Slippery

I used to wonder what it meant in the scriptures when they would sometimes describe their possessions as ‘slippery.’ {like in Mormon 1:18} It always seemed to me to be a strange choice of words. The same thing happened to the Jaredites when they were nearing their destruction. It’s funny, as I was looking back on this year, I realized that we had some striking examples of that very thing.

At the beginning of the year, we lost some nice things that we hadn’t even had for very long. It was a sobering reminder that things of this life can be so, well, slippery. Another description that comes to mind is the scripture describing things as being in a dream. “And all the nations that fight against Zion, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision; yea, it shall be unto them, even as unto a hungry man which dreameth, and behold he eateth but he awaketh and his soul is empty; or like unto a thirsty man which dreameth, and behold he drinketh but he awaketh and behold he is faint, and his soul hath appetite.” That image always made sense to me, because even as a child I knew what it was to dream something and have it seem so real, only to find it completely disintegrate when I woke.

A few weeks ago we had another reminder of how quickly things can be lost. We woke up one morning and discovered that the Tabernacle was burning to the ground. Just a couple of months ago I accompanied Cuddles with his class on a field trip as we enjoyed a concert by the Utah Valley Symphony with a Tabernacle full of third graders. It was a wonderful experience, and Cuddles thoroughly enjoyed himself. I was so happy to have been able to go with them. That is the last time we were there. And the last time we’ll be there. Maybe he’ll remember it. We’ll see.

photo from here

It’s strange to see pictures of it today and to think about what it used to be. That one we never saw coming. Something that had seemed to always be there just slipped away. Almost in an instant.

It’s good to have reminders to keep us grounded and keep things in perspective. And it’s unfortunate that we seem to need such vivid and stark reminders.

ps: here is a great post for further thoughts on the matter

You are very welcome

If you've seen the recent video that everyone seems to be playing lately, {as seen here} I gotta be honest with you: not really my favorite.
But this one is awesome.

You know, I used to work in that library. {Before they remodeled it.} And I'm wondering how he got that sandwich in there...

It is the Summer of the Soul in December

"This is the best Christmas EVER!"
That's what Cuddles said, and he was just emptying out his stocking; he hadn't even gotten to his presents yet.
Hearing that just warms your heart...even if it is scarcely 6:30 am.

In the end they were pretty excited about their presents, even though pretty much everything on their original wish lists for Santa had been changed after I had finished all my shopping.

He can't stop making this face for the camera lately...

and the telescope you see is actually called a "see mars."
and here is what I got: It is a video camera. to fit conveniently in my pocket. The Professor gets annoyed that I never take videos. Now he is leaving me with no excuses.

a few of my favorite things

I'm slowly working on getting some posts put up that should have been done months ago. So keep scrolling and you might find something that wasn't there before.

In the meantime, it has come to my attention that not all are aware of my tumblr page {or even aware of what a tumblr is.} Here is a link. I keep links to recipes and other cool stuff {like a chicken mansion} in it.

Black Friday

We didn’t do much shopping on Black Friday. In truth, we’re pretty disenchanted with the whole idea of it. The prices are rarely worth the risk to life and limb. The Professor did venture out to pick us up some storage shelves though. So I finally got my food storage room in order.

Here is a before

And After

You think I’m exaggerating?

Halloween costumes

Frightful

This is the trampoline that was covered with snow when we woke up this morning

These are the shoes that sat by the fire all day because they were left out all night by the trampoline that was covered with snow when we woke up this morning.

These are the shoes the kids wore to school instead of the shoes that sat by the fire all day because they were left out all night by the trampoline that was covered with snow when we woke up this morning.

public service announcement

In a conversation recently with my wonderful sister in law, she mentioned off hand that right now would be the worst time for my brother to die. He is finishing his residency in Radiation Oncology at the Mayo Clinic. AKA he’s loaded up with debt and there would be nothing to show for it if anything happened to him. {Although, luckily she said student loans are forgiven whenever someone dies. I hadn’t heard that before. And I did actually hear that fact corroborated by Dave Ramsey. He was advising against consolidating student loans with your spouse for that reason.}

Well, you know how things work, once someone says it out loud…

So within a couple of weeks I found out that a close friend and neighbor was suddenly facing a very similar situation. One that I probably wouldn’t believe if I didn’t know them in person. Just graduated, new baby, looking for a job, and **BAM** Stage IV Melanoma. {In case you don’t know there are only four.} Originally the doctors told him to expect 9 months.

I remember when I had Melanoma. It was only stage one, but that was plenty. We almost lost our insurance in the middle of it. Things were a mess. One day we got a check in the mail. Anonymous. For thirteen hundred dollars. I was flabbergasted.

I wish I had that much to give them. Maybe someday I’ll be in that position. Right now, I’m trying to help with an upcoming 5K fundraiser and garage/bake sale. There is also more info here if you are interested in giving a little. Even little donations add up.

And maybe we can’t pay all their bills, but at least just hold them over until their *free health care* from Obama kicks in, right? {OHHHH, the AUDACITY!}

Without further ado

a summer slideshow

Oops. I did it again.

Two and a half months with no post.

So sue me. For what it's worth, here are some summertime highlights in summary:

Watched all five seasons of hgtv design star. My favorite seasons actually go in order, with season one way at the top {I think I have now watched everything there is on hulu with david bromstad in it}, seasons two and three pretty close together, season four was ok and when season five came around I thought to myself, “this feels way too much like the apprentice.” And then I saw the flames in the end credits. Also watched a lot of Curb Appeal and discovered Sarah’s House and Rate My Space.

Kept up our bed and breakfast. I don’t think we went longer than two weeks without having someone staying at our house. And that’s not even counting people we got to see who didn’t actually stay at our house. Love living in a central location.

Lost eleven pounds and had chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast everyday. With strawberries and whipped cream. But that was half of my daily calorie count. And you know, it actually helped to have a breakfast to look forward to. And then I went straight downstairs and watched hulu while on the elliptical. My other best friends were sugar free jello {10 calories} and fudgesicles {60 calories}.

Picked a lot of zucchini. I shredded most of it so I could make this and this. Mmmmm. But hand shredding got old fast. Luckily my sister in law loaned me her kitchenaid shredder attachment. How do *you* spell relief?? The tomatoes grew like crazy and so did the single pumpkin plant that Easy brought home from kindergarten in a cup. It took over an entire garden box. We also managed to get a few peas, watermelons and a handful of strawberries. But don’t worry, I ordered a stack of seed catalogs and I’ve got lots of plans brewing for the next go-round.

Lots of reading. We love the library. I’m assuming they have a limit on how many things you can have checked out at once, but it must be pretty high. We go through that place and come out barely able to carry everything. So my favorite part of the day quickly became quiet reading time in the afternoons. Now that the kids can actually read, they’ll get started and just keep going for quite a while. It was almost like having naptimes again. Sigh. And tennis lessons and swimming lessons are great times for me to do my reading.

And I might just have to do some back dated stuff.

But don't hold your breath.

Pumpkin Paradise

I made this pumpkin cobbler recently when my house was full of people and everyone seemed to like it. My sister, who doesn’t like pumpkin pie, asked for the recipe. And my little brother asked, “What did I just eat?! It was good!” Well, he did just get back from El Salvadore…

Anyway, here is the complicated and very tricky recipe.

Beat together 3 eggs, a 15 oz can of pumpkin, a 12 oz can of evaporated milk OR one cup of milk, one cup of sugar, 1/8 teaspoon of salt 1 and a half teaspoons of cinnamon, a teaspoon of ground ginger, and a Tablespoon of vanilla. {I have used a can of pumpkin with the spices already in it, in which case you just skip the rest of the spices listed here. Or you can substitute 2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice}

Pour that into an ungreased 9x13 baking pan. Sprinkle the contents of one yellow cake mix over the top. Drizzle with one cup melted butter. {I actually don’t use quite that much…} Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Top with 1 cup chopped nuts and Bake an additional 15 minutes. The original recipe came from Gooseberry Patch.

Feel free to smother it with vanilla ice cream.

When you're here, you're family

Believe it or not, I recently experienced my first soup and salad meal at Olive Garden. My favorite was hands down the chicken gnocchi soup.

So I googled it and got a recipe.

Here it is. You can thank me later...

Melt 1/3 cup butter in a soup pot over medium heat. Add in 1-2 cloves minced garlic and sauté.

Add 1 lb. cubed chicken and heat through. {I actually used pieces of rotisseried chicken and it was delicious that way too.}

Stir in 1/3 cup flour. Mix well until flour is cooked well into the chicken.

Next add 2 cups of milk and 2 cups of half and half. {The original recipe called for full cream, but I thought it was too thick that way. Half and half ends up more soupy.}

Add 3 chicken bouillon cubes and a half of a carrot, shredded; a stick of celery sliced super thin; ¼ cup of onion finely chopped and a half cup torn up fresh spinach.

Finally, add a bag of Gnocchi, about 17 oz. {The first time I made this I couldn’t find reasonably priced gnocchi, so I substituted some tortellini that happened to be on sale. The Professor liked it, but I thought the flavor was competing. Then I found a big box of it at Sams.}

Stir well, then cover and simmer for ten minutes while you practice saying “gnocchi.” It’s fun!

Mamma Mia!

The Ultimate Pancakes

My dad told me he figured out how to make the best pancakes in the world. You just have to serve them at the end of a marathon.

For those of us with no intention of running any marathons, I have another alternative.

These will work for pancakes or waffles, just in case you have someone in your family who only wants pancakes and another someone who only wants waffles. But that is, of course, strictly hypothetical.

The first thing you need is some wheat flour. I suppose you can make do with wheat flour from the grocery store, but it’s so much more expensive and actually not as good for you. If you don’t have one of these, ask for it for your birthday.

Once your wheat is magically turned into flour, you are ready to assemble the ingredients by throwing them in your blender.

1 ½ cups of milk

½ cup pumpkin

2 eggs

¼ cup oil

¼ cup sugar

2 cups of wheat flour

1 Tablespoon of baking powder

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

½ teaspoon of salt

Blend it. Now you can cook it.

I usually make it the night before so it’s all ready for the next morning when I don’t feel like cooking.

And of course you can enhance it with more antioxidants {chocolate chips} and put more antioxidants on top {berries} and top it with some whipped cream {to help the medicine go down.}

on being organized

There was a time in my life that I spent a lot of energy researching how to be organized. I was looking through magazines, books, tv shows trying to find the perfect system that would make my life organized. And clean. Clean and organized.
I tried a few different things.
I finally realized that I wasn't just looking for a system to put things in order, what I really wanted was something that would stay organized without any effort from me. I wanted to clean up once and then never have to clean up that spot again. What I was looking for was something or someone to do the work for me. And then I knew that there is no magic wand to being organized. No matter what system I decide to use, I would still have to put in the work. You know, the whole 'keep up, don't catch up."
Alas.
Anyway, I came across a few articles today about being organized that seem to ring true with what I have decided is the Reality of organization in my life. here. here. and here.

It's Awesome, Jellyman

The kids have been trying out different sports the last few years. This summer we signed up Cuddles for baseball and tennis. He has a pretty good swing and of course he’s got the lefty advantage. It’s been great to see the improvement that they make as the season progresses. I just laughed through the first baseball game. The boys were so cute, but let’s just say that a good strategy was to just keep running, because the chances of you making it to the base were way higher than the chances of the kid on base catching it…

And since we have an ice rink really close by, we decided to take advantage and get Easy in some skating lessons. The first day, I really questioned whether it was a good idea. She did pretty much nothing but fall down. But she was so determined, she kept getting back up. About halfway through the first session she really biffed it and landed on her head. That was the only time she came off the ice. She had a good cry with Daddy and then got back out there. The next lesson she came prepared with a helmet and extra padding in her “trunk.” Hilarious. And look at her now! She’s passed the first two levels.