Odds and Ends

I admit that my attitude this year has left something to be desired. At times, this school year has felt like a series of unfortunate events. Between hurricane power outages, computer failure, job rejections, sicknesses, limited car access, and the more frequent immediate demands of business school, I have felt a little worn out and irritable, and the semester has just begun.

However, when I step back and get things in perspective, I can see all the good that has come of these little irritations. The hurricane gave us more time together as a family and with some of our favorite people, the Wilkersons; not having the Internet or my computer gave me more time with my kids; not having the car and being sick has made me more creative about family activities; and Patrick being busy has given me time to write more and it's also made me enjoy the good time we do have together. And beyond these little challenges, our lives are very blessed.

Most Especially, I Have Very Funny Kids

Eli is incredibly verbal for an eleven-month-old. His words include "wa-wa" (water), "kaka" (cracker or anything edible), "da-da" (Daddy, said with so much excited delighted; also means people he likes in general, I think), and "ahhh-da" (all done). This last is the funniest. I've tried to use it consistently to mean the end of a certain activity-- high chair time, playing with a certain toy, being held when he's wriggling away to play. And he, brilliant little munchkin, has applied it to nap time. After I put him down in his crib, he'll call out, "Ahhhh-da! Ahhhh-da!" I don't think so, little boy!

Caleb's vocabulary is increasing faster than his pronunciation, which I didn't realize until I noticed friends of mine couldn't understand him when I've always thought he was so good at expressing himself. Ah well. Mothers are blind to these things. I'm not that bothered by it. Someday his pronunciation will catch up. As it is, I love his language skills. Two recent additions are the word "sure" (which he says properly, and uses it to mean yes, and says it either with enormous excitement or a calm shrug of assent, but it's very grown-up yet cute sounding), and the phrase "just a second" is also new, but it's pronounced "just a sen-ic." Patrick corrected him the other day, and I told him not to. It's too dang cute.

Caleb is also hilarious, though not always intentionally. As part of our bedtime routine, we do a scripture story before reading out of the actual scriptures. For scripture story one night, I was telling him The Good Samaritan (a favorite).

I'd just begun: "Jesus told a story of a man who was traveling to the city of Jericho when some robbers attacked him. They beat him up and hurt him . . . "

"And they took his money," Caleb added.

"Yeah, and they took his money," I agreed.

"I would do that," Caleb said thoughtfully.

"Do what?" I asked, taken aback. "You mean, you would beat somebody up and take their money?"

"Yeah," Caleb agreed.

Holy Cow! Well, a mother's dream come true: my son aspires to be a thief. Great!

(As a disclaimer: 1. This is only funny because Caleb is not an excessively violent child. He's very mild and calm, so that's why it took me by surprise. 2. I did have a discussion with him about what this actually meant and hopefully I destroyed all of these violent aspirations permanently.)

Relief Sa-What?

It's "Relief Society." Come on, now. Haven't heard of it? How can that be? It has over 6 million members in over 170 countries and territories. (Thank you, Wikipedia, for those statistics.) It is the largest and oldest organization for women in the world. It includes all women of the church eighteen-years-old and older. It's motto is "Charity never faileth."

Now the fact of the matter is, I wasn't all that impressed with Relief Society when I was younger. I mean, Primary (for the children) is full of fun music and active lessons, and Young Women's (for teenage girls) was full of awesome activities and girl bonding. Relief Society was old woman stuff. I've had my moments when I've stood up in defense of Relief Society, as when a boy I had a crush on stated (jokingly), "Well, it keeps the women busy." The condescension and disrespect just about ended all pining from then on . . . but in the end teenage infatuation prevailed over gender pride for a few more years. And perhaps the reason it didn't bother me more was that, secretly, in my heart I thought perhaps he was right. Keeping the women busy while the men did the important stuff.

I am pleased to say that over the years, I have gotten a greater vision of Relief Society, and last night completely shattered any lasting illusions about the inconsequential nature of Relief Society. Relief Society is a worldwide organization with the purpose of strengthening and uplifting individuals in all areas of their lives, strengthening families, and helping those in need. And Relief Society ain't for sissies (well, actually, it's for everyone, so if you're a sissy, you're not excluded, but you don't have to be a sissy to participate). When I reflect on the women I know who have been Relief Society incarnate to me, they are powerful women: Sister Baird (my friend's mom), Sister Allred (even though she serves in Primary), Sister Harmon (gentle, but inwardly powerful). There are many more, of course, but these are examples. And I have friends who are active members of Relief Society who are in many different places in their lives, some single, some married but childless, some in school, some working, some parenting full-time.

And the society itself? What do we do exactly? Well, Relief Society sisters organize things like book clubs or mothers' groups. But they are also there when babies are born. They are there for moves. They are there for operations and even death. They are there for hurricanes and tornadoes. They are there to educate and teach both secular and spiritual concepts. And I'll be blunt enough and "religious" enough to say, a Sunday with Relief Society women is an immersion into the Holy Ghost even with a room full of imperfect, very different women.

In short, this is actually, despite all my quiet childhood disdain, one of the coolest organizations in the world.