Scorching the World

Lilian has sold her business, effective tonight. I have been in constant contact with the new owner, Jeramey, all week, but today was more than average. I spent a lot of time on Clean Queen. I will still be working with Jeramey when he takes over, effective tomorrow, but there was a lot that needed done to end Lilian’s ownership and prepare/train/ discuss/etc., to be ready for then. So other than practicing the organ a little, I worked mostly on Clean Queen. I’ll stay with the new owner until they replace me. I sure hope that is fairly soon, although I can sure use the money. Tom worked on several things outside while it wasn’t raining, then in the evening got Bishopric things set up for Sunday. We brought in the new year by watching movies and eating popcorn! So exciting! The whole world has had a hard time with 2020 and then with 2021. In one sense, it has united the world slightly in fighting Covid, but in another sense, there is a huge division on the whole topic. The who...

Temple work is really a misnomer. Work connotates something hard and not very pleasant. But being in the temple and serving is more wonderful than anything we can engage in outside the temple. It is the most heavenly place we can go, and the things we can do there bring a joy beyond this world. Today is the day we got an appointment to do Coralia’s baptism. I get emotional every time I think of it. I spent all day waiting to go. Tom did some yard work and I did a lot of Clean Queen and computer work, setting up files for next year. Finally it was time to go to the temple. We actually got ready more than half hour early because we were so anxious. We hoped if we got there a little early we could talk to the people in the office about some things before starting the baptisms. Tanya brought Cannon and Kaden so we could take them home and get them ice cream after the temple. She had to give us Tom’s ax, and I needed to give them a computer lap desk, so we waited for them outside. The...

Golly, this month and year is almost over! I need to assess whether I am moving forward, backward, or staying the same with the important things. Time to assess and evaluate and improve! The best part of the day was chatting with my sisters. We are getting better at hitting the important things. I love staying in touch this way! I wish I would do it with al my kids, too! Maybe I’ll work on that next year/next week! Other than that, the day was fairly uneventful. Tom built a fire in the afternoon and we hooked up my computer to the tv to watch a couple of good movies. I keep having problems making the sound bar work. Halfway through the 2 nd movie, Tom bumped something and I spent about half hour trying to figure out why we had no sound. I gave up a bunch of times, but finally got it going again. We had to go in the office to watch Jeopardy. Tomorrow the repair guy will hopefully fix our family room cable box.

 I decided I wanted to post all my nativities here. I love them all so much!    This is my $5 Nativity from Deseret Book. I put it on the counter in the main bathroom. Apparently Dexter doesn't want figures watching while he is in the bathroom. He always turns their faces to the wall. This is a set I bought at BYU when the kids were little. It was on sale and I love it. There is one piece, behind baby Jesus and Mary and Joseph that I've never knows quite what to do with. In the picture below, it shows that one little visitor last week figured out that the manger fits in it perfectly. So cute! Yes, it may be funny to have the baby Jesus up high on that thing, but I thought she was pretty clever to make it work. This is one Tanya made for me in Relief Society. This is another one Tanya made for me in Relief Society. This is a set Nina knitted for me!!! How could I love that more!!! This is one I made in Tanya's Relief Society. I made lots of sheep for it. such a pretty pict...

I kept thinking of that song as Trina packed up everything and they drove away. I thought of it last night when Tanya thanked me for several days of being able to hang out with us and play. I thought of that song as I cleaned house. I’m not putting away Christmas decorations yet, maybe over the weekend, but I am putting stuff away, sweeping, mopping, doing laundry, etc. It definitely feels like the party is over. For breakfast everyone ate leftover cinnamon rolls and other treats we still had, along with Mexican hot chocolate. Delicious. Trina packed until noon, then it took almost another hour to get everyone in the car, then they were gone. So sad to see them go. Trina wanted me to help her set up spreadsheets to help her track customer billing, so I spent any spare time working on that. It was quite complicated and there were parts that I had to do over several times because it wasn't keeping the formatting, but I got it finished right before they all loaded in the car to leav...

Many of our Christmas guests had left, but we still had Pettus’, Knudsens, Nina, and Ravenna. It was a little tricky finding a place for everyone to sleep, but everyone got settled in pretty good! Tom and I always wake up by 5 or 6 in spite of how late we go to bed, and we aren’t getting any naps these days. What makes up for that is how much fun we are having. We only get sleepy if we sit still, so there isn’t much chance of that! Nina and Ravenna chose not to go to church. Geneva chose to go to church with her friend who is in 5 th ward. The friend’s parents graciously offered to pick her up and bring her back, which was super nice. We aren’t exactly on the way for anyone to anywhere. After church, I offered to have Tom pick her up on his way home, but his phone was turned off so he missed the message. Then we offered to have Tanya pick her up on the way over, but they arrived right as we decided that was a good idea. Then Geneva came walking in. Her friend is part of the Fox fa...

Everyone slept in a long time! We went to bed around midnight again, but Tom and I still wake up by 5 or 6am. We managed to stay quiet until everyone else woke up. Oh my goodness we filled this day! We did pancakes and waffles for breakfast. The kids wanted French toast too, but I put my food down. They were happy with breakfast. Tom got Ziona to go with him to deliver our last gift bag to our last neighbor. I had started the cooking for the day, so I didn’t want to leave it. We had scalloped potatoes and ham from the ward dinner. I took it out of the fridge to thaw, planning to put it in the oven the last hour to heat it through. Then I started rolls, stuffing, salad, vegetables, and sweet potatoes. I put the sweet potatoes whole into the crock pot. They were small, so I hoped they would get cooked through. Trina helped a lot with a lot of the cooking, but had to leave at noon to take Christian to get his glasses. They were back quickly because she had booked the appointment onl...

Today was such fun! There were so many times throughout the day that I thought it was an “Our Town” moment – a precious time that should be remembered forever and treasured in my heart and appreciated fully! My goal was to get to the store by 6am when it opened to beat all the crowds. I knew when I went shopping 2 days ago that I would need to go back today to get the things that needed to be fresh like vegetables and milk. So while everyone slept, we snuck off. We followed my list and were out of there quickly. It is frustrating to me that because of Covid, we have to scan and bag our own groceries and don’t get any kind of discount. It seems that we are saving the stores tons of money and don’t reap any benefit from it. I feel like an indentured servant to the store. Anyway, We were surprised that when we got home everyone was still sound asleep. Usually the boys are awake by 6 or 7am. So we left the groceries (everything except frozen things) in the mud room because it was col...

I wish we could hold this week in suspended animation. Except for the radio stations that play the wrong kind of Christmas music all day, every day, and the poor quality Christmas movies all day, the week before Christmas is magical. I love it so much – I love that it is cold outside, I love that Tom loves lighting fires in the fireplace, I love having the house decorated with all the nativities and pretty Christmas trees, and I love the beautiful special programs that the Church has about the birth of Christ. I love it. I love the baking, and preparing for people to come. So fun! Last night, Tom and I made 4 loaves of lemon bread, then this morning I made 4 more. That way I have enough to give to people. In the early afternoon we went to deliver 4 of them to the new bishopric. While we were out, Lilian asked me for the information she needs to pay the cleaning ladies. I never suspected she would need it so early – it was only about 4:30 in Utah. So we hurried to finish, then skipp...

I want to do a Family Feud when everybody is here on Christmas Eve. I found one online but couldn’t figure out how to actually play that from their website with other people in my living room. So I created the whole thing on PowerPoint, thinking I could cast it to the tv for us to play, but I couldn’t figure out how to cast PowerPoint. So I found you can play it on Zoom, so I googled how to cast Zoom onto the tv. I couldn’t figure out how to do that. One thing said to use this other program, but I couldn’t figure out how to make that work either. I decided I need to wait until someone smarter than me is here. Tom says he is not that person. It was fun to talk to my sisters. We manage to chat a good 2 hours every week. I always hate to hang up and get back to real life. Anne gave me some good suggestions to make my Family Feud game work. She’s so smart! I had tried to make a loaf of lemon bread, because Anne was making it and it sounded like a good thing to do, but my bread turned...

I wanted to go shopping first thing this morning before the stores got busy. I had some Clean Queen I had to do first, so I didn’t get out as early as I had hoped but got to Walmart by 8am or so. I took a lot of time looing for things I wanted and by the time I left, it was getting really busy and crowded. I was sure glad I had gone as early as I did. From there I went to 4 other places to get things done and didn’t get home until after 1pm. But boy, I got a lot done. The rest of the day I worked on Clean Queen and Christmas prep. It was fun. Tom worked outside and got the first row of berries all set up with the new trellis we built. It was hard work, so he got way mor exercise than I did. I’m trying to find a way to play Family Feud with family on Christmas, but I just can’t find a way to make it work the way I want. It’s so frustrating. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to work it out, but I think I’m going to have to wait for Trina and Chris to get here. It was pretty cold to...

Our Sacrament meeting was nice. My organ playing was fine even though one of the hymns was changed at the last minute I felt like I managed to not crash and burn. The whole program was musical numbers, with one very nice talk at the end by our patriarch. Good meeting. Afterwards there was a linger-longer with different kinds of store bought cookies and milk. It was nice because people really sat around or wandered around and talked. After having lunch, Tom and I headed out to deliver my little nativities. We went to two of my ministering sisters when I received a reminder on my phone that I had my stake missionary committee      in an hour. So we hurried home, I dropped Tom off, gathered my things, and took off. There is a new app that helps track all the people taking missionary lessons, those returning from inactivity, and those who just got baptized, so we spent the whole meeting time with each of the 9 of us staring at our phones, getting questions answered, and fig...

Today was the birthday of my 2 nd daughter. Such a sweet girl, always the peacemaker, gently, soft spoken, kind and loving, yet opinionated and sticks to her own code. I love and adore her so much. She has been through so much it breaks my heart, but the good people are never spared the trials of life. We didn’t have to go anywhere or do anything today, so we just did what we felt like, which wasn’t much. Tom got some yard work done, working on the blackberry area. I woke up with a slight headache so I just took it easy all day. It felt good and was a luxury to be able to do that. Of course, there were constant little Clean Queen things throughout the day that didn’t add up to a whole lot, but kept me from taking a nap. Since we got a new bishopric last week, Tom feels like he needs to get so much more organized, so I have been creating all kinds of spreadsheets for him of interviews, meeting schedules, conducting and other responsibilities schedules, etc. We spent several hours b...

Every day this week I have had someplace I had to go, meaning I had to get dressed, fix my hair, and put on makeup. I feel it is a true luxury when I can wear lounging clothes and skip the makeup. Today was a lounging-clothes day. I loved it! I had a small amount of Clean Queen – barely more than an hour, but it was pretty constant through the day and into the evening. So I didn’t ever get very far from the computer all day and didn’t do hardly anything else. It didn’t rain today, so Tom worked in the yard, and in the late afternoon, the phone was quiet enough that I ventured outside to help him. It’s fun to work in the yard together. Right now we are trying to clean up the area around the berries. I have a feeling this will take all winter. Last year we had some good berries, but they were so tangled and bunched up we couldn’t reach them to pick them. So Tom is building a trellis for them to grow on. My goal is to clean up the rocks and uneven ground, and put down pavers so that i...

Last night we had just gone to bed, done our scripture study, and settled in. We were talking a little before falling asleep when Tom said, “what was that?” I didn’t hear anything, but he said it was the Ring doorbell notification on my phone in the family room. So he got up and peeked out the front window. He saw that the motion light on our mailbox was lit, which means someone had just walked by there. Then he saw a man walking on our sidewalk right in front of the house! It scared him to death. Fortunately, the man did not see him looking between the curtains. The man walked towards the porch, picked up some packages, and walked back along the sidewalk towards the driveway. The 2 nd time he walked by the window, Tom recognized him as our renter. Apparently, he had ordered some food to be delivered. When it was delivered, that would have lit up our mailbox light, then activated the Ring doorbell notification when they placed it on our porch. Then the when our renter picked it up f...

Today we were set to sign papers for our HELOC which we are taking out to help Tanya buy rentals. We are all hoping it gives us another small revenue of income in our old age. Every little bit helps. But I woke up about 3am thinking, “are we sure this is a good idea?” I got up and didn’t get to go back to sleep. In Utah, it had snowed a lot and was still snowing when the cleaning team tried to leave their homes. Two of the four workers couldn’t get out of their houses, and the roads were a mess, so Lilian decided to cancel all appointments. I thought she could just cancel the first 3 or 4 hours, but she canceled the whole day. That made my day much lighter and freer! It was really nice! Tom and I met with the loan person at 9am to sign the papers. It took about an hour, then we stopped at a grocery store for a few things we needed before going home. By then I was very ready for a nap. Since the ladies weren’t working, I was able to get a short nap completely uninterrupted. It fel...

I signed up to attend 4 yoga classes on Zoom with Tami and today was to be the third class at 3:30. I looked forward to it all day. I’ve looked forward to it for 2 weeks since the last one. First thing in the morning the Clean Queen phone was very busy. It kept me busy off and on most of the morning. Since our Bishopric got changed on Sunday, Tom is assuming that our new bishop will want to do all the meetings that the old Bishop wasn’t doing, so he feels like he needs to be prepared for his job to get quite a bit busier. He had 4 meeting calendars from the previous executive secretary that he wanted me to update. I spent a lot of time working on those. The best part of the day was chatting with my sisters. I have begun to make a list of the things that I want to talk to them about because I think of things all the time, but then when we are chatting I can’t remember any of them. We had a good 2-hour chat, and I got all my items covered, but it was still hard to say good-bye. The...

It rained today. It rained all day. We are happy about rain. But since it rained, Tom couldn’t work outside, he just kept falling asleep on the couch. I did a ton of Clean Queen work. A ton. It was frustrating, to say the least. We had planned to go see West Side Story but it was hard to see when my phone would quit lighting up. We finally left to get to the 3:15 showing. When we got there we realized that was the IMAX showing. We wanted the regular theater so we bought tickets for 6pm. That left us with nearly 3 hours to kill in Fresno. We didn’t want to go back home. I had wanted to go to a thrift store for a long time, so we went there and I found some fun clothes. Tom even found some for himself. We drove around trying to decide what else we could do while we were waiting. We weren’t hungry so we couldn’t go eat, which is always a good way to kill time. Slowly time passed and we went to the theater. I loved it so much. If it weren’t so dramatic with the theme of how hatred ...