Bennie's Bites

Valentine's Day-Blah!

2012-02-14T08:17:00.003-07:00

Speaking of Valentine's Day, I'm heartbroken again. I had plans. I used my time to be prepared. Everything was going to be wonderful. Then Riley got croup. Riley got RSV when he was 4 weeks old and was hospitalized for a week & I think that effected how severe croup is for him. The first time he got croup, at 3 years old, it was flirting in the fatal range. He was taken to Primary Children's and hospitalized. The next time it was a weekday and I took him to the doctor and got the steroids right away. The time after that, the doctor wouldn't do anything. This time around, I looked to his previous experience of the doctor doing nothing and figured we could conquer this beast. I think we will but progress is slow and this is NOT his best Valentine's Day. I don't sleep. I just listen to his breathing all night, afraid to miss any possible change for the worse. He doesn't want to eat anything at all. My best effort to give him something fun is to make red Jell-O. He doesn't feel like doing any activities. The valentines & valentine box he was so excited about are in the closet. I'm supposed to be in charge of his class party. No other parents were willing to be there today so I don't have anybody I can defer to but I don't feel much like having a party without my little guy healthy & able to enjoy it. We were going to go out to dinner but I'm really not sure if that will work out or not. This is a holiday I've never loved but it's been somewhat re-invented since my children started school & I find some fun in it through the kids. I hope my daughter has a day so great that it at least partially makes up for what Riley's missing out on.

Valentine's Class Party/Kids Activities

2012-02-12T00:12:00.003-07:00

This is what we're doing on Tuesday for a class of 2nd Graders:
*Make a fish out of hearts

It takes 2 hearts the same size and they get glued down, pointy side out. A slightly smaller heart makes the tail and a much smaller heart makes the lips. A wiggly eye could get added but we'll just do ours with marker. I wish I'd made them slightly smaller so they fit in the frames a little better but I'm not going to worry about it. I found the foam frames (with foam hearts which I will use for something else) last year on clearance. I cut cardstock out and used brads to fasten it to the back of each frame. It will be much easier to glue the hearts to cardstock than it would be to try to glue them to foam.

*FIND YOUR PARTNER GAME: Put pictures of animals on hearts, fold in half, put in a bag. Have each child draw a heart out of the bag. They must find their partner, one that has the same animal, by making the sound that the animal makes and listening to the other children for the same sound. Some animals I used are pigs, cows, cats, dogs, sheep, frogs, monkey, lions, horses, etc.

*HEART RELAY
Requires 2 LARGE HEARTS PER TEAM (probably just on cardstock & in sheet protectors)
Divide children into 2 teams. The first person of a team takes the 2 hearts and lays one heart on the floor. The child steps on the first hear and then places the second heart on the floor in front of them. The child steps onto the second heart, reaches back and picks up the first heart, and then places that heart in front of them. Continue to the end of the course and then run back and tag the next team member OR divide the teams in half and have the person walk on hearts to the other side.

*Hide & Seek the Heart Game with a bean bag heart, saying if someone is getting hot or cold

*SNACKS: Goldfish crackers (to go with the fish pictures)-another mom is sending these/A Little Debbie valentine treat, apple juice (I'll cover the container with a homemade label that says Love Potion)
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Activities I want to do with my own children to celebrate Valentine's Day:
*Valentine Gobble - Spread a pile of wrapped candy on a table or large tray. Give each guest a container like a small bag, bowl, or paper cup. Set a timer for 30 seconds and have the kids get as much candy into their containers as possible without using their hands. When time is up, the one with the most pieces wins, but everyone gets to keep the candy they maneuvered into their containers.

*Valentine Memory Game -put pictures or words of Valentine-type things on hearts, number them and have children try to find matches

*Fishing for Hearts - Attatch a magnet to the end of the string of a small fishing pole, or make a fishing pole out of a wooden dowel. Create heart shapes out of pipe cleaners and put several in a large container on the floor. Let each child take turns "fishing."

We're going to dinner that night (my Valentine's present to myself) but I want to make a cool breakfast, lunch, & dessert. For breakfast, I think we'll have heart shaped biscuits with butter & strawberry jam. I think I'll just cut lunch sandwiches out into heart shapes and send pink rice krispie treats pressed into a funnel & removed so they are the shape of kisses. For dessert, I want to make an ice cream cake or ice cream brownie, not sure which.

Also, I gave the ladies I visit teach a super simple valentine! I just bought heart-shaped marshmallows, put them in valentine bags from the dollar store, printed a free header I found online onto cardstock, and used brads to fasten it on.

2012-02-08T22:02:00.007-07:00

I have a cycle that I just can't seem to kick and it has nothing to do with my hormones. Every month for most of the month I'm crazy busy and I just cling to one or two days down the road when everything is supposed to slow down. Sometimes those slowed-down days happen and they mean the world to me. I think of ways to have more of them. Sometimes those days get filled up somehow with the little things that come along needing attention. No matter what happens, it's never more than a couple of days and everything goes crazy again. I think of a week as a huge success if I see one TV show while it's actually on TV. Is this what everybody is doing?
Today was supposed to be my slow day. This is what actually happened: Got everybody ready for school-fed them breakfast, made lunches, etc. Took the kids to the bus stop. It was much warmer than it normally is and I need more exercise so I made an impromptu decision to go for a walk with my youngest. We got home and I cleaned up the house a bit. I've been putting off making Valentine's cookies because of so many higher priorities but since I didn't have anywhere I needed to be today, I decided we needed to get that done (after scrubbing the kitchen thoroughly down yesterday-ha ha). I thought it would take 1-2 hours. My son really likes helping. I want him to keep up his enthusiasm in the kitchen. With his help, the cookies & frosting took about 3 1/2 hours.

Since garbage day's tomorrow, I figured we'd better get trimming some more on the neighbor's bushes that are coming over to our side & taking over our yard. We did that for an hour and filled up our garbage can. The older kids got home and we did snacks/chats/homework. I made dinner & we ate. I tried to plan some valentine's activities for a class of 2nd graders. I'm in charge of the party next week and even though I e-mailed 12 parents, only 1 responded and said she can't be there but she'll send a snack to help. I helped the kids work on their valentine's boxes.

I cleaned things up and noticed there's a leak under our kitchen sink. Our heater went out last Saturday and just got fixed Monday so I was a little overwhelmed with home trouble. I gave myself a pep talk and cleaned everything out from under the sink and tried to assess where exactly the leak was. I gave up but will have to worry about it soon! I had the kids get baths & we did our bed time routine. The kids went to bed. My brother & his wife came over and I got to sit on the couch and chat and laugh for an hour and that was wonderful!
It's good sometimes to write things down because I look at that and think, "I didn't HAVE to go for a walk (although that was very enjoyable so I'm glad we did) and I didn't HAVE to make cookies and I didn't HAVE to trim bushes). Maybe that's why I always feel so busy-I don't know how to just let some things go a little bit. Also, when going over the day, it sounds like a streamlined sort of a day but listing tasks doesn't account for the fights I break up or the tantrums or the constant calling for me to come in the other room for something "urgent" such as somebody wants me to bring them a cup of water because they are busy playing. (I obviously have more time for things like that.) It doesn't account for the financial things I'm trying to figure out or the schedules & events I'm running through my mind and working through.
I guess my first impulse is to feel a little discouraged but then I think about how my son could hold our heavy mixer longer than he's been able to today and that he cracked 3 eggs and didn't get any egg shells in the cookie dough.

I think about how our oldest son ate all of his breakfast for once and how cute he looked singing and dancing.

I think about my daughter putting on a mask and strumming her guitar.

She totally dedicated herself to working on her valentine's box and didn't complain when I made her put her book away instead of reading at the dinner table. I guess those are the things that matter. If I feel busy, it's for a good cause, a cause that's worth a lifetime of overly-busy days.

On My Mind

2012-01-31T22:21:00.004-07:00

My daughter's been playing basketball three days a week. The coach invited all the parents to play with our girls last night, which was incredibly fun. I just wonder if people who enjoy playing sports always tend to think they're better at sports than they are. For a few years I've heard countless kids say how well they played but since I saw the game with my own eyes, I wonder how they came to that conclusion. Tonight I started thinking I did a decent job of playing but I remembered all the kids who say they played well and I wondered if I really did or not. This year of watching so many games, I've learned a great deal about a sport that was second nature to me growing up. I grew up great at street ball at a young age & a good offensive player but without direction to really progress or play great defense. It was only a few years ago when I got to play ball with some other women for a few months that somebody really explained the difference between playing zones & playing man-to-man. I'd just played "run after the person with the ball" before that, which I should have outgrown years ago but I was too ignorant to know to change that. Also nobody ever showed me how to drive the ball down the center. I did what most young girls do and put your back to the person guarding you and cautiously try to get close enough for a shot. This has been the year that I've finally seen that having a defensive strategy and the ability to drive the ball while facing forward were very key elements I've been lacking. Now I wish I had other people to play ball with to try these things out on regularly. I loved being able to play in a game with my daughter.

Over the weekend, I had a conversation that felt unfinished. I felt like my desire to be a tolerant person seemed more distinguished than my desire to stand up for my convictions, not that I didn't state that I think the church is true & a great enhancement for my life. I just understand reasons why people would have trouble whole-heartedly embracing it and I don't think that makes somebody a bad person.

Tonight...mmm...tonight! We had fondue. It might not look like much but it was heavenly! My mom heard of a mac & cheese recipe where you heat a can of milk and add cheese to make the sauce. We made that a few weeks ago and it was the first homemade mac & cheese my kids would eat. I started thinking it would make a much more simple fondue than I usually make so that's how I made the sauce. We had steamed broccoli, noodles, and sourdough bread cubes to dip in the cheese sauce. Because it wasn't a huge meal & I was in a fruit mood, I made peach-banana smoothies, too. It was so incredibly yummy and I feel the perfect amount of no-longer-hungry. My mom just taught me on Monday how to make artisan bread so the sourdough bread came from my first attempt at making my own bread. It turned out surprisingly well. I'll have to post the recipe & directions in another post.

The last thing for today is that I think I need a TV pal. I used to spend at least a couple nights a week watching shows or movies with Preston after the kids are in bed. I hardly watch anything anymore but when I do, I wish there was somebody to talk to about the shows. I just feel like asking a friend to watch TV with me would be insulting, like saying, "You're not fun enough to just spend regular time with but maybe we could sit together on a couch sometime while a show is on." I guess since I usually get to watching shows at 10 or 11 at night, trying to get somebody to come over that late wouldn't work out so well. Preston, if you ever read this, I definitely think watching TV together counts as quality time-ha ha!!!

Just a Number

2012-01-26T21:11:00.002-07:00

I've been having some strange thoughts lately. It was triggered last week when I started taking my youngest son to pre-school story time at the library. All of a sudden, I looked around and realized (in my mind but not necessarily reality) that there were about 15-ish moms that were the same. Okay, not identical because I hate shrimp and maybe some of the other ladies love it. However we were all women that followed "the plan." We got married, had some kids, and were trying to make the most of it for us and them. I looked at my clothes and thought, "Uh...these are mom clothes. They're not fun or fabulous but they are comfortable and clean and allow me to complete a variety of tasks." I had even put some thought into what to wear. The thought was, "what will minimize the size of my middle?" Ha ha! I would like to dress a little nicer but I started looking around and realized with the exception of one mom, who was apparently going to a photo shoot after the stories, we all had pretty similar clothes on. We all wanted our children to participate in a group and when our kids looked to us for reassurance, we all reacted the same-smiling, perhaps clapping to the beat of the song or singing along like we were having a great time. It's funny, too, because we all sing these ridiculous songs to our kids because our kids like them. We turn into people that do things we would never otherwise do for the enrichment of the little people in our homes. We all worry about what to feed our families and how to get or keep our homes organized. We all juggle a variety of things-school, sports, church activities or responsibilities, relationships with other people. I've had this in the back of my mind for a whole week now and as we went back to story time, it wasn't very comforting to feel like I'm right. We're all about the same!!! I'm really starting to feel like just another number and not a real person. My kids, the people I spend the most time with, really don't know me. They couldn't tell you much about my fears or hopes or my favorite things. They don't know my friends very well and they don't realize that I even have a personality. They do love me though and as long as I keep driving them around, cooking, cleaning, and providing clean clothes for them, they will not mind me being around too much although they really don't know the person that does those things. My personality is completely useless in my daily functions. The only thing I need is to log my hours meeting certain needs and nothing else really changes things much. I might just feel this way because I'm on my own a lot, with my husband in another state. I have enough to do that I don't really have time (or energy to be honest) to worry about how fun I am. I just feel really unsettled about how little personality matters in day-to-day life. Now I just need somebody to tell me if I'm going crazy or if this is a normal thought to have once in a while, even if it lasts a whole week. Ha ha!

Updates with pictures

2012-01-25T22:22:00.003-07:00

The zoo was free today and we had a very good time there.

My son followed and matched the peacock.

I loved this picture. The gorilla really liked babies. A baby had been the reason it came to the window this close in the first place.

It's still Wednesday so this is my Happy Hump Day shot.

I liked this picture because it showed the difference in pattern between a male giraffe (the larger blocks of color) and a female giraffe.

There hasn't been much snow but there have been 2 days that it snowed really hard. We hurried and went sledding both times and it's a good thing we did because the snow has melted too much to go again the next day. I bought an inexpensive snow board this year with a handle. I've never snowboarded before and we've all been testing it out. It definitely provides the biggest rush but we've all received our worst injuries on it as well. It's fun but dangerous.

The kids got to go to a huge party at the state fairgrounds for reading every day for a couple of weeks. We went once before a few years back and loved it. There were tons of activities and it helped make us feel like we had something fun to do over a weekend.

I foolishly bought this glasses from Ikea just so I could make desserts that would look pretty. I doubt I'll use them much but at least there's proof that they were once put to use for something delicious.

Chinese New Year

2012-01-24T13:47:00.004-07:00

A friend of mine invited the kids & I over to celebrate Chinese New Year yesterday but then she got sick. I've never celebrated it before but since she put the idea in my head, here's what we're up to today (a day late but good thing it lasts a while...):

I just got done making paper lanterns. This is where I got directions (although I improvised a little):
http://crafts.kaboose.com/lantern1.html

We printed masks from here:
http://familyfun.go.com/assets/cms/pdf/printables/chinese-newyear-dragon-mask-coloring-printable-1210.pdf

I tried inserting links but then nothing showed up. Sorry I'm techtarded.

I think we'll have Chinese chicken salad & egg rolls for dinner. I'll also make asian cabbage salad and some Chinese noodles. I might go grab some fortune cookies for dessert.

I'll take pictures and if I'm better than usual, I'll post them later-ha ha!

Off My Own Rocker

2012-01-19T20:59:00.003-07:00

I just watched Betty White's Off their Rockers online. It packed so many funny scenarios into 20-minutes!!!

My brother is letting me throw a family game night at his house tomorrow night and everybody's supposed to bring snacks. We have people over often enough that I should have a handy list of good food ideas. However, I still look online for great appetizers or finger foods for every single get-together. It's ridiculous. I always want to bring the perfect thing. I never do. This time my plan is a variety tray with crackers, salami, cheese, trail mix or nuts, a couple kinds of olives, stuff like that. I also want to either make a pound cake with lemon curd topping or a white Texas sheet cake...I'm leaning toward the sheet cake.

I received a text this evening from somebody in the ward who had heard I had my purse stolen...um, that never happened. It feels too late to text her back to set the record straight but I keep thinking, "How did this kind of story start?"

This is why I don't tell anybody in the ward about my blog. I couldn't write about them anymore.

Finally, I've been reading the Book of Mormon each night with the kids. I'll be honest-we got back on track because I am ready for the day to end sooner than I used to be but the kids don't respond well to an earlier bedtime. Now I just make them be ready earlier and then we read together which eliminates (or at least reduces) the fighting for the last half hour they're awake. Ezra Taft Benson said: "My beloved brothers and sisters, today I would like to speak about one of the most significant gifts given to the world in modern times. The gift I am thinking of is more important than any of the inventions that have come out of the industrial and technological revolutions. This is a gift of greater value to mankind than even the many wonderful advances we have seen in modern medicine. It is of greater worth to mankind than the development of flight or space travel. I speak of the gift of the Book of Mormon, given to mankind 156 years ago. This gift was prepared by the hand of the Lord over a period of more than a thousand years, then hidden up by Him so that it would be preserved in its purity for our generation."

I love this book! This is the piece of my puzzle that has allowed me to keep on moving forward, even when I don't think I have what it takes anymore. I have seen a change in my children as well, even if it's just for a few minutes each day.
The end.

Kids & Cell Phones

2012-01-14T06:07:00.002-07:00

Kids with cell phones are really starting to bug me. It's starting to make an even bigger mess of society. My daughter, who's 10, now has more friends with cell phones than without but now even cell phone kids' parents are driving me crazy! She got invited to two birthday parties this weekend and neither one has an end time listed. I called to ask when the party would be over & the parental response I got both times was, "I'm not sure. I'll just tell her to call you on her phone when we're done." Our rule is that when she has the money to obtain & maintain a phone and monthly payment, she can have a phone. It seems reasonable to me to have just a little responsibility on her end. What does a 10 year-old need a phone for? Try planning ahead like people have done for generations. Parents now give their kid a phone and figure even THEY don't have to plan ahead anymore. This is not increasing the functioning of a younger generation. This also does not teach kids to appreciate expensive things. Just handing them every gadget under the sun by the age of 10 makes their appetite for things insatiable and their respect for things nearly non-existent. They are set for a life of endless show-and-tell. (I guess I don't use the word "insatiable" often enough because it looked weird to me and I had to double check on dictionary.com to see if I spelled it right.) We have kids in our primary class bringing their cell phones to class and distracting everybody else with them. When we try to confiscate them during the lesson, kids will say, "Oh, I need that to look up scriptures." I don't have a problem with using devices to view scriptures but be responsible about it or old enough to be responsible. I guess that's the end of my rant...and they all lived happily ever ever. The end.

bus kids

2012-01-10T08:05:00.002-07:00

Our kids take the bus to school. What I don't understand, even though it happens regularly, is why parents drive their kids to the bus stop when they're late. We live a little more than a mile from the school, not too far. If kids miss the bus and you are capable of driving them to the bus stop, why not just drive them to school? It would take all of 4 extra minutes. Many times the bus is ready to go and a parent drives up, waving frantically and the bus driver stops and re-opens the door and everybody waits for the late kid. It just seems to me like it would be more courteous, yet not much extra work, to just drive your kid(s) to school. Is there something I'm missing on this?

A Great Sacrament Meeting

2012-01-08T12:28:00.002-07:00

Today was the best sacrament meeting I've been to as an adult. Everybody was released from their callings! They just said, "You are all released!" I thought it might have been the one time applause was appropriate. I was ready to leave the meeting at that point, happy and go-lucky but I was convinced to stay because they hadn't actually said what other changes they had in mind. Our ward has been a little unique. Our ward & another ward meet in the same building. Everything except our sacrament meetings are at the same time. Our primary and youth are combined but the adults are kept separate. As of today, we are all combined into one ward, with the youth of the Spanish branch joining our ward and the Spanish branch adults in the building at the same time as we are but holding their meetings in Spanish and their sacrament when we are done with classes. There were actually 2 bishoprics that got released and everybody else got released in part because there's 2 of everybody that deals with adults like relief society presidents & elder's quorum presidents, etc. A new bishopric was formed and those are the only 4 people (with the exec. secretary) that have a calling in the new ward so far. I have loved our bishopric for many reasons. They have the most amazing sense of humor and there have been more jokes from the pulpit in the year & a half that we've been here than I've ever heard from one group before. It's easy to enjoy that. They are kind people. Before they issue a calling, they describe all the responsibilities and ask how you feel about the calling. If you say you feel fine, they go ahead and issue the calling. However, if you have a problem with it, they tell you that they were just discussing it with you and it doesn't seem like it will work out but because they hadn't officially issued the call, you aren't actually turning anything down. I love the freedom this gives people, even though people like me would likely say yes either way. They are men who are trying to do all they have been asked to do and making personal sacrifices along the way. I feel great about the new bishop and the counselors. One I don't know because he was in the other ward but I know his son & based on that, I believe he'll be great. Change is scary. I might resist change even more than many but it often paves a path for progress. Maybe when I resist change, I am actually resisting progress. Either way, there will be many new things to come and I think I will actually enjoy this, especially the part about being released, even if it doesn't last long.

Easiest Family Party

2012-01-01T20:46:00.003-07:00

We made lots of yummy stuff for New Year's Eve but more than we could eat so tonight we had a family birthday party for my son and I just pulled out the leftover twice-baked potatoes and re-heated them in the oven. I put the leftover slush in a pitcher and put out and we put out all the food items that got dropped off for Christmas while we were gone as snacks and voila! I did make rolls and birthday cake but that was a super easy party and I loved finally getting a chance to visit with some of my bros and their awesome wives.

All the things I still want to blog about

2011-12-10T21:35:00.013-07:00

I still have some things I wanted to post from November & some from this month. I blame all of my recent posts on being off Facebook for a few days.

My friend had a girls night out and a sleepover! I never thought I'd get invited to one of those as an adult. It was so much fun and the part that still makes me smile at the very thought is how Charisse totally rocked the Snuggi.

My bro let me cat sit a little for him when he was out of town. The hubster's allergic and I actually kind of like cats so this was really fun.

These were our Thanksgiving cookies. All of the kids helped and we had a really good time.

I did my last stand up comedy performance in Provo at the end of November. This was written on the wall. I took a picture with my camera but it was, uh-hem, crap so my brother also took a picture (with a better camera) and forwarded it to me. Hey, he forwarded it-that's worth a post. I love Provo-always a great audience. Glad to be done with that chapter of my life though.

My kids are doing Pizza Hut's Book It program. This was them walking out with their very first personal pizzas. They both seemed incredibly happy...at least until they'd eaten all of their pizza.

The owls are those rice bags you can heat up-my mom made these and they were the cutest things! I love how they turned out. Then I had to take a picture of my parents' front room because all of my dad's mounted animals got Santa hats or antlers!!! I didn't notice it right away but wowie! That's an interesting way to decorate for Christmas-I had a great laugh about it.

Unfortunately this is the only picture I got from our ward Christmas party. Maybe that's because I somehow ended up being in charge of making sure 150+ people were properly fed. I grocery shopped for all the food (with help from my sis-in-law on a moment's notice), cooked 95 lb. of ham in 5 electric roaster pans, prepared 40 lb. of potato casserole, prepped desserts, etc. It was a very hell-ish week for me. It probably doesn't sound like much but all the tiniest little details I ended up taking care of made me start to wonder how important it is to be an active member in the church-it was by far the hardest thing I've ever been asked to do for church members and it's the 2nd year in a row I got to spend zero time with my family at the ward Christmas party or for that entire day. This is my final complaint-I swear! Now I can lay this to rest.

These are all pictures from the Dickens Festival (an old English Christmas event). Most people probably wouldn't care so much about it but I worked there as a chimney sweep for a few years as a teenager and my mom had a craft booth there for many years. I believe I made my husband go the first year we were dating and I haven't been back since, in roughly 13 years. Of course we showed up during the 1 hour window that it was free. We took a carriage ride, which was lovely. There were only 2 people at the festival that I recognized. One was a lady I don't care for much that was selling something and the other was Mr. Bumble from Mr. Bumble's Buns. He was so cheerful when I used to work there and made work very pleasant. I read in the paper that he'd be there. We rarely buy food at public events but I made an exception. He didn't recognize me but he was amazing with my son and the sweet buns were delicious as always. It was too bad we couldn't get in for free at night so I could take all the kids and they could see the Oliver Twist and Christmas Carol plays. The people that work there now are much more laid back so they dress like they are from old England but they don't even use an English accent. That was a little disappointing.

Today I held an end-of-year pizza party for my primary class. That's the end of my major December obligations. The last few months have been utterly insane with responsibilities but now for a few weeks, I can just finally enjoy some regular-life time, if there's such a thing. I got to play basketball with my daughter for a while today. I watched a couple shows. I even got to sew a little bit!!! I'm so relieved that the hard stuff is done for a while.

Hopefully this is enough posts for a few days.

Odds n Ends

2011-12-07T15:52:00.007-07:00

I'm going to work backwards because right now it seems easier. This is what I'm giving the ladies I visit teach and possibly neighbors. It includes fudge I poured into a cookie cutter to set, 3 mini candy canes, a packet of apple cider, a packet of hot chocolate, dark chocolate-peppermint popcorn, and a candle inside of a small cardboard ornament. I feel a little iffy about the popcorn because it has a very strong, unusual flavor but I guess I'll try it. Worse case scenario, people don't eat it.

Tonight there's a progressive relief society dinner. I signed up to go and then panicked, a little nervous about being all alone with ladies from the ward-ha ha ha. I'm not exactly the blend-in/social type. When our daughter's coach scheduled basketball practice tonight, that made it perfect. I will go over for appetizers at my next door neighbor's house and then it will be time to take her to practice. For my appetizer, I stole an idea from my little brother's in-laws. I made individual-sized cheeseballs and stuck a pretzel in them. Hope people like it.

This was Riley's birthday cake. He wanted a grasshopper cake. You make a white cake mix and flavor it with 1 1/2 tsp. mint and save 1 cup of white batter and add green food coloring and then swirl that in. On top, you pour 1-2 jars hot fudge sauce and add whipping cream flavored with 1/2 tsp. mint. I sprinkled chopped up Andes mints on top of that. Those who tried it said it was good-several pieces were tried before we even got to sing so hopefully that means people liked it.

Riley was baptized right on his birthday. We had to have special permission but Preston won't be able to be in town the weekend's he was scheduled to have it take place. I was really surprised how many people from the ward were there to support us. My grandma was able to come and one of my aunts. All of my brothers and their families were there. My parents and in-laws were there and helped with the program.

This is Riley early Sunday morning. Even though we have church at 9:00, of course he got ready in a hurry so there would be plenty of time to open presents before church. It was a great day. I hope he feels loved. I'm very glad he's a part of our family.

Updates

2011-11-09T23:03:00.016-07:00

Some people were giving away free black walnuts. They said they had a lot so I brought 3 big bags to gather. I only got 2 bags full because other people showed up and started gathering also but a neighbor told me I could have what was left of his black walnuts as well so I got my last bag filled. I would not have even known these were walnuts if it weren't for my brother once living at a place that had walnuts and him mentioning they had a soft covering. I thought with the price of nuts, I'd better just get all that I could. When I came home, I researched what to do next. Step 1: Hull the nuts/take off the softer outer shell. Step 2: Dry the nuts for 4-6 weeks. Step 3: Crack the nuts, likely to require a hammer. Separate the meat from the shells. Step 4: Cook the nuts for 10-15 minutes. Step 5: Store the nuts. I still figured it would be worth it to have several pounds of nuts for free in the end. Reality: I've spent 5 hours hulling nuts since I got them and barely finished the first of 3 bags so far-5 hours and I'm not even close to being done with step 1!!! These had better be some amazing walnuts!

My pal Charisse created a craft space and blogged about it. I'd been wanting to re-do my craft/pre-school room for a while and seeing how great hers looked finally kicked me into gear. Last weekend I painted all day and night Friday and most of Saturday. I got the room completely transformed into a place I wouldn't mind spending more time and while the paint was out, I did my small little laundry space as well. Organizing has not come as easily but when I finish, I will have a place other than the couch to do pre-school with my son. There were some really old-school ugly brown shelves I took down and even though shelves don't cost very much at Ikea, I really want to try to use the resources I already have before making any purchases so I painted the old shelves white and bought some new shelf posts (which were 50 cents each at Ikea). I will put these up in the laundry room so I can have a spot for clothes that need to be ironed or mended, a spot that's no longer my bedroom.

We recently celebrated Halloween. I might be a mean mom. I make my kids decide a year early what they want to be for Halloween so I can get their costume for at least 50% off. I often try to influence their choice by what is on sale. On the upside, I don't have the worry that some moms do about their kids changing their mind. They've already had the costume almost a year by the time it's Halloween. This year my kids were: Black Spiderman, Captain America, and an evil lady. My daughter really just wanted the gown, not knowing what to use it for. She was also determined to do her own makeup. I can already tell you that my youngest will be a pirate next year and the middle guy will be Batman and we couldn't find anything my daughter would like to be so hers might once again be a little tricky.

My husband wore his old Nacho Libre mask that came with the movie a few years ago. It's so creepy! I do have to re-count the first year he got it though and drove around with it, a few weeks before Halloween. He had to focus on driving but I got to watch everybody's reactions. It was golden. He offered to buy me a drink at a gas station and even though I didn't really want one, I did want him to get it with the mask on. I thought he'd chicken out but he surprised me and did it. The next week the gas station put a sign up that said they would not serve any customer wearing any kind of mask. That sign made my heart sing with joy. I had a very simple vampire shirt & bandana but when I made the first young trick-or-treater terrified, I spent 2 minutes changing back to my regular clothes.

Meanwhile, back on the farm...(a.k.a. another thing that happened on Halloween was...) my husband was raking leaves. I had a lot of things to get done and he took my youngest out with him during the morning and later took the older two outside in the afternoon. Having the kids entertained by somebody other than me for even 10 minutes was a luxury I did not take for granted. With him working out-of-state, I have become a little burned out on constant responsibilities. Just getting a few minutes of completing tasks inside uninterrupted was fantastic. I think the kids enjoyed the time with their dad and they enjoyed the leaves as well.

We have a tradition of going to Snowbird Ski Resort in October (because it can be free). If you bring up cans of food, you can go on the tram ride for free. There is always snow there and last year we saw a moose. Everything looked the same as always according to the web site but when we got there, the tram (and actually everything there) was closed down for repairs. We were pretty bummed out and it was a bit of a drive but we started walking and found a good-sized area of snow and we had a great time there, playing and having a snowball fight.

I really like seeing these handsome pics of my husband because it's a good reminder that I'm married. Hurray!!! Even though my husband is often 730 miles away, he was right here not so long ago.

October 28

2011-10-28T15:55:00.002-06:00

Halloween is winding down. I was SO excited for it this year but we got started in September & I committed to do at least 3 crafts or activities with the kids per week so now, I am ready for it to be over! I am in charge of my son's Halloween party on Monday though. Here's what I have planned (It will just be a 45-minute party)

*Foam craft-Each child will pick a background and then put together a Halloween foam ghost, pumpkin, or cat

*Treat walk-I have ghosts with numbers on them. I'll have the kids walk to Halloween sounds and when the sounds stop, I'll draw a number and whoever's on the number gets a treat of some sort, maybe donuts or candy or cupcakes

*Halloween Bingo (http://www.toolsforeducators.com/bingo/halloween.php-choose images and it generates a bunch of bingo cards with those images)

I think that will take up all the time. If not, I'll add time to eat treats.

Now, I'm thinking about Thanksgiving. Here are some projects I want to do with my kids:

*Play Thanksgiving Bingo (http://www.makingfriends.com/fallcrafts/thanksgiving_bingo.htm)

*Make apple turkeys (apples with toothpicks, marshmallows, gumdrops, etc.

*Make gratitude turkeys. I'll have to take a picture. I like to make a turkey body out of brown foam, colorful feathers that are put in with a brad so the feathers can fan out. We usually have a family home evening in November where we add masking tape to the back of each feather and the kids write (and later share) something they're grateful for on the back of each feather. We have done this enough years that ours were very tattered last year so this year we're starting over.

*Several ideas at http://mrsjacksonsclasswebsiteblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/thanksgiving-crafts.html. I love the paper turkey.

*Finger puppets at http://www.marthastewart.com/268494/finger-puppet-favors?czone=food/thanksgiving-center/thanksgiving-center-decor

*Make a "Thanksgiving" or "Give Thanks" banner

*Have a zipper bag scavenger hung (found at Parents.com)

*Above, I wrote about making a foam turkey and writing what you're grateful for on the back. On Martha Stewart's web site, it suggests making a turkey and putting trivia questions on feathers, with answers on the back. That seems like a fun idea.

*Make a toilet paper tube turkey found from the allkidsnetwork web site

Also, Thanksgiving will be at our house for the first time. I got this idea to do with the cups so everybody knows which cup belongs to who.

from Parents.com

also from Parents.com

From one holiday to the next...I love this time of year.

One little quote

2011-10-19T21:41:00.002-06:00

My brother posted this quote on Facebook and it has been so powerful to me:

***Many of the great achievements of the world were accomplished by tired & discouraged people who kept on working!

The author is unknown and I wish that weren't so. This is the kind of thought that makes me want to know all kinds of things about this person.

It's been in the back of my mind all day long. I was going to go into some of the thoughts I had about it but it's really the kind of quote that stands strong without discussion. I love it!

Kolaches

2011-10-19T21:39:00.003-06:00

So I have to post one thing just as a reminder now to myself. I came across a blog that mentioned making kolaches. My husband just introduced me to them last year at Johnny Kolaches (http://johnnykolache.com). Now I want to remember for later that when I've had a bad day (and I actually have some time to drive a bit), it will all be better if I stop by here and pick up a breakfast kolache and if you want a life-changing experience, you should stop there, too.

Parties

2011-10-06T19:03:00.002-06:00

My kids are begging me to let them throw a Halloween party for them and their friends and since I haven't let any of them have a friends birthday party in a few years, I'm considering it. They have two extra days off in the middle of the month so we'll probably do it one of those days. I got cards on clearance last year that are the shape of the letters BOO so we can use those for invites. I'll come up with some simple Halloween menu for lunch and activities will probably include:

*Skeleton scavenger hunt-kids will have to find the random bones and put the skeleton together

*A crowd favorite: donuts on a string. I have a clothing rack we can hang donuts from

*Mummy wrapping contest with toilet paper

*Witches stew game (found here: http://familyfun.go.com/playtime/witchs-stew-game-707952/)

*A bean bag toss

I got plates, favor bags, treats, etc. at the dollar store so I guess I'm pretty much planning on it by now. I never really cared much for Halloween but have enjoyed celebrating it more with the kids. I set a goal this month for us to do 3 Halloween activities or crafts a week. Today we made caramel apples and I REALLY started thinking I love Halloween.

A fun treat recipe I saw today was for caramel apple cupcakes (found here: http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Caramel-Apple-Cupcakes). Sorry I'm not so good at links.