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. 

Church on Sunday

Last Sunday was General Conference, how can it have been already a week? We asked the young women on our visit to Temple Square Wednesday night to say things they liked listening to Conference, and here's what some said:

• The story about the six year-old girl who had to answer on paper (with a drawing of a mythical witch atop) “You have just drunk a cup of the witch’s brew. What happened to you?” who wrote, “I will die and I will be in heaven. I will like it there. I would love it because it is the best place to be because you are with your Heavenly Father.”
• The quote from President Monson, “May we maintain the courage to defy the consensus. May we ever choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong.”
• Sister Bonnie Oscarson's story about Michele and her son Ethan who was critically ill, and Michele coming to know she believed families are forever.

More. So much more from two days of apostles and prophets and servants at the pulpit.

This Sunday – this week later – has been a perfect day of rest. After a Saturday busy to the eyeballs starting with brunch in town, to sleep in feels nice. No Bishopric meeting early for Kent, no choir practice for me before church. Before church today though I did visit teach my friend Barbara with my companion, and I texted to see if we could make it 11:00 instead of 9:00 (!) like we do once a month. Barbara's been sick and appreciated the slower-morning later-in-the-day shorter-than-usual visit from us. Hadn't done much moving around in the past several days and wasn't looking forward to getting out today, though church, the spirit, makes any of us want to try.

2:00. There's the time Stake Conference started this afternoon. It was  a crowded, though sacred couple of hours especially enhanced at the beginning by a tender talk by Claire P., 8 years old and just baptized... like Emily A., also 8, who six months ago spoke, impressing so many of us. Each of the girls had to stand on a box to see over the big pulpit and speak into the microphone; each young girl moved every person listening with ears to hear.

It is always with ears to hear that I attend Sacrament meetings and Stake Conference and focus on General Conference. Ears to hear lean in when a little one stands to talk and do no less for any youth, adult or leader at the podium. 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. Maybe there's not that; just prepared talkers and thoughtful listeners.

Church on Sunday is the place for all that.

Family

This morning the sibs met for brunch at The Corner Bakery Cafe. We're trying (pretty successfully!) to get all four of us brothers and sisters and spouses, the eight of us, to hang out once a month and of course eat. The last couple of times it's been at Marcia's and the assisted living center, and for April we wanted a lazy-morning get together in town. It was so lazy-morning that Chris and Julie didn't even come! No... I'm kidding... they had to go to Idaho at the last minute to be with Julie's folks so it didn't work out. It better next month though because the meal's at their house! (They'll be into their new house by the first week in May, that'll work, right?) Or maybe the party's at Laura's, can't remember. It doesn't matter much, just seeing each other does. :)

It hasn't been any time since I finished my last puzzle and, no kidding,



I got this one out and going pretty darn quick. Done,



 and fun!

For all the busyness that shows up here on the blog you might know I have about the same in quiet time. Every day does have in it some project or another, adventure, or service or drama even. But I jealously guard a few hours every day for doing what I want to do. Lately it's been puzzles. Not reading so much, library books or conference reports, playing cards with Kent, meditating, TV watching, talking on the phone so much as puzzles. Sheesh, is there some metaphor or life lesson there? (Naw, not going there. Just gonna get the next puzzle out when I get back from Michigan later in the month, a no brainer.) (If I were Marcia right now I'd be on Family Search in my discretionary time posting pictures, my mother-in-law's ancestors. It's what she's doing. Putting puzzle pieces together too after a fashion: family history. I admire that.)

Nature

Again Marcia and I are above Memory Grove for our morning walk, the last time this week, and today with Laura. We girls still haven't been on the far side of the canyon on the road so we hoofed it from the Capitol the couple of miles around the horseshoe to the other side. Remember how that road's one way → to vehicles? Yeah... the whole one-half of the road was ours! We booked it.

Marcia has all this week been sure she would pin point a particular trail from the road (who knew where) to take us down into the canyon midway and along the hill – there, from various heights all week, we've seen folks walking themselves and their dogs. Like I said, who knew where that would start down, and today she was determined to find it.



Three-quarters of the way along the surface road Marcia found a trail head. Like the days before when whatever we happened upon seemed like a bright (and right) idea, we pushed off onto a course through scrub oak pitched steeply down. It narrowed soon. I trailed. In the lead, Marcia forged down as with cloven hooves, Laura close behind though listing toward the side/of/the/mountain so as not to peel off into space above the canyon floor. Dirt slid under my feet in a minute and I felt my knees give; my stomach began to grind as I followed the girls down the narrowing trail stories above the ground and now a vertical drop one missed step, one dirt slide, one unbalanced moment away.

I froze. My knees were rubber, I could hardly swallow as I called to the girls. This wasn't in fact a bright (or right) idea. Not. For. Me. Earlier we'd had a happy moment nearer the road when I'd called to them for a picture... though this wasn't it now. I crouched a little to keep grounded on the loose path, listing hill-side myself, and took hold of a scrub oak branch. I'd been muttering and now I began to cry. (Gee.)

Nearest to me, Laura turned uphill saying yeah the path felt too steep to her, she was being super careful, don't worry Natalie... and Marcia was willing (God bless her) to turn back. These are my sisters, they love me and while being as vulnerable as this and in an instant going from good-natured and willing to freaked out isn't the norm with us, they helped me through it. (To this day I'd love to get back here and try again, maybe I'd be sure-footed on the smallish ledge, see my way the whole way down, tree branches to grab, one foot ahead of the other and breathing deep. It's just, well, suspension in my knees is going. I have to see the horizon to keep my balance. I'm bad at heights. The bottoms of my shoes aren't super grippy. I don't have cloven hooves, though I certainly was the goat this trip.)



That little venture lasted a scary few minutes, then we were on the road swinging south toward city center on the east of the canyon. It was a longish walk back to the car along, at last, the top of Avenues B, then A, then down cement steps with hand rails thereabouts at the canyon rim to a sidewalk that zigzagged us to the ground; across the full park and up steps and a similar zigzag to the parking lot. We huffed and puffed and pulled our way up... got in lots – too many – miles today, and did see as we've seen each morning this week in this area bold and beautiful nature.

New adventure!

Every day this week almost we've been in Salt Lake early. Marcia and I walked away from where we parked this morning alongside the Capitol building, coming along the road rimming the canyon.



(Looking back the way we've come.)

We walked and walked in shadow toward the horseshoe bend that would take us to the other side of the gorge. Wonderfully, fully one-half of this paved road is for pedestrians and bikers. It's one-way, only, for vehicles, bringing these from the far side of the canyon to access State Street north toward Davis County (or south into downtown), or North Temple west toward I-15.



At the bend in the road (the head of City Creek Canyon) a path! Indeed a trail head at this point starts you into the mountains alongside City Creek itself which flows for miles before entering SLC. Marcia and I never hesitated; we swooped onto that path in a minute like a bird on a bug. This is for what we keep our collective eye peeled on our walks: trailheads, paths, what's ahead! Adventure!



My pictures in the darkish mornings never do the scenery justice. I do believe beauty lies in contrast somewhat, a good deal actually, and the lower light of morning, diffused, doesn't afford that. Though our surroundings are breathtaking! Here, the pinks from sunrise above the Capitol, now forever away behind us... and the springing-up-greens on the hills, though it's early in the season...



... and the lightening sky over ridges, and silhouettes and shapes against it.

We hiked a mile or mile and a half reckoning with what I've been seeing on Google Maps: this is Black Mountain Trail which will hook up with the Bonneville Shoreline Trail and take you to the radio towers. I'm on the part of the hike in these mountains – the SL side – I've wished to be on multiple times standing at the radio towers having come from Davis County (linky). Many times I've wished to hike from there into SL on downhill trails my eyes see afar off, though not completely enough from the towers to know where they take a person. If Google can be trusted, from the radio towers you can hike to here where Marcia and I are coming up! Even further... down into City Creek Canyon and Memory Grove. Or right onto the road toward the Capitol building.



Which brings us here again. We backtracked after that mile or so, brought the road indeed back to the car and our cherry blossoms we've walked under pretty much every day this week... we aren't tired of them...



... and, done. Til tomorrow.

Lovely day

Marcia and I got back to the Capitol building early yesterday morning and walked under the cherry-blossoms once...



then moved down into Memory Grove. We'd parked on the street down here and did spend the next hour exploring more,



keeping a brisk pace and our heart rates up. The point, precisely, of abandoning sleep before dawn these spring-y mornings, being on the path – any path, really – before the sun.



This morning in quickening light we hoofed it to the radio towers on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail, Marcia needing to get her exercise and get home, no exploring, and this was closest. (Otherwise we'd've been back inside Memory Grove for sure trumping up new paths, or in City Creek Canyon.)

This view always excites me, and that Marcia and I managed a half decent selfie with it behind us is the coolest!



You'll appreciate that for lunch much later I spiralized a zucchini into zoodles, mixed that with rotisserie chicken sauteed in the oil from the jar of sun-dried tomatoes; the tomatoes themselves, diced, and avocado Alfredo sauce. That sauce is to die for!  One avocado, grated Parm, almond milk, lemon juice, salt and pepper and garlic. Don't miss having this (link) once in your life, really! Kent and I ate the contents of this whole pan and it cost us like minimal calories and afforded us maximum nutrition. One pot, one super-charged lunch! And Kent liked it.



At the end of day the Young Women and us (Katie, president, and me) drove to Temple Square to walk around, smell flowers, take pictures, see the sun set, and have ice cream.



I started this day on a high rise, our sacred temple in sight... and ended it in its shadow. The sun has arched across this gorgeous day, passing at last (for me) over the west gate of Temple Square. I've passed today – as it has – through much that has been lovely.