Weekend

Hiked with Emily, Katy and Marcia early above our neighborhood... being in morning light on the foothills is for me a little like riding a roller coaster: a rush! I get that feeling in my stomach high up in the sunshine



looking over where we live... where we came up is called Wild Rose Trail. It overlooks, well, everything.



You climb to Sunset Point and we were there after going the long way on this trailonto the Chukar Loop besides. Up here there's a bench for enjoying watching the sun go down over Antelope Island and Farmington Bay, perfection on a long spring or summer evening. Here we had the sun at our backs and shoulders as we looked west, then north over the valley. Exceptionally clear, kind of rare.



Put the last pieces at last in my 1000-piece Charles Wysocki I started last week. Remember I got a half dozen puzzles a half dozen months ago from DI for a few $$$??!!! This is one. Love!



Kent and I found Chris and Julie and Spencer and Ben at their new house down the road from us this evening and said let's go eat and got a table for six at Chile Amor also just down the road from us, convenient! We're all pooped. Them from moving furniture from Spencer's and the storage unit much of the day, tough way to spend your Saturday but it's what those working boys have. Us, not so much. We've been watching basketball, it's the playoffs.

Made rich

We drove into the church parking lot a minute before Sacrament meeting started and sat in the back. I came to Jenny's church with ears to hear. Remember I wrote in another post... maybe there's a mantle that drops over the person instructing us in church. Maybe different than that, there's a mantle that descends upon us receiving such. And decided, Maybe there's not that; just prepared talkers and thoughtful listeners. Today there was all this.

One particular talk kept me listening. I'd wakened before Jen this morning and lay thinking about Psalms in the Bible and David's pleadings with the Lord that He hedge up the way before him against his enemies. The Lord can surround us with protection (hedge) and surround enemies with a barrier (hedge), so I've taken both meanings reading these prayers. King David was a warrior, and sometimes running and/or in hiding for his life; he knew an incredible lot about enemies. I've taken his meanings to also be what he constantly prayed for: protection against demons that pursue all of us in this world, our enemy temptation. Sin. Thus did I also plead this morning, coming to. The Lord hears our prayers and does answer, and I sincerely expect to be helped – by Him and heaven. I appreciated that this speaker I was listening to quoted D&C 121:8: "And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes." Foes! That's enemies. Not just, like in Joseph Smith's time, folks who scorn or, in ours, peers who pressure us or mock... but temptation, and sin. Cool!

I believe in church we're made rich, you guys: nuggets, gems, pearls... yah, light-enough words as metaphors for insight, wisdom, and knowledge of great price. Doctrine answering our concerns. (If we're listening.) Isn't it interesting how when you've been focusing on (praying about) a thing you can receive doctrine that speaks exactly to you, exactly now! Just for me today this verse I've read and heard and taught plenty of times increased in value. I felt rich and blessed telling Jenny about it after church.
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After, I took a nap and went for a walk.



More riches. (Don't miss how blue the sky is!)

Working hard, having a blast

We've been to Walmart a time or to since I arrived and I bought a loose, bright shirt, orange with tiny white flowers, almost polka dots, and a pair of black stretchy pants. It's kind of fun to be in a Walmart in another town, different stuff! I should've said earlier we shopped at a unique grocery store not far from the hotel where I found turmeric root too (and bought it) and dried shiitake mushrooms and Anasazi beans! And salad by the pound for our lunch – a-mazing!

Third day working in Rob's house. I woke this morning – you should know Jen and I are getting to sleep each night to an audible, soothing meditation, super relaxing – with the intention to have a great day. Different than that even. Here's how I phrased my first thoughts: I'm going to have a BLAST today! (I wonder what the Universe does with that intention? "Hmm," it must consider. It gets to work. Energy follows thought.)

Third day working hard on "stuff" at the house where, now that we've been-here-done-this a few times we know the ropes; how today we need to leave things with one more day, max two if we use my fly-home day Tuesday, to tidy up; what gets on each other's nerves (and it does) and what calms and encourages the other (thank Heaven); that we need to eat and drink as we work, then relax after.

Third day today opening boxes and bins, sorting, moving, crying or laughing over, throwing, donating, feeling elated about or sick about STUFF. Packing tight (we're there, we're almost there), closing lids and flaps and, now, sealing such. To. Be. Moved. Out. Of. Here.

We relaxed this afternoon at Grand Traverse Pie Company a few miles north of the hotel. Jen's been raving about the food at this place since I came, so here we had lunch. Well, almost dinner. I ordered minestrone soup and bread with a piece of coconut cream pie. Jen knew she wanted quiche and pie, chocolate. None of it was bad, far from it! Anything with CRUST can't be bad, right? My soup was exactly what my mouth wanted, and I was hungry.

I intend to come here again! (Wonder what the Universe will do with that?)

Good will

"The Jungle Book" last night – Jen and I went to the movies! It starts today but we got tickets for a viewing this night before! I'm at the movies as much for the popcorn and Milk Duds as for the show, though don't ever tell, and do get motivated to be there when I'm away from home like now, rarely with Kent. He's not into it.

It was good. Good to be in air conditioning (with my jacket on in the end) in a reclining seat with a drink holder (and large-ish drink) next to my daughter who likes to be here maybe more than I do. Jen and I were in movie-heaven with not many in the theater and our treats and anticipation after working haaarrrrd for long hours.
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You know, today we didn't get an early start. Early starts are not this daughter's forte, though that's okay as I've come to her place determined to be mellow and work hard too and strike a balance. I was so pooped this morning I didn't wake before her and have quiet time til she stirred; no, we did that pretty much at the same time, checking our devices laying in bed and getting ready for the day at leisure. We didn't get to the house today until after eleven.

We focused on getting more out of the master bedroom, all of it, then sorted boxes in the spare room until after, say, three. Hauled the trash and Goodwill bags to the car when we were done, stashed our work and closed the door on it like yesterday and left. We didn't work super-long today. And this is the second day we've pulled into Goodwill on our way to the hotel with a trunk-load of donations. Jenny just shakes her head. There's a lot going on in there this week, her head...

Jen's emotions are tested. Being in the neighborhood's a test. Inside the house, a harder test. She's managing though, keeping her cool as we come and go from here and keeping up with the work, work, work. She's swinging I think in a jungle of emotions and strategies she never hoped in her life to be tangled in. Mowgli-like, a bit.

Here's our boy Neel Sethi cast in the live "Jungle Book" we saw yesterday afternoon and now I'm humming look for the bare necessities, the simple bare necessities, forget about your worries and your strife! Bright animated face! (Could we all be twelve again, please?)



Good for Jen. I'm proud of her efforts and good will.

Work week

Jenny got me after three o'clock after school yesterday at the airport. I didn't have long to wait for her by customer pick-up though I did that in the cold of a blustery day. Though the sun was out it shone on me in fits and spurts, chased by fat dark clouds. Today is cold, though the week promises to get hotter. Hotter here even than in Utah. I'm missing a winter event there... rain that Kent is saying has turned to snow on our hill in this middle-of-April, though it's not sticking.

Today is the beginning for Jenny and me of our "work" week. I mean that: I'm here to help Jen get her belongings sorted and unwound from every place in Robert's house where they may be – de-junked, thrown or given away, boxed and strapped and made ready to be loaded onto a moving trunk. It's taken us most of the morning, in fact from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. to sort her things out of the master bedroom, closet and bathroom. Every person on the planet I do believe underestimates how much stuff, physical belongings, he or she has. Possesses. Calls their very own. Has spent money and time and interest on... nooks and crannies in every household hide belongings every person likely forgets about or uses only rarely. So have the nooks and crannies of my daughter's bedroom/closet/bathroom done these past three and a half years.

We did work six hours, both of us overwhelmed in the middle and sagging as the stacks of items to give away, throw away, box up (but not seal yet) or take to the hotel grew. Piled, and piled higher. We're discovering there will have to be twice the "designations" we thought there'd need to be at the outset: just what I mentioned... and what will remain in air-conditioning inside Rob's house until June; what can be brought to the garage into the heat with the ready-to-go pile; what will be donated instead of to Goodwill to a women's or youth shelter or to employees at Jen's school; what will remain open and loose in boxes versus sealed before I leave in seven days. There's probably way more than this to consider.



Sorting and cleaning and boxing one's possessions always gets messier before it gets done. We stacked our work, our process, into the spare bedroom where most of Jen's collection over the years has lived and looked around the master bedroom and bathroom. Granted there's things still to go through here: necklaces hang still from a hooked shelf over the tub; nightstand drawers next to the bed need to be sorted, and a couple of dresser drawers; toiletries, I'm sure, hide under the sink. But we put a BIG dent in the closet and room – Robert will definitely notice how spare it is and be glad. These four months after they've declared they'll divorce and Jen has moved out and papers have been drafted with signatures only a week out, Robert and Jen will both feel glad over this movement with Jenny's stuff.

Though, let it be said, it's hard.

Trip

Flew to Detroit today. Via Pheonix. I had a longish layover there so I dragged my little bag and purse and coat for, hm, I guess miles around the airport halls.



The flight left SL blasted early. Kent and I got out of bed at 3:15 a.m. and he had me to the airport by 4:00. Plane left an hour and a half later. Luckily it wasn't full and I lay down and slept. Really in no time it delivered me to Phoenix where I had nothing to do but walk and wait and do that in reverse til the plane for Detroit took off.

My head always takes a trip when I do. It's nuts.

To the park

I watched my grandkids much of the day while Amy went on a field trip with Andrew's class. Though I'm feeling that pit in my stomach, ugh, about needing to be home getting ready to leave tomorrow. Fly. Eh, it'll work out, there's only a little to pack, I'm not checking baggage. And I love being with the little kids!

Today Ellie really wanted to go for a walk in the park, and I could've put James in the stroller and venture out, but we didn't. I'm reminded of being there with the all kids though three weeks ago,



Joseph on roller blades, Andrew on his scooter and Ellie on her bike sans training wheels.



Mama with James in the stroller.



A blast! The boys are too old for the playground really, and being on wheels gave them momentum all over the park grounds that the slide and swings and monkey bars don't anymore.



Andrew though,



is a regular



monkey! James wouldn't be kept away. Not the stroller for him!



Ellie's all over the place too... back and forth between the climbing wall and stairs and slides and on her bike going and doing where and what the boys were going and doing.



I was spry. I told the boys and Ellie I'd race against them on their blades/ scooter/bike. And I did. It wasn't pretty but the races were fast and I got whipped by all of them in turn. Because by age and in turn the kids lined up on the far end of one sidewalk with me and bladed and scooted and biked to the other, me coming along laughing and racing as fast as my fat legs would take me. Amy videoed us – I asked her to – and that shall reside with me never to be viewed! Therapeutic for all of us, though. It got my heart rate up, it made the big kids and Amy laugh their heads off! James doesn't care.

To this day, Ellie's favorite thing to do when I come to tend is go to the park.

Weaknesses and strengths

I re-read Elder Lawrence's talk (link, and here) from October General Conference today.

Please. It's so good.


"The Spirit can show us our weaknesses, but He is also able to show us our strengths. Sometimes we need to ask what we are doing right so that the Lord can lift and encourage us."
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Small news, 22 years ago today my ex and I understood we would divorce. More years ago now than we were married. April always has this in it: the 11th.