Quilting, Shopping and Volleyball

This has been another one of those weeks that go by so fast I have a hard time remembering what I did. Spencer, Annie and the kids got here from Colorado so we've had fun spending time with them. I spent two days getting stuff ready to help the Beehives in our ward learn how to make a quilt. They did an okay job and the quilts turned out pretty cute. Annie's birthday was on Thurs. so they invited me to go out to Nordstroms with them to shop. I have never gone in that store because it seems like the prices were more than I would ever be willing to pay. It was a lot of fun spending time with them and they even got me a couple of things. There is a little primary song that says, "Saturday is a special day, it's the day we get ready for Sunday, we clean the house and we shop at the store so we don't have to go until Monday." Well last night I decided I would go with Mindi to watch Tristyn play in a volleyball tournament today in Maryvale, clear on the west side of town. I knew it was going to take us almost an hour to get there, so we needed to leave at 8:00 a.m. When I went to bed last night I couldn't sleep worrying about how I would get everything done around my house, the animals fed and me showered and presentable. By the time I finally got to sleep it was almost midnight. I woke up at 3:45 a.m. and could not for the life of me get back to sleep. I just kept watching the clock until I finally dozed back off at 6:15. Rich was up at 6:45 so today I have felt like I've been run over by a bus. Good thing tomorrow is the Sabbath, the day of rest. Ha! Besides being Fast Sunday it's also Super Bowl Sunday. Candi sent me an article about a hospice chaplain in Massachusetts. She writes about what patients talk about when they are sick and dying. She was asked "What exactly do you do as a chaplain?" "Well I talk to people about their families: about their mothers and fathers, their sons and daughters. They talk about the love they felt, and what love is, and what it is not. And sometimes, when they are actively dying, fluid gurgling in their throats, they reach their hands out to things I cannot see and they call out to their parents: Mama, Daddy, Mother." She then goes on to explain that "family is where we first experience love and where we first give it. It's probably the first place we've been hurt by someone we love, and hopefully the place we learn that love can overcome even the most painful rejection." The final paragraph of this little article was so profound to me. She talks about how the spiritual work of being human is learning how to love and how to forgive. "We don't have to use words of theology to talk about God; people who are close to death almost never do. We should learn from those who are dying that the best way to teach our children about God is by loving each other wholly and forgiving each other fully - just as each of us longs to be loved and forgiven by our mothers and fathers, sons and daughters." I know I have made many mistakes in raising my children. I have not fostered the love and respect I should have and need to be forgiven. If there is one regret I have the most it is that I didn't teach about the Atonement enough. That sacrifice that was made on our behalf is what we need to live with our Heavenly Father again.