Donna's Journey

I used to complain, as a small child, to my mother that life was not fair. She would respond with, “No one ever promised you life would be fair.” I grew, in time, to accept that. As a mother I added that God expects us to be fair. None of this ameliorates how I feel today. I won’t whine. It is disappointing though, as I am recovering from a litany of assaults on my health, and yet another rears its ugly head.

ENOUGH!

On the bright side, I am still in a better place each day, than the day before. Thanksgiving weight gain is gone and it is not even December yet! I am not for crash diets! Ok, if I drink colloidal silver and go get some fresh fruits and veggies, and add my ACE formula, perhaps I can nip this before it takes hold, and boost myself back in the saddle! I know, I know, nutritional immune support, fluids, and more rest.

I have been pampered. I have a tray that cheers me. It is a Rodney Kent Tulip Tray from the early 50s, before I was born. When I was young, tulips were my favorite flower and every picture I drew had some in it. When I got sick, mom would serve me on this tray. When I was in high School and on the springboard diving team and the track team, mom would worry. Sometimes I missed lunch because a full stomach at practice did not mix. During the track season, I was often so exhausted I would fall asleep before dinner. Mom solved that problem. She would wake me at 6 am with a tray full of dinner, and chant Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper. Diving season was a blur, as I had two practices a day 6 am and 3 pm. The icy water tends to suck your energy dry. Back to that tray. That tray has really served me over my life. Now it serves my family.

Funny, I have a poem I wrote that is posted to this blog called “What Would I be?” One verse reads:
“… If I were houseware, what would I be?
I would be a tray
Serving and delighting
Bringing comfort.”

So, could my love of tulips and earliest yearnings to serve stem from the legacy this tray has wrought?

Dad has been gone for 2 1/2 years now, he was just over 81. He continues to be a blessing in our lives. I did not know that he and C. S. Lewis (1898) shared the same birthday, much less, sharing a birthday with Louisa May Alcott’s birthday (1832) Madeleine L’Engle (1918).

I saw this interesting clip tonight Global Warming Snow Job

I took environmental science in high school. It was a quasi science social science class. I learned a lot of crock in high school. There was a lot passed off their for education and taxpayers expense. Many a mother had to go to work in Hawaii so they could afford the taxes, so they could take advantage of all the entitlements. Did anyone feel like a gerbil or hamster? If you believe what I was taught in high school, the sky is falling, we are supposed to be living like the Jetsons, flying in wheeless vehicles, living in a world devoid of greenery, except what we have in our hot houses. Yeah, right?

Memorial Day weekend 1997 our family took a 12,000 mile cross continent motor tour/camping trip. We drove through the Rockies, to Denver, and across the great plains, to Independence, Far West, Adam Ondi Ahman, Nauvoo, to Carthage, South to New Orleans, to Pensacola, across the Gulf coast to Daytona and south to Key West, north up to Cape Canaveral, then up the coast to St. Augustine, to Charleston, inland through the Smokies, into Kentucky, back through “the Gap,” up the Blueridge, to Monticello, Washington DC…Oh let me stop there for a moment. We had breakfast at a restaurant . A youth came in with a pathetic shirt on talking about people not paying attention until the last flower was gone. My son looked at me and shook his head in unbelief. He knew how big and unpopulated most of America is.

Yes we have big cities. But only those who confine their lives to those cities could believe we are in any danger of coast to coast concrete. We drove on to Gettysburg, Valley Forge, New Hope, Philadelphia, to New York, Connecticut, to Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire, to Maine, across the boarder to New Brunswick, to Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island. We left PEI on the 4th of July and headed for Palmyra, then Niagara, back into Canada and across Ontario to Winsdor, back into the US to visit Dearborn, then to Chicago, across the plains to Loveland, up through Wyoming, and back home to Utah.
we had 6 children with us, from 17 months to 17 years old. In the 6 weeks we were gone we stayed in a hotel two nights. We camped most of the nights, stayed with friends and relatives too. We saw a lot of American history, Church History, Family history, Museums, Technology, and a lot of nature. My children learned and got a real education not textbook propaganda. They were inspired.

I have one son who is a rocket engineer and another owns his own computer business. Thankfully neither of them believe that man causes global warming, or that by man changing his habits we can impact or slow the cycles of climate change.

Can I say it was wonderful to shower and dress today. What day is it? How long have I been in bed? Apparently, not long enough! I have zero stamina. Forget that, I have zero energy. I have not been able to sing for over a week. I was reluctant to try. I could not resist. I am a shower singer and the moist air did help my vocal chords.
I began with:
“Its going to take some time this time, to get myself in shape… (Carol King 1971 and The Carpenters 1972)

slid into
“Music is playing inside my head
Over and over and over again
My friend, there’s no end
to the music…
Ah, summer is over
But the music keeps playing
And won’t let the cold get me down…”
(Carol King 1972)

Then..

“Sing, sing a song
Sing out loud
Sing out strong
Sing of good things, not bad
Sing of happy, not sad.

Sing, sing a song
Make it simple
To last your whole life long
Don’t worry that it’s not good enough
for anyone else to hear
Just sing, sing a song.

Sing, sing a song
Let the world sing along
Sing of love there could be
Sing for you and for me.

Sing, sing a song
Make it simple
To last your whole life long
Don’t worry that it’s not good enough
for anyone else to hear
Just sing, sing a song.”
(The Carpenters 1973)

Kind of funny, those are not the ones I usually sing in the shower. The came out when I was a sophomore, junior, and senior in high school. Well, that is what came out today. In the end, singing felt good and I did not care if anyone else could hear. I showered and sang, donned clean clothes, and washed my sheets. As revitalizing as it was, I was not up for more than 20 minutes. I had to rest on an unmade bed. There is hope. I opened the curtains and could see the clear expanse across the lake to the mountains to the west. I breathed it in and had to rest again.

This is NaBoMoReMo or National read the Book of Mormon in a Month. I read about this on Ben Crowder’s blog, he is the son of my friend Tina. Essentially, you read the Book of Mormon in a month and challenge all you know to do the same. Then you blog about the experience and put NoBoMoReMo in the tag line.

Now I am upping the goal. Introducing NaTeSeMo or National Temple Service Month. Some people will be blessed if they can make it just once in December because of distance. However, I believe that those who make the effort to serve every possible day, where travel permits, will be greatly blessed, and their testimonies deepened. Then share your experience. It matters not which ordinance, all are essential, a variety would be good, family file would be a great Christmas gift for your ancestors! Those in Utah County have two temples and a combined days opened is 22. Can we make time during the hustle and bustle of the holiday season to spend more time in His house, doing his work? Remember when you attend the temple that it is called the Lord’s University and that it is a place of learning. Keep a temple journal.

This give a whole new meaning to White Christmas!

At the end of the month blog on your blog about how NaTeSeMo and NoBoMoReMo has blessed you. When you do, do not forget to put NaTeSeMo and NoBoMoReMo in the tagline.

Well, we received a phone call this morning. The truck will not start. The transmission died. My husband checked around, looked for another truck, we decided it will be more cost effective to fix this one. It has been a real blessing having this truck. This truck has been a great servant, We have used it to bring logs home, transported scout equipment, hauled green waste, helped several people move, and in general, has been a wonderful and valuable service vehicle. A rebuilt transmission will be $1800. So, Roger is having AAA move it to the mechanic’s shop.

Roger went to the foot doctor this morning. They think that his new shoes are causing arch issues that the surgery probably will not fix. So, they are taping his foot to see if that will help. If that be the case, maybe foot surgery can be postponed for a while.

Gotta rest…

Though I no longer have a fever and a desire to sleep 24/7 I am not back in the saddle. I ache. My Polish diet jump start has left me with a headache, probably because of dehydration. Oh, how I hate retching!

This was my week to learn type setting. So, I could type set my primer. I am not well enough to sit up, for any length of time, and typing, lying on my side, using the laptop is one handed and slow, very ineffectual. Not to forget to mention, I do not have all my full mental abilities back. My primer is delayed again…

Maybe I should not write in this frame of mind. My head and being are aflame. Not hot with anger, or even sadness A virus staged a coupe and commandeered my health. This was not from food borne illness, but from a tiny tyke I love dearly, my grandson.

The last 24 hours seem so surreal. The story:

Just 24 hours ago, we had finished our Sunday family dinner and our family prayer and evening devotional and were saying our goodbyes as Jennifer headed out the door with GWC friends, Justin, Josh, and Manike, for their 3 hour trip back to school. I worked on dishes with James, blogged and headed for bed. I decided a cup of peppermint infusion would help my breathing, so I steeped some. I took a sip and burned my tongue. Quick, some colloidal silver! So, I let it cool. Julia, along with Jon’s family, got back from Adam and Ki’s house, and walking Temple Square. The infusion was finally cool enough. A friend called Julia to let her know of arriving safely back in California. After she hung up she ran passed me to the bathroom, the stomach virus has hit. Poor girl.

The phone rang. Who could be calling at 12:21 at night? A close friend and his family were returning from a trip to California and were stranded near Holden, Utah. They had been down to San Diego visiting family. They got to Holden and their Suburban seized up and started blowing oil. They had a trailer with their luggage. So, Roger and I dressed and headed south, he in the Toyota truck, and I in the van. We took the truck so we could bring the luggage back, and the van because there were 6 children with them. We thought of th winter rescue and Brigham Young sending out relief. I thought, this is not so bad, it is cold but no wind or blowing snow. About Scipio, the truck transmission light went on, so Roger nursed it into Filmore, where AAA had taken our friends and their car. We put transmission fluid in the truck, picked up the family, got their belongings from inside their car, and headed out to locate the trailer, left on the side of the road. The trailer hitch was bigger than our ball, so we tried it anyway. It worked! We drove slower, about 5o mph. About 25 miles from Nephi the truck light went on again, they pulled off on Old Highway 90. I drove on to Nephi and purchased transmission fluid and brought it back. That took a chunk of time. By the time we got to Nephi with the truck, the truck was out of gas, so we topped both tanks. By now, I was feeling ill.
My friend tried to stay awake for me, but I let her sleep. I struggled to not throw up, and I struggled to not fall asleep at the wheel, I had been up since just before 7 on Sunday morning. We got them safely to American Fork and left the truck. Roger drove me home, in the van. I came through the front door and made a B line for the porcelain. It was 630. What we thought would be a three hour round trip turned into a 6 hour round trip. I would do it again.

Now I was sick. I had not eaten in hours so there was nothing to throw up, but my body seemed not to care and I retched for the next 6 hours. I slept the day away, exhausted, and aching. Jennifer just called from Cedar City, she called her friends for a blessing, she too, is now ill. I feel for her, she is supposed to be doing her finals. Gee. I was so out of it I had not called my home teachers. So, I did. He is out of the country. So, I called someone that is in the high priest group leadership with my husband. Wow, within minutes of the blessing, my fever broke!

Note:
This post was started last night and finished this afternoon.

I went to church today though my voice was gone. Pondered much about I and II Timothy and Titus. Signed up for dessert for the ward Christmas Dinner, and the setting of one table.

I did family history this afternoon. I discovered that my great uncle’s brother -in-law died this week.

Enjoyed dinner with family, Manike, Justin, and Joshua. Jennifer caught a ride to Cedar with them.

Time to retire early. Tomorrow Jon and his family leaves. Roger has his heart test tomorrow, I pray he gets clearence for his foot surgery. He is to see the surgeon on Tuesday.

I played with my grandsons, Jonny and James.

I worked on Princess Academy and the Primer.

Did loads of dishes with my daughter in law, Tiffany.

I got a hair cut.

I went shopping with my two older daughters and bought groceries. I picked up some herbal infusions.

We came home a sipped hot herbal infusions. I had Mint Medley and it greatly improved my breathing before bed.