Quilting

I am an on again off again quilter. I get the bug and it's all I think about sometimes. Then I put my fabric away and ignore it for months on end.

I have been gearing up to quilting again. Yesterday I unpicked a row on Josh's eagle quilt. I haven't wanted to do it, and so it sat quietly waiting for me to be ready.

Today I counted squares and figured how many blocks I will need for the border. I cut out over seventy 6 inch blocks - not really that long, but it sounds impressive. I feel the quilting mojo coming over me.  

Good thing, I have 6 great neices and nephews getting ready to make their apperance. Actually one is already here, five more are on their way. Growing families are wonderful.

Scripture

Two of my favorite scriptures bookend Joshua. Last week's scripture, Be strong and of good courage. Very timely - at every time of my life. And this week's scripture.

This is the reason my oldest son has his name.

If I hadn't made the choice yet, I am invited to choose. Or, because I have already made the choice, I am invited to remember my choice.

Who do I serve?

Who do I take with me in that service?

What does that service look like?

All last week I had the feeling I needed to call my brother. He is in the Young Men presidency in his Ward. I know he was wanting to find family names. I know he had been looking. I have found a lot of names. Well, I printed off 27 names for our youth. I felt I should share.

I called and left a message, and we played phone tag for a bit. Today he called and told me about his journey to find names. The specialist in his ward looked at our tree and couldn't find names. Our tree is intimidating. Grandmothers have spend their lives collecting info on their lines and getting the work done. My dad's line has many grandmothers that have worked on it.

My maternal grandmother is the only member. I told Joe that I have been focusing on that line.

The advice he got from the specialist was a little complicated. The next day I called with my garbled message about family names.

I had been feeling that I needed to call Joe for a few days, and it took me that long to call him. So tomorrow I will share names, a function in the Family Search Program, and he can experience the joy of helping family.

I have also made friends who are interested in working on their family lines. I might have to go twice a week. Once to help others, and once to work on my line.

One way I am trying to serve the Lord today.

Miracle in progress

I have been 'working' at the Orange County Family Search Library. I go on Tuesdays from 9 am to 1 pm. I enjoy going and having time to work on my family history. It has also been fun working with the patrons who come in looking for family.

As I have been trying to get familiar with the resources the library has I found a book. It is huge. It's spine is about 4 inches thick.

This book contains my people. My grandmother was the only member in her family. As I have felt the need to look into my family history, I have been drawn to her line. I don't believe there are very many people who are looking on this line. Of course there are a few, I run into work done on several lines generations back. But there are more people not found on that part of the line than others.

This book is old. I'll have to look at the print date to see how old. This book begins in Germany and Switzerland, Jakob Swope lived just over the German border. He was married and had three children when he made the voyage to America. 

The authors have done a great job including the history and the stories. I have been slowing working through the beginning. I have entered new people and have a list of names to take to the temple. I have also found fractured families. One child with parents not hooked to another child with the same parents, not hooked to another. I have been merging duplicates and consolidating records to unite families.

The name also presents difficulties. There are a variety of spellings. I search to see if the person is on the tree, then add the name and start to fill in the family only to see a duplicate with a different spelling. I am excited to clean up the multiple entries.

I was telling Craig about the book and realized how amazing it is to find a book that contains my family in this library. I have been praying to find Sarah More (Moore). I have documentation on her at the end of her life. She converted to the German Reform Church on her death bed. I have the death notice in the church records.  I have a picture of her head stone. She is buried with her husband and her daughter. But I have no record or information on her birth or her parents. She has been a brick wall. No way to continue the line beyond her. She has a very common name that complicates the issue. I have found several Sarah, but I have no idea is one of them is my Sarah.

I am hopeful that with the thouroughness that this book is displaying, she might be in it. I am hopeful to find her parents and be able to extend the line.

In the meantime, I am extending the branches of this family and am looking forward to taking family names to the temple and sharing names with my siblings. 

Scripture

Marching along in the Old Testament. I've come to one of my favorite parts. Just as Moses is getting ready to pass the responcibility of the House of Israel over to Joshua, he gets to see the Promised Land from a mountain top. He has been a nurse maid to the murmuring hosts of Israel for over 40 years. They have revolted and complained and whined. I am exhausted just thinking about it. Poor man put up with them and loved them and taught them faith. Then he had to let them go and show they had learned the lessons.

I am grateful for the additional knowledge we have on this great man. The part in the Plan that he still played shouts his worthiness and dedication.

And then we have Joshua. 

He has been a faithful follower of Moses for more than 40 years. And now, he has to become the leader to this huge, somewhat dysfunctional family of over a million people.

Moses tells him three time in Duet 31 to "be strong and of good courage."

And then, the first words that he gets from Heaven repeat the comfort he got from Moses. Four times in Joshua chapter he is told be "strong and of good courage."

And in conformation that he is chosen, Joshua becomes the one who mediates the Lord's miracle for the House of Israel. The priests take the Ark and put their feet in the "brim of the water" the river stood in a heap and the children passed over on dry ground again.

The council given to Joshua has rung down through the ages. We must be strong and of good courage and the Lord has promised us miracles to sustain us.

El Niño

We have living in a severe El Niño event. Winter on some days has turned sunny California into a rainy Oregon type of winter.

I took a picture one rainy day. I was checking to make sure the gutters were draining well. We had gotten some weather alerts about flash flooding. Craig called to make sure we were okay. Some roads by where he worked had turned into temporary rivers.

I didn't get the full gutters, but the road shines with wet blacktop.

New glasses

We have all gotten used to seeing Boaz in his crooked glasses. He sat on them the first week of getting them about two years ago. I have taken them back and the girls have tried to straighten them out, but they have remained semi-crooked to full on crooked for the duration.

This is an old picture, when we were at Disneyland with cousins, but it shows his crooked glasses.

So during Christmas break Boaz and I visited the eye doctor. His eyes have stayed close to the same prescription. That is good. He picked out some new glasses.

His new specs. They have felt a bit weird to him because they are straight. I think they look great. 

Here is a full face shot.

Silly boy was determined not to smile. But I was patient and snapped this one.

A bit blurry, but a very handsome boy.

Scripture

I have been distracted by the holidays. So, jumping back into the program.

I grew up hearing about Saturday's warriors. I loved the music and sang the songs.

Now as a parent, I look at my young warriors. They fight political correctness, culture, the me generation, instant gratification and who knows what else. They have the media, popularity, the sliding morals to withstand.

I worry about everything that they have to fight against.

I love that Heavenly Father has said, "be not afraid of them."

Just another reminder to have faith and confidence in God. He is in charge and will not be moved from His plan. He has already won. I just need to stay on His team.