Inspiration and Blessings

         The counselors from the Elder’s Quorum and Relief Society are asked to attend the huddles of either family history or meet with the missionaries.  As both RS counselors have been involved with another class (which happens during the time of the huddle meetings) the president and I have filled in for the last three weeks or so. And then Richard was called to assist in the missionary program (which he has pretty much been doing anyway).

In our last huddle the missionaries presented a list of some inactive members they had contacted and told us that each had expressed interest in returning to the fold.  Each of us were assigned a few names from the list.  Richard felt impressed to bring goodies – cupcakes or cookies.  We settled on chocolate chip cookies and Richard and I visited two households yesterday. 

The first house we drove to was in the country.  50 Acres.  Nice couple.  They used to raise llamas but have only two left.  The next house was much closer to civilization and with the most awesome view.  That was a totally unexpected chain of events.

When we first arrived the member seemed put off and indicated that she was in a meeting and “didn’t have time for us” which was okay – we had just showed up without an appointment but did wish to leave the cookies.  At that she asked, “Are you from the church?”

She then asked if we could sit for ten minutes while she finished her meeting.  We told her we could come back but were invited in and talked with her husband briefly until she returned.  She gave us a tour of her house.  We were awed.  I took a couple of pictures of the view – which Jaime and I had both seen but from the opposite angle.  I couldn’t believe that I was actually in the house that I had seen several times from the outside. 

I didn’t look at the clock before we arrived but would guess our visit was at least an hour.  We have two more visits to make but needed to come home to eat.  Our son called Richard with a job assignment – which is generally completed in less than 24 hours.  We are blessed that we will be getting some extra income.  

I Cannot NOT GO LtWobo

 

          I LOVE Jenna’s enthusiasm – which I have mentioned several times.  Even throughout this pandemic she has never lost her light.  Oh, sure, it may have dimmed a few times but the spark would never die completely. She has been so enthusiastic with “Light the World one by one” program.  As much as I hate to admit it I often do not have a proper attitude of greeting the day nor have I had the desire to fulfill each daily task challenge for “Light the World”. I do it with Jenna because of her excitement. I don’t want to contribute to dimming her light. 

I think she has posted something everyday – but as a story so it doesn’t remain for all to view. I tried to screenshot them all – though I can’t seem to locate all of them nor did I keep all the clip art pictures that she added.

  

On the 7^th day of December we painted a naked sled and took it to a man who will often give Bonnie treats.  At the time his window did not have a covering such as curtains or shades.  When we walked past his house yesterday he had covered the windows but had left the sled in the corner.

 

She did use part of the story we had made up about her 3rd great grandfather.  I did get a screenshot of that - plus I have a copy of the assignment that she had turned in. (Refer to this post)

Yesterday morning was too dark for me to drive to pick her up on time. Roland drove and on the way the way home Jenna mentioned delivering cookies but claimed she wouldn’t have time to make them due to her schedule and Roland offered to stop off at the store and we could buy cookies.  To be honest, they looked lost in the containers and the ones Jenna had picked out were not chocolate chip.  You have to have chocolate chip.  I decided to make chocolate chip after we returned home.  I mixed up the cookies so each plate or box had an assortment which included the store bought and homemade.  Didn’t really go according to plan.

The first batch I had baked came out darker than I like and so gave less time on the other two batches.  We took Bonnie for a walk and took the first cookies to a sister in our ward and asked for a suggestion on who to take the others too.  She was caught off guard and I made some suggestions.  She pointed to the neighbor across the way.  No one answered the door and as we did not have anything to leave a note with we chose not to leave the cookies but continued onto our next destination. 

We took a box of cookies to her friend who lives near the first street where we had lived in Oregon.  She was in math class when she answered the door and so did not choose another drop off either.  But we had one plate of cookies left and Jenna wanted to return to our old street to visit the pig next door (here) to the house that we had rented. She suggested that we leave the plate with them, but they did not appear to be home either.  Jenna then suggested our former neighbor across the street.  That was truly inspired as she graciously accepted the cookies and came out for a visit.  

          She told us about a friend of hers who had recently lost her dog.  She couldn’t remember the address but described it to us and we knew exactly what house she was talking about.  We returned home so that Jenna could sign into one of her classes and I put another box together. After Jenna continued with her schooling and finished her two projects, we took Bonnie on another walk and found the house of the friend.  We presented the cookies and told her who had send us and were sorry for her loss.  We continued to walk around the neighborhood and then returned home.

          For today’s light the world, we took Bonnie to the park specifically so that Jenna could walk up to Good Dogs to purchase some treats for Bonnie as well as herself.  She took this picture with my phone but I don’t see that she’s posted it.

 

In addition to "Light the World" we have also added ornaments to our wreath each day.  The wreathe is the same as from last year but smaller "ornaments" that still don't really fit in with the holiday theme - not most of them anyway.  I am not doing a day by day record of it like I did last year.  I took this picture today.

Christmas in late April

 
          I was sitting on the couch in our front room when I heard a knock on our back door.  What the hey?  Nobody has ever used our backdoor since we’ve lived here.  I went to the backdoor.  I didn’t see anyone.  And so I opened the front door.  I saw a UPS truck.  How odd. I didn’t think we had ordered anything.  I stuck my head out the door.  The UPS man saw me and said he had left the package on the back porch.  Okay.  We’ve never had that before either.
           
            I went to the porch to find a rather large box.  At first, I couldn’t see who it was for or from. It does not help matters that one of the last NCIS shows I have watched was about a messed up individual who sought revenge on others by mailing bombs in packages.  I finally see the return name.  It belongs to Roland’s manager. Okay.  Still wondered why it was so big. I found Roland’s name on the package and left it in his office as he was not there to open it.  He and Jenna were in Roseburg.

            When they returned, I told him about the package.  A sympathy basket sent from his work as he had asked to get time off to attend his sister’s funeral.  We ended up not going.  There are no direct flights from Oregon to Puerto Rico.  We (or he) would have had to travel the country taking a tour of airports across the nation before he could get to Puerto Rico. Anywhere from 17 – 25 hours just one way.  Too much of a gamble.  Especially when the funeral turned into “just a viewing and then a cremation”. 

 

            The gift basket was a handsome size in appearance.  None of us have gourmet taste buds.  It’s the thought that counts, right?  We appreciated the thought.  For family home evening we had a taste fest.  Roland presented Jenna with a small package of Carousel Chocolate creamy caramels.  They reminded me of the tootsie rolls candies.  The Carousels were softer than tootsie.  Jenna liked that.  The texture was okay, but I prefer the tootsie roll taste.

 

            At the same time he gave Jenna the candy, he handed me a package marked Ghirardelli Chocolate Chip Cookies. I love Ghirardelli – always have.  The cookie itself reminded me of Nabisco Chip’s Ahoy.  Overall I prefer the Chips Ahoy.  He’d seen the word “chocolate”  - I don’t know what specifically he was after.  He tried one called  Lille Chocolate Cookie Thins. He compared them to flat one-sided Oreos.  We prefer Oreos. 

 

There were also some chocolate flavored quadrotti cookies and Monica’s Brownie cookies.  It reminded us of assorted cookies that come in tins at Christmas time.  

There were Cracked Peppercorn Crackers which reminded me of tiny crip flour tortillas. 

Lots of spreads including hummus (which we didn’t open as none of us are humus fans), Sonoma Jacks Garlic & Herb Cheese Wedges which Roland had passed out to eat on their own.  The garlic was strong.  I took the cheese knife (which was included in the basket) and spread it on some crackers.  Roland said the Daniele Friuli Brand Sopressata Salame would need to be refrigerated but he and Jenna would probably eat it all before it even made it to the kitchen.  I noticed this morning that it hadn’t even been opened.

There was a hot honey mix.  They weren’t kidding.  So spicy the honey could barely be tasted. Veggie Sticks put out by the Daily Crave, two fruit delights from Liberty Orchard.  Roland cut them so we could all taste the soft candy chew with the powdered sugar.  The package had said blueberry and almond.  I thought they were good but failed to recognize what I was tasting.  

top container with hot honey mix, bottom shows cookie variety

Our favorite cookie overall was coconut flavored. She didn’t seem impressed with the Zebra Popcorn which tasted like caramel corn married a candy bar.  It was overly sweet, but I liked it.  I finished it this morning.

 

There was a Napa Valley Stone Grain Mustard which I added only a tiny bit to my potato salad that I had made on Sunday.  It gave it a nice kick.  Set the onion dip mix aside.  Will try to find a new home for the hummus, coffee, and black and green olive medley.

Gift baskets are expensive.  It’s mostly packaging, too.  For inside of each box was a pouch about half the size which contained the final product.  We managed to pile all the cookies into a lidded container.  I put the hot honey mix in a smaller container.  But if we had dumped all the open contents into just one container, it would have been the size of a small to medium mixing bowl.

 

Thank you for those who work with Roland for keeping us in your thoughts.  The taste testing was fun.