Happy Mother's Day!

Mother's Day. Some love it and some do not. I love it. I love that I get to reflect on all the blessings of motherhood -- of both having a wonderful, amazing mother,

Me and my mom

and of being a mother to four beautiful kids (okay, so they're not kids anymore, but...)

Our four kids
1993

I love that (sortof like New Year's) I resolve to try to be a better mom in the coming year. But, I don't get "down" about the things I fall short in. Its just part of life to be imperfect and to strive to be better.

I love what Our Best Bites wrote about motherhood this past week:

"If you spend any amount of time browsing the internet, you know what it takes to be an ideal wife and mother. If you read enough blogs or spend enough time browsing Pinterest, you’ll know that you need to…

*Prepare 3 healthy, homemade, preferably organic meals a day.

*You’ll need an elaborately simple system for folding and organizing your laundry.

*Due to a system of charts, your house will never be more than 10 minutes away from being company ready.

*You’ll properly display your family with their coordinating heights and ages in a vinyl decal on your minivan.

*You’ll send your daughters to school every day with a different hairdo, most of which involve mastering curling their hair with a flat iron and twisting elaborate shapes into her hair, fastened with giant bows and flowers that you have on a color-coded hair-bow organizer that you made yourself.

*You’ll never buy eggs from the store—if you’re a good mom, you’ll build your own chicken coop in the backyard and paint it a popular Benjamin Moore shade where your free-range chickens can happily lay their organic eggs.

*You’ll have professional portraits taken on a very regular basis. They should always be taken outdoors, either on abandoned rail-road tracks, in front of an abandoned burnt-down graffitied building that’s clearly unsafe for children, out in nature, but with items that don’t naturally occur in nature, like the big velvet couch that mysteriously appeared in the middle of a wheat field. Bonus points if you get at least one shot with your family holding hands while walking away from the camera.

*You’ll reupholster all your old furniture in funky, hard-to-find fabrics.

*Your kids clothes will be made from your husband’s old work shirts.

*At some point, you’ll consider redecorating your whole house with owls.

*You’ll definitely make all your own baby food because it’s just as easy as buying it at the store, and everyone knows that your babies will grow up with above-average intelligence and be better-looking in adulthood. Because of your homemade baby food.

*And finally, if you don’t simultaneously bargain shop AND shop at Anthropologie, you might as well not shop at all.

We might be guilty of a few of those things, but it’s easy to see how when we start looking around at what everyone else appears to be doing, we can start feeling a little inadequate."

We moms can't waste time feeling inadequate and wishing for something different. We are strong and determined and can accomplish just about anything we need to. So, we roll our sleeves up and continue working and progressing and striving and loving -- and enjoying every bit of it all along the way.

I'm so very blessed in being surrounded by a sweet, patient, loving family -- my husband, my four kids, my two son-in-laws (who are really like my sons), and my darling grandson -- how can I be anything but happy?

I always wanted to be a mother. When I was in various school classes and had to answer the question of what I wanted to be when I grew up, I always wrote "mother". My teachers were frustrated with that answer and would always try to get me to write something besides "mother", but I never could think of anything else. I love being a mom.

I love that on Tuesday my son comes home from his LDS church mission (two years since I saw him last!). I'll have all my little chicks back in the figurative nest. Or should I say swans...

Wilson, get in there where you belong!

I love that I have always had beautiful women around me that are exquisite examples of motherhood. I have to look no further than my family -- my mom, daughters, sisters, aunts, grandmothers, cousins and nieces -- to see lovely mothering to both their children, and other children around them.

And truly, whenever I've been "stuck" in a situation, and not really known what to do, I have and do and will call my mom!

Happy Mother's Day!

From our recent trip to the United Kingdom

Recipe: Seared Chicken with Avocado

Bob and I are trying to eat healthier. I try to find recipes that are light or low-fat and adapt them to our tastes (which usually involves removing the onions and peppers).

I found this great recipe that I made the other night at its one that I'll definitely make again. It was fresh and tangy and satisfying. I paired it with roasted potatoes and green beans.

Seared Chicken with Avocado
(Recipe adapted from the Weight Watchers Five Ingredient 15 Minute Cookbook)


4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
seasoning salt
seasoned pepper
1 t. olive oil
1 diced, peeled avocado
2 T. chopped fresh cilantro
2 T. fresh lime juice (about one lime)
1 lime, cut into fourths

Sprinkle seasoning salt and pepper on both sides of chicken. Heat oil in a large nonstick frying pan over high heat. Add chicken. Cook 1 minute on each side, or until it is seared. Reduce heat to medium; cook 5 minutes on each side with lid covering to keep moisture in. If chicken needs more time to cook, turn the heat down to low, keep the lid on, and let it continue cooking.

Combine avocado, cilantro and lime juice. Squeeze lime over chicken before serving. Top with avocado mixture. (My husband doesn't like cilantro, so I added my cilantro to the avocado after I had taken his serving out)

Makes 4 servings

Wisteria and "Be Still and Know" wooden sign

Every year, when we trim and try to tame our wisteria, we start to grumble a little about how wild they are, and how they need to be cut back (or else they could quite possibly take over the house).

And every year, around this time, I'm reminded of exactly why I LOVE wisteria. It is gorgeous, fragrant, and the blossoms literally hang off the branches in a profusion of purple lovliness.

Our front yard wisteria is in all its glory right now. The backyard wisteria patiently waits until the front vine has given its all, then it proudly goes into bloom (thus enabling us to enjoy wisteria for a prolonged period of time).

Don't you just want to reach up and scoop a handful and breathe in that delicious fragrance?

I can hardly stand it. When I walk through our entry area, I gaze out the windows and find myself slowing my step to take in the rich blooms. What a lovely, romantic plant!

Although I have been staring out the window quite a bit for the past week or so, I have managed to get a few projects done. I wanted to make a wooden sign for a friend of mine whose husband has been called to be a mission president in Florida. They will be there for three years, so its a huge sacrifice sacrifice in every way. She has been a trooper, and has said to me more than once that she needs to remember to: "Be still and know that I am God".  This scripture is found in the Bible (Psalms 46:10) and the Doctrine and Covenants (101:16). So, I got to thinking that that might be the perfect thing to put on a sign. (To see how I have made previous wooden signs, click here or here). You can't really tell in the photos, but the paint color is a soft, sweet blue.

I like to cover the back so that it is somewhat decorative, and when I saw my old road map Alamanac sitting on the counter, I knew that was just the thing! I pulled out the map of Florida, cut it up in a few pieces, and pieced it together in a patchwork style on the back.

My husband and I will write a short note to them on the back, sign and date it, and it'll be done! I'm thinking I may make another batch of these for some gifts. If you're one of my five sisters, forget that you ever saw this post.

May Week 1: Flour and Wheat

This week's food storage items are:

May Week 1: Flour - white, wheat, etc. Whole Wheat: white or hard red wheat, Wheat Grinder

Flour includes white and wheat, and any other types of flour that you use. For instance, I use both white and wheat, and I also use Gold Medal Wondra, a super-fine flour used for thickening.

As far as wheat goes, I have my buckets of wheat that I bought several years ago.

Those should be good for 30+ years as long as they were packaged correctly. If you have whole wheat stored, you should really think about having a wheat grinder. Having said that, I'm going to go one step further and say that if the only wheat grinder you have is one that needs electricity, you might want to think about getting a hand grinder. If the power goes out for a prolonged period of time, and you are left with whole wheat and an electric wheat grinder, you might starve. Just saying. If you don't really use your whole wheat, so you don't have an electric grinder, just skip that and buy a hand grinder that you keep somewhere very near your whole wheat containers.

As with some of the other food storage items, I also have wheat and flour that I've canned at the Dry Pack Cannery. For more information on that, and locations, click here.

Whole wheat can keep for 30+ years, if it is stored correctly. Flour that is packaged with oxygen absorber packets can keep for 10+ years. And flour that you buy in the grocery store has an expiration date on the bag, and I stick pretty close to that. I remember years ago that I dipped into an older bag of flour that had weevils in it. Never again. Trust you me. I don't want to go into the sordid details, but suffice it to say, I had to throw out that batch of cinnamon roll dough. Ugh.

So, there you have it. Decide what your family's needs are for flour and wheat, both long term and short term. If it isn't really feasible to try to store the really long term stuff, then just think about this year and what your family might use for the year. Add it to your shopping list, and in the next couple of days, buy the items and get them on your shelves. Done. You can rest for a week.

If you would like the full info on the Week-By-Week Food Storage Plan, just click on the tab at the top of the page. It also has the information as to how you can get a copy of the weekly schedule as well as the complete inventory sheets.

"New" nightstands

I've been re-doing my sons' room (the one who's coming home from his mission in 11 days). We had to get rid of his old bed. I have an opinion about Ikea furniture that I'm not going to share right now. Ahem. Anyway, we threw out his old bed, and got a new one. Problem is, his old one had a night stand built right into it. I now needed to get my hands on another night stand or two. I didn't want them to be "matchy" with the bed, and wanted something with a vintage touch. So, I looked around the house and found two tables that weren't being used anymore. One was from our living room, which we've changed, and another is one I picked up at a vintage/antique store on our last trip to Logan. The tables were off-white and shabby chic-ish. His new room is more in the black, gray, and blue tones, so off-white wasn't going to work. I didn't want true white, either, because that seemed too different from the rest of the room. So, I checked out my supply of spray paint and found some grays and also some metallic colors. I first sprayed both tables with Kilz as a primer.

After they had dried (which only takes a few minutes), I coated them with gray, and then sprayed them again with the metallic aluminum spray paint.

I gave the old sewing machine cabinet a couple of new knobs, and now they are both in their new home!

I like that the tables are different, but tied together with the same paint treatment. I didn't want the metallic color to be too feminine, so I made sure the lamps were on the masculine side and also that they tied in the black and the metallic color. (Lamps were from Target and were a great deal at $16 each!)

I love the tables in their new home, and I love that it just took a coat of paint to have them work in a different room and with a different purpose. The sewing machine table obviously started out as a sewing machine table, and when I picked it up, it was at a second hand store. I used it as a table in my living room. And now its a night stand. Pretty industrious little table! The very best part of the whole project, is that it was almost free. The only things I bought were the new knobs. The paint was all leftover from other projects and the tables were ones I already had. I LOVE that kind of project!

At some point I may have his room all the way done and I'll share pictures when and if I do!

Amazing Family History Charts

A while back, I did a post on the Genealogy Fan Chart. (Click here for more information on the Fan Chart) It is such a fun way to see your generations fanned out all on one page, and in color!

                          

I've found some other great ways to have fun with family history.

More Charts:

To find some great charts, go to treeseek.com and log in using your LDS login information. After you have selected which family member you'd like your chart to begin with, you can select one of several different options to display your family. All of the information that will come up after you have logged in is information that is already in the Family Search system. You don't have to input any additional names or information. For instance, I logged in and selected Name Cloud. The following is what was automatically generated on my screen. It would be such a fun thing to frame and have somewhere in your home. How cute would it be to have in a baby's room?

You can print the Name Cloud in first names (my name is just between "Heinrich" and "Sarah" top center):

Full names:

Or last names:

You can also show your family 9 generation pedigree chart:

Or a 10 generation pedigree chart:

And all of this fans out from just your login information. It ties it in with Family Search, and the genealogy work that has been done on those records.

How are we related?


Another interesting activity is to instantly find out how or if you are related to friends, and see how your family lines connect.

Go to the following website:

http://www.treeseek.com/mobile/

It is a free app, available for android and apple users, so you can download it on your Ipad. After downloading it, and using your LDS login information, you can see how you are related to either friends or famous people. If you are going to check out your connections to a friend, then they will have to download the app too, so that they can get their three digit code. You will enter their three digit code on your page, and it will give show you if and how you are related, and will also show your common ancestor. My husband and I are 8th cousins... (Keep in mind that the tree digit code is constantly changing, so you'll have to log in and use whatever code is current for you at that time.)

Fun, eh?


So amazing to see what is available for all of us. Its a fun way to get the youth (and adults!) excited about their ancestors and also working on family history!

Happy May Day!

What happy memories I have of May Day! We would wake up early in the morning and deliver flowers and treats to our friends' doorsteps. As little girls, our offerings were always a few token flowers we had picked from my mom's garden, along with a note that said "Happy May Day". But Mom was a bit more serious with her May Day gifts, and I remember leaving a sack or two of See's Chocolates at doorsteps along with a sweet bouquet of fresh-cut flowers from her garden. It was always so exciting to leave the flowers and treats on the doorstep, knowing that when our friends woke up, they'd be delighted with a May Day surprise.

What are you doing to celebrate May Day?