A Broken Dish

It dawned on me as I walked Allie home from school. I thought about the large blue Pyrex baking dish falling to the tile floor of the kitchen earlier that morning, and the shards of glass spread all the way to the dining room...

I stopped and thought about that.

After we came home from walking Allie to school that morning, I sat Drew down in his booster seat to give him breakfast. Sami stood next to him, cooing and making faces. I walked three feet to the counter by the sink, where Drew's tray stood sandwiched in the middle of clean dishes from the previous night's dinner. I tilted the baking dish back. Somehow it slipped out from my hand. I tried to grab it, but missed. My body tensed, and I scrunched my eyes closed and turned away, bracing myself for the inevitable. I heard the dish bounce once, and then shatter. Then I turned back around.

Sami and Drew were frozen, staring at the glass on the ground. The glass was spread from right where the dish hit the floor all the way to the carpet in the dining room, about ten to twelve feet away. Tiny shards lay around my bare feet. Sami still had her shoes on from our walk, so I had her grab some shoes for me, so I could clean up the mess. Sami and Drew ate breakfast while I swept, Swiffered (three times), and vacuumed for forty-five minutes.

What a pain! I was so irritated. I was mad at Kevin for setting up the dishes in such a "careless" way, mad at me for not being more careful, mad at Sami for telling me over and over and over again that I shouldn't drop glass...

So I was even more shocked to realize as I walked Allie home from school that I had truly experienced a miracle.

The image of the glass on the floor came back to my mind. Massive, sharp shards had been blown ten feet, and yet my children and I, who had been standing within three feet of the accident, remained untouched. Not a single large piece of jagged glass had been shot in our direction-- in fact, I had only found several tiny shards on our side of the kitchen. The glass had blown in every direction but ours.

Some might say that's just a fluke-- just dumb luck. Some science-worshiping physicist might give some explanation as to why that happened-- how the glass falling and hitting in a certain way caused the glass to shatter in a certain direction. I'd listen and agree... and then remind him or her about Who invented physics.

In Light of the Earthquake in Haiti...

Signs of the times.

I can't help but be grateful, however, to have a living prophet to guide us through these perilous times. He not only receives revelation regarding our spiritual welfare, but our temporal welfare as well.

And as I have opened the newspaper each morning to more pictures of death and destruction in Haiti, the scripture from Doctrine and Covenants 88 has repeatedly come to mind. "Behold, I sent you out to testify and warn the people, and it becometh every man who hath been warned to warn his neighbor."

I talked with my mom yesterday. She talked about how all too many people there in Southern California think something like what has happened in Haiti after the earthquake could "never" happen here... in the "invincible" United States. Again, that same scripture came to mind.

I can't ignore that. I have been warned.

And we also know that if we are prepared, we shall not fear.

We have been counseled by our prophet to have food storage. And not just your three-day emergency stash, but at least a three-month supply. We've been counseled to get out of or stay out of debt, and have a cash reserve built up. This is not just "good advice"-- this is directly from the Lord. Perhaps compare it to Joseph's dreams that saved Egypt from starvation during seven years of famine. But what really mattered was their obedience. They could have easily said, "Say what? You want us to build up a reserve of food to last us seven years?! What on earth will we need all that food for?" But they didn't, and they were prepared.

So, because I love all of you, please heed this warning if haven't already done so. Are you temporally and spiritually prepared for whatever lies ahead? If so, then great! If not, then begin now!

For more information, please see http://www.providentliving.org/channel/0,11677,8033-1,00.html.

Out of the Mouths of Babes...

For the Family Home Evening lesson tonight we discussed the principles outlined in "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" (http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?locale=0&sourceId=1aba862384d20110VgnVCM100000176f620a____&vgnextoid=e1fa5f74db46c010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD), talking about how following those principles can help us have a happy home.

Kevin read a scripture dealing with the principle, and commandment, of forgiveness. I asked, "So what is forgiveness? What does it mean to forgive?"

Allie sat up a bit and answered, "Forgiveness is when someone does some badness..." She hesitated before continuing, her eyes focused upward, trying to find the right words, and then she went on, "... but you still love them."

Kevin and I looked at each other, astounded. How right, Allie! How right...

In the Past Month

Kevin is sitting in the dining room with Allie and Sami right now, making snowflakes to decorate our house for January. Allie believes there is always something for which we need to decorate the house (at least, she has believed that since Halloween)... and I think she's a little depressed that we've taken down all the Christmas decorations-- well, everything except the tree, which is coming down today, so the yard waste truck can pick it up in the morning. Sami just barely skipped over to me, a broad smile on her face, whispering (because Drew's sleeping), "Mom! Mom! Look!" It's her first snowflake. Kevin was hesitant to let her make one, since she'd have to use the scissors and all. But it worked out. She has a good-lookin' snowflake, and all her fingers are still attached! I'd say it was a success.

Except now that Sami is done, she's banging on the piano.

Thank goodness for a digital piano-- I just showed her how to use the headphones.

Today is cold... for central Florida. Currently, it's fifty degrees and cloudy. Tonight, it's expected to get down to 32, and by Wednesday night we're supposed to get down to 28 degrees. Brrrr! We came home from church, and while usually I just stay in my skirt or dress, I was so cold I had to change into pants and throw on a sweater. Kevin has tried to put on two separate sweaters, just for both of them to throw him into sneezing fits from the dust they had been collecting for the past 4 1/2 years. I told him to put on a sweatshirt, but he doesn't think he has any.

I'm not looking forward to Kevin going back to work tomorrow. He has been home since Christmas Eve. That day we spent a couple hours at the zoo, and then came home to prepare for dinner at our house with Mom and Dad Smith and the sister missionaries from our ward. While our "big" dinner we traditionally have on Christmas Eve, the fare tends to change each year. We have always wanted to try tamales, and this year we got the courage to try them.

I guess there's no "we" about it, really, since I'm the one that made them.

Kevin did get the needed groceries from the Latino foods market, where a Mexican woman noticed Kevin's items and concluded that he was making tamales. She and her husband helped Kevin find the rest of the needed items on his list, even leaving him with their phone number in case I needed help along the way.

I had prepared the tamales the afternoon of the 23rd, and then put them in the fridge ready to be steamed on Christmas Eve. They weren't half-bad! Of course, a bit more spice would have been nice, but if that's the only complaint for my first attempt, that ain't too shabby!

Christmas morning we continued our tradition of our gifts to Jesus, and opened the gifts we had under the tree. The kids had significantly fewer gifts to open, thanks to some divine inspiration received a week earlier. The week leading up to Christmas, we let the kids open a gift from extended family each day. It really worked out nicely-- each gift they opened they played with that entire day, and therefore truly appreciated, and by Christmas morning, they were left with only our family's gifts. No one was overwhelmed or burnt out, and the task of opening presents didn't seem like so much of a task. This idea had never occurred to me before, but it made for a very relaxing Christmas morning for us. Mom and Dad Smith came over while the girls were test-riding their new bikes out front, and after having lunch together, we headed over to the hospital for caroling with some friends, something which is our family's new Christmas Day tradition. We had gone caroling at the same hospital with our ward's choir at Christmastime every year while I was choir director, but since I was released, we decided to make it our family's tradition. In planning for it, it occurred to us that Christmas Day would be a nice day to go, and a day when the patients would probably be needing it the most (something else that had never occurred to me before). We had a good group of friends that joined us, and while the majority of patients were grateful for the Christmas spirit, I think our little group of singers felt grateful, too, for the way it helped us look beyond the materialism of that morning. Several times we were summoned to someone's doorway, where we sang of the Savior's birth as they smiled and listened intently from their hospital beds. Humbling.

The previous weekend we had celebrated Drew's birthday with Reddin and Lochlan, two other December one-year-olds from the ward, at a park along the Indian River. The week leading into that weekend had been rainy, just for a cold front to swoop in the evening before the party and, while blowing out the rain, bring in a pretty stiff, dry, chilly wind. In spite of the weather, we had fun downing hotdogs and punch, and Drew really loved his cupcake. Sisters Heather and Stephanie, Reddin and Lochlan's moms respectively, prepared oversized cupcakes for the boys. Reddin took a few licks and cried, Lochlan took respectable gentlemanly nibbles, and Drew, after taste-testing a few bites, shoved fistfuls of frosting into his mouth, smearing it all over his happy little face, and then into his hair. Once there was nothing left for Drew to eat, Kevin lifted him him up and ran him into the park bathroom for a rinse. Too bad our camera died just after we sang "Happy Birthday." I was able to get a good picture from Stephanie, though. What cute boys!

Later that week, we got to enjoy both the Christmas program at Sami's preschool (since it's through a Baptist church, it literally is a Christmas program), and Allie's winter holiday Kindergarten program (a lot of songs dedicated to Santa...). Both programs were cute, and both girls looked beautiful in their Christmas dresses.

Going back to the week of vacation with Kevin home... We got to visit Sebastian Inlet with Mom and Dad S. one evening, even seeing and petting a small hammerhead shark some kid had pulled in while fishing on the pier.


Another day we spend in Vero Beach, visiting the botanical gardens as well as the outlet mall for a few spontaneous purchases. Of course, one morning Kev spent with the Scouts, but since all of them showed up for once, I guess it was worth it.


And now I'm staring at that Christmas tree, knowing I need to get the ornaments put away so we can throw the tree out front. But it's so pretty. I really don't want to do it. Plus, we'll get all those dang needles everywhere...