Monday morning I went to Lidl to get a bunch of food and supplies, mostly for the Institute, but I did get a bunch of their wonderful bread for us to enjoy. Dee writes: I'm really going to miss the Saracen bread after our mission, made with buckwheat and walnuts, with just enough crunch to the crust. I left a case of bottled water and three big bags in the trunk of the car, one of them a thermal bag with blue ice to keep it cold until we left for downtown in an hour, and then carried two bags up to the apartment. When we got to the Institute, I was able to carry everything up in only two trips from the car, just barely.
Dee spent much of the afternoon working on dessert for FHE (chocolate marshmallow brownies) and for events on Tuesday (Mexican wedding cookies). She also cooked two full crock pots of chicken for dinner on Friday--enchiladas. For the brownie frosting, I cut the sugar by 2/3, and it was still plenty sweet. It's horrifying how much sugar we put in American recipes. Doug did a ton of dishes.
Halsey, our long-time financial adviser, called to say that one of our investments had just paid off very nicely after three years, so that was happy news. Even though we are on a mission, there are always a number of financial and real estate issues to track and account for. Fortunately we have very good people at home helping us out, which means we sleep better.
My FHE lesson was on loving people even if they might not deserve it, even if they have hurt us, as Christ has asked us (Matthew 5:43-44). I used one of my favorite quotes from C.S. Lewis in his marvelous book Mere Christianity (which I gave in Italian, with help from Google Translate). Here's the original:
“I remember Christian teachers
telling me long ago that I must hate a bad man's actions but not hate the bad
man: or, as they would say, hate the sin but not the sinner.... I used to think
this a silly, straw-splitting distinction: how could you hate what a man did
and not hate the man? But years later it occurred to me that there was one man
to whom I had been doing this all my life -- namely myself. However much I
might dislike my own cowardice or conceit or greed, I went on loving myself.
There had never been the slightest difficulty about it. In fact the very reason
why I hated the things was that I loved the man. Just because I loved myself, I
was sorry to find that I was the sort of man who did those things.”
We had some very nice discussion, with almost everyone sharing an idea or experience about the concept.When we got home, there was no parking anywhere nearby, so I had to park all the way at the top of the hill. This happens occasionally, and it seems to be more and more these days. Dee had to wait at the outside apartment door for quite a while for me to arrive, because I forgot my keys, after I dropped her off and parked. Fortunately it wasn't raining. While I was waiting, I made a glorious, lazy figure eight in the patio on Gino.
I am so glad we found Pillpack before we left. It's a company that will bundle a person's pills in individual packages for each morning, noon and night. We use it for my mother, and it has been such a help to smooth her medical needs.
I asked my doctor for an x-ray prescription for the follow-up and she surprised me by setting the date to June 5. I had thought I would be doing it about a week earlier. Since Doug's sister arrives on June 5, I asked the doctor if I could do it a day earlier. Stay tuned.
You may notice in the pictures that I'm standing sometimes. If you look closely, you'll see I'm on the scooter. It's so nice to be upright!
I'm supposed to wear a compression stocking, but it's too long. When I fold it down, it's too tight and really hurts my leg. I finally figured out that I could put it up more gently and it would end at the right place. The swelling is much better now anyway, but the stocking helps quite a bit, and I use Gino as a footstool to elevate my foot whenever I can.
Wendy and I got to talk on Monday night and it was so fun to hear about Wes' graduation. Wendy is working hard at school, and I'm so impressed at all she is handling.