Meridian Temple

BEAUTIFUL

Children's Museum of Idaho

There is the cutest museum for children in Meridian Idaho (a couple of towns over from Julia & Lester).  It's actually not even that big, but the hands-on experiences are just great.  Each area comes with costumes/uniforms that the kid's love to wear.  They can be the shoppers or cashiers at Trader Joe's,  they can be farmers, dentists, astronauts, pirates, etc.  I guess when the weather get's better they will open the outside extension and have live animals for them to interact with, and they are also building a dinosaur area - we got a peek, and though it will not be Jurassic Park with live dinosaurs, the ones we saw look pretty real to me!

Another highlight of this trip was that my cousin Shiela, who is a retired 1st grade teacher, met us there.  It was wonderful to get to know her!

potatoes potatoes potatoes!

As we got into Idaho we were greeted with lots of snow on the ground and country music on the radio, two things we don't have in the Bay Area.  I also loved being in the land of potatoes and had some with almost every meal.  One place Julia took us to was a french fry joint that advertised that they serve burgers on the side (in other words, fries are the main event!).  First you choose what kind of potatoes you want - russet, gold, red, purple, yam, sweet potato, etc.  Then you choose what kind of cut - thin, thick or curly.  They fry it up for you and it tastes wonderful.  But, just in case you want a little more flavor, they have a counter full of different kinds of salt you can shake onto your fries, and sauces you can dip them into.

It was so much fun!

February Snow

Reggie and I visited our little Pineda family last weekend.  They had an unusual amount of snow that stayed with us the whole time.  I braved up and had a lot of fun playing in it with Julia and the girls.

finishing off February

I think the following scripture helped me segway from January's theme (peace) to February's theme (adversity):

"My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment; And then, if though endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high."  D&C 121: 7-8

Now, as February will soon turn into March, I want to record a few more thoughts about adversity; as life carries on I want to remember:

I believe it was Gordon B. Hinckley who said:

"relative poverty and hard work are not greater adversities than affluence and abundant free time".  That certainly is something to think about.
In fact, it reminds me of the movie Pollyanna.  She was a poor girl who, after her parents died,  went to live with her rich aunt.  She ended up befriending everyone in the town, including a middle aged woman who stayed in bed all day planning her own funeral.  Pollyanna started bringing her projects to work on for the upcoming town fair.  At one point another adult said to Pollyanna "why don't you go away and stop annoying her?".  Pollyanna responded with "I just thought someone should try to help her!"  At that point the woman realized that she could have more purpose in her life.  She eventually got out of bed and brought a beautiful quilt she had made to be auctioned off at the town fair.



And finally, the following are self explanatory:

a wonderfully muddy walk

I've walked this walk and taken pictures here many times.  But with all the rain, it seems brand new.

this pictures is saying "come on, let's go!"

look at all the water!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY REGGIE!

It's strange to have Reggie be away from us on his birthday.  Where's the carrot cake?  Where is the ice cream?  Where is all the joking around?  Reggie has been on a business trip in Arizona for the last few days.  By my "orders" he treated himself to ice cream, and thankfully he comes home tomorrow.
Life just isn't the same without Reggie.  But we hope he had a happy birthday anyway!

 

the beginning of President's Week

Well, it's Tuesday night and so far I am extremely happy with how my week off is going.  I had/have SO much to catch up on as far as household stuff - in the home and appointments that are easier to do during the day than after work.  But I also knew that if I didn't fit some impracticality in there I would be very disappointed when the week is over.  Luckily, among all the good stuff we've gotten done I've been able to scrapbook to the sound of movies which always makes me happy.

Sunday we got an impromptu idea (which I shared on facebook): We decided to celebrate President's day by making 45 chocolate chip cookie men representing each president of the United States. When someone chose a cookie to eat they uncovered a number. They then had to look up that # president and tell some facts about him. We learned about Tyler, Harrison, Buchanan, Truman, etc. etc. Who knew cookies could be so educational! It was a lot of fun.

Monday I alternated between cleaning and scrapbooking - and we suddenly decided to "go" to Italy.  I had one of my favorite movies on, which is set in WW 2 and filmed on location, in Italy.  Later I put on a tv show that showed famous religious places in Italy, some even dating back to when the Roman Empire was in power.  Well, Mariah felt inspired and came up with the idea that we might as well make pizza for dinner, and she and Ross went and got a special treat in the way of Italian Sodas.

Monday night I packed up my scrapbooking stuff so that I could be strictly practical for the next couple of days.  And then by the weekend Reggie and I have some fun things planned.

So - here's to President's Week!  I am really grateful for it.

ps - One of Samantha's favorite books:

becoming Ruby Valentine

One of my favorite children's book series is "Ruby Valentine".  They are sweet stories, cleverly written in rhyme, with cute illustrations.  They are about a girl named  Ruby trying to make a Happy Valentine's Day for everyone in the town.  We've had some Ruby Valentine's moments.

Last weekend we made heart shaped cookies, put them into bags, and hoped to feel inspired of who to give them to at church. (I wish I had enough for everybody like Ruby did!)

 My turn to provide a snack in the staff room at work fell on Valentines Day.  I forced myself NOT to bake this time for practicality reasons, but I did enjoy filling heart shaped candy dishes with Valentines candy (including Reeses hearts of course!) and putting them out for the staff.

And then, my favorite thing was picking Luke up from work at closing time at the bakery.  He and a couple of other teenage workers left the bakery with the biggest smiles on their faces, and the biggest arm loads of bakery boxes - they were allowed to take home what didn't sell.  Luke brought us the brightest pink, 3 layer cake, and a dozen donuts (we were only able to eat a fraction of it, but the thought and fact of it was priceless).  The last box was full of cupcakes that he took to school the next morning.

I think we had as much fun this holiday as Ruby Valentine did in her books.

puzzles and blankets

My job has been SO stressful for the last while.  For privacy reasons I can't go into why.  But, as I've said before, this group of amazing women work on strategies and figure out what, if a,ny changes need to be made for the good of the children most of all. And things are working and getting better.

Because of the rain, and often just because, during lunchtime other kids come into our classroom to hang out.  I went on my lunch and got back when there was still about 10 minutes left of the kid's lunch time.  I walked into a very happy scene.  Some of the kids were sitting on the couches talking and listening to music together.  There was a table full of adults and kids playing a game, and another table full of adults and kids working on a puzzle.  It made me happy.

One of our co-workers came in one day with boxes full of yarn that someone was giving away.  We've decided to do a class project of crocheting a blanket.  Whoever is interested takes a turn or two throughout the day crocheting a couple of rows.  Then it is the next person's turn.  It is a real collaborative effort.  And though I'm not a puzzler, I tried extra hard today on the 550 piece puzzle everyone is working on.  I found 2 pieces! I felt like such a contributor, and made sure I let everyone know!

our goal

There are still challenging days and challenging moments.  But I want to remember days like this.  I am so lucky to be part of a great team engaged in such a worthy cause.

an atmospheric river

That is what the weather prediction was for our week, and boy, was it right.  We have had a ton of rain - somedays it just fell hour after hour after hour, including some steady downpours.  We've been just fine; our 27 hour power outage was inconvenient but not an emergency (luckily our fridge was relatively empty as this is our shopping weekend).  What I found most memorable was watching the river of rain flow UP our hill!  The wind was blowing so hard during one of the downpours that the ripples on the street were running upwards.

Anyway, California needs the rain and we certainly have been blessed this winter.

a new favorite

Last night I was looking back on the blog at our crazy summer and Christmas of 2018. And then I heard this song.  It's my new favorite!  Can't wait till we are all together again, as crazy as it is.

so what does adversity have to do with Christmas

Of course we know that Jesus was born in the humblest of conditions.

But secondly, my book talks about adversity in the form of a gift given to us.  I had to read this paragraph several times to grasp it's meaning, and I am still working on embracing it.  But I am grateful for it.



"Life is so generous a giver, but we, judging its gifts by their covering, 
cast them away as ugly or heavy or hard. 
 Remove the covering, and you will find beneath it a living spender, woven of love, 
by wisdom with power.  Welcome it, grasp it,
 and you touch the angel's hand that brings it to you. Everything we call a trial, a sorrow,
 or a duty:  believe me, that angel's hand is there;  the gift is there, and the wonder of an overshadowing Presence."

an activity for Christmas in February

Well, for February I am finally getting around to my holiday baking!  We definitely did Christmas baking in December but we kept it to ourselves/ate it right away.  So this month I am doing Valentine's Day Holiday baking.  It is the 4th of February and wow what a good start - made some for family, for some people at church and for a super bowl party.  Happy Baking!

Christmas in February's Theme

Part of me feels like this month's theme is inviting trouble.  But I know that's silly.  Being prepared doesn't mean you are inviting trouble.  As I have learned, trouble/trials/adversity will come to us all either way.  Trying to come to terms with this and gain a new perspective will hopefully make for a very happy February, happy 2019, and happy life, no matter what comes my way.  Therefore this month's theme is    ADVERSITY.

I've found a lot of inspiring quotes and stories which I will share throughout the month.  For today:

Luke 9:23 - If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily, and follow me.  

We did it!

We survived January everyone!  Happy February! (Still listening to my winter playlist).