Monday, June 10, 2013

I Love the Lord (Be Still My Soul)

Yesterday when I was looking for a talk on youtube I ran across this song. It is a paraphrase of 2 Nephi 4 - which is often referred to as Nephi's Psalm. I have a lot of favorite scriptures, but I frequently turn to this chapter - verses 16-35 - when I am down and discouraged and need to be reminded how to get up and move on. It gives me comfort to know that even a prophet as great as Nephi, had moments of doubt, discouragement and self-recrimination, but my favorite part of these verses is how quickly he remembers where his strength comes from and how great, wonderful and merciful the Lord is.

Oh, that I can grow daily to be more like Nephi.



This song was performed at the April 2007 Priesthood Session of conference by the BYU Men's Choir.  The arrangement is by Ronald Staheli and the lyrics were paraphrased by John Tanner.

I was excited to find out that this song is also included on the album entitled "Set Apart" by the BYU Men's Choir which is available to download for FREE right now. Check it out here.  There are a number of great songs.

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Duct Tape - The Proud Sponsor of Today's Laugh

Today's laugh - Tonight I was sitting on the couch in the family room when the air came on.  There is a rattle in the duct right there and our air seems to not be working as well as it should (might have something to do with the fact that it was our first 110 degree day of the season today). Anyway, I began wondering if there was an easy way to check the ducts and see if they had a leak. I envisioned the youngest son crawling  through the attic checking out the ducts and thought, "Can you tape ducts and what kind of tape do you think you would use?'

I had to laugh when the word "duct tape" eventually popped into my head.

Duh. I wonder if that was what duct tape was originally invented for* way back before we decided to use it to make wallets and neckties and prom suits and scripture bags?

Hey!  Maybe that's why it was first only available in  silver - to match the ducts.  That makes so much sense to me now.



*So, if you know anything about me, you know that I had to research this and figure out who invented duct tape and why.

What is your guess?

You can find a more detailed answer here  or here, but the short answer is that duct tape was invented in 1942 by the Johnson and Johnson Permacel Division.   It was originally unnamed, but was frequently called duck tape because it was waterproof and make from cotton duck.  It was first used by the military to keep moisture out of the ammunition cases and its original color was not silver, but army green. From the very beginning the versatility of this tape has been appreciated and military personnel used it to fix just about everything including guns, jeeps and aircraft.  Perhaps we owe the successful end of World War II to duck tape and not to the atomic bomb.

After the war there was a major housing boom and a new use for the tape emerged. The name was changed to duct tape and the color changed to silver so it would match the heating duct work that it was used to connect.

Today I am grateful for

a son who motivated me to work on cleaning my dining room today.  He is really good at clapping his hands and saying, "Good Job!"

the ability to let go of some unnecessary items that have been living in boxes in my dining room for way too long,  Notice I said some, not all.  This is still definitely a work in progress, but I am getting better.

sloppy joes - they tasted really good to me tonight and they made me think of my sister whom I am also very thankful for.