When Colin left on his mission some 800 billion days ago, I thought of all the great and grand plans I could have and accomplish in this two year time frame! Well, as I gaze at the little day counter at the bottom of his mission page, I see that I have 300 days left. 300! That's it! That's all! How can that be? I have barely started to do all that I was hoping to.
Colin's mission time has gone so quickly and I feel like life is doing the same thing! Each Friday I ask myself where the week went. I try to account for the hours on each of the previous days in the week and while I feel busy, I see the to-do list that just doesn't seem to get any shorter.
I love life! I try to pack so much into a day! I don't want to miss anything. I feel like sleep is way over rated. My body tells me otherwise, as do my children.--they claim I get grouchy without my proper sleep. What are they talking about? We don't need more that 6 hours of sleep a night! Right?!
This week has been "Spring Break." Our family had planned on being out of town for the week. We had grand plans of spending time with friends and family in Utah. It didn't happen. In fact, Laura got shingles and we needed to change our plans for her follow-up visits and to make sure she got back to good health. We spent the week doing very little. We told ourselves we would have big cleaning projects everyday and the house and yard would be in pristine shape by the end of the week. Well, here it is Saturday and we have only done a few things. Are we rested? I think so. We have had some time together and to enjoy each other's company. It has been great. Daren and I have five more weeks of school. Yes, that is right! FIVE WEEKS! It's all downhill from here.
On another note, I learned yesterday that my Uncle Chuck had passed away. This is the last of my mom's siblings. She is now alone. This uncle had been a hermit for most of his adult life and lived in a small town near Prescott, AZ.
After hearing of my uncle's death, my mom took off from California to drive to Arizona to put the final details together for liquidating the estate and getting all of my Uncle Chuck's personal affairs in order. Crazy to think of a 78 year old woman on the road in the middle of the night, crying her eyes out and trying to find her way. With that said, my oldest brother decided that he needed to take off and go down and help with anything my mom might need. In doing so, my brother wanted a second driver. He asked if maybe Christopher might be available to help him out. So, last night around 6:00 PM they took off from Nebraska, and reached Los Angeles some twenty hours later. Amazing.
Through all of this, I have been trying to keep our home up and running and do something with Laura and Cameron. Daren was kind enough to take them fishing today and last night they slept on the trampoline. I think they have had an incredible week of fun and relaxing. I sure hope so.
Early in the week, we had an old Institute teacher--college religion teacher--stop in with his daughter and her two children. That was so fun! We also watched movies, ate good food and had a fire in the fire pit this week.
This morning some drama started. It started with one of Christopher's friends. I am so grateful that Daren and I listened to inspiration and sent him on a four day 4000 mile trek. It has saved us. Then this evening I got a message on a different front about someone telling me that I was upset about something. WOW! Was I upset? I guess I forgot to tell myself. After doing some questioning, if seems that someone wanted to take it upon themselves to convey a message that wasn't true and then hope to make me look badly! As if having Laura with shingles, my uncle dying, a young friend of Christopher's wigging out and a 78 year old mother on the road driving weren't enough to deal with, I now have been sitting here trying to re-group and put myself calmly back together. I want Sunday to be a great day for us! I want to be in the right frame of mind.
What I find most interesting about the whole day is that I had just spent several hours listening to a CD about being an Holy Woman. The talk, by Wendy Watson-Nelson asks the question: "What would a Holy Woman of God do?" So, I guess what I am trying to say is that when dealing with some of the "drama" today....I was able to do a much better job in my reaction to these situations because at every turn, I asked myself "What would a Holy Woman of God do?" It helped. It really is helping. Maybe I will be that person I have wanted to become before the 300 days are up and Colin returns safely from his time in Mexico as a missionary. I can hardly wait for my Mother's day phone call in 52 days! It will be downhill from there....Oh I hope so!
So in going into the Sabbath day, I ask myself: "What would a Holy Woman of God do?" I hope the Sabbath will be a day of more reflection on this. I plan to report back soon!
