Canasta

I found this post on Heidi Swapps blog
It made me laugh and made me think of this past weekend

"You can’t make footprints in the sands of time

if you’re sitting on your butt.

And who wants to make buttprints in the sands of time?"

- Bob Moawad

While the "boys" were out playing in the snow/mud and doing the things boys do
the girls were inside where it was toasty warm playing games and sitting on our butts.
We are quite the competative group when it comes to our games--
The new game this weekend that held us captive was an oldie.....
CANASTA.
You are asking yourself as we did "Isn't that a game that old people play?"
It is the same question that was posed by all that came in
and i think i even thought it at one time
for some reason while playing it i felt like i should be talking with a New York accent.
Just my little wierdness. And yes Canasta has been around since the 50's--
isn't it funny how everything old is new again?
We definitly play games in cycles--
what will next years game be....HMMMM

Need to get my hearing checked

Sometimes, something is said
and it makes you do a double take--
wondering if you really heard what you thought you heard.
Today i had one of those moments
that left me scratching my head
and laughing to myself.

I was at work--
my team had just gotten on the bus
(I had girls soccer)
and here comes a kid from the boys team
and he asked the girls coach
(who is also a guy)
We need to borrow your panties--
(at least i thought that was what he said?!)
I have heard alot of requests for things from coaches before
but this was a first--
And never mind the fact that guys don't usually call their underwear
"PANTIES"?
I turned around with a rather perplexed look on my face
and asked the kid
"What did you just say?"
He replied
"I need to borrow the PENNIES"
(as in the practice jerseys)
I started crackin' up.
Yup--it's time to get the hearing checked.....

The best Grilled Cheese

My kids have skills in the kitchen.
They are all accomplished in cooking something--
which is wonderful for me.
They keep me fat and happy.
Today I was hungry for something--
and knowing that we were virtually out of everything
i knew that my choices were slim--
What is a girl to do?
Well this cute punk
offered to make me a grilled cheese.

He makes a perfect grilled cheese--
perfectly golden brown
with just the right amount of butter
and then the cheese
--perfectly melted
YUMMMM---IEEEE

Can i just say this was theeeee best grilled cheese
i have ever had.
Maybe the fact that i was served it in bed
made it even better.
Maybe because it was made with LOVE--
maybe because it was my "BIG" birthday
Or maybe because i LOVE this kid
that made it the tastiest....
Whatever the case--it was a great--
maybe he should now work on mastering the
Paninni.....

Good propaganda

The other day i received an E-mail
about a thanksgiving lunch that my sons seminary class was having.
He was on the list to bring a dessert---
along with about 15 other kids.
I thought that was alot of dessert for a group their size.
But the real question is
"Can you ever have too much dessert?"
I say NO!
There were equal numbers bringing salad--
HMMM--must be alot of kids who like salad.
When i dropped off the dessert
I noticed that a number of the schools administration
was walking up to the church.
Thinking to myself-I thought
"That was nice of them to invite the principles and such"
When i walked in the gym was filled with tables--
(I realize now that i was a bit SLOW on the thought process)
It still was not registering in my brain-
until the bell rang
and THRONGS of students
(enough to stop traffic for a bit)
crossed the street to come to our church for lunch.
Our church put on a free thanksgiving lunch
for ALL the students at the high school!
Our doors were opened for ALL to enter--
I loved seeing it happen.
Maybe for some it was the first time in our church--
A security guard spoke with my son when he was cleaning up
He said he knew that our church did alot of good in the community and wished
that it was being mentioned more instead of the political nonsense.
I couldn't agree more.
It won't happen overnight
but maybe it made a difference today
even if it is only a small one...

Something to ponder

I am still plugging away at organizing--
but nothing new to report about it--
plus i want to write about something else-
something that i have been thinking about-
something that i have been pondering-

Since the election things have been a bit crazy-
My girlfriend and i were talking about this the other night.....
and then I have been reading about this as well.
(this is a very interesting article from a LA police officer who is a member of my church)
and hearing about people who are rather upset
at the way a proposition regarding marriage turned out.
I have seen pictures of protests outside our temples--

It seems that in the name of tolerance your views are tolerated ONLY
if the coincide with what someone else believes.

I have heard of people losing their jobs because of the way they voted.
I have heard of people having their cars and homes vandalized over this.

We have not hid our beliefs on the sanctity we feel for marriage.

This country was founded on religious freedom,

and yet here we are fighting for our right to use our constitutional right to vote

to protect our religious freedoms..

I can't help but wonder why this is not viewed by the police as HATE crimes.
If we were Jewish and this was our synagogue would they allow people to write on it?

--to openly vandalize it?

This picture tears me up--I hate vandalism and graffiti

I don't even let my children write on their bodies in pen

because i believe the body is a temple--

and here someone is openly defacing part of our church grounds.

We are being singled out for what we believe--

The sad thing is this is not the first time this has happened.

In the early years of our church we were chased out of Missouri and had an extermination order placed upon us. They took everything away from us--in order to be rid of us.

They even killed our prophet in hopes of disbanding our church--

All of this because of what we believed.

I thought things had changed...

Now we are being persecuted

for wanting to keep the sanctity of marriage intact.

I feel for those people who are up front in this battle.

I wonder how i would handle it--

if i was challenged at every turn to stand up for my faith--

Would I?

My prayer is that I would be strong enough--

and that those that are being challenged will be also.

It is not an easy thing to be singled out for what you believe.

I find it interesting that the bill passed with 52% in CA

and yet the state is NOT 52% Mormon--

HMMM who else is being targeted for their beliefs?

I love what Paul Bishop who is an LDS cop in CA said about this

"Tolerance is not agreement

and should not be a one way street.

However,

we must still remain tolerant of those

who are intolerant of us.
Recognize the adversary at work here

– making good seem bad

and evil seem good."

and the cleaning continues...

I am just going to apologize now--
in my pursuit to write 365 entries this year--
I tend to write what i know at the time--
and my life these days
involves cleaning and organizing.
If only it happened as fast as it does on TV.
It doesn't!!!
And to boot--
why is getting organized so tiring?
And why do things have to get worse--
before they get better?

All progress is precarious,

and the solution of one problem

brings us face to face with another problem.

-----
Martin Luther King, Jr. quotes

This is the picture of the spillage out into
my once clean dining room....

At least now you can see the floor into the office
and i have a few surfaces clean--
(these had to be cleaned off to be moved tomorrow)

I got my shelves up--
they only minorly frustrated me-
How much fun it has been having a place to put things.

I figured out what my problem is--
I have enough to stock a small store--
in something the size of a storeroom--

kinda like squeezing those extra 10 pounds into jeans that are too small--
everything just kinda spills out where it can

And lest i think I was actually getting ahead--
A leak developed in the laundry room
(origin yet to be determined)
and so the room which had be clean,neat and orderly up this point
is now NOT!
Just one more thing to put back on the list....

You don't make progress by standing on the sidelines,
whimpering and complaining.
You make progress by implementing ideas.
Shirley Hufsteddler quotes

I know i am making progress-
it is just that sometimes it is hard to see
the forest through the trees .

It would be difficult for me to express all my thoughts about it. It remains a constant disappointment to me that my drawings are not yet what I want them to be. The difficulties are indeed numerous and great, and cannot be overcome immediately. Making progress is like miners' work: it doesn't advance as quickly as one should like, and also as others expect; but faced with such a task, patience and faithfulness are essential. In fact, I don't think much about the difficulties, because if one thought of them too much, one would get dazed or confused.
Vincent Van Gogh quotes

A clean balance?

There needs to be balance.

I love a clean and organized house--
Who doesn't?
When it is messy it does drive me crazy--
and yet keeping it clean
and staying ontop of my kids--
and becoming a raving lunatic in the process
also drives me crazy.


Our lives are busy-
busier than i ever anticipated...
but i refuse to be the maid in this house--

How do you find balance in keeping it clean and life relaxed?

I don't want to be a "cleaning freak"and yet i want it clean?
I need some of that fairy dust that once it gets clean it will stay clean?
Anyone know where i can pick some up? Price is of no object.

Our house is clean enough to be healthy,

and dirty enough to be happy."

----

~ Author Unknown

A day lost in IKEA

Why is it
that in the pursuit of cleanliness
and all things organized--
things have to get much worse
before they can get better?

I started digging out my office today--
SCARY!!!
Heaven forbid that i would fall in there
and not be able to get up.....
I think i would have been buried alive--
For this reason it is safer to work together with someone---
the buddy system isn't just for swimming anymore.....

To truly prepare for this task---
this monumental undertaking--
I felt it warranted a visit to IKEA.
Who knew that i would spend
both breakfast (which was free)
and lunch there today?
When i finally made up my mind
as to which storage system would work best for me--
i proceeded to gather the boxes up and head for the exit--
but not before going to the "last chance" section.
Can i tell you how much I love this area of the store?
I think i was a year ago that my girlfriend and i came away
with only inches to spare in my van--
that we managed to fill with amazing deals.....
(You have to go back into this area with NO expectations
of finding what you want.)
As i cruised through the area and was about to exit-
i found the exact shelf--color and all--
that only minutes earlier i was prepared to pay full price for-
only this was about a third cheaper.
YIPPIE!--
and it was already put together--
what a deal--
only one problem--
it didn't fit in the truck put together
so we still had to take it apart.

So now with new storage possibilities
i am ready to take on the room
and make magic happen.
Who knows--
maybe i will actually be able to work in there one day soon....

(pictures of the progress will soon be following--stay tuned for updates)

Picky eaters

We are a household that loves food.
We LOVE all kinds of food--
and sometimes we forget
that not everyone is like that--
----like us.

Tonight my oldest was invited to a friends house for dinner
and being the dutiful mom
I reminded her to use her manners
ask if they need help
and to eat anything that was placed before her.
She laughed at that last statement
and responded that she wouldn't have any problems
because the friend she was eating with WAS picky.

We have always had the two bite rule in our home--
or
try it---you might like it.
And the forever favorite statement is
"you get what you get--and you don't throw a fit"

“Food is a subject of conversation
more spiritually refreshing even than the weather,
for the number of possible remarks about the weather is limited,
whereas of food you can talk on and on and on.
Moreover, no heat of controversy is induced
by mention of the atmospheric conditions
(seeing that we are all agreed
as to what is a good day and what is a bad one)
and where there can be no controversy
there can be no intimacy in agreement.
But tastes in food differ so sharply…
that a pronounced agreement in them
is of all bonds a union the most intimate.
Thus, if a man hates tapioca pudding
he is a good fellow and my friend."
A. A. Milne, ‘Lunch’ (1934)

I have learned that taste buds change
(except where eggplant is concerned)
and the way things are prepared makes a HUGE difference
(ie: brussell sprouts)
in your ability to like something.
I also feel that having an open mind makes a big difference
in your ability to like something.
As Americans we are rather finicky eaters
compared to the rest of the world--
we leave many "parts" of the animal untouched--
(and I am OK with that--since i live here---
but.....
if i was in a foreign country i would try to do as they do)
i hope that i have/am preparing my children
to be open to other cultures/food
for when they serve their missions
or eat in others homes.

I spoke with the daughter after she got home
inquiring on the evening--
they had pot roast--easy enough to like--
but she said her friend did not like gravy--
who doesn't like gravy?
Isn't gravy like a food group of its own?
They discussed the fact about his pickiness--
and she told him that he wouldn't want to eat at our house--
because her parents don't like picky eaters--
(a whole lot of truth to that statement)
I don't know what we would do
if any of my children ended up with a picky eater--
it would be a major travesty--
I would wonder where we had gone wrong in their upbringing-
it would make me question my roll as a mother and if i had failed....

liking food is right up there with....

1.being faithful in the gospel
2.treats my child well-
3.adores my child
4.able to provide support for their spouse
5.has ambition
6.NOT A PICKY EATER
7.plays and is competitive at "Settlers"

Can you really trust someone who won't eat your cooking?
Or be willing to try something new.....
(up to this point we have yet to poison anyone...)

I can only hope that as my children start into the courtship stage of their lives
that they will take this to heart.

"Food...
can look beautiful,
taste exquisite,
smell wonderful,
make people feel good,
bring them together,
inspire romantic feelings....

At its most basic,
it is fuel for a hungry machine;..."
Rosamond Richardson, English cookery author

It seemed like a good idea at the time...

(Note to self--even if you think it is a good idea--don't do it)

I am somewhat of a laundry goo--rew
I read the labels
and try to be obedient to what they say--
but there are those moments of craziness
where i step outside that box
and mix it up--
ignore the label
thinking i know more than they do.

I have been washing everything in sight.
Washed the covers from the comfy chair--
and they still fit when i put them back on--
that is always a good sign.
(they were still wet--
so poor little man had to wait to go to sleep till they dried)

Pillows from my bed--
Washed--
oh how nice they smell-
and plump and fluffy again--
this was a good idea.

Now the feather pillows from the couch--
Yeah--not so good.
I have washed feather pillows before--
I know that it says
Dry clean only--
but lets be real--
if i have to take it to the dry cleaners-
let alone pay for it to be dry cleaned
i might as well buy new ones--
so in the washer it went.
Let's think about this for a minute--
do ducks get dry cleaned?
NO--
Ever seen a duck in the water--
all the time--
so it seemed like a safe bet that they could be washed.
The key to making this work is the drying part--
you must be attentive to the soggy pillows
and make sure that the dryer does NOT turn off
leaving the wet pillows in a smelly heap--
Also--you might want to notice the zipper on the cover
before you wash the pillows--
there by eliminating the actual washing of the pillow--
and just washing the cover which was really what needed it after all.
Some things work--
some things don't--
After all life is about trial and error--
taking chances--
Woohooo I am such a crazy girl--
Anyone up for a walk on the wild side?
Heck maybe we'll have a pillow fight.....

UPDATE: With much attentiveness and care
the pillows were washed and dried
(had to change the setting on the dryer and run it a number of times)
the pillows turned out OK---
no dry cleaner needed here......