Grandma Week 2012: Day 7, A Day of Rest

We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together. –Erma Bombeck

Usually we do Grandma Week earlier in the summer, but this year my brother, Andrew, was coming home from his two-year service mission for our church so my mom {the Grandma in charge of Grandma week} scheduled {most of} our activities after his return. As we do not have a paid clergy, our meetings consist of members teaching other members the truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and when you return from a mission you are often invited to speak in church about your experiences and the things you learned. Andrew and both of my parents were invited to speak in church and attending the meeting together was part of our scheduled activities.

We have one sister who lives just a few blocks from my mom and our brother and his kids live near enough that they don't need to sleep at my mom's. But another of my sisters lives a good 2½ hours away and we live an hour and 15 minutes away, so my mom has a full house for Grandma Week. We sleep on couches and floors, in bunk beds and on futons. Shower times are easily negotiated and everybody is reasonably comfortable. But since my mom's ward {congregation} meets at 9:00 am, and it is best to arrive showered and shaved, my sister put together a schedule that provided shower times for 12 people between 6:00 and 8:00 am. It was truly miraculous. Everyone had hot water and we were in our seats, washed, pressed, fed and relatively happy 10 minutes before services started. It was a wonderful meeting and we enjoyed being together. After church, we had a large pot-luck lunch, with ham and potato salad and lots of yummy desserts. The kids played and the adults talked and we had a really relaxing afternoon and evening.

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Attending the open house for the Brigham City LDS Temple is another of our activities. Grasshopper, LadyBug and I went on Saturday night and the rest of the group are going on Monday, so it seemed to fit better between the two days, in this post.

Temples are beautiful, sacred places. They are not open to the public, or even to all members of The Church, except for the few weeks after construction and prior to being put into service. Anyone wishing to view the temple may attend the open house.



Read more about Temples