April 2, 2006

Dear family,

This week I reached my life time goal - to sit on my wooden porch, rock in my rocker and watch my children plow my fields. That's the metaphor being laughed about while Skye, Bryce and Kyrstyn worked in my office this week on a scanning and archiving project. Here are a few pictures of them working and one of them taking a break. It was really wonderful to have them all there at the same time, animated and engaged in a project, figuring out solutions together and getting the job done. This was a nice thing, rewarding for me.

This week Kaaren has been finishing up the tyvek pictures for TyBook. I don't recall seeing her work so hard and long on a project in all our years together. She is frequently up til close to mid-night most nights and works down in her studio alone - not her preferred mode of artistic creation - except for a radio and CD. Here are some photos of her with a final layout on the kitchen island.

This morning during conference I made four lemon pies. Bryce helped me. I took one to Skye's place where we had a brunch (for which Skye made cinnamon rolls from scratch successfully) with her friends, one to Courtney and Jason's place with dinner we brought to them this evening, and there is some pie left here at home after our own dinner. Courtney and Jason's little Ashlynn is really, really sweet. I held her today for the first time (coughing last week). I looked into her tiny, perfect face and walked around the living room of Courtney and Jason's home and thought how blessed can this little soul be to be allowed to come to this sweet and holy family for the beginning of her sojourn on Earth. Logan loves her. He told me that she likes to hold his fingers.

Bryce is playing wonderful arpeggios and chords on the piano. He was playing the other night when Kaaren and I got home from a movie and I thought for a moment that it was Kyrstyn. He was also playing the guitar a little this evening. Here is a picture of him playing in his room.

Daffodils are blooming all over our garden (see, I've learned after 37 years to say "garden," not "yard"). There are many varieties and Kaaren has made a lovely bouquet for our buffet table.

Yesterday Bryce and I drove to the airport in hail and heavy rain. But after a while it was clear in the valley and we spent some time in the air - quite smooth for such a stormy day - looking at mansions and rivers and our house and other points of interest. It was a nice time. Kyrstyn and Bryce were working in the office yesterday, and then Bryce and I went to General Priesthood Meeting. I really like Pres. Hinckley's talk upbraiding the brethren of the church for disparaging or discriminating remarks about people of color different from their own ("Racial strife lifts its ugly head right here among us"), for men who were otherwise able bodied sitting at home and refusing to get a job; (sounds like Russian/Ukrainian culture doesn't it?) and for unwelcome attitudes toward non-Mormon neighbors (Why do any of us have to be mean and unkind to others?" "Why can't all of us reach out in friendship to everyone about us? Why is there so much bitterness and animosity? It is not part of the gospel of Jesus Christ.")
This was a leader of the church taking the church by the lapels and getting in our faces about some things that need fixing. Amid all the sanctimony we hear at conference time, and the "us" and "them" ("the World") mentality we sometimes hear in our wards, it was refreshing to hear this from Pres. Hinkley. Aren't you pleased to see how vigorous he is at 95?

It would be nice for me to hear what your favorite talks of the conference were and why.

We learned this week that Kaaren's brother, Terry, is having a baby with his young girl friend, Simone. So you will have another cousin this year. Terry's mother and daughter are wide-eyed but Kaaren is, of course, very supportive. This could actually be a good thing for him. "We need another Oswell," says Kaaren.

The Community Chorus is coming along nicely. It is a lot of work but it is rewarding, too. They are sounding better and better all the time. I have a fellow acting as an assistant director who takes my place when I'm gone, who takes sectionals and helps with the ensemble. We work together well and it is a pleasure to share the joy of directing this group and collaborate with someone.

I hope you got a chance to take a look at the pictures I posted last week from our trip to SLC to visit Forrest and Kaarina and her parents, Michael and Detta Bendio. I liked Michael and Detta very much and both Kaaren and I look forward to a bond with another great family. We are working on our wedding/reception announcement invitation list tonight. Forrest and Kaarina appear very happy together and what could a father wish more for his son? We are very blessed.

Light rain all day, washing our travails away and nourishing our fields while my children all over the country plow away with their lives.

I love you.

Dad