What a week! I know most of America is thrilled for new t.v. season. Morgan, Jim, and I watched two great series from Hulu (sp?)--Nurse Jackie and Glee--we loved them. However, I'm not thrilled about the new t.v. season as much as I'm thrilled for the richness of new books.

I've been reading "like the wind" this past week. I just finished Massacre at Mountain Meadows--a lovely book about a difficult, terrible subject. And yesterday afternoon I began in earnest The Lost Symbol, the new Dan Brown. I can't wait to finish writing this and get back to the adventure. Also, the blessed UPS man brought the latest installment in the Outlander series today, An Echo in the Bone, which promises to be 900 pages of pure enjoyment about Jamie and Claire Fraser. Also, I just bought the sequel to Hunger Games, a young adult novel I read. This is like having a vacation where there is something to look forward to every single day.

I'm thrilled and the weather is beautiful and I should be gardening and preparing my syllabus for the class I'm going to be teaching, but....I'll just read for another 45 minutes and then I'll be productive.

It's all about connections, isn't it? I just made some chili sauce with the tomatoes I bought at the Farmer's Market last week, and I used my friend Judy's recipe. I love chili sauce and I love Judy. At the end of the recipe card, she wrote, "Good luck and Enjoy."

There's something about a person sharing a recipe that makes me happy. I think of the person each time I make the item, and whenever I think of it, I associate the person's name--thus I make Dianna H.'s rolls, Mary M.'s chocolate sauce, Marsha E.'s chocolate strawberry cake, Bonnie's slush, etc. I have a new recipe this week, given to me by Jill R. because the chocolate marble banana bread she made for a party I attend months ago was so good. She sent me the recipe and I made it for a teacher's meeting yesterday. It was stunningly delicious. Can't wait to make it again. I shared a recipe this week for zucchini bread; it wasn't mine. Every person who got the recipe was thrilled. They had asked when they tasted the bread.

Years ago, I asked a woman in my ward for her recipe for Thousand Island Dressing. She reluctantly gave me the recipe, but she left out some ingredient and it never tasted the same as the one she had made. I always wondered about the wholeness of her heart. Share those recipes. Share the wealth and make it so others think about you. Thanks Judy, I'll think of you each time we eat this luscious chili sauce all winter.