Sunday Musings

A few weeks ago I went visiting teaching and it was my turn to give the lesson. I had been thinking about General Conference and which talk I thought would be good to share. After thumbing through the Ensign and thinking about the sisters that we visit and some things I had been pondering about the last few months, I chose That Your Burdens May Be Light by Elder L. Whitney Clayton.

As I have been struggling with this and this for what seems like and feels like an interminable amount of time, I have thought on this scripture passage and this scripture many times wondering how I could apply them to my situation. I thought that by sharing the talk by Elder Clayton I might be able to get some more insight as to how it applies to my situation while helping those that I visit who struggle with their own burdens as well.

I introduced the talk and summarized the message. I told them that I really believed that Christ can lift our burdens and had faith in that principle. I then posed the question "How does the Savior literally lift our burdens? (Or does He literally lift our burdens?) For example, if someone is having financial difficulties, He generally does not put a sack of money on their doorstep. In my situation, if He could come down and clean my house that would literally lift my burden. But that doesn't happen. So how does it work in our lives?"

After posing the question, I just sat and listened to their answers because I didn't have an answer. I really wanted to know what they thought.

And then for me, an answer came. While the first sister we were visiting was talking about her experiences, a thought came distinctly to my mind. "Your burdens right now are being lifted by Matthew. Your burdens right now are being lifted by Matthew. And, you don't have to worry about things financially." I knew I had an answer for right now.

I thought about that the rest of the day and realized how true that answer was for me at this time. Matthew does truly lift my burdens when I am exhausted (which is most of the time.) If I were in Matthew's shoes, I would be pretty darn tired of  hearing "I'm tired...." again and again and again from me. He has NEVER been frustrated at my exhaustion and only suggests that I go rest some more.

He works extremely hard at everything he does and yet in the almost 21 years we have been married, I can count on less than one hand the number of times he has come home from work or church responsiblities and even sat down. No matter how tired he is, his first concern is always how I am feeling and what he can do to help me. (No, Matthew is not perfect---as noted here. There are things that drive me crazy at times; however, out of all the people I know, I do think his intentions and heart are pretty perfect.)

There are so many things that frustrate me about being so exhausted, especially if it is particularly bad for several days or weeks in a row. During those times, I am lucky to do the wash and get dinner on the table. The kids are pretty good about helping out, but my piles of "to do" things pile up so quickly and seem to multiply like rabbits during those days and weeks. He has NEVER looked around at the piles or un-done jobs (which can be abundent at times) and asks "What did you do all day?" He only asks what I would like him to help with.

That HAS definitely eased my burdens (and guilt about what I don't get done.) He has also taught our children so much about loving and serving not only by his example, but by getting them to help out more.

"And you don't have to worry about things financially." This is very true as well. I have often had the thought (especially during this time of economic meltdown) that I don't know what I would do if I had to work outside the home---how I would cope with the day. With Matthew's consulting work, he only gets paid for the hours he works---there is no vacation, holiday or sick pay. With the stuggling economy, there were times when we thought it might be a little rough being that companies were cutting back in so many areas. Consulting is an easy thing to cut for most companies. However, the Lord has truly blessed us with enough work (and more) for Matthew and financially things have not been a worry. I KNOW that even if things were rocky with the consulting, Matthew would do anything to support our family.

I am blessed to know that.

I'm interested in knowing how this talk/scripture has worked in your life....

Now I know why it doesn't taste good....

Tonight for dinner Matthew BBQed some hamburgers. Ryan was one of the first to fix his burger and quickly sat down at the table to indulge. He always does a nice job of building a burger with mayo, mustard (NO ketchup), lettuce, tomato, and onion.

He was sitting, happily eating his burger when I joined him at the table. He looked at my plate, a bun-less burger (with ketchup) and exclaimed, "NOW I know why mine doesn't taste that good....

I forgot the hamburger patty!"

Thanksgiving Memories

I love Thanksgiving.

I especially love thinking back to those Thanksgivings when my Mom was cooking it all---I miss that!! I would love to go back for one day to those days when my parents were in charge of it all. They did such a good job and seemed to enjoy it.

But alas, now I am the adult (supposedly) and am trying to build nice memories for my children. (Yesterday I only mentioned ONCE how I didn't like being in charge of these holidays. Being that thought only left my mouth once----that, I think, is an improvement....)

Yesterday as I was mired in all the food prep, it made me think about a Thanksgiving a few years ago.....

For several  years now I have been cooking our turkey in a turkey roaster that my parents gave us for Christmas one year. It's really quite handy as it can sit in the corner and cook away without taking up the oven or even really producing much heat. Clean up is not too bad either and then I just store it away in the basement until the next Turkey day.

Well, one year we had several people over for Thanksgiving dinner so it was busy busy in the kitchen. After dinner, many were helping clean things up which made it lovely. Before I knew it, all the dishes were done and everything was put away except for the turkey roaster. I asked Matthew to take it down stairs and it was done in a jiffy.

Fast foward one year later.....cooking preparations were underway. Matthew went downstairs and got the trusty turkey roaster. I got the turkey ready to put in said roaster.

I opened the roaster up......and discovered......it was never washed from the year before. I had been sitting in the basement all year dirty!

Luckily, our basement keeps things nice and cool all year 'round. The roaster, although dirty, didn't look any worse than if we had just cooked the turkey and needed to wash it.

And yes, I DID wash it before we cooked the new turkey.

I also made sure the roaster was washed last night.

Lovely Thanksgiving memories!

Season of Giving

My friend, Karen, recently wrote a "family" proverb on her blog:

Men should not buy their wives clothes for Christmas unless said wives pick the clothes out. 

(Karen---I want to see pictures of the clothes you have gotten in the past.....)

Simple enough, and very understandable.

Being that we are approaching my birthday and Christmas, her proverb got me thinking about gift giving and a present Matthew gave me a couple of years ago.

When it comes to giving me gifts, I think I'm pretty simple. There is nothing I need at this point in my life, at least anything tangible. In fact, I can't really think of anything tangible that I really want right now. It's been this way for several years. I like it this way because Christmas can really be about Christmas for me and not about anything I want. (The only thing I usually request is a reprieve from cooking and being the chore Nazi.)

Well, a couple of years ago, there was something I REALLY wanted and needed:  A TIRE for my minivan.

I kept having to fill up the tire with air in the dead of winter. I started keeping track and it ended up needing air every 2 to 3 days. It was SOOOOO cold outside, sometimes I didn't think I could get out to put air in it somedays.

So, I talked a lot  about the dumb tire and how cold it was every time I had to fill it up with air. I HINTED in a major way that a tire was what I REALLY wanted for my birthday AND Christmas and that it would make me oh so happy to have that tire. I thought I was fairly specific.....

As my birthday approached, the kids all reassured me I would be really happy with my gift. I couldn't wait to get that tire changed.

Birthday day dawned and the kids brought in a fairly big wrapped box. It certainly looked the right size.

I tore the wrapping paper off.......and boy was I ever surprised.  In fact, I was so surprised, I walked right out of the room.....to my bedroom....and locked the door. (A gift has never caused me to leave a room before or since that day.)

So, what was my present............

AN AIR COMPRESSOR!

(It's funny to me now.... ) I LOVE practical gifts, I really do----I wanted a TIRE---that's plenty practical. But an air compressor????

In my mind that represented that lucky me! I could now fill my tire up in the comfort of my garage! Yipee!!

I didn't give Matthew the chance to explain that in his mind, he envisioned HIMSELF and the BOYS filling my tire up with air in the garage.......

Anyway, faster than you can say "Thanks a lot" the air compressor was returned and I did get my tire (and I was really happy about that!)

I guess our family proverb should be:

Husband should double or triple check with wife about gifts before purchasing said gifts. 

Wife should send emails, put signs AND pictures up around the house of wanted gifts, 

and do not hint around or mince words.

What is your family proverb for this time of year?

The Price is Right

Because Illinois does not tax us enough, they are constantly thinking "out of the box" for ways to collect new revenue. They are one creative bunch, I tell you! One of the brilliant ideas they came up with is to collect tolls on freeways every 500 feet.



To make things easier for us commoners, making it possible for us to travel the roads without pocketfuls of coins, for a mere $50.00, we can purchase a little box that looks like this:


After plunking down the 50 big ones for possession, then you have to load up your account with money. After this, you are free to travel the roads without stopping because everytime you pass a toll booth, the magic air waves sense that you have this magic little money box in your car and it deducts the said toll magically from your account. (If you don't have said box, you can wait in line to pay with coinage---but it will cost you DOUBLE what it costs those with the magic boxes.)

Matthew uses the magic box quite a bit with his work excursions. A few weeks ago, he used a rental car for about 10 days because his car had a little crash into the back of a semi truck and had to be repaired.

He forgot to remove his magic box from the car before leaving it for repairs. Not remembering his rental car didn't have the magic box, he drove through many toll booths without paying for the tolls.

There is repentance for those of us that drive through toll booths without paying. We can go on-line and pay our missed tolls. If this is NOT done in a timely manner, instead of only paying the 40 cent toll, you get to pay an additional $20.00 to help you remember better the next time.

However, as with everything in this state, it is easier said than done. When you go on-line to pay the missed tolls, you have to choose the exact name of the toll booth you missed, (they all have names), the amount of the toll (they are all different ranging in increments of 15 cents to $1.00), the freeway you were on, the direction you were heading AND the time of day, within 15 minutes.

Well.....when we turned the rental car in, Matthew confessed to me that he probably went through about 10 tolls without paying for them. (He's busy and thinking about other things and all....) Knowing what I know about car rentals, if you miss a toll and don't pay for it, the rental car company not only charges you the state's fee, but they also have their own little fee of about $50 for each missed toll.

SOOOO, taking all of the above into account, I envisioned paying around $1,000 in Illinois tolls. Total awesomeness!

I decided to call the tollway authorities and try to work something out. I knew the days we rented the car and the make, model and license plate number of the car we rented. I called and was able to futher ponder my situation for about 15 minutes while I was on hold.

Finally, I talked to a pleasant gentleman. He first tried to get out of looking anything up by telling me there was no way to figure it all out. I asked him again to try to look up the tolls by looking up the license plate number. He finally acquisesced and looked it up.

He then asked me how much I wanted to pay. "How much do I want to pay?" I asked confused. "Yes."

Not wanting to underpay, I said, "Ten dollars." after which he replied, "Too much."

"Too much?" I questioned.
"Yup. Too much."
"That's okay," I replied, "I just want to make sure I take care of it all."

"You can't pay that much. Give me another number."
"Another number? Okay. $5.50."

"Another number."

"$9.25."

"Too high."

Now I'm really confused....."Can't you just tell me what I owe?"
"No."
"No???? Why not? I just want to pay the tolls."

"Because you don't own the car I can't tell you how much it is."

"You're kidding me....okay....um...how does $7.85 sound?"

"Too high and it has to be in round numbers."

"7.00."
"Lower."
"5.50."
"Lower ."
"50 cents."
"Higher."

I then told him I felt like I was on the Price is Right. So I went into Price is Right mode.

"$1.00." "Higher." "$1.25." "Higher." "$1.30." "Higher." "$4.50." "Lower." $4.00." Lower.....

Finally, I hit upon the magic number at $2.50. Then I asked him if there might be other tolls that haven't come through yet. "Yep."

Great. I get to play Price is Right with another Toll Authority dude next week. Yeah me!!