Moses and Me

I just happened to drop into the temple office the other day right when they were looking for a key that had been misplaced the night before. I was the only one in the temple that day that was there when the key was misplaced and I was able to tell them who misplaced it. I don't think that is a coincidence. They needed that key right that minute and they would not have been able to find it if I had not walked in at that moment. No, it wasn't me that misplaced it.

Moses' float down the Nile to the Egyptian princess wanting a child was representative of all the little tender mercies we receive at the Lord's hand. We are guided with the Lord's hand and we are all known to Him.

While teaching seminary this year, I have unearthed the stories of the Old Testament that I had only surface learned before this year. I knew most of the stories. But, I had never read the Old Testament cover to cover. These are some of the things that I have learned from Moses:

1. We all have a mission or calling. Like Moses, we feel inadequate at times and like sleep deprived young mothers, we often feel like the task is too tedious or too long. But, then come the blessings and the miracles when we are saved from the burdens of life and see the fruits of our labors grow and make us feel overjoyed. Like the parting of the Red Sea, seeing our little children learning to follow righteously is a joyous occasion.

2. Each of us have to overcome worldliness. We have to get the Egypt out of us. The sooner we do, the sooner we acquire the peace of mind that feels like the promised land. It's like taking the garbage out. If we hang on to our garbage (even if it doesn't seem like garbage) our whole world begins to stink. We have to daily ask ourselves, are the things I own, owning me? Tonight Glenn and I moved all the things out of one of the extra bedrooms so they can lay carpet in there. I WILL NOT move everything back into that room. I must get rid of accumulated STUFF. Things can suffocate us if we're not careful.

3. Faith precedes the miracle and the everyday sacrifices we make and rituals like daily prayer and scripture study remind us of the ultimate sacrifice of The Son. I'm frankly glad that we are not required to sacrifice livestock as they did in the desert. I will gladly offer up a broken heart and a contrite spirit.

4 Sickness and trials follow us on our journey. But if we look to God, we can live like the children of Israel looked to the serpent on the pole. How sick must we be before we ask for a blessing? We don't have to wait until we drag ourselves lifeless before Him. Bad things come to good people as well as bad. But, the Lord helps those who ask in faith.

5. The Lord gave manna, quail and water when they couldn't find any for themselves. The things we can't provide for ourselves can be miraculously acquired when we humble ourselves before Him.

6. When we become greedy everything begins to fall apart or become rotten as the food did when they began to store up more than they needed for the day.

7. When the children of Israel turned back to their evil ways, all the promises made to those who stayed faithful were withheld. They were not allowed into the promised land.

8. The worship of idols were wasting time in the children of Israel 's lives. They kept slipping back to superstition as we often slip into mind numbing habits that waste our time and take us from responsibilities of family. Enjoyable things come to bad people as well as good but don't be mislead into thinking that everything enjoyable lasts forever. "Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth....For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

9. Lastly, the importance of following the prophet (as Moses was their prophet and head) was one of the most important lessons in Exodus.

Our journey through this life is filled with all the trials of the 40 years of wandering through the wilderness. That story is to help us as we wander through the wilderness from conversion to the promised land. I'm glad my journey isn't laden with quail and desert heat.

Walking home from the Old North School

When I was in elementary school, I often walked home for lunch. Sometimes my dad accompanied me because he was a teacher at my school. When I was alone I usually read a book as I walked. It is a wonder I didn't kill myself tripping over something. I always stopped reading at intersections and I had one eye on the book and one on my surroundings, supposedly. I repeated this exercise after school but there was much more company on the sidewalks after school.

One day, while walking home after school, I realized that I had to go to the bathroom so bad that I couldn't make it all the way home. I decided to stop at a neighbor's house. Beth Moulton quickly answered her door (thank goodness). She was dressed in paint covered clothes and wore a scarf covering her hair. She was holding a paint brush. Panicked, I asked her if she was painting her bathroom. She laughed and said, "No, I'm painting my basement."

I sighed with relief and said, "Good! I'll never make it home to my bathroom. Can I use yours?"

She opened the door and let me run inside. I could hear her chuckling heartily as I sprinted past her. There was never a time that I saw Beth in the last few years of her life without her recalling that day and laughing once again at the memory.

SHARING TIME

Walter Seiter was one of my first church leaders growing up. He had 10 children who were good kids. My mother asked him once how you get children to learn to share with other children. He answered confidently that you just have more children. He didn't elaborate, he just said it matter-of-factly. I've heard lots of theories about family dynamics and the part birth-order plays in a child's life. But, each child gains coping skills unique to themselves that helps them in differing ways to adapt to society.

Whitney is my oldest child. She has a keen mind and reasons well. She had only about 16 months of being an only child. She didn't have time to develop too much selfishness before Cassie came along to share my time and Whitney's toys.


Speaking of toys, we came from an era where toys were not widely available in the stores except at Christmas time. There were five and dime stores that had little toys like cars, bouncy balls, rubber snakes, rubber punch balls, toy soldiers, slinkys, etc. But, baby dolls, barbies, tonka trucks, etc. came out about Thanksgiving time. We loved getting the Sears Christmas Wish Book catalog. What fun it was to choose the toys you wanted for Christmas. So, we rarely bought toys for our kids anytime but Christmas.

The fun part about that is that we got the kids each a toy or two of their own and then the rest of the toys were basically designed to be shared. If we knew the toy wasn't shareable, we made sure each child had something very comparable so they wouldn't fight. One year we got Cassie a little bald baby doll and Whitney got a pretty little baby doll with black hair. Tragedy struck when Whitney liked Cassie's doll better. Whitney enjoyed the other toys but blatantly ignored her baby. No amount of praise for the doll swayed her disdain for the doll.

The neighbor girl, Dena Groff, came down to see what the kids had received from Santa and took one look at Whitney's doll and fell in love. She couldn't figure out why Whitney didn't love it. Dena said, "I've got a doll like Cassie's except she has a blue dress." Cassie's was pink. I said, "Dena, do you like Whitney's doll well enough that you'd like to trade your blue doll for Whitney's doll." She was aghast at the suggestion. She said enthusiastically, "Of course!" Whitney's doll was a much more expensive doll. Off she went to bring her old doll over to the house. Whitney grabbed the bald little doll and hugged it and hugged it and never even looked back as Dena carried her new baby off to her house feeling like she won the lottery. I learned then that you can never go wrong if you buy the exact thing for two close-in-age children.


One year, I found two Cabbage patch kids that looked alike to me. When Cassie found that hers had a tuft of hair under the bonnet, she was deflated. Whitney's was bald. So, she slipped into the bathroom one day and shaved it off. She wasn't delighted with the result but she was happier knowing that it was closer to perfection. Babies in our family didn't have hair! Anyone knows that!


Whitney and Cassie played pretty well together. The oldest child has the advantage over the younger for a little while because of age until the second child learns how to deal with the advantage. The second one learns to refuse to do the thing the older one wants to do (even if he/she really would like to play). That causes the older child to have to bargain with the younger one and the playing field gets evened out.





Whitney and Cassie played school. Whitney was always the teacher and Cassie was always the student with no authority. Cassie refused to play, choosing to make Whitney teach her dolls. This brought on tears for Whitney. Cassie got this smug little look on her face that said, "I won!" Mom was brought into the picture and I assessed the situation by asking lots of questions from each child without showing any bias. Then I tried to get each one to see the other's point of view and a compromise was struck by allowing Cassie to be the teacher first and then Whitney would get to be the teacher next. Both were mostly happy but sharing occurred. In most cases tears were my signal to intervene. If the mother doesn't intervene...often the second child begins to take over control by tormenting the older child; refusing to cooperate in ANY activity and teasing incessantly.

Sunny days and Mondays Always Turn Me Around

Today I awoke at 5:45 and went to teach my church history class at the church. My co-teacher and I discussed the rest of the week's plans and I went home. At 11:30 A.M. I checked my email and saw a reminder of a doctor visit that was at 11:20. I was stunned. I had missed my appointment. I ran to the car, after grabbing my purse, almost without touching the ground. The stop lights were in my favor except at two long lights. I made it in 20 minutes. But, I was too late. The doctor was already at lunch.

I was so embarrassed because I had missed a previous appointment by putting the date on my calendar a week later than it really was. How could I explain two missed appointments. No matter that I had not missed a single appointment in the previous 10 years. Really it is true. I was commiserating to the lady at the counter looking for another appointment. She couldn't find another opening today and the operator wasn't answering the phone with other options. I said, "I don't know what is wrong with me. I've been thinking today is Monday all day." She kept typing on the keyboard looking for an opening, without responding. "Well, thank you for trying," I said. I'll call when I get home. She shrugged her shoulders and sympathetically said, "I'm sorry I couldn't help you."

Back at home I was thinking about how I told a friend I would go Christmas shopping with her tomorrow and that I must have been crazy. Tomorrow I have to go to the temple. Wait! Tomorrow isn't Wednesday, my temple day. Tomorrow is Tuesday. WAIT!!!!! My Dr. appointment is on Tuesday!!!! I didn't miss my appointment! It is tomorrow. Today IS Monday. No wonder the lady didn't respond when I said I had been thinking today is Monday. She thought she was dealing with a lunatic and it turns out, she was.
Now what are the odds of my remembering my appointment at 11:20 tomorrow? And aren't I glad I didn't call my piano student when I thought he had stood me up this afternoon? Yes Scarlet, "Tomorrow is another day," (Tuesday that is).

There's always room for one more.

When Brett was a couple of years older than this picture, he spent the night at a friend's house on a Friday night. We knew the family well and we went to pick him up the next morning. The family had the exact floor plan our house had and early in the morning, Brett sleep walked into the parent's bedroom. Without waking up, he crawled onto their bed and snuggled in between the two parents and kept sleeping. Hating to wake him, knowing he might be shocked and embarrassed, they went back to sleep until an hour or so had passed and they both sneaked out of bed to begin the day. Lots of laughter was had when he finally awoke in a strange bed in a strange house. That's what I call making yourself at home.

If you've got it... flaunt it.

Some people are hat people and some are not. Cassie always liked hats. This is the most famous of her hats. An old ball popped and a new hat was born from the tragedy. She put it on her head every day. It accented her ears. It also hid the fact that she was very slow getting hair. I can't wear a hat of any kind and be taken seriously. I look awful in every hat I have ever worn. When I had long hair, I could wear them but ever since I cut my hair 30 years ago, I have been cursed with an unadornable head.

Mojave is hot but 'snot as hot as Redhots

When our family lived in Bishop, we went south to Los Angeles one weekend for a visit. On our way, we stopped at at Taco Bell in Mojave. While standing in line, Brad was studying the menu while eating Redhots. He had a few in the palm of his hand when he had to sneeze. Without thinking, he put his hand, with the Redhots up to his face to block the spray of his sneeze. After the sneeze, he sniffed before removing his hand from his nose and face. He got this concerned look on his face and his eyes got great big. He said, "I think I sniffed a redhot up my nose!" He was looking in his wet hand trying to remember how many Redhots were in his hand before he sneezed.
We started laughing and thought he was just joking around. But, his eyes were watering and his nose was beginning to run pink!!!! His nose was stinging like the Dickens and he was getting panicky. He finally figured that he needed to blow it out and was eventually successful in getting it out. However, his nose continued to leak red snot for a little while.