Another day of exploring

Today hubby and I made the short trip to Mesquite Nevada just about a half hour's drive that goes through the corner of Arizona then into Nevada. So we went through 3 states. We discovered a fun Virgin Valley History Museum that we explored in Mesquite.

Down through the Virgin River Gorge with rain clouds in the distance.

Here's the museum, it was originally a library then a hospital.

History of telephones that I can remember from my youth that are gone.

A complex movie film projector for a local theatre.

Click to enlarge and read the movie titles.

An old slot machine, called a one arm bandit

Medicine bottles used by the only nurse in town.

Horse saddles and other faming equipment, they grew cotton here.

More cowboy stuff, note the eye goggles for horses on upper right.

It's an old outhouse, necessary in olden times.

This is a two seater like my mom had in Silver City, Utah

My grandma Johnson had a washer like this in 1940s.

Look at the new frog in the corner and the old stove-all modern then.

A windup record player that still works-amazing!

Electric record player portable-I had one like this.

Saturday window shopping...

Finally got hermit hubby out of the house last week and we went to our local family history center working on his Native American ancestry-it was lots of fun. Still gathering info to publish later. We got to the center early and it wasn't open so we did some rare window shopping. Caryn and I do that every week when we get together.

Hubby and I went window shopping last Saturday in St. George in this store.

My grandma Johnson had one of these in her living room and it worked.

I remember my grandma using one of these in the 1940s.

Fun old glass jars hardly used any more in our day of plastic everything.

Lots of herbs and spices to use in cooking. We bought a nut chopper.

Spring and Easter are here...

Caryn and I love to visit antique and thrift stores to see their spring displays and maybe buy something to decorate our homes with...

Spring in Santa Clara near St. George is GREEN!

Every corner of this fun store Uncle and Aunties has fun things.

Bunnies everywhere...and Easter eggs!

Love all the kitchen and home decorations.

There's even a kid section.

Me taking a photo of Caryn taking a photo of all the STUFF!

You could spend a mint here or just get ideas for home decorating.

Here's my redone kitchen shelves with my collection of stuff from here and there.

My favorite farm shelf with a tractor for hubby--though he'd like a real one!

Searching for JOY

I have all these inspirational signs around my home. It all started with my friend Caryn's sign in her home in 2007 or 8 in New Harmony. She had wooden letters that spelled SERENITY. and another sign was SIMPLICITY. Well, I decided to join her and got some wooden letters that said HARMONY as that was a theme I hoped to have in my life at that time. Still searching for that...Later I added GENEALOGY, FAITH, HOPE and JOY is my latest focus.

Note the fun frog sculpture I found in the same store
JoAnns as the metallic letters J-O-Y!

So what is JOY to you? To me it's more than happiness, it's longer lasting and involves a lot of gratitude and faith in a supreme being who loves and guides us all through life's challenges.

What's for Dinner?

Seems like that's always the question around here. Breakfast I have figured out and lunch is a cinch but dinner? That takes planning and the right ingredients, time and energy.

Starting with sliced Polish beff sausage which I brown in a skillet,

next comes sliced zucchini and yellow squash which I lightly brown. 

Then thinly sliced cabbage about 2/3's of a head.

Then all ingredients are thrown together in the pan and stirred.

A light sauce of 2-3 T wine vinegar and 1 pkg of Splenda add jest.

Cover and steam about 10 min. till tender and tasty-eat!

Spring Activities

Spring decor on the front door

Doing some pruning of our spring flowers planted earlier

Closeup of the many blooms on our tiny peach tree

It is tiny, about 4 ft tall but had lots of peaches last
year which a hungry chipmunk feasted on.

Time to prune this unruly bush that is growing too tall

Now hopefully it will sprout out and not just up...

New poem techniques

From our workshops a couple of weekends ago, I'm trying a new technique using alliteration of three words followed by a fourth different word. Trying to create diversity in my poetic structure. This poem was inspired by a robin nesting by our bedroom window. My photo is below.

Spring Nest

red robin rests while nesting

notices noises nearby, she freezes

flies frantically far away

waits while warmth returns

time ticks tirelessly daily

intuitive instincts initiate patience

soon survival skills pay off

nature nurtures new growth

Week of parties

This week has been non stop parties with our Relief Society birthday party then a Chili Cookoff Branch party. Fun food, entertainment and socializing.We combined two branches for about 100+ sisters to celebrate. We sat at tables according to our birthday months-thus mixing us up and giving us a theme to decorate with for our tables. We had Hawaiian Haystacks for our main course! It was yummy!

Tables were decorated by months-this is July!

September here with apples and pomegranates, 

October fall colors made up this table setting.

Thanksgiving them fit perfectly for November. 

June and spring colors are the them for this colorful table.

This table was May flowers with soft pastels...for spring!

Christmas colors can't be missed for December

Kathleen led our music as we sang Sisters in Zion

Juliann told us the story of how our song was written.

We enjoyed singing along together.

Many new friends were made as we mingled.

Our special guest told us of the history of Relief Society

A beautiful antique quilt was displayed and explained

Notice the beautiful real pink roses for May and Mother's Day

Food was rice, chicken gravy and condiments-very delicious

Lots of work but lots of fun and visiting went on.

Lots of yummy desserts ended the meeting.

We tried to wear name tags to make it easier to get to know each other