What shall we then say…

I just had to share these amazing little stories about Brenden, who was two in March; Leah, who was two in June; and Becky, who will be two in October–three of my cute little grandkids. 

Little Brenden’s dad reported that the little guy was crying about a bug in the kitchen.  After his dad squashed it, Brenden said, “Sorry.”  His mom and dad aren’t sure if he  was saying it to the bug or to Daddy.  (I bet it was to the bug.)

Then Leah, a couple weeks ago was getting her diaper changed by her aunt, Holly and  she said, “dankoo.”   I never had one of my eight kids tell me thank you for changing their diaper.  In fact one time when I was changing a diaper on Leah’s mom, no less, she actually said, “Don’t poke me, you darn brat!”  (I tell this with permission but I’m probably the one who should be embarrassed–not that I poked my kids frequently, I assure you, and where did the “darn brat” part come from?….siblings?)    

Finally Becky, who has a very affectionate 4-year-old sister, Maddie, didn’t want the big hug Maddie was trying to inflict on her and she exclaimed, “No! Pease!”  

Have these kids got good manners or what!!  Today, instead of my usual, “Ty!  Go!” when our golden lab was trying to take a blanket from Becky, I found myself saying “Ty! Go—please!”  I never say that. 

A returned missionary spoke at church yesterday.  It inspired me to want to be a missionary somehow.  I sat on the row with his family– Mom and Dad, a brother, a couple sisters.   I’m pretty sure the last time they came to church was two years ago when he went on his mission.   I thought of the courage that this fellow showed both when he went and now as he’s come back home as he boldly declared that there has been a restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the true church is on the earth again, and living by its principles will bring happiness into our lives. 

I love the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  I’ve been listening to the New Testament on tapes the last couple of months and I have noticed more than ever how much the restored gospel is like the ancient gospel.  The point that I’m thinking of right now is baptism for the dead.  As I suspected when I looked on Google, the LDS church is pretty much the only one that practices this.  Why don’t others?  The way Paul used it to justify the resurrection, I guess you could say, shows that it was an understood thing that they did.  He didn’t have to make a big deal of it, they already knew of it.  Here is the scripture: 1 Corinthians 15:29–”Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all?  Why are they then baptized for the dead?” 

 If I’m wanting to be a missionary in the blogosphere, this is probably a strange topic to start with but that’s the way I am.  I’m creative if nothing else.  I don’t like to plan everything out.  I’ve tried and I get stuck.  I just start somewhere and see what happens.   To someone who didn’t have any religion, baptism would seem weird anyway, living or dead.  It’s a faith thing.  I’ve had enough spiritual experiences that I know there’s really something to it even though I don’t understand all the reasons for everything.  We didn’t just happen by some cosmic accident and we live and die and it’s all over.  That is way harder to comprehend than true religion. 

 Well, I’m not a ‘real writer’ yet and I’ve not dared to ‘be a missionary’ before this at all so I’ve said enough.  Please feel free to improve on this start.  I will definitely write more on the subject of religion.  It is my favorite subject after all. 

Eating can be very disturbing.  It’s not that I don’t love food.   It’s just that it doesn’t seem to love me back.  In trying to eliminate the problems I have come up with a few possibilities: 

1.  I don’t chew my food well enough.  I always do seem to be in a hurry in everything I do.  Remembering to chew well is a problem, too.  I hope this is one of the culprits.  Such a painless way to solve the problem.

2.  One or more of the foods I regularly eat has turned on me.  I wish the enemy would just come forth and identify itself.  Is it the Dairy Family?  They have been some of my best friends all through my life.  I enjoy spending time with them morning, noon, and night.  Mmmm, cheese, ice cream, pudding, whipped cream, and milk with its best friends:  chocolate, doughnuts, and, graham crackers. 

3.  The brain-gut connection.   The experts say that there are so many nerve connections in the digestive system that is like it has a brain of its own.  I guess I have to do a little less multi-tasking when I eat for one thing and relax!  [I don't know how to do links but this is an interesting topic to look up on Google.]

4.  Food combinations matter.   I really hope this one is not it!  I did some research on this and there would be no more sandwiches, period.   I just can’t ‘buy’ into this one.  All the years when I didn’t really have digestive problems–I ate whatever combination I felt like. 

Hmm, when I started this post several weeks ago, I had a 5 for a fifth  item but I don’t know what it was.   Furthermore, I recall Ben talking about stale posts and I don’t think I like doing them and this is one.  Hey, it does kind of fit with the subject though, doesn’t it? 

 5.  Stale ‘food’ is not agreeable and should be thrown out! 

I’ve decided not to throw out this stale post though, as in delete it.  It would be a waste of my valuable time.  You know sometimes I think the same way almost about food.  I do not want to throw away leftovers even though they might be a little too old and I don’t want to leave any food on my plate because that would be a waste–so in both cases, I eat them–but what is the greatest waste, eating food you don’t need or throwing it away–actually it doesn’t get wasted anyway, we have a dog who loves ‘people’ food! 

Yes!  This actually feels like getting rid of leftovers by serving them up to you all.   Sorry I still have two more stale ones to go!!   It feels kind of good though.  Maybe this will cure my writer’s block! 

I hadn’t realized it has been a month since I did a post!  It’s the apple’s fault.  It must have been a ‘perfect’ spring for those apples.  I have about seven apple trees–that is just a guess, I could be one off either way.  Some of the tree branches are touching the ground.  What a year to forget to do any pruning! 

 The tree up close to the house is the biggest problem.  It has really good apples with a lot of flavor.  My son thinks they may be Gravenstein.  Hopefully we’ll find out for sure.  They have been falling off the tree for weeks now.  Maybe it’s because they don’t get enough water but they seem to be ripe.  Our second fridge is about full of apples, including the ones I’ve been cutting and freezing. 

I  believe in organic gardening, not just because it is the path of least resistance but it is healthy.  It does make me a little nervous about giving them to everybody.  They might not appreciate the worm holes and big bird bites out of them.

There is one lady and her husband who used to live in Sweden who are great appreciaters of our apples, though.  Two years ago when we had lots I had them come and get apples.  This year I have been taking them to them.  Both times I came back with more than I gave in Swiss chard, squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, kale, rhubarb, other stuff.  Their whole back yard is a garden and it reminds me of how the garden of Eden must have looked in places.  It has walkways but otherwise is totally covered in good stuff.  There’s not even room for weeds.   They even have blackberries the size of small apricots! 

Anyway, the point of my post was going to be that the apples are always there waiting for me to take care of them and I almost feel quilty doing anything else!  I know that is a slight exagerration but there is some truth to it.  I also became ’shy to write’ and so I’m just writing this without editing it because I can’t spend the kind of time I do sometimes trying to make everything be ‘perfectly’ put together. 

So for what it’s worth here it is!  I’m done and it only took about 10 minutes!  Thanks, Barbs for prompting this post.