Dec. 28, 2012

Here is it almost the end of 2012. As previous entries will confirm, I suck at keeping a journal. But since the new year is always a time for resolutions, you guessed it.

This Christmas has been great. It's been so nice having Eric home. He spent the last two Christmases on his mission in Phoenix, so as I said, it's been nice having him home. Marlee and Shannon have enjoyed his presence too.

Today has been a "work" day. Shannon decided it's time to do new flooring in Marlee's bedroom. When we had her new closet done last year, we did bamboo flooring. But it stopped at the threshold of the closet. Ever since then, we've promised her that we would extend it into her whole room. Problem, there's already 70-year-old oak flooring in her room. So, we're having to pull up the existing oak flooring, clean and prep the subfloor and then re-install the new bamboo flooring. Problem. We can't take her bed and giant desk out of the room because they're too big to fit through the door without disassembling them. So, we have to pull up the old and lay the new flooring with stuff in the room. Lots of shifting and adjusting and moving and angling. To be honest, it's pretty brutal. We worked for about 5 hours today and maybe got a third of the floor down. To further complicate the process, Shannon goes into a coughing and gagging fit if the dust gets stirred up, so I have to do all of the cuts outside. So, every piece of flooring I have to cut requires me to measure it, walk downstairs and out to the driveway where the chop saw is set up. Cut it and then walk back into the house and upstairs. Of course, Shannon always seems to think these little jobs will only take a couple of hours.

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I don't think my ancestors will care that much about my struggles with home repair and maintenance. The reason I want to do a better job of keeping a journal goes back to a talk by Pres. Eyring in General Conference of Oct 2007. The talk was called "O Remember, Remember" and it was about keeping a journal. This passage has stuck with me ever since I first heard it:

"I wrote down a few lines every day for years. I never missed a day no matter how tired I was or how early I would have to start the next day. Before I would write, I would ponder this question: “Have I seen the hand of God reaching out to touch us or our children or our family today?” As I kept at it, something began to happen. As I would cast my mind over the day, I would see evidence of what God had done for one of us that I had not recognized in the busy moments of the day. As that happened, and it happened often, I realized that trying to remember had allowed God to show me what He had done."

This is why I need to keep a journal--so my children and grandchildren will know that I am always aware of the blessings God grants me every day. I know my words sometimes fall on deaf ears. Sometimes my words are grumpy. But if they can read my journal (perhaps after I'm dead and gone), they can know my thoughts and feelings.

So how has God blessed me today?

Well, I have an income that allows me to be able to purchase the supplies I need to lay the flooring. I have the knowledge and the ability to be able to do the work. I'm not the greatest carpenter in the world, but dad and my father-in-law taught me enough to be able to simple carpentry. I'm also keeping a promise to Marlee. I want her to know that I'm willing to sacrifice my time and (minimal) talents to make her happy.