Siete

 Our milk drinker turned 7 . . . . so glad she's in our family.

Fudge instead of cake . . . breakfast burritos with yogurt and steak for dinner (with celery). She's got great taste.

(400th post)

One more reason we want the Temple close

We just don't go to the Temple in bad weather . . . this is why.
Denver 104 car pile up

It will be nice not to have to get on I-25 to go to the Temple.

I drove on I-25 yesterday morning, but not to Denver. I was on it for 30 long minutes from Ft. Collins to just south of Longmont. I saw no fewer than 10 cars off the road, three pointed in the wrong direction and several on their sides. It was a harrowing experience--but could have been much worse.

How Will You Measure Your Life?

A better contender for the Summer Reading project for my children than the last one I mentioned.

Loved it. He's brilliant. I liked his ideas of disruptive innovation, (lots more to read on this), and I can't wait to get my next audio book written by him.

You can read lots of summaries on this but basically it's an expanded version of the final course lecture he gave his students in his business classes. Very inspiring, clean (NO SWEAR WORDS), and gave me lots to think about.

4 hours late

Tonight we were going to have brown rice for dinner . . . which I usually bake in the oven. But we weren't going to be home from 1:15 until 5:30, so I started baking it at noon. It was supposed to come out of the oven at 1:00pm . . .

but I didn't remember to take it out until 5pm . . .
when we were at the swimming pool and I was talking to my sister on the phone about what she was making for dinner. 

Nathan was home so he rescued the "browner" rice and quickly threw white rice into the rice cooker. Dinner saved. House not burned down. Crisis averted.

You win some and lose some.

We had this for FHE dessert and it is a keeper.

Book it

With my Spanish tutoring dollars, I bought an ipod. I still don't know how to use it very well and regularly ask my kids advice on how to do what I want to do . . . there's a learning curve.

I wanted it primarily to listen to audio books while I move around the house. My sister Laura has done this for years and was influential in my decision. (It's particularly nice when I am washing dishes, but I've found it to be useful in many settings around the home & around town). I finished my second one this morning:

Do you listen to audiobooks? Have any recommendations?

Nathan & I are listening to Seabiscuit, and I've also listened to Shannon Hale's Palace of Stone.

About Katie Couric's book, I loved it. I recommend it. As you would expect, there are some swear words, but the majority is clean. It is successful people (most are well-known), sharing advice that was usually pivotal to them. They are grouped by main idea, so it's easy to understand. I love Katie Couric and really enjoyed listening to this book. It was inspiring in many ways. It may be the summer reading book at our home . . . the one I pay my children to read, unless I find one I like better. One of the things I liked is that she had people in many fields--art, drama, education, medicine, entertainment, etc. Well done.

Dinner tonight

Baked Chicken Fajitas

We've had a little lull in after school activities in December and January which is over this Friday. That adds to the stress of what to make for dinner . . . being out of the house and not able to cook in a hands on way.

I found this recipe & it seemed great because I don't have to do that much after school. (Having children who can preheat the oven & put things in helps, as well).

This was really good and we're planning on repeating this one. We served with leftover rice, black beans, tortillas and guac. I substituted Ro-tel tomatoes for the tomatoes and green chiles and left out the chili powder. It was spicy enough but not too overpowering for the littles who don't appreciate heat.

Puzzling

10 days for 1000 pieces . . . I guess we are a 100 piece/day fam

Just finished this puzzle that James & Jolynn's family gave us for Christmas. It was fun. We weren't very fast at it, and we slowed WAY down once the bird was complete--the background pieces are challenging.

Today I recycled 3 years of planner--2008, 2011, and 2013. It was amazing to look back and see what my goals were for 2008--finish nursing Diana, get ready to move to TX (although when I set it we didn't know it would be TX), and help Bryn finish her 100's collection. Shocking how quickly the time between then and now seems to have passed. Puzzling, even. And fast-forwarding into the future five years will bring our oldest leaving the nest.

In 2008, I wrote that I wanted scrapbooking to be a part of my life--to record the history of my family. That hasn't happened, but blogging has perhaps taken its place. I still feel the need for a private journal, but I don't write in it nearly as often as I used to. I like writing here, sharing photos & snippets. They are only snippets--never will this be a complete picture of all that's going on. 

Nathan and I wrote a letter for our Christmas card but then did not send it . . . not quite sure why. It was a great year in many ways & hard in others--nothing out of the ordinary, just the ups and downs of the everyday. This year we traveled lots of miles. In general, in 2014, we plan to stay closer to home. We have lots to look forward to, here are some things coming up:

Teaching the Old Testament in Sunday School
Being in charge of scout camp
Two teenagers by the end of the year
Going to Women's Conference at the end of March in SLC
Hunt family reunion
And many, many more.

Bring it on!