Month: August 2026

A Piece of Heaven on Earth

| cnaglis63

This past weekend was full of moments that brought me great joy. I had the feeling of being part of the greater wholeness this makes up our lives in this mortal existence. Despite our eminent departure from this area, with much work to be done, we decided to attend the annual Ward Camp. We prepared our trailer and headed out on Friday afternoon. This camp was set on an incredibly beautiful piece of property that belongs to members of our ward. They have 100 acres full of adventure and fun. There are trails to go travel on throughout their 100 acre woods. One year the family created a trail for their wife and mother and named the trail after her. The campers were gathered on a lower level surrounded by trees and not far from the lake. There was a mix of tents and trailers. I was especially proud of my friend Olya, who came to the camp with two of her children and set up tents. They had never camped before! My dear friend, Gordon also camped with everyone and slept in a tent brought by another family.

Brother Zobell and Brother Hatch sitting & visiting.
Oh, the ice cream!

We were in our own little world (encampment) hidden away from the world. There was no cell service and we all visited and played together. The host family had a gator to haul supplies and people as well as a barrel train. The barrel train took people all throughout the trails on the property. There were plenty of outdoor games brought as well. We started the Friday night with a potluck meal. This is where Erik and I made the Watermelon Feta Salad. I had to take a photo of a baby who had just celebrated his first birthday the day before camp. His mom had an ice cream cone and once he tasted it, there was no going back! There was a central firepit which we all gathered around in the dark. My cousin Kelly, had a bug zapper that was quite entertaining. He was trying to protect us all from the mosquitos. We headed to bed and I slept so wonderfully well.

Camp set up
The Candy Launcher sends candy flying everywhere.
The Barrel Train which eventually even the adults were riding.

Morning brought a pancake breakfast where after everyone was finished, a pancake eating contest began. It was only between Kelly and a newly baptized member who is a youth. The contest was won by Kelly with a margin of 30 to 22 pancakes. Imagine my surprise when Kelly’s gout started raging that day (totally tongue-in-cheek).

We were able to visit more thoroughly with members who we don’t get to see for as long a time on Sundays. The part that stirred my soul was how well the youth interacted with the adults. I was able to chat with several youth. One young man who is only 10 years old, said to me on Friday, “Here’s an easy way to get down to the lower level of camping…not that you’re old; because you’re not!” Such a courteous young man!

In the afternoon on Saturday, we felt a few drops of rain and thus the decision was made to get all the trailers up the hill and on the higher level. That became an adventure! Our Bishop had borrowed a truck and trailer for his family and he was struggling to get his rig up the hill. He backed up a couple of times and finally another plan was hatched. Two men had long pieces of 2X4’s to hold up the zip line so that the trailers could all pass underneath. One by one, the trailers all made it up the hill and onto the higher level to park. I don’t think a ward camp can go without some sort of adventure.

To keep the party going, the Ward Corn Bust was held at the same location on Saturday evening. We had a lot more people join us and it was a joy to visit with more people yet again. The Kites were visiting from Finland and we had good discussion on life in Finland, especially as Greg was called to be a Branch President. Greg does not speak Finnish but was told that the Lord needed him in that position. All in all, this may have been the best ward camp I have ever been to. It was definitely a piece of heaven on earth.

We headed home about 7 pm and got the trailer emptied and situated. The next morning we were headed to Olds where we had been part of that ward for 25 years. One of my little boys that I taught in Nursery and Primary was giving his farewell talk. I am watching all those little boys heading out on their missions. Miles Vendiola is serving in the Vancouver, BC mission. McKay Salmon is serving in Idaho Falls mission. Cooper Nielsen is going to be in Nashville TN mission in October. Kepler Fitzner is going to …? (I forget!). Dallin Nielsen is going to be serving in the Scotland/Ireland mission. It was like going home to see all our Olds family.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Amy Dudley at church. She was visiting with her family and I got to see her husband and children. Amy sat down beside me and said, “Do you remember who I am?” I gave her a big hug and said, “Oh, Amy, of course I remember you!” I also learned that one of our friends had moved to Olds with her family and live next door to her parents. The talks that were given by Mary Ellen Toker and Dallin Nielsen were wonderful and talked about the joy and love that we receive by knowing our Savior. Dallin’s high school friends attended the meetings to support him on his journey.

Afterwards a potluck lunch was served which gave me another opportunity to visit with friends that I haven’t seen since we moved away from Olds. The joy of the gospel which binds our hearts together is something that strengthens each one of us. We shared news of our families and of course, news of our move. Again, it was an experience of having a piece of heaven here on earth.

As we have tough times ahead of us as the we get closer to the Savior’s second coming, this past weekend gave me hope and joy that made my heart sing. We find our tribes, the people who we can rejoice with, mourn with, and grow together. There we can find strength and courage to face what the world throws at us.

Sharing memories of these youth when they were babies in my care was precious. To tell them about how they reacted to events when they were 18 months old and as toddlers was really cute. They have grown up into wonderful people who will influence for good where ever they go.

This week, we are again packing, sorting and tossing. We think we have a plan on how to do the move. I keep getting the impression that we need to be moved by September sometime. My next big sort will be my quilting books and patterns. I got ruthless today with some scrapbooking manuals. I was also able to gift a sewing machine to my daughter-in-law. That only leaves 9 more machines to move.

The meals that work well for us in the midst of chaos are one pan meals. Chop the veggies and the meat and put everything on a pan in the oven. I seasoned the chicken with taco seasoning and then made a hot honey barbeque sauce to baste the chicken with when it was nearly done. It was delicious and easy.

The time is ticking and I have learned not to do packing after 9 pm at night otherwise my brain hits second gear and doesn’t want to slow down for bedtime.

I really felt this throughout the past weekend. Such joy to be in the presence of wonderful people and experience the reconnections.

As we go throughout mortality, may we leave behind judgement and criticism and simply love as the Savior loves. Keep choosing Him!

The Art of Moving

| cnaglis63

Moving is one of life’s ways of testing your mettle and relationships. As we are downsizing yet again or I should say melding three households, we are being stretched to consider the necessity of our belongings. Eleven years ago, we sold our acreage and moved everything except some furniture to our cottage. We live with a crawl space of only 4-1/2 feet of headspace because of the wet year that we built the cottage. With an abundance of moisture, we were only able to dig down to a certain level and not as deep as we were hoping for.

Two things that I collect are Nativities and sewing supplies. We moved all of the Nativities into the crawl space and there they have resided for the past eleven years. It is far too much work for Erik who is six foot one inch to drag out the bins so that I can peruse my collection. Plus there is not enough display space to set them all up. I stopped counting at 200 sets. We lived here full time for two years and I would go and get a bin and use the Nativities that were in the bin for show. Being five foot one inch, it is far easier for me to get around down in the “pit” than Erik.

So, the crawl space aka the Pit has seen bins stacked away never to be unearthed until this summer. The year of 2015 was when we started our nomadic life and thus, “stuff” has been hidden out of sight for eleven years. Then we moved to Calgary for six and a half years. Rather than empty the cottage, we purchased more kitchen items to set up life there. Furniture was purchased, etcetera!

I am a believer that when your kids are adults, they take possession and full ownership of their belongings. Eleven years ago, I made five boxes of belongings for each of the kids and handed them off. That felt good and that was also when the Marie Kondo book came out about how to downsize and free yourself from belongings that weigh you down. I would come across a document that I would take a photo of and then get rid of the actual document. That really helped to reduce our belongings. A great strategy from Marie Kondo was to be able to let go of items, that you hold it in your hand and give thanks for it’s presence in your life and then say to the item, “It’s now time for you to go and bless someone else’s life.”

Rather than going room by room, she suggests following categories. Marie says to tidy in strict order, starting with the easiest items and finishing with the most emotional items.

The Five Decluttering Categories

  1. Clothes: Gather all clothes from the entire house into one huge pile. Sort through all clothes at once. When we left the acreage, I did this very thing with my own clothes. I ended up with only enough clothes to fill one suitcase.
  2. Books: Gather all books to one place. Touch them to see if they spark joy instead of sitting down to read them.
  3. Papers: Collect all loose papers, bills and documents. Discard almost all of them unless they are actively needed.
  4. Komono (Miscellany): Sort through your miscellaneous items. This includes kitchen items, electronics, cosmetics and trinkets.
  5. Sentimental (Mementos): Save photos, childhood keepsakes, letters for last. These are the hardest to part with, so you need to practice with the above steps. I love to keep greeting cards and thus I need to go through these as well.

Core Rules for the Process

Commit and visualize: Commit to the tidying process and imagine your ideal lifestyle before you begin. For us, this move is costing one dollar per pound; that is pretty good incentive to dejunk.

Spark Joy: Hold each individual item in your hands and keep only what brings you a thrill of happiness or a clear sense of joy.

Express Gratitude: Thank items that you decide to discard for their service before letting them go.

I have found this methodology to really be a help in moving items along. I grew up in the military and we moved every three years. This helped to keep clutter under control. When I remember cleaning out Erik’s parents house, it was a different story because they lived in that house for 60 years. We found three dead microwaves in the storage room. There were many runs to the dump to clear out the house.

Of course there are other authors who have exceptionally good arguments for moving your household goods along. “Your Kid’s Don’t Want Your Stuff” by DJ Anderson is one book. “Nobody Wants Your Sh*t – The Art of Decluttering Before You Die” by Messie Condo (Heather Margaret). Of course there is always Swedish Death Cleaning! There is a lot of advice to help us.

That being said, Erik has different ideas about what should be kept and what needs to make the cut than I do. My sewing supplies absolutely bring me joy and if anything doesn’t, I will happily let it go. I was chatting with the quilt shop owner, Carol, in Lacombe. She told me about helping a lady downsize to a condo and she offered the same deal to me. Any quilt books or patterns that I want to get rid of, she will take it into her store in a Give-Away bin. This will help because there are books that I know that I won’t use anymore.

Today was the first of our virtual tours to get a moving quote. The gentleman on the other end of the line said that we really needed to start packing. In my sewing room this past week was three projects that needed to be ready for quilting. One was for my grandson, Carter, who turned 16 this week. The other two quilts are for two cousins on my dad’s side of the family. These sisters needed help to finish quilts and I offered. I will tell you that I definitely received help from the other side of the veil because I was able to design, cut and sew each quilt top in one day each. I haven’t done that in years! Today I was fixing a quilt that had seams coming apart. Now I am ready to start the packing in my sewing room.

My friend Cheryl, has the same brand of long arm quilting machine that I have and I was able to get the quilts to her for quilting. I have the bindings made and will leave one machine unpacked to get the bindings attached. It’s coming together!

Facebook Marketplace is one tool that I have been using to try and move stuff along. I did sell a fur coat! More listings will be coming along.

One of the things about moving is that laundry still needs to be done, dishes still need to be done, meals still need to be thought about and prepared. Floors (or what you can see of them) still need cleaning. The basic needs of life are still required and interfere with my sorting, packing and finding joy.

I wondered if I should do a side track and call it Tales from Nursery. Serving in the nursery is quite funny and definitely an eye opener. One of our children sits on his chair and “helicopters” on his chair whilst eating snacks. Imagine legs in the air and spinning. No accidents have occurred. This same child was singing a song to me this past week, “Have you ever seen a bear wearing BIG underwear?” The song carried on with several verses. The two of us just laughed and laughed!

We had a couple of families visiting our Ward who used to serve in the Bishopric. The youngest McMurray is a miniature of his dad but way cooler, hahahaha! This kid rocks the best hair I have ever seen on a toddler. It really is fun in the nursery, helping them learn to self regulate and watching them make choices and wondering what the thought process was. Like any calling or work to be done, when you love the people you serve with and for, it is quite fulfilling.

Before we know it, summer will be drawing to a close and within 6 weeks, we will be moved. It’s a lot of hard work and feels daunting some days. I have printed an August and a September calendar so that I can write down my goals and see the progress. Because it was made sure to us that we are doing the right thing, I know that we will have heavenly help as we face this latest challenge.

A favorite scripture comes from 1 Nephi 3:7 “And it came to pass that I Nephi said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord has commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.”

This is one of those scriptures that has a song made from it, and every time I read it, I sing it!

Another favorite is from Philippians 4:13 ” I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”

We can remind ourselves that when the going gets tough, the tough get going. We are stronger than we think. Caveat here: the older I get, I need a little more rest periods to keep me going.

Have courage and remember that if your belongings don’t spark joy, let them go live somewhere else. It is freeing for your mind and your spirit to be unencumbered.

We are off to a Ward Camp-out and then a Corn Bust so I think that this salad is something that I will bring. It’s a Watermelon Feta salad which doesn’t have a creamy dressing to go sideways.

Ingredients

  • Watermelon: 1 medium seedless watermelon, cut into bite-sized cubes.
  • Feta Cheese: 1 cup crumbled or cubed feta cheese (block feta in brine tastes best).
  • Fresh Mint: 1/2 cup fresh mint leaves, thinly sliced.
  • Red Onion: 1/2 small red onion, very thinly sliced (optional).
  • Dressing: 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil and 1 lemon juiced, 1/4 cup red wine vinegar, 2 TBS honey, 1 tsp. salt and 1/2 tsp. pepper
  • Sunflower Seeds: 1/2 cup

Instructions

  1. Chill: Make sure your watermelon is cold before cutting.
  2. Combine: Toss the watermelon cubes, sliced red onion, and fresh mint in a large serving bowl.
  3. Dress: Drizzle the the combined dressing gently over the top.
  4. Finish: Fold in the feta cheese last so it does not turn pink from the watermelon juice, then sprinkle the sunflower seeds over salad.

Enjoy the rest of your summer and stay safe out there!

Families Can Be Eternal

| cnaglis63
Using my rebounder while we are camped at my sister’s house.

The month of July was full of travel, family and making new connections. We experienced the Lord’s hand in our lives in a miraculous way. I love the feeling of calm assurances and knowing that we are on the right track. Along with that comes the stress of what lies ahead. How do we make our transition to another province? It’s the logistics that are enormous because of our circumstances.

In the meantime, we also prepared to attend a family reunion. My great grandparents on my dad’s family are Victor and Susan Hatch. My grandmother (dad’s mom) was Lois and she was the fourth of twelve children to Victor and Susan. I bear the distinction of the being the oldest grandchild and the oldest great grandchild. This put me in an awkward position age wise. I often felt, especially in the teenage years that I was between generations. I was too old for the babies and too young for the next generation.

It is so interesting to me that we all have different memories and versions of our ancestors. On my mom’s side of the family, her grandmother was widowed at 35 and was pregnant with baby number six. My grandparents took her into their home for the last 30 years of her life. Whenever we went to visit Grandpa and Grandma Dennison, Great Grandma Mitchell was also there. I was always a little afraid of her; she came across as very stern to me. On the other hand, my next younger sister, Patti, had a fabulous relationship with her and has very fond memories of Grandma Mitchell.

Victor & Susan Hatch Family

I have a few memories of Great Grandma Susan. She had beautiful gardens and so many colorful flowers. Great Grandma was a prolific canner of foods and loved to make quilts. She had buckets of stretch candy in her freezer. It was in a multitude of colors and flavors. I did not grow up with treats in our house and I was astounded that there was something besides the bare necessities in a house. When I was twelve, we stopped to visit our great grandparents. I had cut off shorts on and Grandma Susan commented as she was wondering if I wasn’t too cold in those shorts; they seemed a little too short. I felt like I didn’t measure up and not having enough self esteem, it was not a good memory to have. Yet, other members of the family have very fond memories of Victor and Susan. I loved great grandpa Victor. He was gentle and kind.

Grandma Susan pulling candy
Grandpa Victor breaking candy into pieces

There are three remaining children from Victor and Susan; Edith Claybert, Opal Greep and Neldon Hatch. They are the three youngest. Neldon’s wife Priscilla would do a demonstration of making stretch candy at each reunion. Everyone looked forward to this treat.

Stretch Candy

2 cups sugar, 1/4 cup water, 1/4 cup vinegar, 1/4 pound butter for greasing surfaces and hands.

Instructions

  • You will need a candy thermometer for this recipe.
  • 1. Stir together the sugar, water and vinegar in a heavy saucepan. Clip on candy thermometer and don’t let it touch the bottom of the cooking pan.
  • 2. Heat the sugar syrup until the candy thermometer reaches the hard ball stage or 260-265 degrees. Don’t stir while it is cooking.
  • 3. Slowly pour the syrup onto a buttered surface like a large cutting board. Be very careful — this is a molten mass of hot syrup. DO NOT scrape bowl. Just let whatever candy comes out, come out. Allow candy to cool for a few minutes.
  • 4. As soon as the syrup is slightly cooled, scrape it into a large ball. If you are going to add any flavorings like vanilla or peppermint, now is the time to do this. Flip the ball of candy over several times using some sort of scraper like a candy scraper.
  • 5. When it is cool enough to handle, gather the ball of candy into your well-greased hands and pull the candy using both hands until you have reached as far as you can. Fold the pulled part over and repeat. Do this for about 4-5 minutes or until the candy is getting stiff and has turned a beautiful white color.
  • 6. Once this happens, pull out a long rope of candy about 1/2″ thick. You can twist this if you want a twisted look for your candy. Lay it out on waxed paper to cool.
  • 7. When it has thoroughly cooled, break it into 1 1/2 ” pieces. Wrap each piece of candy in waxed paper and store in airtight container. If candy is sticky, store it in the refrigerator.

Notes

This candy is messy to make – but it is worth it. There also seem to be MANY different Pull Candy recipes on the internet, and they are all a wee bit different.

This summer is to be the last reunion for the Victor and Susan Hatch clan. It seems that some of the twelve kids have been having their own reunions because of the large number of people now as generations have come along.

We have been having reunions for as long as I can remember. Our family moved back from New Brunswick when I was eight years old in 1971. In 1972, we had a reunion in the Okanagan valley. We were at Camp Woods on the lake and it was idyllic for the family. My grandma told my parents that I needed to get out of the water but they said, “Oh, she’s having a good time, she’ll be fine!” Well, blond, blue-eyed me, didn’t fare so well and I ended up with sun stroke and my grandma Lois thought that I was a goner. We also had Sacrament meeting in a cherry orchard amongst the trees on a hillside. It was so wonderful!

In 1974, we had our reunion in Cherry Grove and MacLean’s magazine sent a writer to do an article on the Hatch family. We are in Volume 87 No. 9 issue in 1974. I love seeing the photo that was taken of the family. My great grandparents must have been so proud of their progeny and their ability to gather together. The article is called, “The Hatches of Alberta”. The writer was Herbert Harker and he had been a neighbor and had watched the mass exodus of the Hatch family as they left Glenwood and headed to the Cold Lake area. They had nine children at that time and drove five wagons. They also took 17 horses, 25 cattle, 300 sheep, 2 pigs and 12 chickens. I do remember seeing a photo from the start of their journey and they also had dogs and cats. They were headed out on a 600 mile journey to homestead in a new area. Their whole entourage was a quarter of a mile long. They left on May 1, 1933 and it took them 60 days to get to Cold Lake.

Their family endured many hardships but persevered and came out the stronger. There are so many stories about growing up in that family. Aunt Edith has told the story about the gas powered iron.

She was a teenager and needed to iron her skirt. Her mom warned her about leaving a window open to do the ironing. Well, she fell asleep and ended up blowing the roof off the house. Thankfully, no lives were lost in this incident but definitely the house suffered structural damage as well as a fire that started in the clothes that needed to be ironed.

On my great grandparents 55th anniversary, all twelve of their kids made it home to celebrate. When Aunt Edith asked if they needed to go to church on Sunday, her dad replied that it was not often you saw a couple with all twelve of their adult kids at church and he was able to introduce them during Sunday School.

The legacy we carry is enormous and I am proud to be adopted into it. I remember two years ago when the reunion was held at the Spring Glen campground. I heard some voices tell me as we were packing up, “You are coming home.” I replied, “I have never lived in southern Alberta!” The next day as we were driving into Glenwood to buy ice, my relatives again said, “You are home.” I replied, “You know I’m adopted, right?” They said to me, “You are sealed to us in the temple and you are ours!” Okay, they had me there!

So, this was to be the last reunion and I wondered who I would see again because some of these cousins, I only see at reunions. We all live far apart and these reunions were great at bringing us together. My grandma worried that her family would drift apart after she was gone and she started having her own family reunions with her 5 children and their families. Between health issues and age, things are changing for each family. As I attended church at Cherry Grove ward on Sunday, I wondered when I would be here again. Seeing family with memory loss and the effects of illness is hard but still having compassion and love for each other softens the effects.

I know that our family is eternal and through Christ and His resurrection we will be renewed and shed the perils of our earthly probation. We are here to learn and become more like our Savior.

When I am with my family, the joy and love definitely transcends everything else. It is wonderful to spend time together and catch up on each other’s families plus meet with new little cousins. I met two beautiful little girls from the Stonehocker/Low family. Penny was 2 years old and such a sweetheart. Her sister Pepper was also beautiful and they were such a delight to be around at the reunion. I will miss seeing all the new members of the family as they continue to grow. Those who have passed through the veil get a view of us all, coming and going!