Finally Edible Cookies

Thank you Dawn!!!  I have many talents, one of which is making bread.  My cookie making skills have been rather sad though. 

Dawn on the other had makes the most delicious deserts.  By the way so do my other daughters, but Dawn's chocolate chip cookie skills are the ones that I have been envying.  After years of enjoying the fruits of her labors I may have finally mastered the skill.  She has a talent in this department,  I on the other hand have a skill.

I have added that little extra flour and finally stay right by the stove waiting until just the edges are just starting to brown.  If I go a step further and freeze them, my husband loves them.  Thank you, thank you.  I am learning so much from my children.  I thank Heavenly Father every day for each of them, and for my husband too!

Someday I am going to ask Chelsey to share her cheesecake secrets.

My Personal Paradigm

I've always had a strong attachment to a particular grandma.  I've often wondered why this particular one.  I've always known that she was the one who taught me that I was a princess.  I was never afraid to let her see the whole me, faults, sins, ect.  No matter what, she had a way of making me feel like I was alright just like I was.  This made me feel like I just wanted to be the best me ever.  I called her and no matter what the conversation she helped me feel better about myself.  She passed to the other side sometime ago.  I miss her. 

I've been reading one of Sean Covey's books, "7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens".  In it he talks about the glasses we wear that give us our personal perception of ourselves and the world around us.  He states that most successful people will tell you that they had a person who believed in them, who nourished them, gave them advice, and would wipe your glasses clean, when you dirtied them with negativity.  I think that she was that person for me.

He attributes this thought to an unknown author, "If you could envision the type of person God intended you to be, you would rise up and never be the same again."  Sometimes I see a glimpse of the person I could be, and it always happens when I am serving someone unconditionally.  I thank him daily for the opportunity each day to be a better me.  I hope to someday make someone else find the prince or princess within.  Hopefully I can remember more on a daily basis that down inside I am still one myself.

Just a little weary.

It seems lately that I just seem to be dragging.  Dragging myself out of bed, dragging myself to the car, dragging myself to do housework, sew, play on the floor,  just dragging along.  As I'm dragging along I'm sorting what seems today like endless piles.  One of these piles was the one next to my bed where I tend to gather lots of varied reading material. 

I opened a magazine to sort through it.  My idea of sorting a magazine is to pull out the pages that I'm interested in and file them until needed.  It works for me and has helped me control my own personal paper mess.  This particular magazine had an article about being tired.  It listed these as the possible causes:  lack of exercise (I think I'm probably back above 10,000 steps a day),  needing a nap (took one and it is correct in stating that more than 20 minutes is worse than none at all),  stress ( is that ever an option?), winter darkness, (nope still wearing sunscreen every day because of car pool),  and this last one was something called boredout as compared to burnout.  "We know about burnout, from doing too much, but there's also 'boredout,' caused by doing too little.  The longer you're bored, the less energy you have and the more likely that this temporary feeling can become permanent." 

So am I just running too slow a circle or maybe I need a new circle.  I still strongly believe boredom is a choice made by the person who is bored.  I'd better get busy.

Food As Eye Candy

Peter Calahan wrote a book called bite by bite.  It is delicious, not only to the taste but to the eye.
He is a chef and party planner specializing in small food.  It is full of fun ideas, mini hot dogs, mini hamburgers, mac and cheese canapes, baked beans in bacon cups, and on and on.  I started reading it and decided that I may have to try a few of his creations. 

I have spent 36 months of my life throwing food up and it has been just a way to sustain my physical body.  Over the last five or so years though I have been taking more of an interest in making food have taste, and now I think I may be looking into making it pretty or cute.

On one of the more recent school breaks I treated the grand children to octopus (hot dogs) on see weed (green top ramin).  Sure enough they ate dinner and it was fun to play with the food.  There are so many ways to explore this world and enjoy each other's company.  Isn't life great?!!! 

Avacodo Tree

The first two years of my married life, we lived in Texas.  While there I managed to spout an avocado seed and it had become a small tree.  Then we decided to move ( the first week in February).  Everything was packed into a small u-haul and our two cars.  I had Dawn, her large stuffed lion and the avocado tree. 

The week we decide to move a large ice storm hit.  We traveled through the snow and ice.  We stopped to spend the night at a motel and the next morning the on ramp to the interstate was so slippery that Michael's car could not pull the u-haul up, so we had to hire a tow truck to get us to the top.  I held my breath that morning as I watched the u-haul slide sideways under every over pass where the ice had not melted.  We both drove in the tracks left by the semi trucks making our way back to Arizona.

Once past Dallas the roads got better and then finally we came to the Arizona border and the agriculture check stop. The man at the station asked if we had any plants or produce to declare.  I stated that I only had a little avocado tree.  He checked in the back of my car and all I had left was a stick.  He smiled and said that I could pass.  I guess a stick does not qualify as a plant.  In Texas it had froze, and then in New Mexico it had baked a little.

I have tried many times to sprout another and have not been successful till now.  There is a little seed in the window of my room with just the tiniest root.  A hope of things to come if I will just tend and guard it.  We will see.  Adventure sometimes comes with casualties, but love and tender care can repair most anything.

Does Effort Matter?

I have been traveling through Salt Lake City all of my life.  I have cousins that live in Utah and my mother and grandmother traveled there once or twice a year while I was growing up.  From the interstate you can see the Salt Lake Temple.  Growing up I always wanted to go inside.

Many times my family stopped at Temple Square to visit,  my favorite spot was sitting at the feet of the Christos in the visitors center.  For those who may read this who have not been there, it is on the second floor.  You can get there by climbing a long ramp with a mural of the universe surrounding you.  The feeling of being insignificant in a large universe is brought to mind.  Then you enter a room that is two stories high, with a wall of windows and the Christos.  It is a great place to ponder and be grateful for everything he has done for us.

After I had a temple recommend, the opportunity to visit Salt Lake happened.  I took my small children and visited temple square.   I had no place to leave them to attend the temple.  So I went back to my friend's house where we were staying and asked if she would mind if I got up and went to the 5:30 am session while my children slept the next morning.  

I left her home at 4:30 to make the drive from her house.  It was still dark when I entered the building.  It was magnificent.  I still remember the feeling of reverence that I felt that morning.  As I sat in the Celestial room and enjoyed the beauty of my surroundings, it seemed to me that the feeling was stronger because I had made the extra effort to be there so early.  Also that everyone else in the building had sacrificed to be there too.  Effort or Sacrifice does matter.  It invites the spirit to strengthen and lift you up.

Piles or prioities?

I have been accused of creating piles.  Not just a few but all over the house.  What I am finding though is that I only have a few piles, the rest are there as an attempt of others to help straighten out a living house.  By that I mean that you can set down just about anything in this house and someone else will pick it up and move it.  Maybe not far, but move it to a different location.

When everything is put away I can find it speedily.  Most of the time when I am finished a project I put every item back, just because I know it won't stay where I set it.  Also there are a variety of small people that stay here often so I am constantly looking for things that might be a danger. 

I find that on a daily basis I put away a few piles every day.  Sort the papers, pay the bills,  throw out trash, put the toys in the correct bins, place clothing in the owner's room, finish projects that are waiting their turn, ect.  So I am not going to take total responsibility for all the piles.  A crying baby, grown up children on the phone and a husband that needs to have someone to hold a light while he works on a car will aways triumph over something that could go into a temporary pile until tomorrow.  People first, stuff second, and a well ordered house that is always a work in progress.

Remembering Smell

I just finished reading a book entitled, "Remembering Smell".  It is an account of a woman who lost her sense of smell for about a year.  In the beginning she did not know if she would ever get it back.  So she started a journey of research into what smell means not only to her but to the world around her.

At first she was devastated and could not function.  Surprisingly people that suffer from anosmia, the total loss of smell, loose so many things unseen by others.  They become depressed and their world goes from color to black and white.  Smell fills in so many blanks.  She discusses the science of smell, how the brain works, how memories are brought back to recall,  how it influences weight loss and gain,  and how enthusiasm for life can diminish. 

It was very enlightening.  I find myself enjoying my ability to smell the flowers, rain, and just a clean house.  There are so many things we take for granted and smell could be one of the biggest.  Even when we don't recognize it our nose never takes a break.  It colors and enriches everything we experience in this world.

Dinner and It's Issues

I know dinner is important.  We need to eat, but also we need to gather.  So much of our schedules vary from day to day and from season to season.  There is summer, school, activities, programs and their rehearsals, vacations, and meetings.  There does not seem to be a consistent time allotted just for dinner.

Every so often I make the effort to reestablish dinner as it should be.  That brings me to now, where I am  trying again.  Six seems to be the moment when most of those that live here breeze in and then out of our home.  I struggle to have something prepared because I am not always here before that time.   A part of me keeps saying that this is an important issue and not to give in to the rush of life.   I am getting better at using the crock pot and assigning others to finish what I may have started earlier.

There is something that says "Welcome home, you are important to me.",  when there are plates on the table and the smell of something to fill your tummy.  I do think it is worth the struggle.  At the table more conversations take place, unlike gathering around the television. 

Boys and their toys.

Saturday, Michael and I went with Rachael, Dusty, and Shawn to Glamis.

My feet still are not happy so I rode with Dusty in the Manx.  It was a lot of fun.

Something I hadn't done before was go to the sand drags.  I was under the impression that there would be someone in charge to start and stop people.  No way!!!

Spectators line up and park on each side of the designated area and then let the organized chaos begin.

We were parked close to the starting point.  Here bikes, sand rails, regular trucks, and an assortment of odd vehicles just stand on the throttle and go.  Sometimes they are 4-6 wide, sometimes alone but it's just go when ever you are ready and drive like the wind, or throw sand as high as you can and then drive like the wind.There were no boring gaps,  they just run to the end and then calmly drive back to the start and do it again. 

 Awesome!!!

  I did find that I still prefer the low rumble of an 8 cylinder compared to the wine of some of the foreign jobs.  Not a big fan of the turbo sound either.  I just like the low rumble of power that implies it can shake the ground you're standing on.

Interesting observation.  There were only 7 women drivers, the rest were men or boys.  Some by themselves, some with guy friends and a few with women passengers.  Michael said it looked like they were hanging on in fear.  Drivers come in all sizes, ages, and dressed up and down.  Some vehicles were clean and shiny and some were just worn out shells with monster motors.

I defiantly prefer this over the slow pace of the drags on Ironwood.