Elena 
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- So it’s mother’s day weekend, and as mom’s tend to do, we have over booked for the weekend. It’s already Saturday evening, and I am officially exhausted, but in a good way.
2. First, Miss C. made her singing debut last night with her little choir. She was soooo nervous, but she stood right there on center stage and did a great job. Her mom, dad, and I were so proud of her!
3. Then today Noah and other members of the class of 2020 got to walk the stage for graduation. Last year commencement was canceled abruptly with no rescheduling because of the COVID-19 pandemic. That was bad enough. But then when I saw how creative the area high schools got in doing driveby commencements and other things, I felt very disappointed in the university – disappointed to the tune of, “I’m not sending my daughter to that school!”
But they rectified that today by combining the class of 2020 and 2021 and they did a very nice job. Noah’s fiance graduated this year as well, so now school is behind both of them. Now it’s on to starting careers and doing a little wedding planning.
4. The college had multiple graduation ceremonies this weekend. Annabelle graduated early Saturday morning. The chamber choir usually sings for each graduation ceremony. Noah sang with the chamber singers all four years of college. So because each grad was only allowed a certain number of tickets, Noah donned his concert tuxedo once again and nudged his way in with the choir to sing at Annabelle’s commencement. Then Annabelle sang later for his. I really liked the symmetry of that!
5. It’s interesting to see how different groups are handling COVID right now. At the kid’s concert, which was primarily a conservative homeschooling crowd, I didn’t see more than two face masks anywhere. No one was wearing them. However, at the college commencement, everybody wore one, including all of the graduates. As I looked around though, not everyone had them over their nose. The ceremony was over two hours long and I think that’s a long time to have your face covered.
I do note though that my working adult children who are required to mask all of the time have a much higher tolerance for masking than I do since I am home or outdoors most of the time. Noah even said sometimes he forgets he has it on.
6. In Ohio, we will be allowed to quit donning our masks once the cases fall to 50/100,000 people. Right now, actual cases are slightly below 50/100,000. However probables (COVID-like symptoms) keep us around 55/100,000. Of course, that is over 7-days, which is the CDC recommendation. Our Gov. makes it go over 14 days to keep the cases higher and hang on to his emergency powers. But with colleges letting out and allergies dying down, I wonder how much longer he can keep us masked up? Anyway, but June 22 a new law will take effect and give the legislature back some power. I’m hoping they’ll remove all of the mandates.
7. I also learned something new this weekend. My cat, Molly, started peeing outside of her litter box. Thinking she might be sick, we took her to a new vet that my friend recommended. They got her in quickly and the vet talked to us about cat litter boxes and how many to have. It turns out each cat should have two boxes, at least one box on each floor. Two boxes close together don’t count. She also told us about putting ice cubes in her water and mineral oil or Vaseline on her nose and paws so that she doesn’t have hair balls. She also taught us about scruffing the cat and putting clips on the back of her neck. My cat loved that so much, she actually put her head on the vet’s chest and closed her eyes! I had never seen anything like that before. And all of this teaching and information as well as an exam for Molly was only $30. I think I’ve found a new vet!
A bonus thought for Mother’s Day:
Have you ever noticed how in the scriptures men are always going up into the mountains to commune with the Lord?
Yet in the scriptures we hardly ever hear of women going to the mountains, and we know why — right?
Because the women were too busy keeping life going;
they couldn’t abandon babies, meals, homes, fires, gardens, and a thousand responsibilities to make the climb into the mountains!
I was talking to a friend the other day, saying that as a modern woman, I feel like I’m never “free” enough from my responsibilities, never in a quiet enough, or holy enough spot to have the type of communion I want with God.
Her response floored me, “That is why God comes to women. Men have to climb the mountain to meet God, but God comes to women where ever they are.” I have been pondering on her words for weeks and have searched my scriptures to see that what she said is true. God does in deed come to women where they are, when they are doing their ordinary, everyday work.
He meets them at the wells where they draw water for their families, in their homes, in their kitchens, in their gardens.
He comes to them as they sit beside sickbeds, as they give birth, care for the elderly, and perform necessary mourning and burial rites. Even at the empty tomb, Mary was the first to witness Christ’s resurrection,
She was there because she was doing the womanly chore of properly preparing Christ’s body for burial.
In these seemingly mundane
and ordinary tasks,
these women of the scriptures found themselves face to face with divinity.h
So if — like me — you ever start to bemoan the fact that you don’t have as much time to spend in the mountains with God as you would like. Remember, God comes to women. He knows where we are and the burdens we carry. He sees us, and if we open our eyes and our hearts we will see Him, even in the most ordinary places and in the most ordinary things.
He lives.
Original – Heather Farrell
