The Wise Man

One day recently when I was studying the scriptures I gained an interesting insight into the parable of the Wise Man and the Foolish Man. It was so glaringly obvious to me that day I wondered why I’d never thought of it before. But that is the beauty of constant scripture study, there is always something new to be learned.

As I read in Matthew
“Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.”
“And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house and it fell: and great was the fall of it.” (Matt 7:24-27 italics added)

Then the thought came to me that the wise man had to endure the storm just as the foolish man did! Just because the wise man built his house upon the rock didn’t exempt him from the storm. The wind still blew and the rains still descended, the floods came and great was the storm thereof! Hmm… epiphany! We still have to weather the storm, BUT if we are built upon the Rock (our Savior, Jesus Christ, and his Gospel) we will still be standing when the sun comes out again. Happy thought!

Since then I’ve found other scriptures that support this idea:
And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundations; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall. (Helaman 5:12)

I can bear fervent testimony that this is a true principle. Trials will come, we will all face adversity BUT if we build upon our sure foundation, Jesus Christ, He will support us and strengthen us through it all!

Lilac Caress

Lilacs and I go way back as far as I can remember. We had a giant lilac hedge that ran across the front of our lot in front of the house (where I loved to play and "hide-out"). We also had additional enormous bushes at each front corner of the house and one on the east side of the house close to "Ann's" bedroom window. (Funny how that goes... I probably inhabited that room as long as Ann did but the little bedrooms were always "Ann's room" and "Sue's room".)

I love the heady smell of lilacs. It always brings back sweet memories of home and the comforts that I felt there. I used to sleep with my bedroom window open and in the summer I would make my bed so that my head was by the open window (even though that was the foot of the bed). I would wake up to the luscious smells of lilacs and violets that grew on that side of the house.

What an amazing blessing to find that my new home here in Utah had several lilac bushes (and I added three more). The ones that were already here are very old-fashioned looking and very lacy and frail looking, but they get loaded with strong heady blossoms each spring.

This year the lilacs have attracted a whole flock of Hummingbird Moths. They are so lovely. Some of them had pink or lavender breasts and wings. I was able to catch some of them in the act of supping at the lilacs. Sadly I don't have a dSLR camera and didn't think about changing the settings on my digital to do some stop-action photos. (Incidentally, they are Simba's big catch this year. We've had to liberate about a half a dozen from the house that Simba brought in!)



Now they are nearly spent and I have lavender "snow" on the lawn under all the lilac bushes. Yesterday as I was mowing the back lawn I needed to make a turn that took me close to my lilac bushes. One of the branches reached out and so very gentle caressed my neck. It was so wonderful that it just made me smile.


I love these wonderful, memory-evoking flowers.

Madison- too far away...

Now you may be thinking that I'm talking about Madison, Wisconsin... but no! I am talking about grand-baby number 15 Madison. I finally got photos of her and wanted to post them here for all to see. I wrote shortly after she and her little cousin, Ethan, were born, but it has taken me until now to write this post.

Makenzie and Madison

Preston, Madison and Makenzie

Madison
May 6, 2008

So here's my point... Madison lives in West Virginia! As Christian says... I just can't like that! Too bad that so many of our grandchildren live too far away! Thank goodness there is the internet!

Riley's Big Adventure

I promised to bring photos of my visit with Riley to a blog near you soon. Apparently I should have said… well, in a while. I arrived home from my trip to CA feeling almost as bad as I did when I left. I wimped out and called Gordon to come and save me. He drove to St George with Jake and Cody (who were staying with us for a week or so waiting to move into their new home) and drove me home from there. Jake and Cody drove home Gordon’s car. Then it was Women’s Conference and the weekend and catch up and Temple… so tonight I am finally getting it together.
I had such a lovely visit with Riley (Spencer & Tricia too… I always have to apologize to the mommies and daddies because they get moved to the backseat when they have babies… do you suppose that’s ok?)

The first night they arrived they’d been at Tricia’s grandparent’s house and Riley’s been “helping” Daddy and Grandpa in the garage! Actually he wasn’t as dirty as I thought he’d be. He loves his baths so we all traipsed into Auntie P’s little bathroom to get photos of the bathing beauty! He put on a good show for all of us. He is such a darling boy… too bad nobody likes this little guy!!!! He started hamming for the camera the minute he saw the binky light!




The next night they came to visit again and Riley really got to play with the “big dogs”… hmm, do doxies count as big dogs? Auntie P is doing foster care for a doxie-rescue. Both new dogs were very kind with Riley and Gidget appreciated the fact that she was not the sole recipient of all his love. The funny part of this evening was watching to see who the bigger begger dogs were… Riley or the real dogs!



I so appreciate that Spencer and Tricia will come and visit at Auntie P’s house, with Grampa Ralphie bed-bound it would be difficult for her to see Riley otherwise. This time I was able to get over to their apartment several times.

I feel so lucky that I am able to get to Palmdale frequently and see this darling little boy. I sure do love my family.

New babies

Do you ever ask yourself, “How can I be so lucky?” I find myself doing that quite often. I live in this wonderful free country where I have so many freedoms that I often just take for granted! I have sufficient of lives necessities and lots of the extras so that I can fully enjoy this phase or season of my live. What has prompted this blog entry is the arrival of two (count them… TWO) new grandbabies.

Ethan arrived on May 2^nd at 8:47 am. He weighed 6lbs 3oz. He is the first and only child of Kevin and Suzi. They live right here in Spanish Fork so I am able to see them often and help with the new baby business. Gramma Juventa would say, “This baby feels just right!”

Suzi, Ethan and Kevin
1 day old

Ethan 4 days old

Madison arrived May 6^th at about 11pm West Virginia time. She weighed 7lb 13oz (I think) and still hadn’t been measured. She joins Kristi and Jim, with big sister Makenzie and big brother Preston on the scene. (I wonder how long before I get my hands on this one? The good news is that since these kids have two moms Kaye is back east with Kristi) I will post photos of Madison as soon as I get some.

What a wonderful blessing it is to have them arrive health and strong with the mommies feeling human after the ordeal (another great blessing, epidurals!!!)

This brings the grant total of Lewis grandchildren to 15 (and we have 3 children that aren’t even procreating yet!!) What a blessing! Grandchildren are the blessing we get for raising our own children. Once again I say- I love being the Grammie-Spoiler instead of the Mommy-Enforcer!

Women's Conference

Last year, after living in Utah for 2 years, I decided to attend BYU Women’s Conference. I didn’t have anyone to go with, but that was ok, I’m a big girl. I was so impressed by the wonderful outpouring of the Spirit that I wrote to my family and friends and encouraged them to watch the rebroadcast on KBYU. Then Cindy gave me the best heads-up of all… some of the WC addresses were offered as Podcasts at iTunes (LDS Voices). I have thoroughly enjoyed them. I frequently have trouble falling asleep at night so I will listen to them (or General Conference address) until I am ready to go to sleep.

This year I got a lovely treat. Both Ann and Rebekah said they would like to come to Women’s Conference with me. Ann and Wayne came up Wednesday night and stayed here with us until Saturday. Rebekah flew in Wednesday evening and stayed with Camille in Provo. What a fun treat for them to have a girls’ visit.

I felt just a little bit like a child on Christmas Eve. I was so excited to be able to share this experience with my family! The night before I packed snack bags for each of us in case we got the rumblies in our tumblies! Sometimes it is hard to work in time to stop and eat.

(*I got artsy with this photo. You have to do something when you ask some random person to take your photo and it ends up all blurry! This is a wonderful technique from Kimi. The frame is from OScrap's Moonrise kit)

I just can’t even imagine how much work goes into organizing Women’s Conference! They do a lovely job of accommodating thousands of women. This year we stayed for the Thursday night service activities and the concert (Rebekah said she enjoyed watching Ann and I get jiggy with Eclipse). We started our day at 7 am and finished at about 11 pm… I was tired. There are always so many choices for the classes that I always have a hard time deciding which ones to take. I’ve pretty much decided that I will rarely be disappointed regardless which class I take.

This year the closing address was President Thomas S Monson. I was excited as I contemplated the fact that I would be in the same room with the Prophet of God (albeit a very large room… the Marriot Center). As he entered we all rose and after finishing the song we were singing, we broke into spontaneous song, We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet. The Spirit was very strong, confirming what I already knew, that Thomas S. Monson is the Lord’s prophet here on earth. What a marvelous blessing to have that witness borne so strongly.

So, once again, I will encourage anyone who wasn’t able to attend to watch the rebroadcast on KBYU May 15 & 16. I know I will be there!

(*this is the photo I started with)