I'm sure I must have several posts with that title. I feel like we say goodbye a lot. We just said goodbye to Savannah - again - as she left for the airport to head back to BYU. :(
But this post isn't about Savannah. It's about our family doctor for the past 15+ years. Doctor Wochner is retiring. I've loved having a family doctor. He has delivered three of my babies. He's met us at the office more than once on a Sunday when I just knew my kids had strep throat or scarlet fever (they did). He's given physicals and mended owies. And he's listened! I've always loved his down to earth approach to medicine.
When my kids were small, they called him Dochner Wochner. Once, when Sadie was little and had a fear of the doctor and the dentist, we were driving to see Doctor Wochner and Sadie was FREAKING out all the way there. I think I even had to stop the car more than once to put her back in her carseat. I tried to calm her by saying, "The doctor is our friend." She screamed back, "No he's not! He's a MONSTER!" That was especially funny because Doctor Wochner is anything but. He's so gentle and is always joking around with the kids. We're all going to miss him and I just hope we never get sick again because no one can take his place!
He would always tell us we were one of his favorite families. :) Maybe he told everyone that, but he sure made us feel like we were his favorite and my kids all loved him.
At Doctor Wochner's retirement party
We're sad to see him go, but he's got some great things planned for retirement and we wish him all the best!
{I guess this will be my last post of the year so we're saying goodbye to 2015. It's been a great year!}
Over 3.5" of rain over the weekend. More to come...
It's raining in my world. It's been raining for two days and, as you can see in the radar above, it's going to rain all day today. We're under a flash flood watch, but it was a warning on Saturday night. Sure enough, we woke up to water in our basement - and two of our rental properties - yesterday. Right now it's manageable because:
I have a dryer so I have a continuous supply of dry towels.
We have a dehumidifier.
While the water seems to be coming in faster today, it is only coming in on one end of the basement.
Our food storage is on shelves above the streams of water.
This won't last forever.
Rain reminds me of Scotland and it makes me want to bake. So there are fresh muffins for breakfast and we'll be having soup for dinner.
It could be worse!
Update 12/31/15: Wow! That was a TON of rain! I've heard various reports, but we ended up with somewhere between 4-7 inches in 3 days. For several hours, I had a literal fountain of water shooting through the wall into my storage room. But once it stopped raining, the water moved out pretty quickly, at least where we were concerned. Our basement is dry once again and our rentals look like they'll be okay as well. There were many places within a couple hours of us that got a lot more rain than we did. I-70 was closed in several locations due to flooding. I guess St. Louis was hit pretty hard! Like I said, it could have been worse! We're feeling pretty blessed that we got off relatively easy.
This will come as no surprise. My favorite part of Christmas was Skyping with Sam in Arizona! It was so good to see him and hear his voice. He is doing really well and he's happy. :)
I didn't even cry until about the last 30 seconds as we were saying our goodbyes. I doubt Sam even knew I was crying. Of course, after we hung up I had to take a moment to compose myself and I felt like bawling my eyeballs out, but I must have been distracted by one thing or another because the feeling passed and I was fine.
Only 7 months to go! July will be here before we know it.
I knew we were in trouble last Friday, our first full day of Christmas break, when one of my kids announced for the third time, "I'm bored!"
I told him the "B" word wasn't allowed and that I was going to fill a jar with jobs that needed to be done so that whenever anyone announced they were bored, they'd have to choose a job from the jar and do it. No exceptions.
The next day, this idea took off and morphed into my best idea ever! Here's what we ended up with:
I started writing any household jobs I could think of on slips of paper. To keep it interesting, I also included a few fun things. I put all the slips in a Christmas tin I found in my craft supplies.
Then I told my kids the rules:
1. If you tell me you're bored, you have to draw a slip from the tin and do what it says. There will be no compensation.
2. If you want to willingly draw a slip of paper from the tin, you HAVE to do what it says, but then you will be rewarded with either $1 or 10 minutes on the electronic device of your choice (tablet, wii, computer, etc.), whichever you choose.
The slips were completely covering the bottom of the tin
when we started! They quickly went through them all. :)
I had no idea how this little experiment would take off and force me to get pretty creative to come up with enough jobs for these kids! They went crazy and drew one slip after another. They were so excited to earn time or money and my house has never been cleaner!!! :) They hardly complained even though some of the jobs were less desirable than others.
Today was day 3 and the kids were as motivated as ever. My house looks great and my kids are happy. :)
Sadie - cleaning the neglected parts of the table and chairs
Here are some of the jobs they've done around the house:
Wash walls in the laundry room
Sweep the stairs
Wipe down all kitchen cabinets and drawers
Wipe down all kitchen appliances
Wash the stairway walls
Clean shelves in the refrigerator
Wash both sides of entry doors
Vacuum upstairs (or down)
Clean outside of toaster and empty crumb tray
Clean knobs on oven and wipe down display
Clean out the backpack cupboard
Clean inside car windows
Etc.
Here are a few of the fun things I included (yes, they still get paid for these):
Eat a piece of candy out of mom's office
Sing to your favorite BYU Vocal Point song
Drink a tall glass of water
Color a picture
Read 20 minutes of Christmas stories
Play "Just Dance" on the wii (2 songs)
Write Sam
Etc.
Like I said, I'm having to get creative to come up with enough jobs, but it's forcing me to see all those little one-time jobs that never get done. And my kids are learning that most jobs around the house can be completed in 15 minutes or less. They're not begging for more computer time because they're earning it!
I'm calling this a win/win and hoping it retains its appeal! By the way, I haven't heard the "B" word in three days. Yes!
*I think it's important to note that I broke down larger jobs into manageable chunks and put each part of the job on its own slip of paper. For example, cleaning the inside of the refrigerator became 4 different jobs: Remove contents, clean out and replace contents in the 1) Meat and Veggie drawers 2) Door compartments 3) Top two shelves and 4) Bottom two shelves.
I just wanted to share a glimpse of the coolest sunset we had the other day. This is a southern view so the brightest part of the sunset is to the right of the photo. But there was this bizarre blanket of clouds covering the sky and the sunset was reflected off the bottom of the clouds all the way across. Isn't it pretty! And it was changing every second. I took a bazillion photos, but I'll spare you the incremental changes and just give you a peek.
I remember telling Jeff, before he jumped into the job market over 15 years ago, that I would live anywhere as long as he loved his job. Before long, we packed up and moved to small town Illinois and Jeff has loved his job from the start! Our little corner of the world feels like home and the people at EIU feel like family.
Enjoy this holiday video from Jeff's home away from home. He even has a cameo appearance near the end (2:35).
This has got to be one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time! I know it's long, but we were laughing every second. I love how the camera keeps showing Ronald and Nancy Reagan's reactions. They were having a great time! :)
By the way, my trick with long YouTube videos is to speed them up. Just click on the gear (settings) at the bottom of the video and change the speed to 1.25. If it's a particularly slow moving video, choose speed 1.5. Enjoy!
Gotta love Ronald Reagan. Those were the good old days, weren't they? There's no way you'd see anyone juggling knives that close to the President today!
Spencer and his friends had a white elephant exchange over the weekend. I made up a couple of fun options for him to take. They were pretty simple to throw together so I wanted to share them. I realize not everyone has a vinyl cutter, but the lettering could have just as easily been done by hand.
On the lid of a small container
Inside: Rock, Paper, Scissors :)
These also made great teacher gifts a couple of years ago!
[The idea for the "tool kit" came from here. Savannah found the "chocolate emergency" idea on Pinterest.]
Sterling had an orthodontic consultation this morning. We were just going in for x-rays and an assessment to see how much it would cost (more than my car) and how long treatment might take (up to 18 months).
On our way to the appointment, Sterling asked if he'd be getting braces today. "Oh, no no no. This is just a consultation to see if we want to go with this office or not. We'll get all the details and then make a decision," was my reply.
At the consultation, we decided we'd go ahead with this orthodontist. Sterling asked again, "So can I get my braces today?" Again, I said no. We'd have to schedule an appointment. Then the assistant said, "Actually, we've just had a cancellation so if he really wants to..."
He really wanted to so I gave them all my money, she took a few pictures and more x-rays and Sterling ended up with a mouthful of braces.
Looks like a typical (and super cute) middle schooler to me!
At his appointment when they showed him a picture of his panoramic x-ray, Sterling's response was, "My teeth are very photogenic!"
Later on, he said to me, "Mom, call me Brace Face."
"Okay, Brace Face!"
"Hey, that's bracist!"
Looks like we're in for plenty of fun over the next 18 months. (Wish me luck!)
Sterling's friend, Sadie, entered a collaborative piano competition last month and needed someone to accompany. She asked Sterling if he'd be willing and together they nailed a Mozart Sonata [Sonata No. 4, K. 304, I. Allegro]. Sadie won second place in the accompaniment competition! :) Since Sterling's winter recital was only a few weeks after their competition, they decided to perform the same piece. I'm so glad they did. I think last night's recital was even better than their performance at the competition.
We've had a few cold days, like below freezing kind of cold. But for the most part we've been enjoying a pretty mild late fall. Today it's 55º and we're heading for 60º by the weekend! Yes!
Sam, on the other hand, has been enjoying weather in the 70's in the Mesa area. It's beautiful and warm. As of last week, when it was in the 80's, they were still running the A/C in their vehicle. By the weekend, they'll be in the 50's and 60's like us. We'll be basking in the warmth, but I'm a little worried about Sam. It's all relative, as illustrated in the graphic Sam sent us below:
Bundle up, Sam!! :)
Update on Saturday 12/12: It hit 70º today! So beautiful!! We were even warmer than Mesa.
As part of their Christmas offerings, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has "12 Days of Social" where they are posting one video each day to spread the Christmas spirit across social media. I haven't been keeping up very well, but I did watch today's video by Stuart Edge and I am a mess. I have tears streaming down my cheeks from this touching gift.
So, of course, I wanted to share so you can be a mess, too. :)
From this link, you can see the first seven videos as well. Merry Christmas!
When I was young, my mom read us a story called "The Last Straw" about a family that drew names and did acts of service for each other. With each act of service, they would lay a piece of straw in a manger. Their goal was to make a soft bed for the baby Jesus by Christmas day.
We've done this in our family a few times over the years, but this year I'm adapting it a little. Instead of drawing names, I want my kids to be aware of the needs around them. Rather than focusing on serving one individual, I want them to learn to see needs that will bless any member of our family or our family as a whole.
I assembled this crude manger this afternoon with popsicle sticks and glue. It sits empty for now, but I'm hoping that it will fill right up as we transform it from an empty manger to the softest bed overflowing with love and service for the baby Jesus.
And I hope this will continue way past December 25!
On Thanksgiving, we each wrote our name on a little slip of paper. Then everyone drew a slip and, in turn, said why we were thankful for the person we drew. It was all going along well until we got to Christopher. He drew Uncle Jeffrey and was shy to take his turn. Dave, his dad, couldn't convince him to say anything about Jeff so he told Christopher to say why he was thankful for him, Dave.
Dave said, "Why are you thankful for your dad?"
Without hesitation, Christopher answered,
"Because he sleeps in so I can do fun things with my mom."
It took a while for everyone to stop laughing.
Later on, Tanya (Christopher's mom) provided some context for his answer. Just that morning she had taken the time to tell each of her kids why she was thankful for them. When she got to Christopher, she told him she was thankful that he got up early with her so they could spend time together in the mornings while everyone else was still sleeping.
With that, Christopher's answer made perfect sense.
The best part of our Thanksgiving trek was spending time with family. The highlight for me was seeing the look of surprise and joy on my parents' faces. They had no idea we were coming. With us there, it meant the entire family was together (36!) - minus only Sam and Jake, our missionaries.
Because my mom was making table favors for each place setting, my sister-in-law Jenny told her she'd invited a friend and her family who had nowhere else to go. My mom thought that was a little weird since the group was so large already, but whatever. She made enough favors for everyone and didn't think too much of it.
My mom was standing by one of the tables when we walked in. She said "Hi" as she looked up. And then recognition set in and her smile changed to complete surprise! When Jenny walked in, my mom said, "Is this your friend?" :) Yep!! It was much the same when my dad entered the room. He was so surprised and happy that everyone would be together. He got choked up when he said the dinner prayer later that afternoon.
When we left for home early the next morning, I sent a quick text to my parents saying, "On our way. Wish we could have spent more time. So glad we got to see you! Love you!!" Now something you need to know about my dad is that he doesn't text. He'll read them if we send them, but he'll pick up the phone and call if he has something to say. But immediately I got a text back from my dad that said, "Please drive safe. We love you and will never forget this special surprise." I'm pretty sure I cried for a half hour after that. I still can't think about it without crying. It just meant a lot to me.
We may be a motley crew, but I sure love these guys! (And I'll replace this with a less-grainy version once I locate one.)
In addition to my parents, we surprised my two youngest brothers as well. We saw Jeffrey (far right) the day before at my sister's house where Savannah was staying during the break. He pulled in after us and saw our van in the driveway. Not knowing we were there, his first reaction was, "Why did Savannah bring the VAN to school?" That's especially funny if you know of Savannah's unfavorable feelings for the van.
Surprising Savannah was tricky. She kept calling the house and, obviously, no one was home. Then she'd call my cell phone and start in with 20 questions. I was trying really hard not to lie to her, but I was getting quite creative with the truth. In the end, she was so suspicious that she figured out that we were out west somewhere! But she had no idea when she'd see us. When we finally showed up at her dorm on Tuesday night, Sadie set her teddy bear outside Savannah's door and we knocked and hid around the corner. When Savannah came out and saw Teddy, she SCREAMED!! She freaked out for an extended period of time and made us all feel really good about sitting in the van for an entire day to get to her. :)
Savannah and her cousin, Andrea
In Utah, we stayed with my younger sister, Amy. That's always a treat, spending time with her kids who always seem so excited to have us there! (Aren't they adorable?)
CUTEST. KID. EVER!!
My family wasn't the only ones we were able to surprise. Our first stop on the trip was to Jeff's parents house in Idaho. We were only there for a quick 24-hours, but we had a great visit and they seemed genuinely thrilled to have us there. It was fun to see their beautiful new home and just spend time together.
Jeff's youngest brother, Jay, who lives just a few minutes from his parents, was surprised to see us as well. His wife knew we were coming, but he and the kids had no idea. Jay's daughter was ready for a bigger violin so we personally delivered a 3/4 violin to their door. We spent Monday evening with their family. I'm so glad the kids had time to catch up with their cousins. Sadie was especially happy to see her BFF, Ana. :)
I could go on and on. We loved the time we spent with family. They made the whole trip worth it! It was pretty much our best Thanksgiving ever!
The best part of our Thanksgiving trek was spending time with family. The highlight for me was seeing the look of surprise and joy on my parents' faces. They had no idea we were coming. With us there, it meant the entire family was together (36!) - minus only Sam and Jake, our missionaries.
Because my mom was making table favors for each place setting, my sister-in-law Jenny told her she'd invited a friend and her family who had nowhere else to go. My mom thought that was a little weird since the group was so large already, but whatever. She made enough favors for everyone and didn't think too much of it.
My mom was standing by one of the tables when we walked in. She said "Hi" as she looked up. And then recognition set in and her smile changed to complete surprise! When Jenny walked in, my mom said, "Is this your friend?" :) Yep!! It was much the same when my dad entered the room. He was so surprised and happy that everyone would be together. He got choked up when he said the dinner prayer later that afternoon.
When we left for home early the next morning, I sent a quick text to my parents saying, "On our way. Wish we could have spent more time. So glad we got to see you! Love you!!" Now something you need to know about my dad is that he doesn't text. He'll read them if we send them, but he'll pick up the phone and call if he has something to say. But immediately I got a text back from my dad that said, "Please drive safe. We love you and will never forget this special surprise." I'm pretty sure I cried for a half hour after that. I still can't think about it without crying. It just meant a lot to me.
We may be a motley crew, but I sure love these guys! (And I'll replace this with a less-grainy version once I locate one.)
In addition to my parents, we surprised my two youngest brothers as well. We saw Jeffrey (far right) the day before at my sister's house where Savannah was staying during the break. He pulled in after us and saw our van in the driveway. Not knowing we were there, his first reaction was, "Why did Savannah bring the VAN to school?" That's especially funny if you know of Savannah's unfavorable feelings for the van.
Surprising Savannah was tricky. She kept calling the house and, obviously, no one was home. Then she'd call my cell phone and start in with 20 questions. I was trying really hard not to lie to her, but I was getting quite creative with the truth. In the end, she was so suspicious that she figured out that we were out west somewhere! But she had no idea when she'd see us. When we finally showed up at her dorm on Tuesday night, Sadie set her teddy bear outside Savannah's door and we knocked and hid around the corner. When Savannah came out and saw Teddy, she SCREAMED!! She freaked out for an extended period of time and made us all feel really good about sitting in the van for an entire day to get to her. :)
Savannah and her cousin, Andrea
In Utah, we stayed with my younger sister, Amy. That's always a treat, spending time with her kids who always seem so excited to have us there! (Aren't they adorable?)
CUTEST. KID. EVER!!
My family wasn't the only ones we were able to surprise. Our first stop on the trip was to Jeff's parents house in Idaho. We were only there for a quick 24-hours, but we had a great visit and they seemed genuinely thrilled to have us there. It was fun to see their beautiful new home and just spend time together.
Jeff's youngest brother, Jay, who lives just a few minutes from his parents, was surprised to see us as well. His wife knew we were coming, but he and the kids had no idea. Jay's daughter was ready for a bigger violin so we personally delivered a 3/4 violin to their door. We spent Monday evening with their family. I'm so glad the kids had time to catch up with their cousins. Sadie was especially happy to see her BFF, Ana. :)
I could go on and on. We loved the time we spent with family. They made the whole trip worth it! It was pretty much our best Thanksgiving ever!
For the past two or three months, Jeff and I had discussed taking the kids to Gettysburg for Thanksgiving. That was our tentative plan until one morning (probably within a week of my stupor of thought experience), I got the wild idea to drive to Idaho and Utah and surprise Savannah and our families instead. In our twenty years of marriage, we'd never celebrated Thanksgiving with my family. My parents and all six of my siblings and their families were going to be together at my brother's house this year. Wouldn't it be great to be there, too? The idea spiraled until it became a real possibility and I couldn't stop thinking about it. We decided we'd try to make it work.
Over the next couple of weeks, we watched the weather really close and even canceled our trip at one point when it looked like conditions would be severe. But within a day or two it didn't look so bad so it was back on. Because the kids would be missing two days of school, we told them we were traveling, but we didn't tell them where we were going until the night before we left for fear the weather would force us to cancel. Only a few of my siblings knew we were coming, enough that we wouldn't be an unexpected burden on anyone.
If I had to find a theme for our trip, I'd have to say tender mercies. We experienced them regularly throughout our journey and each time, it was confirmed to me that our trip was important to Heavenly Father, too, because He paved the way for us. Take the van, for example...
The day before we left, Jeff said he'd feel better if we rented a minivan rather than drive over 3,500 miles in our rear-wheel drive, 296K mile van in uncertain weather conditions. Fair enough. With nothing available locally, I reserved a van 2 hours away that we could pick up on our way. Yay! All packed up and ready to go, we arrived to pick up our rental van only to be informed that they had no vehicle for us. Yes, we clearly had a reservation, but they had no available minivans or anything else that would work for us. Whoever we spoke with on the phone shouldn't have booked it, etc., and there was nothing they could do. Well. Suddenly our options were 1) take our van or 2) go home. We took our van.
This cloud pattern covered the entire sky for a long stretch through western Illinois.
Where is the tender mercy in that? Well, for one, we had to pick up the van before 4PM so it got us out of our house by two. I'm sure we would have left much later if we hadn't had that deadline so it got us on the road. Plus, we had much more room throughout the drive in our 12-passenger van than we would have had in a minivan.
We get so excited when we finally start seeing mountains as we drive through
Wyoming and Idaho.
We made it to Jeff's parents home exactly 24-hours after leaving home, our quickest Idaho drive to date. The van ran well throughout our vacation and, with low fuel prices, we spent significantly less on gas than we typically do during our westward treks, despite averaging 12 mpg.
Filling up the van for under $50! I remember summers where the pump
would automatically shut off at $100 whether we were full or not.
On a related side note, the van's A/C broke last summer. With a $1700 repair estimate, we decided not to fix it. Jeff's goal was to get the van to 300,000 miles and then we could start looking for a new vehicle. :) We reached that milestone on our return trip at 3:23AM on November 28 when we were less than three hours from home. I know it doesn't sound significant, but it meant a lot to us!
Our trusty 1995 Ford Econoline E-350 Club Wagon.
Then there was traveling in general --
I felt like Heavenly Father made sure we were where we needed to be each day. For example, we had originally planned to spend two or three days in Idaho before driving to Utah. But a big storm was forecast that would have made that leg of the trip pretty slippery. So after a fun and family-filled 24-hours, we headed to Utah.
A beautiful sunset on our drive to Utah.
As a result, we had two extra days with Savannah which was a highlight for us all! The expected storm ended up being delayed so we could have stayed longer in Idaho, but we wouldn't trade the extra time with Savannah for anything!
Even in Utah, we had planned to hang out in Provo on Wednesday and maybe even take in the BYU Basketball game. But again, a big storm was expected to dump 6-12" of snow in the valley that afternoon and evening. So we left Provo/Orem after lunch and spent the afternoon with my older sister and youngest brother and their families. Other than a very light dusting of snow, that storm never came, but it got us where we needed to be. We enjoyed catching up with family and spending that more personal time with them than we were able to get at the big family gathering the next day. You might remember my newest nephew, Bowen, who weighed only 3 lbs. 14 oz. when he was born on August 1. It was so fun to finally meet him. He's perfectly healthy and such a sweet, happy baby! He still looks like a newborn, weighing in at only 10 lbs., so it was fun to get my baby fix and snuggle with this sweet little guy.
Bowen - 4 months old, 10 lbs.
I can't talk about tender mercies without mentioning our drive home.
The beginnings of a sunrise in Utah
We were watching the weather really closely and were a little worried about snow in the mountains of Wyoming and a large band of ice right where we would be leaving Nebraska and heading into Missouri. We took the necessary precautions and left first thing Friday morning so we'd have as much daylight as possible while driving through the mountains. But once again, the roads were clear. There were a few isolated spots where the left lane was slick but the right lane was fine.
We could see in Wyoming where there must have been whiteout conditions at some point before we arrived, but all that was left was a beautiful white wonderland. The drive was beautiful and we traveled without incident. In Missouri, there was a short stretch of road where we saw ice on the shoulder, but the roads were dry. It drizzled lightly as we headed into Illinois, but by then the temperature was 40º or better so there was no fear of ice. We arrived home just 22.5 hours after leaving Utah.
I just had the overwhelming feeling throughout our trip that we were being gently guided to where we needed to be. Despite the varied weather forecasts, we felt good about going and I can see that Heavenly Father made it possible and even easy for us to make the trip!
Ack! December already? I will sincerely try to make up for my pitiful November offering on this blog. So sorry. I had good intentions.
I cannot let another day go by without writing about Thanksgiving. It was one of our best ever! Because I like to keep things short and sweet, I'll break up our adventures into a few posts.
Let me back up and start with an experience I had sometime near the end of October.
I woke up one morning with the thought that maybe I should plan a trip to see my parents. After I dropped the kids off at school that day, I started looking for plane tickets just to see if a trip was even feasible. I figured I might be able to get away sometime in January after the holidays.
I entered a random long weekend in January and google flights gave me some options like, If you can leave one day earlier and come home one day earlier, you can save this much and then If you can stay two days longer you can save this much. Why not? I clicked on each option and finally ended up with a set of dates around mid-January for a week in Las Vegas for the ridiculously low price of... $127 round trip! I know! Crazy!
My impulse was to hurry and book the flight, but then reality hit. Why was I doing this? Was it a good idea? I knew this price wouldn't be available very long, but my parents had no idea I was even thinking of coming. Would they be around? I had no idea what my kids would be doing that week or what Jeff would have going on.
So I said a quick prayer. I said something like, "Heavenly Father, I don't know if I should do this. Would you please let me know unmistakably either way if I should buy this ticket?" I closed my prayer just as the dryer buzzed so I went into the laundry room to fold the clothes.
I hadn't been in there for more than 1 minute when I stopped and thought to myself, "What was I just doing before I came in here?" I knew it was important and I knew I'd been at the computer, but I couldn't remember for the life of me what I was doing there. I was a little frustrated by my poor memory as I walked back to the computer to see if something on the screen would jog my memory. And then there it was. The plane ticket. And suddenly it was the most obvious answer to my prayer. In Doctrine and Covenants 9:9 it says, "But if it be not right...you shall have a stupor of thought that shall cause you to forget the thing which is wrong...." I had been given a stupor of thought. It was the unmistakable answer I had asked for! I wasn't supposed to buy the ticket. So I closed the browser window and went back to folding the laundry.
A couple of weeks went by before I understood why I didn't need to visit my parents in January.
(To be continued...)
I love the taste of pumpkin cookies, but I'm not a fan of the texture. I'm sure that's because pumpkin cookies are always cakey and I don't like cake.
Voila! This recipe solves that problem. Because there are no eggs, they don't have too much moisture so they are chewy and look like regular cookies. And they are oh so good!!
Chewy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
(Makes about 5 dozen cookies)
2 sticks minus 2 Tbsp. butter (14 Tbsp.)*
2 cups brown sugar
½ cup sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. ginger
¼ tsp. nutmeg
¼ tsp. cloves
3 c. all-purpose flour
1 bag (12 oz.) semi-sweet chocolate
chips
Preheat oven to 350ºF. Cream together
butter and sugars. Add the vanilla and pumpkin and mix until smooth.
Combine all the dry ingredients and add to pumpkin mixture. Mix just
until combined. Stir in chocolate chips.
Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto
ungreased baking sheets. Bake for 11-17 minutes or until just
starting to brown. Cool for 2 minutes before removing from pan.
*As for the butter, I know that's a
weird amount. I only had that much on hand one day when I wanted to
make these so I tried it and hoped for the best. They turned out the
best ever so I make them that way every time! :)
We're all wishing we were Savannah! Yep, that's her with Tanner Mangum. Tanner Mangum who threw the game winning Hail Mary at the first BYU football game of the season. Tanner Mangum, a true freshman quarterback, who has very capably taken over for the injured senior, Taysom Hill, making for some really great football this season.
Oh, I'm in love with this brand new video by the Piano Guys. Filmed in Scotland, it made me all homesick for my favorite place on earth. Complete with bagpipes and even a short refrain of "Scotland the Brave" in the middle, it gave me chills and brought tears to my eyes.
The song is called "Fight Song/Amazing Grace (Scottish Style)" and I loved what they had to say about it. (It's pretty wordy, but so beautiful):
When we first heard Rachel Platten’s “Fight Song” we were inspired by its message. In a world where we too often talk about our differences, we have at least one thing in common. We all struggle. Not in the same way, nor at the same level, but we all want a fighting chance. And we all share in one gift: The will to make the most of our lives. To take what we’ve been given and turn it into something better could be considered the sentient measuring stick of success. But to do so seldom is simple and more often requires we fight. Not against each other. But against the current threatening to drown the ambition in us.
There is tremendous purpose in struggle. It is when the struggle becomes so fierce that we must fight to swim or sink. John Newton, who penned “Amazing Grace,” worked on a slave trader ship and condoned inhuman atrocities. It was when his ship was on the verge of being torn apart in a violent storm when he called out for Grace. When his feet were once again planted on firm soil he determined to change. His covenant was written into these words,
“I once was lost, but now I’m found; was blind, but now I see.”
Grace is the defining moment when we face and fight a monster poised to define us or destroy us.
This song and video for us was a struggle, but a beautifully defining one. We chose the Scottish culture to depict the dichotomy between Grace and struggle. Who else is tough enough and yet delicate enough to don a kilt in battle? And the Scottish pipe and drum are the ultimate conveyors of melody and cadence. One represents Grace, the other the indomitable fight. Our dream was to film one of the most iconic castles on the Earth, Eilean Donan Castle in Dornie, Scotland.
Grace somehow made this video possible. We had to postpone our trip to Scotland several times, and when we could no longer postpone we had to leap in faith because just before we left everything had fallen through. It wasn’t until we were in the moment and had to let go of our pride and anxiety when everything Gracefully came together. We want to give special props to Paul. When the drone capturing our aerial footage took a nose dive into the frigid waters surrounding Eilean Donan, he took one for the team and jumped in after it, heroically saving the scenes you are seeing today!
From our youth we’ve been taught that when faced with insurmountable, unthinkable odds, we cheerfully do all that lies within our power, and then stand still with the utmost assurance to let fate, destiny, karma, or to let God do the rest. It isn’t easy, but every time we have an opportunity to practice it we get a little better. We’ve found, as John Newton discovered, the closer we get to the furnace of the affliction the more our obstinance and pride burns off revealing the best way to win a fight in ourselves is to let Grace fight the battle instead.
We recognize that this video is far less important than a fight for one’s life. We hope this music will serve as an anthem for those that are in the fight of their lives. We have people close to us who inspire us every day with their grace in the face of such a struggle. This video is dedicated to them: The superheroes in our lives that don’t wear capes, but wear a smile under villainous pressure — those that have been through so many defining moments that they are intimately acquainted with Grace and know it be close cousins with hope. They know that when they can’t fully understand the purpose of a struggle, they instead recognize that knowing there is a purpose is enough. We pray that “Grace will bring them safety through.”
Finally, we feel grateful and we’d like to say, with John Newton, “When we’ve been [here] ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we’d first begun.”
I had some fun with a grown-up coloring contest. I figured a couple hours of coloring therapy was worth it for a chance to win a $100 gift card to a craft website I frequent. If nothing else, I got a fall decoration out of it. :)
We still need to make our mostly-annual sugar cookies and we have yet to carve a pumpkin, but there's a chill in the air and the trees are turning the most vibrant shades of yellow, orange, red and purple.
I don't know what it says about me, but this video really struck a chord. I've watched it several times and I'm touched each time. I'm filled with thoughts that I need to improve, first of all, and then I realize various ways that I can improve my relationships with those around me. For me, it provided some serious food for thought, but also hope and gratitude for the relationships I have.
I've mentioned before how much I love Cross Country! I still think it's an amazing sport and I admire anyone who participates.
Spencer has had a great season. It's coming to an end with the biggest races over the next few weekends. He is only seconds away from lettering and he's really pushed himself and accomplished more than he thought he could. He's had personal bests at several races this year and he is fit and toned from his hours of practice.
Spencer with his sprint at the end of a race. Photo by Lynne Oliver
This year was a first for XC at the middle school level. Sterling was thrilled and enjoyed his participation a year earlier than he expected. His season has officially ended, but he's got the bug and is hoping to join a running club to keep in shape until track season in the spring. The volunteer coach who was instrumental in getting XC approved this year is seriously the best and was constantly motivating these kids to do and become better - not only on the course, but in life. What you do before and after a race matters every bit as much as what happens during it. And I'm not just talking training and healthy habits. Coach Mac motivated these kids to be kind and hard working and helpful. I'll say it again - he's the best!
Sterling's end-of-race kick. Photo by Charlotte Bednar
My contribution was the middle school t-shirt/sweatshirt design.
It's been a great season! I'm looking forward to next year.
