water, water everywhere

Life is crazy. We had a really awesome storm tonight with a flash flood. Unfortunately, part of that flash flood found its way into my basement. It was pouring in from a crack near the floor. While most of my stuff is up on pallets, I had gotten lazy over the winter and there was some that wasn't up, and I didn't have enough room on the pallets I had to get it up. Thankfully, after a few phone calls I had some friends over helping me get it all rearranged. I don't think any of our stuff is ruined, and the apartment maintenance will be here tomorrow to clean up the water and patch the crack.

I have a whole list of things I want to write about soon, but things have been a little crazy getting back settled in that I am having trouble making sense of anything.  I am totally ready for the kids to be done with school (they still have 3 1/2 weeks left!) and I have big plans for the summer.

 For now, I will just post these pictures from our visit to Shoshone Falls a few days before we left Idaho. For the record, I love Twins Falls and it is totally in my top 5 "Places I would love to live when I grow up."

 

We also decided to drive by the Twin Falls Temple, which is only about 5 minutes from the falls. We got out and let the kids walk up to it. Katie still says, "We touch the temple!" when she sees a picture of a Temple.

 

 

back to "normal"

Well, after our month long vacation to see family and friends out west, we are back in the swing of things at home. We had so much fun. The kids, especially Ana, seeing their cousins and playing with Granny's neighbor girls all day.  We had some good adventures and now we are back. I came home to a sparkling clean home, thanks to my wonderful friend Patrice and her mother who looked after the house while I was gone. (I have the most wonderful friends.) But, not to worry, it is nice and messy now as I get laundry all put away, backpacks unpacked, drawers organized (since it is finally nice weather consistently) and trying to keep motivated to get it all done. I am seeing some things a little more clearly now that I took a breather away from the mundane things. And I realized how much I love the people here in Vermont. Oh, how I missed them.

Here are some highlights:

*Going to City of Rocks, which was really cool and made me want to go rock climbing.
*Going to Boise Zoo with one sister and the Idaho Falls Zoo with another. I like zoos.
*Helping my mom sort through some of her old slides and seeing pictures of me as a baby and my siblings as kids. Man we were cute.
*Going to the temple and out to eat with Dave for our anniversary. (8 years. I love him.)
*Seeing "Hello Dolly!" at a dinner theater with my mom and 2 of my sisters. So fun!

It was a grand ole' time. My camera battery died half way through so I don't have too many pictures. But sometimes it feels good to not worry about it and just enjoy myself.

It is wonderful to be back in Vermont and I feel refreshed and rejuvenated and ready for summer vacation.

Now if I can only get Jack and Ana to get along....

here we have idaho

Being back in Idaho for a few days has reminded me of all the things I love about this great state ...

*The big sky
*The sunshine
*The open-ness of the Snake River Plain
*The sound (and sight) of sprinklers in the fields
*All of the wonderful people

... and one thing I do not love.

*the wind

big test part 2

Tonight I (Dave - I know, I don't ever post here anymore) was lying down by Jack at bed time. He gave me a good little pep talk. You see, tomorrow I take step 2 of the USMLE for med school. There was one previous post last year when I took step 1.

 So, I told Jack I was feeling a little nervous and worried about my test tomorrow. Here is some of what he said:

"Dad, tests are nothing to be worried about. Tests don't hurt you or anything. Tests don't bite you. Tests, you just have to work hard. And big tests you have to work hard for all day or something."

"Remember, I was worried about preschool but it was fun!"

 "Now do you not feel worried?"

 What a good boy! I'm not quite as worried as I had been.

5 things I learned by going without sugar for 5 days

A few days before Easter, after days of binging on Starburst Jellybeans, I started to feel very ... blah... I was dissatisfied with my body and uncomfortable in my skin. So I did something I swore I would never do. I decided to go off of sugar and refined carbs. My sister Karianne does it every so often and usually sheds a few pounds in the process, so I called her for emotional support almost daily. Mostly I just cut out refined flour and sugar, but I wasn't entirely strict about it. I ate potatoes at dinner and sprinkled craisins on my salad, and I even allowed myself a small piece of banana cream pie. I did it for 5 days. Even though it wasn't very long, I was surprised at what I learned during the process. 

1.) First of all, I learned that I can do it! I can actually stop eating so much junk food if I want to. Yay for me! It is amazing what we can accomplish when we set our minds to it.

2.) Second, I learned how often I eat out of boredom, or just as a distraction from other duties. I walk into the kitchen and end up eating crackers or chips or jellybeans or whatever else handy. When I made up my mind not to do it, I realized just how much I mindlessly eat. This reminds me of my goal for the year to live purposefully. What else do I do mindlessly and without purpose?

3.) Self-control begets self-control.  Becoming more aware of myself and my actions not only stopped me from eating junk food, it stopped me from doing lots of mindless things - like randomly checking facebook in the middle of the day, or yelling at my kids without thinking, or putting off the dishes for other meaningless tasks. By consciously controlling one aspect of my life, I was able to subconsciously control many other aspects more effectively. I feel like this concept could be studied more deeply and applied to many aspects of my life. It will be an interesting experiment.

4.) Cutting stuff out is hard! You have to replace it. Eating nuts, cheese and fresh fruit often curbed hunger when I found the munchies hitting.  Once again, this has such an interesting parallel in other areas of my life. Those negative thought patterns I've been trying to change? I can't just magically cut it out; I have to replace it with uplifting music, good conversation with friends, poetry and scriptures.

5.) The most important thing I learned is that I feel so much better when I am taking care of my body. I had more energy and felt happier as a person.

Saturday I spent the day eating junk food with the kids while watching General Conference. Even though I had a Spiritual Feast, I felt like my body was teaching me an important lesson. Our physical selves are so connected with our mental, emotional, and spiritual selves and there is great value in taking good care of these bodies that God has given to us.

inspired

General Conference always leaves me feeling inspired and motivated to "try a little harder to be a little better."  I am already planning on studying in depth some of the talks on parenting and marriage. My favorites were Sister Dalton and Sister Wixom and Elder Holland. (View them all here.)

Saturday morning as we were sitting down to watch, I saw my little kids sitting on the couch ready to listen to the prophet with excitement. It was a touching moment. I love the Prophet and am so grateful that I can listen to his words and other servants of God every six months. Granted, the excitement waned and by halfway through the second session on Saturday they were running amok. But for a moment it was perfect. I hope as they grow they know that I have a deep and abiding testimony of God's holy work, and that I feel I am a part of it. I hope they know that God loves his children and does not leave them alone, but has sent a Prophet to teach them. I hope they turn to his words and the words in the scriptures for peace and comfort in times of need.

The rest of the day was mostly peaceful, and included a daddy-daughter dance, catching some fireworks that were going on down the street, and then tucking the kids into bed.

Sweet is the peace the Gospel brings.

 What was your favorite talk?

easter 2013

This Easter weekend, we:

*attended the med-students-with-children Easter party.
*flew the kites that the kids got at the Easter party.
*dyed eggs.
*were visited by the Easter bunny who left candy and classic 90s cartoons and bubble bath.
*dressed in matching clothes and went to church, where I spoke in Sacrament meeting and taught Sunday School. I don't think I embarrassed the family.
*relaxed and watched classic 90s cartoons.
*spent a fabulous evening with good friends eating good food.

Since I spoke in church, I spent a lot of time last week reflecting on the life of my Savior. 

 I stand all amazed at the love Jesus has for me.

flowing

This morning I was doing the very over-due job of cleaning Katie's bedroom. Several weeks ago we put her into her own room and put the older two kids together and while it is working well, I just barely got to tidying it up from the switch and taking all of Jack's stuff out. 

While I was working away, I came across this old photo and it stopped me in my tracks:

Ana was 2 weeks old. Why this picture was in Katie's room is beyond me, but I sat and looked at it for a while. I tried to reconnect with my 22-year-old self, but I couldn't find the connection. Somehow I don't remember what it was like to be a brand new mother.  Was I stressed out a lot? Was I clueless? Did it come naturally? What were my days like?  Time has wiped my memory of that time with just me and one little baby.

A few minutes later I walked down the hall to show the picture to Dave. I saw Jack sitting on his bedroom floor, looking at books. When I got to my room, Katie was sitting next to Dave jabbering about all the pictures in her book. I sat down next to them and talked to her for a while.

All morning my heart has been full of love for these little children. Katie is so big. She talks well and understands everything. Today I walked into the kitchen and she was standing on the step-stool using a beater as a microphone. Jack is such a great kid. He loves to read his Bob books and he is really doing well. When I dropped him off at preschool, I looked out over the Elementary School playground and there was Ana, waving at me with a big grin. She waved until I pulled out of the parking lot and then turned around and ran off. I thought of Jack at 3 and how I used to always tell him that I wanted him to stay 3 forever and how he is going to Kindergarten next year and how lucky he will be to have Ana there to hug him in the hallway and get on the bus with him each morning.

One of my favorite poems keeps running through my mind. I know I have shared it before:

Blood and Milk 

I dreamed of Oxford . . . (spires, a thousand spires, endless lectures, musty halls
a solitary self in a Bodleian expanse
A good life my dear Wormwood. An orderly life.)

then awakened to laundry
and things to be wiped
(countertops, noses, bottoms)

How did this happen? And when, exactly?
Time flows, it flows, it flows
and there are choices to be made:

left or right?
paper or plastic?
blood or milk?

There's freedom in the bleeding;
bondage in the milk—do not be deceived.
Ah, but it's an empty freedom; a holy bondage,
A sweet and holy bondage.
Five times I chose the chains, those tender chains,
(though once will bind you just as well!)
and checked the crimson flow.
Suckled while dreaming of Trinity Term
but awakened, always awakened, to the laundry
and to that small and cherished captor at my breast.

by Sharlee Mullins Glenn

Time flows along so silently I hardly realize it is happening. The things that worry me today will be behind me before I know it. Someday I will have a dishwasher and will forget the time when I almost cried at the thought of doing the dishes. Someday the couch won't be a constant laundry pile.  And though I stress about the house and the laundry and a million other things, they will probably be forgotten.  The times I sit on the bed talking to Katie, or play a game with Jack, or snuggle Ana on the couch will be cherished. It is a beautiful work I am doing.

maple, maple and more maple

Since moving here, Dave and I have fallen in love with REAL maple. We are now certifiable syrup snobs and can tell you all about the different grades, which ones we prefer and when that grade is harvested. (I almost named Katie "Katie Maple" but Dave thought it was too weird.)

As the leading producer of Maple Syrup in the United States, it is only natural that Vermont has an statewide annual celebration of all things maple.  During Vermont Maple Open House Weekend, sugarhouses all over the state open their doors for demonstrations and free samples.

Yesterday we headed up to a sugar house about 30 minutes away and up on a hillside. It was small family operation, and they were showing maple candy demonstrations, so we thought it sounded good. The first year we were here we totally missed the open house weekend and last year wasn't a good year for production so even though I took the kids to a sugarhouse, syrup wasn't being produced, so this was our first time really seeing it.

It was really cool. The candy demo took place in the family home, and then we headed outside to their sugarhouse where we were treated to "sugar on snow," a whole cup of fresh syrup (most of which Jack drank), fresh maple candy, and samples of maple sugar and cream (my favorite). We also could see the sap running through the tubes into the sugarhouse and the owner gave us a sample taste of the sap.

Making sugar on snow

Yum!

Jack the syrup guzzler

In the sugarhouse. Look at all that steam!

It was our first time tasting sugar on snow and it is so good! The syrup caramelizes on top of the snow and becomes candy-like. So delicious. We had so much maple that we all fell into a sugar-coma until we ate some real food at home after we got back. It was worth it though.

Some fun maple facts:

*It takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup.
*Maple sugar, cream, and candy is made simply by bring the syrup to different temperatures (and a few other steps). No other ingredients are used.
*The sap is clear and tastes mostly like water - but not quite.
*The sap is harvested in March when the days are warming up (if you can call 40* warm) and the nights are still cold. When the trees start to bud, production ends. (Last year we had a freakishly warm week, which caused the trees to bud early, putting a halt to syrup production.)
* A maple production farm is called a "sugarbush," the process is called "sugaring" and the building is called a "sugarhouse."
*For something to be labelled as "maple" in Vermont, it has to contain real maple syrup, not imitation.

stuff i love: kitchen edition

I've been feeling very happy in my kitchen lately. Well, unless I am washing dishes, then I feel grumpy. But besides that, here are some kitchen-related stuff I love.

1) My immersion blender. Dave gave it to me fro Christmas and I knew I would love it for making pureed soups, but I had no idea how much happiness it would bring me. Not only have I made some delicious soups, I have also used it for making mint oreo milkshakes, blending the eggs for french toast, and, my personal favorite, frothy chocolate milk. (Whole milk is the key. So yummy!)

2.) Coarse "Kosher" salt.  I used it for the first time while roasting some butternut squash and it added such delicious savory-ness that I keep using it for other stuff too. I don't know how, but it tastes different than table salt to me.

3.) THIS butternut squash soup recipe. Holy Moly. It is good. Seriously. The best I have ever had. I couldn't stop eating it. I want some more.

4.) Cookies.

What is your favorite kitchen item or recipe?