My goal to listen to a different piece of classical music each day this year has been fun, but it means that there is a lot of music that I am trying to remember. These were some of my favorite pieces from September, and I am posting them here for personal reference. If you listen to one and enjoy it, too, that’s wonderful.
Author: Angela
I write so my family will always have letters from home.
Date night
We are big fans of Nate Bargatze. Clean comedy, yay!
Fall Recital
Mark’s most recent recital was really unique. Each student performed an arrangement of an LDS hymn or Primary song. Even living in Utah, it felt refreshing to have a recital dedicated to sacred music. Mark played Israel, Israel, God is Calling, which is a great choice for a young man preparing to serve a mission.
Mark is preparing for an audition and a competition this fall where he will play a Chopin Impromptu, which is a very different kind of piece. I just love listening to him practice each day.
Show and tell
This beautiful desk currently sits in our poorly lit basement, and that is no place to showcase something so special. Mark designed and made this for his dad! This corner cherry desk has carved details on both ends, with a monogram and a symbol from a favorite ski resort. Mark designed the desk to house Richard’s computer and monitors in a new home office. Today I am celebrating this quiet skill and Mark’s generosity.
A day
Our car has been hit twice during the past two weeks, once at a stoplight where someone backed into us, and the other time, with a panel flying from a truck on the freeway. Richard was driving alone on the freeway, and was not injured. This is such a tender mercy. There is a lot of damage to the bumper and hood, and the car is being repaired. Things could have been so much worse if the debris had gone through the windshield.
The day of the accident, Richard’s burden grew with two more projects at work, and we were scheduled to host a youth activity at our house that evening. Mark and I set up the activity while Richard finished some work in his office before the boys began to arrive.
The boys chopped wood and made a fire in our solo stove, and cooked hot dogs, marshmallows, and biscuits. Happy sounds echoed through our neighborhood as the boys played kuub. Night fell too early, and soon, there were only adult voices coming from outdoors. I sat in my living room and thought about the good things that happened throughout the day.
A text from a friend.
Time with Mark.
A compliment from a young dad on our home.
A conversation with Paige as I worked in the yard.
A yard full of boys having fun.
Protection from harm. Knowledge. Peace.
Deadline
We are in college and scholarship application season, and it seems to get more intense each time.
I sat through an application seminar last week, even though we have successfully navigated this process several times. “Things are changing,” is what I keep hearing about scholarships and universities.
This week, there is a deadline for a scholarship competition, and we have been through several phases of realization, some of them pretty miserable.
I have loved raising our kids, even this difficult, anxious phase with some of the last lessons before flight. As Mark writes his essays, we revisit the triumphs of growing up and the failures, too. Its a time to look back together before things get really busy, so I won’t wish away these days.
HOCO 2023
One no longer writes the whole word “homecoming,” it’s HOCO. Whatever you call it, Mark says that he had a great time.
Golden hour
Projects
At the beginning of the month, I made a general list of things I wanted to accomplish in September. Most projects are long, and can’t be done in one day or one week.
So far, I have been able to check off just one thing from the list. I play my own version of hopscotch, with sequenced, short steps to do each day for my goals. Some of this is catch-up after a rough summer. Some of this is in preparation for a busy fall ahead. Some of this is because I am in the stage of life when it’s time to part with things. Most of it is study, though. I sit at our kitchen table and read and write through the mornings on most days. Lucky me to be able to do that.
Trembath
Thursday is when I try to spend an hour doing family history. This week, I read a personal history about the Trembaths, written by this grandfather, pictured above. The Trembaths are my dad’s ancestors, and they came from Cornwall, England. They were miners and farmers.
The first Trembath to arrive in America came in rebellion against his controlling father. One day, while farming the poor land, he decided he would not stay another day. He abruptly left home, found passage to America, and he continued mining here. Funny detail: the bossy dad and the rest of the family ended up following him to America. 😂 There was no shaking this father.
They mined in the Great Lakes area, then they made their way to California, where they mined for gold in the early 1850s. They found a good gold mine, and it is too bad that they were swindled out of that. So much for riches.
This week’s story reminded me that our Trembath ancestor had hopes for riches through mining, but his family found them in different ways, including growing almonds. What he didn’t know is that America’s greatest riches weren’t in mines or almond groves, but in the Restored Church of Jesus Christ, and the sealing keys. These blessings were possible because of the inspired religious liberty of the land, guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.
The gold that would sustain his posterity wasn’t in the seams of rocks, but in buried gold plates. It wasn’t a goldsmith who would work the gold, but a “Smith,” just the same, who translated the words found in the Book of Mormon. Their great-great-grandchildren would be the first to benefit spiritually from the Restored Church of Jesus Christ, founded in this land.
Our ancestors sought a better life in America, but Heavenly Father had bigger plans than riches or even religious liberty. He had plans to seal this family together through all generations, for eternity, through the atonement of Christ and temple covenants. He wants to give them all He has. It is a blessing to do temple work for these ancestors!