August 14

Underfoot: On Friday my friends A and W came to my house. They slept here. We watched a movie that night. We watched the Heavens of Oz (Wizard of Oz). But they left (their parents came at 11:30.) We ate supper and popcorn. I picked up the trains. I dipped strawberries and cherries and bread (pound cake) into chocolate (fondue.) It was yummy. I got my head shaved this week.

Hurricane: Hurricane likes to use the spray bottle to squirt everyone. He giggles when he gets someone wet. Hurricane frequently will say, “I show you something. I show you something.” He then climbs up onto his horsy rocking chair and has at it for a while.

Mama: On Friday, I put up a tent in our front room to have a movie night. The boys loved being in the tent, but when it was time for bed, they went and crawled in their beds instead of sleeping in the tent. They didn’t want to sleep in the tent.

I made a killer cherry pie - crust and all. It was my first pie crust that wasn’t like paper mache. I was pretty happy with that. Later that week I signed up for a contest to go to a pie tutorial in Oklahoma. My odds of winning were 1 in 1150 ish. Needless to say, I will not be going this coming weekend to Oklahoma, but it was fun to dream for a minute.

L4 decided our chickens needed to range. The ladies have not eaten our garden but have scratched around our backyard. I have decided that I want grass instead of dirt, rocks and weeds. We started by clearing out the weeds. I’m still not use to the heat and working in the heat. I guess I don’t have to earn my living in the heat at this point so I enjoy the air conditioning. We (all four of us) worked hard weeding, picking up rocks, and picking up weeds. After we sweat so much that clothes dripped (I don’t sweat that much usually), we stopped and took cold showers. We were wiped out the rest of the day. Earlier that morning we had gone to our community clean up and Bountiful Baskets. Back to the grass... To get grass the weeds need to be gone as well as the rocks. It will take us ages it feels like but by small and simple things great things are brought to pass. I think we might opt for some fake grass and some real grass.

Hurricane decided this week that he was done using the high chair and would like to sit in L4’s lap during all meals. This is irritates me. L4 responses with, “He won’t always want to sit in my lap.”

I also read a great article on modesty and more the do's instead of the don't of modesty.

L4: This week I had a long board meeting. It seems that the HOA is much like being a parent. Sometimes it extends mercy. Sometimes it cracks down. In all cases it has to treat the homeowners like children. Establish the rules. Enforce them. Try to understand and keep peace.

In my personal study I’ve been reading in the New Testament. I’ve learned a lot about the life of the Savior. I am grateful for this experience, as most of my personal study has been devoted to the Book of Mormon.

Today in Sunday School a man recounted an interesting story. As a recent convert, he was interested in genealogy. At a family reunion, his extended family questioned him as to why he would join the Mormon Church and why he would want to have his deceased grandmother baptized vicariously into the Church. He then recounted to them the Angelic visitation that his Grandmother had in 1924. She had shared the experience with him when he was a small child. As an adult he was introduced to the Church and was greatly moved by the similarity between his grandmother’s visitation and Joseph Smith’s experience with the Angel Moroni. The two accounts gave nearly identical descriptions of the Angelic visitor.

His extended family, which included several pastors from other faiths, were dumbfounded. At that point, his aged great aunt began to smile as she recalled the experience. She indicated that his Grandmother’s story had made quite a stir that year.