Another Day in the Life . . .

I can hear Trume’s grandpa

He is raising his voice

As he often does when Trume

Is getting on his nerves

“Who’s he yelling at?”

I wonder – for it is a school day

Trume is in the first grade.

I hear a light knock at

My door – followed by the doorbell

(as I was too slow getting there – even

In my cracker box house)

Ordinarily I would guess Trume

Except for he should be at school.

He’s in the same district as Jenna

She’s at school.

I check the peep hole

Don’t see anyone.  Trume –

Really?  He’s not the brightest

Although his grandma claims otherwise

“Jenna is in school, “ I say. 

“How come your not?”

Evidently grandpa didn’t feel like taking him

Or maybe he forgot.

How could he not remember?

Grandma took Trume’s little sister

To daycare.  Wouldn’t it make sence that

If she was gone that Trume should be also?

I’m doing laundry

I use the washing machine more in the summer

Than any other season

I don’t always have to use the dryer though

I don’t particulary enjoy being outdoors

When it is so hot

But it is more economical to hang

Clothes on the line.

They dry faster.

Usually by the time I get from

One end of the clothes line to the other

The clothes that I hung up first

Are ready to come down

More wrinkly and stiff than from the dryer

But whites are whiter and our gas bill

Is not as high as if I dried everything I wash.

It’s quiet outside.

I haven’t heard grandpa’s voice

Since Trume came by.

I wonder if he was taken to school.

I’ll probably find out later today –

Like the second I pull in the driveway

Unless I take Jenna to the park.

Maybe I’ll do that.

Spontaneous People Don’t Plan

Mom has always taught her children how to be supportive of one another.  We’ve gone to baby blessings, missionary farewells and homecomings, advancement in the priesthood, plays, sports; I suppose I went to more events when I was single.

Sunny is awesome.  She always lets us know ahead of schedule: We’ve got this planned.  Please come.  And we have.  We make plans to fit it into our schedule.  And then there’s my family . . .

It’s got to be hard to be one of my siblings if they want to be involved but aren’t given much notice for birthday celebrations, graduations, parties – even our own wedding.

 I can’t find the post, but I think I wrote it down somewhere that Roland and I changed our wedding date at least nine times.  It wasn’t that big of an issue for me in the beginning.  After all we had met only three days before he proposed.  THAT IS OUTRAGEOUS! 

I have chosen not to go into detail at this time – but perhaps some time in a future post – but we had changed our wedding date several times before I asked the bishop one Sunday morning if he could just marry us either that night or the next.  So everyone (including the groom) who was invited to our wedding was given only eight hours notice (or less) and everyone we had invited came.

But my family has missed out on at least two of Biffs’ birthday parties.  I just don’t ever know his schedule until that week (at best) perhaps we set a bad example by getting married the way we did.  For the boys don’t plan (although two of them married girls who did) they just say, “Hey” or “By the way”

So went Biff’s party last night.  I was really hoping we could do family pictures, but Tony and Rochelle have been visiting her family.  I realize they have other commitments and are short on time.  And I don’t know what time zone their clock is set to – but they are usually always 4-5 hours behind what we were told.  Except yesterday . . .

Evidently they made it to the park on time – but not the parking lot where I said to meet.  They walked around for an hour I guess before they thought to call.

Jenna’s been putting her life on hold for Tony, the same way Randy still puts his life on hold waiting for Roland.  Not me.  I have always told my boys, “I’m leaving at such and such a time.  If you’re here, you may go with me.  You’re not here, you don’t go or you find another way.”

Randy learned early on that I was serious about a definite time.  But only when someone else has planned.  I’ve tried to plan.  But it is so hard when those you live with still don’t.

We All Need HOPE

Hold

On -

Perseverance,

Endurance

Yesterday I made a comment to a quote expressing a limited hope targeted to a certain group of people for basically following his or her own heart.  Perhaps I was out of line with my answer, but I elaborated as the one who posted the quote followed my comment with a question that sounded to me as though she is feeling despair.

But we have to have hope.  Hope is what brought the children of Israel out of bondage.  And it was hope that caused slaves in America to move from the South to the North.  It was with hope that so many Jewish people (among others) stayed hidden before and during World War II.  It is with hope that we are even to leave our house each morning.

I like how President Uchtdorf says, “Hope, on the other hand, is like the beam of sunlight rising up and above the horizon of our present circumstances.” In his talk The Infinite Power of Hope

We all hope to get out of bondage. We all hope that we can get through each day without harm or accident – whether physically, emotionally, spiritually, or mentally.  We hope that our loved ones will be safe.  We hope that things could be different.  We hope that some things will remain the same.  We hope that our children have learned what we tried to teach them.  We often hope that they may turn out better than we did.

If we didn’t have hope, we wouldn’t try new things.  We wouldn’t try to run (let alone finish) the race.  We wouldn’t put forth any effort without hope.  We wouldn’t go to the doctor’s or the attorney’s office or even work without hope.  We wouldn’t vote or elect officials.  We wouldn’t leave our comfort zone – though often times it may be our hope that we won’t ever have to.  There is no growth without hope.

The Dreaded Bra

I despise wearing bras. I used to think I could get away with not wearing one as I have always been quite flat-chested the majority of my life.  But I have experienced major back pains and I realize that wearing a bra really does look better than going braless.   But for me, wearing bras is comparable to wearing shoes: the more support they have, the less comfortable they are.

Yesterday I wore the “Genie Bra” which didn’t seem so tight fitting until after a couple of washes – did the bra shrink? Or did I grow?  All my other bras seem to fit okay.

The Genie Bra looks good under tee shirts, but they also seem to absorb more perspiration than your average bra – at least mine do.  And as the heat seems to have started early this year, I might as well find a bra made out of sponge.  I hate feeling the need to change not even an hour after I’ve gotten dressed.  And I don’t enjoy wet clothes at all.

Tony and Rochelle are visiting from Texas.  My granddaughter, Ester, is running around and making discoveries and doesn’t mind so much being with Roland and me so long as mom and dad aren’t in the room – though she has decided to make Roland her friend as she was bringing him everything she could manage to get her hands on.

She cries when I hold her.  I think it must be the perspiration that woke her up yesterday and made her cry.  It’s not yet in her vocabulary to say, “Mama, grandma stinks!  Please don’t allow her to hold me.”

As I was straightening up the living room yesterday, I picked up some toys that Ester had played with, and I realized that I miss that stage of learner toys cluttering the house.  Jenna may not ever graduate from toys.  She wants to stay little.  Does NOT want to deal with the bra or enter womanhood.  I can’t say that I blame her.

Mothers' Day 2013

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If God should ever show off his sense of humor by calling me to the RS presidency, I am going to make certain there is a generous amount of space between each chair.  No smashing chairs together as tight as possible so that each sister feels as though she’s sitting on the lap of another.  No siree Bob.

I didn’t think it was possible, but chairs seemed a lot more smashed in yesterday.  I guessed it was the priesthood who somehow believed the sisters like things tight – the tighter the better.  They somehow believed that we enjoy sitting in one another’s laps.  Roland told me he had taken charge.  Oh, that explains it.  My husband, the eternal optimist who was hoping to set up for at least two hundred sisters had managed to squeeze in 85 chairs.

The bishop conducted.  And after we all went up to get our breakfast (they had provided us with fruit and muffins) the second counselor taught the lesson.  This is the second year when the priesthood has given the sisters a break from their callings.  I think that's a great Mother's Day gift.

The Elders were in the primary room conducting and teaching and evidently learning one of the song that that the primary would be singing during Sacrament meeting. 

When the children were invited to the stand during Sacrament meeting they sang three numbers – the third was a song that is done in parts.  They sang the first part and then the second part.  I was wondering how they would perform both parts at the same time.  And then the priesthood stood up.  They sang the second part while the children resang the first.  It was awesome.

Tony and Rochelle presented me flowers, a plaque and card.  The card says: Mother’s Day is a chance for us to treat you like a queen! 

Inside: A queen with really lazy subjects who don’t listen very well.

Made me laugh.

The plaque says: Good Mothers have sticky floors, dirty ovens and happy kids.

This morning Biff made biscuits and gravy for mother’s day breakfast.

In my email inbox was a special treat from Corey.  He sent the thoughts mom had written in her journal describing each of her children.  I appreciate mom more with each passing day.

What an Awesomely Thought Provoking Book!

Congratulations Rob Buyea with your first novel: because of mr. terupt.  What a great book! On so many levels.

This book can be found in the juvenile fiction section of your local library – at least I hope it can.  It’s not just a great book for kids but I think adults as well.

I’ll admit I do read a lot of juvenile fiction.  Jenna mostly likes fantasies, silly humor and non -fiction.  I like historical fiction and realistic fiction.  We both like time travel.  So often I will read books with Jenna or for Jenna – finishing some that she can’t seem to get into or turning the unfinished novel back to the library.

I enjoyed this book a lot. Seven main characters tell the story of their fifth grade experience.

Luke is smart and enjoys an academical challenge.  He is always pushing himself without pushing or being boastful to others.

Peter is the prankster who doesn’t mean anything malicious by his pranks.  For the most part they are tame, but embarrassing to the victim.

Jessica is a bookworm from another state.  She tries to identify or learn from the characters that she reads about. She is a bit uneasy about being brand new to the school until she learns that it’s Mr. Terupt’s first year also.

Allie is a bully who somehow believes that putting others down and manipulating mind control makes her more important.  She’ll pretend to be your friend one minute and turn on you the next and spread ugly rumors. She’s not really happy but she pretends to be.

Jeffery keeps to himself.  He doesn’t enjoy school.  He doesn’t like his home life.  He doesn’t allow anyone to even try to get close to him.  He seems to exist without living.

Danielle is either over-weight or perhaps just big boned.  She lives on a farm.  She is very religious.

Anna keeps to herself, but unlike Jeffery, she’s observant – almost a human sponge.  She wants to have friends, but just seems to shy about making contact.

Instead of Chapters 1-10, this book starts in September with each of the children giving their report.  In that first month Mr. Terupt introduces the class to Dollar Words. And I can see Jenna light up with the same fascination as Luke.

Dollar Words are words that have characters which add up to 100 exactly.  Each letter is worth its place in the alphabet: a=1, z=26.  Therefore unbroken would be a dollar word. 21+17+2+18+15+11+5+14=100.  Though she is good at math and does have a big vocabulary, spelling is not her thing right now.

In November the class is not only introduced to the Newbury award “Summer of the Swan” but to the Collaboration Classroom in which they were given the opportunity to work with children who had different types of mentally challenged or disabled.  That is when we gain some more insight to each of the characters, especially Jeffery who shares his secret with Jessica.

And without giving away the climatic emotional roller coaster, let me instead quote John Irving, who made this statement: “Even the accident toward which this novel is inevitably headed is no accident; it is a masterfully set up and skillfully concealed as the rest of this riveting story.”

I highly recommend this book about change, about growing, about discovery, about fun.  Thank you Mr. Terupt.  And thank you, Rob Buyea for your creativity. 

I don’t know if the authors picture is a recent photo or not.  The caption reads that Rob Buyea had taught for six years at one school before teaching in another.  He must have started when he was only 18 as his photo tells me he can’t be much older than 26.  At least that’s my opinion.  But there are people who do look younger than they are.

I wonder how closely related Rob Buyea is to Mr. Terupt.  What an awesome teacher.  What an amazing story.  Loved it!

Lyrics That Describe

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I can’t believe how bizarre this weather has been. 

It had been cool yesterday morning.  It’s Roland’s late day and thus he was sleeping in.  So I turned up the heat because I knew he was cold.

I took Highness for a walk after dropping Jenna off at school.  It was nice. Not too hot, not too cold.

I dropped by the bank on the way home.  Everytime I turned the corner the weather changed.  This song happened to be playing.  And I thought: “Yes, it is bizarre and it’s driving me crazy”

All day.  I had the windows open.  I shut the windows and turned up the heat.  It was raining when I picked Jenna up from school.  I was hot.  I was cold.  All within a mattes of minutes.  There was no bizarre menagerie or posters or such.  Just weather.  Sunglasses on. Sunglasses off.  Windbreaker on. Windbreaker off. “Everytime I looked around – [bizarre weather] in my face.”