Sunday August 24th

Today Louisa received her Young Womanhood Recognition Award!  Hooray!!!  Usually girls are racing to finish it before they turn eighteen, but Louisa is only thirteen-year-old, and she's done!  Woohoo!  My amazing kids are surely one of my greatest blessings.

For the last two days my back has been bothering me.  I wasn't sure what I had done to it.  Maybe it was all that butter I had to rinse that took forever?  I don't know.  But by the time the Captain and I made it home from the temple yesterday, I was in serious pain. I couldn't sit, couldn't stand, couldn't lay down.  It hurt a lot.  It was a little better this morning, but I still wasn't very excited about sitting through three hours of church.  I was pretty sure that was going to cause me more pain, and I was just not looking forward to it.  So it seemed like a blessing when Gretl developed a fever in the night.  I couldn't find anything wrong with her - she doesn't even have a runny nose - but she still had a fever this morning, so I was going to stay home with her (and lay on the floor most of the time), while everyone else went to church.

But....  then the Bishopric called, rushed Louisa up to the church for her interview, and announced that she would receive her Young Womanhood Recognition today.  What?!?

So I got Gretl dressed, through a skirt on, ran my fingers through my hair, and arrived at church so that I could be there for Louisa.  I figured we'd stay until Gretl couldn't handle it anymore, and she did amazingly well.  I decided to sit back and enjoy the meeting, since it looked like we were staying for a while.  Then Brigitta asked for a pen, and I was trying to give it to her even though there were several people between us.  Gretl was trying to steal it out of my hands, and Kurt was turned around backward so that he didn't know I was trying to pass him a pen for Brigitta.  So I kept leaning over more and more, with my arm stretched out, basically laying across the laps of Louisa and Kurt, to reach the pen to Brigitta, and I felt a dull click.  Brigitta finally took the pen, and I sat up again.  And do you know?  I think my back is fixed! 

Soon after that, Gretl came and climbed onto my lap.  I could feel that her fever was coming back.  She whimpered for about ten seconds, and then fell asleep.  I brought her home and put her in bed, and came to write about my back miracle, and found another miracle!

It rained most of the night a couple of days ago, and when I got up that morning, I saw that our desktop had turned off.  I figured the lightning had caused a brown-out, and the computer had just shut down. But when I turned it on, it didn't look good.  All our settings were gone.  The desktop looked just like we had just bought it again.  All our bookmarks, all our program settings, all our icons were gone.  I was a little irritated, to say the least.  All our files are backed up with Carbonite, so I wasn't worried about that, but all the little things that make a computer your own were gone. So I've just been using the laptop, because it still remembers my homepage and how to get my email. I've been meaning to sit down and set up the desktop computer again, but it was a big job that I wasn't excited about.

Today I brought Gretl home, put her in bed, and came to the computer.  And guess what?  It was back!  A familiar picture was on the desktop background, all my icons were where they were supposed to be, and my email program was all set up.  Woohoo!!!

I have no idea how that happened, but I am so very grateful.  God's hand has definitely been working in my life today.  Not only is my back fixed (I still have some sore muscles, but the sharp pain is gone), but my computer is also back.  I am truly blessed. 

Wednesday August 20th

I sent my kids off to school today.  I was excited and ready to have them back in school, but once they were all gone...  it was quiet.  Way too quiet.  I wasn't sure what to do with myself.  Finally Gretl woke up, and she did a good job of keeping me busy all day.

The thing she really really wanted to do the very most was swim in the hot tub.  Usually I can find one of the kids who is willing to go sit in the hot tub with Gretl, but today I was the only option.  I kept telling her we would go after I started the bread, after I loaded the dishwasher, after I started some laundry, but Gretl's wasn't the only voice urging me to go right now.  So I finally went and put on my swimming suit, and Gretl and I sat in the hot tub.

Later that day (probably about the time I would have gotten around
to sitting in the hot tub), it started to rain.  It kept raining all day, so there wouldn't have been another chance to go swimming.  While I wouldn't have felt bad about not being in a swimming suit, I would have felt bad that I put Gretl off until it was too late.  So I'm glad that I received an extra nudge from the Spirit to go spend time with my baby girl now, instead of later.

Also today, I came home from an errand to see the Captain's vegetable booth tipped over.  He came up with an idea to put a little stand in front of our house where people can leave their extra garden veggies, and anyone can take what produce they want.  He's calling it a Give and Take stand.  He's been working on it for a while, and finally got it up today.  It was my job to put a sign on it, but I hadn't gotten to it yet.  So when I came back from my errand and saw it tipped over, I went and lifted it back up and was surprised that it had fallen over.  The wind hadn't been blowing especially hard, and it's a pretty hefty chunk of wood.

As I turned to go inside after lifting the stand back into place, I felt pulled into the yard to look at my flower beds.  It's true I haven't taken the time to really enjoy them lately, so I took a little walk around the yard.  As I came back to the front yard, I saw that a van had pulled up in front of the Give and Take stand.  There weren't any vegetables on it yet, so as the guy got out and opened the back of his van, I was hoping that he was going to leave something from his garden.  Instead he took out a drill and started working on the stand.  Odd.

I wandered over to the two men standing there and said hello.  The one guy said, "You don't want this, right?" and I realized that the other man was using his drill to take the stand apart!  Often in our town, people leave things by the road that they don't want anymore, and people who do want them will stop and pick them up.  These guys thought that our stand was out by the road for anyone to take, and the reason it was laying down earlier was because they had tried to get it into the back of the van, but it wouldn't fit.  They had gone home for a drill to take it apart and come back to get it.  I assured them that we still wanted it, they apologized and put the screws back in, and went on their way.  I hurried in to make a sign for the stand and find a few vegetables to put on the shelf!

As I made the sign and put it up, it occurred to me that if I hadn't taken that little wander around the yard to see my flower beds, I would have never seen the men take our stand away.  It would have just disappeared, and we would never have known what happened.  I'm so glad that the Spirit stopped me from going in the front door today so that I could save the Give and Take stand.  Hopefully it will accomplish some good in the next few weeks.

Sunday August 17th

Liesl was supposed to sing in Sacrament Meeting today.  She was asked in the middle of the week, but as of 11:00 last night, she still didn't have a plan.  She didn't know what song she was going to sing, and she didn't have anyone to play the piano for her.  I could have stepped in at anytime during the last week, but I decided she's a big girl now, and she could take care of it, since she was the one who had been asked, and she was the one who had agreed to sing the song.

So this morning she got on the phone and found someone to play the piano for her, and got her "boy-friend-who's-not-her-boyfriend" (we'll call him Rolf) to sing with her.  They went to the church half an hour before church to run through it a couple of times, and they were ready to go.

The awesome part was when the youth speaker stood up to give her talk.  Her talk was on families, and she used the words from Love Is Spoken Here, which is the song that Liesl and Rolf were going to sing!  The girl read all the words and talked about the song and the importance of families. 

There was a couple of adult speakers, and then Liesl and Rolf got up to sing.  Liesl is on crutches because she fell and sprained her ankle at soccer practice, but she made it up the stairs without falling.  I was very glad.  They sang their song, and it sounded awesome!  They really did a good job for the amount of preparation that went into it.  Liesl made it back down the stairs again without any mishap, and safely back to her seat. 

If you would have asked me last night about Liesl's musical number for church today, I would have expressed my doubts about the whole thing.  But the Lord's hand was in it, not only in the performance, but in the selection of the song.  I'm sure he must have helped her with those stairs, too.

Friday August 15th

Today the Captain was going to another town for a meeting.  I asked if I could come with him, because I had
an errand I wanted to run in a town near his meeting.  The town is more than an hour away, which meant I would be gone half the day, but I went anyway.  I dropped off the Captain at his meeting, and ran my errand.  The errand was a total flop; it didn't work at all.  I still had lots of time to kill, so I went to the temple.  I didn't think I would have time for an endowment session, so I decided to do some initiatories.  I walked up to the desk, and there were about eight temple workers gathered around it.  They stepped aside so I could talk to the lady behind the desk, and I asked if I could do some initiatories today.  All the ladies around the desk gasped, and one clapped her hands together.  Then they all got great big smiles on their faces, and started talking about how it was a miracle.  I wasn't sure what the miracle was, but I told them I was happy to be their miracle. :) 

After I was dressed, the lady in charge told me that she had been praying for another patron to do initiatories today.  Pretty cool, huh?  I read once that the reasons we have for moving, such as jobs or schooling, are really just the Lord's tools for putting us where he wants us to be.  I'm thinking it was the same with my day today.  My errand I wanted to run didn't work out at all, but it put me where I was supposed to be today.  I had an awesome experience in the temple, and I'm glad I could be where the Lord wanted me to be so He could answer someone's prayer.

Thursday August 14th

Wow.  That was awesome.  We were reading scriptures with the kids before bedtime just a little bit ago, and my mind was wandering a little as everyone else was taking their turns reading.  Finally it was my turn, and the verses I read said exactly, exactly what I had been thinking while everyone else was reading.  How crazy is that? 

17 Nevertheless, notwithstanding the great goodness of the Lord, in showing me his great and marvelous works, my heart exclaimeth: O wretched man that I am! Yea, my heart sorroweth because of my flesh; my soul grieveth because of mine iniquities.

18 I am encompassed about, because of the temptations and the sins which do so easily beset me. 
19 And when I desire to rejoice, my heart groaneth because of my sins; nevertheless, I know in whom I have trusted. 
20 My God hath been my support; he hath led me through mine afflictions in the wilderness; and he hath preserved me upon the waters of the great deep. 
21 He hath filled me with his love, even unto the consuming of my flesh.

 Nephi goes on to talk about how angels have come down and ministered to him, and I can't say that I've had that experience, but all the rest of it is exactly how I was feeling tonight.  It's crazy to think that Nephi, who is definitely one of my heroes and someone I don't feel I can even touch as far as righteousness, was feeling exactly the same as I was tonight.  And yet he did so many amazing things!  Maybe there's hope for me yet, huh?

Wednesday August 13th

Today was a school shopping day.  We usually find a day and go north to some bigger towns with more stores, but this year we don't have a single day when everyone can go.  That means that we're finding what we can in our little town.  It has been awesome what we've been able to find!  Maybe I haven't given our little town enough credit, or maybe the Lord was just taking care of us.  Either way, we've been able to find everything that everyone needed or wanted without going more than a couple miles from home!

Liesl is very particular about her jeans, and we managed to find her two pair that she was happy about.  Friedrich is also very particular about his shorts.  He's not so fussy about the type, or the color, or the fit.  What he's worried about are the pockets.  He went all the way around a round clothes rack today, putting his hand in the pocket of each pair of shorts.  The shorts with the deepest pockets were put in the cart.  He tried them on at my insistence, but they fit fine, and he brought them home without ever mentioning their style or color.  Louisa is out of town, but told me to find her some plain T-shirts in several different colors, and that would be fine.  I managed to find exactly what she described, and they were 'buy two-get one free.'  Sweet! 

Kurt was worried that he wouldn't be able to find some good shoes without going to a bigger town, but we took a look, anyway, and he found some!  In the past he has been annoyed that every pair of tennis shoes in his size lights up somehow.  I guess he considers himself too big for light-up shoes.  There weren't many that didn't have lights, but he did find a pair, and they had bright orange laces, which he thought was super cool. 

Brigitta and Marta are going shopping tomorrow, and I hope they'll find some clothes that they like.  So far, though, the Lord has taken very good care of us in helping us find everything we needed without ever leaving town.

Tuesday August 12th

Remember this post, where I complained about going to bed so late every night?  Well, the Lord decided to help me out.  Usually after we get the kids to bed, the Captain and I will sit at our computers for a while.  I'll type a blog post or browse Facebook, and he will check email and watch funny videos with me.  It's one of the reasons we go to bed so late.  But for the last couple of weeks there has been a guy staying with us, and he has decided that we've got a pretty good idea, there.  So now he comes and sits on our computer after the kids are in bed.  The Captain can still get on his computer, but mine is taken.  I was a little annoyed, as you can imagine, but then I realized that this meant I would have to post earlier, and thus get to bed earlier!  I didn't post at all yesterday because I missed my chance and didn't have a computer, but I did get to bed earlier than usual!  Today I am only a little earlier, but I'm getting straight to my post without browsing Facebook for an hour first, so that I can get done before the guy comes and starts reading over my shoulder waiting for me to be done.  It's annoying, but it's really a blessing.  I needed to get to bed earlier, and here is the solution. Sometimes God's blessings aren't convenient, but like any good parent, He does what's best for us even if we don't like it.