There's a Primary song at church that is a familiar favorite. It is simply called, "Smiles," and the lyrics are very straightforward: "If you chance to meet a frown, do not let it stay. Quickly turn it upside down and smile that frown away. No one likes a frowning face. Change it for a smile. Make the world a better place by smiling all the while."  Halfway through the week, a personal challenge (of me feeling a little grumpy) was conquered in the form of doing some family history. I had been asked to help with an elementary school presentation by sharing some of my knowledge and experiences in Italy. The librarian at the school (up in Rexburg) had reached out to me (through my friend Andrea Garner, who is the school secretary) last week, and I was trying to get things lined up the day before the presentation. The children were invited to "read around the world" and get their passport stamped as they went from station to station, reading books from tho

The Scots have it right - - they created a phrase to represent something that we ALL wish we could do every single day during the winter months: "Hurkle-Durkle".  This is definitely something that my dear husband enjoys doing, especially on the weekends. He likes to climb into bed an hour early, and then stay in bed a good hour after he wakes up. How precious. :) A recent idea that Scott's sister, Carol, and I came up with is to write letters to their father instead of trying to make phone calls to him. Dad doesn't enjoy talking on the phone, but he LOVES to read. He has always been an avid reader, and even now, at his advancing age, reading is still a big hobby for him.  Scott wrote the longest and most beautiful letter to his poppa last weekend. He emailed it to me and then I printed it out to deliver in person. He gave lots of details about what he's doing at work lately, and some of the things he's doing in his spare time, too. Here is a portion of his let