Familial Research and Development

I want you to know how happy we are here in our new home. The kids are going through normal adjustments for having just moved but are doing well. Janele went to girls camp with ward girls and there finally really started to feel accepted and part of the ward. John now has a paper route and just bought his own school shoes. He and David, Jacob, and Joey are up at the Boy Scout rendezvous. John is the only one who will be spending the week up there as Cub Scouts are invited during the day only. What's so terrific about this camp out is that 42 general authorities will be there visiting throughout the week, they said, and probably president Benson. He was the grand Marshal of the Provo Freedom Festival Parade this summer. We had to go see it, would have anyway. But when his car passed by I was overcome with emotion and for no reason was in tears. How can you love a stranger you have never known so much? David's learning a lot of things about finishing a basement. He talks to the c...

Mom always told me that and except for what are now called flip-flops, we learned their name as thongs-I always wore socks or nylons when I had shoes or sandals on. Always. That's how it was. So I was good about wearing flip flops if I HAD to have something on my feet. Let's face it, in Southern Cally you rarely need to cover your feet except when going into a business where health codes require such things. Fast forward a couple decades... I take my number three child in to the doctor. He's got something on his feet-the skin is so dried out and now there are pimples too. What did the doctor say? Well, here's some cream for his athlete's foot, the pimple (they did a biopsy) is staph infection so here's a prescription for that, throw out the old shoes, always wear socks, wear sandals WITH socks so his feet can air out (moistness feeds and houses athlete's foot), and change your shocks at least once a day but twice a day would be fine too. I had never ...

Doing the laundry in the old ringer washer was one of my chores. AND mom always made me sort the laundry. Once a load was washed and wrung out, it sat in the basket until the next load was washed and wrung out, which sat in another basket until the next load was washed and wrung out, until the wash water was so dirty it was time to turn the pump on, pump the water out and then start filling the tub with rinse water. Repeating the same sequence with the rinsing of the loads of laundry and then running outside to hang them on the clotheslines to dry took most of the morning. Why did it matter if the clothes were sorted? Colors run. Now they have laundry soap that prevents that so why sort? Because whites go dingy if you don't. They have a color-safe, fabric-safe bleach for that.... Yes, however it doesn't really do a great job of keeping the white white. I'm not talking solely about solid white articles of clothing. I have and my Dove has articles that have a white backgrou...