Visiting

 After all the worry about Dan's tumor, Sophia and I headed to the colony for a much needed visit and dinner. We loaded up all our tons of goodies we had baked(Sophia did help me with most of them) and headed out. We were in town on Tuesday and Clara asked us to pick up a bunch of pops and juice for the work crew fixing up Brenda's house. 

John and Clara's daughter Brenda is getting married in July and will be moving to her husband's colony in White Sulfur Springs MT. The colony's name is Springdale and it has a unit for her to move into when she is married. One of the customs for engaged couples is the fiance is not allowed to see her new house. The units are not finished on a colony unless needed, so when they get newly married couples the house has to be totally remodeled. Partitions even have to be put into place to make the rooms. The women moving to the colonies are not allowed to help with this house renovation. The men work on the structure and when that is complete, Brenda's sister and cousins will go and work on the house painting and adding all the finishing touches, taking about 2 weeks to complete. You need to send someone you trust to make the decisions for you. Then when your married your gifts are already there in the new house when you arrive. 

There were 5 couples married at our colony last summer and I was fortunate to see it finished, with the newest updated tiles, special space nooks and the generosity with gifts from friends and family, it is a site to see. A favorite gift to give seemed to be cooking and cleaning supplies. With the limited budget these can be hard to acquire and they do have there favorites. 

The colony feeds the 3 square meals a day to the workers, but it is the responsibility of the girls family to provided the refreshments and snacks and sometimes dinners when working late. Hours can range from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.

I do love to cook and have made many a goodie to take out for them to enjoy. It seems only fair since I eat all there yummy food. A favorite seems to be the English Toffee I make at Christmas time and a No Bake Cookie recipe. Both of these were a request. Clara was a sweet heart and offered me all the heavy cream I will need for months to come and oatmeal for the cookies. Sophia and I had a ball making 4 batches of No-Bake Cookies, 3 batches of English toffee and my own addition Orange Chocolate Tarts. We had 5 large platters of goodies to add to there sweet stash for the crew. 

Meeting Clara at the door and getting a big hug made my night. All the gang was there. The women all gave me their sympathy about Dan's health and lots of hugs. These are my dearest friends, my family. They bring me so much joy and in return I hope to give a little as well. I will miss Brenda and little Stephanie badly as they move on. We will visit, I hope it's often. Life moves us forward onto parts of life we don't always expect, but if we have family and dear friends to laugh and cry with, all's well. There's always a smile on this colony and once again we concluded our visit with full belly's and lifted spirits.

(left to right) Sophia, Stephanie, a niece, Donna holding another 6 month old niece.

Brenda