The Days Go By

Yes, I guess it’s time for an update. I’m still trying to figure out what kinds of things I should write in here, so to help me along Laura encourage me with a prompt yesterday, so here goes:

I love Sundays. Yesterday was a particularly long and full one – not crazy busy full, but just full as in fulfilling. In facebook last night, I wrote that it felt like three days in one. Here’s what I mean:

DAY ONE: CHURCH. Sometimes getting ready for church can feel like a day in itself, but that went fairly smoothly. It was fast Sunday, so food was not an issue for me, but I made a breakfast sandwich for Skip before I left. As you probably know, he is recovering from knee surgery and needs to keep up his strength. Natalie and I arrived at church at about 10:55. Apparently, nobody had panicked yet about the organist not showing up, so I played five minutes of prelude. A few testimonies were heartfelt, and it felt really good to fast today. My fasting and prayers were mostly for Skip and his recovery. I went home right after sacrament meeting to help him. (Kara had been there while I was gone, and she had to leave for church at 12:30) While he was asleep, I went outside and finished a book I was reading (The Secret Life of Bees). A great book, by the way. When he woke up, I read a conference talk to him by Elder Pearson on Faith in Jesus Christ. He will be our visiting authority next Sunday in Stake Conference when we get a new stake president.

DAY TWO: THE KITCHEN. Sometimes on fast Sunday, it’s relaxing to be in the kitchen. It’s rarely a temptation for me to want to break my fast early when I prepare food. I made oatmeal cookies particularly for Skip, then I prepared a dinner of glazed pork loin, roasted potatoes, salad, and leftover mac and cheese. I even meant to make biscuits, but I forgot somehow. Even though it was just me, Natalie, and Skip, I decided we should eat in the dining room which we rarely do unless we have company. I’m always a little disappointed at how short the actual meal is compared to the preparation, but I helped Natalie clean up the kitchen to prolong the family time a little.

DAY THREE: FAMILY TIME. We try to still have Family Home Evening our traditional Monday night family time, but we can’t call it that now. Natalie bristles at the thought (“It’s weird having Family Home Evening when I’m the ONLY child.”) so we just prolong family scripture and prayer time with more in depth teaching and discussion. So we discussed the same talk I read to Skip earlier with Natalie. Then Grandma and Grandpa Condie came over and we had a nice visit with them. Grandma is doing better with her hearing aids. I can’t imagine how frustrating it must be, but she bravely puts it in perspective. We’re glad she’s feeling strong enough now to go with Grandpa to Idaho for their annual meeting on the range. They’ll be back on Tuesday the 16^th, and then people start arriving for the Condie family reunion. After Grandma and Grandpa left, Natalie, expressing frustration that the oatmeal cookies weren’t chocolate chip cookies, convinced me to make some brownies. She has to watch the movie , “Their Eyes Are Watching God” for English, and I told her teacher I’d see that she did, and watch it with her. So we made brownies and watched probably an hour of the movie before I started falling asleep. I started to get ready for bed, then realized the trash needed to be taken out, so I went out in my bare feet to pull the trash bin to the curb. The beauty of the full moon against the trees and the damp grass on my bare feet gave me a second wind, so I stayed up for another hour talking to Natalie, reading, and checking email. I was even up long enough to see Kara come home, who spends most evenings with her boyfriend, Andrew Bradley and his family. She was here long enough to pack for a trip to the beach tomorrow, then left to spend the night at the Bradleys so they could get an early start in the morning.

So that's my three-day Sunday. Maybe Monday will be even longer......