An 11 Day

Here's Rayne during a brief break on our hiking trail.

I simply have to say something on this 11/11/11 day!  So I am choosing to celebrate the life that we enjoy here in this promised land.  This morning I hiked a nearby trail with daughter Audrey and granddaughter Rayne.  It was exhilarating and beautiful.  Nature nurtures like nothing else.  I believe that the Spirit of God is in his living things.  We were surrounded by them this morning.  There is no better way to start a day full of 11s than this.

A Possible Yard

We have been here in our new home for 4 1/2 years now.  I love it and feel very grateful to have it.  The only scar on my contentment is our yard.  That condition is my current "bug."  It seems to have fallen on me to determine how to design and plant it.  That's the problem.  I've come up with various ideas, carefully drawn up and then, rejected.  I know for sure that this is not my gift.  So I flounder.  My eyes take in the lovely horizon to horizon view from here, and the beautiful hillsides, now filling with green from the recent rains.  All is candy to the eyes, except when they fall upon the outside space that is actually ours.  I have reached the end of my patience with it.  Yet we don't currently have the funds to buy an expert to help us resolve it.

But here is where our serendipity comes in.  Recently a friend referred a young man to us that needs a place to stay for a time.  He simply needed a spot to park his RV while he tries out a new job here in this area.  If it works out he will move his family here and get a home.  In the meantime, he will be here with us.  Guess what he does for a living?  He's a landscaper!  What a magical thing!  I told him with a smile that his rent would be his help planning our yard.  He happily agreed.  So I'm very hopeful that, before long, we will actually have some plans for our very needy yard.  It's a challenge, you see, as we have poor soil, wind, and poor water.  Not a good combination.  But Beecher, our landscape friend, seems unmoved by the problems.  I'm excited to see what ideas he comes up with.

In spite of my complaints about the yard, I am going through a spurt of exceptionally pleasant times.  Perhaps it is the time of year.  I love the rain, and the holiday season.  Or perhaps it is my new approach to housework.  I have a collection of dance music that is now accessible on my iphone.  So I plug it into my ear during my cleaning sprees and dance my way through the work.  It has proven itself to be a glorious way to move me through my working routine.  I move with more energy and the music fills me with positive enthusiasm.  Dancing just does wonderful things for me.  (I wish it did for Layne!)

For the first time ever we spotted this large two point
buck in our yard!
 

Here's Audrey trying to calm our youngest grandson
Jonathan.  He's having tummy trouble these days.

At our extended FHE I caught Cliff tossing a napkin over
grandson Bruce's head.  Bruce didn't mind a bit.

With the word getting around about Layne being a patriarch, there seems to be a growing number of requests for him to speak to youth about blessings.  This past weekend, I spoke with him on just that subject.  It was a lot of fun.  I've discovered that, if I am excited by my subject, speaking is fun.  One- shot exposure is lots easier than weekly ones; as in my sunday school class.  My usual students listened to me with interest when I spoke on blessings, but have quite a bit of trouble doing so for my usual sunday school lessons.  Hum.  What's the deal with that?

Our Halloween was a non-event this year.  Layne and I cuddled together on spook night and watched a decidedly unspooky movie, North and South.  It is a romantic English movie with a theme not unlike Pride and Prejudice (my absolute favorite love story).  I liked it lots better than trick or treating.  Sunday our local gang came over for extended Family Home Evening.  That was lots of fun.  I am going through a particular enjoyment of people phase right now.  I like it.

Seattle

Layne has been feeling better and better this week.  Whatever made him sick last week really took it out of him.  Today is his third blessing (I know I'll stop counting at some point, but not today) and he is feeling a little dizzy.  I think it is because he is fasting for the blessing.  But he will not compromise himself by taking a drink.  He has a steel will about those things.  His philosophy is that his body is not in control; HE is.  I admire that.  It usually works well for him.  Here's hoping he will make it through the blessing without swooning.

We left our temple shift early on Wednesday to catch a flight to Seattle.  For the first time ever on the flight to Seattle there was tons of room; so much so that even we standbys had not a worry of getting on.  Our visit with Chris and Jes was great.  She has just about the neatest used book store I've ever seen.  I promise that this is not a biased view point; the girl has a knack for making things look inviting.  Her little shop appears to be gaining a following, which is a very good thing.  She is no longer in the red.  But, as she says, she could not make a living at running it.  Profitable or not, she seems to love it.  She has a serious thing for books.  Perhaps I have a little of that as well.  I managed to find 6 books that I could not resist buying.

It is good to feel good about family.  Chris and Jes both have good hearts and a desire to do what is right.  Their three children appear to be doing fine.  I'm looking forward to visiting more often and getting a better read on these cute blond grandkids.  Jes and I spent an hour or so in their hot tub.  Wow.  I want one of those.  Not only do they warm you up on the outside, but somehow promote communication that warms up the inside.  It's cold in Seattle.  But after our hour in the tub all was warm and cozy.

Here's a crazy picture of Chris and Jessica's three children:
Peyton, Gemma and Miles, posing for me.

We are home again, blessed once again with a flight to San Francisco empty enough to fit us comfortably within.  What an amazing time of year for standbys to travel.  I'm glad to live at a time when it is all so easy.  And now, let the holidays begin!

Our Newest Grandsons

Jonathan, born in September, with Allegra

Bruce, born in January, with Layne

Home

These past two weeks have provided me with 14 days at home with no distractions.  What a gift of time!  I can't help feeling a bit heady about it.  I'm making all sorts of plans for getting projects on their way to being done.  My mind is exploding with ideas.  The trouble is, I get started on one idea and then get another, and so it goes.  When I actually finish something it is a joy.  So I'm hoping that I can do more of it.

Layne gave his second blessing a week ago.  This time he began praying about the person way ahead of time and got lots of inspiration during the preceding week.  What a help it was.  I think he is beginning to get the Patriarch thing into a more comfortable place.  He spent lots of time rigging up a contraption to hold the recording microphone in just the right place when he gives blessings.  I'm amazed at how he can maneuver things to serve his needs.  In this case he took a desk lamp with a moveable arm, cut off the light, adapted a part from something else that would hold his microphone and  put it all together in just the right way.  The moveable arm can place the microphone just where he wants it, leaving his hands free.  He has such a knack!  I love that about him.  Perhaps all those boxes of extra parts from various things he has saved are worth the space they take.  It seems so!

Sometimes, among all the friends one collects over a lifetime, a few emerge that become "kindred spirits".  These friends have a direct road into my thoughts and my feelings.  They do because their roads are so very much like mine.  I have several friends like that.  One of them is Trudy Ostler.  She and her husband have been on a mission in Fiji for three years.  So I was excited when she said they were coming here for a visit.  Their plan was to come this past Friday.  As serendipity would have it, another of my kindred spirits called and visited on that same day.  Jody Jensen and her husband Jerry had lunch with us.  Bill and Trudy Ostler came for dinner and an overnight.  What a feast of intimacy that day became!  It has been sad for me to see all of those special friends come in and then out of my life, as they move away and settle in other, far away, places.  But on Friday, my plate was full.

Layne took me on a date last week.  It is worth a blog mention because it rarely happens.  We have become quite the stay-at-homers.  But BYU's Ballroom Dance Team came to town last weekend.  I talked Layne into taking me.  He will usually bend to my dancing wishes as he knows it is such a passion for me.  He's great that way.  So we went.  We were both dazzled by their performance!  Even my non-dancing Layne loved it.  It just goes to show that there are a number of things well worth coming out of the house for.  But first we have to get out the front door.  That seems to be the hardest part of all.

Jody and me

Our front view early in the morning

Speaking of Layne, he got sick today.  This is also worth mentioning because it rarely happens.  But it seemed to have passed quickly.  He is now sleeping peacefully with high hopes of feeling pretty normal by tomorrow.  There is nothing like feeling miserable to remind us of how great it is to feel good.  I'm grateful that good is how we feel almost all of the time.

Layne's First Blessing

Layne ready to give a Blessing

Busy-ness does not lend itself to meditation.  This has been another week crammed with activity, including some more time with Ben and Jes.  I enjoy that.  In fact, I enjoy all the rush of things.  That is my trouble.  I fill my time with all sorts of things that must be done, but that I also like doing.  Time rushes by and I worry sometimes that I'm missing time to make sense of it all and use it better.

We have had a major rain storm already!  Cloudy skies are my favorite kind of sky.  The ground is now soft and workable.  I've been spending time digging in it, trying to get our front yard presentable.  What fun it is to play in the dirt.

We have been asked to perform in Nutcracker, on Temple Hill, again this year.  Practice has begun, with a new director.  She is a no-nonsense kind of girl with big ideas about how we should appear on stage.  More grace in movement and heads up at all times for best stage projection.  Hum.  Layne's part has also expanded a bit.  He is the grandpa, if you remember, who has a dance centered around him and a small solo part where he dances and hurts his back.  I can't help giggling to myself when I think how we wandered into this experience.  This man of man who doesn't like performing, or dancing is doing it...again!

And speaking of this man, Layne gave his first Patriarchal Blessing today.  He was one stressed guy, but it worked out just fine.  He did a great job and the young woman he blessed loved it.  So it all worked out.  He is greatly relieved and will be much calmer for the next blessing.  At least I think he will.  We will soon find out as he is scheduled to give another one next Sunday.

Conference Weekend

Layne watching Conference with Jonathan

Food and paper work keep Jacqueline and Tim entertained,
at least some of the time.

 There are times when I have to think to remember what day it is.  Lots of activity does that kind of thing to me.  I spent some time with Ben and Jes, as planned, early this week.  This time I had more clothes and a better plan.  lt was fun spending time there and figuring out how to organize things in a pleasing way for the kids.  Somehow organizing appeals to me.  It has taken me some time to figure out how to do it but I'm making progress.  I find, though, that the busy household at Ben and Jessica's takes some getting used to.  My own household was once busy but I'm used to quiet times now.  I guess that is the old lady in me.

So it was sweet to return to my fairly quiet husband and home.  Finally, after a couple of weeks, we harvested the garden.  Layne has figured out how to grow vegetables here, at last.  So our garden is really putting out this year.  So tempting a place is it that the local deer have figured out how to slip their way under the garden fence!  But Layne is philosophical.  The garden is big enough for them and us now.  So we'll share.  Our garden haul was big.  I spent two days bottling and drying its bounty.  Standing on my feet all day is an exhausting activity.  I guess I'd be happy to not have such a garden haul, for a little while anyhow.

Church General Conference was this weekend.  We loved doing activities that put us in front of the TV for each and every session.  I found it very inspiring.  Sunday found all the local kids sharing it all with us.  I tried to provide Conference activities and goodies to keep the little ones busy.  It worked some of the time.  I know it sounds crazy, but after conference I dressed the kids in nativity clothes for Christmas photos.  I'm planning ahead you see.  I have plans for the photos, come Christmas.  I'm determined to be ready this year and enjoy the season without stress.  What do you think; is it possible?

Daughter-in-law Dorothy and Bruce Galbraith

Mary (Jacqueline) and Joseph (Vincent) with the
baby Jesus (Jonathan--isn't he perfect for the part?)