Bird Nest found… mystery still unsolved
I came across the original bird nest that had been carried off in the middle of the night. It was in our very front corner flower bed. Now… where is the new nest being built?
the mystery of the robin’s nest
Once upon a time in 2012, we discovered a bird’s nest on the top of our brick column. One day in June, the wind blew it down. There were some shell remnants, but no birds.
I love this nest. I decided to keep it on my front porch by our no soliciting sign and by our heart rock from Patti. It was a cheerful greeting for me at the front door.
Last week we noticed 2 robins busily gathering grass from the back yard. One was rather plump. Joy… a new family building their home somewhere nearby. I noticed a few lovely droppings on my rock in the nest and slowly, day after day, more pieces of grass disappeared from the nest on the porch. One morning we discovered the softest parts of the nest were gone and many were knocked to the ground below.
This morning, I was outside and was telling Jimmy the tale of the nest and I beheld that it was missing. What! I can’t imagine that any person would take it. But I really do believe that those mama & papa robin’s somehow wrestled the rock out of the nest and picked it apart for their new home. Now, that is recycling. I will miss our nest. I do wish I knew where the new nest was so we could peek in and see some new baby birds. sigh…
Perhaps someday the mystery will be solved.
Creating a Family Emergency Plan
A few months ago I received a daunting letter in the mail asking me to be in charge of a Sharing Booth for BYU Women’s Conference. I had no idea what a sharing booth was. Now I do, folks.
I asked 2 friends, Sara Olsen & Wendy Rencher, to be my teammates. And we set out to do our research on our topic, Creating a Family Emergency Plan. Yes, it was a lot of work… like hundreds of hours worth when all was said and done.
All three of us were so grateful for the opportunity.
It was fun.
We helped our families become greater prepared.
Greater peace of mind for me… yep, I’ll take that… thank you.
{p.s. don’t ever stay up till 11 pm working on emergency preparedness stuff… you’ll dream about disasters all . night . long … for days. aaaak! }
We had $0 budget so any funds so we were careful how much we spent on frilly decorations. We did spend $ on the stuff we needed for the kits we put together. But that was all going towards our family prep that we wanted to do anyways. Most of it I already had in the house and it just needed assembling. And then I only had to pay for the few prints/poster. Sara donated the cute chevron table runners. I had been wanting to make a banner to have at home for birthdays, etc. {that was a fun project by the way… I was so glad I did it, though it was very last minute}
We had 5 sections.
1. Emergency Binder… so great. Seriously. Everyone needs one of these. Helpful for every day stuff and definitely for emergencies. We created a handout to be shared online by Women’s Conference. It has oodles of checklists for 72-hour kits, car kit, emergency bin, grab-n-go. Love that cute binder of info.
2. 72-hour kits. I put together an Adult kit. Sara did the teen. Wendy did one for a child. Just to kinda show some ideas. We all did food and water differently so that was interesting.
3. Grab-n-go Lists. Wow. New idea to me. What would I need if we had 5 minutes to evacuate. 30 minutes? We got a nice little list together and now my family needs to practice it to see how realistic it is. When we leave for errands, it seems it takes me 30 minutes just to get 3 littles in the car… and somehow I think we can do it in 5… with a bunch of other important stuff.
4. Disaster Bin & Car Kit. Ummm, why haven’t I had a car kit before now? Best idea ever. It will come in so handy.
5. Educate. We created 2 FHE’s. 1 for Spiritual Preparation. 2 for Temporal Preparation. They are more like resources to be used for many lessons. I loved putting mine together.
In the end… I finally got my 72-hour kits updated. I switched how I thought about food. I decided to put it all together in bins (my friend uses rolling duffle bags which I like). It is stored in the house. Our 72-hour kits are hanging in the garage and I didn’t want the heat to ruin the food. I plan to have the almost expiring food be snacks for general conference. We’ll see how that goes.
Oh – so Thursday was THE DAY! We got to BYU and set up around 10 a.m. We had a lunch (go BYU Brownies!). From 12-3 and from 5-8 we answered questions and chatted with people who came around. It was a good experience.
I’m so grateful for Sara & Wendy. They were optimistic and cheerful. Love those good gals.
It was fun to get to see so many gals from the 3rd ward that we knew years ago who were also doing booths. I ran into a few long-lost acquaintances which brought back some fond memories. I’m grateful for the opportunity to do this booth. I’m also grateful the pressure is off and it’s done.
Back to normal life… whatever that is.
cloud love
blue skies.
sunshine.
clouds.
the wispiest kind of all.
need i say more.
happy spring.
popcorn popping
The flowering pear trees are so HAPPY right now. We have two of them and they thrive quite well. I look out my kitchen window and see this popcorn popping tree. Joy.
and then it snowed … in May
yep… May 1.
Snow.
On my beautiful tulips.
They haven’t quite been the same since.
But… it was the loveliest fluffiest Christmas Eve type snow.
only… in May.
Growing Green
Introducing Heather’s Color of 2013: Green.
Not because I saw a girl’s shirt that said this:
But because in winter spirits are dreadfully tired of gray and white.
Green it is…
Yeah – I wrote this in January… but am publishing it now.
And since it snowed today, I guess this can be fresh encouragement.
Another fresh new year is here . . .
Another year to live!
To banish worry, doubt, and fear,
To love and laugh and give!
This bright new year is given me
To live each day with zest . . .
To daily grow and try to be
My highest and my best!
I have the opportunity
Once more to right some wrongs,
To pray for peace, to plant a tree,
And sing more joyful songs!
~ William Arthur Ward
Mostly I feel like I need to focus on GROWing.
Growing more wise.
Growing through challenges.
Growing as a mother.
Growing in spiritual strength.
Growing healthier.
Growing despite struggle (or because of struggle).
Growing better.
Growing brighter.
Growing more joyful in optimism.
Growing in patience & LOVE.
Love Green… and growth… and all the good that comes from it … as hard as it is.
“you can do it mom!”
i believe the house is 80% quiet
we had a whopper of an evening.
we’re going on day 6 of jimmy being gone most every night and most of the days with his calling.
i would not fare well with a husband who traveled for a job.
here we are having a ‘date’ in the clerk’s office when he was set apart as stake clerk last night. Woulda been nice if I had done my hair.
my foot, i guess is healing, though it is still so sore when i walk.
the x-ray claims the pencil lead is no longer in my foot.
it’s onward and upward from here i thought.
until truman had a melt-down since it took me too long to get all 5 tots bathed & in bed.
i was outta energy and patience.
sigh…
at dinner time consisting of leftovers, raman, cooked carrots, peanut butter & crackers, and orange juice
I shook my head laying in my hands.
hannah said cheerfully, ‘you can do it mom!”
be still my soul.
she is a blessed child.
she made muffins for a bedtime snack while i bathed littles.
she swept the floor while i tried to get tru and max in bed.
she made liza’s bottle while i dealt with a tantruming tru.
while i was trying to catch my breath after getting kids in bed,
she kissed me good night with a smile.
today she opened up the new era and read the funnies with abe.
oh, they laughed.
it cheered my heart.
we loved the mormonad.
i’m totally going to plaster it on the wall.
we all need it.
the house is 100% quiet…
anyhoo… jimmy just walked in…
gotta go.
more signs of Spring
Let’s see, we’ve got swinging in sunglasses,
sliding with upside down sunglasses,
riding bikes (Tru & Max look so much alike in the helmet, huh?),
basketball (Abe & Hannah are getting quite good),
and then the real spring in Utah…
SNOW! bleh…
brrrrr… it was cold…
like wind chill 9 degrees cold…
it only temporarily dampened our spirits.
Hopefully the sun will come out again soon.
when i grow up i want to be a piano teacher
Hannah started taking piano from our good friend Wendy Rencher in the Fall of 2011. Oh, how we loved her. The recitals were fun. Great lady & teacher. Abe decided he wanted to take too and we switched them both to another neighbor, Camille Lewis… in January 2013. Abe was quite enjoying himself. He picked up on it nicely and practiced occasionally.
Well… here we are trying to save money (we have to buy a new van… amongst other things)… so I decided to teach the tots myself. When I was the R.S. President, I just didn’t mentally feel up to it. I didn’t feel like I could juggle one more thing. Not that I really can juggle any more right now, but mentally I felt up to it.
We have lessons on Sunday morning while Jimmy is home to help wrangle the other tots (although during our first lesson both Tru and Liza thought they needed to be glued to me). Abe went first. He said I was more strict that his other teacher. He cried a little because he thought a song too hard. Well… “the hard is what makes it great”… I told him. He persevered and worked through that cross-over fingering and he figured it out.
Hannah, at first didn’t want me to teach her. She knew I would expect a lot. But she realized that she needed a little pushing to excel… to be challenged. She seem pleased after her first lesson. Plus, she has practiced every single day since. She’s working toward a reward… seeing the new Percy Jackson movie (thanks Steph for the Idea).
We gave them a fun song, the lessson/traditional books, a classical piece (selected by their other teacher), and Hannah got a primary song from the Friend. I think it’s a nice balance.
We’re going to try having a recital in May.
Oh – but about the growing up part. I really enjoyed teaching my kids. I taught when I was a young adult going to Ricks. I took piano at Ricks and at BYU. And I taught a few students in Florida. I am hoping to improve my teaching skills and set up a nice system to be able to teach someday (like when I don’t have littles climbing all over me). Music is so glorious. It’s so good for kids to learn and appreciate. I love being a part of that.