this is gana be hard

Isn't he the cutest?

That was the subject line of an e-mail I received tonight from my 6-year old nephew, Tyler.  He has recently learned how to use e-mail and he loves it!  He sent the following note to his aunts, uncles, and grandparents.

Dear every budy I love you this was hard

 

 Love Tyler

Dear Tyler,
I love you, too!  Thanks for making me smile. :)

The King's Highway

I read this to my daughter tonight for her bedtime book.  I love the illustrations by Howard Fullmer in his retelling of an old fable.  Here is a summary from Goodreads:

Readers will discover the story of a king who must choose an heir to the throne. The king announces that whoever best travels his highway to the castle will be crowned the new king. But a pile of rubble on the king's highway is blocking passage. Watching the splendid parade of wealthy travelers, a shepherd boy named Michael decides to help and clear a path big enough for all the travelers to pass. In so doing, he uncovers an object that will make him the new ruler of the land.
"I am sorry it is so late, Your Highness," whispered Michael, his voice trembling. "I found this while traveling. No one was left to return it so I have come." Then carefully unwrapping his bundle, he revealed the king's ring for all to see.
Taking the ring in his hand, the wise king looked first at it, then at Michael. "That ring is not mine," he said.
"But it must be yours, Your Majesty," said the boy. "It bears your crest."
"Yes, it does bear the crest of royalty," said the king. "But the ring now belongs to you. I proclaimed that he who best traveled the highway would become the new king. By clearing the road so that all could travel, you showed that it is not fine clothing, fancy horses, or even great wealth that makes a king. It is by serving others that one becomes great."

A great moral and a great story.  Do you have a favorite book like that?  Please share! 

The Mother of all Strawberries

Check this thing out!  This is one strawberry with some serious siamese mutations.

(Maybe I should sell it on e-bay...)  :)

What is that?

Tonight we were playing a family game of Guesstures.  One of my boys was one of the last to have a turn.  Hoping to score a lot of points, he carefully selected high value cards.  When he got to his last card, he hemmed and hawed trying to figure out what to do.  He admitted that he wasn't quite sure what the word meant and ended up doing nothing until the card fell through the slot as his time expired.  What was the card?

Yeah, it was pretty funny, especially since we had to explain what it is to most of the kids.  A good laugh!

Æbleskivers

When I was a little girl, I loved going to my cousins' house.  Aunt Mary Ann and Uncle Bill were pretty cool and always had the latest gadgets.  My siblings and I got along really well with their eight kids and we saw them fairly regularly.  When I think back to our time spent together, one thing stands out:  Aebleskivers - yummy little puff pancakes.  We may have only eaten them once or twice at their house, but it's one of my most vivid memories.

Several years ago I decided to introduce my kids to these yummy little morsels so I bought an aebleskiver pan and searched for a good recipe.  My kids loved them and I had visions of a new Sunday afternoon tradition.  Sadly, that didn't happen (they were kind of a pain to make) and the pan spends way too much time tucked away in the far recesses of my kitchen.  Any organizational guru would have told me to pitch it ages ago for how seldom it gets used.  I am not very sentimental, but the pan stays.

Lately I've been trying to make an extra effort to create positive memories for my kids.  I don't know what brought it to mind, but on the way home from church I decided that we should try aebleskivers again.  I used this recipe and whipped up a batch.  They weren't as big of a pain as I remember and, with one exception, they were a hit.  (You can't please everyone!) 

Suddenly, I have visions of a new Sunday afternoon tradition...

Most of us loved them. Sterling, not so much. (Love that face!)

The Strawberry Hour

One hour + 5 pounds of strawberries + 8 pounds of sugar (gasp!) + 5 boxes of pectin + 5 Tablespoons lemon juice + one handsome kid (straight out of bed and still in jammies is best) EQUALS:

Yum!

My official stirrer - No complaining and a smile the entire time!

Jeff helped me hull the berries then Spencer stayed with me through all 5 batches and stirred and stirred and stirred!  We were down to our last jar of freezer jam.  I'm so happy to have our supply replenished.  It's been a productive morning! :)

Friday Funny

Q:  How do you tell an elephant from a banana?

A:  Try picking them up.  If you can't, it's probably an elephant,
although it could be a really heavy banana.

 

Q:  What's green and has wheels?

A:  Grass.  I was just kidding about the wheels.

 

(photo from studentlifenow.org)

I {heart} BYU!

Man, what a ride!   Tonight's game was a roller coaster.  Sadly, we lost to Florida in overtime, but to see BYU's shooting percentage, it's amazing we stayed with them as long as we did.  Florida guarded Jimmer so hard at the start that they basically shut him down.  In fact, I think it was around 13 minutes into the game before he had his first basket.  He still managed to score 32 points so I guess Florida knew what they were doing.  There are so many "if only's," but that's pointless.  I'm just happy we have a connection with such an amazing team.

I had to laugh when I walked into Sterling's room tonight and he was singing the 50 States song he learned at school where they sing all of the states in alphabetical order.  His version tonight went something like this:  Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Evilness, Georgia, Hawaii...  We honestly don't wish any ill will on Florida, but we really, really wanted BYU to win.  It was our best season in 30 years and we weren't quite ready for it to end. 

I'm glad we decided to go all out with a BYU themed party.  Each of the kids invited a friend and I spent most of the day in the kitchen preparing every blue thing I could think of (thanks to this post from Our Best Bites.)  Here is part of our spread:

We also had plenty of yummy breasticks and more dipped pretzels:

We're still keeping our eyes on Jimmer Fredette.  We don't currently have a favorite NBA team.  I'm fairly certain he'll be drafted early and we can't wait to see where he goes!  Thanks, BYU, for a great year!

Sterling looks the way we all feel!

Honesty

One of my kids came home from school yesterday feeling pretty bad about something that happened during P.E.  They were playing a dodge-ball type game and when he was hit by the ball, he said he wasn't.  It didn't alter the outcome of the game, but it ate at him for the rest of the day.  He told me about it so that I could help him figure out what to do.  Today he is going to try to find the boy who threw the ball and apologize. 

This morning I watched the following video and was touched by the message by James E. Faust.  Yes, I know we should be honest and I believe that standing up for honesty might help others choose that route as well.  A quick quote from the end of the video:  "We may deceive others, but there is One we will never deceive."

My Better Half

Wouldn't you know, it turns out that Jeff doesn't mind being called at work in the middle of the day to learn that I've locked my keys in the car.   In my defense, it's the first time this has happened in our almost 16 years of marriage.  Did I get a lecture?  No.  Did he give a long sigh on the other end of the phone and make me feel like this was a huge inconvenience?  Nope.  Did he hop on his bike, because he almost always rides his bike to work, and haul across town to bail me out?  Yep!  (Did I hurry and buy him one of his favorite treats to show him how sorry I was?  Of course!)  I was checking out at the store when I realized my mistake.  I called him and within ten minutes he had the car unlocked and we were both on our way.  I've said it before and I'll say it again, this Jeff is a keeper!