Life continues!

Back in the saddle again!  and of course the usual lament of sorry/I'm rude/thank you for your patience, tune!  Me, being JohnnyOneNote!  So many thoughts, accumulating and stacked to the max in a rather orderly fashion until they Junga-like tumble.  A Pick-up Sticks sort of pile!

I got my driving privileges back!  So nice!!  and in 3 weeks I can lift over 10#'s!  My healing is going amazing and my gratitude is huge for that blessing in my life!  I feel great!

*****************

I continue to be madly in love with my Primary class and am fueled by desire to help them embrace the Gospel... by strengthening their testimony... by sharing my love of the Gospel.  I have a clear vision on a couple of things that I will do.  I see their purity and their potential and their innocence and I want to assist them in increased protection by living the Gospel.  

My first goal has been to introduce them to the concept of Promises.  My love of If/Then promises by Prophets.  I've challenged them with daily reading of the Book of Mormon and amazingly enough...one boy has already done that!  Done. Done...as in he read the entire Book since that first lesson!  It is not a contest etc. but he just plowed through it.  Makes me know...they can do this!!! 

This quote has got to be the greatest promise ever!  well, one of them!  For my 8 students to grasp this will impact their lives forever!!!!  I only have to January to convince them!  But...I'm dog on a bone and it definitely won't be for lack of trying.

Weekly I will share a promised blessing for daily reading of the Book of Mormon.  Here is the first one I shared....by President Russell M. Nelson

When I think of the Book of Mormon, I think of the word power. The truths of the Book of Mormon have the power to heal, comfort, restore, succor, strengthen, console, and cheer our souls.

My dear brothers and sisters, I promise that as you prayerfully study the Book of Mormon every day, you will make better decisions—every day. I promise that as you ponder what you study, the windows of heaven will open, and you will receive answers to your own questions and direction for your own life. I promise that as you daily immerse yourself in the Book of Mormon, you can be immunized against the evils of the day, even the gripping plague of pornography and other mind-numbing addictions.

I'm always watching for promises for being obedient and this one is just so amazing to me.  I haven't yet looked up others that I have but it seems to me that this is the only one that mentions pornography and addictions!!!!  well, one other.  I think.

What a protection!!!  Aren't you sort of flabbergasted about this promise!?  My sweet class had mentioned things they would be up against in life and addictions came up and I mentioned pornography.  Then I gave them the big gift!...they can be protected, by wise self-care, in something as simple as daily reading of the Book of Mormon!!

I know Elder Anderson also quoted this in his Conference talk so that gives it double power whammy when something like that is done.  It makes it even more certain!

So in love with these 8 children and so excited to teach and carry out the things in my mind.

****************

People are good and kind and lovely and I was the recipient of so much of that tender care.  I enjoy how each person is true to themselves and what they feel in their outreach of compassion.  There were so many offers of help and it was all appreciated to the maximum!  Baked goods and soup and flowers and fresh eggs and notes and mail and offers for groceries to pick up and offered meals and hand cream and encouragement and "heart attack" from adults that were filled with quotes and sayings and phrases and just delightful!  9 very big hearts that I'm saving forever!  The list is endless and appreciated and relived! 

************************

Remember when I shared about my friends, husband and wife, that died in a house fire in Texas?  Her daughter posted this...

I've learned a very valuable lesson during this time of tragedy. Don't say, if there is anything I can do...Be specific and say I can do...'this thing'. Then do it.

Friends that offer to pick up coffee, or bring by paper plates/plasticware, beverages, drops off food, or just comes and sits a while in all of chaos; treasure those folks. Those offerings are utilized and appreciated. The southern tradition of bringing food 🥘🍰 -- Wow, feel the love. So to each of you... Yes. Thank You.❤️

I could never have realized how comforting it was to have grief acknowledged. To each of those people
that took the time to make that phone call ☎️, or handwrite a note ✉️ and send a card, Thank You.

Feeling good!

Feeling tired but no pain.  just an occasional twinge.  I have been so extremely blessed in this entire operation...

A Dr. that has an outstanding reputation, did her job, and lived up to all the hype I'd heard.  Dr. Barbara Goff (standing ovation from me!)  Jeanee got on line and saw that she'd been on Dr. Oz at some point.  I have no idea why or when but that was interesting to note.  She knows her robotics!

A wonderful healing comfortable place to stay while there.  I had no idea that it was a non-profit.  It just had such a loving feeling about it.  I could feel it but it was later I understood why.  28 rooms.  a few minutes from the UofW location I needed for my directions and surgery.  They have so many amenities and so kind and caring.  If you have an Medical Appointment at the UofW then check with  The Collegiana.  It's old but we loved it.  Reasonable on all counts.

The UofW is a training facility so once you are transferred to a room there are different nurses all the time, coming in and out.  It was interesting.  They all looked like babies and you could see the dedication, determination, and desire to be on top of their nursing goals.  There were a couple that I did think....hmmmm....maybe you want to rethink this as your career???  The head nurse would show up every so often so the train never left the tracks.  I was happy for them to have such a great training ground.  On my day there were 20 folks in 20 cubicles, in the same area as me, being readied for surgeries by 20 Doctors.  Amazing!

A storm came in and the pass was a concern.  Kipper told us when to leave.  Jeanee had the car loaded and we headed out at his signal.  When we got to the part of the pass where the truckers chained up...trucks everywhere!!!  It still said traction tires so we moved on.  The windshield was not giving clear vision (like an oil swipe!) and then suddenly out of nowhere, to our right, careening in from some exit, 6, yes 6!, snowplow trucks.  Jeanee pulled in behind the first two and they totally scraped the road in that outside lane...the entire distance!  They exited and crossed over the overpass and headed back toward Seattle.  And us????...it was all over on the sleet and mess for us!  Jeanee asked if I thought her Aunt Dixie had helped us!  I told her that Mother and Dixie helped with the surgery and my Daddy handled the road!  I do totally believe in the availability and help of angels.

Jeanee.  If I could only choose one word to describe my darling daughter it would be magnanimous.  She helped on so many levels and did so many things around here.  We had such a great time together.  We can talk endlessly about everything!  We laugh!  We love each other.  True there are angels nearby but gone from earth-life and then there are living angels and she is truly my earth angel!  xoxoxox

I haven't even touched on friends.  Tomorrow.  I'll do it tomorrow as it's wonderful to have people that love you outside of family. 

I continue my pursuit of finishing the BoM by April Gen. Conf. which technically starts the end of March!  I'm just enjoying it so much. 

thank you, dear readers.  You are loved and appreciated.

I'm back...

I got home late Thursday afternoon and everything turned out wonderful.  NO cancer.  I'll write more tomorrow.  The Dr. called on our way home with the pathologists report and that was best news ever!  She was so happy for the outcome.  Pre-cancer gave it's warning that it was to the max and she said it was right and necessary I had the surgery.  I will be back here tomorrow.  Last few hours with Jeanee (my angel daughter!).  Friends have been kind and supportive.  Life is great.  some restrictions for a few weeks on not driving or lifting anything (with a gallon of milk being the limit!)  I can drive in two weeks and lift after 6 weeks.  Also suppose to rest when I feel tired.  I'm one that obeys what the Dr. prescribes as I've seen people really foul things up because they feel so good.  I felt blessed on every side and am so thankful.  Really do appreciate your love and prayers.

No pets or babies to tend so I've got it made on minding my p's&q's!

Thanks Natalie for your note!

Tomorrow.  I think the sun will come out tomorrow!

life happenings...

A couple of days ago I awoke to the hymn, When Faith Endures.  Understandably appropriate lyrics as I prepare to go to Seattle for surgery at the UofW.  Somewhat disappointed at my age to need a hysterectomy.  I really was happy to still be intact and now...pre-cancer.  Drats!!!  This will be, to me, space age surgery.  Robotic!  I'll share the happenings when I get back.  My daughter will arrive today and she will be with me.  That will be wonderful to have her with me. 

Also in my mind, a song from my Baptist girlhood days..Standing on the Promises.

Also Joseph Smith saying doubt/fear & faith cannot exist together.  You know the one I mean from Lectures on Faith.

Also the thought...His Promises are Sure.  Is that a Scripture?  I looked but not thoroughly.  I love that thought.

********************************

It will be a memorable Valentines Day!  Knowing I'd be gone for my Primary class, and wanting to send them cards, I dug out my Valentine card cache and found Terry's annual Valentine card.  I give him the same card every year for occasions that need a special card.  He only notices that he gets a card and that I love him.  He does not realize that it's the same card.  It's the love that counts anyhow and I do really love him!  Plus he is always touched that I give him a card.  Groundhog Day on a new level?

*******************

Can't resist!...to bee or not to bee?  I've decided that honey, for me, is a Whole Food and not akin to the likes of granulated sugar etc. etc.  Just putting that out there.

***************

So enjoying my cover to cover read of the Book of Mormon.  I try not to get carried away with footnotes and looking things up and all of that.  I do that when I'm doing my personal study.  This is just a read-through without reading chapter headings and the entire unfolding of the happenings just dovetails in a rather fascinating way. 

I've been thinking of the fact, that even in the Book of Mormon, there is a to good to be true occurrence.  Mosiah 9:6 and the next few verses.  Free land for all.  Do with it what you want. So they built and repaired and grew crops- all to have the giver of the land turn on them and they end up in bondage!!

Loving this quick read!

*************************

We know there is the scripture that tells us...about seasons...about a time to be born and a time to die.  I want to share two incidents that came into my life on the same day.  I will start with the death one.
Why even tell it?  Because there was a tender mercy in the tragedy.

We had long time friends from Alaska.  They became snowbirds...summering in Homer, Alaska and wintering in Galveston, Texas.  Their house caught on fire and they were both killed along with their dog.  The thought of their suffering just overwhelmed and horrified all of us.  Really, it was to much to even grasp. Nightmare event.  And then...the tender mercy was revealed.  Yes, the fire did the unthinkable to them and their dog BUT Ben was found in his recliner, she was on the couch, and the dog was on the floor by the couch.  Toxic fumes were what ended their mortal trek.  Not the fire.  All of us were so relieved.  I know not all tragedies have endings that soothe/comfort those left behind but I'm so thankful it happened in this case. 

~~~~~~~~~~~

One of our Florida granddaughters came to visit for several days.  We had a family dinner with our son and then his son and family came up.  Our grandson has two children.  They arrived with gift bags and I assumed it was for their Grandpa.  We sat down to dinner and Ava and Kai handed our son one of the gift bags and me one!  I looked in and yes!!!- a white onesie with- guess what??  September 2018 - printed on it.  Kipper had the same thing in his bag.  He was being told...there is something else in your bag!  check it out!  He dug in and pulled out the small ultra sound.  I thought that was nice of them to share that with him.  Then they were saying...read it!  read it!  he hesitantly said...wins? wins? huh?  He had his thumb over the T!!  TWINS!!!  We are soooo happy!  We were all yelping and Tori broke out in tears and it was just so much fun.

Life is good.

I'll be back here next week.

Yoo Hoo...it's me

Good morning!  getting ready for a trip to Seattle in a week (more on that later) and right now, enjoying one of my darling granddaughters that is here for a few days.  I love these girlies!  Plus today out grandson and his family are coming for a family dinner and life just feels full and good to me. 

Life does not always feel that cozy with this big mortal test always going on so I revel in the moments.  Per usual...fiddled around again and didn't post as thoughts occurred.  Me bad.  Speaking of such a comment, Me bad., I recently read that WYA means...where you at?  Really?  The dumbing of America?  Or am I just old-fashioned or just all uppity on my high horse?  I don't know!

I am enjoying my fountain pen!  I'm determined to revive note-sending and letter-sending.  Perhaps it will be a one way street but I'm not going to WYA through life!  I will connect a few words from my heart and actually endeavor to write a sentence!  It's not an easy task to connect and engage family and friends when I'm not in the cell phone circle and e-mail is pretty antiquated to a lot of my family.  Facebook continues to hold me hostage so I can see pictures of those I really love and care about and their antics.  Family and friends.  I love my family and friends.  And I love you readers!  You are special to me so I'm counting my blog as a personal handwritten letter to each of you!  (Okay.  are we getting delusional here?)

**************************

Probably like so many others in the world, with the call of our new Church President, I feel the prompted compulsion to read the Book of Mormon by next General Conference.  That end date, by the way, is March 30th.  I read a lot of Conference talks and also read the Scriptures but it's hard for me to read from cover to cover as I get sidetracked and start looking other things up and yes, I am reading it but I just get so scattered.  I decided to make a change for success with a goal in mind. 

I decided to have a paperback Book of Mormon be my Read Through Cover to Cover BOM.  And I set the goal to read it, cover to cover, from General Conference to General Conference.  It is really working great.  I'm not distracted and start looking things up (well, not to much.  actually hardly ever)  And I read no chapter headings.  I just go through verse after verse after verse. 

I remembered years ago, flying from Alaska to Boise to help out my Mother and also needing to prepare to teach the BOM in Seminary that coming school year.  I decided to read the BOM in the 3 weeks I would be there and that was how I read it.  not reading any chapter headings.  It was wonderful as the story line was so exciting with no breaks.  This is the same way.  I'll keep my regular scriptures for everything else.  This little paperback is just for reading cover to cover.

I was breaking my BOM  in.  Now is that a term that people use in this modern world?  You know...taking a new book and carefully opening it with several pages, and then gently pushing down the center so the spine won't break if you just whip it open and be rough.  So as I was getting my paperback ready for the big read, I thought about reading and learning and in today's world how much I enjoy documentaries.  Selected ones but there are really some great ones no matter where your interest lies.

Over the years I've been fascinated with the scripture- men are that they might have joy.  Trying to understand the complexity of earth-life challenges, with pain and suffering and heartache and heartbreak and on and on, and how can one be having this joy?  Therefore I've read a lot about happiness and gratitude and forgiveness and love. 

In today's world, as I mentioned, I've watched documentaries about various subjects and not to long ago I watched two that fascinated me.  Worldly things fascinate me when they actually are backing the teachings of the Church.  Like it's now fashionable, a worldly thing, to basically live the Word of Wisdom- eat healthy/abstain from smoking etc. etc.  Fasting monthly, and intermittent fasting ...lots of books about the wisdom and benefits of developing that habit. 

(Really this is going to tie together)  I recently watch two Documentaries... Happy and Inn Sae'i.
Inn Sae'i means the power of intuition.  Actually it wasn't recently I watched them.  It was quite awhile back so that means you will now get a hodgepodge on combo info on what so impressed me.

MumboJumbo....Mixed bag of info that I enjoyed!

The Gross National Happiness was measured and it turns out that Denmark was the highest rated.  While Toyko, Japan was the lowest.  Shocking to me was they have coined a word called Karoshi. The definition is Death by Overwork.  Men are dropping like flies!  They even filmed a Karoshi choir, seems they were all young females, singing to honor their spouses that died of Karoshi. 

Okinawans, also of course Japanese, live the longest happy fulfilled busy lives.  That went into healthy eating and exercise and balance and friendships and relationships.

A study was done in Happy (not to the Okinawans), electrodes applied, to measure the brain activity of good thoughts.  Good thoughts being gratitude.  They showed the ability to produce dopamine by expressing gratitude.  They also showed the rise and impact between folks assigned to list weekly their gratitude list and the marked difference and rise, when it was done daily.  But the big kicker, the #1 thing in alighting the brain with all sorts of goodness and the very greatest measure of happiness was...Acts of Kindness!!!

When they showed the incredible impact that acts of kindness have on the brain, connected with highest rate of happiness...I thought...The Gospel is so true!!!

Weren't we just challenged in December to focus on acts of kindness?? 

These two Documentaries added a bit more to my understanding of Men are that they may have joy.  More and more I see that joy is possible no matter what sort of things are going on in our mortal trek. 

Way to much written here but sending it out anyhow.

Decorations are in order!

I cannot remember a time when I enjoyed our Christmas decorations as much as I did this year.  That sentence should be changed to ...I can't remember a time when we left our Christmas decorations up clear to 2 days ago AND we enjoyed every minute!  I did go ahead and leave the garland over the mirror because we both enjoyed it so much, so we just said to each other...Well, why not?!  Let's just leave it up.  And so we did.  I just plugged my little camera in and I will try, after such a long time of not posting pictures, to post one.

It was quite a feat to pack all of the things and take the tree down.  There were several smaller boxes so I ended up combining them and have most things in totes.  The big feat, for which I gave myself a gold star, was hauling it all to the garage and hefting it up on shelves...all in one area.  Easy to find and all ready for next year.  I want the tree up the day after Thanksgiving so we can enjoy it for several weeks.  I'm ready for next year!

Terry really missed his little houses but he settled for reminiscing and we shared memories of Christmas past.  Those when we had children living under the roof and Christmases when gone from home children, came home.

We relived the Christmas when Jeanee's family came from Florida.  Arriving at midnight... met at the airport with warm clothes... drove home to lights shining everywhere on the house and in the house like a fairyland and then the big bonus--awaking the next morning to snow falling!  It was like a perfectly scripted play!

Memories...gotta make hay while the sun shines.  There are just certain time periods in everything, like a shelf life.  You cannot postpone making memories or the time for that happening will be gone.

Like McCall.  You know that we have gone there several years, when our children had young children living at home.  Now those young children, our grandchildren, are young adults and into careers and education and jobs and marriages and that time of all of us together has sort of faded.  We have fantastic memories of the years we did McCall.

One of my friends has 5 children and they used to go the coast annually.   She said that it finally ended because of that exact thing of children building individual lives.  It isn't that the desire is gone...it's just the time for making it happen is gone.

We will continue to plan annual things but the reality is we most likely will never spend an entire week at McCall together.  I have no regrets and no sadness over that fact.  I'm thankful we planned and worked and made it happen because we all have such terrific memories.  I have such gratitude for the opportunities we had...being together and having fun!

*******************************

Spoken by President Monson at one of his birthday celebrations....

 “I echo the words of the Scottish writer and poet James Barrie, who wrote, ‘God gave us memories, that we might have June roses in the December of our lives’ (See Laurence J. Peter, comp., Peter’s Quotations: Ideas for Our Time (1977), 335).”

********************************

Now we make memories with family coming to see us individually.  We will plan for a gathering this summer and see who can make it.  (Those McCall memories of all the grandchildren enjoying each other and our adult children enjoying each other are so precious.  Love them!)

Seems logical...

Yes...it does seem logical that we will all start really pursuing a daily reading of the Book of Mormon under the guidance and leadership of President Nelson.  It's the IF/THEN principle.  We want and need a blessing in our life? then the solution/answer is found in the doing of what we read or hear by those called of God to lead us.

In this particular case, to claim the promises mentioned below we must daily read from the Book of Mormon. 

I want these promised blessings as I really need and desire them.

Do you?

**********************************

April 2017-President Monson's invitation and promises  here

excerpt from President Monson....

My dear associates in the work of the Lord, I implore each of us to prayerfully study and ponder the Book of Mormon each day. As we do so, we will be in a position to hear the voice of the Spirit, to resist temptation, to overcome doubt and fear, and to receive heaven’s help in our lives. I so testify with all my heart in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

October 2017- President Nelson's invitation and promises here 

excerpt from President Nelson....

My dear brothers and sisters, I promise that as you prayerfully study the Book of Mormon every day, you will make better decisions—every day. I promise that as you ponder what you study, the windows of heaven will open, and you will receive answers to your own questions and direction for your own life. I promise that as you daily immerse yourself in the Book of Mormon, you can be immunized against the evils of the day, even the gripping plague of pornography and other mind-numbing addictions.