Here he is, in 1986 being filmed on the shortest day of the year. Thank you Linda, for sending us the link to this YouTube video.
As we watched it, we laughed and we cried. It is truly priceless.
Gordon passed away on the shortest day of the year, only a year ago.
Here he is, in 1986 being filmed on the shortest day of the year. Thank you Linda, for sending us the link to this YouTube video. As we watched it, we laughed and we cried. It is truly priceless.
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We woke up to heavily flocked trees and a temperature of -15 degrees. I love where we live! Feeling SickBoth Steve and I haven't felt good the last few days, I imagine we got the same bug.
When Steve gets a cold it goes straight to his chest, followed by days, if not weeks of horrible coughing. For me it's all in my head. Not a figment of my imagination (smile) but my sinuses plug, head feels like it's going to explode, throat hurts and glands swell. Yuck! When I woke up this morning I knew I needed to flush my sinuses with saline, but it took me over an hour to talk myself into doing it. There is something about snorting saline up my nose, that I flat out don't like. The surgeon who did my sinus surgery told me that anyone who gets a cold should flush, several times a day. It really helps and seems to even shorten the duration of the cold. I use 1/2 teaspoon salt dissolved in two cups warm tap water and a bulb syringe. Anytime one of us gets, sick I nag them about taking garlic gel caps or doterras On Guard gel caps. I also push Emergen-C Immune Plus, Super Orange. It is the one with Zinc in it. Garlic is our family's old standby. I was sold on it many years ago when the kids became sick all the time, with ear infections and the like. Some of the kids began to build up a resistance to antibiotics, the doctors having to use a stronger one, then the next stronger variety and so on. They also started to develop allergies to the antibiotics. Out of desperation I began looking into natural remedies, talking to other moms, ones I knew practiced natural healing or herbal remedies. It was time to take a chance, so I bought a bottle of garlic oil and a bottle of lobelia oil. Thus commenced the first season my little ones ran around smelling like garlic, with cotton sticking out of their ears. Once or twice a day, for ear infections I would warm the garlic oil, because it must be refrigerated and you don't want to put something cold in the ear. Then put two drops of garlic oil into affected ear then one or two drops of lobelia oil to help with the pain and sooth the child. Once I discovered this method of treatment our trips to the doctor and the use of antibiotics decreased dramatically. Around the same time we discovered garlic gel caps. In fact Luke became sick once, he wasn't very old, but he could swallow pills, so I had him take one garlic gel cap three times a day while he was sick. After that he didn't get sick when the rest of us got sick. He was my healthiest child. Turns out he had been taking one garlic gel cap every day since then. I didn't know he was doing it and I had puzzled over how he managed to stay well while the rest of us got sick. Taking garlic daily kept him well. The only downside was that he smelt like garlic all the time. At first I was skeptical about doterra's On Guard. But now I'm a believer. We put it to the test in 2015 after my friend Linda Clark mentioned how she would tell her kids to start taking On Guard the moment they began feeling sick, and if they did take it seemed to shorten or even halt the sickness. I thought what the heck, let's give it a try, so I bought a bottle. It works! The only thing about taking it, is some people burp it all day. I'm one of those people. It's not like burping garlic, it's more of a fresh taste that isn't bad, just strong. Emergen-C Immune+ is the other thing I push my family to take in the hopes it will strengthen their bodies in the battle to ward off sickness. I believe the most helpful ingredient in this drink is Zinc. Immune+ is in powder form and is like a seltzer. Now, I don't like seltzer's but this is a better tasting way to get your Zinc. Zinc lozenges seem to cause nausea but this drink doesn't. That was a long way of say that Steve and I have been lying round the house, doing nothing but reading, watching TV and taking stuff to help us get better. There was no wishing for a white Christmas, we already had it!
I was the first one to wake up and it was a beautiful, peaceful morning. Still in my comfy jammies, I toddled around the house picking up things before Steve arrived home. It's hard to get used to Steve and I waking up before the kids on Christmas day. Steve walked in singing Christmas songs, he was extremely happy to be home after working three twelves and then a twenty four. He hugged me and gave me several kisses and the day was officially started. The kids slowly began to trickle out of their bedrooms and once all were accounted for we began opening presents. Even with all the setbacks our family has had these last few months we were blessed abundantly this holiday season. The Lord works in mysterious ways. Cammie and Tristin arrived early afternoon and all eyes were on them as they opened up their Christmas presents. Meanwhile, the ham had been cooking in the slow cooker all night. By 2:00 we were eating Christmas dinner, it was yummy. Lounging around was all we achieved the rest of the day. We even decided to skip the planned movie at the theater. Yet another successful Christmas Day. Definitely a white Christmas this year. I wish you could see the huge snowflakes that have been falling all day, it is really beautiful and almost makes this picture look black and white. Only a few loose ends to tie up before the big day. One of those loose ends was figuring out something Grant and Steve could give to the families they Home Teach. I knew what I was looking for and a quick google search found me these printable tags. http://www.itsalwaysautumn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/merry-and-sprite-christmas-tag.pdf I needed sustenance to keep me going. One of my new likes is Jalapeno jelly and cream cheese on crackers. Luke shoveled the walks. Hannah and Grant fed animals, cleaned out the wood stove, then swept and vacuumed the floors. While I finished the cheesecake and baked cinnamon rolls for christmas morning.
After that we took Steve dinner, dropped off the HT gifts and did some last minute shopping, and I do mean last minute. It's been a really good day. Old Ruger has become part of our family now, but only as a honored guest. His family leaves town for most of the major holidays and leaves him with us. Mostly it has been a good experience. Although we have had a few mishaps, like him wetting on the hardwood floors when he first arrived and pooping on them just before he left. Sigh. We call him "Nasty" because he is covered in tumors. But it is more a term of endearment than an insult.
I was at Deseret Book the other day and found all sorts of cute nativity tree ornaments.
If they weren't so darn expensive I would love to turn this little artificial tree into a nativity tree. Instead I rounded up all the Santa ornaments we have been given over the years and turned it into a Santa tree. I only spent about five minutes decorating it. It didn't turn out to bad. I have to admit stringing lights on the Christmas tree is probably my least favorite part of the holiday season. It take me hours. Why? Because I'm a bit OCD about them, probably why I dislike doing it so very much. It's funny how time changes things. When the kids were little they looked forward to decorating the tree and it was hard for me to let them do it without moving the ornaments around, when their backs were turned of course. Now it takes a bribe of some sort of treat to get them to do it. To everyone's relief the decorating went quickly and the kids were promised their freedom after a "15 minute tidy" of the house. Yes, we actually set a timer then clean for 15 minutes. If all involved work hard the timer doesn't get reset. If even one person slacks the entire group cleans for another fifteen minutes. We have done this ever since the kids were tiny, it works pretty well. During the tidy Steve decided to clean the living room wood stove. While hauling the contents of the stove outside the handle came off the bucket, ash and coals dumped onto the carpet. To describe the following events as chaotic would be an understatement, alarms going off, bowls of water being tossed onto the carpet, it probably would have looked comical to a bystander but we weren't bystanders. Once Steve shoveled three inches of hot coals off the carpet and the smoke cleared I took a picture of the damage. The rest of week I made candy.
The recipes are on the Good Eats blog. Linda Clark and I took a much needed "girls day".
I had found an old, round kitchen table with five chairs at a thrift shop in Idaho Falls and Linda volunteered to drive her HUGE truck and help me pick it up. I'm so short and it's so tall I must look terribly funny climbing into it. We decided to make a day of it with shopping and lunch. Unfortunately the thrift shop had sold my table, even though the night before they told me that they still had it. I wasn't a happy person. But Linda and I weren't going to let that get us down, so off to the craft stores we went. I don't step into craft stores any more and now I remember why, it makes me crazy! My creative side starts to surface again and I get completely overwhelmed. Steve tells me I have a knack for stepping into any store and picking out the most expensive item. Ok, I admit it, I have good taste! It's no different in the craft stores. I gravitate to the most expensive greenery, projects and trinkets. Thank goodness I had self control this time. I managed to only buy a few rustic items to decorate my three small Christmas trees and greenery for my dinning room chandelier. |
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