Monthly Archives: April 2012
Howzit-Elder Flexy!
6.well simple look on the wall in my old bedroom. “we attain joy by choosing it over and over again… always, right now.
Sunday Best!
3 Years!
That’s a pretty long time. Three years ago today, I started my blog. I have had so much fun! I’m hoping you have enjoyed my blog too!
I have written 125 “Family History” posts, 12 posts about my “Heroes”, 46 posts about my wonderful children, 29 posts about my sweet “Grandbaby”, hopefully I’ve made you laugh at the “Funny Things” I’ve written. I hope you’ve enjoyed all the notes and letters from “Elder Flexy” and “Hermana Kelsey” my two darling missionaries. I’ve talked about my “Loves”, and my “Life”, and the “Lesson’s” I’ve learned. I’ve had so much fun sharing the “Two Cents” from my little daycare kids, T and G. I have shared some of my favorite wonderful quotes and scriptures on my “Sunday Best”. Not to mention the “Bumper Stickers”, “Beautiful Places”, “Favorite TV/Movie Quotes”, etc.
Someday, I think my children will be so glad I’ve written these things down. It is a personal history of sorts. A testimony of my beliefs and loves, my gift to whoever will read it.
Happy Blogiversary to ourjoyfulnest!
Family History Friday: Adelaide Dye White
Adelaide Dye White was my Great-Grandma. She was just a tiny little lady, about 5 feet tall, and only about 98 pounds when she married. I never knew her, because she died two years before I was born. I shared a story about her husband, Charles Elmer White a couple of weeks ago for FHF.
This is what my Mom said about her Grandma,
“When I think of Gramma, I remember her just the way a gramma was supposed to look: small, a little round, gray haired, glasses, and always an apron. She wore flowered house dresses and an apron (many of which she made), hose and laced up shoes.
When she worked in her garden she wore a large straw hat, that when not worn, hung on a nail on the back screened porch. If she didn’t have her hat on she would shade her eyes with her arm. She spent a lot of time in her garden. She knew how important the harvest was to her family’s well-being, and bottled everything. She even bottled chickens and some beef. She didn’t seem to really enjoy the animals, but was grateful for what they provided.
I remember our trips to Idaho. We always looked forward to them and could hardly wait once we saw the trees of Firth, and then we crossed over the canal to Basalt. Once we rounded the corner we would see family coming out the front door to greet us. Gramma would have already made plans for special country dinner. Her house smelled of home-made bread or she would be making rolls.
We enjoyed the results of her hard work as she allowed us to go to the garden a salt shaker and a knife for tomatoes , cucumbers, radishes, etc. Who could ever forget corn-on-the-cob, new potatoes and peas, chicken and home-made noodles, ice cream and chocolate cake. Pickles, relishes, and pickled beets, fresh cream on raspberries or Wheaties and biscuits and home-churned butter, with jam or jelly.
We always sat around the kitchen table; an oilcloth table clothe, and a crystal spoon bowl. Her kitchen was large for the size of her home and a refrigerator. A wood burning stove that she had mastered to perfection, a few cupboards and in the early days a large milk can of water from the well up the hill, and a tin cup for dipping. Dishes were done in a dish pan and when she was done she would go to the door and toss the water out into the yard.”
I am so glad my Mom put down on paper her memories of Great-Grandma Adelaide. I can almost picture her in my mind doing those things. And what an amazing women to bake and cook on a wood burning stove. You can’t just set the temperature, can you? You would have to practice a lot to know how to use it. And getting water from a well? Instead of having the convenience of turning a faucet. I wish I had been able to meet her. I know I will some day. When I do, I am going to tell her, “Thanks Grandma Adelaide, for being such an inspiration to me. I love you.”
Happy Family History Friday! Love, Joy
Two Cents: Forts!
P and M in the fort I made for them.
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I have decided to add some quotes from my daycare children to the “Two Cents by T and G” and call the posts “Two Cents”. The kids are always telling me funny things, giving me their “Two Cents” about life and things.
I love being around children.
I have had people tell me, “I don’t know how you do it?” speaking of daycare.
But I honestly love it.
One of my favorite things about it is knowing that you are loved completely. In fact they tell me all day long, “Joy, I love you!” and of course I tell them, “I love you, too!”
One thing that’s not my favorite is the poop, which I don’t have to deal with much, but still. One day I was telling my friends how much I love doing daycare, except for the poop. And my friend Lilli said, “There’s poop in every job.” Wow, that was profound. Seriously, I have never had a job that didn’t have poop (things you don’t like), so now I rarely think about the poop.
I just concentrate on the “I love you’s”.
Totally “Fort Worth” It!
6. It’s funny that you asked your special question about dealing with sadness and despair, because Sister V. and I have been struggling with that a little bit lately. We have been going through a kind of “mourning phase” since we lost one of our golden investigators, J. We don’t know what happened to him, but he has been avoiding us for the last 3 weeks. We really don’t know why. We have talked to him a couple times on the phone, and a couple times in the street, but he is so different now from the person we met several weeks ago. We have been so sad, and down on ourselves, and it’s like we don’t know where to go or what to do. Let’s just say it “really threw us for a loop”. But something that has helped me a lot is knowing that the Lord is in charge. He cares for all of his children, and even though they make choices he may not agree with, he still will prepare another opportunity for them to learn, and to grow. I have also taken comfort in the scriptures. This morning I read Alma 28, and it was perfect for me. It talks about a huge battle that takes place and lots of people die. The people that are still living, that lost loved ones, are mourning their losses. In verse 6 it talks about how they were sorrowful, and it was a solemn day, but it was also a time of fasting and prayer. They turned to the Lord in their time of need. Then in verse 8, it talks about the experiences of Ammon and his brethren (who were missionaries at this time, serving in that place) and how they had sufferings, sorrows, and afflictions, and yet they also had “incomprehensible joy”. Even though they had hard times, being a missionary brings them the most joy out of anything. That is something that I have definitely seen in my time as a missionary. Then there was a verse I really loved in Alma 29, verse 13. It says, “…And that same God hath called me by a holy calling, to preach the word unto this people, and hath given me much success, in the which my joy is full.” I then started to read through the list of people I have seen baptized. I have watched people come closer to Christ, and seen them make covenants with Him, and that is enough to bring me joy at this time. Life as a missionary is hard. People let you down, people break your heart, people reject you. But there are people out there who are earnestly searching for the gospel, and when you meet them, and help them make changes in their life for the better, it is indescribable the way you feel. (“My cup runneth over” as the grandma says in Hope Floats) So it is not completely okay that J. wants nothing to do with us, but I feel blessed to have had the experiences I do, and I wouldn’t trade them for anything.
Howzit-Elder Flexy!
Mama,
Baba,
man my dads a lumber jack!!!
M,
happy birthday and yes tanner is a stud and i aprove of you spending time with him. hahahahahaha.
Love Elder Flexy
Family History Friday: Journals Are Amazing!
I wish I had always been good at writing in my journal. It seems that when I am struggling the most in my life, that’s when I don’t write very much. It’s usually a good time to write in a journal. One reason is that others can see how, or in what way things were hard, and how you worked, or made it through the struggle. Of course, some things we go through in life are much harder than others. And some people go through unbelievable difficulties and hardship, even life or death experiences. If you had an ancestor who went through something so difficult in their life that it changed them forever, that it changed the whole world forever, wouldn’t it be amazing if they wrote it down. I think so.
Here is neat thing I found at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s website, at the Curator’s Corner. This video will tell you about it.
How wonderful and amazing that these people wrote their experience down. Now we all can hear about it. Journals really are amazing!
Happy Family History Friday! Love, Joy
“Bonus Baby” is an Adult!
I can’t believe it.
My sweet little “Bonus Baby” was born 18 years ago today.
Tonight I have been watching the video from when she was born. How fun! I haven’t seen it in a while. Now she is graduating from high school. Time flies!
Happy Birthday to my baby, Emily!
I love you so much, and I am so happy to be your Mama!