After the trial of my faith/patience/whatever...

...come the blessings.

So: church was good yesterday. (We are not surprised.) I was a supportive friend in the afternoon and went to choir practice, even though I didn't want to, because the choir director is my dear friend and my visiting teacher, and I had raised my hand to sustain her when she was called as choir director. We worked on some glorious stuff. Mack Wilberg arrangements of two old hymns. My personal reward for choosing the right? I hit the A below middle C which was only marginally possible earlier this year. I do those Nee-ee-ee-ee-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah scales when I'm driving home and having difficulty staying awake. First I go up. Then I work my way down, exploring the chest voice I've only discovered this year.

After church I took a nap, which helped immensely with the overwhelm. When I lay down, I told Heavenly Father that my body needed to rest, and my spirit wanted to go to choir practice, and that I was not setting the alarm, and to please be in charge. Because I'm bossy like that. I awoke half an hour before I needed to leave for choir practice, feeling a little more put-together, and choir practice did the rest.

During that half hour, I moved my Mormon Bar Cart (bought at a ward member's pre-moving estate sale) into the dining room after moving two chairs away from the wall and relocating them to the dining room table. Which I could do because a couple of weeks ago I had wrangled the underbed wrapping paper holder out into the living room, reorganized it, and put it (for now) under the coffee table in front of the dining room window. It will eventually go under my worktable in my studio, but I can't get to that space, yet.

And I transferred my French laundry basket, which holds my book of remembrance and the two packets of copies of family group sheets from my brother-in-law, from the square yard or so of floor space in the living room where it has been sitting for the past couple of weeks, to a corner of my bed temporarily. I bent the Sabbath slightly and ran the vacuum.

After choir practice, my home teacher / visiting teacher couple came over and settled in for a good visit. I love it that they do not do the obligatory fly-by twenty minute visit. They come. We talk. I get listened to. We trouble-shoot. We talk about our families. We bond. It wouldn't work for everyone, but this is the best of three very good fits that I have enjoyed since marrying Beloved and moving into this ward. They are both creative types, so it is all very simpatico.

I had two family issues that I wanted to discuss with them. One of them is definitely my monkey and my circus, and I have two fresh perspectives to ponder and take to the Lord. The other is definitely neither my monkey nor my circus, and I have lovingly handed it back to its proper ringmaster, which felt wonderful!!! (I'm not sure that three exclamation marks are sufficient.)

In sock news, I finished the heel flap on the second pink Jitterbug baby sock before I went to bed. The case with my crochet hooks is in my bag to take to work, along with the sock and an only slightly diminished ball of yarn. I have a feeling that I will be knitting little pink socks for weeks to come.

One of my last rational acts before bedtime, was to hoist the to-the-brim French laundry basket atop my pseudo-semainier, where it rests like a crown. So all my dead people are hanging out in my closet, but I won't be tripping over them as I navigate the living room.

I posted a picture on Facebook last night. The living room is about 95% decluttered. Mel and Squishy came by and picked up the three bags that I had set aside for them. The floor in front of that bookcase is officially clear. And the morass in front of my closet is about 90% decluttered. My focus for this week will be the top of Beloved's desk, which is littered with some of his stuff, and a whole lot of my stuff. I'm not sure that one week will be sufficient, but I can at least continue where I left off.

As I write, I am uploading my Book of Mormon CD's to iTunes. I'm on disc 11 of 22. I think that's a good stopping point for now.

Andrea, thank you for your kind words yesterday. I had a blessing a couple of weeks ago. The visit with my friends, and the tweaking of this weekend's decluttering, seem to have done the trick.