Remember this ...

'Lay not up for yourself treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and thieves break through and steal;

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.' (3 Nephi 13:19,21)

The world would have us believe that we must have lots of money.

 A big house, bigger then we need.

A fancy car.

When i was a child it was known as 'keeping up with the Jones'. Not even sure who the Jones are but as a child it always seemed that we had to be one better than them. Today we worry constantly about security, about the loss of financial wealth and earthly pocessions. The scriptures warn that if we lay our hearts upon the treasures of the earth then in the end we will have nothing for after death we can take nothing with us but ourselves and our families. I know for certain that God will not want to know how much money i have made during my earthly life but what exactly i did with the money that i made, whether that was a little or a lot.

The Saviour Jesus Christ as left us this message 'Peace i leave with you, my peace i give unto you: not as the world giveth, give i unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. (John 14:27)

Remember this always ...

An Engagement

This new post is easy. My daughter Grace got engaged and we are all hoping for a May wedding. She asked me to look at some flowers for her and here are a few i came up with, although i'm sure they will be plenty more.

A little different

Very pink

Very pretty but she wants a different colour

Traditional

My Favourite

She says what we really need to do is go bridal gown shopping - oh yes please!

Create space

I think if i was ever to move out of this house it would take me a month and that's not including packing before i even start to move things out. I look around and everywhere there are things i don't need, don't want, don't use and hidden under all these things are things that i do want, do need and would really like to use. 

In a box, on a shelf, in a room there is an whole collection of cd's and on these cd's are photographes. Thousands of them i would say, maybe even thousands and thousands. New technology maybe great but sometimes you just need to see the actually photograph. I keep meaning to get the cd's out and see what is on them and pick a few of my favourites and make a picture wall. I've picked the wall. I've even decorated it but i still haven't sorted through those cds.

Whilst i am on the subject of cds let me share a word about dvds. I am trying to get rid of mine. Okay they may be a few i would like to keep, mainly because they were given as gifts or just i enjoy watching them. But alas in this age of techno-wizardry i can watch any film within a few minutes with just a few clicks of my computer keyboard. So I am being brave. I have instructed my children to take whichever ones they want and except for a few the rest are leaving for sunnier climes.

I have many things in my home, which i no longer use but hang on to just in case but there are many people out there that may need what i have and no longer need. Modern society would have us believe that re-cycling is something new, well it's not, sensible man has always shared his surplus with others. I remember when i was a child my Dad bartering his surplus of home grown vegetables with that of a neighbour. I once said if the local council provided re-cycle bins, i would re-cycle, they did and i do, it's not enough we need to stop buying more of what we don't need and don't want. 

Food Store

Joseph in Egypt tells the Pharoah of a coming famine, where there would be 7 years of plenty and 7 years of lean (Genesis 41). The Pharoah was wise and headed Joseph's counsel and started to buy up land, grow crops and built appropriate storage during the years of plenty and at the end of that time the food supplies were used to feed the whole of Egypt and beyond.

Today the leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the only church to have a living prophet, President Thomas S Monson, have also given counsel to store now what will be needed in the future. They give the following counsel;

1. Gradually build a small supply of food that is part of your normal, daily diet until it is sufficient for three months.
2. Store drinking water.
3. Establish a financial reserve by setting aside a little money each week, and gradually increase it to a reasonable amount.
4. Once families have achieved the first three objectives, they are counseled to expand their efforts, as circumstances allow, into a supply of long-term basic foods such as grains, legumes, and other staples.
   http://lds.org/ensign/2009/03/family-home-storage-a-new-message?lang=eng&query=home+storage

Let me make this even more simple - 

a. Find a pad of paper and a pen

b. Write down everything you eat and or drink for a week, create a list, remember it's emergency food not a feast but do add chocolate

c. Find a box, cardboard or otherwise, it doesn't really matter and put it where you can see it so it will be a constant reminder

d. Decide on a budget, add a money jar to the box, even small change can go a long way when necessary

e. Buy only what you are going to eat, you may have to live on what is in the box

f. Be diligent in adding to the box, work on gathering a week's supply of food, then 2 week's supply and so on. Try and leave the food you buy in its original packaging if possible, use in date order

g. Last one, add bottled water

A word of warning we do not know what tomorrow may bring but we can try and be as prepared as possible. Do not think of Home Storage as only available for use in times of extreme famine as in Joseph's time but we all have lean-times, when we are sick or we are unemployed. In these times of uncertainty it is necessary for us to take action and do that which the Lord has counselled us to do and store that which we may need in the future.

“Many more people could ride out the storm-tossed waves in their economic lives if they had their … supply of food … and were debt-free. Today we find that many have followed this counsel in reverse: they have at least a year’s supply of debt and are food-free.”

President Thomas S. Monson, “That Noble Gift—Love at Home,” Church News, May 12, 2001, 7.

What did I see?

My daughter Emily is always telling me i should look around me for inspiration to write my blog on as there are times when i get bloggers-block. First off i normally write at 6:30 in the morning and it's 6:30 in the evening. As i look out the front window, the wind is blowing the branches of the trees, the rain is coming down and the sun is shining on the houses opposite. It is said that Englishmen can always talk about the weather, well are you surprised?

I once, several years ago now, travelled from my home in Yorkshire south along the M1 and in the space of about 200 miles we had travelled through sunshine, rain, thunder and lightening and even hail and snow. Thankfully there is no snow today. In fact i think it rained long enough to wet all my dry washing again, which was outside on the line, just before i arrived home about 2 hours ago. Another english thing i believe.

Anyway, today was the first week of the MIND mood boosting reading group, which is held at the local library. There were 9 of us today and a new lady called Diane who will be running the group. By the end i'm not sure she knew what to make of us or what to do with us, but any how she managed to get most of us to chose a book to read - The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Scaffer and Annie Barrows. Not started it yet so i have no opinion, but will let you know.

Now the wonderful thing about autumn and the english weather is that you don't need to make any excuses about curling up on a comfy sofa with a fluffly blanket and a good book. So i would like to encourage you all to partake of such an adventure often and at will - enjoy.

A list ...

... of what i have learnt. Your list will be different. Write one, put it somewhere and read it again in a year or more and see if it's still true. A few years ago when my oldest daughter Grace was at university some 222 miles away in Bath (according to Google maps) she became very ill and spent a week in hospital. I recieved the message at 10:30 at night and i don't drive so couldn't do much at that time of night. I prayed that night that i would feel she was save and being taken care of so i could sleep because being a nurse i know when a family member is sick it takes lots of energy that people dont always have enough because they can't sleep. I also phoned the local church near where she was at that time and i know people went to see her, people who were strangers but they went anyway and reassured me that though she was sick she was in good spirit. 

While i was staying at my daughter's students lodgings i wrote a list of things that i had learnt, things i thought were of value. I don't know if she still has the list and i'm sure this new list will be different in parts if not in the whole but these are the things i feel are important today; 

1. Sleep before midnight - often
2. Sleep 8 hours a night - most of the time
3. Rise early - you will get more done
4. Get ready for the day - dress to your shoes, so if you need to you can just walk out the door
5. Eat breakfast - fruit, yoghurt, cereal, cereal bar, bread toasted or not but eat something
6. Drink water - do not buy bottled water, the water from the taps in the UK is more then adequate
7. Take lunch with you - its healthier and it's cheaper
8. Girls should smell nice - a bath or a shower every day is adequate anything else, sprays, lotions, potions and perfume is extra
9. Wash you face properly - buy a bar of oil based soap from Bodyshop, e.g coconut, olive, shea and use it every day. Use an exfoliatant once a week. Add a simple moisturiser
10. Get your hair cut and styled regularly
11. Dress appropriately - no one looks good in the wrong size or the wrong style of clothing
12. Buy and wear nice underwear - make sure it fits correctly and so what if no one else sees it, you at least know what's under your clothes
13. Take some daily exercise
14. Get your weight under control and keep it there - not everyone is supposed to be super skinny and besides it's not any healthier then being over weight, unless it's your natural size
15. Don't eat meat a couple of times a week - give your body a rest
16. Eat fruit and vegetables
17. Be honest - don't cheat you will only get found out and it may cost you more then you think, don't lie, the only person you are really lying to is yourself and don't steal, if it's not yours and you don't have permission don't take it, don't use it
18. Live with heart and hands wide open - be generous with what you have and share it whenever possible and appropriate, likewise, be grateful for the blessings that you have
19. Do the four, go to church, read your scriptures, pray, and pay your tithing
20. A word on prayer, pray openly, pray in your heart, walk with prayers under your feet, pray for a blessing over your what you eat and drink daily, be thankful in your heart at all times
21. Learn to meditate and practice daily
22. Be clean - in mind, body and soul
23. Strive to have the Holy Ghost with you all the time
24. Save - yes money - no matter how little, a little goes a long way when necessary
25. Always have enough money to get home
26. Stay out of unnecessary debt - a car is not essential unless you need it for work and not to just get to work
27. Don't gamble, not even the lottery
28. Work for what you need
29. Have a food storage - to last you at least two weeks
30. Only buy cheap if it's worth it 
31. Don't own what you don't need - someone else maybe able to use it, so share it
32. Re-cylcle - when you can, don't use plastic bottles and bags and cups
33. Read good books that have nothing to do with what you are studying
34. Laugh often
35. Be friendly
36. Say I LOVE YOU

Love is ... a big old sofa

I have one of those, a big, old, sofa. 

The children have jumped on it, run on it, laughed on it, laid on it, watched TV on it, ate their dinner sitting on it and even shared their dinner with it, slept on it, read books, and done homework whilst sitting on it and listened to the words of the Lord whilst it's just sat there. Last Christmas my daughter dropped onto it and it broke and after a moment of absolute horror i couldn't stop myself from laughing. I knew that it wasn't her dropping onto it that had broken it, but it was all of the above.

Love is ... a big old sofa! 

You know the kind? The ones where you sit down and the whole sofa seems to envelope you, wrap you in the love that has been left there over the years. New sofa's are good, they look nice but my big old sofa has all the memories of a life time wrapped in its fibres. 

That same daughter heads off to university on Sunday, i am so proud of her i could burst, but the memories will always stay behind. I will always remember the day she broke the big old sofa.

'Charity suffereth long, and is kind, charity envieth not, charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up... Charity never faitheth ...' (1 Corinthians 13:4,8)

Time

I read a blog the other day by someone who was claiming to write a blog in 15 minutes. He advocated that we set and timer for the alloted time and sit down and write whatever came into our heads. No looking on the internet no doing last minute research, just write.

So here i am just writing. Where are my toughts tonight? Really and truthfully it's on time. We never have enough time, we are always trying to squeeze more and more things into our time so we have no time to even breath let alone find time to eat properly or sleep enough. 

There are things that happen in life that make us realise that we have no control over time. We plan, we scheme, we try our best to climb up that corporate ladder or to be seen in the right social cirlces but yet if we were honest with ourselves we would begin to realise that most of what we think we want would have no value if we were running out of time.

Today i'm giving you all the time you need to tell someone you love them. Give a friend a hug. Write a note to say 'i'm still here and i really do care.' To tell someone thank you. To hold a hand and to say a prayer. Today, this moment is the only one we may get to do these important things for tomorrow is always a day away.

Danielle when you died, time stopped. I can't explain it but for all those who have suffered grief from death of a loved one will know exactly what i mean and the rest, well, you will get your turn. Life is life. We live and then one day we leave it all behind us. For those who go forward there is only life just in a different place for those who stay there is only death. There comes odd moments when you begin to realise that time and life continues around you and although you want to shake every person you pass and make them slow down you know it would be an impossible task. So you continue on your own way, walking a little slower watching the nights turn into to days, the days into weeks and then into months and you just want to get off the carousel of life but you cannot. You must continue to walk in time.

We are all running out of time and there is nothing we can do to stop the clocks from moving forward. In all our planning me must remember to live, to love and to forgive.

Love at Home

In an age when the world would see the family and all that it stands for destroyed it is important that we stand strong as one. Family is the greatest blessing we can have. Home is a  harbour from the storms of life and place where we should be able to come to find rest not only for our bodies but also for our souls.

It is important that we show appreciation for that which others do for us. We should give honest compliments, and there is nothing like a hug to show someone else that you are there for them and that you love them.

It is also important that we tell those we care about that we love them. To actually hear the words 'I love you' is heart warming and uplifting. We all have bad days when we feel the world is against us and it's not as if we would like someone else to solve our problems for us, that would be nice, sometimes we just need to know that someone else is listening to us. Someone else cares.

President Monson  'let us relish life as we live it, find joy in the journey and share our love with friends and family. One day, each of us will run out of tomorrows. Let us not put off what is most important.'

What is most imprtant almost always involves the people around us. Often we assume that others know that we love them and therefore forget to say the words. By showing love one to another we will bring heaven closer to our homes and all who dwell there will find peace.

President Monson - 'May we make of our homes sanctuaries to which our family members will ever want to return.'

http://lds.org/liahona/2011/08/love-at-home-counsel-from-our-prophet

There you are

 Oh! There you are! 

I don't remember you looking like - that.

Are you sure it's you?

Or maybe it's your Mother?

Where did those lines comes from, laughter they say or that streak of white in your hair?

Yes those eyes look right, they look like mine and behind those streaks of grey there is still lots of red hair. Now my Mother doesn't have red hair but just for a moment has i passed the bathroom mirror i thought i saw my Mother. 

Whenever my Mother sees a photograph of herself these days, she always remarks 'yep, that's me'.

We often judge ourselves by what man sees and not by what God sees (Sam 16:7). The worth of a soul is so great that He calls us his sons and his daughters. No matter who we are or what we look like God loves us as we are and when you are feeling low repeat the following 'God loves me'. Keep repeating it until you feel it in your heart for God does love you.

Mornings

I always seem to be writing my blog one day behind because i like to write in the mornings and on the days when i just don't have the time, then by the end of the day my brain is too tired and world wearly to come up with anything worth writing. Maybe i don't write anything worth writing anyway? Never mind, it's not about other people it's about me.

I've just been reading my daughter Grace's blog from yesterday and she was rambling along as usual but come next Saturday she is becoming independent and moving out for good, after spending a year at home recovering after finishing university. I've been told it 'nice' when they do that - at last. Not sure what's nice about it but i will let you know. Probably won't even notice for a while as i have four more young people staying at my house. The two daughter's will go off to university in September and the son and his lovely girlfriend will find jobs and somewhere to live by then too, i keep praying for it. Then my nest will truely be empty, that will be odd.

Tired today, more like world-weary. Just too many things to work through and to sort out. Grace also blogged about food and money, those things just keep coming up and i must admit im in the same place. Those thoughts just keep going round and round. Just imaging not needing either what a different life we would lead. Often we want more then we need, the fact that there is more of me then there should be proves that i want far more food than is good for me. 

Every morning i sit and read God's word and i am fed and yet every day i walk through a world that is starving and God-weary. If each person followed just the first two commandments; love God and love they neighbour has thyself, what a different world it would be. Can you imaging no more dissentions, no more hunger, no more war. If you pray, pray for these two things, I pray that you will live these two commandments today, tomorrow and always.

deux chats dans la cuisine ...

I took my daughter Emily's advice and titled my blog like Indian naming ceremonies, I'm talking about American Indians here of cause.So now i'm off to do a bit of reading - one moment.

So this is what it says;

• The American naming ceremony is considered a sacred event
• The name is chosen by a designated Elder and isn't known to anyone else until the ceremony
• They are based on nature
• They were banned once by the American government
• The name could be changed as the child grew into an adult, so the name they were known by when they were born may not be the same one when they are adults
• Today naming ceremonies normally happen when a person is an adult and they just have the one and they also keep the name that's on their birth certificate
• The recipient needs to requests a name from the designated Elder
• The ceremony is long and it has never been written down so changes from tribe to tribe
• Four guardians are appointed to represent, East, West, South, North
• If you dishonour your name it can be taken off you

 http://www.suite101.com/content/authentic-native-indian-naming-ceremonies-a274933

Now I didn't know that.

So what would i name my children;

• Mike - Fast Running Bear
• Grace - Rippling Brook or Gentle Waters
• Emily - Sparkling Rainbow Lights
• Bethany - Night Owl

As for me I shall leave that up to my children.

And for my title? I went into the kitchen this morning and there sat our two cats; Cookie Monster and Tinker Bell. The first one old, partly blind but getting on with life and the second a stray came in from the cold just before Christmas and just before my beautiful old cat, Lucy died in February this year. I don't know about naming ceremonies for the cats but they do tend to end up with names that have come from the heart.

Tinkerbell - balm for my heart

Lucy in her usual place - the bathroom sink

Cookie Monster - sitting in, on whatever she can find

Family Friday

This is my son in pictures - i sneaked them off his facebook :) 

 

Michael James Smith 19 May 1987

Michael at aged 2

Mike's first love - football

Football

Winning

Winning

Mike's 2nd love Christina - sorry but its true

The only cat that doesnt make him sneeze - snow in Canada

I really don't know, but i do know that as a small child he would do this often

Halloween Canadian style

I love you son. I can't wait to see you only 15 more sleeps. I always thank God that he gave me three daughters and only one son. You are an amazing young man and I am so very proud of you. 

Mother's Wisdom

I wanted to share some of the things I have learnt from my Mother, My mother who is called Marion and is now in her 81^st year. 

My first thoughts were of the practical things that my mother taught me how to do, such as; getting dressed, eating with a knife and fork, baking, knitting and cooking in general. Then my thoughts drifted in a direction that I didn’t expect to things that weren’t so obvious but yet mean so much more. 

So I took the time to reflect upon all the things that my mother has taught me and I came up with four I would like to share.

Be Brave

My Mother taught me to be brave in the face of adversity and trials. Sometimes we have to do something that we really don’t want to. Last year my Mother’s brother, my Uncle Alfie died after a long and difficult illness. I know she didn’t want to have to face her nephew yet another Alfie because when someone dies it feels like a failure. But she went to the funeral and we went too and were brave with her because being there for each other is sometimes the only thing we can do.

Have Courage

When I was 35 yrs old my marriage failed. It had been heading that way for some years but we kept trying and now it was done. It was at this point that I finally told my mother I loved her and then she had the courage to say it back. Love is the thing that gives us courage to stand and be strong. 

Be Patient

Sometimes the things that we want to happen either don’t happen as quickly as we expect them too or they in the way we would like and sometimes we just need to wait and see. My mother has spent 18months waiting for something very important to happen and I now know that it as but life is not always so straight forward.

Trust God

I have been taught that there was a God that heard prayers and answered them. It wasn’t ever forced on me but it was always just around, a feeling. When I was 14 yrs old I went to find God for myself. The God I found was the same God my mother had taught me about but I now saw him differently. I learnt that God, Jesus and the Holy Ghost was not a three-in-one but three individual entities. But it was still a God who I should trust, who would love me no matter not. 

Our mother’s can teach us many things. I’m not what my children have learnt from me, that’s for them to settle on and maybe time will tell. 

Family

Hubert Hirst about 1963

When i was 18 about 30 years ago, that's not a difficult sum so i won't add it up for you, I started researching my family tree. Back in those days, many moons ago, it was hard work. Most records were on microfilm or microfiche or you always had the parish records to fall back on. Many people now have an interest in finding out who they are, where they came from an if great-great- grandfather left any money. I have managed to track my family back to the 1500's or even further, with help from my sister Carole. 

So how did you do it, i hear you cry!

This is how you begin - Buy a book and a pen or two and write down your name, your date of birth and where you were born. Add to this your spouse's information and your children's and their spouses and children if they have any. Don't forget marriage dates and places to.

Next write down your parent's information, remember to add a marriage date and place. Add your brother(s) and/or sister(s) information and their spouses and children, and their children's children if they have any.

Go and talk to your mum and dad. Add to your information their mum and dad, and their brothers and sisters and their spouses and children and anyone else they come up with it. 

Just a word of caution; all the information that my mother gave me was correct but it didnt always belong to the person she believed it to have done and so don't be surprised by anything,

Now you have a whole list of informationn you have no idea what to do with, it definately needs some order.

This may be useful - https://www.familysearch.org/learn/getting_started

http://www.familysearch.org/eng/default.asp?page=home/welcome/simplePAFRegistration.asp

PAF stands for personal ancestral file, add your information one person at a time, this way you will be able to see what information you have missing then add this information as you acquire it. The one thing i have noticed recently about my own family tree is that i don't have many death dates, it's not always easy to find all the information you are looking for and there are times when the information comes from unlikely sources, but welcome ones but more about that another time.

The Bindley wedding, first look at how posh they all are!

back row left to right - unknown male, Fred Bindley (bro), James Spencer (groom), Vera Bindley (bride), Unknown male possibly William (Bill) Bindley's brother, William (Bill Bindley). Front - Unknown female possibly Eva Sowden (sis), Harry Norton, Rene Bindley (sis), Maud Bindley (sis), Norah Norton, Emma Bindley (mother - nee Sowden) (1936, Bradford, West Yorkshire, England)

So if what we know about this photograph is correct it contains both my maternal grandmother and my maternal great grandmother and is an absolute gem.

And this beautiful lady is my paternal great grandmother Rosetta Dean.

More about these people and how i managed to join together 13, 700 + people.