Thoughts and stories, by Pal

A few gentle and happy thoughts !  Just a quick entry for today, on something I got on e mail.  I like it -- The Charles Schulz Philosophy The  following is the philosophy of Charles Schulz, the creator of the 'Peanuts' comic strip. You don't have to actually answer the questions.  Just ponder on them. Just read this straight through, and you'll get the point. 1. Name the five wealthiest people in the  world. 2. Name the last five Heisman trophy winners. 3. Name the last five winners of the Miss America pageant. 4  Name ten people who have won the Nobel or Pulitzer Prize. 5. Name the last half dozen Academy Award winners for best actor and actress. 6. Name the last decade's worth of World Series winners. How did you do? The point is, none of us remember the headliners of yesterday. These are no second-rate achievers. They are the best in their fields. But the applause dies.. Awards tarnish.. Achievements are forgotten. Accolades an...

        Continued from Blog # 106.  --  Gladys and Roy Eckman  -- For those who read Blog # 106, check back -- I added more pictures I just found!              Roy and Gladys holding the twins, Wayne and Blaine, born 1930. Roy farmed for about a year on 3200 S. Redwood Road, and we then moved to 421 E. 45th S. in 1941 where we lived, until June 1948. We moved to 3384 S. 2nd W.   (This is where they lived when Pal met Wayne, and most of their children were married.  Pal and Wayne lived in Sandy, and would drive up to their home almost every Sunday evening, where they always had ice cream and cake.  She was a wonderful cook, and included dessert with each meal.  She always did the dishes right after each meal , no matter what, and always kept a very clean house.)   We received our endowments 10 Jan, 1934, in the Salt Lake Temple . This was one of the happiest days of our lives. Six c...

                          GLADYS TREGE NNA DAYTON ECKMAN             (Copied from her own Book of Remembrance in her own writing,                                       written in 1961 --  and condensed somewhat.) My parents were Joseph Henry Dayton , born in 1871 at Cedar Fort, Utah, and died in 1915 at Tooele, Utah, and Ann Elizabeth Henwood , born in 1872 at Tooele, Utah, and died in 1944.  They had 7 children,  two who passed away when they were two years old.  ( More about them after Gladys' history.)  Her middle name "Tregenna" was after the maiden surname of her mother Ann Elizabeth  Henwood's paternal grandmother -- Jane Tregenna who lived her life in England.          This is Glady's parents, Ann Henwood, and Joseph Henry Dayton. ...

I believe I need to "Sharpen my Saw!" Remember Stephen R. Covey? I believe we have all read his books, and benefited so much. I remember one we had years ago which was called "Spiritual Roots of Human Relations." In it he recommends that we include in our planning, an important area on which we must focus which he calls “sharpening the saw.” A story exemplifies what it means to “sharpen the saw.” A man is feverishly sawing away at a tree with his hand saw. A friend walks by and asks the man working so hard on the tree why he doesn't stop for a little while and sharpen his saw so that he can cut the tree more easily. The man cutting the tree replies that he can't stop to sharpen the saw, he is too busy sawing. Have you ever felt like you are continually busy, yet you are not accomplishing anything important? There are things in life that we can do that, if we did them on a regular basis, would help us to sharpen our saw and in so doing, allow us to ...

 My great grandmother Sarah Adeline Butler was born February 15, 1841, in Nauvoo, Illinois, and was blessed by the Prophet Joseph Smith.  Her parents John Lowe and Caroline Farozine Skeen Butler lived neighbors to the Prophet , and at the time of the martyrdom, her father was a  body-guard to the Prophet (told in blog # 66).   Blogs # 71 and 72 tell stories about his wife, Caroline.      After the martyrdom of the Prophet, John and his family, along with other saints were driven from Nauvoo.   She remembered her father with other men tying their shoes on their feet with heels to toes and walking that way in the snow so the enemy could not track them.      They settled on little Pigeon Creek, where she was baptized by her father when she turned 8 years old.  From there they moved to Council Bluffs.  Here she was cherished by a Sioux squaw who had lost her own little girl .   This story is told in  #71, in the ...

In blog # 96 I told about the grandmothers of my mother, and her mother  Levinah Emeline Wilson -- who married  John Butler Allen.  Today I'll mention John Butler Allen's faithful parents and grandparents, to give important history leading up to their lives.   The first Allen ancestor to join the Church in 1835 was Gideon Allen, my gg grandfather, and his wife Rachel Hand.  We don't know much of their history, but they lived in Litchfield, Litchfield County, Connecticut, where they heard the Gospel, and several of their living children were baptized with them in 1836 . They gathered with the Saints first in Kirtland, then Nauvoo, and then stayed with the body of the Saints, coming to Utah in 1849 with the George A. Smith/Dan Jones Company.  They experienced all the challenges and persecution which occurred during those momentous times.   Their youngest child, Philo, my great grandfather. married Lucy Alford Hawks as his first wife in t...

Thursday, February 20 2014 Are Wayward Children Strategically Placed in Families? By Larry Barkdull Comment on Article In the article in Meridian today, there was another photo.  I saw this on Facebook and decided to add it, because it is so precious, to see Pres. Thomas S. Monson with a baby. (This article was adapted from  Rescuing Wayward Children .  Click here to learn more .) Over the years, I’ve listened to many parents who suffer because their children have departed from the plan of happiness. Some parents have wondered if they are at fault; others wonder if they are being punished: “What did I do to deserve this child?” I’ve answered “Probably a lot. But you weren’t given the child as a punishment. Likely, you chose the assignment.” When we are faced with an overwhelming challenge, we can become myopic. We tend to see the event narrowly, as if it were confined to a brief season in mortality. While we acknowledge that we lived ...