Spoons and Forks

We ate dinner with my in-laws last Sunday.  We had a delicious dinner, and (of course) dessert afterwards.  Dennis was eating his ice cream and broke the plastic spoon he was using, which happens a lot with plastic utensils.  Morgen, sitting next to him, burst out "These are the worst forks EVER!!"  Well, yes, since they are actually spoons...

Lovely weather

This is how I spent most of yesterday afternoon: sitting on my front porch and knitting.  The weather was lovely and warm, but not too warm.  I could smell flowers blooming and see bees flying around.  It was a beautiful break.

Then I had lunch, and pulled out one of our jars of elderberry jam.  We (when I say "we," what I mean is "everyone except for me") picked elderberries about 2 years ago.  Jared & I juiced them and made lots of jam.  And because my mother taught me well, I labeled the jar lids "10-2011" and "elder" because "elderberry" wouldn't fit.  Then I had to go do something not in the kitchen, and when I got back, Jared had finished labeling the jars.  Only he was more creative with his labels:

yep, that says "deacon."  There were several other jars with interesting labels, too**:  "sister," "high priest," and "teacher." I love my husband!

Oh, and the jam is excellent, of course.

Also, a bit of a brag on my kids.  First, W.  He's kept a 4.0 for the first 3 terms of 9th grade.  If all goes as expected, he should finish out 4th term with a 4.0 as well.  Monday night we attended a "honors award ceremony" and he got a certificate and his picture put in the paper.  Hooray!  He's worked very hard this year to earn those grades, and we are all proud of the effort it took.

M had two pieces of artwork on display in her school's "Hot Arts Festival."  She is becoming an excellent artist, and was thrilled to see her work included in the display.  I am so excited to see her get this recognition!

H just finished a "mini-society" in his classroom.  He and 2 friends figured out what they wanted to sell at their business, made flyers and coupons and a store-front sign, and then made the products they sold.  H says they did very well :) and I'm proud of his hard work and cooperation.

Jared is training hard this month.  And I am knitting lots of things, and trying to remember to water the garden.


** an "elder" is the title we give to our male missionaries. it has a rank in the priesthood, so men can also be elders without being missionaries.  the women missionaries are titled "sister."  "high priest," "deacon," and "teacher" are all ranks in the priesthood as well.

Plan of the day

I am a list person.  I do much better goal-wise if I can write down what I want to accomplish, then cross them off as I finish them.  However, it is rather easy for me to get really excited and write down ALL the things, forgetting that I only have 24 hours in my day.  Also, I have these kids (and sometimes a husband) who will plan things and forget to inform me, throwing off my schedule.  So, I have started making lists I will actually follow, which has two benefits.  I can write down things like "eat popcorn for lunch" because I KNOW I will get that done, AND I get to cross it off :) later.  Also? It takes up visual room on my list, which convinces me I am being productive every day.  Which feeds my desire to finish things on the list, making me a more productive person in reality, and has the added benefit of adding humor to my sometimes dreary days.

This is a compilation of some of the things that I've put on my recent POTD (plan of the day) lists.  Please note that, while I may have done several of these things in one day, I have not (yet) done ALL of them in one day.  :)


up.
eat chocolate bar and cherry coke for breakfast  see, i totally did that and then wrote it down because if it is on the list, i MUST do it!
wrap teacher appreciation gift for younger son
explain to younger son why taking a bag of already-popped-popcorn to school for his teacher may not be the best way to show his appreciation for her, even if popcorn IS her favorite snack.   done, but i'm not sure he believes me
meditation this is code for "read a page of scripture,then pray that everyone survives the day"
kids off to school.
♫ la, la, la ♪  this is code for "fun!!!!!!!!!" which can be anything, really, depending on my mood at the time of reading.
internet- look for a fish-shaped pattern on Ravelry and get lost in the wonder of it all for 2 hours
shower
dress
knit on something fun today.
fold and put away my laundry
ignore oldest son's laundry, which is sitting glumly on the couch.
exercise
rejoice that my strategy of ignoring oldest son’s laundry actually resulted in it disappearing from the couch before i got up this morning!!!  this is an ongoing rejoicing, btw
eat popcorn for lunch
make kids get into the car.  be sure to act a little bit angry or annoyed.  don't answer when they ask where we are going.  drive to movie theater and see [insert really cool movie title here]
laugh at their faces when they realize they're not in trouble.  
make oldest son cook dinner so i can knit more.
:) knit while waiting for soccer practice to end
BED.

See, that's the kind of list I can do every day.  Well, maybe not the coke for breakfast part.

Signs of Spring

* the furnace only turns on in the evening, overnight, and morning.  during the day it is quiet, mostly!
* there are buds on everything!
* our garlic and onions are sprouting, and the raspberries have little green leaves.
* the sun is coming up earlier every day.
* my online competitive knitting group is gearing up for another three months of crafting.
* i've been weeding.
* the front porch is freshly swept and chairs are set up.
* we moved the bikes from the basement to the garage.

look: baby lilacs!

Baking

So I made cookies.  Not today, though, and they're all gone now.  But, I put sprinkles on them because sugar cookies are better with sprinkles!  See?

(Yes, those are mickey-mouse shaped sprinkles.  I found them at Disneyland.  They make me happy)

In less sugary news, I also made bread yesterday and today.  I'd forgotten how easy this recipe is, and I like being able to add herbs to change its flavor.

Oh, and W is now 15.  He doesn't have his permit yet, but I promise I will warn everyone before I let him drive.  :)

Sunday Afternoon

H decided to make something.  He has been experimenting with different structures, and has figured out which ones are more stable.

M wanted to bake something.  I said "no" because I am a very mean mother, and also because there were no clean dishes, and guess who was responsible for both making the dishes dirty, and for loading the dishwasher?  if you guessed M, you get a gold star.

W fell asleep on the couch. This is a pretty common Sunday afternoon activity for him.  And he's so cute when he's sleeping!  He snores like his daddy.

I was (obviously) taking pictures, and knitting.  But not at the same time.

Jared also took a nap.  In the interest of marital harmony, there are no pictures to prove this.  Nor are there any recordings of the snoring.
Oh!  I do have a picture of the cake pops though.  Well, one cake pop.  The last cake pop.  It's gone now because I ate it. Mmmmmmmm.

The Benefits of Baking

I may have gotten Morgen an Easter present that was really for me.  :) It was a Cake Pop Kit.

I believe...

Bob Ross is a wise man.

also, cookies:

These rather random items are here because they comforted me today.  Jared's unit is working security at the SLC marathon tomorrow.  And in less than a week, Walker can get his driver's permit.  Both of these things are scaring me, for very different reasons.

It must be the oatmeal

I dropped my bowl in the sink yesterday, and managed to break it almost perfectly in half.

The other explanation is aliens, and I don't like that one.

Also, this is my kitchen windowsill:

Yes, there is snow on the lawn outside. Yes, I know it is April.  And yes, that is an egg dipper from Easter.  It isn't put away because I don't know where to put it. But hey, the windowsill is clean.  That other little white thing?  Oh, some kind of bone- vertebrae, I think- that Jared washed off and saved.  I have no idea which animal lost it.  What do you mean, your windowsill has no vertebrae?!?  What kind of a house are you running, anyway?

If you're jealous of my vertebrae, I might be willing to lend it to you, just for a week or two.  But I'll definitely want it back.

Spring Break

Kids had spring break last week.  We drove down to St George after school got out on Friday, then spent Saturday with my SIL's family at Zion's National Park, hiking and playing in the stream there.  We all hiked the short hike to Weeping Rock (picture), then Jared, Walker, Scott, and I went on another hike to Hidden Canyon, and Emily and Morgen took care of the smaller kids.  We all had ice cream afterwards, and I believe Eliza's ice cream cone was equally distributed between her outsides and insides.

Sunday we went to church with them, then drove out to Los Angeles.  We were very lucky- all of Jared's traveling meant we were able to get a 2 bedroom suite with a complete kitchen and living area.  Boys got one room (with its own bathroom, thank goodness!), Morgen slept on the sofa sleeper in the living room, and Jared and I shared the other bedroom/bathroom.  All that space was wonderful!  Especially the part where we had 3 tvs, so there were no wars over what to watch :)

Monday we spent at the pool, doing nothing much (which drove Jared nuts, but he was very understanding and didn't run around the hotel screaming because he was bored...).
We also watched some tv, and bought groceries, and did laundry, and planned what we wanted to do for the rest of the week.

Tuesday was our Disneyland day.  It was quite crowded (which drove Jared nuts, but he didn't run around the park screaming either.  The man has a lot of patience and self-control.), but we managed to ride most of the roller-coasters.  Hyrum rode everything once, then decided he wasn't a fan of the Matterhorn, or Space Mountain, so he begged off of those rides, and I sat out with him.  We stayed until 11pm or so, then everyone was tired and we headed back to the hotel.

Wednesday we spent at the beach- Goff Cove in the Laguna Beach area.  We had a beautiful spot, lots of shade in the morning, and a bit even into the afternoon.  I sat in the shade and knit (and kept myself from crisping to a nicely done shade of red), while everyone else played in the water and sand.  Walker built a rampart of sand next to Jared's moat, then bet him as to which one would crumble under the tide first.  Walker's rampart won.  I do need to point out that his was also 18 inches further away from the tide line than Jared's.  Location is everything!
Thursday was also a beach day- somewhere in Corona del Mar, but since I wasn't driving, I didn't pay attention to the name of the beach.  Lots of cool tide pools, though, and plenty of sand and sun and surf.

Friday we went to the California Science Center in LA, which was free, and quite crowded, but still an interesting visit.  Then we stopped at a yarn shop (hooray!) where I spent about 15 minutes by myself.  This is where I got my souveniers :).  Jared took Hyrum and Morgen to the pool until dinner.  Walker slept (he is, after all, still growing), and I did laundry again. Whee.  Then we packed everything up and went to bed.

Saturday we drove all the way back to Midway, stopping for lunch/dinner at a Japanese buffet in St George.  I have to say that the driving went remarkably well, especially considering our vehicle- we had 5 people, plus luggage, crammed into a Ford Focus.  But we listened to audiobooks (the Ranger's Apprentice series by John Flanagan- excellent YA fiction) whenever we were in the car, and had an almost pleasant drive!

Here's the trip in knitting and yarn: all projects were begun and finished during spring break :)