Top of the class

Bryn worked on this poster for her math class. The topic was scale factor. She blew up a pack of Extra to be 8 times the regular size. At school they added sides and a back. Of 3 classes work, her was voted into the top 5 to stay in the classroom as samples for next year.

German Chocolate Cake Cookies

What Nathan and the kids baked while I made dinner.

German Chocolate Cake Cookies

I am trying to cut down on storebought sweets by making something awesome about once a week. This is awesome & will be repeated.

General Conference Favorites

Pretty sure this will go down as one of everyone's favorites this time:

"It was the Load!"
David A. Bednar



"To my Grandchildren"
Linda S. Reeves

My favorite part is a little bit after 7 minutes:
" . . . . the things that really need to be accomplished in the home are daily scripture study and prayer and weekly family home evening." 
Amen!

I also loved the Sunday morning session talk by Gary Stevenson about the members of the church who were Olympians, as well as Saturday morning Elder Rasband's talk about being with the survivors of the Oklahoma tornado.
Which were your favorites?

Run, don't walk

To the store and get any ingredients you are missing to make these:
Blueberry Lemon Rolls

They are so very good. I found my Spring General Conference Breakfast tradition.
Something about lemon zest & blueberries.
First time I've let dough sit in the fridge overnight. What was I waiting for?

General Women's Conference Trip with Bryn

Airplane selfie

  

(Long ago in Texas, Nathan and I made a few plans for the future. One of them was to take each of our kids to UT when they were 12 years old to attend a Priesthood session of General Conference or a Young Women's meeting. We wanted them to experience it firsthand and feel strength from the numbers gathered there. We also wanted them to have one on one time with us at a transitional time in their life).

Bryn recently celebrated her 12th b-day and we made our plans to attend the General YW meeting. Then, it changed to the General Women's meeting and was going to include all females, age 8 and up. We decided to stick with the plan and keep it at age 12 and have it be alone, even though Caitlin would have been able to come as well.
 

Bryn's view of the SLC temple from the car

We bought plane tickets. We booked a room at my sister's house in SLC and we were off.

We arrived early FR afternoon. Laura taught Bryn how to make a scarf out of Sashsay yarn. I napped and we spent the rest of the day at their home--enjoying a walk outside and playing in their backyard.

Saturday morning we shopping for clothes & shoes. Our first stop was Down East, a clothing line we don't have easy access to. Then, we hit a shoe store and Old Navy.

After lunch we changed clothes and went downtown. We parked at City Creek Mall and went in West Elm for me and Forever 21 for Bryn. After seeing the $575 and $675 shoes in Nordstrom, we quickly left.
We headed to Temple Square and saw many of the sights there. Our next appointment was the Clinique Makeup Counter in Macy's where we picked out some of Bryn's first makeup.

Temple selfie

Bryn's photog skills

Spring Flowers at Temple Square never disappoint

We realized we left our Conference Center tickets in the car, so stopped back to grab them. We found our way to our seats in the conference center. We were in section 8, the highest balcony section, but we were in the second row, so a pretty good view. The best part is that we sat next to some Neuffers from Oregon, who are related to our favorite Neuffers in Chicago. Small world.

Blurry . . . but it gives you an idea of where we sat

It was lovely.

Along with hundreds of other women and their daughters, we wanted Cheesecake Factory after. A 50 minute wait was not for us, so we opted for Chick Fil A instead and drove home.

After church Sunday morning we spent the day at Laura's. Baking, resting, playing games, prepping dinner.

Monday morning was a tour at BYU, followed by a visit to the the Museum of Arts' display Sacred Gifts, (which we loved), and finishing with a tour to the Creamery.

My favorite university

My sister and her husband were excellent hosts and we appreciate their support of this little goal of ours. Two down, three to go.
Love this tradition & recommend it to you and yours.  

Secret Garden

Again!

(It probably seems that all I've done lately is to read book after book after book. I have been reading a lot, but also I've just finished several at the same time).

Diana and I read it this time. When Caitlin was in first grade, she had a 20 min/day reading paper we had to fill out. It was always overwhelming, until I figured out she would listen to something I wanted to read. I read it with her, and once again with Diana. I did the majority of the reading, but a few times she insisted reading it herself (until she was tired).

Along with Charlotte's Web, this is one of my all time favorite stories. I like finishing it in spring . . . . when the outside world awakes from its winter slumber. So much symbolism here and a really great story. If you haven't read it recently, I HIGHLY recommend it. We own the movie as well so will probably be watching it in the next 48 hours or so as a celebration that we finished.

Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey

I tried to check this out in January. (No e-audiobook option . . . only CD's, which was not appealing).  There were 15 or 16 holds already but since our library had multiple copies, I only had to wait until mid-March to get it.

I like money management and have lots of room in my life for improving it. This is an inspiring read if you want to make changes in yours--he has a proven plan for how. He's successful in what he does with a large, dedicated group of fans. I haven't listened to his radio program ever, but some enjoy it.

What I like about his ideas are that he gives manageable steps. They may not be "easy" but are helpful. The first is to establish an emergency fund of $1000, then get out of debt. I appreciate his idea of paying off the smallest debt first--that appeals to me. Other steps follow, more emergency fund 3-6 months worth, investing for retirement, funding college, paying off the house, and giving. Perhaps the most interesting idea was that your income is your most valuable asset. Hadn't heard that before, but I like it. Still chewing on it but I see truth in it. I appreciate it's value in my children's lives (walking the dog, babysitting for others).

Have you read this? Used his ideas? I'd love to know any success stories you have with them.

I recommend this book to everyone and am considering it for the non-fiction book of the summer. Because it's so popular at my library, I would even consider buying a copy of it in the future . . . . but not for awhile.