happy birthday to our guy!

I can hardly believe that it was three years ago that we welcomed this little man into our lives, our family, and our hearts. He has changed me for the better. What a complete joy these three years have been with him. He makes motherhood feel like the best dessert to adulthood and you just want to keep coming back for another bite. S is imaginative, self-soothing, active, forgiving, inquisitive and verbal. His common response to questions this week is "I don't know." 

chocolate cake like he requested!

He loves pretending to be African animals, especially lions. He loves bread, although we don't eat it much. He coming outside for any reason he can find. Yesterday we was disappointed he didn't take the trash out with me. 

we spent the a.m. at the animal farm with friends

I adore putting him to bed for that is the moment that he gets the most spiritual. He asks questions about prayer or makes observations about heaven that cause my heart to sore there and back. His prayers melt my heart and soul with warmth. 

He want to be a part of the big kid games and likes going outside when he hears them playing.

He still loves helping me around the house, especially in the kitchen. He must push the blender button loves washing the dishes in soapy water. 

He requested that he watch a show and go swimming on his birthday. We did watch something, and were going to borrow a friend's backyard kid pool but it really wasn't a swimming kind of day. It was VERY windy and would have been cold. 

Thank you to his dear grandparents for the floor puzzle, cute undies, loving notes and the DASHINGLY handsome little man suit. 

Happy birthday to our guy! We love you more than words can tell. What's your favorite characteristic or memory of the birthday boy?

front step

The front step. The introduction to my house. The first impression. The front porch is kind of a big deal. I think I finally like what I've got going on here after a year and a half and indecision. Both the functionality and beauty please me. Both need to be present for me to like it in my house.

 Gecko for good luck; a housewarming gift from a friend. A lovely sounding wind chime. Living house plants and the flowers that remind my neighbor of Dr. Seuss. The feathers we collected from the farm found a home in our spider plant tucked back there. What else do you do with one lonesome but tragically beautiful peacock feather?!?

 A yard sale bench with storage under the seat! Thank. You. It was only 3 bucks! It needs a new coat of paint that I may or may not ever get around to, but at least I have the original black paint. The owner threw it in for free. :)

 Potted sage, catnip, and now stevia and a baby spider plant have joined the front potted garden.

I really enjoy living plants but I know I have no special talent for keeping them alive, so this is a wonderful success for me. Thanks to farmer Leigh and my mom for providing all these plants!

coins to cash

The other morning I needed to get out, so we went on a "benture" as my guy calls our adventures. Simple. Short. But it helped me feel sane and productive while my husband is gone for almost a week. 

We didn't even get fully dressed for the day, made a quick smoothie breakfast, and booked it to the credit union coin machine first thing in the A.M. The guy loved it. He's holding the receipt for our cash. 

 We looked ridiculous. I know. He was still wearing unmatched PJs and I threw on some clothes I thought I had lost in UT but I found them packed in baby girl clothes. I was so ecstatic to have them "back" I threw them on convincing myself they matched. Looking back, they so did not! Oh, and S picked out his own shoes for the day. They really should have been in a tote in the closet somewhere, but he loves these boots so I couldn't do it. Either that or I just haven't made time to. You decide which. 

L: "Whatever, mom. The sun is too bright..."

and it begins

And the painting of our walls begins...

Can you see it? The patch I painted this week?! There was an ugly white spot where there was no paint under the giant Verizon box we removed out of the dinning room. The dinning room! Of all places, the previous folks put the Verizon battery back up box in plain sight of the front room and in the dinning room. So, it had to be moved to the basement. No biggie, except there was no paint underneath and NO information about the paint on the wall already. No color, primer, even brand left behind by the sellers. So it became my task to experiment. And it isn't a perfect match but it is certainly an improvement. And that is why they call it home improvement. :) Oh, not to mention that I filled in four holes before painting. I am so proud of my not handy self. 

cousin loving

We love this Stephenson cousin! Thank you for spending the day with us little lady! We love you! We had a great time. She is the best mother's helper! The went so smoothly, although she was so bored when my kids napped. Thank you Lord for our family, especially those close enough to see often!

 Don't mind my son's jammies all day long. It's in fashion where I come from.

 We went to the park and our helper pushed my little L all cushed in her wagon. She acted like it was a massage and rock to sleep all in one. She loved it! And she cousin ADORES her. 

 (so do I)

 And did anyone else notice how stinking cute my niece dresses? Everyone in that family is so adorable.

food, farm, and fixing

Amazing Russian potato salad!! Thank you to Valentina from our previous ward for the recipe.
Equal parts of:

1. potatoes, boiled then peeled 
2. carrots, boiled then peeled 
3. white northern beans, cooked
4. dill pickles
5. canned beets
6. sauerkraut

Combine all ingredients, add a bit of oil and salt and pepper to taste, and devour!

The sauerkraut made for the distinct flavor and finally I found a recipe that the ENTIRE family loves that uses lots of my homemade sauerkraut. I made a giant bowl and it was gone in two days. All four of us just kept coming back for more. I should share my sauerkraut recipe, and I will...... in another post. :)

Picking raspberries down on the farm. We also took home gleaned broccoli, cauliflower, bok choy, and sorrel. During our feather hunt we found a beautiful ostrich feather and two duck feathers that decorate our front porch. We LOVE our farm!

And this beast is the bush in front of the house, in the process of being trimmed to 1/4 its size. I finished after this picture was taken. She is a nasty thing, full of spider/cob webs, bird poop, little white pods that look like larva, and coated with an oily black residue. Any geniuses out there know what plant disease this might be? I cleaned it up with a trim and a power wash, but the residue and webs are back a week later! No other neighbors have bushes with this problem!

adventures with Aunt Sara

wild blackberries we picked ourselves  

it stinks to get caught with egg on your face

the National Zoo with Aunt Sara!!!

my guy patiently waiting for a sea lion

who wears corduroy pants on the hottest week of the summer?!? 

he spotted the bald eagle from far off, even before the adults saw it

beaver feeding

rar!

And amazing Peterson's ice cream to top it off!!

what if...

Jared and I attended a church course called Launching Leaders. We didn't make it to all, but those we did I absolutely loved. The teacher, a Senior missionary Elder Ritchie, is a phenomenal teacher and a funny writer. Check out his latest email:

President David Oryang of the Woodbridge Stake Presidency was our guest speaker at Launching Leaders recently. He has his roots in Uganda where he grew up as a non-member, but of some privilege.  But the story of his fathers rise to prominence is a great Life Lesson. I will not attempt to tell but one small, but very significant, piece of the story.

Father Oryang grew up in the hinterlands of Uganda where he and his brother  were the 'goatherds' (shepherds) of the family goat herd, numbering about 160 in its heyday.  Daily for many years, into his teens, they would take the goats to their feeding grounds and return in the late evening...a ritual they accomplished with 'distinction'  seven days per week, year after year.  As a teenager Senior Oryang witnessed a family tragedy when the goats all died from some unknown, but obviously serious plague, that hit the goats of Uganda.  Devastated and without other means of support he made a DECISION that changed his and his families life forever.  He gathered up his sack full of possessions and walked over 150 miles to the 'City'  where, with the help of some City folks, enrolled in his first school.  He did well, got a scholarship to College and then another one to a British School of Engineering where he excelled before returning to Uganda where he rose in the ranks of government works and raised his family.  

The Chief Goat of Uganda

David his son, our guest speaker, because of his 'privileges'  found himself in Washington (State of)  where through some miracles (divine guidance), some great mentors, lots of very hard work and a perhaps a little luck, also received his Engineering Degree, found the church and met his future bride at a service station (also with Ugandan roots), orchestrated her conversion and took her to the temple and did all of that by the  ripe old age of 35.  Today, President Oryang is a successful engineer in the DC area and a mighty servant in the Kingdom.   His oldest son just received his mission call to the land of Mozambique, where he will learn Portuguese and eventually find his way to Maramayo (Lesson for another day). 

What a great story!!!  But for today we only use it to ask one question.  WHAT IF THE GOATS HAD NOT ALL DIED?

Is that a scary question or not?  Would David Oryang, our distinguished guest speaker and now father of a missionary, still be tending the goats in the mountains of Uganda if the herd had not died but instead, prospered, and grew to a herd in excess of 200 or more...providing adequate goats milk and goat burgers to sustain his small tribe of posterity gathering daily around the campfire to hear stories of Grandpa Oryang who had created "Goats of Uganda, LLC"  back in the early 50's?  

I'm sure President Oryang's Patriarchal Blessing reveals the Lord's hand in 'assisting'  his father getting to 'the city'  and eventually his son finding himself in an American  graduate school and perhaps even prompted him to stop and fill up his petrol tank at a certain service station where a beautiful young lady from Uganda was in the middle of her second day working on American soil.  Not saying that Heavenly Father wiped out the Goat Herd - but somebody did - and looking back it needed to happen in order for this incredible story to unfold.

I'll leave this Life Lesson to your own ponderings and to ask yourself why so many times in life 'our goats all die'?   I have asked myself often why I contracted Polio which forced me to find another path to manhood rather than through the Dallas Cowboys where I might have been their famous quarterback (ok a little heavy) or what if I had not stuttered and been confronted with the thoughts that accompany that different sort of adversity? Why do our Chicken Coops burn down or we lose our shirt in Elfridea when we are full tithe payers and trying hard to be obedient?   What if I had not driven that beautiful 1957 DeSoto into the ditch and learned the lesson on Trust early in my life?  Why did we come to a Telestial Kingdom full of Tests and Trials to learn Celestial Principles? 

WHAT IF THE GOATS HAD NOT ALL DIED?   I know a young man heading for Mozambique who is sure glad they did!!!    

I don't know when another chicken coop is going to burn down but I'm looking forward to the celestial principle that I will learn when the smoke clears and the lesson is revealed.  

Meanwhile my present test is having to peel my own grapes...why can't Costco can't get their act together?

With love from the Far East, 

Bro Jim