The Boat, the Island, the Park

 It's Thursday! My sister Bonnie has been sending out weekly emails to members of her family, and it seems like such a good idea to take a few minutes and remember the good things that happen during the week. I don't know that I will ever be as regular as she is (you can see by the number of posts that I did well for a couple of years and then things kind of petered off). No matter, any opportunity to write down some family history is an opportunity to be taken. We went out to Point Robinson Lighthouse Park on Monday with Andy, Aaron and Courtney, Matt and Wayne and Jaaron and Elise and our respective families. It was our first sunshiney/outdoorsey trip of the year and it was pretty great. Great weather, the beach was nice, a pretty great grass area with picnic tables and of course a lighthouse. The ferry ride was neat, albeit short, and we saw some kind of dolphin/porpoise pod from a moderately close distance. I didn't know there were dolphins in the Sound, but I saw them so they must be there. 

At the park the kids tried to fly kites, but the wind was not steady enough and they got frustrated pretty quickly each time they tried to fly them. They also played lacrosse. The adults played on the beach, and we did corn-hole (beanbag game) up next to the picnic tables. Andy, a few of the girls and I hunted for beach glass. Matt asked for a piece of beach glass at least 10 inches in diameter, as measured by his large hands, and I was pretty sure that given the meager supply on that beach, we wouldn't find anything remotely close. Found a few nice pieces, a few "too new" pieces, and then Andy and I were walking along the beach talking about how to make millions of dollars, when he stopped and picked up the biggest piece of each glass I have ever seen. It was probably 7" in diameter, and even had barnacles on it so you know it's legit. Anyway, we walked back towards the group, because now what was the point and showed it to Matt and I had to eat crow and proclaim Andy the winner of beachglassing. I did find a pretty cobalt blue piece later on, and everyone knows those are the best so really, I won in the end. 

We all had fun until we realized that none of us brought sunscreen. We are still dealing with the sunburns days later, each in our own way. Me, with lidocane aloe, Rachel with her oils and a new yogurt salve that she found on the internet, Ammon by being mad at us and taking cool baths, and Noah by not wearing shirts. Emma I guess found either Elise or Courtney who put sunscreen on her, and so she was mostly fine. Noah only had to not wear shirts because he wore sweatpants to the beach. I asked him why he wanted to wear sweats to the beach before we left, and he said he wears them everywhere, and why should the beach be special. I chuckled and told him it was going to be hot, and wouldn't he rather be in shorts, but he said no. So Noah got the last laugh, because it was only his arms and the back of his neck that got burned, not his legs like everyone else. He was hot, but at least he wasn't burned. 

After the beach, we went to go get some dinner at a burger place on the island called Island Queen. Not Dairy Queen. It was not cheap, and I don't know that I would actually recommend that place to anyone unless they didn't have anywhere else to go, which we didn't, not really. It was pretty expensive, and the portions were not so big to the kids disappointment. We ordered them kids meals for $10/each. Ammon and Emma got corndogs, and Noah got a grilled cheese sandwich. They come with fries, a small drink and an ice cream cone. When the food came out, I chuckled because I saw the corndogs... They were about 4 inches long. It was like they had taken a bun length hotdog and cut it in half. It was pretty funny to watch the kids faces as they realized what they got! Noah's "grilled cheese" wasn't much better, it was just a burger bun with some melted cheese, probably microwaved. And the ice cream cones they got afterwards were two scoops of ice cream, about 1.5" in diameter. We realized later on that the restaurant charges a dollar for those cones. 

After eating, we went back to the ferry terminal. The Petersons lagged behind a little, but it wasn't a big deal, because the ferry wasn't supposed to be there for another hour or so. We were all expecting to wait a while. However, when we got there, they were still loading the ferry from the earlier time! Matt and Wayne left the restaurant a little earlier than the rest of us and were safely on board which was good, because Wayne needed to get home, and waiting would have put him in a time crunch. But Aaron and I were able to squeeze into two of the last three spots on the boat! We frantically called Jaaron to see where he was, but then a truck came around the corner, and that was that. The truck got on and the Alldredges waved goodbye to Vashon Island, leaving the Petersons to spend the next hour by themselves waiting for the next ferry. It was pretty funny. I thought about making a sympathy sign and sticking it on their door, but Rachel said it would just be rubbing it in. 

Here are some photos I took!

It's Been a Rough Year

 I guess the thing to do is talk about how our family has coped this last year with Covid-19. 

 

So, at the end of 2019, word was just starting to come out about this new virus that was apparently coming out of China. Its a coronavirus strain that they think made the jump from bats(?) to humans. It is a pretty contagious disease (maybe), that has caused lots of illness around the world. There is a big battle right now over how deadly the virus actually is, and how the government counts coronavirus deaths, and whether or not hospitals were ever overloaded with COVID patients, and how the government and pharmaceutical companies fast tracked a vaccine, and how the government and all the doctors are telling everyone how we all need to get the vaccine or else we are bad citizens (which just makes me not want to get one), and the whole world getting basically shut down for a whole year while everyone tried to figure out how to stop a virus from spreading (which didn't work), and people wearing masks, and making masks being a new business opportunity for lots of individuals and organizations, and everything getting really expensive because the world shut down and companies ran out of stock of everything. Toilet paper was a precious commodity for a while. Also, the Church made everyone do church at home. And no one could see anyone or go anywhere, because of lock-downs. Schools did virtual classrooms, I work remotely still, Rachel's music classes were over Zoom (a video calling program), kids had Zoom birthday parties, people had Zoom weddings, Zoom Thanksgiving and Christmas. Then there was Zoom church. It has all been pretty interesting. Now, with a vaccine available, governments are slowly allowing people to do stuff again, but only if you wear a mask, or have a gold star on your chest (not really) or a vaccination card that can be lost, stolen, forged (easily) or lie about your vaccination status, because there is no central directory that anyone can access (yet).

ANYWAY! Our family has had a pretty good time though it all. We still went to California to the Bohlin's cabin, we went to families houses, had real birthday parties, went to Arizona to stay with Pat and Judy for a week. We did our best to include everyone who was not scared for Thanksgiving and Christmas, got our Christmas tree from the same guy at work. We pulled Noah out of public school and put him into a home school group that met regularly in person, and Ammon kept attending his own home school group. That was kind of a logistical nightmare, planning on where those groups were going to meet on which days and scheduling it so we could get them to different places. Since I was working at home, I was able to take some of that responsibility so Rachel could keep her music studio open. She helped teach one group, and I taught the outdoor class for the other group.

Church has started up again, meeting for sacrament and 2nd hour classes, but the timing still hasn't been figured out in our ward at least. I got called to be the Assistant Ward Clerk, and that has been an eye opener into the state of the ward. I now know lots of things that I don't want to know. I am also now responsible for maintaining our neighborhoods well property. So I have to go over to the pump house every other day or so and monitor how much water is being used, how much chlorine is in the system and send reports to the county Health Department. fun stuff.

Musings, and Other Nonsense

I want to catch up on some of the things I am working on. We are doing a couple of big projects and I think it is time to talk about some of them. The first on is the conversion of our garage into a workout room/music studio for Rachel's music classes. We are getting so close to being done. I have insulated and sheetrocked the garage walls and ceiling, installed lights and plugs, painted and trimmed out windows and walls and doors, put carpet down in the workout space and just last week, I bought carpet tiles to do the floor of the studio space. It has been a long project, because I haven't been able to clean out the garage until about two weeks ago, so we are just now going to start and carpet the floor. That has been waiting now for about a month or two.

We also started working on putting the back yard together again. That has involved making kids pick up rocks in the yard for quite some time. It was good work for them, and on the plus side, now I have about 10 yards of cobblestones to line all the yard paths, build fire pits, and any number of other uses. We are even going to put in a meditation maze in the rocky area under our horse chestnut tree:

As a part of getting the yard ready, I cut down three trees in the yard, three pines that were not very nice to look at. One was rotting in the center, and the other two were just kind of in the way. So I had a friend come and help cut them down. We got lucky and only hit one fence (chain-link, that popped right back up once the tree was off it) and nothing else in the yard. I have been splitting firewood for several weekends by hand. It's a good workout, especially since these were 40yo trees that had a ring of branches every three feet. And then stump removal has been the other issue. I have been burning one of them out, and that has been fun. I drilled out the middle, and a hole or two in the side and lit it up. It wasn't going fast enough so I added some air. I also decided to try melting some aluminum. It worked.

 

We also had 72 yards of topsoil brought in to plant grass, since I was never going to be able to remove enough rocks to make enough of a difference: 

The landscaping guy says this isn't enough, so when he cones to do the yard work, he will bring more. He says the dirt I bought (for way too much) will make a pretty top dressing...

We also had new windows installed on the ground floor of our house. I don't have any pictures of this, but it has made a BIG difference in our heating bills. They are triple-pane, argon filled, foam filled fiberglass framed, low-e coated, and a ton of other things. I took the heat vision camera home from work one day to see if it really made any difference, and while I don't have the photos to back up my claims, I can tell you that it really does.

I Gave Another Talk at Church

I was asked to give a talk a couple of weeks ago, this time on prayer. I thought that I would post my thoughts on the subject:

Drawing Closer to Heavenly Father through Prayer:

Good morning Brothers and Sisters. It’s nice to be here at church on this beautiful Sabbath day. It has been a couple of years since I have had the assignment to give a talk, and hopefully after today, a few more will pass until I get to do it again. During that time, there have been many talks, I sure much better than this one, and I have enjoyed all of the ones I have managed to stay awake for. You might know my family, or at least remember seeing my family: We have a tendency to show up a little late and then walk right up and sit in the front pew as has been the custom in my family for the past 30 some odd years that we have all been coming to church in this building. My name is Nathan Alldredge. My wife Rachel is sitting down there with my sons Ammon and Noah, and my daughter Emma.

A little bit about me, I am not the greatest communicator. My wife will confirm this for you if you have any doubts.  As an example, yesterday we were scheduled to go out to my sister’s house to participate in a baby blessing, since her husband has been scheduled to work for the last several Sunday’s in a row, and it looks like he will continue that trend for the foreseeable future.  Anyway, this had been scheduled for a few weeks, and I am sure that she had told me about it. But I probably wasn’t paying attention and so it didn’t get processed in my head as something that I was scheduled to do. I had lots of plans in my own head, projects that I wanted to get done yesterday. It seems like I never have enough time during the weeks to get anything done, and so when I thought I didn’t have any plans yesterday, my first thought should have been “What am I missing?” “What did I forget about?” But it wasn’t.  I was going to do some electrical wiring, and get out our wood chipper to take care of the big pile of brush in the backyard… Luckily I have a wife that pays attention to things and events, and so she was able to set me straight. I really should try harder…

In my example above, there were several fails in communication on my part. I likely went through the motions of listening to the event being communicated to me, but I didn’t REALLY pay attention. I may have even nodded and smiled. Maybe I was too tired to process the communication, or I was thinking about something else at the time that the day and time of the blessing was communicated to me. I also mentioned that when I thought I had a bunch of free time, I should have known better. I should have asked someone (my wife) if they had better plans for me and my day. Not that my plans were bad, because those were all things that need to be done. But there were better plans that I might have missed out on if I didn’t have someone to remind me.

I mention this because there are several things about this story that draw parallels to developing a real, personal relationship to God through prayer. Listening, paying attention to responses, asking what gods wants for me… I don’t know if this is what Brother Fairbanks had in mind when he called me to speak, but it is what I immediately thought of when I heard the topic. I felt like I needed to work on this myself, and perhaps share these thoughts with you all as well.

What is prayer? Elder James E Faust listed several attributes that make up a prayer in a conference talk entitled “The Lifeline of Prayer” First, prayer is a humble acknowledgment that God is our Father and that the Lord Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. Second, it is a sincere confession of sin and transgression and a request for forgiveness. Third, it is recognition that we need help beyond our own ability. Fourth, it is an opportunity to express thanksgiving and gratitude to our Creator.  Fifth, it is a privilege to ask Deity for specific blessings. I would like to add a sixth, that prayer is an opportunity to align our motives with those of our Heavenly Father. In essence, Prayer is a perfect form of one on one communication.

Once we become familiar with these different aspects of prayer, the whole reason for prayer becomes more than just something we do. It becomes an opportunity to learn about God, and speak with a loving Father. James 4:8 teaches us that if we Draw Nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. What that scripture tells me is that the harder we try to come to know and understand our heavenly father, the more open and available he becomes for us. He becomes more than just a nebulous idea in our minds, he becomes a real person. Someone we can really truly pour out our hearts to, someone who understands and cares. Someone who has our best interests in mind. Someone who will help us find true happiness. It is a way for us to open ourselves up completely to a person who completely and perfectly understands us. Once we begin to accept the idea that prayer is a true two way form of personal communication, we can begin to ask real, heartfelt question and listen for the responses that God sends us. Sometimes they may be immediate, sometimes they may be slow in coming. Sometimes we may hear a voice. Other times, a feeling of peace or comfort. Many scriptures teach about the ways God will speak to us if we listen. My purpose in giving this talk is not to enumerate those ways, but simply to remind us that he does listen, and he definitely can answer, if we are willing to hear. It is also an opportunity to speak to someone who knows exactly what we are talking about. Matthew 6:8 teaches For your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. We can be completely comfortable knowing that we are not going to be misunderstood, because God knows our thoughts and intentions. We can feel comfortable praying for things like Amulek teaches in Alma 34: 20 Cry unto him when ye are in your fields, yea, over all your flocks. Cry unto him in your houses, yea, over all your household, both morning, mid-day, and evening. Yea, cry unto him against the power of your enemies. Yea, cry unto him against the devil, who is an enemy to all righteousness. Cry unto him over the crops of your fields, that ye may prosper in them. Cry over the flocks of your fields, that they may increase. But this is not all; ye must pour out your souls in your closets, and your secret places, and in your wilderness. Yea, and when you do not cry unto the Lord, let your hearts be full, drawn out in prayer unto him continually for your welfare, and also for the welfare of those who are around you.

Elder Faust relates the experience of one Daniel Tyler, an associate of the prophet Joseph Smith: “At the time William Smith and others rebelled against the Prophet [at Kirtland], … I attended a meeting … where ‘Joseph’ presided. Entering the school-house a little before [the] meeting opened, and gazing upon the man of God, I perceived sadness in his countenance and tears trickling down his cheeks. … A few moments later a hymn was sung and he opened the meeting by prayer. Instead of facing the audience, however, he turned his back and bowed upon his knees, facing the wall. This, I suppose, was done to hide his sorrow and tears.
“I had heard men and women pray from the most ignorant, both as to letters and intellect, to the most learned and eloquent, but never until then had I heard a man address his Maker as though He was present listening as a kind father would listen to the sorrows of a dutiful child. Joseph was at that time unlearned, but that prayer, which was to a considerable extent in behalf of those who accused him of having gone astray and fallen into sin, [was] that the Lord would forgive them and open their eyes that they might see alright—that prayer, I say, to my humble mind, partook of the learning and eloquence of heaven. There was no ostentation, no raising of the voice as by enthusiasm, but a plain conversational tone, as a man would address a present friend. It appeared to me as though, in case the vail were taken away, I could see the Lord standing facing His humblest of all servants I had ever seen. … It was the crowning … of all the prayers I ever heard.”
I believe that this is the kind of relationship we should all be striving to have with our Father in Heaven.  There have been points in my life where I have felt that this is true for me as well. That I really had a grasp on my relationship with my Father in heaven. There have been other times when I have not felt that same closeness. Again, like James teaches, it was not my Father that drew away from me during those times, but I who had drifted away from him.