Time Flies

 This week seemed to go by in a flash!  It was delightful to have Miranda and Dan and family and Jonathan and Kristy here for the week!  We tried to do something special with the children each day.  Sunday we made gingerbread houses.

Monday we had a girls’ out to lunch and a guys’ out to lunch.  Tom, Jonathan, Dan, David and Zachary went to eat Mexican food.  Miranda, Kristy, the girls and I (and baby Ethan) went to a Chinese buffet.  They had a great time and we all had tasty food.

Monday night Jonathan and Kristy did a Bethlehem night dinner. 

  We laid out blankets and sat on the floor in costumes and ate traditional foods Joseph and Mary might have eaten-- Hummus, pita bread, olives, grapes, cheese, grape juice, and such.  It was delicious. We all ate with our hands and without plates.  We did not, however, recline as they likely did.  After, we acted out the Christmas story and Dan sang a song.  It was cute.  Camden sang along with him, one phrase behind.

Tuesday was Christmas. Everything went surprisingly smoothly.  Lots of presents, lots of happy kids.  Good turkey and such for dinner and a relaxing evening.  I think everyone was pleased with what they got.  I gave away some of the pottery I’d made and people seemed pleased with it.

Wednesday afternoon Rebecca and crew arrived plus they stopped to pick up Aaron on the way up.  We had snow Christmas night and it was lovely.  We only got about an inch of snow, Little Rock got a foot… and Rebecca was traveling through that.  So we wanted her to come in daylight.  She left late Christmas afternoon, drove to Andy’s and came up the rest of the way on the 26^th.  It was fun to increase the bedlam.

I think Wednesday was the bonfire day.  The kids went out back with Tom and collected deadfall.  They made two nice fires and then roasted marshmallows and made s’mores. Dan helped by chain sawing broken limbs that were still attached to some of the trees.

Thursday we all went thrift store shopping.  It’s always an experience to see a variety of styles and wonder, “Who would actually WEAR that?”  The kids scored some good finds.  Tom spent one afternoon playing hide and seek with the grandkids.  They love him!  I think the kids went to the park this day.

Friday Tom had the kids go do a scavenger hunt. They found these space guns Tom had bought at a cheap store.  They flashed lights and made “Whooop! Whoop!” and “AweeeAwee!” sounds.  All five of them.   All at once.   All the time.  Who thought this was a good idea?  The funny thing was that the older kids soon tired of them.  But Camden and Zachary ran around the house two guns a piece, having a fantastic time. Rebecca took a herd of kids to the library.

That evening Tom and I went to a viewing for Sister Vanderstek who passed away last Friday.  All six of her children were there along with their children and grandchildren. They shared good memories of their mother and grandmother.

We played a few games of Five Crowns, but all too soon it was time for Jonathan and Kristy and family to leave.  They packed Saturday morning while Tom presided at the funeral.  He got home just as they were loading the kids into the car.  I think in the afternoon, we kind of recuperated.

Today I taught the Gospel Principles class.  Tom taught the fifth Sunday combined priesthood, relief society class.  He had lots to do after church and didn’t get home until almost 5pm.  Rebecca made a great Turkey pot pie and we then had French silk pie.   Yum.

Levi, the dog was very patient with the children--- as you can see. He and Eli, the little fuzzy dog had a great time playing together, too.

Notice Zachary is sitting on top of Levi here.

And someone's giving the other some lovings.

'Twas the Week Before Christmas...

This has been a week of family and fun as we prepare for Christmas. Monday Tom and I went to look at trees on some of our rental property.  We met with the tree trimmer man and discussed which limbs looked most likely to crash onto roofs at inappropriate times and agreed to have them removed.  Tom went on to work at some of the rentals and do the last of the “fix-it” items on his list.

I had a major project due on Monday and got that finished up.  Alas, I didn’t do much more work (for pay) the rest of the week.  We worked on candies and getting them made and shipped.  This year I made turtles, caramels, peanut clusters and Susie’s Almond Roca.  Oh yum!  I love that almond roca. We had trays of candy over every level surface. Got them finished on Tuesday and mailed. 

Tuesday afternoon I went and glazed the clay items I’d made last week.  Marian doesn’t like the glazing process that much, but I love it.  It’s always a surprise as to how it will turn out.  Especially for me.  I’ve decided I love the red-gold glaze.  I tried Marian’s coffee and cinnamon ripple and it looks better on her things than on mine.  But I’m learning.  I’m remembering glaze should be put on vertical, then the second coat horizontal to prevent missing places.  It was a fun time chatting and working and coming up with ideas.  We have thoughts for a nativity.

Wednesday I was flat out sick.  I was a little worried since I’d been visiting people in the hospital regularly with MRSA and pneumonia.  Now I had a cough, congestion in the lungs and fever.  So I drank fluids like crazy, tanked up on essential oils, and slept almost all day.  The only thing I did was to write notes on the Christmas letters… and I diffused Thieves oil to kill germs while I did.  Nevertheless, I don’t recommend chewing on the letter.

Thursday I was a lot better.  I moved around and smiled while Tom did most of the cleaning of the house.  We made beds for all our expected arrivals. We went and did some last minute shopping. A shoe store in town was going out of business, so I stopped there and found some church shoes.  The deeds Sue and Steve signed came in so I could move forward on getting my Roth IRA changed from one trust company to another.

Friday we left bright and early for Silver Dollar City with our friends Pam and Frank Pfeifer.  Wednesday and Thursday had been bitter cold with gale-like winds.  Fortunately, Friday was so much better—sunny and into the 50’s.

We stopped in Yellville to collect the now-finished pottery pieces.  Marian was so excited about them.  They did look very nice.  I don’t know that I am especially talented, but she makes me think I might be.  I was happy they looked good. 

We arrived at SDC…. And the parking lots were EMPTY!  How can that be?  We checked the schedule. Silver Dollar City was open on the 21th. 10am.  Hmm.  Not.  I called.  “Oh, yes.  We open at 1.  Ticketing and central area at 12.”  GREAT!  That’s not what your early calendar said. I guess we needed to check the online updated calendar… not the one that came at the beginning of the year.  So what do you do in Branson?  We shopped. Pfeifers introduced us to the Old Navy store. Good deals there.

We went back to SDC and enjoyed two great shows.  “It’s a wonderful Life” reminded me why I didn’t like it the first time I saw it.  I hated that George never got to fulfill his dream to travel.  Pam reminded me that some of the dreams of our youth are impractical or not what the Lord wants for us.  It was touching to think of how many lives we may have touched and blessed by our actions. 

Then we watched Dickens’ Christmas Carol. Both had really first class sets and settings. I was touched as Ebenezer viewed the scenes from Christmas past and said, “Those were such happy memories.”  I realized our lives are full of memories—the good, the bad, the ugly.  We get to select the ones we want to cherish and remember.  What might have happened if Ebenezer would have kept the good memories in the forefront of his life? Won’t we be happier if we choose to remember the good and let go of the bad memories.

By the time the show got out, it was dinner time.  Then we left the dinner just in time to see the lights on the tree do their dancing and watch the parade of lights.  Of course all the buildings have thousands of lights on each of them. It was fun to share in the Pfeifer’s enjoyment of the beauty.

When we got home Miranda, Camden and Ethan had already arrived. Dan had a meeting in Missouri and came in later. Jonathan and Kristy were a little concerned.  The storm that blew into Iowa on Wednesday had taken out their power.  So they had to haul water for the animals and chop holes in the water tanks (because the water heaters didn’t work.) Fortunately their power came back on Friday and they were able to head out.  They arrived about 2:30 am Saturday morning.

We’ve had a wonderful raucous time. For the most part, everyone is getting along well. 

Sunday we went to Church and Sacrament was a rendition of the Community Christmas program.  It brought tears to some.  Some of the songs are really touching.  And remembering the Christmas season and the birth of the Savior is always meaningful.

This has been a busy week, but productive.

Sunday and Monday we got the house as decorated as it’s going to get.  It looks lovely and festive.  Tom put on Christmas music every chance he gets.  We’d been listening to the Christmas music on the Mormon channel radio over the computer.  But even with their wide selection… after 2-3 weeks, we were feeling the repetition. So Tom pulled out our CD’s and used the sound system through the house to play more wonderful music.

This week our last chicken flew the coop.  I saw her pecking around the barn for a day or two.  Then, nothing.  I guess we will start again with chicks in the spring.  Perhaps we will build a larger coop and keep them completely contained.  On the plus side, I don’t have to tend them twice a day.  On the minus side- no eggs, and I don’t go outside as much.

I had this really daunting assignment. It wasn’t long, I just didn’t have a lot to go on and there was a ton of research involved.  So it did it and I wrote it.  It took me hours… and I didn’t think I could charge fully for my time.  Then the client came back saying…oops.  You didn’t get the email I worked all morning on telling you what direction I wanted you to go. Can you please rewrite it?  Yes.  I can.

Then, I’d sent off a landing page and information capture page for an accountant who works mostly for doctors, dentists, and chiropractors.  I had not been convinced a copywriter would make all that much difference.  I get a message back from him that he had another job, can we talk.  He had a brochure going out for a seminar he was giving to Chiropractors.  He said, I thought it was ready to go, but after I saw what you did with the home page, I realized it was not. Can you do this for me?  Yes. In a week? No, faster. Um, sure. 

Now I have this short, difficult article to rewrite, and a rush job for a seminar brochure I need to make much better than what it was.  I’ve found there really is no shortcut for the research I need to do.  When I follow the process, I can create good copy.  Without it, I stress.

I had planned on having a clay day on Tuesday (which would have been good, as I didn’t know about all these writing assignments then,) but it was too cold.  So we pushed it back to Friday.   I really wanted to do some clay that day, so I quit writing early.  When Tom went to do Tithing Settlement, I went downstairs and made a 9”x9” pan or casserole dish.  I imprinted it with juniper fronds and it looked pretty good.

In the continuing saga of trying to transfer my Roth IRA from one provider to another, I filled out the transfer form.  I’d gotten a Quit Claim deed back from Sue and Steve signed and notarized. (They own half a house with me) and was ready to sent it all off.   Then I checked to make sure I had everything.  “You can’t send the deed going from the old IRA to the LLC; it has to go through the new IRA first.”  GAA!   I sweat and look at options and decide to call and REALLY make sure. (That’s what I do when I don’t get the answer I like… make really, REALLY sure it has to be that answer.) 

I call the old provider.  “We don’t care,” they said.  I called the new provider.”You need to talk to Transfers-in.  Email them.  So I email them.  They respond… we’ll take our time, but if you really need an answer, call.  So I call.  Get the same front people.  They transfer me to a voice mail and I leave a message.  I know they need the transfer document anyway, so after a day of no response, I send off the transfer and the deed.  After two days I send an “I’m really disappointed” email back to them.  Quick response.  Bad news.  I need the two deeds—one from old provider to new, one from new to my LLC.  Belch!

I call the attorney’s office.  They are very nice and do the deeds right away (not in a week like last time.)  I pick them up and fax them to Sue and Steve.  In the mean time, I’ve also had to ask a realtor to do a valuation for the property and get it notarized with supporting documentation and fax that off to the old company.   Ya’know, it’s costing me a lot of money to save money. And a lot of time, stress and effort.  I sure hope it’s worth it.

We had a community Christmas program at the church this week.  Dress rehearsal was on Wednesday.  For a small ward, we really have a lot of talent.  A harpist, flute players, guitarist, three or 4 pianists, four soloists, the primary children, the youth, and the ward choir all participated.  Wednesday we dealt with order and microphones.  It really was our only complete run through before Saturday’s event.  The primary children sang Silent Night and there was the little 4 year old Kingrey boy signing along with all the older children. It was SO cute!

Thursday Tom drove to Springfield to pick up a food order for the needy in the ward.  He expected to be gone about 6 hours. I needed to make lasagna for the Relief Society Dinner that night, so I stayed home. I also got in a lot of writing and got a good draft for the seminar brochure. Good thing I stayed home!  It took Tom a good 10 hours.  He came home just in time to turn around and go to the dinner.  It was a lovely dinner.  So nice to visit with friends. 

Friday I ran around trying to get things notarized, picked up, etc for the IRA thing.  Then I went to Yellville to do clay with Marian.  I cleaned up some green ware and visited with a friend of hers who makes miniature saddles for Bryer model horses.  Apparently they have horse shows with these plastic… high quality plastic… horses.  They dress up riders, have saddles on the horses, and create dioramas to display them in.  It’s big thing.  These little saddles take her about a week to make.  Some sell for $300-400!  They were exquisite.

These are some of the dishes I've made this year.  I particularly liked the way the leaf impressions came out.

 This one I braided the clay for the sides.  Then I tried to glaze the inside enough so a little juice (like from vegetables ) would leak out... but it covered some of the braiding.

 I like the outside here where the glaze has color variations on the edges of the braids. (if you enlarge the photo you can see it better.)

I used a potter’s wheel for the first time on Friday.  I made seven spectacular failures.  I did learn a little better how to center the clay on the wheel, make a hole and pull out the sides.   I did not learn yet how to pull up the sides.  When I watch the videos, it looks effortless—like magic.  The walls just grow of their own accord!  Clearly, I do not yet have the magic.  But it was fun.  Messy, but fun.

Friday night I thought I’d work on the article for an hour while Tom wrapped presents… a little over two hours later, it was done.—with references and footnotes.  Have I told you I hate footnotes?

Saturday morning I got up really early.  I reviewed both assignments and sent off the article.  Then we spent the day on Christmas things.  I baked two kinds of cookies for the community program.  Tom made brownies for the bishop’s youth discussion for the next day. I did some shopping and we left before 3 for the program. The choir had some rehearsal ahead of time.  At 4 the nativity scene area opened.  At 4:30 our performance began.  It went really well.  I’ve been humming the songs ever since.  We had many people from the community come to the event.  My clay friend Marian came and brought a friend.  Maybe 20-25 visitors?  After the performance we had cookies.  My Goodness!  Tons of cookies!  Alas, all my cookies were eaten up.  I made lemon bars.  I never make them, and these were really good.  I also made Susie’s Cherrie Pie bars.  Clearly they were a hit.

We had the responsibility for cleaning the chapel this week.  We decided to do it after 6pm, when the activity was over.  It worked pretty well.  Some others stayed and helped us.  Then we went over to visit Grace Vandersteck and Hallie Dale who are both in the hospital.  They both turned 90 this year.  Grace has had Alzheimer’s for years. Hallie can’t see well or hear well and is tired of being in pain.

I’m struggling to understand this process of moving from life to death.  At what point does one stop fighting the efforts to prolong life?  How does one balance quality of life with endurance of life?  At one point Hallie will say, “I don’t know why I’m alive.  I wish I could die.”  At another time she’ll say, “I know I need to eat to keep up my strength.” Or “If I can get well, I want to get well.” I remember Dad’s determination to keep going, and then his decision to stop the fight.  I think our will has a lot to do with it.  Perhaps once we fully decide to let go, we can.  I don’t know.  Perhaps this is another time we “wait upon the Lord.”   I know for myself, if I’m mentally gone or nursing home-type incapacitated, I’d like to hope that people would let nature take its course with pneumonia or any other way and keep me comfortable, but let the body die.

Today I taught the Gospel Principles class on the value of work.  Good class and good participation, even though it sounds like a less “spiritual” topic.  The choir sang in Sacrament.  I visited Hallie after church.  Tom had bishop’s youth discussion at our house after church, then went back to church for more tithing settlement.

Ho, Ho, Ho

I’d been having a problem with a clogged ear.  It felt like wax build up, but after a week or so of intermittent clog, non-clog, I decided to go and get it cleaned out.  Sure enough—ear wax.

It was a relief, this week, that all the deadlines for the spec assignments from bootcamp have passed.  DONE!  It was a relief to have those all finished… or beyond the time frame to do.  I’ve followed up with a few.  They are reviewing and will let me know.

However, my inspirational coach is wanting me to do about 3 blogs a week—with a few other assignments thrown in.  And I picked up another Elance job when this accountant asked me to submit a proposal.  He wanted a Dan Kennedy style copywriter and I’d taken a course from Dan.

I had planned on converting part of my IRA into a Roth IRA this year… and it seemed like I really needed to do it.  I started mid November, but I needed to get certified valuations.  Then I wanted to move some houses into that IRA and had to get new deeds done up… and signed.  That turned out to be another hassle.  And my slum duplex in St. Louis is supposed to be closing, but …  Apparently even though we bought and paid for title insurance, the insurance company really didn’t clear the title.  Now as it’s ready to be sold, we have to go back to old banks and get them to release their claims to money they’ll never get from the property.  I have learned that who you use as a title company can be very important!

Tuesday I went and worked on clay with Marian for a good part of the day.  It is astonishing how time passes!  We ended up eating lunch about 2:30!  I was working with slabs and getting better with that and Marian was throwing mugs.  Err.  That’s not tossing them across the room, it’s creating them on a potter’s wheel.  It looks like magic!  So when I go out this Tuesday, I’m going to learn to use the potter’s wheel.  You get your hands really icky.  Now I know why they call watery clay “slip.”   It’s because it’s slippery and you need your hands to slip across the clay to have it workable on the wheel.

Thursday Tom went to the temple with our ward.  The Kansas City temple is closed for cleaning, so they went to St. Louis.  They were greeted as long lost friends.   It was a good feeling to be wanted and needed.

Friday Tom and I drove the missionaries to Branson for a meeting.  While they met, we shopped.  It was fun.  We mostly had a list and we shopped to the list. We didn’t have a lot of time, so we made decisions quickly.  We had lunch at a little family restaurant with great blackberry cobbler and cherry pies (oh and good soup and salad, too.)

When we got back, we visited two friends in the hospital.  We came home to learn that a third friend was also in the hospital.  Man, this getting old is hard work!  Two are getting better.  The third has a systemic MRSA infection and is 90 years old.  She is such a sweet valiant lady and I worry for her.

Saturday Tom spent 4 hours on the mower beating the leaves into submission.  The yard looks fantastic!  We bought lumber for a new project for Barb.  And we searched for a stupid chicken.  We had one fly the coop earlier in the week.  We thought we spotted it on Saturday.  No.  It was the last silly chicken who had escaped!  If it’s not done in by wild things in the next day or two, I’ll try to catch it and take it to a new home.  One, non-laying hen is not an asset.  I had put up the Christmas tree last week, and finally got lights on and got is mostly trimmed.  There are still more things to put out to make it truly festive.

Saturday night, Tom woke up with a bad stomach ache. Being his daughter’s father, he refused to throw up… but he spent a lot of time sitting on the pot and is much washed out today.  He stayed home from church and slept most of the day.  This evening he is eating and keeping things down, although his stomach still bothers him some.  We had good meetings at church and later Tom’s two counselors came over and gave him a blessing.

Fire clean up

Last Saturday 35 men gathered at Lanetta's house to clean up after her fire.  It was quite an undertaking.  Here is the house.

 They gathered together and had a safety brief, then divided into people to clear, haul, sort, clean stones (she wanted to reuse the stones and bricks if possible).

 These little bobcats hauled tons of stuff and they were really good at pulling down walls.

 Here a fireplace just went down.

 Parts that could be burned, were taken to the burn pile.  Metal to the recycling pile, bricks and stones to their pile.  Rubble to a pile and other stuff to the dumpster.  They also had a tarp for salvageable items.

 Here a wall goes down.

 She was able to save a table, some photos and other small things.

 Another fireplace bites the dust.

 A lot of MESS!

 Lunch break.

 They found Barny in the rubble and Tom had to do an "Eggbert" with him and photograph him in different locations.   Below are Bro. Hall and Bro. O'Brian.

 Notice the nearly cleaned slab behind the handsome--albeit dirty-- man.

 At the end of the day, the slab was clean and closer to rebuilding.

 The handsome man returns about dark-- victorious. The picture can't do justice to the grime and ash.  Fortunately he cleans up well.

They had less actives, non-members, and some youth turn out to help as well. Tom said there was a great sense of camaraderie.  A good solid day of work and an amazing amount accomplished.

Anatomy of a Pigeon Loft

 Building the floor-- Wednesday (after going and buying all the supplies.)

 Moving the floor to the semi-permanent location near the doors for easy access in winter.

 Grandpa and Isabelle painting the floor to seal it.  Notice the shorts and short sleeves. (Thursday morning of Thanksgiving.)

 Notice the scarves and hoodies, the gray day and the 19 degree weather of Friday.  Oh, and the walls going up.

 Friday was a long day with walls and rafters going up.

 The handsome men hard at work!

 The beautiful woman also hard at work!  And having fun.

 Saturday while we went to see cows, Tom stayed back and worked all day... in the freezing cold... without gloves or hat... until past dark.  But the roof got almost all done.

 Monday they finished the exterior and even had a few hours to relax.

So much progress was made and it looks LOVELY!.  

Still, there's more to do. Now Kristy and Jonathan need to do the interior-- paint, nesting boxes, screening off the rafters and dividing the room for rollers and homing pigeons, building storage area, landing pads... and eventually an aviary of wire on the outside.

I'm afraid the job isn't even Mostly done.  It will take a miracle!