Week of February 28 - March 6, 2021

Highlights:

Spiritual

Sunday was very nice. We enjoyed a lovely piano solo by another one of our young women and a great talk by the former Young Women's president. I was able to attend a virtual Relief Society lesson which was very good as well. I spent a lot of time studying Come Follow Me and learning more about church history. The missionaries stopped by for a visit later that evening. 

Temples remain closed for proxy work. 

My daily foundation continues as I listen to General Conference, study the Book of Mormon and Come Follow Me, and pray. 

I have indexed 3401 records and reviewed 26,382 records so far this year. 

Family

The Wilkins Family

The Wilkins family had another busy week. Sunday was good: church and naps. Saturdays are full of grocery shopping and cleaning. Allison has been working on their daily scripture teaching and using object lessons. It has been a great chance for learning. I loved her use of M&Ms and comparing it to Martin Harris and his great sacrifice for Heavenly Father. She has been working at the temple and indexing for work. Mike's work is going well. He continues to apply for jobs. They are working this week on trimming and hauling oleanders, renting some equipment, and a truck from Home Depot. 

Adam is looking forward to at least seeing some school friends as he starts his in-person school the same day as Grace and on the same type of schedule, though he doesn't ride the bus. He composed a song for his music tech class. He continues working out at the gym with his friend daily. His knee has healed so well from his 17th birthday surgery. He enjoys driving and is doing well. Grace went out with the missionaries on Saturday. She assisted the missionaries in teaching a 15-year-old girl about the church. She was told last Wednesday she could return to school starting March 22nd two days a week. They can go half-day and attend two of their classes. Then they return home on a bus to see their last two classes online. The arrangement is kind of odd and the length of classes, there is not to be any talking between classes and lunches will be handed out as they get on the bus to eat at home. 

Teachers teach to a computer screen behind plexiglass, so even in person, it will be remote and non-contact. Young Women played volleyball this week, and later the young men joined in. Josh starts soccer officially this week and will have two practices a week. He rode his bike this week and is continuing to work on a bow and arrows at Young Men. Sam is going to try a rec center basketball or swimming class. 

Sam is losing teeth like crazy. He even lost one at school this week, achieving the illustrious lost tooth necklace from his teacher. This is one honor that none of our kids ever achieved though they all wanted it badly. 

The Ethan Rice Family

Ethan headed again to Pennsylvania on Monday. His landing was a little precarious, with a first attempt being aborted. He had a cold but productive week and returned Thursday. Cameo was super busy this week with Kaylee's full week back of in person school with special days for Read Across America Week.

Wade also had his very first tball practice. 

The Doran Rice Family

This family had a good week and learned the kids will return to in person learning on March 15th. Kooper plays HARD...and it showed in a pretty rough scooter accident. 

Morgan

Morgan is doing well, though there were some employment (or rather unemployment) struggles this week. 

Kayty

Kayty had a good full week back at work, and had quiet evenings. 

The Nathan Rice Family

Big busy week for Nathan, Jessica and family. Soccer practice continued for Annie and her first game was on Saturday. Annie and Emma came and played here on Friday night while Ellie enjoyed a special sleep over at Grammy Lorrie's house. The girls enjoyed playing at home and Nathan worked on a huge project at work, often with only a few hours of sleep. He helped a ward friend pour concrete on Saturday morning. Their garden is doing well. 

Dad's Garden

Dad harvested collard greens, snow peas and spinach this week. The tomatoes continue to grow but are not red yet. 

Family History
More photos from my Father, William Allan Kew as he shipped to Italy. 

Other highlights

Rush Limbaugh was my staple driving buddy for many years. Most of my kids remember hearing him on the way to school. He died last week after a short but valiant battle with lung cancer. On his show this week, his wife, Kathryn, shared the details of his funeral. I wanted to share this here for me to remember. I didn't worship Rush. I agreed with most...but not all. But I always could get reason and moderation from him. Mental Peace. So, I share the details of his funeral, for my own benefit. 

TODD: Now, Rush in private. Rush always wanted to share everything about his life, and today Kathryn has shared something incredibly personal and beautiful with us. This is a short conversation between Rush and Kathryn about the plans for Rush’s funeral.

KATHRYN: So I am walking with Rush and explaining to him his event, and I told him all he has to do is show up, which I’ve also arranged. (laughing)

RUSH: (chuckles) Yeah, and it is an event, and it’s awesome! I mean, I hope you get invited to it.

KATHRYN: (chuckles) Yeah.

RUSH: I mean, what she just described to me is incredible. Sorry I’m gonna miss it. But —

KATHRYN: (laughing) You’re gonna have a front-row seat.

RUSH: But I’ve just said to her, “I can’t believe it. It’s so cool!”

KATHRYN: Yeah.

RUSH: I can’t believe I’m sitting here talking to her about my funeral.

KATHRYN: But we decided that we would be open and direct on it so that we can plan it very beautifully, and I told Rush that he is just shy of a president, and presidents get this kind of treatment; so he deserves that.

RUSH: So that’s a little heads-up on what’s coming.

KATHRYN: It’s gonna be beautiful. Be there or be square. Rush, don’t be late.

RUSH: That’s up to you.

TODD: (laughing) That’s a husband and wife in an incredible moment. Did you hear our Rush with dignity and humor and even excitement? Kathryn Limbaugh joins us for your phone calls next on the EIB Network.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

TODD: It’s an incredible honor now to welcome Rush’s beloved wife, Kathryn, to Rush’s show. Kathryn, that was an extraordinary gift you gave us of that audio clip of you and your husband speaking, and I speak for millions of listeners when I say thank you.

KATHRYN: Oh, you’re absolutely welcome. It’s great to be here with you again.

TODD: I just want to ask off the bat, how are you faring?

KATHRYN: You know, I’m doing okay. Of course, it’s a very difficult time. But I really, truly feel we are all going through this process together, and it’s very much a process. And I think it helps us to all be together and grieve in a sense and keep our Rush with us in that way.

TODD: You know, there are just millions of people listening to this who have grown up as I did with your husband, Kathryn, and I’ve seen the pictures that are gonna be at RushLimbaugh.com of what you called “the event” in this clip of Rush with this optimism even at that point.

KATHRYN: Yes.

TODD: And it looks like an incredible event. So can you talk us through this funeral for your husband.

KATHRYN: Absolutely. So that conversation happened last year in about October. And we were walking around our house and just talking briefly about his upcoming “event.” (chuckling) We use the word “event” because that was a little bit more (chuckling) fun than the other. But, yes, we did plan this through all of last year knowing that at some point the day would come.

Obviously it came a lot sooner than we would have hoped and liked, but we did have a plan in place. The only problem was we had hoped to invite a lot of Rush’s friends, a lot of colleagues, and a lot of the listening audience. But due to COVID, we couldn’t do that.

So it could only be an extremely limited number of immediate family, which is why I wanted to share a bit with you now so that you could all feel as though you were a part of it some way. So, yes, in that clip, you heard Rush laughing about his upcoming event (chuckles), and it went exactly as he thought it would and had heard about.

I obviously left out a few key details that he didn’t really need to know, but he knew the majority, and he was very, actually, excited. So that can give you some comfort. But Rush was buried last Wednesday in St. Louis, Missouri, at a wonderful cemetery called Bellefontaine — it could also be pronounced “Bell Fountain” — a cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri.

It was an absolutely gorgeous day, slightly chilly, but nothing like the snow that Missouri had had a few days prior. The sun was shining brightly and the really crisp air, and this cemetery is very historic. It has a lot of historic figures such as William Clark of Lewis and Clark expedition and others.

And just to picture it, it might remind you a bit of Arlington or other historic cemeteries around the world, with winding hills and pathways and big trees that are bare right now but in the upcoming months they will be full and green and very lovely to walk around. But as I said in that clip, I’ve always said Rush is just shy of a president, in my opinion.

And we did a funeral that was very worthy of him. So we concentrated a lot on tradition and ceremony at every turn. From the moment that he left the house here in Palm Beach, there was a procession escorting Rush to the transport plane that would take him to St. Louis, and then when we arrived in St. Louis, there was a procession leading to the cemetery.

So he was never left alone in any aspect of this, and then once we got to the cemetery there was a horse-drawn carriage waiting for him, and it was simply stunning. There will be some pictures for you to see, but you could hear the clacking of the horse hooves as we walked through the cemetery following behind Rush. You could hear the singing of the birds.

It was very peaceful, very beautiful. And we followed behind the horse-drawn carriage until we reached the chapel. And when we reached the chapel, we had a small service in the chapel which is located in the cemetery. Rush was escorted into the chapel to his favorite version of The Battle Hymn of the Republic.

And you can picture hearing that song and seeing the American flag draped over Rush at the front of the chapel. It was perfectly fitting and absolutely beautiful. And then once we had a small ceremony there within the chapel, we followed behind Rush again in the carriage leading down towards the burial site.

And it was just stunning, if you can imagine, looking forward through a winding road to see this beautiful carriage with Rush in it and then flags around his gravesite. So as we approached the gravesite you could see these powerful American flags waving in the wind and the sun was shining directly on that spot.

It couldn’t have been more fitting.

So Rush was escorted to his final resting place. We prayed around Rush, and we also played some of his favorite music, such as America the Beautiful by Ray Charles, and also a musical version of the Irish Blessing, which we knew Rush loved. So it was absolutely stunning with a beautiful oak tree overhead, the sun shining directly on Rush. Very patriotic and very worthy of him.

Not so highlights