Visiting Teaching

I wanted to share my testimony today in Relief Society. But I didn't. If I had I would have said this:

"I am grateful for visiting teaching. And I know that Heavenly Father is mindful of me and all of you as well. For a while now I have felt very sad that I have been losing my Portuguese. It's been 18 years since I served my mission in Brazil. So when Camila moved into our ward I was so excited to talk with her. But I let fear get in the way. I wanted to talk with her so badly but there were always people around her talking quite fluently in portuguese and I didn't want to feel dumb so I just didn't talk to her. Then I was called as her Visiting Teacher. Yep, I knew it was inspired. I knew that Heavenly Father was placing this opportunity in my lap. Yet I still put off calling her. Fear again. I was afraid of picking up the phone and talking in Portuguese and she wouldn't understand me and I would feel like i was dishonoring that amazing country that I love so much. But finally I spoke with her at church and made an appointment. The days leading up to my visit with Camila were full of worry and stress over things NOT having to do with visiting teaching. The day came and I went to see her. I was excited and nervous. At first I was only understanding about 50% of what she was saying. But by the time I left an hour and a half later I can say I was understanding 90%. We had so much fun talking about all sorts of things. When I left I felt this aura around me that felt so peaceful. The things I had been worrying about were gone. I came to realize that Camila and I need each other. I know that my Heavenly Father loves me and I know that he answers our prayers."

Fall

I love fall. But I didn't always love it. As a kid it meant the end of warm summer days where I could run around barefoot and have all day play dates with Tonya. It also meant that our chores would now start to include "bringing in wood" which was no easy task in our household.

But somewhere along the way my feelings changed. Perhaps it was realizing that sweaters felt good to wear or that fall meant the holidays were coming. Shortly after Chris and I were married we were living in Springville. During my daily drive into Provo I looked to the east at the mountains and gasped. When did they get so red? What was that stuff popping up all over the mountains? It looked like the mountain had chicken pox. I was fascinated with it after that. I would check the progression of the 'chicken pox' daily and found it to be beautiful. When we left Utah to move to Oregon I remember saying to Chris that I would miss the falls in Utah.

Fast forward about a year later and we are living in Albany, Oregon. It's fall again and I'm driving again too. This time not to my school but to Makenzie's. She has recently started pre-school and I'm on my way to drop her off. I turn the street and gasp. When did Oregon get so beautiful in the fall? I had never noticed the trees turning color before. The street I was driving down was amazing with color: green, gold, yellow, orange, red and purple. I stopped the car and Makenzie and I got out to pick some leaves up off the ground. While bending over to pick up some stray leaves I wondered if we just didn't have trees like this in Coos Bay or if I had just never noticed them while growing up.

Those two experiences cemented in me my love for fall. My children don't ever have to drag me to the pumpkin patch. I go willingly.

What I love about fall:
Halloween (my favorite holiday)
Caramel apples
Early morning soccer games
Changing leaves
Holiday planning
trick or treating
wearing warm socks
The apple farm
The pumpkin patch
Football games
Soups, stews and chowders
Garden harvest
Roasting marshmallows in our wood stove
Wearing my favorite sweatshirt
Fresh pressed apple cider
Foggy breath from Jersey cows

They grow up

It starts. My little girl, or my oldest girl in this case is growing up. Yeah, I know she is 14 and I should have realized it a long time ago but just today it hit me big time. Today I went to pick her up from school at our usual time and place. She wasn't there. For some reason I didn't panic like i usually would in this case. I waited for fifteen minutes and when all the buses had left I decided to go home and check my cell phone to see if she had called. She had.

I call her.

Mom: Makenzie, where are you?

Makenzie: I'm at the anime club.

Mom: Where is that?

Makenzie: At the high school.

Mom: (silence. what? what is she doing at a high school club?) Okay. Who are you with?

Makenzi: Jessie.

Mom: Okay. How much longer will it be?

Makenzie: About 30 minutes.

Mom: Okay, call me when you are done and I'll pick you up in front of the school.

Now, this may not seem like an odd conversation to many of you but MY DAUGHTER IS NOT IN HIGH SCHOOL. She is in 8th grade. Two of her closest friends are in 9th grade and all three of them have birthdays a few weeks apart. Makenzie being the last birthday in mid august. We waited to put Makenzie in kindergarten so her other two friends who are the same age as her are a grade ahead of her.

I guess I'm okay with her going to a high school club. And she is with a good friend. But when did she cross that line into "I'll just make my own decision of what is okay and then call mom and tell her what I've done?" Remember when you did the same thing to your own parents? The casual call home, "Hi mom, i stayed after school to work on a research paper in the library." Translation: "Hi mom, i stayed after school so I could spend more time with my boyfriend."

Sure sometimes it was legit. But many times it was not.

My little girl with the chubby cheeks is growing up. The time I have with her will go by so fast. I don't want it to go by so fast.

In a place called Shrewsbury

In a place called Shrewsbury......

I get called m'lady all day....and I like it.

I get to have a henna tattoo that will lead to strange looks by people at church the next day.....and I kind of like that too.

I eat the same thing every year, the Ploughman's platter which has little slices of sourdough bread, salami, different types of cheese, grapes, strawberries and oranges.

I discovered a new drink this year, sweet water, water with honey and spices. I loved it.

You are transported back in time when there were no cell phones or computers to distract your children. They are entertained by singers, jugglers, actors, jousting, playing darts and looking at the wares of their kinsfolk.

People are loving and kind. There are so many people offering things for free. Wooden wands for children, a refill of icewater for your water bottle, plums, apples, pears to munch on.

Although I do enjoy my modern conveniences like flush toilets and hand sanitizer I also love dressing in period clothing and just for a day feeling like I am walking the dusty streets of a different time.

You can hear the revelers shouting "hazzah" for their favorite competitor. And you can see a goat pulling a cart laden with fruit. And a young boy and girl herding that goat in the right direction. You can smell the sweet aromatic lavender everywhere you go. Inhaling deeply in hopes that it will just stay in your lungs for a moment longer. You can touch soft wool as it comes straight from the spinning wheel or touch the smooth leather of a pouch or belt. And you can taste the salty rich haggis, an authentic scottish dish from the renaiisance period made with lamb, barley and potatoes.

Good day to you Shrewsbury, we look forward to visiting again next year.

note: by hovering your mouse over the pictures you should be able to read the captions for the pictures.

How to peel an egg

Don't you just hate it when you can't peel the eggshell of a hard boiled egg?

It sticks and sticks and you end up taking half the egg with it? And other times that shell slides off so cleanly you check to see if someone put a pat of batter between the shell and the egg?

No longer will you have that problem. Check this video from utube out. I have to thank my friend at Pearls and Chocolate for posting this. Check out her blog. She always has great things to share.

The votes are in

The voting has finished and Dress B it is by 72%. I didn't tell any of you because I didn't want to sway the voting but Chris' mom, Donna, wore this dress to a renaissance faire in California 33 years ago. And I'm not positive but I believe she wore this dress for her wedding too. But that may have been another one she gave to Makenzie. Anyway, it's a special dress and Makenzie is very excited to be wearing it tomorrow.

My dad and Ladda came to visit for a couple of days. They leave for Thailand on the 22nd of this month and will be gone for 6 months this time. If it was 5 months I'd go with them. But I just can't be gone for 6, it's too long.

That was supposed to be humoruous. When I read back through it I thought to myself, "what if someone thinks you are serious?" haha. I crack myself up sometimes.

I have accomplished a lot in the realm of food preservation in the short two days they have been here. We pruned down our pumpkin patch. Dad showed me how to cut it down so that the energy goes to the biggest pumpkins. We got rid of all the tiny suckers that weren't doing much but suck the life out of the bigger ones. Grow, grow, you are free to get bigger now pumpkins, much, much bigger.

Then the three of us (dad, ladda and I) picked all the green beans. I had so many out there that i haven't had time to pick. I think it drove Ladda nuts to see good food going to waste so like the good woman she is she got a bowl and started picking. Well then I felt guilty because she was out there doing it alone and so I went and helped too. Then she said to me, "tell daddy to come outside." So he did. You have no choice but to listen to Ladda. After they were all picked they got snapped and then canned. But I need to dwell a minute on the word snapped. Does anyone else out there love that sound of beans being snapped? What memories that brings. I remember countless hours, and yes, i'm not kidding when I say hours of sitting and snapping beans when I wanted to be swinging on cedar branches or walking to my friend Tonya's house. child labor I tell you. That's what that was. Hmm....what are my kids doing tomorrow after school?

Those beans turned into 5 quarts and a 2 pints worth of home grown green beans.

Then this morning my dad walks in with an apple he is eating. I quizzicaly ask him if that is perhaps from the apple tree in the back? He confirms that yes, indeed it is. "don't they have worms?"

"No."

"Huh."

About 15 minutes later this is what we had:





And we then did this:






And turned it into this:



8 Quarts of applesauce!


And my girls said with warm applesauce in their spoons, "can we have some tomorrow in our lunch?"

Ah...of course you can.