We're All Alright

I bit off a little more than I could chew this past weekend.  I had a hat to finish for one of my Activity Day girls, bread to bake for Sunday dinner at the in-laws', cupcakes to make and decorate for my primary kiddos, and two pies to deliver to families in our ward.  The timer for my pies went off 5 minutes before church started when we should have been leaving the house at quarter to 10:00.  Consequently, we were late.  Consequently, we sat in the foyer for the sacrament.  The pies had seemed under-baked, so I left them at home in the oven.  Consequently, I had to send Hiram back to retrieve them.  Consequently, our car was not in the parking lot.  When my in-laws didn't see us in sacrament meeting (we always sit next to them) and on such a special Sunday (it was our primary presentation), my mother-in-law panicked.  She was sure that our whole family had died in our sleep due to carbon monoxide poisoning.  Ellen (my mother-in-law), who was sitting on the stand, sent one of the primary kids down to David (my father-in-law) with a note telling him he better check on us.  This freaked him out.  He had helped us put our wood stove in the previous day and had been worrying the whole time that Hiram would mess something up and kill us all and/or burn the house down when he actually started a fire in it.  In fact, at 10:30 the previous evening, he had felt like he should call us and check on us, but he figured it was too late and didn't.  Since he had not followed this possible prompting, he had an extra dose of anxiety as he drove to our house, wondering the whole time how he'd be able to dial 911 since he didn't have his cell phone on him.  He drove to our house, nearly frightened to death and began looking in our windows dreading what he might see.  The sight of my made bed, relieved his mind somewhat.  The lack of dead bodies helped too.  He then drove by the hospital before running into Hiram on his way back to get the pies.  Boy was he ever relieved.  And Ellen was sure happy to see me walk in right after the sacrament and make my way up onto the stand.  I was sorry to have given them such a scare, but it was nice to know how much they care.  David said it would have ruined his day.=)

Thinking about it, I'm not sure how bad a thing it would be to go peacefully in your sleep with your whole family, but I am very glad to report that we're all alright, and our house, which was recently frigid, is now often a little overly warm.  I do like having heat in my home! And my wood stove is beautiful.

Here are pictures of my projects. 

And one of Israel enjoying our first fire.

I have never in my life been as happy as I am.  My life seems pretty darn near perfect to me.  I can't tell you how much I love this simple, desert life.  I am active and productive but not too busy.  I am more aware of my blessings and more grateful than I've ever been.  I treasure my children and every beautiful thing about them-- their faces and hands and voices and hugs.  I care about all the things that really matter and none of the things that don't.  I'm kind to my husband and more patient than I once was.  I have everything I want (except a large family, but I'm happy to take that slowly).  I hope everyone that I love is just as happy as I am.