Thursday....

Well, it's been a busy day so far just leading from one thing to another. Very warm, but they say the marine layer should return tonight. That means a kind of foggy state that will burn off in the morning. But it brings cooler temperatures and humidity.

I had a presidency meeting last night. I am so grateful for good counselors and friends. Here I had been gone from Primary for 3 weekends and last weekend was stake conference, but they kept everything humming nice and smoothly. It was nice to reconnect and plan for the Sacrament Program. It will be the last weekend in October. It is already written, parts are assigned, and we are ready to practice! So after Duff went to work and Christine to school, I got on Primary loose ends and tidied that up.

Then on to laundry. Mondays and Thursdays you will find me doing laundry.

Got all the flower pots good and watered. Adrianne kept them all alive for me while I was gone. Good Job Adrianne!! The wisteria climbing up the patio covers, the geraniums, and all my herbs. I LOVE the herbs and I'm a sucker for geraniums. I have thyme, sage, mint, chives, and basil growing this year. They work better for me in pots instead of in the garden. I feel like Martha Stewart or Paula Deen growing my herbs. They smell so good and I love to go out and cut them off and bring them in the house to use.

Dinner is in the crock-pot. A good old standby of chicken that we will have with some rice, cooked carrots, and a salad. I'll have to submit it to the food-blog.

As I was folding clothes, I turned on the tv to see the end of Martha (it comes on at 2pm here). I'll have to go to Macy's and check out her new stuff. It looks fun. But then Oprah came on right after. I'm not particularly a huge Oprah fan, but I left it on because the Goldmans, Denise Brown, and the lawyers in the O.J. trial were her guests and this was huge here for us in 1994-5. My sister's husband used to be an LA police officer and was good friends with Mark Fuhrmann the police officer who was so involved in the murder case.

The topic they were discussing was about a book to be published detailing the murders, but the thing that really got me was to see all their anger, pain, and revenge. Let me qualify this by saying: I have never had a loved one brutally murdered. I can't imagine it or the loss it would create. But it was interesting to see the rage they still felt. Oprah was patient, and then she asked if they had been able in 13 years to find any kind of 'peace'. They responded no, and felt insulted that she thought they could ever have any.

I've thought about that a lot this afternoon. The ability to find 'peace' in one's life through all the trials and adversities. Most of us will never have a murder occur in our families. But how do I do at finding peace in the other kinds of hard times? And we've had our share! I don't know that I'm always very good at it, or that I have a foolproof formula. But I do think that one can be at some place of 'peace'. I think it is a process that we go through each time and every time is a different path to get there. Sometimes we don't stay there and slip back and have to start over again. We can't do it 'alone' either. We have to turn to a Higher Source. Hmmmmmm.........

Miguel (our wonderful gardner) brought us a dozen, yes 12, large avocados this morning. When ever his wife, Maria, goes 'south', she brings back avocados for us. They are SOOOOO yummy. We just love avocados--all of us!

Christine got a frantic call from Julie Smith to come and help her. So I ran her over for a couple of hours. She will still have plenty of time to finish her homework. The Smith's are a cute family in our ward and neighborhood who have 4 boys 5 years old and under. The twins just turned 5 and started kindergarten, then there is a 3 year old and an 11 month old. The Smith's married later, and couldn't have a famiy for a long time, so when they finally started having children they said they had to make up for lost time! Well, I guess so! Christine is one of her 'mother's helpers'. It is a GREAT paying job for a 12 year old. She has one set day a week after school and then 'on call'. She also tends for them on the weekends. She is a very good babysitter. She has a bag with a 'kit' in it, and takes her SafeSitter certification with her when she 'works'. That was the BEST training class!

Well, I'm off to get dinner on the table and then work some more on one of Shaun's scrapbooks. Now I am NOT a die-hard scrapbooker like my sister, Lisa and cousin, Kristin. They go to conventions, etc. I'm rather plain, but try to get it in a book and something journaled by it.

Later--