Full House

There are times when being alone, with the blessing of spending time just the way I want, is so fun.  Other times, having my days full of the people I love, is also so fun.  Gerald and family have been here for a little over a week.  Audrey and her four kids joined them for a week or so too.  So all of them were settled upstairs for a few days.  Even Chase, our college grandson, was here and brought his girlfriend, Morgan.  Wow.  Every bed was filled.  I loved it.  We shopped and visited a few local places.  We made pie.  Lots of pie.  But mostly we just hung out.  It was a sweet, familiar feeling of being surrounded by family.  I love just having them near.  Isn't it interesting how natural it is to love the people you are related to.

Gerald, Fran, Seth and Angelica on a snowy morning.

Granddaughter Allegra

Adams-Hart family:  Isaiah, Audrey, Chase, Rayne, Allegra

Chase and his girlfriend, Morgan.

By Saturday morning everyone was gone.  It would have felt quite empty except that our singing group had its first performance Saturday afternoon.  We all met up at a hotel in downtown Boise for our gig.  I was dressed in black with sequined vest, matched by the rest of the girls.  Layne sung his solo, and we belted out 4 of our numbers to a full room of people.  There was a lively spirit and, I think, a great response to our efforts.  What fun!  I had forgotten how energizing it is to perform.

We attended our stake conference this weekend.  I've not been to a better meeting for a very long time.  Our stake leaders gave a truly inspired presentation.  I felt such a desire to improve my spiritual life.  Often when I hear advice for parents I feel badly that I didn't do more of the recommended things for forging a strong family.  This time I felt some of that, but I also felt inspired to change some of my personal habits.  Since I've been feeling a little off the spiritual mark lately, some changes are in order.  I'm going to pray more often, have more regular sharing time with Layne, try to ponder things more, and attempt to feel more of the Spirit.  It is good to be among people who take their spiritual lives very seriously.  I find it inspiring.

Friends Jody and Jerry Jensen stopped in for a visit today.  Our afternoon was full of catching up gab and the fun of being with good people.  So, for the last couple of weeks our days have been more than full.  It has made the time rush by, but fills the minutes of our lives with sweet memories.  I'm so grateful that, in spite of the troubles of our deteriorating society, there are things to celebrate.

Ballooning With Family

I'm a scaredy cat by nature.  So there are a lot of activities that I admire from afar but am quite hesitant to actually do.  Riding in a hot air balloon is one of those things.  But when Layne saw an ad for a balloon ride for half the usual price, he asked me if I'd like to go.  In a bold move I said yes.  So he bought tickets for us.  Since son Gerald and daughter Audrey were soon to visit with their families, he bought tickets for most of them too.  We joined with Gerald and his two kids (wife Frances declined) early last Friday morning to see if the weather would permit us to ride.  It did.

We climbed aboard a basket that seemed pretty small to me.  Our driver, Layne, me, Gerald, grandkids Seth and Angelica all crowded in.  In short order we were up and away.  Well, we were definitely up but our away was really mostly a hover, as the wind was rather unimpressive on that Friday morning.  Layne went on and on about how amazing it all was.  The kids peeked carefully over the edge of the basket.  Gerald and I hung on for dear life.  Yes, it was a little scary at first.  But, as with most fears, once you are into it and nothing bad happens for a sufficient period of time, the fear tends to dissipate.

And so it was for us.  My hands, clinched on the poles and handles nearby, began to loosen and I began to enjoy the ride.  It was lovely to see the area from the big picture a little height offers.  The sky was blue, the wind calm and people below us waved as we passed slowly by.  A little change in altitude speeded up our movement, taking us above the rooftops of a neighborhood as we headed out towards nearby farmer's fields.  Beyond that lay our landing spot, determined by wherever the winds take us.  Part of the adventure is you never know where you will end up.

Landing turned out to be part of the adventure, as we wound up in a farmer's field next to a gravel pit and surrounded by water ditches.  That left us with no easy exit.  Landing was bumpy but adequate.  We all climbed out and pulled on the balloon to help it deflate in the best possible space.  The trailer assigned to follow us and pick us up could only approach us from the other side of the ditch.  While our rescuers worked on how to get the balloon and basket out, we crossed the ditch and rode out with a very nice lady from the balloon company, leaving the others to the rescue challenge.  What a fun adventure!  The weather willing, it will be repeated next week with Audrey and her kids.

Me with grandkids, Angelica and Seth, in front of our inflating balloon.

A view from the balloon.

Our landing spot, with Gerald and Layne by our deflated balloon.

I love our life here, except for the absence of family.  My cup has been filling these past few days as Gerald and Audrey and families are here.  We girls went shopping yesterday.  There has been great conversation, games, and general fun in each others' company.  I have a feeling that our children are not completely at peace with our move here.  It isn't logical for us to move away from family.  That is still an issue for me.  I have hopes that it will all work out to our eventual good but can't help a sadness at being so far away.  And I want our children to feel good about it.  They are good people and, I think, really care about our welfare and enjoy our company.  I want them in my life on a regular basis.  It is a quandary.  Layne is very happy here and, especially, grateful for our much improved financial situation.  How can I resolve these conflicts?  Perhaps time will help.

Seth and Angelica on our new mower.  

People and Stuff

It has been two months since we moved to Idaho.  I can honestly say that never before in my life have we acquired so much stuff in so little time.  Wow.  Our home is now fully furnished.  All in two months.  Whenever I told Layne that I had found something that would work in the house, he answered, "get it!" What an amazing response from him this is!  I like it.  It looks like we are slowing down at last.  No more stuff for awhile.  You may imagine that the part of Idaho that we now know is where to shop.  But we hear there is more to Idaho than this.

Our friends Pat and Larry Green have taken on the responsibility of showing us some of the Idaho sights located beyond the shopping malls.  Last week they invited us to join their "Thing" group and drive out to Swan Falls and a place called Walter's Ferry.  In case you are not familiar with "Things," they are volkswagon jeep type cars that really are called Things.  Pat and Larry belong to a Thing Club; a group of Thing owners that love to get together and drive all over the area, especially to places where normal cars would dare not go.  Last week we joined them in their Thing and off we went, in a Thing procession, to the Falls and the Ferry.  Pat and I sat in what could be called the back seat and attempted to bond in our usual chatty way amidst the very loud noise of the engine roaring in the back of the car, which is, as you may remember, the location of engines in volkswagons.  Amazingly enough we got used to the noise and managed a continuous conversation in spite of it.

"Things", all lined up during our Thing trip.  Pat and Larry's is on the left.

Layne looking at the Snake River below.  The "Falls" and Dam are  close by.

We toured a small water generating plant called Swan Falls.  In spite of a detailed tour, I could find no falls; just an electrical generation plant that has some water running through it.  But no falls.  Still, it was interesting.  Next we went to Walter's Ferry, a location south west of Boise where gold was discovered in years past.  That brought lots of people to the area, necessitating a way to cross the Snake River to the gold mines.  Thus the ferry.  Eventually the ferry became a bridge.  But the place is still called Walter's Ferry.  A doctor and his wife eventually bought Walter's Ferry and surrounding area and settled there.  His wife was a collector of things of all sorts.  The doctor kept putting up buildings to hold her growing collection.  He died.  She kept collecting and eventually filled the land surrounding the full buildings with statues, signs, and objects of all sorts.  At first it looked like lots of junk.  But as we walked the path around her property, a lovely collection of bronze statues emerged to reflect her strong Christian faith.  Positive affirmations of faith and family filled the path along with the statues, telling a story as we went.  It ended up to be very impressive.

Larry and Layne in front of a home-made chapel at  Walter's Ferry.

Me with some of the bronze statues, these depicting a teacher and her students.

Layne in front of a depiction of the Tomb where Christ was laid,
located along the path around the Walter's Ferry property.

Pat and Larry also wanted to offer us some friends, so they invited us to an Easter dinner, with two other couples.  The eight of us bonded over Easter conversation and met again at our home to discuss our mission to Mongolia.  It was a fun time, and, I believe, we will enjoy an ongoing friendship with these folks.  Making friends here seems to be easy.

Layne discussing Mongolia with new friend Marianne Wilcox
on the left and "old" and true friend Pat Green on the right.

Now that we are mostly settled, I am enjoying our Idaho home.  It is so inviting and warm.  In fact, I enjoy everything about this place except the absence of family.  Happily, my sister Maryanne and hub Bob came to visit for a few days.  Maryanne is very good at decorating so I picked her brain the whole time they were here.  The place looks much better for her influence!  Son Gerald and family are coming back today for over a week. That should fill my family cup for awhile.  I'm so excited to have them with us.

Sister Maryanne Berrett with her hub Bob.

Layne and I watched General Conference together and enjoyed it very much.  I love the thoughts that come to me as I listen.  I have started writing the applications to my life come to me as I listen and feel so encouraged and enlarged by the practice.  My overarching feeling is that relationships are absolutely the most important thing in life.  I'm going to make a greater effort to seek them out.

Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by blessings.  I wonder what the Lord would like from me in return.  To have health, comfort, freedom, familyand gospel blessings is overwhelmingly wonderful.  I feel so grateful.

It May Be Spring

There are signs of green outside.  Rumor is that spring and summer here are lovely.  So far we are surrounded by brown.  But a bit of green is pocking out here and there.  The trees are budding out.  Being a California girl almost all of life, I can't help feeling a little excited by the dramatic changes that nature promises to be turning out all around me.  It's not the California way.

Layne and I have been super involved in stuff.  House stuff of course.  Audrey's kitties wander in and out of our space, begging for food and attention.  Life interrupts stuff, but I much prefer the life.

And speaking of that, son Gerald and his family arrived for a weekend visit.  They will soon be off to Utah, but will return to us later in April.  It is wonderful to have them here.  Daughter in law Frances is having all sorts of trouble sleeping and managing the stress in her life.  We are hoping that time in this quiet, peaceful place will calm her spirits and settle her a little.  Gerald is full of ideas and theories.  Sometimes he reminds me of me and my own personal collection of theories.  His conversation is rich in ideas.  I enjoy his tender heart and his desire for a balanced, productive life.

We had fun providing an Easter treasure hunt for our Chinese grandchildren.  They experience little of that in Taiwan, so it is especially fun to see them experience some of these American traditions that our kids have come to expect.  The treasure was a basket of candy of course.  Grandson Seth had no problem munching on the extreme sweets that most asians avoid.  Granddaughter Angelica had trouble coming up with the courage to try one of the chocolates.  She eventually did and liked it OK, in very small doses.  So that just goes to prove that not everyone flips for sugar.  I think she had more fun finding than eating.

One of my spiritual ponderings has been how to use the Atonement more effectively and frequently.  In preparing my new sunday school class for a discussion on this subject, I read a talk by Elder Bednar.  He mentioned that the Atonement is not just meant to make bad people good but is also meant to make good people better.  He said that it is designed to aid us, strengthen us, improve us and to help us to perform beyond our natural abilities as well.  Somehow I missed that before.  With this information I feel armed to use the Savior's gift to much better advantage in the future.  The Savior can lift burdens but, much more often, he strengthens us to make them lighter.  This is my "ah-ha" moment for the week.

Son Gerald with Seth, checking out one of his
treasure hunt clues.

Grandchildren Angelic and Seth inspecting their sweet
treasure.  Seth had no trouble munching it down; Angelica
is a bit more cautious about it.

Seth at work at his never-ending school work.  Taiwan schools
require long hours devoted to school studies.  Gerald thinks
it is a bit too much.  Frances thinks it is all perfectly normal.

       

The Fun of New

I was planning on spending last Tuesday at home.  Every minute.  So I wore junky clothes.  I didn't comb my hair or do much in the way of make-up.  I had a total "grunge" day planned.  But Layne had other ideas.  He wanted to get our Idaho driver's license and other necessary things done.  So I pulled myself together and we got it done.  We are official Idaho drivers now.

On the way home I talked Layne into stopping by R.C. Willey's to look at a bunk bed I thought would be good.  We've decided to furnish our remaining bedroom with one.  He went for it and we bought it.  On the way out we looked at living room furniture.  Guess what.  We bought some of that too. Then we found some furniture for the "TV" room.  We got it all.  Wow.  We've never bought so much in such a short period of time, ever.

Since the living room was about to be filled with furniture, I decided it was a good time to paint one of the walls.  So I transformed the mustardy, beigey wall into...RED.    All the furniture came on Friday and its all arranged.  Wow, what a transformation.  The place is looking pretty close to lived-in.  And I love the red!  Layne likes it too.

Here is the new living room.  I want to add a rug in between the
couch and chairs.  It needs some other touches too, but this is
a great start.

This is part of the TV room.  I'm going to move the
ottoman upstairs so there is more room here.  There's
more to do in this room too, but this is a major contribution.

My community singing group is rehearsing for spring performances in the community.  Mostly convalescent and assisted living places.  So the group isn't what I would fussy about parts.  It is mostly just a fun group of gals that enjoy singing.  At one point, a member of the group from our ward mentioned that Layne sings.  So he was asked to sing a song along with us.  "I'm not a soloist," he warned them.  But he is singing a solo and sang it for us last week.  He sounded great.  The girls were thrilled.  He is singing "I've Got Plenty of Nothin' " with us joining him for the chorus.  Who knew?
Now the girls have asked me to dance with him for another number.  So we are.  I would never have imagined that we would be doing this, but I like it.  Part of what I like is the lack of pressure to do a perfect job.  Singing really isn't my forte but I'm enjoying this.

You can't beat California for winter.  It is warm and green and lovely.  Not so here.  It's cold and everything outside is some shade of brown.  If not covered with snow that is.  But there are signs of a coming spring to be seen.  Little snippets of green are emerging in the expansive lawns in the neighborhood.  It is beginning to be comfortable to go outside with only a sweater.  I believe this place will show us a lovely spring.  I'm getting anxious to see it.

Making a Home

We each are a bundle of gifted parts and retarded parts.  I am gifted at knowing what I like in a home, but retarded in knowing how to create it.  I'm struggling with that problem as we unpack boxes each day and decide where the contents should go.  This house is lovely but organized quite differently from our old one.  I struggle to figure out how to effectively organize things here in a way that is functional and looks good.  I'll be so glad when this challenge is done, the place is a fine-tuned machine that works well and looks lovely.  I hope I can figure out how to pull that off.

I taught my first sunday school class today.  It was on the Atonement.  I read the material I have on how to teach the youth with the new program that involves them lots more.  We spent some time getting acquainted, then discussed what the Atonement actually was and what it should mean to us.  I was surprised at how little the kids seemed to know about it.  So I told them a story that was a kind of parable to explain the essence of Christ's gift.  They listened and they got the message.  I was so pleased that, for a few minutes, I had them.  That is the joy of teaching.  I wish I could experience that all the time.

Granddaughter Rayne is modeling jewelry designed by friend
Debbie Mitchell.  Her company is called, "Twisted Silver".

Layne reading the local paper in our informal eating space.
He's liking it.

Tonight would normally be our extended family home evening.  If we were home in California.  Happily, the kids are continuing it.  Today it is at Audrey and Cliff's house.  Ben "face-timed" me and we were able to visit with all the kids, almost as if we were there.  I so enjoyed it.  I miss family in spite of loving it here.  Face time is a miracle.  I'm grateful to live at such a time as this.

Connections

At first meetings it is hard to know what associations will wander into our hearts and on through our lives.  When Layne and I were in Mongolia, 10 years ago, we met a young woman named Batbileg, who served for a time as our interpreter and language teacher.  She was a newly returned missionary from Idaho at the time.  We bonded with her and developed a sweet friendship.  When she mentioned a desire to return to America to attend school, we helped her to do so.  Over the years we have grown closer to Batbileg.  She considers us her American parents and calls us "mom and dad."  She is our girl.  

The name Batbileg means "firm wisdom" in Mongolian.  But it sounds a bit harsh in English.  Batbileg caught on to this early and has changed her name to "Brynn."  She was an American girl from the start, and determined that she would remain here.  She is now married to an American man named Roy Long, and is living in Arizona.  She and Roy visited us this past weekend.  It was so pleasant to spend time with them and see how thoroughly Brynn has indeed become an American girl, with a love of this country, complete with strong political opinions.  Our girl is in our lives for good, I think.

Here is Brynn and husband Ray Long, in our kitchen.

Roy and Brynn shared a video with us called, "Eat Fast Live Long" that we found fascinating.  It is based on a series of experiments on aging that have come to a conclusion that fasting several times a week is very beneficial to health.  Not the kind of fasting that we do for Church that includes avoiding all liquids and food for 24 hours, but a 600 calorie day twice a week, with all the water desired.  That amounts to about one meal a day on fast days.  We are going to try it this week.  Today in fact.  As I write this the time is nearing 10:00 AM, the time I've decided to begin our meal prep for the day.  I'm anxious already.  Hum.  Think we can do it?

As I write, my view of outside exposes a lovely scene of light snow quickly melting in the warming sun.  I guess the locals are right when they say the snow doesn't last long.  I am finding this place to be very pleasant and beautiful.  There is a peacefulness here that is soothing and relaxing.  Our days are pleasant, as we unpack and organize, then re-organized again.  Someday soon (I hope) we will truly be settled and able to think of things other than this house.

A scene from our front yard, showing the snow melting in the morning sun.

There is a new program for the youth of the Church that I have avoided learning about.  I can't explain exactly why I have done this.  Perhaps it is because a part of me feels that no time at all is given to us older guys and how to live out our final days providentially.  I'd like some ideas.  But I do understand that it is perhaps most important to meet the spiritual needs of our youth as they begin their mortal journey.  It is interesting how the Lord works things out.  I've just been called to teach the youth in Sunday School.  So I guess I will relent and learn something about the new teaching approach for our youth.  Front door or back door, the Lord has His way with us, if we let Him.  Who knows, maybe teaching the youth is how I'm supposed to spend my "final days!"