Parental Paydays!

Motherhood is an unpaid, many times unappreciated, more than full-time career. I chose it and have given my very best efforts. My husband and I count parental paydays as anytime we are praised, shown love or appreciation for our jobs as father and mother. This can be as simple as a slobbery kiss and an "I love you" from a toddler to a comment like the one we received at a symphony concert to which we had taken our five children ages 16 to 7. At the intermission, a woman sitting behind us said "You have most well behaved children I have ever seen. You really have done a good job with them." Cha-ching! Parental Payday!

Today I got one from our missionary:

Mom, I want to once again thank you for putting up with me for 19 years and diligently teaching me. I know I put you through a lot of hardship, bad days, tough times, and I may not have always been as respectful or loving as I should have been; However, therein lies the beauty of the Atonement and the gift of forgiveness. I have changed. I have learned. I am trying hard to be better each day, and frequently Elder F lets me know of improvement. He also has a few nicknames for me, as in Elder Einstein, Elder Nigh (Reference to Bill Nigh the Science Guy TV program), and Elder Emerson (I hop I spilld that rite!).

He makes a comment and I back it up with science. thus the nicknames. They are all good-natured and he never does it without humor, so I take it nicely. And he is the one that attended BYU before the Mission. I am the Utah Red-Neck/ Midnight-Shift worker. But I did read encyclopedias as a child, so there is not much to be said. Except maybe "Thank you Mom, for putting them on the bottom shelf of the bookcase, within easy reach of hands driven by a hungry mind."

Also, "Thank you Mom, for teaching me a little cooking before the Mission. I am SO teaching you how to make Argentine Empanadas while conversing in about 2 months!"

So, today is a good day!

P.S. I don't know why the spacing is so weird and don't know how to correct it. Sorry.

Would You Look At That!

One hundred posts in just over a year. Who would have thought. I hope to do much better than that in the coming year. This weekend I asked TopDad what my strongest talent is and his answer was "Writing." I take that as permission, as well as encouragement, to keep going.

Blogging is enjoyable to me for two reasons; I get to write about my life, my interests, and express my opinions, and secondly I've "met" so many really interesting and knowledgeable people.

Thank you dear readers. I wish you'd leave more comments, but I understand time limitations.

So here's to another year of exploration, musing and expression.

BONUS: Just received and email with this picture -

Behold a Royal Army - Elder PW is in the back row, third from right.

Noble's Blog

Noble has posted some delightful pictures of her "Immersion" day where she and fellow students spoke Korean for 8 hours, enjoyed Korean food and got to try on traditional Korean costumes. Although she doesn't think she looks good, I do! It looks absolutely natural on her.

Take a look for yourself at The World According to Noble.  I just ordered a pattern from Folkwear to make her a Hanbok of her own. When I first saw the Hanbok (a long time ago) I wasn't impressed, but this past year I watched a Korean Historical Drama and saw them worn and decided they are beautiful. What do you think?

Re-Introduction

My favorite picture of me.

I'm Rozylass, can you guess of Scottish descent?  My grandpa Joe left Dundee, Scotland to go to Salt Lake City, Utah in 1922.  My other grandpa left Norway for Salt Lake City in 1908.  My grandmothers were already there!  I love all things Scottish.  I hope someday to visit Norway and discover that side of my heritage.

I was born and raised in San Diego, California.  I've traveled to or through 45 states of the contiguous 48, as well as most of Canada (we drove from Montreal in the east to Vancouver in the west), Tijuana, Mexico, England, Scotland and Iceland (an adventure in itself!).  I've lived in California, Utah, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Washington, Virginia and currently reside in Iowa, where my husband is from.

Topdad is a retired Marine, we have one daughter and four sons.  We homeschooled them for a total of 14 years ( I wish it could have been longer).  Noble, the oldest is in the Air Force; Elder PW is serving as a missionary in Argentina, with two months to go;  JET is a freshman in college, Dr. Hair/Doc Brown is a freshman in high school; and Dandylion is in 8th grade.

I began this blog with the help of my daughter, Noble, to motivate me to lose weight by making my journey public.  It quickly evolved to be a forum for posting whatever I felt like. 

I am a devoted follower of Jesus Christ!  He is my Savior, friend and guide.  I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  I love being a homemaker; it's what I wanted to become while growing up.  I'm fairly old-fashioned in many ways: I use hankies, I love to iron, I make many foods from scratch, etc. But I truly love and am grateful for modern conveniences like refrigerators and washing machines, running water and electricity.

I'm a student of history and love to read biographies and memoirs of pilgrims and pioneers.  I have dreams of making historic clothing (but NOT in size 20).  I know how to sew, quilt, knit, crochet, cross-stitch and embroider, but I don't do all of them equally well.  I love to read; I enjoy writing and have participated in National Novel Writing Month twice with the result that I have two unfinished novels.  I did have one short story published in The Friend magazine in 1995.  My husband likes to introduce me as an internationally published author because that little story was subsequently translated and published in the Liahona magazine in 22 or 23 languages.  I had the grand experience of speaking at the 2005 BYU Women's Conference.  That was one of the best experience of my life! (Outside of motherhood)

Thanks for visiting, I hope you find something of interest.  Blessings to you in your endeavors.

Random Thoughts

Yesterday I went for a walk to buy eggs at the grocery store. The boys had requested cookies and I was out of eggs. The weather is WONDERFUL! The walk felt good and the persistent pain in my right knee is almost all gone. That means I've been sitting down too much!

I'm suffering from pile-itis at home. There are piles of paper all over. Little notes to myself (LOTS), handouts from church, newspaper articles to share, letters, bills, misc. stuff, all waiting for some action. I'm pondering how to deal with the ongoing inflow of paper to get it under control and help me take action, find things when needed and decide what to throw out. Please, inspiration, strike soon!

I have always loved being a mother; being a mother to adult children is the best! I feel successful to have three adults making good choices, doing what they're supposed to, and they're such fun friends! We have great conversations and good laughs together. Those years of training that seemed endless have paid off. Three raised, two more to go.

Tender Mercy! I rearranged some things in the freezer and uncovered three packages of ground beef that I didn't know I had. Hallelujah, I don't have to buy more until it goes on sale again.

I found, on-line, some fast growing willow trees to plant in the space between us and our noisy, nasty neighbors. Reportedly, these willows grow eight to fifteen feet per year. Fantastic!

For Family Home Evening on Monday we de-cluttered our movies, judging them by two criteria:
1) Is it virtuous, lovely, of good report, or praiseworthy?
2) Do we want to watch it again?
We cleared out about sixty movies, which was enough that the rest fit nicely on the shelves, all alphabetized for easy access. We have lots of movies, mostly because we don't watch TV, and haven't for the past twenty years.

The boys (and TopDad) are going on a scout campout this Friday. It's girl's night! Anyone want to come over and enjoy a good chick flick with me? I miss my Noble!