Letter to Richard - 11 October 2013

Dear Richard!

My marking is finished J Always a relief to have that out of the way! We’ve also just about finished finalising the marks, and thankfully the students have mostly done well J And now I’m starting to do all sorts of other things at work, like helping with some spreadsheets. But I’m also getting to do some personal things finally, which have been sorely neglected recently!

And with the weather warming up we had our first swim, after finally getting the pool clear again. The kids really loved it, and then when they went to their swimming lesson the next day they were both just so excited to be in the pool again! Caleb really just wanted to be sitting on the side and scooping water in a cup and then pouring it in again. And he fell in! Mom had come to help as a second adult, but she was just sitting on the step, and she jumped in to get him out… With her phone and two remotes on her! Thankfully the remotes are finally working again, but her phone didn’t seem to come right L She has a spare phone though, so not the end of the world… But of course Caleb went straight back to scooping the water as before!

We also got to do some family things like we went to the park on the way home from school on Friday, and then Andrew came and joined us. The longer evenings are great like that, although it does mean the kids are struggling to get to sleep when it’s not properly dark yet!

But the weekend was super busy. Andrew took Josh and Hannah to the Primary presentation practice on Saturday morning, while Caleb and I got to spend some time together. And then in the afternoon we went to Fish Hoek for my nephew’s 3^rd birthday party, which was actually a really nice change to be visiting with the family in a different way J And on the way home we went to Kirstenbosch to see the fire flies! Josh got to hold a few of them, but they all really enjoyed it! It was very strange walking along the braile trail when it was dark though – I felt like I was going blind myself! The whole thing made me really appreciative of the beauties of the earth, and also for a body that works so well! In fact for my music time slot in Relief Society yesterday I used the Primary song “My Heavenly Father Loves Me”

1. Whenever I hear the song of a bird

Or look at the blue, blue sky,

Whenever I feel the rain on my face

Or the wind as it rushes by,

Whenever I touch a velvet rose

Or walk by our lilac tree,

I'm glad that I live in this beautiful world

Heav'nly Father created for me.

2. He gave me my eyes that I might see

The color of butterfly wings.

He gave me my ears that I might hear

The magical sound of things.

He gave me my life, my mind, my heart:

I thank him rev'rently

For all his creations, of which I'm a part.

Yes, I know Heav'nly Father loves me.

And I also quoted Pres Uchtdorf who said: “We are the reason He created the universe! … “This is a paradox of man: compared to God, man is nothing; yet we are everything to God.” Isn’t it amazing to know how much we matter to Him?!?

And then on Sunday afternoon we went to have a late lunch and afternoon visit with Gerald and Karen Shaw and their 3 kids. Hannah was petrified of their dogs, but once they were properly closed away she and Josh very quickly settled down and enjoyed playing with the kids. Caleb almost always is only too happy to get involved, so he was fine. But it was just amazing to me to see especially how Josh handled the whole weekend, and to reflect on the growth in him! He handled a practice, a party with an extra unknown girl, the fireflies with lots of extra adults and children, plus visiting a new family – and each time he was able to settle down relatively quickly and get involved. What a blessing!!! I really am so proud of him and the progress he’s made J

So a busy weekend, but a least I can recover now that it’s back to school and work :P

I invited two of Josh’s friends and their families to come to the presentation next Sunday. I haven’t heard from the one family, but the other mom just spoke to me and said she would have loved to, but this weekend is just not possible L But her brother is struggling with cancer, and we spoke briefly about that, and then when I went to the church site to get the quotes for your letter I saw a link to a video (Essa’s Story) that really may help to answer some of her brother’s questions about why this is happening to him etc… So I sent her the link – hopefully she’ll share it with him J and hopefully it will touch her heart as well!

Love you lots!

Shelly