Remembering ...

This post may really only make sense to my parents and sibblings, well and GR of course, since he took the pictures. So please allow me to indulge a bit in remembering.

The images are scans of damaged 35 mm film taken, I think, during the fall of 1996, it could possibly be the fall of 1997. The film was scanned back when I was working, so 7 years or so ago. I'm sure scanners today could do a better job of "restoring" the images if I knew where the film was...

They are pictures of me and my little brother Sam (for whom my Sam is named) ... GR and I were visiting my parents for the weekend. Sam had gotten the 68' Chevelle running and took me for a drive on my parents street. He drove me around the two cul-de-sacs and then turned the wheel over to me and I drove the beast home. It's the only time I driven the Chevelle, and I'm glad I got to experience it with Sam.
Now, I wish I could remember more about the experience. If it were not for the pictures, I'm not sure I would remember it at all. What I love about these pictures is the barely noticeable expressions on Sam's face ... the proud confidence of taking his big sister on a drive in a car he'd worked really hard on cleaning up and getting moving ... then the reversal of rolls, as for a few minutes, he became my big brother, opening the big heavy pea green doors of Chevelle and telling me to switch places with him. Giving me the encouragement and the confidence to drive us home, as if he were the 21 year old and I was the 16 year old on my first drive around the block.
Tonight marks 11 years since Cam and Sam's accident ... the accident Heavenly Father used to instantly call Sam home. While the rawness of this weekend in 1998 has healed, pictures like these, or those my Dad recently reclaimed from their scouting days, or talking about Sam around the dinner table this past Christmas, remind me how much I miss him, and how hard I want to work to be with him again.

[** I uploaded the pictures so you can click on them and see them in their larger format ... given the poor quality of the film and the motion blur it might better help you tell when Sam is driving and when I am driving. I'd forogtten the massive perportion difference between his frame and mine ... and yet I could still lift him off his feet when needed! **]

Will ya help a girl out?

Remember this shining face? If you're old school university ward - and a handful of you are - you already know Kim. If you're not, many, many, many moons ago we were in town friends ... but marriage, school, babies, and a bunch of moves have made us long distance, via the internet - okay we can be honest here - via our blogs friends. [Mom, Kim's the one who taught Rebecca most of her American Sign Language words as a toddler.]

She's needing a little help from her friends, and her friends, friends, so I hope you'll oblige. Have you heard of BlogHer? It's a conference of women bloggers (who mainly use their blogs as a business venture) and this summer marks it's 5th year. Kim is a finalist in a contest to send her to this summers conference in Chicago, expenses paid! The only way she'll make it there is if she gets the most votes on this poll which ends on the 23rd of February. So if you wouldn't mind checking out her blog, and giving her a shout out on the poll (she's the second one listed), I'd appreciate it and I know this awesome mama would too!

A 2009 First

At the beginning of the year I was released from teaching primary and given a new calling at church ... I am now the ward communication specialist. As part of my calling I prepare the Sunday bulletin and maintain the ward website.

While archaic and at times extremely frustrating, the ward website (housed within www.lds.org) does have a couple cool functions. One of those functions is the ability to send an email broadcast to all registered members with a valid email address listed.

Since external member email lists are a no-no, we are now sending our weekly ward email via the ward website and today - today - is the very first time all year that:

1. The email sent the very first time without failing - more than once I've had to submit the weekly announcement recap email three times before it would actually send.

2. I finally figured out how to keep all my - " and ' from turning into ? and other weird characters.

3. [and this is the big one] I didn't call the technical support line to talk with Rachel or Lizzie for help with a problem!

Fullfilling My Assignments

Since the first of the year, I've been a sub in primary twice, helped teach a lesson to the young women, taught relief society on this conference talk, and finally today, spoke in church.

I really hope this means I'm done for a little while.

Me preparing to speak or teach is not a pretty experience. While I love the studying part of preparing to speak or teach, collecting my thoughts, and organizing them into something with an introduction, main points and conclusion, with personal experiences, analogies, scriptures, and original material mixed with quotes from prophets ... is in GR's words, painful to watch. The entire house comes to a screeching halt while mom is glued to the computer pouring over conference talks and Ensign articles, trying to decide what exactly she's suppose to share with a room full of people who are so much more qualified to speak on any topic than she is.

I must have followed the Spirit correctly on Sunday and shared what I was suppose to, because in all my years of speaking in church, I can't remember ever having more than two or three people tell me they appreciated my talk, and this time I did.

My topic was the topic for Primary on Sunday as well, "The priesthood blesses my family." We talk a lot about the blessings of the priesthood in the church, but not so much on how it directly blesses the family, so I found preparing for this talk very interesting as it pertains to our family.

I'll share two points from my talk ...

First ... "... the most important exercise of the priesthood takes place in the family. [We have been taught that] each husband and father in the Church should strive to be worthy to hold the Melchizedek Priesthood. With his wife as an equal partner, he presides in righteousness and love, serving as the family's spiritual leader. He leads the family in regular prayer, scripture study, and family home evening. He works with his wife to teach the children and help them prepare to receive the ordinances of salvation (see D&C 68:25–28). He gives priesthood blessings for direction, healing, and comfort.(True to the Faith)" ...

"Elder Merrill J. Bateman, in a conference talk a few years ago stated, “It is expected that worthy holders of the Melchizedek Priesthood will use the power delegated to them to bless others, starting with their own families. One of the great inheritances of the Restoration is that a father ordained to the Melchizedek Priesthood has the right to bless his wife and children when prompted and when a blessing is desired by them.”

Second ... "One of the lessons I will take from preparing this talk is that my husband and I need to do a better job of providing opportunities for our children to receive priesthood blessing from their father. To see, beyond the influence of having a righteous loving priesthood holder lead our family in family prayer and family home evening and scripture study. Over the years, they have watched him, after hanging up the phone, stop what he is doing, put on a white shirt and tie, double check his consecrated oil, and quietly walk out the door to assist in giving a blessing many times, but have rarely witnessed it in our own home."

S.W.A.K.

We had lots of valentine activities during the week all gearing up to a quiet Valentine's Day spent with the ones we love.



The kids easily made over 100 Valentine's. The three older kids needed very little help from Mom this year - I just provided all the supplies, lots of heart cut outs, glue sticks, special valentine pencils and tape. Thanks to my stock pile of scrapbook paper, various heart punches, and my circut (GR's Valentine gift to me last year - purchased just for projects like this) my involvement this year in this part of the process was less hands on than it's been in the past. It's always fun to see how each child chooses to use the exact same supplies, they all turned out a little differently and were all charming.



For Alex's playgroup valentines, I used the "My Funny Valentine" clipart again for the 3rd year in a row - this has honestly been the best $5 I've spent on clipart. Alex and Anna had a great time at the Valentine party at playgroup. We got to visit with friends, pass our valentines, eat sugar cookies, play with playdough and decorate a Valentine bag. Having a bag of Valentine's for Alex was so helpful Friday after school when all the big kids came home with thier bags and buckets of valentines. Alex was able to join in the fun of dumping out his Valentines and reading through them just like the big kids. And he had just enough little treats included with his cards that it kept him happy and out of the big kids candy too!





GR and the kids helped me cut out sugar cookies for a cookie decorating playdate we had after school Wednesday. One of our playmates has a sensitivity to red dye #40. I wanted him to have the option of decorating cookies with something other than white frosting and white sprinkles, so I went on a hunt for a natural red food dye and decorations. I called my local natural food store - they no longer carry a natural red food dye, and most of what I saw commercially online wouldn't get here in time and was a little expensive for an occasional batch of frosting. The discontinued dye came from beets, and the dye free/vegan blogs I found, used raspberries to tint frosting pink. So after consulting these resources, and making a phone call to Sandy Gluck of Everyday Food, I decided to give both raspberries and beets a try. I ended up using ~1-1/2 tablespoons of raspberry puree (made by pushing frozen raspberries through a sieve) and a teaspoon or so of beet juice from a can of beets. The result was beautiful and scrumptious. I've run into red dye issues before, and I'm so glad I now have an alternative that I can easily use in the future.



There is nothing quite like the thrill of getting a piece of real mail delivered to you, expectedly or unexpectedly. Maybe that's why it's always been important to me that our kids send valentines to the special people in our lives. We don't always get them sent to the same people each year, and we've been known to send digital valentines, but I'm hopeful that it's teaching them an important lesson about letting the special people in our lives know how important they are to us.

We hope your Valentine's Day was special and that you were surrounded by reminders of how much you are loved and appreciated! We celebrated with lunch out with Grandma and Grandpa - Rebecca requested Mexican so we abliged, GR bought new appliances we had scouted out the night before on our "date", and had heart shaped pancakes for dinner, complete with red sprinkles, whipped cream and strawberries.


(Alex and Anna at the playgroup party Thursday.)

Melon Heads

Earlier this month GR and I received a gift from one of our ward members! GR had asked her to make him a hat using the brightest yarn she had and after finishing his, she decided to swap out the red for hot pink and make one for me. I think these will make great additions to our emergency car kits ... my winter coats are dark brown or black and I figure this could double as safety feature!

Sometimes we are fast, and sometimes we are slow.

January was Alex and my turn to plan playgroup. January weather in Kansas over the last 10 years or so has proven to be much like a yo-yo, fridged one day, summer like the next. Thankfully the yo-yo swung in our favor all month long, since we picked these activities on the 1st of January and for the life of me all I could find was a 10 day forecast.

Our first playgroup activity for week one was a trip to a local museum. Alex and I had the entire museum to ourselves and discovered little treasures we'd never seen before - and didn't feel the least bit bad about breezing through the entire four level museum in 30 minutes flat. Sometimes we are fast, and sometimes we are slow.

Week two we scheduled an open play day in the church cultural hall, hoping everyone would be looking for an opportunity to get out and run. The weather performed beautifully - all weather forecasts were hoping for a HIGH of ~10 that day. Kids played and played and played for two hours! before mama's and kids finally headed home for lunch and naps. Our little band of boys (I had picked up 2 extra cute boys for the morning) stayed a little later and enjoyed the big empty cultural hall all to ourselves.



Week three brought warmer temperatures (high 40s) and a hike around the neighborhood lake and playing on the playground. For this activity, Alex and I held up the rear of the group the entire time, never actually making it to the playground. He wanted to look and see and explore every possible inch of the nature trail. We listened to birds sing and watched them fly, we found frozen Osage oranges starting to thaw, and fuzzy green moss, and hoof tracks in the mud, and lots of sticks.



[Please note Alex's hat. GR made it for him to replace his rainbow hat which he's worn for the last two years, which of course is now way too small.]



Week four was our Kansas Day celebration. We planned a couple of simple crafts - a tissue paper sunflower (glue squares of yellow and brown tissue paper to a blue sheet of construction paper) and a Kansas facts coloring page - and had balloons kids could bounce and kick and throw around the cultural hall. Then we shared a simple but bountiful potluck lunch/snack before cleaning up and heading home.

I must say all the 2009 playgroups have been very well attended (including this weeks trip to Baker Bob's - by far the most popular!) ... other than our museum trip (which I understand not everyone heard about in time to come) we've had the same 20-30 kids at each one!

CPSIA Update!

CPSC Grants One Year Stay of Testing and Certification Requirements for Certain Products!

Etsy article: http://www.etsy.com/storque/craftivism/breaking-news-the-cpsia-mand...
Etsy forum post: http://www.etsy.com/forums_thread.php?thread_id=6022029
CPSC press release: http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09115.html
The actual CPSC document: http://www.cpsc.gov/library/foia/foia09/brief/stayenforce.pdf

Happy 148th Birthday!

A great opportunity for cake AND birthday candles! Thank you Kansas!



* * * * *

The more and more I learn about the CPSIA and how it will potentially impact my life and my little business the more and more I pray the government will not turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to all the concerns being voiced with how it is currently laid out. If you're not sure what I'm talking about ... read this. It's what hundreds of bloggers posted yesterday, hopefully you saw it on someone's blog.

For information about the CPSIA and how to make your voice heard, I found this CPSIA Action Kit made up by Etsy extremely helpful. I'm extremely frustrated with Dennis Moore at the momment. I've sent him three seperate emails and I've heard NOTHING back from him.

Microchips Not Included

I seriously need to move pictures off the mini Nikon so I can share what we've been doing around here lately ... but in the mean time more about our Winter Break ...

My brother's future father-in-law gave him a fantastic vintage popcorn popper for Christmas and he allowed my kids to experience it our last night in St. Louis. The three of them had seen one at a small diner on one of their road trips and Joe commented how cool it was. 6 months later, it was his Christmas gift, and we were thrilled to spend the evening with Joe and Katy helping them test it out for the first time.



It is a truly amazing little machine that pops a perfect batch of popcorn everytime! It's a bit like a mouse trip I guess, in that it operates on the tripping of levers. To start the machine, the operator lowers a lever which puts everything in to action ... the heating of the heating element, the shaking of the popcorn tin, and then once the popcorn has finished popping - popping up to just the right height so every kernel is popped, the height of the popped popcorn trips the lever, stopping the shaking of the tin, and turning off the heating element. Amazing and fun to watch!



I think we polished off no less than 6 little trays of popcorn before we all agreed it was time to walk away - but it was so hard. Hot fresh, perfectly salted popcorn - ummmmm good.

Another Inauguration Fumble

Remember my special Election Day Dinner? I thought it would be fun to do something similar for the Inauguration. I'd heard that the Inauguration luncheon was going to be duck w/sweet potatoes. I had pork chops - I know it's not a substitute for duck, but I had them and they *needed* to be cooked. Instead of going with the tried and true family favorite recipe, I opted to try an experiment. An experiment that sounded quick and yummy and different and special. The unanimous consensus from everyone - not so much.

It was on Monday's Martha! that I heard about the inauguration menu - duck breast with cherry chutney and sweet potatoes - and they shared the recipes. I personally love sweet potatoes, but my family - not so much. Although everyone tried these molasses whipped sweet potatoes, I'm the only one who finished her serving and a lot got put into the trash - grrr, I hate that! They were a bit too sweet, if that's possible. I've decided I didn't have enough sweet potatoes. The recipe called for large sweet potatoes, and my grocery store had the dinky-est sized sweet potatoes I've ever seen.

At least the broccoli was properly cooked and everyone enjoyed the apple crisp I made for dessert!

Pictures from the last few days.

All the grandma's and the grandpa's are out of town, so my typical picture sharing method ... the amazing Ceiva photo frames we got them for Mother's day last year... isn't helping them stay up on what's going on with the grandkids. So here's a little of what they have been up to in the last couple of days ...

While I'm nursing the baby, Alex seeing Mom's threats will be idle ones, builds a tower with the spices, dumps 2 partial bags of chocolate chips on the stove along with a bag of red pepper flakes. He quickly learned red pepper flakes aren't too tasty ... "Mouth Ouchy, Mom! Kiss it!" ... I gave him milk instead.


Climbing on the counter is his new favorite thing to do. He can manage to do everything fromt his position. Thursday night, he helped me make corn muffins for dinner.


One of my favorite toys for babies is a spool of ribbon. Give baby ribbon, they shake and play with it until it's all unwound, you wind it back up, and repeat. Here Anna's playing with all my burp cloth bundle ribbons.


Alex seems to be transitioning out of nap time. We're doing one or two naps a week, not a daily nap. If we do daily naps, he's laying in his bed talking or singing for nearly two hours, making it nearly impossible for Sam to get a good nights sleep. Consequently, Alex occasionally will fall asleep in the evening ... here, he fell asleep after eatting dinner while everyone was watching playoff games.


** By the way, if any of you are interested in getting someone you love a digital photo frame you can upload pictures to via the internet, we highly recommend Ceiva. If you decide to go this route, email me before you purchase. I'll send you an email via Ceiva (friend referral offer) that will save you $50 and I get two months free. **

A few FYIs about Me

My college friend Topper sent me this list of "getting to know you" questions, questions you weren't suppose to over think or analyze - just answer them straight from the hip. I love reading other peoples answers ... they are always so interesting. Unfortunately I never return the favor! I typically want to, I intend to, but they get flagged to come back to at another time, you know, when things are quiet or I have extra time, and I never get back to them. So if you've sent me one of these and I've never responded, consider this my response.

1. What is your occupation right now?
Stay at home mom

2. What color are your socks right now?
White, but they are pretty dirty

3. What are you listening to right now?
The children *cleaning* the basement and the baby cooing

4. What was the last thing that you ate?
Reheated chili from ... hummm I'm not sure when I made it last week.

5. Can you drive a stick shift?
Yep, my first car was a 5 speed.

6. Last person you spoke to on the phone?
My visiting teaching companion

7. Do you like the person who sent this to you?
Very much

8. How old are you today?
33

9. What is your favorite sport to watch on TV?
Football and College Basketball are the two watched in this house ... favorite implies enjoyment and I'm not a sit and watch an entire game kind of gal. Highlights, replays and the last 5 minutes of an exciting game are my favorite parts of a game to watch.

10. What is your favorite drink?
Hot Chocolate or ice water depending on the weather

11. Have you ever dyed your hair?
Once in college, I did it myself when visiting a friend at KU. It was the wash out kind and no one could tell I'd done anything.

12.What is your favorite food?
Tortellini in a cream sauce with peas and diced ham.

13. What is the last movie you watched?
In the Theater- The Tale of Despereaux

14. Favorite day of the year?
Lazy days when the house is clean and there isn't a schedule, everyone's just doing what they love and enjoy.

15. How do you vent anger?
Yell and fume

16. What was your favorite toy as a child?
Mama Kola Bear and her baby

17. What is your favorite season?
Fall

18. Cherries or Blueberries?
Blueberries

19. Do you want your friends to e-mail you back?
I'm not going to email this out ... I'll post my responses on my blog and let people choose to do the same if they want.

20. Who is the most likely to respond?
-Lets not name names...

21. Who is least likely to respond?
see question 20

22. Living arrangements?
In a cute two story- house with a husband and five kids.

23. When was the last time you cried?
Saturday night.

24. What is on the floor of your closet?
More than will fit on this line ...

25. Who is the friend you have had the longest that you are sending to?
Hummmmm, Topper 'cause she's the only one I'm technically emailing this too.

26. What did you do last night?
Sewing, blogging, photo editing

27. What are you most afraid of?
Failure ... as a friend, mother, wife, etc. And yet, many of my good intentions never happen.

28. Plain, cheese, or spicy hamburger?
Cheese ... with lettuce, tomato, bacon, mayo, catsup, spicy mustard, and sweet pickle relish.

29. Favorite dog breed?
I'm really not a dog person.

30. Favorite day of the week?
Friday

31. How many states have you lived in?
Five

32. Diamonds or pearls?
Diamonds

33. What is your favorite flower?
Ranunculus

** I was suppose to send this on to a bunch of family/friends, but I'm not ... aren't you grateful? **

6 Months Old

Saturday Anna turned 6 months old and yesterday she had her well baby check up.

Weight - 17 lbs 6.5 oz.
Height - 27-5/8"
Head Circumference - 18-1/4"

She's doing all that she's suppose to do. We discovered on the 4th of January that she could sit up on her own for a prolonged period of time. Every day she's getting more and more stable on her bum. She'll down sit on the floor for a good spell and grab for toys, transferring them from one hand to another.

When Anna gets excited she will kick her legs out and pump her arms. When you're holding her you have to wrap your arm all the way around her chest and hang on tight or she'll rocket right out of your arms. Sunday evening the kids suggested we try putting her in the Johnny Jump-up. It needed a little TLC. The last time it hung in the middle of the house was when Alex was Anna's age. Sam decided to experiment with a pair of scissors, and cut two of the four straps. Thankfully some royal blue thread and a very tight zig-zag stitch restored the Johnny Jump-up to it's previous glory.

She's still a bit small for it, she loves the sensation of hanging and being able to watch all the happenings of the house.



Alex helping Anna learn to jump ... The camera caught Anna's surprised expression of being "bounced" making her look more terrified than surprised. Truly, she was quite calm while each of her siblings tried various teaching techniques on her.

The contents of just one of Sam's boots today after school ...

I am grateful that after four months of school ... and vacuuming up a good portion of the playground pea gravel in that time ... he now empties the contents of his shoes into the trash can instead of in the middle of the living room carpet.

But can you image walking home with that much crud in bottom of you shoe?! Maybe some of the other mom's and I should start a pea gravel recovery program.

We're Still in Kansas, Toto

Over the last 8 years or so, I have gotten some memorable emails via Mormonchic.com. As you can imagine, many people make lots of assumptions about the website and who is behind it. This is by no means the best, but tonight recipe[at]mormonchic.com got the following email ...

"I am the Enrichment Counselor in the BYU 29th ward. We are all newly married 2wks-5 yrs and many of us are new at food storage. I was wondering if you come and teach Relief Society sisters on how to use their food storage. Please let me know. Thanks, ______ "

Oh the cheeky things I thought of saying ... the things GR told me to say ... instead, like always, I sent this instead:

I wish I could, but I live in Kansas.

Contact your Stake Relief Society Presidency and ask if they have good resources for you to use. More than likely they know of many sisters in the Provo, Orem area who are experts at home storage on any income, especially as newly married students living in small spaces. I'm confident they will be able to help teach the sisters in your unit to use their food storage given current circumstances, as well as prepare them to do the same once their circumstances change after graduation.

My best wishes to you and your sisters.

Warmly,

Recipe Chic


* * * *

On a slightly different note ... but relates to the subject of replying and writing to people ...

Have you all heard buzz about the Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act that will go into affect 10 February 2009? If you haven't, it's time to jump on the bandwagon and make your voice heard and known to your state representative ... In an effort to protect children from harmful toxins, specifically harmful levels of lead that have been found in toys manufactured overseas and sold in the US, stricter product safety guidelines are being set forth in this act to go into affect in less than a month. Sadly, while well meaning - hello who doesn't want our kids to be safe!!, as the Act as currently written, has the ability to wipe out most small cottage industry businesses (like mine!) that make and sell handmade clothing, toys, and textile accessories for babies and children because they simply cannot afford the testing required to prove that their products do not contain more than 600 ppm total lead.

Cool Mom Picks has a good collection of articles and recent media stories about this issue, as well as links to sample letters you can use to send to your state representative if you'd like to let them know how you feel about the issue.

What kills me is that many of these cottage industries who will no longer be able to make and sell their wares, started their businesses in an effort to provide children with high quality, fun, imaginative, practical, handmade and most importantly safe, things to have around them. Hopefully the outcry of those who make and buy handmade articles for babies and children will be heard loudly enough to make a difference.

Going, Going, Gone

This is what happens when GR offers to cut Sam's hair ... doesn't offer to me to cut Sam's hair, offers to Sam to cut Sam's hair ... just like Daddy's ... and Sam agrees.



I begged for a 1" compromise, and to the cutters credit, he tried it, but it wasn't going fast enough for him, and so ... after asking me repeatedly if I was going to get mad - what am I suppose to say, it is only hair and it does grow back ... off went the 1" guard and on went the 1/4" guard.

Sam loves it and really that is all that matters.

Alex's Song

It took nine solid months, but by late August of '08, Alex was finally willing to attend Nursery without screaming the entire two hours. He will now gleefully go to nursery when someone other than Dad takes him. Yesterday after church (Hallelujah, we're now at 9am and tithing settlement is OVER!!! We got our papa home at 2:20!!) while we enjoyed an afternoon and evening with Grandma and Grandpa, Alex went skipping around the house singing.

At first I wasn't quite sure what he was singing, and asking him doesn't help, he just repeats it the exact same way. It took a few times of carefully listening, but I was finally able to figure out he's saying "Jesus Christ." All through the house, Alex was singing, "Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ." I have no idea what Primary song he's taking this from, any takers?

Today his song is now an odd mix of, Choose the Right; Clean, up Clean up Everybody clean up; Jesus Christ; ABCs and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. It's been quite amusing to sit back and listen to him sing. I asked if "Jesus Christ" was the song, "I belong to the church of Jesus Christ," and I got a silly "No Mom" smile from him. I think I'll give Shannon a call to see if she has any clues about the song. :)

* * * *

I haven't talked with Shannon yet, but I think I've found the song Alex is singing ... "I'll Pray in Faith." It's a sweet song that teaches children how to pray. All I could remember was the very last line of the song ... "...In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen" but when I sang that line to Alex, he lite up and said, "know that song!" So I think we have a winner. Tomorrow we'll sing the entire song so I can help him learn the rest of the words.

The Cat's out of the Bag

Thirteen years of carefully "guarding" his real name all came to a screeching halt this week when two very large boxes arrived addressed to the Bishop. Apparently church head quarters doesn't use preferred names when addressing tithing envelopes.

* * * *

The kids head back to school tomorrow and so I'm slowing putting the house back together from our two weeks of Christmas celebrations. I hope to make lots of new posts in the coming days, so be prepared for bloglines/google reader/etc. to go crazy and to scroll down, since I'll be doing my traditional post posting.

Wishing you all a blessed New Year!

The picture that almost wasn't ... Week of Celebrations, Part 3

Saturday was the one day of the weekend when the entire family would be together and my Mom really wanted to get a family picture taken - one of her gifts to daddy. Our only window of time was at 10am (Mom was subbing for someone at the temple and needed to leave at 11 and wouldn't be home until 4pm). To add to the impossibleness of this task, the weather forecast for the day called for 100% chance of rain all-day-long! Mom had suggested a great park near their house and Friday GR and I found a good spot for the picture there.



My parents decided to use this picture as their New Years picture with the story of it's miraculous occurrence as their letter. I'm going to share a slightly edited version of my Dad's write up and hopefully this won't ruin the surprise for any extended family that reads this blog ... if you haven't gotten their new years letter, stop reading and wait till your envelope arrives, OR promise to act just as excited and read every word like you would have if I hadn't spoiled the surprise.

"This picture is worth a thousand words, but a few hundred will have to suffice. It was taken Saturday morning, December 27, 2008, and the forecast indicated a 100% chance of rain. Although threatening, it wasn’t raining yet, so we went ahead with our plans for a 10 AM family picture at a nearby park. Then we realized we had neglected to give an exact time to our son Joe and his fiancée, Katy. (If you look closely you will see the ring on Katy’s finger—we are all looking forward to their wedding in September.) about 40 minutes away, but, as you see (at the far right) they made it!

We really wanted a picture of all of us, since our daughter Barbara (above left from Katy) has plans to serve as a missionary and would thus be unavailable for the next year and a half. She has been living in the St. Louis area for the last year and recently got a job that could put her psychology degree to work at a local University.

While waiting for Joe and Katy, the grandchildren had a good time in the playground until Stella got a really bad bump on her forehead. Through the excellent parenting skills of her father she was coaxed to join the picture. Matthew and our daughter Mary Ann, Stella (upper left corner—note the bandage on Stella’s forehead) along with the youngest of their family, Danielle (next to Stella but looking away from her), have a house about 25 minutes from us—a lot closer than their former home in Beirut, Lebanon.

We also needed to get the picture taken because our daughter Suzanne (sitting left of Barb) needed to go back home that evening. Among her duties working for a Mid Missouri Health Care Organization is driving the 44-foot long mammography van for its visits throughout central Missouri.

We were also happy to have Kathleen and family make the trip from Kansas, to be with us for Christmas. GR (far left in front of Matthew) was the photographer who—with tripod and timer—got the shot ready to step into. He and our daughter Kathleen (between Suz and Katy), now have five children: Rebecca, Emily, Sam (in a row from Suz to Stella), Alex (on Suz’s lap) and baby Anna (guess where she is!).

Art and Mary Sue are the ones left over in the picture, and if we look happy, we really are. We are thankful for the blessing of good children, fine sons-in-law, a lovely future daughter-in-law, and grandchildren, who all bring happiness into our lives. We are reminded that heaven is but an extension of the ideal home, and are grateful for the Redeemer of all, whose birth we celebrated at Christmas."

After the picture was taken ... we promised everyone as the rain drops started to fall, that we would only take two shots, so smile and look at the camera, cause the least offensive of the two would definitely get used ... we headed home for sandwiches and a little rest time before some of the children and a few of the adults went to see the movie The Tale of Despereaux. I enjoyed the movie, but the film is much darker and scarier than portrayed in the book. I have really come to love Kate DeCamilo's style of writing. I listened to Tale of Despereaux back in September and loved it. On the way to St. Louis we listened to another one of her stories (The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane) which is equally as charming and just as full of life lessons as Despereaux.

Following the movie the entire family met at a deluxe burger restaurant (a birthday dinner of sorts for my Dad) before everyone had to go their separate ways for the evening.

Week of Celebrations, Part 2

Friday (12/26), Katy had a couple of appointments to go dress shopping and Joe ended up spending the day in bed not feeling well, but the rest of us decided to take advantage of some of the free fun at Forest Park.

Forest Park is home to the St. Louis Art Museum, and on Friday admission is free. They currently have a Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art, 1940–1976 exhibit Mary Ann had seen and enjoyed. I thought the kids would enjoy seeing this type of art ... especially with Aunt Mary Ann's extensive knowledge of art history around to tell them fun little tid bits about the art. And since it was free, if it took us all of 15 minutes to walk through the exhibit, so be it, the children were exposed to the art and hopefully would walk away from the experience knowing one or two things they hadn't known before.

Rebecca, Emily and Sam really enjoyed the exhibit. My parents rented little iPods that gave some of the background on a selection of the pieces in the exhibit, and Rebecca and Sam would borrow those iPods whenever they came to a piece they really liked and wanted to know more about it. It's really too bad traveling exhibits like this one don't have recordings like this geared toward kids 5-16. The iPod recordings were done in the same "voice" as the descriptions next to each work of art, so it's a wonder the kids took anything away from what they heard. To my amazement and delight, the children really enjoyed their brief exposure to Action/Abstract art, and had a number of favorite pieces of art they could actually describe after our visit during lunch. (Mark Rothko's Red, Orange, Orange on Red; Jackson Pollock's Number 3, 1950, were two of their favorites.)

In retrospect, I think I would have done a couple of things differently to enhance the kids experience. First, I would have had my sister talk about more of her favorite paintings from the exhibit, so the children would have had things to look for - a mini scavenger hunt of sorts. They instantly recognized the one painting they overheard Mary Ann talk about and they each got very excited when they discovered it for themselves. From a distance the painting looks like a completely black canvas, but as you get closer you realize it's not black, but squares of really dark colors. (Ad Reinhardt)

Second, I would have rented an iPod for each of the kids. At the time I didn't think we would need them - we had Mary Ann after all - but Rebecca and Sam really enjoyed the freedom and the novelty of using the iPods they commandeered from their adult buddies, and I think Emily would have enjoyed it too had she had the opportunity to do the same.

A Week of Celebrations, Part 1

I hope everyone had an enjoyable Christmas filled with friends and family and cherished memories. We spent Christmas with my parents, arriving late Tuesday night and staying a whole week. It was one of the longest trips the kids have had at my parents house in years and they enjoyed every minute of it. All of my siblings were home for Christmas and our kids had such a good time playing with the cousins, aunts and uncles.

Christmas Eve was spent shopping and wrapping and crafting and sewing (new nightgowns for all the granddaughters) until the wee wee hours of the morning. In true W* style, we are once again very grateful to Walgreen's for being open on Christmas Eve and in the early hours of Christmas Day. Every year we seem to manage to make it worth their while to stay open. This year it was for a plunger [one of my Dad's home teaching families called to report that their only toilet was clogged and they couldn't find a plunger. Thankfully the clog resolved itself minutes before my dad and GR got to their doorstep, and they now have a plunger.] and 44 AA and 8 9V batteries. Santa's Reindeer are also quite grateful to Quick Trip and their freshly delivered donuts (at 2:30 AM) - even on Christmas Morning.

Here are the kids with Aunt Barb, wearing their new PJs, courtesy of Grandma Mutti:


Christmas Day was spent leisurely opening presents all day long, eating lots and lots of chocolate and yummy handmade goodies (thanks to Joe and Katy!) and helping the kids play with their two favorite toys ... the Wii and 6 remote control cars (one for each of the grandchildren).

The minute we put the close on Christmas Day our families total focus shifts to celebrating my Dad's birthday which is a few days later ...

Woops

Topper - I'm packaging up your tea towel and will get it in the mail to you asap!

The class parties went really well this afternoon, but my head is pounding. It's either a lack of food, or lack of sleep or both! GR and the kids are catching up on Survivor ... tonight they're watching the last challenge and tribal council where Matty gets voted off. We won't have time to watch who wins tonight. We're going to skip the "interrogation" hour ... there is nothing said there that the kids need to hear, and skip right to the reunion show where the winner is announced.

This is what happens when I have too many irons in the fire ...



An entire bag and half of Rolo's turned in to garbage ... I tried to salvage them, but only a couple came off the waxed paper ... Grrrrrr! Note to self, 10 minutes at 300 is way too long!

We have a winner!

We took this picture last week ... it was the last in the series of "impromptu" pictures we took. Its not too shabby, and although it's not my ideal picture, it will more than do for this years picture. I ordered 100 photo cards online today, hopefully they arrive in time to at least have them postmarked December 24th. I went through the address list - good heavens a lot of you have moved in the last year!



Tomorrow are all the "Winter" parties at school. First I'm sending 19 gingerbread boys to Sam's class for the Gingerbread party, I'm hoping to make it a few minutes of his party, but I'm prepping him for me not being there at all. Then from 11:45 - 1:45 I'm helping in Emily's class room for the 1st and 2nd grade pod party. Our room is making "snowman soup" (aka Hot Chocolate). I'm leaving Emily's party early so I can spend the last hour of the day in Rebecca's room running her class party.

Yesterday, I starting making Santa Cookies. Monday night as a family we made a list of friends we wanted to make sure we delivered cookies too. It's looking like this will be the first year we'll actually get a few friend and neighbor plates made up and delivered! It will take us a few days to get them all made up and delivered, but I'm hopeful we'll get them done.

The "Cleaning Out" Christmas Giveaway

My visiting teaching appointment for this morning canceled, giving me time to make this post instead.

Remember my tea towel crafting craze? Three Christmases ago I lined up the kids and made foot/hand print Reindeer tea towels to give the grandma's and aunts. It seams only one got finished and gifted ... earlier this week I found three three unfinished ones in the craft room cupboard ... woops ... I think we'll try to finish these up this week. Alex and Anna's finger prints can be the ornaments, star and trunk of our Christmas trees.

When Rebecca was in 1st grade, I thought it would be nice for the kids in her class to make a gift for their parents during the winter party -- I don't do anything this complicated anymore, thank you Alyson! Using the Reindeer tea towel as my inspiration, I came up with this adaptation:



To make it possible for 20 kids to do this quickly, I pre-stamped the towels with a reindeer face, glued on the nose and drew on the eyes, so all we needed to add were "antlers." For the most part the project was successful and the kids enjoyed it, but as you can guess, it was way to much to pull off in the 50 minutes we had for the party.

Anyway, I found three of these pre-stamped tea towels in the craft room, ready for you to personalize with your childen's hand prints (you'll need brown craft paint, too) that I'd like to send off to three dear readers. The three I have to send only have the reindeer face, no polka-dots. They are simple enough to add, but most of you have multiple children/grandchildren so you'll probably need the space on either side of Rudolf to add hand print Christmas trees so everyone is represented. Just comment here if you'd like me to send you one of these towels. I'll chose the three winners Friday evening, say around 5pm CST - with all the school parties Friday I'm not going to make it to the post office until Saturday morning, hopefully it will still arrive by Christmas Eve.

If you won't be at the address I have for you and want me to mail it somewhere else, just let me know in the comments (don't put the address there, I'll email you for it if you're a winner, but you've gotta reply quickly so I can still mail it out Saturday AM) so you can do this project while it's still "Christmas." If you don't think I have your snail mail address, leave your email address in the comments so I can get your snail mail address by Saturday AM ...

Let's see ... tips for doing this at home either from the beginning, or using one of my "kits:"

* The nose is a large pom pom from the craft store, hot glued on. You may want to put a few stitches through the nose so when the glue finally gives way in the wash, the nose doesn't get lost.

* The eyes were drawn on using a Sharpie.

* Plain acrylic craft paint works really well for this project. Some say to use fabric paint, but it is expensive and hard to find in the same colors as acrylic craft paint. Craft paint is permanent and washes well - it will fade a bit with lots of washes, but not so much that it's worth the extra bucks for fabric paint.

* Use a thin sharpy to label each hand print once the paint has dried, and put the date down in the corner so many, many years from now you know what year you made it.

* If you want, add a couple rows of red and green ric rac to the bottom of the towel for some added festive cheer.

Our Annual Christmas Brunch

The weather cooperated beautifully this year, and we had a really nice turn out. Diane and I both estimate that about 70 women came, which was really nice. Everyone who came seemed to want and need the time to sit and talk and enjoy the warmth of good friendship. Every year, Diane sits back and chuckles when she watches the little chatting groups that form, and this year was no different. We had the "Methodist" room and the "Mormon" room with a few who didn't fit in either category bridging the gap.

Each year I have good intentions of taking pictures, but I never get to it. This year to insure I had a better record of the event, I asked my friend Lori to bring her camera and take a few casual shots. Thanks to her, I can show those who live far away, a little glimpse of what the brunch is like. Thanks Lori!!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

I am coming to accept the fact that we will always have leftovers, no matter how carefully we plan the menu and calculate quantities, that's just part of the tradition of having the brunch. But this year we found a wonderful use for some of the extra platters of food. A friend who has taught for many years suggested taking a couple plates to the kids school and putting it in the teachers lounge. That was a fantastic idea! We took a large platter of sweet breads and two cheesecakes with us Monday morning and the teachers were thrilled! The kids have already had recipe requests for Grandma Mum's Magic Marshmallow Puffs.

A special thanks to those who came and shared their Saturday morning with us, and to those who couldn't you were definitely missed.

- - - - -

While the women were at the brunch, GR took the kids to IHOP for breakfast. He called a couple of friends with kids about the ages of ours who's wives were coming to the brunch to join him ... four dads and twelve kids. The joke among the mom's was that if anyone drove past and noticed police cars in the parking lot or the roof blown off, we didn't want to know about it until at least 12:30. Thankfully everyone had a good time. The kids all ate their breakfast and the dad's are actually talking about doing it again next year!

Preparations

Saturday is the brunch and boy oh boy does the house smell good!



I'm looking forward to seeing lots of good dear friends Saturday, sharing good memories and stories and laughing and hugging and loving one another. It's been an unbelievably difficult week for a very dear family who got crushing, heartbreaking news. I've been grateful for the time I've had this week to stand and bake in the quiet of the afternoons and reflect and pray and cry for my friend and her family. I am hugging my children a little tighter and saying "yes" to more of their simple requests. I'm finding my priorities shifting back into their proper place and I am pleading with the Lord for many small and mighty miricals to happen in the lives of those around me.

Dust and Dirt

Monday the Young Women's President called and asked if the girls could come over and serve the Bishop's family... cleaning, organizing, playing with the children ... "anything you need done, we'll do it." I swallowed hard and called GR for a pep talk. People in my house ... all over my house ... seeing, cleaning ALL OUR DIRT?! I don't think so. Not in this life time. Not this week. ... But it's the young women and they are wanting to serve. I was so torn. Like a good husband, GR convinced me it would be okay ... I would survive.

So before they came I tried to get caught up on laundry, get things put away that had been waiting for months, get some Christmas decorations put up, and the worst surfaces dusted and vacuumed. On the list of "chores" for the night ...

1. sweep kitchen floor and spot clean, wipe down kitchen table
2. help girls straighten room and put away laundry.
3. help boys straighten room and put way laundry.
4. clean mirrors and counters in bathrooms
5. dust, first floor
6. wash windows
7. vacuum first floor

They did all this and so much more, truly exemplifying the principle of going the extra mile. The house is clean, and it feels oh so good! Add the couple of Christmas decorations we've gotten put up this week and I'm starting to feel the spirit of the season, and that's a good thing.

I told the YW I would take care of the treats. Apple cider, and one of my favorite Christmas cookies ... Reindeer Cookies, using my Brown Sugar Spice Cookie recipe. Oh so yummy, quick and simple to make, plus they look super cute.

BROWN SUGAR SPICE COOKIES

1-1/2 cup softened butter
2 cups packed brown sugar
1 egg
4 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Cream butter, sugar and egg. Beat until light and fluffy. Stir flour with spices and soda, add to creamed mixture; mix well. Cover and chill until firm, about 2 hours. On floured surface, roll dough to 1/8" thickness. Cut into shapes with cookie cutters. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350ºF for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned. Makes 6 dozen cookies.

For Reindeer Cookies, before chilling dough, shape in to a rounded triangle log, wrap in waxed paper and chill. Then slice, re-shape if needed and decorate with pretzel twist antlers, chocolate chip eyes and a red nose (gum drop, red M&M, etc.) before baking. Cool on baking sheet ~1-2 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

Gingerbread Houses

On the Saturday before Thanksgiving, the entire family was at Grandma Mum's constructing and decorating gingerbread houses. Each year we try and invite new friends to join us who haven't come in the past. This year we had school friends, work friends, church friends, and friends we've known for many years join us, and it was a lovely time.

I made houses for each of the four "big" kids ... Alexander and I teamed up to decorate his, and this year we didn't have ANY housing catastrophes! No collapsing roofs, no caving walls ... we had four structurally sound houses and that was a very nice thing!

A big thanks to my amazing mother-in-law who spent her entire weekend surrounded by gingerbread houses, first with her church group on Friday and then all Saturday morning with about 6 families coming and decorating houses together ... in total 12 houses and 1 train were decorated, pretty cool huh!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

30 Days Hath November

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. This year was my families turn to come here and enjoy the holiday with us and Bob and Diane. My parents and three of my siblings came along with my future SIL. We had a great time baking and talking and relaxing and playing with the kids. I'm so grateful they were all able to come and enjoy a few days with us!

For Family Home Evening last Monday night, the kids and I talked about gratitude. I'd read the idea somewhere to create a turkey with 30 feathers (one for each day of the month), each feather listing something someone was grateful for. The turkey never got made, but I did make 30 feathers and I did write down 30 things the children said they were grateful for, and I did get the feathers taped to the fridge with a huge space left in the center for the imaginary turkey body. I thought I'd share the unedited comments the children gave when asked what they were grateful for ...

S: My family, because some people are just nice to me.
E: Mom & Dad. They are nice and don't yell that much.
R: Anna, because she is funny.
A: Mommy & Daddy. Daddy work.
S: Grandma & Grandpa, they are making our special dinner on Thanksgiving.
E: Holidays - spending time with relatives.
R: Friendship
A: My guys - Emily, Rebecca & Sam
S: Water because we can drink it. [This after having asked 100 times if he could get a drink, and being told to NO!, 101 times.]
E: Clothes so we can keep warm.
R: Food. My mom makes the best food.
A: My blankie.
S: Carson, he plays with me a school and we have fun together.
E: Trees, and the color they turn in fall.
R: Mom, you always get stuff done, laundry, dinner, shopping, ...
A: Baby Anna. I love her.
S: Action figures 'cause I can play with them a lot and they are really cool.
E: Color. If we had no colors everything wouldn't be colorful.
R: Books they help you entertain yourself and some are easy and some are hard ...
A: Swings. I like to play at the park.
S: Balls, you can bounce them, kick them, catch them, throw them.
E: Animals, sounds and crickets
R: Toys, they are something to play with
A: Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
S: Horses to ride
E: All the work Grandma and Grandpa did so we could make gingerbread houses
R: Dad helps us get ready for school in the mornings
S: My healthy body and my lungs
E: That some books are funny.
R: Our house, my shelter that keeps me warm and I can sleep here.

From the Other Half...

Best non-family quote so far about being bishop: "The good thing about you being called as Bishop at such a young age, everything you screw up you'll get to fix when they call you again later on!"

My wife has been bugging me to post these little tidbits of information, so here goes...


Best quote from Sam: (We were in my office at the church) "This is so weird, coming in here now to get candy."
Me:"Why is that?"
Sam:"Because this is the real Bishop's office, not yours."


Best quote from Rebecca: (I was putting on a shirt and tie to go on teamups with the Elders)
Rebecca:"Why are you putting on a tie?"
Me:"I'm going on team-ups with the missionaries tonight."
Rebecca:"Well, that's odd."
Me:(laughing)"Why is that odd?"
Rebecca:"Well, you hardly ever go out with the missionaries"
Me:"True, but I'm the Bishop now, so you just have to do these things."
Rebecca:"Oh, so you don't have a choice anymore?"

Our Blockbuster Weekend

The kids were out of school Thursday and Friday for parent teacher conferences and we stuck a deal with the children that if they got their homework done, rooms cleaned and all their laundry put away we'd do something fun Thursday night. Did you know that evening AMC movie tickets during the week are $5 instead of the $10 weekend price? I'm definitely tucking that little tid bit way for the future!

Thursday afternoon, I scheduled all the kids for flu shots. The doctors office is on the way to GR's work and the movie theater isn't far either. So we did flu shots (and all the kids qualified for the flu mist, so no shots!), met GR at the hospital and ate dinner in the cafeteria -- 6 meals for $18, gotta love home cooking that doesn't break the bank!, and headed to the theaters for the 6:30 showing of Madagascar Escape 2 Africa. The kids loved it and since it was a Thrusday night, the theater wasn't cowded, allowing Alex to have more freedom that he otherwise would to walk around a bit during the movie.

Saturday night GR and I got together with some friends and saw Quantum of Solace, the new James Bond movie. So intense, but good. We really enjoyed it and little Anna slept through the entire movie!

Sunday was Stake Conference, so we had more time than we typically do Sunday afternoon to watch a movie. This summer we had wanted to take the kids to see the new American Girl movie, Kit Kittredge, an American Girl, but with all the travel, and Anna's birth, etc. we never made it. We found it on pay-per-view and watched it Sunday evening. The kids enjoyed it and GR was quite surprised that he really liked it too! I'm hoping to find a couple of the other American Girl movies at the library. The girls really enjoy the books and if the others are like this one, I think the entire family would enjoy watching them.

One more step on the road to becoming a REAL Mormon family

Remember my little wish to make applesauce? The kids were out of school a week ago Friday and earlier that week I'd gotten an email from the orchard saying that with all the winds we've had here in Kansas lately, they had lots of beautiful windfall apples available for people to come and pick for $9.50 a bag.

They weren't giving them away, but the kids were still interested in picking apples and making applesauce, so we bundled up and went. We all held it together for the hour and half or so that we were there. The kids weren't happy that they HAD to pick up the apples from the ground and not from the trees, and it didn't matter how many times I tried to explain how to systemically go through the apples on the ground, I had two worker bees and two who wanted to be but easily got distracted.



We picked 6 bags of apples ... about 3 bushels. One of the bags went to my friend April and the rest we turned in to applesauce.



I borrowed a food strainer/sauce maker from my friend Julie and Friday night we started cooking and saucing apples. My gadget loving husband who was the crank turner on the food strainer/sauce maker went in search for the equivalent KitchenAid attachment Saturday and came home with one. It's quite nice, although I think the manual version is a bit more efficient, it spits out only waste and no sauce with it, while the attachment spits out applesauce with the peel/core/seeds.

It took most of two Saturdays, but thanks to GR and all the kids working really hard together, we got all the apples sauced and bottled by Saturday afternoon!



When it was all said and done, we ended up with 16 quarts and three pints of bottled applesauce (we would have had one more quart, but the bottle broke in the hot water bath - what a huge mess). The kids love the homemade applesauce, and I love the fact that I know exactly what's in it ... pure apples and nothing else!. We could have easily had another 4-6 quarts if we'd been able to bottle the applesauce faster. Over the last week, the kids have eaten at least that much applesauce!



I don't think anyone was more excited about making homemade applesauce than GR. There's no way we would have gotten all those apples cooked and smashed and sauced and bottled if he hadn't been so supportive of the entire project. Growing up he watched his good friend Rob's mom bottle and can everything - they were and are his example of a real LDS family. So for him, making our own applesauce, in addition to trying to do a better job at having family prayer and family scripture study and real family home evenings where we actually have a lesson and not just playing games, is just one more little thing we're doing to try and become a real LDS family.

4 Months Old

It's hard to believe this little one has been in our family a full four months now! She's growing up so fast!

She talks up a storm, mostly in the evenings when she has my undivided attention.
She loves to smile and her entire face lights up when she does.
She drools a lot, totally soaking a bib or shirt, because she prefers to not have a pacifier in her mouth 24/7 to plug it all up.
She has a very pointy tongue and likes to stick it out a lot.
She is content to watch all the happenings of the household.
When she's upset, and mom can't get to her, she's content to be held by her older sisters.
She thinks the world of her big brothers and loves to watch them.

How was your Sunday?

In case you're wondering, the three signatures were each done in a different color of ink or type of pen.

Heaven help us all ... the answering machine message and GR's cell phone voice mail message are getting changed today ... if you've ever called his cell phone and gotten his voice mail and listened to the entire message, you'll understand why it MUST be changed very, very, very soon!

In the Kitchen with Kate

GR and I have been testing a few new recipes lately and I thought I'd share our results.

My friend Katrina over at Baking and Boys, posted a recipe a couple weeks ago for Bacon-Wrapped Chicken Stuffed with Spinach and Ricotta that I suggested to GR we try. Saturday was our first open night and so he purchased the needed supplies and set to work making them. We cooked ours on the grill, and everyone cleaned their plates. I used the leftover chicken for Sunday nights dinner. Rotini noodles, cream of chicken soup thinned with milk and leftover chicken diced up - also very yummy.



I've been looking through past issues of Food & Family (the free Kraft magazine) for new recipes to try. They had basic instructions for an "old fashioned" poke cake ... make a cake, while warm, poke it with a fork, pour a hot, concentrated solution of jello over the warm cake, chill in fridge for 3 hours, frost with cool whip and serve. They had a little chart with suggestions of flavor combinations. They had a spice cake paired with orange jello and since I had all the ingredients in the pantry I gave it a try ... the jury is still out on this one. GR described it as a lot of intense flavors, and Sunday night that was true. It mellowed as it sat in the fridge over night. The kids loved it, even Rebecca who typically avoids intense tastes.



Our All-American dinner was oh so yummy, although I don't think anyone got the correlation. And we did make it over to Ben & Jerry's for our "I Voted" ice cream cones! I made my own patties this time ...


~2lbs of hamburger meat
1 envelope onion soup mix
1/3 cup dry onion
1/2 cup bread crumbs
a little water (1/4 cup)
salt and pepper

Mix all together and gently form into patties and cook until desired doneness.

After my request for a Dutch Apple Pie recipe, April called and gave me her families recipe. They don't exactly measure anything over there ... it's just done to taste and feel. But I think even with that handicap, after an eatable first try, I've produced a really good version of her family's recipe. Don't you love the dish I baked it in? A birthday gift from my sister ... LOVE it!


I used a made-from-scratch, pie crust (Heather's recipe that's posted on Mormonchic with her peach pie is excellent), 'cause I now have a food processor and am too cheap to purchase pie crust from the store if I can make it work here at home. Then 6 or so sliced apples (it was hugely mounded when I put in it the oven), mixed with 1/2 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, pinch of nutmeg, 1 tablespoon of butter, and 2 tablespoons of tapioca (the instant variety - I tried the non instant and that didn't turn out so well). The crumb toping ... 1 stick of butter, 3/4 cup of flour and 1/2 cup of sugar. I have learned that I prefer crumb toppings made with brown sugar instead of white, but they both taste quite yummy. Baked at 400 for 50 minutes.

I really should have put a cookie sheet or foil under my pan, cause it made a royal mess in my oven. Now I have to figure out how to clean my oven.
. . . .
Alexander was in a massively destructive mood yesterday. I spent his entire waking day, cleaning up after him ... so today we're taking advantage of a sunny crisp day and going to the park and hopefully meeting up with some of our playgroup friends. Then I hope to try this recipe ... I think it will make a great addition to this years brunch menu!

All present and accounted for!

I didn't think I grew up in a hugely political household. In my poli-sci class in college, I felt I was at a huge disadvantage because I really couldn't tell you if I was a republican or democrat or if my parents were republican or democrat. Nor could I really tell you more than 1 or 2 things about what made each platform different.

Now that I'm a parent, I have realized that my parents taught me more than I thought about politics, namely the importance of being an educated citizen, weighing all the issues and making the most informed choice you can when voting. In turn, GR and I trying to teach our children a little at a time about our system of government and being a responsible citizen even at their tender ages.

As a kindergartner, Rebecca knew who the candidates were and I let her fill out and cast a ballot when the kids and I went to vote. Four years later, the kids are much more politically minded, having watched much of the presidential and vice presidential debates, and talking about the candidates in school and around the dinner table. We've tried to keep our over all views of who're in favor of to ourselves so the children could form their own opinions.

Last night as we were eating dinner and GR asked the children who they were going to vote for. We've asked the question many times ... or maybe it's more that they've answered it many times ... "Mom, who are you going to vote for?" "I'm still thinking it out." "Well, I'm voting for Obama!"

This time I decided to write down their answers for posterity sake, I guess.

Sam: Obama.
Why: "Because, Will told me that if I vote for McCain he will come and ruin our house."

Emily: Obama.
Why: "When I listen to his speeches, I thought they were better."

Rebecca: Obama.
Why: "Since I've seen all the debates, I like his ideas better. He's going to give health plans to everyone, but McCain's just going to give everyone a $5,000 credit."

Tonight we're going to watch the election coverage (on Comedy Central - GR refuses to watch it on any other station) while eating an All American meal ... hamburgers, corn on the cob, and homemade apple pie and chocolate chip cookies. And if I can pull it off, we'll take a small break and head to Ben & Jerry's for free cones (5pm-8pm - Thanks for the reminder Elspeth!).