Monday, March 5, 2012

What I've Been Up To: Reaching Out

We are well into our first week of March and I have been happily surprised by how little the screens have been on. That month goal has accomplished its purpose I think.

We have been recuperating from a nasty respiratory bug that has been making the rounds through our family. Today is the first day I haven't taken a decongestant. I have been very drowsy from the sinus pressure and drugs and therefore, absent from my blogging. I don't know what I would do without my angel of a mother coming to tend me when Jon was out of town and my kids and I were all sick. She got the bug too in the end. She says she is expendable and it is ok for her to get sick because she doesn't have to take care of kids all day. She is wrong. I need her too much. I am glad she is getting better now too.

It was a lovely sunny day today with temperatures in the mid seventies. The kids and I spent the after school hours playing out in front of the house. I love those times. I love when my neighbors come out and we get a chance to visit while the kids play. I have great neighbors. What a blessing they are!

Other than that, I have been getting up to speed on my new responsibilities at church. We had big changes recently and I got a new job working in the women's organization as a counselor over education. It has been fun working with the other women in the presidency and getting to know the ladies at church better.

One thing I am going to try to do in an effort to "reach out" more to the women in the ward is to try to be more mindful of them and to send out little notes to them when I am thinking of them. I sent one today. It felt good to write my sincere feelings down to a woman I admire and yet don't speak to very often.

I used to work with her ... back when Camille was with us and through her accident and for 3 months after. Then the boundaries to our ward changed and we were in different wards. A couple years later we were back in the same ward again after more boundary changes but we haven't been working together again like we used to. So today I thought of her and how much I enjoyed working with her back then. So I sat down and wrote her a note to tell her I loved her.

It felt good. I want to do that more. I do not always come across as warmly as I want to. I am a doer. I like to get my list checked off. Often times I am so focused on getting things done (important things) that I am not able to express the warm and loving feelings that are in my heart for the people I pass or see along the way. I really do have deep feelings of love and appreciation and admiration for people. I think many people I know would be surprised to know how much love I feel for them. I hope my little card writing campaign will help me express those feelings more fully and brighten a day here and there of someone who needs to know they are loved that day.