Living Room Today

Under piano new black polka dot rug, IKEA; mirror "wings" on Serve 1 Another sign; rocking chair in from the front porch; chifforobe moved back to our room; round table in corner.  Still the pink toile curtains (bought fabric at yard sale in Cranberry, PA for $5) and same pink/blue/olive Persian rug worn bare in spots.  The harp gets lots of "wows" when people walk in for the first time...

Hi Ho

It's off to work I go...  Wanted to show evidence of the Relief Society service auction we had last month.  My offering was the flowery necklaces, there is a red one, a dark gray, and a light blue one tied to the top of a black shoe box in the lower right corner.  Made from t-shirts.  Fun hand work.

But today is office work.  Tax-season busy.  That leaves the kids home alone on their spring break.  John enouraged them last night to think about making us dinner...

Love to my family, near and far.  Good luck to Luanna today, travelling to Chile to be with Mom & Dad.  Wish I could have come with you, but you are a good emmisary, bringing all our hugs and hand-holding and singing to Dad with you. 

xo

This is what happens when...

...You go to dinner and your host is a dentist and you mention a hole you feel in the back tooth...(Dr. Gailey and Maxwell)

...Or when you live close to a cousin who goes to the same school and it is spirit week and you are supposed to wear sunglasses to school... (Roxie & Marc)

...Or when you are a family's favorite babysitter and your name becomes "Hey, Babysitter" and you get to hold their newest addition... (Claire & Suzanna)

...Or when you make something for someone and they hang it on their wall! (ruffle book page wreath, should make one for me now!)
This is what happens when you haven't blogged for awhile due to technical difficulties and you have some photos saved up...

Happy Easter ( please watch this video "He is Risen")

Flowers for Mom and Emmalyn #23

I began blogging for my college daughter, to show her what we were doing at home, how things change, paint colors, improvements, projects...so every blog is for her.  And for my extended family, near and far...

The daffodils are resiliant, up every spring, in time for Easter.  The "I love you" (picture horizontal so you can read it on the bulb-seed part, I know there is a technical name for that part, not calyx???) plant is from Valentine's Day, from John, now planted in the planter urns from Koehler's move west.

I bought the pansies when we heard Dad was in the hospital, as a way to honor him.  I remember him spending lots of time in the botanical garden on St. Thomas when Luanna and I visited last February, taking photos of all the beautiful flowers and plants, cobwebs, the silly parrot that talked back to Dad.  He gave away a Book of Mormon to a couple also touring the gardens.  Great to watch him in action, earnestly bearing testimony and explaining his love for the scriptures.

Our family is reading Elder Bednar's talk:   Those Facing Adversity  “Shrink Not”

Be brave.  Have faith.  Be believing.  Remember the power of covenants.  Hope for reunions.

Praying for Dad

My parents are serving an LDS mission in Chile.  They get to work together, every day.  Dad is sick, in hospital with pneumococcal menengytis.  Please keep him in your prayers for us?  He is a good man, working so hard, and I know he does not like being sick.  It is frustrating, when you have so many good things left to do! 

Post Cards from the Past

Two uncles, two aunts, grandparents (aunt Laurie must be taking photo, or uncle Blen, or uncle Lou?).  I copied this photo from a cousin's facebook post. 

I don't remember Grandma with dark hair.  Or that easy, relaxed smile of Grandpa.  I only knew him breifly when he was sick and shaky, once sitting in his chair talking about his pheasants and making divinity.  My memories are borrowed from stories I have heard my mom tell about him teaching English, and stories from his mission to Sweden/Denmark, his ability with languages, his days as bishop in Denver, his fishing filling the freezer. 

I learned how to fish from his son, uncle Will, the youngest boy in this photo.  He took me up the canyons, taught me where to look for rainbow trout, where the German browns were hiding in the shadows of the rocks, how to gut and fillet and pan-fry your catch.  Good skills for an awkward teenage girl who didn't fit in well with popular crowds, felt lonely for friends left behind in Iowa. 

So today I am thankful for knowledge passed on.  For the connection families and friends give us.  I can look at this photo and I have a memory that helps me know Grandpa Harold, even though I wasn't there.  I can feel nostalgic for a picnic I didn't attend.  (Was my mom at school when this was taken, or did she take it?) 

Grandpa Harold looks in this photo a lot like what I imagine my brother, John, will look like in 10+ more years. 

Can you love someone you barely knew?  As I cook recipes of Grandma Laura's, I sometimes think of her family eating them, her husband enjoying her cooking skills.  I wish I knew more about him.  I am thankful he chose to be married, to have children, to raise them reading the scriptures every night to them after dinner. 

My favorite quote of his:  "I rather have children jumping on the beds than crying in the closets."

And I know he liked ice cream, the way our Sam loves ice cream!

Cool T-Shirt

Hannah or Lucy had this on, Young Women's camp shirt highlighting the 13th Article of Faith.

Hard to get back in the habit of blogging...but trying.