Dear Flammly, There are no true endings. . .

. . .only everlasting beginnings.

September 24, 2023

Snowflake, Arizona

You can thank Exacto for the noble pictures of Rosehips 😁

Dear Flammly, 

It's autumn time! I started my new toothbrush yesterday. :) So far, no real color changes in the trees and the weather has been strange -- weirdly windy for this time of year, giving it the air a sort of hot and cold feel.

I had a great week. I rehearsed twice with the choirs for their upcoming concert (I need to practice!) and taught all my piano students. I have 7 students now, counting Rosehips! That's the most I've ever had, I think. 

For Family Home Evening we invited Nana and Grandpa to join us in making our traditional Conference Countdown pictures. We listened to conference music in the Church's Sacred Music app, and just settled in and quietly worked. It was lovely! 

The cottonwood by the well house got cut down this week. 😢

On Tuesday we had the special opportunity to participate in Laps for Logan, an event planned by our dear friends here who lost their adult son to suicide a few years ago. On the anniversary of his death, we gather at the high school track and walk laps, talking about mental health if we choose, and making an effort to connect with someone new. I loved getting to know a new friend and talking about our experiences with our children and mental health. It was an uplifting, encouraging time! 

And after that Rosehips and I met DC at the church for tithing declaration with our bishop. Hearing her declare that she was a full tithe payer brought me deep joy. He sent us home with a nice little loaf of homemade bread. :)

Wednesday evening I had Young Women work -- we met with the class presidency and took birthday treats to two of the girls. It felt a bit crazy squeezing so much in to just over an hour but it was super fun. On Saturday we had our class activity, playing kickball in the Boones' yard and having a caramel apple bar out of Duncan's trunk.

Thursday evening we had dinner at Nana's and Grandpa's (a leftovers extravaganza! :) and I just felt so grateful and happy to be able to spend time there with them. Then we had a great flammly video call, thank you so much! I love reconnecting with Russell and Ham in their respective lives away from home. 

Friday I had a delightful conversation with our beloved Janice for her birthday. I am so, so grateful for her in my life! To have a friend like her who knows me so well and loves me so much, and who has wisdom of older years, is just a treasure I thank Heavenly Father for!

Exacto and I ran three times this week, including the whole Knoll Trail on Friday 💪

Also Rosehips and I got our autumn groove going and did some baking while watching a Hallmark autumn movie. Super fun! That evening we studied 1 Nephi 18 and played Packesel together and watched some Bluey and the first half of Elemental. (DC hasn't seen it yet).

Yesterday was a full, happy day. We had the honor of joining McCleve relatives for the placing of my Uncle John's headstone in the Snowflake Cemetery. I loved being there talking to cousins and seeing their adorable children, as we watched and helped the monument workers place the granite base and then the beautiful headstone Aunt Laura had designed. I love the words she chose to put on it: "Live for the Reunion" and " There are no true endings, only everlasting beginnings."

Grandpa performed an amazing act of love and invited the whole group to a hot meal afterward! He made chicken enchiladas with rice and beans and chips and salsa for about 70 people and Nana made a huge salad and we helped them set it up at Pioneer Park and then take it down afterwards. I loved seeing them serve like that -- it was celestial material for sure! 

That evening DC and I joined our game night friends for Tsuro with expansion pack, some hilarious rounds of Secret Hitler, and then Qwirkle. We brought the remnants of the caramel apple bar from the YW activity, and it was of course well received. 😋 Such a fun evening! 

This morning in our family gospel study we watched two Book of Mormon videos (this one and this one) and Rosehips shared some thoughts about Lehi's family and their journey to the promised land and prophets. 

It was a more difficult journey than it had to be because they stopped being willing to listen to the prophet and to believe that what he was telling them was what God wanted him to tell them. She said that it's like that for us, too, that if we will listen to the prophet and believe that he's telling us what God wants him to, we will have peace and safety during our life. 

I am so grateful for God calling a prophet for us and speaking through him! I can't wait to hear him next weekend! If we will be humble enough to really listen and repent, the Lord can deliver us from the extra-hard parts of our life. 

I love you all so much!

Love,

Mommy / Michelle

faith stronger than sight

 

The Lord is my light

though clouds may arise.

Faith, stronger than sight,

looks up through the skies

where Jesus forever in glory doth reign

Then how can I ever in darkness remain?

The Lord is my light; He is my joy and my song.

By day and by night He leads me along.

Waffles, wigglesticking, and WEB

Here's an unfinished one from a couple weeks ago. . . Still fun to read, hopefully!

August 13, 2023

Snowflake, Arizona

Dear Flammly,

Waffles in the park was great! (were great?) We did it in the evening, since DC had already gone back to work, and we invited Nana and Grandpa. After the waffles was wigglesticking on the basketball court -- the kids are amazing at that! I wish I could do it. I have tried, really hard, but I think I'm too old, plus too uncoordinated to begin with.

Then it was just the final stretch to school starting, and goodbye to our freedom. This summer felt exceptionally short to me, and I really wished there were another month or two still. 

But this year Rosehips is in 8th grade, and she served as a "WEB leader." WEB stands for Where Everyone Belongs; it means a group of 8th grade leaders help groups of 7th graders coming into the junior high to transition happily. 

I was so proud of this girl of ours! She made many phonecalls to actually talk, like out loud, not text, to people she had never met and invite them to orientation. She went to hours of training and preparation, and even taught us one of the games so she could practice with us. 

On Tuesday (the day before school started) she helped with a 4-hour orientation activity for the incoming 7th graders. And then on the first day of school she donned her yellow WEB leader shirt again and went early (well, she tried -- she actually had to wait on me because I forgot how early we'd need to have breakfast!) to help "sevvies" find their classes. What a gem she is! I loved seeing her ready to serve and reach out to people -- beautiful girl!

  

Dear Flammly, Thanks for raising your mom!

August 27, 2023

Snowflake, Arizona

Dear Flammly,

The past two weeks have been growing ones. I think I am growing up as a parent! It sounds ironic, but Elder Uchtdorf said: "And children, thank you for everything you’re doing to raise your parents, because as every parent knows, we often learn as much from our children about faith, hope, and charity as they learn from us!"

The last week before Ham left to go back to college was a strange combination of stressful and fun. Stressful for me, because I was worried about his being mentally healthy enough to live on his own again, and fun for all of us I think, because we did things "before you leave." 

Japanese and Spanish study. Exacto and I started studying Japanese with Memrise back in May, and Ham joined us during the summer. With Spanish I was also using Memrise but it wasn't proving super helpful. Maybe because of my unique background of growing up with hearing it tons but never studying enough to gain fluency. So I started just conjugating verbs, doing several each time I studied, and also reading Sapo y Sepo, Inseparables, and Ham helped me with both of those. His Spanish is amazing for only having a few semesters -- he studied a bunch with Nana and Grandpa during the pandemic and also has had Spanish-speaking friends over WhatsApp in Uruguay and Mexico. 

We helped with the annual Community Cleanup, picking up trash near Highland Primary. We did haircuts, with the traditional root beer floats afterward. We finished two books we'd been reading together-- The Door in the Wall, and The Year of Miss Agnes -- during a monsoon downpour while we sat on the front porch. Ham helped me for hours to figure out the best way to move pictures from my phone to the computer. He and Exacto have learned a ton about technology and programming lately, and it's coming in quite handy!

The night before we were taking him to Thatcher, Nana and Grandpa took us all out to dinner in H's honor, and he got to choose the restaurant -- Eva's! It was raining as we got there, and it was cozy to sit and eat hot, delicious Mexican food and be together. H and I shared a fried ice cream. Then we were so full we could hardly stand the thought of squeezing back into the car so we went for a walk in the twilight drippiness up Back Street, jumping over puddles and the river next to the curb. 

Saturday (8/19) Rosehips and Exacto stayed home (and spent some happy time with Nana and Grandpa) while DC and I drove with Ham the 3 hours and 15 minutes to Eastern Arizona College. He checked into his dorm room and my anxiety level, despite my best efforts, was considerably high. It felt like all the things that were wrong at the end of his last semester there were still wrong, and I was afraid he was going to slip back down into the low place he had fallen into then. I told him he didn't have to stay! He really wanted to, though, and tried to assure me it would be okay.

I went outside by myself (partly to avoid scantily clad young men who were needing to go from the showers to their room!) and prayed and read DFU's talk again. I started feeling calmer, and a thought came to me that I needed to look for the good. He does have a roommate now (he didn't last semester); the athletes and other people he's sharing the hallway with, although I perceive them as rough around the edges, are nice people; the institute program there is strong and thriving; he already has a job. . . 

We walked to the biology lab and luckily it was open, so DC got to meet the professor H works with and even see Jafar, the huge snake with an ominous lump in its middle, having just consumed a live chicken. We went to the institute building (beautiful!) and DC gave H a priesthood blessing. A feeling of deep peace and assurance came to me. Heavenly Father is aware. He loves us. All will be well.

We had dinner at La Casita, got a few things at Walmart (so fun to treat our college kids sometimes!), and then said goodbye back at the dorms. We drove home -- only if you have dropped off a young adult child to live far away from home do you know what this can feel like 😭 -- and talked and talked on the way. 

This first week back to just 4 of us at home was good! I settled more into my rouzine for this fall, and enjoyed the process of tweaking it and adjusting the balance. I'm always hunting for the perfect schedule for my days and I love trying different things out and seeing what works in this particular season.

We had a family birthday party celebrating the 47th birthday of Nana's and Grandpa's family. Grandpa served a delicious fancy dinner, and Aunt Amanda brought her famous chocolate cake and we even lit candles and sang to them. 

Did some work in the basement finally! The mice disaster down there is getting cleaned up, and I have hope again for that area of the house. 

There was lots more rain, including when we were supposed to be doing a water balloon Human Battleship activity for YW! (But the alternate activity of watching the Youth Music and Arts Festival at Danica's house with hot cocoa was really fun!)

Exacto and I had several nice runs on the Knoll Trail, including our first one to go the entire length of it. Also we are studying together on a free class from Yale called Moral Foundations of Politics that I am really loving, especially with E's help. He made some good progress on the dry-stack retaining wall in the backyard (it is beautiful!) and I got a maple tree planted in our flower bed. 

I was grateful to hear that H made it to all his classes that first day and was happy with them. And then Thursday evening he called and we talked for a while, and he told me not to worry, that he was doing well! Those things and my therapy appointment on Friday led to the realization that it's okay, I can grow up now. 

What you can and must do for the rising generation is provide rich, nourishing soil with access to flowing heavenly water. Remove weeds and anything that would block heavenly sunlight. Create the best possible conditions for growth. Patiently allow the rising generation to make inspired choices, and let God work His miracle. The result will be more beautiful and more stunning and more joyful than anything you could accomplish just by yourself.

I loved my date with DC on Friday night, going to the temple and then an adventure getting ice cream (Snowflake is crazier than you'd think on a Friday night!). And I loved our Saturday at home yesterday, especially lingering after breakfast to hear Rosehips and Exacto tell funny memories from when they were little, working with Rosehips on organizing her new tote with special papers, harvesting 5.7 lbs cherry tomatoes and roughly 127 lbs. of zucchini with Exacto, and a delightful video call with Fluffy, excited about our upcoming visit to Provo. 

Life is good. I love each of you with all my heart!

Mommy

Quotable
8/16
Grandpa, regarding sensitivity: "We need to be more like nectarines and less like peaches."

Dear Flammly, The reunion was great!

August 6, 2023

Snowflake, Arizona

Dear Flammly,

I've gotten to spend time with all of you during these last three weeks and I have LOVED it! Thank you for coming to visit for a couple weeks, Fluffy! Enjoying having Exacto here for a little while longer before he heads out for a research job and Ham for two more weeks until he returns to Thatcher for school. And so glad that Rosehips is only in 8th grade and we still get years with her home! 

It was a great Bailey reunion. We had my brother Russ and his kids and my brother Mark and his family sleeping here at our house, which was soooo fun. Actually one of the highlights of the whole reunion for me was having my little 3yo nephew H come out in the mornings, saying, "I sleep at Aunt Shell's house!" and sitting on the stairs and just chatting, etc. It was sooo sweet! 

DC and I slept in the brand-new basement bedroom that was just barely almost finished just in time. There's a ton of natural light down there for it being a basement room, and it was still nice and cool. (Our house has no central cooling system). 

The meals turned out fine, I think! There was a ton of help from my siblings and their families, and on Friday night we got Samoan food from a lovely local family with a food truck (The Best!). Some of my favorite foods we served: oven scrambled eggs and blueberry pancakes, funfetti bars, taco salad with lentil chili, biscuits and gravy, the cookout with hamburgers and hot dogs. . . okay, I'm fasting right now so I'd better stop! 🤤

Favorite activities: watching Emperor's New Groove outside on the grass and having Doug and Carmen bring us s'mores while we lounged (there I go again! 😂), NINE-SQUARE! (this has become an epic tradition at our reunions and this year did not disappoint), water balloon volleyball with our families as teams and then dodgeball, water bottle rockets with Grandpa and also his spoonerist fairy tales, the fun crossword puzzle my sister Mandy made with family names, the devotionals (especially Nana's and Heather's), pushing H on the baby swing at sunset, having E teach me how to play Slapjack, and just talking and talking with all those beautiful people I love so deeply.

This Bailey family we belong to has problems like everyone else. We don't all agree all the time (do we ever all agree? haha!) but we definitely love each other a lot. I think each one of us would do just about anything for any other member of the family. I am super grateful for the strength and influence of the adult members of the family on my children. Ham's cockroach habitat had interested visitors, and a couple of people helped him practice job interview questions for his interview at Sonic that happened during the reunion. There were late night conversations and hugs and real questions about life. So, so grateful for all of them!

Fluffy arrived with Uncle DJ and Aunt Heather's family the day the Bailey reunion started and he stayed about 2 1/2 weeks. I think home was just what he needed after a really tough few months.

He soaked in a ton of extended family time, especially with Mandy's family staying an extra week after the reunion. He went running with Grandpa (even came in 1st overall at the Pioneer Days 10K!), practiced the piano, and got his laptop all organized for the new semester (Exacto and Ham helped install Linux on it!). There were late-night cousin game nights and flammly scripture study and FHE and temple trips. It was just SO nice to have all my living children home for a while and to feel more connected as a flammly again!

We did lots with Nana and Grandpa and Mandy's family. . . Cover Your Cookies (always with real cookies at the end -- the loser picks first! :), marshmallow roasting at the firepit, ramada meals together (except when it was too hot), pickleball, the Rim Trail with lunch afterward at The House, swimming while watching Moana projected onto the wall, and Pioneer Days.

Pioneer Days in Snowflake are the biggest celebration of the year. Our little town of about 6000 swells by several more thousand as people come up from the excruciatingly hot Phoenix Valley and have huge family reunions and there's tons of activities for a couple of days. We went to the parade and rodeo (so fun!) and the Arts & Crafts Fair (we loved the Sonoran Scavengers booth and also the Hawaiian clothes - Mom bought me a huge comfy romper 😍). It was unusually hot -- we've had kind of a bummer monsoon season this year -- but we would nap and cool off then head out for more.

Exacto and I ran in the Pioneer Days 5K and Fluffy and Grandpa did the 10K. It was Exacto's first-ever official race, and I loved running with him! Even though the course was a bit brutal (rocky, hilly, sandy) we talked happily and saw the beautiful nature and the lovely view of the temple and it was really fun. 

Rosehips went with her older cousin A to the youth dance and had a really fun time too! (Until some kid threw a firework into the mosh pit. Not cool!) They both came home happy and telling all the details -- I loved it.

I came down with a nasty virus (or maybe it was bacterial after all?) the next Sunday and was coughing, having trouble sleeping, feverish / achy, ears clogged for the next few days. The fatigue and clogged ears have lasted a couple of weeks. Luckily I was only out of commission for a few days and was still able to get back to enjoying this precious family time soon. (Not like last year when I got covid during the only time Fluffy was visiting! 😓)

We had to delay it a couple days, but I was even still able to sing at our first-ever End-of-Summer Flammly Recital! The idea came from Tasia's family -- they practice their instruments all summer and then they all perform what they worked on. We performed at Nana's and Grandpa's house and invited Grandpa to perform on the piano, too. 

Here was our program for this first one:

DC - Bach E major partita movement Gavotte and rondeau - solo violin

Fluffy - Brahms A major intermezzo Op 118 No 2 - solo piano

Rosehips and me - The Lord is My Light (gorgeous setting by Rachel Mohlman) and Come to My Garden from "The Secret Garden" - vocal duet, with Fluffy accompanying and Ham page-turning

Grandpa - Promenade from "Pictures at an Exhibition" - solo piano

DC and me - Brahms sonata in G major, 1st movment - piano and violin, Exacto page-turning

The performance was really fun, but even more fun was the practicing to get ready! I really loved giving myself the time to do this. Usually I think that's for fun, and I should wait till all the work is done before I go play the piano or sing. But I could see how doing something creative like that every day, even before the work was done, brought me joy and more mental strength. I think it helped me be able to work better later! 

Also it was happy "bondy" time for me and Rosehips and me and DC and later with our accompanist and pageturners. 

More happy bondy time was doing "stowies" with my chilluns. Exacto and Rosehips and I finished The Hobbit and are now well into Fellowship of the Ring. DC and I also read together at night before going to sleep -- we've done it for years now -- and we finished Fierce Marriage, a book I gave him for Christmas. (I do recommend for Christian couples!) We're loving reading his Grandpa Green's letters from World War II, also. 

Rosehips and I have been steadily watching all of The Chosen and LOVING it! I was very skeptical at first -- I didn't ever plan to watch it -- I suspected it would be too casual a treatment of people / things that are sacred to me. But my friend Danica assured me that Jesus is always portrayed with respect and she thought I would actually really like the series. So we watched the first three episodes with Danica's family and then I watched some more with DC and now Rosehips and I have run ahead and are into Season 3. I really, really love it. Not every thing about it, but almost everything. It is so cool to see and think more about how Jesus might respond to little real life things. To see His unfailing love for every single person, even the annoying ones, portrayed. To see His disciples struggle with the same things I struggle with. I feel like it makes me think more often about Him and it makes His involvement in my  life seem more actual and real. 

There are many parts and quotes I love, but one of my favorite moments is from the episode with the man being lowered from the roof by his friends to be healed. It's a chaotic moment -- for the first time a large crowd is gathering to try to hear Jesus. Some are afraid it's about to cause the Romans to get involved and punish them. Some are Pharisees demanding answers to angry questions. And Jesus pauses to look up at one of the paralyzed man's friends, a woman from Ethiopia, who has been so desperate to get her friend to Jesus. He says to her: "Your faith is beautiful."

I know that the scriptures don't record Him ever saying those actual words. But I felt the Spirit tell me that He does feel that way. That our faith is beautiful to Him!

I love you all so much! Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Mommy

aka Michelle

P.S. Nana and Grandpa received their mission call two weeks ago, and it was strange but kind of appropriate to watch it over Zoom (due to my illness). We watched from the front porch as they read it -- Ecuador Guayaquil West Mission for 18 months, entering the Provo MTC on November 27! I am so proud of them, both for their willingness to serve and for the talents and strength they will bring to their service! I'm sure I'll share more thoughts as we get closer to their departure.

Quotables

7/27 - After Fluffy finished playing his Brahms intermezzo at the flammly recital, we paused because of the sheer beauty of it, then clapped. Ham: "I almost said amen!"

7/11

Ham: "My brain is as tired as a 10-year-old Chromebook. . . .that still has its original operating system."

Dear Flammly, our parakeet likes Enya. . .

July 9, 2023

Snowflake, Arizona

Dear Flammly,

Lots of work and lots of learning this week. Also lots of joy! Family members are already starting to arrive for the reunion that officially starts on Wednesday evening, and it has been fun to be with them and especially to have lots of time with Nana and Grandpa this week.

The 4th of July was full of yummy food! We went to a flag-raising by the Main Street Chapel in the morning, and then came home for freedom toast with Nana and Grandpa. (Usually we go to Show Low and do that with the Baileys there, but there was illness and we stayed in Snowflake). 

I loved working all together in our kitchen to prepare food for the cookout. Each of us chose part of it to work on, and it turned out soooo yummy! We had hot dogs with pico de gallo, coleslaw, broccoli salad, grilled veggie kabobs, root beer, mac and cheese, and homemade ice cream. The weather was weirdly hot and windy, so we ended up eating inside.

Then we went swimming, just us and Nana and Grandpa. I was trying to keep my hair dry, but the others played Monkey-in-the-Middle. 

Other highlights of the week:

Going to the temple with DC on Wednesday. It had been a while since I did an endowment session, and I learned so much and felt love from Heavenly Father so clearly! I am really grateful for a couple of things the Spirit taught me, too, that are helping me with problems I've been facing. 

A sweet little Young Women class activity at my parents' pool. Only 4 girls came, but one of their moms filled in for the other leader and I loved sitting and visiting with her while the girls swam and frolicked in the water. 

Enjoying a "Super Dad" date with my Dad (it was my Father's Day gift for him 😊). We went running on the S Trail (I was relieved it went well -- Dad just ran his 14th marathon in June and I've only been running about 20 minutes regularly!) and then we got breakfast at Cupido's. It was so fun to spend that time together! My Dad is one of my most favorite people in the world -- I feel soooo lucky to have him!

An outstanding FHE lesson from Rosehips, reading from the Book of Mormon (Alma, Amulek, Zeezrom) and sharing her thoughts and testimony and watching the video to go with it. The Spirit was strong! It was so awesome!

Having our traditional post-haircut root beer floats on the front porch in the windy heat.

A moonlight walk with Ham. He's been on such a late schedule -- he was literally nocturnal for the last part of the semester, and is still having trouble getting to sleep before the wee sma's. I took a nap that day so I could stay up late with him and talk when he was feeling awake. The full moon on the desert landscape after a long, hot day is a breathtaking, unforgettable thing.

Running with Exacto. Yesterday we did about 3 1/2 miles and he told me about the Navajo creation story and also how the stars were placed so randomly over the sky. He took Navajo during his last semester at BYU and really enjoys learning more about that culture and its history. 

Watching My Hero Academia with Ham. Not sure how much DC likes it, especially since he's on a super early schedule and is always falling asleep by the time we start watching, but it's still bonding time for the flammly, I guess! 😪😂

Progress on the basement bedroom project. Drywall was finished this week, then painting, then the flooring got started yesterday. We've been hoping to use the room for people to stay in during the reunion, but we'll see! 🤞

Rosehips helping me make a busload of whole-wheat pancakes for the reunion (multiplied this recipe times 17!). And practicing our duets together for the flammly recital. 

Dinner at the ramada with about half the Bailey family, including my sweet brother and his family here from Wisconsin! I loved pushing little 3yo H on the swing. He's a smart cookie and we talked about all the things we could see from there. Last night we had dinner at Streets on Main and it was so yummy and fun. We came home and had s'mores (or just a couple of sugar-free marshmallows, in my case) by the fire pit. 

Yesterday I had a migraine and spent most of the day in bed. (That was not a highlight, btw.)

I have been reaching for heaven a lot, needing help with knowing how to be a parent to adult children. I realized this week that I have been trying to coach--or even manage--their choices way too much. These grown-up sons of mine are smart and they are good! I love the people they have become and are still becoming! And they were God's children before they were ever mine. He is totally aware of what experiences they need and what choices they are making, and He loves them even more completely than I do (that part is hard to imagine). 

I just get to keep loving them and cheering them on. I have had a couple of ideas come to me of things I can do that would be good in supporting them. But mostly I need to watch and love, not judge, pray hard, and then let Him work in their lives as they choose to let Him. 

E, F, and H, if y'all ever do want advice about anything, you can ask! 😅 And I am always here for you with love. Always.

A quote from C.S. Lewis this time. I just finished reading his Letters to Children, which I highly recommend. Such a lovely peek into his life and mind!

This is from just a few weeks before his death, in November 1963:

Dear Ruth. . . ,

    Many thanks for your kind letter, and it was very good of you to write and tell me that you like my books; and what a very good letter you write for your age!

    If you continue to love Jesus, nothing much can go wrong with you, and I hope you may always do so. I'm so thankful that you realized [the] "hidden story" in the Narnian books. It is odd, children nearly always do, grown-ups hardly ever.

I love that -- "If you continue to love Jesus, nothing much can go wrong with you, and I hope you may always do so." 

He is so good! I love Him with all my heart for His watchful care over me and all the good things in my life.

Love to each of you,

Mommy

P.S. Another letter excerpt that made me giggle:

Dear Martin,

    Thanks for your letter of the 15th. You don't tell me how your sister is; be sure to mention this the next time you write. I think your proposed metre is far too rollicking and comic for any original in so solemn a metre as the Virgilian hexameter. To such a time as yours I would put only works like

    "A pound of that cheese and an ounce of the butter," Aeneas replied with his usual stutter.

Makes me think of the poem ChatGPT wrote for your prompt "Tell about a pingpong match in the style of the Iliad." 😆

P.P.S. This afternoon after church, Johann was shrieking relentlessly for no apparent reason. I was about to cause another "solar eclipse" (this is when the parakeets get temporarily banished to the bathroom with the door shut), but Exacto turned on some Enya for him and he switched to warbling! This song seemed to work the best (Orinoco Flow was maybe too rhythmic and he fell out of his trance). . .

!Querida Flammilia, Hoy tenemos tortas!

July 2, 2023

Fast Sunday

Snowflake, Arizona

Querida flammilia y amigos,

It has been such a nice week, with the Baker family reunion at the beginning of it, and Independence Day celebrating at the end of it, and a quick trip to the Valley in between!

DC was in charge of the reunion this year, and it was so nice to have it close to where we live. We stayed at the absolutely lovely Lazy Oaks Resort on Rainbow Lake in Pinetop-Lakeside. We each had our own little cabin (ours was the Poplars), and there was a grassy shaded area with picnic tables and a swing where we could gather all together for meals and evening stuff. There was access to kayaks and life jackets, and that was my favorite part, I think, just going out on the lake and seeing all the birds -- swallows and cormorants and herons and eagles. 

Exacto, Fluffy, and Rosehips all went on the lake early Monday morning and saw herons skydiving into the water to catch fish! Hummer and a cousin kayaked out to the middle where a dead tree poked up out of the lake and they took turns climbing it and not dropping their phones in the lake! (I DID drop my phone in the lake and it's okay now. . . do you want to hear the story?)

Rosehips and I went on a long, long kayaking trip and had the best heart-to-heart talk on the way and the n the toughest time getting back because the wind had come up and there were pretty high wave peaks. We were so strong! We made it eventually! 

I love DC's family. We have been married longer than anyone else in the family except Grandma and Grandpa Baker, and since I was married at the shockingly young age of 19, I've kind of grown up with his family, too. They are a down-to-earth, funny, creative, loving, widely varied, really kind bunch of people, and I'm happy to be part of them! 

Breakfasts and lunches were mostly on our own in our own little cabins, but dinners were together and the older cousins loved to stay up late playing games together. One of my brothers-in-law brought a screen and a projector, so there was also a family history slideshow and a special video celebrating Grandma and Grandpa's 50th wedding anniversary (happened 3 years ago during covid so we still hadn't really celebrated together).

I loved that we still had a group scripture study every night with the ones who wanted to join and the ones who didn't want were not pressured or made to feel bad, just invited. I loved that some went on the little hike together and some didn't but everyone wanted to be at the slideshow and special video. I loved hearing my sister-in-law of another faith pray like Jesus was standing right in front of her. I loved talking to my beautiful Italian sister-in-law who was just baptized a few years ago about her love for the temple. There's just a strong feeling of acceptance and real joy in being together, despite different choices family members have made. 

Wednesday morning we had the extended goodbyes that is traditional in DC's family. There's an unwritten rule that you can't leave until you have hugged every single person and talked to them individually, and it's the sweetest thing but it takes forever and I'm the type of person who hates saying goodbye so it just feels like slowly pulling duct tape off my arm but I know it's because they love each other and me so I try to calm down and just feel the love, lol!

So grateful everyone had a happy time and all the travel went safely and that we got to be together again!

Friday I went with Ham and Exacto to The Great Valley so that H could have a therapy appointment. I am so, so glad he's trying to take care of his health! It's been a tough year for him so far. We got yummy Salad-and-Go and went to Hobby Lobby before heading back up the mountain, and H and I enjoyed some crocheting on the way back (he started a harness for Arthur 🐇 and I started my first amigumuri project) while Exacto drove. It was fun to read out loud lots of  The Year of Miss Agnes, too. 

Yesterday it was nice to be home and finally get more work done on planning the food for my family's reunion which starts in less than two weeks! 😨 And then in the evening we went to the Taylor Rodeo. Nana says her Daddy used to take her and her sisters every year, after buying them new Wranglers at the store. She loves going, and even invited us to come early to save our seats and watch people. 

I was a little hesitant because ever since the pandemic and the political ugliness that began around that time, I've been a little afraid to be at a rodeo. But I wanted to spend time with my Mom and I knew it was important to her, so I went, and I'm so glad! It was delightful! It never got too political and the rodeo events were really cool (there was a new breakaway women's calf-roping event I'd never seen before) and it was the most love I have felt for my country in a long time. 

I've always been patriotic, but the word had started to take on a disagreeable tinge over the past few years and I think I'd started to forget its true meaning. Last night as I pledged allegiance and sang the national anthem with 9000 people and then watched the fireworks and sang I'm Proud to Be An American, my heart felt full of gratitude and love for this truly amazing country I was lucky enough to be born into. And then the next song was I Love You, Arizona and I got super teary! 

Dad and DC brought us ham tortas from Cupidos, and we sat near some people from Tucson that were super nice and fun to talk to (we cheered for the cowboy from Marana together!) and Ham got excited about the macarena song because it sounded like everyone was singing about cicadas, lol (Pacarina shoemakeri).

I am thoughtful this morning about influence and agency and parenting and "the joy of the saints." 

As a disciple of Jesus and a mother, how do I "feed His sheep" if the sheep maybe doesn't want to be fed? 

I have a new perspective on that after DC sharing some of his thoughts this morning. He said "feed His sheep" makes him think of the tree in Lehi's dream. The tree had shining, white fruit, and represented the love of God. We can eat the fruit and experience the love of God and invite our family and friends to do that, too. We can share the love of God ourselves! Maybe others can feel His love through us, and that is feeding His sheep!

And I looked and beheld the virgin again, bearing a child in her arms.

And the angel said unto me: Behold the Lamb of God, yea, even the Son of the Eternal Father! Knowest thou the meaning of the tree which thy father saw?

And I answered him, saying: Yea, it is the love of God, which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore, it is the most desirable above all things.

And he spake unto me, saying: Yea, and the most joyous to the soul.

~ 1 Nephi 11:20-23

And so, please always remember: 

👉You are most likely to be happy when you are living by the teachings of Jesus Christ! 

Live His gospel and have fun, too!

Love,

Mommy