Ann talks about her house cleaning habits and the Mormon Church. David and Jared are born.
THE GOD GAMES: Heaven & Hell...Chapter 22...HELL
I suppose that I should tell you a soul secret. I was a horrible houskeeper. I made stabbing attempts to keep things in order, but I would get worn out from runnung with the children and fixing meals and doing the laundry. I would wind up in a heap on the living room couch sorting clothes or diapering the baby. There really is no excuse for the way I kept, or didn't keep, the house. Then there was the yard and garage to keep up also; and the cars to keep maintained-a talent you pick up after the hundredth car repairman has had you as his pub-joke of the day; and on the subject of cars, Charles, why leave me with two cars equally broken when you go off to sea? I could say that I could only handle so much, and that I chose to spend free time with the children over cleaning a house, but that is just another excuse. I hated doing the dishes, and I hated cleaning the house and I could blame that on rebelling against the pressure mom put on Charley and I, but the serious and horrible truth is just that I was lazy when it came to the house and not at all house proud. One thing I always appreciated about Charles is that he never complained about the way that the house looked. As long as I took good care of the children, Charles never said a negative word about my housekeeping.
Another thing that didn't help me with keeping my house clean was the Mormon Church-by the way, the name of the Mormon Church is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or L.D.S. I was always deeply involved in several areas of the ward; Relief Society, the Primary (over the course of twenty years in the church, I served in every single position in the Primary Organization), Visiting Teaching, and the Sunday School. I served in leadership positions, teaching positions, organist, conductor, and pianist. The Church teaches you so much and helps you to develop your talents; I always loved it for that. However, the hours spent in church work and attendance took me away from what my first duty should have been, and that is keeping my home clean, and often, keeping my children watched as closely as they should have been.
Within five months after Carol's death I was pregnant again, and we all rejoiced. I think that the nine months that I carried David, and the four years after his birth, were the happiest years of my marriage. Charles and I took Lamaze classes when I carried David and we breathed together during his delivery. It was the easiest birth I had; practically no pain, and having Charles support was blissful. When a little boy was born, we remembered my dream and named him David Joseph as we had been told to do.
What an angel child. People would come to see David just to take his picture. David was born in 1972, as were about 10 other little boys in the ward. There were so many little boys born around the church that year that we all predicted a great war when they became men, and it has come true what with the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Anyway, as I was saying, it was very hard for me to keep a picture of David around. Sometimes people would just pick his picture up if it was lying on a table in the house, so I had to hide the pictures I took of him. It was his big, round, happy face with a huge grin; his face always looked like sunshine. My mother zeroed in on David and all of the other children were forgotten by her, but of course Daddy made all the children feel loved and appreciated equally.
Charles was doing a lot of genealogy and going to the Temple to do Temple work. One day, when David was two and a half years old, Charles came home from the Temple and told me that I was pregnant. Since I believed in the priesthood, and that very spiritual things went on in the Temple, I immediately believed him, but couldn't figure out how I got pregnant again. I had been taking the pill for over two years; faithfully. Trust me; faithfully. On top of that, he said that we were going to have a daughter, and that we were to name her Karen. I was more than a little shaken, but totally delighted.
With this sixth pregnancy I figured that I had better go the health route since my body was probably depleted of some nutrients. I studied Adelle Davis and did everything, and took everything she suggested. Charles and I also went through Lamaze classes again. This child was like an extra dividend from ONE and I decided that if we did happen to have a boy after all that I would name him Jared, after the father of Enoch.
This last birth was the longest and hardest that I went through. We think it was because the baby had an enormous head, but that might just be the way we teased the baby afterwards. During the long labor, Charles and I were sure I was going to give birth to a girl so we waited complacently for our little girl to be born, and it was only a moment before I gave birth that we questioned what we would name a boy if we were mistaken. I suggested Jared Warren (Warren after my dad and brother) and Charles agreed, and sure enough, minutes later a big, lusty baby was born; our last child, Jared.
Tomorrow Ann struggles with getting a tubal ligation and filled with guilt, she has a mental breakdown.
THE GOD GAMES: Heaven & Hell...Chapter 22...HELL
I suppose that I should tell you a soul secret. I was a horrible houskeeper. I made stabbing attempts to keep things in order, but I would get worn out from runnung with the children and fixing meals and doing the laundry. I would wind up in a heap on the living room couch sorting clothes or diapering the baby. There really is no excuse for the way I kept, or didn't keep, the house. Then there was the yard and garage to keep up also; and the cars to keep maintained-a talent you pick up after the hundredth car repairman has had you as his pub-joke of the day; and on the subject of cars, Charles, why leave me with two cars equally broken when you go off to sea? I could say that I could only handle so much, and that I chose to spend free time with the children over cleaning a house, but that is just another excuse. I hated doing the dishes, and I hated cleaning the house and I could blame that on rebelling against the pressure mom put on Charley and I, but the serious and horrible truth is just that I was lazy when it came to the house and not at all house proud. One thing I always appreciated about Charles is that he never complained about the way that the house looked. As long as I took good care of the children, Charles never said a negative word about my housekeeping.
Another thing that didn't help me with keeping my house clean was the Mormon Church-by the way, the name of the Mormon Church is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or L.D.S. I was always deeply involved in several areas of the ward; Relief Society, the Primary (over the course of twenty years in the church, I served in every single position in the Primary Organization), Visiting Teaching, and the Sunday School. I served in leadership positions, teaching positions, organist, conductor, and pianist. The Church teaches you so much and helps you to develop your talents; I always loved it for that. However, the hours spent in church work and attendance took me away from what my first duty should have been, and that is keeping my home clean, and often, keeping my children watched as closely as they should have been.
Within five months after Carol's death I was pregnant again, and we all rejoiced. I think that the nine months that I carried David, and the four years after his birth, were the happiest years of my marriage. Charles and I took Lamaze classes when I carried David and we breathed together during his delivery. It was the easiest birth I had; practically no pain, and having Charles support was blissful. When a little boy was born, we remembered my dream and named him David Joseph as we had been told to do.
What an angel child. People would come to see David just to take his picture. David was born in 1972, as were about 10 other little boys in the ward. There were so many little boys born around the church that year that we all predicted a great war when they became men, and it has come true what with the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Anyway, as I was saying, it was very hard for me to keep a picture of David around. Sometimes people would just pick his picture up if it was lying on a table in the house, so I had to hide the pictures I took of him. It was his big, round, happy face with a huge grin; his face always looked like sunshine. My mother zeroed in on David and all of the other children were forgotten by her, but of course Daddy made all the children feel loved and appreciated equally.
Charles was doing a lot of genealogy and going to the Temple to do Temple work. One day, when David was two and a half years old, Charles came home from the Temple and told me that I was pregnant. Since I believed in the priesthood, and that very spiritual things went on in the Temple, I immediately believed him, but couldn't figure out how I got pregnant again. I had been taking the pill for over two years; faithfully. Trust me; faithfully. On top of that, he said that we were going to have a daughter, and that we were to name her Karen. I was more than a little shaken, but totally delighted.
With this sixth pregnancy I figured that I had better go the health route since my body was probably depleted of some nutrients. I studied Adelle Davis and did everything, and took everything she suggested. Charles and I also went through Lamaze classes again. This child was like an extra dividend from ONE and I decided that if we did happen to have a boy after all that I would name him Jared, after the father of Enoch.
This last birth was the longest and hardest that I went through. We think it was because the baby had an enormous head, but that might just be the way we teased the baby afterwards. During the long labor, Charles and I were sure I was going to give birth to a girl so we waited complacently for our little girl to be born, and it was only a moment before I gave birth that we questioned what we would name a boy if we were mistaken. I suggested Jared Warren (Warren after my dad and brother) and Charles agreed, and sure enough, minutes later a big, lusty baby was born; our last child, Jared.
Tomorrow Ann struggles with getting a tubal ligation and filled with guilt, she has a mental breakdown.
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