FROZEN TREASURE

Every Fall I look forward to the big cold snap that we all know is coming. 

On that first FREEZING COLD DAY I have an annual job that I actually look forward to - I defrost the freezer!  I do not like to clean the house.  I do not dream of weeding the yard.  I always put off the Ironing.  But every year I can't wait for the messy, sloppy and COLD job of defrosting the freezer! 

So in the spirit of the Christmas Holiday Season please sing the chorus along with me....



"On the 12 Cold Days of Winter my Freezer gave to me"  -


12  lbs. of Burger


11  Blocks of Butter


10  Jars of Spices


9   Cans of O.J.


8   Bags of Creamed Corn


7   Packs of  "Clearance Steaks"


6   lbs. of Chocolate Chips


5   Loaves of  Rhodes Dough  ( hold............... )




4   Tubs of Freezer Jam


3   Icey Chickens


2   Bowls of Cool whip


and


1  Big Fat Frozen Turkey!



MERRY CHRISTMAS!   :  )

"Today Is Your BIrthday"

I am blessed to be married to a man who LOVES Birthdays.  He relishes the singing, the presents, the cake and ice cream , and just the fact that he has one special day.  And he likes that for 5 whole days he is older than me!

This year puts me closer to 60 than to 55.  What ever happened to all those years???  Even The Beatles song "Today Is Your Birthday" I had in my head this morning hints at my years!

But if I have learned one thing in all my "days"  it would be that having a Birthday doesn't mean you are old -  it just announces that you are still here. 
And at 58 here I am!   :  )

So in celebration of yet another year I will joyfully proclaim.....

"Happy Birthday to Me": )

Sometimes.....

Sometimes there are no words for what we feel.
Sometimes we choke on the words we wish we could say.
Sometimes our tears are the only voice for what is hiding in our heart.

I wanted to write a touching and healing blog about my little Jr. Nursery friend Luke.  But the right inspiration never hit.  My daughter Kari hit it "spot on" so I am referring you to her latest title - "Too many wishes, Not enough pennies".    limegreenmoviegirl.blogspot.com

Luke - We love you!
Sister Jenkins

"....dunged about the roots thereof....."

Head back to the early 1990's.  At that point we had tucked away 16 moves and nearly 25 years of marriage.  Life was filled with a new baby, 2 young children, 4 teenagers, my husband working 12+ hours a day, and I was juggling a part-time job, church responsibilities and family.  Amidst all the "busyness" I came across a scripture story where Jesus talked of the Gardener "pruning the olive branches", "dunged about the roots thereof", "tranplanting" the good wood, and basically tending to the growth of the garden.    I was feeling like the plant who had been Pruned, Transplanted, and Dunged About!

In half-jesting mood I mentioned to our Bishop that I was being "dunged about".  His reply was simple - "Oh, you are being fertilized."
Is that what that was?  Overwork, stress, little sleep, teenage challenges, more bills than money = being fertilized?  I figured I could do without more growth.

Some families stay and raise their families in the same town they grew up in, but we are consistently "tranplanted in the garden".  Life keeps us in transition.  I DO NOT LIKE MOVING!  As much as I have hated the process, it is easy to see (looking back) that each move took us to a better place both for our family and for our spirits.

Our most recent move took us to western Idaho where the people were friendly, the weather let me grow three kinds of melons and actually harvest red tomatoes before the frost!  More crucial is that and our youngest daughter thrived with new friends.  Here I was ready for a life of "Happily Ever After" - but somebody added a new chapter!  Now in the last weeks of 2009  it is happening again - We are being tranplanted!!!!!

Move #18 is taking us to a desert filled with sage brush, well-fed rats that waddle across the highway, and life in a three bedroom apartment.  I liked the "garden" we were in - what could possibly be better about moving again?  I liked the sunshine in this part of the world and my hubby was loving his work.  Why another "transplant"?  Why yet another "pruning" session?  Why more "dunging about the roots thereof"?  Couldn't we just stay put? 

So now I get to clean, dejunk, clean, pack, clean and dejunk some more.  Our current life is being left behind for the great unknown.  Actually the new area looks more like "the lone and dreary world"!

Only Faith that things will be better once again is keeping me smiling and trudging ahead -this transition would seem like a picnic to what the early pioneers had to do.  In honor of Adam and Eve and the early Saints we will pack up the "handcart", leave behind our excess, walk away from the Garden and start a new life amongst the sage brush.  
Guess this puts us in good company.    : )

It Is Inevitable

We are born.
We die.
Those are the only two things we can truly count on.
All the rest of life between our birth and our death is part luck, part work, part grace of our maker.

This weekend my husband and I attended a wedding. This was my 76 year old Aunt Elaine who eight years ago became a widow and now has found a nice man to share her life with. Charlie will never replace Uncle Don, but he has brought joy and smiles back into her life. That was Saturday.

Tuesday we attended a funeral. Elaines older brother and my dad's younger brother, Glen celebrated his 80th birthday in February. Last week after a year long battle with heart failure, his mortal days ended and we traveled with many others to St. George to say "good-bye".

Each wedding reminds me of the joys and the new beginnings we are given in life.
Each funeral reminds of the certainty that at some point we all will lay down our mortal body and move on into the eternal world.

At these times I wonder if I will ever be ready to say my time here is done. There is always something left to do, some quirk to fine-tune, and many mistakes to make restitution for.

As touching as these events were, they pale to the spirit felt when a new baby is born into the family. It is like a precious gift from heaven in the cutest package ever! You can feel love, goodness, and pure joy all coming from a little bundle of wrinkled skin. I dearly loved my babies! But I wonder if maybe I should have spent more time enjoying those seven gifts, for now they have all grown and are taking their turn at the real world. My time for nurturing those little ones is past and I must find other things to do. Then one day it will be my turn to breathe my last breath and pass through the veil.

Will I be ready? Not today.
Will I want to stay here? Maybe.
Will I be at peace with no regrets? I certainly hope so.

I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go (?)

Singing the hymn "I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go" at Stake Choir last week was the first time I questioned my willingness to actually live the words. As a youth I never wavered in knowing that I would do whatever was asked of me in the name of my beliefs.
Till earlier this month.
After three years as Relief Society President, a call came to serve in the Primary Nursery with 12 little bodies aged 18 months! Being with the kids sounds fun, but the room made me rethink my entire life as a church member. The room is small, DARK, with BARS on the one tiny door window. Talk about solitary confinement!
For the sake of the children and my salvation I am working on my attitude - and I got permission to use another less intimidating Nursery Room. No bars on windows. "All Is Well". : )

Who Raises Who?

I thought we trained up kids "in the way they should go", and they would never question. Now I'm learning that they train us in they way they want us to go and if we value our sanity we will step out of their way. : )
My children continue to "outshine" me. They are funnier, happier, more generous, skinnier, complain less, have more friends and are better at their jobs. They even have ADORABLE kids! How can a Mom keep up with such goodness? Part of me wants to be a full-time Mom again. Another part of me says I need to get a life. When I signed up to be a mother I didn't know I was also signing up to be a Mom of grown children. Now my joy comes from watching them live good and fruitful lives. They are teaching me.

7 Children and 36 years

This is my maiden voyage into blogdom - our youngest daughter gets credit for getting me set up this far.
I used to think that I could only write with paper and pen (black ink only). But modern life dictates using a faster means than scribbling and a postage stamp. If I am going to keep in touch with my family and the growing # of grand-"babies" then I need to board the tech train.

Stay tune but DO NOT hold your breath!