The Happy Factory

How it all began?   We talked about a service project for our Women’s Conference where we could show a beginning, a middle and an end.  We prayed about it and went to the temple together.  Darla mentioned the Happy Factory which are a family from Cedar City that have made wooden toys for needy children for many years.  They have big hearts that have unselfishly given of their time and talents to put a smile on a child in many part of the world.    They provided us with two hundred toys that we oiled together this evening with love and care.  Our toys will put a smile on many children’s faces.  There are many good, giving people in this world.

 

 

Women’s Conference 2020

So proud of our conference.  The food was good.  The tables were happy.   The turnout was nice.  The service project had great meaning.  Alice and Susan’s interview was endearing.  The music was uplifting and so very beautiful.  President and Sister McCarrey’s thoughts were spiritual and touching.

 

The White Towel

Tomorrow evening after doing our service project for the Happy Factory each woman will go home with a folded white towel at the end of our Women’s Conference.  This will be my message prior to that.  “When the Cooley family were in Nicaragua giving away The Happy Factory toys to the children you saw on the video, there was one more thing that happened to make this story so special.  We wanted to share that with you and give you a remembrance of what happened.   At the end of the trip there were about twenty-five toys left which they gave away to people coming in from outlying villages.  They gave away the last of the toys, waved good-bye, and got into the van to drive away.  As the van started going they saw a beautiful mother holding a baby hurrying toward them, smiling with a look of hope in her eyes.  Donna yelled, “Stop the van!” and looked around for something to give this last dear mother and her precious child.  The toys were gone but her eyes fell upon a little white towel the NBC Network had provided for the Cooley’s to wipe on after being out with the people.  Donna asked the van driver if she could give it to the woman and he said yes.  She got the window down enough to slide the towel out to her, then their hands touched through the glass as the van drove away.  The young mother’s face radiated happiness as she wrapped that simple white towel around her precious baby.  It is likely she had never before seen the color white.  Because you see, she lived in a dump.  But as she clutched that little white towel and her beautiful child, for one brief moment her life was blissful. Tonight, you helped prepare something that will become a “white towel” for children in need as the toys you oiled with love will go to Kosovo.  Our challenge is to continue to look for those opportunities to be instruments in the hands of God and remember, it doesn’t matter what we give.  We need to give what we have!  Tonight we give a simple wooden toy to children we will never meet or know or hold.  We give them a little bit of ourselves and our love, and hopefully a bit of happiness.”

 

 

 

 

Umpqua

I stopped dead in my tracks in the Three Bears Store at Pittman because my eyes beheld the biggest container of Umpqua ice cream I knew existed.  Umpqua is my favorite ice cream.  Micah first bought it when she brought dessert for Sunday dinner and I fell in love with it.  I had no idea where the name came from but I always asked her to bring the “Eskimo” ice cream.  Today I came upon the real meaning.  The ice cream company is actually in Oregon from a dairy company that is in the Umpqua Valley.  The Umpqua Indians actually settled there first.  There is just something about this ice cream – do I even dare buy a container that big?  Dare me.

Handywoman Tara

I woke up to a chilly house which truly isn’t out of the ordinary.  I live in a cold state and the heat always gets turned down at night.  But this morning . . . it seemed very nippy.  I did my usual sleepy walk down the hall,  with a little shiver and no glasses I went to turn up the thermostat but it was blank.  There were no numbers and no light.   I quickly did a mental checklist of what might be the problem.  Was the power out?  No.  Was a breaker flipped?  No.  I checked the furnace and was able to get it to come on and then it went off again.  It had to be a thermostat problem so I changed out the little AAA battery and still no light.  I continued to trouble shoot.  Was a wire loose?   Don’t want to go that route.  It has to be the battery.  I reinserted the AAA and a beautiful well lit screen fired up the big boy furnace downstairs and I truly felt like a million bucks.  Oh you little battery – you absolutely run the show around here.

El Espanol Es Dificil

No one has to tell me that learning a language isn’t easy.  I struggled with my Italian and lost so much of it.  We had a great talk with Rhea today and she is having a wonderful mission, well except for the language, that is her struggle.  We asked her about her the language journey and she said it was just “alright” until Hermana Freeman got in the screen and said she was doing amazing and not to listen to anything she was saying.  Hopefully that was the boost needed.

Ice Fishing Baby

I often wish I was as adventurous with my children as my children are with theirs.   I mean seriously – why didn’t I take the kids ice fishing??   Perhaps it was because I don’t ice fish – great excuse.    Gwendolyn had her first ice fishing expedition and stayed nice and warm in the hut.  She loved sitting in the big poofy red chair too.  What really topped off the whole cute outdoorsy look was the hat.  Gwennie and the hat.  Ice Fish Trip #1 of many many more I can guarantee.

In Her Studio

I bought my favorite magazine a few weeks ago when I was in Costco.  Of all places they sell this amazing publication there.  For about two weeks now this has sat on my table by my chair and I “savor” it.  I don’t want to read through it all because I want to save the treasures for a bit longer.  I love creativity.  I aspire to be the women I read about which is an oddity to me because I am not artistic at all.  Every story, every page just inspires me so much.  I may never be as they are but the colors, the textiles, their studios, their whimsical world of creativity moves me.  Maybe I should read just a few stories today . . . it’ll be inspiring.

 

Juniper

I have addictions.  Well not the real bad ones but bad enough.  I love counter sprays and have quite a plethora of ones under my sink.  You see my weakness comes when I see a new one in the store and I am enticed by their awesome packaging (good presentation) and their amazing smell.  I am succumbed very strongly to purchasing it and then I bring it home and clean absolutely everything in sight so I can inhale the sweet fumes.  How could I not?  Listen to their description (good use of alluring words):  “Crisp, sweet juniper and aromatic cedar anchor notes of dewy fresh air and wildflowers.”  I’m doomed.

A Dreamer

My Sundance catalog adorns my post office box every few months.  This week I received the Spring 2020 catalog and as usual I carefully go through each page, each outfit and each piece of jewelry and I choose.  Sometimes I leave a mark on the page so I remember what choice I made but often it is the visual “that is the one” choice that I surely will never forget I quietly say to myself.  And I don’t.  Do I ever buy what I choose?  I haven’t yet because they are quite expensive so I just dream.  I set goals for myself and I tell myself that if I achieve a certain goal I can buy what I’ve chosen but so far that hasn’t happened yet either.  My catalog sits right beside my chair and I just . . . dream.