Sunday, December 28, 2008

Benjamin's Christmas Visit


We enjoyed visiting with Benjamin for a few days. He went caroling with us in Alpine. All the boys had a chance to wrestle with him, including Dad! During the winter semester Benjamin will be doing his accounting internship in San Jose, California. (Stay tuned for adventures!) He traded in his Gringo Metro, and now drives a sophisticated BMW. (This is what he tells us; we didn't actually see this civilized car; he didn't think our muddy dirt road would agree with it.)

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Bringing home the Christmas Tree


Elena, Dad, and Caleb display the Christmas tree they found after a drive on a dirt road and a climb up a mountain. The skimpy tree is a compromise. Virginia wanted a Dr Seuess tree and Elena wanted the traditional. Ornaments fill in this tree nicely!

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Christmas Shopping in Albuquerque


Edwin took the family to Albuquerque during a snowstorm for a rare shopping trip. We hit a couple of thrift stores and a dollar store. Then, when all their money was spent, we visited a mall. Here's Edwin in the back of his pickup surveying our snowy luggage and purchases!

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Elena's Last Achievement Day


Elena and her group of Achievement Day girls. They played Christmas games, and got crocheted angel dishcloths to give their mothers. Elena was delighted with the big fat candy cane her leader gave her.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Benjamin in the news!

http://newsnet.byu.edu/story.cfm/69977

San Francisco Valley 4-H officer installation Christmas Banquet


We joined a new 4-H club a year ago - San Francisco Valley 4-H Club, in Glenwood. Last month the kids ran for office.
First Augustus ran for president. He said, "What this club needs is CHANGE! and Hope!" He moved his fingers in a certain way as he spoke. Our leader, who is also a leader in the cattle industry in New Mexico, and thus someone who works for a living, put her head down on the table for a long time. Everyone else broke up into laughter. He didn't win. (We're a red county.)
Next Virginia ran for vice president, and won.
Then Elena ran for reporter. She was running against the incumbent, who had done a most excellent job. Elena said in her speech, "Milagre did a wonderful job as reporter during her term, and I would like to follow in her footsteps." Elena won, and Milagre has been most helpful in teaching Elena how to fulfill her duties.
Finally Caleb ran for song and rec leader. As his speech, he led the kids in a silly sing-after-me song about a moose. When he got to the climax - what happened? He said, "If you want to know what happened, vote for me!" They did, and Caleb won. On the way home he asked, "What's a wreck leader?" I'm not sure what he had in mind!

Monday, December 8, 2008

Kiev, Ukraine Temple - from Elder Austin Martineau


Kiev Temple - Picture from Elder Austin Martineau

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Experiments


It's been a week of experiments. Caleb had fun demonstrating the baking soda and vinegar reaction as it blew up a balloon. Augustus made a magnifying glass with plastic wrap stretched across the top of a bucket, weighted down in a curve with water. A hole cut in the side of the bucket allowed for objects to be magnified. Elena drew, colored, painted, and sculpted various dinosaurs Caleb also figured out how to give a back-spin to a ping-pong ball scuttling across the floor, causing it to pause in its course and come back to him, or hit an object and bounce back with more energy than it hit with. Virginia learned, after two good-smelling and bad-tasting batches of muffins, that baking soda and baking powder are not interchangeable in recipes. Angela had an appointment with the acupuncturist, in an attempt to see if this can help with her headaches. Edwin made several variations of ground meat jerky, all of which smelled good in the dehydrator and tasted delicious.

Every day presents us with opportunities to experiment. Science experiments satisfy our desire to understand the physical world around us. Cooking experiments may give us a pleasurable experience, or they may be a disappointment. Hopefully they don't cause a tummy ache! Health experiments are more serious. We speak routinely of the fact that a big part of our purpose in coming to mortality was to gain a body. Then what? Another part is to learn to take care of that body, and the Word of Wisdom is only a starting place. A new world opens up to us when we take responsibility for our body - not only for our actions in relation to others, but for the care and maintenance of our own body. We can explore the best foods to nourish ourselves, and not just to please the palate. Rather than accept the aches and pains that seem to accumulate through the years, we can investigate new ways of moving and even of thinking as we begin to catch a glimpse of the relationship between our body, our mind, our spirit, our diet, our thought, our emotions. Of course it's more than we can understand. That's no reason to give up before we begin. We have the ability to learn, line upon line.

It's a unique exploration, because every body is different. We all have different physical weaknesses and susceptibilities, just as we have different spiritual capacities. There's no one-size-fits-all therapy. But it's a great adventure! let me know what you discover about yourself - maybe it will help someone else!