Happy Birthday Daniel 2

Happy Birthday GI Joe-boy.  You are so dear to me.  Thank you for being loyal and strong.  I love your quick wit.  It is wonderful to watch you with your beautiful family.  I am proud of your accomplishments, but I'm especially proud of your commitment to excellence. With love forever. xoxoxoxox

Happy Birthday Aaron 2

Happy Birthday Aaron.  Thank you for being a wonderful son.  There are so many times we have been talking on the phone, and you speak a truth that I have never considered before.  I love how you discern the strengths of people and encourage those around you to dig deep.  You have an adorable sense of humor and a million gifts.  I love you, Mom

Working outside works magic

Fall, you know you feel it coming, cinnamon, pumpkin, soup, football, and diminishing light.  I know I sound like a whiner baby, but I woke up this morning with the slight feeling of blue that comes from the sun coming up too late and going down to early.  The sky was cloudy and weather.com predicted rain.  I had 2 jobs that needed to be done in the yard, and Gabe and I were the only ones home, but we decided we might as well get them over with.

First we needed to put my garden to bed. Never mind that I had barely pulled a weed all summer, and our only crops were the must-plant-peas and volunteer squash from the year before.  Gabe and I ventured to the little raised bed with gloves and shovels.  The first thing Gabe did was shake an old squash.  "Mom, look what's inside, do you think they're seeds?"  (Note to self, don't forget to teach the last children as much as you teach the first children.)  We talked about the life cycle of a plant and I felt myself  thrilling at the miracle of creation.  We gathered all the dead squash after Gabe spilled about 60 seeds in a 2 ft. radius, that will be our squash patch 2014.  Then we went to weeding. The ground was parched and resistant. I continued my duty and then glanced over at my son who acted like he knew what he was doing and that he wanted to do it right.  (More thrill.)

When the garden was cleared I said, "Gabe, I'm going to go get the wheelbarrow..." Up he jumped , as if by magic, to fetch the wheelbarrow.  I met him past the fire pit, just into the trees where the compost piles had been percolating.  We all know that people who compost are cool.  Two summers ago, our cool friends, the Weislers, delivered some little round compost pens for me to start working on my own coolness.  Well, being more of a dreamer than an actual doer I went for cool lite.  I didn't really layer green and brown, and then fluff, but I did tell Andrew to dump the lawn clippings in the compost pens and then waited.  After 1 year I just had dried grass, but after 2 years I observed change.  It wasn't exactly the black gold they talk about in the garden books, but there was metamorphosis and a nice fat worm crawling in and out and through.  Just think, while I stress about this and that and run around crazy, God's creations are doing exactly what they were created to do and beautiful things are happening, like magic.

When we started loading the wheelbarrow with compost Gabe began explaining things to me, "Some things I'm manly in.  Like, I'm not afraid to get stung by a wasp.  Yeah, it hurts, but I don't scream like a girl.  Another thing is rain.  I can walk in the rain and it doesn't bother me at all."  This manly man, magically loaded and pushed the wheelbarrow back to the garden  where we spread and turned, in hopes of improving neglected soil.

Next stop, the front yard.  Andrew had taken out a bush, but there was a black plastic guard that had encircled the bush to keep the grass out.  Well, now I wanted the grass in, so the circle needed to go.  We didn't know how deep it went so we both got our shovels.  Mine was the big one, Gabe's was the small one.  For the few of you who are wondering what roots do when they meet a plastic guard, they grow round and round and anchor it in place.  Well, we saw that fighting the roots would not be easy.  Gabe asked, "What if Andrew were here?"  The answer of course is that Andrew would do the job with his strong muscles,  but Andrew was not here. Once again my 13 yr. old son magically rose to the occasion.  He began digging with strength and determination.  With the help of some garden clippers to release the root death grip, he freed the plastic from it's imprisonment.

As we were working in the soil I thought of a million life lessons.  Maybe that is why we're supposed to garden.  I shared with the struggling Gabe trying to dig out the stubborn root,  "That's where we get the saying, "Get to the root of the matter."  Gabe was not impressed.  He explained, "In my mind, it's 'Find the heart of the bad guy hide out."  Okay, his imagination works better.  We dug and pulled and clipped and smoothed and then I realized, I feel happy and full of light.  Just like magic.  What a beautiful morning.

PS  Gabe said, "Don't forget to tell that I got to the bottom of the plastic first and with a smaller shovel."  One more thing you're manly in, son.

Is there a place in heaven for people who can't manage their cell phones?

Last night I went to a church meeting with my husband.  A few minutes into it the thought came to me, "I'd better turn off my phone."  I rifled through my purse for a while before concluding that I must have left it at home by the computer or on the bedstand or on the coffee table.  The meeting went inspiringly along with a relaxed me enjoying every minute of it.  And then the prayer.  All was silent except for the voice of the prayer offerer, when surprise! (Or no surprise to those who know me)  the happy whistling of my ringtone, turned up to 8, sounded off.  I quickly ducked down to grab my phone and put an end to the unwelcome little song.  Well, I'd already looked for my phone so had no idea where to start.  I started frantically dumping the contents of my purse onto the floor until finally, at the very bottom, in the very corner, I spotted the guilty device announcing the call from an unknowing family member.  Silence, at last, and then embarassment, guilt, regret, anxiety.  The sad thing is that this was not the first, nor the worst time.

I just think successful cell phoning may be out of my capacity.  I left my phone at home this morning.  Next time, I'll turn off my ringer and forget it's off until one of my children e-mails me and asks if I died because they have been trying to reach me for days.  It's kind of like when I forget to charge it and wonder what the beeping is about.  Then I charge it and forget to take it with me.  My home children call and are met with the disappointing fact that although I am out of the house, my phone is not, and I can't help them with anything.

I suppose I am grateful for the continued opportunity to maintain humility, and I am very patient with phones going off in awkward places.  Obviously, I have a kinship with these offenders, and I'm pretty sure I could win in the most-traumatic-cell-phone-ringing story contest.  The question lingering in my mind now is, "Will my dentist recognize my ringtone from when it went off during my appointment, and tell everyone at church who the owner of the errant prayer-time-cell-phone is?  This I know, there is no peace for the guilty.

Happy Birthday Nathan 2

Happy Birthday 2013 Nathan.  You know I think you're wonderful,  but this is blogging year 2 so it's Happy Birthday lite. I do have to let you know how thankful I am to be your mom.  We were skyping the other night and I realized what a good and happy and easy person you are. Thanks for being the kind of person that can always be counted on.   Your life is a resting place of sorts, you move ahead in positive and loving ways, constant and steady.  You're just great.  So here are some super cute pictures of you when you were little...adorable,  and also a bonus video of a favorite talent number where you, Aaron, Trevor and Jacob are dancing like a boss.
Hope your day was super.  Love, Mom xoxoxoxoxoxoxox

50's report

I've always had big plans for my 50's.  I would scrapbook, read insane amounts of books, do genealogy, can fruit, organize my files, entertain, volunteer like crazy, have a really nice yard and go to the temple.  I would like to report on my goals.  I wouldn't go all the way to scrapbook, but I do have pictures saved on my computer and organized fairly chronologically.  A word to the wise, you might need a few more specific clues than "5-11" to locate pictures and events.  I didn't really anticipate the memory loss.

 I do read an insane amount of books, an insanely few amount of books.  I've got 8 books lying on my book stand at this very moment.  They've been here, hmm, about a year, but I refuse to give up.  I finished a couple this summer, but at the end of the day when I kick back and pull out my book, I'm sleeping before I can barely turn a page or two.  Little drops of water, right?

I am happy to report that family history has gotten very manageable just in time for me to get on the band wagon.  I love to go on Family Tree. My facebook addiction prepared me perfectly for the exciting new "add pictures and stories about your ancestors" capabilities.  The reality is that I have a lot to learn about finding more information, but I can now push the "search records" button on my ancestors to see if anyone has indexed any census records or other legal documents.  That will keep me busy for awhile while the people who know what they're doing find more ways to give those of us who don't  things we can do to learn more about our people and heritage.  I'm going to call this a win.

About canning fruit...I have my canner, and my dehydrator...well I've never used my dehydrator, but I will when I have fruit in my back yard that needs to be preserved.  Okay, I have no fruit trees planted at the moment, but it'll happen.. soon.  I'm already down to 2 children at home, if I keep procrastinating they'll all be gone and they can can their own fruit.  I guess I would call this not a win.

Organizing shmorganizing.

 I always thought that entertaining was overwhelming because I had to have a clean house and good food all on the same day.  Who does that?  I love friends and people so I've attempted over the years, but at great sacrifice to the family members who got yelled at because they weren't sharing my "clean house" goals.  I thought it would be so much easier when the crazy kids were grown and the crazy mom wasn't crazy any more.  Well, this time has come.  I have pretty plates and matching spoons and forks and nobody spits up on the carpet and chairs hardly at all.  Unfortunately I have developed the habit of not planning too much because I never know what wrench one of my dear ones will throw into the schedule.  The idea just occurred to me, there aren't that many people living here.  I could plan something and probably nothing will come up to surprise me.  Now all I need is some good food.  I'll have to think about this...

I volunteer like crazy.  Last school year I was Little-miss-live-at-the-middle-school.  This year Gabe was redistricted to another school, and I'm-little-miss-never-go-to-the-middle-school.  I'm giving other causes a try. Change is good.

There was a time when I was totally obsessed with flowers.  That self would not even recognize this self.  I didn't  purchase 1 annual this year.  That's extreme, I know, but the world didn't even come to an end.  Here's a fun surprise, the little hot pink trumpet flowers that I planted in my pots 2 summers ago overwintered and came back with happy color this summer.  Not only did I not get new potting soil, I did not get new plants. And I'm really liking my bushes that bloom and live from year to year.  Knockout roses, encore azaleas, gardenia, rose of sharon, crepe myrtle mixed with some evergreens and I'm good.  I do love to see those ladies out with their pretty garden gloves and matching trowels tenderly caring for their lovely blooms.  Maybe that will be me in my 60's.

What has turned out as well as I had hoped is the temple.  For a couple of years, a friend and I have been committed to weekly temple attendance.  The rules have been this: meet at 8:45 on the assigned day and pick up any other friends who want to go.  Children and husbands come first, but everything else comes second.  If a child is sick or home from college, or your husband can go with you, you're out.  If your house is a mess or you were travelling yesterday or you're tired, or grumpy, you're in.  We pile in the car and drive north through Atlanta.  We hop into the HOV lane and let the traffic chips fall.  It always takes 45 minutes to get home, but can take over an hour to get there.  There have frequently been delays, but surprisingly, we have always gotten there on time.  While we're driving we heal each other.  Most of us come with anxiety: mom anxiety, financial anxiety, health anxiety, relationship anxiety, capability anxiety, you know, girl stuff.  Then people start sharing.  We share success to give each other hope.  We share heartbreak and then are reassured that we are loved.  We share the ridiculous to make each other laugh, and we share the tender mercies of God to give each other faith.  When we arrive, we are ready to enter  the house of  the Lord and pray and serve our loved ones.  We leave the temple clean and rejuvenated and inspired.  Then we eat our peanut butter sandwiches that always taste better than they are and go back to our lives a little more ready to live them well.

Some people call my age the "autumn of life."  I'd like to report that it's a lovely season.  Happy Fall y'all.

Happy Birthday Melinda

Melinda Ann was the third sister born into the Miller family, a beautiful name for a beautiful baby.  She had big brown eyes and lovely brown hair.  I liked carrying her around because everyone raved about how pretty she was.

She was a person that knew what she wanted and had what it took to get her there.  She can dance, sing, play musical instruments, sew, decorate, clean...the list goes on. 

Sometimes we would go to sleep to a house looking a bit disheveled, ( like 7 kids lived there) and when we woke up in the morning it was completely clean.  Melinda had taken advantage of the quiet hours in the night to put things back together just like she liked it.  

Melinda, Carrie and Megan in the Christmas program

She sang with Susie and Mary in their Andrews sisters numbers in the talent show at school.  More importantly she was a key performer in the talent shows at home.

 When she came to BYU as a college freshman she impressed me with her courage and spunk when she tried out for the BYU cougarettes.  That was something that I secretly wanted to do, but talked myself out of  because I was afraid. 

Melinda and my baby, Brandon

She has successfully completed many beautiful sewing projects, and when she met Dan Christensen (the man of her dreams) she made her own beautiful wedding dress.  I believe she made her daughter's also.  She has passed this skill on to her talented girls.

Beautiful Bride

In Melinda's home they love God and old musicals and vintage clothes (designed and thrifted) and gardens and laughter and each other.  She and Dan have raised 8 fantastic children.  Although she has had health challenges throughout her adult life, she has persevered with love and faith and dedication to goodness.  Melinda, you are strong and beautiful.  I love you.

All the awesome Christensens at Tyler's homecoming