was an epiphany for me too. I had always equated unchastity or the losing of virtue as "once lost it could never be reclaimed" and not in the light of creating a life that couldn't be undone. I found it very interesting. Then as the story developed there was a real reason for Wade to have entered Alex's and his dad's life and also gave more meaning to Wade's existance too. There was a reason for it all and our Heavenly Father knew of all the developements and planned accordingly. But then this was only fiction.

Then there is our own story in our family. Our only daughter became rebelious and married at age 16 to have her first daughter and our first grandchild only seven months later at age 17. I would hate to think of someone else reapping the blessings of our dear sweet Shandel. She has been such a blessing to both her parents lives and our lives. And I think everyone with whom she has associated. She is a beautiful young woman who is a mother now in her own right. But as far as the "plan" and Heavenly Father's involvement you ask? Well, the man that our daughter married was even more rebellious than she was. In fact, as he was growing up he was the neighborhood hellion, to put it mildly. There were quite a few children in our ward of their age (our #2 son being one of them) and so they had two primary classes their age. The leaders always made sure that my future son-in-law (I can't help but think that it really is a blessing not being able to see the future) and his best friend were in two different classes or there would have been double trouble. I only mention this so one can imagine what kind of a very young man that our daughter married. (He was only 18 at the time and became a father when 19.) Well, they had been married about three years or so and I was driving home from somewhere, I can't remember where, and wasn't thinking about anything in particular when the tho't popped into my head, "If this were the only way Kent could make it to the celestial kingdom were to have married Karen and be exopsed to the gospel this way, would you be willing to have gone thro' what you have been thro' with them....the out of wedlock pregnancy, quick marriage, reception and birth of the baby etc.? I tho't really hard about that question. It wasn't too long, (I was driving up Melrose, my short street where I live when the tho't came and I had the answer before I reached home) before I was able to answer honestly and whole heartly, "Yes, it would be worth it!" By that time my opinion of my son-in-law had changed quite a bit. I could see that he was a dedicated, hard working young man who did love his wife and daughter. They had been married 12 1/2 years before Kent got his revelation and became active and they were sealed in the temple with their three daughters. I had learned about unconditional love and accepting people for who they were and not expecting them to be someone else. I had many people tell me that their parents would have disowned them in similar circumstances or that they would have difficulty having a reception for their children if they had gotten married under similar circumstances. We had a very wise bishop at that time who said that altho' Karen & Kent at first didn't want a reception or to have to face the people in our mutual ward, that they really needed the reception. I tho't at first it was to help them get started with the household items that they would need to set up house keeping. But I learned that because of the love and support that we and they received from everyone in our ward and families that it made it possible for them and us to hold our heads up and meet the world and the situation head on and without shame. We had more people come to their reception than the receptions or openhouses for any of our other children. We really felt the love and support of the ward at that time. The bishop had told my husband that we needed to announce their engagement and coming marriage as soon as possible in the paper. We started receiving that love and support almost immediately. The hardest part was telling our families. I was mean and made Karen tell my mother and my sister Bonnie. I knew it would be hard for her but I felt it was part of the "natural consequences". Altho' it was rather traumatic at the time we have been greatly blessed by their marriage and having them just down I-15 from us. At first it was even long distance from here to there when they first married. It no longer is. That way they had to work out their own problems instead of calling either parent to cry or complain. When they had been married ten years lacking a couple of days, I said, "In a couple of days it will be your wedding annversary." And Karen said, "Yes, we've had five wonderful years of marriage." I said, "But you have been married ten years!" And Karen said, "The first five weren't worth counting." I chuckled but I tho't then it was just as well that they didn't live so close that I was aware of that or their marriage wouldn't have lasted. I am thankful that things have worked out the way they have. As I read that book I was able to identify with that passage that I quoted above and knew that the Lord knew what would happen if our lives even tho' we didn't. I am thankful that Kent is part of our family and consider him our fifth son. I know that each one of our children and their sweethearts as well as their children were meant to be part of our forever family. I'm thankful for each one of them and love them with all my heart.

Another Week Has Passed

It was good to be able to go to my Pilates class Monday and to the spa (Apple Athletic Club) on Wednesday and Friday. Wednesday we helped Norma Kirby celebrate her 93rd birthday. She has been going to the spa since before I have(I started in 1988). She is quite stooped and walks with a cane and lives in Lincoln Court (an assisted living center) but comes quite regularly despite her age. She is a very sweet lady. I told her that reaching her age was quite an accomplishment and something to brag about. She replied, "You think so?"

It was good to work out up stairs and in the pool Monday, Wednesday and Friday this week. I did miss it last week. Yesterday, on the chest press and the forward rowing machine I have been doing 30 pounds with a five lb. weight lying on top. I couldn't find the small free weight so I tried a "little" bit larger one. It was really hard to do. My muscles were really burning. When I checked out how many lbs. the free weight was I discovered that it was a 15 pounder! My tho't was, "I might just as well have moved down the pin to the next weight!!" Since the next weight with the pin was 45 lbs. I walked around until I found a five lb. free weight. It made my muscles burn enough after doing three sets of ten reps each. I could really feel my muscles today tho'. :)

Tuesday I called Smith's Food Store and asked if they had chicken legs on for 39 cents per lb. or 10 lbs. for $3.90. Since it hadn't been in the flyer (we looked when we got back from Utah) but it was in the Utah Smith's store, I called. They said they did have them. So we went and got 20 lbs. or two packages. I put them in my large magnelite roaster along with an onion, two anihim (sp?) peppers, garlic, carrots, celery, bay leaves, sweet basil liberly sprinkled around the legs, and sprinkled generously with savory salt. I baked it on 400 degrees for one hour then turned it down to 375 for one hour then 350 for one hour. And it was done. We set it out in the car until Thursday morning when we deboned it. I got eight freezer bags. It made good broth too that my husband strained. He took the skin off of most of them because my mother told me that the flavor was better with the skin left on. We definitely noticed that the skin was much easier to get off before it was cooked than after. I also got three freezer bags of broth that I can use later for soup plus the broth that I used to make a bath of soup in my crock pot Thrusday. The recipe for the soup is:

Chicken Soup
4 potatoes scrubbed and diced
20 mini carrots
1/2 onion
2 stocks celery
2 cups chicken
1 bay leaf
2 tsp Mrs. Dash
1 tsp basil
and enough broth to cover everything.
5 chicken bullion cubes

The last 20 mintues of cooking I put in a couple of handfuls of noodles.

It was soooo good.

This much made three meals for my husband and me. So it should easily make six servings at least. The amounts can be adjusted for larger crockpots and families.

We've waked up to snow three or four mornings this week. It has been above freezing so most of it has melted. We have had some good snow pack in the mountains this winter which we have really needed. But I am ready for spring! The trouble is here in Idaho we don't get spring until at least well into April and sometimes May.

An Eventful Week

This week has been a very eventful week. I went to my Pilates class and my water exercise class Monday. Karl didn't go with me because I had to be there a little before noon and he'd been working outside and wasn't ready. Bryan had called while I was there. Karl went later in the day and I called Bryan after he was home from work. He lives in Nebraska so is an hour ahead of us. He used his conference call feature and we talked to Kim and Kimberly. Kimberly has been having a bout of depression that just wouldn't leave. It was brought on by PPD or post partum depression after surgery for an ectopic pregnancy. They have a five almost six year old who is very challenging and Kimberly was feeling overwemed. She is the visiting teaching coordinator in her ward and they just moved Kim from being the Bear Den leader into the eleven year old scouts and asked Kimberly to take over the Bear Den. The bishopric had only been in three weeks and the bishop has only lived in the ward for only a week longer than they have so they didn't know their situation. Karl and I decided that we could go down and stay as long as we were needed. Kimberly has been on an anti depressant but it wasn't holding and we felt that she needed to be elvaluated and possiblely admitted to the hospital. So after supper Tuesday night Kim and I took her over to the hospital. They talked to her and because she hadn't tried suicide or felt like going home and killing herself or someone else they wouldn't admit her. We were finally able to get into a clinic Thursday morning and she was able to talk to someone there. She was encouraged to attend the support groups. She was able to get an appointment with a doctor to evaluated her medications, etc for next Tuesday. However, Wednesday night she and Kim went for her to be set apart as the Bear Den leader. Karl and I were with the children and put them to bed. They were gone much longer than we had anticipated. It turned out that they had a planning meeting (in two different rooms for the different scouts) after the setting apart. Kimberly found out just what was expected of her and how many meetings she and Kim would supposed to attend. They can't be both of them be away from home for more than a few minutes and the planning meetings and round table meetings were on the same night at the same time. They could go any where from 1 1/2 to 2 hours each time. When they got home Kimberly was in a full blown panic attack just thinking about everything that was expected of her. I was sooo thankful for my training as an RN and my experiences or working at BHC (Behavioral Health Center). I know it was the Holy Ghost that brought things to mind to get her to slow her breathing down and get her to talking about it and realize what had brought all of this on. I told them that we need to call the bishop and/or the second counselor in the Primary and let them know what was going on. The bishop's wife was the second counselor in the Primary so that worked out very well. After we got thro' (the phone was on speaker), she immediately felt better and felt that a great weight had been relieved. She did feel alittle guilty about having to say no, but I reminded her that the Lord does not expect us to run any faster than we are able and right now she just isn't able to run very fast and must take care of herself first. Because a person can't fill up someone else's bucket when their own bucket is empty. Intellectually she was able to accept this right away. But emotionally it was harder. I think all of us are that way at one time or another. Friday, she was feeling and doing sooo much better. She and I planned a two week menu for meals with things she had on hand so that she wouldn't have to stress over what to fix. She found a crock pot cook book that she had forgotten about. On days that she has appointments I told her that she could put everything in the crock pot right after the children left for school and supper would be ready in the evening without having to do any more. The children can even set the table before school and that would save time too.

We had fun with the children also. Nathaniel has some very interesting original stories that he told me. He is so animated as he tells them. It was so interesting to watch him and listen to him as he told his stories. Grace should me some of her gymnastics and how limber she is. She can do splits three ways and get all the way down to the floor two of them and almost all the way down the third. She also showed me how her teacher showed her how to stretch her muscles so she can eventially get all the way down the third way too. Kimberly, Alex and I made cookies one afternoon. And we watched a couple of DVD's that they wanted to share with us. "Just Like Heaven" and "Sky High" I'm glad I saw them. Friday night Karl and I taught Kim and Kimberly how to play Pinochle. We played the gals agains the guys. The guys won but it was really fun for us. We had many laughs while we were playing. We really enjoyed our stay with them and got very close to all of them. Now they have a larger home we will be staying with them more often.

We read in the Old Testament every school morning while we were there. It is so rewarding to see one's children teaching their children to live the Gospel and love the Lord. They are doing a better job than we did and that is as it should be. It is important that each generation improve on the past one. It is soooo rewarding seeing all five of our children and their sweethearts active in the church and have strong testimonies of the Gospel and our Savior and teaching their children to live up rightly before the Lord. There is nothing more joyful.

We got back last night at about 7:15. We stopped and saw my mother then Michael & Tanya and children on our way back. Abbie has grown so much and is getting so cute. Kendra is too. It's too bad that we can't see them more often so they can know us. It will come tho'. It was sooo nice to see them even for a couple of hours. I am so thankful for my children and grandchildren. They are really what life is all about!

"Men and women are of equal value before God and must be equally valuable in the eyes of each other."—Marion D. Hanks

I like this quote. We know as Latter-day Saints that one gender can't make it to the Celestial Kingdom without the other. Every day I'm awed by our Heavenly Father's plan. That He had everything planned even before He created everything. That He planned how we could and would get back to Him if we but follow Him and keep His commandments. I can see the influence of Satan everywhere trying to thwart that plan and keep as many of us from returning as possible. Every good thing that comes along he finds a bad evil way to use it. That's why we need to stay close to the Spirit and be able to discern the evil from the good and stay as far away from it as possible.

I was reading in II Nephi yesterday and was awed again that Jacob, brother of Nephi knew some 560 years before our Savior was born that not only He would be born in Palestine but the reason He was born there because of all of the people on the earth, they were the only ones wicked enough to crucify or kill their God. That is quite a thing to be said about a people! Later on in the Book of Mormon we are told that not only would He be crucified but would rise on the third day. I'm so thankful for the B of M and the truths we gain from it. The prophets who told of is crucifixion and rising on the third day were prophets who were recorded on the Brass Plates so the people of Palestine had access to those scriptures at one time then because of their wickedness they were lost. They didn't have them but the righteous people on this continent did. The Lord does work in mysterious ways especially when we can't see the "big picture".

I am so thankful to live in this day and age and have these truths to help me in teaching my children and grandchildren.

I'm caught--My 7 songs

Tanya tagged me so here are my seven songs. I had to think about them to get seven then when I started I could have gone on to 15 or more. I love the Hymns of the church and most of extra ones would have been from there. Here goes:

Let Me Call You Sweetheart---this was the first song my sweetheart-to-be sang to me only on the ninth day of our knowing each other. It left me speechless so I asked him if he meant it after he got thro' singing it and he said, "Yes I do."

2. ALWAYS by Irving Berlin---This was "our" song and as I review the words I think it still is. They are:

Everything went wrong, and the whole day long I'd feel so blue
For the longest while, Id forget to smile then I met you.
Now that my blue days have passed,
Now that I've found you at last.

Dreams will all come true, growing old with you and time will fly
Caring ech day more, than the day before till Spring rolls by
Then when the Springtime has gone,
Then will my love linger on.

Refrain:

I'll be loving you ALWAYS
With a love that's true ALWAYS
When the things you've planned need a helping hand,
I will understand ALWAYS, ALWAYS.
Days may not be fair ALWAYS
That's when I'll be there, ALWAYS
Not for just an hour,
Not for just a day,
Not for just a year,
But ALWAYS.

Yes, I think they still apply and have much meaning.

3. Rigoletto--the sound track--a Feature Family Films movie

4. Phantom of the Opera Sound track. I always really liked it but when I first saw the movie in the theater and heard that full organ, it gave me chills. I still get much of the same feeling whenever I listen to it.

5. He Sent His Son--from the Children's Song Book

6. Let There Be Peace on Earth

7. How will They Know----the choir version, not the version in the Children's Song Book. The words are the same but the music to the choir version is sooo much prettier.

And I'm going to add #8--Lord, I Would Follow Thee. I've loved this hymn especially since the "new" Hymnal was first published. I've tried to make it my creed.

There you have it, Tanya. Let me know what you think. I'm going to follow Téa's example and not tag anyone else. Does that make me a rebel too?