My Family

My Family

Thursday, June 30, 2016

Working On My Quality

How was your day?......... Better!
What did you do? ............. I worked on my quality!

A few weeks ago I heard a woman speak of her 30-something son who has Downs Syndrome.  For 16 years he has worked at a steakhouse clearing tables and doing dishes.  Each day she goes to pick him up from work and each day they have the same conversation.  She asks how was his day and he replies, "Better!"  An inquiry into how he spent his day brings the same reply every time, "I worked on my quality!"
These responses stole my heart and have been in my thoughts ever since.  How often has my day been better than the day before?  Often enough... but what if it were consistently Better?  What if every day was better than the day before?  Granted, there are many things outside of my control which affect my day - but for the most part I am in control of what I do and how I react to situations.  In almost every way I am better than I was ten years ago... but if I could learn to work on this day by day - where will I be ten years from now?
I could work on being better in my family relationships, how I spend my free time, cooking & cleaning, coupon clipping, writing thank-you notes, smiling, keeping contact with friends,  exercising, reading, memorizing, sharing... blah, blah, blah.  Well, I could be overwhelmed and drive myself crazy and get discouraged trying to get better in everything.  Or I could not even try and just stagnate and feel even worse... 
This is where I really like the second response.  Working on my quality!  I can do this!  Instead of making a list of everything that needs to be better about my life (and feeling crazy and discouraged), I could just think about improving my quality of whatever it is I am doing when the thought comes to my mind.  If I could manage to think about it even once a day - improving my quality in that one instance ... well, I should be able to report that my day had gone "better" - and ten years from now I will have learned to seek for "quality" and find that every aspect of my life is "better"
Good plan... 

Cancer checkup - Natalie had her MRIs and received a clean bill of health.  Jacqueline also had her MRIs and though there is some suspicious activity we are hopeful that nothing is cancerous.  Of course she is a missionary and so I was unable to be with her, but the doctors are not concerned at present.  Greg is happy to have a summer without chemotherapy and is recovering from over 30 stitches he received a couple weeks ago when they removed a few moles.  Only one mole proved to be undesirable, but they cleared all margins and he's doing great.  David and Mark will have their tests in July.  My one photo today is Kimberly - she doesn't have Li Fraumeni but we were still relieved when her pathology report came back clean.  About a month ago she had a painful cyst removed from her ear canal.  Aside from eardrops and a no-swim order, we were relatively unaffected.  Nevertheless, sending her into the operating room brought back many memories.  Fortunately I am well skilled at diverting myself - Nevertheless, it would seem that my children cannot go into surgery without some sort of excitement.  In Kimberly's case, after about 20 minutes, the electricity went off!  The generator kicked right on, but I was immediately aware that she was laying there under anesthesia and beyond my reach.  I was glad to get her home again.  As for Kimberly, she was thrilled to be able to report to her siblings that she had joined their "surgery" club.  They were not too sure that 30 minutes or so working on her ear "counts" - her lesion was "unremarkable" and her scar doesn't exactly give her bragging rights around here, but as the mom,  I'll take it any day!

Thursday, June 23, 2016

Texas - Update from March??

March 26 was my last blog post - It is almost June 26 and I have been very neglectful.  I opened up blogger tonight and found this draft - no typing, only photos.    What was my intent?  This will remain a mystery, but since it's here I will discuss my photos for posterity....

Here is Kimberly eating lunch in Palestine, TX.  We had a Friday off of  school and decided that we should explore.  A friend told us there was a Dogwood Festival - and I jumped at the chance to see dogwood trees.  The warm winter had brought the blooms too early, but we saw a few.  The great treat was to find a beautiful part of the state where rhodendrons and azaleas were blooming like crazy.  There were tall evergreen trees and we felt that we had taken a quick trip to our beloved ol' northwest springtime.  Beautiful!  



Kimberly and Natalie are sitting in the Texas Bluebonnets.  These flowers have a reputation for being spectacular - and they were!  Wow!  Intense color through the fields and along the roadways.  Apparently the tradition is to plop your little ones among the blooms and capture the moment.  So - here are my little ones and the moment forever captured.  The wildflowers haven't stopped either - my mind is completely blank to the name of the flowers that captivated me when I drove home from Utah in April... hmmmm.  Well, anyway - for quite some time the fields have been yellow with black-eyed Susans.  Love it!!

  All decked out in her Texas finery, Natalie has made the most of our move!  Though Texas offers a form of concurrent enrollment, it does not compare to the Washington option and would not have helped Natalie with her future plans.  Going back to high school wasn't really an option, so - though officially a Junior in high school, Natalie opted to take the GED which she passed with honors.  She was accepted to BYU and left us in April to begin Spring term classes.  To celebrate, she chose a beautiful pair of cowboy boots so she can "put her cowgirl on" - even in Utah.  

Speaking of putting on her Texas, we all enjoyed those last months with Natalie as she worked at a hamburger restaurant in a part of Texas where patrons tended to have very heavy accents.  After trying to take an order or two and not being understood - she developed an accent of her own.  Suddenly she fit right in and became very popular with the customers.

Our neighbor has the beautiful pond which attracts birds all year.  Late winter found us enjoying turkey vultures.  They are huge and graceful.  There were several of them and they would swoop through our yard as they came in for a landing.  Blue herons do this often as well.  We took this photo one sunny morning as this bird was sunning himself.  Spectacular!

My muddy kids decided to go kayaking on our own little pond with friends.  Silly kids - cold, wet and muddy.  Just like when they were little, I made them spray off with the hose before coming near the house.  Brrr.  

First Monday Market Day in Canton, TX.  This was fun, but, with the crowds and heat, I wouldn't want to come during the summer.  I think we went in March - this is a huge flea market which has been around for over 100 years.  We gave each child $25 so that they could all find their own sort of treasure.  Great memory, worth the money!
So - that's the last photo... we are enjoying Texas.  The people are certainly the best part!  I have met many fine women which have improved my life for the better. 
New friends, new experiences, new perspectives....
 Once again, an experience I would not have chosen for myself has blessed my life immensely.