Fruit and fun

I've got quit a bit of catching up to do, and what better way to do it than sitting on the beaches of Kauai? (ok so I didn't get very far updating from Kauai because now I'm back home)

The original cause of my lack of blogging was all the fruit I was processing over the summer.

This summer my peach tree actually produced buckets and buckets of beautiful peaches. It wasn't due to anything I did, just pure luck. It was my first descent crop. I thinned them out, but I never thin enough and so I wasn't sure they were going to be very big at all. My apple tree didn't fair as well and I got lots of apples but they were tiny and inedable. Major bummer!  I did have to share the peaches with the birds and they took their fair share (that square bucket is how many I lost to them)

I also amped up my preparedness game and started making some different kinds of heat sources. The one on the far left with the toilet paper roll inside has rubbing alchohol in it. I forgot to remove the cardboard middle, so it made it pretty hard to squeeze it in there, but I got the job done. This type of candle is perfect for putting in your car or using inside since it is a clean burn. (btw, it's in a paint can) The one next to it is a gasifier. You need a paint can, a progresso soup can and a drill to make it. There are lots of videos on-line showing how to do it, I think the method I went with is the best one and we tested it and it works really good. This one you would use outside and you could cook over it. 

 

Next up is the tuna can cardboard and paraffin wax. Pretty cheap. I did discover that you've got to either leave a cardboard wick or scrape down to the cardboard to get it to light. Because the wick is everywhere it gives off a nice amount of heat and light- although you would want to use this outside.

If processing all my peaches and getting ready for seminary to start wasn't enough to keep me busy, I got a call that I could have some pears. How could I turn that down? I can't see perfectly good food go to waste. The pears were small and they were filled with worms (theres a pic of them) and they required a lot of work to process. I lost some skin on my hand from holding the pear while using a potato peeler. It was a lot of work because there is no easy way to get the skin off and there was a lot of waste per pear due to damage. Sometimes I ended up with 1 pear slice from an entire pear. They looked beautiful canned though and I used a light syrup. Ethan has been enjoying eating them.

What do you do when your friend has a grape vine? You beg for grapes. Emma and I went over and retrieved the glorious grapes before they went to waste. We ended up going over when no one was home so we felt like we were on a grape heist. It was pretty fun. We ended up crawling into the massive vine to retrieve the grapes. It was so much fun and it was really hard to stop because we kept seeing glorious bunch after bunch that makes you want to pick them. I brought over what I thought was a large bowl, but we ended up using our shirts to collect more. The one downside to picking grapes - spiders! They were everywhere. On the way home with the grapes there were at least 5 loose in the car. While we were going through the painstaking process of removing the stems we released several more. Emma was on spider suck up duty. We ended up freezing snack size bags of grapes for enjoyment and I also dehydrated some. 

I had no idea what I was in for when I decided to make raisins. Just getting them off the stems is a massive undertaking. Then I went with a method of blanching the grapes so that they would burst the skins- making dehydration faster. Here's the problem with that method. It adds lots of time to the process. It adds lots of water to the grapes. It makes the raisins really sticky because the inside of the grape is now on the outside! When I say sticky, I mean really sticky! Raisins by nature are a little on the sticky side, but this was bad sticky. Raisins also take hours and hours to dry. After that initial batch I decided that the grapes were small enough that I would just put them on the trays as is without blanching them. This added a few hours to the drying time and I had to do a lot of tray juggling in the dehydrator to get everything processed evenly, but I liked the results much better. 

If processing my own grapes wasn't work enough I had my friend bring over some more so that I could process them for his family- after all, they were their grapes. They might as well get some goodness too.

What did I do with all those peaches? Well I made lots of pies. My favorite to make is peach raspberry. I found an amazing country crust that you just press into the pan which made the cupcake pies possible. I used those for visiting teaching and thank you gifts. I also made a big pie for the lady that got me quilting. I had a little pie miracle with that. I had also made a pie for our family. We have a family that comes to dinner at our house every Sunday and when we got the extra pie out that I made we realized that it was still soup. I couldn't figure out what I had done wrong. The friend suggested that I just put it back in the oven. We did and it turned out perfectly. Here's the miracle part- if saving my pie wasn't enough. I had gone to deliver the other pie to the quilt friend not knowing that it was soup as well since I baked them together. Had she have been home when I went to deliver it, she would have been given a tin of soup and I would have been mortified! I was able to cook the pie again knowing that it would work and turn out fine before delivering it to her the next time. My brain finally turned on and I realized that there are 2 baking temperatures and times for the pie. You start off at a high temp and cook it for awhile then you lower the temp and cook it for the rest of the time. I had only done the 1st cooking time in my haste to get the pies cooked while I was doing a million other things at the same time. When I do too much at once I get sidetracked and careless. So my little pie miracle saved me from total embarrassment.

Along with dehydrating and making pies with the peaches, I also made some fruit leather. While I was making said fruit leather, Emma decided it was the perfect time to clean out her nasal passages in the kitchen sink. Why? Who knows! She wanted to gross us out? Get too close to my fruit leather with her nastiness? It's a typical night in our house captured in a picture. After the nose cleaning, Nate gathered everyone up for their back to school fathers blessings. 

OK, this picture below is from Monday. I added it here because it fits. So I had a lot of dehydrated peaches and grapes. They weren't being eaten fast enough and I was worried that they were going to go bad. I was getting ready to see how freezing them would go when a friend told me about her latest obsession- oven canning. It was the solution to my problem, so I had to give it a try. It totally worked. I had to help the cans seal by pushing down the lid, but if it stays down instead of popping back up, you're good to go- which is what happened on all the smaller jars. Now I've got my raisins and dried peaches and fruit leather sealed up nice and tight in jars to be preserved until we can eat or use them. How totally awesome is that? 

Quilting

How does one start down the path of a quilting fiend? Well, I guess it would be by answering the call for help. I was having a bad day and my headache wasn't making it any better. I was out running some errands and dreaming of getting home and climbing into my tempurpedic adjustable bed of deliciousness. Well that dream went into the dustbin of life when I received a text to please oh please bring my sewing machine to the church to help the yw sew some quilts. It took me a few minutes to answer the txt. I was driving so I figured that bought me some time to decide how it was that I was going to say no. I knew I needed to find a way to pull myself together and say yes, but I wasn't ready to let go of my dream just yet. Well, I finally decided to text my response of coming to the rescue when I received a phone call- this person must have had a feeling of my wanting to say no. She explained that she really really really needed me to come. Ok Ok, dream officially dead. 

Here's the thing about the Lord. He doesn't bless you for doing the right thing immediately. That would require no faith. No step into the dark. You have to say yes while you feel like crap. You can't wait until you don't feel like crap to say yes. You don't even feel better when you get in the car. Not while driving over. Not while unloading all your junk out of the car to traipse in. It's not until you sit down and start helping that you start to feel better. Sometimes this gift lasts the entire time, sometimes just long enough to get you back home, and sometimes you're completely cured until the next time. . This time it got me back home before I felt like crap again. (How many times can I say crap in this post? a lot!)

Ok. Onto the quilts. I haven't made a quilt in 19 years. I made  a quilt for our queen size bed when I was pregnant with Jared. I didn't really know what I was doing at the time and it was really difficult to get it machine quilted so I just never had the desire to try again. Well, these quilts that were being made were strip quilts. They were going together in lightning speed. They were looking awesome. I needed to try and make one. I talked to the woman in charge of the evening and a quilting guru and found out all I needed to know. I also decided to ask if I could take home one of the extra kits and offered to pay money for it. I knew if I took it home I would start working on it right away and if I had to hunt down a kit on my own it just might not happen. She refused to let me pay for the kit and I was ready for my new adventure. ( I baked a pie with peaches from my tree as a thank you to her)

Well, that initial quilt went together in 2 days. Including getting a back and batting for it and quilting it together. I had achieved success and I was hungry for more. I found some fabric on clearance at walmart and set about doing 2 more quilts without having any idea who the recipients of the quilts would be. That's when the idea of making them for Christmas came. The first one I made I was specifically making with the intention of giving it to Jordyn and I realized that all my kids needed one. I'm always looking for meaningful gifts. A way I can give a piece of myself to someone and this was the perfect avenue for that. I decided to branch out and take all of Nate's old work shirts and finally make a quilt out of them like I had been planning but never really had the desire to actually do.  I was on a roll, so why not? After I made the quilt he said "why would I want a quilt with that logo, I hate that company and don't want a reminder of it." Oh great! I had even put camouflage on the back so it was "business on the front and party on the back" I had messed up on the stitching around the boarder because I didn't know that when your needle dulls it starts to skip stitches. I was afraid that my machine was broken and would be gone for weeks so I just kept going with the janky stitch so the quilt would be done before I took it in for repairs. I loath unfinished projects. Thank goodness for the Internet and lots of people wanting to make videos for people like me. All I needed to do was replace my needle. I wish all of life's fixes were that easy. It ended up being perfect having the janky stitching considering the hated log. We are calling it the "overcoming trials " quilt! hahaha

Watson loves to sit by me and he has personally tried out every single quilt I've made, so if you are a recipient, just know that watson has sat on it - they all get washed when they're done though. I love how a quilt looks after it's been washed- all puffy and quilt like.  I ended up turning my living room into a sweat shop because my formal dining room is being used by seminary and I couldn't leave the sewing mess out in any other room, so I took over the living room. It was actually quite nice in there because there was no tv. I could just sit in silence and sew and think. I could also listen to byu speeches, conference talks and some other things. Sometime while ironing I would watch some netflix on the iPad - there's lots of ironing involved in quilt making!

I just keep ordering more and more fabric and making more and more quilts. It just kind keeps snowballing. I keep adding more and more people to my list of needing a quilt. I've made 12 now. We had a debate for awhile about which direction to make the stripes go. In the end I only ended up with Ethan and Jared's quilt with the strips going vertical. It's harder to control the pattern and you feel like you aren't accomplishing anything for a longer time making it that way, so I just went back to the horizontal. One day I will try on the diagonal, but not yet. That will be too time consuming.

My friend Jolene was seeing all the quilts I was making and teased that she wanted one and gave me the colors she wanted. They came for balloon fiesta so I hustled and got one put together before she came and gave it to her for her birthday. She is actually the first person that has received their quilt and gets to use it before Christmas. 

My kids keep trying to talk me into giving them their quilts. They would sneak off with them and give them test runs. The pic above was us trying to decide which way we like the stripes going with the same pattern so we could compare apples to apples.  Watson is also being buried by the fabric. He always has to be right next to me or touching me- most of the time he gets in the way of me pressing the sewing peddle. 

There's Jo with her quilt. It was hard to see one of my babies leave, but it went to a very good home where it will be loved.

Summer Catching Up

I don't know why it's been so hard to keep caught up on the blog. I guess it was bound to happen. I had a good couple year run with keeping on top of things. I've gotten too busy and to lazy to write. So a quick catch up:

Jordyn celebrated her 11th birthday! She finally got the one thing she has been wanting for years- a cell phone. We got her a cheap 10 a month plan and a few toys that remind us that she is still little.  

I debated and debated on whether or not to let her have a birthday party since she was getting a phone for her birthday. I decided at the last minute that she could invite some friends over to swim, but we were keeping it totally low key. I was surprised so many of the girls were able to come on such short notice.

They swam and played outside and then they went home. No decorations except for some balloons from the dollar store and some pink bags full of popcorn and a bottle of nail polish as parting gifts. We had the must have custard cake from freddy's and some pizza and called it a birthday party. Sometimes less really is more!

Our ward had a campout and we were the nerds that brought our rv to the party. It was a quick little adventure, but it's always nice to be outside. It was perfect whether - a little on the hot side.

Nate has been especially stressed out lately with expanding the practice and trying to keep up with all the new health regulation nightmares. Seriously nightmares. This country will never be the same! He needed to get out of town without taking the time to actually leave, so we literally went 2 miles north and stayed at a resort so he could un plug from the world. What better way to clear your mind than on a horse ride?

I was able to take the little ones on a couple of hikes towards the end of the summer. This was to a nice little waterfall. I love the sound of water and being surrounded by greenery. It was a fun hike and it wasn't very hot that morning and we were back by 1. That's my kinda day!

3 of us seminary teachers were up there together so we documented what we looked like before seminary was about to start and take over our lives. 

I've got like 5 more posts to write so I'm being short and sweet - something that doesn't happen very often- enjoy! ;)

Balloon Fiesta & JoJo Visit

There will be a little skipping around as I try and get all caught up. It's basically whatever I feel like talking about next is what order things will end up in :)

It's been awhile since my friend, Jo, has come to visit from AZ with her 7 kids. I was so thrilled when she asked if she could come for balloon fiesta....hmmm...let me think about it.....YES! I really love when some comes to visit and I love those kids. We've got a pretty good system down for controlling the madness and we always have a great time!

The first picture is all of us that went to the balloon park. It was Jo's family and another Jeremy's family. As the fiesta goes, the special shapes event got cancelled because of the weather. It seriously happens almost every year. It was crazy in the parking lot when we decided to leave so we just hung out by the cars and watched the fireworks and waited for things to calm down before we left. It was a really great firework show so we didn't mind hanging out- embrace the madness is our new motto.

Despite no balloons being inflated we managed to have a nice time hanging out in the park with no electronic devices. We played together and talked to each other - what a concept! Nate was the jungle gym and resident goof ball.

We got to see lots of star wars people from the darth vadar balloon and take picture with all of them. I picked on to put on here. Nate took his first selfie while wearing Josh's super cool camo hat. I actually captured a nice picture of Josh smiling which is always a fun game for me.

It was Jo's birthday so we - of course- had to celebrate! Jo had told me that Sophie had randomly asked her one day if she could make a "Heather cake." When she told me this I knew what kind of birthday cake we had to make. I've made it several times now and it's my go to - a nutella strawberry cake. It's seriously devine. 

Jo was the very first recipient of the quilt craze I've been on (that's a post coming up). She mentioned on 1 of the 10 pictures I had posted on fb about my quilts that she her favorite colors were gray and purple in case I wanted to know to make her one. Well, she was coming so of course I was going to make her one. 

We spent a lot of our time going and eating our favorite foods together and cooking. We also played a lot of dice and ate junk food. Ethan was the favorite amongst the littles - especially Ben. They were inseparable. One day Sam just randomly came up to me and gave me 2 of the biggest longest hugs. Talk about melting your heart! Josh and Jared were reunited and it's always great to see those 2 together. Jo also had to document the crazy thing that happened to me concerning chicken on the bone. The thing is, I was skeeved out by it for as long as I can remember and then one day it's like a switch flipped and I can't get enough. It is my go to comfort food now. She thought I had lost my mind and was completely amused.

It was sad that the trip was over so fast. By the last morning the balloons made it over our way to fly over my house. It's like the balloons came to say goodbye. Isn't it amazing how some people just become family? They just become adopted in and the bond can be just as strong -if not stronger- than blood. There have only been 3 families to make that kind of bond with us, so it's pretty special. 

The Windows Are Open

Alright, so it's been awhile. I have a big "catch up" post to write and I don't feel like it, so it has made me postpone this one. I decided that life events will just have to be out of order so that I can put first things first. I am a sewing fiend right now and can think of nothing else. But, I have to document miracles and testify that the windows of heaven are wide open.

I've mentioned, probably a million times, flecks of gold. We have quite a nice collection going in seminary and my husband has even been talking about them at work and his staff tell him when they have one. He just found out about 1 a couple of days ago that involved letting go and prayer and something amazing coming into this persons life. Super cool. Nate also talks a lot about Moses at work and having faith to part the Red Sea. He has an office full of all types of religious/ non religious people, but they are uniting in their faith in miracles and the source of those miracles - the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Now, onto my biggest most recent. I've had several small, but we'll stick with the big ones. They both involve the temple. I love temple miracles. Well, I love all miracles, but especially temple ones. I was serving as a volunteer a week ago last Thursday. It was the end of my shift and I was doing sealings. I had collected some names out of our ward file to do. This time I looked through each and every name. Usually I look to see who submitted the work, but I don't always look through the names on the cards before I enter the room. This time, I looked through and read the names. One of the names was Gilcher. This name stood out to me. Not sure how to explain what that means, but it stood out. I enter the room, turn over the cards to the sealer, and we begin. I get to be proxy for some of the names I brought in. Gilcher was one of them.

Now if you've never been and done sealings for the dead, you will have no idea what I'm talking about. If no one has brought in their own family names, then the sealer has sheets of names that can be done. At this point the sealer started working on a sheet of couples that needed to be sealed to each other. After the second couple was in the process of being sealed, my brain finally registered what was happening. We were sealing Gilchers. What was even more cool, is that at the exact moment I figured it out, the sealer did too because while he kept going with the ordinance, he went and picked up one of the cards I had brought in and placed it next to his sheet but continued on. After the ordinance was complete and we did a couple more, I was able to ask him about the name Gilcher. I have been attending very regular for about 6 years, so I've been there a lot and doing sealings a lot. This has never happened to me before. The statistical odds have to be astronomical. How could we end up with a temple sheet of names with the same family I had brought in. There were 2 from Germany and the other was from NY from what I brought in and those on the sheet were from NY. I asked the sealer if I could write down all the names we did and ask the sister in my ward if she knew about these other Gilchers and tell her that they were having a heavenly party that day.

The fun in that session didn't stop there. About half way through a mother daughter came in with some family names. It's also not very typical, but it does happen, where people come in late. Anyway the sealer asked their last names and the mother said Ek. I said, hey, my great grandmother is an Eck. She said "how do you spell it? Is it EK or Eck?" I told her mine was Eck and she said "oh that's the German form and mine is the Swedish." Wow, how cool. If that wasn't strange enough, after that we did one of the family names she brought in. It was on her mother-in-law side of the family and the name was Butz. Another couple came in just after we finished the ordinance for Butz and so the sealer asked their names, and do you know what it was? Butts! I looked at sister Ek and said, "did you hear that? Didn't we just do that name?" She asked the brother how he spelled his name. He told her it was Butts and she told her spelling and he said "my grandfather changed it from Butz to Butts."

Ok, now what has all this coincidence in names being in the same place at the same time got to do with anything? Well, I'll tell you. It is a testimony of gathering. The Lord gathers his people. Not only are we responsible to help with the gathering of the living, but also help with the gathering of our dead. Do you know who else participates in gathering, the dead (for they are not dead, but live)! I can't explain what I know because of this experience, only that it happened and I know for sure that the Lord is gathering His people. Did those specific names need to be in a room together? Like did they know each other, or was it simply to testify to everyone in that room of gathering? Don't know, and I'm not sure that it matters if I know that the Butz and the Ecks wanted to be there at the same time as the Gilchers. I do know that the Gilchers wanted to be together and orchestrated that to happen.

The story doesn't end even there. I wrote down all the Gilcher information and I took it to my friend at church. I walked up to her and said "I had an experience with some of your ancestors at the temple on thursday." Do you know what she said? She said "was it the Gilchers?" Get out, how did you know?! She told me that she had the exact same experience the week before. She was working at the temple, but didn't take in any of her names, but some other lady who is not in our ward decided to get names out of our ward file and take them into the sealing where this sister was. The statistical anomaly not only happened once, but twice!  They must be an awesome family that has been dying to get their work done so that they can step into their roles on the other side. Just amazing!

I continue to have experiences that let me know that our ancestors want this work performed and they are orchestrating things from their side of the veil. Just think what I would be missing out on knowing if I weren't attending the temple.

So, I worked on Thursday when these experiences happened, and then I had a Saturday shift as well. The shift coordinator didn't know I was still coming to my shift because Nate was out of town and usually when 1 of us doesn't come the other doesn't either. I always make sure I speak for myself and hadn't told her that I wasn't coming so I showed up. Long story short, there wasn't much for me to do aside from helping in the laundry. No one would have ever even know I was at the temple, because I was in the laundry room folding towels and clothing for the baptistry - which they were in desperate need of so I was glad to be of service. Anyway I had 1 shift out where someone could see me and that was as a greeter at the front entrance. I was there from 6-6:30 pm. Well at 6:20 this boy in shorts starts walking up to the temple. Now on a saturday, it's not unusual to see families roam around the grounds and so I thought this was what this boy was doing until he walked all the way in. When he got close to the door and I saw that he was going to come in dressed that way I recognized him. I said hi to him and asked what I could do for him. He was sheepish about his clothing and the fact that he didn't have his recommend with him. He then asked for a blessing. Well, you don't go to the temple to get a blessing - special circumstances permitting. I knew this kid and knew he had a home teacher and knew there were lots of options for a blessing in his ward. I tried peeling back the layers of what was going on while we were waiting for a member of the temple presidency to come help.

Turns out he had gotten in a fight with his mother at 2 that afternoon and had been wandering around since then. I asked if we could call a friend to come pick him up and he said no. Well, I finally realized that he didn't have a cell phone so he didn't know the phone numbers of any of his friends. I told him that I was either done at 6:30 or at 7:30, but that if he wanted to wait I would take him home. He decided that was what he wanted to do. Divinely enough the next thing I was supposed to do didn't need me and with an apology my shift coordinator asked if I would like to just go home. It was perfect because I had a ym waiting for me in the waiting room. I had a nice talk with this ym on the way home and got to know more about him and his circumstances. However much of his circumstances are created by him or others around him didn't matter. On this day the Lord was reaching out and letting him know that he is very aware of him and will bless him if he will listen. I was able to testify to him of that. Sometimes we get prompted to do something and we don't know why. He knew he wouldn't get a blessing in the temple, but just knew that he needed to go inside for some reason and that he would be helped, and there was someone standing there that he knew that could help him. He had a small window in which when he walked into the temple I would be standing there, and that's exactly when he got the courage up to walk in and ask for help. I was able to tell him about the flecks of gold and that he just received one. He was given a miracle and now it was up to him to figure out what he was going to do about that knowledge. Knowledge that the Lord loves him and is looking out for him and will help him if he's willing. I knew his home teacher so I was able to follow up with him and inform him of what had happened.

Miracles are all around us. Evidence of God and His love and tender mercies are in everything and everyone. Sometimes I feel as if I can see heaven, not with my natural eyes, but with spiritual eyes. Heaven feels very close. Our ancestors are very close. Our Father in Heaven is very close. Do you know that? If not, it's time to find out, because they are.

It's In the Air

I almost forgot to make time to post about an experience I had while buying shoes. What is sad is that I go through a pair of running (I only walk in them) shoes every six months, but anyway, it was on Saturday at the NB shoe store.  It's the kind of store where someone measures your foot and they have different width sizes, and they put the shoes on you and lace them up. So, I'm sitting there with my foot in the salesman's lap looking at his forearm tattoo. Nate decides to comment on how stunning it was. It was very well done and all yellow and orange. Nate asked him what it was a picture of. He said "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego." Nate replied something like, "wow, that is so cool, what's that at the bottom in black." "It's the guards who were burned up by the heat." (so wish I had asked to take a picture) Wait, I remembered there's such a thing as the internet. I'll see what I can find to represent.

I knew I could find some pictures! It was similar to the scene below. The tattoo was 2 separate tattoos, but part of the same picture. The part in the furnace was in color and the guards were grayscale below the other one. 

The coloring of the tattoo was more like the below picture. It was really beautiful and I would have loved to have had it to hang as a painting on my wall. 

 He then started telling us why he has the tattoo and how he wanted to get a sleeve done with all the courageous miracle moments of the bible. His next one he wants is David and Goliath with the head being cut off. I'm sure it will turn out better than it sounds by the way the other one turned out. I asked "so are you doing Daniel and the lion's den, a lion would look so cool." He said no, he wanted to do Peter walking on water." I commented on how I loved that and how I loved that he faltered and then the Savior helped him recover. We had a great conversation about the world and he said "I'm just really passionate about what I believe, we need to raise water walkers." This was a 20 something year old kid with a  ton of passion. He's married and his wife is just about finished with nursing school and when she is he can quit his 2 jobs and they can move so he can go to a seminary school to get his doctorate and become a pastor so that he can help people become water walkers. When he said we needed to raise a generation of water walkers I got chills. God is the same God to everyone with the same message. He will use whoever is willing to listen. While we don't see eye to eye on the benefits of tattooing one's body, I can see how his passion led him to need to manifest it somehow. I get it. I have the same problem. You need another way to express what you're feeling. It is also a great conversational piece. I don't know how many times a day he gets asked about his tattoo, but when he does he gets to testify and that's super cool. We all have a purpose and a plan and we all need to figure out what it is and then live it. We need to come together as Christians no matter what the religious affiliation and stand together against evil. It may not be this young mans calling to be a member of the church in his lifetime, but I can tell you that he will in the eternities when presented with the chance.

This conversation reminds me of a quote I heard while watching a seminary and institute devotional yesterday. It is by Russell M Nelson when talking about the need to have resilient faith in Christ. "Why do we need such a resilient faith, because difficult days are ahead, rarely in the future will it be easy or popular to be a faithful latter-day saint. Each of us will be tested, the Apostle Paul warned that those who diligently follow the Lord shall suffer persecution. That very persecution can either crush you to silent weakness or motivate you to be more exemplary and contentious in your daily lives." 

That young man was well on his way to resilient faith. His tattoo exemplifies resilient faith and what miracles await those who are faithful in the face of being persecuted.

If you've ever thought that you need to step up your game, here are a couple of questions you can ask yourself often -they also came from the devotional. It was Kim B Clark that said them.
1. What am I doing that I should stop doing?
2. What am I not doing that I should start doing?

I can tell you that those are the very questions I began asking myself probably 8 years ago now. Changing your nature is a very slow process that requires daily effort. I've heard somewhere that it takes about 5 years to change and that's with constant effort and lots of failing. Have you noticed that when you've decided to -let's say stop doing something- you find yourself doing that very thing more often instead of less. It's hard work changing your nature but the rewards are 100 fold.

Now, maybe you're thinking "hey, I'm pretty awesome. I already do x y z and I'm rockin it." I have been guilty of that very phrase too many times. One example was when I thought I was so awesome for going to the temple all the time, but hadn't been taking my own names and was chastised during a general conference talk. Ouch. Those moments always sting. When something stings like that, I know it's time to change. Maybe it's something like "I'm doing my best, the Lord understands. I'm fine the way I am." Well, also from this same devotional and Kim B Clark he said this; "whatever level we are at will not be sufficient for the work." He said we are facing a greater work than we have ever faced before. "We need to be much better than we are now." This was after he listed off all the things he was doing when he realized he needed to be better. His list sounded like the achievement list- the crowning accomplishment list. It was not, he needed to do more and do better and it prepared him for what the Lord had waiting for him to do next.

I agree with that young man, we do need a generation of water walkers. Am I willing to become one and then, am I going to help raise up the next generation to follow? There's a great battle for souls on the line. I need to rise up. Do more. Do better. I believe that urgent whispering is in the air and those who are listening can hear it and it's exciting to meet them and find ways to connect and unite.

You Decide

Today was our Stake Youth Conference trip to the temple for baptisms. I scrounged up a couple of names for Ethan to take so we could support the day and saved some names for us to do as a family later. While he was doing baptisms I did some sealings. 

The church has recently decided to release reserved ordinances that have been sitting undone for 2 years. I had a bunch in danger of being released so I decided to go through everything that I had reserved. I like to wait to do sealings until all family members can be done at the same time. After going through everything I realized that I had 29 sealings I could perform. I only had 30 minutes and I had quite a few that I wanted Nathan to be there with me so I handed over some names that were more distant and we got to work. This is one of the families that I worked on today and I sealed their children to them as well.  I was performing these ordinances for 9 -9:30am this morning.

I got the following message from my cousin in PA at 5:27 pm who is not a member of the church and who probably doesn't know anything about sealings and what that even means. 

 I've laid out the events that transpired today, you decide. Miracle? Coincidence? Are our ancestors aware of us? Are they working on the other side to help us get their work done? Are they bringing us together - gathering?

Inventive Problem Solving

What do you do when your husband won’t let you get a ceiling mount projection screen for your formal dining room because he claims that it’s too over the top? psh, as if! wink emoticon Well, you make one yourself that is magnetized and can just be thrown up over your other one! Having to erase (stuff I still needed on the board) before you could project was a major issue that I wasn’t willing to live with for another year. Problem solved -on the cheap!

I had been pondering over how to solve this problem since last year. It wasn't until I had seen my friend and Sunday school teacher use a portable screen a couple times that my brain finally went "duh, you could do that too!" I asked her what she used to make it and then looked at hers more closely the next time we were at church. There are lots of different ways this can be done. My particular choice was to use magnets, but you could use velcro, put a dowel through it and hang it like a curtain, you could stretch it over a frame, really anything that will fit your needs.

First up, you need the black out screen fabric. It comes in a couple of sizes and I got the smallest one and I've got enough left over to make a couple more screens. I ordered it from Amazon. I also got some 2" flexible adhesive magnet. 

smile emoticon

 After I determined the size I needed and cut out my fabric, I hemmed the edges. I ended up with a 2" hem at the top because I decided that I needed it smaller than I measured for and I was ok with it because it was the width of my magnetic tape, but I'm not sure I would do that again because of the way the fabric sits.

 Doing this job by yourself doesn't allow you to get a really good stretch on the fabric so you're going to have some wrinkles. I just dealt with that fact and tried to get it as smooth as possible. No one is really going to pay attention and notice anyway. 

 I put magnet on the top and bottom so you can get a nice pull on the fabric to stretch out the wrinkles and get a nice smooth projecting surface. 

There you have it. You can see the 2" hem at the top that is more wrinkled than the 1/4" hem at the bottom. I also left all the magnets that were up on my board when I threw up the screen so you can see them under there making the screen more wavy that it will be without them. As it is though, it's a perfect surface to project on for my purposes. 

 The only thing I'm worried about it how dirty it will get when put up over the writing on the board. We'll see how it goes and I may just end up using the left over fabric to stretch on a frame that will just lean against the wall on the floor until I need it and then hang it over the other one with hooks. I'm super excited to be able to have something written on the board and still be able to project though. 

A couple other random things while I'm here. The fashion statement that I made for 3 weeks and then another 48 hours with my compression hoes. I had a black pair and a "nude" pair that made me look like I had mannequin legs. This is how stylin I looked with the cut out toes and my flip flops. I totally rocked it! hahaha I wore mostly dresses during the time because it was the least ridiculous looking I could be. You should have seen how silly it looked with shorts and it was way too hot to put pants over the top. So, I just lived the fancy life in dresses for 3 plus weeks. 

 Also super excited that I've got some sweet peaches from my tree this year. I've got a ton more that I've got to go and take off, but I'm hoping they will get a little bigger and a little more ripe before I take them. I just need to pray that the wind doesn't throw them all off before I can get them all. I think I'm going to dry most of them and turn them into fruit leather.  Maybe a couple of cobblers too. Yum!

PA Adventure - Day 6

It was off to more cemeteries. This time we needed to see Nana's and put the "stolen cross" back on the tombstone. Apparently the cross was placed there and during a lawn mowing it got moved to the tombstone next to ours and so Aunt Barbara ripped it out of the ground and took it home until she could come back with hammer to place it where it belonged, but calling it stolen is much more funny. Nan, great Nan, great aunt pat and eventually great aunt Barbara will be buried in that location. Barbara prays every day to be taken. she doesn't want to live in this world any more. she doesn't like watching the deterioration. She is always saying "when I close my eyes..." i hope all my kids are going to church etc...

After we found that grave, we wanted to find Jo- who is Tobias's brother- but we were having a hard time. We decided to go ask at the office and the old man working there was very grumpy and said "I'm in sales." We just wanted a map and he said he was busy with an appointment. We decided to ask the grounds keepers because they might know where to look.  We asked if they could point us in the right direction and they were disappointed in the grumpy man who should have helped us. They went and got us a map. It was interesting to see them go immediately to where there had just been a grave side ceremony and plop the casket in the ground. They don't mess around. The people had literally just walked away. 

It was off to the next cemetery and the one where Tobias Sr and Helen Eck are buried at. Because Tobias served in WWI there was a veteran burial card with his section and lot number of where he was buried. Unfortunately there were no markings at the cemetery indicating where to start looking for section 1. We made some assumptions and divided up and started looking. It was really hot and muggy and the sun was beating down on us. We wandered and wandered. I kept saying "tell me where you are, lead me to you, please where are you?" Well, I kept feeling like I needed to go down into this other section. I felt really strongly about it, but while I was standing in the section I began reading the names on the tombstones and thinking that this particular area was a Jewish area and therefore could not be where Tobias Sr was. I couldn't figure out why I felt so strongly, but couldn't find anything. I wandered around for a bit, but told myself that I was being silly. I finally gave up and headed back for the car. It was then that it occurred to me that we should go and inquire at the tombstone store. My dad didn't think it would lead to anything and didn't want to check it out. Well, I've gotten really daring as of late and decided that it wouldn't hurt to ask. Armed with my ancestry app with the burial location card I stepped inside and waited for the lady behind the desk to finish her call. I asked if she knew the layout of the cemetery. She told me that if I had a location number, she had a map. Bingo! She pulled out the map and I gave her the information. Do you know where he was buried. Right where I gave up! I should have had faith in the feelings that I was having. Even Donna said, "that is right where you gave up, I saw you leave that area." There's lots of applications to apply that experience to in my life. Continuing on in faith when you've been guided by the spirit- not talking yourself out of promptings. 

It was so great to be able to share divine experiences with my family. To be able to testify that our ancestors are aware of us and that we are led and guided by the Spirit everyday. We don't have to be the same religion to share in those kind of experiences. Heavenly Father loves all of his children and reaches out and shows them he is there. 

We ended the day with Great Nan's famous potato pancakes. Making the pancakes is about a 2 hour process. You can eat them plain or put syrup on them- I prefer syrup. We also had some shoofly pie that was left over from our Amish roadside stand adventure. I was able to have the pancakes when I visited at the age of 12 and haven't had them again since. I also learned that you can make potato candy with your left over mashed potatoes that you make into patties and coat in flour and then deep fry. We didn't have time for potato boats, but that is something else I really loved the last time I visited. Funny story with the potato boats. I knew what was in them and it was stuff like onions and things that I knew I hated. I was grossed out by them, but they smelled delicious. I made a big stink about not wanting to try them and thinking that they were going to be gross. Somehow I was talked into trying them and then I discovered that I loved them. Thing was, I had a big ole pride problem even back at the age of 12 and I didn't want to admit it. Luckily my Great Nan saw right through me and said something about my pride not letting me enjoy the potatoes and that's all it took for me to laugh and admit that I loved them and shovel them down. 

After dinner we said our goodbyes to Chris and Mark since we wouldn't be seeing them again before we left the next day. It was so great the Chris didn't start work until the day we left. Divine timing. This last full day was one of the hardest for me because I kept thinking about how I didn't want to leave and wondering how I was going to go back home. I wanted so much to stay and be with my family all the time. We connected and got along so well. It was super easy and super fun and I wanted that in my life all the time. But, all the wishing won't stop reality and it was time to go back home. 

PA Adventure - Day 5

We started off the day pretty slow. Aunt Barbara forgot that we were supposed to meet at Donna's house so we were just sitting around until she finally remembered that we were supposed to go over there. We were going to meet up with Tommy (Donna's oldest son), but that ended up not working out. We did get to see Donny (Barbara's son) and his girlfriend Niva Jo. When I was there 30 years ago he was in jail. I have a drawing that he did while there and still have it today. He has turned his life around and seems to be very happy. I spent time going through more pictures and getting more family stories.

Perhaps one of the coolest things I experienced was finding photos of myself in someone else's life. I had still been apart of their lives all of these years and I was deeply touched. Some of the pictures I couldn't even remember. I have no recollection of the time spent with my dad's brothers after the funeral. I don't remember much actually. There are a few stand out memories that I have from the month I spent there, but I was surprised at how much I didn't remember.

After a nice leisurely visit we headed off to pick up pizza and go to the Witman reunion. One thing that has been pretty funny throughout the visit was our constant fighting over who was paying for things. We were all trying to pay and not letting each other so it was always a race to see who could get a hold of the bill or the gas card reader first. I thought it only fair that I purchase all the pizza's for the reunion. 

I'm not sure I can put to words the feelings and significance that was this long overdue meeting.  my Dad has harbored a lot of anger and resentment towards his father. I have been trying to get him to see things in a different way for years to no avail. It was good to hear from his 4 half sisters and their mom how much pain Toby was in over the loss of his sons and how badly he had wanted a relationship and how he talked about his boys and their families all the time and would sit with a box of old pictures on his lap to look through all the time. Our perceptions of reality can often lead us astray. I remember visiting him and the girls when my Nana died (his ex-wife). I remembering wishing that I knew him and that he was my grandfather. I learned from the youngest,Brenda and the one I spent the most time with during that visit, that he asked if he could introduce himself to me as my grandfather and my dad told him "no, you're not her grandfather" and how deeply it hurt him. There are always two sides to every story. There were also two people that let themselves be hurt or scared off and sometimes it just takes understanding that people do the best they can and sometimes it's just not enough. 

I had my scanner out going like a maniac. I found myself wishing again that this family was my family as I saw my face in their face and saw my personality in them. I asked "so, do I look like a Witman?" An emphatic yes was said by all. There were many tears shed and a sweet moment shared at his grave just outside the church where we met. 

It was so great that Donna and her family were able to be there and my Great Aunt Barbara. I called it my Troop/Witman reunion - since they are my Troop side. They know all the same people. Everyone on both sides just stayed there in Pennsylvania so they have seen each other and have mutual friends all through the years.

I found out that the month before Toby died he was insistent that he get a perm so that his hair would look good. In his later hears he needed a perm to keep his hair wavy like it had been for so many years. It was quite the ordeal to pull off because he was on dialysis and on hospice care. They got the perm and the next day when he was in for dialysis the nurse said to him that he looked very handsome and he was like see, I told you I needed the perm. He was feeling good that he was looking good. He died not long after that. What is sad and sweet is that his dog and best friend died the very same day. The funeral director was a friend of the family and told them to bring the dog and he groomed the dog as well and then he was placed at Toby's feet in a blue blanket in the casket with his best friend.

So, after this meeting were there any regrets or was my father still feeling regret free? There were now regrets that he didn't know his sisters and one of the pictures he saw of his dad with a loving look on his face while looking at him made him see things a little differently. Maybe his dad loved him after all. But, the past cannot be changed, we can only move forward with what we have. There was a big chunk of my dad's life that has been missing all these years and he was so happy to be able to reconnect with who he is. Old wounds had a chance to heal and make room for new experiences and love. 

I feel like I got to experience Heaven. It was an earthly interpretation of Heaven, but it was still a glimpse of what is waiting for us. Isn't it strange that you can love people that you've never met? Here's why I think that is. Because we all lived together before. We had relationships and we loved each other. Sometimes it's just hard to find our way back to each other in this earthly experience, but when we do our hearts remember. 

When we left we had to try another ice cream, it was after all, national ice cream day. This ice cream was my least favorite. By day 4 of eating ice cream from different places, I became quite the connoisseur. It was the most icy texture of them all.  It was another long night, but it was over too soon. 

PA Adventure- Day 4

Bakery

Our first stop was at the Malone bakery. Donna's husband's (Joey) grandfather bought it and his sons continued it but there is only 1 son left which is Joey's uncle. I wish I could remember when it was purchased but it has been running for 3 generations now. My Dad used to get sent to the bakery everyday for the families loaf of bread and one of the sons would always throw him a hot roll as a treat. My dad would immediately rip the roll in half and begin eating the middle out first while it was hot and fresh and then eat the shell. It is one of his favorite memories as a kid. It Looks like stepping back in time. It is very old and they don't do as much business as they used to. They don't have a store front it, is all delivery. They sell our their goods at wholesale to surrounding restaurants and grocery stores. You can also single order if you call ahead a couple of days. Their pizza is baked just enough and then for resale and then you bake it again when you get it home. The house they used to live in is attached to the bakery off to the side, they no longer live in it, but it is used as an office. After our tour and talking with the only remaining son, we got a bag of rolls and ate one 

like the kids used to. 

 Cemetery

This cemetery only had Laurence Witman. The one that stated it all. He was born in 1781 in Germany and arrived in Philadelphia in 1817.  He died in 1849 at the age of 68. The handy little app for Ancestry said there was a Mary buried there who was William's son who was the son of William who was the son of Laurence. We found a Mary next to him but thought there was another. There was a groundskeeper there that we stopped and talked to and found out about the history of the church and he also looked in the directory for us to see if we were missing the right Mary. Turns out we weren't. I took a picture inside the church contemplating if my grandfather Laurence had been in that spot. It turned out he wasn't because the original church burned down after he died. But he likely walked around there because you usually were buried where you attended church. It felt like a connecting moment. If nothing else, I was standing in the very spot of his final resting place. We were together at last and I was trying to get to know him better in this sacred place. Donna and my Dad were trying to read one of the tombstones to see who they were. They tried to do a tracing of it to see if they could read it better, but we didn't have the proper equipment. We were confused as to why there were tombstones connected by a cement base. Turns out that was part of a rehabilitation effort to keep the tombstones from falling over. Just because they are on the same platform, doesn't mean they are related. Again, so good that we ran into the groundskeeper so that mystery could be solved.

Lunch

We went to Doyle for lunch. We went to a bbq place and had a nice lunch. We had a nice view of the downtown area and had fun people watching. Watching people try to decided where to go for lunch was very amusing as we saw them walk up and examine the menus of the different establishments and then walk to another and then return to another. Looks like everyone has a hard time deciding where to eat. 

Font Hill Castle

This was completely made of cement. The man who built it had no formal training and just experimented with different techniques. He made the forms and the entire thing was poured. He designed it by room and then connected the rooms so it ended up looking like it did because of the interior not the other way round. He made tiles for a living and used them on the interior. It was fun to see all the tile work that he put into it. It was a bit overkill, but at the same time it was like a piece of history seeing all the different types of tiles and most of them told stories. I wish we were allowed to take pictures, but you can see the interior online. It was extremely hot and muggy in there which was surprising since it was made of cement. He did have a lot if windows though. That was what the builder considered a modern castle- more windows not so dungeon like. That huge castle was for him, his housekeeper and her husband. That's it. Also people that would come long distances to buy tile would stay at his house. 

After that we stopped by his tile mill and I bought a couple of tiles. I bought a tree to represent family history and the purpose of my trip and then there was a turtle and I had to have that. 

Museum 

After the castle and the tile we went to the man's museum. He built a museum for all the things he collected. His interest was in the tools of America. I didn't take any pictures in there- I'll have to snag one from my dad. By this point I'm getting really tired and my body is aching.

 Ice cream

We made our final stop on the ice cream ascension of goodness. Nate had called me so I was on the phone for the entire process. I ended up getting a chocolate raspberry which just had fresh raspberries in it. I was hoping for chocolate peanut butter so I had an apples to apples comparison with the other 2. I wasn't that impressed because it mostly tasted of the raspberries. It's nice to have fresh ingredients like that but I wanted to taste the ice cream which was the creamiest of them all. I was happy with the cheap ice cream and I was even more happy with the middle one. The first had darker chocolate which I liked but the peanut butter wasn't as prominent. The second had a lighter chocolate but the peanut butter in it was the bomb. Aunt Barbara and my dad liked the first place the best. 

Stake sandwiches

You can't be this close to Philly and not have cheese stake. It's even huge in Allentown and the whole state really. I was a little surprised because the ones we got looked more like hamburger and had chopped onions in it. There is also a tomato sauce that is poured on to. They were made with Malone hoagie rolls. We also had perogies which were delicious. Of the two stake sandwiches I had while there, this one was the best!

Bethlehem Steel

After dinner we got to visit the old steel mill where grandpa Witman worked and my great grandfather Oliver troop worked. Oliver moved his family to Bethlehem specifically to work in the steel mill. Tobias was working in another factory there in most likely the silk mill where he met Olivia. After they got married he went to work at the steel mill. Oliver was an electrician at the mill before he had a heart attack after that he handed out the tools to the workers. Oliver died while at work in the room where he handed out the tools. 

It was so interesting to see the factory in the state it was in when all production stopped. Apparently the workers didn't even know when the last day was. One day everyone showed up to work and they shut everything down. There are even 2 coal trucks still on the tracks going up the escalator to the furnaces. They are responsible for the Bethlehem beam that is used today, it was used in the construction of the golden gate bridge and some other famous structures. I guess they didn't automate and they spent too much money on corporate buildings and executives instead of reinvesting in the company. Eventually other companies could produce the same things cheaper so an era died out.

At the oldest bookstore in the world called the Moravian bookstore, I found lots of books on Bethlehem Steel. I should have bought one, but I figured I could just order one online instead of trying to cart it home.

Home movies
After the tour of the steel sacks we went back to Donna's and watched some old home movies. Sometime in the early 90's there was a trend of taking home movies into someone to have them edit it and make it into a movie with music. The music was cracking us up and whoever edited it didn't do it in any kind of chronological order. It was all over the place. But, it was cool to be able to see my dad in his teens playing the drums and see my Nana. I only wish we could have heard their voices instead of the funky 70's music.