Hi O!
We hope you are happy, healthy, and having a lovely
November. We love October and November in the desert. After scorching hot days of
summer, the warm days of Autumn are the reward. My grandma always used to say this part of the country has three months of spring, six months of summer, three months of
autumn, and about two weeks of winter. The winter is more like fall in where you live.
Most years there isn’t even one day of frost. And really the super hot summer
is more like two and a half months. Some people say they could never stand the
heat here. Yes, it’s horrible hot, but to me it’s not as difficult as freezing
cold. I’ve not yet slipped on or shoveled sunshine. Like cold weather in where you live,
we mostly stay inside during the big heat.
One of my apple trees died during the heat this summer.
Talking to other gardeners I learned that unlike cooler places, fruit trees
need dappled shade around here. One tree I really like for dappled shade is
moringa. It grows like crazy here and needs very little water. The best part of
moringa is it’s highly nutritious, edible qualities. The leaves are pretty
tasty when put in soup like spinach or cabbage; they are not too bad in smoothies either. The seedpods taste similar to
asparagus and can be used the same way. Where everything else quits growing in
the heat, moringa grows like crazy. In the Philippines and India, people have
used these vegetables for centuries. In places were children are dying of
malnutrition like Africa and South America, moringa is now being harvested to eat with grain, curing and
helping them grown strong and tall. Even though I already had four of them in
the yard, I planted several more for shade and vegetables.
It’s so silly how I write and write, having no idea if you
even read these letters. That’s ok. I write because I love you and because I
feel inspired to do so by the Holy Ghost. One time I didn’t listen to a
prompting, sort of arguing that my position was right. Disaster resulted. Now,
no matter if the prompting makes sense to me or not, I do it. Writing to you
and the other Grands makes sense and is fun, too. As I write, I imagine you
sitting next to me at my breakfast table. I remember my interests, success, and
problems at your age; we have a nice conversation.
When I was eight, I struggled for the first time in school.
Before then everything was so easy. Cursive writing was added to the
curriculum. Now I know I struggled, because I never learned to hold the pencil
correctly. Third grade was also the year of multiplication memorization.
Because neither of my parents cared anything about
education, they didn’t help me memorize math facts
or master penmanship or anything else. Lots of parents were like this in the 1970s.
Back then I just knew I was stupid, but that wasn’t really
true. Since nobody ever asked about it, I just didn’t do my homework. A few
years later, I met a girl with a scholarship to BYU. Star struck, I stated that
she must be very smart. Confused by my comments, she said, ‘No, I just did my
homework.’ By then it was too late for me to get that all-important, college
scholarship, but it wasn’t too late to get an education. Since then I have read
and read and read. Did you know you might learn anything about anything if you
can read? What do you want to know about?
For your grandchild-of-the-week book, I’m sending a Bobbsey
Twins of Lakeport. Aunt Emily loved reading these mysteries at your age.
Hopefully, you will, too. I couldn’t get it on Amazon Prime, so it will get
there in a week or so. I hope you like to read as much as me. There is nothing
like a good story to transport one to another time and place. It’s the safest form
of adventure known to man.
Well, we had a little problem with hawks hunting Dash. I
sent a picture to your mom of a red-shouldered hawk sitting on our fence and
staring at Dash. After I hurried her into the house, I went back out to take
pictures. Then I heard another hawk call from the tree above the fence. Their
calls sound like a loud scream, which is pretty unsettling. As the lifted off
and soared above the house, I thrilled over the beautiful sight. I also vowed
that Dash would not go out of the house by herself until we build a covered dog
run. She doesn’t like being cooped-up, but I have a feeling she would like
being dinner to a hawk or coyote even less.
It’s finally cool enough to ride my bike again. Since the
school is pretty close, only 3.5 miles away, I plan to ride to and from school.
At least I’m going to give it a try this week. Not only will I get some good
exercise, but I’ll remove a bit of pollution from the air. We’ll see.
Instead of celebrating Halloween, our school celebrates United
Nations day. Children and teachers dressed up from a country of their origin.
As they sang it’s a small world, the children adorably paraded around the
grounds and lined up to sing a few other songs for their parents. Afterwards,
there was a huge pot-luck luncheon with food from India, Africa, several Asian
islands, several European countries, and even Native America.
It was really hard for me to decide which of my ancestry
lines to represent. After I narrowed it down to Native American or Scottish, I
chose the latter. I wore a Royal Stuart kilt, as my 13th
great-grandmother was Mary Stuart and my 14th great-grandfather on
another line was James II Stuart; both are on my mother's side. If I still participate next year, I’m going to
dress Native American for Chickasaw Squirrel Chief King and Powhatan Chief
Morning Ripple.
It’s so fun to name drop our ancestors, but really our
ancestry has nothing to do with our success or lack thereof. Sure, we love our
predecessors and are influenced by or experiences, environment, DNA, and family
traditions. However, God gave us free-agency, making us responsible for our own
choices and actions. Rationalizing misbehavior or thinking we are better than
others because of our ancestry is preposterous. “While you are free to choose
your course of action, you are not free to choose the consequences. Whether for
good or bad, consequences follow as a natural result of the choices you make,”
For the Strength of Youth. Satan’s whole goal is to trick us into making
choices that restrict freedom, develop bad habits and addictions, and reduce our
ability to resist his temptations. We are so blessed to have the gospel is to
teach us about choices and consequences.
As our grandchild-of-the-week, we pray that God will inspire you to make choices that lead to great faith, meaningful relationships, lifelong learning, excellent health, and true joy. We pray that He will keep you safe and secure that you may grow into a fine young woman. We love you very much; please don't ever forget this. LYLPAG