Loved
Posted: February 13, 2013 Filed under: Brothers Karamazov 2 CommentsI haven’t really ever had to deal with losing a loved one. My mom’s dad died when she was a little girl, and my dad’s mom passed away when I was just a little too young to feel sad about the abstract concept of death. The first time I remember being impacted by a death was when my bishop passed away when I was 16. I was impressed by how upbeat his family was at his funeral – they’d known he was going to die soon, and their faith gave them perspective. Since then, I’ve only been to two other funerals – one for our stake patriarch, whose wife had passed away many years before, and who everyone felt was ready to go; and one for my aunt, who’d had a long battle with cancer. I remember that occasion as being sacred and reverent. Every aspect of it was carried out with deep respect and love.
Jarom’s grandmother passed away yesterday. She had been in poor health for the past year and hospitalized recently, but her condition had been improving, so this was sudden and unexpected and heartbreaking. His grandparents had been married over 60 years, and I can’t imagine how his grandfather is feeling now. It’s been hard for everyone, with so many prayers in her behalf and great hopes that she was on the mend. I’m glad we all got to visit over Thanksgiving, and have that memory.
We’ll be heading down to the funeral soon – I don’t know the exact date yet – so there may not be regular posts for a few days.
Have you had to deal with this kind of loss? What would you suggest that I do to help Jarom and his family out?
Hobbies
Posted: February 12, 2013 Filed under: Way of Kings Leave a commentI used to think being a Jack of all trades meant a person could do many things with great alacrity and skill. I was happy to think of myself as a Jack of all trades; a person who was always willing to jump into something new and do it well.
Imagine my disappointment when I learned that Jack of all trades is only half of the saying “Jack of all trades, master of none.” As it turns out, this may be an even more apt description of myself.
Much like my lovely wife, I find that my interest and focus changes with some frequency. In the past, the following things have captured my interest: fishing, woodworking, cycling, my 280zx, jogging, Magic: The Gathering, and writing.
Part of the problem is, however, that in a desire to not do anything half way, I throw myself into each of these pursuits with great vigor. I will give you an example which is perhaps (though reports cannot be confirmed) a source of great ire from Mika: my 1981 Nissan 280zx.
Initially, we purchased the car because it was affordable, and it appeared to be a good opportunity for me to learn about car maintenance. Soon, however, I didn’t want to simply maintain the car, I wanted to improve it! So I set out to learn as much as I could about the car, and I quickly discovered that many people were able to successfully change out the engine in my car for the turbo version of the engine in other models of the same car. Quickly, the completion of this project became my ardent desire.
Around the time of graduation, I even went so far as to purchase a car for parts which had the engine I wanted. I began work on the transfer, which I had been assured was a simple process.
I quickly learned that when mechanics say that swapping out an engine is easy, they mean two things: 1) It is easy for mechanics, and 2) it is easy compared to other engine swaps.
As a result, I am left with a half-finished project. The engine has been taken out of the donor, and placed into the silver car, that is as far as it has gone. I mostly blame winter, but maybe I can now also blame myself. Just a little. Don’t tell Mika.
Routine
Posted: February 11, 2013 Filed under: Great Expectations Leave a commentI wasn’t meant to be domestic, I think. I’m not a tidy person by nature, and I’m lazy. But I firmly believe that with effort, people can change . . . which is why I’m trying very hard right now to implement a cleaning routine. I love it when my house is clean – but it seldom is. At this point, I’ll be satisfied with the expected mess that comes with little kids, rather than the overwhelming mess generated by laziness and a lack of order.
I get discouraged really easily, so I often try to tackle an entire at once, end up staying up late to finish, and get burned out, which means I especially don’t want to clean anything ever again. With that in mind, I started this past week by clearing out my storage cupboard and sorting through all of the kids’ toys. I could sit down while I went through toys, and the kids were so happy to see the things I’d stashed in my closet for the past few months that they were only minimally disruptive. Today I cleaned my bathroom, throwing out lotions and expired medicines, moving the not-kid-friendly things up to a top shelf, and reorganizing the cabinets so we can actually get to the things we use most. Then, of course, there was a lot of wiping down and cleaning and taking out trash. And then I tackled my bedroom.
I’d actually made a deal with Jarom at Christmastime that he’d help me get the bedroom completely clean and keep it tidy for 3 weeks. We’ve worked on it a little at a time on the weekends, but today I got it to the point where there’s a box of stuff to donate, costumes that need a storage box, a few things to go in the shed or cellar, and Jarom’s stuff that I didn’t know what to do with. I even cleaned off the pencil marks from where June scribbled on the door shortly after we moved in. Now if I can get these last few things cleared out, I’ll just need to do quick pick-up every night and then make the bedroom/bathroom a once-a-week deep cleaning.
This is a great theory, of course . . . we’ll see how it goes in practice.
Jarom
Mika
hilleries 