Web building... wannabe

It seems like I’ve raced through this week.  Monday Mom and I got our tickets to Switzerland ordered!  Hurray!  That makes it real.  Sue found a great place for us to stay.  So right after our Arkansas Fox family reunion, I will fly to LA, and then go with Mom and Steve and Kathy to Switzerland.  Sally and her Steve will already be there as will Sue and Steve.  So we will have a mini-sibs reunion.  Cynthia may be up to her eyeballs in the Laguna Woods city budget, and as she’s the mayor, she feels some kind of obligation to be there.  We think not, and are trying to persuade her to bail for a week.

I have been taking this website building course.  I have decided on a niche that I think will be successful. 
It is on modest teen styles.  I want to be able to showcase wardrobe planning so teens can see where they can purchase modest clothes that look cute and stylish. I also want to have pages on fabric care, why be modest, solutions to common teen problems—self-confidence, making friends, how to be happy, as well as pages on choosing your fashion personality, how to choose styles best for their figure type, and eventually move on to accessorizing, makeup and hair styles.  I want to develop a community of teens who want to be beautiful and modest.  I want it to have a spiritual side, but not LDS specific.  Christian, Jewish, Muslim all have teachings that reflect modesty. 

So I’ve been researching key words and outlining the site, and choosing what I want to write.  I’ve pulled out my old “More Beautiful You” folders from when I did color analysis and fashion coordinating.  However, I’m missing a lot of stuff.  Sigh.  Hmm.  I wonder if I can find it on the internet.  I had someone who was very fashionable who was going to help me with the fashion coordination part… but she’s too busy.  So if any of you know someone who has a good sense of fashion and style that teens can relate to, (and is computer savvy) please let me know!

I’ve decided it’s time for me to start doing more family history.  I finally got to the family history library on Thursday. We had an “in-to-lunch Bunch” lunch.  It used to be “out-to-lunch” but they figured some might want to chat and participate but couldn’t afford it.  So now we meet at the church and bring a sack lunch or potluck.  In the past it’s been mostly sack lunches.  But this time there was some really tasty pot luck. So after that I wandered down to the library. I ended up inputting names onto the new.familysearch.org.  I can actually do that from home.  And I need to scan and upload pictures that I have as well.

Thursday Tom went to a bishop’s training meeting in Branson and got home late.  Friday I went to Gift-tiques and got the website approved and moving forward.  It’s still in baby stages, but you can see it at www.gift-tiques.com.  Check it out.  You may see some familiar faces there.  Hurray!  I got my first check for copywriting!  Gift-Tiques started selling Vera Bradley.  I like it.  The colors make me smile.

I came back on Friday in time to finish making pizza for the missionaries and Barbara for lunch.  I used my new paddle and cook stone—and they turned out pretty well, even if I accidently turned off the oven.  Then I had to figure out something for the High Priest’s potluck dinner that night. I made bread sticks with the bread I’d planned for lunch.  I’d started the dough in the bread maker before I left for Gift-tiques at 8:30am with a delayed start.  Um… really delayed.  It was still sitting there just flour and water when I returned at 11.  So bread sticks sounded good.  And broccoli salad.  We played games after dinner.  Some played games. Two at our table HATED games.  So our table visited.  And it was great, too.

Saturday Tom went to the temple with the youth.  I thought I’d have all day to get lots of things done.  I weeded some.  I cleaned some things.  I fought with the website… and the website mostly won.  (I wanted to get the comments off the pages and only have them on the blog.) I wrote a couple of web pages.  About 10pm I checked my “to-do” list.  Make something for Sunday’s pot luck pre-seminary centennial event.  AKKK!  What to make???  I wanted to do something kind of healthy, but didn’t have the right macaroni for salad, and I did have a bunch of cream cheese.  So I made miniature cheesecakes.  Tom came home as they were in the oven.  Fortunately they cook quickly and we got to bed about 11pm.  Another late night.

Sunday was a busy day for Tom.  Lots to do.  One crisis after another.  Stake president was there (a good thing—helped with several events.) Combined meeting of Priesthood and Relief Society the 3^rd hour—that Tom was responsible for.  Seminary centennial broadcast and brunch, and so on.  Tom was conducting—and somehow the program had different speakers than those he’d asked.  When he slipped into the bench next to me for a few minutes he said, “Tommie’s having a werry bad day.”  Poor boy.  Then once we came home after church he had phone calls, visits to do, home teaching… and more. About this time he says, “I just want to relax.”  Maybe in the next life.

Magic

 Here are the before pictures:
 Kitchen                                                                      Living room

The Church Street house is done!  Plumber came Monday and for a small fortune hooked up a new water heater and installed the vanity in the bathroom.  Vanity was a bit tricky.  You see, we got a good deal on the vanity… but as it got installed in the bathroom the water and drain were actually behind the drawers.  Who knew? The former vanity had no drawers, and the sink was off to the left.  We got a new vanity with the sink off to the left.  But… huh… underneath… underneath… the plumbing was actually off to the right.  But it’s all done and looks splendid!

The after pictures:  Kitchen, living room and bath:

 

Ray continues to do great things with the Main St. house.  Tile will go in this week.  Then painting the trim.  Then sanding and finishing the floors.  Then the carpet guy comes… see. Piece of cake.

We ordered a new printer.  Our old one functioned… but the yellow would not print.  It made it difficult to make any kind of professional looking colored copies.  Our new one is a Cannon Pixma MG5320.  And I’m very pleased with it!  First, it looks smart.  Second, it acts smart.  And third, it’s magic.   When it goes to print, it automatically opens the print tray and spits out copies.  But more magic is that it’s wireless!  I can push print on my laptop and in a few seconds I hear the whirr of the printer.  Wahoo!  I’m so pleased!  I had read of others having difficulties getting their wireless printers to work, so I was especially pleased this went off without a hitch.

We went visiting teaching on Wednesday.  One of my sisters was ill.  So the next day I went shopping for her. I had intended to finally make it to the family history center, but by the time I gathered stuff, went shopping, picked up my artwork from the framers, (It looks great, Mom!) I only had a little over an hour for the family history center and they bailed out early.  So next week—next week I’ll get there.

The week started off with a call for my web-writing class. I had also been working on a spec assignment for a business.  I haven’t heard back from them… so I think that’s a no-go.  But still, I learned a lot and I did my best. I have also been working on my own website and plans for one that will generate income.  It’s been interesting doing the research.

I have been enjoying my little hens.  Every time I come out onto the back porch they cluck and coo and come over to the fence.  Usually I’m going out to toss them some food, but they cluck even when I don’t.  After the unfortunate affair with the neighbor’s dog and the demise of a few chicks, my hens quit laying.  The Red Rocks seemed to take turns every other day… but the Americana…nada.  But now.  Now I’m sometimes getting two eggs a day.  It seems like magic to open the nesting box and see an egg.

People have been moving on this year.  So far, two funerals.  And there are a few more in our ward that are aged and ill.  Two of the sisters I visit teach are struggling with health issues.  Boy.  Getting old is not for sissies. I guess it’s part of the cycle of life.  We have new babies, too.  

Sunday we had good lessons and good speakers. Between Wednesday night bishopric and youth meetings and counseling with members afterwards, and spending multiple hours on Sunday in various meeting, conducting interviews, counseling with members, dealing with financial challenges… things like remembering to ask people to give talks in sacrament meeting sometimes get overshadowed.  But Tom has had great success in getting speakers—and he’s chosen excellent ones.  We’ve had people who we don’t usually hear from.  They are not polished, but they are so much more interesting.  They speak from the heart.

So that’s our week… or what I remember of it.

January Daffodils

We’ve had a break in the weather—days in the 60’s—and the poor daffodils are endangered.  They have an urge to grow and to bloom and to be beautiful.  But they don’t recognize there’s a time and place for their beauty.

They rush to grow at the first hint of warmth – poking their heads above the soil.  But winter’s chilly blasts are yet to come.  Storms will bring ice and snow.  Blighting weather stunts their growth, withers their beauty, and may even kill them.

It reminds me that the Lord has a time and season for all things.  There are things that are good and beautiful and perfect at the right time… but those same things can be totally wrong at another time.

Dating, love, and marriage are joyful and glorious at the right time.  They harvest gladness and fulfillment.   But rushed into too early, they can blight, damage, and even destroy tender young hearts, minds, and souls.

We are asked to “wait upon the Lord.”  Wait for His time.  His direction.

 I hope we will be wiser than January Daffodils so we can grow to the full measure of our creation.

Lots Done

This has been a crazy busy week!  I know that the telling will leave lots out.  Oh well.

I started a Moneymaking Website class on Monday.  I have writing and exercises and a weekly online class.  I’d gotten the written materials early and had read through much of it.  My goal was to have all 330 pages read, then go back, re-read, and actually work through the exercises. After the Monday lesson I finished reading and started researching.  I’ve been trying to get some research accomplished each day. 

However, on Thursday, I decided to follow up on a spec assignment I’d sent the end of December. The reply:  Didn’t you get my reply of the 4^th?  AKK.  No!  So he resent.  There was more work involved.  I agreed to get that back to him by Monday (tomorrow).  So then I had all this work that I needed to research and write.  It’s fun, but a little stressful.

The houses are moving forward.  Kitchen cabinets are in the Main St house now, and vanities in the baths… but still no flooring or toilets available.  Ray has been doing great work.  In the Church street house, the painting is all done and the carpet and vinyl went down on Friday.  Wow!  It looks good!  It’s the details—switch-plate covers, faucets, trim pieces.  Each step makes it look better.  The pictures are taken after painting and just as they were laying carpet and preping the vinyl laying.

Tom spent time painting and cleaning up another rental that just became empty.  It had a BLUE bedroom which is now a quiet beige.  He hired the leaf raking, but attacked the bushes himself.  This week we had a day or so that barely got above freezing with a brisk breeze.  It made one not really want to do outside activities.

Wednesday I had a meeting in Springfield—from 7:30-9:30.  I didn’t want to drive both ways in the dark, so I left early and had dinner there.  I planned to do a little work there, but ended up doing the work at home and just reading for the half hour before the meeting.  It was a great meeting—Stake Council.  I’d never been to one before.  I was so impressed with the Stake President’s concern for each person in the stake.  I went in my calling as Stake Seminary and Institute Supervisor.  I got lots of ideas and thoughts about how we could do better as a stake with seminary and institute.  Now I need to get busy.

When I left Mountain Home, it was 55 degrees.  When I got out of my meeting at 10:15 pm—it was 34 degrees and sleeting.  On the way home I had dry spells, sleet, snow, and rain and got home safe and sound at 12:30.

Thursday I worked, then I took a neighbor shopping and ran errands.  I raced home to change to be ready for a 4:00 meeting with our attorney and arrived on time! … and found out it was really a 4:30 meeting.  Sigh.  I had a chance to read the newspaper.  We talked about LLC’s to protect our assets.

Friday Beth came and cleaned the house.  Ah, so nice.  Beth found little stashes of toys and things as she cleaned.  We finally packed away the last of the outside lights, the wrapping paper and the last of the Christmas things.  We had an incentive—Bishop’s Youth Discussion is at our house on Sunday.

Saturday we cleaned the church in the morning.  Then we went to a baptism at 2pm.  Then Tom had a meeting at 4pm.  We decided we have not had a date night or taken time much for ourselves.  Why have Netflix if we don’t ever use it.  So we found Robin Hood- a BBC series and have watched that the last two nights. It’s been fun.

Sunday- I’m still getting used to being “free” on Sundays.  I get a chance to visit with people.  It’s so nice to catch up on what’s happening in people’s lives.  We have one less active who was going through a really tough time with her daughter, boyfriend, and baby. She, her mother, and her daughter and boyfriend all came to church today.  The lessons and talks seemed to be just meant to be supportive of them and comforting to them.  I hope they will be back.  I went to the Gospel Principles class with them.  I do like that class.  Just the Fundamentals.  And they are so true.

A note on the chickens.  The American seems to have repented of her neglect.  She’s been producing eggs nearly every day—lovely olive colored eggs.  And the Red Rocks have been chipping in with a brown egg now and then.  This morning I got the bright idea to not bother changing into casual clothes to feed the chickens—just run out in my winter pj’s.  Note to self: Check the temperature before doing so.  I race outside.  Put bare feet into cold rubber boots.  Got the water and food.  Noted the frost on the ground.  It was 33 stinking degrees!  I think there are better choices to be made.

We had 18 youth for BYD today.  The youth started by making their refreshments—Brownies.  Then they had… by my account… a raucous activity… but spiritually based, too.  We also had ice cream and chocolate sauce to round out the refreshments.

All's Quiet on the Home Front

After Rebecca and family left on Monday and we did the chairs, we kind of took a little time off.  We’d thought about going to the new Crystal Bridge Museum in Bentonville—one that Walmart sponsored, but we weren’t sure it would be open Mon, Jan 2.  I called.  No answer.  So we decided not.  Late morning they called back.  They WERE open… but since its at least 2.5 hrs to drive there, we decided not.  They were closed on Tuesday…. So we thought, Maybe Wednesday.

Tuesday I did a little copy writing work and we went out to the frame shop to get the lovely picture of the horse head Mom made framed for me.  I also took my picture of flowers and the tree from Mom’s Northridge back yard (that I’d water-colored when Tom and I were living there) to be framed.  It had hung in the downstairs bedroom for a while scotch taped into a frame.  I decided I liked it enough to actually put in a complementary mat and glass.  We went looking for wool pants for Mom but had no luck.  We checked out the houses.

Don, the handyman had done a good job of patching and priming the Church St. House. It looked so much better in white than in dirty beige. The Main St house is now painted down stairs (and as of Friday had the texture and primer on the upstairs rooms.)  It’s really looking nice.  We did some reading.  Mom was going through my mission blog book and getting a more concentrated taste of what we did.  By Tuesday evening, I was just really tired! Dragging my little pituti around. We also managed to get information on how to get the medical records from here transferred to her doctor.

So Wednesday we ditched the idea of traveling to Bentonville and opted to visit a few little galleries here.  We spent some time at the Riverview Gallery- with art work mostly by Duane Hada.  We enjoyed his water colors!  He did bare trees so elegantly… and water… and fish… and I don’t even LIKE fish!  I actually bought some note cards with fishermen on them because I loved the river and the bluffs.  Then we went to the arts and crafts place.  Lots of handiwork and some stunning photography.  We got some knitted dish clothes and some pot holders.  Mom spent time fitting everything into her suitcase.  I think Rebecca’s talent for packing must come from her.

Thursday we left by 8:30…ish… to head to the Little Rock Airport.  We stopped at Colton’s Stake House for soup and salad and got Mama stuffed with good food before her departure.  After we saw her to the security area… (Did you know you can ask for a pass at the check in desk to accompany a wheel chair person to the gate?) Tom and I went to Little Rock AFB to get my ID card renewed.

At this base they DID realize my ID card was expired, but when we explained we were going to pass and ID, they let us in without any problems.  We had to wait about an hour, but we got my ID quickly after that and went over to the commissary.  We only had a half dozen or so things on our list, but $200 later we exited the commissary.  Part of the haul included  14 lbs of chocolate chips.  Er, for food storage…of course and on sale!  We listened to a sequel to Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites and that made the drive home go fast.

Friday I met with the owners of Gift-Tiques to talk about doing a blog for them.  They are lovely women, creative and full of southern charm.  It will be fun to work with them.  I got the go-ahead to get their domain name and took pictures.  So many of their things change frequently, I had to choose the few things they typically had in the store.  We have a tentative idea of how they may want the blog to look, but they’re going to check out some other sites for ideas.  I came home, then turned around and went to the houses to check on progress and determine what came next.  We had another house come up vacant, and so had to look at that one and make decisions.  I also had to prepare for my training on Saturday.  It was a three stake seminary and Institute training.  I only had to worry about getting my teachers there and the last hour of training.

The view from Gift-Tiques cafe

I had been pondering about how our choices day-by-day determine what direction we are going and how the choices between serving God and serving mammon are pretty clear… and yet sometimes we get fooled into thinking, I can do just a little wrong, kind of walk the edge and it won’t be so bad. But that edge becomes a cliff and the fall is disastrous.  So I took scriptures and put them together into a lesson the teachers could use for their classes.  We discussed several other things and actually reached some consensus.  I had 15 of my 17 teachers there… and one that missed was on a cruise.

The main part of the training put on by the CES instructors grew from Pres Bednar’s quote:  “We talk too much because we believe talking and telling is teaching and it’s not.  To teach you first have to observe and learn so that you can discern and then know [what to say]” So we observed two classes and watched how the teacher taught and how the students responded.  Afterwards we were able to ask the teachers and the students how they felt about the process.  Why were the quiet ones quiet?  What could help them participate? How did they feel when the teacher asked…? Did the teacher have more prepared if the students didn’t speak up?

It was very interesting to see the responses of the seminary students (14-17) and the Institute students (18-30).  The seminary students spoke from heart to mouth. As the idea came to mind, it was shared.  The institute students pondered, reasoned, and formulated amazing, thoughtful responses.  One of the institute students said, “When you teach pure doctrine it pierces the heart and makes students feel free and desire to change.”

I left at 7am and got back home about 5pm.  I drove up with our Institute teacher who visited on the way up… but slept on the way back.  I wish I could have slept, too.  Got home, made dinner, and then stretched myself by buying a domain name, attaching it to my existing web hosting site, and importing WordPress for it to reside in.  It only took two calls and one “live chat” to get it accomplished.  Now I have to arrange the site.  But I went from STRESS!!! to satisfaction.

One of the things my teachers said is that you can tell what path you are on by watching what your hands do… or feet… or mouth.  If I give lip service to keeping the Sabbath holy, what do I do on the Sabbath?  I decided I needed to make a list of wholesome things to keep me better focused.  So I made a list: write the Kenyan saints, blog, practice the piano, call family, read scriptures or the Ensign or other good books, organize family history, set up visiting teaching, write thank you notes.  I came home and started on a blog… well, I started on lunch first, then the blog.  Tom came home a bit after 3pm and needed to do some home teaching but didn’t have a companion.   So I went with him and came home about 6:30.  Well THAT made it easy to stay focused on spiritual things!  I’ll keep my list for next week, and the week after.

This next week looks to be crazy busy.  I guess that’s a good thing.

Good Bye!

Monday morning Rebecca and family packed up and left.  Here was a Great Grandma, Tom, Rebecca, and kids picture... plus Nathan.

 A loaded car!  And all the kids ready to go.

 After they left, we did three loads of laundry.  We visited the houses to see the progress.  We stopped by the library.  And then we came home and reupholstered the kitchen chairs.  Mom mentioned the smell of sour milk as she flipped them over to take off the seat. Hmm.  Where could that have come from?

Even though the chairs are different, the same seats cover makes them seem more uniform.

Happy New Year!

This has been a bit more of a relaxed week… or maybe I just don’t remember all that went on.  It was sad to see Andy and Kera and family and Dan and Miranda and Camden leave on Monday.  The house seemed quieter.  Andy left Nathan behind to help Tom with some projects.  They involved leaf raking, dead wood collecting from the woods around us, burning, and several other things.  Sometimes Nathan followed Tom around learning some of what he does.

It’s been interesting to see the progress on our houses.  Our Church house is now cleaned and the new heat and air installed.  Clean is actually a relative term.  The kitchen looks good… but the walls are still variegated colors and the ceilings brown.  Paint will help tremendously! The old wall mounted A/C was removed and that spot patched.  We are getting estimates on painting.  The day before we closed, we noticed a spot on the ceiling in the living room… where there had not been a spot before.  We thought I was dry, but in the next rain… it was wet.  Ugh!  I thought we might have to replace the roof but the attic is dry.   Turns out the rain gutter allowed water to wick under the shingles.  We think we have that fixed.  But we discovered a leak under the kitchen sink that needs attention.  It’s kind of typical when you buy… some surprises, but not bad.

The Main street house is looking good!  Ray textured the down stairs walls, primed and painted.  WOW!  It really looks good!  I think he will texture and paint upstairs next.  Then trim… kitchen cupboards… tiling… sanding the hardwood floors… installing carpets… just a few more things.

Monday night we invited a single mom and kids over, plus her friends.  It went well.  We had a short family home evening.   Tuesday, I think we recuperated. Wednesday we were going to go out to lunch, but Mom had been having an irregular heart beat and some shortness of breath and was a bit concerned about it—she wanted to schedule a Dr apt, but the closest we could be seen was 2 weeks. So we went to the ER instead.  I was impressed with them!  They took her in right away.  X-rayed her right in her bed.  Did an EKG and kept her hooked on that.  Took blood and got it tested.  The Doctor came in… all these people were lined up to come and see her.  Yes, she did have an irregular heart beat and shortness of breath.  But tests came back pretty normal—no heart attack, a bit of fluid near? On? The lungs which could account for the shortness of breath.  One prescription and directions to see her cardiologist when she got back home—and they sprung her.  Time: under 4 hours.  She says the heart is still irregular, and still some shortness of breath, but she’s managing.  Tom says 12 great grandchildren in the house is enough to give almost anyone heart problems!  So we took it easy Thursday.  We planned to do a little shopping…. But our stores were all closed until the 2^nd!

Friday we went out to lunch at Gift-Tiques.  We had a nice view of the White River.  The store had an after Christmas sale and it was much emptier than it had been after Thanksgiving!  Still, we managed to find some great things.  Rebecca has been making great dinners, but Friday we splurged and ordered in pizza.  It was surprisingly tasty.

Saturday Tom and I went looking for a vanity for the Church St. house.  Wahoo!  We identified one on sale.  Full Circle Properties will hopefully get it on Monday.  We also took down the Christmas decorations.  Tom bought some rubber bins to put the decorations in… to try to avoid the spiders and other bugs that had tried to invade in the past.  So we had to figure out how to use these lovely red and green bins instead of the sagging cardboard boxes.   And then Rebecca found us a tree bag to use.  That was perfect as our old box got eaten by bugs.  So now our house is back to normal… or at least undecorated.

Rebecca will leave on Monday.   We’ll have a few days with Mom and then it will be just the two of us again.  Whatever will we do with ourselves?

Christmas in pictures

I was really bad about taking pictures.  Rebecca has one of the tree with kids in front.  It was a pretty tree-- and I guess, worth the work.  we had a lot of baking and cooking going on.  So we also had a lot of bowls and beaters to lick.  Here Camden and Rylee were helping out.

 After stocking opening and before church, the kids ran around a bit and played together.

 Here's Kera multi-tasking with helping one child dress and another play.

 And here is what we did a lot of!  Actually, we used paper plates for many things, but I refused to use paper on Christmas day.  Mom helped out a lot.

 Tom gathered up kids and went out to collect deadfall and burn it.  you can see the flames and some of the kids and Tom.  The kids took marshmallows out and burned... or roasted them on the fire.  I took this from the back porch-- zoomed to 12X.  It was too cold to walk that far.

 And then there was tickle-time with Grandpa.   I'd hear shrieks and thumps.  When I investigated further, I could clearly see the cause of it all!

I can't believe he wasn't sore after all that exercise.