Visitors

We’ve had a good week. On Monday I worked on writing. Tom worked on getting the chicken run ready for chickens and inaccessible to hawks or carnivores. He ran a 6 foot fence around the exterior. He was tired of trying to mow while bent over under the 4 foot netting. Plus, the netting deteriorated so then there was no net… and therefore no way to keep chickens in.

So he got the taller fencing and placed three wooden posts into the ground in the middle. Then he strung wires between the posts and the fencing.

Creekside had the dismal net fencing that got the city angry at them. When they replaced the 6 foot nylon mesh fence with chain link, we got to keep the nylon mesh fencing. It was ideal to put over the chicken run. We had to stitch four runs of the 6 foot fence together for about 50 feet. Talk about laborious!

Monday evening was Empty Nesters Family Home Evening. It’s always enjoyable to visit with others from church and eat good stuff. We always learn more about each other. This time we shared blessings from this year and told about a scary or inspirational experience we had.

Steve and Kathy came to visit on Monday after we got back home. We were so delighted to see them! They are restful company… except for playing Pickle Ball. Tom had tithing settlement on Tuesday evening, so we went into church and set up the Pickle Ball court. Initially my paddle had a really hard time finding the ball. But as time progressed we got ball engagement. Directional control… that is yet to come.

Wednesday morning we got Tom to come back and the 4 of us played for about an hour. It’s good exercise but you’re having so much fun you don’t realize it. Well, until you stop and then you start to feel the muscles complaining.

My neighbor who is doing the necklaces was planning to drive to some craft shows. But her car is so awful, I was really worried. Bad brakes, bald tires, leaking radiator…  Then Tom heard about a ward member willing to give a car away. What a blessing to her!  She was SO grateful. I was too. And the people giving it away got the oil changed, put on a new steering wheel cover and a few other things done before they turned it over to her. It makes you realize the good in people.

I wanted Steve and Kathy to take some of our sweet potatoes home with them. So Steve and I went out and dug potatoes. We found some monster ones… as well as some that had been gnawed on while underground. We still have many more to dig and a great need for sweet potato recipes. But we had ham and sweet potatoes and broccoli for dinner and the baked potatoes were very good. The ones I foil wrapped were better than the one I microwaved unwrapped.

I planned on digging some more on Thursday after Steve and Kathy left… but it was raining when we awoke. It never really quit. 2.9 inches later—by Friday morning, the rain stopped. Unfortunately, it was time for use to head out.

I had been promoting a goals program in our stake for over a year. George Dyer, a performer in Branson and a church member had very generously agreed to let anyone who had completed the goal program come to his show for free. Friends and family could attend with a goal completer for half price. So Tom accompanied me. We had maybe 25 people attend. I had hoped for a hundred. But I’m pleased some came and they enjoyed it a great deal.

He really has an amazing voice. He can sing at least 4 octaves; he did some impressive opera as well as Broadway and Christmas songs. His wife and daughter also sang. After we left Branson we drove to Miranda’s. They had headed out to Japan and we agreed to watch Camden and Ethan.  They were happy to see us.

Saturday they played well together. In the afternoon we went to a park. They played on the equipment and we went for a walk. Interesting. I wasn’t sure where we’d come out. But Tom directed us back to our car.

Today we had a Regional Conference broadcast. It was broadcast both in Mountain Home and in Broken Arrow… and points in between. Good speakers with talks about simplifying our lives and having faith in essential truths and trusting that eventually we’ll know the side questions that concern some.

The children got to Skype with Miranda and Dan that evening. Up until that point, they’d been pretty loving toward one another. And after they settled down, mostly. And now they are quiet in bed. I am grateful that we just have two darling children and Kera is having the joy of keeping Alex.  At this stage, one adult per child seems to be a good ratio.