Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Turning Juice Into Jelly


I woke up this morning at 3:45 a.m. with such a severe pain in my leg I thought I was going to have to call 911 or go to the hospital. It felt like my whole leg was going to blow up. It's happened a couple of other times but never this bad. I finally got up took some pain reliever, put an ice pack on and tried to go back to sleep. That never really happened as I could hear a bunch of racket going on outside my bedroom, plus the stupid dogs were trying to get to the baby chickens. Oh the joy of running a small petting zoo. I decided to just get up and start making jelly out of the pomegranate juice we worked so hard for last week. I had just finished up my third batch when my Mom called for the second time, to check up on me before she's off to the Temple. My Mom and Dad are my biggest cheerleaders and even though they are in there 80's and I'm almost 60 I'm still their little girl. I know they have my back, NO matter what I'm going through. I was telling them that I just don't think I signed up for these trials. I said, "Oh yeh, send me down, I don't mind if I'm crippled and in constant pain. Let me suffer through the drowning death of my grandchild. Let me live through one disappointment after another, that's what I want." After I had my pity party my Dad said, "You know Teri, all these things you are talking about aren't going to mean a thing in the big scheme of things when you get to Heaven." By then I was telling him that I probably won't be there in Heaven but will be fine in Hell. I'll have lots of company there. Then they started reminding me of all the positives in my life. "Your four "darling" children and even "more darling" sixteen grandchildren. My beautiful home, my testimony, my temple recommend, my chickens," okay Dad you're stretching a little bit on that one. I guess I just don't remember when I was in Primary and Young Women's them teaching, "now brace yourself because you are about to go through some horrible trials before you can return home." Maybe if they would have told me I might have made some different decisions in my life. Anyway, it is what it is, and hopefully the sun will come up tomorrow so that I can spend the day making more jelly and maybe get some other chores done along the way. I guess I have heard something about "enduring to the end," maybe the end will come soon.

1 comment:

Stephanie Abney said...

LOVE you Teri! Great post. So honest, so heartfelt, so you. And you WOW me with making jelly. You are a marvel and more amazing than you will ever know. Keep posting!!