Butterhorn Rolls, Happiness Machines, & Growing Feet

Monday July 15, 1996   Laura is 12 years old.  Jasmine is 11 years old.  Margret is 9 years old.  We now live in the small town where I work.  Steve has not found work.  He provides on-site massage to all his clients in Salt Lake on Wednesdays.   My parents sold their home in Colorado to move to Utah.  While they were looking for a home they shared our small 1500 sq. ft. home with us.  Steve and my dad both took small parts in a community theatre production of Our Town by Thornton Wilder.

Dear Laura,

I hope you finish writing about your teachers on the previous page (of this journal).

Summer is going by so fast!  Soon you will be going to camp!

We got new shoes this week and you wear size 9!  I can't believe it!  I wear size 9 1/2 so maybe we'll be sharing shoes.  Jasmine and Margret wear size 7.

You make delicious rolls for the family to eat.  The recipe is "Butterhorn Rolls" from the Taste of Home magazine.

You have been babysitting your sisters quite a lot since G'ma and G'pa  moved out.  We appreciate you so much!

Love, Mom

P.S.  We have been reading aloud Dandelion Wine.  A man in the story builds a happiness machine.  What would YOU put in a "happiness" machine?

Very Responsible

Sunday November 19, 1995   Laura is 11 years old.  We are very near selling our house.  We have had to replace the shingles.  In this case Steve had to scrape off with a shovel about five layers of shingles and then put on a fresh layer.  He did this all by himself--noone offered to help and we couldn't afford to pay anyone.  My sister and her husband loaned us their small pick-up for me to use in my 45 mile-each-way commute to my new job.  We couldn't afford to repair or replace the transmission in our van and overnight our debt-to-income ratio (a term which was foreign to me up til now) made it impossible to buy another vehicle.  During this time we came up with homemade Halloween costumes and pulled off a birthday party for Trina on a very low budget.  Our apple tree produced its one and only bumper crop so we survived on apple meals and garden produce that others shared with us.  Here is a short letter I wrote to Laura...

Dear Laura,

Thank you for taking care of our Creative Memories booth at the David Gourley Craft Fair on Saturday.  You did a great job--handing out nearly 100 fliers.  You were there eight hours!  I had to work at the library in Springville.

Daddy needed to load the rest of the old shingles into the Gibson's truck and take the load to the dump.

You were very responsible.  Thank you.

Love, Mom

Space Shuttle & Apples

Wednesday, September 27, 1995   Laura is 11.  We have our home for sale.  I am now working 45 miles away from home.   The transmission on our van is bad (will only drive in first gear) so I am driving in first gear.  We have very little money as my new job pays about half of what I was earning.  The girls are basically on their own to get ready for school, get to school, come home from school, and take care of themselves after school til I get home later in the evening. 

Here is a letter I wrote to Laura in her journal:

Dear Laura,

This evening you watched the space shuttle ride piggy back on a 747 into the Salt Lake International Airport.  Awesome!

We had fun preparing apples from our tree to put into homemade pies on Sunday.  You were enjoying listening to the recorded book Having Our Say by the Delaney Sisters.

Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years by Sarah L. Delany


My rating: 4 of 5 stars


My family enjoyed listening to this book and learning from these remarkable women.

Letter to Eleven-year-old Laura

Monday, August 28, 1995   Laura is 11 years old.

Dear Laura,

Congratulations on presenting a wonderful lesson to your class on the atonement yesterday.  You prepared visual aides, volunteered to teach it, and involved the class in discussion.  You are amazing.

Now, as for your first day of school...

It' was great!  You loved it!  You have Mr. Erickson.  He talks a lot but he seems cool.  He talked about wehn he was in school.

You still have Derek, Tyler, Brian, Jordan, Janielle, and Harold to annoy you.  Yuck!

You sat by a new girl.  She moved here from Nevada, you think.  Her name is Amy.  You talked and hung out at recess.  A friend!

Prayer Works

Sunday, Aug. 20, 1995   Laura is 11 years old.

Dear Laura,

Last night I was looking for my Suncay School lesson materials.  I had the house all clean and organized and I had spent several hours last Sunday preparing for this week.  I was looking for several books and my notes.  Daddy and I looked everywhere several times, including out in the car.  In addition to my manuals there were two library books.  I could see myself having to pay for them.  I didn't want to stand in front of the adult Gospel Doctrine class looking unprepared when I HAD prepared!

For some reason I could not bring myself to pray about finding them.  I let my pride rule and I handed Daddy the scriptures and said he could teach the lesson -- I was staying home-- even though it was my turn to teach.  (We alternate weeks).

You tried to help and offered some suggestions.  Then you went to bed.

I decided to look again.  I took Daddy's briefcases out of the closet and looked inside them this time.  Not there.  Then I noticed a bag in the closet.  There they all were!

I reviewed my lesson and successfully presented it today.

The Relief Society lesson was on prayer.  I thought to myself that I should have prayed about my dilemma last night.  It might have saved me some time and frustration.

After church we were talking about this and you told me you had prayed I would find them.  I asked when you prayed and you said, "About a minute before you found them."

Thank you Laura!  I am convinced I found them because of YOUR PRAYER.  I had given up.  Your faith, concern, and prayer helped me.  Thank you so much. 

Love, Mom

Persuasive Powers

Wednesday, August  9, 1995   Laura is 11 years old.

Dear Laura,

I was noticing today what a beautiful girl you are.

I have been pleased that you've been showing more interest in your piano lessons.  Daily practice is making a big difference.

You are generally positive and pleasant to be around.  You help make our home a haven.

Remember how influential you are just from your positive actions.  Positive actions go further than force and anger.  Remember the story about the sun and the wind in persuading the man to take off his coat.  The wind tried force.  The sun tried warmth.  Who won?

Love, Mom

An Alphabet of Birthday Gifts

We brainstormed presents for Laura's 11th birthday--one for each letter of the alphabet, and wrote them on a chalkboard.

A is for Album pages              (for her Creative Memories album, of course!)
B is for Bows                           (on presents & for your hair)
C is for Cake                         (7 less-mess cakes & and Angel Food cake)                        
D is for Dancing                     (pending)
E is for Exceptional Talent      (drawing faces, legos & other 3-d crafts, piano, kindness,                                funny words like 'bubblegum', 'p-nut butter', and 'jellybeans' for swear words)
F is for Funny Fantasy           (chalk pictures)
G is for Garden                     (saw the play "The Secret Garden"
H is for Happy B-day            (sung 5 ways!)
I is for Icecream                    (rainbow sherbet
J is for Jasmine & jewelry      (photo with both of you & Karen gave you a jewelry box w treasures)
K is for Kitten                       (in the garage!)
L is for Lark & lip gloss         (photo with both of you & lip gloss from Karen)
M is for Margret  & Markers (photo with both of you & Markers from Karen)
N is for New Shoes               (rainbow colored tennis shoes)
O is for Origami                    (Why Dogs Hate Cats--story & origami puppet)
P is for Paint & Post-its          (Paint! --the book & post-its from Karen)
Q is for Quilt Square             (squares cut from fabric and ready to sew)
R is for Reada Book             (photo with both of you)
S is for Silliness & Stickers    (plenty of that with you and your sisters)
T is for Trina and Treasure    (photo with both of you & choc. gold coins)
U is for Unbelievable Rainbows   (Margret's game & your shoes)
V is for Velveteen                 (pending)
W is for Wacky Hands         (Mom's-- with which she gave you a home perm--a first for both of us)
X is for xxxx's & ooooo's     (lots)
Y is for Yippee-yr-yea         (vocal cheers from all)
Z is for Zippity-do-dah         (vocal cheers from all)

Journal Letters

Journals can often be found in stores for a very reasonable price.  They make good gifts.  My girls each had their own private journals.  I also provided journals in which I could write them notes or letters.  Yesterday I stumbled across a journal Laura had kept when she was ten or eleven years old.   To illustrate how this worked I will transcribe a few entries here.

Dear Diary
Today I had a great all exsept for some several bunches of miserable moments. First of all we made inventation

Dear Laura
I promise not to "correct" your spelling in your journal again.  You're wonderful.  love, Mom

Dear Journal,
What a day! Frist we had a Valentine's day praty, and then a dog bite.  The party was great!! Why the dog bit me I have no idea.  I was just riding my bike and this white dog walked across the road and grabbed my ancale with its teeth!  Luckaly the dog snagged my sock and couldn't hang on.  I rode home as fast as I could crying all the way.  I washed it with some liquid soap.  Then I took a quick bath and then my dad took me to the doctors.  I got eight stiches on top and one long on underneath.  Can you imagon?  I loved the party.  We got our idea for the party from my American Girl catalog.  I invited Amy, April, Alisa, Angilina, and Cassie.  It was fun.

Dear Laura,
You have been very brave through the ordeal of the dog bite.  Were you remembering the song frrom The Sound of Music, "When the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I'm feeling sad--I simply remember my favorite things and then I don't feel so bad." ?