Commonplace Book

A collection of thoughts, ideas, anecdotes, poems, observations, and quotes that stood out and caught my attention, some with comment, some without. Essentially a scrapbook, a repository of thoughts too good to just pass over and let go.

“If you think the Church has been fully restored, you are just seeing the beginning. There is much more to come.”
(Russell M Nelson, from a room overlooking the newly dedicated Concepción Chile Temple, October 28, 2018, as reported in the Church News. October 29, 2018)

“... but caution is the parent of safety.”

(Joseph Smith letter to Emma Smith, June 27, 1844) 

“The Savior reminded Joseph that the Saints could not suffer more than He had. He loved them and could end their pain, but He chose instead to suffer affliction with them, carrying their grief and sorrow as part of His atoning sacrifice. Such suffering filled Him with mercy, giving Him power to succor and refine all who turned to Him in their trials.”

(Saints, The Story of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days, Volume 1, The Standard of Truth, 1815–1846, page 389) 

“I have wasted a lot of time living.”

(Michael Oakeshott (December 1901–December 1990), an English philosopher and political theorist who wrote about philosophy of history, philosophy of religion, aesthetics, philosophy of education, and philosophy of law.) 

“We have come to realize also that the mere performance of a ceremony does not bring happiness and a successful marriage. Happiness does not come by pressing a button, as does the electric light; happiness is a state of mind and comes from within. It must be earned.”

(Spencer W Kimball, “Marriage and Divorce”, BYU Devotional, 7 Sept 1976) 

“Loneliness in “epidemic proportions” is producing a “loneliness literature” of sociological and medical findings about the effect of loneliness on individuals’ brains and bodies, and on communities. Sasse (R-Neb.) says “there is a growing consensus” that loneliness — not obesity, cancer or heart disease — is the nation’s “number one health crisis.” “Persistent loneliness” reduces average longevity more than twice as much as does heavy drinking and more than three times as much as obesity, which often is a consequence of loneliness.  This reflects a perverse phenomenon: What has come to count as connectedness is displacing the real thing.”

(George F. Will, “We have an epidemic of loneliness. How can we fix it?”, Washington Post, October 12, 2018) 

“The same God that placed that star in a precise orbit millennia before it appeared over Bethlehem in celebration of the birth of the Babe has given at least equal attention to placement of each of us in precise human orbits so that we may, if we will, illuminate the landscape of our individual lives, so that our light may not only lead others but warm them as well. (Neal A Maxwell, That My Family Should Partake, p. 86) 

“Gambler's Fallacy - the misconception that what has happened recently will affect what occurs next even if the two events are unrelated. For example,  if flipping a coin nine times results in nine instances of “heads”, probability still applies: There's a 50 percent chance the tenth flip will be heads. … Recast the notion of probability like this: A hundred-year flood doesn't happen every 100 years; rather, it has a one percent chance of happening every year.”

(Why We Ride Out Life Threatening Storms and Do Other Crazy Things, by Macomb Roberts, NY Times, 10/11/2018) 

“Having women and men in the conversation can affect the nature of both the questions asked, and the findings found.”

(Susan Madsen, Utah Women Leadership Project, Utah Valley University) 

And He Will Teach Us of His Ways

Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all ye ... that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord.
(Jeremiah 7:2)

A Claim Jumper

We recently had occasion to visit Schwartzbeere and family. There's a certain young man there who likes to try things on that belong to other people. Boots, for example.  This young man recently acquired a little sister.  And with the little sister came a baby rocker, a comfy little bed she can lay in and sleep or watch as life happens in her home. So anyway, this young man recently took the opportunity to try out that little bed.  I think it turned out to be a little harder than he originally thought it would be.  But that certainly didn't stop him.  Hardly slowed him down.

Its not a really big bed, its meant for infants who will lay quietly.  That's not the case with this young man.

Lots a wiggling and squirming.  Wasn't as easy as when Mom or Dad lays his sister in it.

In and wiggle.  Push and wiggle.

Not being a solid bed made it harder.  Its more like a hammock.

More squirming and wiggling.  Working his way in farther and farther.

Finally, after a few minutes and a great deal of effort, he was in.  Life was good.

Of course, it works lots better for its rightful owner.  She fits in it much better.  And she gets help getting in and out.  Why, she hardly gives it any thought at all - it just happens.  Works much better for her. But that's not a problem. In his mind, as long as nobody stops you it's fair game, go for it!

Another Concert

It was time to hit the road again and I thought it would be cool to watch the odometer along the way.  It was my father who got me to notice palindromes on the odometer.  He would often point them out as we were driving around.  He's also the one who got me to look for routes that involved the fewest number of stop signs or stop lights when traveling.  Feeding my OCD.  Maybe that's where it came from.  Anyway, that's another story.  As it turned out on this trip, we got having so much fun that I forgot to watch the odometer.  Ah, well.

So the original purpose of this trip was to go attend Heidlebeere's fall concert. Always a good time. But in the run up to that event, we were able to finagle our way into a side trip to Erdbeere's place for a couple of days.  In fact, what's even better, Edrbeere decided to come along and go to the concert, too!  O frabjous day! Callooh, callay!

At our house, peak fall colors have come and gone.  But when we got to Erdbeere's house we saw that fall was in full swing!  It looked very good on her place.

She had some nice Halloween decorations out.  Very nice.  Very festive!

The next morning Brombeere and Edrbeere went to pick up her oldest from school.  Always a good time, a good opportunity to hit the playground for a few minutes.

Townsend's little brother likes to tag along to these trips, gets him the opportunity to get in some play time, as well.  They can always be counted on to enjoy any playground time they can get.

Then the day's big event - lunch at the a train themed diner.  Nice.  This place was busy, of course, especially since we got there in time for the lunch rush.  Fortunately, they have a very nice waiting area, lots of train toys to entertain while waiting for seating.

And it did very well at keeping the boys happy while we waited. 

When the boys are happy, everybody's happy.  Isn't that how the saying goes?

Pretty soon we were seated.  Then came the hard part - deciding what to get.  "Mom, what do I like?"

The cool thing about this diner was that to food is brought out of the kitchen on a little train.  The engine pulls the cars to carry everybody's order. 

Then the waitress comes over and unloads the train, giving everyone their order. 

Pretty slick!  And the food was good, too!  Of course, any place that has a Ruben sandwich is half way there.  The other half is that it has to be good.  And this one was!

It was a fun place.  I'd go back. 

The only down side?  The train games in the waiting area were such a big attraction that it didn't take long before the boys had left their lunch and were back at the games.  It was a fun lunch.

One fun thing that Edrbeere does is let the kids color with erasable markers on the patio door.  They love it.  Moon was drawing, well, I'm not sure what Moon was drawing.  Could have been pictures or it could have been letters, like his brother.

Townsend was still on the train theme.  Heck, Townsend is usually on the train theme.  His favorite train is the Blue Line.  He would write the first letter of the name of all the stops from one end of the Blue Line to the other.  Then he began putting dots above them.  I think those were lines you could transfer to at each stop.  I could be wrong about that.  But I found it amazing that he knows the stops that well.  And not just the Blue Line.  He knows the other lines pretty well, too. 

The rest of us stuck to mundane, Halloween art.  Very appropriate for this time of year.  Erdbeere did a very nice bat.

Brombeere did several things, pumpkins, leaves of several different fall colors, hearts, and so on.

I did a pumpkin.  I think its a pretty cool thing, letting them color on the glass.  And they love it.  Every time we visit there's new art work on the glass.

The next day was the trip over to Heidlebeere's place so there was a trip to the store to get some things for the trip.  While there they saw a prickly pear.  I hadn't realized that was a real fruit.  I had always thought it was a kind of weed, with little burrs that stick to your clothes.  But, nope.  Its an actual fruit. So we tried some.  It wasn't too bad, though the seeds were pretty obnoxious. 

Later there were stories.  Townsend is to where he can read the story - pretty nice. 

The next day was the boys' swim lessons.  They like those.  It was fun to watch.

This was a place designed specifically for swim lessons so they had the pool divided into eight or ten areas and had lessons going in pretty much all of them. I really liked the lessons for the little kids.  They were geared to getting the kids comfortable and at ease in the water.  Some of them definitely were not.  Moon, however, seemed pretty comfortable.

I thought he did very well, with lots of help and encouragement from his Dad.  He was having a good time.

Townsend had his goggles and was ready to have at it.  He was in the water, doing different strokes, swimming back and forth in his lane.  He was having a good time.

After lessons it was back to the house to load up the car and hit the road.  Moon wasn't coming on this trip, but he was right there supervising the loading process.

We traveled pretty good, not many stops so we were able to make good time.  One stop we did make was in Geneseo, Illinois, where we saw this cute little pig.

When we got there Townsend was excited - cousins and a new selection of books!

A good time was had by all.

The next day, after church, there wasn't enough time to go back to the house so we headed to a nearby park to pass the little bit of time before the concert.  It was very nice.  A little windy, but still quite nice.  The colors were just a little passed peak but still very pretty.

Townsend was in heaven - he ran from one place to the next, trying them all before time ran out.

Climbing

Twirling

Swinging

Sliding

All too soon, it was time to leave the park and head for the concert.  We ended up parking around the  corner so we had to walk about a block. 

The choir is a community choir that has been in the community for quite a while.  Their concerts are in a church, a very nice setting.

This was what we came for, and it was very good.  I like the music this choir does.  And Heidlebeere doe very well.  It's pretty stuff.  She likes it, we like it.  Its perfect.

And the concert was a good length, too.  An hour and a half and it was back on the road, to get Erdbeere back home and us, too.  It was a lot to squeeze into one trip. about 1,000 miles total, and we didn't get home until midnight.  But it was a good time with both Erdbeere and Heidlebeere and their families.  I'd do it again.