A Simple Woman's Daybook~August 30-31, 2013

Our lives pass swiftly by! I want to do something to remember

the everyday moments and my thoughts about them.  

That is what this Daybook is all about.

Focusing on the little things that become my life.

One entry at a time.

Just for today~Friday-Saturday, August 30-31, 2013

 

Outside my window...It is 7:00 PM and the sun is setting.  The days are getting noticeably shorter all of a sudden.  That means fall is coming.  Not yet but some of the leaves are already starting to turn a little.  It is cooler here and more comfortable then the Utah desert where we seem to have spend a lot of the summer.  I do love to visit there but their weather is not for us.  It is just a matter of what you get use to I guess.  It wasn't by any means cool in Utah but the overcast days were welcomed and it was a little cooler than normal and for that we were grateful.  We even got a few quick thunder storms and some rain.  But it is nice to be back to near sea level where the air has some oxygen in it, which for me is required.  That I have a hard time acclimating to more and more as I get older.  

I am thankful for....all that the Lord has blessed our family with and how he watches over us in the best of times and the worst of times.  We know that we will all struggle through mortality and it is nice to know we are never alone.  That we can turn to the Lord to succor us when we need it.  And he is always near, ready to come to our aid.  I am thankful to have a strong testimony of this through many years of implementing my faith and seeing the results time and time again. 

From the learning room....the joys of aging are balanced with a bags of things that make living as we once did not quite possible.  I have learned I cannot run all over a campus going to classes all day for a week without damaging my knees from so much fast walking.  So I have learned to compensate for that and still enjoy a rich experience at Education Week at BYU when we are able to go.

There are over 1000 classes taught on just about any subject one might be interested in from law or finances, to better family living in all stages of life, parenting little children, teen or adult children.  You can also take religion classes, history classes, music classes, travel classes, you name it they've got the classes.  It is such a fun and rewarding place to spend a week.  We always feel so enriched when we leave.

 Now when I go I try to pick a location or two and go to classes in that building rather that bounce all over the place.  That helped so much.  The knees are a little sore yet but nothing like they would be if I hadn't learned to compensate and adapt to my situation so that I can continue to enjoy things I loved doing in my 30s.  Just a little tip for you younger people as time goes by, discover adaptive techniques to keep on going.

I am reading...several books on my Kindle but one little snippet at a time.  Right now I am reading The Ensign Magazine from cover to cover.

From the kitchen.. I should be making my grocery list right now.  ;-).  Definitely doing all of that this morning.  We have been home for a few days but I haven't gotten that far yet.  I am planning on buying lots of things for yummy salads and some summer barbequing this week.

Some spiritual thoughts I have been having...I had so many spiritual thoughts while at the Y with Jim and Laura and Spencer this past week.  We stayed in the dorms and that was fun.  I was thinking about how if you are a member of our church you eventually get every experience to some degree.  As an example if you missed attending BYU in your youth, you can still do it as an adult.  You can be a primary teacher, young women's leader, a gospel Doctrine or Relief Society teacher, in a presidency, or serve a mission even when you do not join the church until age 30.  It made me think about how God loves all his children equally (which is completely) and how he wants us to have every blessing and provides a way for that to happen.

I use to be sad we had missed out on those youthful experiences but now I realize you can have a very enriching experience in all aspects of church life.  If you are just willing to say yes to any calling that comes along we will be blessed with a fullness.  If we do our part in service to him and his children he more than meets us half way.  He gives us all of it.  What an amazingly loving Father we all have.

I am hearing...Jim's outside radio playing some classical music through my open office window. Other than that it is very quiet this morning as it is still early.

One of my guilty pleasures...home grown tomatoes.  We cannot grow them here as we do not have fencing around our property and the deer think we are encroaching on their land.  They love to eat our flowers and tomatoes and anything else we have tried to grow in the past.  But last night our neighbors gave Jim some tomatoes that were still warm from the vine and yesterday's hot sun and we had tomato sandwiches for dinner.  Yummy.  I have missed the usual amount of tomatoes we consume in the summer due to traveling so much.  It was heavenly last night!  I think I have probably said this every summer in August that I have been doing these Daybooks.

Pet Peeves...The sprinklers that constantly spot our cars and windows.  Ugh.  The outside water we have is canal water which tends to be dirty water for the yard so it makes the cars and windows a real mess.  The watering is essential but the mess is annoying.

I am quoting...Pinterest...I love this quote, it is so true.

If I could change two things it would be...that the struggles that Laura and her family are having with trying to do too much, like remodel a house they just bought and Laura starting  a new job teaching music at a private school, and adjusting to high school for Spencer would all be lessened a little.  They are living in their basement as they try to make this house livable.  The boys are both struggling with that.  Too much change too quickly for them all.

And that Hazel will have a good transition to kindergarten that didn't really start out well with them letting her out of the classroom on the first day and not accompanying her to the bus.  She got lost and was found crying on the playground all alone.  That nearly broke my heart and that of her parents as well.  But they had a big meeting the next day and things have improved.  It is going to be a process but I wish she didn't gave a first year teacher that is 50 and overwhelmed and not the greatest at classroom management.  Hazel has so much to contend with and it is so hard for Jen to have sent her out into the world on her own so to speak.  But you know what?  The silver lining is that she is so resilient and each day she has been excited to return and try again.  That is our little Hazie for ya!  She is always teaching the rest of us how to be!

An enjoyable movie/ TV show we have watched lately...We liked The Butler very much except for the ending where I feel the butler was so excited that a black man has been elected President that he didn't not realize that he wasn't getting exactly what he may have wanted.  I think that is proof once and for all that race is not an important element in deciding who should be president.  One should not vote against or for someone because of their color.  Good and bad choices come in all colors.  But I think for him he was just touched by how far his people had come since his father was gunned down in cold blood on the cotton plantation where he grew up.  Oddly enough, everyone seems to forget that the president is half white as well as half black.  He is seventh cousin to Brad Pitt for crying out loud. LOL!   Heard that on the Ancestry phone tree while waiting for a real person to help me just yesterday.

I am curious about..the movie iRobot that we also saw this week.  I am not a fan of science fiction, needless to say Jim is...but that movie was not bad.  In fact, it was quite interesting as attested to by the fact I did not fall asleep during it or resort to Pinterest on our Friday night home date.

Plans for the rest of the week...go shopping for food in the next few hours and then come back and work on a class I am teaching in September.  Organize some family history notes into a summary on a person that I am trying to find records for so that next week I can talk to some experts and hopefully discover where she is from in Sweden.  Once that is accomplished I can find a lot of new ancestors for Jim's side of the family because Swedish church records are amazing!  Tomorrow church.  Monday no idea yet.  Tuesday work and teach.  And no clue about the rest of the week either for that matter.  I haven't even looked at my calendar for the week and hopefully it is mostly empty.  This ole gal needs a break and rest!  I am returning to Utah on September 14th for a week of genealogy research training and then home for a very long time hopefully.
 

One of my favorite things...having all the family together in one spot as we did during Education Week in Utah.  The cherry on top, being there at Ed Week with our good friends, the Holladays.  It was so much fun to be with Carol a lot and to just enjoy our time, one on one, together away from all the hectic things of everyday life.  I do love her, she is one of the most amazing women I have ever known.  I feel so blessed to have met her at the Genealogy Library and to be able to call her one of my best friends in such a short time.  Don't you just love it when you meet someone you feel like you have always known?  I do. 

One thing that made me so happy this week...that our son, Chris, got a distinguished award at the BYU's beginning of the new school year meeting for the faculty and we were invited to attend.  He also published his first book last week.  I will be devoting a post to these two things sometime in the coming week.  That boy always keeps us beaming and amazed.  He is such a joy!

The most surprising thing this past week...We all survived it!  And the realization that is it fun to go and all be together and it is also fun to come home and get back into our own little routine.  All aspects of life are good they are just filled with a lot of variety.   That is also great, each activity having its own intrinsic value.

Some photos I am sharing this week...This past week our granddaughter, Julia, turned 13.  Jen had a surprise party for her and it was great fun to be there and to have all the cousins there too.  She was genuinely surprised and so delighted and it was just a warm fuzzy experience for us all.  She is such a darling girl and so giving and sweet.  She is enjoying her first few days of middle school and we are so happy about that.  Connor and Julia are happy to be back in the same school again.  It would be so fun to have a cousin in your school don't you think?  The next time I am there will be right around Anyslee's 11th birthday and also Hazie will be six!  One thing about a lot of grandkids and a lot of trips is you are bound to hit the special days most of the time or come very close. 

I just realized that since I had to get a new iPhone this week upon our return that all my photos are not transferred over yet so I only have a couple for now.  Sadly not the best ones but you will get the idea!

The Whole Bunch of them and the

 reasons why we love getting up each day filled with

 love for them and hope for this crazy world they 

are growing up in these days!

Here is our birthday girl, Julia with Ross!
Three teen grandies and more on the way!  
(Teens not grandies!)

 Until we all return...happy day to you!

     ❤♡♥♡❤♡♥♡❤♡♥s, Bon