The Weekend

I taught my first lesson in Relief Society yesterday. The topic was very appropriate given the season: Gratitude. Our lesson was based on President Monson's Oct 2010 General Conference talk, "The Divine Gift of Gratitude." My neighbor and I were talking about the upcoming lesson topic a week or so ago, after we had just had a whole stake conference full of gratitude messages and talks and lessons about it all month, and she joked that we were all going to be a little sick of being grateful by the end of the month :)

I cried a lot. No surprise. Hopefully everyone knows I cry often by now and they just accept that. I told Coralee, who is the Education Counselor in our Relief Society, that I was happy to accept the calling to teach, but that she better expect the tears. I'm sure I've blogged about it before, but my theory is that when the Big Man Upstairs was divvying up the "gifts" before we came to earth, he gave me an extra strong dose of emotion. My spirit is really tender and I am easily moved. I could rarely ever even make it through a primary sharing time without crying, let alone teaching in front of a bunch of women.

But I was still understandable through the tears, and I think it went pretty well. I bore testimony about the importance of being grateful, which is something I believe so strongly in, and shared a couple of funny stories about my kids. They are great, by the way. I love that they teach me so much every day. Truly, it's humbling. The lesson is over now, though, so on to the next one. My next lesson (the day after Christmas) is on D. Todd Christofferson's talk, "Reflections on a Consecrated Life." I've read it a few times already, and there is much to reflect on for sure. Glad I have a few weeks to ponder on that one before I teach again.

We got our outside lights up on the house and in the yard on Saturday. Actually, when I say "we", I mean Ryan. I can only take credit for the blinking lawn snowflakes, which I have to say are the sauce. The kids and I did a neighborhood spirit check on Saturday night - a quick drive-by really - to see who had the holiday spirit. We were duly impressed with Lockwood street (no thanks to the Berrey's - hint, hint...) as just about every house was decked out in awesome lights. There's got to be a lot of pressure living on Lockwood in the midst of all that lumination. It's awesome.

I have to say that the Harris Park effort was weak. Weak, I tell you. But we're hoping that the lack of lights is just attributable to the fact that it's still technically November and that hopefully by this weekend, we'll be seeing the lights in full force.

We also put up the tree on Saturday and got it all decorated last night. The kids were huge helpers. Really, they were. Especially Easton & Rowan. They carefully unwrapped each ornament and placed about a hundred of them side by side on the lower three feet of the tree. Then they handed them up to me on the 12 foot ladder so I could reach the high branches. We only had to do a little rearranging after we discovered we had no ornaments left for the whole left side of the tree. But it's all good now. Nicely placed. Well lit. We used every single ornament and I think I would like more. But we're not buying any new ones this year - really, we don't need more - I just like a really full tree. I think I get that from my mom. My kiddos turned on the lights this morning before school and sat by the tree. Rearranged a couple more ornaments - again. Moved them to the perfect spots - again. It made me smile.

Oh, and I have a full blown cold. Saturday night I sensed the beginnings of it. The perpetual sneezes. Dry throat. Dim headache. By Sunday morning, I was 75% sure it was going to hit hard. I made it through church with only a half dozen sneezes and a nose running like a sieve. I'm sure all the ladies in Relief Society just thought I was wiping my nose incessantly due to the tears I was shedding, but that was only half of it. Today I have the full blown head cold. The real deal. I'm about a third of the way through my newly opened Kleenex box. Since I can't breathe through my nose, my mouth is getting an extra workout, which makes my throat dry and leads me to chug more H2O. Which is good for me, I know, especially when I'm sick, but I'm wearing out the carpet on the pathway to the bathroom.

We've been healthy for so long. Especially me. I can't remember the last time I was sickly. I haven't run since the Turkey Trot, which means I've had three days off, four if I don't make it out tonight. I never take 3 days off. Really, never even two. So I'm a little worried about not running (you lose the stamina so fast), but I just couldn't peel myself out of bed this morning with my hollow feeling head and dry throat and the thought of the bone-chilling cold at 5:30 am. My iPhone told me it was 33 degrees, so I acquiesced and stayed in a bed wrapped tight in my blanket for another half hour.

Maybe tonight. Maybe not. For sure tomorrow.