Open and shut

You could say things are closing in on me. Just a couple... work started yesterday for putting in two doorways with doors soon to be hung where there've been none before.

Where once my lovely three-cornered table stood against an angled wall in our front room, with a plant on it and small vases - pretend you see those in this pic from 2011 ↓ and a nicely-framed picture of Christ above it - you've been here, you know...

...there's now a doorway

admitting light from the front door into Kent's man cave office. And so he's happy! We're both happy we'll come into the office from the front now; no more pacing around the elevator and through mom and dad's to enter it by the door you see at the very back of this picture. In a couple of days (after the mudding and sanding) double doors will be hung here, tile installed over the sub-floor at the threshold, and painting commences. Painting is quiet; smelly, but soft - not the Sheetrock buzz-saw sound that rips through board and nails.

At the back of the house (around the elevator) the entrance into mom and dad's space has never had a door on it. We've free-flowed from front to back down here since their arrival and of course since ours here two years ago, gee. It's NEVER looked like it does today: closed up, squared off and trimmed out  - how low the door header is; so small an opening - and mudded for a real live standard open-and-shut door.

All for:

• Keeping privacy for mom and dad
• Keeping mom secure by enclosing their area
• Keeping the temperature regulated down here; and ours upstairs, especially in the summer
• Buffering the house noises better. I'll be able talk loud on the phone now! On Tuesday when Kent goes to the temple. If the temple's not closed for cleaning like it has been last week and is for a week more.

Lite drink mix

Kroger's got seriously good flavors for its little ole' lite drink mixes. I've bought a few of em' ↑ but wanna try strawberry-kiwi and raspberry too. And pink lemonade, mm! Strawberry orange banana's my favorite so far (on lots'a ice), and grape's about as good. I mixed grape and cherry pomegranate together a coupl'a days ago and got a grap-y cherry punch that made me pucker! Today I made fruit punch and am surprised I like it.

Like I said, I like these mixes on lots of ice and usually made with less water. Just a bit less - I do like strong drink.

Pep talk

I borrowed part of a post from my friend Sherri (link) today.
-----

I continue to go back to something I read in a book given me called "I Hope You Know How Much I Love You! and Other Advice for a Happier Life" by John Bytheway:

"Like most people, I watch the news and listen to the radio and feel like the world is in a downward spiral. And it is. But I have hope. President Gordon B. Hinckley had a huge impact on me. I never met him, he never called or wrote, and I never had the chance to shake his hand. But he affected my life profoundly because of his optimism. I knew from reading his biography that he was well aware of what was going on in the world. And yet, he was never 'gloom and doom' as he addressed the Church and the world."

"I have my worries and concerns, and you have yours. What do you say to yourself in the morning? What pep talk do you repeat to your image in the mirror? Here's an interesting question - what about the prophet? What does he say to himself as he gets ready for the day?"

"'It isn't as bad as you sometimes think it is. It all works out. Don't worry. I say that to myself every morning. It will all work out. If you do your best, it will all work out. Put your trust in God and move forward with faith and confidence in the future.'
~ Gordon B. Hinckley"

"A few years ago I was working on a book, and I remembered several people reporting that Jeffrey R. Holland said something about the Savior's ultimate victory, and the 'final score has already been posted,'  or something like that. I looked very hard for that quotation, and I just couldn't find it. Finally, I did something I had never done, and I contacted his office. His secretary told me she would try to find it. A few weeks later, I got an e-mail straight from Elder Holland that said:"

"From: Jeffrey R. Holland
To: John Bytheway
Subject: Quote

'Oddly enough, that is something I said. It was probably at a mission conference where it was not recorded.  Would you like me to restate it and authorize its use?' -Jeff"

"I was blown away. Elder Holland was on assignment in Chile, but he took the time to e-mail me personally. Well, I responded that I would be delighted if he could restate it for me! And just before my book was about to go to press, it came. And here it is:"

"The future of this world has long been declared; the final outcome between good and evil is already known. There is absolutely no question as to who wins because the victory has already been posted on the scoreboard. The only really strange thing in all of this is that we are still down here on the field trying to decide which team's jersey we want to wear! --Jeffrey R. Holland"

"Have you ever watched a replay of a football game or any athletic contest when you already knew the outcome? Have you noticed what a different experience it is to watch a game when you already know what will happen?"

"Well as you watch the news, it appears we're ← down, and we're getting creamed. We're in the midst of a tough contest, but we're going to be okay. The Savior will be victorious, and we know it. And the downward spiral and moral decay we witness can actually strengthen our testimonies. 'All of this is supposed to happen,' we can say... You know whose jersey you have chosen to wear, so get off the bench and keep fighting. In the meantime, keep the faith. Perhaps you won't laugh when you see the world gaining yardage, but deep in your heart you can be at peace. When it appears we can't come back, you can remember the verses Be still, and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10), and If God be for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31). Yeah, it's a nail-biter. But 'there is hope smiling brightly before us, and we know that deliv'rance is nigh.'"

I KNOW whose jersey I'm wearing...do you?

Come back, Jack!

Fun to have cute Jack my nephew Chris's little boy over to play the other day while Chris visited Grandma and Grandpa. The toy box stayed open and every truck from it was lined up on the couch. Jack piled magnetic alphabet letters into the trucks and dumped them, wheeling trucks from one end of the couch to the other. Then...

Clean Up! Clean Up!

he sang for us when it was time to go. Come again, Jack!

Everyone Smiles in the Same Language

Thought I'd post a poem - I wrote it first in August, 2005 and rewrote it two days ago. Kind of like a chef tosses the salad, this is word salad and I've been mixing' it up!

We may not be too much the same.
We do not have the same physique.
We wear a style and bear a name
And quite prefer to be unique.

We do not act alike as such,
We keep within our comfort zone.
We may not talk, or talk too much!
We have a language of our own.

We may not sound alike perhaps;
We use a characteristic speech.
And dialogue won't fill the gaps 
(and any dialogue would lapse)
With miles or years between us each.



Yet we may choose (if words be gone)
To set particulars aside.
Friendship may be remarked upon
By smiles in case our tongue be tied!

We may remark on who we be -
Our certain style, what's in a name.
Each one of us 'talks' differently;
Though when we smile we talk the same.

Coming to ourselves

Part of a devotional by Kathleen H. Hughes, first counselor in the Relief Society general presidency from 2002 to 2007
-------

"I came to the chapter in Helaman where we first learn of Helaman’s sons: 'And it came to pass that he had two sons. He gave unto the eldest the name of Nephi, and unto the youngest, the name of Lehi. And they began to grow up unto the Lord' (Helaman 3:21). These boys not only grew to adulthood knowing, loving, and serving the Lord, but they stayed in that same path throughout their lives."

"All of us, sooner or later, grow up and leave the places that have nurtured and cared for us.

• This transition time often is a defining experience in our commitment to the gospel.
• The world offers both blatant and subtle enticements."

"In the early chapters of 3 Nephi [Book of Mormon], we see that the Nephites are for the most part corrupt; the Lamanites, who have become the more righteous group, are falling away as well. Mormon records:

'They had many children who did grow up and began to wax strong in years, that they became for themselves, and were led away...'"(3 Nephi 1:29).

"We must be on guard so that we do not 'become for ourselves.' That implies to me that they looked to themselves first and indulged desires that prophets had warned them to avoid. They yielded to Satan’s enticements and allures."
-----

(Nat:) A phrase similar to this above in Sister Hughes talk, yet opposite in its consequences, is found in Luke 15:17-19, the parable of the prodigal son.

But when he came to himself he said, “How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger!



I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.’”

So one more point Sister Hughes makes in her talk:

• "We need always to ask what we are doing to our spirit. Is the divine within us being nurtured, or do our actions prevent the Spirit from becoming the predominant force in our lives?"

Imagine what this son had to have been feeling... maybe even wanting to turn the other way as he heard his father’s voice. "Grow up unto the Lord," Sister Hughes cautions... And he faced his shame and guilt and the pain it had caused. He came to himself, long after he became for himself and was led away having accepted the world's blatant and subtle enticements, and returned!

His father was waiting with open arms.

The problem of pain

I go to one of my bookmarked blogs pretty often in a week to, you know, lift me. I tap into something each day that can elevate my feelings like a blog post, good music while I work or cook, or a book. I love a new book! Right now that's "The God Who Weeps;" Laura bought it and I borrowed it from her because I was about sixteenth in line to borrow it from the library, erm. And "The Problem of Pain," by C.S. Lewis.

In the footer of one place I go often I recently saw...

adversity agency art atonement charity children christmas Daughters death faith family fear forgiveness friendship gratitude happiness hope humility humor LDS church lds women love marriage mormon beliefs Mormon families Mormons mormon womanhood mormon women motherhood mothering mothers mourning with those that mourn parental advice parenting perspective prayer prophetic counsel reading relationships service sisterhood testimony trials women writing

At first I thought, gosh that's heavy.

Well, no... "humor" is embedded here in smallish letters, right. Okay, and "happiness" is in the same line, and "hope." Not bad. But this lightest-weight word in this queue is sandwiched between "humility" and "LDS Church" and flanked by such serious notes as "death, faith, family, fear, forgiveness," and "motherhood, mourning with those that mourn, parental advice, and parenting."

At a glance it was all ouch! "Adversity" to "Trials" and everything in between. You know, aren't these some of the subjects I've been writing about (like this blog author) these winter months? Been bein' kind of earnest, haven't I. The past weeks - it seems from Thanksgiving through even now - have held problems and pain. And the problem of pain is that it hurts! Maybe it's why I spied in this Cloud crowd only the hardest: "Agency." "Children." "Marriage." "Mothers." "Relationships." At a glance the hurt associated with each then, rather than the blessing.

Earnest or no, through these weeks I've written positively, responding every day with topics that would elevate my feelings (and yours if you're reading). I posted insights in "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year" just before Christmas and "Winters of the Soul" in the dark week after; and "Why, God," and "Suffering;" on the other hand, "Glad," and recently, "Practical Wisdom."

The longer look - not just a glance - at the past three months and the queue of topics here fills my sometimes hurt heart with immense gratitude: For Time on this earth, mortality, that at once wrenches and heals me, and for the reassurance that what seems heavy can lift.
-----

“God does not instigate pain or suffering, but He can weave it into His purposes. God’s power rests not on totalizing omnipotence, but on His ability to alchemize suffering, tragedy, and loss into wisdom, understanding, and joy.”― Terryl L. Givens, The God Who Weeps: How Mormonism Makes Sense of Life

Who we are

Farewell To Arms (Groan) Posted in our Sunday paper last week... he he 

-----

Hello... what makes us who we are? Our clothes? Our brains? Our personality? Our limbs? Naw, these are just parts. All of it, and not only: experience, too. Deepak Chopra says, "Every experience that we have is unique to us because at some deep level we make an interpretation of it." Well, and so, interpretation - what we believe about ourselves and, by extension, God and others.

As our clothes change, and our brains and personality and bodies and experiences, don't we evolve? And our interpretation of ourselves alter and adjust - or, oops, come apart at the seams? We may worry about a few parts while on the whole we act like we've got it all together. Body, heart and soul.

Who we are in this life is never whole and complete.

Matthew 5:48 is an invitation with a promise to be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. Perfect in the King James version of the Bible is from the Greek: Complete, finished, fully developed. And Jesus Christ repeats the invitation at his appearance to the Nephites in America after his crucifixion and resurrection, recorded in the Book of Mormon in 3 Nephi 12: 48: Therefore I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect.

In Life to come we may be whole and complete, fully formed with not a part of us lost. And goodness, not as with Mr. Potato Head (or his daughter) will we be simply the sum of our parts. Plus experiences and our own interpretations: God will make us Who we are.

Just average

Jenny told me on the phone the other night about visiting teaching a sixty-something year-old lady in her ward whose daughter's life has been kind of similar to hers. It's great, we agree, to discover another person in the world whose problems are like yours... though we're each unique and, for the record, if my problems were heaped in a pile with anyone else's (yours included) to be handed out again I'd really want only mine back.

I totally appreciate Abraham Low's self-help Recovery spot that says: "If one other person [on the planet] can experience this, then it is average." Here's a "spot" of wisdom, secure thinking, after a likely or unlikely encounter with another who is experiencing life just about like we are - even one - that tells me (and you, Jenny-Loo-Who) you're okay, you have an average life.

God always provides

Ellie's first birthday party and Jilly's too

Amy made yellow heart cakes and cupcakes with strawberry frosting. I loved how she put beads on the big cake for decoration. She said she got the idea when Andrew accidentally dropped the necklace on the cake a few minutes before she finished frosting it completely. He had big eyes for his mom when he saw his accident but she just smiled, pulled the beads up and re-draped them on the cake around the edges and at the top in a loop. Love it! Andrew himself did up the three cupcakes with sprinkles, 'bout emptied the bottles!



Ellie stayed undressed for the party so she could eat cake make a mess later. You should have seen her pitch a fit when Kent and I first walked in. I'd like to think she knows me and won't scream when I arrive - that it was just Grandpa in her house she was yowling about. Here she's pretty calm, turned when I called her name.



And the boys... well they don't love it when I say "give me a smile guys!"



They'd rather do goofy faces. What is it with boys!?



Grandpa got their attention while he lit the one candle...



... then now we're all singing "Happy Birthday to You!" (Buddha-belly Ellie!)



Ready, set...



Cake! (Well, frosting.)



Mmm!



(I like frosting too Ellie.)



Then after this picture crying and full on frustration finally happens... the cake's upside down on your tray and you're a sticky mess, baby girl. The party's over 'cause frosting's up your nose and everybody's laughing. "Ew, it's on my finger, Nana," you're saying as I snap this picture.



Time to get clean, get dressed



and get presents!



A doll, pretty strange at first, a baby for Ellie,



but her dad got it out of the box



and she cuddled with her (with me). "Where's her hair?" I said to Elliebelle, patting the dolly's bangs. "Where's her eyes?" "Where's her nose?"

"Where's Ellie's nose," I smiled, pointing. "Where's the baby's teeth?" I tapped on the dolly's little plastic mouth, and Ellie gave her a big wet kiss.

Amy's got pics of her birthday girl on her new iPhone... can't wait to see them! Oh, and if you haven't seen Dana's post about one year-old Jillian, check it out! (link). Jillian got a toothbrush from her brothers for her first birthday and frosting up her nose too. Dana posted: She has started to really show her personality and she can say Bye-Bye, Go, Mom, and Dad. She can point to her nose, and plays a great game of Peek-a-Boo! She is desperately trying to say her brothers' names but points to them and can shake her head yes and no; often she shakes her finger and says no at the same time at them. It's really funny to watch! We just love you little JillyBean. 

Both these one year-olds are dolls! And we can't leave out Sarah Elaine, third baby girl born within seven months last year. Her one year-old party's this summer. (Summer? What's summer? Brrr.)

Oh brother

I've been taking care of Chris's animals while he's away.  My brother - who lives up the road from me - comes to my house to eat my food occasionally and sit in my recliner to visit. Once in a while. Comes here to visit our parents so, yeah I see him pretty often. We play Words With Friends on our iDevices, several games at a time and mainly, whew, he whips my tail. He's ruthless: he steals the triple-letter plays or blocks them, it's that simple. Though yesterday in one game I held 173 points and he had 171 since he's only gotten one triple so far.

He's nice to me otherwise and I appreciate it (since I sometimes feed him). He "lets me" feed his fish when he goes out of town. (Ick.) Which eat blood worms and beef heart (yuck) and papery smelly fishie flakes. The blood worms and beef heart are small frozen cubes which get mixed with aquarium water I suck into a large plastic syringe and squirt back into the tank minutes later all gooey with the thawed worms and heart parts. Man the fish go nuts!

I get to take care of Callie the cat. Callie stays under his bed. One night when I chose to spend the night on Chris's couch because he'd had surgery (and I could) Callie came all the way out of Chris's bedroom and put her nose in my purse and made cat noises. The middle of the night, but we made friends. She let me scratch behind her ears but not pet her. Callie's picky and I don't mind.

I have to remember ↓ to go to Chris's a coupla' more days.

I called him yesterday and said... after I'd delivered two just-right pinches of smelly fish flakes into the big tank and squeegeed a syringeful of gosh-awful protein into the aquarium amid an ecstasy, a riot, of fish; and scooped Callie's litter box, changed her water and made sure she has extra kibble then cajoled her from under the bed and scratched her ears and let her smell my purse...

Chris, I fed the fish.

To the cat! (He he.)



Overnight he ran the letters H-A-U-L down from a triple-letter tile on WWF and stole my spot for 49 points. We're 220 to 173 now. Oh brother.

Destination: Heaven or Hell

In "The Great Divorce," by C.S. Lewis, spirits of the dead who reside in Hell are offered a holiday to visit the suburbs of Heaven with the opportunity to stay if they wish. Any who want are free to board a bus to make the journey.

The bus heads out of the dismal bus station in the dismal town up toward Heaven. There the newcomers wander in the foothills attempting to adjust to the astonishing beauty and reality before them. 

They are approached by angels who assure them that with time and a little effort Heaven will feel natural to them. "Come!" they offer, joy radiating from their beings. But the Ghosts reboard the bus to journey back to Hell in various attitudes of indifference or pride or fear, preferring to be in a place they know and have some control over than where they must work at a new and better life, however joyful.

The narrator, himself a Ghost, meets people whose lives on Earth have ended - Solid People - and comes to understand how one's eternal destiny depends on how one chooses to think about God, oneself, and others.

The story is such a good read and makes me think - and like you know I like to do maybe over think - about transparent, negative attitudes versus solid, positive ones - even faith; about change versus "the familiar" - hoping, the effort of acclimating to beauty and joy and peace, where the pull to live in the known rather than the unknown is astonishingly strong, even if that is dismal; about how change feels hard. And Earth and Heaven and Hell, and for what and with whom we may be destined.

Can we bear to face the joy that can be ours!?
-----

“If we insist on keeping Hell (or even earth) we shall not see Heaven: if we accept Heaven we shall not be able to retain even the smallest and most intimate souvenirs of Hell.” 
― C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce

Practical wisdom

I'm a wife, mother of five, mother-in-law to four, grandmother to twelve; daughter and in-law daughter to four; sister and sister-in-law to ten; aunt; friend; visiting teacher; and I'm myself.

I'm a care giver.

Mothering has taught me to set myself aside to attend to someone else. Kent who had no children with his first wife helped her die when he was 51 and she was 52 and in that difficulty received his training. Our next door neighbor here we came to find out went through what Kent did, though his learning curve was seven years, not just two months.

“Hold tight to your sense of humor," writes Laurel Robertson in Laurel’s Kitchen Caring — Recipes for Everyday Home Caregiving, a cookbook and collection of practical wisdom.

"Resist courageously when your mind tries to convince you you are wasting your time, not doing a good job, worth more than this, going to have a nervous breakdown, etc., and all the other weasely scenarios our lower self uses to bring us down. Learning to recognize them is an education in itself.

Patiently to overcome them, and to keep on helping even when it’s hard, is better than college.

Afterward, life opens to a different perspective, and very likely you have grown closer to your real self — a happier, kinder, wiser, and more peaceful person than before.”

Loved by You

For Kent on Valentine's Day, 2005

Three years married

-----

For all the days you've stayed and worked for hours,

And all the ways you've gone out of your way,

For every time you've ever brought me flowers

            or held my hand,

Or simply passed the time of day;

For all the days you've simply had to “take it,”

And all the ways things haven’t gone your way,

For every time you've promised we would make it,

            or wiped a tear

Or simply told me it’s okay;

For all the ways you've shown me that you love me,

For times when you don’t have to, but you do.

For every time, I've thanked the Heavens above me

            for this one thing,

Of simply being loved by you.

February, 2007

Heart, and Happy Birthday Ellie

I made these notes below in the summer of 2001 but don't remember why. They might've come from a talk with a new friend... or a singles retreat I attended. I was single and choosy that summer about friends and events, mingling Wherever and with Whomever I hoped to attract Mr. Right and Happily Ever After. This is a find today looking back, and a darn good message for Valentine's Day!

Language of the heart transcends language of the mind, or thought. We filter our world with a particular listening of the world or way of seeing. This filter has been with us since birth and occurs partly because of gender, genetics and family and partly because of our environment and upbringing. We=re predisposed both to now and to our future by our past and by the many factors that make up our point of view. Another name for this part of us that sees the world a particular way is personality B we nurture and grow it from infancy; it lends us identity. The personality is our:

conclusions;
reactions;
assessments;
judgments;
the stories we tell ourselves about our lives;
expectations for what life should be;


We know how life is going and we react like that=s absolutely true.

Our thoughts constantly run helter-skelter with language of the mind, or brain chatter. Thought processes may often be in chaos if they’re undisciplined or without a purpose, much of the time churning on the same conclusions and assessments and hurts and so forth B the result of a particular way we see the world. Even our most disciplined thoughts and affirmations are logical in nature.

Language of the heart immediately and completely transcends thought and the mental churning that represents our personal, self-ish point of view.

Language of the heart brings into me the light of Christ. My logical thinking keeps me caught in the lie and illusion carnal life is - fear, depression, upset, my dualistic nature. The language of the heart speaks in a frequency outside of that - doesn't acknowledge such as fear or judgment. I may call light into myself and visualize it filling me so darkness flees.

Language of the heart makes me feel at one with all things. Transcends logical thinking in terms of duality. Love, only love is present, no judgment, assessment, conclusions, fears, agendas, expectations.



These are language of the heart shortcuts to happiness.

1. Nature
2. Creativity
3. Art/Music/Writing
4. Smiling
5. Touch/Hugs
6. Play
7. Imagination/Dreaming/Believing
8. Friendship
9. Letting go
10. Service
11. "We" not "me"/team/group - cooperation, lack of competition
12. Admiration/Acknowledgment/Gratitude
13. Forgiveness
14. Testimony
15. Prayer
16. Scriptures
17. Christ
18. Love
-----

One year-old Elizabeth

Prayers for you

When you pray for others, God listens to you and blesses them, and sometimes, when you are safe and happy, remember that someone has prayed for you…. ~unknown

Stuff in our food

I've been in a bit of cooking limbo since December when the folks came. Much of the last eight weeks I've slowed, even stopped, my cooking adventures to understand the food my parents are used to eating (all their lives); then figuring out how to balance

1) making and making again and again this for them - for us four -
with
2) experimenting with new recipes

There's a Spanish word dad's used more than once at the table:

hierba [yerr’-bah]: ≈ grass; weed;

1.Herb, a generic name for all the smaller plants.

2.Greens, vegetables; all kinds of garden stuff.

3.Grass of pasture land for cattle.

4.Poison given in food; poisonous plant.

5."Mala hierba" ≈ weed.

Look at that last definition ↑! And the one before it... ouch! Dad has said this a time or two, hierba, the catch-all word for spices, herbs, green veggies, etc. Grass... erm, parsley. He doesn't want floaties in his food. "Keep it simple" is his mantra for his and mom's food. Mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, spaghetti, beef stew or pot roast, goulash, shepherd's pie, black beans and corn tortillas, rice and tuna and peas. Buttered bread.

For me, well, that's cooking limbo.



I've just this week gone back to a thing I do love: reading my cookbooks.

My new ones and old ones. And in "Campbell’s Creative Cooking with Soup" ('cause that's all I could do when I first got married and learned to cook) I found a potato chowder recipe I decided yesterday to convert to baked potato chowder. Because I had one left over baked potato wrapped in foil calling from my crisper. I morphed the recipe into the best deconstructed baked potato ever! I had two bowls of this thick, creamy goodness - not usual, I'm being pretty good about portions - and scraped the pot to get seconds for everyone at the table.

What made it mm, so good besides the chunks of baked potato along with carrot, onion, kielbasa and bacon was the stuff you put on top: Grated Cheddar cheese and crispy potato skins, the real thing off the real potato fried in brown butter! Oh that's good! Diced scallions (green onion, 'cluding the green parts) and, if you dare, a bit of parsley. I did and dad didn't - es una mala hierba.

p.s. Don't tell... I think mom is like me and liked to try new recipes when she could. You should see all she's collected in her recipe book!
-----

SPEEDY POTATO CHOWDER
Campbell’s Creative Cooking with Soup cookbook 

WITH THE ADDITION OF LEFT OVER BAKED POTATO TO THIS CREAM OF POTATO SOUP, IT’S CREAMY BAKED POTATO SOUP. ADD THE TOPPERS (see below) - MY FAVORITE!

1 large or 2 medium baked potatoes, cooked and cooled, cubed bite size (best if left over a day – save the skins as they are sliced or peeled off; set these aside for crisping – great topper!)
6 slices bacon, diced
1 cup chopped onion
2 cans (103/4 oz.) condensed Cream of Potato soup
1 1/2 soup cans milk, plus ½ soup can light cream
1 cup diced carrots
Sliced frankfurters or polish sausage or cooked ham
2 TBSP chopped fresh parsley

Over medium heat in a 3-quart saucepan cook bacon until crisp. Remove and drain on paper towels. Pour off all but 1 TBSP bacon drippings. (Or cook more bacon than you need for breakfast and save it and the drippings to make this soup later!)

In the hot drippings cook onion until tender, stirring occasionally. Stir in diced carrots approximately two to three minutes after the onion to begin tenderizing. Stir veggies occasionally. A few minutes after carrots, place diced meat into the pot, stir with veggies several minutes. Add baked potato cubes finally, stirring gently to keep from breaking apart.

Add canned cream of potato soup and milk and light cream (or any milk to equal 2 soup cans – I used fat free half-n-half and fat free milk; may use powdered milk, very good). Stir to blend. Add bacon pieces and parsley (fresh or dried works).

Bring soup to a simmer on low from 45 minutes to an hour. This reduces and thickens the soup slightly (water evaporates – you want that) and the milk that may gently “stick” to the bottom of the sauce pot and continues to be scraped up with stirring develops flavor. STIR OFTEN, do not let soup boil or stick to the bottom of the pan.

Fry potato skins crisp in 2 to 3 TBSP butter in frying pan. Set aside to drain on paper towel.

Top with potato skins; scallions (green onions diced finely including the green); shredded Cheddar cheese; parsley; sour cream, if desired.

Miracles and metaphors

Letter to my kids January 30, 2006

Hi you guys,
When Kent and I climbed up to the top of the lighthouse in St. Augustine I saw a First Order Fresnel lens, a massive thing, crafted of layers of prisms. I was so impressed with it I got on the Internet to study about it: who invented it, what’s unique about it, etc. Augustin Fresnel, a French optician and genius in his time, invented and mounted this lens first in a lighthouse in France (to replace the incandescent light with mirrors behind it formerly used in lighthouses). That was in 1822, two years after the First Vision ushering in the Restoration.

Isn't it neat how the Restoration was not only of the gospel, but of all kinds of light!

The first Fresnel lens was mounted in a United States lighthouse in 1842 – actually in two, twin towers in New Jersey. I've been imagining the gratitude of sailors and navigators then for the strong light that came over the waters from that invention. It had to have been life changing. Above the earth several hundred feet, the light could be seen at a distance of 40 miles.

Rays from a light source in the middle of the lens are refracted (bent) and magnified with the prisms into many-thousand-times-more-powerful beams that are joined together into one concentrated beam of light. It’s breathtaking, staggering, how Fresnel’s invention changed lighthouses – they now became the absolute beacons for safety and guidance they were intended to be since the early Egyptian’s time when a flame was first mounted to do that work.

I got home from St. Augustine on Tuesday, studied this on Wednesday and thought and thought about it. On Thursday night I attended Stake Council meeting where a member of our Stake Presidency gave a Power Point presentation on our annual goals for the Stake. There was one slide he showed with a quote on it from Covey (from his book "First Things First") that described why goal-setting is so valuable. I did a double-take when I saw it; personal revelation flowed into me. I was staggered with knowledge and the confirmation of my earlier thoughts about invention, light, magnification, concentration, focus, the Restoration; so much more. The metaphors are very powerful.

The knowledge I received is that goal-setting is the method of taking intention and will and desire (light we have at the core of us) and bending it and magnifying it to the point that it goes out from us as action, powerful action. Think on this.

I hope and pray you’re happy and successful. I mean it! When Kent and I pray every day for you we pray specifically that you’ll be happy and make wise choices. We pray intentionally for that. Personal revelation flows into you to guide you as you look for miracles and metaphors in ordinary things and express awe and appreciation for them.

All my love, and have a wonderful week, Mom

Drawing close

Kudos to Laura for suggesting to dad yesterday that he buy a Magna Doodle for mom. A what? Some things about mom's capacity show up here: The way she holds her pen in her hand is natural still. See the dots on the screen... I'd placed them there and suggested she draw a line from the one on top to the one below; she circled the top dot, making it fatter, then came straight south with the pen as you see her doing. Look how mom experiences delight! See the joy on her face!



Kent and I put it right in the cart off the toy shelf at the grocery store along with our bell pepper and bananas and bread, oh and Fritos to go under beefy bean Sloppy Joe's I made for dinner; inside of two hours from Laura suggesting it, mom was a-doodling. Eh!



It's fun to set my camera somewhere stationary and click, click, click. That gets a series of expressions like these. Love mom's looks.



Her drawing started out looking like the state of Massachusetts and oh we giggled about that. After she had worked a while on circles and tracing and she said she was done, she carried the Magna Doodle (don't laugh, it's super apparent and so convenient for her - by the orange handles!) to where Dad in the other room could oooh and aaah. Which he did. Not only, but took my camera card and brought all my pictures into a "Mom's Magna Doodle" directory he created on his computer and spooled four pics to his color printer.



(The new printer that arrived yesterday by truck, which he spent most of yesterday installing, and boy does it work. He showed me from start to finish.) These four he printed on 8 1/2" by 11" glossy paper which he dried by waving it in the breeze as it came hot off the press, then installed into his snap scanner to create a digital image.

Whew. This pic below, mom's final drawing, is one of those four printed and re-digitalized and sent by e-mail to my sibs with a short message. Then dad handed me the print and I hung it on the bulletin board in their living room. Mom likes it there; it's next to the purple construction paper where on Thursday with Stella she doodled a parrot.



What we each had fun doing with our gadgets for an hour yesterday is such an okay thing. It's important Laura gets kudos for suggesting this gadget, and seeing what mom can still do - her capacity, her expressions, her joy - will draw our whole family close.