HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Today, 14 July, is an important family date: it is Ursula Franziska's Birthday! 

In a family of good-looking children, she stood out as a beauty. And she had the grace and elegance to match. When she was very small, just four or so, Mom delighted in telling friends how, on a walk up to the Freinberg with the children recently, little Ursi had said to her, "Mama, you need to push the baby carriage holding your hands like this", demonstrating, "it looks more elegant!"

Of course she became our elegant Aunt Trude's favorite, and it was fine with us.

She should have been a princess, and Mom tried, but she was the middle child in a family that sometimes lacked even basics. It was a situation that was truly not fair, but Ursi shone anyway, and blazed  her own trail. 

Based in Lucerne in recent years, she became, as John said, "the Woess Family Goodwill Ambassador", (re)establishing and strengthening contacts with long-lost cousins and other dear relatives near and far. Thank you, Urs, for being a kind and generous sister, aunt and friend.

Happy, Happy Birthday to you!  You're Queen for the Day! No, let's make it A Week! Or how about A Month?

Letter

It was a beautiful, mild June. I remember it well. This letter captures the mood of the time.

John Charles, age twenty-two, was on his way home from his mission and briefly touring in Europe with some BYU students he had met in his last mission area, Salzburg. (This was permitted at the time.)
Add scanned letter

Hello, 2020!

Our new bishop, Don Cooper, remarked last Sunday that while in the previous century the 20's were known as 'The Roaring Twenties', how about making the 20s in this century 'The Joyous Twenties'? Yes, I like that! 

When this decade is over, I will be 81 years old. John will be 85. Yikes! Crazy. -

The past decade has brought us much joy and happiness: a very dear new daughter-in-law; darling grandchildren who bring so much light, love and hope with them; kind and faithful friends and siblings and adult children and daughters-in-law; there have been wonderful successes and progress and heart-warming opportunities to serve and help, too.

The decade also brought me some unwelcome surprises and much sadness and a broken heart. But I have grown and gained understanding and I'm feeling better now.

Good-bye, 2019!

2019 in one sentence:
'We were very busy with new, full-time jobs (real estate), family, church, farm."

Me, I'm trying to make sense of it all, with my heart spread out from the western US states to Kentucky to Switzerland and now to Russia.
John and I can hardly believe all the positive changes and good fortune that have come our way in this year.
Feeling very thankful.

Quotable Quote

Quotable quote from our second-year medical student in Bowling Green (who just completed the unit on Nephrology):
"The Kidneys Are AMAZING!!"
"A kidney is smarter than any computer!"
"All of the blood in the entire body goes through your kidneys THIRTY TIMES a day."

On Reading

A couple of years ago in Bardstown, Celina brought this book home from the library   [photo of book cover]

It's a collection of photos taken by famous photographer Steven McCurry, over many years in various places all around the world. The backgrounds are fascinating and unique. The only aspect that every picture has in common is that it shows a person or people engaged in the activity of reading: The pleasure, the concentration, the loveliness and joy of reading.

It's no secret I love books and reading, and I enjoy photos, too. I can't stop looking at this book.

I felt inspired at the time to gather some of our own photos "On Reading".

Find the folder with the pictures in it.

Journal Entry

Since it's September again, my baptism month, I thought I'd copy something from my journal of last December that expresses a little bit about my feelings of gratitude. It was our fiftieth anniversary, and in my mind I was remembering and thinking of the joys and challenges, miracles and blessings over the years. When we got married, we were both young and immature and we were very unprepared for marriage and parenthood and adulthood. Of course I was happy, and my heart was in the right place, but I was extremely naive and inexperienced.
 Here's a small part of what I wrote in my journal on December 21, 2018:

"How thankful I am for the gospel plan and teachings! The faith and understanding I was able to develop as time went by, anchored and rescued me. The messages from the prophets in Conference and elsewhere, wonderful Improvement Era and Ensign articles and others, Know-Your-Religion talks, Education Week lectures, Relief Society lessons, messages in hymns, great examples from wise and spiritual women and teachers, as well as personal answers to prayers, and much help and comfort from above - all helped me gain a bit of perspective, understanding, wisdom and experience that nobody helped me with as I was growing up. Mom and us kids [sic] were quite an isolated little unit. Her parents were dead, and Dad's parents had contact with Dad, but practically none with us.
Back to what I learned through the gospel teachings - it's mainly about P r i o r i t i e s. I'm so grateful that the church and gospel taught me to place my priorities in the right place - family and faith, basically. So thankful for that. The babies were my greatest joy and treasure on earth. So thankful I made them and the marriage my first priority [and for many years, about my only focus], along w/ church and family service. And I tried to make our happy, creative home 'a house of fasting, a place of prayer, a house of order' etc."
 ....  "But again, the gospel teachings and Spirit rescued us. How often I used to pray for Heavenly Father to show or tell John something I wanted him to know or understand (in our early married years), and it was almost uncanny how quickly it worked. Because back then he (sometimes) didn't really listen when I tried to tell him something." - End of journal entry.

PS I remember well how I would sometimes pray that the Lord would tell him, and then within days he would say something like, 'you know, I have the feeling that we could/should do this or this.' It's easy to imagine how comforted and secure it made me feel to know the Lord was aware of us and helping us, and also that John was prayerful and obedient to the promptings he was receiving, and trying to do his best.