Twenty Butterflies

“Nephi’s trust in God was tested when he and his brothers were commanded to return to Jerusalem to obtain the brass plates. After initial attempts failed, his brothers gave up. But Nephi chose to place his trust in the Lord and was successful in obtaining the plates. That experience likely strengthened Nephi’s confidence in God when his bow broke and the family faced starvation. Again, Nephi chose to trust in God, and the family was saved. These successive experiences gave Nephi even stronger confidence for the enormous task he would soon face of building a ship. Nephi strengthened his relationship with God by consistently and continuously trusting Him. God uses the same pattern with us. He extends us personal invitations to strengthen and deepen our trust in Him. Each time we act on an invitation, our trust in God grows. If we ignore an invitation, our progress stops until we’re ready to act on a new invitation.” – Elder Paul B. Pieper

Four Maple Leaves

 

Slow Cooker Pumpkin Cobbler

 

15 ounce can pumpkin puree

3 eggs

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

2 teaspoons cinnamon, divided

12 ounce can evaporated milk

1 box yellow cake mix

1/2 cup butter, melted

1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)

 

In a medium bowl, whisk together pumpkin, eggs, sugars, pumpkin pie spice, and 1 teaspoon of the cinnamon until well combined. Add evaporated milk and stir. Pour mixture into large slow cooker that has been coated with cooking spray. In another bowl, whisk together cake mix with remaining cinnamon. Stir in melted butter (mixture will be crumbly). Sprinkle cake mixture all over pumpkin in slow cooker. Cook on low 4 hours. Sprinkle the nuts over the top about halfway through the cooking time. Serve warm with ice cream or whipped cream.

Julia's Party

 

To quilters, UFO doesn’t just mean “unidentified flying object.” It can also refer to fabric objects you aren’t finishing. Most quilters, whether they’ve been at it months or decades, have a stash of UFOs hiding somewhere – in closets, under beds, in boxes and in sacks. Most quilters have a LOT more UFOs than they’re willing to admit, even to themselves. They start with the best of intentions: a pattern you just adore, prints you can’t leave the store without. Then something happens; some mistake you can’t sort out. Suddenly it isn’t as cute/easy/fun as you thought. So, you stash it and move to a more rewarding quilt. This was a UFO for nearly a year. It was too large for a lap quilt, too small for a bed. It wanted a border, but hated all my ideas. Then John found this pretty floral, on a shelf too high for me. I should definitely bring him shopping more often.

Four Sand Blocks

 

School started here a few weeks ago. Predictably, the kids picked up a bug and brought it home to share with us. It started with sneezing, post-nasal drip and a sore throat. Then it morphed into a headache, a low-grade fever and cough. For me, the worst symptom was nasal congestion. For two days I couldn’t eat and breathe at the same time. When I swallowed, my ears popped. Showers and the jacuzzi helped, but DayQuil and NyQuil made no difference at all. It turns out that both of these, along with Advil Sinus Congestion & Pain, Tylenol Cold + Head Congestion Severe, Mucinex Sinus-Max Severe Congestion & Pain Relief, Benadryl Allergy Plus Congestion, Sudafed PE, Theraflu Severe Cold Relief Daytime, and Vicks Sinex Severe rely on a decongestant – phenylephrine – that doesn’t work when taken orally. So, how can all these medicines still claim to be decongestants? How are they all still for sale?

Balkan Puzzle

 

If you’re ever supremely bored and have Internet access, you can always entertain yourself by Googling the words, “Florida Man.” Yes, you can try this with any of the fifty states, but there’s just something special about Florida. Here’s just one of the stories I’ve found: in December, 2018, a man from Riviera Beach, Florida named Shane Anthony Mele stole some commemorative presidential coins and other items from an office in North Palm Beach. The collection was worth over $30,000. Shane was able to sell some of the coins to a pawn shop for a few thousand dollars, and then he did something that has everyone scratching their heads. He ran the rest of the coins through a Coinstar kiosk at the local grocery store. The machine gave him only the coins’ face value: less than $30. The Coinstar machine had a dedicated security camera, so police were quickly able to connect the dots.

Barrel Cactus

 

In the 1940’s, there were rumors of a hermit living in a cave under one of the Ls in the Hollywood sign. He mostly kept to himself, but in 1947, the hermit tried to get backstage at L.A.’s Lincoln Theater. He had something to give Nat King Cole, who was performing there. No one dared let him get anywhere near the singer, but the man handed his gift to Cole’s manager before leaving. The gift was a tattered song sheet for “Nature Boy,” which the hermit had written about himself. When Nat King Cole eventually saw the song, he liked it and wanted to record it, but first he had to track down the author and get written permission. “Nature Boy” became one of Nat King Cole’s biggest successes, topping charts for fifteen weeks. RKO Pictures reportedly paid the hermit $10,000 for permission to use the haunting song in the 1948 movie “The Boy with the Green Hair.”

Sixteen Butterfies

 

“A life of integrity is not a life of perfection; it is a life in which we strive every day to foremost be true to God and within that context to be true to others. President Oaks reminds us, ‘Our zeal to keep the second commandment must not cause us to forget the first.’ The world increasingly grapples with integrity by imposing codes of conduct or ethical rules that govern the relationships between people and institutions. While good, these rules are generally not anchored in absolute truth and tend to evolve based on cultural acceptance. Some organizations train employees to consider what their decisions would look like if published online or on the front page of a major newspaper. As the Church comes out of obscurity and darkness, we must rise above worldly expectations and become the face of the true and living God at all times and in all places.” – Elder Jack N. Gerard

Maple Leaf

 

More names for things you probably didn’t know:

The “na na na” or “la la la,” which don’t have any meaning in the lyrics of any song, are called vocables.

The armhole in your clothes where the sleeve is sewn in is called an armscye.

Finding it difficult to get out of bed in the morning is called dysania.

Illegible handwriting is called griffonage.

The little dot over a lower case i or j is called a tittle.

The sick feeling you get after you’ve had too much to eat or drink is called crapulence.

The metal thing you use to measure the length and width of your feet at the shoe store is called a Bannock device.

The space between your thumb and your index finger is called a perlicue.

The white crescent-shaped part of your fingernail or toenail is called a lunule.

A tiny dab of toothpaste is called a nurdle.

2024 State Fair Challenge

 

It’s lucky I don’t judge the quilts at the state fair. If I’d been one of the judges, this quilt wouldn’t have done well at all. I pride myself on perfect piecing, and this is anything but. The skirts aren’t exactly the same size. Several bodices are a little off, and some of the waistbands are skew whiff. By the time I finished the top, it was too late to fix all my mistakes. Instead, I tried to hide them with a lot of quilting. Then when I stitched on the binding, one of the corners came out crooked. There’s no way to hide that. Of all the quilts I’ve submitted to the state fair over seventeen years, this was my least favorite. I told myself at least it was done in time, and promised myself to do better next year. But here’s my “ugly” quilt, wearing all these lovely ribbons. Maybe I should make another ugly quilt next year.

Sand Block

 

Names for things you probably didn’t know had names:

The space between your eyebrows is called a glabella.

The way it smells after it rains is called petrichor.

The plastic or metallic coating at the end of your shoelaces is called an aglet.

When your stomach rumbles, it’s called a wamble.

The cry of a newborn baby is called a vagitus.

The prongs of a fork are called tines.

The sheen of light you see when you close your eyes and press your hands on them is called phosphenes.

The tiny plastic thing placed in the middle of a pizza box is called a box tent.

The day after tomorrow is called overmorrow.

Your little toe or finger is called the minimus.

The wired cage that holds the cork on a bottle is called an agraffe.

A question mark combined with an exclamation is an interrobang.

The space between your nostrils is called columella nasi.

Split Sawtooth Star

 It’s hard to imagine cities without traffic circles, stop signs, one-way streets, zebra crossings, or pedestrian safety islands. It’s even harder to imagine all these innovations were created by a man who never learned to drive. William Phelps Eno was born in New York City in 1858. Though automobiles hadn’t been invented yet, congestion was already a big problem. When William was nine, he and his mother were involved in a traffic jam. “There were only about a dozen horses and carriages involved. All that was needed was a little order to keep traffic moving. Yet nobody knew what to do.” As an adult, William proposed “Concise, simple rules, easily understood, obeyed and enforced. These rules must be circulated, leaving no excuse for not knowing them. Police must be empowered to enforce these rules, and men trained for this purpose.” When “The Father of Traffic Safety” died in 1945, cities all over the world were using William’s ideas.

Two Delectable Mountains

 

In 1941, Billy Kane was a fourteen-year-old Red Sox fan living in Maine. His favorite player, Ted Williams, was having one of the greatest seasons in baseball history. Billy decided he needed to meet the Splendid Sprinter in person. He didn’t have a ride to Fenway Park, but he didn’t let that stop him. The resourceful teen hitchhiked 250 miles to meet his hero. Billy arrived in Boston September 2, and was crushed to learn there was no game that day. Later that evening, police officers discovered Billy fast asleep between the rows of seats. They took the trespasser to the local precinct, where he told the officers his sad tale. Billy got a police escort to the Sheraton Hotel, where Ted Williams was about bed down for the night. Not only did Billy Kane get to meet his favorite ball player, but the next day he attended a Yankees/Red Sox game as Ted Williams’ personal guest. 

Fifteen Butterflies

 

“You’ve had your own experiences—your own light-filled bursts of testimony. As we recognize, remember, and gather these rays, something wonderful and powerful begins to happen. The reality and power of one ray of testimony reinforces and combines with another, then another, and another. Line upon line, precept upon precept, here a ray and there a ray—one small, treasured spiritual moment at a time—there grows up within us a core of light-filled, spiritual experiences. Perhaps no one ray is strong enough or bright enough to constitute a full testimony, but together they can become a light the darkness of doubt cannot overcome. That means in time and through great diligence, we too can have our own pillar of light—one ray at a time. In the midst of that pillar, we too will find a loving Heavenly Father calling us by name, pointing us to our Savior, Jesus Christ, and inviting us to Hear Him!” – Elder Alexander Dushku