Scrapbooking

It is interesting how a memory can be stoked with triggers.  For years I've been planning on putting together a childhood scrapbook for each of my five children.  Every year I tell myself that this will be the year for it.  I did the same thing this year.  But this year is turning out to be a little different.  This year I'm actually doing it.  Son Ben has a birthday this month (yesterday actually).  I determined to get his boyhood captured for it.  So I've been working just about non-stop.  Wow, does it take a lot of time.  Layne keeps complaining that I'm taking much too much time at it.  As I view the pictures of his childhood a flood of memories returns to my mind.  Things come to me that I haven't thought about in years.  I suppose all those memories are really stored just barely out of reach, ready to come forth with a little trigger.  Isn't it a marvel what the brain can hold?  I love reviewing those former times.  There is a tenderness in my heart about my little boy Ben that returns to me as I see him little once again.  Once more he grows up before my eyes.  It makes life appear to speed by and I'm reminded that I'd better get to whatever I want to accomplish before I leave this place.

The scrapbook is at last almost finished.  A few finishing touches will have it ready.  So I didn't quite make his birthday, but plan to give it to him tomorrow.  I'm so happy to have one fifth of this monumental task finished!  It is strong motivation to keep up the momentum and do the rest.  So I think I will.

We've been on the go during most of our evenings this past week.  I find it interesting that an empty nest can be so busy.  One of our activities took us back to Fremont to see foster daughter Michelle Montandon's daughter perform in "Beauty and the Beast".  Her high school put it on.  We loved it.  They did a great job.  It warms my heart to see the kids perform in something that has an uplifting message.  There seems to be little consideration given to that when productions are chosen for high school students.  I'm thinking that the young performers absorb the stories they tell on a deep level. So they should be uplifting ones with positive messages.  This story has that.  Beauty is my favorite fairy tale.  It seems to promote the idea of looking beyond appearances and judging others by their hearts.  There is integrity in the story and, of course, a happy ending.  What a great message for kids.  Michelle's daughter, Kelsey, played the wardrobe in the Beast's castle.  You can see her here, with me.  She, along with everyone else, did a great job.  It was pure joy to see.

Layne has been investing lots of time on his new calling as a patriarch.  He is trying to figure out how to get it right.  I've enjoyed watching him go through the process.  He's been fasting, praying, meditating, listening and reading instructions and reading the scriptures.  He has developed the habit of praying about each candidate that comes to him and receiving information about them over several days.  He writes it down and commits it to memory, to use during the actual blessing.  But he is considering the notion that taking a leap of faith and totally depending upon the Spirit to speak to him at the time he lays his hands on the candidate's head may be a better way to go.  As he was reading the scriptures this morning he hit upon
a scripture in the Doctrine and Covenants which says, in part, "...and it shall be given thee in the very moment what thou shalt speak and write..."  That solidified the idea in his mind.  Today he will test it out with another blessing.

Kelsey and me right after her performance in
"Beauty and the Beast" at Irvington High School, in Fremont.

We are gearing up to get our home ready to place on the market.  As I look outside this morning, the hills are green and full of living things, all moving about in the clearing skies.  What inspiration spreads before my eyes.  I hate to leave such a place.  But I am not in mourning.  I think of all the money we will save when we move on to another place.  I look forward to that.  We don't know where it will be or when.  But I am comforted that we are doing the right thing.