The above photo is of my mother Julia, that died 15 years ago, this August. I will upload more photos when I find them. This not very clear photo is from her funeral announcement. Yesterday was such a beautiful and sunny day. I usually spend the day before Mothers Day, thinking about my mother so that the next, day, I am not an emotional wreck. This year was a beautiful peaceful spiritual celebration. After the baseball game at Hidden Cove, I walked the 1.5 miles home by myself. I felt overwhelmed at the beauty of where I live. I looked up at the sky and felt her spirit all around me. I stopped and picked wildflowers for her the entire way home so that when I arrived, I had a nice bouquet. It has been a week to think about mothers. Wednesday night, Bro. Rehder asked if Myron could give a talk in sacrament. At home later that night, I had an overwhelming desire to speak as well. If you know me, this is a big deal because as much as I love to talk, I am frightened of speaking in public and have turned down many offers to speak or even say a prayer. I felt the desire so strong, that I wrote the talk immediately and called Brother Rehder to ask if I could speak. The next day, the answer was....."no, we have plenty of people and I hope you'll offer in the future". I let him know that I probably wouldn't be offering again. I felt dejected and confused. Why was I feeling the spirit so strongly and yet, they aren't?? Here I am ASKING and you're telling me no?? I called Sharon Boundy on Friday hoping she hadn't had a chance to write her talk yet and convince her to let me speak instead. I ended up leaving a message and didn't hear back from her. I told myself, it was too personal, I wrote it for me......yaddi yadda. Even R and I last night talked about it and I read her my talk and I said, i'll bring it to church tomorrow just in case. I did have the prompting still you know.
Wouldn't you know it, as soon as I arrived at church, I hear a "sister Butler" from across the parking lot. As it turned out, the two speakers that they were planning on talking, didn't know they were supposed to talk. Apparently no one had asked them. He asked if I would share my talk. I had left it at home but felt so peaceful and overwhelmed at the same moment. I didn't share anything that I had written in my talk. Myron talked during sacrament and I followed. During the actual sacrament, I jotted down some notes. I just didn't feel good about what I was writing. I prayed to heavenly father to just use me as a tool. I let him know that I had faith in him and I really felt that all would be well. I didn't plan on anything I said. The message ended up being, that we really need to be thoughtful with our children. Remind them often, in clever and fun ways, just how much we adore and love them. I talked about my mother. After my talk, several people came up and bore their testimonies and talked about their mothers. It was so touching. One youth in particular opened up in a way that we had never seen before. A troubled youth who you could tell was really feeling the spirit up there. I got goosebumps thinking about his leaders and all the hard work they have done to make this boy feel special. What a great reward for them. I have so much more to write, but I think this is enough for now.
Happy Mothers Day!
PS- I just realized where this message of "Little things mean a lot" came from. While my mother was in the hospital, she cross stitched me something and my dad gave it to me a month after she died for my 18th birthday. It was a picture of a little girl holding up a flower and it said " Little things mean a lot, to my dear kk, love mom". I cannot believe I didn't realize before now.
We have been spending the last few afternoons at Nonny's as we prepare for the bazaar. Mae and Rylan have never been happier. They wake up excited to see their best friends.
Somehow in the midst of all this bazaar chaos, we pulled of a lovely dinner with the missionaries, even if it meant enticing them to a ball game.
We found a parachute at our local store and the kids had a blast with it ........for a while.
Brennan left for a 3 day two night 4th grade outdoor ed trip. We missed him terribly and were so excited when he came back today. It was adequate rest for him apparently, because tonight he had a game and he pitched like a pro.
