We observe Family Day on
January 25. It's the anniversary of when we were sealed in the temple.
I did not do things in the proper order. I married Glen in October, he
was baptized in December, and then a year later in January we were
sealed. The cool result was a couple anniversary and a family
anniversary. The marriage failed so I do not celebrate October 20. But
I do believe in marriage in theory, in temples, eternal families, and I
am very grateful for my children. So I try to do something for Family
Day. Last year we had a games day. This year, the Hinds kids are in
performances on the 25th, so we got together on the 11th.
We
played Escape the Crate games. Sort of like
an Escape Room except it is a lot cheaper and you can play anywhere
as long as you have an internet connection. (Also, the game can be
passed on to be played by another group.) The company recommends
4-6 people. One CAN play alone and more can play together, but
multiple brains and different perspectives are good on the one hand
and it is hard for lots of people to be able to see the clues on the
other. We had 7 people on each team. Himovitz, Hinds, & Miriam
did the Rock and Roll Escape. Robarts, Robarts, & Robarts did
the Chicago Worlds Fair.
Ours was actually 2 shorter games in one
box. One game was the Murder Hotel (which one may or may not want
younger people to play – scary voice on the audio and at times gory
but not graphically descriptive topic and no gory pictures) and the
other was looking for something lost at the Fair. It took us 50
minutes to escape the hotel and 32 minutes to find the missing item.
The other team took almost 2 hours to solve theirs. I thought it was
a lot of fun, even though I could hardly see the clues (our team was
not as good as the other team at sharing with each other. Something
to work on) and I am not the most brilliant.
Have I told you
about my cat Felicity’s health problems? It’s gross. On (rare)
occasion, she would yowl and cry in pain and then defecate on the
floor, not the cat box, in a small number of drops, sometimes with
blood in the somewhat runny stool. Especially as there was blood
involved, I took her to the vet. What? In September, I think.
X-rays, urinalysis, I don’t remember what all, but about $600
worth. And no real answer. But it was decided to put her on special
cat food for the urinary tract and not let her eat the less expensive
food we have been getting from Costco nor allow her outside anymore.
Since then, the incidents seem to have become even more rare. But
she is quite unhappy about not being allowed outside or in the garage
where the regular food is in a self feeder.
We have to get
special expensive food that Chewy had the vet verify that she should
get it. BUT. Joseph’s cat Velox really likes Felicity’s food
and we don’t actually have a place we can feed F without V being
able to get there. So, I spent about $165 on a special cat food
dish that reads the cat’s microchip and only opens for the right
cat. Of course, it takes some time and training for the cat to get
used to it. The cat sticks her head under an arch which reads the
chip and slides open the dish cover. When the cat moves away, the
cover closes. You train the cat in steps. At first the cover is
open and barely moves so the cat hears the motor and sees a very
little movement. We are now at step two so the cover moves not even
two inches. Felicity is not thrilled with this so we will be at this
step for a while. Unfortunately, that leaves the dish mostly open so
Velox can get food and she is not pestered by the sound or noise
because it doesn’t do anything when she approaches. I need to
give Felicity less food at a time so she doesn’t leave as much for
Velox. I usually give Velox a tiny amount of food when I feed
Felicity so V won’t go after F’s food. That doesn’t work.
They run and trade places. CATS!
We persist, however,
because it seems like it’s helping. One day Felicity managed to
both get in the garage for a while and to get outside. The next day
she had trouble. Cause and effect or coincidence? Don’t know, but
trying to keep her restricted.
No more gross stuff. Have you seen this picture? Do you know this man?
Look at it before you read on.
I'll talk about something else so you don't see yet.
The theme for January Sacrament Meeting is love. Sister Akinaka talked about learning to love yourself.
"When a lawyer asked Jesus, “Master, which is the great commandment in
the law?” he answered, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first
and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love
thy neighbor as thyself.” (Matt. 22:36–39.)
Notice that Jesus said you are to love your neighbor as yourself. You
are a child of God, along with your neighbor. God wants you to love
yourself just as much as he wants you to love others."
It was a good talk. Still easier to understand why than how.
Do
you know the man in the picture? This is the picture Jesus The Christ
modernized. Makes me think. Am I really learning to know Christ?
When Jesus lived on the earth, he dressed the way the people of his time
dressed. When we see Him again, He may or may not be in His "Jesus"
costume. He might be wearing something else. His hair might be
different. Will we recognize His spirit? Will we know His face? Do we
KNOW HIm or just the stories about him.
