This Isn't Working For Me

While I was loading the dishwasher yesterday, Abby came in and - from out of the blue, with the most serious look and most adult tone-of-voice -- said to me, "Mom, this isn't really working for me right now."  Huh?  Brief moment of silence while I gathered my thoughts.

"What isn't working for you, Ab?"

Exasperated sigh, roll of the eyes, intense look on her face that said, "Ugh, MOM! Do I really have to spell it out for you?"  But she simply said, "THIS!"

Thanks for clearing that up for me. "This? What is this?"

Again the look.  "THIS!!!!!" This time, she reached her arm up in a sweep and pointed from wall to ceiling to wall.

Wow - where did you ever hear that expression and how am I actually having this conversation with my three-year-old? "This . . . . house?"

Immediately her face changed to one of excitement!  Her eyes gleamed, her brows lifted, her smile lit up the entire room. "Uh-huh!"  I don't know if I had really gotten what she was saying or if I had given her something she could work with, but whichever it was, she was happy.  Then she said, "I just really want to go back to Grandpa's house!"  Ah.  Grandpa's house.  The cows.  And horses. And chickens. And real live cats. The garden and picking fresh strawberries. The acres of land to roam and wander. The family walks down country roads.

I explained to her that we really couldn't go to Grandpa's house right now.  But that we would get all of that someday. 

Someday.

I have been thinking about the future - that dreamlike state of mind that sometimes feels so distant I feel like I'd as soon capture a cloud as reach it.  And sometimes it seems so real I have to remind myself that it isn't.  It's easy to get caught up in what you don't have but know you love and want.  Like Grandpa's house!  And it's good to have those moments.  To say at times, "This isn't really working for me right now!"  Because those moments help you define what you really want, what matters the most, what WILL work for you!  And I am a FIRM believer in CREATING the life and conditions you want.  If it is attainable and you really want it, find a way to have it.  Do NOT sit back and wait for things to change or someone to hand it to you.  Do NOT sit back and tell yourself it isn't something you can have, that it is out of reach.  Because the moment you tell yourself that is the moment you are right.  The moment you reject that thought, or the moment you extract it from your mind, is the moment you create a setting for successfully becoming and doing what you most desire in life!

But sometimes you also just have to say, "This is my reality right now and there's nothing I can do about it, so I might as well live, laugh, and love it!"  That isn't conceding.  That's accepting what is real WHILE YOU WORK TO CREATE what is ideal!

Yesterday I spent hours putting together meals-from-scratch that I can freeze to create my own freezer meals for skillet or crockpot preparation on those "crunch" days.  Okay, every day seems to be a crunch day!!! ;-D  I've spent the last few weeks emptying my freezer of all of the "fast-food"-style freezer food.  No worries - I didn't throw it in the garbage!  We actually ate it.  We don't have money to just throw stuff away.  But we were rotating it out . . . for good!  From Weight Watchers to Lean Quisine.  Processed is out.  Made-from-scratch with ingredients I can recognize, those that will actually mold or spoil if left out, is in.  That is a change I can create right now!  That is a goal I can accomplish!  Granted, I only finished one dish.  But if I do 14 servings of one dish every day, or every other day, pretty soon I'll have QUITE the freezer full of DELICIOUS food!

And I'll have weeded out for good just one thing in my life that "isn't really working for me right now."

Pumpkin Custard

With fall in the air, I am feeling the overwhelming desire to BAKE!  And fall always means apple and pumpkin pies!  In the spirit of my quest this year to be more health-conscious, I decided to branch out a bit and experiment.  After making and sharing a delicious pumpkin pie on Sunday, I had some extra pumpkin in the refrigerator and decided to try pumpkin pie without the crust!  It cuts out about 240 calories and 12 grams of fat.  Here's the recipe!  And, yes, it was DELICIOUS!!!!!  Babies and Dave gave it a two-thumbs-up stamp of approval!

Pumpkin Custard
14 oz. canned pumpkin
3/4 c sugar
1 can Skim Evaporated Milk
1/2 cup egg substitute
1 Tablespoon Cinnamon
1/2 Tablespoon Nutmeg
1 tsp. ground cloves
(The spice amounts are approximate.  I just added them until it looked right.  Follow your favorite recipe's amounts, and you should be fine).

Mix them all together in a bowl, pour them into a sprayed pie pan, cook for 15 minutes in a preheated 425 degree oven.  Lower temperature to 350 degrees and cook for another 40 minutes (or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean).  Serve warm or cold, with light whipped topping or without.  I also added some Fiber One for a little crunch!  Seriously. SERIOUS yummi-ness!

Frames, Chalk, Magnets, Oh MY!

So I have been spending some time in the Idea Room as of late, and I am drawn to this weekly menu board.  I love the vintage look/functionality of it!

Problem: As I've been searching the internet for a metal frame I can use to create it myself, I am having a hard time knowing either a) what to call it to bring it up on a search or b) just plain finding something like this.  I think it's more problem a than b, in all honesty, but THAT'S OKAY . . . .

BECAUSE I found some instructions on how to turn any frame into a magnetic chalkboard (or on how to turn a space on a wall into a magnetic chalkboard).  Check out some other application ideas here. I also followed the Idea Room's link to a tutorial on making glass magnets.  So, what, you ask? Oh, friends, the possibilities are endless: job charts, message boards, family home evening charts, to-do lists, gratitude boards, a fun toy for my kids to play with (once they get out of the eating everything in their hands stage, of course), schedules, etc. And it can all have a classy, vintage look (instead of a cluttered list look) that will add to my home!  SO GREAT!  Now to start shopping for inexpensive wood frames.  First stop: Goodwill!

Okay - cute moment number . . . I forget: Dave just walked in the door and Abby started talking from her crib.  He went in and got her and was playing with her for a few minutes when Isaac woke up.  Her face lit up, and she looked down the hall and started talking.  So I asked her, "Do you hear Isaac down the hall?  Do you want to go get him?  Go tell him Peek-A-Boo."  She got the biggest grin on her face, got down off Dave's lap, and started crawling as fast as she could down the hall to our bedroom, giggling all the way.  Dave ran down in front of her and turned the door knob so she could push the door open.  She got there, giggled with glee, pushed the door open, and started talking to Isaac in her high-pitched, happy jibberish.  Somewhere in there she said, "Baaooo!" (Her way of saying BOO!).  Isaac, of course, also started to laugh.  We have a lot of laughter in our house.  It's so great!

The Results are In . . .

SUCCESS! I am so excited about this that I just cannot stop thinking about it! Fantastic! Anyway, here's what we did tonight:

I decided to do a

"How to Have a Happy and Successful Marriage"

theme for Family Home Evening (note: in our Church, families are encouraged to have family night once a week where members of the family get together to just share time and enjoy each other with spiritual lessons and discussions, food, and fun activities - we call it Family Home Evening). I went to lds.org and researched that topic, looking for great talks and quotes I could use. Then I did a comparison between pizza and a happy marriage. Dave had NO idea I had bought these pans (did I mention he LOVES cast iron? Well, he LOVES cast iron). So it was a hit from the start. Here's the breakdown:

For a yummy pizza (happy and successful marriage), you need:
1) Skillet (casing): A complete living of the commandments of the Lord as outlined in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

2) Dough (foundation): Jesus Christ

3) Meat (substance, sustaining ingredient): Temple Covenants

4) Pineapple: Intimacy and fidelity, including honesty, trust, respect, and tenderness between partners.

5) Tomatoes/tomato sauce (*Note: Dave doesn't like fresh tomatoes, hence the reason this represents things you might not like but that add color, flavor, and necessary nutrients in my scenario): Unselfishness in all its forms; choosing your spouse's needs above your own; making personal sacrifices that hurt a little sometimes, losing the battles to win the war, etc.

6) Herbs/Spices/Seasonings (essential ingredients and flavors that are sometimes individually overlooked but make a huge difference to the end product): This quote from Howard W. Hunter covers it all -- "Teach the gospel to your family through regular family home evening, family prayer, devotional and scripture-reading time, and other teaching moments. Give special emphasis to preparation for missionary service and temple marriage. [Fathers], exercise your priesthood through performing the appropriate ordinances for your family and by giving blessings to your wife and children. Next to your own salvation, . . . there is nothing so important to you as the salvation of your spouse and children."

7) Olives (necessary, healthy "fats"; the things you might be tempted to cut out but really need for things to function and progress): Kindness and consideration to keep the love alive and growing (i.e. small, random acts of kindness; love notes; inexpensive just-because gifts; individualized service to let you know you're thinking about each other in the midst of craziness and life demands, etc.)

8) Cheese ( tops it all off; keeps everything else from moving, shifting, falling apart): Humility, forgiveness, repentance. I really liked this thought from Brent A. Barlow of the 70 -- "Many married couples may realize, as we did early in our marriage, that late at night when they are tired is not always the best time to resolve conflicts. But undoubtedly the spirit of Paul's counsel to the Ephesians would motivate us to resolve conflicts quickly so they do not persist and grow more intense over time. The Savior also admonished His disciples to resolve conflicts with dispatch so they could approach their God with pure hearts (see Matt. 5:23-24)."

There are a lot of comparisons you could make, but these were some of the ones that stood out to me and some of the things that have been on my mind lately as Dave and I have evaluated where we stand and how we can improve our relationship to meet our goal of having a marriage where we are both absolutely crazy about each other at 90+ years of age.

I made a large "slide" of each topping and comparison, had them all set out on the kitchen island with napkins covering them until each was "unveiled" and then we discussed. The great thing about this is that we know the general "sunday school" answers (the automatic answers you instinctively know and shout out in discussions but may or may not apply all the time); but covering this in Family Home Evening let us talk about these things in the specific context of OUR marriage. We know what we are doing well, we have plenty of fond memories of doing each and every one of these things, and we have plenty of room to grow and improve on each item. It was a PERFECT night! A MUST-repeat (next time with COOKIE DOUGH and SUNDAES).

Incidentally, I found a blog post with a General Conference tradition of doing Skookies after Priesthood session (with or without the actual pan). LOVED the recipe and the idea.

I feel like Pizza tonight . . .

I have a love-hate relationship with food: Sometimes I hate that I LOVE it so much! ;0) But fall is in the air, and fall and winter mean warm loving in the kitchen. Tonight -- I am thinking pizza! Doesn't that sound awesome? How am I going to make it? Well, in my new cast iron personal sized Skookie! Found it at Bed Bath and Beyond on sale and I AM LOVIN' IT!!!!! Well, the thought of it at least. Dave is going to absolutely LOVE it, and I will definitely let you know how the pizza turns out!

I have two plans with this: 1) Add some FHE fun in the mix with a scripture scavenger hunt for the toppings (I'll pre-cook the crust and have it hiding in the oven). 2) Make it healthy by doing an olive-oil/pesto seasoning mix on a whole-wheat pizza crust with chicken, parmesan cheese, pineapple, and tomatoes. Yum, yum!

Check out this YouTube Video. We'll try the cookie sundaes another time.