Time get's away!

By the looks of the picture of everybody sitting around the Thanksgiving table, who would have thought that we would add to our family 5 new spirits. All of them, such noble and sweet spirits that would make your heart melt just to look into their eyes. I know, it's been such a long time since anything was entered in our blog but we just wanted to let everybody know we are still alive and our thoughts are always with our family both immediate and extended.

I was sitting here listening to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, they have a way of causing one to ponder upon weightier matters in life that the thought came to me , which doesn't happen too very often, so I have to seize upon those moments as they may be fleeting, we have been charged from our last General Conference to "rescue the one", who is the one that requires rescuing? Has that "one" been in front of me and I haven't been able to recongnize what the Lord has placed in front of me or am I prepared to "rescue the one" when that one is recognized?

I have noticed that sometimes the Lord does not take us by the hand and walk us through the steps one by one but he will point us in the direction we need to be going and then allows us to muttle our way through. I do notice that in order for us to get from point A to point B, the best way to accomplish it is by one step at a time, beit small steps or large we can't skip steps or transport from A to B. All the time we have to exercise faith in our Heavenly Father and listen to the quiet whisperings of the Spirit.

It has been during those times that I have been inspired to do things that I wouldn't normally do. I have found that at times I have been "the one who needed rescuing". I am ever so thankful for those who responded to the spirit and offered words of encouragement, invitations to be more faithful and extended their hands of welcoming love. Likewise, I am grateful for the example of others who quietly show by their deep love of the Savior how we care for those around us.

I love that I have a family. I love that I have a loving and caring wife. We love our children, their spouses and our grandchildren. I love that I have brothers and a sister all of whom I deeply admire and respect. Although I do not have parents that are alive, they live through me in my actions and thoughts. I look to Grandma and Grandpa Richins as my role models for parents and they fill that role wonderfully. At times, we have all come to "rescue" each other, when we've been down in spirit, mind or body. At times, that "rescue" comes when we least expect it through a phone call or some gesture. I believe that if we are to heed the charge from our Prophet, President Monson, we need to align ourselves with the gospel as found in the scriptures.

This Thanksgiving, we will be spending it with Megan and her family. How grateful I am that we can go there and be surrounded by family. I have seen what it is like to not have a family. I have witnessed the loneliness and the hurt over the years and so in our celebration of Thanksgiving, I will be mindful of the "rescue" effort that involves all of our family and to be mindful of the true gospel of Jesus Christ as found in 3 Ne. 27:21. Happy Thanksgiving to all we love you all, from the Muaina's.

Happy Mother's Day!

Just wanted to wish all you mother's a happy day! This morning when I was writing in my journal, I commented on the fact that I wish that I could wish my mother a happy mother's day and that I miss not being able to. I then remembered that the best thing that I could do to celebrate my mother's legacy is to be a good husband and father as she would have wanted. In doing so, I was in fact, bringing to pass a wish that my mother would have wanted to have. All of these reminders are what keep us moving forward and in the right direction. Maureen is a great mother to each of our children and grandchildren. She remembers them for every occasion. Me on the other hand, I'm lucky if I can remember what holiday is coming around. She has had a go of it for the last several months and she has had to pull me through it all when it would have been easy for me to be a slackard. I have learned to become more rounded as a husband in tending to needs when they are needed.
We are very fortunate and blessed to be able to have a few of our children around us and wish that we could see the others more often. But we realize that they have their lives that they have to live and not necessarily living for us. We are off to see Nathan graduate from Case Western Dental School, these last 4 years have gone by pretty fast. We are excited for him and Bridgette in their new adventure down in Houston for the next year. At least they are or will be very close to the continental divide. We will miss going out to Cleveland as we like that area and especially the climate, when we've visited. Obviously, during the best times of the year.
The best news though this year is that we will have Marchelle, Rahul and family along with Megan, Charlie and family out to Bear Lake this year! They haven't been for awhile and along with, hopefully, Shaun and Jamie, Kai, don't know about Derek and Rebecca, Elizabeth this year, we could have a crowd! Sorry I'm kinda all over the place right now. So I'll quit.

Grateful

Grateful!! That word expresses how I feel after the life changing event that took place on Mar. 8 (our precious daughter Megan's birthday) when i suffered a minor stroke. Needless to say, it has been a life changing event for me and I think for a few others also. I feel so blessed to have another chance to enjoy life and the little things that we take for granted every day. I feel blessed to see, hear, speak, use my hand (although a little slower), type on the computer, play the piano, button my shirts, comb my hair, many other things, but most of all to hug my husband, my children, and hold our precious little grandchildren. When you are faced with your own mortality things become very precious and also a little scary. I try very hard to keep fear gone and faith in the forefront, but it is very hard not to think about it every time anything happens or as you try to go through a day. Right now my blood pressure is high again and I am very worried. I see the doctor on Tuesday and I am putting my faith in him that he can help me. In the meantime I had a blessing where I was told to rest, have peace, and know that all will be well. I am so thankful for the Priesthood and faithful men who can speak Heavenly Fathers words to us. I was also told to trust the Doctors. I thank all of you for your continual prayers on my behalf because I still need them. I pray many times every day that I will have more years here on this earth and I guess if nothing else this experience has shown me how many people really care about me and how much I need to rely on the Lord. Basically our lives are in his hands and even though we are told this all the time, it sometimes takes something drastic to remind us that it is true.

Catch-up time!

Okay, so here's the deal. We've had a lot to catch up on since Thanksgiving. First of all, I have at the reluctant behest and just to catch up with the rest of society types, become a nonenthusiastic member of FACEBOOK. Little by little I have been adding, 'Friends'. although I really don't get the fascination of adding all these, 'Friends' as if I'm compiling a list of people into a bank from which I can draw from at some future point in time. It may seem compelling to keep adding 'Friends' and I guess that you may connect with somebody from your 4th grade class whom you may have beaten up and kicked around at the playground. You could hear from some raving individual whom you might have slighted in junior high school who now owns a large corporation or just maybe you can pear into the life of some high school schlupp that you'd prefer not to ever hear from again. But on the rare occasion that somebody from waayyy back that you really wondered about whether you could have been able to share the gospel with but was to totally lacking in the true love of Christ drops you a line, then maybe, just maybe, it would be worth all of the trepidation and angst I am experiencing now. Because I am a lot more adventurous than Maureen, I took the plunge and we'll see what happens over the next little bit. Maybe after a while, Maureen will eventually succumb to the wave of pressure from some of the Ward members who remind her that this is where you can find out what's happening with members especially her sisters.
Speaking of Maureen, she is coming along really well from her hip operation. Thanks for all the prayers, support and love offered in her behalf. She told me that I am, at this stage of our lives, experiencing what young mothers go through, not getting any quality rest as she was up and down, up and down during the first few nights home.
I have really gotten pretty good at making the bed, I have a system in which I do it. I make mental notes of how I do certain things around the house. I am multitasking getting the wash done, vacuuming while the clothes are being washed and doing the dishes at the end of the day making sure that the dog is fed and everything is in its' proper place. I make mental notes of where I left off in the house and then systematically start from one end and move to the other end. I've washed her hair, shaved her legs, put on her compression socks, changed her bandages and folded her clothes. The only thing that I draw the line on is doing the ironing. Thank goodness that Mom was down for a few days and that she did the ironing. We'll have to wait for a few weeks until Maureen is up on her feet and she can do the ironing. Until then, the only thing that I really need ironing is my white shirts and I can always wear a coat over them on Sunday.
So here are a few pics from the hospital. Shhh I'm not supposed to put these pics on. Ha! got ya!
I was able to snap a couple of pics at the hospital.
The medical team that operated on attended to and nursed Maureen during her hospital stay were really professional. The doctor was fantastic and the hospital stay was above normal. However, Maureen was glad to get out of that place and back home. This afternoon, she graduates to using a cane for walking around. I will post pics of that event later!