Peaches

This week I've been canning peaches. Lots and lots of peaches! As always the boxes were lined up in the garage and every time you walk by their delicious smell wafted up making you salivate! There is nothing like a fresh peach with cream for breakfast or hot peach cobbler with its crunchy topping and the juices bubbling around the edges. Mmmmm. When it is time to can peaches I remember a service rendered to our family one day in 1985 that even now so many years later still has power to move me. This is absolutely true.
I was carrying Angie down the stairs to lay her down for a nap when I tripped and fell. I managed to turn enough that she landed on top of me and was unhurt but I was not so fortunate. I pulled the ligaments in my right leg. And  I was 7 months pregnant with Ben. The doctor ordered me off my feet. Yea right! A couple days prior we had traveled as a family to the orchards and picked seven boxes of peaches. All seven boxes were lined up against the wall in our kitchen. Every day we checked on those peaches waiting for them to ripen. Here it was almost a week later and they were ready. It was Monday morning. I was crawling up the stairs and stopped to rest on the top stair when my door bell rang. In walked my dear friend Evelyn Dilg with her kids in tow and a bag full of supplies to help can peaches. She got right to work boiling water, gathering jars, organizing the kids and settling me onto a chair in the kitchen with my leg elevated, handed me a paring knife, and we began.  
That day we canned up all seven boxes and what followed next made me very, very grateful for such a willing and kind friend. Shortly after Dennis lost his job and we moved to Boise where he worked for 6 weeks when that job ended. Ben was born 2 days later at home. Dennis did not work again until the last two weeks in December. That job ended. It was not until the following April that he was gainfully employed. And through it all we feasted on peaches.
We thought 1985 was a year full of trials. Now I look back on that year as one full of some pretty wonderful blessings. One of those is my dear friend Evelyn. What she did for our family goes down in the Elton family annals as one of the sweetest and kindest gestures I've personally experienced. And it only takes peaches to remind me.

September

September means back to school, new beginnings, a new start. I know, I know. We have year round school and the traditional track starts in August. I loved preparing my children for school. As the ads for back to school have started it's made me a little nostalgic. It's all the lists, going through wardrobes to see what needs to be replaced, year books and student body cards, pencils and the choice between black or blue pens. Just all of it. The best part of preparations is the possibilities. So much to learn and know.
Every year I wanted to go back to school too. One day while reading about Marjorie Pay Hinckley's life something she said caught my attention. "Each day brings its own challenges, but life would be a total waste without knowing what it is about and where we can get help." She reminded me I don't have to enter a classroom to gain knowledge. As I pondered all I've learned through life so far I had to give credit to our local library. I have studied nutrition, home repairs, furniture refinishing, cancer, holistic alternatives to traditional medicines, Alzheimer's, music, painting, the Presidents of the United States, military medals, sewing, gardening, proper care of cats and dogs, cooking, other countries, autobiographies, and of course a novel or two...the list goes on and on. The library has been my classroom.
And don't forget the scriptures. They are awesome! Here is a resource that is a great help to all of us. We create our own study environment. That environment could be one of "gotta do it"  to "I get to do it". We can learn during both scenarios but chances are the spirit is stronger with an attitude of "get to do it". It is amazing how a scripture we have read a million times expands to greater and grander meaning when we apply ourselves.
There are all sorts of classrooms. Whatever it is in life we want to improve in or know is available. The possibilities are endless. I'm asking myself what I want to learn next. I know. Bookbinding!

The Juniper Bush

    Years ago Dennis talked me into planting juniper bushes in our yard. He thought it would make the yard work easier but they complicated everything from weeding to mowing the grass. We pulled out all of them except one in the side yard which grew on a mound. Underneath the bush lay mesh ground cover to keep the weeds out. Not true! Year after year I tried to ignore it.  I finally decided the bush was going no matter how long or how hard I had to work to get it out! It took one week (off and on between storms) to remove it. (You may be wondering why I didn't ask Dennis to help- be patient there is an analogy here.) I snipped and dug and snipped some more until finally I saw the main root. The root was large and so deep that a tow chain attached to my vehicle was the only way to pull it out. After three or four tries that big old root gave up.
    The work had just begun. The juniper bush was gone but the weeds and gravel had to be hauled away. At the time I wondered what I was thinking! I know what I was thinking- the mound had great potential and although I was tired, I knew the time spent to make it beautiful was worth the work.
    Sometimes we have juniper bushes in our lives. We ignore them or pretend they are not the eye sore they really are. However, we are prompted to make a change so we begin to snip and dig. We see progress. We are encouraged because we can visualize the person we want to become. The root may be removed but our work is not done. And you may ask, "What was I thinking? I'm tired. This is to hard." If we give up to soon what's underneath will still be there keeping us from reaching our full potential. This is work we must do on our own. It may be easier to get some outside help but there are times when the influence of another keeps us from moving forward as we would like.
     So it is with anything we may want to change about ourselves. There is lots to do. We are God's children. All the hours we put into becoming more like him will be worth the work. And definitely worth the wait.

A bicycle built for two

One Christmas my parents bought our family a bicycle-built-for-two. It was so much fun! We lived out in the country and up on a hill. The road below the house and driveway were gravel. The driveway however, had the added dimension of pot holes and bumps from roots of an Oak tree and a Cedar tree. It was great going down the driveway-especially if you were the one in the back. But getting back up! Aye-yi-yi! Our goal was to pedal as hard as we could, getting up enough speed to make it up the driveway. If the person in back pedaled with as much energy as the person in front, we could get half way up. We were out of breath from all the exertion but at the same time laughing and joking about the person in front doing all the work. You could always tell if the person in back was slacking off. And if they were, we didn't make it far. We then had to push the bike up the hill. Regardless of the method, it took two people to get the bike back home.
My mother and father rode the bike too. Sometimes my mother would ride on the front seat and one of us girls were on the back. We sang "Daisy, Daisy. Give me your answer do..." You know the rest of the song about a bicycle-built-for-two. The bike only accommodated two people. But it did much more than give us a fun ride. It built relationships too. We played together, we sang, we talked, we explored our little valley, and waved to our neighbors as they passed by us on the road. Everybody loved that bike.
My father kept the bike in good repair. When the grandchildren came to visit it was ready to go, ready to teach a new generation about working together, getting along, and having fun. Since my fathers passing there has been no one to keep air in the tires and the chain from slipping off. Its home has been in an old shed out of sight.
When my mother told me I could have the bike I was so excited! The bike was a mess and Dennis was not nearly as excited about what it would take to get it up and running. Me? I know what the bike can do. Something magic happens when two people work together pedaling in unison. Tensions dissolve, hurts are rectified, we accept each other, we give encouragement when the person in back is slacking off or getting tired with, "You can do it!" Good things happen when we pedal together.

Brick by Brick

There was one year when 6 of our family members were attending Boise State University. (I think we should have got a discount!) One day Brian showed up at the house wearing a BSU t-shirt and on it it read "Brick by Brick." What I asked, did it mean. He told me that one of the slogans at BSU was "Building a legacy brick by brick." I wondered what kind of legacy have I built for my children and now grandchildren.

The dictionary gives this simple definition of the word legacy; something passed on to those who come later in time; heritage.

It has been interesting listening to the kids reminisce about their growing up years, who did what, what I did or didn't do, the places we went, the things we saw, what they loved, and what they feel sad about. Now that 5 of the 6 children are married with babies of their own (or soon to be)I get to observe how well I did. It pleases me to see them teach as I taught, love as I loved, and doing a much better job at being patient, kind, and less apt to judge. I am happy that each of them has changed what needed to be changed and incorporated what was good.

So yes, I have been building a legacy brick by brick. It is in everything I do, everything I teach, and in the relationships I build. Legacy is not only about family for it extends to those I associate with in the community and at church. It has a rippling affect.

What kind of legacy are you building? We are building a legacy brick by brick.

Be like a Duck

A couple years ago I attended a Standards Night for the youth where the guest speakers were President and Sister Dopp. I will never forget her analogy of a duck and how we can use one of its characteristics to bless our lives. When you see a duck with its head under water and its bum sticking straight up , well, soon that head pops up and the duck immediatly rights itself. Any water slides off. Sister Dopp reminded us that a ducks feathers are never really wet, that they have an essential oil that coats their feathers which keeps them dry and buoyant. The water never penetrates.  She said that past events can make us bitter or consume us or create trials for us and we should be like a duck...let those disappointments, the anger and hurt, the pain, slide off our backs just like the water slides off the back of a duck. Growing a thick skin doesn't neccessarily  do the trick. We have to build a foundation of 'essential oils' so we can let things slide off our back. Those "essential oils' may be different for everyone but when we start with the basics that is the simplest. And they are the easy answers. (Why do we make things so complicated?) You know what they are!  So- BE LIKE A DUCK!