#LIGHTtheWORLD

I painted this, kicking off the LIGHTtheWORLD, initiated by
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

On December 1, 2016 was the kick off of LIGHTtheWORLD initiative from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Each day leading up to Christmas, on mormon.org, we are invited to look at the things Jesus Christ did and resolve to do the same. To help, the site provides daily inspiration, suggestions, and encouragement on how we can follow the example of Jesus Christ. They are encouraging us to share what we have done, using social media, and the hashtag: #LIGHTtheWORLD, with the hope that by sharing our experiences of striving to be more Christ-like, we can LIGHTtheWORLD with goodness during the Christmas Season. Please join us in Lighting the World with goodness, in 25 ways, over 25 days!!

 "Since a new star first appeared above Bethlehem, Christmas has been a season of light, reminding us that Jesus Christ is the light of the world. Together, we can celebrate His birth by making the world a brighter place. All we have to do is follow Him - His life, His example, and His teachings. In doing so, we can help #LIGHTtheWORLD."

Christmas

As stated in other blogs, I paint tags. While at a bank, one of the tellers asked about my tags. I showed her a stack of 55, which she kindly commented on. Observing I didn't have any nativity tags, she asked if I'd consider painting one. I had 17 Christmas tags…snowmen, snowflakes, poinsettias, holly berry, Christmas lights, trees, ornaments and candy…but not one nativity or Christ-centered tag. We celebrate Christmas because of Christ’s birth – why hadn’t I thought about painting one? I loved her idea and painted the two pictures to turn them into tags.

This is one of the tags

I dropped off a bag of her favorite Christmas candy, along with my new nativity tags. I wanted her to know that I appreciated the idea.

I put both styles of Nativity tags inside the baggie
 with the mints to thank her for the idea. I don't know her except
that she's often the teller at the bank I go to, so it was fun to
drop this off to her. 

I recently read a Facebook entry written by Dallin H. Oaks. He once analyzed a stack of Christmas cards he had received and sorted them into three groups.

The largest group of cards (47%) were not religious in nature, but they had the words “Merry Christmas” on them, connecting the card to a religious holiday. Twenty nine percent of the cards did not mention Christ or Christmas at all and only acknowledged it to be a season of peace, joy and love. Only 24% of the cards actually mentioned or showed pictures representing Christ’s birth. 

I love everything about the Christmas Season - more family and friend get-togethers, good food, lights, trees, music, snowmen, and so on. I love it all.  And yet…I am totally aware of, and committed to, the fact that Christmas gives us an opportunity to celebrate Christ’s birth. I am grateful for Dallin H. Oaks reminder that Christmas is about Christ. And I am also grateful for all the wonderful religious celebrations that take place at this time and the opportunity to celebrate His birth.

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called, Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6; 2 Nephi 19:6).

(Note: the link above takes you to Dallin H. Oaks Facebook. If you scroll down to December 15, 2015 you will find his comments about the Christmas cards)

PS If you want any tags for Christmas, check out my Etsy store: TagsByTrudy.

Pumpkins & Autumn

There is something wonderful about autumn. The colors are gorgeous! Last year I drove around and took snapshots of all the colorful trees with their greens, yellows, golds, oranges, browns, and reds. This year I stepped outside my front door and snapped photos of my own bushes during a lull in a rainstorm. Maybe I like the autumn colors because my mom decorated with them (we had an orange couch while growing up). Or maybe it reminds me of family gatherings around Thanksgiving. Whatever the reason, I love autumn.

Photo out my front door

Autumn means crisp, yet sunny days; picking, eating and dehydrating apples and pears from our trees; all foods pumpkin; and raking leaves (to name a few).  My husband and I spent the Saturday before Halloween getting our yard free of leaves. On Sunday the winds hit leaving lots of leaves on the ground for the trick-or-treaters to wallow through on Monday. Five days later we spent 4 more hours gathering leaves, and rotten pears and apples - enough to fill a pickup to overflowing. It was great being outdoors. It was a sunny, beautiful day!

While trying to come up with an autumn painting to teach my friends, I found a painting I did last year, only to realize how ugly it was. Rather than let it get the best of me, I added more colors to it, turning it into something I liked. (It's the painting displayed at the top). 

I painted this as an option to teach my friends, but in the end
they wanted to learn how to paint the one at the top.

In the last couple of weeks I've made and delivered and eaten many things pumpkin (the reason I chose my pumpkin paintings to display). Last week it was pumpkin chocolate chip bread - yummy! This morning I made pumpkin cake to give to some friends. And yesterday the girls in my youth group made Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies and delivered them to nearby neighbors. Delicious!!

By the way, the cookie recipe is the easiest/fastest cookie recipe I have ever used. You might like trying it! 

Mix:

• 1 box of Spice Cake Mix

• 1 can (15 oz) pumpkin

 (Note: only those two ingredients! No eggs, oil, water, etc!)
Add:

•  1 bag of chocolate chips. (I really like the Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate Premium baking chips with this recipe. They are big and yummy.)

Bake:

• Drop balls of batter onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or sprayed with a cooking oil and bake at 350 degrees for about 15-18 minutes (until a toothpick comes out clean). With the size of cookie balls I made, this recipe made 27 cookies.

Photo outside front door

Many Instagram’s have displayed the joys of Autumn. I hope you’re enjoying this time of year as well!

To go with my post, I want to share three articles my youth group is studying this week about work and self-reliance. It's such a beautiful time of year to work hard getting ready for the winter or outdoors in the colors of fall. I hope you enjoy these articles. 

• For the Strength of Youth: “Work and Self-Reliance”

• Dieter F. Uchtdorf "Two Principles for Any Economy" Ensign November 2009

•  H. David Burton "The Blessing of Work" Ensign December 2009

The Fair

Hummm...I'll call this "Waiting to show my horse at the fair"...just so it will fit my story!

As Del and I drove to the fair today he dictated another story. We missed having our own children and grandchildren with us, but we ran into our nephew and his family! You can’t help but run into someone you know while searching for food! Speaking of food - Del ate a hamburger and I had scone nuggets, our traditional food choice at the fair. We broke our tradition of getting an ice cream cone though, but there’s always next year to follow tradition again.

Del with his nephew Kevin Adams and his wife Katie,
plus their children: Oakley, Rhett, & Cree

Del & Trudy at the Eastern Idaho State Fair, September 2016

Here’s Del’s story. Enjoy! --- 

Fair time has always been kind of a unique part of our family tradition and Idaho culture. My earliest recollection of the fair experience goes back to a very young age. My grandma and grandpa Wootton lived just a couple of blocks from the Eastern Idaho State Fairgrounds. We would often go to their home and walk to the fair. In these rural communities the fair was always a journey of discovery. It was a time when all of the livestock people brought and showed their prized horses, cows, sheep, pigs as well as the latest agricultural equipment. As a boy I just loved to go to the fair and climb around on the tractors and combines. They were the newest and latest, and of course, not something we could even dream of having on our own farm. One of my favorite commercial displays, of which there were many, was the water pump booth where they made a little pond with an irrigation pump constantly circulating a big stream of water to demonstrate the proficiency of their pumps. There was also the Culligan Water display where the illusion of a faucet suspended in mid-air with water coming out of it was a source of amazement to me as a small child. At one point I finally realized the water that was coming down obscured a clear tube going up in the middle of the falling water. One of the giveaways at that booth was a headband with a long big colored feather. That was a must-have as a child. There were balloons and pencils and popcorn just for walking past a booth. Of course, the nicest thing about the fair was the endless variety of foods which were available including elephant ears, square ice cream coated with chocolate and nuts, as well as the usual pronto pups and hamburgers. And the fair wasn’t complete without a ride on the scrambler. 

One of my fondest memories was seeing my grandma Pearl sitting on a bench outside of the Home Craft building visiting with all of the other ladies. It seemed like to a little boy that grandma knew pretty much everybody who was at the fair. It really was a heart-warming experience as a child to see how everyone came together at fair time to see what was new in the world, to visit, and exchange pleasantries. My dad was always, of course, most interest in the horse and cattle aspect of the fair and we often had quarter horses that we showed and worked with.

For most of our children’s growing up years we have kept the tradition of at least spending a few hours at the fair and it always brings back pleasant memories of times spent in good wholesome family activity. There really isn’t any way of explaining the fair if you’ve not actually been there to experience the sight, sounds and smells of all that makes a fair a fair. Everything tastes better at the fair and life just feels good there.

Del at the Power County 4-H Horse Show with Rubber Star, August 1967

Side note: Speaking about a “good wholesome family activity” I love the 7^th paragraph in “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” where it lists 9 principles that will help marriages and families be successful. Being involved in “wholesome recreational activities” is one of the nine. Here’s a link to the one page document called: “The Family: A Proclamation to the World”

Cops & Robbers

Painting by Nathan Roberts, my son

During the summer Nate and Sydney went to Arizona for a week vacation to spend time with Derek, Kristi, Jackson and Sadie. Within the first week Sydney ended up in the hospital because of pregnancy complications. Their one week vacation turned into three before the doctors allowed Sydney to fly back home to Wisconsin. While in the hospital Nate  called to give us an update on Sydney’s condition.

While talking, Nate who was already very choked up with concern for Sydney, told us that with so much time on their hands in the hospital they had chosen a name for their baby. The name was Copsen. They said it was a family name from Sydney’s side (not true…but we didn't know it). Although it was quite "different"  I told them I really liked the name. (What else would you tell an emotional son??)

Copsen...actually that was only one way Nate spelled it. He told Stephanie that it was spelled Coppson. Hummmm….by the title of my post, can you guess this was a joke? Del and I never caught on until Stephanie and Josh slowly and deliberately put Coppson with his last name: Coppson Roberts. Sound familiar? Kind of like the title of my post?!!! Say it out loud! Say it over and over until you “get it”! Coppson Roberts…Cops an Roberts…Cops and Robbers! Ya, you nailed it!

It came as no surprise that Nate was trying to fool us, but Del and I NEVER caught on! I think we went 2 months without figuring it out!

So Steph and Josh came up with an idea hoping to cause Nate a little uneasiness when he'd have to confess to grandma (me) that his child's name really wasn’t going to be Coppson. Steph bought a onesie online with the name “Coppson Roberts” printed on it and had the seller write a note that said:  “I really love the name Coppson! Hope you stick with it!” 

Although Nate "fell" for the joke for awhile, he finally caught on and texted this cute photo to the family.

Apparently it won’t be the name of their son, but they decided it would be the name of the little baby’s toy Tigger or perhaps a toy bear!!

(…and now you know why I used Nate's painting of "Cop Woody"… I mean Sheriff Woody and Buzz Lightyear…his painting fits his story!)

Side note: Speaking about names, I just re-read the story when Helaman gave Nephi and Lehi the names of their ancestors. I love the Book of Mormon and I love the words Helaman used when he told his sons the reason he named them after their forefathers. He said, “…I have given unto you the names of our first parents who came out of the land of Jerusalem; and this I have done that when you remember your names ye may remember them; and when ye remember them ye may remember their works; and when ye remember their works ye may know how that it is said, and also written, that they were good. Therefore, my sons, I would that ye should do that which is good…” (Helaman 5:6-7) I love this! What a challenge for all of us! Here’s a link to the scripture story if you would like to read it found in The Book of Mormon, Helaman chapter 5.

Underwater Swimming

This was a fun picture to paint. Once again I used Crayola watercolor paint.  I'm not sure why I've become fascinated using this paint over my nice tubes, but perhaps it’s just fun to see if I can paint something half way decent with paint like my grand-kids use in elementary school. The paint is vibrant and with only 8 colors it just makes painting less serious – and feeling less serious allows me to be a little more creative!!  

I painted this just a couple of weeks ago when I was in Southern California with my parents while my mom was dealing with some serious health issues (August 2016).  I guess being with my parents in the summer and having some downtime caused me to want to paint something summery and something that reminded me of growing up in California. I remember my summer days as joyful and relaxing, without too much structure. I often called my best friend, Dawn, who lived down the street, to meet me at the pool. In those days, it was very rare to have a neighborhood pool. Now days, there are more and more of them. But for us, it was unique. So swimming and being in the sun was just part of regular summer living, along with laying on our backs to look at the clouds, going bike riding, and buying ice cream from the ice cream man whenever we were lucky enough for our parents to give into our begging for such a treat. Memories!! Aren’t they fun?!

My parents, Keith & Lucile, taken a couple of years ago.

I think being with my parents for 2 weeks has caused me to reminisce a bit. What a joy it was to spend time with dad and mom, even though it wasn’t under the best circumstances. I hope mom gets well soon, but thanks for the sweet memories I’ll have of this summer being with the two of you.

As part of my reminiscing, I took some time to search for photos of me swimming in our pool while growing up, but sadly, I couldn’t find any. But here’s a few depicting some of my other summer memories.

This photo of me was taken in August of 1964

If I wasn’t in the pool, I was often running through the sprinklers! 

This photo is of my younger sister, Regina, and me. 

Watermelon...summer! They go together!

I sell tags on Etsy called: Tags by Trudy
This is one of them.

Trudy Tibbitts & Linda Rameson

This is a picture of my next door neighbor, Linda, and me. She was a great friend, but she moved when we were fairly young. Her dad taught me how to swim and so just for fun - going along memory lane - I’m adding this photo to my post and a paragraph from a history my mom wrote about me, as if I was the writer.  

A very good friend and neighbor, Fred Rameson, taught me how to swim during the summer of 1964. I was just 4 years old. I always wore a life jacket when I went into our pool to swim and had lots of fun. One day I got my finger shut in the door just as we were all going down to the pool at the end of Ramona Vista (a pool that 12 families owned who lived on our street called the Ramona Vista Recreation Center). I told Mom I wouldn’t put on the life jacket because I was just going to sit on the step and hold my hand up. I sat there for a while and before I knew it there I was in the water swimming just like I usually did when I had the life jacket, only I was without the jacket. I surprised myself as well as Mom who was watching. So from then on I really practiced and got better all the time. Fred would come over and make me swim across the pool several times telling me to “reach way out” and pull my arms down by my body, which really helped me a lot. During the summer of 1965 I learned to jump off the high dive and dive off the side of the pool and swam the length of the pool lots of times. And finally, just before the swimming season ended in September 1965, I went down the slide. For some reason I couldn’t get enough courage to do that one thing. But I love to swim. I took a swimming course at the city pool during the summer of 1965 and I was advance from the beginner’s group right through to the divers group in about a week. I was one of the littlest and youngest there. My very good friend and next door neighbor, Linda Rameson, is a very good swimmer and she was in that class, too. Our hearts were all heavy and we were so sad when Fred Rameson died on September 4, 1965. He had been our very good friend ever since we moved here to Hemet and had taught me how to swim and enjoy it. I wondered how Regina would learn to swim now that Fred had died because he knew just how to teach beginners. (End of paragraph from my history)

Swimming...part of my growing up years. I love summer. I always have! It's such a carefree time of life. 

In closing, while at my parents my dad and I often took our projects into the family-room so we could be with mom as she lay on the couch trying to regain her strength. Sometimes we watched t.v. or a movie. On several occasions we watched different things from YouTube, including this darling interview of 3 women and their daughters. The interview took place on Brigham Young University in 1999 and the women interviewed were the wives of the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This interview is so very entertaining and so well worth watching. I wanted to add a link to it with this post because Marjorie Hinckley, the wife of the Prophet at that time, and the last speaker, talked about her summer days growing up and how they had their children spend their summer days. And so I thought it would be fitting to share this on this post about summer. Besides, Marjorie Hinckley was just absolutely darling and funny.  I hope whoever is reading this post will watch this. It was wonderful. Here's the link: Wives & Daughter of The First Presidency (1999). 

Happy summer!! Actually, school starts in my town this week...so summer is coming to a close. So sad!

4th of July Rockets

My painting of fireworks

Over the last several years while on road trips my husband, Del, has dictated to me stories about his life while I scribbled them on paper. I love his stories and for some time I’ve dreamed of turning his stories into books with him as the author and me the illustrator. So far he has 30 stories and I’m only half way done with the first book I hope to publish. Wishing my grand-kids could have access to these fun stories now, I decided I wanted to post them on my blog. I’ve only posted 3 of his stories so far, so here’s another. 

The beginning of our hike. It's beautiful!!

But first…just a comment about our 4^th of July celebration this year. My daughter Stephanie, her husband Josh, and 2 month old son Luke, were here with us while moving from New Mexico to South Dakota. Being the hikers that they are, they convinced Del and I to take a 6 mile hike with them. We figured if they could hike for 6 miles with Luke in their arms, so could we! So we gathered some snacks, water and our tennis shoes and headed hiking to the lower and upper Palisades Lakes for our 4th of July celebration. 6 miles??? It is 15.6 miles! We actually hiked all of it, but there were times that I seriously wondered if I'd make it! I admit, I kept wondering if the people who rode past us on their horses would pick me up. I was almost willing to offer money for a ride back, but of course, I didn't hike with any cash! Well...we did make it all the way...but with Del's and my legs aching, Stephanie and Josh were good enough to forgo our yearly tradition of meeting the whole community on the banks of the Snake River for fireworks that night. We were sure we couldn’t walk another mile or two to get to our favorite viewing spot. So we exchanged fireworks this year for hot dogs and s’mores over a gas grill and the movie “National Treasure.”

Josh, Stephanie and baby Luke comfortable in the sling!

Del & Trudy
We made it to the upper lake - with the return trip ahead of us.

So...here's Del's story about one of his 4th of July celebrations. This is a true story. We removed names from this story to protect the innocent…I mean the guilty!!

The Fourth of July Rockets

There’s a good reason why some fireworks are not considered safe and sane. It’s also foreseeable to recognize that when fireworks fall into the hands of college students there use would most likely result in minor property damage if not physical bodily harm. This type of story can only be told with a disclaimer – don’t try this at home!

My roommate who drove truck on the weekends returned from Southern California having gathered up an array of bottle rockets, some small, some very large. These had been carelessly disseminated amongst several nearby apartments where I lived at the time.

The first evidence that trouble was afoot was when we were sitting in our apartment watching television and heard a curious noise from the adjacent apartment. As the drilling sound ceased we noticed a small hole appear through the wall in our kitchen area with a chrome towel rack pipe extending out of it. Mere moments passed until the purpose for the tube became evident as bottle rockets began to flash from the end of the tube and blaze across our apartment landing in an adjacent bathroom. While essentially pinned down, we were able to pull together a counterattack returning fire by launching bottle rockets from our end of the tube. A childish college activity!

Sometime later, this being around the 4^th of July, the local community put on a fireworks display from the stadium. We either didn’t have tickets or it cost more than we were willing to pay, so several of us decided to simply take our lawn chairs up and sit on the roof to watch the display. While so doing my roommate decided he would like to launch one of his gigantic bottle rockets, which he had purchased in Mexico. Now you typically need a piece of pipe to launch these rockets, but of course, we didn’t have one. Not such a brilliant idea was using the plumbing standpipes located on the top of the building. He lit the bottle rocket and dropped it down the standpipe. The bottle rocket came whooshing out of the pipe, rocketed into the air and exploded into a beautiful array of color. Everybody enjoyed the display except for an unfortunate fellow apartment dweller. As it turned out he had gone down into his apartment below to use the restroom. As pressure from the rocket launch recoiled it apparently blew much of the water out of the toilet bowl, which left the user both befuddled and wet! It certainly was an experience he will never forget - having a toilet bowl unexpectedly turn into a fountain.