Four Bright Hopes

 

Ohio Star

 

So far, John and I have been married for 16,436 days. A lot of those days were pretty awful – especially the first dozen or so. The weather was cold and nasty. We had to drag nearly everything we owned from Bethesda, Maryland to Oneonta, New York and then Provo Utah before school started with nothing but a beat-up Ford Mustang and a borrowed credit card. Along the way, we had a flat tire and blew a piston. Not fun times. But some of those 16,436 days were wonderful, like the days our four kids were born. There were the days our sons were married and we welcomed three wonderful women into our family. Best of all were the days our grandchildren were born. I don’t know if being married 45 years makes us experts, but we’ve learned to be patient with each other, to treat each other with respect, to be forgiving and supportive, and to give each other room to grow.   

Bright Hopes

 

Here’s the world’s best knock-knock joke: Once there were three brothers ages 92, 94 and 96 who lived in a house together. One night the 96-year-old drew a bath, puts his foot in and paused for a moment. He then hollered down the stairs, "Was I getting in or out of the bath?” The 94-year-old yelled back, "I don't know, I'll come up and see." He started up the stairs and paused, then he yelled, "Was I going up the stairs or coming down?" The 92-year-old was sitting at the kitchen table having coffee listening to his brothers. He shook his head and said, "I sure hope I never get that forgetful." He knocked on wood for good luck. He then yelled, "I'll come up and help both of you as soon as I see who's at the door."

Spools

 

At our first auction in England, I bid on a 100-year-old piano, and I won. The “removers” I hired to deliver it commented on its musty, stale odor. “Smells like me nan’s house,” said one. “Worse,” added the other, “It smells like my nana.” A thorough cleaning and airing solved the immediate problem, but their remarks stayed with me. In fact, I find myself thinking about it more the older I get. Old people have a distinct odor, and so do the places where they live. As we age, our body chemistry changes. There’s a subtle difference in the way omega-7 unsaturated fatty acids on the skin degrade, resulting in the stale smell called “nonenal.” These fatty acids aren’t water-soluble, so showering and laundering clothes and linens have little effect. What does seem to help is increased exercise, clean eating, avoiding alcohol and tobacco, and reducing stress. It’s also helpful to line-dry laundry and crack open windows.

Christmas Stockings

 

“Wherever you are this Christmas season, may you feel God’s love as we celebrate Jesus Christ as the heart of Christmas. Christmas is a time of music, smells and tastes, anticipation and generosity. A time of gathering, whether we live near or far. Often Christmas becomes Christmas when we quietly bring Christmas joy to others. Many families sub for Santa. Many individuals light the world with the light of Jesus Christ. A Christmas memory recalled is a Christmas memory made anew. Layered over time, Christmas memories become traditions, which can deepen our love for Jesus Christ—the Lamb of God, the Son of the Eternal Father, the Savior of the world. If you have favorite Christmas memories, may you joyfully savor them this season. If you are still creating your Christmas traditions, may they deepen your love for Jesus Christ and bless you each year.” – Gerrit W. Gong

Friendship Chain

 

Between Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and New Year’s Eve, December has more than its share of holidays. But, if you feel it needs one more, you can always celebrate Festivus. Until last week, I only knew two things about Festivus: it originated with the TV series Seinfeld, and the phrase “for the rest of us” means for people who don’t celebrate the holidays I just mentioned. Both are wrong. Festivus did appear in an episode of Seinfeld in 1997, but TV writer Dan O’Keefe’s family had been observing it since 1966. The phrase “for the rest of us” meant for those still living. Festivus is celebrated December 23, the anniversary of the day Dan O’Keefe’s mom and dad first dated. I’m not sure which aspects of the holiday – the aluminum pole, the airing of grievances, the feats of strength, or calling ordinary events “Festivus miracles” – originated with the TV show, and which were part of the O’Keefe family tradition.

Triangles and Squares

 

Generally, when I’m making butternut squash soup, there’s lots of cream involved. This recipe doesn’t have any (unless, of course, you decide to use cream as a garnish), but you’d never guess it. The taste and texture are every bit as decadent. I’m guessing it’s the potatoes.

 

Better Butternut Squash Soup

 

2 tablespoons butter

1 small onion, chopped

1 stalk celery, chopped

1 medium carrot, chopped

2 medium potatoes, cubed (I think any variety would work, but we used russets.)

1 medium butternut squash - peeled, seeded, and cubed

32 ounces chicken stock

Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper

 

In a stock pot, sauté onion, celery, carrots, potatoes and squash in butter on medium heat about five minutes. Pour in chicken stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer about 40 minutes. Process soup in blender until smooth. (You’ll have to do 2 or 3 batches, unless you have an immersion blender.) Return to pot and season to taste. Serve warm. 

Open Window

 

Maybe I should have posted this a month ago. If you hang holiday lights on your house, you probably did a few weeks back. But you’ll be taking them down again in a week or two, and there are dozens of other household tasks that require ladders, so you may want to pay attention. Each year, 150,000 people are injured or killed in ladder-related accidents. 43% of the fatal falls in the last decade involved ladders. Most could have been avoided by observing basic ladder safety rules:

Ascend and descend facing the ladder, maintaining 3-point contact with the rungs.

Stay near the middle of the ladder; never stand on or near the top.

Only place the ladder on a stable, level surface that isn’t slippery.

Never lean out beyond the ladder’s side rails.

Don’t put heavy equipment on or near the ladder top.

Dispose of broken or damaged ladders.

Always use your ladder in the way it was intended.

Sixteen Snowball Stars

 

Dioecious trees - like boxelder, persimmon, white ash, ginkgo, holly, red cedar, Osage orange, aspen and willow – are either male or female. Male trees produce pollen, and female trees produce flowers and fruit. Date palms are among the oldest types of dioecious trees. Birds and insects aren’t attracted to date palm flowers, so humans have to take their place. Judean date palms have been extinct for nearly two thousand years, most likely because their human pollinators were beset by war, famine, drought and pestilence. In 1963, 2,000-year-old date palm seeds from this extinct species were discovered near Jerusalem. In 2005, several were planted and tended, and seven living date palm trees were the result. Their names are Adam, Jonah, Uriel, Boaz, Judith, Hannah, and Methuselah. I’m hoping those names don’t reflect the trees’ gender, because five males and two females aren’t likely to spell a comeback for the species.

Salem

 

Do you ever hear an idea so hare-brained you wonder, “Who came up with this?” Or, “Why didn’t someone stop him?” I learned the city of Liège, Belgium in the 1870’s enlisted the help of animals to deliver their mail. Not horses, dog sleds, or carrier pigeons. Cats. Someone with enough clout to make things happen decided felines would make good letter carriers. Liège engaged 37 household cats to deliver mail. Messages were attached to their collars, and they were released. Presumably, the cats would head to their respective homes, delivering their messages quickly and safely. One actually did arrive, in five hours. The rest took LOTS longer. Anyone with any actual experience with cats would have known what a horrible idea this was. It doesn’t take an advanced degree to see the beast who knocks your mug off the counter just to see it smash isn’t going to break a sweat to bring you your mail.

Advent Calendar

 

“We know the Millennium – the thousand years following the Second Coming of the Savior – will be a time to perform the required ordinances for those who have not received them in their mortal lives. There is much we don’t know about the three major periods in the plan of salvation and their relationship to one another: the premortal spirit world, mortality, and the next life. But we do know these eternal truths: ‘Salvation is an individual matter, but exaltation is a family matter.’ We’ve a loving Heavenly Father who’ll see we receive every blessing and every advantage our own desires and choices allow. We also know He will force no one into a sealing relationship against his or her will. The blessings of a sealed relationship are assured for all who keep their covenants but never by forcing a sealed relationship on another person who is unworthy or unwilling.” – President Dallin H. Oaks

Arbor Window

 

There’s a small store at our favorite shopping center. I can’t tell you its name or what is sold there. I honestly don’t know. We’ve never set foot inside. But there’s a sign out front that changes about every month or two. It used to say, “The difference between golfers and fishermen is when a golfer lies, he doesn’t have to bring anything home.” Before that, there was, “In case of fire, please exit the building before you tweet about it.” Once, a couple of months back, it said, “The inventor of Autocorrect has died. The funnel will be tomato.” And before that, it was, “Without freedom of speech, we would not know who the idiots are.” But today, the sign has a more seasonal message: “Mary, exhausted, having just gotten the Baby Jesus to sleep, is approached by a young man who thinks to himself; what this girl needs is a drum solo.”

Nine Snowball Stars

 

“These autumn days will shorten and grow cold. The leaves will shake loose from the trees and fall. Christmas will come, then the snows of winter. You will live to enjoy the beauty of the frozen world, for you mean a great deal to Zuckerman and he will not harm you, ever. Winter will pass, the days will lengthen, the ice will melt in the pasture pond. The song sparrow will return and sing, the frogs will awake, the warm wind will blow again. All these sights and sounds and smells will be yours to enjoy, Wilbur — this lovely world, these precious days.” – from Charlotte's Web by Elwyn Brooks, “E.B.” White

Six-Inch Nine-Patch

 

When Brian Spies’ 10-month-old German shepherd went missing, he assumed she’d become someone’s lunch. “We have bears, mountain lions, coyotes, foxes,” Brian said, speaking of their home in the forests near Lake Tahoe. Any of those animals could have been responsible for Luna’s absence. Brian asked his friends to keep an eye out for his dog, but he didn’t hold out much hope. Then, more than a day after Luna’s disappearance, Luka Bogdanovich was driving down the road. “I looked left,” he said, “and I see something 25 feet up a tree. I’ll be darned. Holy cow – that’s a dog!” Luka called Brian, who showed up with an extension ladder. “He kind of reached up and grabbed her, and bear hugged her,” Luka recounted, “Walked down the ladder with no hands, as carefully as possible.” Luna’s happy to be back on solid ground. “If she ever gets lost again, we’ll look up,” Luka says, “because she can climb trees.” 

Four Snowball Stars

 

On Searching for a Book of Stamps

 

Check in wallet

Check once more

Hunt through bag

Look in drawer

 

Feel coat pockets

Peer in pot

Rifle desk

Find them not

 

Shake out shoes

Lift up hat

Inspect fridge

Ask the cat

 

Scour the shelves

Peek in purse

Turn out cupboards

Swear & curse

 

Go to shop

Buy new stamps

Put in wallet

Next to stamps

 

-          Brian Bilston

Air Castle

 

On any given December day, Heather can be found watching her favorite Christmas movies. This year, her preference seems to be for Home Alone and all its sequels. If you’ve never seen it, Home Alone is about Kevin McCallister, an eight-year-old whose family accidentally flies to Paris without him. On Christmas Eve, Kevin buys groceries: milk, plastic wrap, a TV dinner, dryer sheets, bread, toilet paper, mac and cheese, some army men, detergent, and O.J. He pays for it all with a $20 bill and a dollar-off coupon for the juice. I did all the grocery shopping in the 90’s, when Home Alone was released. I can vouch for the fact these were realistic prices back then. But for the same groceries today, Kevin would have to fork over at least three twenties. I can also attest to the fact I’m not earning three times as much today. Maybe I’m overdue for a raise.

Snowball Star

 

“Perhaps our greatest work will be with our loved ones—good people living in a wicked world. Our hope changes the way they see themselves and who they really are. And through this lens of love, they’ll see who they will become. But the adversary does not want us or our loved ones to return home together. And because we live on a planet bound by time and a finite number of years, he tries to perpetuate a very real sense of panic in us. It’s hard to see, when we’re zoomed in, that our direction matters more than our speed. Remember, if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. Thankfully, the God we worship is not bound by time. He sees who our loved ones really are and who we really are. So, He’s patient with us, hoping we’ll be patient with each other.” – Tamara W. Runia

Mosaic

 

I’ve always just assumed that sand is sand; the exact same stuff no matter where on earth you find it. But I was wrong. Some months ago, I read an article about the construction boom in Asia, and how beaches and sea beds are being depleted for the sand used in concrete. I thought, “That’s just dumb. Why don’t they just use sand from the desert? The Gobi is the world’s fifth largest desert; no further away than some of the beaches they’re plundering. And who would miss the sand there?” But desert sand is created by wind, not waves. It tends to be much finer than ocean sand, and therefore useless in making concrete. It isn’t even made of the same stuff. Desert sand is mainly gypsum, feldspar and muscovite. Oceanic sand is much higher in silica – natural glass – along with tiny bits of coral and sea shells. 

Bow Ties

 

In our home there’s a basket of Duplo blocks no one’s playing with. Duplo is the toddler version of Lego, meant for kids between 18 months and five years. Most of these we’ve owned since our oldest was two. The youngest grandchild is five now, which explains why the blocks are neglected. We also have bricks from well over a decade of Lego advent calendars. Occasionally we’ll pull some out to entertain bored grandkids, but they spend most of their time in glass Mason jars on a shelf in the store room, as if we’ve taken home canning to a whole new level. We’ve divested ourselves of SO MANY things these past months, as we’ve downsized to a smaller, more efficient space. Somehow, I can’t part with these brightly colored plastic bricks. When I’m finally ready, though, I know where they’re going. I’ll send them to BrickRecycler.com in Sunnyvale, CA. They’ll be washed, sorted, and given a new home.

Chimney Sweep

 

It was 1963, and 16-year-old Bruce McAllister was sick of symbol-hunting in his high school English class. He might have chosen to argue with his teacher. He could have simply failed the subject. Instead, Bruce decided to go straight to the source. He mailed a crude, four-question survey to 150 well-known living novelists, asking if they or other authors consciously or unconsciously planted symbolism in their work, and if readers ever find symbolism in works of literature that was never intended. Seventy-five of the authors contacted responded. Among them were Jack Kerouac, Ray Bradbury, John Updike, Richard Hughes, Ralph Ellison and Saul Bellow. Most of them replied that much of the symbolism Bruce and students like him were expected to study was never intended. Several of them told Bruce to write his own research paper and not expect others to do his work for him. In case you were wondering, Bruce went on to become an English professor.

Twelve-Inch Pineapple

 

I shared this four years ago, but it seemed timely today: “Our church sent around a questionnaire asking, ‘Why do you come to church?’ and I still haven’t filled it out. For one thing, I go because I read stories about declining church attendance and I hate to be part of a trend. For another, church is a sanctuary from thinking about myself, my work, my plans for the week, my problems with work, my lack of exercise, other people’s view of me, myself, and I, and frankly I’m sick of myself and so would you be if you were me. My mind drifts and my thoughts turn to various friends and relatives, and I pray for them. I pray for solace and sustenance in their times of trial and I ask God to surprise them with the gift of unreasonable joy. I pray for people caring for parents suffering from dementia or for children who are neurologically complicated. I pray for the whales, the migrating birds, the endangered elephants.” - Garrison Keillor

Nine-Patch Star

 

We’ve seen thirty-one movies in the cinema so far this year. Several films, like Oppenheimer, Asteroid City, The Color Purple and Killers of the Flower Moon, we deliberately avoided. A handful of the ones we caught – Shazam 2, The Little Mermaid, The Flash, Indiana Jones 5, and Wish – were huge disappointments. It’s not that they were horrible movies (okay, a couple were), but we’d hoped for so much more. Some movies – A Man Called Otto, Jules, Champions, Honor Among Thieves, and Are You There, God? were really tricky to catch in theaters. Even The Marvels and Haunted Mansion seemed to have been buried by films that were expected to earn more. We never managed to see White Bird, though the trailer looked promising. We have tickets for Wonka and Aquaman 2, which bring our total to thirty-three. Not bad for a post-COVID year with an actor’s strike and a writer’s strike.

Hemstitch

 

“No individual and no family is perfect. We all need help better to speak love here. ‘Perfect love casteth out fear.’ (1 John 4:18) Faith, service, and sacrifice draw us beyond ourselves closer to our Savior. The more compassionate, faithful, and selfless our service and sacrifice are in Him, the more we may begin to fathom Jesus Christ’s atoning compassion and grace for us. And that brings us to the gospel language of covenant belonging. We live in a self-centered world. So much is ‘I choose me.’ It is as if we believe we know best our own self-interest and how to pursue it. But ultimately it is not true. Jesus Christ personifies this powerful, ageless truth: ‘For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.’” – Elder Gerrit W. Gong

Four Cottages

 

Today is World Pollution Prevention Day. Here are a few things you can do to celebrate:

 

Recycle materials as much as possible.

Stop consuming single-use plastics.

Compost wherever possible. Make gardening one of your hobbies.

Consider the environment when you travel: cars and planes pollute more than boats or trains.

Choose to buy food and other products that are grown or manufactured locally.

Support organizations that work to improve our environment.

Drive less. Instead, walk or cycle to and from your destination and activities.

Plan ahead and consolidate your errands. Look into car-pooling.

Plant a tree. It absorbs harmful carbon from the air and produces oxygen.

Go “plogging” on your own, or organize a group to clean up garbage in parks and along walking paths.

Encourage others to do their part.

Eight-Inch Pineapple

 

December first is Eat a Red Apple Day. In honor of the day, here are a few fun apple facts:

There are over 7,000 varieties of apples.

Only 100 types of apples are commercially grown in the U.S.

90% of all apples grown here are either Red Delicious, Gala, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, or Fuji.

If you stick an apple in your potato bin, it can keep the potatoes from sprouting.

The only type of apple native to the Americas is the crabapple.

Apples are thought to have originated in the area between the Caspian and Black Seas.

The average American eats about nineteen pounds of fresh apples in a year; about one apple per week.

Apples are a member of the rose family.

An apple a day may not keep the doctor away, but eating apples can help you avoid strokes, cancer and heart disease.