Thoughts and stories, by Pal

Good reasons for the trials we face, and conquer, in life! These are good uplifting thoughts for the day! The poem “Good Timber” quoted by Pres. Monson at General Conference “Good Timber” by  Douglas Malloch Good Timber by Douglas Malloch The tree that never had to fight For sun and sky and air and light, But stood out in the open plain And always got its share of rain, Never became a forest king But lived and died a scrubby thing. The man who never had to toil To gain and farm his patch of soil, Who never had to win his share Of sun and sky and light and air, Never became a manly man But lived and died as he began. Good timber does not grow with ease: The stronger wind, the stronger trees; The further sky, the greater length; The more the storm, the more the strength. By sun and cold, by rain and snow, In trees and men good timbers grow. Where thickest lies the forest growth, We find the patriarchs of both. And they hold counsel wit...

I had my last child, Jeremy Miles Eckman, 42 years ago today! He had 5 older sisters, and 3 older brothers, and "older" parents, as I would turn 40 in 2 weeks.  He was so loved by us all, especially his 5 older sisters, who loved to dress him up, and take care of him.  I remember, as we lived in Sandy at the time, how he would love to go into our garden in the back yard, and eat whatever he could -- mostly peas from the pod -- as it was growing.  He was so good-natured and happy.  As our next oldest, Pamela, was almost 4 years older, he and I spent many happy hours together, going places and talking a lot.  He loved to learn about anything and everything. This first family picture is of our family when Jeremy was about 9 months old.  His older brother Wayne, who had come home from college at age 18, to see his youngest brother was ready to go on his mission.  Jeremy's next oldest brother was 11 years older, and Allen was 13 1/2 years older than h...

I wrote some of this a year ago today, on my dear late husband Wayne's 85th birthday.  Tonight we had a family dinner, sang "Happy Birthday" to him and his twin brother Blaine, and talked about what wonderful men they were, and are.    I'm including pictures of Wayne and Blaine.  Last night I looked at lots of pictures of Wayne, and listened to a video of him telling about indexing and heard his voice. ----------------------------------------------------------       Blaine is on the left, and Wayne on the right.   This was written last year on this date: "First of all, I want to tell all our readers that today is my husband Wayne's 85th birthday!   It also is the birthday of his identical twin, Blaine, who passed away over 16 years ago.  There are many blogs which tell about them.  If you are interested, you can check blogs # 491 on August 29, 2015, # 233 on September 18, 2014, and # 109 on March 1, 2014.  ...

      This is a great article, with true wisdom.  I do believe children were taught         this quality much more in times past, probably through necessity.  Today           children in general are more likely to insist on their own desires                         immediately, and don't have the self control to wait.  A Landmark Study Has Found Self-Control to be One of the Most Important Predictors of Success – Here’s How to Increase Self-Control In Children Posted by  Karen - Hey Sigmund The need for self-control can feel like a tease at times and a bit of a pity, but its influence is spectacularly powerful. A landmark study conducted over three decades has found that the level of self-control children have as five-year olds, is one of the greatest predictors of their health, wealth and success as adults. Knowing h...