Unbounded Domesticity

Normally I am a single working girl living in a one bedroom apartment, but for the next few weeks I am leaping head first into domestic life. I am house-sitting for a few week for a member of my Stake Presidency. He is a doctor so they have a very nice home a little out of town with lots of property and a large garden. In addition to caring for the house and land I am looking after their three cats, four dogs, sixteen 5-week-old puppies, and their 13-year-old daughter.

As you may guess, I have my hands full and am spending a lot of my time feeding pets, caring for puppies, cleaning up after puppies, bringing in produce from the garden, preparing meals, cleaning the house, driving the daughter to and from various social engagements and friends homes, grocery shopping, or running out to get the last few things Johanna needs for girls camp next week. Now that I have more of less got the rhythm of everything I find I rather enjoy it. There is something decidedly nice about teaching Johanna how to cook, having a full sized Australian Shepard try to sit on your lap, or waking up to find a purring cat curled up beside you. There is also something satisfying about cleaning up the house each day even when you know the dogs will come tearing through at any minute and it will be messy again.


I very much enjoy my quiet, working girl, one bedroom apartment life, but I am also enjoying this little taste of what a different life would be like and considering the possibility that my own life could be like this sometime in the future. One thing I have already learned from this little experience is that, while I like pets, I will never have this many at one time...

All about the little things

Lately I have been thinking about the little things that make me happy in life so I decided to compile a little list of the simple pleasure of my life:

Driving on a nice day with my windows all the way down and the radio up.

Sitting outside on a nice day reading a good book or indulging in a little people watching.

Ice cream, pretty much any place, any time, and with anyone.

Dancing with a guy who really knows what he is doing, or, if that is not available, a little spontaneous dancing by myself in my kitchen.

Cooking something new and having it turn out really good then sharing it with friends.

Watching a summer thunderstorm blow in.

Listening to NPR each morning while getting ready for work and realizing that I am slowly turning into my father.

Spending time with those really good friends, you know, the kind you can talk to about everything from the Gospel, to politics, to boys.

Having my bus driver say "Have a good day, Hun" when I get off to go to work each day.

We can never forget what they did here

I spent Memorial Day in Gettysburg this year and it was a wonderful experience on several levels. First of all I got to share the day with a friend from college to shares my passion for history and I loved having a travel buddy and having the time to catch up. Also, as a history buff I enjoyed browsing the museum and traipsing around the battle field with a very well informed park ranger.

I also experienced some poignant moments of reflection those that have fallen in battle and on the experience of the Civil War in general. I find that I have rather complex emotions about the Civil War. Of course I am glad that the Union was preserved and that it was the beginning of the end of Slavery, and yet there is something so horrible about brother fighting against brother and the sheer amount of death and destruction that makes even the eventual Union victory feel like a loss of sorts. Perhaps this is more personal to me because my own ancestors fought and died on both sides of the conflict. Thomas Jefferson once said that "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is it's natural manure." I very much hope that is not true.