Back to the Salt Mines We Go!

So, Sunday morning after sending out last week’s gratitudes to my tribe, I went back to bed for a couple of hours. And when I awoke, the sun was up and the neighbors’ kids were not, and the only thing I could hear was the hum and whirr as the AC kicked on. I took an empty box over to the old place and discovered to my delight that the residents had removed one of the barriers and had neatly parked their vehicles. They obviously went to bed later than I did on Saturday night!

I needed my shampoo and all the foofy stuff so as not to scare my good brothers and sisters at church. I also took down my Wall Words, and it was every bit as easy as the installation directions had said. No, I did not stand on the taller stepstool. I stayed on the one-footer as my daughter and home teacher had told me. I also brought home my swift and ball winder.

As LittleBit and I inventoried what we wanted to wear to church, I realized that I needed my shoes with a back. [Dansko calls them “professional” clogs. I guess the others are just amateurs?] And she needed a particular sweater. So we put on what we could and drove to the other apartment. At which point we realized that she’d left her shoes here, and I’d left my church knitting. So back we came. We missed opening exercises in Young Women’s and in Relief Society, but this is the Sunday of the month when the RS troops down to the YW room for opening exercises, and the Laurels troop back with us for RS because they’ll be here when they turn 18. Which in LittleBit’s case is in three months, though she has the option to remain in Young Women’s until she graduates.

One of my girlfriends asked me, as we worked our way down the hall from Sunday School toward the chapel for sacrament meeting, if I was ready for a little help. And after a pause, I gave her a wobbly smile and said that would be great. I did tell my visiting teacher after church that it would not be a good evening for a visit; that I was just about peopled out for awhile. I decided that I needed and wanted some solitude, spent with my scriptures (if I can find them, or online if I can’t) and my own quiet company. Maybe a nap; definitely some knitting.

I got that nap, about an hour’s worth, and wonderfully refreshing. Enough so that I decided to do a little puttering, and in the course of the evening I managed to empty eight boxes without breaking a sweat. Moved the little oval table that had been waiting for the two new chairs [squee! new chairs!] in the old living room, into the corner by my bed, to hold my scriptures when I find them, and the telephone, and my C-PAP when I get it.

Moved the tall black bookcase, the one that held my button collection on the long wall in the old dining room, to its new home on the wall that bridges the dining room and the hall. The button collection is back on top, and I’ve changed out the contents of the shelves a little. Moved all my writing books and my French and German texts onto the bottom two shelves, and shoehorned my cookbooks and culinary mysteries back onto the second shelf.

I would show you pictures, but the batteries in my camera would appear to need recharging. The spare batteries are not recharged, either, and the charger is in one of twelve boxes in the kitchen. Plus, while I do know where the connector is to upload the photos I snapped before the batteries died, the box with the instructions is in my old bedroom, and LittleBit had gone to bed, so I’m not sure where it connects to the computer.

I finished off LittleBit’s leftover dinner just before going back to bed. One of our friends from church brought us possibly the best meatloaf I have ever eaten, better than my own and I really like my own, and an Idaho-sized portion of mashed potatoes, and steamed corn in a pouch, and a lovely salad, and two double-chocolate pudding cups for dessert. And she even included a new bottle of ranch dressing in case we were out. I told her I didn’t think I’d need to cook all week, and she said that that was the general idea.

And somehow I didn’t get any knitting done except for what I did at church, and I think I’m going to frog that. But I’m not upset; not about the dearth of knitting, and not about the frogging. It was a good, restful Sabbath in spite of the number of boxes that I emptied, and I even completed my visiting teaching for the month.

I do believe I can face the prospect of going back to work again.

Tan asked if we had to change wards. No, we literally moved around the corner from where we were living and are still within the ward boundaries. Have I mentioned that we are now in the same complex as Fourthborn and her father? In fact, we are downstairs and over one from where they were living up to about a month ago.

They are now several buildings away. Yes. Mild discomfort on my part at the proximity, but he attends a different church now [Unity, not merely a different ward]. When we first divorced, he was the Gospel Doctrine teacher in the old ward. I spent a lot of time sitting out in the foyer or attending the Gospel Essentials class [Sunday School for the new members who have graduated from missionary discussions and are ready for spiritual milk, but not a full course doctrinal steak dinner with apple pie for dessert]. And the complications of his diabetes were already beginning to destroy his mind and his personality. So while the emotional pain of the distancing and dissolution of our marriage is long since gotten-over, I still miss and mourn the man he used to be.

All bets are off after LittleBit graduates and I buy a house; my primary criteria at that point will be affordability and easy access to the kids and grandkids who are local.