A Spoon Full of Sugar

This week was unfortunately mostly catch up after playing for a week with my mom. I had to do all the boring tasks like scrubbing the floors and plowing through a mountain of laundry. I tried to pull a Mary Poppins, Kate’s current hero, and find an element of fun in every task that had to be done. I couldn’t find it in taking out the stinky garbage or scrubbing behind the toilet! I guess I’m not “practically perfect in every way” just yet.

We did make it out for a few adventures this week and, to make up for last week, they were all free. We found a playground which is just a hop, skip, and a jump away from our house that is amazing. I am sure we will become regulars there. The highlight is a giant wooden slide that you ride down on gunny sacks. We also found out Saturday that it was a free museum day for all museums associated with the Smithsonian, so although we had a million things to do, none of which involved going to a museum, we had to alter our plans. We decided to go to the Independence Seaport Museum, our reasoning being that we might not go there if we had to pay. We arrived with only an hour before it closed and really didn’t know what to expect. Let me just say, I would go back in a heartbeat! They have a real submarine that you can go through and explore and a battleship that was active in the Spanish-American War and World War I. It’s final mission was bringing the Unknown Soldier back from France. You can find amazing historical things in Philadelphia without even looking for them!

We also celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary this week. Our actual anniversary was kind of a bust with Josh at school all day and then out on splits with the missionaries in the evening, although he did bring me flowers and chocolate covered treats from Trader Joe’s. On Friday night we went out to celebrate. Fortunately for us it was restaurant week in Philadelphia so we took advantage of the opportunity to go out for some tasty Japanese cuisine. It was nice to sit down and have two calm hours with nothing to do but to talk.

Kate coined a new phrase. The appliances with which you clean your clothes are “the wetter and the dryer”. Makes sense to me!

One morning this week I began scripture study by telling Kate we were going to read about King Benjamin. She thought for a second and then said, “Like the statue we saw at the museum?” For the life of me I couldn’t think of a statue that she could have thought was King Benjamin so I told her I was having trouble remembering that statue and proceeded on with scriptures. A few minutes later as I was in the middle of reading a verse she exclaimed, “Benjamin Franklin, Mom!” Her brain had been on search that whole time! Philadelphia is turning into quite the Mormon metropolis with statues of King Benjamin and grocery stores called Joseph Smith’s.

I had one other interesting experience this weekend. Saturday night was the General Relief Society meeting. For some reason I have always had a hard time with that meeting and every year I have to decide if I am going to go and drag my attitude along with me. I don’t know why. Maybe it is because it is on a Saturday night and I don’t feel like putting on a dress. Maybe it’s because it seems like a compensation prize for women in the church. Anyway, once again I pulled a Laman and Lemuel and went after inwardly murmuring about it. (I guess I may not even be close to that “practically perfect in every way” mark after all.) I loved President Eyring’s talk. He taught about charity, saying it was more than a feeling of benevolence but rather a character trait born of faith and resulting from the effects of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Then he spoke just to me and said that when our hearts are changed by covenants and through the gift of the Atonement we can “find joy in doing things for others even when our own unmet needs are great.” That statement was for me to help me with the struggle I have had with my calling. I came home and prayed for charity. I prayed for my heart to be changed through the Atonement so that I would love the girls I have been called to serve and find joy in that service. I had a good day at church today.