Had a really sweet day last Wednesday, although a little disconcerting in the morning. Went with Daniel and Paul to get their typhoid immunization. The nurse was a very nice lady who talked to them for an hour on all the precautions they were going to need to take to be safe from sickness and disease. Yikes. We all left the office rather overwhelmed. They should boil all their water, soak all their fruits and vegetables in a Clorox solution, and never eat lettuce. Never put exposed skin in a lake or stream. (There are worms that burrow right into healthy skin.) Wear insect repellent all the time. Treat all their clothes and the inside of their luggage with Permethrin every 6-8 weeks to ward off mosquitoes carrying Dengue Fever and other nasty diseases. Never walk around in bare feet— even in their apartments. Sigh. I don’t know if I can let them go after all.
Spending time with them was nice, though. We did a little more shopping, then went home to meet Chris. I had told Chris that we were going shopping, but would work on being home before he got there. He says,” I hope you’re not home, because then I get to…you know…(whispering now) watch a movie…” We’re screen-free except on weekends, so I think he wishes we weren’t home every day so he could sneak in a movie. Sure enough, we pulled up maybe one minute after his bus had come, but he was already downstairs with a Pokemon movie going, happy as could be. Daniel and Paul joined him for the afternoon and there was a lot of loud laughter coming through the floorboards. I’m going to miss that laughing…
Later that day I went to Parent Teacher Conferences at the Junior High with Amy and Eric. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The teachers seem to really like them and we chatted it up so friendly-like with each one. An English teacher mourned not having Amy this year and talked to Eric about how much she hoped he was going to do NAL (National Academic League) again this year. We especially laughed and laughed with the Orchestra teacher. Then a science teacher, Mr. Hillier, called us over even though he doesn’t have any Soderquist’s this year. He wanted to make sure I knew how much he thinks of Amy and the positive influence she is at school. He wanted to make sure she heard the good words. It was probably good. I had to agree with him that she wasn’t getting many accolades at home…because sometimes lately she’s…hmmmm how to say this nicely…not quite pitching in like she’s asked to do but I’m sure it’s a passing phase.
Amy and Eric are unique in our family. They’re very comfortable with people—even adults who are their teachers. It was a joy to see them in their element. I wanted to buy them ice cream I was so happy with them, but that would have been wrong on two accounts. One, it was the 29th and I was out of grocery money (…and “fun” money…and car repair money…and any other kind of money) until Oct 1. Two, that would be eating for emotional reasons and that’s not what I’m supposed to be teaching?
I really enjoyed conference over the weekend, especially Pres Uchtdorf’s talk on trimming our lives back to the essentials. It seems to fit in well with the life philosophy I adopted a month or so ago, “What’s the rush?” That philosophy is serving me well, mostly. It makes me enjoy people more and be nicer to them.
( I have to admit, I’m not always successful on a Tuesday evening when I’m tired and feeling pressure to get dinner ready before Quin leaves and I’m in the middle of eight loads of laundry and listening to everybody’s stories of the day and answering all sorts of people’s questions and realize that I still need to water the lawns and make visiting teaching appointments, do homework with a bunch of boys, get them to do their jobs and tuck them in their beds, clean the place up, etc. etc.)
