MFF

What is MFF, you ask? "Mandatory Family Fun," a phrase coined by Tommy when the kids were younger. Any parent--especially of teens--has experienced the eye rolling and whining when children are required to participate in a family activity. Don't worry. Calling it MFF didn't take that away; Lindsay and Matt still complained when we forced them to go on a picnic with us or to work as a family to get the yard in shape or anything else they believed was beneath the dignity of a child/teen. But, the name stuck; and as they got older they actually enjoyed family time.

Well, MFF came back to bite Tommy in the behind while in Phoenix for our Christmas celebration. He does NOT enjoy playing board games, and the rest of us love it. Amber got "Pit" for Christmas and wanted to teach us how to play. Lindsay and Matt played the MFF card and forced Tommy to join us. This is the adult version of eye rolling and whining.

Oh yes. The kids gave him infinite grief.

Ward Family Christmas

There is one bright spot in January. The Wards gathers to celebrate our family Christmas. It's not exactly the same as exchanging gifts in December, but it works for us--less expensive airfare, you can buy gifts after Christmas when there are LOTS of sales, and it's much easier for Tommy and Lindsay to get time off work. This year we rendezvoused in Phoenix at Matt and Amber's. Sunny skies and 70 degrees are always a treat for the Utah and Washington Wards.

Whoever hosts usually leaves some Christmas decorations up so it feels like Christmas. Amber's mom and I both bought decorations every year for our kids to take with them when they left home. You can see their tree is pretty full. What fun to reminisce over the ornaments and remember where they came from or the special occasions they represent! And to see what special ornaments Amber had.

We don't cook a big Christmas dinner, although we did make hamburgers one night. It's the time together, not the food, that's important. We worshipped together Sunday, which is always a treat. Love to hear my son play drums and Amber play bass in the praise band. The girls managed to sneak in mani/pedis. Ahhhh........ We played games, talked until way too late, wandered an outdoor mall one afternoon, and just generally relaxed. What a blessing.


Have you ever seen such concentration playing Wii?



Amber's uber excited to get her workout clothes. I love her wonderful, expressive personality












Lindsay left the Gap this summer after working there for ten years. Because she could purchase with a discount, and we took advantage of friends and family days, we've had a generous supply of Gap boxes over the years. This may be the last Gap box we'll ever see. :)

Three of the best kids a mom could hope for. Proverbs tells us that children are the crown of old men. We definitely have glorious crowns! I am so proud of the young adults they have become and so blessed to have them in my life.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

Happy New Year?

Would it be considered un-American to say that January is my least favorite month of the year? You hear people speak of excitement for a new year--clean slate, new opportunities, excitement of what is to come, etc..... I am so NOT a goal setter. Organized, yes. Planner, no.

January is just a long, cold month to me. Holiday excitement is over. The famous Utah winter inversion sets in, which brings haze and days where it's difficult to breathe outside. Football season is coming to a close. There's a time crunch to get W2s out on time and the new budget set up. Boy, I sound like Eeyore.

"It's snowing still," said Eeyore gloomily.
"So it is."
"And freezing."
"Is it?"
"Yes," said Eeyore.
"However," he said, brightening up a little, "we haven't had an earthquake lately."

Perhaps I should reread, Philippians 4:11 and practice being content whatever my circumstances. After all, God IS in control - even in the month of January.

People Watching....& Listening

Because Tommy works for an airline, we have been able to travel frequently. What a blessing! However, we always fly standby, which can make for some interesting trips and LOTS of time in airports. Still a blessing and the fodder for LOTS of funny family stories.

Like the time we were in an airport elevator and Matt (who was about 8 at the time) gave a stranger complete directions on how and where to check his luggage, get his boarding pass, and make it through security easily. Or listening to Matt and Lindsay recite from memory the recorded message about which side of the moving sidewalk to stand on. Or the time we held our annual family "Christmas Eve dinner and open one package" tradition at the SLC airport, because Tommy had a layover there between flights. (This was before 9/11 when you could go through security without a boarding pass.) Or the time the kids and I got stuck in Dallas and had to spend the night. We got up early the next morning just to allow time to ride the airport train the entire circuit, because they wanted to see where it went.

But perhaps one of the nicest blessings of spending time in an airport is people watching--and listening. God definitely made all kinds! Here are a few examples:

Attitude - Once I saw a gentleman (and I use the term loosely) storm to the front of a line at the gate and demand to be helped because he was a first-class passenger. The flight was delayed due to thunderstorms, and there were about half a dozen people ahead of him worried about possibly missing connections. The gate agent patiently assured him she'd get to him when she finished with those who were already in line. He was NOT a happy camper and went to the back of the line muttering a few words I dare not print!

Just a couple of weeks ago, I overhead a woman talking to her mother about missing her flight. She and her husband got to the airport and had dinner before going to their gate. Unfortunately, they arrived at the gate five minutes before takeoff; and the jetway door was already closed. This is another example of a newbie. (see below) Evidently her mom asked why they didn't get to the gate sooner. She told her mom, "because we're just hillbillies, Mom." And they had a good laugh over it. What a difference between the two.

Children - always a joy to watch! And to watch adults interact with them. I love to watch toddlers pull their own suitcase or push their own strollers. And what wisdom of airport directors to install play areas, although I've seen children play just as happily without them. When Matt was little, I carried a small tape measure with me, which kept him entertained for hours measuring the height of the chairs from the floor, the size of his suitcase, etc. Unfortunatley, I've also encountered a few of Bill Cosby's "Jeffry's." I feel sorry for the harried parents of tired and cranky children, and the children who cry during takeoff and landing because their ears hurt.

Dress - It's amazing to see how differently people dress to fly. I've seen everything from pajamas to suits. Flip flops to stiletto heels. Perfectly made up to just rolled out of bed. Elegant and classy to downright questionable for public viewing.

Luggage - There is a reason the airports have those devices to measure your suitcase to see if it will fit in the overhead compartment. But, people tend to think, "I can make this fit." Fishing poles, musical instruments, wedding dresses, stuffed Shamus--just a few of the things I've seen carried on--some successfully fitting and others not. And bless the flight attendants who patiently rearrange the bins and assist with gate checking the things that won't fit. During one flight, I actually saw a briefcase fall out of an overhead compartment and hit a man in the head cutting him pretty badly.

Newbies - These are people who don't fly often or are flying for the first time. You see a lot of them in the summer and around the holidays. Like the young man trying to get through security who was pulling toiletries out of his backpack one at a time and asking if each was small enough. No, a full-sized tube of toothpaste isn't. Meanwhile the line behind him is getting longer and longer and longer.

First timers also tend to speak loudly in excitement. A woman behind me recently was on her cell phone when I was seated. I easily heard every word of the conversation. She saw the lighted sign that said, "please turn off all electronic devices" and didn't know she could continue to talk until the aircraft door is closed. She hurriedly hung up. A few minutes later her seatmate asked her to take a picture. The woman said she couldn't because she had to turn off all her electronic devices--not realizing that only meant transmitting devices. :) Her seatmate assured her a camera was OK, and soon they were happily snapping photos. A few hours later, she was exclaiming, "look at the lake, look at the lake," as we were approaching SLC. (Little did she know it was not the Great Salt Lake but Utah lake she was seeing--but both are beautiful enough for that excitement.)

Seasoned - These are the people who have flying down to an art and fly even more often than airline employees' families. The flight from Anchorage to Salt Lake is an overnight flight. It leaves there at 2 am and arrives here at 7:30. Lights are dimmed on takeoff, and most people immediately go to sleep. I recently watched in awe as a woman settled in for the night. First, she took her shoes off and changed into slippers she pulled from her carry on (which held as much as Mary Poppins' satchel). She took out her MP3 player and Bose noise-cancelling headphones (there was a little bit of coveting from me over those) and turned them on. Next came a full-sized pillow, a snuggie, and an eye mask. Finally, she took some sort of pill (I assume a sleep aide), curled up in the seat, pulled the eye mask in place, leaned against the window, and slept like a baby the entire flight. I know this because I seldom sleep on planes and watched her restful night rather than enjoying one of my own.

Being a reader, I never travel without at least two books. But, who needs them when people are so much more interesting--at least until the flight is well underway.

Black Thumb

My grandmother Westmoreland was a gifted gardener. She grew beautiful flowers. We used to joke that she could stick a broom handle in the ground, and it would grow. I especially remember her hydrangeas--big thick bushes loaded with giant blue flowers. My mother inherited the gift. She didn't have a specialty per se but grew everything from succulents to roses. She loved nothing better than creating a beautiful flower bed. One of her biggest regrets as she got older was that it was so hard to work in her flower beds. When she downsized to an apartment, she purposely searched for one with a porch, so she could still keep potted flowers to brighten her surroundings. Unfortunately the gardening gene skipped a generation and went to my younger sisters. Diane, had beautiful red hibiscus plants lining her fence until a freeze killed them last year. I have no doubt that she'll soon have new ones blossoming. I bet she could make a broom handle grow, too. My sister-in-law, Lynn, also grows hibiscus--only hers are yellow. My youngest sister, Beverly, is a whiz with indoor plants.

I cannot even begin to count the number of plants I have killed over the years. Tommy teases that I have a black thumb. This is probably due in large part to the fact I hate yard work. My sisters all say it's so relaxing and rewarding. I find it tedious and frustrating. Give me a book and an afternoon to read any day over gardening. Over the years, I've taken out all the flowers in our yard and only maintain one narrow bed. Through a process of trial and error, I've found flowers that I can grow that don't require much work and look nice enough that the neighbors don't run us off. (Especially important if you live next door to someone who spends hours each day working with his flowers. He had 500 tulips at one point. Seriously, he was always very nice but I wondered what he thought of my feeble attempts.)

Here are my flowers. See if you can find the theme.


Allium - these come up in late spring. We started with about five that the previous owners of our house planted. Once they finish flowering and the seeds are gone, I simply pull the stems up and wait for next year's crop.


Hostas - a friend gave me two plants several years ago. They grow in the shade and produce these bell-like flowers in July. Once they die back in the fall, I pull up the leaves and wait for next year's crop.


English ivy - which isn't technically a flower, I suppose. But it makes a great ground cover and keeps weeds out. Tommy trims the tops with a weed eater about once a summer. The deer love it especially in the winter when their usual food is covered in snow.


Snow in summer - a perennial that blooms in June. It covers landscaping rocks near our hot tub and looks like snow has fallen, thus the name. Once the flowers are gone, the plant is a lovely shade of gray green that lasts til winter comes.


Clematis - a sun loving perennial which blooms all summer. It's a climber that grows up the scrub oak in a front bed. It dies back in the winter and comes back in the late spring.


Petunias - the only annual in my yard. I plant shortly after mother's day (you risk a freeze if you plant before then in Utah) and pull them out in the fall when the blooms are all gone. For some reason, my black thumb doesn't affect petunias. They love the afternoon sun, a little water every other day, and fertilizer about every six weeks.

Did you figure out the theme? (1) Everything is purple. Just a color I enjoy which looks good against the green of the yard. (2) Nothing requires much work. The petunias are the only flower I have to plant every year. It takes a couple of hours to get them in and that's about it for the summer.

The trick is to recognize that there is nothing wrong with me because I don't like to garden. God has gifted me in other areas. How boring would it be if we all planted the same flowers!

Worth the Wait

It's finished!!!!! Well, at least phase one is.

We love our home. We have the blessing of living where it feels like we're out in the country but we're only five minutes from town. God literally dropped this house in our lap 20 years ago; and reaffirmed that Utah is where he wanted us to live. Twice we had put our previous house on the market, but it didn't sell either time. Both times we would have moved out of state if the house had sold. The third time we put it on the market, we planned to buy in Utah. We had two offers on the house before the sign was even in the yard! OK, God. Sometimes we're a little dense and you have to use that two-by-four up beside the head.

But, after 20 years, the house needed some updating. We decided to begin with the kitchen. The bones were good but it looked like an oak tree exploded on my main floor. Oak cabinets, oak floors, oak railings, oak table and chairs....you get the picture. After months of looking at magazine pictures and MANY trips to Lowe's and Home Depot, we had a plan. (Those of you who know us well, will understand just how long this process took.) Paint the cabinets, new hardware, and new counter tops.

After a month of demolition, disaster, and do-overs we're done! Boy, was it worth the wait! I love it! And, we got just the look we were hoping for. (Side note: if any of my Utah readers ever need a painter, we can recommend an excellent worker.) Here are a few before, during, and after shots.






Wonder how long it will be before I can talk Tommy into starting Phase 2?

Perfect Example

I heard the most amazing story this week. The elderly mother of a friend from church had been ill for a while and was in Hospice care. All her children and her husband had said good-bye. Everyone was waiting for the inevitable. My friend said that twice his mom awoke and was disappointed to still be alive. She was ready to see Jesus and was sad it hadn't happened during the night! What a perfect example of a Christian woman--living for Jesus all her life and excited to see Him in the end.

It brought to mind the words of an old hymn, Face to Face with Christ, by Grant Colfax Tullar. The last verse and chorus go like this.

Face to face--oh, blissful moment!
Face to face--to see and know;
Face to face with my Redeemer,
Jesus Christ who loves me so.

Face to face I shall behold Him,
Far beyond the starry sky;
Face to face in all His glory,
I shall see Him by and by.