A Musing Mother 6

Today my post is featured on a site called Kiss and Tell. I am proud to be featured but conflicted to share. Ever notice how much easier it is to write or tell about your secrets to strangers? So here it is on Kiss and Tell . And thank you Suzanne for challenging me to write this piece.

Because it's Easter and all and chickens have absolutely nothing to do with the Savior's Atonement yet we indulge ourselves on this convention and I will continue with my story and give justification for my actions. Because really, I believe in food storage. I believe in buying in bulk and having all kinds of food saved for a rainy day. Yes, I did stock up on canned goods right before Y2K. Not because I really believed anything would happen but because I thought we should be prepared anyway. I go to the LDS church cannery and put flour in #10 cans and seal them up. I have well over 200 lbs. of flour in my cold storage under my porch. It sits with my many cans of food including rice, beans, homemade jam and salsa and buckets full of wheat. I plant a garden every year with great intentions of weeding it and tending it with care. One year I actually succeeded in doing so. I must mention, though, that even on my best gardening years I feel shame when I look over the fence at my nei...

Hana is a small fishing village on the other side of Maui. Oddly enough, the road to Hana is the destination, not Hana, itself. I didn't understand this until we started on the journey and the landscape changed drastically to a tropical rain forest. We took along with us a CD tour that came from the same place as the snorkel gear, Molikini tour and we were still scheduled for our timeshare presentation the following day. I will admit that this particular CD tour was not up to par. Still, it gave us a good starting point and a lot of laughs. For instance, in one part of the CD, the guide gives us a mile marker post and indicates a general store. We passed a portable trailer. But we learned the history of the mongoose on the island which was to control the rat population. A crate of mongoose arrived and were freed. Unfortunately, the mongoose (mongeese?) and the rats have different sleeping schedules. Now Maui suffers from both rats and mongoose infestation. Our first interesting sto...

It was our 20th anniversary and we were still on Utah time but in Maui. We easily roused ourselves to get up early and to the harbor for our snorkeling tour. Does it bode well when the boat is named The Minnow  and the second mate is referred to as Gilligan? Okay, I made that up. We boarded Frogman , the boat rated for 88 passengers but booked only for 67. I squeezed myself between a very nice and well padded woman from Alaska and some guy from Canada. Scott found an 8" spot to slide one butt cheek and the boat was completely full. But fear not! Three more passengers embarked. It was all I expected and more. The captain gave his safety tips and took us to Turtle Town first. As you may remember, Slick from the snorkel shop guaranteed we'd see dozens of sea turtles. Before reaching our first destination, the crewmen offered us short wetsuits - for a price. The water is not terribly cold, at least not off a sandy beach. I opted against the suit. It's not like we're at Bea...

I love my job. I've been working in alternative secondary education in one degree or another for my entire career. In fact, I've mentioned to a few people that I have felt like my work is similar to a calling from God. I don't serve perfectly and I don't serve always the way I think I should but overall, I believe I was led to what I do and through Him I've made an impact on some people. As they have on me. The only constant in life is change and it's been blowing in for awhile. The structure of the school where I am working as a counselor is dramatically changing next year. Something inside of me has also been itching but I've just wanted to swat it away. My work life has been the constant sustaining part of my life when other things have gone south. Not that my job is without politics or problems but I have navigated through those choppy waters and continue to drive to work every day and I like doing it so much. But that tickle has been getting stronger an...

During high school I worked at McDonald's. One of the strategies we were taught was to up-sell. Always suggest another item for the customer to buy. "Would you like a fresh apple pie with that?" or "Would you like to add an order of fries?" became the byline. I don't know why but it really bothered me to try to push a product when the customer already had the menu before him or her. I passive/aggressively refused. One day, the one manager I actually liked had reminded me to up-sell for the third time and I managed, again, to "forget." "Next time you don't suggest another product, I'm going to write you up," he warned me. Oh, no. I'd be written up at my dead end job as a McDonald's robot. However would I go one in life? The threat was still useless. Since that time, I have found that up-sells are common but they bug me just the same. I can read. If I wanted a fresh apple pie, I would have ordered one. Better yet, I would no...

If a picture is worth a thousand words, here are a few thousand words of my life the past week and half minus the amazing amount of laundry, planning, and farming out the aforementioned children because they were not invited. My dear husband only invited me. Go ahead. Feel the awe. Be inspired. Be jealous. My own life was far more fun and different than its scheduled programming that I could not disengage. I barely read the latest People magazine but only because Elizabeth Smart married on Oahu. My own life looked a lot like this only better: Yes, it has been a rough week plus, having to live in paradise, have hours pass before I look at my husband and muse, "We have children, right?" because I forgot. No counting heads. No checking backpacks. No laundry. That felt so good I will say it again. No laundry. Swimming suits and snorkel gear, looking for sea turtles and listening to the humpback whale songs under the water. Luau with the most amazing fire dancer right on the beac...