Smithfield Scoop

Ah, Jenn! What darling photos of darling babies! Oh my, I am aching to hold them... One of these days we'll get back down there - hopefully sooner than later. Thanks for the pictures.

Since we don't have babies to admire and snuggle, we are being entranced by the flowers that seem to be blooming everywhere! We planted some and are are also enjoying some that were planted long before we arrived. My personal favorites are the gladiolus because they are all different and exquisitely detailed on the inside with such lovely colors on the outside. But the daisies... well, now there's a delightful flower! We also planted some hydrangeas that we found on a "buy one get one 1/2 off" deal at the garden store.

Besides sitting on the deck and smelling the flowers, we shucked, blanched, cut and froze 5 dozen ears of corn yesterday. And got 15 bags of corn in the freezer. Not enough. We'll have to do more. But it is very yummy corn and we are so grateful to have it. Since the corn cost $15, each bag is worth $1.00. We will relish every bite of it in the winter time :)

We are trying to figure out how to implement our new callings as Youth Family History and Temple Specialists. Not a "real" calling - as in, not in the Handbook, so there is not any specific direction, which is a bit of a challenge. We met with the Elder's quorum president, YW and YM presidents and the ward FH consultant today and they said, "The bishop said to let you run with it to make our lives easier." So, what to do? Any ideas to help get the youth to the temple and get the temple in the youth would be welcome. I think really the bishop wants the youth to have the Spirit in their lives through doing family history and being in the temple. There are powerful promises associated with those activities, so that's where we'll start.

Sure love you all and hope you are enjoying the end of summer. At least we hope it's at the end for Jenn and the babies who have been melting in the heat. Thank goodness they have a basement that is a few degrees cooler during the day! We will be glad when temperatures there moderate a little. On this end, it's kind of a sad day when the temperature changes. Our little hummingbird friends seem to have flown south. That's a lonely feeling since they have been fun company all summer. But the harvest is nice and it's yummy, beautiful time of year up this way!