The Good Things

I complain a lot about how I can't see my children and grandchildren who live so far away. However, I never voice how blessed I feel at being close to at least one of my children. I love the fact that she and her husband can drop by and visit sometimes even if just for a few minutes when they are in the area. I love having them over for dinner occasionally so we can catch up on the latest happenings in their lives. I LOVE the fact that they can come here. I used to notice with my mother that when she came to visit me that she was always in a hurry to get back home. Now I am beginning to understand that feeling. I like that my daughter can call with little questions she may have when she is at a store or about a subject she knows I know about. It may be a short call, but it is a fun contact. I love having her sometimes come by my house to help me out with something I need done. I look to the future when I know she will also be moving far away and I mourn the loss. I need to count my blessings while they are here. Thanks C for being here when you can.

Always something else to do

At the beginning of the year I couldn't think of any goals that I wanted to accomplish for the year that were different from every other year. There are the "should do" goals. I should read scriptures daily, I should study the Relief Society and Sunday School lessons during the week, I should attend the Temple at least monthly, do my visiting teaching (and before the last day of the month too), read the latest Ensign, prepare my Relief Society lesson (before the Saturday before the lesson is presented), read my ADA Journal (snore), blog and/or write in my journal daily--or weekly--or maybe biweekly, lose another 30 pounds (or at least the 5 I gained back after losing 30), exercise 1 hour every day, use, before they go rotten, the peaches, pears, tomatoes, apples and plums Ken harvested from our garden, deep clean my house (once every 10 years whether it needs it or not), balance the bank statement every month, read journals etc to stay current in both dietetics and lactation, apply what I have learned to my work so we have a research based practice. I'm sure if I sat here long enough I would be able to think of many more things to add to the list.

Of course there are things that aren't even on my list i.e. making gourmet meals every night, hand making Christmas gifts for everyone, deep cleaning my house every year, and a good portion of the things Timber wrote in her blog (see here).

However I got to talking to one of my friends and we were talking about things we want to do before we die (our bucket list). So I am taking voice and piano lessons. What am I going to do with it? I don't know. I just know that I've always wanted to do it. I've always wanted to go an a mission with my husband. I pictured it as being someplace interesting and maybe even a foreign country. However, the economy isn't letting us retire any time soon, so maybe it will end up being close by where we stay at home. I'm not sure yet. I want to visit my children often, even though they live far away. I want to see some of the sights in the USA that I've heard about but never seen. Ken and I hope to see something interesting each year. Of course this requires money which means we need to keep working to save up for such things.

I could go on and on, but I really need to do some of the things on my "should do" list. I think I'll start with practicing the piano and practicing for my voice lesson tomorrow.