Soccer

Dear Jessie and Mark,

It was nice to visit with you this morning Mark!  I'm glad you were available then because my afternoon was totally full today.  Continued prayers coming your way.

Love,

Dad

Tuesday, September 1, 2020
9:31 pm

Everyone got something they loved for lunch today.  That means Neil got meat and gravy with no potatoes, while Emma got potatoes and gravy with no meat.  Isaac got no grapes.  Spencer and Abbie got everything.  And I forgot to take a basket of tomatoes to work to share, so I only had one half tomato in my lunch.  Fortunately there was a string cheese in the fridge at work, so I had a cheese and tomato sandwich and it was terrific.

I got lots done at work.  I have been joining a weekly webinar series for small CU's.  I haven't been terribly impressed with the sessions so far, and I didn't have high hopes for today's on succession planning.  I was pleasantly surprised and stayed on for the entire session, coming away with some good ideas I can use to strengthen our staffing.

I found out today that the water table is too high for us to put a basement in our new office in Springville.  That will require some reconfiguration of the plans.  The architect put together a draft moving the necessary spaces upstairs, and I wasn't impressed.  I took this as an opportunity to go back to the drawing board.  I reviewed with my operations staff what we want in the new building, and we are going "back to the drawing board."  We don't have to totally start over, but it's lots cheaper to change things when they're only ink and paper.  I realized that some of what was in the initial design was what other people wanted, not necessarily what those of us who will be there every day want.  So we're making changes, and I feel good about that.

Tonight Spencer had a soccer game.  His team played well but lost 5-2.  There was an unfortunate own-goal off the goalie's foot, and an amazing shot of ours that bounced off the goalpost and should have gone in. It was lots of fun to watch, even though they didn't win.  Spencer really played with energy and urgency, chasing the ball and not giving up.  I was proud of him.

I enjoyed visiting with Mark briefly this morning and hearing how his mission work is going.  They still can't do much street contacting, but they can go into homes if they are invited.  I am grateful that he is discovering the joy that comes from doing the work, and that joy isn't necessarily tied to "success."

Thankful: I am grateful for things that really matter, and for (usually) not caring about things that don't.  I saw a headline that the Jazz lost a nail-biter in game 7 of the first round of the NBA playoffs.  Because I only paid attention to the headlines I could shrug this off and be happy for the many things that are truly important.

Ministering: I'm going to make peach cobbler (with Costco peaches) tonight so Julie can enjoy it tomorrow morning for breakfast.  And I'll even remember to sprinkle the top with sugar this time!

More later…

This picture is a couple weeks old.  For a few days the kids thought it would be fun to cut the lawn with scissors.  I'm really grateful for a lawn mower!