Happy Birthday to a Confused 3-year-old

"Kelsey, how old are you today?" 

Without batting an eye, 3-year-old Kels said, "Five!" then held up 4 fingers!

Happy Birthday, Kelsey! 

Sorry to have to tell you this, but the older you get, the worse the confusion.  Just ask Grandpa!

Camille, at Make It Work Mom, has featured me today as a "Mom Who Makes it Work"!  I promised her a batch of brownies if she made me look good.  I don't think I'm going to have to worry about the brownies! 

Officially Moved Out!

Jordan's getting married on Friday.  They found a basement apartment about a mile away from our house. This apartment is in Jordan's best friend's parents' home.  It's furnished with living room furniture and a big screen TV.  He's living large!
Last night he announced that he's officially moved out!  He then left to spend the night at his new abode.

This morning I got a text from him:  "I have no dishes here.  Can I come home and eat?"

I hope they get some dishes for their wedding.

Humanitarian Service in El Salvador

Last year, at this time, Jeanette returned from a Spanish-speaking mission.

With tears of joy and sadness, she joined the ranks of everyday citizens.

After her mission, she continued her studies at the U, majoring in art education.

She never got over the feeling that she needs to serve others.  (I guess that's what the U will do for ya!)  So, at the first of June, she left to go to El Salvador to do humanitarian work with an organization called "Help International".

Shortly after arriving, among other service activities, she assisted an organization in performing eye exams for less fortunate citizens.

She has spent most of her time working at a Crisis Center for girls.  These girls are at the center because of rotten family situations.  They have little self-esteem and little self-control. 

The walls of the center are drab with peeling paint and plaster. 

Alot of work went in to repairing the walls.  Using her art skills, Jeanette drew a mural on the wall in the cafeteria.

She had the girls who live in the center, help paint the mural.   This mural depicts "keeping your dreams alive." 

It was important for all the girls to be involved and feel the accomplishment of creating something meaningful and beautiful.

Jeanette was honored for her work and had to say a few words in front of the girls, educators and administrators who attended the unveiling.  Jeanette wrote to us, "As the cafeteria filled, suddenly I was being introduced to the people and being kissed on the cheek over and over and over and over...and over. Even though I am definitely an awesome person and I can really shimmy when the time is right (especially after midnight), it was hard to accept all the attention that everyone was giving me. To me, this mural was painted by them. To me, this project was a success because everyone, other than me, pitched in their time and money to make sure it could happen."

She just finished the mural for the boys' center.  I haven't seen any pictures of that.

Jeanette is a wonderful, caring, compassionate, talented person.  She'll be coming home on Tuesday.  I hope her desire to serve continues after she gets home.  We have a wedding on Friday.  I need lots of help!

Way to go, Jeanette!  We're proud of you!

Pie Eating Contest

This is the Divine Miss Em. 

Self portraits in the back seat of a car are the best! 

This is Troy saying "Cheese!"

These are Keiti's feet.

We're on our way to a ward party at the park.  Em has the camera.

This is Em at a pie eating contest. 

"Use ONLY your mouth, NO hands!"

Em is following directions....her only competition in her age group is NOT!

The competition won.  Em's OK with it.  Chocolate pie, up the nose, is mighty good!

Easy Peasy Apricot Jam or How to Make Your House Smell Good!

It's sad that the biggest share of my posts have been about apricots!  Maybe it's time to start posting more pictures from China, at least it's been a while since that broken record!

For those of you who are afraid of apricots, let me tell you how easy it is to make jam!
I've made apricot jam with and without pectin and I like it better without!  Apricots have natural pectin to thicken the jam to the right consistency, so put your pectin away until time to make plum or peach pit jelly and let's get started.

I saw a recipe on the internet that said to peel the apricots!  WHAT???  NO WAY! 

Just wash the apricots, pull them apart, take out the pit, cut out the top of the stem, get rid of the earwigs, and run a knife through them (the apricots, not the earwigs) until they're coarsely chopped.

Put the fruit in a large pan.  For every cup of fruit, add 3/4 cup sugar and 1 1/2 tsp. lemon juice.  The  good thing about not using pectin; you can make this batch as big or as small as you want.

Incorporate (I kinda like that word) the sugar and lemon juice into the apricots.

If you want apricot pineapple jam you need to change it up just a little bit.

 Drain a can of crushed pineapple in juice, not syrup, add to apricots.  You decide the proportions, I did 1 1/2 cups crushed pinapple to 4 1/2 cups apricots.  Decrease sugar to 2/3 cup to 1 cup of fruit.  I added the pineapple juice instead of the lemon juice.   

Make sure your jars are clean and your lids are ready to soak in boiling water.

Turn on heat and bring jam to a simmer, stirring frequently.  You don't want to scorch this!  It's going to cook for 25 minutes, keep stirring!  It's more fun if you have someone to talk to or music playing.  If not, just pay attention to what you're doing.  During this time, there will be some foam.  Just keep stirring.  You can add 1 tsp. of butter to the jam to cut down the foaming. After 25 minutes, skim off foam and it's ready to bottle. 
Fill jar within 1/2 inch.  Wipe off top of jar to remove any drippage, put on lid and screw down ring.  There are two different ways to seal the jam.  You choose what you like best.  You can put them in a canner of boiling water and boil for 15 minutes.  Remove and listen to the music of sealing jars. OR:
Be sure your jars are HOT, (I put my clean jars in the oven @ 175 degrees during the last 15 minutes of the jam's cooking time) pour the hot jam in the hot jars, put on the lids from the boiling water, screw on the ring and invert the jar for 5 to 10 minutes. Careful, did I mention they're HOT?  Turn right side up and listen to the ping of the sealing lids as the jars cool. 

So, who's afraid of apricots?  I am!

I took this picture of a small section of the tree after picking 4 1/2 buckets today!

 Calgon, take me away!

My Favorite Pasttime and a Review of "The Roadshow"

My favorite thing to do, when I don't have anything else to do, or when I don't want to do anything else, is read.  I've loved books since the day I could hold a Goldenbook in my hand and chew the corner.  I remember summers, as a child, having my chores to do while Mom and Dad were at work.  My chores were: clean everything in the house, weed the garden, mow the lawn, wash the clothes, hang clean clothes on the line and take care of the pet.  My older brother might say that list was his chores, but I know that's not true.  My baby sister, when asked what her jobs were in the summer, would probably have a cute smile on her face, a far-away look in her eyes and dreamily say, "What are chores?"  Yeah, being the middle child, I was definitely picked on! (Whatever you do, don't ask my brother and sister about that, their memory isn't as good as mine)
We had a table top swamp cooler that was used to cool the house in the summer.  We'd pour ice and water in the back, to wet the cooling pads. It was usually in the kitchen and cooled only the room where it was located. 
After doing ALL my chores, I'd sit in front of that cooler and read books that I had checked out from the library.  If Nancy Drew was included in the library books, I was one happy girl. All this remembrance brings me to the reason for my post.

  I recently read Braden Bell's new book, "The Roadshow".

This book took my breath away.  From the first chapter, Braden develops believable and likeable characters.  I could easily relate to most of their struggles.  It is set in an LDS community but is not "preachy" of LDS doctrine.  The focus is on human strengths, weaknesses and Christian promises of Christ's love and healing power.  The story deals with some weighty, real-life issues but is peppered with humor.  It's a quick read that lifts and inspires. You should put this on your "books to read this summer" list and then read it.  You'll be glad you did.  A word of warning, don't plan on getting your chores done, you won't want to put it down.

The Project and Cool Tape Trick

This project under the apricot tree has taken up all of our weekend and the past few days.  Since nothing but weeds will grow in the shade of the gargantua apricot tree, we decided it was time to turn the eye-sore into a place of beauty.  We had to dig down 8 inches to make room for the gravel and sand.

After laying down weed barrier, we brought in gravel.  This handsome guy is my son-ion-law, Andy the Younger. (Yeah, it can be confusing to have 2 Andys in the family)  We invited our family to the parade on the 24th then recruited them to help!  We couldn't have done it without them! 

After tamping down the sand, we're ready for the jig-saw puzzle with the flag stones.

Here's Andy the Elder taking a 30 second break from the hot, grueling work.

A little bit of moss between the stones and we're ready to use this patio extension.  We'll need an umbrella though, not for the shade, but to protect us from falling apricots!

Now for the cool tape trick.  My good friend, Joan, (she's the one who invited me to China) brought over some beautiful sunflowers for my birthday.  She used a trick to make it easier to arrange the flowers.   

She made a grid on top of the vase with scotch tape.  Isn't that cool?  It holds the flowers in place and you don't need a smaller vase or more flowers to make a beautiful bouquet. I decided to make an arrangement using the tape and some gladiolas from my yard.  I'd suggest putting your water in the vase first. 

Ta-da! 

Have a lovely day!

Sixty and Counting!

Happy 60th Birthday to Andy!

When someone is this cute, how can you not have a picture parade?

Andy, the oldest, on the left with 4 of his 5 siblings.  Look at those freckles!  If the pic was in color, you'd see that his hair is red.

He was a Super Man even at the age of 17!  Bear Lake has the best sun for a sunburn!  Ouch!

I wasn't his first love.  Bessie, the car he drove in high school, is still in the family.

I took this picture outside our basement apartment, shortly after we were married.  Debonair, don't you think?

Always playing sports, he made the cover of the Utah Power and Light magazine. He's almost as high as the guy in the middle!  Go Andy!

My favorite picture!  You're welcome to copy this pose for your "love" pictures! Not sure why we had it taken.  We'd been married almost 2 years and it was B.C   Trying to figure out who has the most hair, me or him.  I think his moustache is a little thicker than mine though!

Here we are today.  Did I mention it's my birthday also?  (Thanks, Mom and Dad)

You can tell by the number of candles on our cakes, that Andy definitely robbed the cradle!

Happy Birthday, Honey!  Hope we can share many more!

 

THEY'RE ON!

I'm talking apricots! 

They're about 3 weeks behind because of the cool weather we had in June, but they're getting ready!  Today I picked 2 buckets of these golden fruits.

There are still a gazillion apricots in the tree!

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This is the view from the ladder.  It's a long way down.

Here's the view from the ground.  Jake and friend climbed to the roof to alleviate the strain on the branches.

Here's my favorite way to pick apricots.  Cut off the brances and pick 'em

without having to reach! You can see I'll get rid of them any way I can!

Believe me, with all the apricots picked and cut off, it hasn't made even a fraction of a dent!  I NEED YOUR HELP!  You know you want these.  I'll even pick 'em for you!  All you have to do is let me know and I'll either take them to your house, meet you somewhere or you can come to my house!  See how easy that is? 

You can email me at Istartedout@gmail.com and we can make arrangements.

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Here's what's going on under the apricot tree!  Nothing grows in the shade of this tree except weeds!  It has been an eyesore for years and we're tired of pulling weeds so Andy has dug down about 8 inches. He has wheelbarrowed the dirt into the utility trailer and dumped it at a farm.  He handles every shovelful of dirt 3 times!  It's a lot of hard work!

This is what's waiting for him when he gets home from work today!  He and the wheelbarrow are getting quite a work out!  Just so you don't think I'm a slacker, I have helped him...a little!  You'll see the finished result in a week or so.

The old saying, "That which doesn't kill you makes you stronger", rings true in this case.  Hopefully he'll make it to his 60th birthday on Monday!

Maybe a nice apricot shake will give him strength!

Email me...please!