February 26, 2023
Weekly letter;
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| This is just the quilt top to one of my favorite scrappy patters, Trail Mix. |
Well we have had quite the extraordinary week of snow storms and cold weather. I understand Utah had more, but for downtown Portland to get 10.7 inches of snow in one day – it was a record for Portland. Glennda got lots more than 10 inches,
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| Corbett Wed 2 22 - and this was not all of it |
and I only got about 6 inches but we had lots of wind on Thursday.
In Utah the snow plows come out and clear the
roads the minute the snow starts. Not
Oregon!! Wednesday they should have sent
students home earlier than 1 hour early.
They should have listened to the weather forecast and send them home at
noon. The Governor declared a State of Emergency 4 days after the snow
started! (Ridiculous) The buses, cars, Trimet, and especially long haul
truckers were stuck on the freeways for hours. When I went to bed at midnight,
the freeways were all stopped us and I-84 at I-5 was closed. The emergency vehicles couldn’t even reach
the stalled trucks. Most of the truckers spent the night in their trucks and
abandoned cars were everywhere. Amy
texted me as she was trying to get home and said it was a nightmare coming up
Barber Blvd – abandoned cars everywhere.
She made it home about 9pm. Then
of course school was closed Thursday and Friday. Today I read that cold weather
is going to continue for a week.
Glennda’s church was cancelled today.
Mine wasn’t. It was ward
conference today. So I got ready for
church and drove halfway there and the rain and snow mix was coming down so
heavy, that I turned around and came home. I never drive in snow. Ward
conference can go on without me. It is snowing heavily as I write this letter. I'm so thankful for a warm, cozy home.
On the subject of frugality, Glennda shared something from a
book she read by Lisa Wingate:
“A lack of frugality implies ingratitude for resources God
provided.”
Glennda and I have often discussed at length how frugal (not
cheap-but thrifty/frugal) we are by nature.
We were raised with “very little”.
I am 7 years older than her, so my experiences with “very little” are 7
years more than hers. We haven’t
traveled to Europe or abroad, we have lived pretty financially conservative
lives (just ask my 3 children about how frugal I am). We were raised by non-smoking, non-drinking,
conservative parents. My dad knew
farming. Luckily he taught himself to repair farm equipment. So he farmed until
I was 12. He got a job repairing farm
equipment then. But we never had any
extra. I remember my parents worrying
about paying the bills all the time. We
never went on vacations except to visit grandparents or go camping. Glennda and Judy wore my hand-me-downs. We didn’t go to beauty shops (dad cut our
hair). Mom made our clothes if they were
new. We wore our shoes out before we got
new ones. We didn’t work out because we were expected to work hard on the farm
or at the house after we moved off the farm. None of us were overweight then. All our food was homemade. No boxed mac and cheese. We never had peanut butter until we were at
friend’s homes as teenagers or after we were married. We had one car for the 6
of us. We raised fruit in our little
orchard and spent a lot of time in the summer canning the fruit. We grew vegetables in our garden and dad
butchered a cow for our meat (while we lived in Vale). He had it cut and packaged at the cold
storage/ butchering business in town.
They kept the meat in their lockers until we needed it. We also raised chickens for eggs and for
food. I remember making mom a “string saver” out of a round Quaker oatmeal box
when I was in grade school, because we didn’t use cellophane tape. We wrapped packages in brown paper and string
that we had saved from meat packing at the butcher shop or other packaging. (I
remember saving all the ribbons from Marissa’s bridal shower. I am embarrassed now to admit it, but it was
instinct.) I’ve come to realize that my parents raised us this way, because
they were raised this way - during the depression. They had very little. They learned to do “without”. When Glennda called to share this little
“gem” from her reading, I asked her if I could share it with my family. Most of you have pretty luxurious lives
compared to the lives that she and I led growing up. Maybe sharing the conditions that we lived in
growing up will help you understand why we are “frugal”. It has good positive and negative aspects,
doesn’t it?
“There
is no dignity quite so impressive, and no independence quite so important, as
living within your means.” (Calvin Coolidge)
“The way to wealth is
as plain as the way to market. It depends chiefly on two words, industry and
frugality: that is, waste neither time nor money, but make the best use of
both. Without industry and frugality nothing will do, and with them
everything.”
― Benjamin Franklin
“Being frugal doesn’t mean slashing your spending or
depriving yourself of things that you enjoy. It means knowing the value of a
dollar and making every effort to spend it wisely.”
― BookSmart:
Hundreds of real-world lessons for success and happiness
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2008/01/happily-living-within-our-means?lang=eng
Have a wonderful week – in spite of our winter weather. Feel free to share your winter stories and photos. It would be fun to see them.
Love Mom, Grandma, Great Grandma, Sister & Aunt Suzanne
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