November is the thankful month. At least, it is the one when most of us gather the family around and give thanks for our blessings. I have many to be grateful for and I want to acknowledge that I do.
Mary and family counted blessings as part of Family Home Evening on Sunday. We all drew pictures of things we were thankful “happy” for on big colored-paper leaves. Mary, of course, was glad for the usual things children are grateful for: parents, cousins, aunts and uncles, Christene, grandparents, friends and toys. Grandpa was thankful for the day of Thanksgiving and all of his family. He drew a picture of his family, each one, gathered around a huge table with a turkey in the center. Jim and Julie were thankful for each other, home, children and temples. Jim was grateful that he was strong and could work. We said that Christene was thankful when Mary was soft with her, which I am certain is true. I was grateful for many things: hands and feet that work, eyes that see and ears that hear, a nose that can smell the wonders around, the temple, scriptures and, most of all, family. That should be written, FAMILY!
During this time of harvest and thanksgiving, I like to pause and reflect. I want you to know that even when I seem grumpy I am still grateful for daily life. I so enjoy sitting in the sunshine, looking at the beauty surrounding me and just enjoying being. I also want you all to know that there are many blessings that are mine.
I am thankful that Leonard and I are married (and have been for 45 years) and that we have a family of eight children that has expanded to 16. I love each family member and each grandchild so much that my heart swells just being near them. I like to watch the grandchildren and enjoy the things they say and do. I am grateful for each family member’s individual talents and for the way they enrich my life. I’m thankful to live in a land where freedom allows worship, learning and dreams. I’m thankful for the seasons, the flowers, plants and songs of birds. I appreciate sunshine and rain. (I am still working on snow.) I’m thankful we own a car for transportation, that I have comfortable clothing, and nutritious food. I’m thankful for my home. I actually love this house for its memories of all my children, grandchildren and loved ones enclosed inside its walls.
I’m thankful for my Grandmother Smith, my parents and for wise teachings. I am thankful for special cousins, sisters, aunts and uncles and the joy of being connected to a family while I was a child. I’m thankful for the generosity and warmth of my inlaws. I’m thankful that I can read. I am thankful that I can write. I am thankful for those who have gone before me in the long line of my heritage. I am thankful that I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am thankful for the temple and the opportunity we have for eternal families. I am grateful for my testimony that Jesus Christ lives and that he died so that I might live again.
I am thankful for good neighbors and kind friends. Basically, I suppose, I just have a full heart—full of love for all of you. I won’t pretend that we are a family without problems. We each have our own. For example, I think Dad and I sometimes feel our age. I was walking down the hall the other day and told Dad I didn’t know what sounded worse, my hip or my squeaking shoes. It was a tossup I think. We are, however, proud that each of you are doing the best with the circumstances you were given. You have all grown and, as we have noted before, we are so happy that each one of you loves the other. That is quite an accomplis hment on each of your parts. Remember, I was there when you were small and I wondered if any of you were going to live to adulthood. I think I should also be thankful that you all did.
Happy Thanksgiving!
How to Observe Thanksgiving
Count your blessings instead of your crosses;
Count your gains instead of your losses.
Count your joys instead of your woes;
Count your friends instead of your foes.
Count your smiles instead of your tears;
Count your courage instead of your fears.
Count your full years instead of your lean;
Count your kind deeds instead of your mean.
Count your health instead of your wealth;
Count on God instead of yourself.
~~Author Unknown~
We were able to visit Bree at her treatment facility in Mt. Pleasant. She seems to be doing quite well. She will be in the facility for 90 days all told. I can’t remember how many have gone past. It was a group meeting and was very informative. There were a lot of success stories there from people who came back to the meeting (something like AA).
We had Erin and Donovin with us for a few days because Erin did not have school, (Erin’s school was having parent-teacher conferences.) so they were able to go to the meeting with us. Barbara met us there and came to Nephi afterward and slept overnight and headed home so Erin could be there in time for dancing lessons. Monday we took Erin and Donovin up to Provo and they played with the Howard kids. We also went to the Dinosaur museum and the natural history museum. During the week, it was also good to spend time with Rachel, Mary, Christene and A.J. We all had fun together. Mary didn’t like playing in the raked leaves but the others did. Donovin helped Grandpa load them into the back of the lawn mower trailer and take them to the garden after they were done playing.
David was quite happy that Todd stopped by to visit. Todd took David and his family to dinner while Todd was on a business trip in Las Vegas. Todd took time to drive to St. George and also to buy the DVD, “Cars” for the kids. They were still talking about it while they were here.
Jim and Dad have worked on the honey project. Thanks to David, Shawn, Brandon and Eric for the time they devoted (and continue) to devote to extracting this year’s crop of honey and to making the barn work so that honey could be extracted there. I know Jim and Julie will always appreciate the work you all have done. Jim’s mom came down and spent a week helping him with the extracting. Remember, she is a beekeeper’s daughter.
Dad almost has his shed done. He has worked on it all day today. He is now working on the doors. Now maybe he will have time to finish the downstairs bathroom. The shed needed to be done before the winter sets in and the bathroom walls can be finished after winter sets in, whatever that means.
Our Relief Society has been coloring “A, B, C” book pages to be used in teaching the reading of English. I took on five books and then I thought that I would never get done. I FINALLY did and turned them in. Next time I will be less ambitious.
We enjoyed Halloween here in Nephi. Julie, because of scouts, had to man a booth at the ward trunk or treat party. So I went with her and helped Mary have fun. The other two wards in our chapel had the trunk-or-treat party outside so LHT took care of that. He ran out of candy and had to run and get more. You should have seen the candy that I had bought for the party. It was hard to believe that it could all be gone.
Dad and I still think a monthly family home evening would be a great thing to do but also a difficult one because of logistics and time involvement problems.
1. Shawn and family live in Layton, David and family live in St. George. That represents three hours either way.
2. We don't leave the temple on Saturday until 5:30 or 6 p.m. Monday night means that everyone has to travel late. On Sunday, the various wards meet at different times which makes scheduling difficult, if not impossible.
3. Most nights there are soccer games, football (or sport of the season) and dancing lessons, scouts, young men and young women, church duties, school activities, work. Jim and Julie include us in their home evening from time to time. Jim does work late most nights. (AnnMarie says that they hold their Family Night on Sunday because they are too busy to do it any other day.) We are fearful that such a project would end up being that Dad and I would have a home evening, most times, by ourselves. We do that.
4. Some of our family lives far, far away. A family in Kirsten’s ward, to quote her, "teleconferences on Chat rooms (group IMing or instant messaging, might work) for FHE once a week (1/2 of their kids are at BYU, some at BYU Idaho and some home). Also, remember with sacrifice comes blessings. We can all give up some time. We all have computers and Internet access now, why don't we find some way of gathering around for 20 minutes on a Sunday or Monday night and share that love. Just an idea.”
Instant messaging, often shortened to simply "IM" or "IMing," is the exchange of text messages through a software application in real-time. Instant messaging differs from ordinary e-mail in the immediacy of the message exchange and also makes a continued exchange simpler than sending e-mail back and forth. Most exchanges are textonly, though popular services, now allow voice messaging, file sharing and even video chat when both users have cameras. For IMing to work, both users must be online at the same time. It is possible for two or more people to have a real-time online conversation by IMing each other back and forth.
AnnMarie responded that she had safety issues with chat rooms and did not want any of the children of the family to ever be “on camera” because of her training that “perps” can gain access and target future victims. David said he would be willing to try for a once a month meeting; it would depend on the night selected. It would be possible to just outline a family home evening and have everyone do the same lesson the same night. Email would also work, I suppose. I just don’t know.
We asked, earlier, what everyone thought. We only got a few answers. If you decide you want to try, Mom can continue her pre-life agreement to be the chief nag of the LHT family and add another thing to nag about to the list.
We love you all!
