For Mother's Day!

Just now I got this from Jaxon. It says, "Mom, we love you with all are heart's :)"

Pretty adorble.

I love my kids.

Kids Update

Recently I took Jaxon fishing. It's been fun learning together. He really loves it.

Here's Asher fishing with his friend, Kode.

Here's Finn and his friend Ruby.

This is Jaxon at the Cub Scout Blue and Gold banquet. He loves scouts and has a great time working on crafts. Check out his amazing headress!

So here is Finn, 3 years old, thinking he's hillarious by trying on mom's bra. He just cracks me up.

He can be so sweet one minute, then the next minute he's a little demon.

But more than our other kids, he's mature. Yesterday he had a dentist appt and sat still and had x-rays. At 3! Jaxon was almost 7 and Asher as more than 5 when he was old enough for that.

The new bad word in our house is "poopy diaper." It's only a bad word because it really embarasses Jaxon. It's actually kinda funny.

Orange Marmalade Part Deux

Did you know you can make marmalade out of any citrus? Yes! Grapefruit, lemon, tangerine, you name it! And it's really not too hard. It's cheaper than regular jam because you don't have to buy pectin because there is so much pectin in the fruit rind.

About a month ago, my friend Danielle and I made orange marmalade at her house. We use a difficult recipe (that says it's easy!) and it took us about 5 hrs to make 7 pints. There was the peeling, the slicing, the double batch, the boiling, the sugar, the boiling again (2 hrs!), then the attempt at canning with a pressure canner. So much work! So when my mom gave me 3 bags of oranges I decided to try a new, faster recipe.

So the faster recipe did have it's drawbacks. I had to stir a pot of volcanic marmalade for 20 in. Even reaching as far as I could and wearing an oven mitt, the hot jam splattered all over me. It was messy and dangerous. But, the results were delicious!

I've also found I like marmalade with brie on crackers. You should try it sometime!

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Here's a picture of the first recipe vs the second recipe. The first recipe cooked a lot longer and has a darker color, plus more pieces of orange rind because I peeled and julienned all the rinds instead of using the blender.

It's hard to pour the marmalade after it's cooked, so I cut out part of an apple container and cut a hole in the top. It worked better than my funnel which was too narrow. Necessity is the mother of invention?

Here's the place I cut out to make the plastic funnel.

Leftover Magic

I'm learning to use leftovers, which is something I'm starting to have now that I'm cooking again.

Thanks to the Food Nanny, Leslie's aunt, I've put more emphasis on planning, preparing, and cooking healthy food for my family.

And now we have leftovers!

So here are some of the meals we're having and how I'm using the leftovers (in addition to sending them with Mark for lunch). Note- this menu isn't complete because we'll have salad almost every night or add hummus and pita bread if the meal seems sparse, but you get the general picture. Also, I'm planning and shopping for 2 weeks at a time, which makes things a lot more manageable.

M- Pinto Beans and cornbread

T- Taco Salad (use some pinto beans and a can of chili)

W- Grilled veggies and pineapple

Th- Veggie Quesadillas (use some pinto beans and slice up leftover grilled veggies)

F- Pizza (use sliced grilled veggies, add feta)

S- Baked Potato Bar (wrap potatoes in foil and cook in the crockpot for 4 hrs on high. On the back porch if it's too hot inside)

S- Breakfast for Dinner- Eggs and Hash Browns (grate leftover baked potatoes and cook in coconut oil)

M-Hawaiian Chicken Sandwiches (leftover grilled pineapple)

T- Spaghetti and Meatballs

W- Stir Fry with brown rice

Th- Enchiladas

F- Soup (if it's not too hot)

S- Tilapia and Lemon Rice

S- Chicken Bryan and Garlic Mashed Potatoes

These are just a few ideas. Do you have ideas for easy healthy meals and how to use leftovers?

CARE Conference 2011

3-15-11 Washington Trip

(Click on the photo to see the album)

I got back from Washington last week to a happy family and warm weather.

Now that Spring Break is over, I have time to blog about our trip.

My good friend, Kay Gaisford, coordinated the trip with the CARE staff. They helped us financially by providing a hotel room and 2 free tickets. We managed to get five of us to the conference (Kay, Sue, Lilly, Holly, and Me). These wonderful women are part of a lunch/book group that I attend.

Along with 1200 other attendees, I celebrated International Women's Day at the CARE conference in Washington DC. It started with a celebration of Int'l Women's Day on March 8th. We had a lovely party with performers including India Arie and Michael Franti. I danced and sang along as we celebrated the lives of women across the world.

The next day we had speakers and panels explaining the needs of people in developing nations and what CARE has done to help them. Over the last 5 years, CARE has been involved in 70 countries, staffed by mostly local people. Since I read Half the Sky, I've been more in tune with the issues surrounding maternal mortality, child marriage, and microloans. These issues and many more were covered by experts from around the world.

One of the experts was our friend Sylvia Cabus whom I met at the Exponent retreat last fall. She's a Gender Analyst for the Food Security department of the USAID. We met her for dinner the night before the conference and learned about what the government and private organizations are doing to help families in impoverished nations. In fact, later in the conference I heard one Congressman say, "Poverty is a political condition. We have the means to feed the entire world. What we lack is the political will." I was stunned.

The fabulous lunch keynote was Melinda Gates. She was articulate and passionate about salient issues like immunizations, contraceptives, and health care in developing nations. I was also impressed by the Bush twins who sat on panels and introduced their mother for the evening keynote. Their passion for motivating us to reach out to help others was really uplifting.

But what moved me most was the presentation of the "I Am Powerful" award to Peninah Musyimi. She was presented this award by two women who own WNBA teams. They shared her story of impoverished life in Africa and how Peninah worked to get good grades in school so she could attend college. She was disappointed to learn that the only way she could get a scholarship was to play basketball. So she taught herself how to play basketball in one month! So she got the scholarship, went to college, then on to law school. After she established a career, she went back to her home town in Africa (I'm blanking on the country) and started a non profit called Safe Spaces to provide a place for youth to hang out and take classes to promote their interests and education.

Although the entire conference made me teary, this award was really powerful for me. I was so impressed with this woman's life and sacrifice. In her acceptance speech, she thanked many people in her life and then said, "I thank myself for working so hard." I cried for her and for so many women like her across the world. I wish they could all hear her story and gain strength to fight their everyday battles.

We gave Peninah a standing ovation when she accepted her signed basketball award.

Thursday on Capitol Hill started with a visit to Jeff Flake's office. We had only a few moments with him and he remembered us from a visit to his local office last fall regarding a child marriage bill in his committee. After we discussed our issues he responded, "I have never voted for any international development bill."

His comment quickly deflated our enthusiasm.

Luckily, our other appointments went better. For the most part, the staffers were supportive of our message, especially the Democrats. On the other hand, McCain's staffer didn't know that Cindy McCain was on the board of CARE for years. I hope that he'll support CARE's initiatives in the future.

I know that our voices on Capitol Hill are meaningful. But even more meaningful is our helping each other to support issues that really make the world a better place.

One staffer said it right, "We need you to tell your friends how devastating these cuts can be." The other legislators need to know that slashing the budget will hurt the most vulnerable people. Spread the word."

So that's what I'm doing, spreading the word. I'll keep you updated via Facebook and Twitter about what you can do to support CARE and it's work in developing nations.

In the meantime, right now you can buy chocolate. Here's the deal- From now until the end of this year Full Circle Exchange will match your purchase dollar for dollar (that's 100% of your purchase!) in donations to CARE. The chocolate is amazing (and I hear the coffee is, too!).

I'm so glad I went to the CARE conference this year and I hope to go back in the future.

Mark's Birthday

For Mark's birthday, we went out to lunch. We had a room all to ourselves and the food was great. It was a fancy restaurant (the kind that has heavy silverware).

That night we had some friends over for snacks and games. I'll upload some of the videos when I get over to Mark's side of the computer.

 

 

Domestic is my Middle Name

Before Christmas I took down my old plaid curtains and bought some greenish tweed and put them up for curtains. They looked terrible. I just folded and stapled them. The garland made them a little better but when that came down I went back to the fabric store.

Then I painted the kitchen and sewed these damask curtains yesterday. I actually bought a braid with tassels for the bottom but it didn't look as good on the bottom as I thought it would.

Here's our TV room before the paint.

Here's the same room today! (It's the same color as in the kitchen, but the lighting is different)
The kids are having school with their animals. It was a lot of fun. More fun than painting, even!

I realized I haven't put the photos of the floors up yet, or the other painted walls, so that's next.

And I made marmalade with my friend Danielle yesterday (it took 5 hrs for 7 pints. I recommend strawberry freezer jam instead).
Then I made orange rolls for breakfast.
The kids also just ate the banana pops we made last night.

Jaxon has a special day at school sometimes where they can bring in anything that has the word pop in it. For 'Pop Friday' Jaxon usually brings plain popcorn because the other alternatives are unhealthy. But this week we dipped a banana in chocolate and froze it. All the kids loved it!

Jaxon Says

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• Jaxon and Lyda put on a magic show for us. After it was over Jaxon scolded Lyda, "Why did you only say 'Abracadabra'? You were supposed to say, 'Abracadabra, Alamazoo!'" Poor Lyda.
  
  (Here are some other funny Jaxon quotes)
  
  
• "Bakugans are not kissable-proof! (Finn was kissing his Bakugan toys). Kissable-proof means they are not kissable!"
  
  
• One day I started to sing a lullaby Jaxon interrupts me and says, "That's going on my imbecile list."
  
  
• I told Jaxon I liked one of his drawings and he says, "Thank you for appreciating it."
  
  
• Jaxon says to his brother, "Can you get me a spoon, Asher? You are really handsome, Ash."
  
  
• During lunch Jaxon says to me, "Mom I need a phone to call a great detective. Someone took a bite out of my cheese crisp." (It turned out to be him)
  
  
• Jaxon says, "Picking up my stuff is part of our imbecile family!" (he used this word for a while)
  
  
• We drove by an older LDS church with a satellite dish in the back. Jaxon pointed at it and said, "That's how we communicate with God. It's a spaceship."

My Birthday!

Because it's already Asher's birthday (he's 5 today!) it's time for me to blog about mine!
We went to a great church party for New Year's Eve. Lots of good food, friends, games, dancing, kareoke, ping pong, etc. We had a great time. Thanks to my mom for watching the kids!

On the night of my birthday we went to The Melting Pot for the first time with some friends. It was a great experience. I loved that it was more than just a meal, it was a whole event. Delicious food and great friends!

I had to include this photo of the chocolate fondue en flambe!

How To Break Your Arm

In case you didn't know, Jaxon broke his arm the day after Thanksgiving. It was the day that our friends Nate and Darryl came to help Mark install the flooring. I took the Curtis boys and my boys out so the men could work on the floor.

(It's been over a month and I'm finally at a place where I can blog about this.)

So this happened on Black Friday (perhaps that should have been my clue) at a dog park near Ray and Greenfield.

Here he is climbing on this deadly device. What he's doing now he can do in his sleep, backwards.

Such grace and confidence!

Here he's finishing up and his friend Asher wants to try, but changes his mind.

Here are all the boys on these 4 foot high concrete steps (there were a dozen of them).
Looking at the photos now, I'm surprised I didn't have to take them all to the hospital.

There was also a lake, with dangerous edges, which the kids were drawn to.

In this photo, you can see Finn in the back, trying to touch the water and Luke headed straight toward the edge.

Here's another photo of Jaxon climbing. He really loves it.

So when we got back to this part of the park, Jaxon decided to try this climbing structure again but on the INSIDE this time. He was on the other side (inclined) about exactly where he is in this photo when he fell. I don't think there are many adults that could climb at that angle. Why this is a children's play structure is beyond me.

He fell on his arm and fractured it in 3 places. I was hoping it was just bruised. Nope.

So Jaxon got a trip to the ER (instead of a movie with the Curtises) and X-rays and a cast.

He was pretty excited to get his friends to sign his cast.

The boys and their gingerbread train.

Christmas!

We had a lovely Christmas holiday.

It started with Christmas Eve visiting the temple lights with the kids. We heard Jordan Bluth sing (he just moved in our ward). He has an amazing voice. Mark is thinking of taking voice lessons with him.

Here's us at the temple lights.

When we got in the car, Jaxon had the camera and snapped a photo of Mark and me.

When we got home and bathed the kids, we gave them one gift on Christmas Eve.

A nutcracker! It was because we saw the ballet this year (thanks to Asher's school!). Mark's family had the tradition of seeing Nutcracker every year as a family so we enjoyed doing it with our family. All of our kids loved the ballet and they were excited to get their own small nutcracker to sleep with on Christmas Eve.

After the kids were in bed we opened the "gift receptacle" and realized we had a lot of work ahead of us. We were up till midnight wrapping.

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But the finished product was worth it! (You can also see our new floor in this photo.)

Here are the stockings. Santa brought the kids Pillow Pets because mom thinks they are a waste of money.

This year's best Christmas gifts:

Finn- helicopter, horse, transformer, and his brother's airplane (the one Finn picked for Asher at the store)

Asher- Thomas, Pillow Pet, Lightning McQueen, and the airplane his brother likes.

Jaxon- RC helicopter (but we can't get it to fly high), Pillow Pet, and art set.

Jess- PHOTOSHOP! (and cute pajamas)

Mark- NEW TV and blu-ray player (thank heaven's Walgreens was open so we could get the hdmi cord)

Milo (the cat)- Loved his ball in a round track.

Apparently I didn't get a family photo on Christmas, just a bunch of snapshots.

Here are a few.

We opened presents (including one for the cat). Then we had my family over for dinner. After dinner we played soccer in a little field near our house.

After a while, Asher fell in the mud and I walked him home. Poor guy. At least he got a bubble bath!

A few other Christmas pics.

Hope you had a Merry Christmas as well!