A Musing Mother 6

It's not that I want to be Negative Nancy. Life is good. I am grateful. I can count my blessings if I want to. But I don't really want to right now. Scott left for Atlanta on Sunday morning. I drove him to the airport. Alyssa slept over so she could take the kids to church. Samantha really needs to pass her driving test. I need another driver. But I returned in time for Primary to help Jaxon with the prayer. They say closing  prayer in senior primary. Heather told me this. She's in the Primary Presidency. So I left for awhile and returned for the closing prayer. Wasn't I surprised when it was announced that Heather's son would give the closing prayer? I looked back at her quizzically. Oh, yeah. She just remembered that he had the closing prayer. Jaxon had the scripture. At the beginning. Right after I left. Thanks, Heather. The change of family dynamics hit that night. Alyssa and Jacob started to fight. They were in my room and it was starting to get physical. I scr

I am inspired by my distant great grandmother, Henrietta Keyes Whitney. She and her husband, Samuel Alonzo Whitney were baptized into the Mormon church in the early years of its organization. They lived in Kirtland, Ohio and moved to Nauvoo, Illinois. They had two sons, Samuel Jr. and Don Carlos. Samuel Sr. died in 1845 of lung disease (pneumonia). In 1846, the pressure to leave Nauvoo was very high. Henrietta was a young widow, no older than 24 and her sons were 6 and 4. Her late husband's cousin, Newel K. Whitney paid for Henrietta and her boys to leave on one of the earliest wagon trains. Unfortunately, winter was coming and they quickly erected a city of sod huts and stayed for the winter. They called it Winter Quarters. Four days after arriving, Henrietta's youngest son, Don Carlos died. Henrietta and her remaining son arrived in Salt Lake Valley in 1847. When I was 18 and freshly out of high school, I went on a tour of church sites. We stepped off the bus and I was swept