Thanksgiving 2014

Happy Thanksgiving Day 

2014

We hosted dinner at our home. 

The "swede" baked the turkey.

I used my cooper tea pots for the vase holder this year.
I made the brown tablecloth from a 3 3/4 yd remnant from
my mother-in-law Margie's fabric pile I inherited.

My new son-in-law Jason made these birch candle stick holders for their wedding reception.
I grabbed a few and voila..they landed on our table.

Here we are, a small group of friends and family.
The weather was beautiful, our stomachs were full. 

Just being "goofy"

Now.. on to Christmas!!

She did it!

I'm pleased and happy to announce

The marriage of:

Katlin to Jason

We couldn't be more pleased and excited to have 

Jason become a paert of our family!

Pre-wedding picture

First dance

Katlin's family, plus.. the new son-in-law!

It's been awhile..but don't...

...faint, I am writing a post that is very important..

My second daughter Katlin, is engaged and going to be married 

on November 1, 2014.

We had her bridal shower today and it was fabulous not to mention 

that Katlin was extraordinarily beautiful.

Here the group shot.

 Ariel and I making our happy faces!

 A KISS for Katlin

The future Katlin & Jason Neubert

June-Oh..my...

I will get caught up with my posting soon, the garden is 

planted and the spring cleaning is done, I've got the lazies right now. 

Stay tune..

Mother Earth Calls My Name

If you have followed me through the years, you know that

 I love to get out in the garden.

This has been the Swede and I mantra for years, we both find that
 we like working along side each other
( sometimes it's the only time I'm not on his case...)

I applaud Miracle Gro for the Growing movement video.

 I know that they are in the business of selling gardening products, but hey...it's innovative and promotes a healthy hobby!

I have tried to add this video on the post but for reasons unknown it won't load, so here is the link if you want to watch a short inspirational gardening bit.

http://youtu.be/4MCuAcbCSWY

Here is an App called: Sprout It

Find it for free on the App Store.

Well, you know where I'll be for the summer months!

One song one poem

Sunrise at Camas Prairie Centennial Park and Red Sky.

 Credit: Charles Knowles License: Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).


It's Spring and with the rebirth of the earth, I find
great peace in this poem and in the song which I have shared at the end of this post.

Camas Lilies
by Lynn Ungar

Consider the lilies of the field,
the blue banks of camas opening
into acres of sky along the road.
Would the longing to lie down
and be washed by that beauty
abate if you knew their usefulness,
how the native ground their bulbs
for flour, how the settlers' hogs
uprooted them, grunting in gleeful
oblivion as the flowers fell?

And you—what of your rushed
and useful life? Imagine setting it all down—
papers, plans, appointments, everything—
leaving only a note: "Gone
to the fields to be lovely. Be back
when I'm through blooming."

Even now, unneeded and uneaten,
the camas lilies gaze out above the grass
from their tender blue eyes.
Even in sleep your life will shine.
Make no mistake. Of course
your work will always matter.
Yet Solomon in all his glory
was not arrayed like one of these.

Here is a link to a beautiful vocal 
rendition of a song called: "Consider The Lilies of the Field" 

One

As of late,  I have been learning and experiencing being alone, being "one" with myself.

It sounds strange, and it is foreign to me that I have this time in my life where I am "just me".

Here are some of the things I have done in my "loneness:

• Walk my neighborhood
• Walk in nature (hiking)
• See a movie (went and saw Son of God)
• Went to a play in SLC called 3
• Went to dinner (several times)
• spent an evening at a political Caucasus
• reading magazines at the library
• weeding the garden

As I get older I'm more and more comfortable being alone.

Here is Barbara Streisand singing a song that has 

always had meaning to me, I do think that People need People.

*Notice that this was on some TV show in 1965, 

she has this huge orchestra playing for her.

In conclusion of one....I like what Clare Daines said;

I have a huge, active imagination, and I think I'm really scared of being alone; because if I'm left to my own devices, I'll just turn into a madwoman.

Using Hands to Create

My blog searching usally gives me insight into the way others live their lives, their creativness in sharing their talents, it helps inspire me.

I applaud those that really give beauty to others and their living environments.

I can across this wonderful video titled:

"RENATE HILLER-"ON HANDWORK"

Trent Gillis Senior Editor for “On Being” wrote this about Renate;

Using our hands grounds us — in work and in relationship. As we create something, hopefully beautiful, with our hands, we are transforming our moral and social senses. We evolve; we change. We notice things that we passed over the day before: the curve in a sidewalk to make way for a tree in the boulevard, the purl of a scarf, the transition of a capital that greets the ceiling. We observe the mundane and see it anew. The process of creating through the hands becomes a spiritual practice.

Ms. Heller strings together so many “threads” that help me think about raising children; about living a fuller, more physically experiential work life (yes, even about writing marginalia in a script rather than using the track changes option in Word); about hearing differently the many stories from folks who write in to the program, especially the passionate accounts of people and their gardens.

There’s something so honest and pure about her thought — that we gain a deeper, more meaningful relationship with our own humanity and our greater world by using our hands.

~~~~ 

If I had children still living at home, I would sit them down 

and have them listen to the message that Renate shares in this video.

It is a message for our time.

Doubt or Faith

Last year and this year I have had to come to terms with some of my

 religious belief, namely how Women in my (Latter-Day Saint, Mormon religion) 

are viewed as equals by the authorities and ecclesiastical  members of

 the church which are, all Men holding the highest

 leadership positions in the Church.

I have always be a questioning person, ie: 

-Why does God allow this (tragedy, senseless thing to happen...)

-When will there be the opportunity to be an equal (among men) in God's world,
in God's church?

-Why do we not talk of a Heavenly Mother and worship her?

Why do just men hold the priesthood? (a power from God to act in his name).

I get that God and Heavenly Mother created us in their image and we do have gender specific traits.

What I don't get is.. why through the generations of time, women have been excluded.

I'm not convinced that our Heavenly parents commanded it to be this way.

As I search for answers and have prayed, I have felt peace with 

some of the answer and non-answers I have felt spiritually. 

If you have read this far in my post, you are probably asking yourself;

 "why is she posting this?"

I am posting this because it's therapeutic for me, it is letting you know

 that I struggle to know the meaning of life and its complexities.

I have felt peace and inner struggle at the same time in my doubting,

 but I would not want to change this, it has opened my eyes

 to many things that have not be right with how I view my religious belief's.

This statement below really made me think about my faith and my doubts

It was a talk given to a BYU forum by Terryl Givens
that gave me hope for my doubt.

We need rethink the relation-ship between doubt and faith.

 In a 2005 BYU Forum ad dress, Terryl Givens defined faith in a radical new way: as a choice, one made when legitimate evidence supports each side of possibility. 

While some people, Givens believes, are simply born with 

faith or a gift for faith, more often faith is an acquired trait. 

And “among those who vigorously pursue the life of the mind in particular, who are

 committed to the scholarly pursuit of knowledge and rational inquiry, faith is as

 often a casualty as it is a product.”1 

In this setting, life becomes, as Givens maintains, 

a test of our own willful decision to choose faith over doubt. 

As Givens continues:

I am convinced that there must be grounds for doubt as well as belief, 

in order to render the choice more truly a choice, and therefore the more deliberate, and

 laden with personal vulnerability and investment. 

The option to believe must appear on one’s personal horizon like the fruit of paradise, perched precariously between sets of demands held in dynamic tension.

 One is, it would seem, always provided with sufficient materials out of which to fashion a life of credible conviction or dismissive denial. 

We are acted upon, in other words, by appeals to our personal 

values, our yearnings, our fears, our appetites and our ego.

 What we choose to embrace, to be responsive to, is the purest reflection 

of who we are and what we love. 

That is why faith, the choice to believe, is in the final analysis an action

 that is positively laden with moral significance.

Is this a part of life to doubt?

New Life for Succulants

I have wanted to plant an arrangement of 

succulents for quit sometime now and with

 inspiration from my visit to Rogers Gardens in Newport Beach, CA

 I was recently shopping at IKEA and low and behold 

The Succulent

The encyclopedia of Succulents contains 49 plant families,

 409 plant genera and includes

 7474 scientific names and synonyms.

 4763 taxa and cultivars have their individual description sheet,

 1455 of which are accepted scientific names,

 161 cultivars names and 5858 synonyms.

Here are the varieties I selected.

I had this large glass bowl that I have used for years to
 hold salads in for large groups but decided that it
 was time for it to be of good use as the home for the succulents.

I added the layer of small pebbles( as shown in photo above).
I arranged the succulents and filled in the area with
very small pebbles to give the look in this photo.

Here is a photo of my inspiration from Rogers Garden.
This is a basket with sponge moss and succulents.

This is really an experiment planting the succulents in rock,
 I'll see if they like this environment.

Olympic LOVE

I can't help but love it when it's Olympic Year....

I learned about this woman who was a strong
advocate in getting this event into the Olympics.

SARAH BURKE

In 2001, Burke, a former moguls skier who trained with the fellows to master the then- nascent sport of freeskiing, was one of few female skiers to compete in what many consider the first women's ski pipe event at Vail's U.S. Open. In 2005, she lobbied X Games organizers to not just display women skiers in the pipe, but pay them the same purse as men.

Read more: With first women's Olympic ski halfpipe, a dream for late Sarah Burke is fulfilled - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/olympics/ci_25194189/after-womens-olympic-ski-halfpipe-dream-late-sarah#ixzz2tyykJvzM

Here are the first winners of metals in this event:
Gold: Maddie Bowmand (USA)
Silver: Marie Martinod(France)
Bronze: Ayana Onozuka (Japan)

It was nice to see these women pay special tribute to Sarah Burke.

Sister Swenson

She has arrived...today she flew to Ellicott City, Maryland to 

be welcomed as a new missionary.

Sister..(L-R) Katlin, Sister Swenson, Aubry, Ariel

Giving the good-by hug..Dallas did well here at the
Provo Temple, she did well-up a bit, but she stayed strong.

Just adding this caption, brings tears to my eyes..
it is very quiet around this home without her.

Her name tag in the mission training center.

Sister Swenson and her district companions in the MTC.

~
Life is good
May God watch over you..
SISTER SWENSON!!

The Last Breakfast

Dallas had her mission send off on Sunday, January 12

It has been a non-stop of busy activities getting her ready, I started

 my new job and the "swede" is at his work schedule is at it's peak. 

I tried to decorate the kitchen area with some festive items that 

would be cheerful but not "Churcheee".

The chalkboard served as a laundry hanger for her mission address cards.
She certainly hopes she will have many people that will write her.

Banner of Sister Swenson name tags

Close up

Since it is still wintertime, I put up my small collection of snowflakes.
I added bright colorful felt vertical banners.

This photo was taken during the "pre-set up" of the breakfast.
I served:
A variety of fruit
Shirley's (local bakery) sweet rolls
5 different quiches (see below)
French Toast Souffle/buttermilk syrup &amp brown sugar syrup.
White and chocolate milk
Orange juice

I made 13 quiches two days before the event and kept them cold.
Ham & cheese
Quiche Lorraine
Spinach & Swiss
3 Herb & cheese

I was so busy that morning, we had over 65 people come for breakfast.
I didn't assign anyone to take photo's...grrrr! 
But..
the memory is there and Dallas will be gone soon for 18 months.

The Working Girl

That's right I'm back at it again, working full time.

I started my new job today and it is going to be interesting and a 

new opportunity to really grow myself and help others along the way. 

(Even though I get paid for doing it)

I WORK AT...

Mission Statement:

Studies Weekly will create engaging K-6 educational tools that improve students’ literacy skills and help facilitate the return of science and social studies as a meaningful and substantive part of students’ education. We make teaching these vital subjects simple and cost-effective for teachers, and fun and engaging for students.

We believe Social Studies is important for teaching young citizens the value of being an American. We believe that Social Studies is the “owner’s manual” for the liberties that empower "we the people" to govern ourselves. 

Studies Weekly creates educational tools that instill in children the desire to be lifelong learners, to value the past and to understand their roles as citizens of our country and our world.

Studies Weekly Publications

Click here to go the website:


I'll keep you posted on how I become apart of
the team that makes this great learning tool succeed!

Winter Pets Play

Last Thursday, the "swede" and I went to ski up at 

Deer Valley Resort in Utah.

It's a great place to ski no matter what age, they groom 

the slopes and there is no snow boarding allowed so, it's really

 easy to ski (at least for me) or until last Thursday...

It was the end of the day and we were making our way back

 to the the gondola to get back to our car when, I caught the side of the "swedes" ski.

We weren't going fast, in fact I think we had just gotten off the lift and
I barely had any momentum.

I plopped down on my right side and twisted my knee.
  (I went to my cousin who is a PT)
and he examined it and suggested that I might have torn my meniscus.

Putting that unwanted diagnosis a side,
 I thought I would dwell on something cheerful!

Animals that love to ski!!

I wish I could have found some information 
on this illustrator but haven't yet. 
My interpretation to this one is..
the skier is taking a break, (notice that he is smoking).
and the "local" bunnies came out to see who was on their ski run!

Notice that the bunnies are different colors. 

When I look at this illustration, it reminds me
of the Golden Books characters.

This illustration is fairly new because
they drew a rabbit on a snow board,

I see that this must be on the "bunny hill", look to the center back and
 you will see the bunnies momma worried that her child took a spill!

Of course CATS SKI!
(the felines to the right are just styling with the sweaters and their shades!)

I've titled this one:
Just Dogging It!

It's amazing that humans imagine animals skiing!