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

Week of January 1 - 4, 2020

Highlights:

Happy 2020!

Spiritual

Dad attended sessions at the temple on Thursday and Saturday night.

I am reading and studying my Book of Mormon daily, both for Come Follow Me and for my personal favorite study.

I have indexed 243 records and reviewed 1723 records so far this year.

Family

The Wilkins Family

The Wilkins Family continues to work hard and press on in this challenging time. The kids are a great support and are doing well, and we are so very thankful for Joshua's miraculous healing. He is now able to be much more active.

The Ethan Rice Family

Here are some pics from Ethan, Cameo, Kaylee and Wade's Christmas and Birthday adventure to Great Wolf Lodge.

And Kaylee's birthday celebration when they arrived home.

The Doran Rice Family

Work went well for Doran and Amber, but apparently, the beauty school that colored Kelsie's hair was not up to cleanliness standards. Yep, head lice for this family.

Morgan

Morgan was blessed to be staying with Kyle when the lice epidemic came.

Kayty

Kayty worked a TON of overtime this week, including Saturday, and fought off the illness I have. She is sucking down elderberry gummies like they are candy, which she says they taste like. 

The Nathan Rice Family

Some sniffles and runny noses but a basically good week for this family.

Dad's Garden

Dad continues to plant tomatoes. This year, they have been placed in formerly unused garden beds that would be easy to keep warm if the weather becomes colder. Peas are growing well. Spinach is doing well too. 

Other highlights

It was quite a week! It seems my powering through the Christmas tree on Monday led to me getting pretty doggone sick. It settled in my lungs and I would be up numerous times each night in coughing fits. Lots of ginger herb tea were ingested. Lots of Walgreen's brand AirBorn. I learned by Wednesday that stopping every few hours and covering up with a blanket and taking a nap were necessary. I was able to cook and clean, but the village was left untouched.

Nano had an unusual sore appear which led to days and days of trying to get her new doctors set up. It just happened to occur when we were changing from one insurance plan to another. Many phone calls. Lots of help from Sharynn. Hopefully, that part is set up and the doctor can visit next Monday. I was still sick, so I didn't dare go near mom or the other ladies, so dad delivered the check and worked on Mom's computer on Friday.

Friday night, after my shower, I was cold, so I lit a prepared fire in the fireplace and went and finished a couple of dishes left in the sink. No more than four minutes later, I returned to a smoke-filled living room. ( I didn't know Dad closes the flue between uses.) Thus set up the next two hours of each of us holding fans and opening up the whole house trying to get the five-foot layer of smoke out. So much for congested lungs and feeling cold. My house smells awful! I will need to wipe each and every piece of my village down with alcohol before packing it away next week. Saturday I scrubbed the rock on the fireplace, cleaned all the furniture, and baking soda-d the rug, let it sit for an hour and then vacuumed. It still smells like a campfire. We also aired out the house and the rest smelled better...except for the living room.