Jessica's Birthday and Random Thoughts

My first child is 35 years old today. Where does the time go? But what a great way to spend your first Christmas together but to welcome a new baby. Jessica often would bemoan the fact that so much responsibility comes with being the first born but then always added that she couldn't have been anywhere else in the family. She is a great big sister and friend.

This is my first Nativity, When you went into fourth grade you became a Gaynote in primary. They gave you a New Testament and at Cristmas you received this Nativity printed by the church, I don't know who the artist is. I have always loved it but like most things of the world my origanal finally had to be disposed of. As a newly-wed the church still printed these and I spent my pennies to order another. This one is getting a little rag tag, but I still love it.

As I put this up I thought about some of the other things I learned in Primary. In the summer after fourth grade we learned to cross stitch and did a sampler the said "I will bring the light of the gospel into my home." I still have mine but it is unframed. After fifth grade you learned to crochet and after sixth grade you learned knitting. They wanted us to learn skills that would bless our homes. So many of the programs of the church have evolved but the basic doctrines are the same. Family and home are where it's at.

Making a home is so important. Learning to keep a home that invites the Spirit is critical. So they have moved my Primary class to the stage which I have no problem with except that someone thinks it is a garbage can. It is gross every week, garbage has to be picked up dirty cups and plates, unwashed serving dishes, and crumbs and food vacuumed. Tough to invite the Spirit to a dirty environment, same with our homes. I still struggle to have my home be as organized and clean as I would like but I do work at it.

A friend has just taken a job as a janitor and expressed how humble it makes them feel especially with their level of education. I told Dad that I do the same work as they do every day, am I suppose to feel humble because of my level of education and training? Willa Cather in her book "Shadow on the Rocks" writes about the character Cecile who has just experienced a home that is dirty and slovenly and muses on her own responsibilities in her own home. "These coppers, big and little, those brooms and clouts and brushes, were tools, and with them one made, not shoes or cabinet-work, but life itself. One made a climate within a climate; one made the days, the complexion, the special favor, the special happiness of each day as it passed; made ones life."
Another friend wrote of his wife who has just graduated from law school and passed her bar. He said" I have always said I make the living and she makes the living good. I have really had that brought home to me as I have cooked, cleaned and basicaly run a muck, she really does make the living good."
I hope I never take for granted the importance of making our home HOME.