Donna's Journey

On Monday night we did a family home evening on gratitude. I cut scraps of colorful paper into a dish next to a large jar. When we pause and think of things we are grateful for we are supposed to write it down and place it in the jar. The most ardent one has been Mary. What a spelling lesson!

Julia made a gorgeous deep dish apple pie and I will get the pumpkin pie in while we eat dinner. The apple pie has a beautiful crust of overlapping leaves that Julia and Mary worked together to create. The yams, beans, apple stuffing, and potato casserole go into the oven while the turkey rests and I make the gravy. The assemblage will only take about 15 minutes to get everything into the oven. The turkey only took 5 minutes to get into the oven. Oh, oops! I forgot to season it. I guess that will have to wait until the last bit. I selected three lettuces, rosy radishes, cucumbers, carrots, and vine ripe tomatoes for the salad. I also made a pink potato salad on request. That will last a few days. What? No jello? yes, there is life after jello.

My oldest son called to say they will not be here after all. The boys are little geysers and they do not want to get the rest of us ill. We will be grateful for those who can be here and pray for those who cannot.

There is so much to be thankful for. God sustains us from day to day. He gives us breath and opportunities.

Today, I am glad to gather together with loved ones and count our blessings. Grateful to have food to serve and to have busy hands. I am grateful for a good roof overhead that keeps us dry from the storms ahead. Thankful for walls to keep the cold out. Thankful for family and loved ones to serve and to embrace. So, grateful for health. Thankful for a creative mind and opportunity to use it. I am grateful for all my parents have taught me. Just sooooooooooooooooooo grateful!

“When you get worried and cannot sleep, count your blessings instead of sheep, and you’ll go to sleep counting your blessings!”

However, even better than just sitting there recounting blessings, as we contemplate our blessings, let us add to our prayers of thanksgiving, acts of thanksliving.

Most of the leaves have fallen from our grove of eleven trees, a sure sign that winter is on its way. I strolled down our walk and under the arch of our rose arbor, to the mail box ,to see if the mail had been delivered. As I traversed the distance from door to mailbox I spied, in full bloom on Julia’s rose bush, a single white rose blushed with pink (probably due to cross pollination from the nearby climbing roses). Then I trod under the love arch of the arbor and was greeted by two climbing roses in bloom on a single stem. Love arch? Yes, the place where many of the youth in our neighborhood have declared their love, proposed, or stolen a kiss. I do not know how long these blossoms will last, but I will leave them to gladden another soul, perhaps on a cold winter’s day.

A few springs ago, I lost my arbor to a late wet snow which had pruned a large branch from our cottonwood. The arch gave its life to protect our Toyota. It looked so barren there without the arbor and the roses that bloom from June through snows. We looked for an antique arch but could not find one tall enough. So, Roger again built me an airy redwood arbor and we have trained the Red Blaze climbing roses to climb the trellis of the arbor.

When I see these roses I think of my “roses in bloom. ”

Late autumn blooms are as rare as girls are in this family. My father’s father only had two sisters in a family of eleven children. My father only had one sister in a family of four children. My father’s mother came from a family of 11, four of which were girls. My mother’s father came from a family of eight, only two girls. My mother’s mother came from a family of nine, four were girls. My husband’s paternal grandfather had only one brother. My father-in-law was from a family of seven, three were girls, only two survived infancy. My mother had one sister. My mother-in-law had one sister. On mom’s side I have two girl cousins. On dad’s side I have one. I have one sister, my husband has one sister. Each of my married children have married into families that have but one girl. One bother-in-law has two daughters, one living. The other brother-in-law has four sons. My husband’s sister has one son, and an adopted daughter. My sister married a young man that was an only child of his parent’s union. My half brother has one daughter. My sister and I broke the record for girls, as I had three girls ( still a minority in my family), and she had four girls (a majority in her family). So, save for a few instances girls seem to come in ones or twos a family.

Julia with love’s blush, like her sweet white rose, her heart full. She has discovered that 26 years is not too long to wait, when the wait is past, and love found at last! We, as a family, all feel that Rory rocks! He is an awesome young man and he is so wonderful to her.

Jennifer in the blossom of marriage and not too distant motherhood, awaiting the birth of her first daughter, my first grand daughter. Alan is a wonderful young man and is so caring and loving of Jennifer.

Then there is Mary my little rosebud. I have watched over the past two years of The Princess Academy, as she has begun to flower, becoming less a tomboy and discovering her femininity.

I have about a pallet of 1 lb. Pistachio bags, a pallet of 34 oz. Werther’s Originals, and a pallet of 1 1lb. Stephen’s Raspberry Hot Cocoa that my husband purchased to use in his business and life has taken a different direction. I am paying to store these and would like to make them available to anyone who wants to purchase them.

Great for Christmas!. Natural shelled pistachio. The pistachios are in green burlap gift bags with red plaid ribbon ties. I am selling them at $2.50 a bag. This is way below wholesale. Orders of ten or more are $2 a bag. There are 24 bags in a case. You pick up or you cover shipping.

I am selling the Werther’s for $4 a bag, an $8+ value.

I am selling the Cocoa for $2.50 a can, or six for $12.

Just respond to the comment section and I will get the contact.

My son Jon called to tell me that the ultra sound says I have another grandson on the way. Jon simply said, “Mom? Blueberry!” We had spoken on Sunday and he said they would be having an ultrasound today and would find out whether it will be strawberry or blueberry. This will be their fourth son, my sixth grandson. Jennifer is expecting a girl. Girls are rare in our family.

I am thankful for the men in my life. It will not be long before they all tower over me. I look out the window and view the tall trees, standing as protective sentinels that encircle our home. They have laid down their summer wardrobe and the sunlight spills through the branches filling our home with light. My youngest son, James, is in his growth spurt and we almost see eye-to-eye. His older brothers, Jeremy, Adam, and Jon have passed me a long time ago. This brings a picture to my mind’s eye. I remember Sete Aula`i ’s baptism earlier this year. Like a sacred grove of trees, the men (many BYU football players) encircled the room, bringing a feeling of protection and calling down the powers of Heaven.

I am grateful for a a man who honors his priesthood and continues to work to bless our home and family.

I am grateful for four wonderful sons.

Jeremy has been very helpful and full of charm. James has been so cheerful and huggy. This inspires and brings out the best in Mary.

Adam and Valor came last night. Valor played with his aunts and uncles while Adam adjusted his father’s and sister’s computers and talked business with dad. Times are full of excitement as dad is working on a patent!

I am very sleep deprived, sludging through images with an eye to Sandcarving. Thank goodness I have a 17 year-old son that knows more than I do:) I am ever aware that I need to sharpen my saw and learn Adobe Creative Suite as well as a better understanding of WordPerfect’s type setting.

There is only so much time in a day. I have developed some skills, but not others. I can draw and I can create and I can write. I need to work on the electronic skills that will move those things to the public arena. But first, I am a mom. That is my first priority. So the other areas move at a much slower pace.

Yes, even with the thesis off my plate and graduation behind me, I am at the point of overwhelm. Everything is converging at once:

* My mother-in-law moved into a retirement home and we have sorted through her heirlooms and books. I have piles of books and boxes demanding my attention. I am feeling claustrophobic. I need to get bookshelves in and everything up on them. I already lived in a library. Yeah, and at this point I have precious little time to read.

* Of course, though my thesis is done, reformatting awaits. There are those who want a copy. This is tedious work. I want to rewrite it into a lovely book, but that will wait.

* Epiphanal Living has not been published in a year. That awaits my attention and it will wait! I need to learn my Publisher Pro so that I can create a nicer layout.

* I am out of family history cards and need to do a batch of temple ready. This is my Sunday task.

* I have a new sister to visit, just back from her couple mission, and my other sisters, and my companion has been very busy and sick. The end of the month is coming rapidly.

* I am in charge of the ward Relief Society dinner next Tuesday and need to get everyone contacted and it all orchestrated.

* I have an art show to set up for next Tuesday (the day I am doing the Relief Society dinner) and I am way behind schedule in getting the art work done, they need pictures ASAP of something that has not been brought out of my mind into 3 D. They wanted a picture of me too. The reception for the show is the night of our ward dinner and Christmas play where my Mary is playing Mary. Yeah, life happens. I get to choose.

I can hear someone say, “oh, grow up!” Thanks, I needed that. In this case, the only way out is through.

Crazy Days are field trips in honor of my mother.
“Where are you going mom?”
“Crazy wanna come along.?”

I never have quite discovered if mom was going crazy and needed a sanity break or if she was going to a crazy place. She has been gone now for over 14 years, so I will have to wait a while to find out.

Today, our crazy day first took us to Costco to pick up my new glasses, then off to the north country as we drove to Salt Lake City to explore. We drove to the Conference Center in Salt Lake City and went for a tour one of the largest religious auditoriums in America. The outer lobbies had galleries of stained glass, oil paintings, sculpture, fountains, and ceramics, all beautiful and inspiring. Our tour guide took us to the roof where the view was magnificent. I would love to see it at night. The entire roof is landscaped in fountains, reflection pounds, trees, shrubs, and wildflowers. It is beautiful. The view was breath taking. I wanted to get my sketch pad and draw the temple through the pines, or capture it from the meadow on the roof.

Then we went to the church office building and got to go to the 26th floor. That too was a view, and from there we could see temple square and the top of the Conference Center.

Then we headed for Jones Bee Keeper Supply to get beeswax sheets to roll into spiral candle tapers.

We stopped in Taylorsville on the way home so we could visit my daughter-in-law and grandsons, as my so was still at work.

We all want to go back to the top of the Conference Center in spring when the wild flowers are in bloom.

I received a phone call today that my new reading glasses arrived. They fit! I can see. Yeah! No more magnifying glass!

This morning the children wanted to work in beeswax again. They used up the hooks I had made and asked if I would make more. I told them that they needed to learn the whole process. I began showing them how to cut the lengths and then to bend them around the pen barrel, when my 17 year old son said, “MOM, this is one time the conveyorbelt is right for the job.” Then he went on to tell me to cut the lengths, he would bend them then his brother would bend the tips and set them in the molds. Then sister wondered what she could do to be part of the conveyorbelt.

I decided to give in to the flow. My children enjoy learning and creating. So we decided to do some field trips and projects. Today we decided to make beeswax ornaments and our trips were to gather materials to create. I found the beeswax and molds the other day, in the storage unit, just in the container I thought they would be in. I have 24 chocolate molds (the molds have not been made in about 20 years).These molds are intricate snowflakes, stars, angels, and Santas. We needed 24 gauge brass wire and an old pan to melt the beeswax in. We stopped at Robert’s Craft and they did not have the wire we needed. I found the wire at Michael’s at the end of an isle for jewelry beading. I went to DI and found a pan for 2.00.

We came home and I clipped the wire into 1 inch lengths, then bended the wire around the barrel of of a narrow pen to make a tight “U” shape, then with needle nose pilers bent the tips up. These would be placed at the top of the molds and slightly bent at the bottom so when the hot wax is poured in, the hook ends will be in the wax and the big bend will stick out above the ornament so I can pull ribbon through it. We gently heated the wax, poured them into the molds, waited until the wax cooled and shrank away from the sides. Then I took a knife and smoothed the edges. Some are yellow gold, and others are dark, almost like gingerbread and the scent of honey permeates the home.

The children want to make large gingerbread temples with stained glass windows made from the hard candy recipe we make suckers with, and a gingerbread replica of our home. We can do colorless or amber windows, or we can make different colors of suckers poured on a cookie sheet, when the molds are taken off there are usually little bits of colored hard candy scraps. These tiny pieces can be dropped on to the clear and amber windows to create a stained glass effect. When built we can then put lights inside the temple and they will glow. My youngest said that we can get those hard coated chocolate covered sunflower seeds for little Christmas lights on our gingerbread houses. They come in Christmas colors and they are tiny and slightly oblong like lights. We can build our porch posts out of peppermint sticks. I can make the spindles on the deck out of of the ultra thin tiny peppermint sticks that are used for stirring cocoa. I have had difficulty loading pictures on this site, so I might just have to crate another space to post pictures of our creations to.

More tomorrow!