Year end report

I hope your Christmas was Merry and that your New Year is happy!!

So many good things happen each day, let’s see if I can remember a few.
Grandchildren: We have visited with all five of our grandchildren this year. And they are wonderful!
Megan gave birth to a brand new baby boy, Derek Michael Watson born 10 days before Christmas—on December 15. (If he hadn’t been brand new the birth would have been difficult.) He is a wonderful boy.
Steven, Liz and Amara moved in with us in October and we celebrated Amara’s first birthday together. She is of course the most incredible one year old in the world. She started walking at ten months, bosses the dogs around, and wraps her Granddad around her littlest finger!
Nola and Talia came to visit for a couple of weeks before school started. We had a good time every day. We are just waiting to get the whole family out here from NYC!
Mike and Gabe came for visits last winter and again in the summer. Gabe and Granmuz went for lots of hikes. Gabe won every race to the tops of the hills! We miss them!
Education: Michael finished a Master’s Degree in Spanish this year, and Charlie and Leslie, both graduated in May. Michael came out for their graduation, and we celebrated 3 Master’s Degrees in the family. Ari is finishing her Master’s Degree at Pratt, and Maren is working and going to school for her Master’s at U of Az. She’s been hard at work recording Hopi oral histories. How can you call that work? Morris just finished his first semester at Columbia! Wow. It’s not the community college that’s for sure.
Life: Mo and Seung Hee are working non-stop. Seung Hee is at MOMA, and Mo is still working at TBRC. They’re busy, busy, busy!
Steven is working construction at the border, waiting to hear on a more permanent job. Liz is teaching me to make Mexican Hot Chocolate and other tasty treats!
*Graham’s working up in Phoenix, but he’ll be back in school in January.
Dogs: Dogs?? Since when? We agreed to take care of Megan’s bulldog Dozer for a few months while she was expecting, and he has really moved in. We were just getting used to Dozer when a friend offered us a pure black German Shepherd. Well, I do have a soft spot for German Shepherds, and so now there are two dogs sharing our space. Who would have ever imagined? Certainly not me!!

We’re happy, we’re blessed. We have 8 kids who are grown, and employed! We’ve enjoyed visits with all our kids and their spouses, all 5 of our grandkids, and with family and friends in California, New York and Utah this year. (California for a funeral, New York after our son in law was crushed in a horrible work accident--and made an amazing recovery!) I keep hoping the doctors will find a miracle cure for Mike’s back, but in the meantime life goes forward!


And may the greatest gift of this holiday season, Jesus Christ, continue to bless you and your home throughout the coming year.

We love you and miss you all.


Mike and Karen

Writing at night

Thanksgiving this year was great--happy, traditional, family centered. I should check the blogs more. I used to blame facebook for the slow down in blogging, but I don't have anything to blame for the very little I post on facebook!
Today was day one of year 38. What a lot of years together, and as the song wishes us: And many more!
I love reading Megan's posts. That's really what brings me to the blog spot! Ok, I am rambling.
Good night all.

Deja Vu all over again

Nearly seven years ago Michael and his wife moved to Rio RIco. They stayed with us while they found a house and got settled in. We had been here about a year, our garage was full of the things that still needed to be sorted after a move from a big house to a smaller one. We had two kids living at home, and then a third son came back. We were excited that our married son and his wife were coming to Rio; we looked forward to seeing them, being neighbors, attending church together. . .
But they had three dogs: 2 pit bulls and an old, much loved shaggy little dog.
I am not a dog person generally. We were going to move the younger boys into one room, but I did not want dogs in the house.
I thought it was reasonable for big dogs to be outside dogs, they disagreed. We compromised (?) finally when I agreed that the dogs could live in the garage, and Michael and his wife would also sleep in the garage. We moved our detritus to a storage unit.
This was in Arizona in late summer.
The dogs ended up in and out of the house. We all survived. But, it wasn't the best solution for a young newly wed couple. It's funny the things we dig our heels in on.
Michael moved away. Our grandson who was born here lives in California. I wish. . . .what? Lots of things.

Now a younger son has moved home with his fiance and 11 month old baby. No dogs.
We moved furniture out into the guest house (built since Michael lived here with the hope that it would provide a comfortable place for our kids to come visit, but now used by the missionaries.)
We arranged the other end of the house so that our son and family have a bedroom, bathroom and nursery. It's nice to have kids in the house again.
And, to bring it full circle--we have Megan's dog! Yes. He lives outside, and comes in to sleep in the evenings. He is happy here. His owner thinks he should be an inside dog. . . .
What is it with dogs?

Pretty soon

Pretty soon I'm going to post again

A warlike people

I talked to a man a few years ago who was born in the US but raised in Mexico, because he said, his father did not want him to grow up among a warlike people.
I have thought about that periodically wondering if it could be true, and so below, I quote Spencer Woolley Kimball:

We are a warlike people, easily distracted from our assignment of preparing for the coming of the Lord. When enemies rise up, we commit vast resources to the fabrication of gods of stone and steel -- ships, planes, missiles, fortifications -- and depend on them for protection and deliverance. When threatened, we become antienemy instead of pro-kingdom of God; we train a man in the art of war and call him a patriot, thus, in the manner of Satan's counterfeit of true patriotism, perverting the Savior's teaching:

"Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
"That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 5:44-45).

Monkey Traps

I read some years ago about a group of men who had gone to the jungles to capture monkeys. They tried a number of different things to catch the monkeys, including nets, but finding that the nets could injure such small creatures, they finally came upon an ingenious solution. They built a large number of small boxes, and in the top of each they bored a hole just large enough for a monkey to get his hand into. They then set these boxes out under the trees and in each one they put a nut that the monkeys were particularly fond of.

When the men left, the monkeys began to come down from the trees and examine the boxes. Finding that there were nuts to be had, they reached into the boxes to get them. But when a monkey would try to withdraw his hand with the nut, he could not get his hand out of the box because his little fist, with the nut inside, was now too large.

At about this time, the men would come out of the underbrush and converge on the monkeys. And here is the curious thing: When the monkeys saw the men coming, they would shriek and scramble about with the thought of escaping; but as easy as it would have been, they would not let go of the nut so that they could withdraw their hands from the boxes and thus escape. The men captured them easily.

And so it often seems to be with people, having such a firm grasp on things of the world -- that which is telestial -- that no amount of urging and no degree of emergency can persuade them to let go in favor of that which is celestial. Satan gets them in his grip easily. If we insist on spending all our time and resources building up for ourselves a worldly kingdom, that is exactly what we will inherit.

In spite of our delight in defining ourselves as modern, and our tendency to think we possess a sophistication that no people in the past ever had -- in spite of these things, we are, on the whole, an idolatrous people -- a condition repugnant to the Lord.
--Spencer Woolley Kimball

mending

This life of ours
These wasted hours
The time we've spent
And how it went;
Everything's done--
Oblivion.
The battle lost
Our hearts the cost.

Take heart dear son
Life's just begun
There's time to spend
to make amends--
The battle's won
By God's own Son.

His hand's extended
Reach out too
He knows your heart
He waits for you.

Hmm

Can't sleep, counting sheep. One A M Here I am.
Where are you? Wide eyed too?

One more time
Sleep's sublime. . . .

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
G'night

First time

I'm scared. I'm excited.
I feel like I'm going to throw
up. This is what I've dreamed about since
I was a little girl playing with dolls, but I'm not a little
girl anymore. And this won't be a doll. I'm going to be a mom.
A real mom. I am growing a baby inside me. If this didn't happen every
day, I'd think it's a science fiction movie--a tiny alien. My friends have
had babies but you just don't know
how bizarrely cool it is until
it happens to you. Will he look like me? Will he look like his dad? Both?
How can something so close be so far away: I know him,
but I don't know anything about him. I can hear the heartbeat. His kicks
practically lift me off the ground! But is everything all right? I mean is he
developing all right? Is everything okay?
I can't wait to see him. I hope he looks like me. Or his dad. If he's healthy, I'm good
either way.
I hope I didn't jinx something by talking about this!

From a March of Dimes ad. Do you remember the first time? The eighth time isn't much different.
The anticipation, the hope, the worry.
The love.

I love all my sweet babies out there. The worry never ends!

Wars and rumors of force without war

From a very interesting military manual written in the late 1980's:

"In the last four decades since World War II the Unites States has participated in more wars, caused more casualties, and lavished more money on war and arms than in its entire history up until then. Between 1945 and 1975 was a period during which some 120 wars were recorded globally. The United States participated directly in 27 wars and indirectly in 36 other wars. Even now, out of the 40 odd current (1988) wars raging over the Third World, the United States is involved in over one quarter of them. If one was to judge its involvement on the basis of its arms supply, then involvement is even greater. For instance, out of the 41 countries at war today the United States is the major supplier of arms to 21, and the not-so-major supplier to 18 others.

In all from 1972 to 1981, relative years of American innocence, its military assistance to countries engaged in war was $51 billion. . . The United States has ready at literally any moment's notice forces for projection into any corner of the globe to coordinate and direct its forces for war. It has parcelled out the globe into regional, unified military commands, an arrangement to which no other country has resorted. . . .

At present it has nearly half a million armed personnel abroad in some 333 military installations in some forty countries. In addition some 241 thousand men straddle the globe afloat in U.S. navies ready for war. . . . In addition to fighting wars which according to one estimate, added up to more than 100 years of American wars since 1945 the United States has used its armed forces to interfere in Third World countries on over 260 occasions through acts of invasion, threats of invasion, blockades, demonstrations of military force, surveillance of sovereign states and other similar acts of war euphemistically labeled as 'coercive diplomacy' or 'force without war.'"

This was written nearly 25 years ago when we were just getting warmed up, and when $51 billion really meant something.

Libya is today's example of "force without war."

The tab in Afghanistan is moving toward half a trillion dollars.

Not to mention Iraq.

or Pakistan.

No one in power can afford to bring it to an end.


From another and more instructive manual, Matthew 26:52, "He who takes up the sword shall perish by the sword."

Suffer the children

Our second president, John Adams, said, "Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak, and that it is doing God's service when it is violating all His laws."

We knew a guy who fits that description. He was a Nazi Colonel in WWII and a medical doctor. He relocated to Mexico where he opened an orphanage, studied exotic plants, collected beetles, and lived in comfort with his wife and 8 children for nearly 50 years. He probably planned to live out his life in Mexico, doing his good works. But, he was deported finally after a trial in which he admitted to molesting numerous orphan boys in his care over a period of many years.

His response? He said that he had helped those boys. He said he was more intelligent than most people--He had needs that the rest of us simply could not understand. They weren't Germans after all, just indians. . . .

When he was given the opportunity to leave the country his wife of 60 some years chose not to accompany him.

Remember the Lord worketh not in secret combinations, but in all things hath forbidden it from the beginning of man.

Power always thinks it has a great soul. Our Nazi acquaintance is dead now. Buried in Costa Rica.
He can make his case to a higher court.

Child sacrifice

In 587 Bc the great city of Jerusalem was destroyed and its inhabitants carried off. The people had been forewarned by Jeremiah and other prophets who for 40 years prior to the fall of this great city had preached repentance to no avail.

What was it that Judah was doing that brought about the destruction of the city? I alway imagined rather vague sins of disobedience and pride. But. . . "The spiritual condition of Jerusalem was one of flagrant idol worship. King Ahaz in Isaiah's day had set up a system of sacrificing children to the god Molech in the Valley of Hinnom just outside Jerusalem. His son Hezekiah led in reforms and clean up, but Hezehiah's son Manasseh continued to foster child sacrifice along with gross idolatry which continued into Jeremiah's time. Josiah's reforms repressed the worst practices outwardly, but the deadly cancer of sin was deep and flourished quickly again after a shallow revival. Religious insincerity, dishonesty, adultery, injustice, tyranny against the helpless, and slander prevailed as the norm, not the exception. . . ."

Religious insincerity, dishonesty, adultery, injustice, tyranny against the helpless, and slander? Yes, that could be us. But idol worship?? child sacrifice??

Maybe it's all in how we define ourselves--just like the people in Jerusalem, who ignored the prophets, justifying themselves because they were following the law. So, think about this, since 1973, more than 52 million abortions have been performed in the United States. 52 MILLION. That seems to fall into the category of child sacrifice to me.
But they are legal so it must be alright.

Why do we expect God to be any more lenient with us than he was with his Chosen People. Why do we assume (just as they did in 600 BC) that we are too big, too powerful, too righteous to be destroyed?

Maybe it's time for a change of course. . .is anybody listening?

Working in the garden

Been out trimming mesquites. AGAIN. Three acres of Mesquites can be a year round job, even with a house in the middle. But, paraphrasing Jacob, a natural tree is an enemy to the garden. Especially mesquites and pomegranates. Some trees want to grow up, but those two seem to believe they were born to be bushes. They are so busy putting out suckers and side branches they would never reach their potential without me and the trusty saws-all. But once they are trimmed up they can become actually amazing.
And something else. The living water? Unless you are trying to grow a garden, create an oasis around your house and home in the desert, that expression may not have as much meaning as it could. But, I start and end my day with watering. And, things I never thought I could grow are flourishing. Cut off my water and we are dead here. I mean literally--DEAD. There goes the corn, the strawberries, the callow lilies the daffodils, all of it.
Pulling weeds I thought of this "There is order in all things" and I thought it must be our job to find it. I mean left to themselves the weeds would wreak havoc, where now they are tortoise food! They never even imagined they were putting all that energy into growing up so I could pull them out for tortoise food.
My husband says the corn rows looked like they were planted in the dark. That is the kind of order I like. Kind of mellow, wandering rows that end up at the right spot at the end of the field.
I do know this. There is hardly a nicer way to start a day.

And the fruits of your labor shall be sweet!

Perspective

OK. I've listened to the news.
But outside the sun is shining, corn shoots are poking through the soil, broccoli is getting bigger on every broccoli plant, onions are in bloom--yes I let them go too long again!, and the melons, squash, cucumbers, etc are showing their little sets of leaves. Grapes clusters are forming, peaches and nectarines are there in their infancy. . . Hope is in the air, at least in the back yard.

Standard and Poor's? Here it's Standard and Wealthy's--there is the promise of good things to come--
and without a television I think my perspective is improving!

Treasure

The scriptures are very clear. There are two types of treasure. The treasures of the earth are controlled by Satan and include money--mammon, gold, silver--and power. But the treasures of heaven are a different sort. The treasures of heaven include Knowledge, family and posterity, snow, clean water, sunshine, golden grain, fertile fields, health, etc.

So when the Lord promises the righteous treasures, don't expect that he is going to fill your bank account, and never equate your bank account, the size of your home, the elegance of your car to the measure of your righteousness.

How lucky am I? I am rich. My life is filled with treasure. And none of it is in the bank.

But, I increasingly fear that the treasures of heaven are in danger from those seeking wealth and power above the well being of those with whom we share this earth, from those who arrogantly pollute and poison our water and air, who genetically alter the fruits of the fields, who unwittingly produce retroviruses, filoviruses, microscopic fungi that have the potential to destroy life, to cause infertility and vague, indeterminate illnesses as well as specific and deadly illnesses.

Sunshine is the strongest virus killer we have--why didn't we ever get sick while we were bug collecting, sitting around UV lights in hot, tropical jungles?
The center for disease control decontaminates workers from level 4 virus labs by bathing them in UV light--it's out there in our sunshine.
And sunshine is free! Try using a clothes line, lay out in the sun, read a good book while you're there and quit buying antibacterial cleaners! They are effective for less than 5 seconds, the sunshine makes you feel good all day!

And to those who simply choose not to have family because it's too expensive? Aren't you valuing, believing in, putting your faith and trust in the treasures of the earth over and above the very real treasures of heaven?

Take a risk. The Lord will provide. You can't afford not to have children. They are our greatest treasure. So seek knowledge about everything, including the Spirit. Choose wisely. Live with joy.

Your lives depend on it!

Feeling warm and fuzzy?

Here's a link worth reading:
http://www.examiner.com/drug-cartel-in-national/napolitano-is-too-late-drug-cartels-issued-their-own-warning-months-ago

Every second, a choice

All of them. Every moment of your life, every instant, looks like this. Do you see?
You are always in a universe of choices. Any moment of your life can go in any direction you choose.
How?
Learn to choose.
How?
Learn to see. This is your life, what it looks like to God. Every second of every day.

from "The Hummingbird's Daughter"