FAREWELL TO JAMES

Well, it is time to say good-bye to my son. I just can't believe that the time is now. He is ready. I know that he is excited and energized about college. I am happy for him. He will do great at BYU and I know that he will love being on his own. For me, I have had a hard time with his leaving. Not that I don't want him to go, it is just a strange feeling for a mother to have her children leave her home. I love James, I will miss him terribly, and I know that Michael, Kae Lee and Brynna will miss him so much. We will look forward to his visits home. We love you so much James. Good Luck at BYU!!!

COMING OFF THE SPIRITUAL HIGH

Camp was just so amazing!!! What a great experience that was to go and spend some time in the mountains with incredible young women and leaders. We had such great spiritual experiences there---daily. It was really hard to come back home and be back "in the world". I will cherish our time at camp forever. So thankful that I have the calling that I have so that I can work so closely with the young women in our Stake. They are remarkable young women.

Saturday we spent almost the whole day doing beans. I canned 33 quarts of beans on Saturday and that took us all day and part of the day on Monday to get them all pressured. Then on Monday, I spent all day doing Salsa---I did 43 bottles of fresh salsa. Almost all of the ingredients came from my garden. The garden is doing great and we feel so blessed to have harvested so much already.
I really love my garden, it gives me such pleasure in knowing that I have grown all this food and it just keeps coming. In the winter months, it is so nice to go down to the storage room and see all that produce just waiting for you. What a blessing a garden is!!! It is so much work and so time consuming right now, but I wouldn't miss all that hard work for anything--it is just too rewarding for me!!!

CAMP AND CANNING

I am so thankful for my garden. Once it starts producing, it just keeps coming and I can't stop it. I have bottled over 50 quarts of green beans so far and I am hoping to get about 150 more. We eat a lot of green beans. I have been so busy with camp preparations that it is hard sometimes to take the time to do my canning.
Camp is a week from Monday and I am ready to go and execute all of our plans. I have decided that camp in August is not the best time---planning camp consumes your whole summer and it is right in the middle of getting kids ready to start back to school. But I am excited and ready to go and see how the Spirit works on these great YW at Heber Valley Camp. I just pray that I have the stamina to make it through all the stress just to get there.