Beneath the Wraps

             We always have opportunities to serve no matter where we live – there is community service, charity organizations, shelters, Red Cross . . . the list goes on.   When I lived in Salt Lake I would put in hours of service in various church projects such as the pasta plant, the dairy, the bishops storehouse, the cannery and Deseret Industries (2 nd hand thrift store) to name a few.   I lived within minutes of those buildings.   In Oregon we are located one and a half hours south of the nearest storehouse and one and a half hours north of the pear farm which I have mentioned in a few of my posts.           When I was attending church in my son’s ward in Utah there was an announcement made for volunteers to clean the Jordan River Temple which I have learned is the busiest temple in the world.   I felt impressed to volunteer if I could and offered my services.   I had assist...

 Clean Shower I suspect cleaner than we moved in Clair did an excellent job Biff cleaned the tops of the washer and dryer He organized the cupboards and cleaned the kitchen sink He makes the best quesadillas He gives Bonnie baths  and combs her down

              On Friday we took Jaime to Ashland and left her there at the college. That was the day of Richard and my 21 st wedding anniversary. Initially I thought we would stay in either Ashland or Medford overnight and go to the temple yesterday morning.                                         Plans changed. When we returned we started a deep cleaning of her room and the office which are now become my oldest son and his wife ’ s room and my grand-daughters room.   So much work!   Not the ideal way I wanted to spend my anniversary. It may be a while before I can post again.

             After Roland and I were married, I remember having cleaned the church at least once a month.  Families were supposed to sign up to clean on Saturday – hopefully at least two families per Saturday.  But I remember many a times being the only family.             Jenna doesn’t remember cleaning the church in Kearns but remembers in West Valley when we did it by organization.   We’d gone from cleaning the church once a month to often two or three times a month.   We would all be there whether it was the primary’s turn, Relief Society or Bishopric.   And that particular building was a huge building housing three wards that could overlap – which meant one ward could hold Sunday School, Primary and so forth meetings while another ward was in sacrament meeting.               The building in Myrtle Creek is...

            I had quite a full agenda yesterday.   After the sun rose, I drove to Riddle as Jenna had a dentist appointment.   On our return, I stopped at Dollar General for just a few items to add to her lunch and then I took her to school.             I meant to turn in my assignment before my assessment, but I somehow had allowed myself to become frazzled and instead of submitting the assignment I clicked my assessment and started the quiz.               Once the quiz starts, there is no turning back, there are no retakes.   Most tests are timed. I had less than two hours.   And though it is open book, the e-book appears on just one third of the screen and I have to control plus each page I am on in order to view something bigger.   As I had explained in my last post, it is very time consuming.   And while...

         Roland had come home early on Wednesday.   He probably shouldn’t have even gone in.   He slept most of the day.   He needed to.          I took Jenna to the library for the afternoon countdown.   I have been to the library on December 31 st before.   But the last day of 2014 was different.   The library was overly quiet – except for children in the library.          It wasn’t crowded.   Less crowded than I have seen the WV library – EVER. Roland had told us to leave early in order to get a good parking spot.   I honestly don’t think it would have mattered what time we left.   The turn-out wasn’t as good as it had been the last time we had gone for the New Year/afternoon countdown. Jenna decorated a hat and asked me to finish her noise maker while she went to participate in games.   I wishe...

We got a new furnace and thermostat – which we haven’t totally figured out.   It was really cold yesterday morning.   Not a big problem for Jenna and me, but Roland needed warmer.   So he made a few adjustments and the air blasted and continued after he left. I put my hair into pigtails to keep it off my neck.   I keep it up during the summer because it is so thick and weighs like a fleece blanket in addition to the already blasting sun.   When Jenna and I left the house, my hair was still in pigtails.   I have worn it down when the morning air’s been cold.   But I didn’t bother taking the bands out of my hair, but secured my hat around them.   It was amazing how warm my ears felt.   I may just continue to do that. In addition to a new furnace, some new appliances were added to our house.   As we made room for all our new material things, items were moved, furniture rearranged and it looks like a tornado blew into ou...

I have actually used baking soda as a cleaner, a medicine, a laundry booster, and perhaps a third of the suggestions listed here  and here  but my absolute favorite miracle (which I did not see listed) is that in addition to grease spots and stubborn stains, it also works on scorch marks and burns. In the past, when I have burned a pot beyond recognition (usually my fire is too high) I have just thrown it away.  But the other day, I was boiling some water on high.  I excused myself to visit the bathroom and just forgot to come back.  I wish I would have done before and after pictures.  It was so truly amazing that I was able to save a pan that had been on the expensive side. I was steaming corn – which by the way turned out really succulent and tasted great – when I realized that I had forgotten to turn it down.  The bottom of my pan glowed red along with the burner.  I thought that the fire had burnt a hole through the pan and tha...

I think I must post about cleaning the church at least once every four months.   I don’t mind cleaning the church building.   I really don’t.   There have just been some weeks in which I have been appalled over the tremendous amount of litter that is left behind. How can people be so careless and not take any consideration that they are in God’s house?          Today I put myself in charge of vacuuming the chapel – which is what Bro. McDobb had done every Saturday morning in which our ward had been assigned to clean the building.   Roland joked that he wouldn’t have been surprised to find him there this morning – even though he moved out of our ward over two weeks ago.          Programs had been left on several pews.   I get it.   I’m sure I am guilty of that as well – though I have tried to make a conscience effort to check the pew before I leave. ...

Biff has always kept his body in great shape inside and out.   I wish I could say the same for his room.   I don’t have a picture of how it looked before I started cleaning.     These pictures truly represent half-way done.    Anyone who has been in Biff’s room can tell you that this is the cleanest it has looked from the day we moved in. Actually it was clean one other time.   I took a picture for evidence.   But somehow I have misplaced that evidence.   Doesn’t matter.   I told Jenna that when David moved out, she could move into his room.   Not that her room looks any better I had eight garbage bags FULL of Biff’s stuff (clothes mostly) I think three or four full of garbage.     And four loads of towels.   FOUR LOADS.   This is a fraction of what I washed         Jenna’s room was fine when we moved in four and a half ye...

     When Roland and I lived in Kearns, we spent time volunteering at the pasta plant.   We once purchased a very large order while there.   A mammoth order actually – which was good, because it carried us through several years of hardship.      I think it was just right after Christmas when we passed out the remaining pasta to our boys.   Within a week I found a huge box of food had been left at our door step.   No note.   No hint of who may have left it. I didn’t know if the church was taking up a collection and Roland had given our address as a drop off – but it was on Sunday when I found it – meaning whoever dropped it off was a lot faster getting home from church than we were.   It was odd.   And so I actually started taking things out to sort them into groups.      It was an odd assortment really.   Bags of pasta.   A variety of canned goods.   A box...

         Each ward has a different cleaning schedule for the building in which church meetings are attended. The church was across the street from the first house in which we lived.   Two wards met in the building.   The two wards would trade off with the cleaning the building and the upkeep of the grounds (namely shoveling snow)   A list was passed around to the members of our ward to sign up for various weeks.   It felt like our family was involved with cleaning the church 4 – 8 times during the year. There are three wards which meet in the building which we currently attend. When we first moved into the ward we were told that each ward was assigned to clean four months out of the year.   The months were consecutive and not spread out.   Our ward would be cleaning the building each Saturday for the last four months.   I personally thought they should be spreading them out, but whatever. In ...