I am not ready for my grandmother to be gone. It was four days before she passed away that I committed to visiting her every week on my lunch break. I wish I had known my time was ending to spend time with such a remarkable person. I know she is on the other side. I know she watches over me. But on my side of the veil, I am left to enjoy her through my memories. These are the things I remember most about my sweet grandmother.
1. When I was about seven years old, I had a sleep over at her house and she taught me Alma 37:37, “Counsel with the Lord in all thy doing and he will direct thee for good. Yea, when thou liest down at night, lie down unto the Lord that he may watch over you in your sleep. And when thou risest in the morning, let thy heart be full of thanks unto him. And if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day.” I just did that from memory. It was the first scripture I ever memorized and still I remember it from all those years ago. I chose it as the scripture on my missionary placard because it has meant so much to me over the years. I can still visualize my grandmother quoting it with energy. She would always recite things with enthusiasm and gusto, showing clearly the love she had for the gospel.
2. Towing the line. My grandmother was always working. Making bread, making blankets, cooking meals, sewing, writing poetry, organizing the house, reading newspaper articles, calling loved ones, the list goes on and on and on. When I think of her raising seven children, and the drive she exhibited, even in her nineties, I marvel at the amount of good she accomplished while on earth. I never once heard her complain.
3. Trust. In almost every conversation I’ve had with grandmother in the past few years, she finds away to mention how she marvels at how when she looks back on her life, she sees how God led her from A to B to C. She has many amazing stories in her life of times where situations were very dire, but God came through for Her in glorious ways. She marvels at how good God has been to her and how we can trust Him perfectly to work good in our lives.
4. Amazing Bread.
Grandmother, it is one thing to live a selfless, active and righteous life, but it is quite another to do it with a smile and joy to the very end. You inspire me in countless ways and I pray to be man enough to build on your legacy. I love you.
On to less weightier matters, work is going well. My general morning routine is that my alarm goes off, I don’t care so I keep sleeping, Lily kicks me, I decide she’s right, as usual, and stumble out of bed. The amazing thing is that it’s working! One more benefit to having a loving spouse! (o-k, she doesn’t actually kick me, just persuades and gently pushes.)
Work is going very well. It is so fast paced that my head is spinning, but I closed my first business last week and so far I feel everything is going as planned. I love my job. Everyone on my team is very good. and I love my team leader.
Lily had a good day with the girls. She went to lunch with Anique and had a very good time. She also skyped with her great friend Liz Nyden. Also, she is reading the new Amy Chua book and absolutely loving it. Mary was fussy today, but she is teething so it is understandable. We are letting her use her binkie a little more to help her get through this tough time.
And…….Lily is back in school! Her class for tonight has a really fancy name that is probably French so she will have to update you on that later. When I got home I took the girls to Smith’s and got them a treat at the bakery counter. They were giving out whole cookies which each girl got. Subsequently neither of them ate much dinner and I felt very guilty for not giving my kids proper nutrition. I think I will have a “no giant cookies before meals” rule from now on….but sometimes, especially when I’m tired……….it’s the best I can do to just cave.
After dinner we stuffed Easter Eggs for Lydia’s Easter Egg hunt tomorrow. Amazingly, both Lydia and Mary were both very capable of and very focused on stuffing candy into the eggs. I couldn’t believe how good Mary was at it! After that, I discovered a new wonderful bath-time activity where Lydia and Mary through the beach ball to each other.
Pictures!
