Italian Revival

 

Someone suggested it may be time to retire the expression, “avoid like the plague,” because it’s clear “humans don’t do that.” They may have a point. We seem to go out of our way to avoid going out of our way. We won’t wear masks; they’re too tiresome. We should have been using soap and hand sanitizer all along, but many of us weren’t and still don’t. Rather than call in sick, stay home and get better, we drag ourselves, coughing and sneezing, to work, to church, the store or the movies. We prefer sending sick kids to school over staying home with them. We patently ignore floor markings reminding us to social distance. And vaccines? If there’s a chance it will be inconvenient or uncomfortable, we can’t be bothered. I’ll paraphrase two different authors here: your right to swing your fist ends where my nose begins. And if you’re not part of the solution, you’re probably the problem.

Crystal Star

 

I have several friends who’ve been movie extras. I’ve often thought it might be fun to try it myself. I understand there’s a lot of waiting involved, and there might not be much pay. But I’d love to point at a crowd scene and say, “See that? That’s ME!” That’s why I love the story of Layla Sarakalo. Layla was a San Franciscan who woke up one morning to find her car had been towed. She’d missed the signs warning that Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home was to be filmed in her neighborhood. She needed money to bail her car out, so she signed up as an extra. She was supposed to pass Chekov and Uhura as they asked for directions to “nuclear wessels.” The extras were to stare and walk on, but for some reason, Layla answered them instead. Film makers decided it was good, spontaneous stuff, and kept it in. Funniest scene in the movie.

Small Forest

 

Last weekend, on our way through the produce section, we stumbled upon two shopping carts full of freckled bananas with a sign saying, “FREE! Take some!” So, we did. The first nine became loaves of banana bread. We polished off a couple at breakfast the next day. A few were strawberry/orange/banana smoothies. The rest could be:

 

Banana Ice Cream

 

3/4 cup milk

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg

3 to 4 VERY ripe bananas

2 cups heavy whipping cream

1 tsp vanilla

 

Whisk together milk, sugar, and nutmeg until sugar dissolves. Thoroughly mash bananas, then stir into milk mixture. Chill banana/milk mixture at least an hour. Add whipping cream and vanilla; stir well. Pour mixture into ice cream maker and churn about half an hour. Ice cream may be eaten immediately, or cured in freezer at least half an hour.

Three Inch Eccentric Star

 

9.4% of U.S. households rent a storage unit.

Most self-storage renters live in homes with a garage and basement.

One quarter can’t park in their own garage.

Half of us claim the garage is our most disorganized space.

The median home is 2,355 square feet (1,500 square feet in 1970; 983 square feet in 1950).

 32% of women own more than 25 pairs of shoes.

Most Americans are overwhelmed by their clutter, but have no idea what to do about it.

Americans collectively spend $2.7 billion dollars every year replacing stuff they can’t find.

We spend an average total of 2.5 days a year looking for misplaced stuff.

People are more productive, less irritable and distracted in a clutter-free space.

Folks who sleep in cluttered rooms are more likely to have sleeping problems.

People in cluttered spaces are more likely to make poor eating choices.

Those with extremely cluttered homes are 77% more likely to be overweight.

Lodgepole Pine

 

If you were curious about the voyage of the sailing ship Brooklyn – I certainly was – here’s a little more of the story: Eleven passengers and one crewman perished during the trip. They’d hoped for fresh milk along the way, but the cows they brought didn’t last long. Both were killed during the first violent storm. They’d planned to stop for fresh food and water at Valparaiso, Chile, but were prevented by another storm. Instead, they paused at the Juan Fernández Islands, where Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe was set. They passed the long hours reading 179 volumes of the Harper’s Family Library. When they arrived in California, they nearly tripled the size of the town that would become San Francisco. Theirs was the first wheat crop in the area, the first school, bank, library, post office and newspaper. The journey of the Brooklyn is believed to be the longest religious sea pilgrimage in recorded history.

3" Blue/Green Cake Stand

 

“The magnificent and incomprehensible effect of the Atonement of Jesus Christ is based on God’s love for each of us. It affirms His declaration that the worth of souls – every one – is great in the sight of God. In the Bible, Jesus Christ explained this in terms of our Heavenly Father’s love: ‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’ In modern revelation, our Redeemer, Jesus Christ, declared that He ‘so loved the world that he gave his own life, that as many as would believe might become the sons of God.’ Is it any wonder, then, that the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ concludes with the teaching that to become perfect and sanctified in Christ, we must love God with all our might, mind and strength? His plan motivated by love must be received with love.” – President Dallin H. Oaks

Sailboat

 

When we think of Mormon pioneers, the image that generally comes to mind is oxcarts and handcarts. But many early converts began their westward journey with a trip over water. February 4, 1846 – which happens to be the same day the builders of Nauvoo were driven out – 238 men, women and children boarded the three-masted sailing ship Brooklyn in New York harbor. A 24,000-mile sea voyage lay before them, around Cape Horn and north to San Francisco, which at the time was called Yerba Buena. They endured extreme weather, both tropical and antarctic. They suffered from storms and sickness. They shared unbelievably cramped quarters with crates of chickens, two cows and forty pigs. But they landed in California months before the overland pioneers arrived in what would become Salt Lake. And for a time (until the gold rush changed everything) most of the settlers in California were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.