What a week!

This week has been fun. I had friends at the house 3 of the 5 school days for various activities. Plus Wednesday was story time at the church and enrichment that night! Yeah, even more adult social interaction which always gives me a boost! As an added bonus, my kids enjoyed playing with other kids while I was hanging out with my friends!

Early Saturday morning, Paul and I loaded up the kids and drove an hour and a half to our Stake Leadership Meeting. There's always something planned for the emergency preparedness coordinators so I get to go. I always dread the logistics of getting to the meeting but I absolutely love it once I'm there. It was at the last one that I thought of creating a preparedness blog.

I think sometimes we get inspiration for our callings not just from the things we hear at the meetings but just because we make a sacrifice to go and we're at the right place at the right time. My calling can be a clerical nightmare. It gets complicated keeping track of people's orders, making orders, arranging for transportation, organizing canning schedules, collecting money, etc. (can you tell we have the stake dry pack canning equipment this month?) I was really feeling downtrodden and put upon this week as I have been organizing dry pack canning but going to the leadership meeting helped me realize how great things are going in our ward. We have people who are getting food storage that never had it before; we have people trying to be more spiritually prepared and people getting themselves out of financial bondage. I see great things happen every week. Instead of getting caught up in the clerical challenges, I need to focus on individuals that are positively impacted by my calling. So no more murmuring for me!

After the leadership meeting, we met our niece and her husband (Melissa and Chris) for lunch at Friendly's. It was great to hang out with them again. I'm so glad we have family nearby even if it is for a short time (Melissa will graduate this spring as a Physician's Assistant and they'll move.) Spencer thinks Chris is the coolest guy in the entire world and hangs on him like crazy. The twins were also thrilled to see "Ciss and Lissa!"

After lunch, Chris and Melissa drove down here to borrow a bed (their air mattress was getting uncomfortable) and take Paul to a car dealership so he could bring us home A NEW CAR! After nine years, we have finally broken down and purchased a new (used) van. It's a 2007 Grand Caravan with 23,000 miles. The kids are especially happy because it has a DVD player, although their joy was dampened slightly when I told them it was only for long trips or when we have to sit a long time in the car.

I have loved our old Grand Caravan and this one is very similar but with more features that I have to figure out (where's Katherine when I need her?) I don't even know how to use my cell phone. How in the world am I going to figure out a whole car computer system, for goodness sake?

While Paul was gone, I did some dry pack canning. I canned powdered milk and rice. It's so easy and fun. I didn't have very many cans because I gave them away to someone who had completed the order form incorrectly and ordered 25 boxes instead of 25 cans. Even though I didn't have enough cans, I loved filling the cans I had. It's a good feeling to fill up a can, seal it, put it on the shelf and know it may help sustain my family someday.

Today was a typical church day. I sang a duet with my friend, Rebeccca Rasmussen. I asked her to sing a solo because she has a beautiful voice but she was too nervous to sing alone so I sang with her. Because she was so anxious, she had priesthood blessings to help her overcome her stage fright. Once again, the priesthood worked! She did an outstanding job. She sounded exquisite. I felt so lucky to sing with her.

My choir practice was interesting--I think we had about 5 or 6 people there (1 man.) Luckily, all those who attended can really sing so they sounded great despite the low turnout. We had a baptism at the same time so some people went to that. And the rest. . . well, it may take a few weeks to get back into the choir groove after a 3 week recovery vacation after Christmas.

The rest of the day was mundane. I did drive to New Jersey to deliver the canner to someone in the ward who took the wrong equipment home but other than that, it was kids and more kids. One highlight was at dinnertime. Right before dinner, Spencer brought me his Book of Mormon and told me we needed to read out of his scriptures today. And, boy, was he listening attentively as I read from his Book of Mormon! I was gratified to realize that Spencer now knows we will be reading each day and wants to participate.