Waiting For My Mission Call
I check the mailbox every day and no news yet! So far, waiting for the call has been the worst part of this process.  I spend my time packing up my mom's house, preparing her paperwork for her new address, going through all of my stuff and packing it away, trying to decide what to take (this is very hard for me), doctor & dental appointments (no more braces now), babysitting my brother's dogs, etc., etc., etc.






 I've been reading  Preach My Gospel. What a wonderful book! "Missionaries who strive to prepare themselves daily and seek to improve regularly will receive direction from the Holy Ghost and see blessings in their lives," from Preach  My Gospel, pg. vii.

Where have I been?

To blog or not to blog . . . that is the question. Well, I've finally decided to return to my blog. More to come.

I'm Back at the Blog

It's been 14 months since I've used this blog. Quite a lot has happened in my life during that time. I retired from my job of 32 years, I moved from Miami to a small town in central Florida and I live with and care for my elderly parents. It has taken me about a year to adjust to this new lifestyle.

Star is here too. She really enjoys being an outside cat. My parent's cat, Blackie, is her good friend now.

I've done many, many things in the past year. One of the most enjoyable things has been planting my very first garden. (See picture.)

More later...

Primary In-Service for May

The Primary In-Service Lesson for May was held on Sunday, May 25, 2008. Today we reflected upon preparation which, according to Elder Dallin H. Oaks, ". . . is a prerequisite to teaching by the Spirit." We discussed the Six P's of Preparing a Lesson, which are plan, pray, purpose, principles, prepare and present. We emphasised the importance of using the scriptures and read 1 Nephi 19:23 "...for I did liken all scriptures unto us, that it might be for our profit and learning." Teachers were encouraged to read from their scriptures during every lesson so that children will become comfortable with the scriptures and by their teacher's example, learn to use the scriptures in their own lives. We played a game which can be used for behavior management. It was a scripture search game to help children become familiar with the names and order of books in the scriptures as well as a tool to manage behavior. Dramatization was the teaching method we modeled. Children can gain a greater understanding of gospel principles by dramatizing stories from the lesson. We used the Pair-Share activity to review and conclude the in-service lesson. All Primary teachers are encouraged the review the lesson by reading and studying the following: pages 13-15 in Teaching Guidebook; page 166 in Teaching, no Greater Call and 1Nephi:19:23. "We are so grateful to all who teach. We love you and appreciate you more than we can say," Jeffrey R. Holland.

Relief Society Book Club - May

The Relief Society Book Club met on Tuesday, May 20, 2008. We discussed the book, THE MEMORY KEEPER'S DAUGHTER by Kim Edwards. Everyone liked the book very much. This book has the capacity to evoke a lot of emotions in the reader. The relationship between the main character and his wife dredged up quite a few unpleasant memories of events from my marriage that I thought I had forgotten. In a way this was a healing experience for me. Not everyone in the group had such a reaction though. We spent a lot of time talking about the behavior of the main characters, whether they did the right thing or not and what we would do in their situation. Read this book. I give it 4 stars. Our book for June is THE DEVIL'S ARITHMETIC by Jane Yolen. Keep on reading.

Orlando Temple

Photo (c) 2004 Michael Provard

Latest News From Lake Panasoffkee

Nothing much is new in Lake Panasoffkee. . . except that I'll be going there in about five weeks. My parents are looking forward to my visit. My brother is looking forward to my visit as well because he and his wife always take their vacation in the summer when I can stay with our parents. As for me I'm recovering from an injury to the ligament in my leg. I try to walk as little as possible at work and then every evening I sit with a bag of ice on my leg, which really helps. My leg feels a little better each day. My cat, Star, is doing fine. Now that she's recovered from her urinary tract infection, I'm going to continue training her to do tricks. Yes, tricks. Cats can learn to do tricks. Sometimes they will only learn the tricks they want to learn and sometimes they will only do the tricks they want to do, but they can learn tricks.

Well . . that's about all the news from Lake Panasoffkee. Enjoy the picture of the hummingbird! I'm looking forward to seeing many of them this summer.