A Little More Nature and our 2016 Oregon Calendar

My sister has been posting landscape pics to facebook.  The rule is the landscape has to be a place where she's been but cannot be in the picture.  I posted these exciting pics of my yard in this post.  Here are a couple more:  

Roland got rid of the bush

Roland chopped dead trees and I started a pile

This is in millsite.  

millsite

Jenna in photo on millsite path

spring is in bloom

I doubt I would make a calendar of my backyard photos as it was suggested.  But here are some that I had collected our first year here and made into a calendar as gifts to send to the family.  My daughter-in-law Jeanie had been upset with me because it wasn't a family calendar which would of included the boys, their wives, and babies.  No, it wasn't.  It was a calendar of Oregon.

cover

August 2015

April 5, 2015

September 2015

Before we had moved to Tri City 

April 4, 2015

Easter Sunday 2015

July 2015

August 2015

August 19, 2015

Myrtle Creek October 2015

October 2015

April 5, 2015

Here's Hoping

          The world is different now and will continue – I would hope for the better.  Afterall we are all going through the same thing together – but apart.  Some people are using their time wisely and even grateful for the time of solitude.  Others are going stir crazy and blaming anybody who remotely looks Asian for the pandemic.  Really?  Did history Not teach you anything?  American citizens who might have ancestors who lived in China or Japan or wherever.  American citizens who have never known life other than America but because of their skin type are sent away to “camps” for the safety of “real” Americans.  That very thought makes my blood boil.  How dare we cast blame to an entire population who had as much control over the decisions of leadership they may not even be related to.  And even if they are related, so what?  If I learned that I was related to Hitler or Atilla the Hun, their decisions would have obviously had no influence whatsoever from me.

          Just so everybody in Canada and all other parts of the world (United States included) I did NOT vote for Trump.  The guy is definitely NOT eloquent with words (see here). The guy’s an idiot – offending Canadian citizens the way he did.  The media claimed he announced that US would Not be sharing medical supplies such as facial masks with our neighboring country.  I hope the citizens of Canada realize that Trump does not represent all Americans.  I know a couple of people who admit to being Trump followers, but almost everyone I have talked to mirrors the same expression that he is the worse president that the United States has ever had.  He comes across as very childish and totally lacks compassion.

          New York has more Covid cases than any other place on earth from my understanding (again, who knows what to believe?) and are OUT of supplies.  It may be that US would like to share their supplies but don’t have supplies to share. 

          My grandson was born in upper state New York.  It doesn’t appear that there were any complications.  Mom and baby seem to be doing fine.  I think my son is bored.  He still drives to work but will be working from home online.  Lots of work and schooling online.  US internet is not near as fast as other countries.  I always wonder how long we’ll last before we freeze or before the power goes out.  When everybody finally does stay at home and there is no one out to fix whatever goes wrong.

          We had picked out new flooring for the bathrooms.  Roland was worried about having toilets uninstalled at not reinstalled.  We cancelled due to cornavirus.  I’m grateful for the things that we do have.  New flooring would be nice but so unnecessary at this time.

5 Sessions of Conference

Before the Conference Center was built in Salt Lake City, Utah, the conferences were held at the Tabernacle Center on Temple Square.  There was a running joke among the members that we would have rain that weekend because for a long time that is just the way it was.  We could have nice sunny days but each first weekend in October and April we would have rain.

I don’t know what the weather was like in Salt Lake this year, but it rained in Oregon.  Not that it mattered.  We’re stuck inside.  Well, Jenna and I did go for a walk around the neighborhood.  The only people that we saw were drivers and passengers of a few cars that had passed us.  It wasn’t a long walk.  I prefer walking in Millsite than our hilly neighborhood.  I am so out of shape.

This year conference was not broadcast from the conference center, but rather an offshoot room in the tabernacle – at least that was my understanding.  Perhaps it was the main room – though I did not notice the organ in the background.  But I didn’t realize there’d be another room large enough to maintain social distancing.

Conference was good.  It certainly had a different feel to it as there was no live audience.  I enjoyed the last session last night as well as today.  I think most of my favorite talks were from this Sunday afternoon session. 

no people milling around.  Very unusual

We started another puzzle.  More about that for a future post.

Keeping Busy

I made a dishcloth and a hat

I gave the hat to Jenna for her birthday

We started a puzzle last week

shadows indicate our 

social distancing

should be finished today

Memorable Sweet Sixteen

                                                                                                                                                            Today is Jenna’s birthday.  I heard her in the kitchen just after 4:00 a.m.  I happened to get up because of a leg cramp.  I grabbed her gift and went into the front room and talked to her for a bit before I asked to turn on the TV.  I figured Psych would be on and she loves Psych.

I went into the kitchen to fix her most favorite breakfast in the world.  I gave her three French toast and I had two and gave the remaining one to Roland along with a scrambled egg.  She went online for her virtual seminary class and they played a game of “knowing Jenna” in addition to her seminary class.  Jenna also learned that her seminary teacher left a goody outside the door for her.

At 10:30 we left the house to go to the park.  We saw two school buses with at least one passenger each.  

Were the bus drivers not told there would be no school?  And why that time of day?  What gives? I vaguely remember the announcement about bus delivering lunches.  Still 10:30 seems like an odd time.

I took my walking stick to hold up to safely distance ourselves from others.  Jenna thought it would be funny if each one of us were to hold an end and walk around the park with the stick between us. 

That is how we celebrated her birthday thus far. 

I think the pizza we cooked is now done. 

Definitely not even close to what she had planned.

If You Are in the Service of Your Fellow Beings . . .

          As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, Jenna received an envelope with some activities.  One of the suggestions was to make energy bites – which really didn’t turn out to be as wonderful as had hoped.  But I wasn’t watching to see Jenna measure all things.  I don’t think there was as much peanut butter and honey as the recipe called for as it was really too dry to mold.  We spooned into our mouths like a cereal.  It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either.  It seemed sweet enough.  We both got the impression that I enjoyed the taste more than she.

          Last night I suggested that we add flour to the mixture.  I added flour and eggs and should have added some sugar or more honey as well, but did not.  The mix came out more like drop biscuits or definite unsweetened cookies.  Roland and I did not care for them, but I noticed that Jenna had been munching on them all day.  She somehow liked it better than the previous day.  Okay.  That’s fine, I guess.

          Jenna had suggested I print coloring pages and we could color together.  I said we could do so after my meeting, but seemed to forget about the coloring pages and so did not follow through.  In our meeting we had discussed ways to serve the sisters and feeling helpless with the “no showing-up-at-doors” rule that seems to be in place.  It had been suggested to leave cards or games or something – especially to those that live alone.  But then how would they respond to touching something that has previously been touched?

 The YW counselor who’d sent Jenna (and others) her activities continued and hand delivered larger envelopes and activities for Conference. Jenna was so excited to discover a brand new set of twistable crayons and more coloring pages.  Wow.  How awesome was that.

Currently she is at her first virtual seminary class.  The instructor has sent a schedule of what is expected each day and will do two virtual classes a week.  The next one will be on Friday - which just so happens to be Jenna's birthday.

Thank you to those who go the extra mile and still take precautions.  It is such a weird time on our planet right now.  Overwhelming statistics.  I am floored.  Still grateful for many things that we do have to get us through these bizarre times.

Virtual Correspondence and Mail

            Jenna took the college placement test – more for practice than for placement.  But ever since she has been receiving brochures from different colleges and is a bit fed up with the amount of mail she’s been getting.  Yesterday she received a piece of mail that wasn’t college related and thus felt very excited about it.

            One of the YW leaders had contacted us by phone, and another had sent the mail which contained a brief note, a word search puzzle, a recipe for something called tail mix bites and a coloring page.

            Jenna handed me the word search while she worked on the coloring page.  It was quite a challenging puzzle with 900 letters.  Who does that?

            Most puzzles are less than 250 letters.  I never did find the word TRUTH even though it appears I had crossed it out.

            Jenna made the mix using measurements – though I don’t hink precise.  The misture was supposed to stick together but is definitely too dry for that.  Jenna and I had some by the spoonful.  However we plan to add an egg and some flour to it tomorrow and make cookies with what’s left.  That will be interesting.

            Today I have a virtual meeting with the RS presidency.  We have had one before.  Two of us were able to sign on, the other two had problems.  I think it will be the same today.

            Jenna has listened to a couple of AP lectures and will have her first virtual seminary class tomorrow.

Great Great Great Grandpa's Journal

          Yesterday morning I took a shower and then got dressed for church – although I knew I wouldn’t be leaving the house. I wanted our Sunday to be a lot more spiritual than it was.  Both Jenna and I had listened to different “Come Follow Me” programs – but from different rooms.  Roland was watching cowboys or some movie or something not spiritually themed.

          Roland got on Jenna’s case about something which triggered thoughts of my youth and how my mom had always been getting on Corey’s case about something – every Sunday.  I would stay in my room until if was time to go.  I hated Sundays.

          I attempted a “testimony-online” and though I had received some likes (which is truly not what I was after) only one other sister had joined me for written testimony.  Later, in the afternoon, when I had signed back into facebook, I found a post from my cousin who shared with us a journal he had found. 

          I could not read it myself.  Nevermind that my left eye had been bothering me all day (allergies) but the blurred scan was hard to read.  On top of that were a bunch of names that Jenna was not familiar with, and she is the one I gave the laptop to so that she could read as Roland and I were working on a puzzle.  She read 10 of 57 pages although struggled through and butchered most of what she read.  Roland continued with reading two more pages.

          I felt the Spirit – not so much in his words but with the fact that I knew that both of my brothers were reading the same journal at the same time that I was.  I thought that was cool and really enjoyed reading Corey’s comments because of the excitement he felt at this new discovery.

Traveling Through Time

20 years ago I was still living with my mom in Midvale.  I was serving as the young women’s secretary in my ward.  The following year I had signed a contract to purchase a house.  We moved Roland and the boys in on March 17 – which happens to be my brother’s birthday.  Patrick had helped us to move in.  I remember painting rocks and Patrick’s youngest daughter thinking Roland was a funny man.

Three years later I was pregnant with Jenna.  The ward had thrown a baby shower on March 27 – my other brother’s birthday.  Jenna was born the following week. 

5 years ago I had started packing to take a trip to Oregon during spring break.  We started looking at houses (see here).  We moved into a rental.  Less than a year later we closed on a house in Tri City.  Three years ago today, Jenna and I took pictures as we visited downtown Myrtle Creek in this post.

Last year I was still in school.  I had just started a communications class.  I was also subbing for an instructional aide at the elementary school.  I had used my experiences at the elementary school to assist with the subjects of my assignments (here).

Last month I dropped Jenna off at the bake sale on our way home from church.  She was helping the choir to raise money for a trip they would like to make to San Francisco (here). 

And then there’s this month – which seemed to start out normal enough.  And then everything changed.

Last week I sent a facebook message to my cousin wishing her a happy birthday – one of many that will be celebrated in a far different way than imagined (if at all)

Several birthdays spent in solitaire.  Today I have joined my prayers with so many others in a worldwide fast.  Last week felt like the longest spring break that I can ever remember.

Nature Around the House

Today I took a walk - not to Millsite.  Not up the street.  The only place I walked was around the house.  My walk in nature (LOL) .  It's a pretty pathetic post folks.  But then so is our yard.

backyard near the shed

the back side of our house

the hill (not much of a yard)

this snowball bush has definitely seen better days

looks like the remains of a campground firepit

where we had our greenhouse before the
snow storm ruined it last year

taken May 2017

I don't know why these remainders haven't made
it to the garbage can.  I'm certain it's rotted now

shelves could still be useful

grass has gotten high and needs to be mowed

trench - or part of it
https://beneaththewraps.blogspot.com/2019/08/changing-yard.html

reminder of the pepper plants?  

find it interesting what fall lies beneath; for
the most part it does feel like autumn

decayed trees lying on the ground

it does get green this time of year

vines that gave us pumpkins; their very existence
was quite by accident - at least on our part

other side of shed (as opposed to top picture)

view from driveway

another fall/autumn leaf beneath the spring clover

I usually remove the dead flowers in November.
I missed doing that in 2019

This is what it normally looks like  in spring

and then we get blossoms

This is how our rosebush looks currently

this is how it looks during the summer

with two shades of yellow

This is the neighborhood cat.  We call him/her Salem

symbolic of hibernating due to Covid-19