The Art of Worldly Wisdom by Baltasar Gracián


My rating: 2 of 5 stars






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The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints


My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Just finished reading again. It's the only book I can read over and over and love it every time.



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I have been a driving machine all week, until today, when I crashed at home almost all day and tried to catch up on laundry.

Monday - Issaquah to visit Michann and Barb
Tuesday - Baby Shower... Doctor appointment for Magen (ob/gyn) - Did an ultrasound to rule out bladder issue and check for cysts, both of which were ruled out as being part of the current problem
Wednesday - Dentist for me (no cavities!!) and Magen (1 cavity)
Thursday - Left home at 8:45am to pick up Michann in Issaquah and go with her to college orientation in Seattle all day... drop Michann off at the temple to meet up with her date... kill an hour at Deseret Book (not a problem) to avoid horrible rush hour traffic and 97 degrees with no air conditioning... got home pretty late and missed the Relief Society crab dinner I had been looking forward to, but wouldn't want to have missed going with Michann
Friday - only one quick outing to meet Nate (Housing Hope) at Cascade Lumber to give the owner a framed certificate of thanks for being a generous sponsor of our recent Stone Soup dinner (very nice guy!)
Saturday - (tomorrow) I hope to do phase two of my laundry catch up and go absolutely nowhere all day, except out to my garden to water it! (and hopefully do my long neglected daily walk!)

Speaking of my lovely garden, I bought a $3 garden art piece to adorn my garden plot.  It's a very colorful sun on a 3 foot or so metal pole, which I stuck right in the middle of everything.  It reminds me of my first 7th grade art project, a very large paper envelope to hold future pieces I would create that year in class.  The cover art was a large "Sun God" which I can still picture.  My garden is doing quite well, especially since it has been a very hot week (finally) and it gets watered twice a day!  I even mixed up some organic fish fertilizer which I found while cleaning the garage, and watered each section of the garden with it by hand.  Almost everything has sprouted and of course the radishes are most prominent, but others are not far behind.  The only things I don't see yet are sweet marjoram, parsley, and some of the lettuce varieties.  Today I did a bit of weeding.  There's still one corner of the garden that I haven't reclaimed which is overgrown with weeds.  I may just leave it as it is for this year.  Next year I definitely need more dirt and some good organic compost.  I'm already looking forward to even greater success :)

Michann starts school on Monday!  I hope the bus route works well, and that she likes her classes.  I'm excited for her and feel that she will do great things at school.

Magen finally got word that her housing application is processed and she has a dorm!  What a nice relief, and hopefully she'll be assigned a roomate she can enjoy and become friends with.  Now we're waiting for the list of things to bring.  I think Magen will have fun shopping for college things!

Amber and Magen have not had any luck with finding jobs yet.  Magen is babysitting a bit so that's helpful.  I think we need to go back out and have them get more applications.  Maybe they will be less picky this time :)

Tomorrow Jeff doesn't have to work and is going on a hike (back up to Lake 22) with the single's branch.  Michann and Magen are both going.  Michann is excited to see local friends one last time before getting into her new school year.  (She just got here late this evening and will spend the night.)  Magen and Amber have been spending time with friends this week at Lake Goodwin, or Iverson Beach, or at pool parties.  It finally feels like SUMMER!  Amber and I know better than to go back up to Lake 22 tomorrow... once is enough for us!  She's going back to the beach tomorrow with Kate, and I'll probably have the house to myself, of course with Daisy to keep my company.  I look forward to more reading between all the laundry loads.

Rush Limbaugh: An Army of One by Zev Chafets


My rating: 4 of 5 stars


An interesting look at Rush Limbaugh's life, written by a non-conservative. Chafets seems to be a fair man who wanted to give an honest look at Rush. A quick and enjoyable book.



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I forgot to mention that Milly Kloepfer substituted in Primary (chorister) since Abby was gone.  It was fun to have her back, even just for a day!  She has a special way of doing music and it's great to work with her.  I went into the nursery to visit in between music times so that helped the time go by.  Abby is doing a great job, too.  She's young, married, and no children yet.  She does a great job, and much better than I would have at that time of my life.  Probably better than I could do even now!  She has a much different style and personality than Milly, but that's what makes working in the church so nice.  Everyone brings their own talents and abilities to their calling and has some great things to contribute that no one else could.  Sacrament meeting was nice, too.  It was testimony meeting and I think I went through 3 tissues today.  Amber teases me, but that's just what I do.  I can't help it! :)  It was nice to sing patriotic songs for the 4th of July.  I love this holiday!

Earlier this week, I finally planted my garden!  I've got about 15 things going, and hope to see some veggies in the coming weeks.  I also planted a few herbs, and of course I'm still working on getting some decent strawberries out of those plants.  So far, all my organic fertilizer seems to have done is make the strawberry plants more bushy.  The berries are not any bigger, so I'm getting to the point where I may dig them up and plant them in a planter box with all new dirt.  It may be too late for this year, but at least they will have a better change for next year.  And if I'm lucky, since they are everbearing plants, I may still get some better berries later in the season.  We shall see!  I wonder if I should relocate my blueberry bushes also???

My tomato plants really need some sun, and should get it this week.  I'd hate to see them looking really nice now, and then rotting with the cold, damp weather.  Either way, I'm going to pull all the plants up at the end of the summer like I did last year and hang them in the garage.  I know we'll get tomatoes for at least 3 months if it's anything like last year.

Yesterday Jeff's band played in Darrington at Greg's dad's place.  Gary and Henny, friends of Kurt (Curt?) Bressler, the band leader, put on an amazingly delicious barbecue!  I haven't enjoyed a picnic that much for a long time.  I sat and talked with Starla, Kurt's wife during most of the 2-3 hours we were there.  She was really nice and it was nice to sit outside in the beautiful green wooded, hilly, setting we were in, with a partly sunny sky looking down on us.  The band played some, and spent some time trying to work out their sound system.  It would be a lot easier if they could afford some good equipment, but they just have to work with what they have, and it's often frustrating and time consuming.  But I just sat and ate and chatted, so I was happy.  The only downfall was the long drive there and back (an hour each way).  And that was following a week full of driving.

I had a Friday board meeting on Whidbey for Readiness to Learn (about 3 hours driving total), also on Friday a dentist appointment for Amber (no cavities! but 1 1/2 hours driving), and on Thursday I had to drive to Bellingham for an eye appointment (2 hours driving!).  I was really starting to feel it, and was sleeping badly, waking up every two hours with colitis problems and night sweats, and my legs, especially my right leg as usual, was feeling like it was starting to have tingling, slight numbness, and swelling.  Those are all signs that my body is not doing well.  I went to bed early last night, and even though I had to get up several times during the night, I felt better today than yesterday.  I know I need to take it easy, though.  Tomorrow we have to drive to Jeff's mom's but at least Jeff will be driving, and that's easier for me because I can move around a bit.  I've also had to drive a lot more than usual because we are still working with one car and I have to drive Jeff to work anytime I need the car, so that means I also have to pick him up after work.  I hate driving!!!  Our KIA should be fixed soon, thankfully, and it will be a little easier.  I just noticed that I have meetings and doctor appointments covering Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, so things aren't looking much better next week.  I'll have to be very careful to get extra rest and do some consistent walking.  I think that will help.  Now that we finally have insurance, I've got a backlog of medical/dental/eye appointments to catch up on, so that is adding a lot to the schedule.  I'll just do the best I can!

The fundraiser mailing I worked so hard on has finally been mailed and I've actually received mine in the mail!  It looks great, and we're hopeful that it will raise some much needed funds for the organization (Readiness to Learn).

With all the meetings, appointments and gardening I've been doing I haven't had time to get to the garage for about a week now, but the next step is to scrub the other half of the floor (it's totally emptied out and ready to go) and then I think we're going to paint the walls, just on that far side of the garage.  They were never painted, and it's hard to make the garage into a fun rec room with ugly walls.  So floor scrubbing, wall painting, and then moving out the two couches, hanging the curtains, and trying to dress it up with some fun/cute things.  That parts a little up in the air!  And finding a nice used ping pong table is still out there, too!  We have an extra TV, but still need a DVD player for it.  I'd also like to roll out a carpet on the bare cement floor, but it's not really in my (non-existent) budget, so for now we'll just do without it.  I had hoped to have it done by the end of school, but it just isn't happening that quickly.  Even so, I'm very happy about all we have accomplished, and feel good about what a good job we are doing.  It was long overdue!

It feels like someone is missing to have Michann gone, but I am also excited for her.  She left Thursday for Barb's and I haven't even talked to her yet!  I keep wanting to call her, but whenever I think of it I'm not where I can call, or she's at church, or whatever.  It's frustrating.  We'll be there tomorrow, but I still want to talk to her.  Jeff was able to get her earlier today while I was at church (his single's branch meets later).  She made it to the Bellevue single's ward and some guy from the ward was picking her up for an activity tonight.  I'm glad she's already getting involved and meeting people.  She's good at making friends.  Also, her friend Rochelle who is kind of an investigator (her grandma recently joined the church) who she met at the single's branch up here, lives in Seattle part of the week so she was already over there at Barb's this weekend and spent the night with Michann.  So Michann is keeping busy and hopefully having fun.  She has a college open house this week.  She wants to find a job asap and will be starting school in about 2 weeks.  AJ will be coming to see her and saying goodbye (that's the plan) in a week or two.  I hope it doesn't totally throw her off with starting school and work soon.  He was told he has inoperable cancer and may not have a full life ahead.  He wants to pursue things with Michann, but not in an "LDS stardards" kind of way.  Now that Michann is active and trying to do things right he's feeling like he isn't ready for that.  So it's best if they part ways, but they both feel very strongly about each other, so I am just expecting that Michann will have a hard time for a while.  I hope she will be so involved in a lot of good things that she will be able to handle it without too much misery.  (She has had a pretty roller coaster-ish relationship with him for quite a while and it has had some dramatic highs and lows.)  He helped her in many ways to be a better person, so I'll always be grateful to him for that.  I hope for the best for him, both with his health problems, and finding the right person.

Magen hasn't gotten word about her housing being confirmed yet.  I'm wondering what is going on???  We'll call them tomorrow and hope that things are fine.  Otherwise, where will she live?  She is showing signs of immaturity with her priorities, but I'm sure it's normal for a lot of kids her age.  Her main priority is her friends and social activities.  Unfortunately, her best friends aren't members of the church, but she's also fairly involved with the single's branch, so she has friends there, too.  All the girls could use a car, but there isn't money for that.  Magen and Amber haven't even had driver's ed yet, so they have permits, but not a license.  They are both still job-hunting.  Not like their lives depend on it, so in this job market I'm wondering if they will get a job.  I hope they are able to, because they both need to help with their own upcoming expenses.

Amber's excited about her upcoming weeklong trip with Kate and her mom to Oregon.  I'm excited she gets to do this and appreciate the invitation.  I hope it is a good trip.

I've got so many things on my to-do list that I'm wondering how I can ever get caught up on what I need to do...

My patriotic cake :)

I love watching the flag blowing in the wind.  It's doing that right now, outside my window.  The weather is cold, windy, and it will probably rain tonight.  We've had a very cool spring, but the forecast is for sun this week, and 80 degree weather.  Everyone is ready and waiting!

I recognize that one of my blessings is to have been born in this great country.  The freedom we enjoy, and all that comes with it, is something I am deeply grateful for.  I hope my children realize what they have been given and what their responsibilities are.  A friend forwarded an email recently with several pictures of U.S. military cemeteries from WWII, in several countries of Europe.  Thousands and thousands of U.S. soldiers gave their lives to preserve freedom, not just for ourselves, but for those in other countries.  It's hard to understand why so many people twist history to try to say that we are imperialistic and power hungry, when what we really try to do is protect our own people, and those who need our help, against tyranny, oppression, and ignorance.  Not that we don't have some leaders, not to mention soldiers, who sometimes are not able to handle the power they have.  But it's just sad to know how many "Americans" seem to be ashamed of their own country and what it stands for.  I am so grateful to be here, and to be able to raise a family here.  I think of the millions of people across the world who would give anything to have what I have.  I treasure the blessing of freedom, and I honor those who have sacrificed for me and all of the rest of us.  I feel a great appreciation for those early patriots and all the founding fathers.  They were courageous and loyal to a cause that was worth dying for.  What will we do with what they gave to us?