Happy in Hyde Park

Well, 'tis the season for leaves (as well as Elise's comfort foods)!  That was my family challenge exercise for yesterday - and will probably be my exercise for the next few weeks.  It seems like it takes forever for all of the leaves to fall off the trees.  It would be nice if they all fell at once, but that just never happens.  It's sure lovely weather for raking, though!

The other exercise we're going to get is turning the handle on the Victorio strainer to make applesauce.  We still have a dozen or more boxes of apples in the garage.  It's been tricky to find time to cut them up, cook them, strain them, put the sauce in jars and process them.  It shouldn't be so hard to find that time, but it is.  Hopefully this week we can make some progress on that job.

We enjoyed attending the baptism of Evan and Christy's daughter, Abby, yesterday.  They also blessed their baby, Wyatt, at the same time. Well, they waited until after the baptism and confirmation, then blessed the baby.  It was fun to see Anne and Wes and to be there with Ruth, Addy and Eliza.  Little Eliza is feeling enough better to have a good case of grumpy-itis.  But that's better than just laying on the couch doing nothing.  When we got there yesterday, she was outside trying to herd the chickens to the back yard.  But she tuckers out quickly and still doesn't feel really great.  She is glad to take the medicine that helps her feel better, but only takes it once a day and is quite worn down at the end of the day.  Hopefully she'll be back to normal before long.  We'll all keep praying for her, and for Ruth (who hasn't had much sleep for a long, long time).

I was called to a birth early this morning, which I was glad about, even though I missed hearing Thomas teach Gospel Doctrine.  It was this mom's 11th baby.  Amazing. I never tire of seeing these sweet, precious babies come into the world. There is something especially sacred about attending a birth on the Sabbath day. It's a sort of sacrament. A true sacrifice of love, pain, blood, water, suffering and rejoicing. Beautiful.  Mom and baby are well and happy and in love.