Week of September 19-25, 2021

Highlights:

Spiritual

Sunday was ward conference and we enjoyed listening to our bishop and stake president. 

We were able to get appointments to attend the temple this week. I attended on Tuesday morning and complete the work for a mother. Only one daughter left next week, and then we can seal mother, father, six daughters and a son as a family. Dad attended a session on Thursday night. 

My daily morning foundation of General Conference talk(s), prayer, scripture study and Come Follow Me study continues each day. 

I have indexed 15,456 records and reviewed 89,075 records so far this year.

Family

The Wilkins Family

The Wilkins Family is doing well and very busy. Grace shared some pics of homecoming week on Instagram. Sam enjoyed the parade and got some great candy!

And then she went to the homecoming dance with some tennis team friends on Saturday night.

The Ethan Rice Family

Ethan, Cameo and the kids had a good week and went camping near home on the weekend. They are all well. 

The Doran Rice Family

Doran and Amber and the kids are doing well. Doran's arm is getting slowly better and while he still struggles with his teeth, he feels he is on the mend. Amber has been getting better since her cold bout. Kelsie is trying a remote classroom situation to see if that works out better for their family. Kooper is a happy little rock collector. 

Morgan

Morgan and Cassie went on a Lake Pleasant fishing outing on Tuesday morning. 

Kayty

Kayty had a good week with some overtime. 

The Nathan Rice Family

Nathan's car parts were at their house by Monday and he spent the week working on his engine. He has done so much work and the hard work is paying off. He got the engine running but yet another setback in a part that regulates the engine and its fuel economy, requiring another part order and further repair.  Jessica and the girls are getting over stuffy noses but all is well. 

Dad's Garden

Dad continues to work on getting his seedlings growing tall enough to plant. The weather seems to be finally turning a corner and will be cooler. 

Other highlights

Dad and I attended a Legislative District Meeting on Tuesday evening. We have been told we are Precinct Committeemen, not once but twice, but there is still a problem. Not sure what to think but it was great to experience the grassroots of the political process. 

Friday morning jog was interesting. I saw a snake on the road. It was still. I blessedly didn't scream my head off. I just avoided it, thinking it had been hit by a car. When I returned, it was gone. So it was apparently warming itself on the road. Again, I blessedly didn't scream my head off. 

This has been a year for getting soaked in the rain while jogging. I left on Saturday...noticed some clouds but nothing concerning. By 2/3 of the way, there was suddenly thunder and lightning. Odd. And the final 1/4 was in a downpour. Need to use my weather app on my phone more often. 

Yep, Dad and I were on the ground under the jeep trying to install some stabilizer thingy using nothing but old tie downs but it eventually worked and one of the upper stabilizers is replaced. One more to go. 

Week of September 12-18, 2021

Highlights:

Spiritual

Our childrens' Primary Sacrament Meeting presentation was so wonderful and the kids sang so well. Bishop said it was the first Sacrament Meeting that everyone smiled the whole time (even with the ones that were masked). Primary was wild and so was class, but that was okay. I really like the sister I serve with now. She is a young mom of a sweet Sunbeam boy and is just the nicest person. Dad spent the day in Sacrament Meetings. Two ward conferences in our building! 

We were able to get appointments to attend the temple this week. I did Initiatory work and Dad completed an Endowment session. 

My daily morning foundation of General Conference talk(s), prayer, scripture study and Come Follow Me study continues each day. 

I have indexed 14,688 records and reviewed 86,969 records so far this year.

Family

The Wilkins Family

The Wilkins Family is getting through the struggles this week. Monday, their house was appraised and then right after that, their air conditioning made a loud noise and stopped. They hired a repairman to fix it, but there were very hot days and nights for the whole family. Mike has a couple of job interviews coming up. Allison continues to do well at her job. Adam was able to return to work and is saving money to purchase his own car.

Grace is really enjoying school, the madrigal choir and the tennis team. 

Joshua is adjusting to middle school and all the new things. He is pausing from playing soccer for a bit. Sam is doing well and loves school. His reading skills are soaring. 

The Ethan Rice Family

Ethan, Cameo, Kaylee and Wade are doing well. The week started with cases of pink eye for the kids but all are back in school. Work keeps both Ethan and Cameo very busy. They are so enjoying their cooler than Phoenix weather and the beautiful sunrises. 

The Doran Rice Family

Doran has returned to light duty training at work, but continues doctor visits and physical therapy. Good progress report from the doctor on Thursday.

 He seems to be recovering from his dental work last week. Kelsie and Kooper are doing well too. 

Morgan

Morgan came by on Saturday, helped Dad bleed his brakes, and then smoked a brisket. It was yummy.

He is working and doing well. 

Kayty

Kayty had a good work week that included some overtime hours. 

The Nathan Rice Family

Nathan's car troubles turned into rebuilding his car engine. they had no vehicle until Jessica's mom loaned them her car for the week. The girls played here for a bit on Wednesday so Jessica could quickly get grocery shopping done. The girls had soccer practice on Wednesday evening. 

Happy Birthday, Annie on Saturday. Her birthday was celebrated with family and friends on Friday evening with swimming, water balloons, corn dogs and tater tots, and a delicious hamburger cake created by Nathan and Annie, and some delicious caramel apple cupcakes. 

Saturday, she got her present from family: her ears pierced, a trip to Build a Bear, and a new bicycle. 

Dad's Garden

Dad's seed starts are doing pretty well and he hopes to be planting in two weeks. Basil and oregano are looking great. 

Other highlights

Dad had a good dental appointment Monday: no fillings or crowns needed. He does need a tooth pulled but it has been bothering him for a long time. 

New baby stocking is complete as far as I can. It only needs the name, an ironing, sequins and sew it together. 

Week of September 5-11, 2021

Highlights:

Spiritual

Sunday was good as we were able to listen to many shared testimonies and partake of the Sacrament. 

I was the only one able to get an appointment to attend the temple this week. It was a good session and I got the work done for another sister. 

My daily morning foundation of General Conference talk(s), prayer, scripture study and Come Follow Me study continues each day. I completed my seventh time through General Conference listening and began my eighth time. 

I have indexed 13,911 records and reviewed 84,627 records so far this year.

Family

The Wilkins Family

Lots of summer cold sickness at the Wilkins house last week. Adam thus was not permitted to return to work until Thursday. He is really enjoying his new job. Grace had a splendid birthday. She took doughnuts to seminary, ate Panda Express, and enjoyed her favorite salad - mandarin orange/avocado and homemade rolls. She received lots of Harry Potter gifts and attended her school flea market. Tennis is going well and she is really enjoying it. Joshua is doing well and is just the happiest young man! Sam is doing better and is the person who loves to present family home evening lessons. HE makes up songs and takes his responsibility very seriously. Sam also LOVES to write books. 

 Mike and Allison continue to work plus go through the stuff back and forth that come with selling a house. 

The Ethan Rice Family

Ethan, Cameo, Kaylee and Wade plus some of their friends headed to Jellystone Park for Labor Day weekend. They had such a good time!

I spoke with them on Saturday night. All are doing well. Wade gave me a wonderful tour of everything in their house!

The Doran Rice Family

Doran went back to work a little to train the other employee but still is struggling with the healing process. Therapy is going well. He also had some major dental work done on Saturday. Not a fun way to enjoy a weekend. Everyone is good.

Morgan

On Tuesday, Morgan and Cassie took dad on an overnight fishing trip to Woods Canyon Lake. The weather was great and cold at night. He had a good time.

Kayty

Kayty had a good work week and got in some extra overtime. 

The Nathan Rice Family

Nathan, Jessica and the girls returned early from Young. The pollen was crazy and it made Jessica quite sick. Monday morning, Nathan took Dad out dove hunting.

They had a busy week including the first soccer practice for Anna and Ellie. We played Friday night while Mom and Dad did some birthday shopping. On Saturday, Dad went with them up to the Anthem WalMart and got some more tomato cages.

Dad's Garden

Seeds are started, grow lights are on, and my dryer has become a greenhouse of sorts. Citrus is plentiful and we hope it will continue...gotta keep them roof rats away. 

Other highlights

Hot weather this week including some very hot jogs in the morning. 

Worked on finishing baby stocking...at least an hour a day.

Had a good visit with the Target Dollar Spot on Wednesday, though I still say the name Dollar Spot is truly misleading. I found more pumpkins that were so unique. 

Primary Program practice on Saturday. This interferes with our regular trip to Millies Hallmark that grandma and I take, so we will go next week, depending on when I have my car and Loyd, who is in the hospital for tests, is released. 

While I have chosen to keep the family blog mostly free from turmoil from the world outside, I had to stop this morning. Much happened on Thursday, September 9. The person holding the office of President of The United States became a dictator. While I do not believe the words he read come from him (he is very obviously in the later stages of dementia), I do believe the United States of America, our Constitution, and our freedoms are in serious peril. My prayers have not stopped for days, weeks, months, and now years. I just saw this quote run across my screen as I was curling my hair...

"The freedoms I know today may be the freedoms my grandchildren never knew existed."

While it is up to each individual to have the FREEDOM TO CHOOSE what they do and how they do it, I am in a place to also choose. I will not give up on freedom. I will not give up on fighting tyranny. Yesterday was not the end, it was just a step in a process. I will NOT leave a country to my grandchildren devoid of their freedom to choose...what to do...what to see...what to medically do for their bodies...everything. 

Days of continued prayer...continued questions...continued concerns...and then, on the Morning of September 11, 2021, I saw this in my email. It is from the blog called Kate Expectations. Kate is the daughter of a dear couple I grew up in the same ward with. I even babysat Kate's oldest sister and brother a time or two. I have loved her perspective through the years, and it was wonderful to read about her mom, Susan Dana, her grandfather, Joe Dana (who had the most beautiful broadcasting voice) and to think about our great country. I learned of George Washington as I studied history earlier this year. This was not a man who wanted fame or political fortune at all. He loved his country. I remember reading about the moment at Valley Forge and thought of how low he must have felt. How hopeless it seemed. He turned to prayer. So I am sharing this...

House That Jack Built

Good Vibes at Valley Forge Posted: 10 Sep 2021 07:49 PM PDT My mother’s side of the family are Danas. This is a heritage, I was taught growing up, that brings with it some notable claims to fame.  Take my great uncle Danny Herrera, for instance, who invented the margarita (true story). He first concocted it in the late 1940's at Rancho La Gloria, his resort in Mexico, where my mom would visit in the summer as a child. To this day my cousins and I all wish each other a Happy National Margarita Day every February 22nd, although as sober Latter-day Saints most of us have never actually tried one.     Another source of Dana pride is that my grandfather Joe Dana, after whom I and my daughter are named, once fired his gun at an approaching bear who went down on the first shot. Though it was clearly dead, no bullet hole could be found until the taxidermist discovered that it had gone in one ear and out the other. If you don’t believe me, the skin was turned into a rug that has been passed around the family for decades and can currently be found in my sister Jane’s guest room closet.    But the family lore that made me proudest was that this same grandfather was lifelong friends with the great artist Arnold Friberg, and was the inspiration for the physical build of George Washington when he painted his magnum opus, Prayer at Valley Forge.  The physique of Grandpa Joe in this painting is unmistakable, particularly the unique size and shape of his hands.    The president of Friberg Art once recalled a time that the painting was lying on the floor of a printer’s studio when a security guard passed by. He studied it for some time then said, “You feel the prayer in his hands. He got it.”    I couldn’t agree more.    George Washington is typically portrayed in heroic fashion and rightfully so, looking like the father of our nation that he is. In my textbooks in school I remember he was always shown overlooking a victorious battlefield, or on the back of a charging horse, or proudly presenting the Constitution.    But in Prayer at Valley Forge, he is at his lowest. Frozen, defeated, and no doubt weighed down by the responsibility of leading his equally frozen and defeated troops to safety. Fallen to his knees, in a moment of desperation, he pleads with God for help.   Friberg’s Washington looks humble. Prayerful. And by 2021 standards, perhaps a little controversial.      I wonder, what if modern social media scrutiny existed in 1778, and someone hiding in the snow captured this moment and uploaded it to Twitter. What sort of debate would it spark? Could it have hurt his chances of becoming president years later?    Possibly. Prayer certainly didn’t help Mike Pence in matters of public opinion while serving in the White House. Last year, during a meeting of the coronavirus task force, he led the group in prayer. Someone snapped a picture that went viral and triggered a stampede of criticism.   “You can’t pray this away,” someone Tweeted.“We are so screwed,” wrote another. Honestly, the general consensus of reactions reminded me of Nacho Libre’s sidekick Esquelito when he said, “I don’t believe in God. I believe in science," which, by the way, was supposed to be funny. Isn't there room to believe in both?   I don't think Mike Pence was praying to escape his responsibility in the pandemic any more than George Washington was praying as a strategy to avoid confronting the British. I believe that prayer is a component of our efforts, not an alternative to them.   I love the way Pope Francis put this when he said, “You pray for the hungry. Then you feed them. That is how prayer works.”    I think there can be a place in the political sphere for prayer without blurring the lines between church and state, the separation of which is one of our greatest freedoms. Prayer is an incredibly encompassing term. There are limitless possibilities of how a person might pray or to what source, and protections for those who choose not to pray at all. One of the primary tenants of my own faith is the privilege of worshiping according to our own conscience, and allowing others the same - “let them worship how, where or what they may.”    I just wonder though, how prayer went from a natural expression and condolence we offer one another, to an awkward question of whether offense might be caused. Why people on social media are far more likely to send or solicit “thoughts and good vibes” than they are prayer.  When you Google "sending prayers," in fact, several of the top search results are lists of alternative phrases you can use that omit the word prayer altogether. Because heaven forbid. Still, in spite of all the noise, I believe that Prayer at Valley Forge is timeless. I don't know what Washington said in that moment of desperation, but the closest comparison of my lifetime was twenty years ago, watching an equally desperate President Bush address the nation of the evening of September 11th.   I remember sitting on the couch of my apartment in a dreamlike state, haunted by the images I had seen that day, and only beginning to understand how the world and my perception of it had changed. I couldn't imagine the weight on President Bush's shoulders. No amount of eloquence in his address would have been enough to comfort Americans that night. No call for vengeance or promise to rebuild sufficient.  And so he said -    “Today our nation saw evil - the very worst of human nature - and we responded with the best of America.   Tonight I ask for your prayers for all those who grieve, for the children whose worlds have been shattered, for all whose sense of safety and security has been threatened. And I pray they will be comforted by a power greater than any of us.”  Two decades later and more than two centuries after Valley Forge, we are still at times witness to the worst of human nature. And when we are, I'm grateful for a "power greater than any of us," and for the right to say God bless America, and mean it.