Our Easter

Easter for our family is full of Miracles. Six years ago, on Easter Sunday, we spent the afternoon eating a special Easter dinner at the hospital while our little guy was having open heart surgery to correct his congenital heart defect -transposition of the great arteries. I remember the first time I saw one of the pastel yellow flyers that was taped to the wall and how I had smiled when I read at the bottom “sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”

I don’t remember too much about that particular dinner. I do remember being surrounded by people who, even though they didn’t know me personally, cared, loved,and prayed for our little boy. I don’t recall really tasting the wonderful food, or the names and faces of those present, but I can still feel the feeling of support today.

There is one person, however, that I remember very well. Sandi organized the dinner and at the time we had swapped emails, though I didn’t remember. Months passed, and suddenly in my inbox appeared a timid message inquiring how the surgery had gone and how our son was. Not hearing from us, she had feared the worst, and I sent a quick reply that all was well, and could we come help at the Thanksgiving dinner.

A beautiful tradition began. Every Easter, Thanksgiving, and occasional Christmas, we took the family to the hospital to serve dinner to patients, family and staff. As I have watched my family eagerly serve my testimony of Christ’s gospel has grown. I truly believe that “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” (Matthew 25:40)

Prior to our son’s heart defect, surgery, and stay in the hospital, I had no idea what these seemingly simple acts of service meant – what an impact they have on the lives of others. We are and can be angels to each other. Sandi has been and is one of many angels to us and we have become dear friends. She will always hold a special place in our hearts.

So, Easter this year was a little different – we almost didn’t know what to do with ourselves. We enjoyed a wonderful Easter program of amazing musical numbers (we live in the most talented ward ever) and scripture readings. We had a wonderful Easter dinner with old friends. But even then it felt just a bit empty, and it was a little sad not going off to serve.

I guess that means I have my work cut out for me to find something for us to do in the future, for what better way can there be to celebrate Easter and all that our Savior Jesus Christ has done for us then serving His children. He lives. I know He lives and loves us. We can be His hands in bringing joy and comfort in dark places.

So, in keeping with angels, I had to make this little video with some of our amazing angels set to one of my all-time favorite songs- “Angels Among Us” by Alabama.

Wow! An award for me! :-)

I had quite the surprise the other day when a fellow writer dropped by my blog and left me with one of her oh so awesome awards!

Thanks, so much Deirdra! She has a wonderful site with really cool interviews with other authors, agents, and other amazing people. Check out her site!

Here Comes the Rain…

It’s been raining…

A LOT

Our lawn is a soggy muddy lake that squelches up around your feet and threatens to suck your shoes off. The usually dry little ditch in the back yard is a steady stream, and, after particularly hard thunderstorms, washes over our little wooden bridge. You can stand out side sometimes and be drenched to the skin in a matter of seconds (which is pretty cool, actually).

I don’t mind it, after all I am no stranger to rain. I lived in Oregon for close to twenty years and sometimes we had weeks of never ending rain, whether it was a light drizzle or a heavier rainfall. But, while I tolerated the rain before, out here I love it. It is a warmer rain, with big fat juicy drops that splat as they hit your skin. It just begs to be danced in. And it’s frequently accompanied by thunder and lightening – I love thunder and lightening!

As I watch the rain fall outside, I am reminded of a *post I wrote about five years ago, about how much I missed the thunderstorms I was accustomed to as a child. I never dreamt then that I would be a mere five hours away from my childhood home, enjoying the thunderstorms again and being the one telling my kids to hurry inside “before they got fried.” It’s pretty cool, actually, and I know I am where I’m supposed to be. I think, once all the kids get home from school, we’ll have to have a rain dance!

*From Thunderstorm written in January 2006:

A burst of thunder announces the rain before it even arrives and lightning splits open the sky. With a squeal of delight I dash outside to our front porch. Rain falls to the earth in sheets. Darting into the rain I fling my arms wide spinning in giddy circles. I turn my face to the rain and let the raindrops splash against my tongue.

“Hurry back up here to the porch before you get fried!” mother playfully calls at the second roll of thunder and strike of lightning. I settle myself into my favorite spot to watch the show, under the old table on the porch. As the rain pounds the earth incessantly, the intoxicating scent of damp earth washes over me. I enjoy nature’s fireworks accompanied by astounding sound effects.

Too soon it ends and steals away as quickly is it came; torrents fading into drips. The sun forces its way through the clouds and the only remnants of the storm to be found are giant puddles in the fields. We bound through the fields from puddle to puddle. They become wading pools as we splash and play in the summer sun the water lapping at our waists. Too soon the life is sucked out of them and we wait, anxious for our next thunderstorm romp.

Jacob’s take on the Easter Bunny

The other day Jacob came home from school with a paper bag bunny basket he had made with candy in it. He was very excited as he showed it to me, explaining that they had decorated them the day before.

“So, the Easter bunny came to the school during the night and filled your basket?” I asked.

“No, silly, Mrs. — was the Easter Bunny.” He had his hands on his hips, looking rather indignant.

“Oh. Well, who’s the Easter bunny here then? Will she come fill all of our baskets?”

“Noooooo,” He drew out the word and raised his voice at the end. “The bunnies in the backyard, they come in and put candy in our baskets.”

“Oh. You mean the little brown ones you were watching the other day?”

“Yup! But they were black and white, Mom.”

A song for Gladys

The other day I was asked to accompany two sisters singing a song for the ward talent show.

So I look at the title and it says “Jar of Hearts”. I immediately think of my book, The Heart of the Castle, based on Bluebeard. The further into the song we went, the more I had to chuckle and laugh – it fit SO well! Any of you who read and edited the book for me will get a good chuckle out of it – I can explain it further to the rest… or you can just wait to read the book yourself someday – but it could be a VERY long time before it ever gets out there.

So, my book has a theme song! ha ha! My main character, Gladys, is thrilled. Someday, if I ever get published, and if it’s ever turned into a movie (which I don’t know if I’d really want anyway) this would make be perfect. In the meantime, I’ll let it play at the back of my mind as I watch the movie in my head.

New Title – same me!

So, I’ve slowly been revamping my blog (very slowly). The other day I made a comment that the cakes I made for the Young Women’s camp funraiser – a cake auction – were fun and flawed. And someone said – that would make a GREAT blog title. And I agreed. So, I decided to change my title. I needed something new and fresh.

The idea behind it then is this – I am horribly flawed (aren’t we all) but I try to have fun and be a fun person – well, at least I hope I am – just smile and nod and placate my ego and say, GoofyJ, you are a fun person… ah thanks you guys.  😀

And, just because I know you will ask….

I give you my fun and flawed cakes….

(Excuse the ickiness of the photos- I was in a hurry at the time)

OOPS!!!

Jello. That wonderfully wobbly stuff. My dad always loved it. Sometimes my Dad would want it plain and tease mom when she put fruit in it, “Why’d you adulterate my jello?” It became the family joke – “Do you want unadulterated or adulterated jello?” When I got married Paul quickly learned about our odd little jello jokes, becoming adept at adding to them. In fact, he broadened it to include any food I added extra stuff too (which is quite a lot).

Sunday afternoon I decided grilled cheese and tomato soup were on the menu. I had the sandwiches on the griddle, the hot cheese sizzling as it hit the surface, and Emily had the soup heating on the stove. I’m not a huge fan of condensed tomato soup, it’s a little plain for me (though Paul loves the stuff). Whenever he wasn’t looking I’d shake in a little basil, a little pepper, a little this, a little that.

Finally, Paul caught me. “Are you adulterating my soup?”

“Yup.” I dipped in a spoon a tasted the now delicious concotion.

Emily’s envious eyes followed the spoon to my mouth. “Can I taste?” she wanted know.

“Sure.” I plunged in the spoon and handed it to her. “Mmmmmm.”

“Adulteration is good, isn’t it, Em?” (I had no clue about what I was saying here – obviously)

“Uh-huh!” She vigorously nodded her head.

Paul stared at me incredulously. “What exactly are you teaching our daughter?!”

“Oh! Oh no! Oh boy! oh… oops.” And I had no choice but to dissolve into helpless laughter… and blame it on my dad of course. 😀 hee hee Now, how do you go about explaining that one to an 8-year-old.

We’ve been busy…

First, Jacob had a birthday! He turned 6 last month and we celebrated with a construction party. I had fun doing a crazy cake, but I think my cake decorating skills detiorate with each additional kid 😀

We had two camp outs in the basement – one for the girls and one for the boys (so cool that our smaller tent fits in the basement!)

I took the kids to Krohn Conservatory during spring break – It’s hard to take good focused close-ups of plants – or anything! – when trying to keep track of six kids 😀 So, I put up very few plant photos – I’ll get better ones when Paul is with me 🙂

Spring is finally springing! And its so exciting to discover what’s been planted in our yard. The kids fully enjoyed a gorgeous day last week. And we got our lilac bush planted!

Plus, Paul went on an adventure to see how big our yard really was and how far into the woods it goes – then he gave me a tour – it’s hugely awesome! We are excited to clear debris out and make more portions of our woods available to the kids. There are some really cool domed clearings where the trees have grown over making a natural little home. It’s beautiful! We’ll take photos of that stuff as we get back in there and get things cleared up – there are a lot of beer cans, broken bottles, tires – even an old swingset back there. So, we have lots of work to do!

Finally, Robert is 7 months old! He’s been eating solids and rolling and for the past month or so he’s been doing the army crawl – and getting faster by the second! The last couple days he decide to get on his hands and knees and will sit and rock back and forth – taking one crawl forward before flopping down and commando crawling where he wants to go.

Today he even pulled himself up to a shakey stand – always hanging onto my hands of course!

*for whatever reason the pictures don’t show up sometimes – if you still want to see them, you should be able to if you click on the white non-picture