Never stopping

Kent called out I'm stopping from behind me on the path this morning. I stopped and drank water and snapped pictures. Fun to get him! He's staring and I turn and look at



birds in the middle distance beyond us. Surely at this distance not large... but we remember pelicans are in these waters in the summer and here were substantial birds. Plenty of them.

I know you can't detect this in this picture but as one they rode the air over the marsh. Circling, climbing and descending, white wings (black, beneath) tipping in unison to catch the currents. And catch the light... it's what caught our eye.



They soared over us then in formation, you could hear the air through their wings as they passed, climbing toward the mountains way to the east. Not in a hurry, though they could move! Up they circled, flapping, working, then each caught a draft and moved on currents high as a kite. As gracefully! Higher, into the sunlight and going clean out of sight... upward against the mountain and I lost them for a while.

Groups of twos and threes and more flocked to the mountains from the marshes. Is this morning calisthenics? Or will they soon be careening over these heights, caravanning to, say, Denver? Simply to Morgan over the nearest peak would exhaust them.

And sure enough they circle our way again, rounding over the marsh. Circling, tipping, always in motion. Kent stands still. I aim my camera at the sun as they come on, can hardly find them – though, look!

Wonderful, this!



They're astonishing!

Learning what God wants for you

"A key to improved prayer is to learn to ask the right questions. Consider changing from asking for the things you want to honestly seeking what He wants for you. Then as you learn His will, pray that you will be led to have the strength to fulfill it." (Richard G. Scott, "Using the Supernal Gift of Prayer," Ensign, May 2007, 8)

In good company

Kent and I got out with friends from the neighborhood on the bike path, eight of us, four couples, headed toward Salt Lake.



I didn't do pics much on this ride, only concentrated on keeping my balance. I do pray I never ever face-plant! (Sherri, you're shaking your head like "that 'aint gonna happen!" You know.) Here we stopped, four of us, and I looked back at Kent and Mac, then ahead to where Rex helped his wife Ruth testing her electronic assist system that's gone out. Her bike's beeping at her, poor girl. This couple's bikes are twenty years old and (like their owners, he he) are still just a'goin'!

Now maybe Ruth's isn't so much.



We were on our way back by now and she did make it in, a few of us beside and behind her in case of, well, anything. No worse for the wear; hope her bike is, too... that, no worse for the wear.

The route on this path south from where we started in NSL is pretty darn pretty. At first not so much woven between Redwood Road and I-215 and alongside Legacy Highway, but eventually you get away from the noise and into shade trees; there's the river to follow and a golf course alongside much of the way. You ride behind  quiet neighborhoods, through a couple of parks and across three or four wooden rackety-clackety bridges. (How fun!)



We ended near a duck pond pond with ducks in it near North Temple in SL. Sure makes me smile.



Close to fourteen miles and in good company.

Fair game

We had our good friends Sherri and Randie over Friday night. I ordered Little Z and Kahuna large pizzas from Zeponies and Sherri brought a homemade lime frozen yogurt pie. We poured Mug root beer all around and partied.

After, we played a game they brought, brand-new to us. We almost always play Five Crowns and we did tonight but not til we'd done a couple of rounds of Qwirkle!

Pic morph PSE.


Pretty fun! Have you ever played this? Our friends got it for Christmas and its been a hit in their family... you draw seven tiles from a sack to form your rack and keep drawing from it during the game like in Scrabble. Like in Rummikub you lay down tiles to create strands of two, three, four or five, and finally... Qwirkle!... six tiles, of alike things: With Rummikub it's numbers – this is shapes or colors.

Sounds remedial I guess. You kind'a have to be smarter than the average bear (know your shapes and colors) and it can get intense.

Randie whipped us! I sure got good at laying tiles three and four in a row for pretty great points to which he'd add one tile or two to match (darn it) to make a five- or six-tile strand and get, well, mega-points. It seems it's a waiting game. Though you've gotta keep laying down and wanna keep getting points... but at the risk of the one holding out eventually making all your points his!

Ack! I'm fair game!

Spiritual saints

"The final desire of the Prophet Joseph Smith was to build a community of spiritual Saints. This begins in the home. The most important instruction our children will ever receive will be that which parents give to them in their own home, if parents diligently teach their children the way our Father in Heaven would like them to follow. [The family] can counsel together, read the scriptures, pray together, and play together. Our greatest goal is to become an eternal family. We build a community of Saints one family at a time."

(L. Tom Perry, "Building a Community of Saints," Ensign, May 2001, 37)

From scratch

I've been meaning to puree some age-d-y apples that've been laying around since like February or something so I got going Tuesday morning as soon as Kent was up and getting dressed to work in the temple and I could start making noise in the kitchen and got these ready for the Blendtec.



Too, I realized the package of fish I'd bought fresh that's been laying in my fridge several days was approaching its sell-by date. There's a thought while you're slicing apples... fish.

As it must've been for the queen in the Book of Mormon regarding her husband King Lamoni who'd himself lain about several days in a coma and whom she protected from being buried alive, who averred "...others say... that he stinketh; but as for myself, to me he doth not stink." (Alma 19:5)...

so, likewise, to me these Do Not Stink.

Yet. It is time though, today! I gathered Emeril from the spice cupboard (his Blast is now home-made by me from a copycat recipe and stored behind this smiling face) and



the fish from its cellophane package, and married the two. Well, six.



The apples mostly cut, though some not... the fish dry-rubbed and patted... I turned (why?) to the cherries on the counter. These do get moldy if you don't refrigerate them after a while. Erm, the day had come. The very day had come to get them in the fridge. Even the hour.



But I must clean out the fridge to find room, and even then, well...


...who knows.

The George Foreman was heating. The apples, beading with their moisture, lay beside it on the cutting board, calling, methought, the Blendtec pulled away from the wall and ready, but...  the George Foreman was heating, heated, and wouldn't wait.

I sprayed the fish. You always spray the food when you George Foreman, not the grill. Or, and the grill, but the food too. Don't forget.

Bleh, not from this can I didn't spray the fish... emp-tee....



...from this one. ↓ In the pantry. In the dark... in the park. With a fox. In a box. With a mouse. In a house. Here or there. Anywhere.



Sprayed the fish right on the paper towel and troweled it onto the cooker.



See?



Sprayed the fish on the top too and closed the lid and grilled four minutes more or less. More than less for these, these're meaty. I get them from Costco.



Mmm, I could kiss you! (So said Lamoni's queen too when he rose from his coma!)

Then off the grill to cool... and now the apples. (The first shall be last.) (Are the cherries in the fridge? Oh yeah.)



And into a gallon-size Ziploc bag and into the freezer. For smoothies. For apple butter, apple bars, applesauce. All in good time.

What, honey? Breakfast?!! You're out'ta here early? Oh. Not cereal today? Sure.



Fish is ready for the fridge. (Kent is ready for the temple.) This'll be lunch for me today and a few days.



I do love it cold.



With Gwyneth Paltrow's peach adobo chiopotle barbecue sauce. Which...



... I made from scratch after breakfast.

For all I know

Okay, technically the glass is completely full, I get it. As for just the water though, c'mon, half full or half empty? Which is it?

We can figure it out! If. (Big if, he he.) If we add something, and I'm not talking air.

Context.

Give the glass its story. For that matter give me mine. And yours... you can't just look at a person and know.

If you're filling the glass, it's half full. Duh. If you're emptying it... empty. Out of context, who can know? Technically?

Settling the account

"How can we pay our debt of gratitude for the heritage of faith demonstrated by pioneers in many lands across the earth who struggled and sacrificed so that the gospel might take root? How is thankfulness expressed for the intrepid handcart pioneers who, by their own brute strength, pulled their meager belongings in handcarts across the scorching plains and through the snows of the high mountain passes to escape persecution and find peaceful worship in these valleys? How can the debt of gratitude possibly be paid by the descendants of the Martin and the Willie and the other handcart companies for the faith of their forebears? . . .The descendants of these pioneers can partially settle the account by being true to the cause for which their ancestors suffered so much to be part of." (President James E. Faust, "Gratitude is a Saving Principle", Liahona, Dec. 1996)

I am

I am enough. I am full of sparkle and compassion. I genuinely want to make the world a better place. I love hard. I practice kindness. I'm not afraid of the truth. I am loyal, adventurous, supportive, and surprising. I am a woman. I am enough. I make mistakes, but I own them and learn from them. Sometimes I make a lot of mistakes. Molly Mahar

Biking

Kent and I got out on the bikes yesterday. First Kent taught me everything about connecting the bike rack to the hitch and locking it in place, then mounting my bike on it. He put his bike up beside mine and together we strapped them both in and locked them down. Don't want anyone taking either the bikes or the rack, right?

This knowledge is important for me. When I want to bike by myself I've got to be able to get the bike from my house to a flat place. It's like getting ready to ride a horse almost, all the parts of getting on the adventure even on the horse have to be precise. Saddle cinched, and all that.

Good bike rack Kent researched about and has bought. Easy-peasy to get to the trail head with our two bikes, no wiggle room for these even crossing railroad tracks and bumpety Center street. Laura taught me this too – she said she and Sharman went through three bike racks before they bought one that was dependable.

Hot this morning, yikes!!! Luckily we ate with mom and dad half an hour earlier than usual and could get out by 9:00 a.m. Still, it's the desert.



You can't really distinguish the thousands of birds here – Kent thinks they're avocets – on this sodded ground, but they do cover it as far as I can see. They're brunching!



Working on my suntan. Not my neck. Sure am squinty.



The pond just off the bike path. Oh my gosh it's gorgeous today! Kent's never been here so we biked all the way around it.

Then we biked back. Windy, gah, and we rode back in a gale, against it, rather. Too, too pooped when we got to the cars. Great exercise. Almost twelve miles.

My Sarah

I got to tend Sarah last week while her mother took the big kids to Lagoon. About noon Erin dropped Sarah off and she got right in the toy box (the footstool behind her head in this pic) and pulled out red, yellow, blue, and green trucks. All afternoon she played with these.

I got down on the floor at one point and took pics...



and a video of her and her trucks.

Next Sarah pulled Legos from a bin. Wow, we built towers and stuff and then... she found... The Guy.

A guy, Sarah! I showed her, pulling him from the bin. He bends in the middle. He sticks to the blocks. Cool. I stood him and sat him on a few blocks and Sarah yanked him off. We had the beginnings of a garage so I suggested he go nigh'-night. She laid him in the corner. (Now she's happy.)

A ba-ket, she said, rummaging through the bin for a blanket. She came up with the yellow square.

A gigis, she said next (a binky) (she's sort'a attached to hers) pushing through the blocks for something. I held up this green kind'a funnel-shaped thing and she snatched it and put it right on his chest.

Shhhh, she said to me, A- nigh'night guy. And we tip-toed a way.



All day long til the night when her mom and the kids came to get her Sarah played between trucks on the wooden floor and blocks from the toy box. When she'd get done with one we'd sing the putting everything in the toy box and she'd get out the other toys. Shhh, she cautioned as we built the exact same bed for The Guy and arranged him and his blanket and binky, pretty much always struggling with the binky. A- guy 'seep, she'd say as she worked. And played.

Later in the day though she snuggled with me to read. Gyo Fujikawa's book "Babies" she really got into. She found a baby in there who'd lost his sock. She kept going back to him. An illustration of a little girl spilling her cup of milk caught her eye when we read through it together and, later, when she was plopped in my big recliner (while I was making dinner) looking at the pictures, I heard her say messy! messy!

She called.

Nana! A- messy! and pointed to the page and the baby pouring milk onto the floor. Sarah looked indignant. Then she backtracked through the pages to the boy that'd lost his sock – a- baby sock? – and held up one little hand to me like oh no!

After that she handed me the book and opened the toy box and got out the trucks.

Full

Over a week ago I climbed high above my own neighborhood and the neighbors' neighborhood! I can't resist this, climbing... probably not so much for the exertion I crave, the good exercise, but the clearing of the grooves in my brain that happens high over the grooves of my real life.

This day I had the bonus of a full moon!

In a word

Most commonly used words

Here's an analysis of volumes of text used by the Oxford English Dictionary, over a billion words. It's only one study though, it isn't definitive, b-u-u-u-t...

it's kind of interesting!

Rank Word 1 the 2 be 3 to 4 of 5 and 6 a 7 in 8 that 9 have 10 I 11 it 12 for 13 not 14 on 15 with 16 he 17 as 18 you 19 do 20 at

Rank Word 21 this 22 but 23 his 24 by 25 from 26 they 27 we 28 say 29 her 30 she 31 or 32 an 33 will 34 my 35 one 36 all 37 would 38 there 39 their 40 what

Rank Word 41 so 42 up 43 out 44 if 45 about 46 who 47 get 48 which 49 go 50 me 51 when 52 make 53 can 54 like 55 time 56 no 57 just 58 him 59 know 60 take

Rank Word 61 people 62 into 63 year 64 your 65 good 66 some 67 could 68 them 69 see 70 other 71 than 72 then 73 now 74 look 75 only 76 come 77 its 78 over 79 think 80 also

Rank Word 81 back 82 after 83 use 84 two 85 how 86 our 87 work 88 first 89 well 90 way 91 even 92 new 93 want 94 because 95 any 96 these 97 give 98 day 99 most 100 us

Where is "is" here? And "was?" These didn't make the top hundred?

"So"(41).... we're using
"just"(57)
"no"(56)
"way"(90)
"this"(21)
"will"(33)
"work!"(87)...
 more,
"even"(91),
than is?

I sure don't "get"(47) it.

Dearness

These Are The Times That Try Men’s Souls

  
In December 1776, Thomas Paine, the author of the pamphlet Common Sense, published The Crisis, No. 1, the first of a series of pamphlets he wrote during the next seven years, wherein these statements below originated. There wasn't a drop of cynicism in Paine. He was earnest in the pursuit of liberty, confident that free people would fulfill their destiny.

"The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death."  -- Thomas Paine.

Sore throat... and gunk that goes with it

Emma, the main character and sleuth in a mystery I'm reading, rises and notices the gorgeous day. "The clouds had lifted; the air was crisp."

"I chided myself for not feeling invigorated."

Exactly right ↑ for how I'm feeling yesterday and today. Not only not very good. Not at all well. Not feeling invigorated.

End of the Day philosophy

"That which you do not change remains the same." Can you guess where I got this? Dad. He latched onto it some way, maybe extrapolating the opposite from "That which you persist in doing becomes easier...” Emerson  (Or not.)

And it makes sense! I read "zenhabits" (linky) by Leo Babauta periodically and this post sure has common sense advice for how not to remain the same.
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I've been making my small decisions throughout the day, recently, with a simple question: How will I feel about this when today is over?

If I have a choice right now between reading social media and news articles, or writing, I know what the answer will be: at the end of the day, I’d be much happier if I’d chosen writing.

If I am faced with chips and pizza, I might be mightily tempted to eat them right now, but I know that later in the day I’ll be sorry I did. I inevitably feel bad after I eat greasy foods, though I always forget that before I eat the food.

At the end of the day, I won’t regret having spent a little time with my wife or kids, but I will regret watching videos online or wasting my time by playing games.

I won’t regret having done my workout, but I will regret sitting all day.

I've learned these answers through repeated observation, but you can learn your own answers by asking the question before you do anything, making a hypothesis (“I won’t regret this later”) and then seeing if you’re right by reviewing the results at the end of each day.

Have a daily review before you go to bed, even if it’s just a mental review. Were you right? Do you regret any of your choices? If so, don’t feel bad about being wrong — be happy that you've learned this.

Then make a better choice the next time.

Persons and paths

“It's one thing to feel that you are on the right path, but it's another to think yours is the only path.” ― Paulo Coelho, By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept

“No two persons can learn something and experience it the same way.” ― Shannon L. Alder

“Will you share that path with me always?”
“Nothing would please me more.” ― Sarah Holman, A Different Kind of Courage

It's this brain

Are you ever kind of Jekyll and Hyde about your eating during the day? Boy I am. I'm compunctious (remorseful) when after a great start to the day by afternoon I'm giving in to cravings I shouldn't... and that tastes like "more" and I have a little something else I shouldn't after dinner and go to bed a failure.

A failure on my diet. A not-keeper-of-my-word to myself.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sticking within ten pounds of my lowest weight after strictly counting calories last year. But even then I was double-minded... it's all about cravings, grrr. Then, I didn't give myself permission to snack hardly to be tempted I had so much weight to lose. I went along like that in the afternoons and evenings, clenched my teeth and pursed my lips and wouldn't let the crazy-woman inside take over. Took myself to bed a little hungry. But skinnier than the week before. Even then I was Jekyll and Hyde; really wanted, WANTED, what I wanted against my best judgement.

Are you ever that?

The other day an hour into a long hike I felt I could conquer the world. (Dr. Jekyll.) Thus spake my endorphin receptors as these were being fed happy hormones, pain-killing endorphins that help me get over the mountains and down again and the long way home jogging and walking. These kill my appetite too for hours... so my tummy felt concave-ish and, walking hard, I contemplated I might never overeat again! Cravings? What cravings?

My same endorphin receptors clamored in the afternoon. (Mr. Hyde) "Feed me, feed me" (Remember? link), they clamor... and I do. Not by doing short, intense exercises, running stairs or doing jumping jacks or knee bends suddenly or being on the recumbent bike half an hour with a TV show. No. Tostitoes I grab, and curl into my recliner with a book! Or my favorite, Tootsie Pops; or Cheetos; or Ritz crackers. My brain craves salt and crunch midday – does yours? – not more exertion, that was this morning for heaven's sake, are you cuh-razy? Or a McDonald's ice cream cone if I'm out, or a Cutler's sugar cookie. "Feed me, feed me" shouts this brain (Mr. Hyde) and I mean it wants sugar or salt or fat or carbs right now!

And do I deny it? Nope.

So back to this hike I was on. I'm thinking while I'm feeling so strong, how do I do this? How do I get through every day and not gain my weight back? Can I not master myself? (There's a downer. That just makes me want to eat a serving-bowl size of popcorn right this minute. Depression loves to be fed.) This walk was making feel SO, so, good – and so not hungry – that I analyzed: Exertion. Must. Be. The. Answer.

Not just exercise. Hear me: EXERTION.

Exertion makes my brain happy (the happy hormones) for a good long time and, besides, knocks off the dumb cravings. It's not my tummy I'm trying to please, it's this brain. Noshing to feed my cravings, on the contrary, makes my brain happy (same hormones) for about a minute and a half, then a plethora of other hormones gets excreted in response to the (excessive) sugar, salt, fat and carbs and rushes all through me (not to mention the calories), fogging and clogging me.

In the actual Jekyll-Hyde saga, Hyde (the villainous, even murderous, aspect of the split personality, the hidden man [get the name] behind whom Jekyll hides) eventually takes over the whole man. Kills him dead. Oooooh I'm resisting that!! It shall not be – my afternoon personality shall NOT sabotage my morning person more! Exertion has to be the good guy here: moving muscles, pulling uphill or going fast or going long... breathing deep. Doesn't matter to me if it's sustained exercise or short bursts of activity: it kills appetite. It kills cravings.

Dr. Jekyll kills Mr. Hyde.
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To my sister who eats ketogenic which has offered her brain amazing stability and caused her to lose 30 (plus) pounds; and sister-in-law who's met her needs eating gluten-free and maintains steady energy and her slim figure... you two'll be laughing! Saying, "Sweet girl, stop the madness!" ("Stop the sugar for sure," you'll say. Yup.) "Eat what's good for you, retrain the brain..." and you'll be so right to consider for me the consistent ways the body reacts to great food!

 You'll say that to yourselves. And to me you'll say, "We love you! Keep working on it!"

I know you will.

Every detail

Sue Shanahan, illustrator
The things that make God dear to us are not so much His great big blessings as the tiny things, because they show His amazing intimacy with us; He knows every detail of our individual lives. ~ Oswald Chambers

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This calls to mind for me President Uchtdorf's talk about gratitude (link):

“It is difficult to develop a spirit of gratitude,” he counsels, “if our thankfulness is only proportional to the number of blessings we can count. I don’t believe the Lord expects us to be less thankful in times of trial [or for tiny, perhaps ordinary things] than in times of abundance and ease [great big blessings].”

“It is easy to be grateful for things when life seems to be going our way. I’m suggesting that instead of being thankful for things, we focus on being thankful in our circumstances—whatever they may be.”

And God be thanked He knows every circumstance. Every detail.

This moment

Sometimes we are so stuck in a past that we cannot change, or so afraid of a future over which we have limited control, that we don’t really appreciate the present — the very moment before us. We worry about what happened or what will happen, and we forget about what is happening. We squander the one thing we have for certain — now. Sandy Eisenberg Sasso

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Can I just say what I smelled on my walk this morning? Strong whiffs each of... fresh-turned dirt, methane gas, chlorine, jasmine (or honeysuckle?), dryer sheet, horse, diesel, skunk, mowed grass and roses. Not a big deal, just, it was (awesome) in the moment.

Everything good

President Uchtdorf has said (link): “My heart grows tender and warm as I think of the gifts our loving, gracious, and generous Father in Heaven has given us:

• the unspeakable gift of the Holy Ghost
• the miracle of forgiveness
• personal revelation and guidance
• the Savior’s peace
• the certainty and comfort that death is conquered —

and many, many more.

Above all, God has given us the gift of His Only Begotten Son, who sacrificed His life 'that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.'

Do we feel our Father’s love expressed in these gifts?

Do we receive them in a way that deepens our relationship with this wonderful, divine Giver?”
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God grant me the capacity each day to open my mouth to my friends and loved ones — my children especially — to acknowledge these gifts, and our Father indeed as the Giver of everything good.