Bunches of Service

Isn't it funny how things happen. This week I found myself lost in good works. On Tuesday I helped plant flowers at Mom's convalescent home.
You can see some of our work here. The earth in this plot was rich, dark dirt. Noticing dirt may seem like a crazy pastime, but, you see, our own personal dirt is quite adverse to growing things. It is clay. How I wish our garden plot looked as good as this one!

Thursday I helped clean house for a family in great need of that. You can see some of their collection of stuff in this photo. This adds to my perception that stuff is quite a problem for most people. We simply have too much of it. I'm determined to rid myself of my own surplus stuff.

On Saturday I helped serve breakfast at a Church Public Affairs meeting. In between I spent lots of time with Mom, who is very discouraged at being stuck in a convalescent home, if only for a couple more weeks. She is all a-whine about the poor service, food and general situation. I can't blame her; I'd feel the same way. I am trying to get her to concentrate on using her body and getting going again. Layne fed her hopes by telling her that, in two weeks, we would rescue her and take her home to Colorado. I hope that we will be able to handle her by then and I cannot help but hope and invest in her recovery.

So, all those good deeds has filled my soul with sweet feelings this week. I suppose that means that it would be good for me to do more of this sort of thing. I wonder why I hesitate to chase after those opportunities when I have the chance of it.

Sunday was our extended Family Home Evening. We have three families nearby now, so when we get together there is quite a crowd. We celebrated birthdays for grandsons Isaiah (11) and William (4). Here you see them at work opening gifts. Our two sons, Ben and Reed, and their wives visited Mom as well. They cheered her but agree with me that she is not a happy woman. But what can we do? She is unable to stand and walk at the moment and must be handled carefully to preserve the placement of her new hip. I feel so badly leaving her in the home but see no alternative at the moment. I'm trying to use her dislike of the place as motivation to get her body moving as soon as possible. But here is the quandary: her hip must be protected from improper movement, but the longer she doesn't move the harder it is to get a return of movement. Hum.