Hearts Full of Joy

currently reading & enjoying:

Nauvoo: a Place of Peace, a People of Promise
By Glen Leonard
a very detailed account of the church in nauvoo, reasearched for 20 years. thought provoking and deep.

Emma's Nauvoo
By Ronald E. Romig
written by an RLDS (now Community of Christ) historian. it tells the story of emma smith after the exodus, through letters and recollections of others. interesting, although not extremely well put together.

The Five Love Languages
By Gary Chapman
a birthday gift from my mom, for HER birthday. she wants all of her children and their spouses to read it as a gift to her. i have long wanted to read it, and i am loving it. EXCELLENT marriage book. it is also helpful for parenting and other loving relationships. (the author has written more books focusing on children, teens, etc).

The Mother's Book
By Mrs. Child, author of "the Frugal Housewife," "Evenings in New England," etc.
1831
this was a find i made in Joseph smith's red brick store on monday. (it is a reprint, and not the original.) I am thoroughly enjoying reading the advice on mothering that was new and revolutionary in 1831. and i agree with much of it. what a treasure! i love history, especially this era, the early 1800s. and i love motherhood, so this is a delightful book for me to read.

The Workwoman's Guide:
By a Lady
1838
this was my ultimate find in the red brick store. (i was pleasantly surprised by the wonderful collection of items from the past that are for sale in the red brick store). i'm so excited! this book shows in highly detailed drawings and explanations how to make all types of clothing and household linens, baskets, bonnets, draperies, etc for a household in the early 1800s. i love it, i love it, i love it! oh, the section on baby's clothing and linens! i want to make them all - so precious. so beautiful. i want to photograph the illustrations for you, but alas, no camera lens as of yet *sigh*. i will post more about this book later. i won't be able to resist.

i suppose, or rather am quite sure, that i am odd. very few people would find many of these books, especially the last two, at all interesting, and they are my two favorite. i have always loved the past, and longed for it's simplicity. longed for a better understanding of those who lived before. i dislike the word "trendy" very much. to me it has very negative connotation. and i am continually surprised to find it used in ways that people perceive as positive. i strive to avoid trendiness. my first college major was history, my degree is in clothing and textiles, and those are two of my great loves. and hence my love of antique quilts, and most things antique. this last book is a blending of my favorite things, and makes me very happy. this week i also unpacked some beloved textile books from my university days that i haven't seen for 13 years or so (yes, we are still unpacking). they have been in storage, awaiting retrieval. one of my favorites is "history of costume". i love to turn through its pages. i would love to do some work in this area. and i'm living in a great place to do it. i just need to discover what it will be.

moving, and stuff

we are moving. soon. our truck, packed with everything we own, was taken away today. our kids are on our back lawn, having a party with their friends. we have been packing, cleaning, and arranging for days. and amidst it all, my toes are pretty.  a new salon opened in town.  today.  and brock treated me to  a pedicure there.  it turns out that he has been checking it regularly to see if it was open. and today was the day. he made an appointment, gave me the money, and told me to go. he is the best. if i haven't mentioned that before, i definitely should have. and the facts are that i am undeserving of him. but i have him anyway. and i am grateful. the pedicure was heavenly. they had a massage chair/foot spa combo. it was so relaxing that i couldn't get up, and sat there for another 10 minutes after she had finished my toes. she said i could. and normally i wouldn't have. but it felt so good after days of lifting and heaving and dirt and grime. i love brock.

here is the party on the back lawn. maika is here from japan. we picked her up at the airport yesterday.
at 13 months, gracie has decided that she is 2. but that is a subject for another post.

happily ever after

last week mia was reading a book of fairy tales, when she suddenly made a very disgusted noise and said..... "that could never happen, they have to GET ALONG first!"

of course, my interest was piqued, and so i asked what she was reading. it was "cinderella" and she quoted to me from the last paragraph..... "he was so overcome by love and joy that he and cinderella were married that very day! they lived happily ever after."

...."that's not how it works! they have to take time to get to know each other and find out if they get along and can be happy together!"..... she informed me.

apparently she has it all figured out, in first grade. that's my mia. should i be happy or sad that she doesn't believe in love at first sight?

blessed days

i have been feeling lately how completely blessed i am to be able to spend my days with the people i love and adore - all day, every day. they make me so happy. i get to hang out with just these two cute little people all morning, until brock (another one of my very most favorite of all people) wakes up, sometime before lunch (he works on tokyo time, and so far into our night), and makes us a foursome.

it's a treat to spend time with him during the day, instead of the more traditional evenings after work, when we are both worn out from long days.

eventually school gets out and we are joined by three more fun people, when their busy social schedules allow.

i am the luckiest,and i truly feel it. because of infertility, i got to experience two years of free time while my two oldest were at school,and number three hadn't arrived yet. all of my friends with small kids at home were jealous and repeatedly told me how lucky i was to have all my kids in school. well, guess what? although i spent my days doing all of my favorite things - the things i had felt frustrated about not doing as much as i wanted when my kids were tiny: scrapbooking, quilting, crafting, reading, exercising, going to the temple, meeting brock for lunch, serving others, getting together with friends, shopping, keeping my home clean and organized, studying japanese and other subjects i love, etc.......i missed my kids and i felt incomplete. i discovered that nothing is as fulfilling for me as hands-on raising my kids, in person. what could be better than spending my days surrounded by people who make my heart happy?

a few of my favorite LUXURIES

my blog has been calling to me all throughout the morning. and even though i have so many other things i need, and want to be doing, i can't resist the call any longer, and so i will post.

this morning i have been thinking about the luxuries in my life. and although if i were asked to name my ultimate luxury off the top of my head, it would probably be sitting on a tropical beach with no to do list,

(guam, last february) in truth, there are luxuries that i enjoy far more, and far more often. in fact,  i have the opportunity to revel in them so often right now, that i can forget that they are luxuries, and i really really don't want to forget that. so to help me remember.....

1. a soft fluffy, fluttery baby that reminds me of butterflies, dandelion fluff, and snowflakes. the luxury of being able to cuddle with her whenever i want to will fly away as fast as those three things can, and so i will savor every moment of this luxury.

2. playing lazily in the morning with a sweet and active little boy while we linger in pajamas.

3. staying up late to listen to cute teenage girls happily discuss all the latest drama in their lives while feeling grateful that they want to tell it to me.

(tashi got her braces yesterday, and she is in pain today) (lexi's homecoming date)

4. watching a happy & enthusiastic & outgoing little girl find  joy in life

5. sharing my life with a simply amazing husband who is almost too good to be true.

18 years

wednesday the 29th was our 18th anniversary. brock points out that it was a significant one, because i was 18 when we got married and so now i have been married as long as i was single. he's almost right, but i was pretty close to 19 (so young, I know, but i was halfway through my sophmore year at BYU, and graduated a year and a half later, at 20 - i was always in a hurry, and i haven't ever regretted that youthful decision)), so not quite half of my life has been spent married. but now i'm quibbling over insignificancies, because what is of real importance, is how amazing the last 18 years have been. truly. we spent the day together, just relaxing, and enjoying each other's company. noah and grace spent the day with us too. it was a beautiful day, not because of what we did, but because of what we felt. being back in utah for our anniversary for the first time in 16 years made it more enjoyable, because the weather, the sky, the colors on the mountains, the feeling in the air, was the same as that day at the manti temple in '89. now we are heading into september, possibly my favorite time of year, because it reminds me of being a newlywed and it was also the month, two years later, that lexi joined us. september always takes me back to those two blissful, life-changing times. brock is my perfect man, and all these years later, i love him more than ever. i know the Lord loves me very much, to have given me the blessing of sharing my life with brock, now and forever. he always puts me and our marriage first - always. he's so much more than i deserve - honestly.

brock found this wonderful old wash basin and pitcher for my present. this is something i've wanted ever since the one we found in japan was broken in our first move back.

the stack of quilts in the photo are some of the antique quilts i will be displaying at the Arts Festival this coming friday and saturday. i have 78 antique quilts, and here's where it gets weird.....39 are from 1850 to 1900, and 39 are from 1901 to 1950. also, 39 are quilts and 39 are tops. this is odd, because i collected randomly, without a plan, and this is how it ended up. i don't think i will have room to display them all, but most....fun fun!

brock and i went on a little day trip on friday and spent more time together for our anniversary. gracie joined us, and noah played with cousin andy. but before dropping noah off, we treated ourselves to a photo shoot with gloria's sister kelly, of kelly's blog. YAY! we finally got to meet her! and we are so looking forward to seeing the photos. i will share them in an upcoming post.

lost and found

here is a happy little story.....

on the flight home from guam, i emerged from teeny tiny airplane lavatory without my wedding ring. i had gotten quite puffy while in guam, and it was getting tight on my finger. so i had moved it to the pinky finger of my right hand. brock had been encouraging me to take it off completely, and put it somewhere safe, but i don't like to be without it. i immediately realized i was missing it, and waited in line to get back into the bathroom stall and perform a search. i even looked in the garbage (yuck!) in case it fell when i was throwing my hand towel away. i didn't find it. brock was very disappointed, but handled it well. he lost his wedding ring several years ago in a bad experience with security in L.A. airport. we mentioned to a flight attendant that we had lost my ring, so that if it was found it could be returned to us. i started resigning myself to images of brock and i shopping together for a new set of wedding rings. about a half and hour later, brock said he was going to ask if he could go through the garbage bag in that bathroom, because he had a feeling that's where it was. he went to the back of the plane, and no sooner had he left, then the darling little japanese flight attendant who i had told about my ring showed up. she had my ring, and a cup of soda water to wash it in. she had been digging through the garbage herself, until she had found it. i forgot to mention that when we first told her about the ring, she brought a flashlight to my seat and took both my seat and brock's seat apart and gave them the most exhaustive search you can imagine. i was so excited (& amazed) that i forgot to ask her name, and we never saw her again, even when we were deboarding the flight. so i am sending out a big thank you and very happy wishes to her, wherever she is. it's so comforting & encouraging to know that there are people like her in the world.

where, oh where have we been?

brock and I have been in guam for six blissful and glorious days sans kids, sans worries, sans work, sans everything stressful. brock has been trying to plan and execute a trip for the two of us for years. but it is difficult when you live in japan without family to babysit. and it is also challenging when you have noah. but we finally felt noah was ready to survive us leaving, and we had to hurry before new baby arrives. brock asked his sister emily to leave her three young kids for a week and a half so she could come and babysit for us. i couldn't believe he had done it, and either could she. but her husband talked her into accepting the offer/request to come, and he was great about stepping in and taking care of everything while she was gone. thanks adam! and thanks to emily! we are so grateful. we love you!

one of the best things that happened on this trip is that i remembered what it feels like to be totally relaxed. that was a blessing. it's been so long since i have felt complete relaxation that i couldn't recall the feeling. now that i am back to real life, it is difficult to achieve that feeling. but i do remember what it feels like, and that brings me closer to it. the day before we left was incredibly stressful, including bad news from the embassy about the processing of noah's visa (change in laws that is changing everything and no info on what to do now) and very bad news for brock at work. but all of that melted away and disappeared while we were gone, miraculously. this is the spot where we relaxed in the shade of the overhanging tree branches and watched the ocean and read books, just for fun (not self improvement books that we felt like we should read) while we listened to the waves. because i am not capable of tanning, only burning and freckling, i was excessively fond of this beautiful and shady spot.

i am very grateful and so lucky to have brock, and i enjoyed him so much while we were away. i even found myself having a photo shoot with him as the subject, which never happens, because i am too busy taking photos of the kids. he is perfect for me, and a yet at the same time, a better husband than i deserve. and although i know that, this vacation helped me to remember it in ways that i haven't thought about for too long.

we planned this trip for the end of january and early february, but the u.s. government decided to have fun at the expense of us all, and took two months to process emily's passport, even after paying the expedition fee and getting many, many promises and reassurances that she would get it on time......a long and not so glorious story that could take up too much space here. so our trip was postponed twice, and many fees were paid to make the necessary changes in flights and reservations. at the end of january, i wasn't looking pregnant, and i didn't really look pregnant up until a few days before we left. but while we were there my belly suddenly popped out and i was clearly pregnant. i was concerned about fitting into the new swimsuit that brock had insisted that i treat myself to ordering for the trip, but it worked. i decided that it was better after all to be pregnant on a tropical vacation. it is a built in excuse for not looking swimsuit perfect.

i am completely mesmerized and captivated by the beauty of tropical oceans and the endless varieties and shades of blues, greens, and purples that can be seen in the water. it is one of my favorite things in this beautiful world, and i am grateful to a loving god who created it. as beautiful as it is to look out on the ocean, it is even more amazing under the surface with a snorkel mask. the stunningly colorful fish that are swimming there are a breathtaking site, that brock and i never tire of enjoying. he has

become more adventurous than me, and got his diving license last fall. lucky for me, he still enjoys snorkling with me.

thank you to our wonderful kids.....the big ones who were so helpful and responsible while we were gone, and the little ones who managed not to be too traumatized by our departure. and thank you again to emily and adam and kids, and grandma and grandpa who helped watch their kids. and thank you especially to brock - I LOVE YOU! let's plan our next trip!