Another Thomas Fan!

How could we avoid it? With all the track and trains we have, how could any of our boys have avoided being a Thomas the Tank Engine fan?

Little Boy Washing

My sister asked me if I realized just how many posts I write about Brigham. I guess you can tell I'm a fan of that little kid!

Tonight he was standing at the sink washing his face over and over. I just caught the last of it. It's so fun to watch him learning. I was standing there chopping onions and chicken and just thinking how lucky I was to be standing next to such a special little guy!

President Bush's Tribute

President Bush had some things to say about Gordon B. Hinckley as well. It's here.

Super Tuesday Is Almost Here!

If you live in a state that hasn't had their Primary, but you are still waffling, you can go to this site and follow the directions. Despite the fact that I had a lot of issues where I was undecided, the results weren't too surprising. How about you?

Glenn Beck's Tribute

My brother, Mark, gave me this link today for CNN commentator Glenn Beck's tribute to President Hinckley. It is touching. Go give it a listen here. You won't be sorry you did!

Incidentally, my brother also shared with me some of his photos and they are incredible. He hopes to put a book together! Anyway, I feel privileged to see them. Thanks Mark!

I have BIG plans!

I've always wondered what I would do when the kids all go to school. Now I have it! I've got three and a half years to prepare myself. Truth be told, I've been out of the loop with politics most of my life and I have a lot to learn. There's something I'd like to do to change the way the system works. I wonder if I actually will! Read on...

I've been following the Primaries pretty closely. I've never paid much attention before. I think the media is more involved which helps the American people to be more informed. Although I hear people saying that they are tired of hearing about it, I believe it's good to be aware, to have an opinion or two, and to stand up and vote.

I have been seeing how broken the system can be, what with Michigan and Florida moving their Primaries too close to Iowa's and then being punished by not being allowed Democratic delegates. It's crazy! I get why it happened in one sense, but really it's just tradition that keeps it so and it's not really the most helpful tradition. Then again, vying for the first position in line isn't really that helpful of a practice either.

That's not so much what I've been thinking about though. I've been thinking that in Primary elections, we should all be casting a vote for our favorite Republican and our favorite Democrat candidates (not in any particular order!). A system like this probably wouldn't be very popular with candidates and there are a lot of voters who likely wouldn't appreciate it either. The system we have now seems to reward politicians whose ideas seem to be crawling further right and left, rather than compromise to ideas that lie closer to the center. But, I believe voting this way would ensure that there are more candidates with centrist positions, which is wildly appealing to someone like me, an Independent Voter having a hard time following either side completely.

It seems like many voters can easily get away with, "Hey, my parents were Republicans, my Grandparents were Republicans, I will vote Republican," rather than looking at the issues--not just pet issues--and placing ourselves in other people's shoes, trying to make a good overall judgement.

I believe my proposition would require voting citizens to be more informed than that. After all, once November comes around, we need to vote for the best candidate, not just our own party's candidate. How can we do this if we've only been following our own party through the Primaries? When it comes to the final election, as things stand now, there's a candidate that we helped choose and a candidate over whom we had no say. It's appealing to me to think about being involved in both sides of the process from the beginning. Even if my favorite Republican and/or Democrat didn't make it to the final election, I still cast my vote, shared my opinion. I have some ownership in the process that got these two (or more) candidates onto my ballot in November.

It's been fun to listen to the anecdotes of independent voters and for the first time, place myself among them. It's hard work to be an independent! But still, right now I can't understand declaring a party and voting a straight ticket, except that I think the system rewards this (think of Independents not being allowed to vote on certain ticket in the Primary). Our system is so unhealthy, so partisan. I believe that there are rights and wrongs in both Democrat and Republican ideals. There isn't one party that holds all the keys to the "high road." There are probably even politicians who think this way (and we see some, plus there are other parties out there that I don't know much about). But because politicians are so afraid of being viewed as sympathizers to the other party (think of the recent bantering between Obama and Clinton), we see very few who are willing to embrace views that fall in the center of the spectrum. If they do, it seems they are punished by the system and the voters.

End of jumbled thoughts and ideas about politics...for the moment!

What do you think?



If you want to find a picture to go with your post, like these nifty illuminating straw bales, try one of these public domain sites (I can't get the first link to work, so I've put a permanent button on the sidebar):
www.public-domain-photos.com/
www.publicdomainpictures.net/

This Wikipedia entry has a ton of links too:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Public_domain_image_resources

13 Degrees Below!

Michigan winter has arrived! Yesterday it was 44 degrees, but today huge wind gusts are bringing us 13 below. It's Nathan's fault, really. He tells me that if you wear your p.j.'s inside out and backward (see below), you'll have a snow day. He must have heard wrong though, because it's actually a cold wind day, with only about one inch of snow.
Here's the steam from last night's pasta on Sariah's window.

So, we are chilly this morning!

Though None Go With Me

I saw a preview for this movie last month and decided to see if my library carried it. I found that it was a movie adapted from a book. Since I had to get on a waiting list for the DVD, I decided to read the book.

It's by a Christian author, Jerry B. Jenkins, and is about the life of Elizabeth Leroy. She has a difficult life and over time loses many of the people that she loves. It is a story of courage and faith which begins just before the time of WW1. I didn't like the writing style much and some of it seemed a little far-fetched (but then, so does the story of Job), but I still found it inspiring.

The movie is different from the book in many ways, mostly things that would have taken too long to portray. For those who live in MI, both the book and movie are set in Three Rivers, MI. It is set in the early 50's at the time of the Korean War. As in the book, the heroine goes through many life wrenching trials and comes out victorious. I recommend it because it is good and clean. A good family show.

I Love It!

Last night, Joseph's mom called us at about 11pm to tell us about President Hinckley's passing. After I got into bed, I had an afterthought and went to the living room to search out the November 2007 Ensign. I set it out on my glider rocker so that I would remember to talk to the kids about his death and also so that I would be reminded to find the last talk he gave in General Conference and read it.

I am amazed to see that what he left us with was his testimony of the restoration of the Gospel. He said, with his usual humor and wit, "Now, my brothers and sisters, we live with an interesting phenomenon. A soloist sings the same song again and again. An orchestra repeats the same music. But a speaker is expected to come up with something new every time he speaks. I am going to break that tradition this morning and repeat in a measure what I have said on another occasion." Go read the rest here. His message and testimony from April's conference is here, where he speaks a great deal of the life of Jesus Christ.

I was wondering what we would do for Family Night tonight and now I know!

Sad Day

I can't let this day go by without saying how sad I am that President Gordon B. Hinckley has passed away yesterday evening (for those who are not members of my church, this is akin to the Pope passing away).

This is what he said at the end of the last General Conference, "Now this conference is adjourned for six months. We look forward to seeing you again next April. I'm 97, but I hope I'm going to be there."

Amazing. 97 years old. What a contribution he has made in my life and in the church! I will really miss him. How sweet and sad it has been in some of our previous Conferences where President Hinckley has spoken of his wife, Marjorie, who passed away a few years ago, and how he missed her. What a reunion they will have had!

Typical Sunday Morning Fiasco

I was granted permission to tell this story.

Some necessary background: When we get home from church every week, I tell the older kids to get changed and hang up their clothes. I hang the younger kids' clothes myself. Despite this, the results are fairly typical to what you will read below:

This morning I sent Nathan upstairs to get changed for church at about 10:20 (we leave at 10:40 for 11 am church). At exactly 10:36, I told him that we were leaving in 4 minutes. A person can dream, can't she. I went up soon afterward to check on the status there. You can imagine, can't you? A boy still in his pajamas leaned over some Legos on his floor!

At this point, he rushed to get dressed and showed up downstairs in his own shirt and vest, but in Elijah's pants. They are just a little short and I told him that he'd have to go find his own pants. He's steaming at this point, but obediently went up the stairs. Then the yelling started. "You know Mom, we don' t live in a beauty salon here!" I retort, "That's a very amusing statement Nathan, but I'm not quite sure what you mean." I hear him "cursing" about how his pants are in a crumpled heap under Elijah's bed. "No, I don't know how they got there, Nathan, but if you had hung them last week, they'd be neatly waiting in the closet (my own logic just astounds me!)."

He came downstairs in his crumpled pants still mumbling about beauty salons. He told me that we don't live in a beauty salon which means we don' t have to look perfect. If you missed this week's lively session of our madhouse, tune in next week for an exact replay!

An Evil Tree

In Primary today, a boy was giving a talk. He was speaking about Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. He mentioned the "Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil." Sariah was somehow stunned by the name of the tree and called out, "An evil tree? How can a tree be evil?" Have no fear, I have talked her through it and she seems to be dealing with this doctrinal issue quite well!

Freeware

My brother wrote this cool post a while ago about all of the software that you can get for free on the internet. Computers are what he does. He's the IT man at LDS Business College in Salt Lake City. He spends a lot of his time installing software, so it was interesting to me that he said that we don't need to BUY software to do many things. Unfortunately, the post he wrote where he detailed out some really cool freeware is dead with his old blog.

I, myself, haven't spent a lot of time searching. I'd like to be able to do a little more with my photos. I never got into scrapbooking, so I don't see myself digital scrapbooking, but I might surprise myself. My sister, Jodi, is putting pressure on me to try it out. I found a link to a program that lets me do a little more than Google's Picasa. It can be found at www.picnik.com. It's free unless you want the upgrade.

Jodi also found this cool paint program for kids. She had been looking for something to buy for her son and came across this Freeware. We tried it out and we love it.

A little story. Yesterday morning, while we were on the way to school, Sariah told me that she wanted to paint when we got back home. I took some deep breaths and decided that I would let her paint, imagining finger paints, water colors, etc. I was sitting here blogging and she came saying she had finished her jobs, could she please paint? I asked what kind of paint she wanted and she pointed to the computer. Great stuff! It can be found at:

www.tuxpaint.org

ENJOY!

Confessions of a Dazed "Shredder"

Just one of the bags of shredded paper. Don't you dare blow this up and try to steal my identity!

I am the aforementioned "shredder." Me, when the word shredder is in quotes. The machine when it's not in quotes.

Have you ever said or thought, "Where on earth does all this dust come from?" Well, I made bunches of it today! Clouds of it puffed up from the shreds of paper when I open the shredder to dump it out.

I have 18 years of records to dispose of here. We are not talking about a little shredding here. I have:

1) Three small plastic files full
2) One 2-drawer metal file full
3) One computer desk file drawer full
4) Two cabinet drawers full

My shredder has a little note inside that says "2 Min On/4 Min Off" and it's serious. I've already tested it twice today and the thing shuts off and doesn't come back on again until it's feeling better. Chocolate does not change the emotional state of a shredder, but maybe a "shredder."

This job is more stressful than I thought. I've eaten the two candy bars that Joseph bought me last night, plus the one he bought himself, PLUS more than half a bag of licorice (embarrassing to admit)...I'm seeing my whole life flash by my eyes (not sure if it's the food or the files). And I live under the constant anxiety that I'll shred something that shouldn't have been shredded! It's eating me up!

I wonder why I have retained 18 years of records. The thought occurred to me that I was trying to make sure that there was a record of my existence, not consciously, of course. No one could deny I existed if they saw all my vehicle loan papers, canceled checks, bank statements, etc. from the last 18 years. I'll keep you updated! It's going to take DAYS to finish all of this!

An Ordinary Morning

I'm sitting here at the computer listening to the happy noises of Brigham and Sariah playing ball under the kitchen table, trying not to think, "I wonder how long that will last." A bird just thunked itself into the front window. Poor confused thing. About an hour ago, I captured this on my camera:


Having just put my Christmas decorations away (there was actually a nativity sitting right in that empty space), I think I was seeing things, but it looked like the stable in Judea. It's not very clear in the picture, but the lower left corner also could be imagined into manger and baby. A reflection coming through the window and onto my wall. I'm still pondering it's meaning.

I dug my shredder out yesterday from under a pile of books. I dusted my shredder. I oiled my shredder. I plugged it in and shredded two pieces of mail. That was my warm-up. I visited a website that gave information about what to save and what to shred. Wish I could say I was all fired up to go, but still, I'll go through some folders today!

Love Note

My mom sent the kids each a DVD for Christmas and along with it a little note. I was cleaning up our book area in the living room yesterday and found Elijah's. He likes to take cards and notes and add his own little messages.

Media Review: The Great Escape

The Movie

The Great Escape movie is perhaps my favorite movie of all time. Perhaps it is because Steve McQueen's American Airman character is as sarcastic to the German Kommandant as I have sometimes wanted to be to a few tyrannical authorities. Or, it could be that I appreciate watching a bunch of supposedly powerless men snubbing their noses at their captors. Or, it could be that
I have just watched it so many times I have been brainwashed. Who knows. I just like the movie.

The Book

Cindi brought home a book from the library entitled "The Great Escape: Nine Jews who Fled Hitler and Changed the World" by Kati Marton. It chronicles the lives of nine secular Jewish Hungarians who lived in Budapest in a golden age of tolerance and education before World War I. These nine men included the following:

1. Two photographers who first developed photography as an art form rather than as potraiture. One became the greatest war photographer yet known, and the other became an icon of texture, motion, and form.
   
2. Two director/producers who created some of the most beloved films of all time and transformed the British and American movie industries
3. Three physicists who worked under Oppenheimer to create the atomic bomb in the Manhattan project. Two of these understood that the combination of Einstein's E=mc² and Niels Bohr's atomic model implied that a nuclear chain reaction could be achieved, creating a superweapon. They recognized these implications of seemingly innocuous German experiments, alerted Albert Einstein and U.S. policymakers, resulting in the Manhattan project.
4. A famous mathematician/lobbyist who developed the ENIAC (the first electronic computer) that made possible the calculations needed to design the atomic bombs created by the Manhattan Project in the race with Germany to develop superweapons
5. One of the world's most influential political novelists.

This is really an exceptional book. It chronicles an incredibly productive time in history when a small area produced remarkable genius of many types which influenced the world in many ways, not all of them good.

One of the things that I got from this book is the drive that was instilled by (1) education, and (2) crisis. All nine of these men lived through a golden age of Budapest in which education, discovery, and creativity were seen as the point of life; but then saw a rapid descent into blaming the Jews for Hungary's problems. I saw how most of these men changed their names to erase their Jewishness, at least politically. The ethnic ties still remained strong, but the conflict that being Jewish in a time of severe repression is very clear in this book. Each of these men was tortured and driven by the experience.

Though I admire the ingenuity and tenacity of these men who survived setbacks most men would find completely disabling, I also took from this book a lesson on spirituality. These men were raised in the golden age to rely on their own intelligence, discovery, and creativity to solve any problem as clearly secular persons. The problems they faced could not be resolved simply through personal strengths. The torture could not be reasoned away, or channeled away into discovery or creativity. There is a certain powerlessness in the stricture that solutions to life's problems must come through human ingenuity. I lived this life for many years, not reasonably understanding the futility of trying to overcome intractable problems through personal exertion. As I read this book, and now as I write about it, it is so clear to me that the torture described is because of the powerlessness of man to control so many interconnected actors.

It makes me grateful to have learned (albeit the hard way) that God wants me to understand that I need Him to make life work--that intractable problems are indeed intractable to all but God who desires that I acknowledge my inability to solve my problems alone. It is good to have a Savior.

Marx indicated that religion is the opiate of the masses. I feel sorry for persons who believe that because it places an impossibly large burden on people, no matter how brilliant, courageous, or creative.

Naptime Routine and Surprise! Kisses

Brigham loves my blog. He ate his lunch and then I brought him out here to see the pictures of his buffalo on the blog before naptime. What do you know? When he saw the first picture, he said "Diddy!"

His naptime routine goes something like this. We round up Diddy and head into his room (shared with May). If we can't find Diddy, the tradition is that I leave him in his room and go find the buffalo myself. Then he gives me the "more" sign which means more songs. Today I held him and he put his head on my shoulder. How many more naptimes will I get with such treatment? I refuse to count down!

I sang "I am a Child of God." He lifted his head and adjusted Diddy to give me the more sign. I began singing "A Child's Prayer."

Heavenly Father (suddenly his head goes up and Kiss! head goes back down)
Are you really there (head up, kiss, kiss, kiss! head down)
And do you (kiss) hear and (kiss, kiss) answer every (kiss) child's prayer (kiss, kiss)

It went on like this.

I sang our rainbow song, full of kisses as well. I sang "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." He was then ready for me to lay him down. I put his blankets on, he adjusted his Diddy. I did "I" "love" "you" in sign language. He joined in for the "love" and "you." I made the "I love you" sign with my right hand. He held his hand up for me to manipulate his fingers into the "I love you" sign. Then we clapped together because he did it! Finally, I tell him "Bye!" Sometimes he says bye back and other times he doesn't.

Sweet times!

Oh Bear!

My sister, Bobbie, sent me a CD called "Sleep, Baby, Sleep" by Nicolette Larson. She knows just how much I love babies and listening to this CD has been very nostalgic of all my babies. Mostly, though, we all listen and think of Brigham, our last baby.

There's one song in particular that everyone requests. It's called, "Oh Bear." You can go to Amazon by clicking here. Scroll down and you can listen to a snippet of this adorable song.

Every parent can probably relate to a baby or small child having a blanket or stuffed animal that they simply have to have before they toddle off to bed. Brigham has his buffalo that we got him in Yellowstone this summer. He called it "Diddy" at the start which is a name that has stuck with the rest of us. Then he got confused and started calling his buffalo "Rar rar," his name for doggies. Now he calls him "Ruff," which I think is a cross between a dog and BUFF-alo. At any rate, he scraggly, sometimes stinks, and is frequently lost. I adore this little creature simply because his owner adores him so.

I typed in the words to the song and have taken pictures to go with them. Just a fun little something to do while I'm working through my fear of working over my files!

Oh Bear

Oh Bear, Oh Bear

Oh where can you be?

Oh Bear, Oh Bear

Oh where are you hiding?

It’s time to go to bed until morning,

You’re gone without warning

And I cannot sleep without Bear.

Oh Bear, Oh Bear

I need you beside me

Bear, Oh Bear

We’re two of a kind

I’m thinking about you

I can’t sleep without you

My arms have to hold you

Where can you be, Oh Bear?

Mommy takes care of me all through the day

Daddy comes home and then we get to play

But, you are the one with me all through the night.

And if you’re not here, well it just isn’t right.

Oh Bear, oh Bear

I know I will find you

Here or there

Or under a chair

Then I will hold you

And keep you right here

Everything’s better when

I am with my bear.

My Insides Aren't Smiling

Ever since watching Eight Below the other night, I'm feeling down. It's not the movie. It's just that I don't show my sad feelings like I should and when I get an outlet at just the right time, I have to catch up!

This morning, Joseph took the time to read a chapter in a book that he had written. It came in the mail last night. Because of this, he was running late and I said I'd iron his shirt, but I wanted an exchange. He asked me several times what I wanted. Then it came to me.

Concentric Bowls and Pans!

We made a deal. When he puts the dishes away, he will do his best to remember that the mixing bowls are concentric, as are the pans. I think I got the better end of the deal!

It was lightly snowing today and it was beautiful out. This poor forlorn swing set, waiting for summertime swingers, is in honor of my new blogger friend, Marni (because I thing my stuff talks too and for your inspirational blog title).

21st Century Update

WARNING: Further examination of religious and political topics!

After I posted about Nathan's problem with religious discrimination at school, my awesome brother (Check out his blog: http://testingtodd.sirrub.com/ . He's got great politics and technology commentary.) made this comment:

Todd is in the front. My other awesome brother, Mark is in the back.

When we lived in MA I was afraid to tell anyone that I was LDS. I am not sure where the fear came from, but it was there. I actually did not like to talk about my religion or my beliefs until a few months ago. I had a baptist missionary drop by. A simple question turned into a 2 or 3 hour conversation. It was great. I was able to see that I had a lot in common with that missionary. I also tried to show him that we had things in common. I really felt good after that conversation. It made me realize what I believed and why. The thing that I think is really funny is that members of our faith are in government. Check this out...the senate majority leader is LDS, the Secretary of Health and Human Resources is LDS, and there are a handful members of the house and senate that are LDS. In the past, Ezra Benson was the Secretary of Agriculture. Those are the people just of the top of my head. Many CEOs and presidents of companies are LDS (like Marriot, General Mills, etc). So, like every other faith, our members contribute greatly to society and somehow we are all okay. I don't even want to turn to sports (ahem...Steve Young). I guess that as long as us Mormons keep our distance everyone is okay. I guess Dr. Kings dream doesn't apply to us. Oh well. Could be worse.


This leads right in to what we did last night for Family Home Evening. Yesterday as I was putting Christmas decorations away, I found a pile of books. Serendipity! There was a book called "If You Lived at the Time of Martin Luther King" by Ellen Levine. I brought the book down to the living room and May picked it up and read most of it. I was so impressed. She said they had read from that book in school. She was incredulous at how African Americans were being treated. I asked her if she would share five things she learned with us for Family Home Evening. She wasn't very willing at that point, but once we started discussing what the holiday was all about, she willingly chipped in.

Nathan taking in this great book.

We read just a bit of MLK's, "I Have a Dream" speech. "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." We talked about non-violent civil disobedience like sit-ins and marches. I felt very enlightened by the end of our discussion.

This ties back to Todd's comment because as we read snippets from this book, I tied it back to being LDS. Not to take away from Dr. King's message, which is very important in it's own rite, but just to expand upon the idea and apply it to my own situation. "I have a dream that my five little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by their religious affiliation, but by the content of their character!"

I also saw other links to my religion that I thought were interesting. Here is the one that stuck out the most to me. After his house was bombed Dr. King said, "If I am stopped, this movement will not stop. If I am stopped, our work will not stop. For what we are doing is right. What we are doing is just." This reminded me so much of when the Prophet Joseph Smith was killed by the mob in Carthage Jail. People thought that if they stopped Joseph Smith, they would stop the progress of the church, the building of temples and churches, the very faith of the people. This was not the case and Joseph Smith, much like Dr. King said that very thing a few years before his own death, though much more eloquently than I can, "No unhallowed hand will stop the work from progressing, persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assembly, calumny may defame, but the TRUTH of God will go forth boldly, nobly and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God are accomplished, and the great Jehovah shall say, "THE WORK IS DONE!"

Along other lines, I am impressed as we hold family scripture study each night and Family Home Evening every week, just how much there is to teach my children! I'm so grateful for the chance I have to teach them. When we were less regular with our family time, I didn't even realize the depth and scope of what I would like to give to my children. I am thankful for prophets who encourage us to do these things!

Leopard Seals

Joseph and I finally watched the movie "Eight Below" last night. I had been warned that it was sad and wasn't very excited to watch it. It's a movie about eight sled dogs being left alone at a base in Antarctica over the winter. I would recommend the movie, but it was difficult to watch despite a mostly happy ending.

The title of my post refers to a part in the movie when the surviving dogs come upon a Killer Whale carcass and try to eat some of it. Out jumps a leopard seal who was there first, apparently. Ugly, vile creature!

I have never heard anything endearing at all about leopard seals. They go around eating penguins and chomping poor sled dogs' legs! I think of the poor male penguins left to guard the eggs in the minus 80 degree temps while their mates go back to the ocean to feed. Enter lout-leopard seal, killing off the mother. What happens to dad and baby back at the nesting grounds?

I even checked out a library book today to see if there was anything positive there. You know, something about a BABY leopard seal. Still nothing.

I think these may fit into the category of venomous snakes and venomous insects (esp. wasps). Useless, Cruel, Vicious.

Does anybody know anything good about leopard seals, besides the obvious, keeping the prey populations at bay...

Our Dinner Table

Our dinner table set with our "Special" (Birthday) plates and cups.

Clockwise starting with the white one: Cindi, Sariah, May, Nathan, Elijah, Joseph

Brigham will get his when he turns two in May.

Mint Plus Chocolate

I don't know about you, but I think these two flavors were made for each other. Followed by Chocolate and Orange, but that is a subject for another post.

I guess if you were to press me, my favorite ice cream flavor would probably have to be Mint Chocolate Chip. The problem is that most brands have rectangular chocolate "chunks." It's hard to find Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream with the little flecks of chocolate. It seems like I had better luck with that when we lived in Utah, the Ice Cream capital of the world. As a side note, when Joseph was a student he found that the topic of light conversation amongst the students and faculty here at MSU often turned to alcohol. Joseph sat silently having nothing to add to the conversation. One time somebody noticed this about him and asked what people in Utah talk about. He told them-->ICE CREAM!

So the ice cream that stands in for the kind with the little chocolate flecks is Fanny May Mint Meltaway by Country Fresh. I've only been able to find it at Walmart where I loathe to shop, but still must due to budget restrictions.

As seen below, it actually has layers of chocolate fudge swirled into it. This fudge melts in your mouth better than those rectangular chocolate chunks.

When I was at BYU, Hershey's made a chocolate bar with mint crispies in it. I tried to buy enough to convince them to continue making them, but alas, they stopped.

What's your favorite Mint Chocolate combo? Or if mint chocolate isn't your thing, what's your favorite chocolate of all time?

I'm Not Avoiding Anymore

Everyone needs a break though!

Since the house wasn't going to be peaceful today anyway--Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday--I decided to dig in and at least get the Christmas decor put away. My next project is the filing system. Oh my! It's been a while on that one. I have drawers full of stuff that was meant for the files. Good thing Joseph bought a shredder and some shredder oil sometime back. I think that part might just be fun.

Double click on the picture below. Hopefully my dust will entertain you.

Chicken Noodle Soup (Warts and All!)

We've got several cases of a flu virus in our house this weekend. I won't go into the gory details of that, but I've washed all of the towels in the house within a 24 hour period.

I thought we might all benefit from some home-made chicken noodle soup. I also decided that I would brave the noodle making process, which up until this time has been Joseph's job. I should add that he makes the smoothest, most tender noodles that I have ever eaten! He had beginners luck, but the charm stays with him.

Noodles aren't that hard to make. Or so I thought. I mixed them, kneaded them, divided them, rolled them, cut them and left them to sit the prescribed 20 minutes before throwing them into the pot of already boiling soup. I went to the table armed with my metal spatula and to my dismay, those noodles were stuck to the table.

The recipe tells you to divide the dough into 4 equal part and roll them each out to a 12" x 12" square. These squares are then cut into noodles which are 1/4" by 2". I'm not going to do the math here, but there were hundreds of these little noodles STUCK to the table. Joseph was kind enough to try to help me out of my predicament. I laughingly said, "I bet when I get ready to throw these in the pot, they will have restuck themselves to the table." He said, "Yeah, that's why I'm turning them over after I peel them up." Boing! Lightbulb goes on in my head. Oh what silliness.

The soup turned out pretty well, despite the fact that many of the noodles were slightly chewy due to being over-cooked. It was a long process getting them into the pot.

In the midst of this, Nathan asks me if I'm going to take a picture to put in my blog. I answered no. I was a little irritated with the situation and also I felt like I was in a hurry and couldn't take the time to grab the camera to shoot a picture. Joseph said something about me not being willing to show my warts on the blog.

I got in a tiff about that one. Defensive. But now I'm remembering a comment from my friend Sue who said she thinks that I paint my life--on my blog--like a Norman Rockwell. That kind-of surprised me because:

#1 My life is NOT like that.
#2 I have anxiety when I see someone who seems to have a perfect smoothly flowing, happy life.
#3 I thought I was blogging about at least some of my warts.
#4 Warts give character! What would we laugh about otherwise?

Now I kinda wish I had a picture of all those little noodles spread around on my table with me madly working to peel them up and then re-peel them up! By the time I gave in to having the picture taken, it was too late!

The Light of the Body

The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. --Matthew 6:22





And the light which shineth, which giveth you light, is through him who enlighteneth your eyes, which is the same light that quickeneth your understandings. --Doctrine and Covenants 88:11



Photography by Joseph

Little Boy Dancing

This show brought to you by these sponsors:

Brigham Benjamin
& The Wonder Pets

The "Cabinet of Natural Curiosities" by Albertus Seba comes in handy as Brigham's stool while he dances, but inside is a whole spectacular world of animal artwork! Check it out from the Oversize section in your library.

Little Boy Games

Too Many Babas Soup

Elijah brought home a book called "Too Many Babas" by Carolyn Croll. As we read it together, I read a page, he read a page, I saw my dinner shaping before my eyes. The books starts off by telling about Baba (means grandmother in Russian) Edis who decided to make some soup. She used her ingredients on hand and put them in a pot to stew. Pretty soon Baba Basha stopped by to visit and was welcomed in. She made her own contribution to the soup. Baba Yetta, Baba Molka, all made their contributions. While the soup smelled wonderful, they found that it didn't taste very good. Then they decided that they needed to plan together and try again.

As it turned out, I had the ingredients necessary to make the soup, so I guessed at a recipe and we had that with breadsticks last night. EVERYONE was happy!

Click here to see the easy recipe. This will take you to a recipe blog that I belong to called "Do We Have To Eat This?"

Disturbing

Anyone else find this disturbing? (Click "this" to read article.)

He's too old for this...

But, look how cute!

Maybe I'm a little overboard with my posting lately. Can you tell I'm avoiding something? Putting Christmas decorations away (can you believe it?), cleaning, organizing and packing.