A Little Catch-Up

The Prescott trip was quick and fun. I misled you when I said we would be staying in a cabin. It was a vacation house in the pines. . . a luxury vacation home in the mountains. It was lovely in size, appointment, company, food and activity. I enjoyed the smell of the pines and that thrilling sound of the winds in the tall pines. I marveled on Sunday morning as I assessed our group of 12 adults. Two of us were married, "older" women while the rest were young singles, students and/or professionals. After a Saturday night of staying up late all were up early and ready to drive about a half hour off the mountain and into town to attend church. It was an honor to be with these women. Thanks for being included. Sorry no pics.

Tuesday evening I attended a play in an outdoor venue. DELIGHTFUL!!! Princess Rose and The Butterfly Fairies, written by Meagan and Paige, complete with costumes, props, patio decorations and lights, original music and delectable refreshments. No surprise it was standing room only with parents, friends and the girls kindergarten and first grade teachers even attended.

The cast. Friend Allan was the only boy when little brother Mitchell's stage fright took over but at age 3 I can certainly understand Mitchell's feelings.

No coaching could get Mitchell "on stage".

I love you Mitchell.

I have so much respect for Becca and the effort she puts into her children! Check out her blog - The Daily Grapefruit and see what she's been up to teaching her children in her summer school.

Do What Is Right

Please forgive me when I have said on more than one occasion to a married with children child of mine that it would really be good to have a Family Home Evening lesson on . . . . I'm just totally sold on the importance of a well planned FHE and it's power. And in this day and age our children need all the help and guidance they can get. That's one of the reasons I continue to add FHE lessons on my sidebar and hope they may be of help. Also . . .

I've just read this great excerpt from a book titled Do What Is Right by Douglas J. and Laurie H. Wilcox. If you too like what you read below and think it could be helpful just click here and get three, yes 3 good lessons to motivate, inspire and help in many areas like:
manners,
chores,
kindness,
scripture study,
church attendance,
obedience,
success in school and even
musical instrument practice - and others.

You know it's shared with love to any and all.

Latter-day Saint families are certainly not lacking for worthy pursuits. In fact, if you sometimes feel overwhelmed by all the good things you have been counseled to do with your family, you are not alone. This beleaguered feeling does not stem from the difficulty of the things we have been counseled to do, nor is it typically the result of a lack of desire to do them. Rather, it often results from confusion about how to do them.

These tips are intended to provide practical, real-life ideas on how to get your family anxiously engaged in good works with greater peace and lasting success. The activities presented here will not solve your problems, but what they will do is provide you with some very practical ways to motivate and encourage good behavior and habits within your family.


Also, if you missed the Mesa Temple Easter pagent, you can click here and see beautiful photos of this event and learn some of the behind the scenes stories. Wishing you a good Sabbath. 3

Different Drug Problem

Thanks to Jody for sending this to me...and probably several of you. I liked it so much I wanted to share it. I love it. Great value in my opinion, besides it's an "easy post" on a very hot day and summer has just begun. I'm wilting :)

JANUARY DREAMS

Let me share one of my favorite winter activities from my not too distant past. No, I wasn't a skier though I really wanted to be. I would order my Gurney Seed Catalog and then spend considerable time pouring over it, reading descriptions of various vegetables/flowers and trying to plan my summer garden with seeds that would do well in Oregon.

I would literally draw on paper my garden, designing it to allow best use of space, sunshine and with an eye for beauty also. Also planning flowers to add that beauty. After many evenings of planning and several drawings I would order the seeds and in some cases plants. Regarding plants, I remember ordering rhubarb, bleeding heart and even an indoor palm. It was with great anticipation I'd wait until my order was received; it was almost like getting a belated Christmas present. In the spring SLK would take the trusty Troy-bilt Rototiller and prepare the large garden according to my dreams and plans and then the planting began.

The garden provided so much of our food. Many summer days about 4 or 5 o'clock I would head to the garden often with your help and harvest dinner-digging up new potatoes, picking zucchini, yellow crookneck squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce and corn. I would actually start the stock pot filled with water to boil before going into the garden so when I came in the kitchen with the corn it was ready to start cooking. Talk about fresh. Now I don't boil the wonderful corn but steam it and think that retains so much more nutrition. You kids were absolute champions picking all the raspberries and then even selling them to friends from church. I about croak when I buy a tiny little half-pint of berries for $2-$3 dollars and recall selling 7 full pint containers for about $4 if I remember correctly. The berries came on so quickly that much of the crop was frozen and then when I had time I made endless pints of jam that we used on toast, pancakes, french toast and pb&j sandwiches that you all made in the evenings for your Schuebel School lunches the next day. I'm planning a little garden that I'll plant mid-February here in my desert. I still have a couple little struggling tomato plants and bell peppers in containers and just harvested some peppers yesterday. I hope you are dreaming of your gardens and will start early with your plans. It is such a good idea to be able to provide as much produce as you can. I love getting kids involved in the garden. They develop a good work ethic and appreciation for what they eat. I'm sure you can comment on your memories of the garden and I'm sure those comments would involve berry fights etc. I'm so glad I learned about that after your were adults.

I love you. I love that we had gardens and all that good food. I love that we worked together and at times that was hard work. I'm so proud of you. Hoping you have a happy day. Here's to the GEISS THUMB in all of us.

Square Foot container gardening

Silly Jody and me in her garden last summer wearing old garden hats. Takes "guts" to post a picture of myself when I'm so goofy looking!