Another Good Day, Mostly

The other day, last Saturday to be exact, we went to the temple again.  Hopped in our little red Sonic and hit the road.  This trip has been on the calendar for a month, a "do not miss" trip, but that's another story.  Anyway, it was back on the road again.

This time we went to the other temple.  A little smaller than Chicago, and probably an easier drive because the drivers in this area are not as prone to foolishness as in the Chicago area.

Anyway, it was a good visit.  We have recently learned about the "stake file" where people from our stake leave bunches and bunches of family names they've researched out but haven't been able to get done yet, and then anyone that wants to can pick a name out and do the work for that person.  Kind of nice.  We both picked names and took them through.  The one I did had been almost three years since the previous ordinance had been done.  Even at the brink of having all the work done it's still a wait, I guess. 

Anyway, after we finished at the temple we decided we needed to eat before the long drive back so we went to a restaurant nearby and had lunch.

It was hot, we were in the middle of a heat wave on Saturday, so it was nice to get back into the air conditioning.  This must be our favorite place in the area because we end up at this place pretty often.

We both had the salad bar.  Exciting, right?  It was pretty good.

Then, instead of going straight home, we headed to where Schwartzbeere and his family were moving to.  They had found a little place that was a good deal and were moving in this weekend.  So we stopped by to watch all the hard work.

When we got there they were in the process of moving a crib from the front room into the back bedroom where the baby they're expecting will be.

Himbeere was there, helping out.  That's a happy thing as he is a very helpful kind of guy, if you catch him in the right mood.  See what a good mood he's in?

The hall was a tight fit, well, getting around the corner at the end of the hall was the tight fit.  They had to take the crib apart enough to get it around the corner.

Then, of course, it had to be put back together.  The Dad's job is taking furniture apart and putting it back together when moving.  Schwartzbeere was doing it well.

Moving brings lots of chaos but the family was doing quite well.  Stuff was getting organized and unpacked, rooms were getting their furnishings, and everything was unfolding quite nicely.  They were able to stay in their new place that night for the first time.  Way cool.

I'd like to be able to say the rest of the day went as well but, alas, our trip home involved a side trip to the emergency room at the local hospital.  No blood or broken bones, but it seemed like a good idea, nonetheless.  But that's also a different story.  It was after midnight before we got home and to bed.  Needless to say, it had been a long day.  But there were some very nice parts to it and I'm glad we were able to go.

Sunday Thoughts

It's been an interesting experience these last several weeks as I have prepared a lesson nearly every week for priesthood and then, for one reason or another, ended up not giving it. This has happened the last four or five times I've prepared a lesson.  Some of those lessons I have really struggled with while preparing them, struggled to find what felt like the right message out of the material.  Being third hour, these lessons are usually taken from the most recent General Conference.  As the quorum leader, it's typically me that selects the talk.  You'd think that would make it easier.  Neither do I normally feel constrained to limit myself to the selected talk to use as resource material for these lessons, although I do try to keep whatever material I use on topic and supportive of the message.  That seems like it ought to make it easier, too.  The struggle has been finding the right message in the talk, the right material to convey that message, and then putting together an outline to use in presenting the message.  Sometimes it just seemed really hard to feel like it was coming together right.  

The thing I find noteworthy in all this is that as I have struggled to prepare I have prayed for help and every time it has come, even though the Lord knew I would not be giving the lesson.  How easy it would have been to just let me struggle and worry since He knew that whatever I prepared would not be presented.  You know, the blessings of adversity and all that. But instead, each time the Lord answered my prayer and helped me, blessed me to be able to get the lesson to where I felt prepared, ready, and comfortable.  I look upon it as the response of a merciful God to a child calling for help.  I've long felt that I usually gain more than the class members when I teach because in preparing I study and see lots more material than I ever end up presenting in class.  So all these lessons I've prepared but never given were not wasted in the least.  On top of that, the help I've asked for has been given even though it was just for me.  He does that, in little things as well as big things.

"In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried to my God: and he did hear my voice out of his temple, and my cry did enter into his ears." II Samuel 22:7

Now We Know

This afternoon I was out mowing the lawn on my riding lawnmower.  I like that machine.  Anyway, as usual, there were a number of "hazards" on the lawn.  These items were mostly toys that belong to the grand kids and dog.  As I mow along on the pass before they would be in the way, I stop next to them and move them.  Usually throw them off to the other side of the mower where I've already cut.  Today, however, there was a large, blue ball.  Like two feet in diameter.  My usual approach wasn't working.  Every time I'd get close to it some part of the mower would bump it before I could grab it and it would roll away.  After a few times of this I figured it was working well enough that it would be okay.  The only downside was that each time I'd bump it, it would roll out into the area where I hadn't yet mowed.  That's why it kept happening.  Then came the time as I approached the ball that it was directly in front of the mower.  Fine, I figured, I'll just bump it out of the way again.  That ought to work again, right?

Wrong.  Before I knew it, the front end of the lawnmower raised up and the ball started to go underneath.  Then, suddenly, the ball popped and the front of the mower dropped back down to the ground. Pieces of the ball were all over the back yard.  Lots of them.  Some pretty small, some pretty big.

Lots of them.  Took me a few minutes to pick them all up.  I didn't want to run over any of them again because that would just chop them up further and make a bigger mess. Lesson learned; next time just get off the mower and move it.  But for this particular ball that isn't a problem anymore.  Nope.

Back in the Kitchen Again

Today was Mother's Day so I decided I'd try to make something special for dinner.  And I wanted it to be a surprise, at that.  So I picked a menu and got the stuff.  I'm not sure what I was thinking because the menu I settled on was a bunch of stuff I have never fixed before.  Experiment on the big Mother's Day meal?  Experiment on the mother of my children?  Yeah, I was taking a big chance and feeling the pressure.  But what the heck.  Charge and move forward, right?

So I did the shopping and got all the stuff.  Then I decided to see what I could do ahead of time because we always come home from church hungry and I didn't want to make everyone wait a long time.  But, having never fixed this stuff before, I wasn't entirely sure how long it would take. Sure, lots of recipes gave preparation times and cooking times.  But how reliable is that?  I dunno, I usually don't pay attention to that stuff.  So I went through everything and picked out what I could do ahead of time.  Then on Saturday I fixed a couple of things early.

The main course was going to be marinated salmon.  I figured I could make the marinade ahead of time.  That part went pretty smooth.

One of the side dishes was a pasta dish, a mix of pasta and zucchini, with roasted tomatoes.  The recipe called for julienne cut zucchini. Julienne cut, umm.  For that I would need a julienne cutter.  For that I would need to know what a julienne cutter is.  Google is a wonderful thing; only took a minute to find out it is a tool we don't have in our kitchen.  But, happy day, my little spiralizer can do the same thing, or at least close enough.  So that's what I did.

So I ran the two zucchini through it and ended up with some wonderfully cut zucs.  And probably a heck of a lot easier than a julienne cutter would have done anyway.

Asparagus was also on the menu so I cut the woody ends off and set the rest to soak in water overnight, to soften it up.  My recipe said that was a good idea.  So once all that was done it all went into the fridge and I was done for the day.

I had intended to put the fish in the marinade before we left for church but I forgot.  Oh, well.  Soon as we got home that was the first thing I did.

With the fish marinading I started on the pasta.  First things was to roast the tomatoes.  I've never done that before but it was easy enough.  So I got that going and then put the asparagus on, as well as some hollandaise sauce, which is mostly milk.

That's where things started getting intense.  All this stuff cooking at the same time, a couple of the things needing constant stirring.  Alas, photos fell by the way side.  The last thing I wanted was to burn the Mother's Day dinner.  And I must confess, Mullbeere was here and helped with the desert.

But in about an hour it all came together and was on the table, ready to eat.  And it looked pretty good, too.

And when it was all done and everybody had eaten their fill, Brombeere said it was pretty good.  She said it is not the menu she would have come up with if she had been asked but she was pretty happy with it anyway.  That, and the fact that everybody had seconds of something or another, made me pretty happy.  I was happy with how it all turned out.  Happy Mother's Day!

If You Fill It They Will Come

Last winter we visited Heidlebeere and she had a couple of bird feeders in her backyard.  The birds that flocked to them were amazing.  She said she had so many she had to fill the feeders every few days.  Anyway, that got us thinking about our sorry bird feeders, sitting empty and disused in our own backyard.  We actually had a couple of them at one time but the squirrels kept coming and emptying them, keeping the birds at bay in the process.  The discouragement and just a busy life let them fall into disuse.  That, and the fact that we haven't been able to find a pole to hang them on that's tall enough to lift them up out of the range of the sprinklers.  Water and bird feed don't go together well. At the time we visited Heidlebeere, we only had one bird feeder left, still hanging in the yard and it was empty and in need of repair.

Well, seeing all those birds at Heidlebeere's feeders made us think we might want to try again with ours.  Especially right now, while we haven't turned on the sprinklers.  So we brought the one that was left in and cleaned it up.  Fortunately, it didn't need any repair, just putting back together because the squirrels, in trying to get at the seed, can be pretty rough on a bird feeder.  So we cleaned it up, got some bird seed and a cake of suet, put it all together, and took it back outside.  We hung it on the pole. No, we didn't try to straighten the pole or anything.  Just hung it there and left it.  That was a week or so ago.  And, sure enough, the birds found it!

I came home from work yesterday and was puttering around in the kitchen, doing my "just-arrived-home-from-work" routine, when I noticed a bird out at the feeder.  Exciting!  And it was easy to see, too!  A bright, yellow gold finch!  They're easy to see!

This was something!  I ran and got my camera, hoping it would stay.  They so often come and flit around but don't always stay a long time.  But this one did!  It stayed and ate at the feeder long enough for me to grab my camera, get back and get it out, and get some pictures!  And then, lo and behold, another little bird came!

I don't know for sure (I'm no expert), but I'm thinking that gold finches are like so many other birds, the males are bright and pretty while the females are more plain.  This might have been the mate.

So they both ate at the feeder for a while.  It was so fun to watch!  I like watching birds.  We have a few little bird houses around the yard.  Maybe if we're lucky they'll take up residence in one and raise a family!  Its been a few years since that happened.  That would be so fun!

A Good Day

Yesterday was a good day; we went to the temple.  I like going to the temple, especially with my favorite person.

In going to the temple we occasionally like to go to the Chicago Temple so we can sneak in a visit with Erdbeere and her boys.

Unfortunately, this time Moon wasn't feeling well so Erdbeere only brought Townsend along.

Still, it was fun.  Townsend brought his book and when we went to lunch afterwards he read to us after we had ordered our food.

Its always fun to catch up with Erdbeere and spend some time with her.

After we ate we went across the street to a shop owned by a friend of Erdbeere's.  They visited a little, we bought a couple of goodies, and Townsend got to play with some Sesame Street toys.  He was happy.  It was a good visit.  It was a good day.

Big Boots

Its a known fact that where there are babies cuteness happens.  The other day, sweet little Mr. X had just gotten out of the tub when he came upon his uncle's boots.  So he's thinking, "These are shoes.  I should be able to put them on."  Right?

After all, his uncle gets them on all the time with no trouble.  "Why not me?"

"Maybe I need to back into this.  It seems the feet should go in first."

"If I work at this long it enough I should be able to get it."

"This isn't how its supposed to end."  Alas, shortly after this, his mama came and got him and he was unable to master the moment.