
Spring is capricious. So am I.
First: Spring.
Most people do not consider spring to be football season; Miles is not most people. One morning found us ready for school with ten minutes to spare. “Let’s play catch,” Miles said, in a tone more resembling command than suggestion. It was snowing outside but that did not stop us from making 118 consecutive catches with his Green Bay football before the carpool came to take him away.
Spring’s sun shone brightly yesterday and mostly melted the chocolate that was ensconced in plastic bags and “hidden” in our pasture for the Christ-centered neighborhood Easter egg hunt that we sponsor annually. Before the hunt, we talked to the kids about the meaning of Easter, expressed our gratitude for Christ, identified serving others as a way that we can say “Thank You” to Christ for His Easter gift to us, and challenged the children to serve others by picking up candy and putting it in someone else’s basket instead of stuffing it in their own. As always, the children accepted the challenge and the results were amazing. It really is heartwarming (even when the spring sun is not warming) to see children racing around, trying to put candy in each other’s baskets. Every year the parents thank us for the concept. This year one of the children thanked me as well; “I like this way [to do Easter egg hunts] better than the other way.”
[For instructions on how to do a Christ-centered Easter egg hunt, see the “Sing His Praises” tab of my blog.]
I love the number 24; sometimes more than others. Twenty-four, when used to describe the temperature in degree Fahrenheit, is not the ideal number when one wants to plant a garden. However, mid-March is the ideal time to plant spinach, carrots, lettuce, peas, Swiss chard, radishes, broccoli, and beets so, last Saturday (3/23), in 24 degree F temperatures, that is what we did.
Twenty-four degrees F is also not ideal for hiking. However, hiking with one’s teen-age son is an ideal activity so Monday, in 24 degree F temperatures, that is what we did. Chick and I hiked up 2.5 miles, ascending 2,700 feet (straight up, it seemed at times) into Ogden’s Hidden Valley. The uphill exertion quickly caused us to shed our coats but the snow kept our toes (happily) in our boots.
Last week was Spring Break for those in the Weber County School District: Chick, Tanah, and Miles. I taught at OPA two days this week so Chick, talented mathematician that he is, created a story problem. Here is the problem. [It has two parts.]
1. If a given mother must work two days during the five day work week, how many days will she be home?
2. If she is home three days and has three children, how many days can she spend with each child?
The answer to the first question is “ZERO days at home” because the answer to the second question was “One day with each child”. Chick and I spent Monday together, hiking. I thoroughly enjoyed the hike and the time spent with Chick. Tanah and I spent Wednesday together shopping. I thoroughly enjoyed the time spent with Tanah. Miles and I spend Friday together. We watched “The Croods in 3D”; he thoroughly enjoyed watching the movie and I thoroughly enjoyed
watching him watch the movie.
Second: Me.
I am capricious. Tears came to my eyes as I watched Miles watch the movie. His face nearly invisible behind 3D glasses that were much too big, he let go of my hand long enough to snatch at the sparks he thought he saw drifting toward him (3D is amazing) and then re-intertwined his fingers around mine. “Thank you SO much Mom for the movie.” Warm heart tears.
Then cold heart tears threatened me. I stewed about the money I had to spend to get into the movie because the coupon I
had planned on using was not accepted. Capricious. And stupid. Enjoy the moment with your son Teresa!!!
I enjoyed my moments with Tanah—even the moment when she publically accused me of committing a felony. On
our day together, after having made a drive-thru deposit at the bank and before we used a gift certificate to get lunch, Tanah noticed that I had failed to return the bank’s plastic cylinder to the drive-thru tube. She immediately took a picture of the stolen tube and posted it on her Facebook page with a message saying that we had robbed a bank. [We later returned the tube. The bank did not press charges.]
I was rejected as a blood donor Thursday because I have been to Costa Rica within the past year. I hate being rejected, even for something as minor as giving blood. Addressing my frustration at being turned away, the blood tech said,
speaking about the trip, “It was probably worth it.” Probably? CERTAINLY!! I’ll trade a blood donor opportunity for a trip to Costa Rica any day. I had a sudden change of mood.
I was rejected by the LearnZillion team too. I spent over 10 hours filling out an application for a job writing lessons plans for them this summer. Not hired. Not happy.
However there is a huge pile of organic fertilizer in my garden that makes me very happy. Chick, by himself and without supervision, mucked out the sheep corral. Using a wheelbarrow, a pitchfork, and a wide array of back, leg, arm, and
abdominal muscles, he moved an entire winter’s worth of manure and urine soaked hay stems from the corral to the garden. The poop pile makes me smile.
Physics fat jokes make me smile too. Gravity is force of attraction between objects based on their mass; the greater the mass, the greater the attraction. Lance is more attracted to me than he was when we were first married!!! The joke makes me smile; the additional mass I carry—not so much.
Being wanted also makes me smile. Tanah texted, telling me that she wanted me to attend a meeting her school was sponsoring for prospective high school students. Our truck was in the repair shop so I hopped on the bike and cheerfully
rode to the meeting, happy to be fulfilling the wishes of my dear daughter. As it turns out, she did not really want me at the meeting; what she really wanted was a ride home. Whoops!
Last year’s Black Widow is still healthy and strong. Thanks for asking.
This year’s lamb is too. And, miraculously, so is his mother. Monday she got out, ate 20 lbs. of grain and came away with nothing worse than a severe case of diarrhea--most of which is now in a pile in my garden, thanks to Chick.
It was Tanah who found the grain-gorging ewe and the wanting-to-reproduce ram out of their respective pastures. Needing help to restore the animals to their proper places (girl on the south side, boy on the north), Tanah called her friends.
While herding the sheep, one of her city friends looked into the chicken coop and noticed naked patches on the hens’ backs, areas about the diameter of a small orange where all the feathers had been pulled out, and asked Tanah for anexplanation.
Tanah refused to explain. So the unsuspecting friend repeated her question to one of the boys who had come to help herd sheep. Putting his arm around the girl, the boy said, “When a boy chicken likes a girl chicken……..” The girl ran off before he could finish.
There are two weather icons on my computer desktop; one for Roy, UT and one for Green Bay, WI. Guess who learned how to install icons on desktops?
Fifty-seven students want to go on the Yellowstone fieldtrip scheduled for May 13-16. ?? !!!! My resting heart rate is 56. If take 57 kids to Yellowstone, it will not be 56 anymore.
My sister sent me a birthday present. It should make me happy. On the outside, in large, bold, black letters, it says “Do NOT open until November 2014.” 2014? Is that supposed to make me happy?
Bare toes still make me happy. (Unless there is snow on the ground, then booted toes make me happy.) And poems by
friends about happy toes really make me happy. Thank you BETH ADAMS for the Happy Toes poem.
HappyToes
Happy toes are often seen,
Peeking through the grass so green.
Happy toes know what to do,
They wriggle round outside of shoes.
Happy toes may sometimes be
Stubbed and marred by unseen things.
Happy toes are often brown
From stepping in some muddy ground.
Happy toes can often find
Rocks and bugs and thorny vines.
But happy toes don't seem to care,
All they need is Spring's sun and air!
Children in church make me happy too. (TRUE STORY... And, considering the strength of my un-excitement about Primary, the change could certainly be labeled "sudden", even capricious!!) I had an epiphany last Sunday. While sitting in Primary, I realized that I love being there; I truly do. I do not miss being in the adult classes for even an instant. I truly, truly love being in Primary.
I think it only fitting that, on this Easter Sunday, I end with a Primary thought. Last Sunday Dawnie was teaching the children that Jesus Christ is our Savior. “Who saves us from death and sin?” she asked the children. A sweet voice from the back said, “Our moms!!”
Yes, our mother’s do save us……sometimes from death and often from sin. I am so grateful to my mother for saving me from death (several times) and from sin (many times). I am also so, SO grateful for the opportunity to be a mother.
And I am intensely grateful for my Savior who saves me and mine from eternal death and permanent sin. Christ’s atonement and His resurrection is surely the good news of the gospel.
Love,
Teresa