Musings after Mongolia

Easter egg hunt in Arkansas

Going from the mission field where all our love, energy, and focus was on moving the work forward to a life without "have to's" is quite the contrast. We had a structured life with a built in support network and plenty to do. Now we do what we want when we want with no specific agenda.

All our friends and contacts in Mongolia don't seem to apply anymore. We haven't yet immersed ourselves in our old network of church friends and activities. We are able to move into our home after July 1 and really unpack and get settled.

In the meantime, we are living as guests in various of our children's homes. The grandchildren are wonderful to be around. 



Our newest grandchild, three month old Max

Tally's youngest daughter, Angelina



Tally's middle daughter, Juliana


Tally's oldest daughter, Elena, - second from the right - during a soccer game warm up




Tawny's second oldest, Chase



With our daughter, Tassa, Darlene, and I helped prepare new ground for a vegetable garden. That meant a lot of digging for me.

We also made numerous trips to a pile of free mulch to cover all the flower and garden beds for three homes in the St. Louis area. It felt good to be engaged in physical activity and to make progress toward a concrete goal.

Darlene put in at least seven hours hemming a prom dress purchased online. It was too long for Maren and needed to be shortened. It was complicated and needed hand stitching to finish. Somehow we are busy as always but not the kind of busy we are used to.

Aunt Tawny, Tassa, and Maren

It was fun to be there as her mother and aunt worked on her hair and to meet her date.

This young man is of Chinese descent.

We probably won't start the new blog, Musings in Missouri, until after we are back in our home. I will be putting a lot of thought about what I want to be doing with my time and what I want to write about that will be of interest to the worldwide viewers of Musings in Mongolia. At the end of our mission we had about 2,500 page views a month from all parts of the world.

We plan a life of service in one form or another and to be active in good causes. It will take some soul-searching to arrive at that point. Family History work - especially with our own lives and our ancestors is compelling. I like photography and need to learn a lot about how to do it better. It is way too early to make decisions like these right now.

We are rather enjoying our time of the sidelines of life and being available to our children's and grandchildren's needs. 

This will be an enjoyable interim as we getting closer and closer to a normal schedule in the fall.  



A welcome rest stop on the way to Arkansas

We planned a spontaneous trip (two days notice) to Little Rock, Arkansas to visit our daughter Tally and her family. She is there alone with her three children awaiting a family move to Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania in June where her husband Eric is working a breast cancer surgeon. Four adults, ourselves and two daughters and 8 grandchildren joined Tally for the Easter weekend. It was a great visit!

This isn't as easy as it used to be



If you give a ride to one, you have to give a ride to everyone

Easter fun - We also attended church as a family with the granddaughters enjoying braided hair.

Each got their hair braided by Nonni



Back row - Nonni, Juliana, Elena, and Mariah - Front row - Aubrey, Angelina, and Annalisa






 



An Easter parade of French-braided grandchildren

In the meantime, I will continue for the next two months on this blog with something called Musings After Mongolia. We will report our mission to the High Council on May 4 and then set a date for a Stake fireside at that time.