Push back the darkness

Nathan took this one on the last scout camping trip . . . with our little camera. . . amazing detail

Today I heard one of the best high council messages in recent memory. The topic was daily scripture study. Two powerful ideas:

1) Would you think it was a good idea to run a marathon each week and not train any other days? Would it be good to get 30 inches of rain in 24 hours to last a season? Assume each person needs 2000 calories per week, should they get all 14,000 on Sunday and none the rest of the days?

2)We live in a world full of darkness. The scriptures bring light. Push back the darkness! Teach your children to love the light.

This week:
Swimming
Band concert
Gymnastics
YW in Excellence
Went to storytime with a friend
Practiced riding a bike
Walked our favorite dog twice
Fed the sister missionaries salmon (Went out on a limb with fish. When I asked them if there was anything they didn't want, they said "Pasta" so I obliged. I think they were OK with it).
Found a paint color
And a dearth of cute & appropriate 12 year old girl clothes at JCPenney
Talked to our 95 year old grandma (& great-grandma) on her b-day to wish her a special day
Taught deacon's quorum lesson (Andrew)
Had choir
Bought 12 cans of Rotel tomatoes b/c I was out and they were $. 49 per can 
Introduced Bryn to my Barre class (I went 2 times this week)
Bought two books (I know, I said no more cookbooks . . . but then this was written and I changed my mind):The Romney Family Table
and the second one is this: Sunday Morning Quilts
Found a new recipe website, I am sorry: Remedialeating.com
(Wanting to try a couple of her Rhubarb idea & two Indian dishes, as well)
Got home from work early on Friday
Worked on the mudroom wall in the garage . . . .pics to come
Hosted my parents for dinner
Picked out the mistake in my latest sewing project so I can proceed
Took Caitlin to the orthodontist
Went to the temple with all the youth from our stake
Started reading the Secret Garden to Diana (best book ever)
Got the brown bananas off the counter
Raked one bag of leaves

Have a great week!

Band Concert

Pretty cool you can "go" to this concert from miles away. Hard to see Andrew in this video, but he's in the back row of trombones.

Scoutmaster

Think Nathan's enjoying his new calling?

(He told me how much the boys liked driving through that particular mud puddle).

The end of October

Halloween is growing on me. I really used to dislike it and now it's more fun--a chance to be someone else for the night.

I told Andrew I would spend $5 on his costume, and this is what he came up with . . . not bad for free:

The uniform wasn't free this summer when he played baseball . . . but at least it didn't cost more now.

Bryn got the same $5, but only spent about $3.

Waitress

Her first year trick or treating with friends . . . and she loved it.

Caitlin also went with friends for the first time. Sad for me, but a necessary step.

Diana wanted to wear the family tradition . . . . but only for school.

For church she was a witch again like last year

And here's Ed . . . in the $5 costume I bought the day after Halloween at Target (a million years ago in Chicago when it fit Andrew). This was for the ward party . . . for Halloween he wore the one below:

October was a great month weather-wise. We enjoyed many busy days. Nathan worked two Saturday mornings helping with flood cleanup, our family did the 5K, we went to Cheyenne to watch the BYU Ballroom dancers with my family (and left Nathan and the boys to watch some football on cable TV . . . a novelty because we don't have it). That's on top of the daily things: morning piano lessons & choir, afternoon football, cross country, swimming, and walking the neighbor's dog. Add in tutoring twice a week and I am surprised how many things that are not written down get accomplished anyway.

Days of coming & going, and breakfast, lunch and dinner in shifts. Two leave for middle school together and then an hour and a half later, two more leave for elementary. Someone needs a ride or I have to get more groceries. It's busy and crazy and great & stressful all at once. No better job. 

Without fail, annually sometime close to Oct 20th I want to go sugar free . . . . but it never lasts. 
We are buried under a small mountain of Halloween candy. This year we had dentist appointments on Nov. 1st. So ironic.

The best part of all that Halloween candy? TRADING!!!!

A little planning goes a long way

Last week I didn't meal plan and it was horrible. I went through all of my "emergency" meals and stressed out about dinner every day.

This week I forced myself to plan the meals for the week on Sunday. It's only Tuesday, but it's going so much better. How come I have to learn things the hard way? I still have one night without a plan, but I am sure I can fill it. Perhaps I should plan weeks at a time so I can just grab a weeks' worth on Sunday and go with it. Hmmm..... will have to consider it.

This was dinner last night, and everyone loved it. It's tricky to find a vegetable to go well with it, but it does have pumpkin in it . . . . we had carrot sticks. We served it with whipped cream, no need for syrup here. I am really into food that you can prep early these days, because I am out running kids around most afternoons between 4 and 6. If you have someone who can take a pan out of the oven for you, (while you are gone driving) this one works. And, if you want to try Pumpkin Egg Nog, this is a great excuse to buy some.

Monday we tried this new salad dressing. Easy to cut this recipe in half. It caught my eye because it uses onion powder instead of cutting an onion. I love any recipe that makes that substitution. Worth it in my book, especially for a small amount of onion.

My favorite food storage meal lately? Mac & Cheese with Rotel Tomatoes & Black beans. We cut the butter in half but make everything else like normal, and add one can black beans & one can Rotel. Served with shredded lettuce on the side . . . so good.

(Hoping the Red Sox win the World Series tonight so we the final won't interrupt trick or treating). How can it be almost November?

How many? Fall 2013 canning edition

How many?

Times in the past 3-4 years have I had trouble getting my pressure canner up to pressure?
No idea, but my guess is between 20 and 30

Times have I wondered if I needed a new seal for it?
20-30

$ does it cost to replace?
 $11
(How often are you advised to replace it? Once a year, or more if used heavily . . . ahem).

Stores in Fort Collins carry them?
One that I know of, Ace Hardware.

Times have I canned in the past 10 days?
4

Jars?
14 pint size chicken
16 pints black beans
15 pints Great Northern beans
14 pints garbanzo beans
10 pints light red kidney beans
=69 lovely little jars of food. . . .
-one to my mom, and two to our family (What can I say? Canned chicken recipes are the best)
=66 little jars of food.

I had kids home on TH, so they helped.

My family canned & grew a garden. Nathan's family really canned and really had a garden. (What I mean is that their temperate climate and large lot made it possible for them to grow a giant garden--and then they had to store that food).
We hope to pass those skills on.
If my kids are home, I try to include them as I can. Although not shown in the picture above, I try to have one child help me at a time. (A lesson I learned in the Neuffer kitchen). It makes it much more manageable for me. This time they each did 3 jars of beans for me. So helpful.


Dried beans are a good place to start with helping kids learn to can. The prep and cleanup are easy. They can pour them in without my worrying about sticky everything. Love eating home canned beans, too.

What time did my last canning session end?
1:15 am . . . . should have started earlier in the day!

Flood Update (Saturday Oct 19)

This morning Nathan took Andrew and the other 12-13 year olds to dig in the mud in Berthoud. They went to help a family whose property had been buried under feet of mucky mud.

The owner boards horses . . . well, used to until the flood. His corral was buried under tree branches, weeds, and mud that were swept along. He was able to get all of his animals out successfully, but lost a pair of chickens to the neighbor's dog who was keeping them for him.

The boys worked on clearing out 2-3 feet of mud from this shed. (Nathan estimated it was 15 by 20 feet).

Before--see the waterline?

Outside . . . see all the debris in the mud?

Part of the pile of mud they removed from the shed

It would have taken the family a LONG time to get it done, but the boys and parents who accompanied them were able to clear it out in 3 hours. The owner has been using a front end loader to clean up his property, but because of the small doors to the shed, the only way to clean it out was by hand, with shovels & wheelbarrows. The owner offered them lunch, but they'd brought it with them, so they worked and then came home. He thanked them many times.

Our nephew was visiting our family this weekend, and since he's in that age group he got to go along as well. It was a good experience for them, I think they'll sleep really well tonight.

They've made mention about keeping the cleanup efforts going until the really cold weather is here . . . we had a little snow (only an inch or so) this week, so we'll see. Several people we know have spent their Saturday mornings each week involved in the cleanup efforts.

Nathan said the property was beautiful, even with all the mud. The basement of the house was flooded, with three feet of water, but the main damage was to the barn, corral, and shed closer to the river.


Update: Sunday evening
Today at church they read some numbers about service hours. They said that over 2400 people from our stake have given over 8000 hours of service. 33 unique projects have been undertaken, 18 of them in Berthoud (one of the hardest hit in our stake). Quite a thing.