Thankful For The Thorns

This is one of my favorite stories. I'm grateful for it's reminder this time of year. None of us are without "thorns" in our life, but it's up to us to make the most of it!!

Thankful For The Thorns
Sandra felt as low as the heels of her Birken stocks as she pushed against a November gust and the florist shop door.

Her life had been easy, like a spring breeze. Then in the fourth month of her second pregnancy, a minor automobile accident stole her ease. During this Thanksgiving week she would have delivered a son. She grieved over her loss. As if that weren’t enough her husband’s company threatened a transfer. Then her sister, whose holiday visit she coveted, called saying she could not come. What’s worse, Sandra’s friend infuriated her by suggesting her grief was a God-given path to maturity that would allow her to empathize with others who suffer. Had she lost a child? -No–she has no idea what I’m feeling, thought Sandra with a shudder.

Thanksgiving?

Thankful for what? she wondered. For a careless driver whose truck was hardly scratched when he rear-ended her? For an airbag that saved her life but took that of her child?

“Good afternoon, can I help you?” The flower shop clerk’s approach startled her.

“Sorry,” said Jenny, “I just didn’t want you to think I was ignoring you.” “I….I need an arrangement,” stammered Sandra.

“For Thanksgiving?” Sandra nodded.

“Do you want beautiful but ordinary, or would you like to challenge the day with a customer favorite I call the Thanksgiving Special.” Jenny saw Sandra’s curiosity and continued. “I’m convinced that flowers tell stories, that each arrangement insinuates a particular feeling. Are you looking for something that conveys gratitude this Thanksgiving?”

“Not exactly!” Sandra blurted. “Sorry, but in the last five months, everything that could go wrong has.”

Sandra regretted her outburst but was surprised when Jenny said, “I have the perfect arrangement for you.” The door’s small bell suddenly rang. “Barbara! Hi, let me get your order,” Jenny said. She politely excused herself from Sandra and walked toward a small workroom. She quickly reappeared carrying a massive arrangement of greenery, bows, and long-stemmed thorny roses. Only, the ends of the rose stems were neatly snipped, no flowers.

“Want this in a box?” Jenny asked.

Sandra watched for Barbara’s response. Was this a joke? Who would want rose stems and no flowers! She waited for laughter, for someone to notice the absence of flowers atop the thorny stems, but neither woman did. “Yes, please. It’s exquisite,” Barbara replied with an appreciative smile. “You’d think after three years of getting the special, I’d not be so moved by its significance, but I can feel it right here, all over again.” She gently tapped her chest.”My family will love this one. Thanks.” Sandra stared. Why so normal a conversation about so strange an arrangement? she wondered.

“Uh,” said Sandra, pointing. “That lady just left with, ah…uh..”

“Yes?”

“Well, you gave her no flowers!”

“Right, I cut off the flowers.”

“Cut them off?”

“Off. Yep. That’s the Special. I call it the Thanksgiving Thorns Bouquet.” “I just cannot believe people would pay for that!” In spite of herself she chuckled.

“Do you really want to know why?”

“I couldn’t leave this shop without knowing. I’d think of nothing else!” “That might be good,” mused Jenny. “Well,” she continued, “Barbara came into the shop three years ago feeling very much like you feel today. She thought she had very little to be thankful for. She had lost her father to cancer, the family business was failing, her son was into drugs, and she faced major surgery.”

“Ooooh!” murmured Sandra.

“That same year, I had lost my husband,” Jenny went on.”I assumed complete responsibility for the shop and for the first time, spent the holidays alone. I had no children, no husband, no family nearby, and too great a debt to allow any travel.”

“What did you do?”

“I learned to be thankful for thorns.”

Sandra’s eyebrows lifted. “Thorns?”

“I’m a Christian, Sandra. I’ve always thanked God for good things in life and I never thought to ask Him why good things happened to me, but, when bad stuff hit, did I ever ask! It took time to learn that dark times are important. I always enjoyed the ‘flowers’ of life but it took thorns to show me the beauty of God’s comfort. You know, the Bible says that God comforts us when we’re afflicted and from His consolation we learn to comfort others.”

Sandra sucked in her breath as she thought about the very thing her friend had tried to tell her.”I guess the truth is I don’t want comfort. I’ve lost a baby and I’m angry with God.”

She started to ask Jenny to “go on” when the door’s bell diverted their attention.

“Hey, Phil!” shouted Jenny as a balding, rotund man entered the shop. She softly touched Sandra’s arm and moved to welcome him. He tucked her under his side for a warm hug.

“I’m here for twelve thorny long-stemmed stems!” Phil laughed, heartily. “I figured as much,” said Jenny, “and I’ve got them ready.” She lifted a tissue-wrapped arrangement from the refrigerated cabinet.

“Beautiful,” exclaimed Phil. “My wife will love them!”

Sandra could not resist asking. “These are for your wife? Do you mind me asking, why thorns?”

“In fact, I’m glad you asked,” Phil replied. “Four years ago my wife and I nearly divorced. After forty years, we were in a real mess, but with the Lord’s guidance, we slogged through, problem by rotten problem. He rescued our marriage–our love, really. Last year at Thanksgiving I stopped in here for flowers. I must have mentioned surviving a tough process because Jenny told me that for a long time she kept a vase of rose stems—stems!—as a reminder of what she learned from “thorny” times. That was good enough for me. I took home stems. My wife and I decided to label each one for a specific thorny situation and give thanks for what the problem taught us.” Phil paid Jenny, thanked her again and as he left, said to Sandra, “I highly recommend the Special!”

“I don’t know if I can be thankful yet for the thorns in my life.” Sandra said to Jenny. “It is still…too fresh.”

“Well,” Sandra replied carefully, “my experience says that thorns make roses more precious. We treasure God’s providential care more during trouble than at any other time. Remember, it was a crown of thorns that Jesus wore so we might know His love. Do not resent the thorns.”

Tears rolled down Sandra’s cheeks. For the first time since the accident she loosened her grip on resentment. “I’ll take those twelve long-stemmed thorns, please.” she managed to choke out.

“I hoped you would,” Jenny said. “I’ll have them ready in a minute. Then, every time you see them, remember to appreciate both good and hard times. We grow through both.”

“Thank you. What do I owe you?”

“Nothing. Nothing but a promise to allow our Lord to heal your heart. The first year’s arrangement is always on me.” Jenny smiled and handed a card to Sandra. “I’ll attach a card like this to your arrangement but maybe you’d like to read it first.”

It said: “My God, I have never thanked Thee for my thorns! I have thanked Thee a thousand times for my roses, but never once for my thorns. Teach me the glory of the cross I bear, teach me the value of my thorns. Show me that I have climbed to Thee by the path of pain. Show me that my tears have made my rainbow."

–George Matheson

November Book Club

The November book club was at my house this month and is always an occasion I enjoy. I like reading, I like preparing my home to share with others, I like listening to the thoughts of those who participate and I like to learn.


















Christmas Jars Reunion was the November pick.

















As you can see, it's a story by Jason F. Wright. It's actually a sequel to his book Christmas Jars. If you have not read Christmas Jars, I highly recommend reading it first, then you will be ready for Christmas Jars Reunion.

As I started to read Christmas Jars Reunion I thought it moved a little slow at first. Ultimately I once again was drawn into the story, was thrilled with the ending and the true message of the book. I'm a sucker for a good Christmas story and what I love the most about Jason's books, Christmas Jars and Christmas Jars Reunion, they have had a positive, real life effect on people. They are fictional stories that have become true in real life.

When I host the book club, I always try to have a display that relates to the book. I'm not sure if anyone ever really notices or figures it out, but it makes me think (just a little) to come up with something simple, yet something that reflects the personality of the story. This was my display and I'm not going to explain it. You'll have to read the book to figure it out!! Your first clue, the candy is not part of the display!! :-)...























I had my talented daughter, Lindi, make a tile for each individual who participates in our little group. Of course, it had to relate to the story!!!...






















I thought she did a GREAT job and I'm thankful for her help!!!


















What's book club without treats? Well, it wouldn't be book club. It just wouldn't be right!!! SOOOO....I made chocolate roll because it's a Christmas tradition in our family. When you read a Christmas story, you have to have a Christmas treat!! I would have loved to have served: chicken, tater tots and biscuits; but let's get real!!! Once again, you'll have to read the book to understand why the chicken meal!!!


















Chocolate roll is the best!! I've posted the recipe before, but I'll post it again for you!!!
















Chocolate Roll

Separate 5 eggs, beat yolks - Add the following:

1/2 cup powered sugar

1/4 cup flour

1 tsp. vanilla

3 tablespoons cocoa - beat until smooth -

Add: in a separate bowl...

1/2 tsp. salt to egg whites and beat until foamy

add 1/2 cup sugar - beat until stiff

fold egg white mixture into yolk batter.

Spray a jelly roll pan (cookie sheet) and line with wax paper and spray and flour again. Pour batter in pan and bake in a 350 oven for 20-25 minutes.

Remove and let cool. Turn onto a wet flour sack dish towel and roll up and put in fridge and let cool for 1 hour or so. Unroll and fill with one small container cool whip and roll back up. I roll it in wax paper and foil and put it back in the fridge.

Chocolate Sauce

1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons cocoa

2 tablespoons flour

3/4 cup milk

Boil all together until it begins to thicken, about 5 min. When cool, add 1 tsp. vanilla























I truly can recommend Christmas Jars Reunion by Jason F. Wright. Remember to read Christmas Jars first. These stories will prepare your mind and spirit for the holiday season!! Who knows, maybe you will start your very own Christmas Jar. It takes just one!!

Linger Longer

This last Sunday marked another successful Ward Activity. In our building there are five wards that meet. Every year the five wards rotate the time schedule and this year our Ward has the 3:00 pm-6:00 pm schedule, or as Matt calls it... "Midnight Mass"!! Since our Ward concludes at 6:00 pm I thought we should have a "Linger Longer" after church. It was a huge success, plenty of food, even better "dinner company" and to top it off; more tables and chairs had to be set up. What more could a person ask for?!!























Our Ward Activities are successful because of the wonderful individuals in our ward!! They couldn't be possible without them!! I was so busy before and during the dinner I forgot to take pictures. I remembered when it was basically over and you can see from the pictures that people really did "Linger Longer"!!...

The food was devoured and the remaining dishes are waiting for the "Lingerers" to retrieve them!!...























The people that make "it" happen!!...













































































































































There you have it, the answer to what was going on in our Stake building Sunday night!!! I highly recommend having a "Linger Longer" if you are the last ones in the building!! It was great fun!! I apologize to the "other ward members" who had to be tantalized by the tempting aromas!!! Blessings to be grateful for: it wasn't a Fast Sunday!!! ;-)

Let's Drive!

Saturday, we headed to the Ranch to check on the cows, the feed situation and to put out salt. Katie and Richard rode along, as Richard had never been to the Ranch. It was a long day, a lot of driving, but I loved it.

On the way out to the Ranch we stopped at the Devil's Canyon Overlook...


















It was a cold day as you can tell by Katie's reaction...


















We live in such a beautiful area! I'm pretty sure we take it for granted!!...


















We then traveled on and made our way to the Ranch. When we entered the gate into our property we drove up to the edge of the ridge and sat while Matt explained to Richard the boundaries of the Ranch. I took pictures...





































































Okay, so we had been sitting on this ridge for quite sometime. Matt was looking for cows through his binoculars while we were patiently sitting and listening to his stories. Finally I said, "Let's Drive"!! Meaning, let's go look close up...let's get moving!! Well, needless to say Matt didn't let me live my little "Let's Drive" down all day. Hence, the name of this post!! :-)

As we were driving and looking for cows we went on over to the Pitchfork Ranch, the neighbors, and looked because Matt had seen some cows through his binoculars. Sure enough, some were ours, some were not. We cut a bull and cow out and trailed them back into our Ranch boundaries. This was all done while driving in the pick-up!! Needless to say, it took some time and ingenuity.


















Putting salt out...


















The cows were so happy to see and smell the salt. They literally came running!!...




















































After we finished checking our cows and salting we decided to take a chance and drive over the mountain to see our "old" ranch, the Schively. We weren't sure if the snow was going to allow us to make the drive, but there was only one close call. It's a gorgeous ranch and many changes have been made, including a really nice road.

The gate into the property of the Schively...
















Richard got his exercise Saturday. He opened and closed a lot of gates!! I mean many, many gates!!! Thanks Richard, it made the trip easier and warmer on me!!! :-)




































The new house that was built...


















The main yard, some updates had been made...

































A new road has been made to direct traffic from going through the main yard. These are the signs giving directions...



































It was interesting to see the changes that had been made to the place. The most incredible changes to me were the road and the fences. WOW!! Money can make life so much easier. Not that I'm complaining, but it's obvious that a "real rancher" no longer owns this ranch. Meaning, a person can't make enough money running cows to afford to buy a ranch, then make major upgrades!!! Not these kind of upgrades!!!

It was a long, but enjoyable day. It brought back many memories. Some good and some not so good. This day made me realize once again how grateful I am for what I have in life. I'm so thankful for the choices that have been made in the Matt Bassett family, choices that have kept us together, enabled us to raise our children and be happy.

Life is good!!

Candy Corn For Calves

It's corn threshing time on the farm and the calves in the feedlot couldn't be happier. We have a feedlot in which we feed 2,000 head of calves every winter. We raise all of the feed on the farm for the feedlot and corn is one of the crops necessary for the success of the calves weight gain. The feedlot takes a huge amount of time each day from Matt, Will and Jay. The care and concern that goes into these calves is "priceless"!! The pens are walked daily, to check for sick calves, if sick ones are found they are pulled and put in another pen and doctored, watched over and taken care of. Of course the entire 2,000 head of calves has to be fed everyday and between checking and feeding the entire feedlot it takes around 5 hours. Now, when the weather gets really cold, which it does every year, this is even a bigger task. The automatic water troughs, the starting of all the machinery to feed the calves, the calves, you name it, every element involved becomes a chore in itself when is gets extremely cold. The cold can turn to this 5 hour job into an all day job, when the day ends you wake up and start doing the same exact thing all over again!!! Soooo, next time you're sitting in a restaurant enjoying a "to die for" black Angus steak, just think for a minute where it came from, the time, energy and care that went into it and be thankful for American Agriculture!!

Last week I was able to take some pictures of the corn being threshed. It's such an interesting process!! Modern technology is certainly a blessing and a boost in the farming world. Mother Nature, of course, is the ultimate factor in our world and last week She gave us some amazing weather to enjoy!! Too bad that didn't happen in October, then all of the beet farmers wouldn't be "stressed to the max" right now!!! Sad, sad, sad!!!! That's all I have to say about that!!! :-(

Back to the corn...Enjoy our view...

November VT

It's been a good day!! It's always a good day when I get to go visiting teaching. I truly enjoy getting to see, visit and check-in on "my" wonderful ladies!! It's really too bad that society in general doesn't take the time to visit with their neighbors anymore. You know, "like back in the day" when you sat on your porches and visited!!! ;-) Seriously, we should slow down a little and "enjoy this journey of life" we're all on!! Okay, I'll step down off my soap box now!!

This is the item we gave for their 72 hours kits this month...























Water boxes that have a five year shelf-life and hard candy. After all they are life savers!! :-)

Of course we wanted to give them a little Thanksgiving treat!! You can't go wrong with a Marie Callender's pie, easy and good!! A little candle light is a "good thing" too!!!...























I had the privilege of picking a talk from the October 2009 General Conference talks for our lesson. It was a tough choice, as they were all so good. I decided on Elder Bednar's talk, which you can read here!! Here is the handout that I made to go with it...














































This talk was excellent. Elder Bednar gave us such sound practical advice in being "more diligent and concerned at home". Make sure you take the time to read his talk, it's well worth your time!

I hope your month is a Happy one and continues to be so as we all try to be "More Diligent and Concerned at Home"!!!

Turkey Time!

As I sit here at my computer typing away, I can hear the crows cawing out my window and am reminded once again how quickly time flies!! As Thanksgiving is quickly approaching, I'm trying to mentally be prepared for the holidays and at my house decorations help!! The Halloween decorations have been swapped out for the Thanksgiving decor. As you know, I mainly decorate for Fall and then add a few key pieces for Halloween and Thanksgiving.

I certainly understand there is much more to Thanksgiving than turkey and decorations!! I have much to be thankful for in my life, but that is for another post.

Sharing views of my Thanksgiving decor...























The mantel...





































































The dining room table...


















Grandma' dresser...









































































Coffee table...












A little holiday humor for the kitchen counter...

Creatures of Habit!

That would be Matt & I, creatures of habit!!

Look at the following picture, there is something really wrong about it!!!...


















You can see my Tahoe sitting in the driveway, and you can also see our newly finished garage. If you look really close in the upper right hand corner of the picture you can also see the back door that we walk into all of the time. I'm sure you're all thinking why is her Tahoe sitting in the driveway when she has a garage to park it in??!!! I kid you not, I'm asking myself the same question!! We are such creatures of habit that after almost 26 years of pulling into the driveway, no matter how I plan and prepare my mind to pull into the garage when I get home...I never do!!!

Now take a look at this picture...


















Notice the distance from the garage door on the right, to the back door of the house on the left. It's a much shorter distance than the walk from the driveway to the door that I mentioned in the first photo!!! Too FUNNY!!! I have a goal!!! Tonight the Tahoe will be parked in the garage, even if I have to go back out after we get home and actually pull it in the garage!!!! :-) I promise, I don't really have blond hair!!!



















Okay, enough about my stupidity!!...The outside of the garage is basically done. We are waiting for the cupolas, which are finally "done". We will pick them up Monday and then I hope it won't be too long before they are installed. The inside of the garage isn't done, but we can park in it!!

Wish me, my memory and habits LUCK!!!

Lovin' The Weather!!

This makes me smile...























The sun is shining, it's a wonderful thing!! We've been having the most gorgeous weather for November and I've been taking advantage of it. Blogging has been put on hold as I spent Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons outside cleaning my yard!! One of my favorite things is raking and burning!! I know, I'm a little strange. In all reality, I really do love working in my yard and I love being outside on nice days soaking up some vitamin D. Today however, I'm taking a break and giving my back a rest. I'm seriously thinking about just sitting outside in the sun...doing nothing. MAYBE...

I suggested to Matt since the weather is so nice that we should put up our Christmas lights so we're not doing it in the cold. I'm pretty sure he wasn't as excited about that brilliant idea as I was!! ;-) It's hard to believe that Christmas is just around the corner and even harder to believe that I'm not at all ready for it. That's not normal for me. Give me another week and maybe I'll kick into gear, I hope!!

It's pretty hard to think about Christmas when your trees think it's Spring!!! Check out the following photo...
















What's wrong with this picture? I'm pretty sure those are buds!! I know, very strange!!

Get outside and take advantage of the wonderful weather!! Sooner or later we will have Winter upon us!! {{sigh}}!!

Little Miss McKenna!

Yesterday I had the privilege to take pictures for McKenna's upcoming baptism. What a little sweetheart she is. Now, I do not profess to be a photographer in any sense of the word. I do like to take pictures, but I don't even have a really good camera. This didn't stop Jaime, McKenna's mom, from asking me to do this. I took pictures of McKenna's older sister when she was baptized, so I guess maybe it's tradition.

Here is a sneak peek for Jaime and McKenna...
(click on them to view close-up!)


















































































































































































































































































McKenna is such a pretty little girl, I had a hard time choosing which pictures to share, so I shared a lot!!! Oh how I wish I had a really good camera, the pictures would be so much clearer and crisp!!

One last picture to remember the day by...the wind...


















Jaime, I will be getting a CD to you within the week. Have fun picking which pictures you would like me to use on the program!! :-)