The sermon today was on gratitude. Sister F. told a fabulous story about a man who woke up and found himself wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper - his life was a gift! Next to him was his gift-wrapped wife - he'd been given a wife! In walked his two kids (in wrapping paper, of course), then he saw his gift-wrapped light switch, faucet (clean water!) and oh - a shower! With hot water! And look, he got a briefcase - he had a job! And a car! And even good food! So many wonderful Christmas presents!
This story went really well in ASL, and I have to say, Sister F is a wonderful story teller. We've been encouraging our kids to pay attention in Sacrament meeting, and this one really caught the eyes of at least the older kids. I felt real gratitude for that!
Friday night, Lige's bike was stolen. He'd lost his bike helmet, so he left his bike locked up at the school, and we forgot to go pick it up. When we went the next day, we found the broken lock on the ground. It was so depressing. We've had at least 10 bikes stolen in the 10 years we live here. And this was a nice bike, which was Lige's primary mode of transportation. I was feeling angry and frustrated. And then Marriner said something that just changed my whole perspective. "Well, our son had his bike stolen, but at least our son wasn't out stealing bikes."
I thought of some mom out there whose son was out who-knows-where (well, I know where - at the high school, with a hammer, thinking he was so clever for breaking the lock on that bike) and how all her hopes and dreams for him seem to be going down the drain as he makes worse and worse decisions. I guess having a bike stolen isn't that bad.
And as I thought about it more, I realized that actually, we've had a lot of blessings to help replace all these bikes that have been stolen. We've hardly ever paid for our kids' bikes - most of them are given to us, or Marriner gets a bike someone is throwing out that he can repair. So I can't really complain.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Praise be to God for his bountiful blessings to all of us.
Monday, November 25, 2019
Sunday, November 17, 2019
Noise
A friend in the branch told me about taking her kids to their local hearing ward so they could get to know some of the members that live close to them. "My kids hated it," she said. "There was so much noise and distraction."
Knowing ASL changes the way you deal with noise. I've noticed this in our family Before we knew ASL, if we were in a crowded, noisy room, we would yell to communicate. Now, that just seems like a horrible way to communicate! Why would we want more noise in the room?
I recently went to eat lunch with Lillian at school for her birthday. Since our middle school is so far away, and middle schoolers are usually too cool to eat with their parents, I hadn't been to lunch at that school before. I should have remembered that the noise in the lunchroom spurred my oldest son to do a science fair project investigating the health of noise levels at various school environments. (Answer: the lunchroom wasn't great, but school dances were actually at unhealthy levels after 1 hr. Interestingly, none of the administrators who saw this project suggested changing anything. But I digress...) I was shocked at how loud the room was. For some reason, they think that 180 kids trying to talk in the same room isn't enough, and they play music, too. I 100% don't get it. I literally could not hear the person right next to me. So of course, I'm trying to say hi to Lillian's friends and get to know them. And try as I might, I couldn't bring myself to yell to be heard. All I could do was pull out my hands and try to communicate with them. I'm sure all these girls just think we're the weirdest family ever. But once you know sign language, you lose your taste for shouting.
There's a FB page named #whyIsign that shares people's videos of why they sign. Usually, reasons are something like, "Because I'm deaf" or "I have a deaf cousin" or "I meat a cute girl that was deaf". I think about my reasons why I sign:
Knowing ASL changes the way you deal with noise. I've noticed this in our family Before we knew ASL, if we were in a crowded, noisy room, we would yell to communicate. Now, that just seems like a horrible way to communicate! Why would we want more noise in the room?
I recently went to eat lunch with Lillian at school for her birthday. Since our middle school is so far away, and middle schoolers are usually too cool to eat with their parents, I hadn't been to lunch at that school before. I should have remembered that the noise in the lunchroom spurred my oldest son to do a science fair project investigating the health of noise levels at various school environments. (Answer: the lunchroom wasn't great, but school dances were actually at unhealthy levels after 1 hr. Interestingly, none of the administrators who saw this project suggested changing anything. But I digress...) I was shocked at how loud the room was. For some reason, they think that 180 kids trying to talk in the same room isn't enough, and they play music, too. I 100% don't get it. I literally could not hear the person right next to me. So of course, I'm trying to say hi to Lillian's friends and get to know them. And try as I might, I couldn't bring myself to yell to be heard. All I could do was pull out my hands and try to communicate with them. I'm sure all these girls just think we're the weirdest family ever. But once you know sign language, you lose your taste for shouting.
There's a FB page named #whyIsign that shares people's videos of why they sign. Usually, reasons are something like, "Because I'm deaf" or "I have a deaf cousin" or "I meat a cute girl that was deaf". I think about my reasons why I sign:
- Because I hate too much noise
- Because my kids need to learn another language
- Because I really love being able to talk when my mouth is full
#that'sthetruth #it'snotjustaboutthegoodreasons
Friday, November 8, 2019
So close...
I had a funny conversation the other night that you might enjoy. We were chatting before a Primary presidency meeting. One mom moaned about her child leaving all his stuff all over the floor when he gets dressed in the morning.
"Sorry to tell you, but even my oldest still leaves his stuff on the floor when he gets dressed. I don't think it's going to get better," I wryly reply.
(Looks of surprise.)
"Lige still wears a pull-up?"
Oh, I'd missed that sign. Yeah, no Lige totally does NOT wear pull-ups any more. Nor does he leave pull-ups on the floor, because he knows that's nasty. And really, he doesn't leave his clothes all over that much, either. Just sometimes. Because, you know, the world might turn upside-down if a teenager was perfect. :)
And to their credit, none of the other ladies in the meeting laughed their heads off at me.
"Sorry to tell you, but even my oldest still leaves his stuff on the floor when he gets dressed. I don't think it's going to get better," I wryly reply.
(Looks of surprise.)
"Lige still wears a pull-up?"
Oh, I'd missed that sign. Yeah, no Lige totally does NOT wear pull-ups any more. Nor does he leave pull-ups on the floor, because he knows that's nasty. And really, he doesn't leave his clothes all over that much, either. Just sometimes. Because, you know, the world might turn upside-down if a teenager was perfect. :)
And to their credit, none of the other ladies in the meeting laughed their heads off at me.
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