One Of The Four Letter Words

Our FHE lesson last night was on work.  Can you tell it was my turn to give the lesson?  I used the line from the Proclamation on the Family that says "Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities."

They hate it when I use that kind of revelation against them.

Together we made a list of work project that our house and the surrounding area need this summer.  I asked the family to commit to me that instead of watching hours upon hours of Netflicks episodes of old sitcoms or Discovery channels shows or whatever else they have been doing for two weeks of summer they would do an hour or two of these projects each day they were home.  Now that I'm working every day it is overwhelming to me to think of this stuff piling up and I dno't have the hours in the day to do it with them.

Here is the list we came up with:

* help Dad fix the sprinkler system
* power wash the exterior of the house
* pull the dandelions in the lawn
* level the dirt by the shed
* keep lawns mowed/trimmed/edged regularly
* paint the laundry room?
* scrub the cabinets in the house
* cleans the blinds in the house
* add end-caps on the pergola?
* build ramp for the shed
* get rid of the pile of recycled bricks (give away or haul away)
* make trip to the dump
* clean windows inside and out
* dust cobwebs off ceilings and corners
* wash & vacuum all the cars

We'll see how it goes.  And I'll be sure to keep you posted.  Wish us luck.

Just a Little Teamwork

Last night, between swimming and diving competitions on the Olympics, NBC broadcasted some of the Men's Gymnastics team finals.

The men's teams have 6 guys on them and in this portion of their Olympic competition, the team does rotations on all 6 apparatus: high bar, parallel bars, still rings, floor, vault, and pommel horse. Only three guys can compete on each apparatus and every score counts. None of that 'knock out the top and bottom score and then average all the other guys' work'. No, no. Each score counts and only three guys can do each apparatus.

The USA Men had lower expectation this time around as their two past Olympians, twins Paul and Morgan Hamm, both pulled from the Olympics due to injuries. They had to bring up two of their three allowed alternates--and none of the 6 guys on the team had ever been to an Olympics before.

Last night, not a single one of these guys did a "perfect" routine, but they each did their best. Through 5 rotations, they were just behind the world leaders, Team China, by a little bit.

Then came the pommel horse. Genius Golfer doesn't see why this is in the Olympic competition, but I digress. The first guy on the horse made a pretty ugly mistake, and the second guy made a smaller but still ugly mistake. The last guy, on the last piece of equipment, came in and simply nailed his routine. It was astounding. Fast and furious, to be sure.

That is what I love about the Olympics. Just a little teamwork goes so far. These un-Olympics-experienced guys from the US came together and did their best and the result? The Bronze Medal! When nothing was even really expected from them, that is awesome.

How would it be if every team we were on had that kind of determination? How much more would be accomplished? Wouldn't we all appreciate each other more, if we knew each member of that team was doing their best? Couldn't we cut them some slack when things weren't going so well and maybe even step up our game to help carry the team?

I am a firm believer that the Olympics can inspire and teach. I'm learning and inspired this morning already. And it is only Day 5 from Beijing.