Dear Children,
Here is a picture that Heidi sent of Rebekah out in front of Primary Children’s Hospital the day she received her cast; a washable hot pink cast!
The good weather has been kind to us. We have had some rain this week, enough to water our thatched lawn and garden vegetables but mostly we enjoyed temperate weather and especially nice days this weekend. The forecast is for a few warmer days ahead. Dad needs a couple of good weather days to finish some difficult concrete pours this week. It is perfect “project” weather which has been a great benefit as Dad and I prepare this week to leave for
Everything is ready for the rock man to come (although now he is stalling!) as Dad and Mike prepared the footing for the front pillar this past week. Mike was almost to his shoulders in the hole that they dug to hit solid ground. What they also hit was gold! Yes, we have a rock from the hole with what looks like real gold veins. We laughed about getting a backhoe and excavating the front yard in search for more! We have actually started reshaping the front yard in one of the many, many steps to having what Dad calls, “An attractive front to look out on”. Dad framed in a planter box where the plum tree used to be; it will be for my lilac tree and lilies. The fence in between the old Larsen home (now Faulkner) and our property needs to be redone so Dad has some new ideas for that. We are leveling off the grass that will stop with a wall and walkway below top the side gate. We need to rebuild the small side fence so we may make a rod iron fence instead. These could be great winter projects that will keep Dad busy in the slow months ahead.
Dad and I finished the last touches on the storage room this week. What a great feeling! When President Uchtdorf talked last night about the happiness that is gained by creating things, I thought of my lowly storage room and the great feeling that I have as I take a peek in it when I pass by. Also, I have a sense of peace knowing what exactly we have and that we have enough to eat this winter if jobs are scarce. What a great blessing it is to have food storage for uncertain times.
I just may run out of frozen jam this year since the girls have been regularly asking me to replenish their supply. I don’t think it helps that 
Adrianne makes wheat bread every Sunday. She wonders why two of her loaves disappear before Monday . . . who can resist the smell of homemade bread???
Amid all these projects, Dad and I relaxed last Monday for Family Home Evening and took advantage of some free preview movie tickets that I received at my institute class for the new movie, “Forever Strong”. What a treat it was! We had a coupon from one of the summer concerts at
I helped Ramona Jones with a bridal shower for Laura Ludlow early this week. She is getting married next Saturday to Tyler Green. We will miss the wedding and since I am the visiting teacher in the Green family and Dad is the home teacher for the
The garden keeps on giving. I have had great success with some beautifully, large tomatoes that I have tried to share with anyone who wants them, made lots of salsa with the Romas and was even able to freeze lots of them. What started a very difficult garden year has yielded lots of great meals.
The neighbor, Mike Faulkner (the Larson’s son-in-law), was in a motorcycle accident t
his weekend and broke his pelvis in three places. Luckily, I had taken out a turkey when I defrosted the freezer and wondered what I would do with all that meat. Their return home and need for lots of help, answered that question! Even so, we still had lots of turkey leftover dinners; Dad has been on cloud nine.
Wendi had her senior pictures taken and I see that she sent several options to many of you to help her decide which pictures are best. My favorite is the close up with the flower garden in the background but I also thought the one with the mirror was very interesting. I remember how hard it is to choose senior pictures.
We had a most incredible Relief Society General Conference meeting on Saturday evening. Dad and I were not done with our projects so I stayed home and watched it on TV while I finished some jobs. My favorite speakers were Sister Bec
k and President Uchtdorf. President Uchtdorf’s message and delivery were amazing. I watched it again that night after asking Dad to sit and watch with me a second time. If you missed it, you could go to the BYU-TV website and watch a video of it. It would be a great idea for any of you men also; it was a profound message for everyone.
President Uchtdorf taught us to not devalue our abilities or accomplishments, no matter how small. He asked us to quit focusing on what our accomplishments lacked. He said he wanted to teach those who ever felt inadequate, discouraged or weary (all of us at one time or another) how to taste of God’s happiness. The rest of his talk was about the two elements of God’s happiness: creation and compassion.
He reminded us that as Spirit daughters of our Heavenly Father, God’s happiness is in our heritage. We are the Spirit daughter of the most creative Being in the universe. He spoke about creation and creating in a most interesting way and reminding us that we were created to have joy, he promised us that the more we trust and rely on the Spirit, the greater our capacity was to create.
He spoke of compassion and creation in the most simplest of terms; even the creation of smiles in others by smiling at people. Telling us that we are surrounded by opportunities for service, he told us that as we improve the world around us, we improve within. He quoted the author of Peter Pan, James Barrie, “Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others, cannot keep it from themselves.” One of the last things that he said was that the number of prayers we say may contribute to our happiness but the number of prayers we answer may be of greater importance. He acknowledged the many sorrows and trials that we all our facing and then quoted President Hinckley who said, “Work will cure your grief; serve others.” You just have to go to the website and listen to this talk; it is so inspiring! I cannot do it justice.
Sister Julie Beck’s talked about the Lord’s expectation to increase our offering, saying that we have done so much but there is still much to do as an organization. She said the purpose of Relief Society was to organize, teach and inspire the Lord’s daughters to prepare them for the blessings of eternal life by:
- Increasing in faith and personal righteousness
- Strengthening homes and families
- Serving the Lord and His children
Sister Beck asked us to defend and practice the truths found in the Proclamation. She also talked about the importance of personal revelation saying that without personal revelation we cannot succeed but with it we cannot fail.
I hope that you all enjoy the week ahead. This is Adam’s birthday week. He turns nine this Sunday and is having a birthday party in the park on Saturday afternoon. Klaire was returned to Kyre this week when the DHS dropped the case saying that they didn’t have enough hard evidence. Unfortunately, the DA is not dropping the criminal charges of child neglect. She has two more court appearances scheduled on December 29 and January 14 or 15.
I understand that some of you already have midterms. It seems too soon! Some of the students in our ward are just starting classes this coming week. Good luck and DO YOUR BEST! I love you! Love, Mom
No comments:
Post a Comment