Heat Wave

We have had a pretty mild summer; in fact July was one of the 'coolest' in years, averaging about 73 degrees.  But this week is trying to make up for that. Most days have been about 100 degrees and no rain.   The grass is drying out.  Some of our garden is shriveling up.  I think that may be due to bugs and pestilence as much as the heat.

Sunday I had a lovely time in Ava at their ward conference. This is a ward that really has it together, so we were able to train on a higher level.  We taught about ward councils, music in Relief Society, and the Relief Society’s responsibilities in disaster preparedness.  I gave about a 10 minute talk in Relief Society.  After the meetings we went and visited a lively sister and her husband.  We arrived back to the building in time for a 3pm Stake Council meeting.  It went well.

I learned that if you google Relative Finder the first thing you’ll see is a roots-byu.edu address. If you click on that and sign in with your lds account name and password, or your Family Search password, you can see who you are related to.  You can check famous Americans, prophets, famous people, royalty, handcart companies and other groups of people.  The amazing thing is that we really are related to the people around us.

They created a westplainsstake group and just those of us in the room put in our names.  We found out that we were related to each other—13^th cousin twice removed… or more… but related.  It’s really fun.  You should try it.  Joshua spent time on Monday finding out he’s related to prophets and kings (a 12^th great- grandson through the Magee side).

My meeting got out about 5pm, just about the time Tom arrived to go to a seminary meeting for the youth in our ward and stake.  Our ward had a great turnout of youth and their parents!  However, there was a lady at the ward who had two carloads of apples she was giving away. So I scored two bags full! Yahoo!

I had hoped to have my book to the book designer on Monday.  No book back. Throughout the week I sent small emails to the client, encouraging her to finish reviewing the book and send it back to me. I know she works from like 6am to 10pm and never has any time—literally.  So I didn’t know when or how she’d review it if it wasn’t over a weekend. Even then she’s booked.  She finally said she’d try to review it this weekend on her trip to Omaha.  She also enlisted the help of Beth, the reviewer I’d been working with, to try and finish it.  So finally on Saturday I got another revision back. It’s hard to finish when the client is really the only one with the knowledge and expertise to resolve some of the issues.

Tuesday I’d planned to make applesauce, but the air conditioning went out the night before. So we tried to not use the kitchen that day.  The temperature got up to 86 in the house.  It was getting a bit uncomfortable when the repairman showed up.  Good news: simple fix.  I think it was a capacitor.  But it took a while to get the heat out of the house.   So the Applesauce making got moved to Wednesday… and Thursday morning.

Tom shifted gears this week and went to work at Deborah’s house.   One of the single moms in the church wants to rent it and go on HUD.  They have strict rules.  The house did need painting on the exterior… perhaps not this moment… but it needed it.  So we went ahead and had it done.  Tom fixed some electrical and painted some trim, replaced a door and did some other stuff.  Inspection is this Tuesday and I hope it passes the first time.

Wednesday I ran and bought more paint and went to admire their work. I also had an RS presidency meeting that we decided to do by phone.  That worked out pretty well.  I’ve lost my RS notebook with all the notes I take at meetings and writing down thoughts and ideas.  I feel adrift without it.  I’ll need to start recreating things as I’ve looked everywhere and can’t find it.

Thursday Tom stopped work early and we went to see Guardians of the Galaxy. I had heard good reviews.  It was okay, but not thrilling.  I liked the animated characters the best.

 Friday we went to Silver Dollar City.

 Our first stop was at the bakery.  Joshua is downing a HUGE eclair.  Others got giant cupcakes, pecan rolls and cinnamon rolls.  They looked delicious and tasted pretty good.

 The girls checked out the map and directed us to the merry-go-round.  I'm the wincing one in the floating the lost river ride.  Tom is on dry ground taking the picture.

 It was still stinkin hot, but we took plenty of water and lots of sunscreen.  This is the first time I’ve WANTED to go on the water rides.  Yup.  Got soaked.  And it was okay.  The kids had a good time.  We had “dinner” at Andy’s Frozen Custard and got home about 7pm.

I had tried to activate the Sprint phone while in Branson, but was not successful. We decided to try to go on Adam’s Framily (friends and family) plan and don’t have good Sprint coverage here.  We’ll see if there’s a work around.

While much of the garden is winding down, the beans and the peppers are producing enthusiastically.  I’ve been freezing some and giving a lot away. We had home and visiting teachers come by and they took home a load on Saturday.  We also went to a farewell for a young man going into the Navy.

Today it felt sad to think that this was the last Sunday Rebecca and family would be at church with us. We have so enjoyed having her here.  After church we had delicious taco salad and Wendy Maple and family came over.  They ate and got home taught.

Deadline

Much of this week has been taken up getting this book ready to go to print.  I had gotten quotes from two book designers.  Becky (the client) needed to choose one.  I liked the more expensive one.  I thought she'd do a better job, and I was pleased when Becky chose her.

She came up with a timeline, and it's tight.  Finished Beth's revisions.  I figured out how to get every illustration in graytones instead of color.  But I was still waiting for Becky's last few facts.  I know she's REALLY busy.  But still.  I NEED stuff.  Finally I sent the book to Catherine to copyedit. I told her I might be sending changes while she copyedited. She was able to incorporate most all of them.

So I sent the manuscript to Becky to read and approve one last time.  There are still xx's where there should be some numbers.  I told her the manuscript would go to the book designer and be printed in the form she approved.  So I hope she can find time to actually read the book one more time.  I don't want her saying, "Wait!  You can't call a policy an account!  It's not an account, it's a policy."  We did get that one corrected, but are there other errors?

We worked on the house some this week.  I learned that when you wash the hardwood floors they actually look pretty nice.  We also learned that when you try to put crown molding on walls and ceilings that are uneven and curved it can be a great exercise in frustration!  A single mom from church will be moving into Deborah's house in Cotter.  It needs some work to become HUD approved.  So Wednesday we went to see all that needed doing.  Some of the paint has worn off the aluminum siding.  Since every surface needs paint, we'll have to do that.  I suggested Ray Coleman and his amazing paint sprayer.  Actually, it's Ray that's amazing.  He really does good work.  Tom will power wash and help with the taping off.

There are also some electrical things that need to be in conduit,screens to install, and a door to change out.  Tom will shift focus on Monday and start on Deborah's house. We hope to get it done before the inspector comes out.

Wednesday I drove to West Plains for a Relief Society meeting.  We are planning our fall conference.  Each time we meet we get a lot accomplished, but there's more to do.  And the time keeps getting shorter!  It seemed like it was two months away.  Now it's getting close to one month.  Gaak!

Thursday morning I went to a fair meeting.  I volunteered to help out with this year's fair.  I will be taking entries for the photography area.  So I learned what was expected at this meeting.   Lots of nice people.  And I do love the fair.

Right after the meeting, Tom and I left to go to the St. Louis Temple.  We arrived in time to do an evening session.  Remarkably, Five Guys AND Trader Joe's were on the way to our hotel.  How great is that?  So we dined and shopped after the session.  We went back to the temple for two more sessions, then arrived back in Mountain Home about 7pm.

Today I had a huge list of things to accomplish. I picked a bunch of beans and cucumbers.  I thought about freezing the beans... but decided to give them away instead.  Tom will take them to church tomorrow.  Tom worked around the house.  I looked outside to see him mowing the pasture with several little girls sitting in the bucket on the front. It looked so cute. He said he mowed past a momma and baby deer-- maybe 100 feet away-- and they hardly moved.

I will be going to the Ava ward for their ward conference.  I prepared some training and a short talk to give.  After church we will visit some sisters and then have stake council.  I scheduled a RS president phone conference for 8pm that night.   So I figured I'd better get all my blogging and missionary writing done today.

Family! I LOVE it!

Rebecca came home to nest this week.  It's so fun to have her and the children. They have been a big help.

Rebecca brought 50 pounds of peaches with her.  Ripe peaches.  So all day Monday we made jam. I think we made 4 batches and canned seven quarts of peach halves and slices. Later we made another batch of jam for Rebecca to take with her.  Then a peach cobbler (which didn't go with Rebecca.)  We have a few peaches still in the refrigerator.  Mmmm.  They were DELICIOUS peaches!!

Tom has been busy at the house.  Tuesday Delaney and Callie came out to help.  We washed cupboards, baseboards and walls.  That brought them one step closer to painting.  The rest of the week was mostly spend painting.  We had an insulation man come out and he said there was enough insulation in the ceiling and if we really wanted to improve efficiency, we'd change out the windows.  We'd already scheduled to change out two.  But we went and ordered 5 more-- essentially for our budget for insulation.  That will leave 3 older windows in the house.

Callie is our great Chicken Caretaker, and Marian and Delaney help out too.  Wednesday we awoke to a new little chick.  The black hens had both been sitting on nests, but once the baby chicks were born, the one hen mostly stopped sitting on the eggs.  So we didn't know if we'd get anymore chicks.  One egg broke with a far-to-young chick inside.  But this little yellow ball of fluff just appeared.  It was so small. And the mamas were busy running around with their larger chicks.  Then it fell into a crack in some bricks and got stuck.

So the kids held it and kept it warm while I got a light to add heat to the shed.

Then, to keep the mamas inside it, I closed the door.  After a bit, the other chickens were clambering to get inside.  What was their problem???  Oh.  They wanted to lay eggs.  So we had to open the door for them.  In the mean time the little chick got warm.  It's a game little thing. It will hop after the mamas and the other chicks.  It stumbles through the tall grass.  But it's alive and growing.

Thursday the termite people came out and treated the house.  That meant we could close up the hole in the floor in the kitchen.  I'm hoping that will vastly reduce the musty smell in the kitchen. At least the skunk smell seems to have diminished. Tom and I went shopping for tiles for the bathtub surround. He's bought trim and crown molding.  Why crown molding you ask?  They moved the bathroom wall and didn't put the drywall totally up to the ceiling.  There's about 1-2 inch gap. Thus, we get to add an elegant touch to the room.

As we go through, it seems like there are a lot of half-done things.  We wonder, people lived with this for years?  Why?  So we take the time to fix it or paint it properly. There may come a time when we are rushed and will say, "um, that's good enough."  Then someone will come along after us and say, "Why didn't they just do it right?"

I've been working on Rebecca Rice's book for a long time now.  She will be speaking in October and wants to have the book in hand by then.  So I talked to a book designer and counted back from that date to see when the book needed to be to the designer.  Ideally by August 15.  Aagghh!  There's still stuff I don't have.   And Rebecca asked Beth to take a look at the book and she had a bunch of suggestions.  They are actually really good suggestions, so I have been busy making revisions. My goal was to get the book to Rebecca to review by Thursday.  I got fresh revisions from Beth just as I was about to hit the send button.  So the book got sent on Friday instead.  We have decided on a title, so that's good.  I hope I'll see Rebecca's comments by Monday so we can work on the final final draft.

The garden has been generous. Notice our sunflowers!  (And the cute guy in front.)

Saturday we decided to attack the growing vegetable population on the kitchen counter.  We made a batch of Harry and David sweet & hot pepper relish and a batch of pickles.  I hope they taste good.  It's a new recipe and I didn't like the last pickles I made.   It was nice to reclaim the countertop.  However, the garden keeps producing.  Rebecca is doing a marvelous job of keeping the zucchini at bay. Now beans are coming on.  I can't believe how thick and lush the foliage is for them.   And we didn't plant ALL that many bean seads!

Baby Chick Week

This week has been such a QUIET week!  Miranda and family and the Merrill family left early Sunday morning. They really cleaned up a lot of their "footprint," so there was just a little laundry and bed-making to do.  We found an odd sock and the extra cell phone cord.  Anybody's???

Then it was on to new adventures.   I went out twice this week to help Tom with the new house.  I slavishly washed walls, ceilings, and woodwork in two bedrooms. Then I sluggishly started painting the baseboard.  Man, it went SO SLOW!  I couldn't figure it out.  Saturday, I stopped to get more paint.  I tried pre-sanding the woodwork so the paint would get a better purchase.  Finally I decided to try the new Behr paint that has the primer in it. Oh! World of difference. I did the baseboard in the second bedroom in a fraction of the time.  About that point Tom said, "Maybe it's because that old can of paint froze." Hmm.

Tom was busy fixing the board fence, making doors for the crawl holes under the house and doing drywall.  He patched up the kitchen, laundry room, and bathroom very nicely.  And he moved some wiring around.  It's the little unplanned things that sometimes take so much time.  There was a wire that cut across from wall to ceiling that had been hidden by the dropped ceiling.  It took time, but now you can't see where it was.

Ray came and replaced the garden faucet knob on the bath tub with an appropriate faucet.

Tom stripped off the tub surround and we are debating tiling or something else to replace it.  Most of the deconstruction is done.  So hopefully we'll see it looking better and better every time we go out now.

I had my teeth cleaned Monday.  Look Ma, no cavities. Tuesday I went to lunch with a friend. Had a nice visit. Wednesday I worked at the house.  We came home and checked the chicken coop.  Sure enough.  There were some baby chicks.  Eventually we counted 4 of them.  Are you familiar with the book Heather has Two Mommies?  I think the babies think both black hens are their moms.  They'll go into both nests.  One is still sitting on eggs, so there's less room there.

 Thursday I had a meeting with Rebecca Rice about her book. I'm hoping we are on the last of the revisions. Friday I drove to West Plains and had a meeting with the Relief Society Presidency.  I waited to get through with the trek to dive into the Fall Women's conference, but now I feel behind. Saturday Tom and I spend a good part of the day at the house.  We had the missionaries over to dinner in the evening.

I have been doing private lending through JWB, a company that buys and renovates houses in Jacksonville, FL. It's kind of nice. 10% interest paid monthly, and principle returned when the house sells.  While you don't have capital appreciation, you also don't have to worry about tenants, repairs, property taxes and insurance. The house I loaned on sold, so my principle came back.  They have another loan opportunity so I will wire the money back on Monday. This will be my third house.  This is the first time it's been new construction.

My writing projects continue to be slow.  I'm doing the book with Rebecca and learning about product launches and applying for Elance jobs.  It's not that there isn't other things I could be doing.  I just need to manage my time better.  But all is good.

In a few hours Rebecca and her children will come and settle in for the month.

More Blessings

Monday Andy's family and Miranda's family and Tom and I went canoeing.  Nathan stayed home because he wasn't feeling well.  We debated where to canoe. I opted for close and easy... but a little more expensive.  We drove to Patrick's Landing and dropped off canoes and most people.  Then Tom and Andy drove to Dawt Mill and parked the car and truck with canoe trailer.  They -- the Dawt Mill employee-- took Tom and Andy back to Patrick's Landing and dropped them off.

So we had a chance to play in the water before canoeing.... and when we got to Dawt Mill, we could load the canoes and leave.  I wasn't sure how Baby Alex would fare, but he did fine. Everyone had a good time.  The kids traded riding in canoes.  Sometimes with Miranda and I.  Sometimes with Tom, Kera, or Andy.

We were only on the river about 1.5 hours plus maybe a half hour more at each end.  I got more sunburned and more bug-bitten than I'd gotten on the whole pioneer trek.  And my right canoe paddling arm was incredibly sore and painful.  Wow! If my legs had hurt like that on the trek the song would have gone: "Pioneer children cried as they walked and walked and walked..."   I put bunches of oils on it and it mitigated the pain somewhat.  It made me realize how blessed I was.  I'd never walked more than 1.6 miles in a day.  And I went nearly 20 in three days with almost no muscle pain.

Tuesday Miranda and Andy and families went to the lake.  The kids had a great time.   I stayed home and worked.  We celebrated Tom's birthday with cherry chocolate cake and Jonathan's enchiladas.

Either Tuesday or Wednesday Tom took some of the kids and put them to work.  They demolished the brick freestanding wood stove backing and removed some of the drop ceiling in kitchen and laundry room at the 1603 house.

Wednesday Kera left to go to visit her dad.  Andy and family stayed part of the day, then left to go and visit Chandra's mom... and then on to Jonathan's.  We did some quick cleaning and bed changing.  In the evening, Miranda and Dan's friends the Merrills arrived with their 4 children aged 9-18 months. We had happy pandemonium once again.  The Merrill girls were very helpful with the chickens.  They mostly had a great time playing with toys together.  The adults enjoyed card games each night.... except Tom and I.  We were pretty tired and went to bed early.

Thursday Tom and I went out to the 1603 house.  Tom replaced the dropped ceiling in the laundry room.  It looked better than what was underneath.  I took out the dropped ceiling in the bathroom and stripped the wall paper there.  I also removed some of the carpet tack strip from the family room. Ray and his handyman had been in earlier and re-did the ducting for the HVAC.  They had been stretched too tightly and improperly attached.  There were 4 ducts at the main HVAC unit that had come off.  Some of the insulation was stripped from some of the runs leaving just plastic tubing.  And 5 were disconnected from vents at the floor.  No wonder they had high heating bills!

They also put in a beam to support the sagging floor.  The floor didn't appreciate it.  They got about 2/3rds of the sag out.  Then the old floor joists just bit into the support beam.  Still, the floor won't sag any more.

In the evening, Tom Merrill made dinner-- baked fish and wild rice-- which was delicious. Friday they went thrift shopping and to the beach.  Tom worked at the house.

Saturday Tom mowed lawns.  It was a very hot day.  And it was our annual pioneer day picnic.  The picnic was in the afternoon.  We were blessed with shade, a breeze and some overcast sky.  They had a family pioneer trek game, tug of war, arm wrestling, sack races, and a nail pounding competition.  They also had good food.  It was so fun to see Alex eat the watermelon.  He put his whole body into it.

Sunday the Merrills left about 8:20 and Miranda and Dan were gone by 8:30.  Sigh.  The house is quiet again.  We had the mission president and his wife come and speak to us.  Excellent talks. When we know what we know, keeping quiet is a sin.  We need to share with others--- and give them the freedom to accept or not.

Pioneer Trek

The first part of the week was spent in Trek preparations.  I also worked to get some recordings done for an Elance job. Nathan came up from Mississippi to join us when Tom went to pick up the handcarts. Then we started the Trek.

When I was first asked to go on the stake youth Pioneer Trek, I wasn’t all that excited about going.  I’m a wimp.  It was out of my comfort zone.  I knew the pioneers had a hard time crossing the plains with wagons and handcarts.  I didn’t want to push a handcart for a pioneer trek reenactment.

But as I thought about it, I thought, what would I do if the Lord asked me to?  Would I walk to Zion? I would.  I hope I would choose to do whatever the Lord asked—as did Nephi. (Nephi 3:7)

So I started preparing and as I was doing conditioning, I hurt my Achilles tendon.  It was so sore I could only hobble along, and my conditioning pretty much came to a halt.  At stake conference, I asked Pres. Roylance if it would just hurt, or if I’d damage my foot if I went on the trek with it hurting.  He said I could damage it.  Pres Jones had hurt his Achilles tendon early and kept repeating, “Ohh, they take a long time to heal.”

So I decided if I were to go, it would take a miracle. I would be faithful and do everything I could to heal it, and if the Lord wanted me to go, he’d make it better.

He did make it better.  Each day it improved. I was able to start walking again, and get almost up to speed before the trek. But that wasn’t the only miracle.

This is our pioneer "family."

The stake organized us into “families.”  We were Ma and Pa to 8 youth and one handcart.  We had to put all our belongings onto the cart—tents, sleeping bags, and one 5 gallon bucket of belongings for each person.  We also had cooking utensils and Dutch ovens.  We met Thursday morning about 8am.  Traveled for three days and finished Saturday about 1:30.

2. As the leaders checked out the trek site ahead of time, they said the copperheads, ticks, and chiggers were the worst they’d ever seen. I’m allergic to tick and chigger bites.  They swell and last for weeks.  I prayed and asked the Lord to bless me not to get any ticks and chigger bites.  I felt peaceful about them.  On the trek we traveled in all the places they love to stay. Amazingly, I got NO tick or chigger bites.  This was a miracle to me.  It was a sign that God knew me, loved me, answered my prayers, and blessed me with a tender mercy.  

3. The guys did find one large snake—a poisonous Copperhead.  The young men marched over it.  And no one was hurt! Another miracle.

4.  July is supposed to be beastly hot.  It’s always roasting.  But this year, right at the time we had the trek, the weather mitigated.  This polar vortex came south and cooled things down. I was so grateful.  The trek was grueling.  It was hard work, even in milder weather.  I’m so grateful the Lord was kind to us with gentle weather.  It was cool and overcast.  It was a miracle and an answer to prayers.

5.  But along with the cooler weather, they forecasted rain.  The morning we left, they said it should rain from 5pm Thursday to noon on Friday.  I wondered how we’d cook dinner, meet with our families and do all we needed to do in the rain.  But the rain held off all evening.  We cooked, had a devotional and heard pioneer stories, and were in our tents before the rain started falling.

It rained all night.  Some tents flooded.  Sleeping bags got soaked.  Bishop woke up in a puddle as did all the girls in our family.   But in the morning—just when it was time to get up—the rain stopped.  It truly was a gift from God.  It was a miracle.  My personal miracle was that I stayed dry!

6. We traveled on gravel roads up and down.  We took the carts across creeks and then actually down a creek.  We traveled small paths—rocky and steep.  And places that were almost no path at all.  Very little of it was level.  I think we did 7-8 miles the first day, 6-7 the second day and 5 the third day.  It felt like 100 each day.  But everyone worked hard and we did it!  I walked the whole way and my Achilles tendon never bothered me.  Other people had their own foot, muscle, toe or leg problems and they also were strengthened.  It was miraculous.

7. We had good stuff, like wild blackberries on the sides of the trail, but also briars, thorns, tree branches and poison ivy.   We had small trees growing in our path and rocks and boulders, too. One lunch, we stopped to eat in a clearing that was filled with poison ivy.  The miracle was I didn’t get a poison ivy rash none of our family did either.  I think only one girl got poison ivy.  Another miracle.

8.  Our family had 3 boys and 5 girls from 4 different wards.  They just came together and pitched in.  These were the most fantastic youth!  All of them on the trek were amazing.  I never heard any complaints.  Ever.  They were obedient in everything—except going slow.  In their enthusiasm, it was hard to slow them down.

One of the “sons” on our handcart, Nicholas, just pushed and pushed!  He was always working. They would go faster sometimes than I could walk.  I came across Nicholas, sitting beside the road after a long uphill climb.  “Are you okay?” I asked.  “I’m just a little light headed, but I’m fine.” Nicholas said.  Before I could do anything, he had a friend by his side, putting his arm around him to help him walk and giving him some water.

Madeline, one of our “daughters,” pulled up a tough hill.  At the break she lay flat in the grass.  “I think I sprained my shoulder,” she said.  A few minutes later, I asked how she was doing.  “I’m fine,” she said.

Hannah, another daughter, was scrappy. She’d go beside the cart and pull the handcart wheel over the rocks or help support the wheel as it went off a small cliff.  This meant she was often in the bushes, the brambles the uneven ground—and she twisted her ankle (which was weak from earlier injuries)—probably more than once.  But when I asked how she was, she said, “I’m fine.”

I think the Lord blessed us and healed us.  I think he took our faith and devotion and blessed us to be able to do these hard things.  We had miracles in healings as promised in Mosiah 2:41.

8. All the youth on the trek jumped in and worked.  They pulled and pushed the handcarts over really hard terrain.  They all pitched in. And they were kind to each other. Sure, we had good natured teasing, but I didn’t hear one criticism. No critical remarks, belittling, or unkindness.  None.  Zero.

I can’t imagine you could get a group of adults together for 3 days and not hear any unkind remarks or see evidence of selfishness.   This was a miracle.

9.  They asked us Ma’s and Pa’s not to push the carts. And we did very little.  The youth really made it happen.  There was a time on the second day where the men went off to the Mormon Battalion, and the women were left to push the carts.  We went down a very narrow, rocky, steep trail.  I’d look back and think, I’m sure glad we’re not going up this, it looks impossible!  The girls used great teamwork and communicated, and really worked together.

Then, as we turned the corner and joined another road, our trail boss said we had a half mile straight up.  It was incredibly steep.  I think our girls were game, but it would have been really, really, really hard.  Fortunately the boys returned and helped out.  But I think more than the boys were there on that eternally steep climb.

They youth said they felt their ancestor pioneers helping out.  They felt strength beyond their own allowing them to finish that climb. They said it was a miracle to get up that hill.

10. They were so exhausted some just lay down and fell asleep. They were not even enthusiastic about the dance that night.  My family just wanted to go to bed.  But after dinner, they were ready to go.  They arm wrestled and leg wrestled and danced and stayed up late talking in their tents.

I had wondered how the pioneers had the energy to dance after a hard day’s walk.  I’m convinced it’s the renewing energy and strength from Heavenly Father.  It’s what he bestows on the obedient.

Our trek was a reenactment of the early pioneers trek to Zion.  In Moses 7:18 it says: And the Lord called his people ZION, because they were of one heart and one mind, and dwelt in righteousness; and there was no poor among them.

As I was thinking about this talk, I realized on our way to Zion, we became Zion.  We were of one heart and one mind and dwelt in righteousness.  It was exciting to realize we can become a Zion people.  And if we can do it for 3 days…. We can do it for more days.

I know that when we trust in the Lord, submit our will to his. when we stretch and do hard things—things the Lord asks us to do--  We are blessed with miracles.

Today we had a talk on pioneers and the speaker said it’s not the genetic connection—how we are physically related to early Mormon pioneers that matters.  It’s the spiritual connection.  When we live as they lived—with sacrifice and obedience—we are spiritual descendants of the early Mormon Pioneers.  And that’s what’s most important. 

Blog, Blog, Blah

It's time for a weekly update and frankly nothing exciting seems to be going on.  Maybe that's because the children and grandchildren all left and it's just the two of us again.

Tuesday we decided to go to Silver Dollar City.  We hadn't been for a while and if you go to 4 of their celebrations you get a special Christmas ornament at Christmas time. This was their Red, White and Blue Summer Celebration. This event is scheduled for several weeks, much longer than their previous "Kid Fest," but it was fun.  We saw a magician-- complete with floating body and cutting people in half.  Very fascinating!  Then we saw a show where Olympic contestants and hopefuls demonstrated their abilities. A lot of it was done on trampolines and quite impressive.  This group has their training camp in Park City, UT.

We completed the day with a trip to the mall for  tools, clothes, and Harry and David.  Then we stopped at Andy's Frozen Custard for dinner (ice cream) and Aldis for grocery shopping.  A nice day.

We needed to reclaim the garden. We'd kind of neglected it when we had busy family here.  So Tom and I spend several hours most days-- not necessarily at the same time-- pulling weeds.  It now looks like a garden again.  The cucumbers are blooming.  The sunflowers are taller than I am.  I planted some corn.  And we pulled all the onions.  Some of the onions are mushy.  Perhaps we had too much water.  It was a wet June.

Tom and I had waged a battle against the worms on the broccoli and brusselsprouts. We went out and picked morning and evening.  Nothing seemed to stop the little critters.  We read up on solutions and tried some of them.  Finally we succumbed to Seven-- a pesticide.  Bingo!  No worms.  Oh the joy!  The worms stayed away for about a month.  Yesterday I discovered they were back to munching.  No more fooling around.  I dusted with Seven again.

I also saw that the brusselsprouts were ripe on the bottom of the plants.  So now we have a plethora of brussel sprouts to eat.  And we are still enjoying fresh broccoli.

Rebecca's tenant moved out and Tom has been busy painting and fixing at her house. He painted the living room walls and trim and it gussied it up a bit.  She had odd painting done in the kitchen-- Kind of two tone.  It hid a multitude of dirt and blemishes, but none of the patching exactly matched.  So we bought some paint and it looks fresh and more modern now.

Tom's been mowing properties. Some days he comes home pretty tuckered out.  We finally got the last of our houses rented.  Then we learned the lower Midway Duplex tenant will be moving out.  Bummer.  And soon we'll close on a new house to renovate.  What was I thinking?

Tom and I are going to be Ma and Pa on a pioneer trek. As I was doing interval training, I hurt my Achilles tendon. I've been oiling it and babying it, but it was still mighty painful last weekend.  I was afraid I might not be able to go on the trek.  But I decided to act in faith and keep on keeping on.  This  week it's been much better-- my own private miracle.  Saturday I mended and altered a pioneer dress to wear. I put pockets into an apron I'd been given.  I still need to put elastic into the waistbands of some pantaloons and a skirt. I went to the thrift store and bought a blouse to go with the skirt. And I think I'll need to make another apron.

We've been collecting tarps and dutch ovens, gloves, bug spray, and other essentials for the trek.  Thus far this summer we've really had quite pleasant weather. It has not been beastly hot and muggy.  Some days it's been a little muggy.  But mornings have been quite pleasant.  I hope this kind of weather will continue into the trek week.