Katie asked if she could come visit my mom, so we set up a time to go together. My mom was in the common room when we got there and wanted to stay for the activities. We did some trivia and played balloon volleyball for quite a while. They were playing music during the game and it was really cute to see my mom singing along to the songs. My mom wasn't too anxious and was having as good a day as she has anymore.
We walked to the dining room with my mom when it was time for lunch. I hugged her goodbye and we told each other "I love you." Then my mom said, "And Katie, I love you too." That brought tears to Katie's eyes, and she very sincerely told her how much she loves her too and thanked her for always being just like another mom to her.
The next few visits after that weren't as good sadly. She's had a fall, a nasty stomach bug, and more anxiety the past couple weeks. When I went to see her this week, she was laying in bed. She got more and more anxious as I talked to her. She couldn't really talk much, and I could see it was causing anxiety when I would even update her on my family. I decided to stop talking and just rub her arm and sit with her. She calmed down when I got quiet, but still was crying a bit. After about ten minutes, she started to get increasingly anxious. I just wanted to fix it so bad. I knew asking her questions about what she needed or what she wanted to do would only make it worse, so I decided to play Hymns on my phone. It was remarkable how much that calmed her anxiety. Her arms went completely still, the tears stopped, and she laid there for the next 30 minutes completely calm. It was a very tender half hour sitting there with her. She would look at me sometimes and the rest of the time she looked out the window. It sent a message to me that Christ can bring her peace, not me, as badly as I want to. This isn't a fix-all, I know her anxiety came back again when the aide came to take her to lunch and we said goodbye to each other. But it was really amazing to see how the Hymns calmed her so drastically. I feel like Mom is still bearing her testimony of Jesus Christ. She has always had such a pure, all-in, tender testimony of the Savior. I could feel how much He still means to her, and the relationship she built and nurtured her whole life through her covenants with Him. I wish He would/could take this disease away from her, but I know that's not how this works. I loved to see that she still finds peace through Christ though, and that He can do for her what I cannot.
Paul and I met up with Cade, Emilie, Carrie, and Brent to watch Grandma Clark's choir concert.
They sounded beautiful and it was fun to watch her do something she enjoys.
We got some ice cream after the concert. It was a fun night.
We were reading the scriptures one night and the section kept using the word duties. Tessa and Damon would laugh every time! It took us a while to get through that section! Haha.
The Teachers/Deacons quorums invited the younger Young Women class to a dinner and game night last week. The boys and their leaders made all the food for dinner. Rockwell and Vincent made a couple batches of homemade mac & cheese. It was fun to teach them how to make it. They're both hilarious.
Damon finished his Rad Kids class at school.
It kinda made me laugh to see Damon punching his Primary president. :)
He did great fighting off the stranger.
