From Pumpkin Day to Pumpkin Pie

 We chose a perfect pumpkin on Pumpkin Day for Kevin to carve.

This year we thought our jack-o-lantern's face had particular character and personality.

But here is what happens after he shines on Halloween night.

Yep, he gets mushed, cooked and bottled turning into orange goo and stuffed in

bottles to be high pressured

Then, the "gooey stuff" becomes the main ingredient in pumpkin breads and pies. 

An impressive life don't you think?

I Might Be Addicted . . .

Kevin and I spent last week on a cruise ship siteseeing in various ports of Alaska. The cruise ship, all about profits, insisted its passengers pay many hundreds of dollars for the use of their internet and phone connections. 


Since we could not connect to our own server, and we refused to pay the high price offered by the cruise line, we spent the week basically staying away from the internet. The first three days were the hardest for me, then I started to get used to it or so I thought.


We took some computer classes offered by Microsoft on board ship. It was in the class, that my carnal senses took over.  When I began to plunk on the computer keys, my fingers automatically tried to get onto the internet . The instructor caught me and I felt somewhat scolded. Not that he had told us not to, but I pretty well knew it wouldn't be allowed. 


I thought I was cured but I guess a few days wasn't long enough away from my addiction.


A friend of mine sent me this poem a while back. It didn't apply to me until now. 

The computer swallowed Grandma,

Yes, honestly it’s true!

She pressed 'control and 'enter'

And disappeared from view.

It devoured her completely,

The thought just makes me squirm.

She must have caught a virus

Or been eaten by a worm.

I've searched through the recycle bin

And files of every kind;

I've even used the Internet,

But nothing did I find.

In desperation, I asked Mr. Google

My searches to refine.

The reply from him was negative,

Not a thing was found 'online.

So, if inside your 'Inbox,'

My Grandma you should see,

Please 'Copy, Scan' and 'Paste' her,

And send her back to me.

I Love Family Home Evening

Recently I have been going through some pictures my sister, Diana and her husband scanned into their computer from slides my dad took with his camera. These pictures brought back memories of faces, places, activities and clothing we worn then.

One picture brought back a memory long forgotten. We were celebrating my sister, LoRene's third birthday. On the wall behind the table was our family home evening chart. I really did not even remember at first that we had one of those.

I believe all of my siblings and I enjoyed family home evening for the most part. We probably had it for years before my memories of it began. But I do remember that we held it on Thursday evenings after attending Primary and having dinner. The Church had not yet designated a night for it.

Just a year before this picture was taken, my parents were in a terrible car accident. Both sets of my grandparents spent some time taking care of us kids while Mom and Dad recuperated in the hospital. I remember one Thursday evening. We all wondered, "What about family home evening? Who would give us family home evening?" I mentioned to my Grandma and Grandpa Anderson that we wanted to have it. They consented to help us, and we struggled through it not really knowing what to do. Grandma and Grandpa sang a few songs with us, we said a prayer and went to bed.

It is amazing how habits can dictate our lives. If they are good habits, we are certainly ahead.

Kevin and I continued the tradition of family home evening with our children, and I hope they enjoyed it as we did. They now carry on the tradition with their children too.

In 1915 the Church came out with the following statement and promise:

"We advise and urge the inauguration of a 'home evening' throughout the Church, at which time fathers and mothers may gather their boys and girls about them in the home and teach them the word of the Lord. They may thus learn more fully the needs and requirements of their families, at the same time familiarizing themselves and their children more thoroughly with the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This home evening should be devoted to prayer, singing hymns, songs, instrumental music, scripture reading, family topics, and specific instruction on the principles of the gospel and on the ethical problems of life, as well as the duties and obligations of children to parents, the home, the Church, society, and the nation.

If the Saints obey this counsel, we promise that great blessings will result. Love at home and obedience to parents will increase. Faith will be developed in the hearts of the youth of Israel, and they will gain power to combat the evil influences and temptations which beset them."

I miss the opportunity to have family home evening with my small children, but once in a while we get invited to share the evening with them and their children. We love it!

Its A Rainy Day

Most January days in Utah are cold and snowy. But today it has rained and rained and rained some more until late in the night it got so cold it snowed on top of that. I do not remember so much rain on one day in the middle of wintertime.


When my children were small whenever it rained we loved to sing the song from Sesame Street called Its A Rainy Day. The song asks, "Why do we need the rain 
 . . . anyway?" Then it goes on the list all of the reasons we need the water which comes from the rain.


I love this song. Maybe it reminds me of when my children and I used to sing it together.


Enjoy one of my favorites!

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Since I was nine years old, it has been a Christmas tradition of mine to watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas. My children never seemed to care for the show and my grand kids like it even less. But I am NOT daunted by them.

What could be wrong with a story about a creature who  absolutely hates everything about Christmas because of the noise surrounding an entire town on Christmas Day. The Grinch comes up with a plan of of disguising himself as Santa to steal everything representing Christmas belonging to the Whos believing it will be enough to stop the holiday from coming.

In the end, after he accomplishes his task, he notices the town still sing and celebrate Christmas. The Grinch questions, "How could it be so, it came without ribbons, it came without bows, it came without tags, it came without packages, boxes or bags. Maybe Christmas doesn't come from a store." Touched by this, his heart grew three sizes larger and he returned all of their gifts, food and decorations.

I can't wait to play How the Grinch Stole Christmas this year--my 45th consecutive year!

I Love Family Traditions

I love traditions which are wholesome and memorable--those which are passed down from generation to generation. I especially enjoy those which we have observed for so long and no one remembers how they started.

For many years on Halloween I made chili for dinner. When the kids got home from trick-or-treating like it or not they had to have a bowl of chili. Some of my children like chili and some would rather not partake--but we had it anyway.

Yesterday as my daughter Cassy was preparing for a Halloween night with her family, she told me she already had taco soup in her crockpot for when the kids returned from trick-or-treating. Apologetically she said, "I wanted to keep up the chili tradition, but Brayden doesn't like chili. So I decided to [tweek] it a little and make taco soup a tradition for us."

I took that as a wonderful compliment. Hopefully some our good traditions can withstand the test of time.

Mom's Crystal Goblet

I have a delicate crystal goblet which is a little chipped around its edges through years of use.  I know some of its history--at least in the last 50 years or so, but nothing of its usefulness before that.

This goblet belonged to my mother, and she gave it to me a while back. I am really glad I have it because it holds some good and bad memories for me. Good memories because it always lovingly showed up on a t.v. tray beside my bed when I was sick holding 7UP and a small straw and bad memories because of that same reason--I was sick.

The t.v. tray with the beautiful crystal did not show up just when I was sick but when all of my siblings were sick. It stayed for several days when my brothers each had their tonsils taken out and longer stints when we all came down with mumps and chicken pox in various stages of contagiousness. It was always the 7UP that was a mystery. Mom never kept it on hand, but it showed up in the goblet each time we became ill. I guess there are some things we will never understand.

For some reason I always believed that this goblet was the last of a set that my mother had received as a wedding gift--the last because I had broken the rest. But Mom said this same goblet showed up by her bedside when she was sick as a child. Maybe I should call it the "Healing Goblet."

No matter what it is called, whenever it look at it I can hear it say, "I love you."