Life Is the Stories You Can Tell
  • Life is the Stories You Can Tell
  • Sing His Praises
  • My Creed
  • Books I Love
  • Christmas Letters

Rounding Up

3/30/2014

3 Comments

 
Picture
Rounding up…………. What a great concept!



I earned $200 editing lesson plans for Utah Educational Network.    They sent me a check for $300.   When I contacted Karen to correct the mistake, she said, “I just rounded up.”   The comment started me thinking and I decided, for the most part, I really, really like rounding up.



 Some of my most cherished childhood memories involve round ups.   Dad had a knack for finding ranchers who needed help herding cows.   We’d saddle the horses and spend a day moving cows from here to there, often through sagebrush, occasionally along roads, always adventuring.    Lowing cattle, swirling dust, pungent poop……I loved every second of it.    For the most part, the cows moved passively, docilely in the appointed direction but always (and this was the part I really loved), there was a maverick or two—a  wily matron or a rebellious yearling—that had to “test the fences”, literally and figuratively.  They’d hurl themselves through barb wire fences, bolt between trees, and balk at open gateways.    I loved the challenge of taking them on, me and my horse vs. a thousand pounds of bovine bravado, each trying to outmatch, out run, out maneuver the other.    Thinking like the cow, my horse and I worked almost seamlessly together, anticipating her moves, predicting and then preventing her shenanigans.    It is almost amusing now, how proud I was of myself when I outwitted a cow—cows not being known for large degrees of intelligence—but I loved it.   I truly did.   Round ups.  Awesome.

 

Rounding up numbers, rounding up cows, rounding up children, students, friends…… There is a lot to be said about rounding up.   (But not too much—not to worry, the entry will not be that long!)

 

Rounding up children has a double meaning.   This week we rounded up several children as they “tested the fences”, so to speak.    Lance and I work almost seamlessly together, trying to predict and prevent shenanigans.   Rounding up cows was much, MUCH more fun. 

 

I think children (and adults) are also “rounded up” when events validate their efforts.    We had some great validating events this week:


  • Tanah won first place at the Region Drama competition in classical scenes with her presentation of a scene from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night (Act III Scene I).    I say that finally I have hard, fast evidence that she is a Drama Queen.   She maintains that she won a medal, not a crown therefore she is a champion, not a queen.   I say that winning first place was a crowning accomplishment therefore she is a drama queen.   The debate continues.  So does the drama……

  • Clinton City Parks and Rec department called and asked Chick to come in for a job interview.  He turned them down….because Roy City Parks and Rec had already offered him a job!!!!   YEA!

  • Chick is charging full speed ahead with his mission preparations.    The dentist said he has 8 cavities that have to be filled and four wisdom teeth that must be removed.  The doctor said that he has an inguinal hernia that must be repaired.   I don’t know that the visits themselves were a rounding up experience for Chick but I suspect their bills will seem rounded up to me and I know the mission will be rounding up for him.

  • Thursday a multi-unit apartment fire in Roy destroyed the home of the person who had been asked to speak in church today so, knowing that Lance is both willing and able, Brother Ropelato asked Lance to step in and give the talk.   Both being asked to speak and speaking are rounding up experiences for Lance.    And for good reasons; he gave a fabulous talk.   “Keeping promises builds the integrity of my integrity.”   It was a powerful message; ask him about it sometime.

  • Sandy borrowed a bunch of dirty, dusty pint jars that I dug from the recesses of my storage room and then returned them sparkling clean.   Not wanting to waste her efforts (and too lazy to have to clean them again myself later), I filled the jars with beans; 16 pints white beans, 40 pints black beans, and 16 pints pinto beans.  Looking at row after row of filled jars is rounds out my food storage and rounds up my self esteem.

  • Last week was more than a bit frenetic and, in the frenzy, I did not show up for the appointment I made to visit teach Koni so……she bought and brought me pizza.   She rounded me up and the pizza rounded me out.      

  • Dark clouds of anger roiling round him, Miles joined me outside yesterday to prune berries and grapes.   A pair of clippers and a few choice snips later, he was earnestly enjoying himself.  “I like working, Mom,” he said.  “The fun lasts.   My friends might be playing video games right now and they think they are having fun but as soon as they are done, their fun is over.   We are having fun right now and when we are done, we will have really done something.”    Work, whether it is cow herding or hedge clipping, rounds up.
  • Listening rounds up.   My darling mother listened to me last night.   No “you should” advice, no “so-and-so has it so much worse” comments,  no “it is going to be okay” platitudes; just simple listening and loving.  There are few things more validating that being truly listened to.   Thanks Mom!




 

May you round up and be rounded up this week!

 

Love,
Teresa
 



Picture
Grace started in all three soccer games she played this week. In the last game she played, she started for the opposing team.
Picture
Picture
Picture
It is easy to see why the song says "I looked out the window and what did I see? Popcorn popping on the apricot tree."
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Can you see the blackberry vines? Probably not because they are almost gone. Miles and I were prolific pruners.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Last year's yellow tomato skin. This year's green spinach.
Picture
Look at these earrings!! I planned my entire outfit around them. "Surely," I thought as I scanned my closet, "I can find something that will match this bling......" I bought them at a garage sale in Las Vegas. I am not sure that even Ogden has this kind of bling!
Picture
This photo give a new meaning to the term "pig skin".
3 Comments
Dianne Hislop
3/30/2014 10:16:19 am

Loved this letter. Love you all.

Reply
Jeanna Nielson
3/30/2014 11:25:17 am

Uplifting, thank you. Teresa, if you are able to sell any of your apricots,please give us a call.....

Reply
Marjorie Watkins
3/30/2014 11:57:35 am

And your post rounds out my day of positive uplifting experiences. I love spring. Thanks for sharing. I live working with you too.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Teresa Hislop
    [email protected]

    Archives

    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    September 2012
    August 2012

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.