Children
Joy in Your Posterity
I look out my kitchen window at Amy Geese, the Canada goose that nests in my nesting box. She and her mate come to our pond every year. She lays a clutch of six eggs, and dutifully sets on them for 30-35 days. Once a day she carefully covers her precious eggs with the hay that I’ve put in the nest and the down that she has plucked from her own body, and briefly leaves the nest to get a drink and a quick bite to eat. Then it’s back to the nest where she patiently sits for day after boring day. Why does she do it?
Read MoreRight Way Pilot
As a pre-schooler Marjorie hated primary. She didn’t know the other children, and the lessons were dull.
Back then the classes had different names than they do now. The next class that Marjorie would be in was the “Right Way Pilots.” She couldn’t wait to graduate to that class. She says, “Finally, there was light at the end of the tunnel. I was going to learn to fly! The manual had a picture on the front cover of a chubby-faced kid flying a stubby airplane. That looked so fun! I could just see myself maneuvering my plane over the heads of the people as I flew down the stairs at the church. I never imagined flying my plane outdoors. It was just in the church.”
Birthday Gifts
A month ago Jim Fuller wrote a letter asking me to write a page about our relationship and my conversion. We exchanged letters updating one another about our lives. I mentioned to him that we had had a new baby added to our family every year since 1993; but that I was worried because we were already two months into 2021, and no one had announced a pregnancy.
Read MoreA Knife and a Prayer
Five-year-old Farel Baxter was beyond thrilled when his father called him over and told him that he was giving him his knife. It was his father’s own pocket knife which he kept razor sharp. His father told him that it was a very fine knife, and that he must take good care of it.
Read MoreIvy’s Rawr
A true story, written hoping that some family artist might illustrate it for a children’s book.
Little Ivy was scared of Rawrs.
Ivy didn’t exactly know what a Rawr was. All she knew was that she was supposed to be scared of them.
The Fulness of Mine Intent
Nephi wrote that “the fulness of mine intent is that I may persuade men to come unto (God).” (1 Nephi 6:4).
What is the fulness of mine intent? What is yours?
Discipline
The leaders of our ward are struggling with what must seem to them a huge problem. It is a family of four children ages 11 to 4, their unemployed father, and their cancer-stricken mother. The mother has just been sent off to Utah to be cared for by her sisters-in-law. Her leg broke because of the cancer, and her outlook is bleak. The father quit his job to take care of the children.
Read MoreBuilding Your Nest on a Straight Limb
Elder Thomas S. Monson tells the story of a very young boy who was abducted from his home and parents and taken to a village situated far away. He grew to young manhood not knowing who his parents were nor from whence he came. A yearning came into his heart to find and return to his home.
Read MoreBabies
To me, one of the best feelings in the world is to get my hands on a baby. When the little person relaxes, trusts you, and puts its head on your shoulder it’s pure bliss. I’m grateful that so many of my children live close by, because at church, or when they come visiting, I can usually find a baby that I can take off its mother’s hands and give her a rest while indulging my own sense of pleasure. In a nutshell, I like babies.
Read MoreHelp From the Other Side
I often wonder about my deceased parents and parents-in-law. What are they doing? Where are they?
Read MoreGolden Anniversary
What is 50 years?
Fifty years is half a century.
Fifty years is a long time.
Diligent or Delinquent
It occurs to me that Satan is like a window. He’s easy to see through, yet he is an invisible barrier into which the unwary can crash with fatal consequences.
Read MoreThoughts Upon a Grandchild
Life and creation are miracles
That I have contemplated
School Bus
“Marjorie, look! There’s a sign that says that the Middleton School District wants to hire you to be a school bus driver.”
Read MoreAre You Listening?
Dear Heidi, My morning has been very Holy Ghost because of you. I woke up at 4:00 with your painting in my head.
Read MoreWhom Do I Love the Most?
As I thought about my children this week, I was startled to realize that I love them more than I love my parents.
Read MoreA Sin-resistant Generation
Inspired men and women have flooded the earth with products and materials that are resistant to all sorts of harmful things.
Read MoreWeaning, Part One
Every winter I end up caring for four or five cats. They’re usually young, semi-wild cats that need help getting through the tough season. When spring arrives and the snow melts I taper off the feeding program by putting food out only every other day. That causes them to get a little desperate and start to cast about for another food source. They quickly learn about mice and how to hunt. Keeping the mice and gophers in check is the reason for their presence on our place. As soon as I see that they’re not desperate for food anymore I quit feeding them altogether. They transition from being very dependent on me to becoming much happier when they’re self-sufficient and off their diet of dry cat food.
Read MoreHow Many Are On Your Team?
For the past 46 years I’ve been playing catch-up. That’s how long I’ve been a member of the Church. I was baptized and became a member just 20 days before my 20th birthday. Consequently I missed out on Primary, Young Men’s, Aaronic Priesthood ordinations, scouting, seminary, and a mission.
Read MoreFamily and Stay-at-Home Mothers
In preparing for a talk that I was to give in stake conference some years ago, I asked each of my children, “What makes our family what it is?” Each had a different answer.
“It’s because we live on a farm.”
“It’s because we have no television.”