Life in the Peanutbutter Lane

Menu Monday: Beef Stew

2012-02-13T23:32:00.002-07:00

Okay, as promised, here is the recipe! I really love this recipe. If you're a fan of beef stew, or even if you're not, I recommend this one because it is so flavorful and the beef is so tender.

Beef Stew

based on this recipe found on allrecipes.com

2 pounds cubed beef stew meat (I just used a cheap roast and cut it up, worked great)
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 cups beef broth (or bouillon dissolved into water, I have used some of both or whatever I have on hand)
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 potatoes, cubed
4 carrots, cut into 1 inch pieces
4 stalks celery, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped (the original recipe calls for a whole onion)
2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons cold beef broth (or water)

In a large pot or dutch oven, cook beef in oil over medium heat until brown. Add broth. Stir in rosemary, parsley and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer 1 hour (you can get away with 45-50 minutes if pressed for time, but the full time will yield the most tender meat). Stir potatoes, carrots, celery, and onion into the pot. Dissolve cornstarch in 2 teaspoons cold water/broth and stir into stew. Cover and simmer 1 hour more.

I served it with these rolls, my new favorite dinner roll recipe. If I'm pressed for time, I can whip these babies up in 45 minutes! Even Rhoades rolls have to thaw longer than that, so I love them! The trick with them is to not add too much flour, they should be really soft and even sticky, more so than with other bread recipes. And they take longer to bake than the recipe states, in my experience I have to bake them for 15 minutes at least, or they'll be way too doughy. But they are amazingly light for how short their rise time is.

This was dinner last night with my parents. It was the perfect day for beef stew, gray and rainy, and it warmed us up from the inside out. We may have more soup this week because there is more rain on the forecast....

Wordless Wednesday: Sunday Morning Robes

2012-02-08T11:42:00.001-07:00

Menu Monday: Chicken Noodle Soup

2012-02-06T08:15:00.003-07:00

I know I promised you beef stew, but it just worked out to have chicken noodle soup instead. This is what I meant when I said I switch things around, etc. Thursday night it was easier to pick up a rotisserie chicken than make chicken noodle, and I knew that if I did I could make a much better chicken noodle a different night with the leftover rotisserie chicken. So here it is, my chicken noodle soup recipe, refined over the last ten years. (And hopefully we'll get back to beef stew soon, it was really yummy!)

Chicken Noodle Soup

8 cups chicken broth (I used my rotisserie chicken to make 6 cups of it just the way Our Best Bites describes, then added a couple more cups from a carton)
2 1/2 cups wide egg noodles (although I've heard homemade are awesome, I'm just not quite that much of a Martha!)
2-3 carrots (or about 6 baby carrots), chopped
1 rib celery, chopped
1/4-1/2 cup chopped onion
1 1/2 cups frozen corn and/or peas (or 1 can corn)
1 tsp minced garlic
1-1 1/2 tbsp kosher salt
2-3 twists fresh ground pepper
1/2 tsp poultry seasoning
3 cups cooked chopped chicken (I used my leftover rotisserie and some other leftover shredded chicken from earlier in the week)
1/4 cup cold water or chicken broth
1/3 cup cornstarch

1. Bring 8 cups broth to boil. Add noodles, carrots, celery, corn, onion, and garlic and simmer until noodles are almost tender.
2. Add chicken and seasonings. Heat through.
3. Mix cold water/broth with cornstarch and gradually add to soup,stirring constantly.
4. Heat through and serve. (It's really great with rolls, like these rolls.)

Keep in mind that the noodles will soak up the broth and become a mushy mess, so if you want to make a big batch, boil the noodles separately in water and add them to the portion you're eating right away. Then store the extra noodles and soup separately and add them when reheating.

Lily - 16 months

2012-02-05T07:35:00.014-07:00

16 months

18.2 lbs, (29?) inches

(10th percentile for weight, 50th for height)

light brown/dark blond hair

green eyes

Lily is at such a fun age. There is just nothing like a toddler who changes and learns every minute. This week she insisted on wearing jammies like Katie's (her Christmas pajamas, a top and bottom with slippers instead of her regular footie pajamas), and strutted around in them saying "ah big." The first thing she asks for in the morning is her "boos" (shoes), and she is so mad (a) that she has outgrown her favorite sparkly shoes and (b) that I have not bought her boots like Katie and Max.

Lily's favorite thing right now is buckles ("buh-pulls"). Buckles on high chairs, helmets, strollers, camera cases, you name it. Buckle, unbuckle, buckle, unbuckle. Repeat. Five thousand times. Spend five minutes with her, and I promise you, you will never want to touch another "buh-pull" again.

She used to be a passive spectator at toddler time, but the last two weeks she "sang" every song and insisted she get to pick an action (stomping feet) for a verse of our hello song. She also insists on participating in the art project. In fact, these days one of her favorite things to do is to "draw" with markers. It's awesome, as I'm sure you can imagine. Every 16-month-old should have free reign with markers...

Her favorite songs right now are "If You're Happy and You Know It" and our pajama and potty songs. She also really loves singing Happy Birthday and saying, "ho, ho, ho!" (She hasn't figured out that Christmas over.) I don't love when she whines, "Whaaaay?!" when I tell her no, but when she brings me a book insisting that I read "roll over, roll over" again, or brings me the phone and tells me to call "yelli" (Shelli), or when she begs for me to push her on the "wings" (swings), my heart just melts and I don't want to say no anyway.

Look at this grown up girl! She's finally coming out of her shell a bit. She still doesn't trust most people to touch her or pick her up, but she's almost as comfortable with her Aunt Anne as she is with Adam or me, and she's beginning to interact with adults as long as she initiates. She'll also stay with a babysitter without crying the entire time, as long as the other kids are around and she isn't tired or hungry.

I love my Lily, and even though I wish she were a little more independent, I cherish our snuggles and the special relationship she and I have.

Chef

2012-02-04T09:41:00.002-07:00

A few days ago Max decided he was ready for lunch and was going to surprise me by making his own sandwich. He has surprisingly sophisticated tastes for a 3-year-old, and I think he was hoping to have something other than pb&j (he got into a habit of asking for grilled cheese every day a few months ago, I think just to avoid peanut butter sandwiches!). He pulled out uncooked tortillas, layered deli turkey, green leaf lettuce, sprigs of cilantro, and grated Parmesan on them and folded them up to make his awesome "sandwich."

Believe it or not, he ate almost the whole thing! Yum.... (I did offer him a chicken salad sandwich after this, which he ate a bit of, but mostly just because he likes it. I think he actually was already full!)

Homework

2012-02-01T09:36:00.002-07:00

Sadly, I'm constantly after Isaiah about one thing or another. It's the curse of being the oldest child: parents always expect the most of you, and are the least forgiving when you don't (or can't) deliver. It's one of my greatest sources of guilt as a mom. But I managed to catch him in an awesome big brother moment the other day when I was busy with something (or someone) and Adam was busy with something (or someone) and Isaiah read Katie's take-home books with her. I stopped what I was doing just long enough to snap some evidence.

He was super patient and really helped her sound out words. I was really proud of him.

More fun to teach than learn

2012-01-31T09:34:00.000-07:00

We are really working hard at potty training with Max right now. It is, as potty training usually is, very exhausting. But it is really fun to see Max switch roles and be the "trainer" instead of the "trainee" when Lily insists that she needs a "potty party" too.

Now, if I could get him to consistently go on the potty himself, we'd be in business!

Friday Favorites: Pinterest Valentine's Day Roundup

2012-01-27T06:00:00.017-07:00

***Adam, Linda, Sybil, Douglas...Valentine Spoiler Alert! Stop reading this post!***

Have you fallen in love with Pinterest yet? Okay, maybe I was a little late to the game, but I've been making up for lost time over the last few months. I still have two and a half weeks until Valentine's Day, plenty of time to do all the awesome things I've been pinning... (click on the links in the captions)

To decorate:

Felt Heart Wreath from The Idea Room

Ruffled Satin and Burlap Wreaths from my blessed life

Heart Garland from duitang.com

Kissing Balls from The Idea Room

For kids' school friends:

Free Printable Valentine from The Frugal Girls

Fun Monster Cards from Make and Takes

School of Fish Valentine from Bateman Buzz

Glow Stick Valentine from The Teacher Wife

Monster Boxes from Giggles Galore

Pop Rocks Valentine from Fiskars

Superhero Valentines from Little Bit Funky

For our friends and family:

Blow Me a Kiss Valentine from Bloom Designs

Love Note Cards from Little Birdie Secrets

Paper Candy Pouch from Peppermint Plum

"I love you this much" card for the grandparents from A Day in My Life

For my kids:

Heart-Shaped Army Eggs from Martha

Valentine-y Lunches from Lisa Storms

To enjoy:

Chocolate and Berries Yogurt Dessert by Betty Crocker

Marbled Red Velvet Cheesecake Bites from The Novice Chef

Neapolitan Cupcakes from i heart 2 stamp

Just for fun:

Heart Paper Clips by Design Sponge

and of course,
For my sweetheart (shh, don't tell, I'm pretty sure he won't see this!):

"I love you" Reminder Hearts from Moorea Seal

Okay, maybe it's a little ambitious. But it's good to aim high, right? We do love Valentine's Day around here, as you can see in past posts:

Eat Your Heart Out

I *heart* hair!

If you haven't tried it and would like an invite to Pinterest, let me know!

LensDay: Playing with Actions

2012-01-25T06:00:00.003-07:00

I took some pictures of Lily in the bath the other night, and used them to play around with actions a little in Photoshop. Here are my favorites, only edited in post with Camera Raw.

This last one I loved because look how green her eyes look! I thought she was blue-eyed, but not in these pictures. I used this one to test out a bunch of actions I downloaded from Coffee Shop and Pioneer Woman. It was really fun to see how they worked and what they could do. It gave me some fun ideas for future shoots and edits....

Coffee Shop Perfect Portrait

Custom Black & White (Photoshop Default Action)

Pioneer Woman Colorized

Pioneer Woman Cooler

Pioneer Woman Fresh and Colorful

Pioneer Woman Heartland

Pioneer Woman Quick Edge Burn

Pioneer Woman PW's B&W

Pioneer Woman Seventies

Pioneer Woman Soft & Faded

Menu Monday: February Dinner Calendar

2012-01-23T06:00:00.006-07:00

I think it's so much easier to get dinner on the table if I plan ahead, so I've been making monthly calendars of our dinners and shopping by what I've planned. I rarely follow them to the letter, in fact I'm lucky if I actually make three planned dinners in a week, and I frequently switch them around because of schedules, lack of ingredients, or whatever, but at least I have something planned and then I can usually remember to get the ingredients when I'm at the store.

I hadn't been really consistent with this in the past because a whole month of empty calendar squares is intimidating. But then I started leaving one day a week empty (Saturday). Then if we decided to go out to eat, I didn't feel bound to the calendar because I knew we could eat that dinner on Saturday switch them around. My next discovery I have to credit to Echo because she told me that once a week they were eating breakfast for dinner, and I got to thinking of our dinners in categories and putting one of each category in each week. Lots of people do this on the same day each week, i.e. Taco Tuesday or Friday Night Pizza, etc. I am more flexible than this and just put it somewhere in the week. Our categories are Pasta, Taco/Mexican, Asian, Soup (in the winter, Grilling in warm months), and Meat and Potatoes or Casserole. I was doing breakfast for dinner, too, but I've started putting in miscellaneous dinners instead and putting breakfast on Saturdays, then I can make a big breakfast on the weekend or substitute it for a dinner another time in the week if I want to.

Every family likes different dinners, and different types of foods, but I found it was nice to use someone's ideas to get me started, so I'm posting February's dinner calendar here in two formats. One in PDF that is in a cute font so you can just print it and post it on your fridge, and make changes with a pencil, and one in a document form so you can type in any changes you'd like to make before printing. I'll try to post one each month since I make one for our family anyway. I'll make an effort to provide links to the recipes when I can, but if you ever want a recipe just put it in the comments and I'll post it!

download PDF

download Google Document

Edited to add:

I forgot to mention one of the biggest helps in planning dinners: requests! Every month I ask for requests, and it has really changed how I cook. I found that Adam was asking for childhood favorites (hamburger gravy, tater tot casserole, shepherd's pie, etc.), and I had stopped making them because I felt like I had "outgrown" them. But our kids hadn't been exposed to them at all, so now I'm making an effort to bring them back. I also add in one request from each child, and I have gotten some interesting requests. Like chicken noodle soup by candlelight. Or toast. This month is a repeat of last month: chicken nuggets and fries, orange chicken, and curry.

Also by request, here are links to recipes for most of the things on the calendar. If I didn't include a link, it's probably because I cheat with that dinner (usually a store-bought sauce or it's a standby, etc.) or I figure everyone has a favorite recipe for it (like pancakes or shepherd's pie, for example). But if you want to know how I make something and I didn't include a link, let me know (comments, Facebook, email, whatever) and I'll post it. Even if it's admitting that I dumped a can of something and stirred. Because I know you guys love me and won't think anything of that!

Things I've posted about before:

Orange Chicken, Stir Fry

Pasta Shapes with Marinara, Chicken Alfredo Bowties

Taco Soup, Taco Salad, Tacos

Heart-Shaped Pizza

Chili

Crepes

Honey-Pecan Pork Chops

Chicken Satay

Baked Potato Soup

Roast Beef

Peanut Noodles (I seriously need to update this post...remind me if I forget!)

And here are the new recipes I'm trying out this month (thank you, Pinterest!). If they turn out*, I'll blog about them:

Beef Stew *this is the one exception; I've actually tried this one out just recently and loved it. I'm planning to share my thoughts on it after I make it again in February.

Baked Pasta with Ham and Cheesy-Creamy Cauliflower Sauce

Pizza Factory Bread Sticks

Avocado Chicken Parmesan (I can tell you right now, I may wimp out on this one...Lily and I are the only avocado-lovers in the family.)

Cheesy Vegetable Chowder

Christmas Day

2012-01-21T06:00:00.002-07:00

Adam wasn't feeling well at Christmas, and since it was Sunday as well and we had to get dressed and ready for church we were a little off our usual game. I think it was still a good day, but I am a little sad that we didn't remember to take pictures at my mom's (she made a beautiful dinner for us, with china and everything), and that we didn't get to visit with Adam's family on Christmas. And I completely forgot to get a shot of everyone dressed up, we all matched. At least the kids had a good day! Here are some of my favorite shots of them reacting to and playing with their gifts. (Yes, I am in the background in a lot of these. We lost our p&s camera briefly over Christmas, and couldn't take any video without it unless it was on a phone. So Adam was taking still shots, and I was using a phone to video...I know I look super awesome, haha!)

Hope your Christmas was fun, happy, and filled with the spirit of the Savior!

Christmas Eve

2012-01-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

Every year we spend most of the day with Adam's family on Christmas Eve. It is a blast and we love being together, playing eating. We have come up with several traditions over the years that the kids look forward to, and we always have great memories of. We make sure to remember the reason for the season, and the children act out the nativity. We have a talent show, which ranges from the silly to the downright amazing. There is the white elephant gift exchange. (Ironically, Adam and I usually have our white elephant gifts planned out way in advance, much better than a lot of the actual serious Christmas gifts we give.) And of course we eat. Yum!

This year, Adam was the photographer most of the time, and we got some great shots. We also missed some things, but I think it's worth it to have a different perspective. It's also kind of cool that I'm in some of the pictures! Here are some of my favorite shots from Christmas Eve:

the cousins playing in the yard

Lily watching the kids play from the balcony

silly boys!

cute girls!

the kids playing bingo for their gift exchange

Lily, the littlest angel

Isaiah, a shepherd

Katie, an angel

I was so impressed with how reverent and attentive Max was as Joseph!

See how gentle and sweet he was with "Baby Jesus?" He really took his role seriously :)

the best group shot of the Nativity

I am so grateful that we have family nearby to share all these memories and traditions with! There is nothing that makes the holidays as memorable and filled with love as being with family.

Printable Door Sign: Yes, We Can Play/Sorry We Can't Play

2012-01-19T06:00:00.064-07:00

We live in an awesome neighborhood. I love our neighborhood. There is a good mix of young, middle, and older families, people are so kind and friendly, and there are so many kids in the neighborhood to play with. I love that we live on quiet street and I can send the kids out to ride their bikes or walk to the bus stop without worrying every second because even if I run into the house to get something, the neighbors watch out for my kids, too. Everyone is out walking, playing, riding bikes all the time, and it's really idyllic.

Because there are so many kids to play with, we get very frequent knocks on our door, at all times of the day. And while I hate to turn the kids away when we can't play, sometimes we can't play. But I also don't like discouraging the kids because the more they are told no, the less likely they are to come back when my kids can play. Shelli told me once about putting a stop sign on her door to let the neighborhood kids know when they can't play, so I decided to make one of my own.

The stop sign for when kids are napping, we are eating dinner, the kids are doing their chores, or we are having family time.

The go sign for when the kids are free to play.

I printed the go sign on the back of the stop sign, then laminated it (with the nifty new laminating machine I got for Christmas!) and punched holes in it to hang on Command hooks. The kids flip the sign when they get home from school, or when they finish their chores, etc. I originally attached magnets to the first one I made, but my door ended up not being metal, so I used the hooks. Also, we've had this sign hanging on our door for months now, way before I got my laminating machine. I just slipped the page into a page protector and hung it from the holes on that. When it gets windy it tends to blow off the door, so we've bent the hooks up a little to prevent that.

I've gotten lots of compliments about our door sign for the neighborhood friends, so I thought I would make it available for all of you who might want it in easy-to-print format. Click on the links below to download and print the PDF. This is no professional piece of graphic design, keep that in mind. If I was going to take my time to do it right it would not be pixelated at all, and the colors would be consistent and even, etc. But I think it's better to actually get it up here than never do it because it isn't perfect. Maybe one of my more design-talented friends would like the project.

Click here to download the stop sign

Click here to download the go sign

Tea Party

2012-01-17T06:00:00.002-07:00

The sick finally found our family. We were so blessed to get through the holiday season without being sick (okay, Adam was really sick Christmas Eve and Day, but he is absolutely the easiest sick person ever, so it almost doesn't even count), Adam and I were terrified for school to start because we knew it was only a matter of time before we were finally infected with one of the various plagues that everyone seemed to have. I literally didn't even know one person whose household didn't have some strain of yuckiness. Besides ours.

And, as expected, the kids were only in school for a week before it came home with Isaiah. Luckily he seems to have his father's immune system so he was feeling better almost immediately. But not before he passed it on. First Max, then Lily, and now Katie have all had a fever, runny nose, and general awfulness. Just awful enough that we don't dare go anywhere for fear of infecting others, but not awful enough to not care about being cooped up without friends. As our sweet neighbor Bridget said in reference to our "yes, we can play/sorry we can't play" sign on our door, "It's red light every day now!"

So when we heard we were missing a tea party at Toddler Time last week, we were very disappointed. Anne and Porter were over (Porter is sick, too) and she mentioned that Porter hadn't ever had a tea party. That did it, we had to have our own tea party! So I threw together an impromptu "tea" (water) party with finger sandwiches (pb&j and cream cheese and jelly, cut with sandwich cutters) on the kids' plastic tea set and we practiced our very best manners.

(Note: I am still practicing with my new camera lens. These pictures are very blown out, so just keep in mind that I'm still figuring it all out. It's tricky to shoot in front of a sunny window. I tried to fix them in post, but realized I didn't shoot in RAW, so there wasn't much I could do. Bah! But I am really glad I've got pictures at all.)

Max was trying his best to be the "hostess with the mostest," and what he lacked in politeness he made up for in bossiness (and, to be fair, he was awesome at cleaning up Lily's spills).

"Would you like some more tea?" "Oh, yes, please. These sandwiches are divine!" (Okay, no one used the word "divine" that I can remember, but this is the general gist of the conversation.)

Such a dapper fellow, wearing his best tea party apparel

Hmmm...where did that "tea" go? And why am I soaked?

Hard to tell because the picture is so blown out, but Katie was an excellent role model, being the most experienced tea partier, with her pinkie out.

Porter's reaction to the whole affair was priceless, he was so excited and attentive. And it really was impressive how the "please"s and "thank you"s carried over through the rest of the afternoon. I'll have to remember to throw a tea party the next time the kids' manners are lacking!

Breakfast

2012-01-15T06:00:00.002-07:00

Max calls cereal breakfast-actually "breakfisk." We used to have the same problem when Katie was little. What does this say about us? That our kids equate breakfast with cereal and vice versa. I have really been trying to change this perception in recent months (or rather, I've been trying to improve the nutritional quality of our breakfasts, and by so doing, change my children's perception of breakfast), but it just isn't sticking. I decided as I heard Max asking for more "breakfisk" this morning that it's really okay because it means I get to hear his sweet little-boy voice using little-boy words for a little longer, as he can pronounce cereal perfectly.

Puzzling

2012-01-13T18:13:00.000-07:00

This week while I was attempting to get some housework done, I pulled out a puzzle for Lily, hoping it would occupy her and possibly be educational at the same time (score one for Momma!). Nope. Still hanging onto my pant leg, crying.... Sigh. But I was going to get the dishwasher unloaded at the very least, dangit, so I let her fuss for a minute and tried to finish. I left the cupboard door open while I was putting away the kid dishes, and of course, Lily took advantage of that. She loves to play with the sippy cups. Normally she will bring me a cup and say "wa-wa," making the sign for "water." Not because she wants a drink, mind you. She's just informing me what goes in the cup. (I still make that mistake about every other day, filling the cup for her, only to be rewarded with her throwing it across the room, then toddling off or begging to be picked up.)

Whoops, off track...anyway.... This time she didn't come bring me a cup, she was busily matching lids to cups when I almost tripped over her to put away the bowls.

(notice the puzzle, completely unloved?)

I almost missed that little ping inside my head, but I did get it. I mean, really, here I was trying to force a contrived educational activity when something we do every day could serve the same purpose. So I stopped what I was doing for a minute (really, 5 at the most), and pointed out the different colors of cups and lids and pulled out the camera. Look how intently she was working on her "puzzle."

And what do you know, the traditional puzzle came in handy for something else! She started picking up the pieces, making the animals' noises so I did all the noises with her, and then she came up with this perfect idea for practicing one-to-one correspondence:

And the dishes still got put away. So there, score one for Momma after all!

Busy

2012-01-11T22:43:00.002-07:00

Sometimes all you need are some cardboard boxes, crayons, markers, and a little imagination...

And your belly button, I suppose:

Or not.

Okay, okay, I'm putting the camera down...

Fresh Starts

2012-01-10T22:36:00.005-07:00

A new year, a new camera lens, a new blog...

Happy New Year! 2012 is going to be great!

Heaven in a Cinnamon Roll

2011-10-09T21:54:00.000-06:00

Okay, I know it's been a while, but I think you will forgive me for being away so long (and for all the things you've missed, like two big birthdays, but which I promise to catch you up on eventually) when you try this recipe. Adam said it was the best cinnamon roll he's ever had, and that is super high praise coming from the cinnamon roll prince, son of the cinnamon roll king.

The majority of the credit for this recipe goes to Crystal Denton who gave a cinnamon roll demonstration at my ward's Super Saturday in September. I used her recipe (and some of her tips) for the basis, although I changed a couple of things and halved the recipe and made my own filling and adapted a cream cheese frosting from an orange roll recipe I love...so, yeah. I think I can call this one mine now. I warn you, this is not healthy and should be avoided if you're trying to lose weight! And it takes a while, this is no quick dessert. But it is worth the time and the calories, if you have them to spare.

Rachel's Cinnamon Rolls

Dough:

1 1/2 tbsp dry yeast

1/4 cup warm water

1 tbsp sugar (optional)

1 3/4 cups hot water

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup margarine or butter (I used butter)

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg (The original recipe calls for one egg and I was halving the recipe, I would recommend separating the egg, but I had a helper, and we ended up with about half the egg in the bowl anyway!)

1/4 cup scalded milk

1/3 cup potato flakes

4-7 cups flour (Don't go by the measurement with this, go by the consistency of the dough, more or less as needed!)

Sprinkle the yeast into 1/4 cup warm water. Let stand 15-20 minutes. (A tablespoon of sugar in the yeast will help it proof quicker.) Scald milk in a glass measuring cup in the microwave (30 seconds should do it), and add hot tap water to make 2 cups. In mixing bowl combine milk mixture with salt, butter, sugar, egg, and potato flakes. Add 2 cups of flour and blend thoroughly. Add proofed yeast and blend. Add remaining flour gradually until it cleans the edge of the bowl. Dough should be very soft, much softer than you might usually let it be with bread, so if it isn't coming away from the bowl and it begins to get tough, stop adding flour! Knead an additional 3 minutes. Place dough in greased bowl and cover. Let rise until doubled in size (an hour or so, depending on how warm your kitchen is).

Filling:

2 cups brown sugar, packed

2 tbsp cinnamon

1 cup butter or margarine, softened (I used butter)

While dough is rising, cream filling ingredients together in a large bowl. Grease two large jelly roll pans. Punch dough down and roll out into a large rectangle. Here's where I'm going to guess; I rolled mine out to about 12 inches by 24 inches, but I would recommend rolling it thinner, maybe 18 by 24? Although our rolls were very huge, and very delicious. Spread filling over entire rectangle, leaving about one inch along a long side of the rectangle uncovered. This is a lot of filling, expect it to make a giant mess of your pans, but we really like a gooey cinnamon roll at our house, so this is double what most recipes use. Roll tightly into a log, leaving the bare end for last, and wetting it with your finger before pinching closed. Use dental floss to cut 1 inch sections, placing rolls into prepared pans (you should get about 2 dozen rolls, unless yours are as large as ours, in which case you'll get 18). Cover pans with a damp dish towel and allow to rise 25-35 minutes more. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake rolls 18-22 minutes (but check them at 15, they shouldn't be any more than a little golden around the edges!). Bake one pan at a time, or if you must bake both at once, switch the top and bottom pans halfway through to make sure they are evenly cooked.

Frosting:

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup butter, softened (I ran out of butter and used margarine)

1 tsp vanilla

2-3 cups powdered sugar (I always eyeball the sugar, adding more until I like the consistency)

While the rolls are baking, mix the frosting ingredients together with a hand mixer. Spread on rolls while still warm, there should be enough to really pile it on.

You're welcome.

Forget-me-not

2011-09-24T20:58:00.000-06:00

forget-me-not, click here to read the German legend about this tiny, beautiful flower

I love President Uchtdorf. Don't you just love President Uchtdorf? He has this ability to speak eloquently to that deepest hidden need at the bottom of our hearts. His talk to the sisters tonight was inspired, and I was most grateful to sit next to some of the women I love the very most and share it with them (tissues, anyone?).

"The Lord loves you...you are not forgotten." Indeed. He sent this message just for me (and you) by way of His holy apostle.

Wordless Wednesday: My littles are getting big!

2011-09-14T21:40:00.000-06:00

Random Video, taken 09.13.11

July in the Ellis Family

2011-09-11T22:24:00.001-06:00

Are you ready for another installment of "catch up Rachel's blog"? Here goes! Now you can see what we were up to in July, just click on the photo to see the post on that topic:

Independence Day

Learning to Slip n Slide

Katie Loses a Tooth

the Lake Trip

Isaiah, the Master Chef

Swim Lessons

Advantages to Having a Waterproof Camera (aka July family swim party)

Anderson Family Reunion

the Awning

Awning

2011-07-31T21:35:00.002-06:00

It was quite a project, but we now have an awning over our back patio! We are enjoying eating, sitting, and playing in the back yard even more than we have in the past, especially since Adam installed misters and we had a fan put in.

It's made it bearable to hang out there in the heat this summer, but I think it will be downright awesome all through the fall! The real challenge now is to figure out what more we could possibly do to our backyard to make it more fun...

Family Reunion

2011-07-30T20:27:00.002-06:00

My mom was in charge of the Anderson Family Reunion (my grandfather's parents' children) this year, so because she asked if I would take some pictures while I was there I went to special effort to take some good snapshots (and a few posed pictures...but I wasn't super thrilled with most of them). Here are some of my favorite shots from the afternoon.

These two hit it off and were as thick as thieves the whole day...this was in the first 30 minutes!

My grandparents' generation

My parents' generation

Advantages to having a waterproof camera

2011-07-25T20:59:00.003-06:00

1. Taking the camera to the pool (for, say, a family birthday party) without the fear of it being ruined.

2. Underwater pictures (obviously)

3. Handing your camera to a child to take pictures when you're too busy having fun to stop to take any more pictures (Katie, 5, took these shots...I think. It's getting hard to tell for sure because she's getting so good).

4. Instant teething toy!

Lily chewing on the camera in question.

One thing a waterproof camera won't do for you? Despite its advantages, it won't take the pictures for you, even if you have the best of intentions...so there are still plenty of missed photo ops. Oh, well. (At least I have these!)

Note: all of these pictures were taken at our end of July family birthday party at City Pool. All except for the picture of Lily chewing on the camera at Sand Hollow Reservoir, which I stole off Shelli's blog and slapped in here to prove my point.

Swim Lessons 2011

2011-07-25T19:32:00.006-06:00

This year is the first year of swim lessons that I couldn't get all the kids with their different levels in the same session at the same time, so I took the parent/tot class with Max in one session, then Adam took Katie and Isaiah to their classes in the next session. This is also the first year that we didn't have any issues or things to work on--all the kids did really well and passed their levels!
Here they are with their teachers:

Katie, level 2 Advanced

Isaiah, level 3

Next year we will probably have to split them into two sessions again because we'll have a parent/tot, a level 1, a level 3, and a level 4!

Catching up

2011-07-24T23:17:00.001-06:00

I know, I said I was taking a break. But it's funny how not feeling pressure to blog makes it more fun. And I've found time to fit it in here and there over the past couple of weeks. I'll never catch up completely, there were too many little moments that went by over the past few months that went unrecorded and are, therefore, forgotten. Alas, that is life. But there are a few things you may have missed out on that were recorded, at least in pictures, that I am slowly getting back to. Wanna see?

If you were not a fly on the wall at our house, you may have missed... (click on the picture to view the post)

Easter

Toddler Time

BFFs

Katie's Dance Recital

Photographers...of a Sort

Playing in the River

The Double Wedding

Vacation in San Diego

part one

part two

part three

Recipes (One Old, One New)

Gak

Isaiah's Karate Tournament

Riding the Bus

Slip 'N Sliding in the Nude

Isaiah Turns 8

First Swim at the City Pool (of the season)

Scrunchy Face

Lily - 9 months

Gunlock Rodeo

Well, now I'm only about a month out, but we've been busy this month! So stay tuned for lots of new posts of all the fun things we've been up to.

Tomato Master

2011-07-24T21:42:00.004-06:00

I have to preface this post by saying that Isaiah doesn't like tomatoes. As in, "Ew, gross, tomatoes?!" But last school year he read a book about tomatoes in guided reading that had "recipes" in it (there were no actual amounts listed, and no precise directions), and he came home and made his own recipe book featuring those recipes, as well as a few others he made up and learned from us. I am heartbroken that I can't find the recipe book; it had "Written by a 7-year-old!" in a star burst on the cover, and hand-drawn pictures throughout. It was truly awesome. But, while we cannot currently find the book itself, we have made the recipes! One night, as a reward, Isaiah and I made his "chunky tomato sauce pizza" and "tomato salsa." And despite his dislike for tomatoes, they were a big hit!

(And *ahem* although I know you want the recipes, but because we couldn't find the recipe book, we mostly just made them up as we went. You could pretty much google "pico de gallo" and "tomato sauce" and go with the most basic recipes to duplicate what we made. Well, mostly there was some tweaking going on to make the tomatoes less tomato-y...)

the Lake

2011-07-21T22:08:00.001-06:00

Two years ago we rented jet skis and went to Sand Hollow Reservoir with Shelli and Ben and their family. We all said then that it was the best. day. ever. Ever since then we have been waiting for an opportunity to do it again...but I was pregnant unexpectedly last year, dashing all my fun summer plans, jet skis included. So when Adam brought up the idea of renting jet skis this summer, and I was adamant that we needed to do it. We talked to Shelli and Ben, and invited Echo and Russ and Grandma Bubbles, and set out to have another awesome day on the lake. We had so much fun, in fact, that I really didn't take a lot of pictures; I was too busy playing. But here are a few of the ones I did take:

Lily eating sand-mmmm! (Side note: Lily started crawling on her hands and knees here at the lake!)

Happy swimming girls!

the big boys "fighting" with their "weapons" (aka oars)

Grandma and the girls singing "row, row, row your boat"

Hi, Isaiah!

little boys keeping busy in what Max called "my big sandbox"

Rachel

Adam

awesome picture off the back of the jetski while I was pulling Grandma and the little boys in the boat

chillin' in the water

the lake is exhausting!

I loved this snuggly picture of Max with Grandma

the girls doing a cheer for their castle building

Tooth Fairy gains a customer!

2011-07-16T21:09:00.002-06:00

That's right! Katie has lost a tooth! The tooth fairy brought her a dollar in quarters for her first tooth, and she's been eager for another visit!

Recipes (One Old, One New)

2011-07-11T21:24:00.001-06:00

My mom invited me over to make cookies with her in her brand new awesome oven, and she said we could make whatever cookie I wanted! I can't remember the last time I made cookies that were purely the kind of cookie I wanted, not what one of the kids requested, or what would make Adam's eyes light up, or what would be good for this church function or that family party, etc. Well, it's been so long (probably 3 years or more!) that I had forgotten what my favorite cookie was, I had to dredge it up from the back corners of my memory...oh, yes, chocolate, it always has to be chocolate for me. Here's the recipe we made:

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 cups flour
2/3 cup baking cocoa
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, beat butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt; stir into the butter mixture until well blended. Mix in the chocolate chips. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven , or just until set. Cool slightly on cookie sheets before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

I stopped making these cookies because Adam would complain about how they would go stale so quickly. So just be prepared, just make as many as you're going to eat in a day or two, they won't be any good past that. (Just so you know, I've since learned to just eat them all to avoid them going stale, cookies don't last a day at our house anymore!)

(That night we also made this, which I've posted before. Yum.)

I've also recently found a new favorite recipe. I've told you about our love for Red and White Chili, and I love to eat it, but I don't always get around to getting the crockpot started in time to enjoy it for dinner. So, I was on the lookout for something similar, but that I could whip up quickly. Here's the delicious (maybe even better than the old favorite) new favorite:

(So, maybe not my best food picture ever. But the baby started crying, and the kids needed something, so the sour cream kinda melted into the chili...ah, well...)

Southwest White Chicken Chili

adapted from this recipe on allrecipes.com

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cut into cubes (or you could cheat and use 3 cans of chicken from Costco, but I would never do that...okay, that's exactly what's in that picture above)

4 teaspoons chili powder

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1/4 large onion, chopped (you could totally add more if you like onion...like, a whole onion)

1 small can diced green chilies (you could also add a jalapeno if you like heat, but this was already a bit spicy for our sensitive Katie)

1 can cream of chicken soup plus

2 cans water (so, would that be a cup and a half? not sure...)

1 1/2 cups frozen whole kernel corn

2 cans white kidney beans (cannellini), rinsed and drained

shredded Cheddar cheese and sour cream, to garnish

Heat the oil in a large saucepan (or small pot) over medium high heat, then saute the onions until translucent. Add the chicken and cook until golden (or if you are using canned chicken, just drain the chicken and dump it in with everything else). Add the remaining ingredients except the cheese and sour cream, and heat through. Garnish and serve!

So, looking at this, it's a lot like my taco soup recipe: just dump in a bunch of cans and heat it up. That's about as easy as it gets, but it really tastes yummy.

Learning to Slip n Slide

2011-07-08T21:53:00.011-06:00

Independence Day

2011-07-05T21:56:00.002-06:00

Traditions are largely born when you do something, and then do the same thing again, and then there is an expectation of doing it again. We are lucky that our July 4th traditions have lived on because they are fun, and it just doesn't feel the same without them. We always have a barbeque and watch the fireworks at the Sunbowl with the extended family, including Grandma Linda. And the kids have to have red, white, and blue clothing, and usually there are more fireworks at Grandma Bubbles.

Here are the kids this year with their grandmas at the Sunbowl:

We like to go early to the Sunbowl to find a spot and boogy to the music. Here are the kids dancing their booties off:

Katie

Max

Isaiah

Lily (with Grandma Linda)

And I got plenty of shots of the kids playing with fireworks at Grandma Bubbles' house, but they weren't great because it was so dark. This was my favorite shot from those, Lily tasting watermelon at something like midnight.

Gunlock Rodeo

2011-06-30T23:00:00.000-06:00

We are really lucky to have so many fun things going on nearby, all summer long. We're even luckier to have family around that can do fun things with us. The Gunlock Rodeo is pretty inexpensive for a night of entertainment for the family, and there is something about a local rodeo that is just special. When the announcer knows the genealogy of the competitors off the top of his head, and all the people around you are greeting each other like long-lost family members (okay, so maybe most of them are related), it's just a nice small-town feel. Here are my awesome (not really) pictures of our fun time at the rodeo.

The chicken chase. If you've never seen it, you must check it out...ranks right up there in hilarity with the watermelon race!

Lily - 9 months

2011-06-27T22:01:00.010-06:00

15 lbs 4 oz

29 inches

Likes: reading board books, "singing" along with Mom, playing on the floor (especially scooting around to pick things up), eating everything, tasting new foods (especially finger foods), Katie, Daddy, "honking" noses, being held by mom, the phone, swimming/splashing,

Dislikes: being held by other people, going to bed, laying still for diaper changes, being put into the carseat, green beans, peas, crackers, applesauce, and bananas

Milestones: first baby signs (more, all done), waves hello and bye-bye, clapping, pushes up onto hands and knees, first and second teeth (bottom front), scooting/army crawling, pushes up to sit, crawls on hands and knees (a few "steps"), shakes head "no" and nods "yes"

Lily, so much has happened over the past three months, you're almost a totally different baby! You can get anywhere you want (even down the hall to different rooms), and you know how to tear apart a room in a few minutes. You love to play on the floor, and frequently choose to be put down (hallelujah!), but still prefer for Mom to hold you. You love to play with your brothers and sister, and have become much more interactive now that you can clap, point and grab and imitate words. You started learning to fall asleep on your own, then had some teeth come in that made you so cranky, so we've had to start all over learning to go to sleep.

You eat everything you find on the floor, you are the most likely to choke on something of all my babies. And while I've given you finger foods from the beginning, you still gag during most every meal, poor thing. You make the most entertaining faces, and are so fun to watch. You make the same "scrunchy face" that Katie made as a baby, and you still love to stick your tongue out all the time. You also engage the neighbor kids or whoever is sitting behind us in church in games of nodding and shaking heads, as well as peekaboo.

You are very aware and I love spending time just with you because I notice how much you are picking up on. You "sing" along any time I am singing ("ahhhhhh"), even in another room, and you'll often wave your arms to "lead" the music, too, like I do in Relief Society. When I say a word to you, you repeat it, and it often sounds just like what I am saying ("done," "dad," "hi," "bye-bye," "honk," etc.). When I read The Going to Bed Book to you, you start rocking when I get to "...they rock and rock and rock to sleep."

You don't laugh readily and when you do laugh it sounds rough, like it's difficult for you to do. But I love when you do because it's all the more special because you don't do it often. I can hardly believe how quickly the time is going; before long you'll be a year old!

Isaiah Turns 8

2011-06-19T08:28:00.000-06:00

My little boy is not so little anymore! I sure love Isaiah and I'm so proud of what a sweet boy he is. Here are a few things you may not know about him if you don't live with him.

He is very smart and is always trying to figure out how things work. He especially loves experiments and elaborate projects.
He is very creative and loves to draw, sculpt, and invent things. He makes his own Pokemon cards (they look very much like the store-bought ones, and he says they're accurate).
He is really good at math and can solve all kinds of problems in his head. He also looks for patterns and can find parallels in all kinds of situations.
He loves to play and exercise and use his energy. He loves video games as much as any of his friends (and is really good at them), but he also loves to pretend and play hard outside. Sometimes he gets frustrated when his friends don't want to play.
He is learning to program by making video games, and he's getting pretty good at it. Adam downloaded a program, called Scratch, made my MIT that helps kids learn to become proficient at programming.
He loves to read, especially comics. But he loves chapter books, too, and prefers fiction to nonfiction.
He is very loving. He gives me hugs and tells me how much he loves me all the time. He and I don't have a whole lot of common interests, but he is always trying to bridge that gap by being interested in what I do and complimenting me.
He is very outgoing and can converse with anyone he meets, from baby to senior citizen. He loves being the center of attention! (Okay, if you've ever met Isaiah, you already knew that!)

I throw the kids a big themed party every other year, and this year was an off year, so we let him choose an activity that he could invite one or two friends to. He wanted to have a sleepover with his two neighborhood buddies, Kirk and Gabe. They had so much fun playing Isaiah's new video game, Bakugan Dimensions, watching a movie, eating cake (Isaiah picked a lemon cream pie at the store) and sherbet, and slip 'n sliding in the morning. Happy birthday, Handsome!

Slip 'N Slide...in the nude!

2011-06-18T23:03:00.000-06:00

It gets pretty hot here...the funny thing is that this was at about 10 am!

Scrunchy Face

2011-06-18T22:45:00.000-06:00

Ah, my silly girls, making silly faces. I crack up when Lily does her scrunchy face, not because it's funny necessarily, but because it reminds me of her sister 5 years ago. (When Katie did it, I just laughed because it was funny!)

City Pool - first outdoor swim of the season

2011-06-18T21:51:00.001-06:00

Riding the Bus

2011-06-17T23:07:00.000-06:00

I have fond memories of riding the bus into downtown Salt Lake with my mom when I was a little girl. We'd go shopping at ZCMI and walk around Temple Square. So when Adam suggested we take the kids on a bus ride last year, I got really excited about the idea, thinking of the next time we could do it all together. Summer is a perfect time for excursions, and we planned a trip out for lunch and to the Dinosaur Tracks. It was a fun trip even though we accidentally took the wrong bus, which added an extra 30 or 40 minutes, we had to take three of the four routes to get where we were going, and even though the kids were disappointed to find there were no actual dinosaurs at the museum. (And then there was the incident where Max set of the alarm by opening an emergency door...it was awesome!) There is just something special about rushing to catch the bus, meeting kind strangers, and seeing your hometown from a different perspective. (And they had a whole display of origami dinosaurs at the museum, and the kids got to make origami cranes, the highlight of the trip!)

We interrupt this blog...

2011-06-14T22:17:00.000-06:00

Okay, so it's been a long time since I posted. Which wouldn't be a big deal, except that I used to blog a lot. And it was fun. But life has really been getting in the way for a while, and it has become super stressful.

So I'm just not going to blog for a while. Maybe the whole "absence makes the heart grow fonder" thing will kick in. Maybe not. But for now, I'm going to stop feeling guilty when I choose to live life rather than blog about it for a while. Because there is only so much of me to go around, and if I have to choose between snuggling and reading with my kids or yelling at them to be quiet for two more minutes while I finish a blog post, I'm going to choose snuggling. At least for a little while, since they are still little and won't be for too much longer.

In the meantime, I need your help. Will you comment and let me know if there is something you have enjoyed seeing here on this blog? I need a reason to come back from my little break. Thank you ever so much, dear friends!

Karate Tournament

2011-06-11T22:24:00.000-06:00

Isaiah had his first ever karate tournament at the Utah Summer Games in Cedar City. Adam took him up the morning of the tournament, then I came later with the other kids so we could watch. Grandma Linda and Grandpa Doug came up to watch, as well. He had to wait a while before his events were called, but he did really well both with his form and sparring.

Waiting. And waiting some more.

This video shows Isaiah doing his form and receiving a score.

Isaiah and Kirk decked out for sparring

Isaiah won his first round of sparring:

Then, in the second round he fought against the best kid in his age division, and got the wind knocked out of him. He was pretty upset, but his instructor got him psyched up to go back in, and Isaiah did score a point against him. He was pretty thoroughly beaten mentally, though, and felt pretty upset afterward. He didn't even want to go back in to watch the rest to see who won. We were really proud of him for doing as well as he did, especially not giving up after getting kicked in the chest. And we're hoping that the competition will help him as he continues to work and grow.

Gak

2011-06-02T21:39:00.000-06:00

Looking for a fun project to do indoors while it's 100+ degrees outside? Oh, it isn't 100+ degrees outside where you are? Well, lucky you. But here, sometimes even playing in the water isn't worth hanging out outside for, so we came up with something fun to do when our cousins were over playing: gak!

Here's a link to the recipe and directions. It's pretty fun to play with on it's own, but our suggestions for a fun time: a pack of army men and/or plastic bugs or animals from the dollar store and some cookie cutters. The kids played with this for a very long time, and when they were done, we put it into the fridge in Ziploc bags and saved it for the next day.

San Diego - Seal Beach

2011-05-30T22:51:00.000-06:00

I wanted to spend way more time at the beach than we did when we were in San Diego, but that was mostly because we were there for Legoland almost exclusively. And it was cold. But Adam humored me despite the weather, and we went to La Jolla to Children's Beach to see the seals. Here are my favorite pictures from the excursion.

Max couldn't wait to get back to what he called "my sandbox." He had been missing it since we went to Maui in December!

Tasting the sand. This is seconds before she totally face-plants into it and gets more than she bargained for.

Adam building a castle while working on buying one. Okay, he was really just on a real estate call, but you know...

For all their fighting, these two really are such good friends. They were collecting shells as they washed up on the beach.

Gathering around the most exciting find of the day...a crab claw!

Sigh...I need to get back to the beach...

San Diego - Legoland

2011-05-29T21:55:00.003-06:00

Our kids had been begging to go to Legoland for months, and their pleas only became more insistent after their cousins went in March and brought home brochures with slick colorful pictures showing how totally awesome it is. We hemmed and hawed about it since our kids are not big ride riders, and we finally told them no. But...secretly, we planned a surprise trip for the day school ended. We planned to have our carpets cleaned while we were gone, so the whole house was crazy and the kids didn't even notice me packing. Here we are telling them we were leaving. This was minutes before we got in the car and left:

Katie turned out to be much more adventurous than we had anticipated, although she is still not a fan of the dark rides (they are really loud and she is very sensitive to noise). She rode all the scariest rides Legoland had to offer, and Isaiah rode most all of them as well. We were really impressed with how tailored the park is to young families. It was clean and fun, with no pushy, vulgar behavior because there really wasn't anything to cater to anyone over the age of 12.

Some things that made our time at Legoland so much better:

The sling. Lily usually rides in a hip carry, but here she had fallen asleep and I slid her down across my front to be a bit more comfy. It is so nice to be able to hold her without killing my arms (she likes to be held a lot).

The stroller. We have a Joovy Caboose and it is awesome for the stage we are at. I do wish it could recline more and be a bit more comfy for sleeping, but it is so nice to have a stroller that can fit more than one, and that an older child can hop on and off of easily. For as fussy and needy as Lily is, she did amazingly well sitting around all day in the stroller or sling. She could only go on a couple of things, and where she was at the roll-all-over-the-floor stage, I was worried that she would be going nuts not getting down on the floor to play.

The monkey. I was always a bit critical of moms who leashed their children...until I had Max. Literally losing him in a public place once a week makes me paranoid about going to a theme park. But he did pretty well between the monkey and the stroller, and it was simple to clip him out to go on rides. (By the way, he loves his monkey, so that also makes me feel a little better leashing him.)

We didn't get pictures of some of our favorite rides, but here are pictures of lots of the things we enjoyed.

If you go to Legoland, make sure you check out the water park. We didn't spend much time there because it was cold and we were more interested in other things, but if you do go, remember your towels! We didn't and were glad that there was a "family dryer." It did a pretty good job and was pretty warm, but towels would have been nicer!

San Diego - Memories

2011-05-28T09:18:00.001-06:00

Okay, I'll give you some pictures of all the fun things we did soon, but as I looked at the pictures I couldn't help but remember our trip to San Diego 5 years ago, and compare how much our family has changed (and stayed the same) since then. (Click on the pictures to see them bigger.)

Holy moly, 5 years is a big difference in a little boy!
(And can you see the red section of the barrier right behind Adam, where Isaiah leaned 5 years ago?)

You wouldn't know this from this view, but the sweater Lily's wearing is part of the outfit Katie's wearing. Gotta love hand-me-downs!

Have to admit, I got a little teary looking through these pictures and reliving memories. My kids are getting so big!

Exercise #16: Acknowledging Limitations

2011-05-22T23:04:00.001-06:00

If you're feeling overburdened, prayerfully choose one activity this week to say no to. Then skip that activity without feeling guilty, without feeling like you have to explain, without worrying about what others will think. See--was that so hard?

I like what Anne chose to skip this week: grocery shopping! (I wish I could stop grocery shopping all together.) She is really good at keeping her food storage stocked, and can really subsist on it for a while, so she chose to put off making an "unnecessary" trip to the store and instead do her visiting teaching. She found both sisters she visited home, and even was able to wish one a happy birthday instead of stressing over buying, finding space for, and consuming more food.

I skipped some sewing that I felt really responsible for...until I passed it off to someone else, and then wondered why I had felt so responsible for it! It really was a big relief to not have to do it all myself, and while I can't say I did anything more productive or worthwhile with my time, it definitely lessened the amount of stress I was feeling.

Next: Keeping it Real

The Double Wedding

2011-05-21T19:34:00.000-06:00

Adam's brother's Justin and Isaac married sisters, Katie and Brook...on the same day! There is not much that is more fun than a wedding, unless it is a double wedding. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the wedding party, not a full representation of the family, mind you, just some of my favorites. (All these pictures were taken by the fabulous Jonathan Canlas.)

Brook and Isaac

Katie and Justin

Exercise #15: Hearing

2011-05-17T21:54:00.000-06:00

Get to sacrament meeting a little early one week. Look up the hymns that you'll be singing that day, and read through the words carefully and prayerfully. Is there a special meaning for you there?

SKIP

Anne and I were both really excited for this exercise when we read it because it was so easy and a little less soul-searching/emotionally draining than some of the last few. But alas, it turned out to be not so easy for either of us. Notice it's been three weeks since the last post of an exercise? Yeah, we could not manage to a) get to church early, b) pay attention to the music, or even, in my case at least, c) sing half the hymns during sacrament meeting over the last three Sundays. We are just not in a season of life that makes that a possibility. Maybe someday when our children are able to handle life for five minutes in a quiet meeting....

Next week, appropriately: Acknowledging Limitations

Playing in the River

2011-05-14T19:05:00.001-06:00

Shelli told me she was taking her kids to feed the ducks at the Tonaquint Center, so I asked if we could tag along. Unfortunately, the ducks didn't want to have anything to do with us and our bread, so we started exploring...

We found frogs and bugs and this cool bridge washed out by a flood...

It was all water-rotted and stank really bad. It was hot and we were hungry, so we went to the park nearby and had a picnic...

Even in the shade it was pretty hot, so it was impossible to keep the kids from the river nearby. We decided to wade in...

Then Katie fell in...

And everyone just followed suit...

We definitely cooled off, and it was such a fun day! We are so sad that they have since bulldozed this same spot, and it is just not the same. Hopefully we can find some other fun river spots to cool off in this summer.

Katie Dance Recital

2011-05-13T21:53:00.008-06:00

Katie has been dancing at Westside Studio since October, but this was her first recital with this class, and she was so excited and nervous. We were pretty irritated with all the rules and expectations (and the costumes, and the traditions, and the cost!)...until we saw how beautiful and professional the recital was. Her class had the second number of the show, so I thought she would get bored eventually after an hour or so, but she insisted we stay until the end. She had decided to quit dance before the recital, but after watching all the jazz, hip hop, and tap numbers, she realized it was actually ballet she was tired of. Either way, we're taking a break from dance this summer and may choose sports as activities during this upcoming school year, so I'm feeling a bit nostalgic as I post these pictures of my beautiful dancer. She danced so well, and we were all so proud of her!

Katie with her two carpool buddies, Lilly and Hailey
(yes, they really are the same age, Katie is just really tall)

BFFs

2011-05-12T23:12:00.000-06:00

Toddler Time

2011-05-12T22:54:00.000-06:00

It's been such a different experience doing toddler time for Max and his friends than it was doing it for Katie and her friends. Girls are just so different! And Max and Katie couldn't be more different in temperament and development. But it has been so fun to see how much Max has learned and grown over the past 9 months. On our first day last fall he could only say a few words and phrases, but by this spring he was singing all the words to our hello song, it was so amazing! Here are some pictures of our toddler time friends on our last day together before the summer break.

Can't wait to play with all our friends again this fall!

Photographers...of a sort

2011-05-08T22:50:00.001-06:00

You know how you want your kids to be/do/have everything you never could? I am so grateful that my kids have a sense of humor, because I don't really have one. Okay, I have to have a touch of a sense of humor to open these files on my camera and bust up laughing. But really, who wouldn't?!

This one's for the moms...

2011-05-08T19:49:00.001-06:00

This week I ran a lot of errands as I prepared for Adam's birthday and birthday party and did my first big grocery shopping trip in the longest time (really, probably a month or more; I just keep asking Adam to pick things up while he's out). On Friday I took Katie, Max and Lily with me to Kinko's, Staples, and Walmart while Isaiah was at school so I could finish up our errands for the week. I'm not sure what part of me thought I could be successful doing so many errands with so many children, but I guess I was just desperate to finish picking up Adam's gifts and the food for the barbecue. We made our first two stops, and I thought it wise to break up the shopping and feed the kids by taking them to McDonald's, so at least they burned off some energy before we hit Walmart, not that it really seemed to help. I needed to get a bunch of things, so there was no convincing the kids to ride in a regular cart because, as you may know, three children fill up a shopping cart all by themselves. So they had a rare treat of riding on the gray carts with the seats, and I had the treat of bending in half in order to push the dang heavy thing. The other shoppers had the awesome treat of either jumping out of my way when they saw me coming, or being run over as I struggled to steer the monster cart with the car seat snapped on top (which, if you're shorter than an Amazon, is impossible to see over, especially when you're bent over pushing).

Of course, the cart that was available had mostly broken seat belts, so Max took the opportunity to jump off the cart whenever it took his fancy. He was running out into main aisles causing huge traffic jams, literally, of people screeching to a stop and crashing into each other. When he was angry at me for throwing him back into the cart, he ran full tilt down the greeting card aisle, snatching fistfuls of cards and chucking them, fluttering, back into a main aisle causing another, you guessed it, shopping cart traffic jam. During all the commotion Katie was being her usual angel self and entertaining Lily, thank heaven.

We got about 10 minutes into our Walmart shopping before we got to the school supplies and the markers I'd been promising Katie all week. See, she had to make a card for Dad for his birthday, and it had to be with markers, and we had no markers because Max+markers=giant messes many times a day. Once she had her markers, she was done playing with Lily and began singing to and about the miracle that was color in a little stick. And Max started pulling things off the shelves again, and Lily, bored now in her car seat, started crying, so I rigged up a buckle for the boy and strapped the baby to me in the sling.

I was now struggling to push the cart with a baby strapped to my hip and Max and Katie screaming at each other: "Markers, MINE markers!" "Stop putting your feet on me! You're going to rip the box! Maaaaaax!" And I started singing, desperately, "If you're happy and you know it (huff, puff), clap your hands! (huff, puff) If you're happy and you know it...." And you know what? Everybody was happy. For a few more minutes. Until Max wanted to get back out of the cart and started slamming freezer doors, and Katie got really tired and started crying about how nobody in the family even acts like they like her, and Lily started clawing at my shirt to nurse.... Well, you get the idea.

My point in this story was something that happened while we were out on this horrible shopping trip that touched me profoundly. It was such a little thing that the sweet mother who did it probably doesn't even remember it today, but I think I will always remember it. Several times I ran into people with my cart or sent them running out of my way as I called out frantic apologies. One time, I nearly ran down a lady with a girl about Katie's age in tow, and as I apologized profusely she said, "Oh, no! Let me get out of your way." She leaned over conspiratorially, "I've been there. Don't worry, it gets better."

See what I mean? Such a little thing, but when I was relating it to Adam last night, I couldn't stop crying. Motherhood is such a difficult journey sometimes, and it can feel so lonely. So for all you mothers out there, struggling with your crying baby, naughty two-year old, and a monster shopping cart (or your diarrhea diapers, or your terrible teenager, or your potty mouthed little boy, or your husband that works long hours...), I'm going to share the secret: we're all struggling. And we all have those moments of unbelievable joy, too. We just need to throw out the life preserver to each other occasionally, even if it's just a little understanding comment to a stranger at the grocery store.

Exercise #14: Suspending Judgement

2011-04-25T22:30:00.000-06:00

The next time you're tempted to judge someone, stop and think instead, "What could I do to help?" Then do it, and be glad you're in a position to be so strong.

There is a sweet sister in my ward who is going through a difficult trial. Adam and I had, unthinkingly, joked about her situation early in the week, but by the end of the week I had an opportunity to spend time with her and I saw for myself how serious and frustrating her trial is for her and her family. My time with her was meant to be of service, but I feel like I was probably less than helpful. In a way, I feel like I missed the mark with this exercise, because I still came away from this experience feeling...I don't know...empty? Like I should have done more, helped more, felt more. I only hope I'll have another opportunity to help her, for real this time, soon.

Anne has a cute sister in her ward with whom she has a lot in common that she's been trying to befriend, but they just keep missing each other. She shared how she ran into her this week, and how she felt like, yet again, she missed the opportunity to spend time with her and become a better friend. In the end Anne said, "So I will try...to put myself in her shoes. I really think she could use a friend, but I also realize that if I had five kids, I would probably feel like I didn't have the time/coping/energy to build a new friendship."

So, basically, we both were feeling this week like we didn't quite meet the expectation of the exercise. But, as we said last week, we are each a work in progress.

Next week: Hearing

Easter

2011-04-24T22:42:00.000-06:00

Exercise #13: Making Lasting Changes

2011-04-17T21:23:00.000-06:00

If you have a hard time following this blog post, my sincerest apologies! Check out mormon.org for answers to your questions...or feel free to email me, and I'll help answer them!

You may have noticed that I skipped a week. Oops! I got a little behind and needed an extra week to work on this exercise. It gave me a little more time to make a better effort at making a change. Here's what we were supposed to do:

Choose one small thing you want to change about your life. Don't pick a full-on diet, for example, but maybe just one eating habit you could alter. We're starting small on purpose so we can feel some success. Pray and ask for the Spirit to help you make that change. Write down all the reasons why you should make it, and why you can. Decide what motivators would help you stick to it. And then take a deep breath and do it!

I, of course, being a rebel (you know, 'cause I'm such a rebel!), did pick more than one thing. So, of course, I didn't accomplish all that I could have. But, in the end I did improve in two of the three areas I was working on, and I'm going to focus on one of those: family scripture study.

All the reasons I should do it:

Elder Richard G. Scott said in the last General Conference, "We become what we want to be by consistently being what we want to become each day. Righteous character is a precious manifestation of what you are becoming." This just hit me really hard as he was speaking. And part of that was that it is imperative for my character and my family's that we are consistently reading the scriptures together.
This year's Primary theme is "I Know the Scriptures Are True." Um, yeah, how are my kids going to gain a testimony of that if they aren't cracking the scriptures at home?
A few weeks ago the children ran off to primary after sacrament meeting, and Adam and I were taking our time coming out of the chapel. As I came out of the chapel, I saw Isaiah run from his class to the library to check out a set of scriptures--even though I know he had his scripture bag with him. It dawned on me that all he has is the little blue Book of Mormon and that he probably needs the Bible and Doctrine and Covenants now that he's in Senior Primary. And that he's looking up scriptures in class and has never been taught how to do that, even in family home evening. Dang! Time to get to work...

All the reasons I can do it:

Just like anything else, it just takes making it a part of our routine. Once it's a "normal" thing to do, it's not hard to forget. I realized this as I was trying to figure out why we've been so successful with family prayer and family home evening, not to mention attending church and activities--it's just part of our normal routine, it's just what we do. Reading scriptures just needs to become one of those things.
The kids want to do it, they have asked several times (of course, always at an inappropriate time, like an hour and a half after bedtime, or when we're late to be somewhere). They may grumble occasionally, but we're still in the "I want to do what's right" stage of life, so now is an excellent time to start.
God wants me to do it. He will help me find a way!

And as for motivators, all I really have to do is think of my reasons why I should do it, and I feel the good old Mormon guilt kicking in!

So, once I worked through all this, I sat down and thought of the best time to incorporate reading scriptures into our routine. Adam and the kids suggested bedtime, dinner time, and breakfast. But all these times can become rushed as it is, and adding one more thing is not really wise. Then I realized that Isaiah is frequently ready to leave for the bus early and plays around for a while before family prayer. That's when we needed to do it. So I called everyone in for family prayer 5 minutes early one morning and we read the introduction and the first verse of First Nephi. I know, big deal, right? But remember, we're taking baby steps here. Right now we're still figuring things out, but I think our new routine is to each read a verse before family prayer. It will take a while to get through the Book of Mormon, but that's not really the goal here. The goal is to consistently read the word of God as a family, and this accomplishes that.

Speaking of baby steps, that reminds me of something Anne said about what she chose to change: "The thing I have been working on for the past few weeks to do differently is to a) make a decision more quickly and b) not second-guess myself. I'm getting better at just PICKING something, but I still agonize afterwards about my choice. I'm a work in progress." I, too, am a work in progress. We are all a work in progress! But we just have to keep working so we can keep progressing!

Next week: Suspending Judgement

Wake up to yum...

2011-04-05T22:54:00.000-06:00

Some more recipes, hope you're all in as cooking a mood as I have been (or maybe it's an eating mood?). My fridge is about to explode, though, so I think we'll need to eat leftovers for a couple of days and recover before trying the next new recipe! Today's recipes were made for a brunch with my bestest girls. Seriously girls, we need to get together more often. (Though next time, I promise I'll put the quiche in the oven earlier, and we'll try not to have any bee stings!)

Broccoli Quiche, Crepes, and Black Forest Crepes

Broccoli Quiche based on this recipe from Allrecipes.com

2 tablespoons butter

1 onion, minced (I used half an onion, I'm not super fond of onion)
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 cups chopped fresh broccoli
1 (9 inch) unbaked pie crust
1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
4 eggs, well beaten
1 1/2 cups milk 1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter over medium heat in a large pan. Add onion, garlic, and broccoli, and cook slowly until vegetables are soft. Press cheese into crust, then spoon vegetables over the cheese. Combine eggs and milk and add salt and pepper. Pour egg mixture over vegetables and cheese (depending on the size of your pan, you may have extra egg mixture--just make note to adjust amounts if so). Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until center has set (which for me was about 60 minutes, but I was cooking two quiches).

This was super yummy! I have had 3 slices today, and I know I'm not the only one who went back for seconds...

Crepes
from Allrecipes.com

2 eggs
1 cup milk
2/3 cup flour
1 pinch salt
1 1/2 tsp vegetable oil

In a blender combine eggs, milk, flour, salt and oil. Process until smooth. Cover and refrigerate 1 hour. Heat a skillet over medium heat and brush with oil. Pour 2-4 tbsp of batter into pan, tilting to completely coat the surface of the pan. Cook 2 to 5 minutes, turning once, until golden. Repeat with remaining batter.

These take a bit of time. That little bitty amount of batter took me about a half an hour to cook up, so don't cook them while your family or guests are waiting impatiently to eat (unless you're much faster or more talented than I am, which is entirely possible!). Much better to cook them ahead, slipping a square of waxed paper or parchment paper in between each crepe, then refrigerate. You can always warm them up (in the microwave or oven) before serving.

There are lots of ways you can eat crepes. My family's favorite is to roll strawberries up inside, then sprinkle with powdered sugar and dollop with whipped cream or whipped topping. They are also yummy spread with Nutella and filled with bananas. You can go the peanut butter and jelly route. Or the diabetic special with syrup, powdered sugar, and whipped cream--Katie's creation. Or if you're in the mood for a savory crepe you can fill it with ham and cheese, eggs and bacon, or whatever else your heart desires.

Black Forest Crepes
from Hershey's Classic Recipes

3 eggs
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup light cream or half-and-half
3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp flour
3 tbsp cocoa
2 tbsp sugar
1/8 tsp salt
3 tbsp butter or margarine, melted and cooled
Cherry pie filling
Chocolate sauce (recipe below)
Sweetened whipped cream

1. Combine eggs, water and light cream in blender or food processor; blend 10 seconds. Add flour, cocoa, sugar, salt and butter; blend until smooth. Let stand at room temperature 30 minutes.
2. Spray 6-inch crepe pan lightly with cooking spray; heat over medium heat. For each crepe, pour 2-3 tbsp batter into pan; lift and tilt pan to spread batter. Return to heat; cook until surface begins to dry. Loosen crepe around edges; turn and lightly cook other side. Stack crepes, placing wax paper between crepes. Keep covered.
3. Just before serving, place 2 tbsp pie filling onto each crepe; roll up. Place crepes on dessert plate. Prepare Chocolate Sauce; spoon over crepes. Garnish with sweetened whipped cream.

Chocolate Sauce
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
3/4 cup evaporated milk
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/8 tsp salt

Stir together sugar and cocoa in a small saucepan; blend in evaporated milk, butter and salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture comes to a boil. Remove from heat. Serve warm. Cover and refrigerate leftover sauce.

Yum. Just yum. We're not big cherry fans, so we like strawberries (or raspberries!) in these, too. But even with cherries...mmmm.

Sadly, in the process of writing this post I have gotten up and got another slice of quiche and three more crepes. I'm going to go roll myself to bed now...

Lily - 6 months

2011-04-03T22:37:00.000-06:00

six months

14 lbs

26 inches

Likes: Katie, looking at, holding, and tasting new things, being outside, the trampoline, music, splashing in warm water

Dislikes: sleeping, napping, being tired, being held too long, being left to play alone too long, the carseat, being bored

Milestones: playing peekaboo, sitting unassisted for a few seconds, first food (potatoes)

Happy half birthday, Lulu! It is so fun to watch you become more and more interested in the world around you. You are most happy rolling around (back and forth to turn yourself around) on the floor while watching the big kids play around you. You like spending time outside, and it's making me excited for the summer. We took you swimming in Vegas this month, and you loved splashing in the warm water. You are still so little to me, so I'm having fun getting use out of Katie's old wardrobe. You always look so cute! It's also easier to carry you around than it would be if you were heavier, so you still get the view from Mom's arms or the sling a lot of the time.

You are still a poor sleeper, and it makes me (and Dad) very tired. It takes you a long time to fall asleep, and usually I have to nurse you. And then you wake up quickly; your naps are short and you usually wake three times at night. Your doctor thinks we should leave you to cry yourself to sleep in your crib, but it just breaks my heart so I haven't done it. I just keep hoping we can find a solution that will at least help. Grandma Bubbles lent us a white noise machine that seems to help you stay asleep a bit better, especially at night.

You have a lot in store in a short while! I am excited to see you try some more foods and learn to sit alone. I love you Silly Lily!

Exercise #12: Adjusting Expectations

2011-04-03T22:02:00.001-06:00

Take an honest inventory of your life situation. Are you holding on to unproductive behaviors with the unrealistic expectation that they won't really hurt you? Is is time to reach for a "new normal," maybe even on a higher level?

I'm not really sure where this post is going to end up, but here goes with some rambling thoughts I have about this topic...

Our author uses a story from Candid Camera to illustrate her point, and I decided to share part of it here because it really did help me work toward what I need to change in my life. She tells how they put an actor in a car from which the engine has been removed, position it at the top of a hill, and coast it into a service station. The attendant fills the car with gas, then when the actress asks sweetly if he'll check the oil, he opens the hood to find that there is no engine! Despite his protests, she pretends to have no idea what he's talking about, insisting that he fix it.

We laugh our heads off whenever we watch this clip. But one of the things that makes it funny--and even a little painful--is that it is so true to the way we live our lives. How often do we insist that someone make the car run, even when we know in our hearts that the car has no engine?

That behavior takes many forms. We take an energetic two-year-old to the movies and insist that she sit quietly for two hours, then get mad when she can't. We spend all our money and then insist on buying more things even when we can't imagine how we'll pay for them. We fill our bodies with junk food and deprive them of sleep, and then get upset when they don't run properly. We're like Alma's son Corianton, who had to be told plainly, "Wickedness never was happiness," as much as he would have liked it to be otherwise (Alma 41:10).

When our expectations are clearly unrealistic, we have two choices: live in denial and find ourselves unhappy at every turn, or adjust those expectations.

I have very unrealistic expectations for myself. I have a hard time not thinking in absolutes, and so I often feel like if I am not doing everything perfectly, I am failing completely. Which is completely untrue, and I should know better. I've been taught all my life that while I must always try my best, only Christ is perfect. Even Flylady taught me several years ago that "housework done incorrectly still blesses my family!" I still sometimes find myself repeating that mantra as I ignore the dust bunnies in the corners and just sweep up the Cheerios everyone keeps crunching on as they walk through. But it translates to so many areas of my life, and I need to remember that.

Because I often feel like I can't do something perfectly I shouldn't do it at all. And this is really destructive and selfish behavior, like the child that is too overwhelmed to clean his room and whines "It's too hard!" I have been hiding from being the wife, friend, mother, and daughter of God that I know I need to work toward being. Listening to General Conference this weekend really helped me understand that. Whining that "It's too hard!" isn't going to cut it when it comes to my personal spiritual growth and teaching my children the gospel. What is going to make the difference is consistent efforts at reading scriptures as a family, consistent personal prayer, and consistently finding ways to serve others. Those are the things that I need to make my "new normal," not the destructive selfish attitudes I've held so close for so long. It's easier said than done, but making goals is a start. And if I can't do it perfectly, doing it at all will still bless my family and myself.

And, appropriately, for next week: Making Lasting Changes

Girl Food

2011-04-01T23:00:00.000-06:00

I am in a serious mood for girl time, girl food, and apparently, girl dishes. So I've been planning some lunches with "my girls" and that's good news for you all who like when I post recipes. You know what else is good news? The auto-focus on my camera lense was working again this week, so we have pictures! Yay!

This week the occasion was visiting teaching (um, yeah, I am aware that I did my visiting teaching on the 31st of the month, it still counts!). My partner, Jen, brought the yummiest roasted red pepper soup and cake with strawberries and cream...mmmm, I need to get recipes from her. And Sallie brought us banana bread...and I need to the recipe from her! But it was more than just an eat-fest, really, I had so much fun visiting with these awesome ladies and it was the most beautiful day (yes, we are hitting 80s here, my northern friends, you need to come visit).

So, here we are with the recipes. First up, a chicken salad that began many moons ago, when I was pregnant with Max and headed to a Stampin' Up retreat...speaking of girls, I sure miss those girls. Anyway, it was yummy then, and it's yummy now. And a green salad from one of my long-time "imaginary" girlfriends (she's real, I've just never met her in real life...but we're really friends, I promise). These are both some of my favorite go-to recipes for potlucks and lunches.

Check out the floral dishes! Probably the first floral thing I've owned since marrying Mr. "No Floral, No Way" Adam Ellis. He insists they will be perfect for all my "tea parties."

Fruited Curry Chicken Salad
adapted from Allrecipes.com

8 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cooked and diced (or a rotisserie chicken and a couple of breasts, or you can even use the canned chicken from Costco)
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 onion, chopped (I use much less, I'm not a fan of too much onion)
2 small apples, peeled, cored and chopped (I like the tartness of Granny Smith)
2/3 cup golden raisins or craisins
2/3 cup seedless grapes, halved (I prefer red when I have golden raisins, green when I have craisins, but usually use just whatever is convenient)
1 cup chopped toasted pecans (I left these out this time and kinda missed them)
1/4 tsp ground black pepper (or a couple of grinds from the grinder)
1 tsp curry powder (I never measure, I just shake, stir, taste and repeat until it tastes good - I know I use much more that it calls for)
1 1/2 cups mayonnaise (again, I don't really measure, I just add it until it's not dry anymore, which I'm certain is more than it calls for)

Mix it all up and serve on croissants or rolls. Just another side note, I halved this for our lunch this week (there were five of us) and had half of it left. The original recipe is supposed to serve 16.

Bookclub Chicken Salad
from Ramona Mathis aka "Mona of the Babyboard"

6-8 chicken breasts (I don't think I've actually made this with the chicken, only as a side, but here are the directions because it would be awesome with chicken in it.)

Cook chicken breasts for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool and cut into small pieces.

Sugared almonds

8 ounces slivered almonds
4 tbsp sugar
In a small skillet, sprinkle sugar over almonds and cook over medium heat until almonds are coated and sugar dissolved.

Lettuce

2 bags European blend salad mix (and/or Spring Mix)
1 head Iceberg lettuce (or Romaine), torn into pieces

1 lb bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 cup craisins
1 cup shredded Mozzarella

Toss everything but the almonds, reserving to sprinkle on top. You will need a gigantor of a bowl, this salad is huge.

Dressing (The dressing is seriously what makes this salad. I currently have a mason jar of it in the fridge, just for my own use.)

1/4 red onion
1 cup sugar
2 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1 cup vegetable oil
Finely chop red onion in food processor. Add sugar, dry mustard, salt, and vinegar and blend until frothy. Slowly add oil.

Dressing may be tossed into salad before adding sugared almonds or served separately. (I prefer to serve it separately because my family is filled with Hidden Valley Ranch snobs that prefer to dress their own....)

I have another lunch planned next week, stay tuned!

P.S. I just went back and read this post and I sound at best, ADD, at worst, like I'm hyped up on something. I promise, I'm not taking anything. Oh, wait, I ate an entire package of Peeps today...dang Easter candy!

Magnificent Brownies

2011-03-28T21:08:00.000-06:00

Are you itching for a recipe? Me, too. How about some chocolate? Oh, I so need some chocolate right now....

I got this awesome recipe from my sister, Anne, who got it from a friend. She and I both have never made it with the original frosting, however. So this is my adaptation. (Here you go, cute girls from my ward! The boys can have their pinewood derby, we'll enjoy our brownies....)

Magnificent Brownies
4 cups sugar
4 cups flour
8 eggs
1 cup cocoa powder
2 cups butter, softened
2 cups chocolate chips (I always use milk chocolate, for everything. If you prefer semi-sweet, use that.)
1/2 tsp salt

Cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs one at a time. Add flour, cocoa, and salt. Mix to combine. Add chocolate chips.

Grease baking sheet (not a regular cookie sheet, one of those big silver pans, you know what I mean?) and bake at 350 degrees for about 38 minutes. (The original recipe said 28 minutes, but mine were still a little jiggly at that point. At 38 minutes they were just barely underdone, enough to make them a tiny bit gooey.) Cool before cutting.

Haircut

2011-03-27T21:48:00.000-06:00

Ta da! Here's Katie with her brand-new look. (A week later...I was having a hard time uploading pics to blogger. Oh, well, whaddaya do? It's free...)

For a while now, Katie had been asking to cut her hair again. But much shorter this time. She'd been hating the time it took to brush through it, and while she loves to look cute, she could take or leave the fancy hairdos I love doing. When I asked her how short she wanted it this time, she shocked me by holding her hand up to her cheek! It took me a couple of weeks to prepare myself for the loss of her hair, and in the hour before we left for the salon, I nearly had a panic attack. Here are the before shots:

I am fully aware of how blurry this is, I'm struggling with an auto-focus problem with the lens on my camera, and this is the best we got. Ugh!

I took her to Betsy Kirkland at Legends because Betsy does my hair and I trust her. Normally I trim Katie's hair myself, but I don't know how to cut a style and I really wanted it to turn out cute, for my sake and hers. We didn't think there was enough for Locks of Love (they require 10 inches, and it was about 8), but we braided it anyway just in case we could donate it, or to save it to remember.

Look at Katie's reaction when Betsy handed her the braid!

She thinks these braids are so awesome!

I have to say, I am so glad we did it! These pictures don't do the haircut justice, it is adorable! It's an A-line, so it's stacked in the back, and it really fits Katie's personality, sweet and sassy and stylish. She is so happy that it takes 30 seconds instead of 30 minutes to brush through, and she loves blow drying it after a bath. We've bought her some headbands and we're learning some new tricks to pull it out of her face for dance. But we are super happy to have a new look!

Exercise #11: Living Optimistically

2011-03-27T21:21:00.000-06:00

The next time you encounter some nuisance or frustration, ask yourself, "How might this be helping me?" If it makes it any easier, turn to an imaginary friend and say, "Pollyanna, what do you think?" Be totally unrealistic if that's what it takes to free you up to laugh instead of fret.

It is really easy to be cranky about having church at 9 am. Getting 6 people not only fed and dressed and out the door, but bathed and in church-appropriate attire with hair combed and toting everything we'll need (diaper bag, tithing, scriptures, crayons and paper, *ahem* snacks *ahem*, etc.) is no easy task. Especially when we spent a whole year last year, when we had church at 1 pm, using Sunday mornings to get everyone bathed, prepare lessons, iron dress shirts, etc.

But as difficult as it can be, there are some perks to having church at 9 am. One is that it forces me to really prepare for the Sabbath. I have to have clothes ironed, and lessons prepped ahead of time (it really helps to have kids bathed the night before, too!), so then I don't end up spending half the day on Sunday getting ready for it to be Sunday. Instead, once we get past the mad dash to get out the door, I can really focus on feeling the Spirit. It starts the day off right and sets the tone for the rest of the day.

That is the second perk: there is a "rest of the day" when we get home from church! We get home at noon and feed the kids lunch, put them down for a nap (hooray for the Sunday "family nap!"), and even after a nap there's time to prepare dinner, visit family or go for a walk. Choir practice is after church instead of before so I feel like I can go (when I remember, I totally spaced it today!), and I don't feel like I'm leaving Adam in a lurch to get kids ready. I have to say, despite how crazy it is getting everyone up and off to church at 9 am, I really think it's my favorite block schedule.

Even still, it is crazy in the morning, and this morning I slept through my alarm! We had an Elders' Quorum party last night, so the kids didn't get baths, but we thought that would be okay, we'd just take the little kids in the shower with us and it would all work out. And last night I decided that our clothes weren't too wrinkly so I'd skip ironing this week...except Max's clothes weren't in his closet, so I figured I'd just pull them out of the clean laundry in the morning, and they turned out to be very wrinkly.... I'm sure you can imagine the panic I felt when I woke up and realized I had an hour to feed, bathe, and dress everyone. And blow dry my hair. And Katie's. And pack the bag. And go over the hymns for Relief Society. Ack!

Somehow, I managed to keep my cool this morning. I guess I was just being optimistic: at least we could all go to church this week, so I didn't have to scramble with sick kids like we have so much recently. If we didn't make it on time, at least we got there before the sacrament. So Isaiah and Max didn't get their hair combed, but at least they had their hair cut this week, so it didn't look frightening. Lily didn't get fed before we left, but she slept just late enough that it wasn't a huge deal to wait to feed her at church, and I didn't even have to miss the sacrament. And being cheerful despite how stressful it could have been rubbed off: the kids weren't even fighting as they got into the van. We were backing out of the garage before the bickering started, which is a huge improvement for our Sunday morning.

Next week: Adjusting Expectations

Exercise #10: Taking Control

2011-03-21T22:22:00.000-06:00

If you've done something you're not proud of during an out-of-control moment, make a concrete plan for what you can do differently next time. Then go apologize to your kids and let them feel the joy of forgiving you.

I'm not proud of this, but I do this about daily. I smack Max's hands for pinching his baby sister, I yell at Katie for pestering me, I scream at Isaiah for, well, screaming at one of his siblings. Yeah, I do a lot of apologizing. I can't remember what I did one day, although it was pretty bad...I think I smacked Katie because she was sassing me. (Please don't send child services after me, when I say "smack" I didn't leave a mark. I do realize how awful it is that I've done it, though.) I sure remember the apology, though. She ran to her room with all the righteous indignation of a teenager and slammed the door, and I could hear her sobbing into her pillow. It's embarrassing to admit, but it took me several minutes to calm down before I could go in to her even after I realized how upset she was, I was just still so angry. I did go in and talk with her until she calmed down, apologizing sincerely and snuggling her for a while. I think it was one of those rare times that she truly did seem to forgive me, and we were close for a while afterward.

Let me share Anne's experience from the week:

Thursday evening we were outside doing some much needed spring cleaning. Our grapevine is trying to take over the yard, so we were hacking away the (hopefully) dead branches. When we got to the section next to the garden, Jer and I had a... miscommunication. I wanted to cut the branches off the ground high enough that we could plant alongside the vines; last year it shaded a big chunk of the garden and got tangled in the tomato plants. We had the same goal but were looking at it from two different perspectives. After a heated debate about how "high off the ground" could mean pruning horizontally instead of vertically, he started telling me how I should have stated it more clearly. It was a ridiculous argument, especially in earshot of all of our neighbors, and knowing that Porter was taking it all in made me even more upset. If Jer hadn't been holding Porter, I may have actually chucked the pruning shears at him. I know it's not realistic to never fight in front of your kids, but losing control to the point that I feel like throwing a sharp, heavy object at my husband is not a "healthy" argument. I did apologize to Jer eventually that night, and I talked to Port about it as we were rocking to sleep. It's scary/amazing how much that boy understands. I forget sometimes because he's still not very verbal (unless you count the endless stream of babble with a few "woofs" and "this/thats" thrown in).

It's hard being a parent because so much of what you teach your children is by example. I'm mortified when I see Isaiah repeat something I said verbatim, or see Katie use exactly my body language. Even Max says, "You makin' me crazy!" a phrase I have tried to stop using with him because he's picked it up! All week this week I've had How to Behave So Your Children Will, Too! floating around in the back of my mind. (I think the title more than the actual premise of the book fits my purposes, but I still recommend reading it.) I've decided if apologizing so frequently isn't making me overcome my bad behavior, it's at least teaching my children how to apologize and seek forgiveness when they screw up!

Next week: Living Optimistically

Exercise #9: Letting Go

2011-03-13T23:15:00.000-06:00

Watts starts off this chapter explaining "Motherguilt," the "feeling that somehow everything that goes wrong in a family is the mother's fault." But she goes on to show that despite our desire to, we cannot control everything in our family, especially our children's actions and attitudes and therefore we are not to blame for everything bad that happens. Letting go of the guilt we feel over things we cannot control frees us up to be better, happier mothers.

Exercise #9: Letting Go

On a piece of paper, list everything that's driving you crazy about your kids right now. Then go down the list and for each item ask yourself, "Do I truly have any control over this?" If the answer is no, cross it off. Then let go of worrying about those things or feeling guilty about them, and focus your emotional energy on the items that remain on the list.

I'm sure you're dying to read my list, so here goes:

~~Isaiah leaving his socks everywhere~~
~~Isaiah losing his shoes and jackets constantly~~
Katie never being satisfied with my efforts to please her
~~Katie taking things away from her brothers just to make them crazy~~
~~Max throwing tantrums constantly~~
Max getting into and destroying things constantly
Lily not sleeping well (short infrequent naps, waking every 3 hours at night)

You know, it never occurred to me that something my kids did wasn't my fault. I mean, intellectually I know that, of course. But as a mom, I tend to feel that every part of my kids somehow originated with me, especially the bad things. So it was kind of nice to say to myself, "They are their own person. I can't do anything about that. It's not my fault and I'm not going to feel guilty about it." Particularly about Isaiah, who really is becoming his own person. It makes me crazy that I keep buying him shoes and jackets that he can't keep track of, but beyond labeling them and enforcing consequences for losing things, I can't change what he does. And it was helpful to remember that both of the older kids went through the phase Max is in now, throwing tantrums because he wants to do everything himself or his way and can't. It's just part of being two.

Here are my goals for the items that remain:

I don't think I can change Katie's attitude about me. But if I make a concerted effort to put her at the top of my list at little more consistently maybe I can help her feel more positive about the time we spend together. To do this, I plan to pause every time she makes a request and remind myself to not say no immediately. I've already been trying to do this throughout the week, and let me tell you, it's hard! I get so tired of her whining at me all the time that it's like a knee-jerk reaction to immediately tell her no. Not to mention I have three other kids who really need me a lot of the time. She is so easy going and capable, I rely on her a lot to help and compromise. So if I can try to meet her needs a little more, maybe I can get a little less whining and a little more love. Maybe.
Max the monster, Max the madman. I get really tired of chasing after him and cleaning up his messes. But there are two things I can do to help with the destruction. One is to make more of an effort to involve him in what I'm doing and/or spend more one-on-one time with him. This is really hard. It takes a lot of energy to be patient with him when I'm already on my last nerve because I've been holding a fussy Lily for a bazillion hours. But the second thing helps make the first easier: be really consistent with nap time and bedtime. If he gets a solid nap, and gets to bed at a reasonable hour, he's more happy and pliable, and I'm more rested and less frazzled.
I think it's time to sleep train Lily. I have been dreading this day since I conceived this silly girl. Hand over the "Worst Mother Award," I'm going to admit it: I did not want to have a baby right now. For a reason. And about 95% of that reason is sleep deprivation. It's every bit as bad as I envisioned it would be and worse. Something has to give, but I'm not sure what. I've let each of the three older kids cry it out at some point or another and I flat-out hate it, I cry at least as much as the baby does. So my goal here is to start slow: I'm going to push bedtime earlier (to where it should have been in the beginning) and be consistent about it and her bedtime routine. I'll give that a good week or two and if we're still having trouble, I'll formulate a sleep training plan.

Up next week, the second part of "Motherguilt," Taking Control

Exercise #8: Rethinking Assumptions

2011-03-07T21:26:00.000-07:00

You all only get to "see" Anne here on my blog a little bit, and to be honest, this weekly back-and-forth has been the most steadily she and I have ever kept in touch. It has been so fun for me to have an excuse to make that phone call or email that so easily gets pushed to the bottom of my list and really see what's going on in her life. Last week we had a real treat when she and Jer and Porter came to visit us! My step dad, Douglas, also came and we all spent so much time just hanging out, cooking and eating, and enjoying the wonderful warm weather. Thanks, Anne for the awesome weekend! (And if anyone wants to help us find Jer a job in Southern Utah, I would be eternally grateful...I could really stand to spend every weekend with my big sister!)

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Exercise #8: Rethinking Assumptions

The next time you catch yourself feeling badly about the way you've been treated, take a minute to check your assumptions. Maybe you've misinterpreted someone's actions or intentions. What would be different if you assumed instead that the person adored you and would be horrified to think he or she had upset you? Bonus exercise: Next time you're ready to give up on something because it's just too hard, rethink your assumptions. You may not be failing at all, just slowing in your forward progress for a bit. Keep trying!

I'm a little embarrassed to share my experience with this, but here we go anyway.... Probably the people's actions I most frequently misinterpret are my own children's. Now, you have to understand that I grew up mostly as an only child. With the exception of the three years that I lived with my step-family (including Anne), it was just me and my mom as far back as I remember. My mom never talked to me like a baby or even a kid, always as an equal, and I didn't have a lot of experience with children, especially children younger than me. I just didn't have a frame of reference for kid behavior.

Because of this almost daily I encounter someone saying or doing something to me or someone I love that I, with my limited experience, could interpret as really awful, like hitting, pinching, biting, teasing, complaining, arguing, etc. I just haven't had a frame of reference for what really is normal behavior in a family. I remember telling someone several months ago that I really was tired of my children criticizing me all the time. She asked how they were "criticizing" me, and I used how they would complain about what I was making for dinner as an example ("I hate it when you make that for dinner!"). Trying not to laugh, she asked me if I really thought that was their way of trying to take a shot at my self esteem. Or if, maybe, it was more about them expressing an opinion about something they felt they had little control over. It was silly that I had never thought about it that way, I had only seen it from my selfish perspective. Of course it had more to do with them than what they thought about me personally!

With that in mind, I've been making an effort to not take my children's fighting so personally (it was amazing to me to learn that they could all-out brawl, screaming at each other one minute, and the next return to being the best of friends), to not react in self-defense to being head-butted by my silly little Max who's just trying to get a laugh, and to not take their childishly-worded comments as anything more than what they are. It means being the adult in the situation, but occasionally I manage.

As for the bonus exercise, well, I have felt like giving up on a lot of things lately. So it was hard to pick a specific thing. But I did decide that I just need to continue to try to be positive, and give myself a break because having a fussy, sensitive little baby and a needy whirlwind of a toddler (as well as two other busy children) is pretty hard. And I'm not failing as a mother as much as I think I am. That was pretty vague, but basically I'm giving myself permission to let the sewing machine collect dust, to not go back to the store when I forget the ground beef/syrup/potatoes/etc., to let the laundry sit in the basket for another day when I really want to go to bed.

Here are Anne's thoughts:

The thing that comes to mind first is not something that happened this week, but off and on through my married life. Jer will say or do something that could be interpreted positively or negatively, and I invariably take it in the worst way possible. When I call him on it, he says, "Why would I mean it that way? I love you more than anything... Of course I wasn't trying to hurt you." And I know that. It just seems instinctive to get defensive. Fortunately this doesn't happen as often as it used to--mostly because Jer is more careful how he phrases things... but hopefully also because I don't jump the gun and assume he's purposely being hurtful.

One more example: Dad and I went out to brunch on Friday, and it was a pretty crummy experience. The food was lousy, but even worse, they didn't offer a high chair for Porter or give him one of their kid's menus or ask if he wanted a drink or anything. I know he still looks like a baby, but he did walk into the restaurant... The kid does eat. Guess I don't like having my child ignored. Then the waiter kept coming over to check on us (as we were the only customers there) and after awhile I felt like he was doing it to patronize me. No, the food wasn't good. No, we don't need anything else. We don't want any pie today. No, REALLY, NO PIE! Just leave us alone!! I didn't say those things; I replied with the typical niceties. Because I knew he was just doing his job, and I was probably being overly sensitive. He still got tip. (But I'm not going back to M. Callendar's for a looooong time.)

Bonus Exercise. Every week I tell Jer I'm going to march into the Bishop's office after church to tell him I quit. You'd think Primary Chorister was my dream calling, but it is such a struggle week after week to figure out new and exciting ways to teach songs, review songs, and make 20 minutes of Singing Time fun... twice (to two very different groups of kids). I used to hate Saturdays because I'd spend the whole day stressing over the next day's music/activity (or the lack thereof). But almost every week, I realize that I enjoyed it, that the kids were engaged, and that I love Primary music. It's harder than I ever imagined that calling would be (and Jer tells me I make it harder than it needs to be), but I keep doing it because I love my Heavenly Father, I love being in there with Jer and Porter, and I love the children I'm serving. And that's a lot of love.

Preview for next week...Part one of "Motherguilt": Letting Go

Lily - 5 months

2011-02-27T21:29:00.001-07:00

five months

approximately 13.2 lbs

(according to the bathroom scale)

Likes: tickles, peek-a-boo, "this little piggy," "airplane" above Mom's head, grabbing and shaking toys, chewing on Mom's finger, flirting: catching anyone's eye and smiling, playing on the floor, pulling the musical toy on the bouncer, standing, diaper changes, music, pulling Mom's hair, giving "kisses"

Dislikes: going to bed, being swaddled (although it's necessary to stay asleep), being left alone for even a minute or two, being held by anyone other than Mom, Dad, Katie or Isaiah, sitting in a "seat" (car seat or bouncer) for more than a few minutes, loud noises/commotion

Milestones: first illness (RSV), rolling front to back consistently, scooting/rolling to turn while on back, first tastes (soft food from Mom's plate)

Lulu, we've had a hard month. You were so sick with RSV, and it was the most scary thing to hear you wheeze and gasp for breath. It was really hard to hold you down at the suction clinic so they could suction you out, and so sad to listen to you cry all the way there and all the way home so many times. In all, we went for 10 days, and 3 or 4 of them we went twice. The good thing was that you never had a fever or an ear infection, so you didn't have to have medicine (you really hate medicine!), and you never stopped eating or got dehydrated. I'll never forget how kind the people in the bronchiolitis clinic were, even the other parents in the waiting room.

As sad and scary as that was, we've also had some fun. You haven't had too much opportunity to play on the floor at all, let alone have tummy time, so I've been making up for that the last couple of weeks. It definitely means I have to watch you more carefully to keep you safe from your brothers and sister (especially Max), but you are finally getting a chance to roll around and play. You like to look in the mirror, and you roll onto your side to turn yourself to a different position from the one I lay you down in. I was so surprised to pick you up from a nap one day and you were perpendicular to the way I'd laid you down to sleep!

I love you, sweet girl, and I'm looking forward to more milestones as you keep growing!

P.S. For a laugh, compare Miss Lily at 5 months to Mr. Max at 5 months

Friday Favorites: Our Best Bites

2011-02-25T22:31:00.000-07:00

So I was reading Make It and Love It almost a month ago and there was something really interesting going on. The bloggers from Our Best Bites started a miniseries called Kids in the Kitchen. You really should check it out, there were lots of great ideas for getting kids involved in cooking, and a bunch of fun recipes featured throughout the series. (We tried the "One Ingredient Ice Cream" and it was pretty good! Next time, though, it will be with Nutella.) What happened, though, was that I went to the Our Best Bites blog and started going through recipes like a mad woman. There were a lot of great ideas...yummy ideas...

Here are two of our new favorites:

Baked Creamy Chicken Taquitos

So yummy and addictive. This made a ton, really a lot of taquitos. But they went really, really fast. I think we had about 4 left over, and Adam wasn't even home for dinner that night. So, so good.

Chicken-Bacon Stuffed Pizza Rolls

These were also really good. I am not a dip-your-pizza-in-ranch girl, but these really must be dipped. I am well aware of the common opinion that Hidden Valley Ranch made from the packet is superior to Hidden Valley Ranch in the bottle, but our family will just use it from the bottle next time because we like it better. Just sayin'.

So, happy cooking, all!

Wordless Wednesday: Playtime with Lily

2011-02-23T21:48:00.000-07:00

02.22.11

P.S. I'm not sure how video rotates itself from iPhone to computer to blog...but this one did. Weird.

Taste of Maui

2011-02-21T22:28:00.002-07:00

So, Anne was telling me several weeks ago that they had had a "Taste of Maui" night, reliving our vacation (which you can read about here, here, and here) for family and friends through dinner and slide show, and I had to steal her idea. Last night we had our own Taste of Maui night, thanks to her suggestions, and it was so yummy. It was also fun to spend time with Echo and her family, and pretend we were eating in the tropics after a cooooldd day with snow!

If you're tired of soups and hot cocoa, or just wanting a taste of Hawaiian culture, here are the recipes we made. (I promise, next time I'll remember to get the camera out. I am so out of the habit of taking pictures, it's sad!)

Kalua Pork
I actually only cooked this for about 8-8.5 hours. It tasted perfect, though, just like what we had on Maui!

Chicken Katsu with Katsu Sauce
Okay, so this is Japanese, but they serve it at Da Kitchen and Honolulu Grill, and because it's basically chicken nuggets with a fancy sauce, my kids (and I) like it.

We also had sticky rice, macaroni salad (not nearly as good as Honolulu Grill's, though, you should try it...) and fresh pineapple. Yum!

And for dessert, haystacks. I found lots of recipes online for these, but I kind of made up my own (Anne gave me the inspiration, though!), and they turned out pretty yummy. I took a half a bag of sweetened coconut flakes, spread them on a baking sheet in an even, thin layer, then carefully toasted them under the broiler (I actually burned some--this only takes about a minute!). Then I melted a bag of chocolate chips and a little less than a half a bag of butterscotch chips in a glass bowl in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds. I stirred it all together, and added a couple of handfuls of chow mein noodles (those little crunchies, those are chow mein noodles, right?). Next time I'll add some peanuts or something for a little more substance and crunch.
Stay tuned for some more yummy recipes, and a new favorite source of recipes, later in the week!

Exercise #7: Understanding Men

2011-02-20T22:18:00.001-07:00

I just want to thank you for all your sweet comments, phone calls, and prayers as we've been sick. Everyone is healthy once again, and Lily is no longer going in for suctioning. It means so much to me that you all were thinking of us, thank you again!

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Exercise #7: Understanding Men

The next time you're frustrated because you don't seem to be getting a response from the man in your life, remind yourself that he's not being deliberately obtuse. It's just the way he's wired. Communicate your needs clearly and directly, and don't forget to express gratitude when they are met.

I loved this chapter. Watts described how difficult it is for the male leaders to plan something special for Mother's Day in a ward (LDS congregation), how they are constantly afraid of offending someone, leaving someone out, or making someone feel less than special on such an important day. I had to laugh, I have sat in ward councils and heard the planning for Mother's Day, and there is just no way to avoid offending every sister in the ward! And then she went on to point out the difference in how Father's Day is celebrated in a ward, and how that just shows you how men and women are just different:

Contrast this with Father's Day. For many years, we didn't even observe Father's Day in our ward, and no one ever complained. (That should be a clue right there as to the difference between men and women.) Now we have a tradition that during the last ten minutes of priesthood meeting, they gather all the classes from deacons to high priests together in the multi-purpose room and present them with FatBoy ice cream sandwiches. Everyone is happy. No one tries to probe for subliminal meaning in the choice of FatBoys. They eat their ice cream and yuk it up and go home happy.

What would happen in your ward if they tried to give FatBoys to the women on Mother's Day? Almost too horrible to contemplate, isn't it?

Isn't this the case? As a woman, I am constantly over-analyzing, thinking about a million things a minute, worried about every little thing, especially others' feelings and perceptions. While Adam, as a man, sees a problem or an obstacle, works out a solution, and moves on.

Case in point: This last Monday, I have taken Lily back to the doctor and received frustrating news that she needs to go back to the suction clinic. We get home and put little ones down for naps, and because it's an early-out day the kids are playing with neighborhood friends. I am exhausted, but it's Valentine's Day and Katie wants to do something special, I have plans to do an art project and we have sugar cookie dough chilling in the fridge to roll out, bake and decorate. I have less than an hour before I need to start dinner, and somehow I need to fit another trip into the clinic into this day. I start to cry to Adam about how tired I am, and he proposes a couple of solutions. Instead of taking him up on his offers to help, I immediately start to complain that I don't want him to "fix it," I just want him to give me a hug and offer sympathy.

The crazy thing is, minutes before I had sent an email to Anne about this week's exercise and typed: "I loved this chapter, it's the one where she talks about the difference between how wards celebrate Mother's Day and Father's Day--do you remember? I'm hoping with today being Valentine's and all there will be opportunities to thank Adam for all the things he does for me." Yeah, it took me less than a half an hour to do completely the opposite.

When I realized this, I tried to compose myself, thank Adam for coming up with some great solutions, and ask for his help in accomplishing all that needed to be done. And it turned out to be a pretty good evening, despite how exhausted I was. I had an amazing hubby to help!

This is something that I need to continue to to work on because it is easy for me to forget that my man is just that--a man. And when I remember that, I am so grateful he is the way he is because we complement each other so well.

Preview for next week: Rethinking Assumptions

Wordless Wednesday: Big Brother

2011-02-16T22:25:00.001-07:00

Lily and Isaiah, February 2011

Sick Days

2011-02-15T22:22:00.001-07:00

Have you been wondering where I've been after I promised I was going to blog more? Well, two weeks ago Max got sick. Fever, nose running faster than an Olympic sprinter, cough like a seal barking. Wanted to be held 24 hours a day. He had a bad ear infection. So, we got some antibiotics and, because he has sensitive little lungs, started breathing treatments:

Now, despite the fact that my skin was cracking from all the hand-washing, the snot was everywhere! It was no surprise to me when Lily started getting stuffy the following weekend. It did surprise me, however, how quickly it progressed. She started being a bit stuffy on Saturday. By Monday morning she was wheezing so badly I was prepared to take her to InstaCare if the pediatrician couldn't fit us in. He did fit us in, and Monday afternoon (a week ago yesterday) we started taking her to the bronchiolitis clinic at the hospital to be suctioned. And...we started breathing treatments for her:

We had that nebulizer humming, up to six breathing treatments a day between the two kids (and let me tell you, I do not like doing breathing treatments!). Then early Wednesday morning Isaiah, who was due for an orthodontist appointment later that day (already rescheduled once), threw up in his bed. He had been complaining of an upset stomach the night before, but I really didn't think much of it. He stayed home and the kids played games all day:

Luckily it was a quick stomach bug and he wasn't sick (and didn't act sick) again. Katie has also had a runny/stuffy nose and a cough, but has been a trouper and kept going through it all. Max is doing better this week, but we're still working our way back to normal.

It hasn't been fun. I was feeling like I was handling it all pretty well until yesterday, when I took Lily in for her follow up. The PA told us we needed to keep taking her to be suctioned, and it kind of broke my heart a little. So, in my effort to be positive I'm going to tell you the (small) blessings I have noticed in all this:

It has been so nice to see how easily we can just cancel things and stay home in our jammies. I think we may have to cancel our chaos a little more often, just to enjoy more quiet at-home time.
Everyone who sits in the waiting room at the bronchiolitis clinic is going through the same thing, and is so kind and friendly. There is nothing like listening to babies screaming in the next room and waiting for your turn in the torture chamber together to form an instant bond with other parents.
I have the most patient and helpful husband. I know it's been hard to work with a little snot-blowing leech attached to him at all times, but he hasn't gotten upset over it once. And let me tell you, Max only wants Daddy!
Despite Adam and I putting 90% of our attention into the littles, the bigs have been getting along amazingly well. Isaiah and Katie are due for some extra attention and are asking for it explicitly at this point, but they have been so super helpful and cooperative for the last couple of weeks.

So, we've been kind of busy. Running the nebulizer, running to the suction clinic, holding sad babies. Thank you to everyone who has called to check on us, or offered to help, or listened to me talk about snot and/or vomit, or watched my children, or run errands for me. You know who you are. And if I haven't taken you up on your offer...just wait. I may have to yet.

Exercise #6: Returning Thanks

2011-02-15T21:26:00.000-07:00

Exercise #6: Returning Thanks

Write a thank you note (or even an e-mail) to someone this week. Tell the person specifically what he or she did that made a difference to you.

Okay, so I may or may not have written my thank you note this week . . . but I definitely did not get it delivered. Sheesh. I actually had several people that I thought of with this assignment, though. So, if you're reading this, you're probably one of them. Thank you. For being a good friend, sister, neighbor, mentor, or example. Anne wrote a thank you note to a sweet sister in her ward who touched her when she bore her testimony in church. (She's also a pretty wonderful friend and neighbor, I hear.) What I came out of this one with was a feeling of gratitude that there are so many wonderful people in my life that make it fuller and more blessed.

In this chapter, Watts described a teacher, Mrs. Silcox, her AP English teacher, who was instrumental in her life choices, and it reminded me of a couple of really great teachers I had in school. I don't think it's a coincidence that all of them were talented language arts/English teachers--I am a bit partial to reading and writing! Of course, the first I thought of was JJ Abernathy, my AP English teacher. She'd probably be appalled at the degeneration of my writing skills, but she was such an example to me. Watts described her Mrs. Silcox and how she "didn't just read the papers we turned in; she commented on them, sometimes at length. She always made me feel like there were things she and I understood differently from the rest of the students in our class." As I read this passage, I was struck by how like my Mrs. Abernathy she was! Her interest and encouragement in my writing added to my self-worth, both in high school and as an adult.

I also thought of my 7th grade English teacher, Kaye Bair. I specifically remember her spending extra time giving me input on a story I was writing for my own enjoyment. And, coincidentally, this week I've thought a lot about an assignment she gave us to write a thank you letter to someone that had influenced us. I don't remember if it was part of the assignment to write a teacher, but I did. I wrote my 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Ashton, who gave me the opportunity to be one of two students from my school to attend a special creative writing conference, and who encouraged my aspirations to become an author. Mrs. Bair sent that letter to Mrs. Ashton, and I remember receiving a response. I don't remember what she said, but I do remember the feeling it gave me.

And with the memory of that feeling, I am recommitted to get this week's thank you letter sent!

This week's exercise: Understanding Men

Strategies for Moms

2011-02-11T22:11:00.000-07:00

I'm having one of those days where I'm feeling pretty inadequate as a mom. Over the last while, and in earnest since the beginning of the year, I've been trying to focus on being positive instead of getting into rut of negative thinking, so I thought I'd use this bad evening I've been having as inspiration for a (positive) blog post, or even a series of them. While I know I'm doing plenty wrong as a mom, there is also plenty that I'm doing right, and I thought we all could chat about what we're doing that works.

I know this may feel counter-intuitive (at least it does to me), but be honest here about your own strengths and share with me some things that you've learned that are helping your family. It can be about teaching your children, feeding your family, discipline, keeping your home clean, juggling the needs of more than one child, caring for your husband, setting an example for your children, keeping the Spirit in your home, etc. Leave me a comment, email me, or send me a Facebook message. You could even send me a link to your blog. I'd love to ask you some questions and include your thoughts in a blog post geared toward helping me...I mean us...get ideas from each other's successes.

Here are some things I feel I'm doing well at today:

Making a nightly family dinner a priority
Nursing my baby
Laundry, my favorite household chore
Reading one-on-one with my kids
Daily family prayer
Setting routines for keeping our household running
Teaching my kids to help out with their siblings

Here are some things I'm hoping to get better at, at least in the near future (there would be too many to list if we were talking everything!):

Reading scriptures as a family
Making a monthly date with Adam a priority
Cooking with my kids
Reading with my kids (just because I'm not sucking at it doesn't mean I don't want to do better)
Teaching my kids to clean and do chores
Making our breakfasts and lunches more healthy
Making our recreation more meaningful

Do you excel at any of these things? Or do you have other things you're particularly good at as a mom? Come on, you know you do! I want to know about them. I promise I'll share how I'm doing it if you do!

Exercise #5: Understanding Perspective

2011-02-06T23:41:00.000-07:00

SKIP

You can do that when it's your own blog, you know. And this week, I'm going to do it. Here's the exercise, in case you're following along and interested. It is a really good one. I recommend it, even if I'm not going to share our experiences this week.

Exercise #5: Understanding Perspective

Pick a tree, or a building, or something else in the distance that you know is large. Close one eye and hold your thumb up to the open eye in such a way as to block that large item from your view. Is your thumb as big as a tree? Of course not, silly! Now think of some eternal blessing you hope one day to receive. Put all your mortal challenges between you and that blessing in your mind, and say to each trial, "You're no bigger than my thumb!" See how perspective works?

Preview for next week: Returning Thanks

Exercise #4: Discovering Unexpected Blessings

2011-01-30T22:11:00.000-07:00

Exercise #4: Discovering Unexpected Blessings

Pick one thing in your life to do differently this week. Maybe it's taking an alternate form of transportation, or trying out that discount store you keep driving past, or experimenting with a new recipe, making something from scratch that you would usually buy "pre-fabbed." See if there are some unexpected blessings waiting for you when you shake up your life a little.

This week was supposed to bring us some unexpected blessings, and the thing about unexpected blessings is that they are just that--unexpected. Blessings you wouldn't have thought you would be getting by changing what you changed.

Here's Anne's experience:

I have been needing a break from being Mommy 24/7, so I decided this week I'd finally schedule some "Me Time." Porter and I go over to G&G Curry's every week (usually Thursdays but this week it was Wednesday because I wasn't babysitting Reese) and we spend the day watching Port play and chatting. I've never asked them watch Porter without a "good" reason though (like a doctor or dentist appointment) and I felt embarrassed to just say, "Hey, I need to run away for a few hours." I did have some legitimate errands, so after Porter went down for his nap I asked Verna if it would be ok if I headed out to get my ring inspected and shop for a baby shower gift. No problem, of course. So I went to the Masseys Jeweler at the mall and left my ring to get cleaned while I wandered around not really looking at anything. Then I went to the grocery store for a super-duper sale item (which they were out of, of course). Then home to put things in the freezer... Then I decided I may as well vacuum and mop since it's soooo much easier without Porter underfoot. So I ended up just using my two hours doing errands and chores. It was pretty depressing. So I planned to go to a late movie that night after Port went to bed. Only I took too long at Target getting that shower gift beforehand and I got to the theater 10 minutes after the show started... and I really didn't want to sit in the theater alone anyway and not have anyone to discuss it with afterward.

Long story short, I did have Me Time, but it turned out that I used my time a lot differently than I thought I would. At first I was upset that I couldn't even figure out something fun to do by myself, but I shouldn't feel bad if a "break" to me is doing necessary housework unencumbered. It was still a nice change.

So there you go. It would have been wonderful if Me Time had resulted in feeling free, having a blast, and coming out absolutely refreshed. (I sure wish for her sake it had been!) But it didn't. The unexpected blessing was that Me Time was simply a nice change, being able to do some "necessary housework unencumbered." And while it wasn't grand, I can imagine it was nice!

This exercise was a little difficult for me to wrap my head around at first. I could think of lots of things I wanted to change, but nothing that felt within the realm of possibility with how full my hands have felt with Lily and Max (and Isaiah and Katie, etc.). Then I lowered my expectations a bit, and started thinking about things I used to do, before I was pregnant with Lily, that have been left behind somewhere. Maybe instead of doing something completely new, I could do something I used to do and haven't done in a while. I re-read the exercise, and of course, "experimenting with a new recipe" jumped out at me and then I looked at the dinner menu hanging on the fridge, I gave in to my first thought: I was going to try some new recipes. It has been almost a full year since I did my last dinner challenge, and in that year we went from having a made-from-scratch dinner five nights a week to Adam cooking at least once and eating out three or four nights a week. We've been slowly getting back into the routine of cooking (and eating) homemade dinners, but they've been pretty easy favorites, pretty blah. So this week I made some new things. Not all of them turned out yummy, but we did find a couple new favorites, so I'm going to share them with you!

Hold your horses, I know you're anxious (at least I am, trust me these are yummy!), but first let me tell you what my unexpected blessing was this week. It has to do with my relationship with Adam, and I didn't even realize it until we were talking at dinner tonight. I cook for Adam. I always have. He is the inspiration behind my interest in making our dinners taste good. Sure, there have been additions to my household, other mouths to feed and please, but his opinion is the one that matters to me. I was telling him this tonight, and it dawned on me that that was the blessing I received this week: Adam loved the food I made. Well, not all of it, he's a tough critic. But I did get some high praise from him this week. And it made me feel pretty good. Okay, it made me feel about like I did when I received my engraved Valedictorian watch when I graduated from high school: totally awesome. Successful. Something I don't feel...almost ever. And that's an unexpected blessing.

Chicken Satay with Peanut Sauce and Coconut Rice
Special thanks to Kelie Stanclift, who made this for lunch one day and then graciously shared the recipe with me because I loved it so much!

I didn't take this picture...but ours looked like this.

Marinade:

2 pounds chicken, cut into thin strips
½ cup olive oil
1 tablespoon Garlic powder
1 tablespoon Curry powder
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon crushed red pepper
1 oz. Fish Sauce (I didn't have this on hand so I left it out)
Juice and zest of 1 lemon

Mix ingredients together and marinade chicken for at least 1 hour. Skewer and grill on barbecue. (I cooked mine on a couple of cookie sheets in a 400 degree oven for about 10 minutes--watch carefully, though!)

Peanut Sauce:
2 cloves minced Garlic
14 oz. Peanut Butter
12 oz. Soy sauce
8 oz. sugar
1 tablespoon Dry sherry
1 tablespoon chili oil blend
1 can coconut milk
1 tablespoon Red Curry Paste

Mix ingredients together in blender and heat over medium heat. (This makes way more than what you need for the above chicken. I halved it, and still had twice what I needed. That's okay, it's in the fridge, awaiting our next batch! You could also buy the peanut sauce premade. But this recipe was excellent, Adam felt it made the dinner, and it made the house smell wonderful.)

Serve with Coconut Rice:

When cooking the rice substitute half the water with Coconut milk. (I did this in my rice cooker, so easy peasy! Next time I might use more coconut milk than water, it was a very mild coconut flavor.)

Chocolate Banana Bread
(found on allrecipes.com)

1 cup margarine, softened
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
6 bananas, mashed
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup lite sour cream
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease two 9x5 inch loaf pans.

2.In a large bowl, cream together margarine, sugar and eggs. Stir in bananas and vanilla. Sift in flour, baking soda and cocoa; mix well. Blend in sour cream and chocolate chips. Pour batter into prepared pans.
3.Bake in preheated oven for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center of a loaf comes out clean.

I halved this recipe because we only had 4 bananas (I only used 3), but I sure wish I could have made the full recipe. We are not big banana bread eaters (even cake and cookies often go stale before we eat an entire batch), but this was gone in a couple of hours. I won't tell you how much of it I ate....

Lily - 4 months

2011-01-29T22:13:00.000-07:00

four months

12 pounds 6 ounces

24 1/4 inches

Likes: watching big siblings, standing, being held facing out, kicking, bath time, chewing/sucking on hands, being outside, "spider" toy, reaching for and grabbing at things (especially Mom's hair), snuggling after nursing at night, Mom and Dad, peekaboo, singing

Dislikes: being cradled or facing in against someone, anyone other than immediate family members touching or holding, the car seat, swing and bouncer when awake, too much noise

Milestones: chuckling (not outright giggles yet), rolling front to back (only once), moving to own room

Ah, my Lily Girl. You make me tired. But, we are all getting a lot more sleep now that you have moved into your own room (and we shuffled the whole rest of the house to make that happen). You are sleeping 5 hour stretches most nights, sometimes a bit longer even. I love when you wake up in the morning because you always give me such big gummy grins and kick and wave like my face is the best thing in the world. I am your favorite thing these days, no one else really gets to hold you much because if anyone gets close you are a basket case. Except for Dad. You love him, too. And you are the happiest in my arms with Max, Katie, or Isaiah talking or singing to you. Max loves to do piggies and patty cake with you, and Katie will sing you whole ballads and play peekaboo with you. Max is learning to be more careful with you, but he still can't resist sinking his teeth into your plump little feet every now and again. And he's determined to share his food, blankets, and toys with you, no matter how dangerous.

I am finding more opportunities to put you down on the floor these days, and that's a good thing since you've started really liking to be down and free, kicking and batting at toys, or just watching the commotion around you. In fact, the floor is where you like to be best when you aren't in my arms. You'll tolerate the bouncer for a while, but I think the swing is getting to be a thing of the past. You are loving the bath more and more but getting out is still terrible. You still usually hate the car seat, and usually only tolerate it when the car is moving (although occasionally you'll sleep for an hour or less in it after we stop). You love to hold my finger while you nurse, and squeeze it so tightly. I love snuggling you to nurse because you really aren't much of a snuggler anymore. You are getting so grown up, and it is very bittersweet for me. I love to see you learn new things, and you are becoming more beautiful and fun every day, but I hate to say goodbye to the precious newborn stage. I love you, Miss Lil, and I hope you'll let me cuddle you for a while still.

P.S. We got some good pictures yesterday which was a bit of a miracle because after your immunizations when you weren't feeling like this

you were feeling like this

Unfortunately, today has been worse. Hopefully you'll get over the yuckies soon...

Never Say Never

2011-01-25T18:29:00.001-07:00

I hear moms say it all the time: "I swore I'd never do that once I had kids, but...." Yeah, once you're a mom, you change your mind about a lot of things you were sure about. But this becomes even more pronounced the more children you have. I had a pretty good idea what kind of mom I wanted to be and would be before I had kids, and I pretty much was that kind of mom when I only had one. And even two. But it's a whole new ballgame once you have three and four, particularly if you have them close together. Because even the best intentions cannot make you grow an extra set of hands or add hours to the day, and there are never enough of either to be and do all you intend to. So things get skipped, or forgotten, or delegated, or just done differently. For instance,

I Swore I'd Never...

Take my kids in public mismatched, in pajamas, without their hair done, dirty, without shoes, or in ratty dress-ups. But I'm lucky now if one of my children is dressed appropriately, clean, or has their hair done when we go out as a family, and rarely is the same child doing all of the above. I figure my kids are adorable even looking like little orphans, hopefully people will still see their sparkling personality. And if not, who really cares about their judgement anyway?

Cedar City Christmas Parade, 2009 (Katie hadn't had her hair brushed in a day or two...)

Cosleep. And for the record, I still do not do it intentionally. But it happens almost nightly that I fall asleep while nursing and wake up hours later with Lily nuzzling me for another early morning snack. I no longer judge the mother that chooses just to go with what is inevitable anyway.
Me and Katie, 2006 (apparently I fell asleep nursing then, too)
Neglect my children's nutrition. But, let's face it, cold cereal is way faster and easier than eggs and whole-wheat waffles with yogurt and fruit, and my kids will eat it without complaint. And does it really matter if they have pizza for breakfast or string cheese and an apple for lunch? I do remember to give them vitamins about once a week...

Isaiah and Katie, Valentine's 2010 (I just made them eat those lollipops)

Ignore safety recommendations. I hear rumors the AAP is recommending babies stay in back-facing carseats until age 2, but I refuse to look it up or find out for sure because I get excited for when my babies hit their first birthday and 20 pounds and can turn around. And dropside cribs have all been recalled, but I haven't thrown out the crib that all my babies slept in (I did turn the dropside against the wall, and took off the bumper, despite the fact that my first three all have gotten limbs caught in the bars). And, shh, I don't buckle Lily every time I put her in the swing.

Lily (unbuckled, despite Max running around "helping") in the bouncer, December 2010

Leave the beds unmade. I almost never make a bed, my own or anyone else's. It's just not a priority anymore. It is really sad to me when I look in our bedrooms, but not enough to give up something else to get it done.

Katie's room, June 2009 (I was hard-pressed to find any pics of our beds, I'm pretty good at making sure they aren't in the frame)

Let my children play before they work. After school is prime playtime in our neighborhood, and if I didn't let them play while they have the chance, there would be a revolution. We still (mostly) get the homework done. And I still make an effort to teach my kids responsibility through chores around the house, but not at the expense of what I now see as essential play.

Isaiah, Max, and Katie throwing a birthday party for Giraffe (in their pajamas, no less!), November 2010

What about you? How have you changed as a mom over time? What things do you do that you never thought you would?

Exercise #3: Valuing Moms

2011-01-23T22:50:00.000-07:00

This week's exercise is special to me because, you see, I have an amazing mother. I don't give her enough credit, especially considering I have four rug rats of my own that make me crazy, so I'm learning what she went through raising me. I am far too critical of her and the things she does, and I don't tell her often enough how grateful I am that I have her as my mother.

Exercise #3: Valuing Moms

Write down five things your mom has done to help you become who you are today. Share the list with her if possible.

This is my mom, Linda. I love how beautiful and happy she looks in this snapshot.

Mom, I hope you doesn't mind me sharing my list here, even though it is more personal than I would normally share on the blog. I know you will see it here, and it is something I want to have documented. Also, I am really proud to have you as my mom and now the world can know why! These are five things that you have done that have made me who I am today.

Leaving my dad. Next to conceiving me, this is probably the single biggest factor you controlled in making me who I am today. It was a very brave thing to do at a very difficult time in your life, but it shaped everything about me and my environment, and I am forever grateful.
Maintaining a relationship with my step-family. You gave me a family, relationships beyond what you could provide alone, even when it came at great personal sacrifice.
You taught me to appreciate the finer things in life. We didn't have much money, but I always had nice, new clothes at the beginning of the school year, we went on some amazing vacations, and you exposed me to all kinds of cultural opportunities. You taught me excellent manners (I can't say I've always displayed them...), how to use what I had to it's best advantage, and when to buy the more expensive item that would last longer and be a better value in the long run. You have taught me the value of beauty and quality.
Believing in me. I can never once remember you discouraging me from being or doing anything I have aspired to. From the time I was little I felt like the whole world was open to me, there was nothing out of my reach if I was willing to work for it. And yet, when I chose not to follow some great career or go on adventures as a young adult, but to marry young and stay at home that was okay because you also taught me the worth of a mother. You still build me up frequently when I am down by telling me what a good job I am doing (when I clearly feel I am doing anything but a good job), making me more confident as I take on the next challenge.
You gave me a solid foundation in the gospel. It is a sacred legacy I am honored to attempt to pass on to my children.

I am blessed to have such a woman to guide me into adulthood, and still love me even when, at nearly 30, I act like a rebellious teenager. I love you, Mom!

Coming next week...Exercise #4: Discovering Unexpected Blessings

Exercise #2: Forgiving, revisited

2011-01-18T11:32:00.000-07:00

Okay, so it didn't take long...

Last night we were getting ready to go to the store, all of us. I needed to do grocery shopping, and Adam volunteered to come along to make it easier (sweet man!). Getting ready to go out the door is probably the single most stressful thing that I have to do regularly (the most stressful ever is hosting a party, despite my continuing desires and efforts to keep planning parties anyway). I hate getting 5 people's shoes, jackets, and paraphanalia together, making sure diapers are changed, babies are fed, and that I have all the details taken care of (shopping lists, return items, mail to drop off, etc.). It never takes less than 10 minutes, but it easily takes 30 minutes or more to get everyone out the door. So, say I need to shop at Walmart (like last night) and be back before the kids' 8:00 pm bedtime...I have to start getting everyone ready by 5:00 or 5:30, and that's knowing my shopping time will be cut in half with Adam's help.

Anyway, as I was frustrated with getting diapers changed, shoes on, dealing with whining about Nintendo DSes, and making sure I had the Friend to read in the car for family home evening, I was getting more and more agitated that I was doing it all by myself. Again. It seems every time we are going somewhere as a family, Adam waits for me to get everyone ready, working on the computer or whatnot, and then acts annoyed when he's finally ready to go, and I'm still struggling with children. It really isn't every time, it just feels that way. So last night, I was huffing around getting irritated with him that I was getting everyone ready and he's MIA again. Then, I remembered last week's challenge, and simultaneously walked into the kitchen and realized he'd cleaned everything up from dinner alone while I was getting ready to leave. I was feeling abandoned at a stressful time, when in reality Adam was trying to help, just in a different way than I had expected. I took a deep breath to try to calm the stress I was feeling and forgave him for not getting the children ready. Then I made a point to thank him for cleaning the kitchen.

It made me realize as well that it really isn't that he isn't helping that makes me agitated when we are getting ready to leave, it's just the stress of dealing with so many different people and things at the same time. So what if he wants to check on work before he leaves to go out with me? Shouldn't I just be glad he can go out with me at all? It's not every husband that has such a flexible schedule and is willing to spend his time with me and the kids.

So, there you go, I guess I did learn something!