Thankful Me

  Tile letters D D L N N P R R on a Scrabble tray This past week, I flew up to Oregon to spend some time with my parents. While I tried to be helpful, and managed to do some household chores, I think my main purpose there was for comic relief, which often manifested itself in the form of Scrabble games.  At one point, I texted a photo of the above Scrabble letters to my siblings, along with the plea, "HLPM! (Help me, with no vowels)".  The astute among you will realize that I had too many tiles on my tray, a fact I didn't notice until the next play. It obviously doesn't pay to cheat--particularly in a Scrabble game without vowels! My mom drew most of the vowels that game, and I was stuck trying to make words with only the vowels available on the board. The next game, I was rewarded with "AEOQOAY" as my letters. Somehow that wasn't much better. Anyway, regardless of how many and which letters we had, we managed to laugh our way through daily Scrabble game...

  Forsythia and daffodils bloom near my front door It appears that spring has arrived! I'm not ruling out the possibility of more snow, because I am living in Utah after all, but I should be safe in saying that our spring-like days should outnumber our winter-like days in the coming months. Hurray! This week was filled with medical excitement for multiple relatives.  1. I'm thankful someone had good news, and things aren't as bad as was thought. 2. I'm thankful someone else sought help in time to receive treatment. 3. I'm thankful the treatment went smoothly and the patient is feeling much better. 4. I'm thankful for a son who is a doctor and texts explanations (including hand-drawn diagrams!) to help me understand what is happening. 5. I'm thankful for family members who rally to support and pray. Those are the "heavy" things I'm thankful for this week, but the week had lighter moments. 6. I'm thankful that, despite one day of spitting sno...

A gloomy view looking down the street of a snowy neighborhood Last weekend, I watched General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints . The message I heard time and again was a call to follow Jesus Christ--to be loving and kind, and to spread peace, not contention. As last Sunday was Palm Sunday, and tomorrow is Easter Sunday, many references were made to the events of the week leading up to Christ's resurrection.  During the week, I learned of several individuals who are facing some challenges, including a tragic death of a baby . A friend's daughter is an aunt of the little boy. When I heard of his death, I thought of a General Conference talk from a past year, titled "Sunday Will Come."   I have referenced this talk before when I've spoken at funerals. Because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we can cling to hope when all seems darkest. We can have peace in the knowledge that Sunday will come. Easter Sunday came after  frightening days...

  A plethora of boxes on our office floor, none of which contain my elementary school class photos Some weeks, the Ten Things of Thankful practically writes itself, or at least a theme becomes apparent. Such was the case this week. Sunday afternoon, a friend messaged me and asked if I had our elementary school class photos. Well, of course  I did, and I would be happy to look for them on Monday and share with her. (The new season of Relative Race was about to start and I didn't feel like pulling out photos right then.) The photos weren't where I expected them to be (in one of many photo boxes). The photos weren't in any of the family history boxes, nor in a binder, nor in with childhood memorabilia, nor in boxes of artwork in the basement, nor in my baby book, nor in my recipe cupboard (yes, I was getting desperate!), nor in the piano bench (ditto last parenthetical comment), nor in desk drawers, nor in nightstand drawers, nor under the bed, nor. . . .  I have wracked my ...