Being of Service...

                 
                  At our house, we have an evening family prayer; we've had this custom for most of our marriage.  We kneel as a family around a long bench we call the "prayer bench."  Even the dog joins in.  Our most constant prayer these days is a prayer of thanks that our life is so filled with the blessings and tender mercies that God has blessed us with; it never seems to be about problems in our immediate family.  Fortunately for us, life is calm at the moment. 
               Tom is a news junkie and loves all of the hoopla of the current political season, so his early evenings are spent in front of the tv or computer devouring all the polls, insights, commentaries, etc.  Once dinner dishes are done, I join him for our new past-time: watching old movies on Netflix.  We've re-discovered old favorite tv series from our past--Columbo, Magnum PI, Rockford Files, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, classic movies, a new-for-us genre--British murder mystery series, History Channel specials, and our usual favorites on prime time programming.  Vale, a si-fi fan, turns up his nose at our choices and stretches out downstairs to watch his own favorites.
                  Lest you believe that we are couch potatoes, here's what we do during the day:

 TOM:
                 Tom is a man with a mission always!!  He feels old age creeping up on him--that time when he will only be able to spend 2 or 3 hours a day outside (or inside) working on projects rather than the usual 6 to 8 hours now.  Last week, he sat at the table with me and said,"I am going to do something that I know you won't like, but I'm going to do it anyway.  Would you like to go stay with your sister while I do it?"  It was this:

Yes, he is on a rickety ladder twenty feet above the ground.  That's the rock wall you see along the edge of the picture.  I didn't go to my sisters, but I did hide in the house.  I admit that painting the trim and eaves did improve and winterize the house,but...His reason for not enlisting Vale's help...I'm saving him for another project. 

 

 

JULIA:

             I'm re-decorating my living room.  The old couches had need of new covers, so I made them. 

 

                Probably you've noticed that our house looks a lot like yours.  The top couch is my spot...a sewing project readily available.  (You may recognize the project I'm working on--I've been handquilting that quilt for almost a year.  The quilts hanging on the bannisters are quilts my mother made for two of my children when they were young.)  The bottom couch is Tom's spot.  You catch a little glimpse of his footstool which has his line-up of remotes and his scriptures.  We're such creatures of habit.  I also made two and a half quilts for a community service project.  I didn't get pictures of the two baby quilts, but this is the half-done quilt.  I cringed when I saw this donated quilt top--probably given to our Relief Society in the seventies--a hod-podge of 8 or 9" squares of all colors of polyester material but mostly dark.  Ugh.  As you can tell by my couch covers--I love color!!  In spite of a herculean effort, I didn't finish the quilt in time, it will go somewhere else.  (My son, Tom, took one look at this "ugly" quilt and exclaimed, "I LOVE that quilt.  It reminds me of Grandma."  It does, indeed; my mother made us several polyester quilts which wore and wore themselves out with all our cuddling in them, especially on wintery nights.)

VALE:

             Vale has an incentive to work his heart out on homework this year--he turned 16.  This little gem is an incentive to keep his grades up, thus qualifying to drive it in sunny California in the summer.  Besides, a heavy academic load, Vale is busy with marching band and his role as Eugene in the school's presentation of "Grease."  He's also a backup dancer for a number or two.  In addition, he's learning to play the tenor sax for marching band, and he's dragging himself cheerfully out of bed for early morning Seminary. 
ASTRO:
          Astro's trying hard to keep the squirrels, snakes, and deer...and the falling acorns at bay.  With hordes of deer coming down out of the burning mountains, he has his hands full!

 

We're well and happy, and we hope you are too!!  (The fires, by the way, have moved

up the mountain, and we aren't even getting smoke!).  Love from our corner of the world.  Mom

 

Whoever dreamed up Scrabble had an exaggerated idea of how many seven-letter words have five i's.
 ~Robert Brault