Randomness

1. I'm sick of our weather pattern: an inch or two of snow every night.

2. I discovered that I use my sewing machine a lot when it broke and was in the shop for two weeks. Unfortunately, it would cost $500 to repair.

3. Is there some reason besides old age that everything on me hurts right now? All my old injuries are aching, plus new things. Perhaps it's the weather. It makes it hard to excel in our fitness challenge.

4. I made 1/2 a cake for Rene's birthday. I just didn't feel like having tons of leftover cake. It goes with the 1/2 gallon of milk, which is what we use per week now. And speaking of that,

5. I miss Janet. I miss everyone else, too, but Janet's two weeks at home for Christmas went too fast for me. (She may or may not have been bored.) Good thing she calls me often, sometimes every day :)

This story from the Stevens Point Journal made me laugh:

"Under the rule, landowners, their family members and their employees would be allowed to shoot cougars in the act of attacking a domestic animal without advance permission."

Here's a little story about how something once a chore has become a joy and a blessing in my life. About nine months ago, my visiting teaching companion and I started going to see one of the girls we visit once a week with the intent to read the Book of Mormon. She had never read it all the way through before. She was very much discouraged with her life--two small children in a new town where she knew few people and had no friends. Her husband is a recent convert and has his own struggles with the church. He is often out of town for long periods. My friend very much wanted to grow spiritually and to have some kind of store of knowledge within herself to answer her husband's questions and to help her children grow up strong and secure, with testimonies of their own.

The first few weeks were kind of awkward and clumsy. But we persisted. She would put the kids down for a nap, and we would read. We slowly made it through 1 Nephi. The first few weeks, we probably talked as much as we read because my companion had many questions, too. Somewhere in 2 Nephi, my companion stopped coming, but we pressed on. Every Wednesday, I go to her house and we read and talk. We are now halfway through Alma. Yes, it's slow going. We have missed weeks because of vacations, weddings, funerals, holidays. But some funny things have happened.

We have become such good friends although our lives are not very much alike. There is a 30 year gap in our ages, but we have shared our deepest desires and thoughts. We are comfortable around each other. We have had her family over for dinner and sometimes when I am all alone, they sit by me at church. And I like her husband and kids very much. But I have grown to love her.

Another funny thing is that we started reading the Book of Mormon for her, but it has blessed me as much as it has blessed her. Perhaps because I am seeing it through her eyes, I have looked at the verses we read each day differently. As we talk about deep and meaningful things, I have come to see how things I have read many, many times before apply in new ways to my life.

I'm thankful that I was assigned more than a year ago to be her visiting teacher. I don't think we ever would have become friends otherwise. And I'm really grateful for that two hour interval each week when we sit together and bask in the light of His love.

I want to join the circus!

Macey has been practicing for a future career in the circus.

New traditions

It's interesting to see what happens as our children marry and bring people with other customs and traditions into our family. They end up doing what we did--picking for the traditions they grew up with and blending the two into a new family tradition for their own little family.

Our son-in-law, Ben, served a mission in northern Italy. He has talked about the wonderful food there (there's not much food he doesn't like), especially panettone, a holiday bread. You can buy panettone lots of places at Christmas time, even very midwestern Wausau, Wisconsin, but I decided to make him some this year for Christmas. In reality, you need a special pan, but I just made do with what I have.

It's basically a sweetish bread with currants and candied citron. Apparently, no one in the Wausau area wants to buy candied citron, because I never did find any. However, there was plenty of fruit cake mix, which has citron in it, so I used that instead.

It turned out well. And I think Ben liked it. I liked it. I thought it was especially good toasted.