True religion

True religion is not what church's list your name is on. It's not what you know. It's who you are, all day, every day. When Russ and I were investigating the LDS Church, one of the most striking things I first noticed was the involvement of men with children. I remember a man in the choir, standing through an entire song holding a sleeping child. Today in church here in Berlin, I noticed a man in a pew in front of me holding a young daughter and caressing the hair of another one. Previous to that he had passed the sacrament to them while their mother was out with the youngest daughter. It was so nice to see a man showing pure affection to a child. I have been blessed to be raised as a part of an extended family that is very affectionate. I don't remember much about my grandfather's family but my grandmother's family was a large Irish family that laughed and hugged a lot. I have never liked the idea some people embrace of children being simply "tolerated" until they are more mature and sophisticated. I believe in discipline and teaching, but in the meantime, children's enthusiasm can be truly delightful. I know I just posted a blog about being proud of my children but I just wanted to reiterate how glad I am for the kind of people my children are. Christ loved children- not for their childish self-centeredness or loud, obnoxious behavior- but for their purity, trust, and innocence. Ammon loved spending time with his kids and was patient in teaching them. He made them feel like they were important, and to him they were.


James is very affectionate with his children, too. He plays with them and teaches them. Today he lovingly straightened his boys' ties.
The big guy in the middle is John. I didn't raise him but I'm proud to have him as part of my family. He is fun, affectionate, and loving to children.
It is obvious upon first meeting Angela's family that her boys know their mother loves them. They are generally happy and secure. All Angela's nieces and nephews adore her, too. She doesn't have to lavish them with gifts to try to buy their affection. They just respond to her obvious concern for them as well as her loving attention.
Last, but not least, Lisa is a very loving, attentive mother. She is always willing to have other kids over to help out their parents and the kids are happy to be under her care.

Where your heart is, there is your treasure. If you value fame, fortune, or even worldly knowledge, that is where your allegiance lies. That is your "god"/ what you worship most. If you value love and relationships, you will get along well with God because His "work and glory" is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. Love is of supreme importance to Him. He wants us to want to be with him...FOREVER! There is a scripture concerning these days that refers to men's hearts growing cold. Not in my family, thank God. I pray that won't ever happen, even if we don't always agree. I want to continue in love.

I'm glad

When my children were growing up, they sometimes resented my standards for cleaning. I tried to take the time with each child, at whatever age they were, to explain how to get things truly clean. Vacuuming the center of the floor was not sufficient. Dusting around things on the shelf (except books) was not sufficient. Corners were where spiders and other bugs, as well as mold and mildew collected so you should not ignore them. Over the years, I have done quite a bit of cleaning. I learned how by trial and error- spots I missed became obvious eventually. I also learned that the less frequently I cleaned, the harder it was to clean so keeping things clean was easier. Now I enjoy cleaning because I know how. I guess it's that way with most things. When you know how to do something, it's easier and quicker therefore less miserable. I have had many people appreciate my standards of cleanliness, often willing to pay me pretty good money to do it for them. Sometimes I have sensed resentment among my children once they reached independent adulthood, when I cleaned at their homes. Although I never said any such thing, they sometimes interpreted my cleaning as an implication that THEY didn't clean enough. I have had to clarify that with each one. Once they realize that my cleaning was a sincere effort to HELP, not criticize, they let go of any resentment and were grateful.
I am so proud of my children. Each one that I raised, male or female, knows how to clean and does it well. I do not have a hard time finding a clean place to sit or put down an object in their homes. They don't grumble about cleaning anymore. They know how to do it, and they just do it.

Some reflections

I don't have photos for this blog so if you are one that looks in just for the pictures, you can skip this one. I unfortunately forgot to pack my journal so I took some brief notes in a little notebook as I noticed things or had thoughts I wanted to remember. I will use this as a way of recording those observations.
In the bathroom in our apartment in Italy, there was a bidet. We don't normally use a bidet. There was only a shower, no tub, so when I needed to shave my legs, I decided the bidet was a perfect place to do that. For anyone who may not be familiar with this bathroom furnishing, it looks like a cross between a toilet and a sink. It's used for washing the parts of you that need cleaning after using a toilet. It worked well for shaving my legs.
When I first started noticing "SALDI" in store windows, I thought it was an advertisement for items of a certain designer or manufacturer available in that store. I was thinking it must be a very popular line of merchandise until I realized it was in nearly all the stores and was sometimes accompanied by numbers and percentage signs. Aha! It's Italian for "sale".
Russ and I are fascinated to watch construction and repair work here in Europe, comparing it to what we're accustomed to. At the Palazzo in Italy on Friday, the groundskeeper came to groom the lawn. He was an older man who arrived on a garden-size tractor that had a "wagon" attached to the back without wheels (it was welded onto the back of the frame). In it were his wife (we assumed) who wore a dress, a lawnmower, a broom, a weed trimmer, and some other tools. The man proceeded to mow, then trim, while the woman swept pathways and patios as well as sweeping loose leaves under larger bushes in the flower beds. They were very efficient and did a lovely job.
We have been constantly awed to consider that we have been looking at so many buildings (still inhabited and even updated to included electric, heating, air conditioning-not as common, and running water) all older that the age of the country we live in. There are walls and buildings and towers and roads and sidewalks that have been in existence for hundreds of years and are all still in use!
I guess Italy isn't the only place that has a "siesta" break in the day but we sometimes struggled with scheduling our activities to deal with it. Some places we wanted to go were closed in the early afternoon hours. We were a little frustrated at Italian kids joyfully and very loudly playing outside our bedroom windows until midnight or 1 in the morning. They had napped for several hours in the afternoon while we were trudging about, sightseeing. We tried to be quiet in the morningsince they were still sleeping as we drove away at 8 or 9 in the morning to spend the day traveling to yet another beautiful old Italian town.
I guess Russ and I will cling to our old-fashioned ways in some areas. Washcloths seem to be going out of style even in the homes of our children in the States. In Italy, we used a hand towel for a washcloth because there were no washcloths. We just prefer scrubbing our bodies with a washcloth rather than just liquid soap or a bar of soap or even one of those plastic net things. We also use it to dry off a bit before using the towel so we don't make the towel smelly so quickly because it has gotten so wet. Then we use it to wipe down the shower walls to help avoid water-spotting.
We have found some concepts that could be beneficial to Americans to adopt. For instance, obesity is more rare in Europe. Part of the reason is that they often eat more healthy than Americans- smaller portions and different foods. Another reason is that Europeans are generally more active. We noticed years ago when we first visited James's family in Switzerland, that everyone from the very young children to the grey-haired seniors skis. They also walk, a LOT, and ride bikes and generally spend more active time as families, on dates, with friends, etc. To accommodate that lifestyle, they even pull large enclosed trailers behind tour buses, for transporting ski equipment or bikes for traveling tourists.
One last little thing: when you stop along the highway here in Europe at gas station/rest stops, you have to "pay" to use the toilet. Initially this is annoying. Russ and I were glad that Susanne and James always had the right coins for us to use. However, as I thought about it, it's similar to Aldi's requiring a coin to use a shopping cart. Americans have found that annoying but it really helps to avoid the constant careless leaving of carts all over the parking lots. In addition to causing people to better appreciate the use of a public toilet so they hopefully won't indulge in graffiti or general mess-making, the gas stations offer an incentive of coupons that come automatically when you put the coin in the machine to get through to the bathroom. Those coupons can be used to purchase small items, candy being the favorite for our grandkids here, in the little mini-marts.
We will spend another 2 weeks here and are unlikely to visit Europe again. James has been posted in Europe twice so far so his next post will probably be some other part of the world. It has been a wonderful experience to see this part of the world. The only thing related to Europe that I might consider on my bucket list is a trip to Ireland. I have ancestors who emigrated from there and love Irish music and dancing. Maybe some day.....................

Our last day in Italy

Russ and I were pretty tired of trudging through old towns and fortresses after 4 days so on Friday, when James and Susanne and the kids were headed into Montepulciano again, we opted to stay at the "apartment" and do laundry. The clothesline was strung in the olive orchard.
The picture below was supposed to be the last one for this blog but I still don't know how to change things around! Anyway, for our last night there, we went to a local ice cream shop called Be-Bop and enjoyed our last taste of local gelatto. Really yummy!!
We spent part of our day, along with doing laundry and taking the opportunity to swim in the pool when it was empty of children or other people, watching a repair being done on a main waterline leak right in front of our window. Can you believe that traffic, cars as well as a large truck, got by this truck on the road while they were working?

San Gigmignano

On Thursday we went to two cities, the first of which was San Gimignano, called a Medieval Manhattan for its many towers. Reportedly, at one time there were as many as 73 towers there but we only counted less than a dozen. Still, when you consider building techniques available in the 13th and 14th centuries, this place was impressive. The photo below shows Susanne, Jarom, and me as we are working our way back down from one of the towers we climbed up in. Lots of stairs!

The thing I liked least about this town was the vendors. The town squares were packed full of umbrella-covered booths selling all kinds of merchandise, not just souvenirs but clothing and home linens and all kinds of stuff. We even went by a vending machine installed in a wall for selling condoms!

Siena

This was another lovely church in Italy. This one was especially striking for the colors on the outside which don't really show up well here. There was a sign for the many things that were forbidden inside the church. Sadly, too many people didn't obey these rules. People took pictures and weren't modest about what they wore- they were just tourists going into another beautiful old building.

The picture below is a tower we climbed up in- always climbing, climbing, climbing!

Cortona

Photographs are wonderful but they simply cannot fully give you the same experience as seeing something firsthand. Much of the regions of Italy we visited were endless fields of sunflowers, olive orchards, vineyards, and hayfields interspersed with hilltop villages.

This gives you a little perspective of how steep the climbs were- nearly all day every day. But it was so worth it!

This was the view from the top of a high place in Cortona.

Every time I upload pictures, they don't come out in the order I expect them to. It's pretty frustrating. Oh well..... if that's the worst thing I have to deal with, I'm fortunate indeed, eh? So the photo above is to show a major mode of transportation throughout Europe but this is Florence, or Firenze as the Italians say. Florence wasn't as bad as the smaller Medieval era towns we went to but it is sometimes a little scary having cars whiz by you when there is barely room to plaster yourself against a wall.

This is just an example of how we felt after trudging up steep steps, up hilly streets, through museums and fortresses. I stayed awake most of the time but occasionally I just succumbed to exhaustion, as did others in our little group.

This is not the picture I had planned to post but I can't find the one I wanted to use. Oh well..... You can see, between Susanne and me, Michelangelo's David. It's actually a replica because we were not willing to go in the very long line to see the original. Thanks to Susanne reserving tickets, we were able to go into the Uffizo Art Museum where it was truly amazing to see paintings actually done by daVinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, and others that we have only read about or heard of remotely. However, it really isn't as much fun to go where you have to fight crowds and it really does get tiring to sight-see every day. But we wanted to make the most of what time we had in Italy because we will not likely ever return!

On Monday we went to the city of Assissi- famous for Saint Francis who is generally represented surrounded by birds and animals. In the lower level of the fortress there, we saw the armory and we couldn't resist taking this picture for Kadon. He is 6 and fascinated with swords. This photo is for you, Kadon! The place where we stayed in Italy was recommended to James and Susanne by another American embassy family. This day was the first day we spent with them. We climbed to the top of the fortress and got a picture with the kids all lined up.
Another Italian restaurant- it looks a lot like the one in Montepulciano, doesn't it? I think I had a focaccia sandwich here but I can't remember for sure.
This is the last part of the long, narrow, spiral staircase to the top of the tower. Russ and I did pretty well, as did the kids. We all hoped we got enough exercise to maybe lose a little weight but I guess all we did was manage to offset the food we ate- and the servings were never really large! The food was much better for us than big-portioned, over-salted or sugared, too often fried American restaurant fare. Alas, the daily serving of gelatto (Italian ice cream) was probably what did us in.

Trying to get them all in!

This castle is Neuschwanstein in Austria. I didn't get it in the earlier post when I meant to. We were there before we got to Italy. As we drove along a river, headed south from Berlin, through the Alps, there were several castles and fortresses up on the hillsides. It was just so incredibly picturesque! Looking at all our pictures now, it's a little difficult to tell which Medieval structure is which because we went to so many. The first city we visited in Italy, on Sunday, was Montepulciano.

This clock tower was built over 500 years ago and still the little "Punchinello" (from Punch and Judy stories) chimes the hours. The picture below was our first Italian meal. We often ate food just out of a grocery or bakery but generally had one meal a day at a restaurant. The food was freshly made and relatively quick. Beverages were usually the surprisingly expensive part and the selection of non-alcoholic beverages was limited. In this Montepulciano restaurant we started with bruschetta- yummy! I found out that not all bruschetta is tomatoes on bread. Bruschetta refers to the olive oiled and toasted bread then comes with a variety of toppings. My favorite is still the tomato one and Angela, although she's never been to Italy, makes a wonderful bruschetta!

More arrival in Italy photos

This is the name plaque for the place we stayed while in Italy. Below is where we barbequed while there. It's an interesting device. First you pile olive tree cuttings in the part under the chimney and get a good fire going. Once you have enough coals built up under the grate, you can push them over to the larger flat area then cook either directly on the rack which is really only good for large pieces of meat and vegetables, or you can use foil or a finer rack.
This next scene is one of the many beautiful fields of sunflowers all through central Italy. This one was right across the street from our lodgings. Bella!
This is our amazing, ever-enduring son who acted as our chauffeur. He drove as many hours in our week of "vacation" as he would have spent working- maybe more. The speeds were breath-taking. James kept to the speed limit (equivalent to 90-100 mph) but was often passed by REALLY speedy drivers. Surprisingly, we only saw evidence of one accident and that was just a fender-bender. That being said, it's a good thing James is an alert defensive driver! Sometimes accidents don't happen because some drivers are good at watching out for the poor judgement of other drivers.

This is where we stayed for a week near Castiglione del Lago in central Italy, in the Umbria region near the region of Tuscany. The 7 of us stayed in what would normally be 2 apartments, each with a full bath, small kitchen (only a cooktop and small refrigerator), dining table, beds, and couch that pulled out to a bed.
This is Nicholas and Louisa as we were headed from the front door back toward where we parked the car.
This is the lovely pool that the kids swam in every day after a lot of trudging around Medieval cities.
This was a view from one of our windows. We never went to Rome and Russ and I were glad. It is a big city, crowded and dirty. We loved the countryside with endless fields of sunflowers, olive orchards, and vineyards. Our hosts (owners of the Palazzo where we stayed) held a barbeque for us near the end of the week. What a feast! They are a couple probably in their late 30's or early 40's. They both work and rent out part of their house on the side. Nearly everything they served was provided from their own property. The tomatoes, cucumbers, and grilled zucchini were from their garden. They seasoned them with olive oil pressed from olives from their own trees along with herbs they grew. They also served a pig and lamb they had raised. Only the dessert, pastries from a local bakery, were not from their property.

Garmisch

Deedie drove us from her home into NYC so we could fly out of JFK. We were fortunate to have a direct flight from NY to Berlin where our daughter-in-law, Susanne, picked us up at the airport. We drove to their home and opened our suitcase to get out the items we had brought for them. They had gotten several expensive electronic devices from the "Apple Store" that couldn't be shipped overseas so we had brought them in our checked bag. We were horrified to find 2 out of the 3 items missing and our bag obviously gone through. We had expected our bag to be inspected for security reasons but were upset to find $1300 worth of electronics gone! We immediately started making phone calls and going on the internet to find out how to file a complaint. Fortunately, the airport is only 20 minutes away because we ended up having to return to the airport to file the claim in person.
We got the claim filed then returned to the house, re-packed our suitcases into one of the bags, loaded it in the car and set out toward Italy. Our first night on the road was spent in an Austrian town called Garmisch in a lovely little Alpine hotel accessed only by cable car.
The next morning, we drove to where our 2 grandsons had spent the week at Scout camp, then went to see a beautiful castle/fortress. That's in the top picture.(It's really bugging me that I can't figure out how to re-position my photographs when they don't download in the order I want them.) Anyway, after the second night, we loaded up the car, including a car-top carrier, to get back on the road to Italy.
Again, out of order, this is the ride back down from the hotel in the cable car. It was just too cool!

Phase two

From Toledo we drove straight to my sister, Deedie's, in northern Pennsylvania. They fed us an awesome dinner and we loved the breakfast al fresco on their back deck. Then we drove to a nearby park that included a field of boulders that were a really unique sight to see. They were, reportedly, the result of ice breaking up an outcropping of rock over a long period of time. So what is there now at the top of a hill in the midst of thick woods, is a huge open field strewn with boulders from large rocks to apartment refrigerator sized. (That's the photo at the top. I haven't figured out how to alter the position of pictures on a blog.) We went to another section of the state park and walked a trail along a stream to a lovely little waterfall. The picture below depicts my frustration with people and their careless attitude toward beautiful natural scenes.

Beginning of our trip

We left Sun City June 25, spent 2 days driving, the 3rd day got some things out of our storage place in Dayton, stopped off to sign papers at our insurance agent's, then drove on to Toledo in time for dinner with Victoria and the kids on Monday night. We were thrilled to be reunited with these wonderful people! We enjoyed the week with Victoria and I was, once again, amazed at how hard she works at being in shape- running, Zumba, spinning class (where you don't stop for half an hour and the workout is a killer!), and just general scurrying through life with 3 busy kids. She left on Friday to join her husband for a 10-day visit to Paris and we took care of the kids. Our first night after Victoria left, we were awakened at 4 am to lights flashing through the curtains. We got up to see what is pictured above. It was dark so the photograph doesn't show things well but there were several fire department vehicles and personnel scattered all over the parking area behind the townhouses. We decided to go back to bed despite the strong smell of smoke. Around 4:30 there was a persistent pounding sound which we realized was a gloved had knocking on our door downstairs. We got up and let two firefighters in to check to see if the fire from the next apartment had bre2ched the adjoining wall into "our" home. Amazingly, the children all slept right through 2 burly firemen in full gear walking into their bedrooms with a flashlight feeling the walls. The next morning they were excited to hear about it and disappointed that they missed it. We found out later that a young child, between 5 and 10 years old, had been playing with matches at 3:30 in the morning and started the fire. Fortunately, no one was hurt but the family had to find a place to stay and the contents of one room was thrown out onto the front lawn, charred and smelling strongly of smoke.
We spent the remainder of our time there with no incidents more major than skinned knees and were sad to part with the 3 kids. Such is the life of most grandparents these days. We live far from our grandchildren and just don't get enough of them.

Feeling the spirit

Not everybody acknowledges that there is a God, or that Jesus Christ lived and died and was resurrected, or chooses to feel the influence of the Holy Spirit. I find it interesting that children often feel the goodness in the influence of the Spirit because they have not hardened their hearts or closed their minds to it.

Russ and I are currently watching over Jeremy, Kadon, and Brooklyn while Victoria and her husband, Kevin, are spending a week in Paris following a conference Kevin had to attend for work. We often receive interesting things through e-mails and yesterday we spent about a half hour showing the kids some of them: pictures of unique roads in the world, a clever marionette, then we showed them a time lapse video of the Milky Way. We weren't speaking of anything spiritual. We didn't mention God. All I said was, "Look at all the stars!" as the panorama continued to flow across the screen. It wasn't exciting like a video game. It wasn't amusing like a cartoon. Yet they sat for the few minutes to watch, quietly awed. Brooklyn (3 years old) looked at me and gently smiled then reached out to hug Jeremy (8 years old). They, in turn, hugged Kadon (6 years old). Why? These kids do not treat each other this way all the time. Most of the time Russ and I are intervening to prevent serious injury, physically from hitting and kicking or emotionally from yelled out insults.

This morning I was playing songs from the church song book for children and Brooklyn pointed to a picture and said, "Is that Jesus?" When I nodded and said that it was, indeed, Jesus, she responded, "Oh, I love Jesus." Brooklyn is a very affectionate little girl so maybe someone could say that she just said that because she says things like that often. But why did she come over to where I was playing the piano and notice the picture and make that comment?

It makes me sad to think about how our Father in Heaven must feel about the billions of children that He cares so much about yet they ignore and even deny Him. I have been hurt when my children or even grandchildren have been irritated by me or in some way didn't appreciate me. I don't really dwell on it. I realize that everybody has bad days and, especially when immature, people can have wild mood swings depending on what is happening and how tired/sick/sad they are. But God has put so much effort into creating a beautiful world for us to learn in. He gave His only beloved Son and watched Him be hit, ridiculed, spit on, and eventually nailed to a cross after doing only good things- never anything to deserve mistreatment. I am grateful to my Savior, and to my Heavenly Father, and to the Holy Spirit for their love and guidance. They make me feel good. I wish I could share my "lamp oil" with everyone.