A Sunday Story and a Hymn

God’s Cake

Sometimes we wonder, "What did I do to deserve this?"
or ....Why did God have to do this to me?
Here is a wonderful explanation.
A daughter is telling her mother how everything is going wrong, she is failing algebra, her boyfriend broke up with her and her best friend is moving away. Meanwhile her mother is baking a cake and asks her daughter if she would like a snack. The daughter says, "Sure mom, I love your cake."
Here dear, have some cooking oil", her mother offers.
"Yuck" says her daughter.
"How about some raw eggs?"
"Gross, Mom"
"Would you like some flour then?.... or...
maybe some baking soda?"
"Mom, those are all yucky!"
To which the mother replies...
"Yes, all those things seem yucky all by themselves.
But, when they are put together in the right way,
they make a wonderfully delicious cake!"
...
God works the same way.
Many times we wonder why He would let us go through such bad and difficult times.
But God knows that when He puts these things all in His order,
they always work for good.
We just have to trust Him and, eventually,
they will all make somethings wonderful!
God is crazy about you.
He sends you flowers every spring... and...
a sunrise every morning.
Whenever you want to talk, He'll listen.
He can live anywhere in the universe, and
He chose your heart.
..
I Believe in Christ

by Bruce R. McConkie

I believe in Christ; He stands supreme!
From him I'll gain my fondest dream;
And while I strive through grief and pain,
His voice is heard: "Ye shall obtain."
I believe in Christ; so come what may,
With Him I'll stand in that great day
When on this earth he comes again
To rule among the sons of men.
...
This was the spiritual thought given by a member
of our Temple Presidency this last week
before we started working on our Temple shift.
...
I wanted to share it with you because it has been true in my life.
As I look back on my most difficult times I can see
that God had not abandoned me.... He was just
turning me in another direction.... onto a better path...
that lead me to a much better place.
I have learned that even in the midst of
hard times we must trust God and turn towards Him...
...not away from Him....
for He is our strength and our Salvation.
Have a great week.
I will be back with my regular Sunday Six Soon.

Goodbye Sweet Angie

After I posted my blog yesterday, I learned that Angie passed away.
...
I am at a loss for words.
...
Just a week ago she was wishing me well because she knew I felt bad.
Just 4 days before she died she was making me laugh because
she just found out Milwaukee was in Wisconsin...
...all these years she thought Fonzie was from Idaho.
...
I could always count on Angie to read my blog.
...
I could always count on Angie to care about me.
....
I could always count on Angie to send me blog love.
...
I could always count on Angie to make me smile.
In spite of her pain and suffering....
...In spite of her being confined to a wheel chair,
Angie saw the bright side of life.
...
She was witty and funny and full of love.
...
She adored her devoted husband, Keith.
They had no children, only each other.
I know Keith will miss her terribly.
My prayers are with him and her family.
...
Marie and Angie were dear friends.

Last night Marie and I cried together...
...and laughed together as we remembered dear Angie.

So goodbye sweet Angie.

I will miss everything about you...
... even your heavy English accent that I could hardly understand.
...
There will be a permanent empty spot in
my comment box when your little mouse and kind words are not there.
...
There will be a permanent empty spot in my heart because
your love and support are not there.
...
Thank goodness I know that life is eternal
and we will be more than blog buddies in the life to come.
...
May God bless and comfort Keith and all those who
knew and loved you.
God be with you until we meet again.
You will be greatly missed.

Hugs, Grammy Lura

Sunday Smiles

Many thanks to those of you who wished me well last week

1. You blog friends make me smile.

I especially appreciate Marlene of Stitching by the Lake calling me

and sending me Psalms 119:76 to read.

Great comfort does come from God

and like it is said in

verse 77... The Lord does shower us with

tender mercies.

Marlene's grandson, Blake is very sick in the hospital.

Please pray for him.

...
Also please pray for my sweet blog friend,

Angie from Can You Hear Me at the back.

She is in the hospital and needs our prayers.

...

2. Being prepared makes me smile.

Our church sponsored a preparedness seminar for

the community last Wed.

John's assignment was to find out about different kinds of
fuel we could use for lighting, heating and cooking
if we had no gas or electricity in our homes.

He researched for a month.

He bought or built all sorts of cooking devices.

He put on a very informative and

diverse demonstration.

I was proud of him.... 3. John makes me smile.

4. My friend, Kris from Grandma's Journal also makes me smile.

She did a presentation showing us how to make 5 min. bread.
She did a great job too.
...

5. Making cupcakes with Jan from the Short Track makes me smile.

She came over Friday and we made
White Chocolate and Raspberry Cup Cakes.

Then we decorated them with pink roses.

They turned out so pretty.

I can't wait to try them tomorrow at our mini tea party...

...and share the rest with our friends.
I hope they taste as good as they look.
...
6. Souper Suppers make me smile.

Friday evening we had a great "souper supper" at church.
We all brought crock pots of soup, hot rolls or a dessert to church.
It really was a super soup supper.

And the most delicious part was

my dear nephew, Jim and his sweet wife Joan
came with us.

They came over from Arizona to visit us this weekend.
...
We had a great time with them.

Yesterday we went with them to San Diego to visit the

Mormon Battalion Visitor Center .
We were joined there by a very special blog friend and her family.

However, I have already listed 6 smiles for this week so

I will have to tell you about that next time.
So...be sure to read my next post

to see who we met there.

Here is a clue. Do you know who this is?
...
Have a great week.

I wish you lots of smiles.

Please remember to pray for Blake and Angie.

Hugs, Grammy

Sunday Smiles postponed

Dear Blog Friends,
I am going to beg your indulgence in postponing my
Sunday Smiles for this week.
It is not because I have not been blessed with many
things to smile about and be thankful for.
The Lord is so good to us.
I am surrounded by His goodness and blessings.

...
I am just feeling a little down today...
...and ...
...I have a splitting headache.
I am going to take some aspirin and a nap.
That should fix me right up....
and I will be back to visit you soon
and share my smiles with you.
...
I hope that all of you are doing well.
I keep you in my thoughts and prayers.

Sunday Smiles with Loni

Hello again .
Here it is Sunday and time to think about the smiles I've
been accumulating.

I did get all my Christmas decorations packed back into
their boxes.... which if you saw my last post you realize that
was not an easy task.
As it turned out, my friend Terry did come over and
give me a hand. I was just kidding when I asked for help
on my post.... but she showed up... marched into our game room
and started helping me pack and tape up the boxes.
I can assure you that made me smile!!!
I didn't get a picture but I won't forget her help.
...
The rest of the smiles I am sharing today
involve our 11 year old Lonica.
I've told you about what a good little dancer she is.
Watching her dance always makes me smile.
I got to go with her to her dance studio and watch her
run her new solo dance she is working on for competition.
I was smiling the whole time.
...
It was freezing the whole time we were in Utah.
(I am smiling to be back home in CA where the temp is in the 70s.)

It was the coldest I ever remember it being in Utah.
(It was as cold as we were when we went to Idaho, Marie.)

The temperatures ranged between 9 and 22 degrees.

This is the street in front of Lynell's house.
It snowed so much that the snow plows could not keep up.
I gave up trying to drive and I didn't go outside unless I had to....

... but not Loni. Doesn't that face make you smile.
She is a nut!
One day she stayed outside for 2 hours building us a
snow ramp we could slide down.
She was an icicle when she finally came in.

Loni and Grampy's buttermilk toast tradition always makes me smile.

They are the only 2 in the family that like the stuff.
As soon as we get there,
Loni runs to get some buttermilk to share with Grampy.
She and Grampy crack me up.

Her willingness to help makes me smile.
She loves to go down to Erin's and give her a hand with the babies.

She wears herself out ....

...But she is never too tired to play with Ellie and Calan...
or feed them.... or change them.
She will be a great little babysitter when she turns 12.

She even lets Cal play with her cat, Lucy.
Cal loves Lucy.... but I don't think the feeling is mutual.

Smile....smile

...

Loni's cooking makes me smile.

She loves to cook.

She can follow a recipe and cook almost anything from scratch.
You would be proud of her Marie.

She made us a delicious home made cake

and decorated it for New Years.

I was full of smiles.
So from Lonica and me....
Happy New Year.
I hope you have a week full of smile.

What a difference a day makes.....HELP

How can it be 1/11/11 already?
One day it is the holidays......and the next day they are over.
How did it happen so fast?
We have traveled 1900 miles since Christmas eve.
We have visited loved ones and Erin and Patrick came to visit us.
It has been grand....but now it is over.
We are back home and our family that came home with us
left yesterday.
The house that was full of children's voices is quiet now.

The kitchen table that looked like this yesterday...

...Looks like this today.

Our game room...aka our buffet room...
has gone from looking pretty ....

...to looking like a disaster...

I've dumped all the decorations from all over the house
and all of their boxes into this room.

WHAT A MESS!!!
I need help!!!
Can't some of you who have a clean house
because you put away all your decorations
a week or so ago, come over and give me a hand???
Good.... I'll wait for you....
...
Wait a minute...
Doesn't ...1/11/11... seem like too special
a date to waste cleaning house!!!
...
Come on over tomorrow to help me clean up.

I think today I will remember the joy I had rocking Ellie yesterday.
I will reminisce about all the loved ones we've been blessed to visit.
...
I will look at the 550 pictures I took on our trip
and after the kids got here.
...
I will think about how pretty the house looked all decked out for Christmas
and count my blessings as I put all the decorations away.

My rocking chair may be empty today....
... but it is full of sweet memories...
And
...every cloud always has a silver lining....

After changing where we slept 7 different times over
the past 2 weeks, we are back in our own room,
in our own bed.
Maybe I will go there and take a nap now.
All this talk about cleaning up the game room has made me tired.
I hope that all of you are having a good
1/11/11.

More New Year Smiles

I hope that all of you blog friends are having a happy start to our

New Year 2011.
In my post last week on New Year's Day I told you
all about Ernie's band in the Rose Parade.
Thanks to those of you who voted for them.
Their hard work surely paid off.
They got over 8700 votes and came in 4th place.
With so many good bands in the parade we feel that is amazing.
All of our family is so happy for them.
...
While Ernie and the band were working hard on New Year's Eve
getting ready for the parade, we were having a play day which
was full of smiles I'd like to share with you.

That afternoon we all went to watch our 16 year old Jalen's
soccer game.

We were thankful it was an inside game since it was a
snowy 10 degrees outside.

It was Ellie's 1st soccer game and she seemed to be enjoying it.
Her family had driven 70 miles to come and join us.
That made me smile.
...
When we got back to Lynell's house Loni was ready to party
away the last hours of 2010.
We were happy to oblige.

We don't go out for a night on the town or drink alcohol but
we surely do have a great time being together with family.
We can't think of a better way to end one year and bring in the new.

Of course, karaoke is always a part of our party plans.

This year we were well prepared for 1 year old Calan to join us.

Cal didn't know all of the words, but
following in his daddy's footsteps, he sang his little heart out.
We were all smiling.

After all of that singing we built up big appetites.

Can you tell from these ingredients what Lynell was making for us?

Sushi!!!

California rolls are my favorite.

We had a buffet of good food to choose from.....

It all tasted great...
...but sharing it with dear ones
was the most delicious part to me!

When our tummies were full we were ready for a
game of wii Pictionary.

It was a fiercely competitive.... and....exciting game

...Which kept us on the edges of our seats....

...Well, maybe not all of us.

Then the clock struck 12:00 and it was officially...

...2011...
We toasted in the new year with Sparkling Apple Cider....
....AKA...Mormon Champagne.

So Erin and Patrick.....

...Lynell and Dathan...

and Grammy and Grampy wish you a very
Happy New Year 2011

May God bless you in all that you do and
may your hearts be full of thankfulness
and smiles.