Cross section of a Heart

When you look at the cross section of something you can really view it carefully. When I look at this heart, cut from the branch of a tree, I can tell, how old it is by the number of rings in it and that it has a small crack in it. My husband and I are like this slice right now. Our years together are in the numbers and we have a few cracks to prove it. Despite the gray hair and the wrinkles we really are not that bad off. I think of the book, “The Enchanted Cottage” and how the couple that lived there saw each other. They were far from perfect, but they saw each other as beautiful and perfect for each other. When the world looked at them they did not see them that way. I had a friend that said he had received some criticism for his relationship with his wife. His response was, “too bad, it works for us.” That is how I feel too, sometime no one else understand why and relationship might work just as long as it works, it's good.

Onion Heart

Personally, I love onions. Growing up I don't think I had a single meal without onions somewhere in the meal. My grandmother told me once, "It just wasn't dinner without onions." My mother was absolutely meticulous about cutting onions. When she would put them in potato salad she cut them so fine that every bite of salad was assured a wonderful, even, and generous amount of onion flavor. As a young single women it was so important to me to marry a man that liked onions that one time I made an entire meal with onions in every dish for a boy I was dating just to see how he would react. He was so polite but needless to say, I'm glad that I married the onion lover that I did. I had a friend once say if you are too busy doing other things and have neglected dinner, before your family gets home just cut up an onion and quickly get it frying, then when they walk in the door and smell the onion cooking they will think dinner is on it's way.

Olive Tree Hearts

It seems that the olive tree is the best at creating this phenomenon. Today it struck me, the Savior suffered for us in the Garden of Gethsemane. The garden was one of Olive trees. The greatest love and offering ever made for us was given in a Olive garden. So each time I see an Olive tree with the symbol of a heart I think I will always think of that great sacrifice.

Consumed Heart

This heart is just almost being consumed by it's surroundings. It is deep in the soil around it, it has little rocks on it's top and sides and even on one side they are creeping up to the point of almost over taking that side. I find that sometimes my life is the same way. I absolutely love my family and grand kids and I want them around me and hugging me and loving all over me. I want to do the same to them, but everyone once in a while I feel like I am being consumed. I guess we just have to be as solid as rock but also be willing to yield to the forces around us too. Being a parent and a grandparent "isn't easy but it is worth it." And that is what I said!

Paint Heart

So I'm painting my office. I am so excited! I just love it. My desire started a while back when Samuel kept turning his computer monitor away from the sun so he could see his screen. I knew it needed to be fixed but I wasn't sure what to do exactly. Well to make a long story short (it involves the need for new desks that could go onto a different wall, blah blah, blah) I won a beautiful painting on a cruise and I decided to use it as my color pallet to go with the new desk. The colors of the painting are very similar to my Latin Guest room and so our home office is now on it's way to becoming our second Latin room. I began painting today and as I was doing so I found that I had painted myself a heart in a corner. It was quite by accident and so I quickly located my camera and captured it. I love the deep slate blue color that we chose to paint the room. I love being creative and expressing my love for fun intense colors. I love that Samuel supports and trusts me and wants me to express myself. I love that we have been able to find such great deals to accomplish the things that we want to do. So today I would say that "Love" equals Thankful!

Thankful Heart

Thankfully it is only a small spot of a heart in this potato. I took this picture a couple of years ago while visiting Chantal's family for Thanksgiving. Our whole family packed up and went to San Diego so that we could all be together for Thanksgiving. Chantal was expecting Susan and was way too pregnant to travel. I loved that we were able to make the trip, I loved the weather, I loved the fantastic food, I loved the visit, I loved the extended family company, I love the little spot of love that that Thanksgiving experience has left in my heart. I look forward to this years Thanksgiving season and I am happy to give thanks again to my Heavenly Father who has made it all possible.

Scary Halloween Heart

Every year at Halloween I find something new that is Halloween scary. Each year we make potato soup for Halloween dinner and one year I made it with leaks, sweet potatoes and ham and it was a little scary. Another year Chamaine had to have surgery on her foot and it left a ghost shaped scar. I thought it was only fitting that this heart be posted today being that it looks like it has eyes and a nose and is coming out of the ground. Happy Halloween everyone! Gotta love a stumpy heart.

The Wizard Of Oz

I feel like the wizard of OZ. Funny thing is I just typed, "AZ" in stead of "OZ" so I guess that is more accurate. I just gave a tin man a heart! This is the water tower at the ASU East campus and normally he does not have a heart but I just couldn't resist giving him one. For the whole story you can go here. Everyone really does deserve a heart don't you think? (Thank you Courtney for the inspiration.)

Love Food Storage

My daughter Clarissa sent me this picture a couple of weeks ago. Last night she asked me if I blog all the pictures that people send me to which I said yes but that I have to get some inspiration first as to what I am going to write. Clarissa then proceeded to tell me the story behind the heart and I got inspired. She said she was on the phone with her sister Jenny and they were talking about what to make for dinner. Clarissa was low on money for the month so she was having to dip into her stored foods. Not looking forward to a canned dinner she grabbed a bottle of Alfredo and opened it. When she turned to lid over there it was, a heart. Just another reminder of the wisdom of storing foods. Clarissa said that her heart was touched by the reminder too and she was happy to be eating Alfredo for dinner that night.

Lovely Heart just the way you are (ftb)

This was to my husband: When we were dating you quoted a song to me that stated, “Lovely never never change, keep that breathless charm, won’t you please arrange it cause I love you just the way you are tonight. I felt like you not only liked the way I looked but acted too. I’ve thought over the years just how important it really should be to take care of myself and also to watch the way I was behaving. Sometimes I know my behavior has not been so ideal but you have always stuck with me, like the glue that is holding this fancy heart together, and it is for you that I have tried to take care of myself and surroundings so that you would always think of me as lovely. I thank you for all the tender care and kind words of encouragements and compliments that you have given me. Jonny Lingo would be proud of you!

Words to the song Lovely;

Some day, when I’m awfully low,When the world is cold,I will feel a glow just thinking of you...And the way you look tonight.Yes you’re lovely, with your smile so warm and your cheeks so soft,There is nothing for me but to love you,And the way you look tonight.With each word your tenderness grows,Tearing my fear apart...And that laugh that wrinkles your nose,It touches my foolish heart.Lovely ... never, ever change.Keep that breathless charm.Wont you please arrange it ? cause I love you ... just the way you look tonight.

Stained With Love

This is my sweet little name sake, Susan. She was eating a strawberry the other day when her mother noticed that she had stained her dress in a heart shape. Quickly Chantal, or Mommy, got her camera to capture the image forever. This stain reminds me of the poem about hand prints that children leave behind and then quickly they are gone. This is one of my favorite versions;

You always clean the fingerprints

I leave upon the wall.

I seem to make a mess of things

Because I am so small.

The years will pass so quickly

I'll soon be grown like you

And all my little fingerprints

Will surely fade from view.

So here's a special hand print

A memory that is true

So you'll recall the very day

I made this just for you!

Well it's not a hand print but to me it is even better. I love that her mother thought of me, I love strawberries, I love hearts even when they are stains but most of all I love the sweet little girl in the heart print dress with a heart shaped stain on her previously clean white jacket. Life just doesn't get better then this!

Wearing Your Heart On Your Sleeve

Have you heard the saying, "She wears her heart on her sleeve?" It originally referred to people who would wear an arm band showing their affiliation. Policemen, when a fellow officer dies, wear a black band on their arm. Ladies of the court in medieval times tied a piece of cloth around the arm of their favorite knight as a display of affection. When I think of the phrase I think of someone who shows their hurt feelings easily. Although I think it is important, at times, that others know if you are having a hard time so they can help or pray for you, I don't think it is wise to be too easily read. It seems to diminish the valid feelings of others. Everyone has trials in life, that is why we are here, to prove ourselves worthy to return to our perfect Father in Heaven, but we should not all advertise our trials. We cannot and should not wear our trials like badges of honor on our breast as does the military but we should all observe that everyone does have a trial that they too have endured. Like this cute puppy I recently came upon, he shares his heart naturally so be willing to share your heart everywhere you go just make sure it's natural.

Love among the Weeds (ftb)

Is it even possible? Yes it is and it happens all the time. Sometimes when we are faced with adversity we find the place that our true loyalties really lay. I remember when I was so sick with kidney stones I thought that I was going to die. I said to my husband we need to get along better with each other. I felt like we just weren’t showing all the love we could and I wanted to do better. Whenever we are faced with adversity the things that are the most precious to us become even more precious. We guard them a little more closely, we hold them a little tighter, we watch a little more carefully, and we spend a little more time enjoying them. Even with the weeds sometimes a flower appears.

Bloom Where You Are Planted

This pretty little daisy bush is planted in an ideal place for blooming. It is enhancing the beauty of all the other flowers and even the rock in it's proximity. Sometimes we may be planted in a less than ideal place but we can enhance all around us by blooming where we are. It is up to us to bloom and grow no matter where we may find ourselves. We can brighten our surroundings by our presence and we can cheer all those around us by our attitude. Blooming in Love for the place we are in when we are in it is the ideal.

Fancy Action

My daughter Chantal sent me this picture of her daughter standing by a heart shaped stump. The first thing I thought was, "That is some fancy growing action on that heart sister." Can you just imagine what that tree must have gone through to grow into this amazing shape? It's scalloped edge is so fancy and the turns and splits coming off the center add to the intricate details. It is such a fun heart. I hope that tree had a good life. I am still enjoying the mark it left behind.

Phoenix Metro Fall

Last week I posted a blog about why I love Ames Iowa on my personal blog. It was really mostly about the beautiful fall weather so I was thinking I should write the things I love about living in the Phoenix Metro Area and how I know that the season will be changing. I was only going to post on my personal blog and then today as I was walking I spotted this heart shape in the freshly sprouted winter lawn of a neighbor yard. So this is it... In the Phx. area of Arizona you know it is fall when everyone scalps their lawn so they can plant winter rye. We know cooler weather is just around the corner when the sweet smell of freshly spread manure fills the air. And then of course it is also the time Halloween decorations make an appearance, don't mind the 102 degree temperature on October 18th it really will cool off. It's a time to be careful of all things spooky but most of all be sure to spread your seeds evenly or you will end up with a heart shape brown patch right in the middle of your lawn. I could think of worse things!

It's Just A Rubber Band

So it's just a rubber band, but not just any rubber band. It's the rubber band that I put around my plastic box that holds my make-up when I am traveling. The rubber band acts as an extra measure of safety to keep the box from popping open and thus keeps my makeup from spilling. Rubber bands are so useful. They can do so many jobs. They stretch to accommodate things much bigger then they are. The can conform to just about any odd shape. They can be strong when needed or even just strong enough to break when too much pressure is applied. They are made to do many tasks not just one particular one and they do them all very well. I think I would do well to be like this rubber band and do my many jobs with a little added measure of love.

I Love To Go To Church

I found this tree with it's heart in Kanab Utah. The tree was one of several that line the street in front of an LDS church. They had recently been trimmed and the result was a wonderful heart. When I saw it I thought, "Oh I love going to church." There is so much love at church. Sometimes we get miss directed and we either don't feel loved or we don't behave ourselves in a loving manner but regardless of what happens there is always love there. Churches of all religions should be sanctuaries where love can be felt and received.

In Opposition We Can Grow Love

I just love this little bush. It is in the middle of a very busy street getting whipped back and forth as the cars and trucks speed by but it has done an awesome job growing into a little showing of love. Can you imagine the constant opposition that it is bombarded with daily all day long and yet somehow it has managed to come out looking like a heart. That is what opposition is for, the more we endure the stronger we become and in those experiences comes our true character. We can grow stronger and rely more on our Heavenly Father or we can wither and die without him. WE choose.

Happy Birthday Mother

Today is the anniversary of my mother's birth and so I wanted to include a few unique pictures of my mother's hands and the hands of my father and sisters. Several years ago my niece wanted to take pictures of Mother's hands. She was doing a project for her Young Women in Excellence award. I can't remember if I took the pictures or if she did or maybe one of my girls took the pictures but they turned out beautiful. Mother's hands were truly worn out in service for everyone around her. It was common knowledge in our home that Mother could not make a meal without cutting or burning her hands. We always had a beautiful clean home and I watched my mother serve others religiously. As a young girl I would sit next to her in church and keep myself entertained for quite a while playing with her hands. The skin was loose and I could make it stand up and keep it's shape in peaks as I would pinch and pull it. Mother also had arthritis and her knuckles were swollen and painful but the area of her finger that wore her wedding band was still long and thin. I could tell that her hands had been beautiful in her youth. Mother never liked her hands but I loved them. I knew her hands were the way they were because she loved me too. Only a short time after taking the pictures of her hands my mother passed away very unexpectedly during a surgery. My sisters, father and myself were taken in to see her after her death. All I wanted to see were her hands. She didn't look like herself but her hands were unmistakable. Before her surgery she had to take off her wedding ring. She really didn't want to remove it but she handed it to me and I placed it on my pinkie finger as it was the only place it fit. Just before we buried our mother my father lovingly place the ring back on her finger. I'm not sure when I took the rest of these pictures, I just know that I took them. The picture of my mother's hand was so precious to me that I also wanted pictures of my father's and sister's hands. I now have them framed with captions displayed in my home. I love my family and I am honored to be an eternal member of it. ( I had not noticed it before but my father's hands form an upside down heart.)