My friend's mother's farm.

This is her garden.  Cool, huh!

Currants we are going to pick tomorrow

Nanking cherries we are going to pick tomorrow.

kidlets eating cherries.

Fairlight either jumped in the canal or fell in it.  Here she's trying to get water out of her nose.

The kidlets are sharing the hose as they drink cold water.  Far in the background (near the car) is my bucket garden.

Brian's softball game.

Dude had a blast with the balls (baseball, softball, kickball, soccer balls, and I think a volleyball).  Bug read book after book with the sister on the left.

After the game we watched a cooking show and the kidlets sat on the shelf in the living room.  :)

A friend gave us an old mixer with a blender, so we're trying out the power of the motor with cookie dough...

Birthday parties, water, and cake

This is at a birthday party for a boy in the ward.  It was lots of fun as the kidlets learned about the slip and slide!

This is his watermelon birthday cake.  They even flavored the cake with watermelon jello so that it tasted and looked like watermelon on the inside.  Due to Soy we brought our own cupcakes and used their buttercream frosting for our cake.

This is bug's new swimsuit.  It used to be the dress I made for her two years ago.  I realized she didn't have a swimsuit that fit.  The party was on Monday so I threw this together on Saturday.  Don't be too impressed.  The top was pretty much made already and that's the hardest part.  

Chuckle.  This is dude's swimsuit.  He's taken two years to fill out this gift from Nana C.

The sun is moving away...

The other day we were walking into Winco as the sun was setting.  Someone said (I think it was a kid-let) that the sun was moving away from us.

"We are moving away from the sun.  In the morning we will return to it."

I know that doesn't seem as profound in print.  Yet, it struck both Brian and I how true that is in all senses of our own relationship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

They are always there for us.

We choose to leave their presence by transgressing Their laws.  Sometimes we go back halfway and expect them to be there.  They can't, or they wouldn't be Gods.  We must go back all the way.

Occasionally we get ourselves into bad predicaments by our choices and expect them to bail us out.  They have never been opposed to leading me out...but only on choice occasions have they bailed me out (such as when I drowned; apparently they wanted me alive...and I'm very grateful).

"VERILY, thus saith the Lord: It shall come to pass that every soul who forsaketh his sins and cometh unto me, and calleth on my name, and obeyeth my voice, and keepeth my comandments, shall see my face and know that I am;" D&C 93:1

Doctrine & Covenants 90:18

Set in order your houses; keep slotfulness and uncleanness far from you.

That's my goal today.

Peace, be still.

I feel hollow and sorrowful as I read the Revolutionary Mothers by Carol Berkin.  War has never seemed glorious to me; but the actual descriptions of the moral dissintigration, the destitute people, the ravaged farms & destroyed property, the cruelty of good men and women, the gore, and the mortality is so sickening.  Neighbor against neighbor, haunted men, lonely and starving women and children...

I have perceived in our nation the conservative, God fearing population (both Jew and Gentile), stirring like buzzing bees.  I believe they buzz due to the high amount of Liberal news egging them on and making them feel like they are not important and not heard.  

It occurs to me that many prominent speakers are trying to get the conservative base to rise up in revolution.  Why?  History shows that they would do this in order to suppress the the revolutionaries shortly after the uprising and bring vast amounts of power to the leaders of the country due to an "emergency".  The leaders of this confused nation have already begun to strip us of our rights and force on us "luxuries" as a bribe to get our allegiance.

Personally, I do not wish to be enslaved by Socialism, Marxism, Communism, or Tyranny.  

Yet, we are good people who want freedom for our families, freedom to worship, and freedom to begin with nothing and build wealth.  

We must use God's power to wage this war.  This land is consecrated by God and for God for the fulfillment of His promises.  His church was re-established on this continent for the beautification, prosperity, and edification of all of His children.  He does not loose His wars for He has legions of angels and all the powers of science and heaven at His fingertips.

I am at peace. 

Oh, Lord my God,

When I in awesome wonder consider all the worlds Thy hands have made,

I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, Thy pow'r throughout the universe displayed.

Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee,

How great thou art!

How great thou art!

Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee,

How great thou art!

How great thou art!

New recipes on the food blog

Whole wheat waffles
Whole wheat tortillas (with scone and donut alterations)

The Prince and the Canoe

Brian asked Bug if she wanted a story and asked me what moral I wanted.

I stated truthfulness/honesty and Bug said she wanted a princess, a prince, a princess dog, and a prince dog.


Once there was a prince who loved to play in his favorite tree.  He would climb his tree and look over the lake near his castle.  One day he looked across the lake and saw a beautiful princess playing on the beach.  She sat with her feet dipped in the cool water as she sat on the ground.

He was very surprised!  He wondered who she was and how he could meet her.

The next day he climbed his favorite tree again and looked over the lake.  He was disappointed to not see the princess.  He went home wondering where she could be.

The following day he climbed his favorite tree and saw through the branches of the tree that the princess was again playing on the beach across the lake.  This time she had with her a blue puppy.  (She used blueberries to...  Hmmmm.  No, that could cause problems.  It was just blue.)  It was a lovely shade of blue.  Oh, how he wanted to meet this beautiful princess who played on the beach across the lake.

Bug: "was it a girl puppy?"
Bri: "Yes, it was a girl puppy."

When he went home he spoke with his father the King.  He asked if he could borrow a canoe tomorrow.  The king asked his son what he wanted the canoe for.  The prince responded that he wanted the canoe so that he could go across the lake and meet the beautiful princess that played on the beach.

The King replied that his son could not borrow the canoe and go across the lake.  Disappointed the prince asked why he could not.  His father told him that the other side of the lake was very dangerous and he didn't want his son to get hurt.  The prince promised he would not go over there.

The prince asked his father why the princess played over there if it was so dangerous?  The father said that he did not know why.  But, if it was a good thing the prince would meet the princess someday.

The next day the prince climbed his favorite tree and saw the lovely princess and her puppy playing across the lake on the beach.  She was so beautiful and he wanted to meet her so much.  Yet, he had promised his father he would not cross the lake to her.  He thought and thought of how he could meet her.

His father asked him when he got home if he had seen the princess again.  the prince responded that he had.  Then his father told him how pleased he was that his son kept his promise.

When he awoke the next morning he went up the spiraling stairs to the tallest tower and found his favorite pigeon. He wrapped a note that he had written around the pigeon's ankle and took it with him to his favorite tree.  After he climbed the tree he sent the pigeon over to the princess.

The princess was very surprised to have this lovely white bird land gently beside her.  She quickly calmed her blue puppy so that she could retrieve the note from the bird.  She read it and looked across the lake to see the prince.  She could not; for he was hidden behind the branches of his tree.  She got up and left the beach taking the pigeon with her.  The prince hoped he had not upset her.

The following morning he climbed his favorite tree again and was pleased to have the pigeon return to him with a note on it's leg.  He read it and determined to write her a note the next day.

They exchanged notes one day at a time.  Getting to know each other and finding a friend.  They had to write their note for the day before they came to the lake so it took a day to reply.

One day the prince asked the beautiful princess why she played on that dangerous side of the lake?  The following day she was not at the beach.  He hoped he hadn't upset her.  As he sat in his tree he noticed that a canoe sat upside down on the beach of his side of the lake.  He began to think that he could take the canoe, and not have to borrow one from his father, and go across the lake to see if the princess was okay.

That would be lying, stealing, and breaking his promise.

He thought for a long, long time.  10 minutes.  Then 20 minutes.  Then an hour.  He finally decided to obey his father.

Going home early he told his father about the princess being missing and seeing the canoe on the edge of the lake.  The king was concerned, for he knew that all the royal canoes were not on the lake, his canoes were in the shed.

Taking with him a group of soldiers the king went to the canoe on the edge of the lake.  The boat was upside down on the beach, so it did not show that there were two robbers hiding underneath.  The soldiers captured the robbers and interrogated them.

They found out that the princess was captured by a group of robbers across the lake.  Almost every day they let her play on the beach while they stood in the shadows.  When she started receiving the notes they read them all and made sure that she didn't tell the prince about the robbers.  Yesterday when he sent the note about that side of the lake being dangerous the robbers decided to try and capture the prince.  They took the canoe to his side of the lake and hid two robbers underneath.  Then they wouldn't let the princess out on the beach.  By doing this they were hoping to lure the prince into stealing the canoe and being captured.

The king took his guards to the other side of the lake and captured the robbers and rescued the princess and her blue puppy.

Because the prince kept his promise and was truthful he avoided being kidnapped and helped save the princess.  She was able to stay at his home for a while before she was ready to go home.  They became good friends and her blue puppy played with his puppy.

The end.

Bug and Dude

This is my brother learning to wash windows with Brian.

This is another of Brian's workers doing detail work on a business.

Here's a home my brother washed with a lovely reflection.  :)

When my brother came to visit we went to the Heavenly Majesty exhibit at the Idaho Falls LDS Temple Visitors Center.  It was just lovely to see all the giant pictures of stars taken by the Hubble.  I recommend going to see it.

This is the Idaho Falls Temple from accross the river.  We are standing next to the falls at the "Green-belt" as it is called.

I thought this was a cool tree.

This is looking over the falls where the water hits the turbines.

Brian and my bro. are with bug, dude, and Fairlight.

Dude took this picture.

This is the nice landscaping the city does around the river.