This week I feel like I became a full-fledged MORMON WOMAN (aka Molly Mormon)! Really, it was nothing monumental, but I called Monday afternoon to check on a girl I visit teach (she doesn't come to church, but she is so sweet and always happy to see us), who was supposed to have had a baby over the weekend. Turns out, she was already home so I asked her if I could bring her dinner the next night and maybe babysit her 2-year-old sometime this week. She was thrilled about both prosepcts, so Tuesday I cooked up two special dinners--one for my family and one for hers.
But there are two things I did that I have never done before: (1) I made an enchilada casserole in one of those disposable foil pans (CASSEROLE? DISPOSEABLE?? I know!!!) and (2) for a side dish I totally made a JELLO SALAD! NO JOKE! Of course it wasn't green with shredded carrots (no way, no day)--it was peach with raspberries and whipped cream on top--BUT STILL!! I even had chocolate chip banana bread for dessert. It's really shocking that I can prepare such a meal. I just kept thinking to myself, Man, you are such a grandma.
But that's a good thing because all my grandmas are AWESOME.
Anyway, I just have felt so incredibly grateful this month for the sisterhood of the Relief Society at church. All of the time I spent attending and learning and serving over the past 16 years has come back to me tenfold lately and I feel really blessed. Here is another comment I left On Bright Street:
This past month the Relief Society has realy lived up to its name for me. Our sisterhood literally saved me the past few weeks, especially that fateful Friday when I was home alone and felt so lonely and scared. I've never been good about asking for help and I tend to hide when I can't put on a happy face. But, oh, it felt so good to cry--really cry--on the shoulders of my surrogate moms and sisters who had been in my shoes and knew just what I needed. What would normally have been a very quiet, very painful burden I would carry alone became something a little bit lighter, something that, instead of breaking me to pieces, bonded us all together. I will be eternally grateful for them and for all the small things that really make us a society and bring us such sweet relief.
5 comments:
[Thought I'd spell-check this time. I never had "bug surgery".]
If Kate Bush was LDS, her lyrics would sound more like: "Jello . . . stands for comfort."
I am thinking now of when I came home after my big surgery a couple years ago and for--what, was it nearly a week straight?--different women brought me some version of creamy chicken every single night. Near the end of that calorific comfort food streak I was teetering on the edge of a breakdown, and once I really did cry when more creamy chicken showed up. But you know what? I felt loved. Bring it on. Bring on the casserole love. I spent a whole day making HOMEMADE TORTELLINI for an out-of-commission lady and her family once, when I was newly married and way too idealistic and OCD for my own good. I got over it the same day. Casseroles are also about loving ourselves, not just others. Ditto jello. The choco-chip banana bread? Well, that's just Christian charity!
Thanks for the lovely comment on my blog. I have a friend who always tells me, I suspect because she senses I didn't always believe this, that "women need women." It's true.
Love you, James.
I still think the meal you made for us was better!
p.s. Don't use that fudge sauce Page made for you... throw it out!!! UGH
If I lived closer, I would have brought some potatoes au gratin, or as we call them at my house, "old rotten potatoes". There's nothing like relief society comfort food!
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