This is absolutely the most beautiful day that could be! I am looking out my window at the blue skies over the tops of green trees moving back and forth in the gentle breezes; the doors and windows are open and I can her the birds chirping, the neighbor's yard getting watered and there are splashes of color all around me because of the amazing variety and beauty of the flowers. I feel so blessed.
Thought for the week: comes from Lorenzo Snow (and the scriptures) again and actually should be the entire section on pp 148-150. But the parts I will quote are: "I can of mine own self do nothing." [John 5:30] and "...I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me."[John 5:30] "That is a wonderful saying, and there is a great deal in it. Now, what we want is to have that spirit in every eact of our lives and in every undertaking, whether temporal or spiritual, and not think of self. We should try to ascertain how we should spend the money and the information that God has given us. The answer is for the glory of God. Our eye should be single to the glory of God. That is what we left the other life for and [came] into this. ... Inasmuch as we act today and tomorrow, this week and next week, in the interest of God, and have our eye single to His glory, there can be no failure. [Lorenzo Snow]
In our RS lesson today the teacher spoke about how this lesson had impacted her actually several weeks ago as she was beginning to prepare for this lesson (she said she had had an "epiphany"; then went on to share how applying this thought to everything she said and did had been amazing. No matter how hard, how boring, how exciting or fun something is, we can ask ourselves if it will bring the Lord joy because of us doing it. And if the answer is yes, then we can be satisfied and happy to have done it:)!
Note: I am still working hard on last week's thought...it is not easy!
Coming Up: Sunday, June 16 Adam Manville's Birthday:)! Wish him a happy one:)
The week past: has been a busy one in the office, but that is hardly news. We met with the other office couples and the couples from Camp Alpine yesterday and went to the King Estate restaurant and winery (yes, really) for a very late lunch. I think I maybe mentioned it a couple of months ago, that Dad had wanted to drive back from Roseburg on Highway 99 and on the way he showed me the "castle" on a hill and we drove up to it. The view is incredible, the restaurant quite amazing. It is like a piece of Europe transplanted into the Oregon countryside and the menu is very French/German/Italian - mostly French:). We scheduled our meal at 3 p.m. because of the Camp Alpine couples; the weather was incredible - just like today - and we ate outside on their patio. It was a lovely experience, even for non-wine-drinkers. One of our office couples is from El Paso, Texas and he said it would have been a great shame to have gone home without having that experience. It is really just unbelievable. Anyone who wants to read about it can go online to kingestatewinery or restaurant...kind of fun and you can even see a few pics. I will probably get pictures taken by one of the Apine couples sometime this coming week then will try to put them out next week.
Monday (tomorrow) we are heading up to the new mission office with our mission president and his wife to meet with the Portland mission president and his office staff to make sure we are all "on the same page" as to what we are doing to make this upcoming transition a good one. It should be an interesting and hopefully productive experience. The plan is that we will be treated to dinner on the way home. I think the president is planning on a one hour meeting - I hope that part works out:).
Tuesday through Friday are our Zone Conferences; we attend the one on Wednesday and that is always interesting and fun.
Family Notes: I haven't gotten to talk with Jim or Jeanie this week but loved seeing the Facebook pictures. I know they must be busy getting ready for their vacation. Chris and Christine celebrated their anniversary by going to the temple in Billings (and taking along 2 of their papilleons (sp?) who were going back to their original owner for a visit. When they got home it was quite late and right after getting into bed the storm came. According to Christi there is always a major storm on their anniversary! Anyway, this one had golfball sized hail and had Chris back outside to do emergency work:). Side note: it seems he locked the dog in the shed by accident, which they realized the next day as they started looking for her:). I think they are starting on their house remodel soon. Christine had put a great deal of work into moving their raised bed, square foot gardening boxes - and is glad to have it done. That was to make room for the planned addition. I'm trying to talk Chris into getting a Facebook page so they can join us all there & share pictures:)! (Can you believe I said that?)
Haven't heard anything from Sara, but can see from Facebook and her website that she and her horses are quite busy as always. I hadn't seen the website so spent a few moments looking at past things - really liked her solution for keeping pipes from freezing and enjoyed her "rant" to parents who think horses teach their kids responsibility:)!
Emily has been very quiet - must also be very busy. Loved the Facebook post of Eli - but am not sure what the long story is... maybe she'll share it with me someday:). She said they were thinking of hiring another person...not sure if that will give her more time or less in the short run since training can be pretty time consuming. We will be hoping for the best!
Steve and Holly made it to Florida and back and put an awesome picture up on Holly's Facebook page. I liked the comment she made that the vacation was fun but it was good to be home. I think home is wonderful!
Charlotte shared that they had cleaned out their pond and moved their large Koi to the upper one while doing it. But now they can't find the large Koi. (He may show up later - you never know.) Then, they put the smaller ones into the large one and are planning on adding some pond plants, i.e. water lilies, etc. I'm hoping for pictures from them as well:).
Mary made it back safely from Indiana and avoided most of the storms...which made me very happy. She has probalby been really busy too, since she was gone part of last week. If you haven't seen the videos posted on her Facebook page, you might want to look. As someone said - it looks like she is training to be a circus performer:)!
I think that is about all I can think up for this blog, so love and hugs to all my wonderful families... Love you so very much! (I'm still plugging for a weekly e-mail from everyone to share on the blog...?)
I am sad to report that we have located the remains of Moby. :( Something must have snuck up on him because Seth apparently found chunks of fish when he was cleaning out the upper one later. Poor Moby! On a happier note, we moved out two little butterfly koi from the tank into the big pond and they seem to be enjoying themselves very much. So, yay? :P
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