The Laundry Act of 2009

Back when my children were little it seemed like there was tons of laundry, however I could usually get it all done in 1 or 2 days each week. As each of my children have become 13 they have become responsible for thier own laundry. You would think that this would make the job easier. . .NOT!! Now we have 5 children (those still living at home) and Ethel all wanting to do thier laundry on Saturday. If not Saturday, then they put a load in, then think that the load magically goes from washer to folded in thier drawers in a blink. Soooo for the past 2 months I have had an enormous pile of laundry in my kitchen. NOT my favorite thing as I have a sort of toy sized kitchen, and who on earth puts the laundry stuff in the kitchen that is toy sized to begin with?? So today when I was wading to get to the washer to wash mine and Bill's laundry, I was frustrated when I came upon a load, who knows how long it had been in the washer, and there was a WET load in the dryer, well to say that I came slightly unhinged is an understatment. Good news is that everyone was home this evening, so we called a family counsel and came up with the following. . . .

The Laundry Act of 2009

Monday--Jessica and Communal
Tuesday--Matt and Mandy
Wednesday--Ethel
Thursday--Josh and Daniel
Friday--Bill and Cheryl
Saturday--Communal
Sunday--Emergency only


Articles

1. If you don’t do your laundry on your day, you must get permission to use someone else’s day.
2. If you empty laundry supplies tell Mandy.
3. Get your laundry out of the Kitchen on your day!!!!
4. Use your basket to transport YOUR laundry.
5. Basket snatching will NOT be tolerated.
6. Laundry left in the kitchen will have to be earned back.
7. Using another’s day without their permission will be dealt with by Mom and Dad SEVERELY.

Will this work????? who knows, but I am going crazy right now. It is a contract. I am amazed how well a contract works with teens and young adults who lives in your home. Truthfully the one I am worried about the most on this one is Ethel. Just how will we deal with Ethel if she breaks the rules. . . .?

My Dear Sisters--March

My Dear Sisters,

I have been thinking of the term Watchcare In regards to Visiting Teaching, Sister Kathleen H. Hughes used the word “Watchcare” with the definition as “to watch over the church always. I looked “Watchcare” up in my dictionary. It wasn’t there. It doesn’t exist. However as I have pondered this over the course of the last several weeks, I realized that “Watchcare” doesn’t exist in the world, because it was not of the world. As visiting teachers we are charged with watching over our sisters, caring for and serving one another, but most importantly strengthening each other’s testimonies of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

In the June 1978 Ensign, President Spencer W. Kimball spoke of visiting teaching. “There is the old story you have heard so many times of the question asked of three builders of St. Paul’s cathedral in London, “What are you doing here?” The first one answered, “I am working eight hours a day. I am putting in time. I am earning my living this way.” The second one said, “I am putting brick on brick and I am building a structure here.” The third, when asked, raised himself to full stature and said, “I am building a great cathedral.”

“So it seems to me that visiting teachers who must go and do their teaching, who must get in their reports, who must answer to a call, who must do anything, are just time watchers, clock watchers. I guess there could be some of those, the clock watchers, in the Church. Then there are those who have a little better vision, “Why, it is part of the work of the Lord and, therefore, I guess I should set aside my own interests and go.” But I am sure most of the sisters in this Church are “building a great cathedral.” I am sure they are the majority”

Our attitude when we go visiting teaching strongly affects how we are received. We should look on visiting teaching as a joy, rather than a duty, as a covenant between each of us and the Lord to watch over each other. I know that if we think of ourselves as providing “Watchcare” for our sisters, not only will be become closer to those who are in our care, but we will draw closer to our Heavenly Father and Savior. As we serve and pray for each other we will become more united as sisters in the gospel. Sisters, I love the Lord. I know He knows us, and loves each of us. I testify these things to you, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Sister Cheryl Helm

Loose Ends

Today is my 45th birthday. On my birthday each year I think of the things I have done during the previous year--what were my goals? did I reach them? Then I set goals for myself for the next year. Added to this years ruminations, is the odd weather we have been having. For instance, last Saturday it snowed 6 inches and then today it was 70 outside. Weird!! When the warm weater starts I find myself with an affliction that I have been working on for the past 10 years. It is newitis. When it gets warm I want to start a new knitting project--every year. This year I was determined that I would not catch newitis. So I decided to take out all my unfinished yarn projects. The problem with these isn't that they are hard, or that there are mistakes, it is that I am bored with the. This year there are only 5 unfinished projects. One year there were 45 and I have been really working on finishing what I start. So this year only a few loose ends. . .

Like this cute baby sweater. It only needs the sleeves and it will be finished. It is an easy 3 days of knit when I can and it will be completed. Which I had better finish because it is for a friend who is having twins in a couple of weeks. Good news is that I have finished the one for the boy.

The Whim scarf. This scarf was to go with a hat for Jessica for Christmas. . .she got the hat and well she can wear the scarf next year. The reason it is called the whim scarf is that I am trying al sorts of new stitches in it and I knit until I am bored and then switch.

To be truthful, this one shouldn't count, it is one I am doing at the same time as a knitting student of mine. I give her an assignment and then knit to that point until her next lesson. But the hat is done.

This is a baby blanket that I started when Rachel was small. A very good friend of mine made the same blanket--NO THIS ISN'T YOURS!! I have my own to finish first. Perhaps it will be finished by the time Rachel has a baby. It only needs a boarder around the boarder.

This is the greatest in my hall of shame. When Matthew was 4 years old we went to a stained glass exhibit at an art gallery. When we came home drew a picture and asked me to make him a blanket. I began the squares the next day. In all honesty I really did finish this about the time he turned 5 but I didn't know what I was doing and put it together wrong and it had horrible lines all over the back, so I frogged it (ripped it out) and put it in a basket. Finally I took it out about a year ago to finish and silly me--Matt grew!! So I had to make tons more squares, and well I got bored again. Still tons more of work to do.

The good new is that I made it through the day without starting a new project so perhaps I can stave off newitis for a few more days.

Goals for last year: I completed 28 knitting projects and gave them away as gifts, or to humanitarian places. I did better on my daily personal scripture reading and keeping my journal up to date. Also I worked on balancing my family and my church calling. Still working on the whole saying NO thing.

Goals for this year: Continue the balance, scripture study and journal writing. Refinish the woodwork in my entry area and hall. Knit--Bill's sweater, socks and mittens.

The Plunge--week 6

So I am now at the 1/2 way point of the 12 week plunge. One of my team mates had major surgery last week, but is still on track, another is losing tons and looking fantastic. I think the third one has sort of dropped out--we don't know as she is kind of private and hasn't shared with us how she is doing. Me--I have gotten rid of a total of 8 pounds so far and am now up to 8 1/2" gone. These are the totals that my trainer has been keeping and not the radio station. Each week I go in and they put down a number that is on the scale, then tell me that I have gained a couple of pounds--are they crazy?? The number is less than the week before, how could I have gained?? So I am going to go by the scales at the gym. It is what I will continue to do once the 12 weeks are through. It isn't enough to see yet, but I am happy with my progress. Mostly I am happy that over all I am feeling stronger.

The weather says that there will be storms by the end of the week. Last year we had the worst storms. It took out our power for 3 days and we learned that being prepared was more difficult than we thought. Winter brings more challenges--see if you get a generator, you have to have gas to run it, but it the power is out the gas stations are closed. This year we were better prepared than last. Water storage, alternate cooking source, and alternate heating source, were just a part of the things we prepared for.


Many trees were taken down. Crews made up of men and youth from our ward, spent days clearing the roads so that cars could go through. The power company worked around the clock taking a full 14 days to return power to all of St Joseph.
It was an experience that we will never forget. The meaning of the story in the Bible of the good shepheard took on new meaning as we, the ward leadership searched to find all of our ward members homes and move them to homes who had heat and or electricity. Some opted for the shelter. I learned so much, but even with the gain of this knowledge, I hope we never have to go through that again.

We have had 3 ice storms so far this winter, however the only thing they have produced is slick roads and really pretty pictures.

The ice coats everything. It lookes like the entire world is incased in crystal. My best method for getting into my car is to use my scrapbooking heat gun to melt the ice around the door. Of course that is dependant on a very long extension cord.

The sun makes everything sparkle, like the world is shiny and brand new.

The Blessings of HOT water

After 3 weeks of sometimes sort of tepid water, but mostly cold water, today was the day. We have endured, ok and enjoyed, showers at the local YMCA. But today was the day. We have heated water on the stove to wash dishes. But today WE GOT A NEW HOT WATER HEATER!!!!!!!!! I took a long HOT soak in the tub to celebrate.

Yarn Therapy

I woke up today and felt as though I had been hit by a freight train. About 5 years ago, my doctor at that time told me that I had fiber myalgia. I looked it up on the internet and found out that basically it meant that I had muscle pain that they couldn't find a reason for. Most days I can ignore it, but today it took me down and made me grumpy. On grumpy days I find that a good dose of yarn therapy helps my outlook and that makes the pain seem less. So I got out several skeins of my yarn and, I guess for lack of a better discription, well played. My stomach really hurts today as well. Stress--I haven't been knitting as much so the stress gets to me more. I need to remember to take time for me each day. This is a small yarn pile. I believe that if I piled all of my yarn together, it would be about the size of a large dresser. I worked a whole bunch of it down into projects and was worried about the possiblility of running out in the next couple of years as I haven't been buying much yarn lately, I am working on my yarn addiction, but then a dear friend saved me--she sent me 40 lbs of yarn for Christmas. By the way that fills 1 uhaul dishpack size box. It is a very great blessing. I believe that I will work on Jessica's scarf.