2018 April Visiting Teaching/Ministering Handout

In our April General Conference of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints, we were instructed with new direction in regards to the visiting teaching program.  Ministering is replacing visiting teaching.  Ministering is Christlike caring for others and helping meet their spiritual and temporal needs.
Because of this change, I was unable to make a handout for visiting teaching as I had in the past.  Sunday morning as I woke up, it came to me.......make a poster on ministering to hang in front of the Relief Society room, just as I had done each month for a visiting teaching quote.
I already had the border/frame picked out that I wanted to use for my unused visiting teaching quote, so all I had to do was add the ministering quote.
Luckily from a few weeks ago I had solved a big problem that would not have allowed me to put text on a slanted frame.  I have the Microsoft Office Word 2007 program loaded on my computer, where I create all my graphics with the help of Google Images.  In the 2007 Word program, it does not allow you to tilt/rotate your text box.  I spent a lot of time looking on the internet trying to find a way to tilt my text box but came up with very little.  I knew there had to be a way so I just kept playing and playing until B.I.N.G.O....at last I figured it out.  Right away I started tilting/rotating text boxes and writing down step-by-step instruction on how to do it so I wouldn't forget.  It takes me quite a bit longer to get a tilted text box that you can easily do from a Word 2010, or higher program.  
Sometimes, you need to do what you need to do and just figure out a way. On a side note, you can use WordArt, but I've never been able to get it to adjust to the fitted space I need it to go in.  Ho-Hum...Sorry!
Below is the wording I chose to make my MINISTERING handout/poster.

Click on THIS VIDEO LINK, where President Russell M. Nelson, Sister Jean B. Bingham, Relief Society General President, and Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles gives some insight as to what ministering is all about.

Trusty Blue Steed Hugs

I have mentioned in a few blogs about my husband's "Trusty Blue Steed".  But then there was this morning.............I looked out our dining room window to see my husband giving his trusty blue steed a big hug.

Seriously, it took me by surprise for just a second. Zooming in closer to take a better look.....yep, he's hugging his tractor.

This was very new to me, as I had never witnessed my husband hugging his faithful, blue steed. I stood their for a minute, or two trying to figure this out.  Just as I had it figure out, I saw him surrounded in smoke.

I'm assuming he was choking (ha, he goes from hugging to choking) his tractor, somehow, to get it started since it was fairly cold this morning.  He's not in the house to ask all the particulars, but that has to be it, cause shortly after, he was out discing/disking the field. And to be honest, I'm not even sure that is what he was doing!

 

After living on a farm/ranch for 38 years, you would think I would know all this stuff...wouldn't you?!

UPDATE:  My husband just came in the house because it was snowing.  Yes, we live in Idaho, where one minute the weather is fairly good and a little over an hour later...............Boom!

I asked my husband to come to the computer where I showed him what I was posting.  He said, "oh, you shouldn't show those top photos because what I was doing was actually a little dangerous".  My question, "then why are you doing it?"......oh, boy! 

But, in answer to my question as to what he was doing in the field, he stated that he was lightly aerating the pasture because it is sod bound. Are you confused yet?  I am!

Bridal Wreath Spirea Trimming

To say that our bridal wreath spirea was way overgrown and a total mess would be an understatement! We have lived in this home for 20 years and other than cutting out branches here and there, the spirea has never had a good trimming.

 

 My sister and her husband had a weed eater that they no longer needed so they gave it to us and boy, did it ever save us oodles of time.  It only took us...ahem...my husband, approximately two hours to trim the entire hedge.  That sounds like quite awhile, but when you consider the total mess it was in, I'm thinking it was fantastic.  Both sides had big piles of branches.

Now that it is all trimmed, I can't wait for spring to see how it is going to look.  The farthest end is so thick but due to a bad winter a few years ago, this lower end is a bit more sparse, as you can see in the above photo.  I hope we did a good thing trimming it up.

Jade Tree

Many years ago, my friend gave me a Jade Plant.  This morning as I was sitting at the table, I noticed some spiky things hanging down from one of the stems. I've never noticed those before so I got up to look to see what they were.  As I touched them, to my surprise, they were actually really stiff and a little sharp.

It was then that I notice my plant actually had a cluster of pinkish white flowers at the tip of another stem.

 

I called my friend (whose plant/tree is at least five feet tall) who gave me the plant to tell her about my flowers.  She said that she also had her plant many years before it flowered.  She stated that now my plant has started blooming, it should bloom every springtime.

I decided to hit the net to see what information it had about my Jade Plant.  I read that my plant had many different names.....Money Tree, Money Plant, Jade Plant, Jade Tree, Friendship Tree, Lucky Plant, Dollar Plant, and Pink Joy.  It's scientific name is: Crassula Ovata and is native to South Africa and Mozambique.

WHO KNEW?!.....NOT ME.

To find out more information on the Jade, you can do a Google search, or by clicking HERE, it will take you to the site where I gathered my information.

The following photo is from the site I was searching.... Photo via gardensonline.com.au

I wonder if my plant will ever look this beautiful...........