Our Daughter...

My Daughter

technically she is our daughter but I always claim her as private property it seems.  As you know she is on the Camino De Santiago Pilgrimage and walking 556 miles!  She is precious and priceless and adorable and was born a peacemaker plus she is compassionate and kind.  She loves unconditionally and is always in a state of gratitude.  With her artistic eye she always finds the beauty wherever she is and in whatever she is doing.  She is a source of joy to her Mother!  (as you can tell!)

Sooo...she acknowledged, on one of her YouTube videos, about getting stronger daily and then mentioned, just in a very natural, matter of fact, conversational way...I'm loving my body and thankful for it.  I find that beautiful thinking...empowering and expressing gratitude.  Refreshing to hear from a woman, in today's body-image faultfinding world--total acceptance and gratitude for her body.

(You are welcome to follow her journey  here  So far she has lost a toenail/dealt with bed bugs/battled a heat wave and a lot of pain...all that, plus other challenges, while walking 7 hours or so a day!!  I'm a cheerleader and not a participant!!)

celebrating...

Today was a monumental day for us...our wedding anniversary!  Umpteen years ago when we got married the preacher gave the traditional vow, that we were to repeat after him....

from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part, according to God's holy ordinance; and thereto I pledge thee my faith.

We then exchanged rings.  We were pronounced man and wife and embarrassingly enough were told that he should kiss his bride.  I remember a quick peck was exchanged.

Our vows also had some clause that I would love, honor and obey.  I don't remember what Terry agreed to.  It was a regular part of wedding ceremonies at that time.

Years later we were able to erase the death do us part clause with for time and all eternity.  That Temple ceremony that comes with our Church membership has been the reason, the foundation, the bedrock of our long marriage.

You need something like that if you begin you married life as clueless late teens.  Terry always claims a yeh, but...  Yeh, but I turned 20, 5 weeks later, so technically I wasn't really a teenager.  I have no idea how his math works on paper but in his mind that is an accurate equation.

We married for absolute pure love and passion and the desire to have a family.  That was it.  We had no other things on our list.  That extremely short goal list enrolled us in the School of HardKnocks.  We actually went onto Grad school for further enlightenment on Life Skills for the Clueless and even ended up with a Doctorate in Realities of Life.

Our love has endured being put through the wringer at times but we always end right-side up.  It is steady and comforting and secure and cozy.  The feeling of just being able to relax, flaws and all, and not be self-consious about bedhead and saying what you think and telling how you feel is a great gift in my book.  

His muscle tone has lessened, his hair is a beautiful white, his skin has wrinkled, his balance is bad, he has health challenges but to me he is still absolutely the most handsome man alive no matter what else is going on with him.

We don't think alike on most subjects...he is a news hound and loves to watch old Olympics and nature videos and Abba and Amiria and Sissell and follows people that live out of buses and stuff like that...then he loves to tell me about these things. He knows that I'm polite and listen with a vacant stare.  that puts him under obligation then to listen to me tell him about a local theatre production that I went to or a book I've read on a subject that he could care less about.  We each have perfected the art of head nodding and facial expressions while thinking other thoughts.  Even with that masquerade that we do...he will tell me that he is glad we visited...I enjoy talking with you.

But...we are totally on the same page when we talk about our family or the Gospel.  We connect at the heart on those subjects.  We pray together twice a day. Together we listen to a couple of Conference talks a day.  We talk about LDS news and what we've read.  We both love General Conference.  He wants me to go to the Temple weekly as he feels it blesses both of us.  We both have testimonies of Living Prophets and the list goes on and on.

And we love our family.  all so different.  all so unique.  all so precious to us.  and our grandchildren!!...we adore them.  and now!...3 great-grands!!!  We have wonderful by law in-law children.  They are loved so much. We talk about our family, a lot- but we are bad about calling and talking and being in touch like we need/want to do. We do stay in touch with our original 5 and they reach out to us.  

So another year of being together.  Terry feels it's a long time.  I feel it's just life moving ahead.  I don't seem to grasp how an age feels unless I've already lived it!  Terry feels old (in 5 weeks he will be 80)  80 is a number to me and I don't feel it's old.  it's just a number.  He says it is old.  I realize that I have moved from feeling 25 years younger than I am, to feeling 20 years younger than I am.  So I guess I too am aging!

We celebrated with me picking up Chinese food at the Panda Garden Restaurant in Sunnyside.  Marie Callendar furnished a pie for our feast.  We sat beside each other at the dinner table and enjoyed our meal and eating together.

We have reminisced off and on all day.  We love each other and are thankful for sharing our lives with each other for 61 years!  

My heart is tender.

Here is a picture from 5 years ago at McCall with all 5 of our children.

Enjoy!

Full circle!

I was thrilled to see this picture and quote from the meeting at Safeco Field just 3 days ago.  Yes...that prophecy is in process and we are a part of it!!  I have watched it inch ahead since 1979 and now it has arrived for sure!  I feel misty-eyed at thinking of what will now unfold.  The upcoming General Conference at which there will be no Priesthood session and this year there will be a General Women's Session!  It will be amazing!!  39 years since President Kimball's wife read that historic statement.  Enjoy hearing it again  here  and here and think of what an amazing day we live in!

Each life ....Hymn #293

Today was Rose's funeral.  Funerals are so comforting to me and so telling and revealing of things (sometimes) that you didn't know about the person.  Rose had planned her funeral.  When Steve came by that day and gave me the tomatoes, he told me Rose had sent a request list of songs she wanted, to the Bishop. One by one she texted him. They were heavy metal...titles that would be rather shocking at a funeral... AC/DC Highway to Hell! etc. etc. Her Bishop told her....No!  and No!  and NO!  Steve told me that she had insisted that when her casket was wheeled in, she wanted the pianist to play...Pop! Goes the weasel!  Another No! and NO! and NO! !

Steve said that she wanted that so much that he was going to make sure the pianist played it - no matter what the Bishop said- because that was what Rose wanted.

The Chapel was full and the requested large Community Choir was all seated and it was about 15 minutes before the start time.  Steve comes in and goes up to the stand and starts whispering to the pianist (super gifted woman that accompanies the Choir) and smiling...and then she is smiling...and then Steve is thanking her--my stomach sinks!  Surely not!!

Yes!!   Rousing chords rolling with full energy.... Pop! Goes the Weasel!! ... fills the room, as the casket is wheeled in! The Bishops face looked startled and then he smiled and shook his head in disbelief.  Later in his remarks, which were my favorite of the day, he acknowledged the requested Play list and said that Rose won that one.  He said he had not approved this and he would be having a serious talk with her when he saw her again!

I was sitting on the side where the family walked past as they entered the Chapel and when the pianist started that song, they all broke out smiling and it was just what Rose wanted.  She wanted fun and laughter at her funeral.

Rose and her sister had been pranksters since they were girls and the entire family knew and enjoyed all of her tricks.  Steve's talk was filled with her pranks!

Rose loved bunnies and she had stuffed bunnie animals.  There were a couple of flower-filled bunnie vases on the podium.  Steve had mentioned her love of bunnies.

Her sister, Carol, (who kept with that lighthearted theme and showed up in a very colorful tie-dye T-shirt) said she would explain why Rose loved bunnies so much.  She shared that their Mother had given them a book when they were young and Rose loved the story about Barrington Bunny.  She then read the entire story out of the book.  She was one of the best readers I've heard in a long time.  Maybe winner over-all!  It really did give insight into Rose's character hearing that story and seeing her lovely sister.  Carol was so tender as the story ended.

I was so inspired by the story that I came home and figured out what the book was and have ordered my copy!  It's called... The Way of the Wolf  by Martin Bell link. Rose's Mother certainly prepared her for eventually receiving the Gospel and following Christ. 

The Community Choir (of which Steve is a member) filled all of the choir seats and their two numbers were just beautiful.  

I didn't go to the graveside as I needed to get home but I know Rose was happy with the events of the day.  I went out the sidedoor and not out the casket side, for those going to the burial, but I do wonder how the two woman that she chose as pall bearers held up.  Literally.  They weren't honorary but actually going to help carry the casket! Steve said he put strong men in also so the women would be okay.  I'm going to call Spring and see how that went!

I wear my silly pin with the cat dangling from the branch and know it's a Hold On!! message, from my unique/quirky/sweet/kind/loving/gentle/tender/spiritual friend and I will always have a smile on my face when I put it on.  

She looked very peaceful, and yes, beautiful at the end.

Friends and life!  I cherish both!!  xoxoxox  to you from me!!

In honor of Rose...I share a meme that she would have loved!!....

She arrived!!

Well, things will now settle down...at least somewhat!

Me being the cheerleader for SmartPhones!  Yeppers, you heard it here!  I could have done a TV ad in praise of such phones.  Why?...you ask.

Our daughter is doing that Camino De Santiago pilgrimage.  Alone.  The thought of her traveling and being up for hours on end as she traveled from Florida to France (2 planes & 3 trains) was enough to make my sleep so restless the last few nights!  To have my SuperSmartPhone ring this morning and there was my darling daughter's beautiful face... talking to me! to her Dad!  to her brother! It was just a bit of heaven.   I feel so good to have seen her and talked to her!!

No matter how old the child- we never stop mothering!!  never!  Not the hovering and bossing around mothering... just that loving concern/hope/prayer that our child falls to no harm.  We don't want anything to happen to our children except all things good and wonderful.  Fairytale for sure!  We all know that life is a test and all sorts of unexpected and unwelcomed and overwhelming things/events happen to us and to our precious children (no matter their age).  It was so reassuring and for the first time, in 3 days, I feel I can relax.  (Now she only has those 500+ steps to do!)

Today she posted her first YouTube from there.  I was thrilled with it.  She has prepared for almost a year to do this trek and wanted more than anything to share it with others.  I was astounded how she put the video together and the things she'd planned worked out!  I'm totally prejudiced, of course, but really...I think it looks like a film crew is filming it -the segment when she gets her passport and chooses her shell. Her walking through the village.  Oh, I just think it's all incredible that she can do that!!

I feel I can now relax a bit and will not be talking about her Camino journey every day.   Really, I'll not do that!

Look at this...didn't she do amazing??  link

a great thought...

I'm not a coffee/tea drinker but I really like this thought....

Life...

Tomorrow is 9/11.  My thoughts flip through the many things that have happened in my lifetime of national tragedies and I remember exactly where I was on each one...JFK...RFK...MLK.....exploding rockets that had just launched...bombs at marathon and school shootings of children....really the list goes on and on.  Atrocities and cruelties unimaginable.  More than my mind can wrap around.

It's always nerve wracking when certain anniversaries of horror occurs that maybe some wack-o will do craziness.  Tomorrow will be more tense for me than usual because tomorrow morning is when Jeanee flies to Paris for her dreamed about journey.  The thought of her flying tomorrow and going to France unnerves me somewhat tonight.

She believes in living life to it's fullest and not holding herself hostage and immovable by the what if's/maybes of the possibilities, of danger.  Perhaps it's my MotherHeart that makes me err on the side of caution in my desires for her activities.

It's happening folks.  She's living her dream that is so detailed in her mind.

I support her even if my BP has risen and I feel teary and longing for her to be totally safe with all of her dreams coming true.  Some people just feel the desire to walk 500+ miles in a place of great history!  She does!!

Mothering just never ends.  Never!!

Here is my angel.  I've loved that precious face since the moment she was born! 

Weeping

Life. The cycle of life is never changing and yet is also ever changing.  We can't see very far down the road at times.

Jack, our newborn gr-grandson, is just starting life.

Our daughter Jeanee is living life to her full capacity.

And today...my friend Rose's life came to an end.  I love the individuality of my friends.  They by divine design are uniquely one of a kind...so dear to me and they make my life so rich on so many levels.  Rose marched to her own drummer and was very quiet.  She was a loyal person and caring and giving.  She reached out to those older sometimes forgotten alone and lonely people...sick and needing help and she never stopped her caring until they moved on. 

She had what I would call a quirkiness to her humor.  Sometimes sort of bizarre!  If she felt things might be uncomfortable because of any situation she would say or do or wear something that was rather startling to break the ice.

When chemo took her hair and her 2 sons and husband shaved their heads as a show of support, she took the opportunity to paint faces on the back of all heads for a card! Christmas, I think!  She would deck herself out in a get-up for her chemo treatment to give people a laugh and help them relax.  I was usually startled at what she came up with!

Our friendship was not the kind where we knew all about each other and our past history and even all of the current life happenings.  It seemed to not matter and neither of us evidently felt curious!  She was extremely private.  Our friendship was based on mutual kindness and love and absolute excitement over the Gospel and all that goes with it.  We were both groupies around everything General Conference and always so eager to have it begin and then to talk about what really touched us.  She enjoyed beautiful music and felt it so soothing during her health battles.

She loved the Spanish Branch RS and being the RSP for a long while was joyous to her.  Her last calling was a discussion leader 4th Sunday in RS.  She thought about her lesson all month and enjoyed every minute of it.

We never went to lunch or to any social function together or eagerly planned or attended any type of parties or go to movies or plays.  We did go to the Temple together occasionally.  But we were always in touch in one way or the other.

When I was RSP for a number of years, we had a spate of funerals.  I mean a lot!  She was in a different Ward but she came and helped on every single one.

She would bring me tomatoes from her garden each summer and share fresh shelled walnuts from her parents farm.  A Christmas Poinsettia was gifted at the start of the season.

We would visit about the Gospel and share our testimonies with each other.  I'd send her e-cards and quotes and scriptures as her health worsened and her strength slackened.  She enjoyed cookies and bouquets of floweres.

We understood each other and knew we meant a lot to each other and had a sweet sisterly love and trust in our friendship.

A few days ago, her husband came to the house, with two grocery bags.  One had cherry tomatoes and one some large tomatoes.  He started crying and said...Rose said to pick these and bring them to you.  I understood the gesture.  I asked if he'd like to visit and we sat on the porch.

He told me that she was going to The Cottage in the Meadow a beautiful facility for hospice care.  She was to weak for me to come see her at her house but she had told him to have me come up when she got to The Cottage.

That call came at 9am this morning.  She was in and admitted and he said to go on up.  In my mind I thought we'd visit for a few minutes.  Not so.  When I got there around 10am, I knew her time was rapidly evaporating.  There would be no conversation.  I sat and held her hand.

Her husband felt she had waited until their son came home from college about 8pm last night.  She then plummeted around midnight and all arrangements fell into place.  She insisted she did not want to die at home and she got that desire fulfilled.

Believing she was aware of everything going on and could hear me.  I had the wonderful chance to quietly thank her for her friendship and kindness and goodness to me...how much I had enjoyed our association...if she saw my sister Dixie, to give her my love...that I would miss her quirky personality...and that she would most likely have an entirely different experience with General Conference this year.  I shed tears for her courage and bravery and non-complaining attitude towards such physical trauma with cancer in 3 organs.  I thanked her for that example.

She gave it all she could and surrendered when she knew she needed to move on. She never lost faith and never doubted that the Lord was well aware of what she was dealing with and He was in charge of the outcome.

I kissed her forehead and bid her goodbye.

She was gone a couple of hours later.  She is at peace and out of pain.  I'm glad for her but sad for me that she has moved on.

I count on this scripture being true....

130:2 And that same sociality which exists among us here will exist among us there, only it will be coupled with eternal glory, which glory we do not now enjoy.

Boots for walking!!!

My precious daughter has had this planned for a long time!!!    here  How does this happen that your daughter is excited to walk over 500 miles...on her own!!  The last time I had heart palpitations over some adventure she was on was when she was in Jerusalem on a BYU-Study Abroad...in a market place shopping.  I heard on the radio that a bomb had exploded etc. etc. and I recognized the name was where she shopped.  She knew my heart and she called long-distance to reassure me that she was okay.  The call in those days on land-lines cost a fortune but was worth every penny!

Now I'm practicing face-time with her and she assures and re-assures me that she will stay in touch so I am not in anxiety mode 24/7!!!  I've told her that realistically after walking 15-20 miles a day...a MomChat will not be #1 on her evening list of to-do's!  I support her in this trek because...what else do Mom's do?  She is as excited to share the happenings on line as she is to do the actual walk.  She feels there are those that can't do this trek and would like to- so she is taking them along.

Me?...I'm buckling up my seat belt by mustering up a lot of faith!!  Her Father has his head in the sand and is in denial!

(If my link did not work... her FB is Jeanee Seljestad James and you can see it there)

Memory fail on recall about Jerusalem.  A minute ago I was on face-time (me ...so modern!)  with Jeanee and told her I remembered that incident and she reminded me that I had it backwards.  I called her.  So here is the true event from probably 30+ years ago.  She was always talking about the place that they shopped in the market place (I can't remember the foreign name).  she mentioned it so often that I recognized the name when I heard it on the radio...announcing the bomb and the fact that 36 students had been killed.  Well, you know what I was thinking so I placed the super spendy call.  When the phone rang in the housing area, and a student was summoned, it was always because someone at home had died.  When they called her name she was terror stricken and I was feeling that same way about her.  So as Paul Harvey used to say...and now you know the rest of the story!  As she was filling in details I then recalled her telling.

Peaches

Today I thought of my Mother and my Sister and my Husband while I was attempting to bake a bit. 

Hubby loves to see me wear an apron so he was happy about that.  Perhaps he assumes I will actually cook a meal? 

My Sister loved the sounds of people puttering around in the kitchen.  When she was so sick and resting in her living room chair and I was right next to her in the kitchen, I would always try to be quiet and she, sensing that fact, would remind me...I love to hear those kitchen sounds.  

And Mother...she in the years I was a girl never cooked a peach.  ever.  She never made peach jam or peach pie or peach cobbler or peach crisp or any dish with cooked peaches.  She also never canned one single jar of anything.  and...she never had a garden of any sort.

Why?  Well, she was very practical and sensible.  Her Daddy died when she was 17 maybe 16.  As a girl she was raised and lived on what the family grew in their garden and they canned and smoked and kept in their root cellar. They butchered and gathered eggs.   That was in Missouri.  Alaska in 1945 was definitely not Missouri on all counts!  The winter weather was real. 

They bought some land and with the help of friends built a house.  Grocery prices were outrageous and she used to say...I'll not pay that price for an apple and cook it.  I do not recall her ever baking a pie!  surely she did pumpkin! 

Life became more tame and eventually, years later, my Dad got promoted and they moved to Boise so he could be at the Morrison Knudsen Company headquarters.  Then years after that he retired.  My Mother said she had to find something for him to do as he was going stir crazy.  They started canning and making sauer kraut and beef jerky and sausage.  It seemed their projects were endless! When I flew out to help them once with some health issues, they proudly showed me their storage shelves with all sorts of fruits and veggies gleaming in their glass jars.  They had boxes and boxes of empty Kerr jars in their garage when they exited life.

She did end up with flowers, after I was married and not living at home, and that is a story for another time but that is the saga of my life.  How am I a member of my chosen faith and have no life experience in these culinary arts?  I have friends that are experienced and expert.  Perhaps it was the Peach Slab goodness of Sunday or a box of peaches that arrived at my house but I did try to cook a pan of yumminess and of course, I thought of my Mother.  All of the peaches and pears and applesauce on her Boise shelves and all the things she would make/bake and tell me about.  She had done all of that in her life until she moved to Alaska so it was familiar and she loved doing it.  I missed that life class!

I had never seen a peach tree or picked a peach or eaten a ripe peach until I moved here.  A ripe peach is surely a hold-over from Eden! 

I decided to do 4 dishes today.  I got two done.  I told Terry... these would not make it Blue Ribbon-wise in a Fair unless it was like The Music Man and you were Mayor and I was your wife and it was rigged.  

How on earth does one mess up a Peach Cobbler and a Peach Crisp?   And why do I set myself up for ridicule and judgment by telling all?  That is how I seem to do things. 

I definitely could win a quick-peel race of fresh peaches so I do have that going for me!  Didn't improve the baking technique but was quick easy and not the mess I've heard of!

I'm thinking of trying the other two recipes and will share if they are better.  Or worse!

Maybe I had no desire or interest or just didn't care?  Better late than never!  right????

Also...lots of gardeners in Alaska now. (friends grow gorgeous flowers in Homer.  did you know that Peonies grow there?  that was figured out and there is a local Homer business that flies them all over the place!)

The Matanuska Valley is known for gigantic veggies.  Thought I'd share one picture from this years State Fair.  the Award winning cabbage! 94 pounds!!

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These two articles were so refreshing and unique and different and I just had to share them.  Really food for thought.  Brief and to the point!  enjoy!!    here  and  here

Jack!!

Several pictures were taken and I couldn't figure out how to get them on here.  Kip d. put a couple on FB so I finally got one on here.  Jack is perfection!! (aren't they all?)

Kim is feeling good.  Jack is healthy and adjusting to mortality. Kip d. is walking with a cane (no walker) with barely a limp and tolerable pain.  Ava and Kai are happy in their new school with new teachers.

yesterday I baked Kim's favorite cake to take up with me (it's suppose to be eaten the day after baking!) and didn't slice it and was so tempted and then out of the blue... The peach pie fairy graced us with a piece slab of delicious fresh peach pie!  Yummy to the maximum!

Our bed will feel extra wonderful tonight as I'm really tired!!

Don't you love it when logjams have a breakthrough and life starts flowing down the river and no whitewater rapids can be seen?  I'll breathe deep and soak it in as smooth sailing does not last forever!

Newborns are just magnificent!!  I'm so in love.  Terry is in love with Jack also but he didn't get to go.  we will make another trip!