Of Rocks And Faith
The day Miles was diagnosed with diabetes (about three years ago), was the day that I started worrying about sending him to school. How in the world was I ever going to trust public school to care for him? So many things could go wrong with substitutes, music time, P.E., recess, and library. All very worrisome. I felt an overwhelming sense of compassion and admiration for some friends of ours. Their daughter not only had special needs, but was blind as well. I sought their council, asking how they were able to send their sweet girl into the hands of others, knowing she could not advocate for herself. How did they know that she would be ok? What if something terrible happened, and they lost her? The husband almost laughed at me, and said, “So what if it did?! Listen, do you believe in the Plan or do you not? If so, then it really doesn’t matter.” I was dumbfounded, hurt, and horrified for about five minutes. It felt like a LONG five minutes. However, it was ultimately the very best thing anyone could have ever said to me. He reminded me that I after I had prepared in every way, I needed to trust in my Heavenly Father’s protection. Then if my worst case scenario happened, I could find peace and comfort in the Plan of Salvation: We lived together before we came to Earth, we have a purpose here, and we can live again as families when we leave this mortal life. I realized if I really believed that (and I did. Still do.), then I had to prepare, and know that it would all be okay. I knew it was going to take a lot for me to be able to surrender what I couldn’t control to the Lord, but I found a lot of comfort in our conversation that day.
Over the years, periods of worry have come and gone. I have been able to push them to the back of my mind, thinking I’ll cross that bridge when we get there. Sunday night I sat on my bed thinking about all that needed to be prepared for Miles’ first day of kindergarten on Wednesday. Suddenly, I was halfway across the bridge and the weight of all the worry and fear hit me full force. I may or may not have sobbed myself to sleep.
On Monday night I had a conversation, with a woman I respect a great deal, about an experience we had at girls camp. It was completely unrelated to diabetes. This was the experience: A friend of ours arranged for the young women to go on a special hike early one morning. One at a time, each girl was given an empty, bright yellow bag, and was told it represented her life. Then she was sent up the trail alone. Every so often, there was someone who would stop her, and load her bag with trials (aka: rocks). They were personal, and they were heavy. While trudging up the trail, with her ever-growing load, she would encounter a friend, parents, a YW leader, and a bishop who would encourage or help her. None could take her burden on completely, and their help was very temporary.
I watched as one girl’s shoulders visibly shook with emotion and fatigue as she climbed to the highest point on her journey. It was very hard to watch. At that moment, the trail turned down into a narrow valley. The smallness of it made it very intimate, and it was stunningly green and beautiful. A voice singing I Stand All Amazed rose over the sound of a nearby brook.
A short walk, and a parting in the trees on the other side of the brook, revealed an image of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane with two messages from the scriptures.
Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee. ~Palms 55:22
Come unto me, all ye that are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ~Matthew 11:28-29
Here each girl could physically lay down her burdens at the feet of the Lord. It was a powerful visual and physical lesson of just how the atonement works. It was an incredible experience for the girls, and all the adults involved as well.
As my friend and I talked about how awesome it was, she mentioned what a great reference tool it’s already been for her. Her daughter just went through a hard, hard breakup before coming home from college for the summer, and was still having a difficult time with it. They’ve been able to talk about how truly casting burdens upon the Lord does not mean you keep going back to the bag to rummage through the rocks. That’s when it hit me…I’m a rummager. Just when I think I’ve turned things over to the Lord, I go pick half my rocks back up. I do it with my fears, I do it with financial issues, I do it in my marriage, I do it in my parenting, ect. ect. ect. I’ve never thought about how I behave in those terms. It’s funny, I often find that lessons learned in young womens are generally more for the leaders themselves than for the girls. This was a perfect example of that.
Today I met with the school nurse, and got our plan all in order. Tomorrow I will take pictures, kiss Miles goodbye, and leave him at his classroom door. It’ll all be okay.
I am going to practice casting, and leaving my bags.
Did you know…
…our little Eve turned THREE in June?!!! I KNOW!! I can’t believe it either. She just gets more and more fun/cute/sassy the older she gets. Greg, Brenden, Miles and I all adore her, and she knows it.
From the moment she woke up, she was grinning and giggling about it being her “bir-day”. Aren’t little kids the best when it comes to celebrating?! Eve was just exuding joy all day. She absolutely loved having everyone wish her a happy birthday at church.
Then she about went bananas when she opened the jungle animals Grandma and Grandpa H. got for her. We brought out her tree house/doll house so she could get right down to the business of playing.
The afternoon was totally chill. We hung out while she’d open something, and just watch while she explored it. Eve currently loves anything to do with animals (especially horses), farms and castles. There hasn’t been a day that’s gone by that she hasn’t played with these new animals in her jungle. (Madison- She madly loves your old tree house!!)
Around last Christmas I found a huge Little Peoples castle set at a children’s resale store for crazy cheap. I was done with her Christmas shopping so I tucked it away for her birthday.
It had horses, and princesses, and dragons, OH MY!! :) It was so worth buying and hiding.
All three kids didn’t leave the front room until dinner time.
Eve wore the horsey party hat we made for days after. She’s been asking me for another birthday ever since. :) I’m thinking I need to look forward to my next birthday with that much excitement.
Breakfast on the porch
One fav thing for us this summer eating outside on the porch. Here are some snaps from a breakfast early in the summer. Eve was giving me some adorable half-moon-eyed smiles when Brenden startled us both by sneaking up behind.
Let’s Play Music
I have to apologize a bit for that last post. I didn’t really mean to make this place a space for advertisements, but I wanted to take a quick minute get the word out our rad music classes, and help our friend hopefully rustle up some new students. We didn’t get anything for hosting a class or having people sign up. We just wanted to share. That being said…What a boring post!! No pictures or anything! It made me realize I haven’t posted anything fun all summer. Where has it gone?!! So I figured, Let’s Play Music is actually a great place to start. You’ve heard my little review of the class…now here are some pictures from the recital the boys had. It was only a few months ago. :)
Let’s Play Music is not a performance group, but at the end of the year, all the classes come together to show off everything they’ve learned. Miles was especially excited to be center stage. No surprise there. I love his fearless attitude. Here he and the others are singing a song about three chords they’ve been learning to recognize and play.
I was really proud of Brenden though. He warmed right up, and when it was his turn, he was one of the few kids who remembered to sing and play at the same time. He played the Dinosaur Song. You can imagine by the title that it was a favorite at our house. The cool thing about LPM is each song has all this cool hidden musical information in it. This particular song taught them recognize notes stepping and skipping up and down the music staff and on their tone bells.
Miles got to play next to his cousin, Eli. They both did awesome at playing A Frog Went a-Hoppin’. For this song, they played pretty much three notes in a steady beat, leaping up and down the staff and bells, but learned to harmonize their voices with what they were playing. Cool stuff.
Here the whole group is singing the final number, Do RE MI. (Like the Do a Deer song from The Sound of Music, but the LPM version.) Brenden and Miles are in the back doing the hand signs for the notes. They were on MI. Do you like how Miles took advantage of the elevated elbows to wipe his nose on his sleeve? :) I do.
Brenden got super excited about DO. :) Yeah, remember when I said Brenden warmed up to performing? Well, not only did he warm up, he turned into THE Performer. He was absolutely killing us with how much he was getting into it. Brenden is awesome, and he was totally eating up all the attention. Miles started off strong, but ended up having some lame blood sugar issues toward the end. His infusion set had come off (of course the only time I don’t have a spare on hand) so his numbers went really high. We didn’t realize he was having a problem until almost the end. He hadn’t gotten the insulin for his snack beforehand or any base for a couple hours. He was feeling like C R A P by the finale. Still you wouldn’t have really known it until he came off the stage. Then he just fell apart.
You can see it in his face here. Poor kid. Despite lame diabetes, their recital was such a fun cap to a great year with Miss Danicia. I remember her telling me before classes ever started, that the whole mission of Let’s Play Music was to grow intelligence, increase confidence, and bond children to their parents through play and music. Don’t quote me on that, but it’s what I remember. All I know is LPM accomplished all those things for us. We can’t wait to start up again in a couple weeks!!
As Danicia would say: Adios with a ME, RE, DO! :)
Let’s Play Music
My dear friends with children ages 4-7,
Have you heard of Let’s Play Music? We found out about it last year by attending a sample class, and knew immediately that it was something special. We were able to enroll Miles and Brenden, and had such an awesome experience that we want to share it with you! :) Our teacher (and friend), Danicia Christensen, is currently holding sample classes for first year students ages 4-7, and we are happy to host one of them in our home. These last days of summer are so busy, but I hope you will take a moment to come and see why we love, love, LOVE this program.
Let’s Play Music Sample Class
Hough Home (Please comment, and I will send you the address)Thursday, August 11th @ 1:00 pm
Let’s Play Music is a music course that emphasizes total musicianship through piano playing, singing, classical music, theory, note reading, and ear training……and it’s accomplished through PLAY!!
After one year, I feel like my children already have an incredible musical foundation. I still remember Greg’s jaw dropping when he realized they were playing songs on their tone bells by sight-reading notes. It’s so exciting to think that by year three, they will be playing piano at an intermediate level, transposing music, composing their own music, sight-reading music, and prepared to excel in any further piano instruction. ….and it’s all accomplished through PLAY. The classes are just plain fun. Hope to see you soon!
With love,
Melinda, Brenden and Miles
PS: You are welcome to bring all of your children. :)
just (me)linda 