That's Entertainment

email to my granddaughter Acadia who is serving a full-time mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Oregon

Bon Jovi likes to wash dishes in his JBJ Soul Kitchen. You know about his restaurant(s) in New Jersey? He wants everyone to have a nutritious meal. You can pay with a donation or you can pay by working.

Watching the occasional celebrity interview teaches me that most of the time when you actually get to know a little bit about a person, you will like them. You might not care for their politics or their style of music or whatever, but when you get to know the human being, you learn to appreciate them as fellow humans, fellow children of God.

I imagine you run into that all the time as you meet people from all areas of life. At first glance, you might not see anything that attracts you to them, but when you get to know them a little, you learn to love them as a child of God.

Meanwhile, in other entertainment news, Saturday we enjoyed two musicals put on by Elk Grove Musical Theater Company.

Naomi played Veruca Salt (I want it now) in “Willy Wonka Jr.” She was a brat! I anticipate teasing her about being type cast and not having to stretch her acting skills but could just act natural. I am not a big Willy Wonka fan, but they did a great job. Probably my most favorite part was when Violet Beauregarde blew up into a giant blueberry. Great costuming! And when the Oompa Loompas took her off stage, there was a giant POP and bits of blue came flying on stage.! Oh! Another thing, I liked about the production was that Willy Wonka explained why Charlie won even though he, like other kids, had broken a rule. Of course, Charlie was nice and loving while the others were selfish brats, but the difference was Charlie confessed and apologized. I missed that explanation in the movie, I think.

In “Mary Poppins Jr” Esther was the Banks’ housekeeper and Jared was a policeman and a chimney sweep. Another play well done. The movie is so good and Dick Van Dyck’s Bert so incredible, I feared disappointment despite making allowances that these are children. They changed the story a good bit, but it was a good one. I will say that this Bert was very charming, not, of course, as athletic as DVD, but he had some good moves and expressive face. Mary Poppins was delightful. And of course, Esther and Jared did their parts well.

Tom was the Technical Director for both shows. The hours he put in the last couple of weeks partly explains why nothing has happened on my kitchen job. First, the holidays and now the plays. Well, they perform next again weekend and then, I think it is done. But they will start Strauss rehearsals soon. Sigh.

Team Patch babysat Sam and Peter a couple hours last week while Ruth and Esther were at a Strauss workshop. Tom and Naomi were working with EGMTC, and Jared was sick in bed. The big news there was that Sam was SO GOOD. He is a VERY person and often he is very stubborn and angry when you ask him to get ready for bed or pick up his toys, but he was very cooperative and cheerful. A joy. Peter was quite good, too. A pleasant evening. Hoping for a good evening again on the 31 when we watch them while Ruth ushers the performances. That will be a long one. Grandparent/grandchild time has good emotional and health benefits for both. I need to work on that more.

Your mom posted on FB a memory of when you were microwaving some soup and complimenting the soup and the bowl. Do you remember? 4 years ago

“Acadia is complimenting the bowl of soup, which she just heated in the microwave, "You know bowl, I think I can say, without a shadow of a doubt, you are definitely the 'hottest' bowl in this kitchen. And you too, soup. You're the 'hottest' soup I see. Good job guys, group effort!"”

Always lots to do. Let’s see if I can make any progress today.

Love you lots,

Grandma Barbara

grandma talk

email to granddaugher Acadia who is serving a full time mission in Oregon for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

I confess to being somewhat distracted during Stake Conference watching baby Jacob coo at father Benjamin and smile at mother Bethany.  I also got to hold him. 

It was, of course, a good meeting.  You will appreciate the new member testimony.   D's brother-in-law was "less active."  When his nephew went on a mission, nephew gave b-i-l a Book of Mormon and asked him to read it.  B-i-l set it aside.  Sister became curious, picked it  up, and started reading.  She had questions.  The sister missionaries came to help her find answers.  B-i-l avoided them at first, but soon became re-activated.  He baptized his wife in February.  D went to her sister's baptism two hours away.  The spirit was so strong that she wanted to get baptized. She asked her sister to ask the sister missionaries to send sister missionaries to her.  She went home and waited for the knock on the door that never came.  One day she saw sister missionaries in her apartment parking lot.  Joyfully, she ran to them.  "Are you here for me?"  "No but we could be."  D was baptized in the summer.   Strained relationship with her mother improved.  Mother was baptized in November.  They have plans for "Come, Follow Me" with the children to hook in Grandpa. 

Is it a missionary thing to pray every time you get out of the car?  One of the talks was about the importance and power of prayer, including beyond the more formal set pray times of meals and family prayers, but throughout the day.  He mentioned at least one missionary praying every time he got out of the car.  I think that's just before getting out of the car.  I also think it's a good time to pray when you get IN the car.  He mentioned for some, seeing the sky reminded them.  Different things.  I think of it somewhat as Tevye prayers.  Tevye is my prayer hero.  I know, it probably should be Nephi, or Moses, or Enos, but I love how Tevye chats with the Lord all the time about everything as well as doing his formal prayers. 

I recently got myself a Garmin Yes.Fit tracker to help me remember to move more.  Perhaps it can also help me remember to work on spiritual fitness.  (and hope I do better at it than at getting my steps)

I understand that you are having some trying times.  Well, you know you wouldn't have the full mission experience without the challenge area.  Your MP says he feels strongly that is where you belong.  That means there is someone there that needs you.  You will help the Lord change at least one life.  My prayer is that you will get to know about it.  Sometimes one doesn't, you know.  You may not find out until the next life even.  But it sure does help fight discouragement when you do see it.  Whether or not you get to see the  miracle you help bring, believe it and hang on to it.

You are nearing the end of your mission.  Don't get trunky.  Now is the time to really renew your dedication.  Make every last bit of time count.  Relish all of it, even the trials and challenges.  There will probably never be another time in your life quite like your mission.  BE THERE the whole time.

Love you so much and very proud of you.

Not trunky, but looking forward to seeing you the end of April. 

Love,

Grandma Barbara

ewww

email to granddaughter Acadia who is serving a full-time mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

We observe Family Day on January 25.  It's the anniversary of when we were sealed in the temple.  I did not do things in the proper order.  I married Glen in October, he was baptized in December, and then a year later in January we were sealed.  The cool result was a couple anniversary and a family anniversary.  The marriage failed so I do not celebrate October 20.  But I do believe in marriage in theory, in temples, eternal families, and I am very grateful for my children.  So I try to do something for Family Day.  Last year we had a games day.  This year, the Hinds kids are in performances on the 25th, so we got together on the 11th.

We played Escape the Crate games. Sort of like an Escape Room except it is a lot cheaper and you can play anywhere as long as you have an internet connection. (Also, the game can be passed on to be played by another group.) The company recommends 4-6 people. One CAN play alone and more can play together, but multiple brains and different perspectives are good on the one hand and it is hard for lots of people to be able to see the clues on the other. We had 7 people on each team. Himovitz, Hinds, & Miriam did the Rock and Roll Escape. Robarts, Robarts, & Robarts did the Chicago Worlds Fair. 

Ours was actually 2 shorter games in one box. One game was the Murder Hotel (which one may or may not want younger people to play – scary voice on the audio and at times gory but not graphically descriptive topic and no gory pictures) and the other was looking for something lost at the Fair. It took us 50 minutes to escape the hotel and 32 minutes to find the missing item. The other team took almost 2 hours to solve theirs. I thought it was a lot of fun, even though I could hardly see the clues (our team was not as good as the other team at sharing with each other. Something to work on) and I am not the most brilliant.

Have I told you about my cat Felicity’s health problems? It’s gross. On (rare) occasion, she would yowl and cry in pain and then defecate on the floor, not the cat box, in a small number of drops, sometimes with blood in the somewhat runny stool. Especially as there was blood involved, I took her to the vet. What? In September, I think. X-rays, urinalysis, I don’t remember what all, but about $600 worth. And no real answer. But it was decided to put her on special cat food for the urinary tract and not let her eat the less expensive food we have been getting from Costco nor allow her outside anymore. Since then, the incidents seem to have become even more rare. But she is quite unhappy about not being allowed outside or in the garage where the regular food is in a self feeder.

We have to get special expensive food that Chewy had the vet verify that she should get it. BUT. Joseph’s cat Velox really likes Felicity’s food and we don’t actually have a place we can feed F without V being able to get there. So, I spent about $165 on a special cat food dish that reads the cat’s microchip and only opens for the right cat. Of course, it takes some time and training for the cat to get used to it. The cat sticks her head under an arch which reads the chip and slides open the dish cover. When the cat moves away, the cover closes. You train the cat in steps. At first the cover is open and barely moves so the cat hears the motor and sees a very little movement. We are now at step two so the cover moves not even two inches. Felicity is not thrilled with this so we will be at this step for a while. Unfortunately, that leaves the dish mostly open so Velox can get food and she is not pestered by the sound or noise because it doesn’t do anything when she approaches. I need to give Felicity less food at a time so she doesn’t leave as much for Velox. I usually give Velox a tiny amount of food when I feed Felicity so V won’t go after F’s food. That doesn’t work. They run and trade places. CATS!

We persist, however, because it seems like it’s helping. One day Felicity managed to both get in the garage for a while and to get outside. The next day she had trouble. Cause and effect or coincidence? Don’t know, but trying to keep her restricted.

No more gross stuff.  Have you seen this picture? Do you know this man?

 Look at it before you read on.

I'll talk about something else so you don't see yet.  

The theme for January Sacrament Meeting is love. Sister Akinaka talked about learning to love yourself.

"When a lawyer asked Jesus, “Master, which is the great commandment in the law?” he answered, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” (Matt. 22:36–39.) Notice that Jesus said you are to love your neighbor as yourself. You are a child of God, along with your neighbor. God wants you to love yourself just as much as he wants you to love others."

It was a good talk. Still easier to understand why than how. 

Do you know the man in the picture?   This is the picture Jesus The Christ modernized.  Makes me think.  Am I really learning to know Christ?  When Jesus lived on the earth, he dressed the way the people of his time dressed.  When we see Him again, He may or may not be in His "Jesus" costume.  He might be wearing something else. His hair might be different. Will we recognize His spirit?  Will we know His face?  Do we KNOW HIm or just the stories about him.