tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-214786372024-03-13T13:34:21.031-07:00Earth Sign Mama Writes"Traditionally, literature makes much of the beauty of fleeting things and the delight of the bittersweet mixing of pain and pleasure. But no one ever said that heaven was seasonal or fleeting. Heaven is always portrayed as blissfully monotonous, one bright blue day after another forever and ever.
Rather like California."Earth Sign Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03935899610898903903noreply@blogger.comBlogger985125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21478637.post-58699616819261572682017-09-23T12:01:00.000-07:002017-09-23T12:01:34.993-07:00CaldoniaI do not know who the “Caldoni” person was for whom our vehicle was
named, but I loved that I could drive around with her name on my license
plate. We bought the 1949 Chevy Suburban from a friend. She (and we
always referred to it as “she”) was just what we needed then. We had four children at that point, and planned to have a
couple more, so the two back seats were ideal. CoolGuy rebuilt the
engine: the original straight-6, and reupholstered the seats and the sun
visors–matching brown corduroy. Oh, and he installed a piece of plywood
on the floor in that one place to cover the little spot where the metal
had a hole in it, and you could see the road underneath. Her paint
color: mostly rust and primer.<br />
<br />
Yes—it was another in a succession of $500 vehicles that we had been
driving since our marriage, ten years previously. He was an enlisted
Navy man, and I was a college drop-out who worked at a
laundry/dry-cleaner until we had the second child. Then, I stayed home
and Mom-ed. I had a couple of children who came to our house after
school for day-care, so I had a small extra income. BUT–I didn’t have to
work to provide a car payment–because I was married to a mechanical
genius.<br />
<br />
I simply didn’t care what the vehicle looked like–I just wanted it to
start every time I put the key in, and to keep running as I drove on my
Mother Errands back and forth from the doctor to the grocery store to
the beach. We lived in San Diego, so I didn’t need air conditioning nor a
heater that worked. I just needed to not have to wonder if I’d get
stranded somewhere. Thanks to the skills of my very talented husband, I
always had a successful trip.<br />
<br />
Many people were appalled, however, at this latest ride. One friend
looked at Caldonia and said, “Gosh, all you need is a dead grandma tied
to the top.” (She knew I was well-read enough to get the reference.) One
of our sons (a second-grader) said, “Mom, some of my friends
think Caldonia is really ugly. But, I like her!” My parents didn’t say
anything about it, but I’m sure the summer I arrived for a family
reunion, with our four children, and me about six months pregnant, in THAT truck,
they probably talked to each other privately. BUT…my husband had
replaced the transmission in my dad’s cattle truck a few years prior,
(my dad was a top-rate farmer, but was not mechanically inclined) so
they knew that whatever I was driving was going to get me there and
back.<br />
<br />
But, some people, besides us, appreciated her. One day, two guys
knocked on my door, asking if I was willing to sell it to them. They
offered more than we’d paid. They begged a little, actually. No, truly,
it wasn’t for sale. They needed it to cannibalize parts to fix up one
they owned that was in better shape. Nope. Not for sale. I had five
children by then, and every seat was taken.<br />
<br />
Besides, she was pretty fun to drive. She had “three on the tree”
transmission. I’d grown up driving pick-ups like that on our farm, so I
had the skills. The starter button was on the floor. Only the front door
windows could be rolled up and down–the back windows were too rusty to
slide open. It had a top & bottom tailgate opening, so we could open
the back a little if we wanted to get more air flow. The radio worked!
(CoolGuy can fix sooo many things.)<br />
<br />
But, eventually, we had to give up our old friend. My husband’s time
in the Navy ended, and he took a job that would move us to a colder
climate, closer to our families in Wyoming. We chose it, for just that
reason. Caldonia was really better suited for the weather in SoCal. We
didn’t have any trouble at all in finding someone who recognized her
beauty and charm. And, at the same time, a civilian guy who worked with CoolGuy was retiring, and decided to buy himself a new car. He
talked about how he was going to sell the old car to a junkyard for $50,
and my husband offered him more than that. But, the guy refused—he took
our $50 and we ended up with a 1968 Chrysler New Yorker. That co-worker
had been the only owner, and no one ever actually used the back seat
because the couple had no children. The odometer had 72,0000 miles! In
the eighteen years he owned it, he’d only driven it back and forth to
work, or out to a restaurant with his wife.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
But, that’s another car story.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-psu86mODays/WcatUfORiLI/AAAAAAAADpE/wGh5NvmlRew6LIjyOApoHndajJoc4tXQwCEwYBhgL/s1600/Caldoni.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="427" data-original-width="640" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-psu86mODays/WcatUfORiLI/AAAAAAAADpE/wGh5NvmlRew6LIjyOApoHndajJoc4tXQwCEwYBhgL/s400/Caldoni.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
This is 1984 at my parent's house. We had gone up there for our olde's son's baptism. We were packed up to return to California. CoolGuy's chopper is in the trailer. He'd gone on a ride to Yellowstone with some old friends, while I'd driven around visiting with my friends.</div>
Earth Sign Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03935899610898903903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21478637.post-20609395514075593822017-08-19T20:19:00.001-07:002017-08-19T23:23:04.737-07:00The Most Beautiful Place in the World<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</xml><![endif]-->I was born in the most beautiful place in all the world!
Seriously…according to my mom. Actually, she wasn’t wrong. Our isolated valley
high in the Rocky Mountains of western Wyoming is pretty stunning to see. My
great-grandparents on both sides of my family were among the original settlers.
It has long winters, but even then the scenery doesn’t fail to meet the
standard of spectacular. There are towering mountains, with red cliff faces,
and other peaks that are blanketed with pine trees. The aspens form a fluttering
skirt of pale green leaves at the base of these mountains all summer. Then
those leaves turn a brilliant yellow in the autumn. A couple of rivers meander
between the bordering hillsides, and supported the beaver that enticed my
trapper/mountain man ancestor. Those same rivers also created succulent meadows
that the farmer ancestor realized would feed dairy cows that could sustain his
family. It remains a place of beauty today.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-icqFH76BsaA/WZj-iAaDFuI/AAAAAAAADoc/hcdPMfriPyYYmXMjTKmXwNpAhoTaTmJLACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_1066.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1110" data-original-width="1600" height="276" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-icqFH76BsaA/WZj-iAaDFuI/AAAAAAAADoc/hcdPMfriPyYYmXMjTKmXwNpAhoTaTmJLACLcBGAs/s400/IMG_1066.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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But, when I left the Most Beautiful Place in the World, with
my newly-wed Navy husband, we got to live in….the most beautiful place in
the world: Southern California! The ocean! The mountains!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The sunsets! The endless fields of
strawberries, tomatoes, and flowers!! Look at the black, rich soil! Why, all you
have to do is drop seeds in the ground and they just grow like crazy. Seriously, I
had gigantic geranium plants tumbling down the slopes of my yard. Till then,
a geranium had been an exotic houseplant that my mother nurtured carefully in
the south-facing windows of our farmhouse living room. Their brilliant red
blooms were a vivid contrast to vast, white world that stretched beyond the
glass for so many months of the world. I could never get enough of the ocean
when I lived there. The sound of the waves varied from the gentle lapping in
the flood control channel of Dog Beach, to the ferocious explosions when a
storm smashed the roiling green water onto the rocks at Sunset Cliffs. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I couldn’t get enough of it, early in the
morning, on a lazy summer afternoon with the kids, or at the end of one of
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down, filling the sky with a whole palette of purple, blue, and gold. </div>
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We got a job transfer. We moved 3000 miles east to
the shore of the Chesapeake Bay. It was quite a shock. There were more trees in
the county where we lived than I’d seen in my entire life, altogether. Each
road was simply a tunnel of trees. Big, gorgeous, magnificent trees! Surely
this had to be the most beautiful place in the world! Fall came, those trees
turned red and gold and you almost had to wear sunglasses on a cloudy day just
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white flowers bloomed on the branches, scattered through-out the whole county.
Shortly after that, we were treated to azaleas, lilacs and then more and more flowers popped
up, and tiny green buds formed on the dark limbs of the maples and oaks. One
afternoon, I came up over the top of a small hill, and stretched out before me was
SPRING!! The stunning special greenness blanketed the whole
world. Everything that grew had a blossom, then new leaves, and as the weeks
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About a decade ago, we
returned to the West. This time—the Mojave Desert. It is close enough to visit
the grandchildren, but we’ll never experience 20 degrees below zero. Have you ever been
here? Did you know that it is the most beautiful place on the earth? Dawn is
spectacular…the sky gradually grows lighter, then the sun peeps up over the
mountain obliterating all the long shadows that preceded its appearance. But
sunset and twilight are even more captivating. There were so many
colors of orange and purple that slowly fade from one to another. The
palm trees are silhouetted against the last bit of the deep indigo blue as tiny
bats swoop up and down and around, snatching their supper from the air. Desert
mountains are mostly devoid of trees. Some have small, tough plants that find a
way to pierce their roots through the sandstone, and grab a hold to sustain
life. The tiny leaves soak up every drop of moisture that can be extracted from
the meager rainfalls. But the mountains themselves are a wonder. Without the
covering of plant life, their geologic story is laid bare.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are layers of colors, and patterns of
swoops and swirls that reveal the upheavals of tectonic action eons ago. The
colors change tones throughout the day as the sun’s rays travel across the
surface of their jagged slopes. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zUYiGIYR2h4/WZj-PRFaxQI/AAAAAAAADoY/x-kNIvOHpR06Zxsy4yPhowUyCEmRWD6VwCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_0502.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1515" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zUYiGIYR2h4/WZj-PRFaxQI/AAAAAAAADoY/x-kNIvOHpR06Zxsy4yPhowUyCEmRWD6VwCLcBGAs/s400/IMG_0502.JPG" width="377" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
How lucky can I be, huh? I’ve lived my whole life in The
Most Beautiful Place in the World.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<br />
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</div>
Earth Sign Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03935899610898903903noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21478637.post-39107881975783925422017-07-20T23:00:00.003-07:002017-07-20T23:03:11.070-07:00Heritage Without the Cow Manure?<br />
My nephew’s family just returned from a multi-week (amazing) trip to
Europe. They (mom and four children 13-6 — dad joined them for the final
week) hiked and toured in many countries. I was exhausted watching them
via Instagram. As “payment” for parking their car in our side yard,
instead of the airport, they brought us some Belgium chocolate, and an
adorable little carved wooden Brown Swiss cow. It is about four inches
long.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-92-e67V9rm8/WXGXOhWkEqI/AAAAAAAADng/bXzQxue1e_kveXFjp7wEnT9Yu8PJTaiMgCLcBGAs/s1600/Brown%2BSwiss%2Bcow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1071" data-original-width="1600" height="214" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-92-e67V9rm8/WXGXOhWkEqI/AAAAAAAADng/bXzQxue1e_kveXFjp7wEnT9Yu8PJTaiMgCLcBGAs/s320/Brown%2BSwiss%2Bcow.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
See, my nephew knew (correctly) that I would be absolutely delighted
by this tiny gesture because he knows his aunts well. No matter what
else we do in our lives, our identity will always be defined by our
dairy farm upbringing.<br />
<br />
We six daughters were the third generation of cow milkers in our
extended family. Our parents and their parents had been dairy farmers,
too. One of our grandfathers was instrumental in starting a Swiss cheese
creamery co-op in our community in order to preserve and sell the milk
produced, and not just be subsistence farmers. His parents had
immigrated to America from Switzerland in the mid-1800s, so my
grandfather was born here, along with his 12 siblings.<br />
<br />
After WWII, our parents were married, and they, too, set up a dairy
farm, selling the milk to the cheese factory. We girls (along with two
brothers, born in the middle of six sisters) were the workers. We hauled
hay all summer, and fed it back out to the cows all winter. We spent
the two hours each morning, and each evening, milking the Guernseys,
Jerseys, and Brown Swiss cows our dad had carefully accumulated. The
world has a default concept of cows as the black and white Holsteins
that are usually depicted, but our father was aiming for the high
butterfat content that brought him a premium price from the creamery.<br />
<br />
Yes, yes, you are wondering where I’m going with this memoir. I’ve
been pondering my place in the universe as the last of the cow-milkers
in our family tree. None of my sisters (nor I) married a farmer. By
design. Our older/little brother was married by the time our father died
— too early — at 61 from leukemia. (The younger/little brother chose
college and is an attorney.) The first brother took over the farm,
making payments to my mother for the property over the years, and she
continued to own, and live in, her home until her death 10 years ago.
Despite his valiant efforts, and expansion from three dozen to 150 cows,
it became obvious that to be a successful dairy, one needed to either
have 1,000 cows, or a special niche in the dairy industry. He had
neither the money nor opportunity, so he sold the cows after 20 years,
rented the hay fields to another farmer, and went to work selling
machinery to the guys who had “gone big.” This was the end of nearly 100
years of milking in our family history.<br />
<br />
I really appreciate having grown up in a world where hard work was
the norm, and it was expected and assumed that you would do your part.
My town friends would be planning swimming parties for the last day of
school. My farm friends and I knew we’d be picking rock from the plowed
fields so our dads could plant the grain. I didn’t need to “work out”
because all summer I bench-pressed thousands of 75-pound hay bales as we
collected them from the fields and stacked them near the barns. Then,
all winter, we fed those bales to our cows. I lifted filled 10-gallon
milk cans from the milk-house floor into the cooling trough each night,
and carried heavy milkers from cow to cow in the barn twice a day. We’d
wrap our curler-filled hair in a dish towel to keep the dirt off. I was
an expert at gulping down breakfast, then applying mascara and
eye-shadow at top-speed so I’d be ready to catch the bus for high school
in the 30 minutes between turning out the last cows, and heading to
town for my education. None of us would have purposefully shirked our
work, because it <i>had</i> to be done, and our parents only had so
many hours in their day, too. Also, animals cannot be mistreated or
neglected when they are the source of the family income.<br />
<br />
Once or twice after I married, I stayed for a few months at my
parents’ home with my first two children, to help with the work. I did
not have a paycheck-job at the time, and my dad’s illness had diminished
his energy for a several years before my brother reached adulthood. So I
was available to help out. I milked the cows, fed the animals, cleaned
out the barns, etc. But I never intended to return to our mountain
valley permanently as a farmer or rancher.<br />
<br />
Despite my having left behind the hard work of the farm as soon as I
could, it has always been my identity throughout my adult life. My
sisters and I are proud of our heritage, and proud of the way we were
tough and strong. But, none of our children have lived this way. And
none of them probably will, either. We sisters are now the “elders of
the tribe” and some of us have grandchildren about to graduate from high
school. Those children know all about the Farm Girls.That’s why my nephew knew I’d appreciate the wooden cow.<br />
<br />
But, now, as I approach the last portion of my mortality, I wonder
what defines my children, and my nieces and nephews, the way our cow
milker/hay hauler upbringing so influenced my sisters and me? Do they
associate with the heritage of four generations of their ancestors? Do
they see a field of bales, or a red barn, and have flashbacks to
Grandma’s house? My children lived in four different cities, in three
states, in completely different climate zones. How do they define
themselves?<br />
<br />
I wonder sometimes if by discontinuing this Dairy Heritage I deprived
them of something that has powerfully sustained me as I spent my adult
life as a willing nomad. I’ve never shied from a challenging task,
because I learned early that I could do very hard, sometimes boring,
jobs by just persisting. I see my children succeeding at their lives:
being good, helpful, self-supporting people, and raising their children
to be that way, too. So, perhaps it is possible to pass on the skills
and standards I learned from my extended family, without having to
shovel the cow manure or haul the bales.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_ajoz_HIqdE/WXGYXaUIN1I/AAAAAAAADns/x9SbyMXJjE0qPOHrcNwbKOunLOke6lH-gCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_0352%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_ajoz_HIqdE/WXGYXaUIN1I/AAAAAAAADns/x9SbyMXJjE0qPOHrcNwbKOunLOke6lH-gCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_0352%255B1%255D.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />Earth Sign Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03935899610898903903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21478637.post-24424272481048518142017-06-19T23:39:00.001-07:002017-06-19T23:39:26.757-07:00School DazeI’ve taught school, officially, for 22 years now. I mean, as a
contracted teacher. I also worked as a teacher’s aide, and as a
short-term and long-term, substitute teacher for a couple of years, as I
finished the credential program in California. I went to college, for a
couple of years, fresh out of high school, but wasn’t a dedicated
student. So I dropped out, got married, had five children, then decided
to go back and finish my degree (because I had so much spare time). But,
this second attempt at college was more successful because I’d gained
more self-discipline, and better stick-to-it skills as a mother. I
became a full-time teacher when my “baby” was in eighth grade. It was a
really hard transition because I didn’t realize how much time was
involved in being The Teacher. Wow … lots of work and time. But, it is a
very entertaining profession. I’ve taught in California, Maryland, and
Nevada, and have been in 4th grade for my whole career … I love them.<br />
Here are few anecdotes:<br />
<ol>
<li>One afternoon, a father came in to pick up his son from my
after-school tutoring group. Addressing Father, I explained how Son,
standing right beside us, was still having a great deal of trouble
focusing on work during class time, and how I was hoping that Father
could help me with this. (I’d called and talked to Mom a couple of
times; Son just loved to talk and mess around.) Father spoke, “Well,
I’ve heard just about enough of this bull[expletive] about trouble in
school. And, I don’t want to hear about it again. So deal with it,
okay?” I turned to Son, and then looked at Father, and then Father spoke
again, “You understand, lady? Don’t call our house ever again.” He was
speaking to me … not to Son … luckily, the vice-principal was still in
her office, so I just took that pair, and our conversation, right to her
door.</li>
<li>All year, I had been teaching how to write complete paragraphs that
included a topic sentence and a closing sentence. We had completed our
research reports on birds. Each student was assigned a different bird,
and it included four paragraphs of information. Best closing sentence
ever: “Vultures are a very useful bird. Without them, the world would be
covered in dead meat.”</li>
<li>In my first classroom here in Nevada, I had a population of students
who spoke English only to me. The rest of their lives was lived in
Spanish. I do not speak Spanish. I’ve heard it a lot, but I learned
French in my high school. After living twenty years in Southern
California, though, I understood quite a bit, but I still couldn’t make
sentences without mixing up French and Spanish. So, I stuck to English.
One afternoon, I needed my students to line up so that we could go to
another classroom for some event. I announced, “Okay, you guys, it’s
time to stand up and push in your chairs so we can line up.” I saw a boy
turn to a girl near him, and say, in Spanish, “No, stay here, she said
“You guys” –it’s just boys leaving.” I said to him, “No, todos los
estudiantes — hijos y hijas.” It just came out!! It means “all the
students–boys and girls.” The look on his face was priceless!! He was
astonished! Good grief! His teacher understood what he said, and she
replied — in Spanish! I could tell he was wondering what else I’d
overheard in class.</li>
<li>Another year in that same school, I’d worked so hard to teach
vocabulary that went along with our reading program. We read the words,
we spelled them, we defined them, we found synonyms and antonyms, and we
acted them out (when possible). Well, we really struggled with the word
“anxious” because it is hard to say, and weird to spell. And most of
them had never encountered it before. Several weeks after it had been on
our study list, we were discussing a new story, and I asked the
students if they could describe how one of the characters must have been
feeling. Crickets … then a dear little girl’s face lit up with a smile,
and she shot her hand into the air. “Meeess…he was fiiilling anxious!”
Yeah!!!</li>
<li>When I was at my first-ever school, one of my high school aged
daughters volunteered in my classroom one afternoon. She told me this
story that evening: two little girls came over and asked, “Is your
mother like this at home, too?” My daughter replied, “Like: what she
says to do, she means; and no matter what you do, she’ll never change
her mind?” “Yes!!” they said, in unison. Ha ha!! We laughed.</li>
<li>One day I saw one of my students looking really sad. I asked him
what happened. He replied that his dad was so mad at him for getting in
trouble with me at school, and having me phone home, that Dad had
announced that the son couldn’t go to Pocono to the NASCAR races that
summer. (School had about nine weeks to go.) Hmmm … so I called Dad and
made a deal. I’d make up a little chart, and Son would bring it home
daily to show Dad how that school day had gone. If Son could get four
out of five days with good reports for each week, till school was out,
could he earn back the trip to NASCAR? Dad agreed … I had the best
“Carrot” anybody ever had to use for the rest of the year! We had a fine
end of the year, and Son learned how to be a better student.</li>
</ol>
I’ve got a million of them … but, I’ll stop now. I didn’t know that
being a teacher was going to be worth much more than just my paycheck.<br />
<br />
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Earth Sign Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03935899610898903903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21478637.post-68680154990611128272017-05-24T06:56:00.000-07:002017-05-24T06:57:49.783-07:00Queen, At Last<div id="q-431838">
You all know that I’m a farm girl. I haven’t
actually lived on that farm for most of my adult life. I frequently went
back home to spend some time with my parents, and twice I actually
stayed, with my babies, and lived with them for a few months to help
out. My dad was ill, and I was the only sister without an outside job
(as opposed to staying home, raising the kids.) So, I did a fair amount
of milking, shoveling, feeding, etc. as a grown-up, too.<br />
<br />
However, being a farm girl wasn’t the path to glamour and honor at my
high school. Or perhaps the problem was just being a tall, geeky,
uncoordinated, not-cool farm girl…For instance, I would never have even
considered trying out for the cheerleader squad. Nor would I have ever
presumed to be elected Prom Queen, or even one of the Princess
Attendants. I knew the limits of my personal popularity.<br />
<br />
But, one year, I realized that there was queen contest for which I
was uniquely qualified! The Future Farmers of America sponsored an event
each year. There was an assembly, a dance, and a contest as part of
their status as one of the “big deal” clubs in our school. (No,
seriously–they had a large membership, and officers, and went to state
and national events every year. FFA was an organization with clout in
our world.)<br />
<br />
So, in my senior year, I decided to enter their queen contest. It
wasn’t at all about your appearance, or charisma, or popularity. It was
strictly won through points! I could do that! There was a series of
events we participated in over the course of the week. One day, there
was a cake contest–no sweat! I’d been cooking and baking since I was
nine years old. Check! Got my points. Another day involved a
tractor-driving obstacle course. And, you had to be able to do some of
it in reverse. Again…been driving since I was younger than nine! We had a
written test, too, as I recall, about the by-laws of the FFA or their
charter, or something. But, if it involved reading, then I could easily
master that, too.<br />
<br />
I had a little trouble with the snowmobile driving race, because I’d
only ever driven a snowmobile a couple of times. This is when I started
to care too much, and sort of sold my soul to be the winner. There was a
boy who had a big crush on me, but it was not mutual. At all. However…I
totally used him to get some practice on a snowmobile, and I may have
taken advantage of his position as one of the officers in our FFA to get
any influence I could over whatever he could do for me. I still feel
like a creep about it, even though high school ended 46 years ago.<br />
<br />
But, I nailed the horse saddling event entirely on my own! I watched
as two other girls started this timed contest. I noticed how the horse
stood still for the saddle blanket, and then took a little side step
when the saddle was being hefted his way, so that the first attempt at
getting it on his back was thwarted. So, when it was my turn, I stepped
along with that wily gelding, and so the saddle landed right where it
was supposed to when he didn’t expect it! The horse almost stumbled, he
was so surprised. I grabbed up the cinches, and pulled and buckled, and
got him all ready in record time! It was my quick time with the saddling
that put me over the top!<br />
<br />
I had done it! I was finally the queen of something at my high
school! My younger sister was the Junior Class attendant. We got crowns,
and were honored at the assembly, and had another crowning event at the
dance that night. As FFA queen of 1971, I felt honored to represent
farmers and farming.<br />
<br />
I pretty much knew that I had no desire to marry a farmer and
continue the family legacy. Instead, I wanted to be free of the burden
of that twice-daily cow milking, and the summers spent hauling thousands
of hay bales to keep them fed through our long, long Rocky Mountain
winters. Also, I really wanted to go explore the world that lay beyond
those beautiful mountains surrounding our isolated valley. But, I was
still proud of my heritage, and felt that it was only appropriate that a
REAL farm girl was queen of the Future Farmers of America, at least
that once.<br />
<br />
(My sister is the blonde on my left.)<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</div>
Earth Sign Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03935899610898903903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21478637.post-17371583006554033582017-05-01T22:44:00.000-07:002017-05-01T22:44:44.423-07:00Spring<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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Name="List Continue 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Message Header"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Salutation"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Date"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Block Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Hyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="FollowedHyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Document Map"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Plain Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="E-mail Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Top of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Bottom of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal (Web)"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Acronym"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Address"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Cite"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Code"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Definition"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Keyboard"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Preformatted"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Sample"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Typewriter"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Variable"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal Table"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation subject"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="No List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Contemporary"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Elegant"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Professional"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Balloon Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Theme"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" QFormat="true"
Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="42" Name="Plain Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="43" Name="Plain Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="44" Name="Plain Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="List Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="List Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="List Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Lilac
Trees</span></u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Purple
pointed cone of itty-bitty blossoms</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Crowning
the tree in the yard.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I
break one off and bury my nose in its scent.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Instantly,
I am twelve years old,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Walking
out the back gate to the cow barn in June.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">These
flowers mean Wyoming.</span></div>
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This is from a lilac tree in Maryland. I was visiting there during Spring Break. I used to stop at this tree every year and load up my car with blossoms, take them to my school, arrange them in mason jars, and share them with my friends. The scent of these flowers are one of the quickest ways to send my brain straight back to my childhood.</div>
Earth Sign Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03935899610898903903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21478637.post-32594486039287666622017-04-06T23:12:00.000-07:002017-04-07T00:06:57.974-07:00A Grandpa Day<br />
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This is the birthday of my grandfather. My mother was his daughter. Grandpa Haderlie was born in 1889. That means that my most vivid memories of him, as the man building hay sheds, and fences, and painting and doing concrete at my parents' farm were all of a man who was in his 70's! When I realized this, as an adult, I was amazed. He was as old as I am now, when I was born--64. I was just one of 24 grandchildren that was part of his progeny, but he and grandma spent every Saturday in the summer at our house. (They wintered in Mesa, Arizona.)<br />
<br />
It was just the summer routine: Grandma and Grandpa would drive into our driveway sometime in the late morning. We would rush out to greet them...and to collect the bag of donuts he always brought. He'd usually bring some Swiss cheese from the factory he'd pass by on his way to our home.(He and some other men started that cheese factory as a co-op when they were young farmers.) Grandma was shorter than me in most of my memories, but that's just because I grew tall at a young age. Grandpa always wore a nice felt hat, or sometimes, a straw hat, but he always wore a hat. Grandma always wore a dress, with hose and black, lace-up shoes with a little heel.<br />
<br />
He came ready to work. There was always something at our farm that needed built, rebuilt, painted, repaired, taken down, put back up, etc. etc. I realize now that he was a great boon to my dad. Daddy had his hands full just keeping the irrigation current, the hay mowed and baled, the animals fed, and cared for, so to have his father-in-law come every week in the summer and build corral fences, and repair the barn doors, and add on to my mother's chicken coop was a blessing. Plus, we got to help!! Imagine the "helpers" --- eight and nine year old girls with our four year old brother tagging along. But, we could paint very well, after Grandpa showed us how to do it. (Luckily he also had my older sisters who were teens.) Those lovely plank fences around the barnyard were beautiful when painted white. The new barn doors looked terrific not sagging off their hinges, with the bright new stripes of white criss-crossing the red like an iconic barn should look. He repaired the sidewalks, he built us a cement block milk house with a cooling tank for the cans, and a place to wash the milkers.<br />
<br />
My mother would feed us all dinner (that is the 1:00P.M. meal on a farm) and then Grandpa would go back out to complete whatever project was started that morning. Daddy would take a little, much-needed nap, and then, after we girls had cleaned up the kitchen and done the dishes, my mom could do Grandma's hair. She'd shampoo it, and then curl it into little pinwheels with bobby pins. Then, it would dry overnight, and Grandma would be all ready for church the next day. When the hair was finished, and it was about four in the afternoon, Grandpa and Grandma would pack up their car with the fresh eggs from my mother's chickens, and sometimes they'd take a loaf of bread, and maybe some of the vegetables from the garden, or a jar or two of whatever my mother was canning, and head back home--about 30 miles away, in the "lower valley" (which was actually north of us, but down-river.)<br />
<br />
I don't know how my grandpa and his brother had the energy, stamina, or even the knee joints to do all the building they did on my parents' farm when I was a child. But, I know that he did it from a sense of duty to help my parents improve the little run-down place they'd bought when I was baby. That is a really long story, that doesn't need to be told here. Let's just say, that Grandpa felt he owed them.<br />
<br />
But, my Grandpa, the one who I remember from the 1960s had become a different little fellow by the 1970s. My grandmother had died, right after I finished high school, and two years before that, their beloved youngest son, had been killed in a plane crash while serving as a test pilot in the US Air Force. He really became an old man after those losses. I was married and living away in SoCal when Grandpa finally couldn't live alone anymore. He had to give up his driving privileges, and he ended up living for a month or two with each of his three daughters for several years. Then, the family finally needed to have him enter a care center for his last few years.<br />
<br />
Talking to my younger brothers and sisters, I realize that the Grandpa I knew was not the Grandpa they'd known. Those ten years between when I was a little girl and then became a woman, were years that really aged him. Instead of the busy grandpa who built hay sheds, and poured new sidewalks, he'd become the old grandpa who complained that the kids these days laid around too much. This was upon seeing my teen-aged brothers laying on the couch watching a T.V. show after they'd hauled hay all day, and milked the cows twice.<br />
<br />
He passed away at age 91. His legacy is still standing at my parents' old farm: fences and buildings that probably need him to come by on a Saturday, and mobilize a painting crew! He was one of those "Hurrying Haderlies" who worked as hard as he could, all of his life. He was a good, good man, and I cherish my memories of this awesome Grandpa.<br />
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When they lived in Arizona, he liked to send us photos </div>
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of the beautiful flowers growing there in December and January. </div>
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Of course in Wyoming, we didn't have blooming bougainvillea that time of year.</div>
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This is Grandpa and Grandma and Uncle Kermit. He was stationed at Luke AFB in Phoenix for several years, so they got to spend time together. He was an Air Force pilot.</div>
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My grandpa is in my mother's living room, talking with two of his sisters, </div>
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and his daughter, my Aunt Vera (on the far left.)<br />
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On the occasion of my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary.</div>
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On the lawn, in front of their house. I am the tall geek on the left in the blue dress. </div>
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I was 12, almost taller than my mother.<br /></div>
Earth Sign Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03935899610898903903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21478637.post-32342600104468814522017-03-21T19:01:00.000-07:002017-03-21T19:01:34.733-07:00The End is Near (er)A couple of years ago the elementary school where I teach 4th grade
reached its 20th Anniversary. We planned a big celebration, of course.
My fellow grade level teachers had a fun idea: let’s have all the
children write an essay about what they think they’ll be doing 20 years
from now! And the teachers could write one, too!<br />
<br />
I sat there for a minute, then I replied, “I don’t really want to
write one of those. I probably won’t be alive in 20 years.” Yeah…that
was a real mood killer.<br />
<br />
They immediately protested, and reassured me that I was just being
silly–I wasn’t that old–come on! And I laughed it off, and we proceeded
to plan other parts of our school celebration. But, I was just being
nice. I probably <strong>won’t</strong> be living on earth in 20 more years.<br />
<br />
I don’t feel ghoulish about it. It is just a fact. From the moment of
our birth, the clock is ticking on our stay here in mortality. The norm
in my world is that people grow older and generally pass on when
they’ve lived a full life of many decades.<br />
<br />
But, if you are born in some
parts of the United States, in certain demographic situations, you
actually do not expect that you’ll grow to be an old man. In fact, you
and a number of your peers will likely die a violent death. I have a
co-worker who went to college (against many odds) and teaches school and
seems to be living a life similar to mine. However, she is part of a
family that has most of its members living in the “other” style that she
left behind. She has attended a funeral for a close, young, relative
every year I’ve known her. Death isn’t a far-away, someday-thing for old
people in that world.<br />
<br />
How much does family history figure in to the age one will reach
before death? It may make a difference because of certain health issues:
diabetes, heart disease, some cancers. But, in my family, the stats are
really skewed. My father’s dad was dead at 34…murdered…by his
brother…sort of accidentally. Daddy’s mother had died two years before
at age 27–she’d fallen down some stairs, and was unconscious. Because of
how she’d landed, she couldn’t breath. She died before my six-year-old
dad could bring back some help. Orphaned by age 8, my father lived 61
years and one month. He passed 30 days after his birthday from the
leukemia he had been fighting for six years. (Yes, I should write a book
about his tragic childhood…)<br />
<br />
However, on my mother’s side, her father lived to age 96. Grandpa
told me once that he’d had to revise his plans over and over, because
the people he’d wished to speak or sing at his service kept dying before
it was time for Grandpa’s funeral. My mom, his daughter, lived until
the age of 78. Lucky for her, she was fairly robust until the last few
months, and then she rapidly slid downhill. Actually, she felt relieved
to be going. She’d really missed my dad all those years. When you went
to visit her in those last few weeks, she’d point out an item from her
house, and urge you to take it with you right then, because she knew you
really liked it, and she didn’t need it anymore. Practical woman right
to the end.<br />
<br />
So, I don’t feel negatively about contemplating my demise. I just
feel realistic. I’ve already out-lived my father by three years, and his
life was seriously diminished by his illness in the final three years. I
am still quite healthy. If I make it at least as far as my mother, I’ve
got fourteen years left. We have two grandchildren who are 14 years
old. Hmm, when I think of it like that, I get a little pensive. After
all, those two have grown up in the blink of an eye. I hope the
remainder of my life doesn’t fly by that fast.<br />
<br />
The end—it is coming.One thing that makes this less intimidating is
to reflect on how you are living your life right now. In reality, the
only thing that counts is each moment. If you’re putting off positive
experiences, thinking that “someday” you’ll reward yourself—cut it out!!
Enjoy your life right now!<br />
<br />
If you have serious regrets about things from the past—cut it out!!
You can only change what is happening right now. Be the kind of person
from now on that you wish you had been then.<br />
<br />
Be such a cheerful, good, and thoughtful person that, when you finally <strong>do</strong>
leave this mortal realm, people will miss you, and use you as an
inspiration to live their lives the same way. Or, you can mope around,
morbidly lamenting the fleeting state of mortality.<br />
<br />
The choice is all yours how to spend each blessed moment that we have here as human beings on our earthly home. The end.<br />
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Here's the view that some of my relatives will have on Resurrection Morning. </div>
Earth Sign Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03935899610898903903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21478637.post-27982299479403480742017-03-16T23:53:00.000-07:002017-03-16T23:53:58.468-07:00Pie!Last week, CoolGuy spent several hours doing one of his specialties: fixing up one of our vehicles. He knew that the truck needed a new power steering system because he'd seen a leak while he was changing the oil the week before. This required some ridiculous effort: jacking up the front end, rolling around under there on his mechanic's cart, and using (what looked to me) every wrench he has in his tool box. He got the old part off, took it up to the auto parts store, and came back with a new set-up (which cost nothing because--WARRANTY!--(this is the second one he has replaced) and then went to work hooking up the new system.<br />
<br />
It is always a wonder to watch these automobile repairs. He doesn't just see a truck: he sees all the systems and what they are supposed to look like, feel like, sound like, and can tell when something isn't just right. I get into the seat every morning, turn the key, the motor purrs to life, and I head off on my day, never giving it a second thought. Thanks to the amazing brain of CoolGuy, I never think about my transportation systems, except to buy more gas.<br />
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<br />
What does this have to do with pie, you ask? Well, I realized that I needed to do something special to show my admiration and appreciation. The solution: lemon meringue pie; home-made lemon meringue pie. I bought the lemons, I went home and got wrapped up in some other project that was pressing, and failed to get the pie made. So I took care of it today.<br />
<br />
Last night, I got home and decided that now was the time. I pulled out the flour, butter, and Crisco and got to work on the shell. I was interrupted over and over by texts from various church people while we sorted out some Primary business. I finally got it all baked and cooling on the table. But, by then, I realized that I couldn't go on with the filling, because it was definitely time to eat dinner, and then get off to bed.<br />
<br />
Tonight, after tutoring, I headed home and got started on the rest of the masterpiece. The only reason why I am successful at making homemade lemon meringue pie is that I watched my mother make them at least once a month while I was growing up. It is a massive undertaking. If I hadn't seen the process from beginning to end, over and over, I'm not sure I'd have ever been able to accomplish it.<br />
<br />
First, it takes a ridiculous number of pots, bowls, spoons, spatulas, measuring spoons and cups. It also requires a few specialty items such as a lemon juicer, and a lemon peeler/scraper thingy that lets you get fine bits of lemon rind off the lemons before you juice them. You need a mixer, and a pie plate, and -- according to my mother's version -- some coconut to sprinkle on the meringue before you bake it.<br />
<br />
So, you make the pudding, and then stir it and stir it, and then you mix up the egg yolks with a little hot pudding to carefully change their temperature and not have them curdle, but instead cook in smoothly. Then there's the butter, and the lemon rind, and the juice. Stir it all together, and pour this carefully into the cooled, cooked pie crust you made earlier.<br />
<br />
Next: meringue. Who knew all the little details? My mom always used eggs that had sat around for a week to make lemon pie meringue. She said that new eggs wouldn't whip up as well. Then, when I was in Home Ec in high school, the teacher pointed out that we should use fresh eggs if we wanted to be successful in creating a really fluffy meringue. I was puzzled, so I raised my hand. "My mom says that eggs have to age a little to be best for meringue." The teacher just smiled, and told me that my mom's version of "fresh" eggs was quite different from grocery store "fresh." She knew my mother had a coop full of chickens. Ha ha!<br />
<br />
So, here's another thing: did you know that it is easier to separate cold eggs, but best to have the whites at room temperature for whipping? Yeah...so you separate the eggs at the beginning of the whole filling-making process, and let those whites sit around on the counter in their mixing bowl during the time it takes to create the lemon filling; they'll warm up a little. Then, after you've whipped them to a fluffy, creamy looking froth that billows up in the mixing bowl, it is time to add the sugar...very, very carefully. Dribble it in very slowly as the beaters keep churning that fluff. One tablespoon at a time, slipping off the measuring spoon ever so slowly. This allows it to be incorporated thoroughly, dissolving into the wet fluff. This is how you avoid "weeping" meringue. That is when moist drops appear on top of your pie after it all cools off. Yes, it is the little things.<br />
<br />
Finally, the sugar is all stirred in, and you lift the beaters out of the bowl raising big drifts of meringue on the top of the pile. Now, it is time to place it on the hot filling---hot filling is how you help the meringue to stick to the pie edges. Also, you must spread the white fluff completely to the edges of the crust, actually having a little of it spread just onto the crust. Do all the edges first, then pile the rest into the center. I actually use three yolks in the lemon filling, but I put four whites into the meringue so I'll have plenty to pile high. Sprinkle a little coconut all over, and gently carry the quivering masterpiece to the oven. Bake the meringue till it is nice and browned, and then ever-so-carefully lift the magnificent creation out, and place it on a rack to cool.<br />
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While the meringue bakes....wash dishes. You'll be astonished at the pile you've generated. Like I said, if I had not watched my mother whip out these pies (it takes a few hours between making/baking crust and then the filling/meringue and baking it some more...) I do not think I'd have ever attempted this culinary delight. But, watching her accomplish all those steps, (usually while also combing our hair, browning the roast, and sticking her own curler-wrapped hair into the warm oven to hasten its drying) I knew the sequence, and the little details that ensure success of the elaborate process. It is totally worth it, too!<br />
<br />
It is a decidedly ephemeral creation, too.We manage to consume it all in the 24 hours after it is made. When it gets more than one day old...it's not that great.<br />
<br />
CoolGuy always appreciates the effort, and I told him I appreciate his mechanical skills, and that is why I decided he deserved lemon meringue pie. (Plus, I get to eat it, too!!)<br />
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<br />Earth Sign Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03935899610898903903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21478637.post-63342075727624585942017-02-25T19:44:00.000-08:002017-02-25T19:44:07.837-08:00Shopping Tidbits<ul>
<li>Did you know there are Spam Single Servings in a little foil pouch?</li>
<li>I felt guilty picking up a bunch of bananas because the produce man had just finished creating a lovely circle of bananas along the bottom edge of the display area. But...those were the ones I wanted.</li>
<li>Why are my favorite lunchbox cookies always on the top shelf and so hard to reach?</li>
<li>I stood in line at a "wholesome" store today to buy things, and they have conveniently placed a self-serve bakery/cookie rack right where you have to wait. Cruel.</li>
<li>How many versions of lettuce do you want to have to choose from? Let me count...</li>
<li>Does anyone else run out of a particular item one day, and then for the next six weeks, every time you're in the store, you nervously pick up one more, just in case. And now I have an over-abundance.</li>
<li>QUIT CHANGING MY FAVORITE TOILET PAPER. It was just fine the way it was.</li>
<li>How many flavors of coffee creamers exist? Vast, vast amounts. </li>
<li>Must resist buying more tiny tomatoes---eat the ones you have lady.</li>
<li>QUIT CHANGING THE CAT'S FAVORITE CAT FOOD. She doesn't adapt well.</li>
<li>No, really, I don't want the multi-pack of red peppers. I don't get them eaten fast enough.</li>
<li>Tillamook yogurt--I love you.</li>
<li>Finally! Chocolate graham crackers are back! They disappeared during December. Every store I went to was out. And the supply people whom I questioned, didn't even know it. Weird.</li>
<li>Instead of help out to the car, I wish they'd come to my house and put away all the groceries I bought. That would really be a service! </li>
</ul>
Earth Sign Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03935899610898903903noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21478637.post-80840505925655976552017-02-18T17:26:00.003-08:002017-02-18T17:26:34.785-08:00Earth--in my hands<!--[if !mso]>
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<![endif]-->The topic is earth. It immediately conjures up images of
soil in my brain. I come from a couple of generations of farmers. They grew
food for cows and chickens and pigs, who, in turn, generated food for us to eat
and sell. (Granted, the pigs were more deeply invested in the “food production”
than the cows and chickens. But the cows and chickens ended up on the dinner
plate eventually, too.)<br />
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Earth, or dirt, was what we used. But, first we needed to
prepare it. Our farm was apparently the former path of some ancient glacier,
because when the snow melted, and the plow went through the fields, a very
large quantity of rocks was always our first harvest. Sigh. It really didn’t
matter how many rocks we’d hauled off that field in previous springs, there
were always, always more. Roundish, varying from the size of softballs to
footballs, and sometimes we’d unearth a really big, ottoman-sized one, but
always, lots and lots of rocks. Years later, when I was a married woman with
children, and my brother had taken over the farm after our dad died, the
highway department bought many trucks full of those rocks to build a roadbed
for a new highway. I imagined my dad, in heaven, throwing up his arms, and
shouting, “At last! A market for my best crop!”</div>
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<br /></div>
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It wasn’t just that the job was endless. It was an
exceptionally obnoxious job. Imagine slogging through furrows, beside a wagon, on
a not-quite-warm Saturday in May, picking up rocks and tossing them onboard.
Then, you get to go over to the fence line, where there were rows of rocks from
previous drudgeries, and tossing them off onto the piles. Then, back out to the
muddy, uneven field and just keep going, knowing that you’re not done until
you’ve gleaned the whole vast area. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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And, there was a deadline. The barley had to be planted by a
certain date, or it wouldn’t have time to mature before the killing frost in
the fall. So, sometimes, we were up early on a school morning, dividing the
chores between the cow milkers and the rock pickers. I often heard my school
friends from town discussing their plans for the afternoon on the last day of
school—always a half-day—and I knew what my plans were going to be. Blah. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But,we'd finally finish, and the grain would be sown, and
we’d be treated to the sight of the little green shoots in their endless rows,
growing in rock-free soil. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When I first moved to California as a newly-wed Navy wife, I
was astonished at the huge fields that were cultivated there. One area
where we lived had been an alluvial flood plain, the soil was rich and black, and
seemed to go on, and on. You could dig and dig, and never hit bottom. And, of
course, I saw NO rocks. It really caught my eye! I was appalled one day to
drive by a former tomato field to see big machinery scraping off the layers of
dirt as the developer prepared to build houses. I actually went and asked if I
could get some that dirt for a garden bed I was building. They let me take it.
I don’t even know where they put the rest. Maybe they saved it for yards around
the new houses. I realize my naiveté about the value of top soil to other
people. But, still! They had no idea how my dad would have loved farming dirt
like that. </div>
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<br /></div>
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When we lived on the East Coast, our first house had a
garden area that I dug up and planted with tomato starts, and lettuce and
radish seeds. Due to the regular rainfall in the afternoon, I didn’t pay much
attention to it during that first week, except to glance over at it when I’d
leave for work in the morning. On the weekend, I went out to admire my crops,
only to find that rabbits and deer had eaten all my plants down to the dirt.
But, I did have a nice crop of seedling oak trees sprouted and thriving, since
I’d cultivated the soil. So…I build a bed right in the middle of the circular
driveway to keep marauders at bay, and used soil I bought at the garden shop
that didn’t have acorns embedded in it. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now, I live in the Mojave Desert. There isn’t soil here.
There is a thin layer of really sad, sandy dirt, and then an impervious bed
called caliche. That abundance of calcium carbonate is great for the wall board
factory a few miles out in the desert from our home. But it means that
gardening here is done in raised beds. In fact, it’s almost time to plant my
tomatoes so that the fruit can set before the summer heat kicks in. I’ll also
get lettuce and radishes and even peas before May. Then, after that, everything
just stops because of the endless heat, day and night. Everything except
basil—it loves the hot air. When it all cools down again in October, the tomato
plants will perk up and start growing flowers again, and I’ll get a second crop
until the frosts in late December. I replenish the dirt each year with my homemade dirt from the compost bin that CoolGuy gave me for a birthday present when we first moved here.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Earth, dirt, soil—it is in my genes. I cannot resist digging
and planting and harvesting. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wEQwZGmXMp8/WKjxp0tvHXI/AAAAAAAADj4/4ksH82DWI4wIi5rdiA62yAVTreOss5hBQCLcB/s1600/100_2235.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wEQwZGmXMp8/WKjxp0tvHXI/AAAAAAAADj4/4ksH82DWI4wIi5rdiA62yAVTreOss5hBQCLcB/s400/100_2235.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: center;">
That green stretch
up in the distance, beyond the barn, is where all the rocks were. </div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
We milked our cows in
that barn, when I lived there. Shortly after I graduated from high school, my
dad had to go big, or get out, so he built a modern dairy barn in the field
behind this red relic.</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MuKo1tuajMM/WKjyBnbxeGI/AAAAAAAADkE/mU8t3EVINrQ_hfOQUeFboYYvdkGsdzMPACLcB/s1600/520145.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="270" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MuKo1tuajMM/WKjyBnbxeGI/AAAAAAAADkE/mU8t3EVINrQ_hfOQUeFboYYvdkGsdzMPACLcB/s400/520145.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These are my parents and two big sisters, I
was born some months after this was taken.Notice his irrigation boots? This was his usual attire when I was a child. That barley field was watered with canvas dams and system of ditches.Both of my
parents grew up farming and milking cows. </div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-b7j0P5Nj1DA/WKjxvcjoBuI/AAAAAAAADj8/uVL5zCid8WIJOYBPgBl_08503DJUoQuRACLcB/s1600/Pickin%2BRock.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="303" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-b7j0P5Nj1DA/WKjxvcjoBuI/AAAAAAAADj8/uVL5zCid8WIJOYBPgBl_08503DJUoQuRACLcB/s400/Pickin%2BRock.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"> Here I am picking rock in that notorious field with my younger sister, my brother-in-law (and his little boy).</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">We were visiting back home about a month before our first child was born---1976.</span> </div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fAZY5LWP2HI/WKjxypSXrOI/AAAAAAAADkA/N1c6P_Mwo-cRnI-wMoVGR5KMp1cGHl5HACLcB/s1600/sit%2B%2B%2Bup.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fAZY5LWP2HI/WKjxypSXrOI/AAAAAAAADkA/N1c6P_Mwo-cRnI-wMoVGR5KMp1cGHl5HACLcB/s400/sit%2B%2B%2Bup.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"> </span>Yes, even
after foot surgery, you can’t keep me out of the dirt.</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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Earth Sign Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03935899610898903903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21478637.post-62180281230042943052017-02-14T00:04:00.002-08:002017-02-14T00:08:39.026-08:00Valentine's Day Short Remarks*Today I was putting all the Valentine bags onto students' desks just before I left for home. We'd made them on Friday, and I hung them along the white board rail just to look festive, and keep them out of our way today. On two of them, I found, written in small letters, "Mrs.[EarthSignMama] is the best teacher ever."<br />
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*When we were making the Valentine bags, I also received two handmade Valentines from a couple of other students. It's nice to be loved. I just wish they'd remember to quit talking all the time, too.<br />
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*I loved Valentine's Day when I was a little kid. Something about a holiday to celebrate love and hearts was just wonderful. Plus, it came in the middle of winter, and was so bright and pleasant with all the pink and red.<br />
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*Valentine's Day has been known to some as an obnoxious holiday when they refused to allow anyone to fete them because it seems forced. After all, a day set aside just to give gifts to a lover...and if you forget--you're in big trouble! I know a few people who refuse to celebrate it just because of that.<br />
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*My daughters loved to make their own cards every year. It was a huge extravaganza, and was planned for months. I thought it was awesome, so I facilitated it as well as I could. Here is an example of the card factory: (note the pet rat helper)<br />
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*My mom not only baked a cherry pie for George Washington's birthday (Feb. 22), but made three birthday cakes that same week, after having made heart shaped sugar cookies on Valentine's Day.<br />
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*My new principal could care less if parents bring in treats to celebrate---fine, come on in. Bring those cookies and cupcakes and candy. Glad to have you visit the school! Bless his heart...<br />
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*Valentine's Day is the 43rd anniversary of CoolGuy and I starting US. We've been together for a very long time. I'm glad. I really like him. Still.<br />
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*Here's a photo of my very favorite Valentine's bag ever made by a student of mine. When he asked if we had to put hearts on it, I replied, "No, it's your bag. You may decorate however you'd like." I think his dad was an Army ranger, and now he is a city police officer.<br />
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So, have a happy Valentine's Day! I hope you have someone to give a loving greeting to, and eat some chocolate, whether you do or don't.Earth Sign Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03935899610898903903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21478637.post-13638579477113633402017-02-05T10:00:00.001-08:002017-02-05T10:00:34.676-08:00Word PowerThat is the name of a page in the Reader's Digest. It's full name is "It Pays to Increase Your Word Power." I'm such a word nerd, that I usually find only one or two words each issue that I don't already know. *(Yes, I read everything, even old issues I find lying around under furniture.) But I found a list in an old magazine the other day that made my Odd-Ball heart swell. Here are some of the words on the list:<br />
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discombobulate<br />
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kerfuffle<br />
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flibbertigibbet<br />
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I mean, aren't these totally awesome words?? As a child, I was sometime referred to as a <u>flibbertigibbet</u> by my mom, since I had a tendency to flap around and not be still when I ought to have been. However, my mother was rarely involved in a <u>kerfuffle</u> because she was such a nice person that she avoided upsets that involved hurt feelings. She was a kind, thoughtful person, who laughed off little slights instead of hugging them tightly and being resentful.<br />
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When I first met CoolGuy in the sixth grade, one of his most attractive qualities was his vocabulary. He knew some big words that I didn't realize other people knew. He also used language very precisely, and was super polite to adults: "Yes, ma'am" "Pardon me?" (instead of "huh?"). I realized that he probably became such a word professional because he also read books constantly (another quality that caught my attention.) Yes, yes, he was also really cute, and had/has fabulously gorgeous brown eyes...But, seriously, his interest in words really was the clincher.<br />
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So, on this list was a word that I've used many times, and thought was a fairly common word. But one day, when I used it casually at work, in my school back in Maryland, I had everyone just staring at me. I mean, everyone--the secretaries, the principal, my co-workers who happened to be in the office. I was talking about something...I don't even remember what...I just remember their reactions. I used the word <u>flummoxed</u> when I was laughing and recounting some thing a student had said or done. And they all just stared at me. Then, the principal (a very nice person---she had recently replaced the really difficult prior administrator) looked at me, and said, "What did you say? Flummox? What in the world is that?"<br />
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It was a little disconcerting. I'd used that word my whole life. It meant...uh...well...FLUMMOXED. There wasn't a better word for it. I stuttered a little, and then finally came up with, "Confused, blocked, stopped....ah..." It was a little bit embarrassing, because I wasn't trying to be superior, or show off. It was just a word I'd always known and was perfect for the emotional reaction to being completely blocked or confused or stopped by something you were trying to understand. It's why I LOVE the English language: there is a perfect word for almost everything you're trying to say.<br />
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I guess you can say, that at that moment, my co-workers had found a way to <u>discombobulate</u> me. I didn't know how to define a word that was precisely the word for a feeling/experience, without being slightly off the actual meaning of the word. I was frustrated and a little upset.<br />
<br />Anyway, WORD POWER!! It's just such a wonderful thing! Read, read, read, and use those new words you discover in your daily conversation. Don't worry if others don't always get it! Be a resource for them. Go out there and share that great vocabulary with the rest of the world!Earth Sign Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03935899610898903903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21478637.post-33686613006153258022017-01-28T09:33:00.003-08:002017-01-28T09:33:52.383-08:00Every Day is the Only Day<strong>I spend most of my time in the company of children. I’ve
taught fourth grade for the last twenty-two years, in two states. On
Sundays, I’ve been appointed the leader of my church’s children’s
organization, so I’m in charge of about 45 children between the ages of
three and 12 for a couple of hours. I have a whole staff, who teach
various classes, and then the group lessons, and singing time. But, I’m
the organizer and leader. I am also the mother of five children, and
grandmother of four. So, I understand the mind of the pre-teen set very
well. I wonder, though, how many of us understand the magnitude of the
impact of one’s childhood on the adult that person will become? Do you
remember vividly vast parts of your childhood, yet can’t recall the
details of two weeks ago? It is that phenomenon that motivates me every
day that I’m working with children.</strong><br />
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<strong>Each day of a child’s life is their entire life. Right there. Just that. They live in the present. Tomorrow will never come.</strong><br />
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<strong>When
I was the mother of just two, I found myself thinking that, one day,
when we earned more money, then I’d do this or that with the children,
and we’d go out and have some adventures, and go to interesting places.
Luckily, I realized, with a start, that THIS was their only childhood.
There would not be another opportunity for my son or daughter to be this
age, or at this stage of their development ever again. The time to DO
was RIGHT NOW.</strong><br />
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<strong>So, despite being officially in
poverty--according to statistics--(my husband was active duty Navy in
the Jimmy Carter era) I decided to not allow money to run my life. I
looked up every single free, or nearly free, opportunity afforded
families in our big old port city, and we went on adventures.</strong><br />
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<strong>Many
years later, my adult children validated my actions when they would
reminisce about things we’d done. They also pointed out that they had no
idea we were “poor” or that we had so little money. They just remember
the many interesting things we did. One of my sons took his future wife
on a date to the children’s section of the library to share with her his
favorite books that we’d read, over and over. One of my daughters
treated her college roommates to the repertoire of dinosaur songs we’d
learned from a record I found. There they were—twenty-year-old women
standing in front of an enormous skeleton listening to her sing:
“Triceratops has three long horns, a beak like a parrot and a frill
where his neck is!” Oh, and someday, I’ll tell you about going to beach
in our shoes and pajamas early one morning when I heard on the radio
about the dead whale that had washed up. Now, my newly teen-aged
grandchildren tell me of the adventures they go on, because their
parents say, “when I was a kid, we did this.” </strong><br />
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<strong>Here are a couple of numbers:</strong><br />
<ul>
<li><strong>Children officially start school at age 5 in the United States</strong></li>
<li><strong>During the five years from birth, motor control goes from zilch to walking and running without thought</strong></li>
<li><strong>During the five years from birth, oral language goes from crying to complex communication</strong></li>
<li><strong>The first three years of life are the most intensive period for language development</strong></li>
</ul>
<strong>Yet,
every year, we have children arrive to their first day of Kindergarten
who have never held a crayon or a pencil. They’ve not colored, or
scribbled, or held a book, or been read to, nor pretended to read by
themselves. Their vocabulary limits are astonishing. It takes us
teachers years to get that student caught up to the milestones
appropriate for their age. By then, the student is so far behind, that
they’ve become discouraged and reluctant. </strong><br />
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<strong>I guess
what I’m saying is CARPE DIEM. If you have children in your life, make
every day count. For a child, that is the only day they have. You do not
have to take them to Disneyland to have a grand adventure. In fact, a
Grand Adventure can be had watching a spider. I’m probably preaching to
the choir here. But, the numbers that really matter in a child’s life
are the hours that are spent in human interaction, curiosity satisfying,
challenges attempted and conquered, and nature observed.</strong>Earth Sign Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03935899610898903903noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21478637.post-7076879048854195092017-01-04T18:46:00.004-08:002017-01-04T18:46:40.524-08:00Just a Few New Year HappeningsHappening #1 <br />
I went back to work as a teacher yesterday. I took off two months to have my knee joint replaced with titanium! I spent most of that time lying on the couch, of course, except when I was doing PT (physical torture). So, when I showed up at school, I was feeling pretty good about how well my knee had healed, and how well I could walk again, and just ready for action. By lunch, I discovered just how exhausted a person can be after they lie around for two months, and then jump back into the Rat Race (and it is a race...believe me...in fourth grade.) My new knee felt great! The whole rest of my body was panting, and yelling, "Hey! What happened to the couch? That was great!" I sat down most of the rest of the afternoon, and then ate some dinner, and fell into bed at 9:30. (I usually get to bed around 11:00.) And I felt pretty good by morning. Today wasn't nearly as exhausting, but I'm definitely going to have to get back into shape if I want to keep up with the school teacher routine.<br />
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Happening #2<br />
This morning I woke up and I had a serious ear worm in my head. "Scripture Power!" Over and over, with great insistence my brain would not give up on the chorus: "Scripture Power! Everyday I need, the power that I get each time I read!" I mean--it was persistent, loud, and drowned out every other thing I could think about. Suddenly, I just laughed out loud, and thought, "Thank you, Heavenly Father! That's right, I really wanted to get better at the habit of reading the scriptures every morning." I've actually been apologizing each night in my prayers about failing, once again, to sit down and read each day. I put my scriptures out on a table so they'd be a reminder. I have the time in the morning. While I eat my breakfast cereal, or toasted bagel, or whatever...I could easily sit and read something from my big old quad on the little table in front of my reading couch. So...I just went right in, sat down, and opened up that book and found a really nice section to contemplate this morning, while the house was quiet, and I was well-rested. Sometimes, God has to resort to actual nagging. Thanks again!<br />
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Happening #3<br />
Our son and his wife called a couple of days ago, out of the blue! It was great! The big surprise is that they were driving across Montana at the time. They live in Bremerton, WA, where he is serving on a submarine. So, hey! Montana? In the middle of winter? They were driving across country so that the wife can live the next five months with her mom in Worcester, MA, and have the car so she can go to work, while our son heads out to sea for an unexpected trip on another submarine. He's a sonar man and I guess this other boat just really needed him and couple of other guys from his original boat to fill in their crew. So, every day, I got a text from them telling me where they were next. Yes, they ended up driving south a little to escape the amazing storm slamming the northernmost part of the USA. It was fun to keep track of their journey. Today, I read that they stopped to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame for about three hours. Those two need three days -- I'm just saying. And then, I got a little video in a text, of her walking into to her mom's house for the Big Surprise! Yes, it was a secret for her mom, and it was a dandy payoff. Her mom will appreciate seeing her, and then our daughter-in-law won't have to be so lonely while our son is listening to whales and shrimp...and other things...<br />
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<br />Earth Sign Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03935899610898903903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21478637.post-56859968524106649562016-12-21T21:11:00.001-08:002016-12-21T21:11:57.369-08:00Going to the SunThere is a highway in Montana, in Glacier National Park named "Going to the Sun" and someday, I hope to drive on it. But right now, I'm reveling in the fact that today marks the End of the Darkness. It is Winter Solstice, and I always have a tiny celebration when this day comes! From now on, the sun will be in the sky for a teensy bit longer. It isn't really noticeable until later in February. One day, you walk outside and realize that it isn't dark yet, and it used to be dark this time of day. It's a relief to me. I'm sure I had ancestors who were Druids or something. I really look forward to December 21st every year.<br />
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It's not exactly like I have a harsh winter to deal with here in the Mojave Desert. It is actually rather mild, compared to the winters of my childhood. Yesterday, I saw a posting on Facebook from Cody, Wyoming, that showed the temperature at 2:30 A.M. as -56 degrees. Yes! Minus -56...I've been outside, doing chores, when it was 45 degrees below zero in Wyoming. It doesn't feel any colder than negative 20, but you just freeze faster. It is very, very, very unpleasant. I got to leave those weather conditions when I was a newly married woman, and it has ruined me forever for enduring bitter temperatures. For about two weeks here, the temperature has dipped into the 30s every night, and only risen to the low 60s during the day. A few days, it actually only warmed up to 47. Brrrrr....yes, it feels really cold when it does that here in Southern Nevada. You realize, of course, that it regularly exceeds 100 degrees every day in the summer. so that is a variation of 60-70 degrees. The variation in Wyoming, though, is from negative 40 to 80 above, so we have nothing to complain about.<br />
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Here's what is nice about winter in the desert: it is short. In another week or two, it won't be chilly any more. I'll be planting my tomatoes before the end of February, so that they'll have time to set fruit before it heats up in late May. I don't even wear a coat...I just wear a sweater. Mr. CoolGuy wore his chaps this week, but he's still riding the motorcycle every day! I have large palm trees in my front yard. They're just fine. I have a plant growing up a trellis in my back yard that still has flowers blooming on it. One night, it must have gotten to 31 degrees, because my basil plants are all black and drooping, dead. I've been harvesting from them since May...that was seven months. I don't mind winter at all here.<br />
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Here is one magnificent part of "winter" here: there is almost always a spectacular sunset, every night.</div>
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Here is another way I enjoy my "winter" here. There are beautiful snow-covered mountains. They are waaay up there, where I can admire them, but I never have to walk or drive in that snow.</div>
Earth Sign Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03935899610898903903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21478637.post-78151094697326191792016-12-16T17:20:00.001-08:002017-05-25T23:45:16.149-07:00The Mother "Rules"Today is our mother's birthday. She would have 89 years old. She was a remarkable person, who gave birth to eight children, helped our dad run the farm, and was a fantastic grandmother to the large group of grandchildren that we gave her. I was thinking today of how she was, and why she still looms large in our family. It think it is because there were a few hard and fast "rules" she had. Not all of the rules were spoken, but nevertheless, they were known to all. Here are a few of which I was aware:<br />
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<u>#1 People always want to eat, no matter what else is going on. Food matters. </u><br />
She was an accomplished cook. She fed all ten of us from her little kitchen, and every meal was a masterpiece. No, seriously...she prepared a balanced meal, every time. By balanced, I mean nutritionally, but I also mean visually. Each presentation was colorful, had a variety of textures, and was complete with side dishes, bread and butter, and dessert. Also, she knew that whoever showed up at our house, at whatever time of day, they would be hungry, and she was ready to deal with it. Inevitably, especially in summer, we'd be setting the table for dinner (the mid-day meal on a farm) and a car would enter our driveway, bearing cousins, or grandparents, or whoever...No problem, set another plate, slice more bread, get out another dish of pickled beets and we'll feed them.<br />
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Whenever a family member went to a special event, Mother would always want to hear about the meal served. And, frankly, when she went to something, the food was the highlight for her, too! Don't know why, but I guess if you're a fabulous cook, you always check out the competition.<br />
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<u>#2 Always clean up, comb your hair, and wear your lipstick if you're leaving the house. </u><br />
My mother milked the cows every night until I was about seven years old. By then, my two older sisters were able to milk on their own. The evening milking was done by others, not Daddy, because he was busy in winter feeding hay to the other animals in the fields, and in summer he was irrigating. Also, my mother could, and did drive tractors, trucks, and helped herd horses, and cattle when necessary. BUT...if she was going to be leaving the farm, whether to teach Primary, attend Relief Society (both were weekday activities way back when) or just to drive to town to pick up a part for a piece of machinery, she "fixed" herself. She combed her hair neatly, she changed into clean clothes, she put on lipstick. Despite the fact that she might be just going right back out to that tractor, she wouldn't have dreamed of showing up in public without looking well-groomed and put together. One of my favorite times was Sunday, because she had matching earrings, shoes and purses for different seasons. She was classy looking. She held our whole family to this standard. If you were going to be out in public, you should dress for it. She felt it was just good manners.<br />
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<u>#3 Be nice. </u><br />
She was known as a smiling, cheerful person. She could strike up a conversation with anyone, anywhere. When we were kids, my dad would often bring home people who were hitch hiking their way across America. It was the 1960s, and there were a lot of young people who thought that would be a great idea. The only thing they didn't know was, that, when you get to Wyoming, there are very large areas of nothing-ness. You can drive for several hours and not pass a town, a house, or any human habitation. Plus, it gets cold at night, even in July. Many people wandered through our small town, because it was a main route to Yellowstone Park. Whether they had a car or were just biking or hiking, by the time some of these vagabonds got to the highway in front of our farm, they were bedraggled. My mom would welcome them in, feed them a hearty meal. My dad would offer them a chance to earn a few dollars, helping around the farm, or they could trade their service for a tank of gas. But, while they were with us, they could regroup, and then Daddy would take them into town, where a ride would be more likely to be found. I brought home a couple of "long-haired weirdos" one time after high school, when I working in a resort town. They loved our place. They gobbled up the delicious farm food, and helped us haul hay, and then drove off the next day to continue their adventure. My parents had been so kind and welcoming while the "guests" were there, but quietly informed me to not hook up with "that type" ever again. But, my mother was always nice. You don't lose a thing when you're nice.<br />
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<u>#4 Hard work won't kill you.</u><br />
I know this, because if it did, my mother would have not lived until she was 78 years old. She worked hard! She learned it as a child, too. Then, she grew up, and taught it to her children. Sometimes, it felt like we might die, but we never did. She had high standards of cleanliness. Every single day the living room was dusted, the floors were swept, the beds were made, the bathroom was cleaned. Someone had to sweep the porch, the steps and sidewalk. Those "someones" were us children, because she was busy cooking, and doing laundry, and cleaning things that we weren't capable of doing to her standards. When I got my own house, I thought I'd just not be so militant about it. But, I quickly learned that unless you daily clean, you soon have a really dirty house. Oh. But, between the chickens, the cows, the dishes, the bathrooms, the floors, and the dusting, we all learned the satisfaction of a job well-done. And we learned that the world doesn't owe you a living, and if you do something, you should do it the best you can. This was drilled into each of us and, by gum, we've all turned out pretty well, and can take care of ourselves in this big old world. Plus, we learned how to raise our children with these same good habits.<br />
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<u> </u><br />
I'm sure others who knew her could add to this list of "rules" but these are a few that represent her life to me. I had a really awesome childhood, growing up under the influence of Carol Haderlie Welch, and I want to pay tribute to her today.<br />
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This is elementary school in Freedom, Wyoming.</div>
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My parents, in their yard, before my dad got sick, probably the early 1970s. </div>
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My sister Patricia, my mom, and me at Arlington National Cemetery, in the late 1990s. </div>
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Earth Sign Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03935899610898903903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21478637.post-55301813051417854712016-12-08T17:02:00.000-08:002016-12-08T17:02:28.599-08:00Swimming...One of My Favorite Things
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I love swimming. It is right up there at the top
of my favorite things. When I was a little girl, we took swimming
lessons every summer. I was terrible at it. It took me three years to
pass off the first level. I just kept getting held back until I towered
over the other kids in my class. Somehow, I couldn’t master the part
about dipping my head in the water, exhaling, and then lifting it up to
get another breath. Sigh…I still swim with my head out of the water. I
still haven’t mastered that skill. But I don’t let it get in my way! If
there is water, I want to be in it.<br />
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I grew up in the northwestern part of Wyoming—land of geysers. Every
pool that I ever swam in was sourced from a hot spring that bubbled up
from the thin crust of the earth there. Our pool for summer lessons was
built around a sulfur hot spring, so we smelled like rotten eggs after
swimming there. But–every scratch, scab, and injury that little kids
acquire during the course of playing hard, would be healed up after an
hour in that smelly pool.<br />
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When we married, CoolGuy was a Navy man, and we lived in California by the ocean. Wow, a
gigantic, free swimming pool that splashed back at you. Actually, my
first swim in the ocean was a wake-up call that Mother Nature is the
boss. I picked a spot, waded out into the waves, and messed around a
little, with my inadequate swimming skills. When I turned to look back
at the shore, I was smacked by a wave, dragged up the beach, as the top
half of my suit was pushed down around my waist. I wasn’t sure I was
going to be able to even stand up, because the effect of the waves
rushing back and forth had me scrambling to get my footing, while I
struggled to pull my clothing back into place. Aww, nature…it’s tougher
than you are.<br />
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But, that didn’t put me off swimming in the ocean! I just learned to
avoid certain spots. Not every beach is a good place to swim. There is
hardly anything more delightful than floating off shore, just past the
wave break, feeling the water moving past you, as you bob up and down.
Pelicans fly by, kelp floats along tickling your legs. The salty taste
is invigorating.<br />
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Now, I live in the desert. But, I remembered my friend’s advice from
her college years in Arizona: you need a pool to survive desert summers. So, I do not have walk-in
closets, nor granite counter tops, but I do have an in-ground pool,
with a hot-tub. The moment it is warm enough to swim, I’m out
there–every day. I have difficult feet, so running or jogging has never
been an option. But, when you swim, feet don’t count. I swim early, I
swim at night, I swim whenever I feel like it!<br />
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And, as an old lady, I have to say: you need a hot tub. Every night,
all year round, we end our day by soaking in the warm, bubbly water.
Last night, it was 40 degrees here in the Mojave Desert. I stepped
outside in my thick robe, and looked down across the valley at the
bright lights of the Strip. I slipped out of my robe, and stepped down
into the steaming bubbles of the hot tub, and looked up at the stars.
Orion was overhead to the south, Cassiopeia was off to the north. I
could see Pleiades, and as I relaxed and let my eyes adjust, hundreds of
other stars came into view. There is nothing so great as a big pool of
water. Every care floats away. You’re one with nature. Sigh….my favorite
thing.<br />
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Me, in the Pacific Ocean: the way life ought to be.</div>
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Even the grandchildren know that water is the best place for fun, too.</div>
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What to do when it is 112 degrees in the Mojave Desert.</div>
Earth Sign Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03935899610898903903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21478637.post-4419642337308382612016-12-05T19:46:00.002-08:002016-12-05T19:46:56.071-08:00Celebrating Christ In MusicOn Sunday the hymns were from the Christmas song section of the hymnal. YEAH! I love Christmas music, especially the hymns we sing. I also loved playing them when I was the organist for so many years. However, as I sang two of the songs yesterday, I realized that, although they start out celebrating the birth of Christ, the later verses are actually predicting and anticipating the Second Coming. But, in reality, one cannot discuss one event's significance without it leading to the other event. Christ was born so that He could be resurrected and return in glory to cleanse the earth.<br />
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The first song was "It Came Upon A Midnight Clear." This hymn was written in 1849, and addressed the difficulties of the changing world. The writer expressed his belief that the birth of Christ was not just a one time event, but something that has, or should have, ramifications continuously throughout history. In verse two, the writer expresses his belief that Christ's message is still being brought to us by angels who "float o'er all the weary world" to lift us with the hope of His Gospel. The third verse in our LDS hymn book then moves right into the prophecy of the Second Coming. The "days are hastening on" when we will welcome our Prince of Peace and the whole world will join together in song rejoicing, and we will answer the angels.<br />
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The next song that had a message of the Millennium was "Joy to the World." The arrangement we use in our LDS hymn book is by W.W. Phelps, who edited and printed Emma Smith's collection of hymns. He arranged a significant number of the hymns, altering the wording of some popular Christian hymns to reflect the unique doctrine of the restored gospel. The original words to "Joy to the World" were written by Issac Watts in the 1700's. Actually, his original title for it was "The Messiah's Coming and Kingdom" so that indicates that he, too, considered this hymn not just a "Christmas" song. Once you get past the first verse, it is obvious that, although this tune has become totally associated with Christ's birth celebration, the words are about the great event of the Lord's return to reign and rule in peace and glory for a thousand years.<br />
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"No more will sin and sorrow grow, </div>
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nor thorns infest the ground;</div>
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He'll come and make the blessings flow,"</div>
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But, don't you just love singing it? The first part is just a march down the scale, and then the chorus starts small, with the tenor and bass echoing the melody, until, at the end, we join our voices together in a final joyous shout.</div>
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I guess I'm going to need to take my Primary president's key and go over to the church one of these days with my hymn book, just to play Christmas songs on the organ. This will be the first year in a decade...really...that I haven't been the organist during the Christmas singing season at church. So, I'm just going to indulge my need. I should take CoolGuy with me---he loves Christmas hymns, too. What a lovely way to spend an hour, musically celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ.<br />
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Earth Sign Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03935899610898903903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21478637.post-6093107653234520532016-11-26T22:36:00.000-08:002016-11-27T10:51:40.106-08:00Horses, Horses<div style="text-align: center;">
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I can't remember who this colt is, but the mare is Suzie. And that is me during high school.</div>
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I loved horses when I was growing up. I also was scared to death of them. They were beautiful, they were fun to ride, and they were terrifying. At least my dad's horses were terrifying to me. In our family, you were in the saddle before you could walk. A sister would hold you, while Mom led the horse around the barnyard, and then took your picture. We always had horses. In the summer, there was a horse tied up and saddled, next to the fence every day. I didn't have my own bike. I said that once to a friend when I was an adult. She looked at me sadly, acknowledging that indeed I did come from poor roots. But, hey! We had horses!Who needed a bike? There were actually more places to ride the horse, than to ride the bike. We did have a bike--it belonged to all of us. We rode it when we felt like it, and we rode a horse the rest of the time.<br />
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I'm probably about 15 months old in this shot, with my sister Connie.</div>
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My dad holding a workhorse with the four "big sisters" and </div>
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our little brother when he was about six months old.</div>
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One summer, a car pulled into our driveway. I didn't recognize the people, but my mother came outside and waved and gave the mother, who was behind the wheel, a big hug. We took the children, instructed by both mothers, for horse rides while my mom and her cousin (it turned out) talked and laughed for a bit. See, as this family had come down from the mountain pass that led into our little valley, the children were anticipating visiting some of their mom's family members. But, they were also longing to ride a horse. Apparently their relatives didn't have animals. So, the mother, mischievously said to her children, (knowing that within a couple of miles she would come around a curve and see her cousin's farm) "Okay, the next time we see some horses tied up to a fence at a house, we'll stop there, and ask if we can ride their horses." The children expressed their incredulity, and then their mother pointed out that RIGHT THERE were horses tied to the fence, with saddles already on them. She started to slow down, and her kids suddenly became hesitant to just stop in at total strangers and ask for a favor. But she turned into the driveway anyway. Now, the kids were just too embarrassed, and shrunk down in their seats. But! What's this? Their mom and this farm lady are hugging?? They had a great time riding our horses, and we thoroughly enjoyed sharing our best thing with them.<br />
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My dad loved beautiful horses. We had a mare that was part thoroughbred, and part quarter-horse. She was feisty. She scared me to death! Her leg had been injured in a cutter race, so we didn't ride her, which contributed to her flighty nature. But she made some beautiful off-spring. Men need a hobby and for my dad it was breeding beautiful horses. He'd pay big bucks (at the time) to hire a stallion, and then take Bo-Peep in his truck over to the romantic rendezvous. Each spring, we get a fantastic foal that pleased Daddy so much. Now, we weren't cowboys. We didn't have a big herd of cattle that someone needed to ride the range with; nor did we round-up and rope and brand calves out on the prairie. Milk cows are different. So, we did not need horses like a rancher might. But, beautiful horses was my dad's thing, so we always had four or five of them. He used them in the fall to go elk hunting. We children rode them during the summers for fun. He liked to show them off to his cousins who'd occasionally visit. He would sometimes sell one of the foals, and make a little profit. You know how some people just like having a collection of cool cars, or motorcycles, or a room full of fabric? Well, my dad had his horses.<br />
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This is Old Pal and I think the foal is Mickey.</div>
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We had Old Pal, a mare that could, and would, hold children from her neck to the tip of her tail. She would patiently allow the inexperienced to clamber aboard, and would walk along patiently keeping them seated. Or my dad could take her elk hunting in the fall, and ride her hard all day, pack out the elk quarters on her, and she would work for him like a champion. Her two off-spring were Mickey (a gelding) and Bo-Peep, a mare. Cutter racing was a big sport when I was child. Two-horse teams pulled a sled down the main street of one of the little towns. Bo-Peep had the legs and the speed, and a man convinced Daddy that she would do well with his horse in a team. Unfortunately, she was injured in a race (I don't know the circumstances, but I think my dad was upset with the driver's lack of judgement) and she was retired to be a broodmare. Her two daughters were Lindy and Susie. One spring, both Susie and Lindy were going to have foals. My dad told me that Lindy's would be mine. My own horse!! </div>
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This is Suzie, patient as her grandmother, Old Pal.</div>
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Trish, Scott, Shelly, Daddy, Lorene, Lawrence</div>
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This is one of Old Pal's great-grandchildren, with a group of</div>
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mother's grandchildren piled on her, the way we used to pack ourselves on.</div>
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It was pretty amazing. Up till then, I was rather afraid of our horses. I'd had a few exciting experiences: hanging on for dear life when the mare I was riding decided to turn back and run for home because her nursing baby was back in the other field. Or the time my older sister and I packed a picnic lunch, and were going to ride Mickey up the field. However, he was very, very unhappy at the sound of the ice-cubes clanging against the side of the honey bucket we'd filled with water and tied on the saddle with the back strings. We just got through the barnyard gate, and was passing by some parked farm machinery, when he exploded in fury, in an attempt to get rid of that bouncing, clanging thing. We girls both flew off and landed on the ground, and I rolled under the drill to protect myself. He bucked like a rodeo champ, trying to throw off that noisy can. I can still picture his hoofs slamming into the dirt so close to my face, as I huddled under the edge of the overhanging seed buckets.<br />
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But, something about getting my own horse made it all different. First: he was just a little baby! He was small and not taller than me. After all, I could look over the top of a cow's back since I was about nine years old. And cows moved slowly. Horses were all legs and stepped lively. But, he seemed calmer than his fidgety mother. I'd read a lot of books about horses (well...ALL the books about horses in the town library...) and I had some ideas. I worked on gentling my colt (named Bucky) and over the course of a year, I'd taught him to come when I whistled, (I bribed him with grain), and to stand calmly while I touched him all over. He grew taller, but I didn't get frightened of him. We had an understanding. The winter he was two years old, I asked Daddy to let him stay with the calves in the field behind the barn, instead of going to the upper fields with the rest of the herd. During most winters, our horses just hung out with the cattle, living a herd life, eating hay daily when we took it to them. But they weren't "our" horses during those months--they became a little band of their own, with the oldest mare as the leader.<br />
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With Bucky available for me to talk to, pet, and bring grain snacks every day at milking time, he and I became a little team. I started to tie him up to the fence during milking, and I'd go out and talk to him, and touch his back, and lean on him. Eventually, I climbed the fence and sat on his trembling back very gently. I did this every day until he didn't care anymore. Then, I introduced the saddle blanket, then the saddle, then I cinched it up. Then, I sat on the saddle. All of this was done gradually over the Christmas break,and through the January evenings while we were outside anyway. Finally, at the end of February, when the sunlight isn't gone so early, I had my dad lead me around the barnyard. Bucky was very nervous, walking with that saddle and a 14 year old girl on his back. But, he calmed down when I talked to him. Daddy led me through the gate, so that I could ride him in the pasture, which was three feet deep in snow at that point. Bucky and I rode like that for several weeks, and by the time the snow melted, he was completely comfortable with me climbing up in the saddle and riding him wherever I chose.<br />
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I know it sounds like a Laura Ingalls Wilder book, or maybe something by <a href="http://theblackstallion.com/web/books/the-series/">Walter Farley.</a> But, seriously, I just was so obsessed with having my own horse, that I was determined to really make him mine. I've reflected on this two year period, and realized that having my horse helped me to grow up. At the same time I was taming and training Bucky, I was also in Junior High School. Now--picture this: very tall, skinny, knocked-kneed girl with ugly corrective shoes. She is now entering a school with about 250 other students, of whom she only knows about 25. And, although she knows them, and can chat and say "hi" she really doesn't have a "friend"---yes, I did not know anyone who I could say was my "BFF." I was friendly, but not in a group. I look back and realize that I preferred reading books all the time, and that I tended to be a know-it-all because I'd read so many books. I wasn't shy about sharing my knowledge. I was taller than most of the boys, and I milked cows every day. I wore my sisters' hand-me-down dresses, which had been fine up till then. However, fashion changed dramatically in the middle of Junior High, and now my clothes were so last decade. Sigh. Plus...who among us has ever felt "cool" at that age?? (I also realized as an adult that NO ONE loves Jr. High.) So, at school, I was always embarrassing myself by talking too much, or by not having anyone to sit by at lunch, or by getting caught reading a book in my lap, when I should have been paying attention to the teacher.<br />
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BUT! At home, I was a confident horse trainer! I helped my parents milk cows, feed chickens, gather and sort the eggs, feed the calves, help with younger siblings, and generally be a competent contributor to our family. I was a decent student. I got good grades. I had writing skills...math?...not so much. But, when I wasn't at school, I lived in a world that brought me a great deal of satisfaction, all thanks to my horse, and the cows, and even the dopey chickens.<br />
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See, this is my plan for the little gangsters I see roaming the big city where I now live. They get into gang life for real around middle school age. They're looking for a purpose in life. They need a team, they need to feel value in their existence. School work? Maybe not...It's hard to care about the "author's purpose" when you don't read that well, your parents don't read English at all, and your hormones are telling you that you need to go and show off for the girls. But...if some of these kids had a group of calves to take care of, or a car to fix, or a horse to train, maybe then they could channel some of the youthful enthusiasm into a positive place, and they wouldn't need the fake validation of gangster life.<br />
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Here are some more horse photos. I'd post one of Bucky, but I do not think I own one of him. He was a beautiful buckskin, with a black mane and tail. We looked good together.<br />
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There are many more horse stories. Someday I might tell them. The horses were just part of the family.<br />
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This mare is BoPeep (see her damaged front knee), and I think that foal is Suzie. </div>
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Stanford, Baby Scott, Lawrence, Daddy, Connie</div>
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This is Trish and Suzie in 1971.<br />
Trish was the Lincoln County Fair Queen, </div>
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and she and Suzie attended rodeos and<br />
parades all over the area. Suzie loved to barrel race.</div>
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This is me in December 1964, before my colt, Bucky,<br />
was born that spring. I'm the flagpole girl on the left.</div>
Earth Sign Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03935899610898903903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21478637.post-35568075974304872052016-11-24T19:58:00.003-08:002016-11-25T12:50:28.762-08:00Our Best FriendsNaturally, I'm talking about pets! There just isn't anything more satisfying than having an animal that loves you. Well, it's not necessarily obvious that cats love us, but they still desire our attention, and hang out with us, on their terms, of course. I'm thankful for all the animals I've known in my life.<br />
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I started out talking about pets...but I also mean all the farm animals that I interacted with in my childhood and teenager years, too. Some of our cows had vivid personalities. Gyp: a Guernsey who had an obsession with being the first cow into the milking barn each night. She'd plow through the herd, knocking over any inattentive humans in her determination to step through the door before any other animals did. Sheesh....her stall was # 5 or #6, I forget. No, we humans did not assign the stalls. The cow hierarchy did that. Goldie and Jewel were in #1 and #2. They were the purebred Guernseys my dad and mom brought over as calves from central Wyoming when they moved to our farm in 1953. I was 10 days old. They'd been working on a big dairy farm in Kinnear (near Riverton) and decided that it was too far from "home"--Star Valley. So, they packed up their three girls and returned to their home town and started a little farm of their own. Those two calves were the basis of their herd. They acquired some Jerseys, and a couple of Holsteins, and then my dad loved adding other breeds like Brown Swiss, milking shorthorn, and once we had a red Holstein, I think.<br />
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Anyway, contrary to any perception one might have of docile dairy animals, our milk cows had a complex social order. There were the head honchos and their best buddies, and then there were the lesser, not-as-cool cows. It was weird to learn about, but vital, because you did a lot better when you knew what the Cow Rules were. They are big, and generally calm, but you cannot win if you decided to mess up the "correct order" of events in a cow's daily schedule.<br />
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One of these cows was a Jersey named Malice. My sister, just 15 months younger than me, had made a pet out of her. I don't recall the beginnings of this amazing friendship. But it was true blue. Malice had a weird mannerism of letting her tongue flop out of the side of her mouth when she was hanging around, sometimes during cud chewing. Sometimes, it also was a greeting to my sister. And Malice had to be acknowledged, petted, and admired before she would go into the barn. If my sister was holding her cat (another weirdo) when Malice approached for loving, then the cow would shove the cat out of her arms to the ground, and thrust her own cowy head into my sister's grasp. Malice liked to lick my sister's head when she sat and milked her each night. They call an uncontrolled swirl of hair a "cowlick" because, not even Gorilla Snot hair gel can match the power of cow saliva to push one's hair into a position that can only be undone in the shower with shampoo. But you KNOW you are loved when your pet cow licks the side of your head while you milk her.<br />
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Our barn cats were pretty fabulous, too. They kept the mice population under control in the grain storage area, and we treated them with warm, foamy milk each night for supper and each morning for breakfast. And they were a teensy bit spoiled, I believe, because when the foam had melted, and the milk in their little pan was cooled off, they would merely sniff at it, and walk away. By then, it was only good enough for the dog. We had a large family of barn cats. They all had crazy names, and interesting personalities to go with it. <br />
And none of them would have ever allowed us to carry them into the house. They were BARN cats, and they only allowed human interaction during milking time. Hug and pet them at that time, the rest of the day, leave them alone. <br />
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We had several dogs on our farm, too. The first one I remember was just called Dog. I have no idea his breed, he was large, black and brown, with flopped over ears, and a big bushy tail. He supervised EVERYTHING. He helped round up the milk cows each morning and evening. He followed us around while we hauled hay. He was at my dad's heels as he did all the stuff I never knew about on the farm. Dog was our loyal friend. One day, he disappeared and my dad went out in the truck after 12 hours to look for him. Apparently, Dog had followed the pickup truck part way up the highway, as he often did, but when he turned back to go home, he had been struck by a vehicle. My dad found him lying in the road ditch, alive, but unable to move his hind-quarters. Dog was very excited to be rescued. We fed him, and petted him, and laid him on the straw in the central part of the barn, where the burlap bags of cow grain were stored. Each day, my dad would pick him up and carry him out into the sunshine, so he could lie just in front of the barn and survey his kingdom.<br />
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One evening, there was a newborn calf in the center place, because that is where they went after the first 24 hours with their mothers. Then, we fed them their mother's milk for a couple of months, in a bucket, because she was producing far more than one calf could consume. Well, as we brought the cows into the barnyard for the evening's milking, the new mother went over to the doors, behind which she could smell her new baby. The mother cow began to moo to her infant. Remember stupid Gyp from the previous paragraph? Well, another of her weird quirks was claiming every new calf as her own, so she, too, pushed up against the real mother so that Gyp could bawl piteously also, at the baby on the other side of the center doors. Unfortunately, the two cows were now standing right next to the disabled dog. He barked at them, and growled, in a warning to watch out, I guess. But dopey Gyp took it into her head to get aggressive right back. She put her head down, and started to butt and maul our poor, crippled Dog. He howled and barked, and squirmed around. I could see this happening and so I grabbed a shovel and ran over to chase away the aggressor cow. I yelled and waved and pounded her, and my sister and little brother grabbed Dog and pulled him away. My mother, hearing the commotion, had run out of the house with the broom in her hand to help us do whatever it was we needed done. This whole episode lasted fewer than a couple of minutes, but it really got the whole barnyard stirred up good! Seriously, Gyp was not my favorite cow.<br />
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Sometime later, a few days, a few weeks, I forget, but we accidentally dropped Dog one evening as we picked him up to carry him back inside after the milking was finished. He cried, and we were so sorry, and petted and loved him up. But---the next morning when we went to the barn to greet him and then go out to get the cows for the morning milking---he was up on all fours, tail wagging, and whimpering to be let out to go get those dumb cows with us! I guess whatever structural defect had been done by the original injury, was cured by our dropping him the night before! It was weird...But the best part was when we went out for the cows. By this time, weeks and weeks with no dog, they'd become very blase about our efforts to nudge them out of the feed mangers and down from the pasture edges to go to the barn. At first, I'd whistle for the dog, knowing he couldn't come, but the cows didn't know that. They'd look around and step lively toward the gate, not wanting to get a nip on the ankle. But about a week into Dog's injury, the cows had figured it out, and they no longer fell for the "whistle" or any other dog-related threat. But that morning! When we went out to their pasture, and I called out, "Get 'em boy!" and there was actually a black furry creature trotting alongside me, suddenly those cows were all obedient again. Ha ha! It was great! Sadly, our dear old doggy friend died several years later, mysteriously shot in our big field. My dad thought it was probably the work of someone attempting to steal gas from the tractors. We missed him. We had another couple of farm dogs while I was a teenager, but Dog was a legend.<br />
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Barn cats, surveying their kingdom from the palace loft.</div>
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Part 2 tomorrow: more animal love.Earth Sign Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03935899610898903903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21478637.post-13183349535869409492016-11-21T23:44:00.003-08:002016-11-25T12:48:53.435-08:00Things to be Thankful For...It's that season of the year, when people are being thankful, out loud, for their blessings. I have a few blessings I'd like to recognize.<br />
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First, I'm blessed to live in this modern world where medical procedures have enabled me to continue to walk. If I were to have gone through the mess with my feet in another century (like the 1800's) I'd just be a person who could not walk! My feet are fairly crummy, as they are now. However, I CAN walk on them. I can put on shoes, and continue in my employment as a teacher. And now, science has repaired my aching, dysfunctional knee. Well, it is in the process of healing, so it still aches, but soon, it will be all healed and I won't have to think about it with every step I take.<br />
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Another thing I am thankful for, that coordinates with this new knee, is that I have a kind and considerate family. I have been an invalid over and over in the last four years, trying to get my feet back to functioning. Seriously, I've had two or three surgeries on each foot! And now this knee joint replacement! Each time, CoolGuy has been my thoughtful nurse. He has waited on me, cared for me, indulged my whining about not getting well fast enough. He takes me where I need to go, he helps me shower, he washes the dishes and cleans up the house. He sometimes threatens to tie me to the couch, so I won't stupidly get up and try things I'm not allowed to do. This surgery, our oldest son volunteered to come (and did so) for a week, to take care of me, so that his dad could go to work. (The other foot surgeries, CoolGuy was working from home on the computer, and now he is fixing motorcycles at a shop.) It was very kind and thoughtful of our son to come down and hang out with me, and be my helper.<br />
Modern medicine and old-fashioned family love: two things I'm thankful this year, again.<br />
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Here I am, just home from the hospital, on drugs, showing off my double chins!</div>
Earth Sign Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03935899610898903903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21478637.post-68327822392840373552016-11-01T22:40:00.000-07:002016-11-01T22:41:49.801-07:00I Love to See the Temple I went to the dedication of the Star Valley, Wyoming, temple on Sunday, October 30th. In Nevada we had Friday, Oct. 28th, as a state holiday, to commemorate the day Nevada became a state 152 years ago. (It was actually on Oct. 31st, 1864, but a few years ago, they voted to move the state holiday from Oct. 31st to the last Friday of October.) So, when I found out the date for the dedication, I bought myself a plane ticket, and reserved a rental car so I could be in Wyoming for this great occasion.<br />
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The weather was amazingly cooperative, too! Many Halloweens of my childhood featured a blizzard, or plenty of snow already fallen on the ground. There was a vigorous rain storm on Friday evening when I arrived, but then the clouds held it in for the rest of the weekend. It was a great help to all the people who were traveling through mountain passes to be in Afton for all the activities.<br />
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Here's why having a temple in our little mountain valley is such a luxury and a blessing. When my grandparents wanted to be married in a temple in 1912, this is how they did it: a brother and a sister were marrying a brother and a sister from another family. So, the two couples (who lived on the Idaho side of the valley in Freedom) packed their things in a wagon, hitched up the horses, and rode over the pass to the county seat in Idaho. There, the two couples were married by a justice of the peace, and then they continued on their way, for two more days, to the temple in Salt Lake City, Utah. The two sets of newly-weds were sealed for time and eternity there, and then they got back in their wagon for the three day journey back to their new homes in Star Valley. So, having a temple, right there, would have been a wonderful bonus for them. But, it wasn't an insurmountable obstacle to their fervent desire to be sealed in the temple from the start.<br />
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The tradition to stage a "cultural celebration" at the dedication of a new temple was followed here, too. It was simply delightful to watch! They made me cry with one of their songs, too. The theme of the whole show was "Mountain Heir"--meaning that the people who live in this region now (including the valleys of the Bear Lake region, and the surrounding parts of Wyoming) all benefit from the work and endurance of our ancestors who settled this region and stuck it out, despite the many hardships, and the isolation. It is a theme I've been constantly aware of, since I was a child. Our ancestors enabled us to live in a very fine place, with an excellent heritage of faith, hard-work, and family love. Here are the words to the song that made me cry:<br />
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<u><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The Lucky Ones</span></u><br />
<u><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">verse 1</span> </span></u></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I look at my life and I know that I belong.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I've had the help of loved ones, from generations gone.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">They came to this valley, this cold, rugged land.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">What they went through I'll never understand. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">But their memory enfolds me,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Their love consoles me,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I feel their strength, they're part of who I am.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(chorus)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">The faith of our fathers, these noble pioneers,</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Their courage and their sacrifice reach beyond the years.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Their banners on Mount Zion are shining like the sun. </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">We're built upon their dreams---We're the lucky ones! </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><u>verse 2</u></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Their lives and devotion have made our fortress strong.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Their faithfulness and courage write a victory song.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">We're in their debt. We won't forget</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The trials they went through.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">These heroes have blessed me and you.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">For their memory enfolds us,</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Their love consoles us,</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">We turn our hearts to them in gratitude.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(chorus)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">The faith of our fathers, these noble pioneers,</span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Their courage and their sacrifice reach beyond the years.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Their banners on Mount Zion are shining like the sun. </span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">We're built upon their dreams---We're the lucky ones! </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
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It was that chorus that really got me! "<u>We're the lucky ones!</u>" That is SO true. I cannot say that I was a thoughtless, or thankless teenager. I knew how much work it took to live there in that beautiful place. My sisters and I helped our parents do it every day. I knew that it took courage to get up every day and work as hard as my parents did. Yet, they wanted us to go to college, and to go out there in the rest of the world, and do good, and make good of ourselves. Even though I, personally, do not live there anymore--nor do I want to live there--I really, really appreciate growing up there, and learning all those values. </div>
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It was a fantastic weekend, and I'm excited to be able to go up there to visit (in the summers only, thank you very much) and attend the temple in my very own home town, surrounded by those towering mountains that are as unchanging as the values of righteousness I learned as a child---I <u>was</u> the lucky one!</div>
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This motto was on all the T-shirts they wore. The adults wore black, and the six stakes involved each had a different color of shirt for the youth of their stake.</div>
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Cool new sign I hadn't seen before, at the mouth of the canyon that leads up and over the pass to come into Star Valley from the south. </div>
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It was pouring rain when I took this picture, but it still looks quite impressive, all lit up and shining. </div>
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Here is the house I grew up in, and the barn where I spent half of that life! Cow milking is a good way to teach children that they can do difficult, tedious work, and survive. Plus, caring for animals is an effective way to learn that you simply have to put your own needs aside when someone else can only survive if you do your job.</div>
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Earth Sign Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03935899610898903903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21478637.post-71166696220102755702016-10-28T06:55:00.000-07:002016-10-28T06:55:37.092-07:00Halloween at SchoolIt's just so awesome! No, really...our new principal is all for keeping Halloween. He even dresses up in a really stupid looking costume. He's a tall, big man, and he isn't afraid to don a pajama-looking outfit with a Bobba Fett helmet. And no one from the office said one word about "only healthy snacks." We ate a lot of cookies and candy yesterday. And, unlike last year, it didn't rain on our costume parade.<br />
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BTW: we had our Halloween day on Thursday, Oct. 27th, because Friday Oct. 28 is a state holiday, commemorating the admission of Nevada to the Union! The PTO really wanted to do a big extravaganza for us, and wanted to use the day before the three-day weekend. I guess we'll just ignore Monday. Actually, I'm giving my class a "homework-free" Monday.<br />
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Children take Halloween very seriously. They LOVE it. The amazing costumes, elaborate make-up. The excitement! Plus--candy! I came home with a bag full of treats that they gave me.One of my daughters once pointed out something about Halloween. She was about seven or eight, and she reflected, "You know what, Mom? Halloween is really fun because it is just for fun. There's no "deeper meaning" of Halloween, like Christmas or Easter. It's just for fun!" (Not that she didn't enjoy Christmas or Easter, but it was nice to just throw herself wholeheartedly into a celebration of FUN!)<br />
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The crowning event of yesterday, however, was when I was out with my stop-sign and yellow vest, walking pedestrians across the street. Both sides of the road were lined with cars and trucks, from all the parents who came to the costume parade/classroom parties. Vehicles were moving all around, and we heard a loud, metallic noise. Everyone looked all over, trying to determine the cause. After several trucks drove off in various directions, I realized what happened. Someone had backed their large pick-up truck into a road sign, knocked it over, and driven over the remains as they left. Guess what the sign said:<br />
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CAUTION: SCHOOL CROSSING</div>
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It was illustrated by a silhouette of children walking along. Now, it is lying, broken off, and crumpled along the street in front of the school. Totally awesome!!!</div>
Earth Sign Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03935899610898903903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21478637.post-64582701221099460992016-10-22T19:10:00.000-07:002016-10-22T19:10:12.171-07:00Whirl-Wind WorldI really intended to post another blog during the week, but, I've just now come down from the tornado. Sort of. Each and every day, as a teacher, I feel like I'm caught up in the twister, twirling around trying to get my feet under me so I can move in a determined direction. Yet, I'm continuously running into another deadline I've missed to turn in some newly created paperwork with a cryptic acronym. My co-worker laughing called this newest onslaught the LMNOP/XYZ things. There are PGPs and SLGs and NEPFs and PLGs...seriously, I'm not making it up.<br />
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So, Saturday came. Whew--right? Not really. I got up at 6:30 so I'd be first in line to the radiology clinic when they opened at 8:00 to get a chest X-ray for my doctor. However, the information on the website is a little sketchy because the clinic I went to doesn't do X-rays on Saturdays. So, I drove across town to the clinic that DOES do X-rays on Saturday. No problem, got right in--zip zap. All done. Drove home. Changed clothes.<br />
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Next, I went to church where we were having our Saturday rehearsal for the the children's program tomorrow. We practiced and practiced, and stood up and sat down, and adjusted the microphone, and helped little people pronounce words like "Corinthians" and "immortality" and fed them all pizza and juice boxes and sent them home with an admonition to come fifteen minutes early to church tomorrow. We swept, and emptied the trash, and shut off all the lights. Then I drove home and changed clothes again.<br />
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My next destination was the DMV. I had an appointment to get a new driver's license. Because my old one is somewhere in the Wetlands Park where I apparently lost it from my pocket on our field trip last Tuesday. Sigh. I always take my ID in my pocket, in case...of...I don't know. But this time, I apparently stuck my phone in that pocket and, when pulling out the phone once, I must have dislodged the driver's license. Sigh. And since I'm flying next weekend, and renting a car, I really, really, really need that piece of official ID. But, on the bright side (!) when you make an appointment with the DMV in Nevada, you are the winnah!! I was in and out of there in 17 minutes--fee paid, photo taken, official piece of paper in my wallet!<br />
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Then, I drove to the market and bought this week's groceries, took them home, put them away, and changed my clothes again! This time, I went to a baptism for the dad of some of my Primary boys! What a special event that was! I was the organist, and I'm so glad I was there. It was just a wonderful occasion, and lots of family members were there to enjoy it with them.<br />
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Yes! Changed my clothes again, and rushed over to the pool supplies store before they closed to cash in my 20% off coupon for some pool cleaning chemicals, and stopped into another store to get a little gift for one of my very troubled Primary girls who I think will really be excited when I sit down tomorrow after church and show her how to embroider this pattern! She likes to sew, and so I decided I'd get her a little kit, and show her how to do it. She has family troubles, and her life is hard, right now.<br />
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So, now, I'm going to go in and make peach cobbler for supper, and then go to bed and think calm thoughts. Earth Sign Mamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03935899610898903903noreply@blogger.com0