Book Cover Images Above and Below Credit: goodreads.com
In honor of my recent summer trip to Maine, where I toured the public library children’s wing named after Barbara Cooney, in Damariscotta, I’m sharing this picture book. Because Barbara by Sarah Mackenzie is about Barbara Cooney, a real person. She first gained fame with her illustrations of the book below, for which she earned a Caldecott Medal.
Then she got another Caldecott Medal for this book:
I just love this book so much! I read it aloud in our homeschool morning time every fall. It’s just the perfect harvest time picture book.
She solidified her fame with her book Miss Rumphius, about a real woman, Hilda Hamlin, who planted lupine seeds wherever she went. It’s also loosely based on Barbara’s life of world traveling.
I love Because Barbara because it tells the story of a woman who raised a family as a wonderful mother, and along the way modeled a passion for learning and creating beauty. She made beautiful illustrations for picture books, and wrote beautiful words for some of the books she illustrated. The book shows that a woman can be a wonderful mother and have a career compatible with mothering, not external to mothering but woven in and out of her mothering. Barbara would have been a great example of the Thomas Jefferson Education (TJED) key of great learning and teaching which says “You, not them.” (Some people have added onto this by saying “You, with them.” She seems to have done both, as far as I can tell.) The book shows her living family life with her artist easel in the center of the family home, amidst the commotion of life with four young children. She didn’t homeschool, as far as I know, but she exuded a love of learning.
The illustrations, by Eileen Ryan Ewen, are so wholesome and fresh, done with water color and colored pencil. They are dreamy! I love them so much! (I also find it fascinating that the author, Sarah Mackenize, is also doing the same thing, creating beauty like Barbara did, with her family and alongside her family, by doing her podcast and writing books with the imprint Waxwing Books.)
Here I am walking into the Barbara Cooney Children’s Wing with my grandson, nieces and nephew. Photo by my sister Emily Reynolds
The author, Sarah Mackenzie, deftly weaves the phrase, “Because Barbara did whatever she put her mind to, she…” throughout the the whole book. She does this to show how determined this woman was. Because she was determined, her talent bloomed.
I took this photo above of young Barbara, located in a display case at the Skidompha Library.
Her talents allowed her to become the following things: a first lieutenant in the army (the book never mentions that, I learned it form wikipedia, and I find it fascinating that this tiny elfin woman was in the army, the WAC!), a doctor’s wife, a mother, an artist, a children’s picture book author and illustrator, a world traveler, a “greedy reader,” “an avid gardener,” a “merrymaker,” and a “picnicker of the first water.” (The back matter of the book gives those words for some of those roles, with some tidbits about each.) She was also a promoter of children’s literacy and a generous giver. She gave $850,000 to the Skidumpha Library in Damariscotta, Maine to renovate the library. On top of that, she organized an auction for children’s picture book illustrators to raise more money for the library.
Photo by me, of a photo of Barbara, hanging on the wall in the Skidompha Public LIbrary
This is definitely a keeper of a book! It’s one to get for your Morning Basket if you homeschool, and even if you don’t, get it anyway, read it aloud again and again to yourself and your loved ones. It’s so inspirational! Barbara indeed followed the mantra of her grandfather, “You must do something to make the world more beautiful.”
This quilt depicting Barbara is hanging on the wall at the Skidompha Library, photo taken by me.
Those words show up in her Miss Rumphius picture book. She exemplified the words by creating all of these beautiful books. The phrase is now forever inscribed in stone in the sidewalk of the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Maine. (I learned that fun fact from my sister Emily’s blog over here. Barbara lived in Maine like Emily does now.) When we are each determined like Barbara was, we can create beauty in the world like Barbara did. In this crisis world we live in, we need all the beauty we can get!
Please enjoy Sarah Mackenzie’s podcast about Barbara here! So yummy!
When I went to Maine last month to visit my dear artist sister, she told me about the above book. She returned it to her local public library on one of the errands we took together. Guess what book I promptly put on hold to get from my own public library as soon as I could? It was definitely something to look forward to when I got home.
I’ve been reading a story (chapter) a day from this book with my son for our homeschool Morning Basket. So fun! It has a one to two pages in each chapter that that tell the story behind some of the most famous children’s book authors and illustrators. It covers both picture books and chapter books. When you read this book you will learn some fun facts about Beverly Cleary, Maurice Sendak, Roald Dahl, J.K. Rowling, and many more. If you love children’s books like I do, this a celebration of them you won’t want to miss! It’s a book you can read on your own, or read aloud to children ages 12 and up. For younger children I would skim over the pages and read aloud parts because 12 and unders tend to have shorter attention spans and more limited vocabulary.
Here’s an author’s note from the book’s amazon page:
“In my research of these authors, I began to see that our most treasured children’s books weren’t just built on creativity and imagination―many were born from extraordinary persistence and grit. Considering Benjamin Franklin’s quote, that a person should either write something great or do something great, it’s clear to me that the authors we admire most have done both. And perhaps it’s this secret ingredient that’s made their writing so genuine, so engaging, and so enduring.“
So go check your library’s online catalog and see if you can get a copy today! And do check out my sister Emily’s website for her book recommendations. As a professional illustrator herself, she has excellent taste!
It was 201 years ago on Sept. 21-22 that Joseph Smith received instructions from an angel of God, Moroni, about the golden plates buried in the Hill Cumorah. From these plates, he eventually translated the Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ. You can read his words about that whole process here in Joseph Smith History 1:27 to the end of the chapter.
God doesn’t do things randomly. Everything He does has a purpose and order to it. We can see this in the date when the above event occurred. Did you know it happened to coincide with the Feast of the Trumpets, a feast from the ancient Hebrews? Why is this important? It’s because this annual feast is when the Jews celebrate the beginning of the gathering of Israel. We know from President Nelson, the president and prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, that the Book of Mormon is central to this work of the gathering of Israel, in this talk here.
To learn more, read the article here about it by Lenet Hadley Read. You can also read her book above, from amazon.com or archive.org.
I also invite you to watch the videos above and below. The first one explains what the Feast of Trumpets is. The bottom one explains the connection of the Feast of Trumpets to the reception of the golden plates by Joseph Smith. You will learn how Sept. 21, 1823 fits in with the Hebrew feasts. Then you will learn how each yearly visit of Moroni to Joseph in September from 1824 to 1827, when he finally got to receive the golden plates, fits in with these feasts and God’s covenantal love. It’s a beautiful story of Christ’s kingdom of order and glory.
If you want a fun movie next time you have a movie date night with your husband, here’s one to watch. It’s from 2004. Even though it’s 20 years old, it’s still good.
Here’s why I like it:
-it has a middle-aged woman as the protagonist, so I totally related. Does any other movie out there have that? I can’t think of any. This movie is gold just for that! Let’s embrace middle age!
-the female lead, Christine Lahti, has wavy/curly hair that’s so beautiful!
-it’s funny
-it’s about marriage
-it’s full of good marriage counsel
-it features a mother-in-law who is beautiful and full of wisdom and is proved right. How many movies feature a beautiful, wise, fun, and nice mother-in-law? I’m so tired of mother-in-law jokes that show a her as the receiving end of so much rudeness.
-the ending has so much poetic justice. I absolutely love the last line, “The best revenge is a life well-lived!”
-the acting is superb. Christine Lahti does such a terrific job!
I wouldn’t watch this with children around. It has one bedroom scene (after the fact), some drinking, and taking of the Lord’s name in vain. So be forewarned. I give out 4 out of 5. It provides good fodder to discuss with your husband about how to make your marriage better.
It’s been almost a year since I shared a Carnivore Chronicle! It’s high time I did another one. Go here for the previous ones. Carnivore Chronicles is my series of stories about people eating the carnivore (all meat) diet. All of them have amazing results!
I just love this woman’s story. Her name is Jane Crummet. She weighed 240lbs and had so much pain in her feet from plantar fasciitis that she could hardly walk. She was taking cortisol shots and anti-inflammatory drugs. The doctor told her that surgery was the next step. She didn’t want that. So she started the carnivore diet to lose weight, thinking that would help. It did! She lost weight and the PF. Hooray! Then she hit a weight loss stall for two years, at 175 lbs. Then she gained 20 lbs back and the PF came back as well, even though she was still doing carnivore. She was a strict carnivore, eating only beef and no dairy, which is allowed on carnivore but not if you are strictly eating just meat. She eventually recognized that she was addicted to volume eating, even when eating carnivore, so she decided to do Dr. Annette Bosworth’s sardine challenge to deal with that. It’s hard to eat too much volume of sardines! As of the filming of this video, which was done in the past few weeks, she was on Day 98 of her sardine fast. She started May 28, 2024. Except for eating brisket while traveling through TX for two days, Jane has only eaten sardines since then. Her sardine fast healed the plantar fasciitis, and bonus, she lost 35 more lbs! She says she has more energy, she can keep her job that she loves which requires her to walk 10 miles a day, and she feels wonderful. Watch/hear her story below.
I’m telling you, if you have any type of symptom related to insulin resistance, which you can see in the image below, the carnivore diet may be for you. That’s because carnivore diet can be the keto diet, which Dr. Boz promotes, on steroids. It’s important to note here that you don’t have to only eat sardines to do carnivore. Save that for if/when you hit a stall on the carnivore diet. Here’s what Kelly says about that on the YouTube page of the video above, “ZERO SARDINES ARE REQUIRED FOR ALL CARNIVORES. I hope I made this VERY clear in this video: There is no ONE perfect path to healing that will work for everyone. And just because someone heals by using something like Lion Diet, High-Fat Carnivore, salt-free Carnivore, water-fasting, or even sardines, it doesn’t mean that it will be YOUR answer. BUT…I do love sharing stories of people who have continued to search for answers by doing the hard things as needed for her OWN healing. Jane inspired me, and I hope you enjoy hearing her story.”
Image Credit: Dr. Boz’s YouTube Channel
Dr. Boz has studied Jane’s story! Watch the video below to learn about the science behind the power of sardines, and whether or not it’s dangerous because of possible arsenic.
Do you want to learn more about the carnivore diet? Watch an introductory video below from Dr Ken Berry MD.
Still want more? Go here. Jordan Peterson’s family has done it with awesome health results. It might work for what ails you!
I blogged this past summer about the thirteen new hymns being released by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I’ve enjoyed singing some of them, including “My Eye is On the Sparrow.”
I didn’t know that Whitney Houston has a version of that song. I learned about that in Primary when the chorister played that version for the children. So beautiful! Those kiddos probably don’t even know who Whitney is. Anyway, a new batch of songs has been released, including “Amazing Grace.” See the video below about the new batch. Fun fact: I was a bit surprised when I saw the bishop who appears at the 32 second mark. At first I thought he was my bishop from when I lived in AZ but it turns out it be his twin brother, who is also a bishop, LOL.
I’m so excited about Amazing Grace in the new hymnbook. It’s about time! It’s now Hymn #1010 in the Hymns–For Home and Church. That’s the new hymnbook that will published in English, Spanish, Portugese, and French in the next few years. For a long time I wondered why we didn’t have Amazing Grace, that popular classic Christian hymn, in our collection. It is probably my absolute favorite hymn to sing, because of the way I can always hit that high C (when it’s played in the key of F) while singing the “me” at the end of the poignant phrase, “…that saved a wretch like me!” It just feels so lovely to be wrapped in the love of Jesus as I sing that high note.
My life was forever changed when my neighbor and friend told me that her son, Brent, a scholar of ancient languages, had studied the original meaning of the Greek word for grace, “charis,” He discovered that when Paul used that Greek word in the New Testament, that at the time, that word meant a reciprocal relationship of giving gifts back and forth. So if Paul used that word to describe God’s grace, that means Paul expects us to treat God’s grace the same way. To treat it was a two-way street, of giving back and forth, and not a one-way ticket to salvation.
Here’s the summary of the book on amazon.com:
“In ancient Greece and Rome, Charis was a system in which one person gave something of value to another, and the receiver gave service, thanks, and lesser value back to the giver. It was the word used to describe familial gifts, gifts between friends, gifts between kings and servants, and gifts to and from the gods. In Rome, these reciprocal transactions became the patron-client system. Orderly gift exchange is a key building block in the development of societies.
“Charis (grace) is the word New Testament authors, especially Paul, sometimes used to explain Christ’s gift to people. But what is the nature of the gift? Since the fifth century, a number of Christian scholars have taught that grace is something bestowed by God freely, with little or nothing required in return. This book sets out to show that ‘free grace’ is not what Paul and others intended.
“The practice in the ancient world of people granting and receiving favors and gifts came with clear obligations. Charis served New Testament authors as a model for God’s mercy through the atonement of Jesus Christ, which also comes with covenantal obligations.
“LDS scriptures make it clear that being saved comes through grace accompanied by forsaking sin and making and keeping covenants. For Latter-day Saints, being saved by grace means coming to Christ, being baptized and joining the community of saints, and continually living with thanks and praise for God’s gift. All of these expressions of grace are found both in the Greek and Pauline use of the word. Knowing what charis means helps us understand what God expects us to do once we have accepted his grace.”
So how did learning about the original meaning of grace, charis, change my life? I started praying differently. Instead of always asking for blessings, I started committing gifts to God in personalized covenants. I started promising to and covenanting with Him that I would give Him gifts. He doesn’t need my gifts, of course, but giving these gifts has helped me and helps me grow to be a better instrument for Him. It’s too personal to blog about what I promised God to do, but I have definitely felt God appreciating my gifts in our charis-based relationship and blessing me even more. He has honored my gifts by giving me more gifts. Whenever I feel stuck in my life, I know maybe I’m taking this grace for granted, or presuming upon God’s grace. It’s time for me to reevaluate, to be more consistent in the gifts I’ve already promised and maybe give more.
Here’s more about the nine new hymns. I like that the commentator says that these hymns help “soften the crust of our worship.”
I blogged about the Just One tabletop game over a year ago, over here. It’s such a fabulous game! Here’s why: it’s simple, it’s fun, it challenges your brain, it can be played with a small or a big group if you share the little easels and markers, and everyone can play every round. That all makes it a wonderful game for a party! You can make it short or long, according to how much time you have. It’s also a word association game. So if you like Code Names you will probably love it.
On top of all that, you can customize the game to make it even more fun! We just played it with 5 out of my 7 children for our family birthday party, when we celebrated my wedding anniversary last month. It’s SOOO easy to customize. Just hand out an index card to each participant. Ask each person to write a list on the index card (in portrait orientation) numbered 1 to 5 of interesting words that pertain to the family. These are words that can stir up laughter, memories, or opinions. The words can also be names of people in the family or family titles like “mom,” “son,” “cousin” etc. Remind everybody to use words that only stir up positivity. So this could be words that pertain to furniture in the home, family vacations, quirky moments, friends, favorite toys or games, pets, hobbies of family members, etc. In the regular game, you start with 13 cards that you as a group go through. The aim of the game is to see if you can get 13 out of 13 correct working together as a group. If you have fewer than 13 people than have some people make more cards so you can have 13 cards. Then use those customized cards and play according to the regular rules. Hopefully you will enjoy lots of laughter along the way. We sure did!
Variations:
Use guidelines above but put different words themed according to the holiday you are celebrating: Valentine’s, Easter, Independence Day, Thanksgiving or Christmas. Or play a Family Tree version and use names and words associated with your ancestors and other relatives. How fun it would be to play on a family member’s birthday and then come up words that have to do with that person like his or her favorite food, hobbies, books, trips, possessions, etc.
He has asked that each of us, if we want to celebrate his birthday, do so by ministering to one person. I love this idea! I have been pondering who this is for me.
As I ponder I am inspired by the following stories:
First, here is a beautiful story about someone who ministered to a sad person by giving a yellow rose away. You can read it here.
Here is a story about a young woman who was in prison and ministered to her prison inmates. She told one of them, “you are a daughter of God and He loves you!” See the story here.
Then this story is about a young woman who gave up ten dollars to pay someone’s bill at the grocery store.
Want more inspiring stories? Check out my collection of stories to share with your family over dinner or devotional over here. It’s free!
Also, did you know that Elder David A. Bednar, an apostle of Jesus Christ, wrote the lyrics to a beautiful song called “One By One.” Paul Cardall wrote the music. It’s below. The sheet music is linked into my ebook above and you can find it here.
Seeing my grandson and niece scootering together at my sister’s home in Maine definitely made me smile!
Steak! For #5 child’s birthday dinner we had steak! He grilled it himself since he loves to grill, on the BBQ grill he and his brother gave my husband for Father’s Day. So yum! And of course, so fitting for our (my husband’s and my) carnivore-turned-ketovore diet. (When we’re not cheating, hehe.) The birthday dinner/party was a lot of fun with one son and his wife joining over Zoom. Our tradition for birthdays is that we share a compliment or positive memory of the birthday person. I had a new memory to share of this son which was that he was my only child to tell me “I love you!” at age two. Everyone else was probably older than 12. I revealed that cute memory to which the birthday boy told his siblings, “Hey you slackers!” Everyone laughed. In honor of my son’s love of music, we played a game. Ahead of time I asked everyone to share the title of a favorite song. Then I played the songs one by one, and had each person guess which favorite song belonged to which person.
Ice blocking! The above photo shows my grandson having just pushed me downhill to slide on ice on top of grass. It’s hard to tell, but I’m sitting on a folded-up towel on top of a block of ice. It was fun! We did this to celebrate our family’s birthday, 33 years of marriage, with an accompanying picnic in the park. One of my sons made two ice blocks by freezing each one in a cardboard box in my basement kitchen freezer, with little rope handles attached. That made it very easy to carry the blocks.
He thought of everything, except for how to get the blocks out of the freezer. It took my youngest child and me about 30 minutes of maneuvering to get those two blocks out of the freezer with a blow dryer and a ruler to pry them loose. Every year, for my August 17 wedding anniversary, we do something special as a family and something special as a couple to celebrate our family’s birthday. We also played Just One, family-themed, after a family pizza dinner, which was after the picnic. We made our own cards to play the game with words connected to our family memories.
Photo Credit: the Fame YouTube Channel
Jana Duggar got married! I’m so happy for her! It happened the same day I visited Orchard House, the home of Louisa May Alcott. More on that below.
The St Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City. NYC was the first stop on my East Coast trip that I took with my youngest son, Mr. M. for ten days in August. My husband was there for part of the trip, and my daughter and her husband and boys for all of our trip. You can read about the kindness I felt from New Yorkers during our visit here. We took this trip to see my sister Emily and her family in Maine. I also got to see my husband’s sister in NYC and her cat. It was so wonderful to see her beautiful apartment and her environs but I forgot to take any photos, even of the cat.
Little goodies to make traveling with kiddos easier. On the bus trip out of NYC to Boston, I had a lot of fun doodling on this pack of cards shown above from Usborne with a dry erase marker with my grandson. (Usborne’s Animal Doodle Cards) It kept him happily occupied for about two hours until he fell asleep. I had carefully packed a Mary Poppins bag of quiet toy treasures to enjoy with my son and grandchildren while traveling. We didn’t get to all of them but that’s OK. I was prepared! We also played Spot It! on the way to the beach and used the Magna Doodle board in the airplane and bus, and Travel Bingo on the bus as well.
Boston! Boston was our second stop on our trip. We walked the Boston Freedom trail, however we didn’t have time to see all the sites on the walk as we only had four hours in Boston that day. All the more reason to go back!
I absolutely loved the Paul Revere statue. So gorgeously fluid!
I was so thrilled to see in real life the Old Boston State House, which is close to where the Boston massacre took place. I have read about this so much as part of our homeschooling, and even sketched the building. To see it in real life was so amazing! It’s so small compared to all the buildings around it, to the point of looking fake. I felt like I was on a movie set. I expected Nicolas Cage to appear around the corner any second.
It was so hard to walk by all these yummy historic things and not be able to go inside because of lack of time! Things like the Paul Revere house and the Old North Church. Here are some snapshots of windows of one of the gift shops on the trail as I walked by. Seeing all this makes me want to watch National Treasure again and then go back to New England, this time maybe with my parents and other family members, or with girlfriends. Yes, a girls’ retreat in Concord with a jaunt up through Maine to pick up sister Emily and then on to Prince Edward Island sounds especially lovely. PEI is only 8 hours away she tells me!
After Boston, it was on to Maine! I have waited for 9 years for this trip, ever since she moved away!
Blueberries! The first thing we got to do after arriving at sister Emily’s home was picking blueberries. Can you imagine having a blueberry patch right outside your kitchen? So splendid! She gets to eat fresh blueberries all summer!
The Harriet Beecher Stowe Home in Brunswick, Maine. This is the actual home where Harriet lived when she wrote the famous, history-changing novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin. We got to go inside and see the actual room where she wrote it. Years ago, I read a biography of her called Harriet Beecher Stowe and the Beecher Preachers by Jean Fritz, so it was amazing to see this place.
Window shopping in downtown Brunswick Maine. After the tour of the room in the house above, we strolled along Maine Street, the “main” street of Brunswick. It was so fun to see the different shops. Mr. M. found a T-shirt he liked that I bought him with a cartoon about a lobster.
Sister Emily’s hydrangeas on her back deck! So beautiful! I love the variegation of colors.
The L.L. Bean Headquarters in Freeport, Maine! Emily says this is where you can feel the quintessential Maine vibes, just as Temple Square is the place to get the Utah vibes. It has three stores on one side of the street: the home goods store, the camping/fishing/hiking store, and the ski and sea store. This is like the Portobello Road of all things outdoors.
Plus there’s an outlet store across the street. We attended the day that they were hosting a Summer Festival, complete with activities like flower-crown making, drawings for gifts at the top of the hour, food samples, and demonstrations. My son-in-law scored a free boat and tote bag he was thrilled to get. I looked for the perfect souvenir to get from L.L. Bean. What would it be? A candle? A sachet of pine needles? A tea towel? Some bed sheets? A T-shirt? A book? Hmm….I thought it might be an apron, but at $95 a pop I vetoed that. I finally decided on a huge boat and tote bag, similar to the one above, but bigger, with ocean blue trim. I got it discounted at the outlet store. Hint: if you ever go to the L.L. Bean Stores in Freeport, check out the outlet store across the street too. The stuff is less pricey.
A new apron! I found a much less expensive apron ($25) at the Kitchen Store across from the L.L. Bean outlet store. I thought it was so uniquely Maine but then I found it easily on Amazon when I got home. It’s so cute! Now I’ll just get a blueberry-themed apron that I disappointedly didn’t find at the L.L. Bean store at Amazon too.
The beach! We got to go to three beaches on this trip. The first was Scarborough Beach. Vacation/perfect time/heaven for me involves the beach. A wonderful beautiful day was had by all.
My son and his cousin.
Two of my nieces getting ready to boogie on the waves, above, and building a sandcastle below with my grandson.
On another day we walked the perimeter of an island and saw different beaches. So beautiful! No wonder Maine is nicknamed Vacationland.
Sister Emily’s pizza, all homemade except for the crust, which she picked up already made at the grocery store. I made an exception to my rule of only eating ketovore and indulged. It was very tasty! I felt so satisfied.
Pemaquid Point Lighthouse. Shown above is the map on the wall inside the building by the lighthouse. The lighthouse was commissioned by John Quincy Adams. The beach by it is so rocky. It feels like a different earth. We had a picnic and the kids loved exploring the rocks. I wanted to explore the lighthouse more but we had to get back to Em’s house for her son’s shift at Subway. Another time I want to go to Maine and see as many lighthouses as I can. I just love lighthouses because they remind me of the ultimate lighthouse, Jesus Christ.
The Skidompha Library in Damariscotta Maine. This is the famous library that Sarah Mackenzie talks about in her podcast here. Pictured above, Barbara Cooney of Miss Rumphius picture book fame, donated beaucoup bucks to save it. So now there’s a children wing named after. Methinks the whole library should be named after her! As an illustrator, my sister Emily has a special fondness for all things picture books and especially for Barbara Cooney. Go to Em’s website over here. You will see her amazing art and agree she is a talented illustrator/artist.
Used bookstore shopping! The Skidompha Library has a detached building across the street where you can buy used books. We (my sister, four of her children, my son, my daughter, her two boys, and I) were all in second heaven. The best used book store I’ve been to in a long time. Most of us walked out with treasures.
Fearless Aunt Emily leads the way into a treasure trove of books.
Below, The cute books I found. Em discovered a seek and find Christmas Carol classics book that I’m totally jealous of (see above), and my daughter found a pie cookbook for her foodie husband. I got the Betty Crocker book for the vintage illustration vibes and seasonal tips, not the non-whole foods and non-keto recipes, lol.
Then there was playing croquet (a traditional family game from my sister’s and my teen years with our parents and siblings), watching a Jane Austen movie, and then another Boston day before we caught the flight to come home.
So on the last day of the trip, another day in Boston, we got to tour Orchard House with Emily and some of her kiddos! That’s Louisa May Alcott’s home, where she wrote Little Women. More about that here. So amazing! To think real people who I’ve read about lived there and were neighbors to even more people I read about it, in my honors tenth grade English class, the Transcendentalists.
I absolutely loved it, plus the gift shop. I still need to blog about that whole experience of just touring the house, not just the story of Little Women, which I did over here. It was just magical!
I’m still just catching my breath about the whole surreal time as I resume normal life out here in the Wild West where things aren’t nearly as quaint, picturesque, and wonderfully historic.
Then we saw the Old North Bridge which is where the Revolutionary War broke out. We didn’t have time to tour the Visitor’s Center which was I so bummed about it. Airplanes wait for no one! I’m grateful that Emily got us to the plane on time after our visit to the Old North Bridge with her expert weaving in and out of traffic on the Boston interstate.
Then it was back home where more fun awaited. It was good to come home! I always remember what my neighbor and bishop (leader) of my ward (congregation) said when we lived in Layton, UT. “The best part about any trip is coming home.” I’m so grateful that that is true for me!
Mr. M, my 15-year-old son, caught this photo out the window of his seat on the plane.
Right after coming home from the trip, we had our family birthday party, which I already mentioned, a birthday party for Mr. S. (the steaks) and then Heroic Youth Summit, which my children have been participating in on and off since before Mr. M was born. It’s a simulation where children and youth pretend to be part of a kingdom that defends it from a villainous attack. Mr. M was a guardian of shields and my teen daughter was a lady in waiting.
The same night as Summit closing ceremonies we attended a cousin’s wedding reception on the Hilton side. I loved that it was outdoors with strings of lights and servings of ice cream. The yard even had these cute pastel beehives! Fortunately no angry bees escaped. We had another Hilton cousin reception the week before that we missed because it was the same day as our wedding anniversary.
The last fun things were a super funny movie my husband and I watched for date night about married love (hooray!), which I will blog about separately soon I hope, and tall birthday candles. We had to celebrate another son’s birthday on a different day than his real birthday because of all the goings on earlier in the month. I’m happy that I remembered to get new birthday candles. Guys, I avoided a mom-fail by remembering we were out of birthday candles! Victory!!! So if one of my sons is reading this, please note this. (He says that for years we recycled birthday candles, which is true. So dear son note that I’m leaving the past behind and getting new and better candles a lot more often.) I’ve always wanted tall candles, and I remembered I had seen them at the BYU Museum of Art Gift Shop years ago. So I sent dear husband to get them and he found them for me! Hooray! Something about tall birthday cake candles makes me so happy!!! (Even though they are not crunchy-mom-approved, toxin free.) I’m also happy that the new-to-me Pioneer Woman platter shown below, handed down from a friend when she changed her kitchen color scheme, is perfect for my ice cream cakes, to replace my Pioneer Woman cake stand that I carelessly broke in July. Double hooray!!!! (The ice cream cake is just two layers of ice cream frozen into cake pans and than stacked, decorated with whipped cream. That’s why it looks so melty in the photo below. You can see more directions about it over here.)
Yesterday in church my friend shared the story of a trip she took to Oregon with her husband recently. She said that they rented a car and drove up the coast. They filled up the rental car with gas. Much sooner than they expected, the car fuel gauge said it was out of gas. She started panicking. They knew they were in area of no cell phone service. She didn’t know what they did if they ran out of gas. Then she had the thought to look at her gas receipt because it would tell her how many gallons she got. So she looked at the receipt for the gas purchase and that assured her that she really did fill up the tank. The fuel gauge made it seem like they had just filled it up halfway. It was that receipt that helped her not freak out anymore. They just kept driving when the gauge said the tank was empty. Eventually, what do you know, the gauge changed and it showed they weren’t out of gas! Whew! My friend testified that sometimes crazy things happen in life, but God is there and often sends assurances that things will work out.
The photo that cost us $110. We had to go up in the Vanderbilt Building to get it. Tickets are $55 and there were two of us that needed paid tickets. Kids 6 and under are free.
That made me think of my recent trip to New York City and the East Coast last month, August 2024. I got to spend two days in the Big Apple. Some slightly crazy things happened yet I definitely felt some assurances from God. All of it was in the form of coincidental/Providential meetings and the kindness of other people. I know New Yorkers are known for their rough abrupt ways, but I felt so much kindness when I was there. Here are my experiences:
My 15-year-old son, Mr. M, and I took a red-eye flight from SLC to NYC from about midnight to 5 AM on an early Tuesday morning. The plan was, after arriving at JFK Airport, to take the airport train to the subway, then the subway to the hotel to meet up with my husband, daughter, and her little family (husband and two boys). Two nights before we arrived, I felt a little nervous about the whole thing. I called my husband up and asked him, using Google maps on both ends, to walk through the steps I would be taking to meet up with him. I wrote all the steps down and took a photo with my phone. It all worked out great. We got off our flight, then found the train to get to the subway station. At that point, most of my nervousness was gone. I was excited for the trip ahead of us, to see my husband, daughter and her family, and then in a few days, to see my sister and her family who live in Maine. We were getting into the elevator at the subway station to go down below to get into the right subway. Then this man walked into the elevator. I was pretty sure he was my husband! I was slightly flabbergasted that he hadn’t noticed us. He just walked in and turned around to the front of the elevator, staring straight ahead, with his back to us. It was the strangest thing to have him not see us and/or recognize us. Yet he was standing just a foot away from me and we hadn’t seen each other in almost a week. It was like I was in a movie and his body had his brain switched out with someone else’s. I got a good look at him to make sure it was him and then tapped him on the shoulder and we hugged. The little bit of nervousness I had left immediately evaporated! I breathed a sigh of relief. I could now trust him to get us the rest of the way to the hotel. He had decided to come find us but hadn’t noticed us in the elevator. He was going down to find us. He told me later that he just didn’t notice us. It was a little tender mercy from the Lord. I know I could have made it the rest of the way without his help. I had not slept on the plane more than maybe 20 minutes, so I was tired. It was just sooo nice to be able to relax from that point on for the rest of the day and not be on “alert” any more for navigating.
Photo taken by my son, from the window of the Vanderbilt Building
2. The previous incident happened on a Tuesday morning. Then Wednesday the plan was for Mr. M and I to babysit my grandsons (ages 3 and 5) all day while my daughter and son-in-law had a glorious kid-free day free of all responsibilities. The previous evening, my husband had left to go back to Utah. I hadn’t decided yet what sites we would take in with the kiddos. The forecast was rain so I ruled out the zoo and Central Park.
We read this for Morning Basket last year. I was so looking forward to seeing Central Park.
I eventually relented to my grandson’s plea to take them back to the Lego Store and the Nintendo Store. Big mistake as you will soon see. I told them we would do that after we visited the Vanderbilt Building, if they didn’t get three strikes of misbehavior. That way we could see the Empire State Building from its windows. My husband, daughter, et al had visited it the previous week and said it was cool. So we packed up with all the loot needed to feel adequately equipped for a trip with two little boys, loaded each boy in a stroller and took off. The first snafu was getting one of the strollers stuck in a turnstile at a subway station. My husband had warned me about not taking a stroller through a turnstile that you go through to pay. We followed that injunction. This one however was a different turnstile. It appeared to have more room, enough to fit a stroller. It was the kind that looks like a revolving door, but with bars. We had to go through it to go upstairs because we couldn’t find an elevator. Fortunately, a child wasn’t inside when we got it stuck! I was silently praying someone would come along and help. In the meantime I dug into my measly remnant of lip balm to grease the sides of the stroller to see if that would lessen the grip the iron bars had on it so it could slide through, LOL. After about 15 minutes of my vain efforts, a kind older couple came along. They appeared to be a middle-aged married couple with the mother of one of them. The husband used his manly muscles and wrestled the stroller out by pushing on the bars to expand them just enough to squeeze the stroller out. Whew! I profusely thanked them for taking the time to help us, exclaiming that he was my hero. I almost hugged him but wasn’t sure how a stranger would take that so gave him my heartfelt thanks and left it at that.
3. At the Nintendo Store, one of the grandboys had a major meltdown. I had to tear him away from a game controller where he had been playing a game for at least 30 minutes, with plenty of warnings that we would be leaving in 15 minutes, then 10 minutes, etc. Kicking. Screaming. Pushing me away as I attempted to buckle him into the stroller. Louder screaming. Harder kicking and pushing. (Note to self: never take two little boys into a Nintendo Store no matter how much they beg. They had already been once, with their parents, a few days before, and once is enough! Can you see my strong dislike of video games coming through here?) Just my luck, we were on the second floor when the major meltdown happened and I had to get down to the ground floor with the stroller to get out. The elevator, the one and only elevator in the whole store, was out of order. A kind employee helped me carry the stroller down with screaming child inside. Mr. M in the meantime took the other stroller down the stairs with the 5-year-old in tow. Maybe the employee helped me out not so much from kindness but from the overwhelming desire to get relief from the screaming, LOL.
Some of the creative minifigs that one of my grandsons had custom-made at the NYC Lego Store by Rockefeller Center. For some reason he picked dresses/robes instead of pants.
3. After the three planned visits, plus dinner at a restaurant, we were looking for the right subway station to go back to our home away from home. I followed the GPS on my phone. The problem was Google maps showed an entrance to a subway station that wasn’t there because of construction! A sign said to go to the corner of two other streets, but when we went to that place, the entrance still wasn’t there. Eventually I asked a passing crowd of what appeared to be an Indian family (not Native American but Indian Indian). They helped me find the right entrance. When we had to find the next subway station we had trouble again finding it and I turned to a lady walking by me. She helped me as well. Granted, they may have all been tourists, LOL.
4. So then we got onto the subway. As we zoomed along underground, I kept looking at my phone and the map on the wall of the subway. The data didn’t match up. We were on the wrong one! Then we got on another one. That one was wrong as well. Then we got on another one. This is the most anxiety I’ve felt in over 10 years! The data still didn’t match up (map on the side of the subway wall vs. the map on my phone). At 10% battery charge, my phone was dying, as I had left my portable phone charger in the hotel room. It was 9 PM, dark, and I had two little boys who could freak out at any moment. (Each had had one tantrum that day, but I never know if another one is coming.) The only connection I had with getting to the hotel room was the GPS on my phone. If my phone died, I had no earthly way of calling my husband, my daughter, or finding my way back. This is when the Holy Ghost came in. The people sitting across from us on the subway started talking about where they were going with a guy sitting next to them. As I listened in, I could tell they had the same problem I had. They were on the right letter of subway, but going in the wrong direction, downtown, instead of uptown. Ah! I know that the Holy Ghost prompted me to tune in and listen to that discussion so I could know what to do. We got off on the next stop. Then I finally found some subway employees (pretty hard to find late at night) and showed them my map on my phone. They confirmed what I had figured out and showed us how to get to the right platform. (It was up more stairs– I did not know that so many platforms and subways existed in these subway stations. The last and only time I visited before was when I was 10 and was not paying any attention to such details.)
The view from our window as we are back in our hotel room at last! An overly air-conditioned room with low-pile carpet and no bathtub (just a shower stall) has never felt so good to me!
I am just sooooo grateful for the kindness of these random strangers! I’m grateful that God sent me these little evidences of His goodness on a drizzly summer day in NYC. It reminds me of the line from Hymn 293 from the book of Hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, “Each Life that Touches Ours for Good.”
Here is the first stanza:
“Each life that touches ours for good
Reflects thine own great mercy, Lord;
Thou sendest blessings from above
Thru words and deeds of those who love.”
Those who love. I’m grateful “those who love” can be found in the bustling gritty city of New York.
The beautiful St. Patrick’s Cathedral is right across the street from the Lego Store on Fifth Avenue. How I would have loved to tour it but we didn’t have time.
Tree of Life Mothering 