Marvelous Pigs in Satin

Pioneer Trek 2013

This is the second time my husband and I have been a “Ma and Pa” on a handcart trek. I feel like we were much better prepared to parent teenagers than we were the first time.

First of all, We were able to remain focused on the kids and what they needed instead of being focused so much on ourselves and our own experience.

Second of all, Blueberry Pie is 13, so we have more experience as parents. Our first trek, our own kids were age 8, 6, and 4. We were still parenting noobs at that time.

My good friend Shelley took care of our kids while we went to Trek.

I was pregnant- just like last time. But this time they decided that starving trekkers the first day was unnecessary, so that helped me stay positive.

This brave girl was wearing a boot cast and wasking with crutches. She was determined to do the whole thing without any help. I spent much time trying to coax her to take things easier and to take her pain medication. But she refused, and the first night she was in a lot of pain. Luckily our camp nurse was there to help us figure out how much Tylenol she could take safely.

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Categories Uncategorized

I have a sink!

16 May

My half-bath finally has an operational sink! Isn’t it beautiful? It is real talavera from Mexico and the DH finally got it installed last night.

I’m going to go wash my hands again 🙂

Tags: Handy man, talavera

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Categories house

Usually i feel a little silly on Mothers Day, being heaped with praise for doing what is just my job. It’s not like I do what I do because I’m looking for applause. Today though, I have to admit, it was very nice to be showered with flowers and chocolates. I haven’t felt well for several days and have been dragging myself around trying to keep up with producing food and keeping the house clean (not doing so well though, the DH washed dishes 3 times because I had not been able to.) a day of pampering is lovely when one has been feeling sorry for oneself. Some one else doing the dishes is even better! . Also, I
feel much better today than I have felt for the last several days. I think chocolate is good for me

Photo credit: Cherry Pie

Also, I finished reading Les Miserables and I have to say that while Jean Valjean is carrying Marius through the sewer and all of a sudden, victor Hugo begins talking about quick sand on the beach in Scotland, I may have panicked a bit and forgotten that I knew they would make it out alive. Why was he talking about quicksand? Anything but that! Quicksand in the sewer? What could be more horrible?

He got out alright though. Phew

Tags: Chocolate

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Categories family

Harry Potter 11th Birthday

26 Apr

When you turn 11, and have been obsessed with the books for half a year, it is a good time for a Harry Potter birthday party.

Pictured: red cabbage water “troll blood” which we used in our “potions” class and added different ingredients to to change its color.

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Categories books, Cherry Pie

French Toast with Fruit Salsa

18 Apr

This is what I invented for breakfast this morning, and it was yummy. Serves 8

Fruit Salsa:
3 gala apples diced
1 can (15oz) pears in pear juice not drained dump it all in
7 jumbo strawberries, sliced

French toast:
8 slices of whole wheat bread
5 eggs
1/4 cup fresh goat milk
1 1/2 tsp truvia (stevia)
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla

Whisk eggs milk stevia and cinnamon together. Dip bread in egg mixture and fry in skillet with 1 tsp coconut oil.

Top toast with fruit and enjoy 🙂 About 250 calories per serving with my homemade bread.

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Categories food

Onion Dill Bread

17 Apr

This bread smells so yummy while it bakes that you’ll be salvating the whole time. And it makes the best toast and the best BLT ever. (Notice how I could barely stop stuffing my face long enough to snap a pic for you.)

This recipe makes a 1 pound loaf in a bread machine or you can double it for 2 loaves made by hand. (My kitchen aid mixer is sadly broken right now.)

Dump all that in your bread machine in the order it is listed and push start! If you are making it by hand, knead it 8 minutes, let it rise until double. Punch down the dough and shape it into loaves. Let it rise again and bake 30 minutes at 375*F.

I got this recipe from Bread Machines For Dummies, which I checked out from the library since my bread machine is of the $5 garage sale brand and didn’t come with a manual. The book is a good read for sure.

Tags: Bread recipes

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Categories food

Banana Cream Pie in the Meadow

17 Apr

This meadow is our front yard.

This picture is one of my favorites.

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Categories Banana Cream Pie

If you Make a Mistake, They’ll Catch You

10 Apr

If you make a mistake, they’ll catch you and make you pay. For instance, if you leave out an open jar of honey…

They will also be very angry when you take the honey away.

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Categories Baby Dumpling, Mothering Fail

Testimony Art

1 Apr

Preface: this all happened a couple months ago and I’m finally writing about it now. Anyways …

We finished reading The Book of Mormon as a family, so for Family Home Evening we re-read Moroni 10:4-5 with the kids. We talked about what we had read in the BoM (that’s right, the Book of Mormon is the BOMB!) over the past year and how each of the kids could choose to pray and ask God for themselves to know it was true. The man of the house showed the kids this article from The Friend about a man who painted his testimony of Jesus. Then we got out paper and crayons and colored pencils and drew our testimonies. Here is our awesome artwork: