TASTY

Some of my son Micah's TASTY homecooked beans made a great lunch today with some avocado and tortillas. When my kids were young, I cooked a big pot of beans nearly every week. I found this picture of Micah as a baby with beans all over his face. Now he can flavor and cook them to perfection!

 

SOUND

A few years ago I was afraid to use a cell phone, still hanging on to "old school" land lines. But a friend talked me into sharing a contract with her. She helped me pick out a flip phone, and it wasn't long till I was using my cell phone almost exclusively. But texting? No, I couldn't see the point in little conversations that it would take forever for me to type. You might as well just call, and say what you have to say. Even tho everyone else seemed to be so into their apps and texts and 'smart' phones, I was happy with my "old school'', stupid, flip phone! Recently my contract friend wanted to change phone companies, so I looked into a deal which included unlimited texting as well as the mintues. I got a new phone - a slider with a keyboard, and I was introduced to texting! Now I love the little beepbeepbeep SOUND that tells me I have a new message! And even if I can't get to the message for a while (I'm driving or working or otherwise busy) it's so much easier to retrieve a text than going thru the voice mail prompts. I wonder what my next move into technology will be!

IN THE DISTANCE

IN THE DISTANCE I can see the end of the first of three halls I got to vacuum in our Tuesday morning cleaning at the church. The door at the end leads to the Relief Society Room which I also vacuumed in preparation for our meeting that night.

IMPORTANT

My good friend Jenny gets to move out of her two bedroom, one bath apartment (same size as mine with just me) into a real house. She and her husband have lived there since they married ten years ago. They have accumulated 4 and a half children and are ready to burst. As much as I hate to lose her as a neighbor and in our ward, I felt it was IMPORTANT to help her a few times over the past two weeks to pack and clean and move.

FACELESS SELF PORTRAIT

A small collection of  choker necklaces has become a signature statement for me.

I wear one or another every day, for work or play.

LUCKY

This lucky Buddha was helping Dragon Diner customers have good luck by collecting their coins. Although I didn't leave a coin, I was lucky anyway when my soon to be son-in-law Brad shined up my car windows and gave me a gift card to get my headlights buffed shiny again!

CHAIR

This is the chair I sit on for hours once a month at the clerk's office at the church to do Visiting Teaching reports. Organizing Visiting Teaching is probably the biggest challenge of being a Relief Society President. Especially in a ward that is constantly changing. It's a good opportunity though to get familiar with the women's names because you go over the list so many times. (Nice pattern on the fabric too.)

KEY

My mother gave one of my kids this silver plated duck bank at birth. It was once shiny with blue jewels for eyes. It sits on my collectables stand, next to the silver cup that was given to me at my birth. The tarnished silver cup holds the KEY to the bank lock. The cup and bank with its KEY are the only things grandkids are allowed to play with on that shelf. Now that I see it in a picture, even if I left it tarnished, the duck would look much better with eyes...

FAVORITE

My new favorite music! Not only did I find this video of a song I've loved since I heard it once on the radio, I listened to several of Andrew Peterson's songs on youtube today. See if you like it as much as I do. Just go to this link, then click on any of his other ones, especially the ones performed at Community Coffeehouse. I started with "Queen of Iowa". The stories of how the songs came to be are great. What a gentle, peaceful, loving spirit Andrew has.

I MADE THIS!

 I made this! for a funeral luncheon and had to sample one to make sure they were edible ;-) Texas Sheet Cake has always been a favorite in our family. Even made with whole wheat flour and half the sugar this turned out moist and chocolaty.

L IS FOR...

 L is for LINES. Something about the atmosphere made the clouds have lines in them. Whether straight, fluffy, or slanted, all day long there were lines!

 

PLAYING

I enjoyed a day of Playing with my grandson Joe before he left for his mission. We did a session at the Salt Lake Temple where there are real people playing the parts in the instruction (rather than a film). The cafeteria was closed because it was Monday, but there was a special organists luncheon going on so the nice ladies invited dragged us in to have some fruit and chips and dips. They oohed and aahed about him being a missionary and took our picture to remind us of our little adventure. Then we played around having lunch and seeing other sights at the Joseph Smith Memorial building. Marlene happened by on her lunch hour and took our picture by the Joseph Smith statue in the lobby. To top it off, we went to the top floor for the view.

QUIET

I knew this word was coming up on the list, so on a day of fresh snow

I took this picture of the tree in my little courtyard.

Snow quiets the noises of life, from traffic to footsteps to voices -

one reason to appreciate it, besides its fresh beauty.

ON YOUR BEDSIDE TABLE

A couple of years ago, Marlene and I happened on a "Life is Good" store in St George, UT. It was a feel-good place where the logo was on everything from shirts and hats to stickers and beach umbrellas. I bought some stickers to give to my grandkids, and kept this one for myself. I stuck it on my lampbase on my bedside table. Although I'm beginning to worry about some of the questionable economic and political goings on, life IS good in the USA. I also keep this book there because I like the look of it, kind of old fashioned, and the hopeful title: The Beginning of Better Days. (And I love the wisdom and insight of the commentators, Sheri Dew and Virginia Pearce).

CLOUDS

Most of the winter we seemed to be in one big cloud of gloom and gray and smog. This day, after the morning fog lifted, there was plenty of blue sky to show off fluffy white clouds, mostly over the mountains.