Tender mercy in the kitchen

Organizing has never been my talent. I like things to be clean on the outside, but if it's put away out of sight in a drawer, cupboard, or closet I typically don't think about it until it starts driving me crazy when it gets too full.

I had mentioned this to my friend Susan who is a master organizer. She set up a time with 3 other friends (Monica, Charlotte, and Rachel) to come over and organize my kitchen. 

It is something that has been on my list for a long time and I have done it before but never very well. I feel like it goes back to the way it was before after a week.

These ladies came at 9:00 am and didn't leave until 3:00. They pulled every single thing out of my cupboards, drawers and refrigerator, vacuumed and wiped them all out, de junked, and put everything back in places that worked efficiently. If I would have done this on my own it would have taken me a week, not to mention the fact that I probably would have kept everything and had the same problem a week later. We took an entire trunkload of stuff from my kitchen to Goodwill! So many things that I don't use and should have gotten rid of years ago. Charlotte also brought brand new tupperware to replace all of my old stuff.

When they left and it really soaked in what a gift they gave me I sat in my kitchen and just cried. So much so that when Shad walked into the house he thought that one of our children had died (granted I had just gotten off the phone with him because Haken was on the other line.)

I'm a pretty emotional pregnant woman right now but I was just so grateful for good friends who would take an entire day to focus on me and what would be a blessing for me and then just do it. I seriously have the best friends in the world. They are such a blessing and make it feel like I might just make it through having twins with their help.

Indiana Dunes

One of the huge advantages of having a daddy that travels is that sometimes we get to go with him. Because it is the end of the school year, Shad has been attending a lot of Seminary graduations. His last one was over Memorial Day weekend (May 30th) and was the furthest away (Valparaiso, Indiana), so we took advantage of the holiday and decided to do some family exploring. We stayed the night in a hotel Sunday and then headed to Indiana Dunes State Park in the morning which was only about 25 minutes away.

We had a fantastic time on the shores of Lake Michigan. I always knew it was a big lake, but you don't realize how big until you are there. It really does feel almost like an ocean without the huge waves and without being salty. You can't see the other side of the lake (although we could kind of make out the Chicago skyline in the distance). The sand there was so amazing! It was the finest most beautiful sand of any lake I have ever seen.

Benny was in love with the sand. He loved throwing it along with the rocks. We had sand in every little crease by the end of the day.

One thing that really made the day awesome was the friends that we found on the beach. We set up all of our stuff and then another family (with 5 kids) set their stuff up next to us. I could tell almost right away that they were Mormon just listening to their conversations. Our kids were about the same ages and they became instant friends. They live in Chicago and were just there for the day too. The other great part was that the father and one of the sons is also diabetic and have pumps. So, while Jack was plugging in his pump and checking his blood sugar, they were too!

Before we left we got their phone number and became friends on Facebook so that we could keep in touch. The next week we also found out that they are cousins with Bill Holmes who is in the branch presidency with Shad! It's such a small Mormon world! It was actually really great because Bill had lost touch with them after going to school and we found them for him.

Although I really do enjoy our outings together just with our little family, I thought it was a huge tender mercy that the Lord sent us some "Mormon cousins" for us to play with that day and especially ones that we had so much in common with. The Lord really is watching out for us as we are away from so many of our close family and friends.

One funny story while we were there: Some of the kids were playing about 10 yards from our "base camp" on the beach in a small stream leading into the water. Gracie wanted to go over there to join Shad and the other kids. I told her to start walking that direction and you would see him. I was watching Benny and didn't want to walk over there. Then, about 15 minutes later I looked over there and didn't see Gracie. I went and asked Shad where she was. He said he thought she was with me. Then, right on cue, the loud speaker for the beach comes on and we hear "We have a lost little girl. Her name is Grace and she is wearing a purple seahorse swimming suit and carrying a blue bucket. If she is your child please come and pick her up at the life guard station." Shad went running and hitched a ride on a 4-wheeler to the life guard station. He found her there, surrounded by 10 lifeguards, doing a coloring page, and talking their ears off. They thought she was the cutest thing ever. Apparently she walked in the other direction, someone noticed she was wandering by herself, and brought her to the lifeguard station. Later  as we were walking to the bathroom and passed the life guard station all of the life guards said "Hi Grace!" She had made some pretty good friends. It's going to be a little joke for a while.

There are lots of great hikes to do in the Indiana Dunes park, but by the time we were done with the beach, the kids were beat and ready to go home. Next time we will have to try out some of the hikes before we hit the beach and cool off in the water.

Tender Mercies

My Dad has cancer. Last night we found out that it is terminal.
It is treatable, but not curable. 

One of my very favorite General Conference talks of all time is
Elder Bednar's talk entitled "The Tender Mercies of the Lord". 

"We should not underestimate or overlook the power of the Lord's tender mercies. The simpleness, the sweetness, and constancy of the tender mercies of the Lord will do much to fortify and protect us in the troubled times in which we do now and will yet live. When words cannot provide the solace we need or express the joy we feel, when it is simply futile to attempt to explain that which is unexplainable, when logic and reason cannot yield adequate understanding about the injustices and inequalities of life, when mortal experience and evaluation are insufficient to produce a desired outcome, and when it seems that perhaps we are so totally alone, truly we are blessed by the tender mercies of the Lord and made mighty, even unto the power of deliverance."

I can not "attempt to explain that which is unexplainable" and I am struggling to understand the "injustices and inequalities of life," but I can tell you about the tender mercies that have blessed my life in the last three weeks. They truly have helped to make me "mighty" and have brought to me the "power of deliverance."
(1 Nephi 1:20)

1) There is never a good "time" to be diagnosed with cancer. Cancer is not convenient. However, knowing my parents history, you would know that the timing of this diagnosis couldn't have been much better. About three years ago he was out of a job for some time. It was a very hard time for us as a family but we got through it and he now has a great job with great insurance. For that we are grateful. He is young, 57 on Christmas Eve, however he is strong and will fight this as long as he can. We are so blessed to have medical technology that gives us the best fighting chance and time to spend with our loved ones. My Dad's Grandma also had a brain tumor around this age. She died when when my dad was 5 years old, on the operating table. We have come so far in the last 50 years. My dad had a brain tumor removed last week and although he has to learn to write again, he is still alive. That to me is amazing. 

2) Last Christmas my parents surprised us with a family trip to Disneyland. It was a much anticipated trip. We didn't get to go until the middle of October, one month ago. It was a dream vacation. My mom got a little teary as we all walked into the gates of Disneyland as a family. We used to go every few years with my family and there are lots of memories shared there. But, I will never forget this last Disneyland vacation. We had no idea that just two weeks after we got home my dad would be going in to remove a brain tumor. It all came on so fast after we got home. The Lord saw it fit to let us have a worry free vacation as a family. The Lord was waiting for us to have that magical time together.

3) Over a year ago my dad was feeling a real push to move out of the house that he had built with his own hands and raised all of his kids in. They had been in that house for 28 years and my mom was a pretty hard cookie to crack when it came to this subject. She loved that house. There were so many memories in that house, and yet, she knew that the upkeep of it in the long run wasn't going to work. So, finally, after about a year of pushing my mom finally conceded and made the leap to a new house in Centerville last July. I myself was sad to see the other house go, it was the only house that I had known growing up (they moved in when I was only a few weeks old), but the house they have now is PERFECT for them. Now seeing what the future holds, I am convinced that the spirit was speaking to my dad telling him to move.

The ward that they are in is amazing. They truly take care of one another. One of the connections that was made that I also see as a tender mercy is a relationship that was rekindled with my dad and Elder Baxter who lives in their new ward. My dad served a mission in Scotland and Elder Baxter was his Assistant to the mission president while he was there. About a year ago Elder Baxter also went in for surgery to remove a brain tumor. His experience has brought strength to my dad during his struggle the last few weeks. The night before the surgery Elder Baxter gave my dad an amazing blessing. I am truly grateful for the power of the priesthood in the last few weeks. 

4) The last tender mercy, although I know there are probably hundreds more that will become apparent, is one that I wouldn't have even suspected. A year ago we started our whole fiasco of moving (a long story for another post soon to come). Somehow in all of that moving we ended up living with my parents for 2 months this last summer. During this time my children developed a love for their grandparents that I don't think we could replicate any other way. Jack became grandpa's "little buddy." Every day when he came home from work Jack would yell "Grandpa!" and jump into his arms. My dad told me that that was the highlight of his day. I'm sure it wasn't easy to share a house with us, but there was never a question of them saying "no," even though we made their move to the new house much harder than it needed to be. I hope that my children will always remember those special two months that they got to spend with their grandpa.

I repeat Elder Bednar's words as he said:

"I testify that the tender mercies of the Lord are real and that they do not occur randomly or merely by coincidence. Often, the Lord's timing of His tender mercies helps us to both discern and acknowledge him."

I absolutely know this to be true. The Lord is truly mindful of us.