Springtime in Arizona and other favorites

Full and busy weeks go quickly and suddenly I realize that I haven't posted here for a couple of weeks.  During that two week, the temperatures have risen and spring is now in full bloom here in Arizona.

 I love the flowers on our Prickly Pear Cactus.

 We have a lot of new growth on the Prickly Pear this spring....

...and a bird's nest in the Cholla cactus.

The week before last was spring break for us.  It was great to have a week out of school to get some things done and just enjoy being together.   I spent some extra time at the Gilbert Temple.

The temple gardens are out in bloom...

...and they are always lovely.

We got some extra chores done over spring break, including making a several months supply of home-made detergent.

 We worked in the yard...

...trimming the palm trees...

...and cleaning the pool.

I also got Josh's birthday box almost ready to mail to Mexico.  His birthday isn't until June, but the box will likely take 6-8 weeks to reach him.  I sent him some magazines, a new pair of pants, three ties, a pedometer so he can keep track of how many miles he walks each day (all of his travel right now is done on foot or with public transportation).  I also included paper and pens (for possible letters) and a few snacks.  I have heard that sending any kind of food to Mexico is "iffy" so keep your fingers crossed that everything makes it to Josh OK.

We also tried to come up with some creative and humorous pictures "from the home front" to email Josh, so he doesn't forget what we look like ;-) .

 We had two birthdays in our family this last week.  This little grandson turned five...

and this cute grand daughter turned seven.  They both live far away and we sure do miss them, but we sent birthday surprises and talked to them on the phone and that was nice.

I have also been working on a little service project this week that is near to my heart and I have enjoyed doing it.  I found out about a young man in Utah who is doing an Eagle Scout Project which is getting appropriate Mormon missionary clothing to young men from a very poor part of Tijuana, Mexico. These young men cannot afford the suits, dress pants, white shirts and dress shoes that Mormon Missionaries traditionally wear.  Being a "missionary momma," the project really touched my heart so I decided to let a few of my friend from church know and together, we came up with a pretty awesome collection of brand new and gently used dress clothing to go to these young men in need.

The final tally of what we came up with in only five days was three suits, twenty-three pair of dress pants, eleven white shirts, eleven ties two sweater and two pair of dress shoes.  The items are being taken to Utah by another woman who heard about the project and wanted to help out.  It was fun to collect the donations and it feels good to be helping a Boy Scout with his Eagle Project and some young missionaries with their mission preparation.  Helping others, even in a small way, always makes me happy!

I have also been doing a bit of reading this past week.  I finished Love comes Softly, the Christian romance classic by Janette Oke and I loved it!  I quickly ordered the sequel and while awaiting that book's arrival, I am reading I Declare by Joel Osteen because I wanted something very positive that I could finish quickly.

Finally, I will end with this thought which I love...  

Joining again this week with Susanne of Living to Tell the Story for a belated Friday Fave Five post.

Scenes From a Good Week

 I have had good intentions of finishing this post since Friday.  I am determined to finish it tonight!

This past week was a good one.  Here are some of the best parts:

Elder Jones finally got a computer (at the "Cyber Club" he emails us from) to cooperate so he could send pictures!  This is the first picture I have seen of my son since he arrived in Mexico the week of Thanksgiving last November.  He is the tallest one on the right end.  His friends are (L to R) Elder Lugo from Mexico, Elder Nay from Utah and Elder Molina from Chili. 

These young missionaries were spending some time at the temple in the city where my son serves.

There is a lot of rain in that part of Mexico - rain is in the forecast 3-4 days a week.  You can see how low the clouds were on the day my son took this picture. 

I love hearing from my son every week in his emails.  He doesn't write a lot, but he always expresses his gratitude and love.  A couple of lines from one of his recent emails made me so proud of him and all the ways he is growing to be a man of great character:

"I feel confident that as long as I'm doing my best, then I can't go wrong.  If I give it my best, and nothing less, then everything, I'm sure, will be fine."

Charly and I have had some marvelous weather for our evening walks.  The temps have been just right - not too hot and not too cool.  We saw this in this mama cow and her baby in the field near our home one evening.

I thought that seeing the baby calf nursing was so sweet.  I hope mama cow will forgive me for the invasion of privacy.  She doesn't look to happy with me taking a picture of this "Private Bovine Moment."

I have been helping a young man from our church with his Eagle Scout project. He has photographed almost 2000 grave headstones at a local cemetery and uploaded the pictures to BillionGraves.com. The information is then transcribed so that that vital family information will not be lost, even when headstones are damaged or deteriorated.  I have been helping with the transcribing and hope to do more of it this week.

This picture is my classroom agenda which is posted on the board each week.  You will notice, if you look closely, that this agenda begins with March 23, which means there is no school this week!  Yea - spring break has arrived. Charly and I don't have any special plans, but are looking forward to a week of "catching up" around the house and being together.

These are the Mesquite Trees in our front yard.  They actually look quite stunning at this time every year, covered in fuzzy yellow blossoms.  In a short time, all of the yellow fuzz will be on the ground making it look like our yard is covered in bright yellow snow.

My new phone is up and running and working well.  As I said in my last post, I did not want a smart phone because I did not want to pay for a data plan, but this phone is about as close to a smart phone as they come without actually being one.  I am learning to use it and am finding that I really like it.

I finished last week's book and started this old classic, which I have had on my "to read" shelf for a while, but have never actually read.  I was hooked on page one.  I plan to track down the movie and watch that when I am finished.  I 've heard it is great.  I was also pleased to find out that this book is just the first in a series.

The book case sections that we got from a friend, are now all in our garage.  They are pretty dusty since they were in a construction zone at our friends' home.  We plan to clean them off this week, and we are hiring a cabinet maker who goes to our church to install them along one wall of our family room.  I am quite excited to get them up.  We also got the ceiling fan in our family room repaired this past week - just in time for warmer temperatures. 

I am always looking for creative ways to stay in touch with our son on his mission.  He told me that he loves to have me attach pictures to his emails, but lets face it,  Charly and I aren't that exciting and we don't do that many exciting things to take pictures of. The past couple of weeks, I have been sending little positive, encouraging messages (in Spanish) to Elder Jones, in pictures of his dad and I. The message in the picture above says "Elder Jones - if you have a positive attitude, you will have a positive life.  With love and prayers, mom and dad."

This message - "Elder Jones - I love you very much.  You can do this!  You've got this."

Finally a wonderful thought to begin the new week with:

Favorites of the Week

After another full and busy week, I decided to take a few minutes to remember a few of my favorite things from the past few days.

• Cooler weather.  I love Arizona in the winter and spring because I don't love snow, but I do like cooler temperatures, which is exactly what we got last week. We even a a couple of days with clouds and rain and I loved it.  The skies are blue and sunny now, but it is still cool enough to wear a jacket in the morning and evening and that is my favorite kind of weather here in Arizona.

• Spring time.  Spring has definitely come to the desert and with it, the lemon blossoms that are just barely starting to come out on our lemon tree.  Soon, our backyard will be filled with the lovely aroma of lemon blossoms. The smell of lemon blossoms in the springtime is one of my favorite things.  

• "New" book shelves.  A family we know had a beautiful book case that covered one entire wall of their den.  They are now doing some remodeling and decided to take down the bookshelves. They posted on Face Book that the shelves were going to go out for "yard waste" pick-up, so I asked if we could have them. The shelves are a little dusty but will look great in our family room. So far, we only have four of the twelve sections home. Since we don't have a truck, we are bringing two sections at a time home in our cars.  The sections are in the  garage right now, until we can get them cleaned up, and find a carpenter to install them and brace them to a wall in the family room. It may be summer before we have them up and filled with books, but I am excited that we will have some nice-looking, extra space for our beloved books.  

• A new phone.  My five-year-old phone started randomly turning itself off last week.  I charged the battery and that didn't seem to help.  I considered getting another new battery for the phone, but finally decided that maybe it's time for a new phone.  Charly and I decided that we don't need or want the added expense of a data plan for smart phones, so I decided on a basic phone like this one that should be just fine, since I only use my phone for calling and texting.  We ordered the phone from a near-by cell phone repair shop so we wouldn't need to extend our contract with our cell phone carrier. That way, we are free to change plans if we ever want to.  I got the phone this afternoon but will probably spend a good bit of time getting it set up and learning to use it this weekend.

• A good book.  Last month I "plowed" through two books that were interesting in spots but certainly not my all-time favorites. I recently started this book, about getting over past regrets and learning to move forward positively. With some of the things we have gone/are going through with a couple of our children (who I rarely mention on the blog), I occasionally find myself feeling sorrow and regret for things than cannot be changed. This book, written by a therapist, is an excellent reminder that we all have free will to make our own choices in life. Even though loved ones choose divergent paths, we can live peaceful, happy lives, knowing that we have done our best.  It is a good reminder of things I already knew, but need to keep in my mind and in my heart. 

• Lots of mail.  This is an excerpt from an email we received last week from Josh (Elder Jones) serving as a missionary in Mexico.  

"Thank you mom, I´m doing fine...be sure to tell your blog friend, Billie Jo from Pennsylvania that I enjoyed hearing from her and she has a letter on the way. I enjoy letters and packages of any kind. At last district meeting when the zone leaders give the missionaries their mail I had like 37 letters when other missionaries got like 1 or 2 and some even said I got more letter that day than they´ve ever gotten their entire mission.  Don´t take this the wrong way - keep sending letters. I enjoy them. Make sure everyone in the ward, and blogging friends[know] that they are very welcome to write me and I would enjoy hearing from them."

I am so grateful for everyone who is keeping my son in their thoughts and prayers, and especially those, like my dear blogging friend, Billie Jo, who are taking a few minutes to write and say hello to Josh. Mail often takes a while to reach Mexico, because the Mexican postal service is not very reliable. I know Billie Jo wrote to him a while back, but the letter and the love it carried eventually made it to him and brightened a very special 18-year-old missionary's week. It does my mother's heart good to know that so many kind people are thinking of my son. Thank you so much for your prayers, letters and positive thoughts!

Joining again with Susanne, to remember the good things about the past week.