BACK TO BLOGGING

The last two weeks have been on the crazy side. I've hardly had time to catch my breath.  First there was the convention and I'm happy to say most of my candidates made it, though some still face a primary.  Leading up to the  convention I did a lot of background checking, record checking, emptying my mailbox, and gritting my teeth while listening politely to phone call after phone call. I was once a  believer in the caucus/convention system in Utah and I'm a firm believer in representative government, but frankly there were a few delegates at that convention I wouldn't care to think represent me.  It was long, exhausting, and not run as well as conventions I remember in the past, but I survived. 

I taught a class last Saturday--three times.  By the time I got to the third session I couldn't remember what I'd covered and what I hadn't.  The class was on selecting books and media.  Music and movies are definitely not my area of expertise, but I had a lot of fun with books. The class was well attended all three times and I gave away about sixty books, some by me, but mostly ones I've reviewed or considered for review.  I accumulate so many more books than I can possibly keep or give away on this blog.  I usually give some to local charities, but the class seemed like a good opportunity to introduce a large number of women to LDS fiction.  I'll admit I hesitated before giving away some that I particularly enjoyed. 

Today was Grandparents Day at my eight-year-old grandson's school.  It was a lot of fun and very crowded.  Signing in and waiting for some of the activities required a lot of waiting in line.  I think far more grandparents came than had been anticipated.  One activity was a big world map; everyone was invited to place a star on the map representing the place where he or she was born. Looking at that map I decided my grandson's classmates are a mini United Nations.  Growing up, I complained a lot about school lunches, but we certainly had better lunches than today's kids.  My grandson had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a tiny carton of chocolate milk, a pile of pickles, and an apple (it was a cooking variety, not an eating apple!)  He could have had a dollar size hamburger instead of the PB&J sandwich.  It took him about five minutes to eat his lunch, then I think he'd had enough of grandparents, and was more interested in playing soccer with his best friend, Madelyn. Madelyn is a great best friend; she's not only the prettiest second grade girl in the school, but the toughest kid too.  Heaven help any kid, boy or girl, who thinks they can push her or her friends around! 

I've grabbed any minute I could to work in my badly neglected garden, there's been my days at the temple, grocery shopping, laundry, books to read and review, a couple of days tending my little granddaughter, and on and on. 

So what's the connection between these events other than they kept me from blogging?  I could say that as a writer they are all tiny slices of life that enhance my ability to create realistic characters and scenes, but there's something more.  On Easter I roasted a turkey and baked a ham.  I loaded the counter with all kinds of toppings, cheese, and vegies to make great hoagie sandwiches. At one point I looked over at a table where our five youngest grandsons sat.  They'd fixed their own hoagies.  One filled his bun with corn chips, one sported two slices of cheese, one had a lettuce and Miracle Whip sandwich,  one was eating just the plain bun with no filling, and the last one had lined up a row of jelly beans in his. Life is like that.  It seldom goes as planned and for each of us it's different. We each get a giant heaping of both good and bad, along with a lot of so-so days.  Some days we just need a jelly bean sandwich.