Week of January 26 - February 1, 2020

Highlights:

Spiritual

Sunday was Ward Conference and we were blessed to be taught by our bishop, our stake president, and our stake relief society president in talks for both Sacrament Meeting and in a joint adult meeting. I learned so much as we went through the scriptures, and had answers to concerns I had previously had. We were given counsel to attend the temple weekly and to set aside a day and time especially if we desire to serve as temple workers someday. Dad and I had discussed this earlier and this alleviated my fears and gave me a goal to work toward. So Tuesday morning is temple day.

I did attend an endowment session in the temple on Tuesday morning and Dad attended Wednesday and Thursday nights.

I continue reading the Book of Mormon daily through both Come Follow Me daily study and then when that is complete I read where I left off last year. I also continue to listen to a General Conference Talk daily, plus I completed my February Ensign magazine reading.

I have indexed 1764 records and reviewed 14358 records so far this year.

Family

The Wilkins Family

No news from this family this week.

The Ethan Rice Family

We spoke to Ethan on FaceTime Sunday night. He has been working on bunk beds he is making and is doing a great job. They look wonderful! He got the pattern and instructions off Anna White. com. Lower bunk will be full size and upper will be single. 

The Doran Rice Family

Doran located a possible retrieval and Dad and a more experienced bee hobbyist went to attempt retrieval. It ended up that there was no queen bee, though the 200 or so bees were trying to make a queen, and she ended up suffering a traumatic crushing injury, so the bees are here in Dad's friend's hives. Doran is enjoying work and is doing well. Dad was going to stop by for a brief visit but Amber was ill so he came on home.

Morgan

Morgan spoke with Dad on Monday night while helping hang a ceiling fan at Doran's. He is doing well and getting plenty of work. He spent time Wednesday evening working with Kooper on some homework.

Kayty

Kayty was back to regular work hours this week, and then was blessed with overtime on Saturday morning. She went to see the Chicago Blackhawks play hockey on Saturday night and had a great time. 

The Nathan Rice Family

No news from this family this week. 

Dad's Garden

I picked the first snow peas this week. Dad and I continue to weed the volunteer carrots. Citrus is still plentiful. Tomato plants are doing well by my hut. Others are struggling a bit but if they make it through the cold of next week, they should be able to endure.

Family History

Dad spoke with his cousin, Harry Rhodes. He said that we were related to the Hatfield and McCoy’s.

Anna Eliza Morgan who is my great grandmother's aunt married Ephraim Hatfield. The head of the Hatfield Family

I also found out from Harry that the Rhodes left Nauvoo and went to California then to Utah where Brigham Young sent him to make friends with the Indians. They told him of a gold mine that was just filled with gold. Legend has he rode into SLC with stuffed saddlebags which gold nuggets fell out of.

Other highlights

I am enjoying the one final Christmas tree in the neighborhood still up and lit. They have it boldly in their front window and it is absolutely a joy!

I got my new planner prepped and ready for use. I had ordered it and it finally came last week. With the talk from our stake president on Sunday, I have dedicated Tuesday as Temple Tuesday. I was ready and there on time and enjoyed the dedicated time.

I visited Nano on Wednesday, payed her monthly fees and took her to get her hair trimmed, and then to the bank and by her old house. I sat and visited with her and her friends who live with her, Zelda Turley and Dorothy Bennett, and then headed grocery shopping and home.

One of my goals was to update photos around the house. My first tackle was the big collage pic in the laundry/sewing room. It was a ton of work the last time I did it, which was right after Wade was born. Different size pics, group pics, etc make it really a challenge and I had quite a paper (that I found recently) to keep it equal to everyone. As I looked at my pics, I realized I did not have sufficient good pics of everyone individually or as a group (hence the lack of a Christmas card this year), so I just took it all down and put all that I had in a special box in my closet. I got some curtains that keep the heat and cold out and it looks good. I still need to try to update pics in the hall and living room and that will be a good task to look forward to.

With a new year also came from the younger generation that I need to take time for self-care. That was not something I even thought about or had time for, but I have learned from younger women that self-care is important and strengthening, so I started Self Care Thursday and will put any projects I want to try out on that day. This week, self-care included a trip to Hobby Lobby.

Week of January 19 - 25, 2020

Highlights:

Spiritual

Sunday was great. Sacrament Meeting talks were shared by John and Wendy Berghian, who spoke about the prison ministry, addiction recovery, and temple service. Dad attended the teacher development training as part of his stake Sunday school calling and I enjoyed our lesson on Come Follow Me in Sunday School class.

Dad attended the temple to perform ordinances on Wednesday and Thursday evenings and I went Thursday morning. I am blessed with inspiration and comfort as I serve my family there.

I continue studying the Book of Mormon daily with the Come Follow Me lessons and personal reading and listening to other included talks and General Conference talks.

Family

The Wilkins Family

I spoke via Marco Polo on Sunday with Allison, Adam, Grace, Josh, and Sam. Sam is doing very well and had a great birthday! He loved being able to each cafeteria lunch with Mom and Dad. He loved his birthday gifts and had an awesome Reese's Birthday cake that Allison created. Josh is doing well and loves school and being able to participate in PE class. Grace auditioned on Saturday, January 25th for LVA and hopes to be accepted for high school.

 She is doing very well. Adam is looking great and is still working at school plus keeping up with classes. They went on a hike to Red Rock on Monday for the day off school and had a good time.

The Ethan Rice Family

We spoke with Ethan via Facetime on Sunday. They are doing well and Kaylee had attended an LOL Birthday party that day and came home with lots of great treats. Wade was zonked out...an unusual occurrence...from a very long and fun day. 

The Doran Rice Family

Doran and Amber had a good and busy week. Kelsie was busy with a school project on Saturday and Doran may have found Dad some bees to get. He will check again on Monday.

Morgan

No news from Morgan this week.

Kayty

No work Monday for Kayty and then overtime Tuesday through Friday. A quiet weekend at home taking care of her pets.

One major low this week. 

The Nathan Rice Family

No news from Nathan and family this week. 

Dad's Garden

Warmer weather brings more growth. Tomato plants are looking awesome. Citrus are still plentiful. Spinach is booming. Snow peas are near putting on peas and are covered with blossoms. Dad spends time daily getting weeds around the yard. Saturday, we both spent time getting more dead leaves with the blower and then the rake. 

Other highlights

Mom's antibiotic for an infection is causing the teary eyes (Sharynn looked up the meds to let me know what was going on). Scott and Jenny took her out to lunch on Sunday and she had a good time. We just spend lots of time on the phone with her calming and consoling her until her infection is gone. Elizabeth and I had a long conversation on Tuesday morning about mom's hallucinations, paranoia, and depression and had called the doctor to come and visit and they were visiting later that week. She seemed better each day after that and made an appointment on Saturday for me to come and take her for a haircut next Wednesday morning. 

A surprise rain on Tuesday and fog on Wednesday morning made for a great weather week.

Dad finished his final assignment (though it was dumped on him rather than being his actual assignment) for his former supervisor. He assessed, completed the report, and sent it off. The assignment actually was given by a supervisor that wanted to just get back at him for leaving the department, but he was blessed to get things done right. He is so very, very thankful for his new position and the work he does and the people he works with. 

Week of January 12 - 18, 2020

Highlights:

Spiritual

What a wonderful Sacrament Meeting we had today! We had a mission farewell for a young man who is newer to our ward. (His family recently moved into a rental home. Dad was a Phoenix Police Officer and retired after 20 years on the force, and is now completing classes to qualify to enter medical school, so the family - husband, wife and three teenagers - are renting until they move to go to med school). What a Spirit-filled meeting we had. This young man has such a strong testimony of the gospel and of the Book of Mormon, and he had the strength of both sides of the family attending our meeting. We know both sets of grandparents (one currently in our ward and one from when we first moved out here). It was so awesome to see adults with kids who we first knew as little kids.
Relief Society was also very good as we had a lesson about listening for and acting on promptings.

I attended the temple on Tuesday morning and was able to sit in the Celestial Room and ponder for a while in the quiet. Dad attended sessions at the temple on Wednesday and Thursday nights.

I completed listening to general conference talks for the fourth time through and began the fifth time through. I also started reading the February Ensign Magazine. I truly enjoyed studying the Come Follow Me lesson this week, including the Book of Mormon videos that coincide with them. When I completed the CFM reading, I continued the reading in the Book of Mormon I had started on my own.

I have indexed 1079 records and reviewed 7090 records so far this year.

Family

The Wilkins Family

Happy Birthday to Sam on Monday. This is how they celebrated, as shared by Allison...

"My sweet Sam turned 6 on Monday. I had so much fun eating lunch with him at school and seeing him with his friends. That night we had homemade pizza, opened presents and ate Reese's peanut butter cup cake (his fave treat).

Sam is so much fun. Everyone at school tells us he is the only kid to walk around with a giant smile all day long. He has so much fun with his siblings, loves playing pranks and still cuddles with me regularly. His most favorite thing is giving gifts to others... it will be hard to convince him to spend his birthday money on himself. ❤️ We all adore this guy. Happy Birthday, Sam!"

The Ethan Rice Family

Kaylee lost another tooth this week.

I will be attending her dance recital in early May, so I got plane tickets to travel there. 

The Doran Rice Family

Happy Birthday to Kooper on Monday!

They had a good week other than Kooper getting sick at the end of the week.

Morgan

No news from Morgan this week.

Kayty

Kayty had a good week at work with more overtime which gave her money to buy more black market insulin in Gilbert on Friday night until she can get into a doctor and get a prescription. She ended up working Saturday too. 

The Nathan Rice Family

Happy Birthday to Nathan on Tuesday. This family has been struggling with illness after illness so they are just staying away and hunkering down. 

Dad's Garden

Dad still gets and gives tons of oranges to anyone who wants them. Our Ruby Red Grapefruit Tree is full of grapefruit too. New Key Limes are setting as more are coming off. There will be lots of key lime juice this year if they get to full size. Snow peas are full of blossoms and it seems the tomatoes are surviving. Dad planted them the old fashioned way in a few spots around the yard. We have had such difficulty with disease that we are trying something new. There are even tomato plants by my locked up hut. 

Family History
I wanted to try to insert some memories and things I discover from both Dad's side of the family and mine in this portion of our blog. We were so busy when our kids were growing up that there was not time taken to share much of any family history. I hope the things we share will give all of us a better knowledge of the past. Plus, good memories shared follow my theme of "watering what I want to grow."

Something interesting happened this week. I received one of those emails from Ancestry.com referring to one of my relatives. It was an obituary of Samuel Rhoad Kew.

My father was William Allan Kew. His father was William Arthur Kew (the William A Kew in this obituary mentioned above) and his father was Samuel Rhoad Kew. I never knew my grandfathers, since they had died before I was born and no one really spoke about them. Here, though, is the obituary, stating that this great grandfather of mine was a letter carrier in Chicago for 25 years! Here is a picture of him in his postal uniform.

 He also must have been a Free Mason, since that is where his funeral occurred.

Other highlights
The purple, teal and white Christmas tree has remained illuminated all this week and brought me such a joy every day.

Dad has been diligent on the yard weeds and seems to be keeping them under control.

With Amber's encouragement, I got grout paint and painted the floor grout in the kids' bathroom. I have scrubbed and struggled for years with this white grout or non-white grout, and hopefully, this is a good solution. It took hours and hours, but it is looking pretty good.

My other pics did not come out. If you look at the far right, you can see what my grout looked like in places before (and I scrub this floor three times a week!) This is after painting, before I go in and use acetone to clean off the black tiles. I completed the initial paint and clean late Saturday, and then repainted a few grout joints Saturday night. The true "after" pic will come next week.)

I finally got to visit my dear friend and former co-cub scout leader, Angie Day. It had been such a long time since we just sat and visited and I enjoyed every moment of the two hours. 

I visited Nano on Monday and got her prescriptions under control. I also canceled many doctors' appointments since she loves her new home visit physicians. She has been very teary-eyed this week, but I think that is just a side effect of her meds and that will subside. Scott talks to her on the phone a lot and will take her to her favorite Mexican food on Sunday for lunch.

We were part of an awesome group that cleaned our church building early Saturday morning. Four more seasoned couples did a ton of great work.

Just probably a silly side note, but when each and every one of my children's birthdays come, I sit and remember that day. Yes, I am not too old to remember that most important and most difficult day of my life. No baby comes easy, and nine months of care and worry culminate in birth that is never the same two times in a row. I have memories of where we parked, my room, sometimes even the nurses' name, my doctors or the resident doctors who would deliver, and lots of things about each individual baby and the process and joy of your coming into the world and holding you each in my arms. 

Week of January 5 - 11, 2020

Highlights:

Spiritual

Sunday was great with an inspiring Fast and Testimony Meeting and a great lesson in Sunday School as we began our study of the Book of Mormon.

Dad attended sessions at the temple on Wednesday and Thursday nights

I continue to listen to a General Conference talk every morning. While I am on my fourth time through listening, I learn something new every time I hear these talks. I am given the perfect message for the challenges I have for that day.  I also read the Book of Mormon daily and I am so enjoying including the Come Follow Me lessons as I study...especially the Book of Mormon videos included.

I have indexed 706 records and reviewed 4992 records so far this year.

Family

The Wilkins Family

The Wilkins Family is doing well. There are ups and downs, as usual, but they are strong and are working together. Mike and Allison continue to work at night, and it is such a blessing to once again have two working cars. School is going well and they are enjoying time together on Saturdays.

The Ethan Rice Family

We face timed a few times this week as Ethan helped us try to fix my jeep that keeps killing car batteries. Happy Birthday, Cameo on Tuesday!

 Cameo celebrated her birthday...and Kaylee's last day of Winter Break...at Woody's Jump and Play.

The Doran Rice Family

The lice hunt continued all week. In addition, someone hurt Kelsie at school on Thursday, which caused a lot of heartaches and a serious-looking contusion. They came by Saturday to get a palm tree removed from our date palm tree and we celebrated Kooper's sixth birthday.

Morgan

No news from Morgan this week.

Kayty

Kayty had a good week with an hour of overtime each day. She is busy selling items on Poshmark.

The Nathan Rice Family

Nathan, Jessica and the girls are doing well. We saw them for a few minutes as Nathan came by to get his wheelbarrow from our back yard. 

Dad's Garden

Snow peas are blossoming...finally! Tomatoes have survived cooler weather and dad will plant the rest next week. Our citrus trees are full of fruit!!! Dad can't keep up eating so we are going to need to give some away. Doran and Amber took some home on Saturday.

Other highlights

It was a very busy week for us! I was blessed to feel well enough to get the entire village packed up and taken down, and then everything neatly and safely packed away in my hut. I double-locked the door and now will only visit periodically. I spent the week trying to air out the room, which included Dad getting the dust off the big shelf in a most creative way...

Nano loves her new home visit medical team! I am so thankful that Sharynn helped get this worked out. She gets expert care and her caregiver can express concerns directly to the nurses.

By Friday, everything was cleaned and dusted and vacuumed over and over. The campfire smell remains, though not nearly as strong. I need to decide if the curtains need to be replaced. As for the rest, I am not really interested in repainting so it is what it is.

I so enjoyed the last few houses with Christmas lights up as I ran this week. Each day, the numbers decreased, but I sure did love it while it was.

Now that Christmas and the decor is finally down, I need to get back to the normal things: banking, organizing and donating, and hopefully back to the temple now that my coughing has subsided.

Not so highlights