QUOTE FOR TODAY

This week has been a bummer week and, as Taylor said, when he was about ten, "I hate bummers." So I'll leave you with a quote which brings me comfort this week.

"Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness."-- Carl Jung

I hope you do not have too much sadness and that your happy is in full swing. And I hope the turkey is waiting patiently in the freezer, that the pie recipe is dusted off and that you have some family to look forward to next week.

And get the sadness (and the bummers) over early so you can have some laughs.

Love,
Lynne

PS I liked this blog post today entitled, "How to find happiness."

YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU WANT UNTIL YOU DIDN'T GET IT EVEN IF YOU DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT IT IN THE FIRST PLACE

Yesterday my daughter posted This... ...and said,"Thought I might be...."

And then she wrote, " But I'm not..." And this picture accompanied it.Until then I hadn't thought there was even a possibility that she might be pregnant. And now I'm sad. Sad for the unpossibility.

All day I've been thinking about this. The sadness. Everyone experiences sadness and a lot of time we experience sadness for things in the future that may or may not even happen. Why not experience happiness for things in the future that very well may happen?

So, tonight, I am thinking of the happy possibility that there are grandchildren of Phil's and my future, waiting to be born. Looking over our shoulders, whispering, "Just you wait. We're a comin' and we're gonna be cute and we're gonna be good." Well, I suppose, being Celestial beings, as they are, they use proper English but just the same, I'm "thinking happy," good grammar or not.

And daughter, maybe there's one, just like this one, that is yours.

BE OF GOOD CHEER

Be of Good Cheer--that was Heather's lesson in Relief Society today. Her lesson was taken from a talk by our new prophet, Thomas S. Monson at the BYU Women's Conference, 2008 Here are a couple of things I jotted down in my notebook:

1. We have an immense amount of power--we have just forgotten
2. Keep a gratitude journal--she asked for a raise of hands to see how many people do this and there were several. I looked at Joan and whispered, "I have one, I've just never written in it." She whispered back, "So do I and neither have I."
3. Have confidence in the Lord.
4. Heather asked what people do when they are "down," and lots of ideas were expressed. My favorite one was to go where it was light. Go outside and stand in the light. Then Genny, my neighbor I adore, said something like, "I think you need to cry sometimes, you need to get it out, to grieve and feel sorry for yourself. And anyway," she said, "people who are so cheerful all the time kind of bug me." The whole congregation of sisters broke up in laughter.
5. Amy, who is the Primary secretary, came in for a few minutes and said something I think was inspired--she had heard it from someone else but I think she was inspired to relate it to us today. She said to imagine you are in the top of a tower. All of a sudden you see a buffalo stampede coming toward you. You begin to feel the power of it, the vibration, when it gets closer and actually goes under your tower and around your tower you can smell the buffalo, the dust comes up and swirls around. All your senses are involved and you feel overwhelmed but you are safe in the tower and soon you watch as the herd stampedes off into the distance and then they are gone. Simply gone. You are safe. You were always safe, you just felt overwhelmed for a while. She told it better than this but you get the idea.
6. Heather gave us homework. Look for the words "good cheer" or other words that mean the same. Look in the scriptures and other places. Write down what we find and find ways to have good cheer. I did that. I looked on the Internet and a talk by Jeanne Inouye came up. She gave the talk in 1993. It was called, "Be of Good Cheer." Jeanne buried her husband Saturday. This was the funeral I talked about yesterday. Her husband was an incredible man, loved by all. Jeanne was at church today, smiling. I know she is hurting inside, lonely already, missing her husband but she will be of good cheer. I have much to learn from this wonderful woman.

Heather closed with this quote from Neal A. Maxwell, "Be of Good Cheer," Ensign, November 1982, pg. 68 "Brothers and sisters, these are our days. This is our time on earth! These are our tasks to be done!

"And in these days, being of good cheer is part of being valiant in the testimony of Jesus. (See D&C 76:79; D&C 121:29.)

"Finally, in those moments when we feel the pain which is a necessary part of the plan of happiness, we can remember that there was an ancient time when that plan was first unveiled. Then the perceptive among us voted not secretly, but audibly—by shouting for joy! (See Job 38:7.) Let us not go back on those feelings now—for we saw more clearly then what we are experiencing now! "

I hope--that is if you got this far in this long blog--that you will know you are loved by your Heavenly Father, that your sins have been paid for by The Savior, all you have to do is come with a broken heart and ask forgiveness. I hope you know there are covenants that can be made. Blessing that can be had. Eternity to be of good cheer with your loved ones and with Christ and your Heavenly Father.

May God bless you.

GOODBYE TO MY UNCLE VIRGE and MY COUSIN HOLLY'S HOUSE--THE ONE I GREW UP IN

Uncle Virge once kept a baby skunk in a grain barrel for me. He didn't want a skunk in his grain barrel but I wanted a shrunk for a pet so he let me bring water to the skunk every day and try to tame it.


He was the most colorful relative I have ever known, outspoken, often brash but had the kindest heart and absolutely 100% integrity. I adored him. Thankfully, he knew I adored him.


Today was his funeral. I cried and laughed and rejoiced. Uncle Virge died true and faithful.

He lost both his boys--he only had two children--and his wife and now they are all together. Here are his daughter-in-laws and the grandkids.

While we were at the cemetery I took a picture of our stillborn baby's headstone. He was only a five month baby but as any mother knows that is a baby, just as much as any baby is. I thought I would never recover of the grief over this baby. Of course time deadens the pain of any hurt but not the memory.

This is my "bestest" cousin of all times. We sold her our family home. She painted it and changed every speck of it. I am astonished. It is absolutely beautiful. It looks like a decorator lives there.

This is where I grew up. I slept in both of the upstairs bedrooms you can see windows for, and one on the other side of the house too. In the summer I slept on the front porch.

Right here.

The other end of the front porch Mom enclosed to make her walk-in closet--before she did that, I slept there too.

This is the breeze-way. As teenagers we slept on top of the roof and the boys found us one year and used our own garden hose to soak us.

This is in one end of the living room.




This used to be one end of the porch before Mother started closing it in. Holly has decorated this room well.

This is another room Mom made. She enclosed the back porch--that no one used--and made it into a sun-room. The best place for spend a cold winter day. It would get hot in there, even on overcast days.

This is Holly's new kitchen island.

This is the kitchen I burned up when I was a teenager. Have I told you that story?

The flames went from the stove, to the ceiling, across the ceiling and down the other side, almost to the top of the table. Of course it looks better now. The metal cabinets are the original ones, Holly just painted them.

Holly re-did the dressing room and installed a claw tub.

This is a "rubbing" that Holly made of our great-great grandmother, Lillian Abigail Gauchet's headstone.

And even though I took 72 pictures of Holly's house and lots of pictures at the cemetery I will close with this headstone rubbing.

We came from good people, people who worked hard, sacrificed for their beliefs and religion. They served their families and friends all the days of their lives. We live in far more luxury than they had but they were happy. Hard work makes for happy families. I guess I will go clean the kitchen now because it needs it. I hope to be happy.