MEMORIAL DAY TRIBUTE

On this Memorial Day 2009, I would like to pay tribute to all those who have so bravely fought and died for the freedoms we enjoy in these beautiful and wonderful United States of America.

Thoughts of those who have lost their lives to preserve the freedoms we enjoy each day causes me to feel deep gratitude not only for them, but for my own loved ones who all returned home safely after military service.

Five of my uncles served during World War II. Their experiences were difficult and harrowing to say the very least. All five returned home safely after the war. Each of these uncles has been a great influence for good in my life and the lives of many others.

My husband and two sons honorably served and defended our country in military service during three different wars: my wonderful husband, Lloyd Alan Kilpack during the Viet Nam War, our son Travis Hurst Kilpack served before, during and after Desert Storm, and our son Christopher Alan Kilpack served during the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Thankfully, they each safely completed their military service and, like my uncles, each live lives that influence others for good. I am so very proud of each of them.

Thanks to all those who have and who currently serve in the Armed Forces of the United States of America. God bless you all and GOD BLESS THE USA.

Home Remedies

I have a confession. I recently fell prey to cheap magazine subscription prices for Redbook, Woman's Day and Ladies Home Journal. Though I admit to being a devotee of some magazines (Country Home, Country Living, Home Companion, and Cowboys and Indians, to name a few), RB, WD, and LHJ have never even been on my "Top 20" list. As I began receiving and scanning my new magazines, I found them to be wanting in useable info (for me that is). While I'm sure some folks find them enthralling, after a quick perusal I give them straight away to the care center. In the new edition of LHJ, however, I did find a bit of "worthy-for-sharing" home remedy stuff. Let me know if you think it was worth the $6 subscription.

Toothpaste
Relieves a bee sting in minutes and reduces pain for more than five hours.

Yogurt
Helps prevent and shorten intestinal infections and decreases the risk of diarrhea while taking antibiotics. The yogurt must contain probiotics in order to be effective. Yogurts containing “live cultures” may help, but not quite as much.

Chewing Gum
Chewing sugarless gum for half an hour after eating helps prevent or reduce heartburn.

Dish Detergent
When used within two hours of exposure, dish detergent helps prevent a reaction to poison ivy. Rub full strength dish soap on affected area for 25 seconds before rinsing.
Any brand of dish soap should do the trick.

Peppermint
Newly discovered to be a powerful, safe and effective treatment for irritable bowel syndrome. More effective than medications. The recommended dosage is three 0.02ml capsules each day. (Not to be used if you have esophageal reflux or hiatal hernia.)

Ginger
Helps calm pregnancy-related morning sickness and vomiting. Also reduces motion sickness. Steep a slice of fresh ginger about the size of a pat of butter in a cup of boiling water for about 10 minutes and drink an hour before travel. Dried ginger tea is also effective.

Camphor-Eucalyptus-Menthol Ointment
Good ol’ Vicks VapoRub (or similar formulas) has been found to be more effective than prescription medication against toenail fungus that makes toenails thick, yellow and unsightly. Used twice daily, the ointment should be effective after 5 to 16 months of use (takes that long for bad toenail to be replaced with new growth).

Baby Shampoo
Helps heal itchy, red, sore eyelids (sometimes caused by makeup of contact lenses). Dilute three drops shampoo with six tablespoons water, apply to eyelids with cotton ball, then rinse with warm water twice daily.

Duct Tape
Duct tape removes warts better than freezing therapy. Cover wart with duct tape for at least six days, remove overnight, replace tape the next day. Repeat until wart is gone (process may take up to two months).

Honey
A spoonful of honey calms a cough better than over-the-counter cough syrup. One to two teaspoons is sufficient for an adult. Never give honey to a baby under one year of age.

Witch Hazel
Helps fight Herpes simplex ( cold sores). Dab cold sore with witch hazel-soaked cotton swab several times each day.

Summer Time When the Livin' Is Easy

KRAKATOA

I recently finished reading Krakatoa by Simon Winchester. This is by far one of the best books I have ever read: enlightening, entertaining, fascinating, instructive, amazing. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves to learn.

A few of the things I learned from this wonderful book are:

1. Krakatoa is/was a small island in the Sunda Strait with three volcanoes on it, Curly, Mo, and Larry. ( I named them that)
2. The Sunda Strait is a narrow passage between Java and Sumatra in Indonesia and has been a busy ship channel for hundreds of years. Lots of spices come from there including pepper and nutmeg.
3. Krakatoa erupted in August 1883 and killed more people than any other volcano in recorded history. The explosions were so loud, they were heard 2000 miles away.
4. When Krakatoa erupted (Curly, Mo, and Larry all at once) in 1883 the entire island disappeared into the sea except a small piece that still today sticks up out of the ocean like a large, lonely dog ear (probably Larry’s ear actually)
5. Almost immediately after Krakatoa erupted in 1883, a new volcano began to form, little by little deep down on the ocean floor. It is an island again and sticks well up into the sky.
It is now called Anak Krakatao or Son of Krakatoa. It grows taller every single day and could erupt at any moment.
6. There are hundreds of volcanoes all around the world.
7. The earth has huge plates deep under the surface that move a lot. When the plates overlap it causes earthquakes. These overlaps cause gas to build up inside the earth. Just like humans and animals, the earth has to pass gas. It passes gas through volcanoes.
8. The earth also has waste products to pass as well. The waste products spewed out of the volcanoes create amazingly fertile soil where vegetation grows in great abundance.

Side note:
This particular part made me think…..a lot. I thought about how animal waste has been used forever for fertilizer. It was a constant during my childhood to have the manure spreader parked by the barn. When the corral got deep in cow poo (manure), the farmer (my uncles and cousins) would use a tractor with a scoop on the front to load the manure from the corral into the manure spreader. Then the manure spreader would be pulled to the field and the manure would be spread all over the field to fertilize the farmland. This process was and is very effective.

The volcanoes basically are a giant manure spreader, spreading fertilizer in a huge way across large pieces of earth which makes it very fertile. A more effective than the manure spreader, less manual labor.

Scientists have recently decided that cow gas (flatulation) is causing global warming.

It has long been known that volcano eruptions cause global cooling by covering the earth with a fine film of volcanic matter that keeps the sun from getting through. So we should keep plenty of cows around to create a balance in the weather when volcanoes erupt. (Just a thought.)

Scientists now generally concur that the earth’s land masses were once all in one piece. If you look at a world map, you can easily see how all the pieces of land could fit together like puzzle pieces.

Another little side note:
In our church, we believe that the earth is a living thing. We believe that when Adam and Eve lived on the earth, pre-yummy apple, the earth was a paradise full of health, peace and joy.

After the fall (the apple incident), the earth fell also into a less paradisiacal state where mortals could live and make themselves happy or miserable.

We believe in the second coming of Christ. We believe that when Christ comes again, the earth will be renewed and return to its paradisiacal glory. In order for the earth to return to this glorious state some serious changes will need to be made; some housecleaning, if you will.

If you read Isaiah 65:17-25 and Doctrine and Covenants 101:23-31, you see how the earth will be cleansed to prepare it for the Second Coming. It will be a paradise again.
So, back to the volcanoes.

9. There are volcanoes in big lines around the earth. They are mostly on the outside edges of various countries. If you look closely at their locations, you can see how, if they all exploded due to the plates moving underground, it could easily push the pieces of the earth back together. The massive volcanic eruptions would cover the earth with great fertilizer and BOOM! Paradise.

This blog is dedicated to my son Chris, because he will love this book as much as I did.

The Spenserian Stanza

While "instant messaging" with Abby recently, she was working on a homework assignment. The assignment was to write a Spenserian stanza. Abby challenged me to write my own Spenserian stanza while she wrote hers.

I first required some “instant” instruction from Abby on what exactly a Spenserian stanza was. I was “instantly” taught the following:

The Spenserian stanza is a fixed verse form invented by Edmund Spenser (1552-1599) for his epic poem The Faerie Queene.

Each stanza of the poem is structured in this manner:

ABABBCBCC is the rhyme scheme, meaning that A lines end with rhyming words like go and Joe
The B lines end with different rhyming words like bat, cat, sat, and rat
The C lines end with yet a different set of rhyming words like car, bar, star.
Each stanza needs 9 lines.
The first eight lines in iambic pentameter (10 syllables per line).
The ninth line is set in iambic hexameter (12 syllables in the ninth line).

This is the first stanza of The Faerie Queene by Mr. Spencer

So dreadfully he towards him did pas,
Forelifting vp aloft his speckled brest,
And often bounding on the brused gras,
As for great ioyance of his newcome guest.
Eftsoones he gan aduance his haughtie crest,
As chauffed Bore his bristles doth vpreare,
And shoke his scales to battell readie drest;
That made the Redcrosse knight nigh quake for feare,
As bidding bold defiance to his foeman neare.


This is my Spenserian stanza.

Jakie Jakerson

Jakie Jakerson went happy walking
Down the lane where lilies dance mid dark loam
Mosey mostly with no need of talking
West east north, avoiding way toward home
No thought for planning, plenty time to roam.
Onward, wandering, sniffing. Now a quest!
South, now west and bolting, slobbering foam,
Panting, hurry, sniff, wagging, heaving chest;
Now done, tuckered, landing plop mid damp grass and rest.
By Mellanee Kilpack


Abby’s Spenserian stanza

Google Maps: Street View
(A Spenserian Stanza Experiment)

A long and lonesome road that winds through hills;
O’er forests, dales, the country sweet it roams.
It sees the land, the farmer as he tills,
The portly kids at rest, the lovely homes.
At sea it stops- Held by the ocean foams,
The friendless little road begins to weep
Above and way beyond the blue sky domes
Nowhere but back, through mountains tall and steep,
Retracing steps, he turns away from oceans deep.
By Abby Roberts

If you would like to learn more about Spenserian stanzas, you may wish to visit the following website: http://www.english.cam.ac.uk/spenser/stanza/about.html

Thanks Abby for just one more of the many things you have taught me and for always making learning with you so much fun, from finding bugs in dirt to Spenserian stanzas.
Love you forever,
Mom

Skipping Rocks

I've been tagged by Belina Blue Eyes!

In my efforts to follow the instructions exactly (sixth file, sixth picture) I found this picture of myself and grandson Dallin skipping rocks at East Canyon Dam.

Skipping rocks brings back some of the fondest memories of my childhood. My cousin Jill and I spent many hours skipping rocks under a big bridge over the Bear River where it ran through Cache Junction, in my beloved Cache Valley, Utah.

(tears, gulp, sniffle)

During the hot summers and after a day of moving pipe in the beet fields, my cousin Jill and I would walk or ride bikes down to the river. It was wonderfully cool and beautiful there. It was shady and peaceful under the bridge where there was an abundance of perfect, flat rocks that would skip sometimes five or six times. I can see them splashing across the water now. We always had this wonderful place entirely to ourselves. We would sometimes explore, sure we would find some hidden treasure or we would imagine we were on the wild Mississippi. We spent hours there talking about anything and everything, or just not talking at all. Just skipping rocks.

I remember the fun day (in the picture) with Dallin at East Canyon two summers ago. As Dallin and I searched for rocks that would skip, all of these wonderful memories of my childhood came back to me. I wanted to teach him how to find the perfect flat rock, show him just the right way to hold it and just the right way to bend horizontally to the water before throwing it, sidewinder style. Dallin was a quick study. He got the hang of it in a hurry.

Maybe Dallin will have fond memories of his childhood skipping rocks with Grandma.

I Looked Out The Window and What Did I See?

Our son Josh, and four of our grandkids shoveling the snow off our driveway.

My husband, Lloyd, had back surgery a week and a half ago. They knew Grandpa was in no condition to be out shoveling the very wet, heavy snow, so they came to the rescue.

How sweet is that!

We heard some noise in the front yard, looked out our window and there they all were, each with their own shovel, working like little bees to get all the snow shoveled off the walk and the driveway before being caught.

After they finished here at our house, they took off down our street, then across the street and shoveled all our neighbors drives and walks as well.

Josh, Colton, Camryn, Dallin and Will, thanks for the fun surprise. Thanks for being such great kids. WE LOVE YOU!

Amazing #1 Grandson

Colton Alan Kilpack, our oldest grandson is an amazing young man and a particular delight to his Grandma and Grandpa Kilpack. Colton has a good job. He's never late for work and his employer and co-workers love him. He has great friends. He gets straight A's in school and he is on the football team.

Just so you don't misunderstand and think that he is perfect, I must add that Colton is a very normal 16 year old who can dish out a bucket of sass to his Mom every now and again. And he has a little red car that tends to go a little too "zoomingly" down our residencial streets.

Like most teenagers, he tends to get preoccupied with his own activities and friends, but still amazes us often with his cool head, selfless acts of kindness, and thoughtfulness.

For example, a few days ago Colton hopped into his little red car and drove zoomingly down his street. As he passed their next door neighbor's house, he noticed George, the very old, frail neighbor, standing in his driveway. Now I dare say that most of us wouldn't think a thing about seeing a neighbor standing in his own driveway, much less a preoccupied teenager zooming down the street in his cute little red car, in a hurry to go do his teenage stuff with his teenage people.

Colton, however, being the amazing guy that he is, thought that something was odd about George standing in his driveway, so he drove around the block and came back to George's house. Colton got out of his little red car, walked up to George and asked him if everything was okay. George told Colton that he was standing on a very slippery patch of ice and was afraid to move for fear of falling.

Colton helped George off the ice and assisted him into the house. Then he got into his little red car and went zooming down the street.

Colton Alan Kilpack is amazing!