Mom's 97th Birthday and her advice from WW2; Keep smiling and pray for a better world

Happy 97th Birthday Mom!

"Social Distancing" at Mom's Birthday dinner.  We have decided that I will be Mom's main contact with the world too keep her safe from the virus

My Mom wrote letter's to my Dad every day during WW2 and much of her advice and thoughts are perfect to help us get through this difficult time with the corona virus and so many of our U.S cities burning and property being destroyed by antifa or others taking advantage of unrest.  Here are some of her direct quotes from her World War Two letters:

Her advice on praying and keeping our spirits up:

"When the lights come on again all over the world everything will be all right once more and all this will be only a memory, so all we can do now is to keep smiling and pray for a better world" 

Here's her advice about shortages:

– Today I had two eggs for my lunch.  It’s such a long time since I have had two at a meal.  I really appreciated them.  A very kind old friend of ours who has a farm brought us in a dozen.  One thing about this was, it makes you appreciate things.  When you are so accustomed to having everything, it all becomes very ordinary & commonplace & when you have to do without them for a while they suddenly become quite valuable.  On Saturday too, Mrs. McSweeney brought us some cream.  It tasted wonderful.  I think it must be our lucky week. 

Her advice on love and needing others:
Darling, please let me know if there is anything you want and I’ll send it up to you.  No eggs yet, but as soon as we get some I’ll commandeer them and make you some cookies.  By the was, thank you very much for offering to put the world at my feet, but I really don’t need the world dear, all I need is you. 

When Dad was feeling down with the endless war  (as we might feel down about this seeming endless pandemic) she said:

Please don't think that everything in the world is bad.  Surely very much is bad, but then so much is good and beautiful.  Countless people all over the world are giving up all their spare time to help others less fortunate.  Surely these balance, yes they more than balance the bad elements in society.  Probably where you are now there is more bad than good, but even there you'll find something beautiful if you really look hard enough.  It might be a dirty bedraggled little child, but beauty is not always on the surface. Last, but not least, there is our love.  That, in my opinion, is very beautiful and sacred.  Darling, I want you to remember the beautiful things of life so that you can talk about them to our children, that they may be fine and pure and good, like their father.  "Whatsoever things are beautiful, true and pure think on these things" for thoughts are the unconscious molders of character.

Drive by 95th Birthday for Daphine by DBE

Apple Pie from the last of Mom's apples

Update on my Butterfly Garden

The Tent masterpiece

Jules crocheting in her tent at Birthday overnight

God Bless America!

 We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness

WW2 Vets on Pearl Harbor day

July 4th parade Flagstaff

Home school, Moths and Butterflies, Hydroelectric power and Carol's crops

 I'm making a butterfly garden.  As you see below it is a work in progress, but there is limits to what I can plant in the middle of the summer in Phoenix.  I'm slowly getting rid of the grass in this area so I can sow butterfly friendly wildflower seeds in the Fall.  This is a extension of Jules and my Butterfly and Moth adventures.
We got a digital microscope which helped our studies considerably.  Below are pictures we took of our RIP Moth collection.  Pretty cool.  We learned the difference between moths and butterflies and could actually see the differences!

Moth Proboscus

Moth wing

Moth eye and hairy blond head

Beginning of the butterfly garden

 We made a water wheel to fit into our hydro power unit.  We visited Arizona Falls on the Grand Canal in Phoenix which was the first Hydroelectric plant in the Phoenix area.  This is where the canal takes a 20 foot drop creating a waterfall.

Now the falls are divided into 3.  This is the main one and behind the waterfall is a building that has the hydro electric generator

One of the side waterfalls

On the way to the falls, Jules was asking me questions from our Trivia game.  The question was, "What does chemistry study?"  I couldn't for the life of me remember the answer even though I wrote the question and answer!  Well, Jules gave me a clue, AMITU are the 1st letters of each word.  So I came up with, "A Might Interesting Toenail Union".  She says no Nana and we just laughed and laughed.  It stands for "All Matter In The Universe"!  She told me I should put this in my blog so we can laugh at it later on. 

This has a picture of the original water fall

This shows the hydroelectric power station which generates electricity to 150 homes still today!

 This was all leading up to making our own generator from a ScienceWiz kit.  Because  generator has a magnet, we reviewed the power of magnets.  We got the magnet box out again and Jules has more fun making a castle out of the iron filings and a magnet.  We started on the generator.  You connect a little light bulb up to a small motor and use a string as a hand crank to turn the shaft of the motor.  Well this was a failure because we couldn't get it to work!  This happens sometimes.  Jules just got the electric box out and tried to light the light with a battery. 

Water play in the back yard

We have 2 different sprinklers going here, fun, fun!

Ryan baked a pie with Grandma Coral's apples!

A baby Watermelon

Squash flowers

Fresh Peach pie

Peach Salsa

I know that I haven't even mentioned the pandemic compliments of the Communist Chinese Government but that's because I'm so ready for it to be over.  I stopped writing stats on my calendar on June 9, my birthday.  On that time we had 28,296 cases and 1,070 deaths in AZ.  Now we have 94,553 cases and 1,805 deaths.  Of these cases 47, 195 are in the 20-44 age group.  We have a population of a little over 7 million in AZ.  The only good thing is that many more 20-44 year olds have got it recently and they generally get mild symptoms unless they have other health problems.  Mom is even more home bound than I am, but seems to be doing just fine, thank you very much.  I was over at her house today.  I gave her peaches and she gave me apples so I can make an apple pie.  I offered to bring her to my house to hang out and she turned me down.  She's used to being alone as Dad died many years ago.  She says, "I'm my own best friend" and seems in good spirits.