Christmas in July

“I believe there is one story in the world, and only one, that has frightened and inspired us, so we live in a Pearl White serial of continuing thought and wonder. Humans are caught - in their lives, in their thoughts, in their hungers and ambitions, in their avarice and cruelty, and in their kindness and generosity too - in a net of good and evil. I think this is the only story we have and it occurs on all levels of feeling and intelligence. Virtue and vice were warp and woof of our first consciousness, and they’ll be the fabric of our last, and this despite any changes we may impose on field and river and mountain, on economy and manners. There is no other story. A man, after he’s brushed off the dust and chips of life, will have left only the hard, clean questions: Was it good or evil? Have I done well, or ill?” – John Steinbeck

Big Bad Wolf

Earlier this month the West Valley City police got a call just before midnight. Nicole and her family were in town visiting relatives. She’d just checked on the kids who were all in sleeping bags in the basement. Somehow her young son Talon was not among them. All the adults frantically searched the house, the garage and the yard: no Talon. Police arrived and did a thorough search as well. They were just beginning to canvas the neighborhood when Beau – a search and rescue dog – arrived on the scene. Beau was brought to the basement so he could get Talon’s scent from his empty sleeping bag. Beau went straight from there to Talon’s sister’s bag and sniffed at it. Beau began nudging a small lump no one had noticed in the bottom of her bag. The bag was unzipped, revealing Talon, curled up and fast asleep. I’m sure there are times when our canine friends must think we’re pretty stupid.

Sixteen Pineapple Blocks

“Every person in every era has had to walk by faith into what has always been some uncertainty. This is the plan. Just be faithful. God is in charge. He knows your name and He knows your need. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ—that is the first principle of the gospel. We must go forward. God expects you to have enough faith, determination, and trust in Him to keep moving, keep living, keep rejoicing. He expects you not simply to face the future; He expects you to embrace and shape the future—to love it, rejoice in it, and delight in your opportunities. God is eagerly waiting for the chance to answer your prayers and fulfill your dreams, just as He always has. But He can’t if you don’t pray, and He can’t if you don’t dream. In short, He can’t if you don’t believe.” - Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

Framed Cardinal

“I propose that the reading and understanding of music be taught to our children from the very beginning of their school life; that they learn to participate with enthusiasm in the study of music from kindergarten through high school. No child is tone deaf; every child has the natural ability and desire to assimilate musical ideas and comprehend their combinations into musical forms. Every child can be taught to read music as he or she is taught to read words; and there is no reason why both kinds of reading cannot be taught simultaneously. Children must receive musical instruction as naturally as food, and with as much pleasure as they derive from a baseball game. And this must happen from the beginning of their school lives.” – Leonard Bernstein

Monique's Chain

 I don’t do my best work when I’m against a deadline. But somehow it seems a looming deadline’s the only thing that motivates me. Beauty and the Beast opened at Murray Amphitheater last night. I’ve had the music for months, but I didn’t knuckle down and work – really work – on the piano score until about a week ago. The Quilt Etc. block-of-the-month top is due the first Saturday morning in September. I only finished it in time this year because my niece’s wedding pushed that target date to the middle of May. Stake conference is less than four weeks away; not enough time to learn the complicated hymns I’ve been assigned. And there are only thirty-four days left before I have to turn in the state fair challenge quilt that’s still in pieces on my design wall. Eek! I really hate spending my days in a mild state of panic. But it seems to be the only state I know.

Four Shutterbugs

Quilting Rules:

Measure twice, cut once.

Don't ask me to hem your skirt or mend your trousers.

If a horseman galloping by can’t see your mistake, it isn’t one.

Always have an extra full bobbin on hand, just in case.

Fat quarters are not body parts.

Get to know your sewing machine.

Cats think they’re helping. They’re really not.

Don’t use the fabric scissors for anything else.

Sewing day and night is allowed. Housework is optional.

It’s not a goof. It’s a creative license.

Never, ever bleed on the fabric.

Always do the best you can, until you know better.

If you stitch fast enough, it counts as aerobic exercise.

Enjoy the moment you’re in, even if you’re ripping out stitches.

Four Cedars

At the mouth of Salt Lake’s Emigration Canyon stands a monument called “This Is the Place.” In 1927 a commission comprised of representatives of various faiths selected Mahonri M. Young, Brigham Young’s grandson, to design this monument to be finished in time for the 100th anniversary of the pioneers’ arrival here. Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball and Wilford Woodruff are on the top of the monument of course, but there are a number of “gentiles” honored here as well. Among them are the Spanish Catholic priests who came to this area in 1776. Also depicted are mountain man/fur trader Etienne Provost, Shoshone Chief Washakie, Captain Benjamin Bonneville, Father Jan DeSmet, and explorers Peter Skene Ogden and John C. Fremont. The faithful who fled persecution and made the desert “rejoice and blossom as the rose” deserve to be remembered and revered. But it’s important to keep in mind that they’re not the only ones who made Utah what it is today.

Four Crazy Annas

September 19, 2017 a 7.1 earthquake shook Mexico City, killing 370 people and injuring some 6,000. Dozens of buildings collapsed, including an elementary/secondary school named for Swiss educator Heinrich Rebsamen. Reports emerged of a girl still trapped in the school’s rubble. Frida Sofia had been found using a thermal scanner. She was twelve years old, and there were others alive with her. She was alert and communicating with her rescuers. They’d managed to get drinking water to her via a hose while they planned a safe way to set her free. The world held its collective breath. Then there were reports that she’d been rescued, with as many as five other children. Finally, the truth: there WAS no Frida Sofia. It wasn't a lie, exactly. No one had deliberately concocted or spread untruths. Her story – with all its details – was the product of a disconnect between reporters and rescue workers, and of our desperate need for a happy ending.

Four Home Treasures

“In modeling our ministering after Jesus Christ, it is important to remember that His efforts to love, lift, serve, and bless had a higher goal than meeting the immediate need. He clearly knew of their day-to-day needs and had compassion on their current suffering as He healed, fed, forgave, and taught. But He wanted to do more than take care of today. He wanted those around Him to follow Him, to know Him, and to reach their divine potential. As we seek to minister just as He did, we will be provided opportunities to forget self and lift others. These opportunities may often be inconvenient and test our desire to become more like the Master, whose greatest service of all, His infinite Atonement, was anything but convenient.” - Bishop W. Christopher Waddell

Christmas Cedars

Today marks the fiftieth anniversary of the first footsteps on the moon. Two members of Apollo 11 – Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin landed in the Sea of Tranquility while the third, Michael Collins, orbited in the command module. Moments after their landing, Aldrin radioed back to Earth, “I’d like to take this opportunity to ask every person listening in, whoever and wherever they may be, to pause for a moment and contemplate the events of the past few hours and to give thanks in his or her own way.” Then Buzz Aldrin — an elder at the Webster Presbyterian Church in Webster, Texas — switched off the radio, opened small plastic containers of bread and wine and read quietly from the New Testament. In an interview after they returned safely to the Earth, the astronaut reported, “The very first liquid ever poured on the moon, and the very first food eaten there, were the elements of communion.”

Shutterbug

The manager at the Hardee’s in Frankfort, Kentucky noticed something odd about the Honda Accord at the drive-through window. There was a tiny yellow tabby peeking out through a hole in the vehicle’s rear subframe. The kitten had ridden there all the way from Lexington and was hopelessly stuck. Even the fire department couldn’t free it. Luckily there was a Midas auto repair shop right next door. The mechanics there spent about an hour (and a lot of soap) separating the kitten from the car. The oddest part of the story is the kitty turned out to be a female – yellow tabbies are four times more likely to be male. They named her Marigold after King Midas’ unfortunate daughter in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Tale of King Midas and the Golden Touch” in A Wonder-Book for Boys and Girls (1852). Marigold has since been adopted. We sincerely hope she’s satisfied her curiosity – about cars, at least.

Cedars of Lebanon

For years when Stanley’s kids asked him, “What did you do in the war, Daddy?” he didn’t say much. He told them he blew up tanks. It wasn’t a lie, exactly. It just wasn’t the whole truth. Staff Sergeant Stanley Nance was a member of 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, also known as the Ghost Army; until fairly recently, one of the U.S. forces’ most closely guarded secrets. The Ghost Army is credited with shortening World War II by at least six months, and with saving tens of thousands of lives. And they did it all without firing a single bullet. They used truckloads of inflatable tanks (imagine bouncy castles with turrets and treads), huge speakers and other forms of theatrical trickery to fool the enemy into thinking the Allies were closer and more numerous than they really were. 101-year-old Stanley is one of just a handful of men still alive to tell the secret he guarded for so long.

Hansel

On July 17 1902, a 25-year-old engineer from Buffalo, New York developed the first modern air conditioner. Willis Carrier wasn’t trying to find a way to make people more comfortable during the hot summer months. Humidity in the air was causing an application problem for the Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographing and Publishing Company in Brooklyn. Willis was simply trying to find a way to make the air a little drier so sheets of paper wouldn’t swell or stick to one another. Most Americans today can’t imagine a world without air conditioning, unless they’ve experienced Europe during the summer. The prevailing attitude there is if you use A/C, you’ll get used to it. If you’re used to it, you’ll expect and even need it. As we visited patisseries filled with melting chocolates and stuffy, hot movie theaters, we could only scratch our heads in wonder.

Christmas Treasure

Elote or Mexican Street Corn is a popular dish on both sides of the border. It’s traditionally served grilled on a stick, so it can easily be eaten on the move. Here’s a more table-ready version. If you have a tough time finding cotija, you can substitute crumbled feta or grated Parmesan. You can add cilantro, but I never do.

Off-the-Cob Street Corn

1 tablespoon unsalted butter (I don’t even own the salted kind)

4 ears of corn, shucked and kernels removed (Or 3 to 4 cups of frozen corn)

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

3 ounces cotija cheese, crumbled

1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika

1 green onion stalk, finely chopped

Handful of chopped parsley

Salt and pepper to taste

In a cast iron skillet (Yes, it’s important) melt butter over medium heat then add corn. Cook 10 to 15 minutes, stirring constantly, until slightly browned. Watch out! The hot kernels can jump! Remove corn to a large bowl then mix in remaining ingredients. Serve warm.

Another Vintage Block

“‘Once upon a time’ promises something: a story of adventure and romance, a story of princesses and princes. It may include tales of courage, hope, and everlasting love. In many of these stories, nice overcomes mean and good overcomes evil. But perhaps most of all, I love it when we turn to the last page and our eyes reach the final lines and we see the enchanting words ‘And they lived happily ever after.’ Isn’t that what we all desire: to be the heroes and heroines of our own stories; to triumph over adversity; to experience life in all its beauty; and, in the end, to live happily ever after? The truth is, God knows how to get there! And He has created a map for you; He knows the way. We all search for happiness, and we all try to find our own ‘happily ever after.’ All you have to do is trust your Heavenly Father. Trust Him enough to follow His plan.” – President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Gretel

They were originally called “crochet and loop” closures; used to cinch together doublets and breeches in medieval England. “Hook and eye” closures have been used in bras since the late 1800’s. They give women the freedom to dress themselves: no one has to stand behind us and lace up our undergarments anymore. Someone at the Carolina Waterfowl Rescue group found an even more clever way to use hooks and eyes. When someone brings in a turtle with a broken shell (usually following an auto or boat accident) they glue wire hooks on either side of the break and lace straps through the hoops to pull the two sides together. The turtle can then be returned to the wild. After the break heals, the glue, hooks and straps slough off naturally. Carolina Waterfowl Rescue turned to social media to ask women to donate hooks from their old brassieres. They’ve since been flooded with donations, and now they’re sharing their bounty with other rescue groups.

Home Treasure

I guess at some point in our lives, we’ve all been there. Sam Baines was dissatisfied with his work and realized he didn’t yet qualify for the job he really wanted. He came to the decision that the best thing to do was to leave his call centre job in Sheffield, South Yorkshire to further his education. He needed to give written notice six weeks prior to leaving. That’s where Sam decided to get creative. He let management know his intentions with a bereavement card. He found a lovely white card with gold lettering that said, “So very sorry for your loss. Thinking of you at this difficult time.” With a black pen in tidy handwriting, he added, “My last day of work is the 28^th July. Love, Sam.” Sam’s coworker Hannah was so tickled with his joke she posted a photo of the card on Twitter. Let’s hope Sam’s boss has a good sense of humour, too.

Building Chains

Years ago I ran across a bunch of block-of-the-month kits in a quilt shop bargain bin. They had no instructions; just the block number and the name of the quilt. I found photos of the finished quilt online, and was able to backwards engineer the blocks. I snagged a finishing kit – also on sale – and started piecing intermediary blocks before realizing the finishing kit used a different color way from my blocks. I bought another, finished the quilt top and gave it to the hospital quilters in 2015. The “wrong” finishing kit languished in a closet until this year, when I donated some of the fabric for a youth fund raiser. I’m finally getting around to setting the orphaned intermediary blocks. I still have 1 1/2 yards of red for an inner border, 3 1/4 yards of black for setting triangles and an outer border, and 8 yards of pink/red for back and binding.

Four Blooms

Chicken Salad Croissants

5 cups shredded cooked chicken

1 1/2 cups mayonnaise

2 tablespoons minced white onion (My recipe says “grated,” but this is WORK.)

1 tablespoon chicken bouillon granules

4 celery ribs minced

Salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

2 cups whole cashews

15 small croissants

Tear or cut meat into bite-size pieces. In a large bowl combine chicken with the mayonnaise, onion, bouillon, and celery. Mix thoroughly; season with salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate at least two hours. Fold the cashews into the chicken salad mixture just before serving – any sooner, and they’ll get soggy. Split croissants in half lengthwise and allow your guests to spoon the salad mixture onto one half of each croissant and top with the other half. Makes 15 servings.

Four Pigs in Blankets

Derrick Campana is an orthotist who works in Sterling, Virginia. He specializes in designing and building custom braces and prosthetic limbs for disabled animals. In addition to dogs and cats, he’s restored mobility to kangaroos, goats, camels, sheep, llamas, and deer. His most unusual patient (so far) is a bull elephant named Jabu living on an elephant sanctuary in Botswana. Jabu accidentally stepped in a hole and badly injured his leg. If an elephant can’t walk, he must be put down. So the brace Derrick made essentially saved Jabu’s life. Derrick went to school to learn human orthotics, but he was approached by a veterinarian who needed a prosthetic for a dog. Since then, he’s helped over 2,000 animals. His dream is to someday own his own plane so he can fly wherever he’s needed, improving the quality of life for animals all over the world.

Bloom Where You're Planted

“I suspect some of you may be wondering if your gospel learning actually can become home centered and Church supported. Perhaps you are the only member of the Church in your home, or have an unsupportive spouse, or are a single parent, or live alone as a single or divorced Latter-day Saint, and you may have questions about how these principles apply to you. You may be a husband and a wife looking at each other and questioning, ‘Can we do this?’ Yes, you can do this! I promise that enabling blessings will flow into and be evident in your life. Doors will open. The light will shine. Your capacity will be increased to persevere diligently and patiently. I joyfully witness that compensating blessings will come as we strive to fulfill our individual responsibility to learn and love the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. We truly can be prepared to obtain every needful thing.” - Elder David A. Bednar

Pig in a Blanket

The first Saturday in July, 1974 (I looked it up – It actually fell on the 6^th, just like this year) Herb Teichman held a cherry pit spitting tournament in Eau Claire, Michigan. He meant it to be a joke, but the idea really caught on. It quickly became an annual tradition by popular demand, and eventually the first Saturday in July became known as International Cherry Pit Spitting Day. Pit spitting is an amateur event. It involves spewing the stone of a fresh cherry from one’s mouth at a high velocity, so as to achieve the greatest distance. Measuring from the spitter’s toes to the fallen pit determines the winner. Eating the cherry – whether before or after spitting the pit – is of course optional. If you decide to host a local “Pit Spit” today, I’d recommend an al fresco venue, like a picnic in the park. The inevitable cherry juice and slippery pits could make an indoor competition rather hazardous.

Four Royal Stars

Ninety-year-old Catherine Ritchie was in her bathroom getting ready to go to bed when the fire started in her bedroom. At first she thought she could put out the flames, but quickly realized she was wrong. She made it to the hallway before she was overcome by smoke. Dylan Wick, Seth Byrd, Nick Byrd and Wyatt Hall – all between the ages of 14 and 17 – were at Wyatt’s house next door when they smelled smoke. They ran into the burning building, found Catherine on the floor and carried her to safety. Catherine’s daughter wrote, “Courageous young men who risked their own lives; they carried my mother out of her burning home. Thank you for not allowing this to be the tragic end to our mother's amazing life. Thank you for staying with her, hugging her, and helping her feel less alone until we could get to her. Thank you for being the kind of young men who thought about another person above yourselves.”

Rising Star

“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety” – Benjamin Franklin

“Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.” – Abraham Lincoln

“To be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” -Nelson Mandela

 “Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of it. The history of liberty is a history of resistance.” – Woodrow Wilson

“The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.” – Winston Churchill

“Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.” – George Bernard Shaw

“I hope we once again have reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: as government expands, liberty contracts.” – Ronald Reagan

Royal Star

Harold Nelson is a full ten years older than his girlfriend, but no one seems very bothered about the difference in their ages. They might have been if Harold was twenty-six and Jeanne was sixteen. But this year Harold is a hundred and four. During World War II Harold served in the third infantry under General "Old Blood and Guts" George S. Patton. He was shot while serving his country. Four times. But he’s still kicking. He met Jeanne Gold about a decade ago, when he was ninety-four and she was eighty-four and they were on the same casino bus trip. They’ve been together ever since. Harold and Jeanne spend much of the time they have left fishing and talking. Between them, they have nearly two centuries of life experience. I’ll bet they have a lot to talk about.

Bee Joyful

In Wensleydale along the river Ur sits a small market town called Hawes. If you visit the Wensleydale Creamery there, they’ll be happy to let you sample their Jervaulx bleu, hot and spicy cheddar, red Leicester, Wensleydale with cranberries, Wensleydale with stem ginger, and all manner of tasty delights. They’ve been making cheeses there since the Norman invasion, and they are very good at it. But soon they’ll be producing a lot more than just delicious dairy products. They’ll be using a process called anaerobic digestion to turn their whey waste into a biogas that’s expected to heat at least 800 North Yorkshire homes. Then they’ll use what’s left over to fertilize neighboring farmland and improve topsoil quality. Wensleydale Creamery sits in the middle of some of the most beautiful scenery on God’s green earth. It makes me happy to know they’re committed to keeping it that way.

Four Old Windmills

“At a stake conference in Cali, Colombia, a sister told how she and her fiancé desired to be married in the temple, but at that time the closest temple was in faraway Peru. For a long time, they saved their money for bus fares. Finally, they boarded the bus to Bogotá, but when they arrived there, they learned all seats on the bus to Lima, Peru, were taken. They could ride if they were willing to sit on the floor of the bus for the entire five-day and five-night ride. What impressed me was she was grateful they had been able to go to the temple in this way. It changed the way they felt about the gospel and about marriage in the temple. The Lord had rewarded them with the growth that comes from sacrifice. A five-day trip to the temple accomplished a great deal more in building their spirituality than many visits to the temple that were sacrifice-free.” - President Dallin H. Oaks