Last month was a LOT of travel: 1^st was a week in Utah for Jessie’s wedding, then almost 2 weeks in Europe (Italy & Switzerland – shout out to Guili, our foreign exchange student from a few years ago, who we got to see & spend some time with in both countries), & then (after 2 days at home), back to Utah for the 4th of July festivities Travel is not easy for me & involves a lot of anxieties, so it is good to be back to where I can be more independent & communicate & do more through Wi-Fi.

I’m a fairly healthy eater, but after all that travel, we didn’t really have fruits & veggies, & I wanted some variety, but that meant there was a lot more fresh food than I could eat, so I got an early birthday gift: a Vacuum Sealer by ZWILLING.  Oh my gosh, I love it (the best part is that I CAN DO IT)!  It keeps food fresh so much longer & helps decrease my anxiety to hurry & eat it before it goes bad.  I make fun of my mother-in-law cuz she freezes EVERYTHING, but now I’m going to be the mother-in-law/grandma who uses her vacuum sealer for everything!  

That said, my trip to Europe was beautiful & I loved being with family. I loved being with all 3 married children & their spouses, & with my grandbaby  – what a wonderful stage of life!  I love seeing them all so happy! I wish I could put a pause on life!  Or put them in a vacuum sealer!  HaHa  Totally kidding!

One thing I’ve learned is that life is unpredictable! When I was my kids age, I had my life mapped out, & according to that plan, I’d either be teaching right now, or I would be serving a senior couples mission. But neither are possible now…which I could be sad about (& I was at first), but I have seen the hand of the Lord in my life, & He has made my life better than I could’ve imagined.

(I paused writing this post to read Donald L. Hallstrom’s article “Has the Day of Miracles Ceased?” in the Nov. 2017 Ensign or Liahona: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2017/11/sunday-morning-session/has-the-day-of-miracles-ceased?lang=eng. It applies so well to what I just said!)

Back to our trip.

I was carried A LOT in all our travels (but the most in Italy), so my left ear got something like a rug burn, & my shoulders got sore (my muscles are pretty weak now). But by some miracle – seriously, it was a miracle  – I ran across this medication called “Heal & Soothe” that I could try for free. It is basically a bunch of supplements, & seemed harmless to try, so I decided to get it.  It said it was for arthritis, so I initially thought I’d see if my mom wanted to try it (since she has arthritis), but I noticed one of the ingredients is turmeric, which I use for my shoulder on a daily basis – my shoulder gets sore from over-use, & turmeric decreases any inflammation that causes pain.

When the medicine bottle came, the picture shows a sore shoulder, exactly where my shoulder gets sore! So, when my shoulder started to hurt after the wedding, I tried it & it helped! I swear that w/o it, my shoulders would be killing me right now! But it was manageable the whole time. Good thing too, cuz after almost 2 weeks in Italy & Switzerland, we went to Utah again!

Little miracles like this happen all the time. It’s a miracle that my husband stayed healthy & strong the whole time.  It’s a miracle he took care of me the whole time (I’m not easy)!  It’s a miracle that I can even go there!

I’m so grateful for small miracles, for my wonderful family, & for the ability to still see beautiful places in the world.

All my kids are married now:

1. my son, Zach, got married 2 years ago
2. my youngest child, Sophia, got married in October, &
3. my middle daughter, Jessie, was married on Friday, June 3.

Here’s a picture with all my kids, their spouses, & my grand-baby, James.

Obviously, I can’t be there for them (the way I’d like to be), so one thing I’ve always hoped is that they marry into families where they feel comfortable receiving help, & feel as fortunate as I do to have married into such a family!

I’ve been so focused on my kids that I didn’t realize until now how comfortable I am with each of my kid’s MILs!  It’s crazy!  I feel so blessed to be so comfortable & to be friends with each of these women – women who are sharing their children & (future) grandchildren with me!

Sorry I’ve been MIA. I’ve had a hard time setting aside time to write on my blog. In what little “free time” I have, I have been reading & learning about some stuff & I attempted to work some more on the book I wanted to write 17 years ago… but as u know, I’m the primary president (which I LOVE!)  It’s so awesome to be able to serve, & I have witnessed many little miracles to make it possible!  

I have two counselors & a secretary to help me (plus my “co-presidents”, Mark & my helper/friend, Angie, who serve as my arms & legs), but now the Primary program is coming up (it’s usually in the fall, & occurs once a year), & planning the program has kept me busy!  (The primary program is a time for the kids to share about the things they’ve learned that year & to share their testimonies through word & song.)

That alone has kept me busy, but to add to the fun my youngest daughter (Sophie) just got married on October 9 in the South Jordan temple in Utah (shout-out to my awesome sister-in-law, Margot).  But wait!  The fun doesn’t stop there:  my son’s wife is expecting grandbaby on Christmas.  So I figure life will not be slowing down anytime soon!

So, thought I better share…  about the wedding: I let Mark’s sister, Margot, & Sophie plan it – Margot had done my little brother, Mike’s, wedding, so I knew she’d know “my style,” & since it was Sophie’s day, I didn’t want to get in her way!   It was supposed to rain all day, but after the sealing (which was amazing), the “heavens opened up” & I did not see even a drop of rain until they left!   Amazing, right?!?!  & I thought my reception was fancy, but hers blew mine out of the water!  Only thing I did fancier: the dads & groomsmen wore tuxes instead of suits (Zach was best man, & bet he liked doing suits instead of tuxes!  Maddie was a bridesmaid, & Jess was co-Maid of honor, & heir dresses were “less fancy” too, accommodating Maddie’s pregnant belly!)

I had a small win at Sophie’s wedding: I did my own make-up!  The few times I’ve worn make-up, Sophie did it. Jessie & Maddie don’t do make-up, so at 1^st, I didn’t know what to do. I knew others who would’ve done it for me if I asked, but I didn’t want them to!  I am still in my toddler phase, where I want to do everything myself!  So I had my eyebrows dyed, my eyelashes dyed & curled, & put on concealer, blush, & lipstick!

With all the stuff going on, I tend to push aside caring for myself, so I’m grateful hippotherapy (horse therapy) has started up again! It forces me to take care of me too, & now it is at the new covered arena, so I can go rain or shine!  It makes me so happy when I go (still the best part of my week), & not only is the new arena AMAZING, but the windy road to get to it is therapy in itself!  Ha!    

I have a new horse, & new therapist who I LOVE!  I have loved every horse therapist, because they all have a different focus so new muscles get targeted  This therapist is making muscles tired that haven’t been tired in awhile – which is always a good sign!   (Luckily, the arena is by a restaurant that sells a yummy spinach salad, so I can “get my Popeye on” – I get super tired, but eating spinach helps me regain enough strength to at least pick up my iPad & turn on an audio book!  Haha)

I used to stand daily on a tilt-table for 30 min – 1 hour. When I got my standing w/c, I stood like 1-2 hours after every meal. This new standing chair, it’s dwindled to like 10-20 minutes a day (I can’t do as much when I stand now, & as I pointed out previously, when I’m busy, the 1^st thing I “let go off” is me!). I keep trying to self-motivate to do more, but it wasn’t working. Then my new horse therapist brought it up…it has been brought up before (by my old therapist), but this time I gave myself “homework” 👏🏻. Yay – it’s the push I needed!

Anyway, I’d love to have u join us at the primary program!  It just so happens that our primary program is the same weekend of my daughter’s wedding reception in Texas (the primary program is on the 31st – probably because I could guarantee I’d be home then-haha)

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12001 Bee Caves Road, BEE CAVE, Texas

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It occurred to me that I may have had a small win on Thursday:

Movies like to play with your emotions. This is bad when u have PBA (PseudoBulbar Affect Disorder) & can’t control your emotions cuz u may laugh uncontrollably at something that deserved a chuckle (& u keep laughing after everyone is done laughing); or u cry when u want to laugh (or vice versa). But the hardest one for me, since music greatly affects my mood, is when they use music to evoke feelings, esp. sadness.  Now that’s just mean, cuz I don’t just cry quietly or whimper (like most people). I HOWL! (When Sirius Black or Dumbledore died on Harry Potter, it was humiliating how loud I was!)

I have found a solution that works great if I’m watching alone.  Then I watch movies in about 20-30 segments – this works well since my emotions can’t build.  Shorter segments are needed for more emotional movies, or I have to employ other techniques, like distraction…(I will get really interested with my controller on my wheelchair, with what’s going on around me, or get really itchy!  Ha!)

Thursday I was watching Frozen 2 while doing therapy. It was at an emotional point in the movie, & I was doing over 30 minutes of exercise, but I held my tears back (well, until the show was off) – so, by not crying, did I control my emotions?  I did use distraction… Does it still count as “controlling” my emotions?

For fun, I took a PBA quiz.  I scored 30/35.