'Twas the Week Before Christmas...

This has been a week of family and fun as we prepare for Christmas. Monday Tom and I went to look at trees on some of our rental property.  We met with the tree trimmer man and discussed which limbs looked most likely to crash onto roofs at inappropriate times and agreed to have them removed.  Tom went on to work at some of the rentals and do the last of the “fix-it” items on his list.

I had a major project due on Monday and got that finished up.  Alas, I didn’t do much more work (for pay) the rest of the week.  We worked on candies and getting them made and shipped.  This year I made turtles, caramels, peanut clusters and Susie’s Almond Roca.  Oh yum!  I love that almond roca. We had trays of candy over every level surface. Got them finished on Tuesday and mailed. 

Tuesday afternoon I went and glazed the clay items I’d made last week.  Marian doesn’t like the glazing process that much, but I love it.  It’s always a surprise as to how it will turn out.  Especially for me.  I’ve decided I love the red-gold glaze.  I tried Marian’s coffee and cinnamon ripple and it looks better on her things than on mine.  But I’m learning.  I’m remembering glaze should be put on vertical, then the second coat horizontal to prevent missing places.  It was a fun time chatting and working and coming up with ideas.  We have thoughts for a nativity.

Wednesday I was flat out sick.  I was a little worried since I’d been visiting people in the hospital regularly with MRSA and pneumonia.  Now I had a cough, congestion in the lungs and fever.  So I drank fluids like crazy, tanked up on essential oils, and slept almost all day.  The only thing I did was to write notes on the Christmas letters… and I diffused Thieves oil to kill germs while I did.  Nevertheless, I don’t recommend chewing on the letter.

Thursday I was a lot better.  I moved around and smiled while Tom did most of the cleaning of the house.  We made beds for all our expected arrivals. We went and did some last minute shopping. A shoe store in town was going out of business, so I stopped there and found some church shoes.  The deeds Sue and Steve signed came in so I could move forward on getting my Roth IRA changed from one trust company to another.

Friday we left bright and early for Silver Dollar City with our friends Pam and Frank Pfeifer.  Wednesday and Thursday had been bitter cold with gale-like winds.  Fortunately, Friday was so much better—sunny and into the 50’s.

We stopped in Yellville to collect the now-finished pottery pieces.  Marian was so excited about them.  They did look very nice.  I don’t know that I am especially talented, but she makes me think I might be.  I was happy they looked good. 

We arrived at SDC…. And the parking lots were EMPTY!  How can that be?  We checked the schedule. Silver Dollar City was open on the 21th. 10am.  Hmm.  Not.  I called.  “Oh, yes.  We open at 1.  Ticketing and central area at 12.”  GREAT!  That’s not what your early calendar said. I guess we needed to check the online updated calendar… not the one that came at the beginning of the year.  So what do you do in Branson?  We shopped. Pfeifers introduced us to the Old Navy store. Good deals there.

We went back to SDC and enjoyed two great shows.  “It’s a wonderful Life” reminded me why I didn’t like it the first time I saw it.  I hated that George never got to fulfill his dream to travel.  Pam reminded me that some of the dreams of our youth are impractical or not what the Lord wants for us.  It was touching to think of how many lives we may have touched and blessed by our actions. 

Then we watched Dickens’ Christmas Carol. Both had really first class sets and settings. I was touched as Ebenezer viewed the scenes from Christmas past and said, “Those were such happy memories.”  I realized our lives are full of memories—the good, the bad, the ugly.  We get to select the ones we want to cherish and remember.  What might have happened if Ebenezer would have kept the good memories in the forefront of his life? Won’t we be happier if we choose to remember the good and let go of the bad memories.

By the time the show got out, it was dinner time.  Then we left the dinner just in time to see the lights on the tree do their dancing and watch the parade of lights.  Of course all the buildings have thousands of lights on each of them. It was fun to share in the Pfeifer’s enjoyment of the beauty.

When we got home Miranda, Camden and Ethan had already arrived. Dan had a meeting in Missouri and came in later. Jonathan and Kristy were a little concerned.  The storm that blew into Iowa on Wednesday had taken out their power.  So they had to haul water for the animals and chop holes in the water tanks (because the water heaters didn’t work.) Fortunately their power came back on Friday and they were able to head out.  They arrived about 2:30 am Saturday morning.

We’ve had a wonderful raucous time. For the most part, everyone is getting along well. 

Sunday we went to Church and Sacrament was a rendition of the Community Christmas program.  It brought tears to some.  Some of the songs are really touching.  And remembering the Christmas season and the birth of the Savior is always meaningful.

This has been a busy week, but productive.

Sunday and Monday we got the house as decorated as it’s going to get.  It looks lovely and festive.  Tom put on Christmas music every chance he gets.  We’d been listening to the Christmas music on the Mormon channel radio over the computer.  But even with their wide selection… after 2-3 weeks, we were feeling the repetition. So Tom pulled out our CD’s and used the sound system through the house to play more wonderful music.

This week our last chicken flew the coop.  I saw her pecking around the barn for a day or two.  Then, nothing.  I guess we will start again with chicks in the spring.  Perhaps we will build a larger coop and keep them completely contained.  On the plus side, I don’t have to tend them twice a day.  On the minus side- no eggs, and I don’t go outside as much.

I had this really daunting assignment. It wasn’t long, I just didn’t have a lot to go on and there was a ton of research involved.  So it did it and I wrote it.  It took me hours… and I didn’t think I could charge fully for my time.  Then the client came back saying…oops.  You didn’t get the email I worked all morning on telling you what direction I wanted you to go. Can you please rewrite it?  Yes.  I can.

Then, I’d sent off a landing page and information capture page for an accountant who works mostly for doctors, dentists, and chiropractors.  I had not been convinced a copywriter would make all that much difference.  I get a message back from him that he had another job, can we talk.  He had a brochure going out for a seminar he was giving to Chiropractors.  He said, I thought it was ready to go, but after I saw what you did with the home page, I realized it was not. Can you do this for me?  Yes. In a week? No, faster. Um, sure. 

Now I have this short, difficult article to rewrite, and a rush job for a seminar brochure I need to make much better than what it was.  I’ve found there really is no shortcut for the research I need to do.  When I follow the process, I can create good copy.  Without it, I stress.

I had planned on having a clay day on Tuesday (which would have been good, as I didn’t know about all these writing assignments then,) but it was too cold.  So we pushed it back to Friday.   I really wanted to do some clay that day, so I quit writing early.  When Tom went to do Tithing Settlement, I went downstairs and made a 9”x9” pan or casserole dish.  I imprinted it with juniper fronds and it looked pretty good.

In the continuing saga of trying to transfer my Roth IRA from one provider to another, I filled out the transfer form.  I’d gotten a Quit Claim deed back from Sue and Steve signed and notarized. (They own half a house with me) and was ready to sent it all off.   Then I checked to make sure I had everything.  “You can’t send the deed going from the old IRA to the LLC; it has to go through the new IRA first.”  GAA!   I sweat and look at options and decide to call and REALLY make sure. (That’s what I do when I don’t get the answer I like… make really, REALLY sure it has to be that answer.) 

I call the old provider.  “We don’t care,” they said.  I called the new provider.”You need to talk to Transfers-in.  Email them.  So I email them.  They respond… we’ll take our time, but if you really need an answer, call.  So I call.  Get the same front people.  They transfer me to a voice mail and I leave a message.  I know they need the transfer document anyway, so after a day of no response, I send off the transfer and the deed.  After two days I send an “I’m really disappointed” email back to them.  Quick response.  Bad news.  I need the two deeds—one from old provider to new, one from new to my LLC.  Belch!

I call the attorney’s office.  They are very nice and do the deeds right away (not in a week like last time.)  I pick them up and fax them to Sue and Steve.  In the mean time, I’ve also had to ask a realtor to do a valuation for the property and get it notarized with supporting documentation and fax that off to the old company.   Ya’know, it’s costing me a lot of money to save money. And a lot of time, stress and effort.  I sure hope it’s worth it.

We had a community Christmas program at the church this week.  Dress rehearsal was on Wednesday.  For a small ward, we really have a lot of talent.  A harpist, flute players, guitarist, three or 4 pianists, four soloists, the primary children, the youth, and the ward choir all participated.  Wednesday we dealt with order and microphones.  It really was our only complete run through before Saturday’s event.  The primary children sang Silent Night and there was the little 4 year old Kingrey boy signing along with all the older children. It was SO cute!

Thursday Tom drove to Springfield to pick up a food order for the needy in the ward.  He expected to be gone about 6 hours. I needed to make lasagna for the Relief Society Dinner that night, so I stayed home. I also got in a lot of writing and got a good draft for the seminar brochure. Good thing I stayed home!  It took Tom a good 10 hours.  He came home just in time to turn around and go to the dinner.  It was a lovely dinner.  So nice to visit with friends. 

Friday I ran around trying to get things notarized, picked up, etc for the IRA thing.  Then I went to Yellville to do clay with Marian.  I cleaned up some green ware and visited with a friend of hers who makes miniature saddles for Bryer model horses.  Apparently they have horse shows with these plastic… high quality plastic… horses.  They dress up riders, have saddles on the horses, and create dioramas to display them in.  It’s big thing.  These little saddles take her about a week to make.  Some sell for $300-400!  They were exquisite.

These are some of the dishes I've made this year.  I particularly liked the way the leaf impressions came out.

 This one I braided the clay for the sides.  Then I tried to glaze the inside enough so a little juice (like from vegetables ) would leak out... but it covered some of the braiding.

 I like the outside here where the glaze has color variations on the edges of the braids. (if you enlarge the photo you can see it better.)

I used a potter’s wheel for the first time on Friday.  I made seven spectacular failures.  I did learn a little better how to center the clay on the wheel, make a hole and pull out the sides.   I did not learn yet how to pull up the sides.  When I watch the videos, it looks effortless—like magic.  The walls just grow of their own accord!  Clearly, I do not yet have the magic.  But it was fun.  Messy, but fun.

Friday night I thought I’d work on the article for an hour while Tom wrapped presents… a little over two hours later, it was done.—with references and footnotes.  Have I told you I hate footnotes?

Saturday morning I got up really early.  I reviewed both assignments and sent off the article.  Then we spent the day on Christmas things.  I baked two kinds of cookies for the community program.  Tom made brownies for the bishop’s youth discussion for the next day. I did some shopping and we left before 3 for the program. The choir had some rehearsal ahead of time.  At 4 the nativity scene area opened.  At 4:30 our performance began.  It went really well.  I’ve been humming the songs ever since.  We had many people from the community come to the event.  My clay friend Marian came and brought a friend.  Maybe 20-25 visitors?  After the performance we had cookies.  My Goodness!  Tons of cookies!  Alas, all my cookies were eaten up.  I made lemon bars.  I never make them, and these were really good.  I also made Susie’s Cherrie Pie bars.  Clearly they were a hit.

We had the responsibility for cleaning the chapel this week.  We decided to do it after 6pm, when the activity was over.  It worked pretty well.  Some others stayed and helped us.  Then we went over to visit Grace Vandersteck and Hallie Dale who are both in the hospital.  They both turned 90 this year.  Grace has had Alzheimer’s for years. Hallie can’t see well or hear well and is tired of being in pain.

I’m struggling to understand this process of moving from life to death.  At what point does one stop fighting the efforts to prolong life?  How does one balance quality of life with endurance of life?  At one point Hallie will say, “I don’t know why I’m alive.  I wish I could die.”  At another time she’ll say, “I know I need to eat to keep up my strength.” Or “If I can get well, I want to get well.” I remember Dad’s determination to keep going, and then his decision to stop the fight.  I think our will has a lot to do with it.  Perhaps once we fully decide to let go, we can.  I don’t know.  Perhaps this is another time we “wait upon the Lord.”   I know for myself, if I’m mentally gone or nursing home-type incapacitated, I’d like to hope that people would let nature take its course with pneumonia or any other way and keep me comfortable, but let the body die.

Today I taught the Gospel Principles class on the value of work.  Good class and good participation, even though it sounds like a less “spiritual” topic.  The choir sang in Sacrament.  I visited Hallie after church.  Tom had bishop’s youth discussion at our house after church, then went back to church for more tithing settlement.

Ho, Ho, Ho

I’d been having a problem with a clogged ear.  It felt like wax build up, but after a week or so of intermittent clog, non-clog, I decided to go and get it cleaned out.  Sure enough—ear wax.

It was a relief, this week, that all the deadlines for the spec assignments from bootcamp have passed.  DONE!  It was a relief to have those all finished… or beyond the time frame to do.  I’ve followed up with a few.  They are reviewing and will let me know.

However, my inspirational coach is wanting me to do about 3 blogs a week—with a few other assignments thrown in.  And I picked up another Elance job when this accountant asked me to submit a proposal.  He wanted a Dan Kennedy style copywriter and I’d taken a course from Dan.

I had planned on converting part of my IRA into a Roth IRA this year… and it seemed like I really needed to do it.  I started mid November, but I needed to get certified valuations.  Then I wanted to move some houses into that IRA and had to get new deeds done up… and signed.  That turned out to be another hassle.  And my slum duplex in St. Louis is supposed to be closing, but …  Apparently even though we bought and paid for title insurance, the insurance company really didn’t clear the title.  Now as it’s ready to be sold, we have to go back to old banks and get them to release their claims to money they’ll never get from the property.  I have learned that who you use as a title company can be very important!

Tuesday I went and worked on clay with Marian for a good part of the day.  It is astonishing how time passes!  We ended up eating lunch about 2:30!  I was working with slabs and getting better with that and Marian was throwing mugs.  Err.  That’s not tossing them across the room, it’s creating them on a potter’s wheel.  It looks like magic!  So when I go out this Tuesday, I’m going to learn to use the potter’s wheel.  You get your hands really icky.  Now I know why they call watery clay “slip.”   It’s because it’s slippery and you need your hands to slip across the clay to have it workable on the wheel.

Thursday Tom went to the temple with our ward.  The Kansas City temple is closed for cleaning, so they went to St. Louis.  They were greeted as long lost friends.   It was a good feeling to be wanted and needed.

Friday Tom and I drove the missionaries to Branson for a meeting.  While they met, we shopped.  It was fun.  We mostly had a list and we shopped to the list. We didn’t have a lot of time, so we made decisions quickly.  We had lunch at a little family restaurant with great blackberry cobbler and cherry pies (oh and good soup and salad, too.)

When we got back, we visited two friends in the hospital.  We came home to learn that a third friend was also in the hospital.  Man, this getting old is hard work!  Two are getting better.  The third has a systemic MRSA infection and is 90 years old.  She is such a sweet valiant lady and I worry for her.

Saturday Tom spent 4 hours on the mower beating the leaves into submission.  The yard looks fantastic!  We bought lumber for a new project for Barb.  And we searched for a stupid chicken.  We had one fly the coop earlier in the week.  We thought we spotted it on Saturday.  No.  It was the last silly chicken who had escaped!  If it’s not done in by wild things in the next day or two, I’ll try to catch it and take it to a new home.  One, non-laying hen is not an asset.  I had put up the Christmas tree last week, and finally got lights on and got is mostly trimmed.  There are still more things to put out to make it truly festive.

Saturday night, Tom woke up with a bad stomach ache. Being his daughter’s father, he refused to throw up… but he spent a lot of time sitting on the pot and is much washed out today.  He stayed home from church and slept most of the day.  This evening he is eating and keeping things down, although his stomach still bothers him some.  We had good meetings at church and later Tom’s two counselors came over and gave him a blessing.

Fire clean up

Last Saturday 35 men gathered at Lanetta's house to clean up after her fire.  It was quite an undertaking.  Here is the house.

 They gathered together and had a safety brief, then divided into people to clear, haul, sort, clean stones (she wanted to reuse the stones and bricks if possible).

 These little bobcats hauled tons of stuff and they were really good at pulling down walls.

 Here a fireplace just went down.

 Parts that could be burned, were taken to the burn pile.  Metal to the recycling pile, bricks and stones to their pile.  Rubble to a pile and other stuff to the dumpster.  They also had a tarp for salvageable items.

 Here a wall goes down.

 She was able to save a table, some photos and other small things.

 Another fireplace bites the dust.

 A lot of MESS!

 Lunch break.

 They found Barny in the rubble and Tom had to do an "Eggbert" with him and photograph him in different locations.   Below are Bro. Hall and Bro. O'Brian.

 Notice the nearly cleaned slab behind the handsome--albeit dirty-- man.

 At the end of the day, the slab was clean and closer to rebuilding.

 The handsome man returns about dark-- victorious. The picture can't do justice to the grime and ash.  Fortunately he cleans up well.

They had less actives, non-members, and some youth turn out to help as well. Tom said there was a great sense of camaraderie.  A good solid day of work and an amazing amount accomplished.

Anatomy of a Pigeon Loft

 Building the floor-- Wednesday (after going and buying all the supplies.)

 Moving the floor to the semi-permanent location near the doors for easy access in winter.

 Grandpa and Isabelle painting the floor to seal it.  Notice the shorts and short sleeves. (Thursday morning of Thanksgiving.)

 Notice the scarves and hoodies, the gray day and the 19 degree weather of Friday.  Oh, and the walls going up.

 Friday was a long day with walls and rafters going up.

 The handsome men hard at work!

 The beautiful woman also hard at work!  And having fun.

 Saturday while we went to see cows, Tom stayed back and worked all day... in the freezing cold... without gloves or hat... until past dark.  But the roof got almost all done.

 Monday they finished the exterior and even had a few hours to relax.

So much progress was made and it looks LOVELY!.  

Still, there's more to do. Now Kristy and Jonathan need to do the interior-- paint, nesting boxes, screening off the rafters and dividing the room for rollers and homing pigeons, building storage area, landing pads... and eventually an aviary of wire on the outside.

I'm afraid the job isn't even Mostly done.  It will take a miracle!

Happy Thanksgiving

It has been delightful being at Jonathan’s and Kristy’s for Thanksgiving!

Monday we tried to catch up on all the loose ends.  My friend Dorothy is not doing all that well.  I agreed to be her Power of Attorney for health Care and so have tried to keep up with how she is  doing—long distance.  She seems to be deteriorating rapidly and I hope to put her into hospice this coming Monday.

Early Monday morning we went out to Jennifer (Steinman’s) house for breakfast.  She and her new husband had promised us a special breakfast and this was the only time that we’d be together.  It was a delicious breakfast—rich French toast—and a special syrup plus bacon, juice and altogether tasty.  We had an unusual treat on the way out—two rainbows that arched completely across the sky.  It was lovely!

We left there to go and check out a house.  We had our contractor with us this time looking at everything.  It was great, and I was planning on putting in an offer, until he crawled under the house to look at the foundation.   Ummm.  There WAS NO foundation!  Little piers all over.  Some had settled…. And in some places there was about 8” of space between the dirt and the floor.  You just can’t buy a house with no foundation.  I went to look at choice #2, and it did look much better the second time… but they want more than I could pay.  I thought to lowball it, but there are other offers coming in… so I guess we wait.

Tuesday we left early and drove to Kansas City in time to go to a session at the temple.  Then we continued to Jonathan’s house and arrived about 5:30.  It was a good drive and so fun to be welcomed by all the children.

Wednesday Tom and Kristy dove headlong into the pigeon loft project.  They’d been emailing plans back and forth for the last week or so.  They shopped and bought loads of materials then constructed the floor that afternoon.  Thursday, even amidst Thanksgiving day preparations, they built some of the sides. 

We had a great Thanksgiving.  Lots of food.  The neighbors—the Cooks—came to dinner with their 5 kids.  For me, most of the day seemed to center around eating and visiting.  What can be better than that?  Tom used some of the Cook boy labor to get more work done in the afternoon. 

Friday the temperature dropped.  It was 17 degrees in the morning and warmed up to a chilly thirty four.  And the wind!!! It was dang chilly!  But they pressed on.   I worked on some of my spec assignments.  And I entertained a book.

Saturday was mostly more of the same.  We went in the afternoon to go visit a farm with dexter cows and a possible bull for sale.  It was fun to chat with them.  In the late afternoon and evening, I went out and helped Tom for an hour or so as he finished shingles on one side of the roof.  Again, it was very chilly.  I was impressed with Tom’s endurance.   We rested in the evening with a movie (Spiderman) and then Tom soaked in the tub for a while.

Today was special. Just before stake conference last week,  Jonathan and Kristy were released from their callings in the ward and stake.  They were part of the ward that was realigned and now attached to the Indianola Branch. So this was their first Sunday there.  It’s a bit longer of a drive, but the building is very pretty and the branch members very welcoming.

Since it was Miriam's Baptismal day, we spent time doing hair.  For Miri it was braids so she didn't have to dry her hair after the baptism.

 Then we had a sandwich brigade making a pre-baptism snack so people wouldn't starve.Kristy and I had made a few dozen sandwiches, cut in quarters, and some chips, to take for a tide-over snack for those attending the baptism. Some friends brought a few other snacks that were well appreciated.

After church Miriam was baptized by Tom.  Jonathan gave a great talk on covenants and covenant keeping.  

 Great family photo.  I might have gotten into one picture, but I was hiding in a quiet room, talking to the hospital on the phone about Dorothy's care. They did not qualify her for hospice.  Sigh.  So Monday they will move her to a nursing home.

This evening we dined on left-overs.

Sneak peek for next week:  Monday we celebrated Kristy's Birthday.

Tough week.

It’s been a tough week.  Sometimes it seems like all around me hard things are happening.  Jeanine Andrus’s son died unexpectedly this week and her other son is battling cancer. Then Dorothy Collins was diagnosed with liver cancer. Then Ceil Dinsmore’s daughter, Dana went in for surgery and they learned the tumor she had in her brain was cancerous (but they think they got it all.)  And today Lanetta Bogart’s neighbor came to church to tell Lanetta her house was on fire.  It burned to the ground.

Still, we had some great talks at church today.  One was on having gratitude in times of adversity.  Bro. Howald told a great story about a man riding on the train with his blind daughter.   The man was tired and really wanted to go to sleep, so another passenger said he’d watch the daughter while the man slept.  The father put his daughter on the man’s lap.  Before he dozed off he leaned over and said to his daughter, “Do you know whose lap you are on?” She said, “No.  But you do.”

He talked about how the Lord loves us. John 16:33 says, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace.  In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

Shall is covenant language.  It doesn’t mean maybe, might, or if you’re lucky it won’t happen.  You WILL have tribulation—troubles, trials.  That’s part of life.  But Christ says even with tribulations you should be cheerful and at peace.  The Lord is in charge.  These tribulations are for our benefit.  They can be a blessing to us.

Bro. Howald said that when we go through hard times we can be like that little girl.  We don’t know why we need this, but we can trust our Heavenly Father, just as she trusted her earthly father.  He knows why we need that trial and how it will bless us.

Tom said that when he came home this afternoon, he said, “Thank you house, for still standing.”  Loss helps make us grateful.

I think, perhaps, I have an addiction.  I can’t stay away from houses that need some TLC. Scott Kelley called and said they may be moving back to Mountain Home, and could I check to see if they could get 20 acres for $30,000-40,000.  So I checked out Zillow and Realtor.com.  I can’t filter out cheap houses… so… I found some cheap houses, too!  And it looks like our duplex in St. Louis might sell… the one with the non-paying tenant… So I might actually have some money.  And Susan has some money… so.  We went and looked at homes.  The problem is, when you buy it with IRA money, you can’t work on it.  And that takes some of the fun out of it.  But we have a really good handy-man.  So we will have him take a look and if the numbers work out, we’ll likely put in an offer.  (Oh, then Scott called back and said, no… they decided to move to Ohio.)

This week I pulled the last of the beets. We have the last bowl of ripening tomatoes on our counter.  Winter is coming.  We’ve had frosty days and our garden is ready to be put to bed.  We need some more horse manure to put on it, then, I think I’ll turn the chickens loose in the garden. 

A week ago or so we had some sadness with the chickens.  Something scared them and they all vanished from the pen.  We searched… and two returned, but that was all.  So we have two skittish young chickens who don’t lay eggs (instead of 3 skittish non-laying chickens and two old biddies one of whom occasionally laid an egg.)  They also have changed their lifestyle and now spend most of their time in the chicken coop… hiding from monsters?  The good side of that is that I don’t have to wait until dusk to close up the coop.  I can do it any time in the late afternoon.

Tuesday was a fun day.  I was interviewed by one of the co-owners of AWAI for their Professional Writer’s Alliance.  My thirty minutes of fame. But it was easy to answer the questions and she did a great job of interviewing.  

Most of the rest of my working week was spent on spec assignments.  I stewed over the Weiss assignment.  It’s in the financial field and really very competitive.  I learned a lot and I finally got something I was pleased with.  And I’m really glad IT’S DONE!  If I get this assignment it will truly be by the grace of God.

I’d invited the missionaries to dinner, but they had to cancel.  They said what if we just call you when we have a free night.  I said fine.  Might be peanut-butter sandwiches, but sure.  So as we were looking at houses on Thursday, they texted: “Can we come to dinner?”  I’d thought about breakfast burritos, but hamburgers seemed easier.  We invited our neighbor, Barbara, over and had a nice evening.

Friday I made a dessert—Banana split cake—and then on Saturday I cooked a turkey for the Ward Thanksgiving dinner.   They planned on 130 people and I think 175 showed up.  Still, we had PLEANTY of leftovers.  Must be a loaves and fishes thing.   It was nice to visit with all the members.

This morning I got a call to see if I could lead the music in Sacrament.  Fine.  Then walking out of sacrament, the missionaries asked if I could teach the Gospel Principles class.  Ummm sure!  I’d read the Relief Society lesson so I could support one of my visiting teaches who was teaching.  But I hadn’t read the Gospel Principles lesson.  Fortunately, the lesson manual is laid out so it’s pretty easy to teach.  I felt like my Kenya Mission background kicked in.  Need a talk?  Need a lesson? Sure!  And when you are teaching about basic principles… ya know the material.

I visit taught a sister after church.  Then the choir is practicing before and after church for the Christmas program.  And then I talked with someone… and then went to the hospital to see Dorothy… and now it’s blog time and time to write to the missionaries who are serving from our branches in Kenya.