The Alice Haddow -- Alice Haddow's House for Grownups Rules Has Found a Permanent Home

I have gone high-tech and created a website as the permanent home for the Alice Haddow -- Alice Haddow's House for Grownups Rules.

For any parent who is in the circumstance of having adult children living with them -- and there are a growing number in America -- my experiences hopefully will provide some help.

Click on the following link for the Alice Haddow's House for Grownup Rules:

http://ahhg.info

I hope to hear from you after you have read the rules.

Alice

Joys and Sorrows

My oldest brother was taken home today to that God who gave him life. While I seek to come to terms with the profound lessons intrinsic to the experience of losing a sibling, how appropriate that tonight I would stumble onto a quotation I had not read in many years:

"We knew before we were born that we were coming to the earth for bodies and experience and that we would have joys and sorrows, ease and pain, comforts and hardships, health and sickness, successes and disappointments, and we knew also that after a period of life we would die. We accepted all these eventualities with a glad heart, eager to accept both the favorable and unfavorable. We eagerly accepted the chance to come earthward even though it might be for only a day or a year. Perhaps we were not so much concerned whether we should die of disease, of accident, or of senility. We were willing to take life as it came and as we might organize and control it, and this without murmur, complaint, or unreasonable demands"
--Kimball, Faith Precedes the Miracle, 106

May we all take life as it comes, "and this without murmur, complaint, or unreasonable demands." May we all see the big picture, reflecting in our actions the understanding that comes therefrom.

Another Great Quotation and an Update

I stumbled onto another uplifting quotation for difficult times today, and I did not wish to pass it by without finding a permanent home for it. Bits and Pieces is as good a storage place as any, so here it is:

"The Lord gives us a spirit of hope and a feeling of comfort and confidence that we can overcome the obstacles we face. He has shown the way to gain strength during our struggles. With His assistance, we have the ability to succeed. Listen to His words of counsel and comfort: 'Fear not, little children, for you are mine, and I have overcome the world and none of them that my Father hath given me shall be lost.'"
--L. Lionel Kendrick, "Strength During Struggles," Ensign, Oct 2001, 24

I have not before heard the name of Lionel Kendrick, but he is clearly a wise man. I will do my best to take his words to heart.

On another subject, for those who may still wonder about my fried brain from last March, I have recovered nicely. Despite the grueling nature of the Praxis II test, I managed to score 199 out of 200. Trust me, no one was more surprised than I!

I was very pleased to receive in the mail a Certificate of Excellence for my efforts on that test, but I was even happier with the results of my writing test for the VCLA exam. I spent hours in front of a computer in DC taking the Virginia Communication and Literacy Assessment for potential teachers. As I left the center when my time was up, the center director said, "Let me print out your score." Almost immediately her printer began to spit out a document that had my name and identification numbers written boldly at the top. In the middle of the document, the printer ink had formed these words: "Percentage of multiple-choice questions answered correctly on the Writing subtest: 100%."

I have tried and tried to think of another time that I might have achieved a perfect score on a standardized test. Sorry, but there isn't one.

Will my brain ever recover?

Here are the questions of the day: Who is the author of Wide Sargass Sea and for what piece of classic literature does this book claim to act as a prequel? No looking, no cheating, no checking Google; just read and answer the above in one minute or less.

Here is the important part: When you've correctly answered this question with no looking, no cheating, and no checking Google, please send the answer to ETS and tell them to put it in my test booklet.

While you're at it, you can help with a few more: What is the name of the first epistolary novel ever written? In what century was that epistolary novel written? Does anyone know what an epistolary novel is? Just tell me; no looking, no cheating, no checking Google.

If, off the top of your head, you can answer these and 118 other obscure literary questions in fewer seconds than 60 with no looking, no cheating, and no checking Google, you should ask to take the Praxis II ELLC test.

That's what I did on Saturday morning WITHOUT the Arco guide pictured--not that the Arco guide would have done me any good beyond the picture of the sliced-into-fragments brain on the cover. That's what the test did to my own brain: fragment it and then fry it. As of tonight I don't think I'll ever recover, but at least I'll forever remember, sliced up brain and all, the names of Jean Rhys, Samuel Richardson, and an 18th century Pamela, topped off with one we all love: Jane Eyre. I'm still wondering, however, about that strange "epistolary" word, which, despite an adult life completely immersed in the world of words, I had never read nor heard prior to Saturday.

Since we're already caught in this grind, go ahead and check the title of my post. Does its structure reflect MLA or APA guidelines? If you can answer that one with no looking, no cheating, and no checking Google, you will have answered perhaps the easiest question of the day. Shall we keep going?

Sorry. Can't do it. For now, I need a good night's sleep and a brain surgeon.

Zealotry or Old Age?

I love looking at the blogs of my friends whose children are still at home.  If I were in the same season of life, I have no doubt my blog--whenever I could get to it--would contain pictures of my young children living their completely adorable lives. 

I have looked at my own blog only sporadically of late and realize it has become of string of thoughts from General Authorities.  I stopped adding to it for awhile (a) because work has become more and more time consuming and (b) because I felt as though I might appear just a little zealous. 

I realized this morning, however, old age has its perks:  First, concern about appearance matters much, much less than it did in earlier years.  Second, the gift of time (whenever work schedules don't interfere) reappears, allowing for the kind of reflection one cannot engage in when the house is full of five children under the age of six.  Third, old age is a reminder that heaven is not far away, so why not get ready for it?

All of this is a prelude to the thought I stumbled across this morning and wanted to save on my blog.  Written in 1989 by the much beloved Howard W. Hunter, here it is:

To fully understand this gift of agency and its inestimable worth, it is imperative that we understand that God's chief way of acting is by persuasion and patience and long-suffering, not by coercion and stark confrontation.  He acts by gentle solicitation and by sweet enticement. He always acts with unfailing respect for the freedom and independence that we possess.  He wants to help us and pleads for the chance to assist us, but he will not do so in violation of our agency.  He loves us too much to do that, and doing so would run counter to his divine character.--"The Golden Thread of Choice," Ensign, November 1989, 17

Strung together beautifully, these words portray a magnificent concept--one that no doubt has the power to change lives.

Speaking of change, my next effort will involve a computer tutoring session to learn how to add blog pictures in the precise spot intended, as opposed to whatever spot the computer decides.  I don't know whether this will help me get ready for heaven or not, but even in old age having at least a few skills is a good thing.

Tender Mercies

When words cannot provide the solace we need or express the joy we feel, when it is simply futile to attempt to explain that which is unexplainable, when logic and reasoning cannot yield adequate understanding about the injustices and inequities of life, when mortal experience and evaluation are insufficient to produce a desired outcome, and when it seems that perhaps we are so totally alone, truly we are blessed by the tender mercies of the Lord and made mighty even unto the power of deliverance.--David A. Bednar, Ensign, May 2005.

Is it just me, or do these words bring the comfort of warm blankets in winter?

FHE--a little late, as usual

Ok.  I admit it.  Now that 24 has come back to television, Monday night FHE's in the empty nest of Alice Haddow consist mostly of TV-tube face time with none other than Jack Bauer.  To offset our over-indulgence in stories surrounding the greatest American (albeit fictional) hero of all time, Alice Haddow is adding to her blog the following thought, one that is actually appropriate for FHE, from Dieter Uchtdorf:

"The things we hope for lead us to faith, while the things we hope in lead us to charity.  The three qualities faith, hope, and charity working together . . . lead us to abound in good works."--"The Infinite Power of Hope," Ensign, November 2008.

Thankfully, there is nothing fictional about Dieter Uchtdorf.  He is the real deal.