We had planned on attending the Walden
Family Reunion on Labor Day weekend. Or
at least I was. Soon it was narrowed
down to only Biff, Jenna and I as Roland said he would be working and although
Randy had made arrangements to get time off from his previous job, he
recently started another job which he would be working sometime during Labor
Day weekend (though I think he could have gone to part of the reunion but chose
not to I guess)
So Friday Jenna gets in the car with
this years fundraiser for the school.
$30 for a coupon book – or the idea of a coupon book with an actual card
that you will use instead of the coupons?
It looks like a catalog of jumbled ideas thrown together and is
actually harder to go through than sorting out the thoughts in my head (and
that is saying A LOT!)
Jenna gets upset about every fundraiser
– not for the same reasons that I get upset – never mind that no one we know
has any money and that every other school is having a fundraiser as well. No one should feel a sense of pressure –
though Jenna seems to more with every passing year.
I don’t even know what the incentive is
for “selling” the merchandise – usually something not that great – though there
was the drawing for an IPod that one year – and she was the winner. I told her that it is highly doubtful that
she will win every year.
And I don’t try to discourage her from
going out and selling if that’s truly what she wants to do. But she needs to take daddy who is a salesman
by nature and who can help her understand the rejection. Our neighborhood is definitely NOT the area
to promote fund raisers. Half the people
I know are either on welfare or barely scraping by. The other half don’t have time to look
through a cluttered catalog to see if a $30 investment is really worth the
gamble – not to mention just cannot
afford each charity associated with the 8-12 schools that the neighborhood
children attend.
So then Jenna starts feeling bad
because “nobody will buy” even though I have been upfront with her about why they don’t. But a fund raiser shouldn’t make anyone feel
put out, or ornery or guilty or any of that. A child should not have to feel the
frustration or pain of rejection or look at the fund raiser as a serious
assignment. Life is not a contest of earning
points for causes that, even though you might believe in them, make the
individual who is really trying, feel worthless because he or she doesn’t feel
like they’ve been given a fair shake at getting the prizes (wow. That sounds like an analogy for obedience to
commandments and having to stay on the outside of the temple instead of getting
to see your loved ones marry due to choices made even at the Lord’s will or age
– something that can’t be controlled. Ah
– but let’s save that for another post. Perhaps Corey may read this and run with
it. I hope so. I love reading his blog for the most
part. His posts are so eloquently
written)
The bishop had gone out of town the two
weeks prior, giving Roland the opportunity of playing bishop for the last two
Sundays. He received three phone calls
about three different deaths – two would hold funerals in our ward building.
On Friday night Roland and I went to
the temple and Parker’s mom and dad watched Jenna. Turns out Roland did not work on the last day
of August as he had anticipated. He conducted the second of the two funerals
and I watched Parker and Jenna – apparently not with a close enough eye.
On Saturday morning we met Parker and
his dad at the garden. That evening I packed up the two kids and went over to
the trailer park to meet some friends for their monthly game of “Bingo”. Roland went with us once. For the most part he doesn’t seem to enjoy
it. And he has been quite tired for the
most part. Work and work and no
play. No happy balance.
Parker’s dad picked him up before we had even started the first
game. Oh, too bad. He was perturbed that
he wouldn’t have more time with Jenna.
Gee, I’m sorry Parker. Usually
nine hours is too long between friends of your age group.
There’s always a lot of laughs and fun
with the neighbors on Bingo night. Jenna
was the first one to win a prize – a velvet art project for a 3-D castle. Neither Roger nor Gloria wanted their prizes
and pawned them off on me. Jenna and I always have to leave before the sun goes
down so that I can see to drive home at night.
Sunday morning I turned my phone on –
which is unusual. I normally don’t have
it on during the weekend. Immediately
after I received the signal to let me know that the phone was on and battery
ready, Sunny called to see if I had heard about mom. She’s back in the hospital. It was on a Sunday at the beginning of this
year.
It was my week to give the lesson is
Sunday School but felt inspired to call a substitute at the last minute (and I
do last minute – like when Relief Society ended) and took Jenna out of primary
and went to the hospital where Patrick was seated in a chair and mom was in bed
looking bewildered. As with the first
time in January, she had no idea why she was there or how she arrived.
Jenna and I had been there for almost
three hours. We left after Patrick and
Nate gave her a blessing. Roland had
just barely beaten us home.
We were home for only a couple of hours
before we left the house and headed toward where Randy and Carrie live. They had invited us for dinner. We were in charge of dessert. We remembered to take the dessert, but we
forgot to eat it.
Carrie gave us some peach jam. We forgot to take it home.
Jenna and I will return to the hospital
this morning. She wants to give mom the
velvet castle she made.
No comments:
Post a Comment