Thursday July 31st

I have had the hardest time waking up in the mornings, lately.  I'm sure that part of the reason is that I'm writing on this blog at 11:00 at night, but even if I get a full eight hours of sleep, I just can't drag myself out of bed.  I'm guessing if I did better at obeying the commandment to retire to my bed early and arise early, then I would do better, but how do you do that in the summer when every kid in the neighborhood is outside playing until ten o'clock? 

But this morning I did it!  I woke up all by myself an hour before anyone else was awake.  And I did it without any alarm clock!  So how did I do that?  It can only have been divine intervention.  Someday I will get to watch the replay, and then I will see the angels in my room, tickling my feet and humming in my ear.  However it happened, it was awesome!  I felt so on top of things today!  It's amazing what that extra time can do for a girl.

I'm not holding my breath that it will happen again tomorrow, but today I am grateful that the Lord woke me up early this morning. 

Wednesday July 30th

The Captain had a good day today.  He had been hired to teach a college math class, and now he is going to teach another one!  That makes two math classes.  Hooray!  It's still not enough to support us, but it's getting closer.  The Lord definitely has His hand in our lives.

Tuesday July 29th

Every spring I enthusiastically plant a garden.  I love the idea of having a garden, and actually I love working in my garden.  I really enjoy pulling weeds.  I think that is probably my favorite thing to do in my garden, crazy enough.  But the whole project starts to lose charm by the end of July.  That's silly, because that's about when I start actually getting ready-to-eat vegetables from garden. But, to be honest, I've never really been into the harvest.  I'd rather pull the weeds, and let someone else deal with the produce.  I know, I know.  That's the whole point.  But you already knew I was odd, and if you didn't before, it's now been confirmed. 

Anyway, I have been meaning to get out to my garden for a week, now.  Life has just been so crazy, with Pioneer Day and everything else that I just haven't.  I think about it every day, that I ought to go out and see how it's doing and give it some water, but I don't get it done. 

Well, today the Lord decided to help me out with my To Do list.  He watered my garden for me.  It does usually rain a little in the afternoons most days in the end of July and first of August, but today it rained for real.  It gave us a good downpour, then a little while late it gave us another one!  It seriously soaked everything, and it did such a good job that my garden is quite thoroughly watered!  Woo hoo! 

Monday July 28th

Today the Captain was going up north to check vending machines, and he needed someone to go with him.  He likes to have someone to count the quarters and record numbers while he drives to the next location.  It saves him a lot of time, plus he has someone to talk to and hang out with all day.  He tried to talk Leisl into going with him, but she just wasn't interested.  So I finally said I would go with him, but I was a little worried about my kids.  I hate being gone all day, even though I know I have kids big enough to babysit, and they're usually fine.  I still hate it.  So as we were getting ready to go this morning, I started praying and asking the Lord to tell me if I should just stay home.  I was about ready to stay home, anyway, and if I had gotten even the smallest nudge toward bagging the trip, I would have in a heartbeat.  But the Captain needed me, and so I got in the car and drove away. 

After we had gone a little ways, we pulled out the food we had packed for breakfast, and I said a blessing on it while we drove.  In my prayer, I asked the Lord to keep my kids safe while we were gone.  Or, at least, I tried to say that.  I got so choked up that I couldn't really say the words, and I cried through the rest of the prayer.  I knew that my kids would be fine, and that we would be fine, as well. 

And we were!  The Captain and I had a good day of vending, getting everything done in record time.  There was even one place that is usually not open on Mondays, but there just "happened" to be someone inside who could let us in to check the vending machine.  Our van worked great, and everything went well.  My kids were good, too.  I haven't heard many details, other than that Gretl missed me, but everyone seemed happy when we returned.  Leisl and Louisa had fixed dinner, cleaned my kitchen, and vacuumed my living room.  What awesome kids, huh? 

Clearly the Lord had a hand not only in reassuring me this morning, but also in keeping us all safe and helping us have a good day.

Sunday July 27th

Yesterday I sent Friedrich off to Timberline.  He attended last year, but this year he is on staff.  He

has had lots of meetings leading up to this, and seemed pretty excited about going, but I have had a hard time.  For some reason it just hit me a lot harder this year to let him go away for a week. I tried to talk him out of going just so he could stay home and hang out with me, but he wasn't so excited about that idea. 

I sent him off yesterday, and today I was already missing him tons.  So I was delighted when I answered my phone today and heard Friedrich's voice! Apparently the kid who was supposed to be the trumpet player for this year's camp forgot his trumpet or couldn't come, or something, so Friedrich was calling to see if I could send his trumpet up with a boy who is going up to camp in the morning.  Oh, and he also forgot his toothbrush and a jacket.  (Boys!)  So I got to talk to him for a minute and hear how things were going so far.  I told him about our crazy Sacrament Meeting today and how much we miss him already.

I was excited to have the chance to send some things to him, because I had forgotten to write the letter I was supposed to write.  They ask the parents to write a letter to their boys that the staff can deliver to them later in the week, and I had forgotten to write one and send it with Friedrich.  I was feeling kind of bad that everyone would get a letter but him.  So I sat down and wrote Friedrich a letter and put it in a bag with a jacket and his toothbrush.  I threw in a few jokes, too, just because I was missing my boy and wanted to connect with him somehow.  I took all the stuff over to the address he had given me, and felt a little better. 

I'm still missing my boy, but I'm glad that the Lord gave me a chance to write that letter and to talk to him on the phone for a minute.  I hope He will take care of Friedrich and help the days go by quickly until he's home again.

Saturday July 26th

We did it!  Oh man, I did not realize how much work a yard sale was.  After spending all of yesterday getting ready for it, we spent all of today actually doing it.  I mean, you write 8:00 to 12:00 on the signs, but it's really more like 6:30am to 6:00pm.  We got up early to start getting ready and setting stuff up.  The Captain had gone out and put signs up last night, so people started showing up at 7:00, before we were even ready. 

But we pulled it together and were mostly ready before the crowds came.  Quite a few people came, and I'm sure it was the Lord sending them over, because we did not get it into the newspaper, and we only had a couple of signs around town to let people know about it.  But people came, anyway, and they carried away a lot of our junk.  We didn't make a ton of money, but we got rid of a lot of stuff. 

The stuff that didn't sell was loaded up and hauled to Deseret Industries , so when it was all over, we had tons more room in our garage.  Ah, it feels so good to get rid of stuff!  Actually, I'm exhausted, but my spirit feels lighter with fewer possession to take care of and store.  

Friday July 25th

It has been a little over a year since we moved into this house.  Even as we were packing stuff up from our old house, we were saying that we needed to have a yard sale.  After sixteen years of marriage, we had collected a crazy amount of stuff.  So as we unpacked all our stuff in the new house, we started setting stuff aside to put in the yard sale, which we would have soon. 

But you know how life is - it just keeps coming at you, and things you meant to do just sometime don't happen.  Pretty soon it was fall, and then winter, and we said we would have a yard sale in the spring.  So spring came and went, and there was just something going on every Saturday.  Even when there wasn't something going on that Saturday, there was usually so much going on during the week that I didn't have time to sort through stuff and get everything ready.  Sure, I guess we could have just opened the garage, invited people to look through our junk, and make us an offer if you find something good.  But I really wanted to organize things and have everything in the yard sale that I wanted to get rid of.

Two weeks ago we decided that that Saturday was the one, and we were finally going to do it.  But one thing led to another, and Friday night rolled around, and nothing was ready.  So we said that the Saturday in two weeks would be good.  We would do the yard sale then.  And, miracle of miracles, it looks like it's actually going to happen.  We have stuff set out on tables, and the Captain built me some cool clothes racks to hang clothes on.  I've gone through nearly every box in the house and found tons of stuff to sell.  So here we go!  After a year of saying we were going to do it, tomorrow we finally are!  And I'm sure we would still be putting if off without the Lord's help.