Science?

So this is kind of how it went.

Me: Want to try some tapioca?

Maulbeere: What’s that?

Me: It’s kind of like pudding.

Maulbeere: Really?

Me: Yea, only I have to tell you it’s got things in it. Little balls.

Maulbeere: Little balls?

Me: Yea, you drop all these little balls in and cook it. Then you end up with yummy pudding, which you like. And little balls.

Maulbeere: That sounds icky.

Me: No its not. You should try it. The flavor is worth the little balls.

Maulbeere: What's it made of?

Me: Tapioca.

Maulbeere: What's tapioca made of?

Me: It's not made of anything. It’s a basic element; nature's kitchen. End of story.

Maulbeere: Uh-uh.

Me: Yes, ma'm. You look it up. Its right on the Periodic Table; "Ta". Go look.

Maulbeere, coming back with her agenda from school, which has a copy of the Periodic Table in it: Okay, there's a Ta but its "tantalum", not tapioca.

Me: That's its scientific name. You know? Like, you and me, we call them wolves. But their scientific name is Cannis Lupus. Trust me. You’ll like it.

Maulbeere: Suuuuuuuure.

So then the big question is: did she try it? Yes, actually. And she liked the pudding but not the little balls.

A Thought for Today

A few days ago, for family scripture reading, we read in Alma 42. That was Alma’s counsel to his son, Corianton, and included a concept I have always liked; “… whosoever will come may come and partake of the waters of life freely, and whosoever will not come the same is not completed to come; but in the last day it shall be restored unto him according to his deeds.”

I really like how it’s said in Helaman, chapter three; “Yea, we see that whosoever will may lay hold upon the word of God, which is quick and powerful, which shall divide asunder all the cunning and the snares and the wiles of the devil, and lead the man of Christ in a strait and narrow course across that everlasting gulf of misery which is prepared to engulf the wicked – And land their souls, yea, their immortal souls, at the right hand of God in the kingdom of heaven, to sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and with Jacob, and with all our holy fathers, to go no more out.”

Those passages sum up the concept of our agency. It is entirely up to us what happens to us in relation to our final resting place in the next life. Our Father has set up a myriad of things to surround us and help us improve the outcome of this life’s test we’re living thru but in the final analysis, it’s up to us. We can blow off some or all of the help He’s given us or we can hold on tight to every bit of help the Lord offers. Like Alma told his wayward son; “… my son, do not risk one more offense against your God …” I like the phrase that Isaiah uses several times, “For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still”

When the subject comes up of why the Lord allows suffering we always trot out the scripture in Alma 60 about the Lord allowing the righteous to be slain so that judgment may come upon the wicked. Sometimes, when you bring that up, you hear back about how a loving God would not allow suffering even for that reason. Their sense of fairplay just doesn’t allow that kind of justice. But if God is going to give us agency then he has to allow us to use it if it’s going to mean anything. Otherwise he hasn't really given us our agency. The terms are laid out in plainness before us. We can either accept or reject them. They are not open at all to negotiation. And that’s okay. As imperfect humans we miss too many things to bring any kind of "after the fact" justice. But God is capable of doing that.

Another Monday, another FHE

So, way back on the 15th I had surgery on my left foot. They sent me home with a splint of plaster held to my leg and foot by something akin to an ace bandage. Then, after 10 days, I had to go back in to get a regular cast put on. That ended up being on a Monday so I'm thinking that maybe we could parley this into some kind of fun family night activity. So when they asked me what color cast I wanted and listed off several bright and fun colors they almost seemed disappointed when I said white. So later than evening, when it was time for the activity, out came the colored markers and we got started.

Schwarzebeere worked long and hard on his and came up with a very novel piece of art work. He was quite pleased when he was done. He is an imaginative kid.

Maulbeere got to work on her's.

Among other things, she did a portrait of our little pooch, SID - I mean Quasar. Quite artistic.


Himbeere's art work is always interesting, leaning a bit toward the abstract. This time he decided to showcase some of what he's been learning in his German class at school.

I'll let let you figure out exactly what he was trying to say.

And then Stachelbeere. He can actually be quite artistic when he wants to. He's turned out some pretty incredible artwork in the last few months.
But this time he opted for something simplier and a bit sci-fi, as well. And he signed his work with his new moniker.

But, like the old saying goes, "last the best of all the game."

This one is my favorite.

Technological Marvelings

Oh, the marvels of modern technology. Today a friend 1,500 miles away had lunch delivered to my door, all while sitting in her office at work. She called to see how things were going and make sure I was up to it, after having just had surgery. Then she ordered pizza and 20 minutes later it was delivered. Took longer to cook than it did to order and deliver. And it was yummy, too! I find that amazing. Having lived most of my life before the internet, back when just finding someone to deliver the pizza would have been a major undertaking, I think it’s cool that this kind of stuff is now so easy.

Ready for the Polar Bears Club?

Soooooooo, for New Year's Eve the youth in the branch decided to have a New Year's party at the home of one of the members that lives a little ways out of town. Among the festivities they planned was a dip in the hot tub, which was out of doors. Now to truely appreciate this you have to understand that all day the tempurature was way down. It never got above 10 (that was at midnight, as the day began) and by the time of evening they decided to get in the tub it had dropped down to -9.

Stachelbeere was the first in the water, followed soon by Schwarzebeere.

Didn't take him long to settle in. But then came the real fun. They would get out of the tub and take a roll in the snow.

Himbeere; seems a bit crazy to me.

Stachelbeere was every bit as crazy. This is the same kid that did the official Polar Bear plunge in the lake a few years ago. The water was 101 so I suppose that once they got back in they got warmed up pretty quick. He said the hardest part was getting back into the tub. You'd be a little cold while in the snow but when you'd get back in the water it would burn.

And then there was Himbeere's walks around the back yard. He had said he wanted to go sit on an old, broke down snowmobile that was parked out in the back yard but we talked him out of it. We were afraid he'd freeze to it and be stuck. It was amazing how the steam would rise off them when they were out of the tub. Burrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Betcha didn't know . . . . .

Wanna hear something profound? Tonight, our sweet little Himbeere shared this little gem of wisdom with us "You can't call 'em 'pits' until they got hair in 'em." Now there's a thought to ponder as you drift off to sleep!

Goodies, Goodies Galore!!!

I always hear the ladies work and church, when Christmas time comes around, talk about how busy they are because they have to get their holiday baking done. Wow. We don’t normally go all out with baking but this year we certainly did more than normal. The first bunch of cookies we did were kind of an experiment. The picture in the cookbook looked all cute and pretty. Ours didn’t quite turn out as nice. But they were still pretty yummy. They're supposed to be cute little teddy bears.

The next bunch we did were candy cane cookies. We even flavored them with peppermint. They turned out much better.

Then the art work really began. Blaubeere and son came over with all her equipment and we made some really cool looking cookies. Yes, those are paint brushes they were using.

They had bags of frosting, sprinkles to scatter on them. They were using “Royal Frosting”, which sets up a little harder when it dries. In the end, they made some fantastic looking cookies. I took some to work for a treat day and they got all kinds of compliments, ooohs and aahhs.

The next bunch we made have a little story to go with them. See, we wanted to double the recipe so we could have a few extra. But when it came time to add the sugar we accidentally quadrupled it. What to do, what to do. So, like any sweet-loving American family, we quadrupled the rest of the ingredients. So we certainly did end up with lots of this kind.

Then there was the cookie exchange at school. Take in a plate and bring home a bucket, a real assortment of all kinds of cookies made by everyone participating in the exchange. We ended up with not just cookies but fudge as well. That was great!

The goodies weren’t limited to just cookies, tho. We got some really yummy candied apples from Nicole. And we had a bunch of candied popcorn we’d bought from the scouts during their popcorn sale at the end of November.

So with all that, along with a few goodies we brought home from the store we ended up with more than enough Christmas goodies this year.

It all reminded me of when I was a kid and my Mom would do her holiday baking. She’d end up filling a couple of 5 gallon cans, with tight lids, full of every kind of cookie you could imagine. Then the cans would sit out on the back porch, where it was nice and cold to help them last. The nice part was that she was liberal as to when we could have some. Between the tight lid and the cold porch (you could only stand to be out there so long!) they didn't go too fast. We had all we wanted, certainly more than we needed. It was great. This is how great Christmas memories are made. Cool.

99 Things

Ritsumei (Blaubeere) had this meme on her blog, it looked like fun, so I swiped it. Here goes! Things I have done are in red.
1. Started your own blog.
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band (trombone & baritone)
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Tokyo
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty (started up it but didn’t go all the way)
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s Pietà (It had traveled to the World’s Fair in New York, where I saw it. Never been to Italy)
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies (taken my girls out while they sold them – does that count?)
62. Gone whale watching (Seen dolphines chase along side the boat, but no whales)
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book (Wrote a fiction novel once but couldn’t talk anyone into publishing it)
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House (We were in town but didn’t get to this one)
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury (I was summoned once but the case settled out of court)
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee (and a wasp and a hornet – ouch!)

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!

We woke up to -14 this morning. All day yesterday and all night it had been snowing and blowing so there were drifts all over the place. We had shoveled out the driveway yesterday but more snow had fallen and then the wind had blown it around. Made for some really nice drift patterns in the driveway.

Church hadn’t been cancelled but was limited to just Sacrament meeting. And sparsely attended at that. Later in the day we hopped in the car (trusting it would warm up) and drove around delivering plates of cookies to our home and visiting teaching families. Fortunately the car did get nice and toasty warm so it wasn’t a bad drive. The branch boundaries are most of two counties so we ended up making a about a 40 mile round trip but it was fun. When we got home we noticed the snow had even drifted up on this little bear we have hanging out on the garage. He looked cold.

Ouch!

Then there was the time my little Himbere was walking from the car into the garage as the door was still opening, but looking back at the car so he didn't notice that the door hadn't quite got open enough for him to walk in . . . . . . . .