In All thy Ways Acknowledge Him

The Big White Dog

 As I turned the last corner toward the long stretch before I arrive home. My mind turned to the big white dog. When I left the house this morning, he wanted to follow the car.  I slowed to a stop on the hill. He stopped and watched. As I inched forward he came forward.  As I stopped he stopped.  He has been running after the truck as we snowplowed the road, up and down the road, up and down the road. He seems to have endless energy.
didn't want to get out of the car onto the snowy slick drive in my nice shoes. My level of frustration seems to be higher these days. Maybe more easily exasperated. I usually will try to figure out something on my own before asking for help, but recently I just ask for help; even for the most simple things.
" Heavenly Father, I don't know what to do with this dog. I don't know how to train him. I don't even know if he is trainable. Please tell him he needs to go chasing after a deer, or distract him, or something, so he won't follow me."
 I had hardly finished thinking the thought and he headed up a deer trail to my left. I watched him gallop up over the rise before I dared drive away. What a truly beautiful animal. As I started to inch forward I kept my eye on the rearview mirror to make sure he didn't show up again following me down the road. By the time I decided he wasn't following me. I had almost forgotten that prayer. Forgotten the miracle that had just happened. I, like the guy who fell off the cliff and prayed that God would save him. Then when a branch caught him said, "Oh never mind God. The branch caught me." I needed to stop myself and remember that my prayer had just been answered, directly and immediately.

Just last week I was contemplating the miracle of this dog. He is a wander by nature. The type of dog that would  travel every morning to check on the cattle herds, before coming home for breakfast and to sit in the corral with the cattle near the house. He isn't  trained. He has no herds to watch over, and hunting season is always a problem because the dogs want to go out and find any "treats"  left behind by hunters.  Several weeks earlier my frustration had peaked when for the 4th time in one week he had disappeared. I drove all over around past the nearby homes looking to see when he might have gone this time. Three times already neighbors had called me letting me know that they had my dog. As I drove around finding him nowhere, I prayed.
"Dear Father in Heaven, I don't know what to do with this dog. You know I didn't ask for him. John got him even though I didn't think it was a good idea.  Father, you know I have Christmas coming up and a wedding reception and I will have a house full of people. I am not going to have time to train him. Could you please tell him for me that he just  needs to stay closer to the house."
When I got home he was still nowhere around, but he showed up for dinner. It was that night that my first guest of the Christmas season arrived and I was so busy that I really hadn't contemplated the matter again until after everyone had left and things had calmed down. From that time until now he hasn't bothered any of the neighbors. He still takes off, but he must not go too far and up to this point he has always been back for dinner.

"And to every beast of the earth, and to every foul of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, behold we will give them life….and behold, they shall be obedient."  Abraham 4:30,31

The Star on Top

It's Christmas time again. I am decorating the tree by myself this year. Kind of a nostalgic feeling if I think about not having anyone here to help. All my little helpers have grown and flown. It is time for them to move on; time for me to see life from new eyes. I always wanted some time for myself. Now I have it. I should enjoy it.
We found the most beautifully shaped tree in the forest this year. The perfect height. The perfect size. Can't imagine why I never saw it before this. We didn't even have to cut the top off. Cutting the top off almost seems to be  a tradition. We always get it into the house and discover that it is too tall; but not this year. This year it was just right. There was only one small problem. The new growth on the top of this very beautiful, perfectly shaped tree was too tender to hold up the star. When I put the star up it flopped over. I had never realized that by cutting off the top, I was putting my just-a-little-bit-heavy star on a stronger portion of the trunk.  The tree had always been able to hold my star before, but not this year.  After all sorts of adjusting and rearranging, I finally decided that the only way I could keep the star upright was to reinforce the top. Rummaging through my kitchen drawers, I came up with a bamboo chopstick. Standing on my step stool, I gently fastened the bamboo chopstick to the top of the tree with bread ties.  In the background Christmas carols were playing and I couldn't help but know that sometimes I, like this tender new growth, am not strong enough to carry the load that has been given me. The Savior, whose birth we celebrate, and whose star we place on the top of the tree, often fortifies me so that I can do what I need to do. His hands are gentle. He provides strength and support, and I get to look like the perfectly pretty Christmas tree. Only I know best that I couldn't do it with out a little extra help reinforcement.

We've gone from a circle and a diamond and a square to mounds of strawberries and peas, and more salad than we can eat. The weeds are unending. Although every year is seems that there are less and more under control, it is hard to quantify less when they are unending.

This morning Nathan left with Fish and Wildlife to go see a grizzly release. He has been volunteering with them. This is his reward for filing and organizing Bear DNA samples for 13 hours.

Sean and John just finished their pack test, 3 miles with 45 pound pack in 31 minutes so the can get their red cards and go work on fires. John in a command center. Sean out on an actual fire.

On the 4th we worked the evening in the Boy Scout Elephant ear booth. Then watch the fireworks, and froze. We have not been feeling the heat wave that the rest of the nation has had. We are happy that we have seen 4 days without rain.

If I Could See Eternity?

This morning I looked out the window and marveled at the sight. The mountains were completely gone, and the foot hills looked like that was all it was. As I studied the sight I wondered if that is what this life is like. We can only see the foot hills and so it is hard for us to imagine that there is more than what we can see.

As a mountain peeking out of the tops of the clouds, sometimes in our lives we have a glimpse of what eternity might be. The beauty that must be there but we can't see for now, in our limited view.

Only because I live here and see these mountains all the time I know what really lies beyond, and I hope for the day when I will see the full glory of God in the Eternities to come.

GRAD

BBQ Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

 We got a new BBQ grill, and for its inauguration we invited Ken and Beverly. John and Ken did the ribbon cutting.  Then inspected the beauty of a new unsoiled grill.

 Let the grilling begin!
Are you hungry yet?


Then Emiley let us get belly pictures. Mom wanted to get in on the action.

But don't forget Dad. He wants to show off his belly too!

Thoughts on Memorial Day

As a child Memorial Day meant traveling to Preston cemetery, placing flowers on graves. In later years,  plaques that read, “Faith in every footstep”  were placed on the headstones of some of these people who had walked a crossed the plains to settle the West. On the other side of the family, They were coming West, also. There are stories told of the great, great  Aunt that  ran in the Oklahoma Land Run. It seems that every generation pushed West, starting with founders of the places like Boston and Salem and the Appalachians. As I look back on my ancestors I can see that they were always pushing Westward.

As a child while my Father was in school, we spent a little while in NJ. I reveled in the beauty of the hardwoods in Fall colors, in winter I had the opportunity to ice skate on the famous Erie Canal. Although I reveled in the beauty of the Northeast, I missed the Rocky Mountains of my Childhood.   The purple mountains majesty of the song “America The  Beautiful."                                                                           

Now Memorial Day means the solemn ring of a Bugle.  Nathan takes his bugle out to the porch and plays for the whole valley to hear. It rings clear and solemn. On the Military Post every evening they play “Taps” at the end of the day, and at funerals, at the end of a life.

I never wanted my daughter-in-laws to go through what I went through. Military wives band together. They need each other’s support while their husbands are gone, in dangerous and unknown circumstances. But now I have two sons who have entered the military.

Being a military wife was very hard. Not only is having them gone so often is hard, there are times when your husband is deployed that you can’t know where he is. You know he is in danger and you know he might not come back. There is always that possibility.

Military wards are anxiously engaged. As life becomes  tenuous the gospel and the peace that it brings becomes more important.

Zech, when he was little, had a friend whose dad was doing mine sweeps. (Probably in Cosovo) He couldn’t sleep at night because of the fear that his Dad wouldn’t come home.

In the book of Mormon we learn that war can harden people’s hearts. Mormon, after years of war, was told by the Lord, “Cry unto this people,  Repent , and come unto me, and be baptized, and build up again my church, and ye shall be spared.” Mormon says that he cried “unto them but it was in vain. They did not realize that it was the Lord that had spared them, and granted them a chance for repentance. AND BEHOLD THEY DID HARDEN THEIR HEARTS against the Lord.” (Mormon 3:2)

With that solemn ring of the Bugle playing taps, Memorial Day becomes the day we honor those who died for our freedom.

The words of the Battle Hymn of the Republic come to mind.” As he died to make men holy, Let us live to make man free.”  The true freedom that we seek comes through living the principles of the truth and righteousness. The founding Fathers understood this principle.  The Church could not have been restored had our country not been founded upon principles of righteousness, and truth, and the people who were willing to die for these principles.

The beginning statement from the book The 5000 year Leap says:

 “Like the framers themselves, many Americans in the early years of the Republic truly regarded the Constitution as a miracle. Not only did they praise the competence, wisdom and motivations of those who served in the federal convention of 1787, but they declared that the formation and adoption of our new system of federal government represented a political achievement unprecedented in human history. They looked upon it, moreover, as an event that was actually “influenced, guided and governed by the hand of God. Thus it is not hard to understand why our Founding Fathers believed that the Constitution was destined to bless all mankind—and that it was ‘incumbent on their successors’ to preserve and defend our national charter of liberty.”

A little side note. I just learned that in our county only approx. 25% of the people vote. That means that if you do vote you get a bigger say in what happens in the county than just one. Each person who votes speaks for at least 4 people, himself and 3 people who did not vote.

Mother's Responsibility

To women, God gives stewardship over bestowing and nurturing mortal life, including physical bodies for God's spirit children and guiding those children toward a knowledge of gospel truths. These stewardships, equally sacred and important, do not involve any false ideas about domination or subordination....'Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children'. Nurturing refers to parenting behaviors such as warmth, support, bonding, attachment, recognizing each child's unique abilities, and attending to children's needs. Nurturing in and of itself is more important in the development of a child than is any particular method or technique of child rearing. It hardly needs saying that nurturing is best carried out in a stable, safe, family context....Because our mothers love us, we learn or more accurately remember, that God also loves us....
Taking care of small, dependent, and demanding children is never ending and often nerve-racking. Mothers must not fall into the trap of believing that "quality" time can not replace "quantity" time. Quality is a direct function of quantity - and mothers to nurture their children properly, must provide both. To do so requires constant vigilance and a constant juggling of competing demands. It is hard work, no doubt about it.  (M. Russell Ballard)

When God wants a great work done in the world or a great wrong righted, he goes about it in a very unusual way. He doesn't stir up his earthquakes or send forth his thunderbolts. Instead, He has a helpless baby born, perhaps in a simple home of some obscure mother. And then God puts the idea into the mother's heart, and she puts it into the baby's mind. And then God waits. The greatest forces in the world are not the earth quakes and the thunderbolts. The greatest forces in the world are babies"  (E.T. Sullivan)

Sometimes boys do things like that

It is warm. There is a flood warning. The snow is running off the mountains. You know the creek is running hard when it is fulll of sediment. Sean and Nathan decided to run down to the creek to cool off. They got down to look at it and changed their minds. They wanted to kayak down it. They came back and asked for my permission. I said, "no",  and "no"again, and finally when I could see that they weren't going to listen, (and because I wasn't feeling a terrible foreboding) I said, "I don't want to be a part of this." They took that as a "yes", threw the kayaks into to the back of the truck and headed down to the bridge. That's when the anxiety started. The creek was high. Did they even know how to kayak well enough to handle it. Nathan worked on the lake all summer and knew how to kayak, but that's different, this is a swift river not a lake. He'll loose those flip-flops he was wearing. Will they leave the keys in the car, and not stick them in a pocket? Do I even have another set of keys for the truck? I could imagine keys at the bottom of the creek. My heart sank when I thought of Nathan tipped over and not knowing to fold over to push yourself out rather than to do what is natural and to straighten. I was restless. I couldn't focus. I started praying. Keep them safe. Help them to know of the dangers before they encounter them so that they can be wise. Help them to understand how dangerous it can be. Make them keep their word and stay away from the log jams. They said they would be an hour, but I knew better. I knew I needed to be patient and wait. I dreaded hearing my telephone ring. I thought, if I hear an ambulance I will know I need to worry. (As if I wasn't worrying already). The phone rang. It was Charlie, the neighbor up the road.
"Are your boys in kayaks down on the creek?
Slow and deliberately, trying to calm myself, I responded, "Yes"
"Is that both of your boys or only one of them?"
"Both. I didn't want them to go but they insisted."
"Ann and I have been watching them from the cliff. They are doing okay but you might want to come see this. They have come around the bend, and are coming up on a log swift. The older one is doing really well, but you might want to watch. If it works out okay it is great fun. You know, boys do this kind of thing."
So I ran down to the cliff to watch. By the time I got there they were out of their boats in the middle to the creek on a rocky sand bar working out the log issue. In the process they lost Nathan's boat down the river. Sean headed after it. Duke who had come down with me thought this was the greatest fun and took off down the river swimming after Sean.Oh great, the dog might not be able to handle that kind of a current. Now we will lose the dog too. After watching Sean go out of sight, and seeing Duke come back to meet Nathan, who was on the other side by now, I came back up to the house. I figured it would be a long time before I knew where Sean was. After he caught the boat hung up somewhere, or decided it was an impossible task, he would have to climb out of the river and find a phone somewhere to call me. It could be a long time, and would probably be dark by then. So I decided to drive  across the creek and down a ways to see if I could pick up Nathan, then came back and wait for the phone call. When I got to Evan's I discovered both boys, the boats, and the dog were already there. Sean had retrieved the boat down the river a little way where it had gotten jammed in a log jam. We headed home safely, on my part grateful, and on theirs exhilarated. The neighbor who had watched them with his binoculars and seen them climb out of the river, had jumped in his truck to go get them, and we met him coming back. Sometimes boys do things like that.

Daffodils

There is something in this picture that speak to me.

It is rustic and unkept, yet beautiful, bright, sunny.

I remember my Grandpa Renny singing some song about Springtime in the Rockies. I think we are just so grateful when it finally comes. I took this picture of John pruning the Apple tree. The mountains in the back ground and the dog in the foreground were just a mistake.