Monday, September 29, 2014

Are we missing out on blessings?

On Saturday, September 27, we had the General Women's Meeting for church. It was a wonderful spiritual feast with excellent music and speakers. (I was moved by so much, it is a good thing I had a handkerchief for the tears). The concluding speaker was Dieter F. Uchtdorf from the first presidency. He shared the picture here on his Facebook page after the meeting.

His message about the wonderful blessings that surround us, that we often block out, really resonated. Many others picked that up as well and share their own interpretations of that portion of the message. This is one of those.


So, this got me thinking about blessings. Have I been showered with them, or have I put up a barrier to keep them away? President Uchtdorf says it is our fear, doubt and sin that can keep them away. I wondered if I had done that in my life?

I know that fear has driven some of my decisions in the past. I could have developed my business into something successful if I had not been afraid. I was doing the Geek Squad before Best Buy even existed. But I was too afraid of the uncertainty to rely on that. Instead, I took safer employment that offered reliable pay and benefits. I may have denied myself significant blessings by that fear. I will never know.

Sometimes, I pushed past the fear and doubt and did see the blessings as a result. I truly enjoyed working at Intel. When they decided to close the Utah office, the Pro and I had a choice. We could stay with Intel and move to either Oregon or Folsom, or we could take a chance that I would find something comparable in Utah. After a great deal of consideration, we decided to stay in Utah. A few short months later, I was working for the church which turned out to be a wonderful experience.

A couple of years after that, we again had an opportunity to stay put or take a risk. The Pro was offered the chance to return to his first big head pro job in Prescott. It was a pay cut. We loved our home and neighborhood and had a number of friends. Again, after much pondering, we made the decision. Again, we pushed past the fear of jeopardizing our security and this time we moved away.

This decision to move saw almost immediate blessings. We thought it would take time to sell the house but we were able to rent it instead within a week of the decision. Instead of me in Utah and him in Arizona, I was able to pack up the house and join him-far sooner than we had anticipated. We have had great tenants in that house; the current ones plan to purchase it next year. After we found a home in Prescott, I found a part-time job. This enabled me to help the Pro, which had always been a dream of his. The experience was lots of fun for both of us.

During the winter, I finally quit the part-time job to help the Pro full time. Then, in May, he was laid off when a management company came in to run the course. They brought their own company guy to be director. However, the Pro is on staff there teaching a few hours per week. Now comes the fear again. Do I look for another job so that I can get benefits and we don't have to live on our savings? So far, I am trying to have faith in the answer we have for now-no. Be 'retired' and continue to help him out. I have other responsibilities that take a great deal of time, so I know that for know, this is the right thing to do.

As I look back, I can see that those times when I was willing to have faith and go for something outside my comfort zone, I have truly been blessed. I cannot know what blessings I turned away by my fear and doubt, but I am now committed to try to avoid that in the future.

If I get a response to my prayers indicating that I need to do something, over the years, I have learned to follow that prompting. I have never regretted it. I know I have been blessed. I also know that it can be frightening to take that leap of faith. But it is worth it.








 

Monday, September 22, 2014

Little Things Matter a Pride and Prejudice re-imagination

Fan Fiction allows people to enjoy the characters they enjoy in slightly altered stories. My first foray into fan fiction is a recasting of Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen. In my story, Darcy was already acquainted with Mr. Bennet, so when he attends the Meryton assembly, everything changes. There are many other variations from the original too, except that they do live happily ever after.

My story is published here at the Derbyshire Writers Guild site.  If you like the characters that Jane Austen created, you will find many wonderful stories in which they star, many of which resemble the originals in unique ways on this great site. This is a wonderful community with many talented and creative writers. I highly recommend it.

Monday, September 15, 2014

Preparedness

This month, the message from the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is entitled, "Are We Prepared?" It is written by President Thomas S. Monson, whom we consider to be a prophet of God. He asks this question and discusses how we might be prepared for many eventualities.  President Monson was involved in scouting for a long time, so being prepared is something that was often stressed in his various activities.

There are many types of preparation in our lives. When we are young, we try to prepare for a career. I was unsure about what career I wanted for a long time. As a result, I tried to prepare so that I could always find employment to sustain life. As mentioned in a previous post, I have earned a living from almost everything I had lessons in as a child. In addition, thanks to a typing class in high school, I even used that as a base. I typed papers for people in college and did work as a Kelly temporary. Both taught me that I didn't want to type for a living, but I could, and often did do office work. I finally found something that fascinated me, computers, and ended up there for most of the rest of my working life. But again, I did many different things. I continued to learn to stay current and to be able to transition into a variety of areas within information technology. Preparation for a career that can sustain us financially and emotionally is important.

There are other life skills we can learn that will make our lives easier. These include things like gardening, basic repairs, cooking, cleaning, mending, and other things in what is termed housework. When I recently took over the responsibility for our women's organization, the lack of these skills became apparent. The tablecloth that we had in our classroom, which is sort of emblematic of the women, is a decent lace tablecloth. However, in many places, the pattern had given way and there were gaping holes. It had been this way for a while. Many were considering buying a new one. I took it home, spent an hour darning it, and returned it. It now looks almost as good as new and we saved the few dollars we would have spent so we can use them on something more important.

Mending is a skill many have never acquired. It is easier not to mend. However, mending significantly increases the life span of our clothing, linens, and other items, and allows us to decrease our spending. In our disposable society, many are not taught to think this way.

At church, we have been taught the importance of industry, thrift, self-reliance, and sharing with others. We are taught to stay out of debt, or to get out of debt as soon as possible. We are taught to save. These concepts were once commonplace but are now foreign. 

With a food supply in reserve, we have the option to purchase on sale. The more often you visit a store, even with a list, the more you tend to spend. With our change in circumstance, we are now doing our primary shopping only once per month. I also did this in the past when our budget was also extremely limited. Now, I plan a month's worth of meals and purchase all but the fresh items at the beginning of the month. I buy my produce through the co-op Bountiful Baskets about every other week. The Pro picks up anything missing when he goes to pick up a prescription. This has allowed me to almost halve our grocery spend. Of course, I also make almost everything from scratch, which also cuts the amount spent. It was nice not to have to do so when I didn't have time, but I am grateful I learned the skills to enable me to do this.

We made a choice to rely on a single income. The Pro retired from full-time employment when we married. He worked part time and used his income for 'treats' such as weekly date night. Then when we moved to Prescott, we reversed roles and I worked part time. Now that he is back to part time, we are both essentially retired. Had we not saved regularly and stayed out of debt, I would be scrambling to find full time employment again. However, because we followed the advice of a prophet to stay out of debt,  this 'plot twist' did not throw us for a loop. We have to make changes to cut back on expenses, but we can manage.

When employment changes, many people cannot manage. They have not been able to prepare. Being prepared means having the skills, savings, and lack of debt to be able to manage when life changes direction. We cannot plan for all eventualities, but if we fail to plan, we can guarantee that we cannot manage during even a minor crisis.

Before the Internet, it was often harder to acquire these old-fashioned skills. You often had to find someone who had them to teach you. Now, you can often find blogs, videos, and articles about these time-honored skills and can implement them in your life. As one of the blogs I follow stated, many are not aware that you can often get by on one income thanks to the homemaking skills of the family. Unpaid contribution is still important if it allows a decrease in needed expenditures.

The scouts are right, Be Prepared. If you are not yet prepared, you can move in that direction. Maybe the first step is to learn to cook so you can cut out processed foods. They cost more per serving (usually) and do not offer as much real nutrition. Real food actually tastes better. You might also find savings in health over time as well.

If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear. (From Doctrine and Covenants 38:30)




 

Monday, September 8, 2014

Summer rains continue

We live in the high desert where rain is somewhat rare. We expect it during monsoon season and during the winter. Most of the time, that means rain in July, and some snow and/or rain in January and maybe February. This year has been different.

Monsoon season started about as expected on July 4. Most years, it ends by the end of July and people talk about how things have changed, that it used to rain into August. Well, this year reverted back to the old days.

We had rain all of July and August, usually a few days of sun, then a few days of thunderstorms. As a result, we used the pool about half the amount we used it the previous year. We also used less air conditioning. I haven't been able to use my clothesline more than five or six times all summer.

We have desert landscaping in much of the yard. That means crushed rock as a ground cover. We have had so much rain, I know have grass instead. This started the spring as only rock.
 The garden beds have completely filled the space.  All three are full like this, but this is the most dramatic. Those are mesclun mix lettuce plants going to seed. Note all the grass between the beds where it used to be only crushed rock.
 
 
 The roses have all gone crazy, apparently thinking it is spring again.

 In the more remote corners, we now have lots of wildflowers. These areas were all just crushed rock before July. I have been unable to keep up with cutting back the weeds.

The little water channel is actually clear and full and running during every storm. After I cleaned it this spring, it has stayed clean due to the force of the running water.

There are those that bemoan all the rain. It has definitely had an impact on outdoor activities, including our own. The Pro has less opportunity to teach as people don't play as much golf in the rain.

However, I love it. I love listening to it hit the roof. I love watching through the windows. As long as I can stay home, it is wonderful.

Today, Phoenix has had record rainfall. My rain gauge shows we had about an inch of rain over night. Phoenix had freeways closed due to flooding during rush hour this morning. It was all that the news was reporting for a while.

We have had drought conditions for many years. One year of heavier rain will not change that. However, I have definitely enjoyed it. I am also grateful that I only have to get out in the rain occasionally, instead of every day. That way it hasn't really been much of a nuisance to me. The current rains are due to moisture from hurricane Norbert in the Pacific. We are lucky we aren't having the mudslides portions of California have had.









 

Monday, September 1, 2014

Prickly Pears

My Bountiful Baskets contribution this week included prickly pears. I've seen them in the store, but I have never tried them before. 

The first thing I did was search for recipes using them. Many of those are variations on jelly. I might have tried that, but we use a lot less since we basically stopped eating bread. There were many others to choose from though.

For all of the recipes, you peal the pear.



The first thing I made was prickly pear limeade.

I cut the pear into three chunks. 


I added it to the blender with water. After I blended it for about 60 seconds, I strained out the seeds and pulp. I would have liked the pulp, but the seeds are just too large for a nice drink.

I added the juice of one lime, about 1/4 cup of orange juice and about 2 Tablespoons of honey and ran it again. I was lucky that I added about the right amount of water.


This morning, I made our smoothie with the prickly pear. It started the same as the limeade. After I strained it, I added the rest of today's ingredients: some lettuce, some cucumber, watermelon, ice cubes, pineapple orange juice, and some cream. 


After that ran for a while, I also added 1/2 a banana to make it more like a shake and more some more sweetness.


The Pro approved both the pear limeade and the smoothie, so I guess we've added a new fruit to our diet.