Gratitude!

I am so grateful today for so many things. I am grateful for Conference and that we have a copy of it in print in our home. I am so grateful that I have been called to teach the 4th Sunday so I can study and ponder one of those talks each month. I am so grateful we have been commanded to read our scriptures and pray. I am grateful for hard times that make the good times so sweet, and that take me to my knees and feel the Lords love for me even though he can't take away the trial at that moment. I am grateful to know I can ask my Heavenly Father for help and when I am ready to listen and learn He will teach me and not before.

I am grateful to have a family that is so blessed. Times are very hard for so many people right now, and I look at my family and we have been so greatly blessed. Everyone is employed or going to school right now. What an amazing blessing that is today. Everyone is in good health.

I have so many blessings, my needs and wants. I have a big huge greenhouse that is giving me wonderful healthy organic food, as much as I want if I put the effort out to grow it. In a world of hunger, I feel truly blessed.

I have a wonderful home that is beautiful, in an amazing location, and keeps me warm and dry. I am so grateful for that.

I have a wonderful husband that loves me and cares for me, more than I deserve at times! :-)

I have wonderful parents that love me so much and are quick to say so.

I have 6 wonderful children, each with wonderful spouses that care and love my children. I have 7 amazing, fun, and wonderful grandchildren.

I could go on and on.

The talk I read today was Joseph B. Wirthlins talk in the Nov.08 ensign on pg 26. It was so good, it made me laugh, cry, taught me and gave me comfort. What more can you ask for. I recommend it highly especially if you are feeling sad or frustrated.

Life is good! I love you all!!!

Aliese's b-day present

I made Aliese a matching nightgown for her and her doll. Can you believe she is this tall? Crazy! She said she loves it, so it must fit.

Random Thoughts

I have had some random thoughts lately, some silly some very serious. I'll start with the silly one. If this one bores you skip down to the serious one it is truly good. I was thinking about how I could blame my kids for my TV shows minus one. I am not a discoverer. I think if I lived a long time ago, I would have been happy to stay in England or wherever I was and just do my thing. I go into a grocery store and buy what I came in for. I was at the weight watchers potluck the other day and they started talking about an olive bar at Fred Meyer. I said what olive bar, and they couldn't believe I had never seen it. They said it was right by the produce section. It had obviously been there awhile. I shook my head and said I have never seen it. I remember when Rebecca first discovered Trader Joes, I thought it was okay, but eventually I fell in love with it. Then as each child would get old enough to shop for groceries they would fall in love with it. And one by one they would say "have you ever ever tried thus and so?" I would say no and ask them where they got it and it would be Trader Joes. I would never notice it. I go into the store with what I want in mind or my list and that is what I buy, until one of my kids would convert me to some new item at TJ's. As the years have rolled by it has always been that way with rare exception. When we moved out here Danielle would go exploring at Fred Meyers and find all the cute holiday things, or the cute shoes or whatever and I would come home with good buys (some of the time) and fun things I never would have seen. So it is with the TV with rare exception. I started watching 24 because Lizzie, and Amy swore we needed to watch it. My two very sensitive girls. I thought okay, it was tough at first I don't watch violent things, but I got hooked-see I can blame them. That same year Amy says we have to watch American Idol, I am thinking I don't know, but she persists, bam, Steve and I get hooked. Then last summer, Danielle and Clay come to visit and say we have to watch Lost. I am thinking ohhhh I don't think so I am just not into sci fi or weird things. But they persist, so I try, Steve doesn't. I get hooked to the point I am watching episode after episode while I am canning tuna, out in the garage at 1:00am scared out of my wits, because you have to have the garage door open part way(plenty of room for someone to slide easily under) watching these episodes of Lost. Now I am so hooked I get in the car drive to our beach house to watch Lost on Wed nights all by myself in our house with no neighbors (it is kind of creepy) but I love every second of it. I go to our Beach house because the stupid Dish Network can't seem to negotiate with ABC, so we don't get it any more. We have signed up with Direct TV, but obviously so has our whole territory, and so the earliest we can get Direct TV is March 12th!!!! Oh well, it is kind of fun to go to the BH all by myself. Now my children have tried to get me into the Office, and I have to admit I do like it, but I never seem to remember which day or network it is on, so obviously I don't love it and I don't want another TV show that I have to blame my children for getting me to watch. :-) Now I have to admit I do watch one show that I discovered all on my own about 3 years ago while I was in mourning after Danielle left. I was watching far too much TV, feeling sorry for myself. I would hide in my room and scan the channels, and somehow ran into the Closer. I love it, it is so weird that I find great comfort in it. I don't recommend it to any of my daughters, but I continue to watch it when I can because for some odd reason it makes me feel good-go figure. So you see when it comes time to being accountable, I can just say it is all my kids faults! Hee Hee! I know you all will love that!

Well, onto more serious things. I was studying my scriptures last week for Sunday and it was basically the same chapters as the week before, I thought well, this will be interesting to look for something different in the same chapters. I absolutely loved it. It was all about how to recognize the Holy Ghost, so I made a list in my Journal of all the ways the Holy Ghost talks to us. I thought I would share it with you.

Holy Ghost talks to us...
1. In our Heart and Mind
2. Still small voice that pierces our soul, sometimes causing us to quake( key here that I noticed and never gets talked about it's not just a still small voice, it is a still small voice that pierces our soul)
3. Peace to our souls
4. Leads us to do good
5. To do justly
6. Judge righteously
7. Enlightens our mind (the "aha" feeling or clarity)
8. Fills our soul with joy
9. Edifies us -light and knowledge
10. Warmth in our heart and sometimes whole body
11. Occupies your mind-presses itself upon you

We won't get all of these at once necessarily, but definitely one of them.

Now I really studied what Stupor of thought meant, Stupor means: Reduced sensibility, confusion, dazed-footnote said mind darkened.

I looked up sensibility it means: keen mental perception; the ability to feel or perceive sensations; mental or emotional responsiveness toward something; receptive to an impression whether pleasant or unpleasant.

I thought this was really cool to have them all in one spot and to really study what stupor meant. People tend to focus only on the part that says you will forget the thing which is wrong. When the word stupor and all the other signals are just as important. I think just like not everyone feels the same thing when they receive an answer to prayer, it is wrong to think you will always forget the thing that is wrong. I think that will happen eventually but not necessarily at the moment you are trying to make the decision. Anyway I hope this will help some of you. I wrote it in my journal and the definitions in my scriptures, because I know I won't remember that long definition of sensibility. One thing I have noticed about dictionaries is that they really enlighten scriptures when you use them to look up words.

A fun thing that happened yesterday when we were visiting a ward for their ward conference. I always visit a class from senior primary. This time they assigned me the kids that were 7 turning eight. The same age some of you teach. It was so funny to watch the kids and how they couldn't sit still, but they were totally paying attention. They knew what the teacher was talking about and he was reviewing the week before and they were on top of it, they knew all the answers. It cracked me up. He was a great teacher, and the kids were staying either in their chairs rocking the chair back and forth, or standing up in front of them, but they could not hold still to save their lives. I couldn't help but think of my daughters teaching primary and I think Greg either teaches or taught that age also. It was fun. The longer I visit primaries, the more I come to the conclusion that Primary Presidencies and Stake leaders don't get it that little kids just plain have the wiggles and it doesn't mean they are being irreverent. I think about myself and no matter how hard I try I can't keep my legs still. I am reverent because I am an adult, but sometimes I would like to bust out of my seat, just like they do. But I am an adult and adults don't do those kind of things. I think it is too much to expect out of little kids. In the Church handbook it talks about the need for physical activity in sharing time more than once. I think the General Board gets it, and the First Pres. has put their seal on it. I wish more primary presidencies would get it and let their kids move around more instead of expecting them to sit still and be reverent while they are visiting in the back about their week. I am not trying to criticize, just making an observation. And maybe helping all of you if you ever get in a situation to be in leadership in Primary, let the kids move!!!!

Well, I think this is very long and it is time to quit! Love you all!!!

Great Day!

I just did a whole blog and instead of being normal it did a weird coding thing! Maybe I wasn't supposed to say what I did! Who knows. Well, thought I would share some of my greenhouse with you. Here is a before picture from 2 weeks and 4 days ago.This is today!Another angle, these are garlic plants.These are my baby plants that are under lights right now. I have tomatoes, lettuce, spinach and arugala. I know what Rebecca is thinking! She loves arugala.I went out to the greenhouse at about 1:00 and it was so hot I almost came back in the house. It was great! I am so glad. I planted some beans, peas, and radishes. I am going to plant some more seeds tonight or tomorrow. It is actually happening, the start of my year round gardening!

Well I don't know how many of you have been listening to me moan about my bread lately, but I have been very frustrated. I finally figured out it was the yeast. But along the way to finding that out, I was letting my bread raise too long because I wasn't used to my new yeast. It is amazing, I used to let the bread raise for 22 minutes, today I let it raise 15 min and voila look at this!Is that beautiful or what! I have also been reminded if it aint broke, don't fix it! I was so frustrated before I discoved my yeast was bad, that I started looking up things about bread and trying new things. Today I am taking my bread to a WW potluck and I wanted it to turn out right, so I did it my way, what a novel idea. Between my way and the new yeast it is the best bread I have made in a long time. Yea! Well, the yeast is worth finding and buying, if you can't find it I will post where I got it. Here 's the yeast. Great stuff! Well, I gotta go! Love you all, oh and today is Jakes b-day!

Little Arnold's Visit

Last weekend Jake and Lyndsey used out Newport House because it didn't book. They invited some of their friends. The first night none of their friends could come, so we babysat Miles and Ruby so they could have a night and morning alone. It was great fun. They are so cute. Miles and Ruby both were fascinated by my glasses. Miles wanted to wear them and Ruby would put them on her shirt like I am assuming her grandma Marianne does. I do sometimes also, but I bet Marianne does it all the time. I wish I could have taken a pic of Ruby with them on, but it didn't work out. We made pancakes of course, played Candy Land, watched movies and had a Tea Party. Since there was a tea party, that meant making cookies. Busy, busy. Miles was a real "pooping machine" as his parents call him according to Ruby. I ran out of diapers, and had to use some that thankfully Lizzie and Shad left. He loved us!Ruby was major into trying on the fake hair and hats.

Miles loved the swiffer! I wasn't even using it, he saw it in the laundry room and got all excited, so I let him play with it. He like it on and off. I mostly let him play with it off.Tea party time, we had a very healthy party. We had PBJ sandwiches, cherry tomatoes, carrots from the greenhouse, clementines, lemon tea, and of course sugar cookies. We had two different names. So my second place of residence was Texas. It was hilarious, she got really hostile when I would talk in my southern voice, it agitated her for some reason. Whereas when I was my typical tea party self she was very genteel and we had a very calm time. The next day after they left it got really stormy it was very dark and cool looking. Here it looks more blue, it was really black in real life. I planted some tomatoes, lettuce and arugula (seeds) in my greenhouse on a plant heating pad on Saturday. It was freezing, so I quit early. I want to plant my peppers and some of the plants tomorrow. It was beautiful yesterday, but I spent the majority of the day in Toledo at pres. mtg. Today it is freezing, rainy and windy. So maybe tomorrow. If it is still cold, I will probably bring in the seeds and seeding medium and plant them at the kitchen table and then take them back out to the greenhouse in there little warm sheltered seeding place.
Well, love you all!!

Temple Trip with Mom

Tuesday I went to the temple with my mom, it was an amazing day. It was one of those very sweet days that you will never forget. From the time my mom and I got in the car together it was wonderful. I feel so grateful for my mother. I am a truly blessed person. We had a wonderful time at the temple, then a very nice lunch at Olive Garden after. We then went to Costco, and Trader Joes. Even that was fun and nice. Then we traveled home. It was a perfect day. I love my mother very much!

Greenhouse

Yesterday was a crazy day. I got up at 7:00am and was up and exercising, read my scriptures, studied WW topic, jumped in the shower, got dressed, roared off to WW's, did my meeting, had 8 new members, taught the new member meeting, did bookwork, roared home,hurried and cleaned up the rest of my Christmas stuff, cleaned the house, remembered the half bath hadn't been cleaned in a while, cleaned it, then as I am finishing the dishes my VT showed up-hence the reason for racing around after I got home from WW's. After they left I felt like I could hardly move, I literally ached. We had Pizza for dinner and watched a movie, and I did some beach house stuff, tried to look at seeds, but just couldn't. So I went to bed.

While I was laying in bed trying to make my head stop thinking, I decided today was going to be more relaxed in that I wasn't going to set my alarm, wasn't going to hurry anywhere!!! I got up at 7:30,exercised, ate, read my scriptures and wrote in my journal leisurely, then changed my shoes and went out into my very warm greenhouse. The sun is out and my greenhouse was literally borderline hot! It was great! I had been cleaning it out on my almost daily visits and today I actually got to plant something!!!! How cool is that?! I planted 40 garlics, and 30 shallots. Now they were supposed to be planted in Oct, but it is okay to start planting them in February according to my greenhouse book. So since we are having all this sunshine, I decided to plant them today. I hope they take off. The garlic had already sprouted, I don't know if that is good or bad. I shall find out. Worse case scenario I will buy bulbs, and plant again. I am going to sit on the sunny deck after I eat my lunch and figure out the rest of my seeds that I need to buy and then place my order!!! It has been a great day. This is the bed I planted, I actually planted part of the next bed also. The garlic is on the right. I figure if they all work out I can share! They are easy to transport light weight and stay good for a long time! My shallots lasted about a year last time. I am not sure if they are the same variety though. Another view of the same bed

As for the movie, it was great. We watched the Bucket List. We loved it. Mom if you and dad haven't seen it talk to me first! I don't want to spoil the end for anyone that might want to watch it.

I lost 1.8lbs. this last week. I have 1.4lbs to lose to get to the already too high weight I was before Christmas. But I feel really good about it and am moving forward.

Well, hope you all have a great day too! Love you all!