Between holidays

The day after Christmas, our intrepid Victoria started the long drive from Ohio with 3 kids to join us in Louisiana. I can't express the joy I feel being surrounded by our posterity as we read scriptures together every night then say a family prayer. For daytime activities, Angela has been resourceful and creative. It has been raining quite a bit and not terribly warm but we have had some good activities. I can happily and proudly state that my family appreciates learning, not just entertainment. All of my family enjoys going to museums and science centers. Despite the wide range of ages, everyone had fun going to the science center.

Then, on a day when the weather was a little more cooperative, we were able to go to a stable owned by friends of Angela and Scott. (Being a member of the LDS Church also provides some beneficial connections through generous, pleasant people.) The kids learned a little about taking care of horses, including brushing them and cleaning up after them.

I got to ride a horse for the first time in many years, although getting on this handsome Arabian took some help. I guess I'm just not as agile as I once was.

 The kids all rode,too, with and without saddles. Then they spent time playing lacrosse and swinging on a tire swing. The little boy in the front of this picture, the son of the sweet woman who was our hostess, watched me finally get on the horse, then later commented with what I'm sure was intended as a compliment. "Gee, I didn't know such an old lady could do that!" It must be the white hair......

Christmas

Christmas was equally nice at our daughter, Angela's in Louisiana. She had invited a set of local sister missionaries to have dinner after which we went caroling and delivered some baked goodies.

Christmas morning was the simplest we have ever had. Russ and I had not even one gift for each other wrapped under the tree. We didn't feel at all bad. In fact, we had explained to all our loved ones that we sincerely did not want anything for Christmas because we would only have to put it in storage for the next couple of years. Scott and Angela's family kept it really simple, too, with very few gifts. But we all had enough food (the usual buffet of sausage, cheeses, crackers, and vegetables with dip) and enjoyed a relaxed day putting together a puzzle, reading, enjoying holiday music, and just being together.

Thanksgiving

As we await the time to serve our mission and are now "homeless", we are having some unexpected but welcome opportunities to spend time with family. For Thanksgiving, we drove to my sister, Gloria's home in California, taking my niece Cindy with us. More than the delicious meal, we really enjoyed the time with family. It's also a good thing that it seems we are more often spending time getting physical exercise as a social time to be together rather than just relying on food to be the main focus of socializing. After our big feast, we hiked up a large rocky area near the beach. Here is me, the oldest (and most in need of the exercise) followed by Gloria then Cindy.

This is the area on the California coast we got to walk along as we returned to the car.

 And the last photo is the lovely view of the sun setting which reminded Russ and me of the sunset we saw over the Mediterranean Sea in Tel Aviv.

The proverbial back-breaking straw...

Once again, my blog could be much more appealing, if anyone ever reads it, if I knew how to upload appropriate memes or cute photos. Ironically, this post is about the ability to take pictures and why it is significant.
This morning I was not sleeping well, which isn't really unusual. I had awakened at 3 am and my head was just aimlessly swimming around with an occasional focus on silent prayers. Sometime before 6 I suddenly realized I didn't know where our camera was. We will be driving to our daughter Angela's later this week to spend the holidays and will have the wonderful opportunity to be with her family as well as Victoria and kids. I want to be able to take our camera.
Lest you find my consternation trivial, let me explain. About 8 years ago, we left a house and neighborhood I totally loved, putting nearly all of our belongings in storage, and spent a year traveling to visit friends and family, including 3 months with our son in Lithuania. It was a great adventure but we grew weary of living out of our car and not having a stable life. We found a neglected old house in Dayton, OH which we determined could be restored to at least nearly its original grandeur (if you go click on old posts at the bottom of the page, you can connect WAAAAAY back to before and after pictures of all of our work). Our time in Ohio was filled with some good times and some very trying times and some very tragic times. When my father was diagnosed with cancer after my mother had fallen and was in a nursing home, my sisters and I agreed to take turns flying in and out to be with Dad while he underwent chemo to lengthen his life. There was no possibility of cure so we knew the end was coming. I spent a lot of time sorting through things trying to streamline belongings enough so that if ever Mom managed to recover, it would be easier to care for her at home. Instead of improving, she grew weaker until she could no longer stand. I had to return to Ohio (where Russ stayed in the house we had mostly finished) to do our income taxes. As things worked out, the time ended up being for me to sort through, organize, and pack the entire house in preparation for moving to AZ. My father died while I was gone. After a flight to AZ for his funeral, I returned to put things in storage, once again, and drive some of our things with Russ down to AZ. I spent the next several years continuing to sort, organize, dispose of, and eventually we returned to Ohio to empty the storage space and load a truck and move everything to AZ where we piled it in the living room. As I visited Mom every day, most days twice a day, until closer to the end when she slept more, I ended up opening boxes, sorting Mom and Dad's stuff, driving around the country a couple of times to deliver items to family who wanted them, and even filled a trailer and truck with needed items to furnish a household for our daughter who was separating from her husband and had only her clothes (we also drove up to Spokane with the load then to North Carolina to move her in). In the past couple of months, I have once again been sorting, organizing, and packing preparing for an estate sale to clear out Mom and Dad's home after she passed away. We are going on a mission for the LDS Church so, once again, we needed to put our belongings in a storage space. It's more complicated but I'm trying to give a condensed version to get to my main point as to why not knowing where our camera was caused me to start the day in tears.
Russ used to laugh at me because I could never decide whether to have vanilla or chocolate ice cream or a hamburger or cheeseburger or to bring a sweater or not. I have found making decisions to be quite stressful. Fortunately, I have matured a little to the point that I can make decisions a little more easily. But today I am relying on the generosity of others in a very comfortable home where I try to keep my belongings as unobtrusive as possible- not because of any expectation of others but because I am grateful for friends' hospitality and don't want to be any more bother than necessary. My family is the most important aspect of my life and my family photos have now been in a box since leaving Ohio in 2010. My belongings are not of major importance to me but stability and a feeling of home IS important to me. I don't have that and haven't had it for a long time now. I have been doing my best to hold it together despite the unavoidable stresses of my life. When I laid in bed thinking about packing the car to drive to Louisiana and had absolutely no idea where my camera was, I just couldn't deal with it. I started a real pity party. I am just so tired of sorting, packing, and trying to figure out what to do with stuff. After explaining my sorrow and frustration to Russ, we determined we would just have to spend some major time wading through the stuff we had crammed into the storage space looking in logical possible boxes until we found the camera....... or spend money to buy a smartphone since cameras are becoming extinct. (Try it- just go to a store and see if you can find a simple camera to purchase!) Another decision!
I grabbed my robe and went to take a shower. When I returned to the bedroom and went to hang the robe over the closet door where I keep it so I can quickly put it on since we are living with other people and I can't just go around without clothes on, there was the camera. I had hung it on the knob of the closet door when we moved all our stuff in here a couple of weeks ago and I hadn't seen it because it was under my robe. huh..... I rejoiced and gave thanks to a loving Heavenly Father that I could avoid yet another choice and some very frustrating time trying to find a piece of my life in the rubble. I hope I sleep better tonight.

More thoughts

I'm hoping I haven't already posted these thoughts. I can't find anything like this in my quick search through old posts. Oh well, if I have posted it again, I don't suppose it will hurt anything to re-post.
     When you are tired or sick or weary from life's battles, you can find peace in loving arms or in your own safe space. That is the kind of peace I would like to have all of the time. But, if I were to have peace all of the time, would it become boring to me? Challenges are good to provide motivation and energize us. It's when they are endlessly unconquerable that even any inner peace we may fall back on disappears.
     Jesus said there are only 2 churches... 2 masters....2 choices: His way or Satan's way. Despite all of us being different (straight or curly hair, write books or build buildings, prefer pink or yellow), if we are to ever have true peace with anybody but ourselves, there needs to be an ultimate standard to live by. We may not find every detail immediately but if there is a standard, we can all work towards it. Satan would prefer ultimate political correctness involving boundless tolerance allowing any and all choices of words and behaviors. Without rules, nobody would ever be wrong. Without standards or goals, nobody could ever fail or feel guilty. But really, what would that be like? What if a child who wants to share and take turns were to play with a child who won't, or doesn't believe he should have to? Bring that up a level- what if a person who wants to save sexual intimacy for marriage dates someone who doesn't think it matters? What if a group of people wants to live on a piece of land and another group wants that same piece? How could anyone who wants peace live with anyone who always wants things the way they have decided it should be? We are all different so whose standard do we use? Must peace be achieved only by giving in to the one who argues best or bullies most? Without individual determination to accept rules, there can be no peace for more than one person at a time. The longer we live, the more experiences we have. Through experience we can begin to notice how things generally work best- that is wisdom. However, as mortal beings, our mental capacities established in our brain are prone to deteriorate as is all of our physical being. So, if we doubt those who are older as having worthwhile wisdom, who can we look to for guidance or reassurance?
     Without standards/rules (Satan's way) there must be eternal chaos with everyone wanting everyone else to live according to their individual whims. With standards/rules developed from experience (which nobody could just be born with), wisdom, love, peace, and harmony can be achieved. It will not be boring because we all continue to be different and continue to learn and grow and share with each other ideas of how to achieve standards of perfection.
     Each human is born without knowledge or established opinion. Over time our experience, observation, and listening combine with individual choice of analysis and perception to determine who we are and what appeals to us. Ultimately, if we choose to prefer greed, we will want to justify our own standards to get what we want even it if means others get less than we do. If we choose laziness, we will be inclined to want and expect others to do work, justifying to ourselves that they "like it" more or "it's their job". If we choose to justify anything others may consider wrong, we tend to trivialize or even try to eradicate rules so we can convince others to accept things the way we want.      It seems to be the traditional concept that Satan achieves his power by forcing others by threat, fear, or anger. Truly, those are tactics that many who would follow Satan's way of thinking might use. However, Satan's most devious and effective tactic is to lull mortals into accepting everything and anything- no rules that might require sacrifice or effort to follow. He pacifies them into thinking rules are too restrictive or exclusionary. He also numbs people into thinking we shouldn't be shocked or repulsed by sex, violence, or immorality of others, even those serving as leaders.
     We truly all have the right and responsibility to choose our personal standards in living. I think it would behoove all of us to deeply consider the ramifications of what we promote as appropriate standards either through voicing opinion or setting example. Judging other individuals is NOT the same as determining right and wrong. We can recognize an individual's actions or words as destructive (bad) without declaring the person as bad or worthy of God's punishment. "Vengeance is mine" saith the Lord. We can leave the determination of punishment up to Him but we do need to figure out for ourselves how to avoid a similar punishment by committing the same errors.

sorry............

I wish I could always post uplifting, educational things. There are simply days when I can't. There are days when I see so much in the world to cause me sorrow. I know these are the last days and prophets have foretold lots of bad news for these times. I don't know if it will get to the point described in the scriptures of times when children and women were fed the flesh of their husbands. I don't know just how bad it will get in my immediate vicinity. But I despair at the anger, hatred, self-centeredness, and lack of human decency in the world. I try to find hope and reassurance from the many really good people I know but some days the influence of Satan feels overwhelming. I just have to pray for the strength to endure to the end.

Temples

This is me in one of the many temples we visited in Egypt. Temples have been a major edifice of worship for centuries in all different countries and many different religions.

This weekend, Latter Day Saints, especially here in Arizona, are celebrating the dedication of yet another temple. I'm not tech-savvy enough to know how to post a photograph of it. I wish I were. Anyway, the Phoenix, Arizona temple is going to be the 144th (? or so- I can't remember exactly) built by the LDS church in the world. Whatever other temples are used for, LDS temples are not for regular worship meetings and even members of the church are limited in permission to enter. They are not just for priests or people "high up" in the church, either. They are sacred buildings maintained that way by allowing "no unclean thing" to enter. Because they are the "Lord's house" and dedicated as such, we must be trying our best to be obedient to God's commandments (which requires studying for ourselves to KNOW what God's commandments are) and living as followers of Jesus Christ (not just acknowledging Him as our Savior but actually doing our best to follow His example). We are interviewed by church leaders who ask us questions as to our beliefs and actions. If we are genuinely striving to be Christlike, not perfect but headed in that direction, then we receive a "recommend"- a piece of paper we show at the door of the temple to be admitted inside. If anyone is really interested and doesn't know, you can go to www.lds.org and read about what we do in temples. We all dress in white and are reverent. It's quiet and peaceful but very friendly and welcoming, not stiffly formal. The temple is a place where revelation can be expected. It is the Lord's house and, if we sincerely seek Him, He will respond. How that revelation takes place is up to the Lord. Here is a temple story I heard recently:
     The St. George, Utah is one of the church's older temples. As in the case of all buildings, temples require occasional deep cleaning or updating so they get temporarily closed while the work is done. In the St. George temple, the power had been turned off to the upper floors while renovations were taking place. In order to see, workmen had 500 watt bulbs in place. At the end of the work day, the lights were generally turned off. One day, the workmen had neglected to turn the lights off. They passed the guard on the bottom floor and said good night and went home. During the night, one of the workmen suddenly awoke and panicked at the thought that he couldn't remember turning off the lights. Those bulbs would be very hot if left on for long periods. He rushed to the temple and told the guard he needed to go upstairs to check the lights. As they climbed the stairs they could smell smoke which caused them to hurry more. When they got to the room where the lights were, they could make out with their flashlights that the bulbs had burst and the room was full of smoke. They also could see water that had been splashed around. The workman asked the guard if he had come up with a bucket of water to put out the fire. The guard said that as far as he knew, no one had been in the temple nor had anyone been upstairs with water.
     There are many such stories about temples. I remember hearing stories about the Washington, DC temple which opened near the time we joined the LDS church. I am so grateful that we have these "houses of the Lord" and that He watches over and inhabits them.