Our new missionary

The Swimming Hole

We've been in a funk at our house with lingering sickness and the continued frustration of the job search. The cold, dreary days of winter have me longing for summer, so that's what I've been working on for our scrapbook.

I changed the settings so you can click an image and view it larger utilizing the magnifying glass. Hopefully now you can read the text without squinting. :)

Now don't you wish it was summer?

Hair Twirling Addict

Amelia's Snuggle Friends

Thanksgiving Weekend

Thanksgiving 2012

Mackay's 4th Birthday

I'm trying something new. My friend Cami creates simple layouts about her family and posts those on her blog rather than the standard text and pictures. Then at the end of the year she has a collection of pages that she can have made into an album. While I like writing a lot and will be somewhat limited in text on these pages, I'm finding that I simply don't have time to write a lot anyway! Every now and then I might write a post, but for now I am going to try these simple pages.

Here is Mack's birthday right after Christmas. Click to view larger.

FYI, I downloaded the typewriter font here.

Technology and peace

As I've battled with depression over the past several months, I have tried to fill my mind with multiple things to distract myself from freaking out. I have watched a lot of Netflix. I have read a lot of blogs. I have spent a lot of time on Facebook. I have played a lot of solitaire on my phone. I have taken a lot of naps. I have eaten a lot of food.

I finally reached a point where I realized that none of that was bringing me satisfaction and none of it was calming my troubled mind. It was just a way to pass the time and I was becoming increasingly agitated and frustrated as I did those things. So I tried something different. And it is working.

I have been reading my scriptures on my smart phone. Several months ago when I was teaching Sunday School to 16 & 17 year olds, most of them brought their phones to class instead of actual scriptures. I thought it was weird. I mean, who wants a cold impersonal phone when you can hold a real book in your hand that has worn pages and notes and that special smell. But one night about a month ago I was laying in bed and I didn't want to go down to the living room to get my scriptures. I was thinking a lot about trials and wanted to search by topic, so I opened the topical guide in the LDS Gospel Library app on my phone. I must have spent an hour reading and highlighting and cross referencing different scriptures that really spoke to me. For the first time I felt like the time I spent on my phone was actually useful, productive, and uplifting.

I have found myself turning on my Gospel Library instead of Facebook or Solitaire when I need a break or I need to escape and calm my nerves. I have been feeling peace. And I have been learning. Right now I am at the end of Alma in the Book of Mormon and really recognizing and appreciating the qualities found in good leaders. I am excited to be reading voraciously from the scriptures instead of forcing myself to do it out of obligation.

One of the things I love about reading on my phone is that I can do it in the dark. If Dan is sleeping I don't have to turn on the lights, although that hasn't been an issue for the last month since he's been working nights and sleeping down in the guest room during the day. But I love turning off the lights and tucking in for the night and reading the word of God in the blue glow of modern technology.

Watching, sharing...

Our old Christmas tree gave up the ghost last year (I just wasn't willing to bend the mangled branches anymore). Our new tree arrived via UPS this afternoon and we put it up tonight (and by we I mean me). It's a really nice pre-lit tree with soft branches and very few gaps. I ordered it from Sears and it's on sale right now (after I ordered it, of course) if you're in the market for a new tree. I really wanted to get one with white lights but it was out of stock. I'm the only one in the family that likes white lights, so I guess it's just as well.

After cleaning and vacuuming the living room, moving furniture, and assembling the tree, my back just didn't have enough left to get out the ornaments. We'll decorate the tree tomorrow.

The two little kids scampered off to watch a movie while Lily and I sat in the living room. Very high on my list of favorite things to do at Christmas is to sit in the dark and watch the Christmas tree. Dan teases me that unless we have blinking lights it's not really "watching" the tree, but blinking or not that's what I call it. When I was a kid my Mom and I would sit in the dark watching the tree and listening to Stille Nacht by Mannheim Steamroller. It's this beautiful piano & choral arrangement that culminates with the gentle sound of blowing snow. So peaceful. It brings tears to my eyes every time I hear it.

Tonight Lily and I sat in the dark listening to David Archuleta's Christmas from the Heart on the iPod. The lights were off and Lily was reading. I laid on the couch and watched the tree and pondered on the beautiful words and beautiful voice in each song. Laying there, I began to realize that it has been a very, very long time since I have shared a companionable silence with someone in my family. I am always either trying to get things done or trying to hide from everyone. It was so filling to be still in the glow of the Christmas lights and feel gratitude for my family and my circumstances.

Laying so peacefully, Lily put a warm blanket on me and I drifted off to sleep thinking of the birth of Jesus and what a blessed time of year this is.

Can I get some cookies?

Have I ever mentioned how much I love baking? You could probably tell that by looking at my muffin top.

Baking is such a fun activity for me. I love to gather up all the ingredients and whip it up into something yummy. Mack & Amelia love to help me and we all anticipate the final step when we can grab our spoons and have some "snitchies" (not too paranoid about salmonella poisoning in my kitchen). It's always fun to have a treat, but for me it really comes down to the feeling I get when I bake. It's festive. It makes me feel like there is something to be happy about, someone to please with the product, tangible love to share.

Last week I was channeling my Gram in the kitchen. She invented a recipe many years ago and it has become a staple in my extended family for the last three decades. Dan loves these cookies and they're a little off the beaten chocolate-chip-cookie path, so it's fun to make them. They are called E.T. Munchies and they have Reese's Pieces in them (I'll let you connect the dots).

I'm going to share the recipe with you because this amount of goodness should not be kept undercover. But if you keep the recipe, will you credit it to my Gram, Jeanette Cox? Then maybe I won't get in trouble for sharing a family secret!

E.T. Munchies

{cream together}
1/2 cup soft butter
1 1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
{add}
3 eggs
1 tsp. corn syrup
1 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp. baking soda
{mix well and add}
4 1/2 cups oatmeal
8 oz. Reese's Pieces

Bake at 325 for 8-10 minutes

Now, a couple of hints on these babies. You have to flatten them a bit before baking, like so:

A rubber spatula works best because it doesn't stick to the dough as much as a spoon.

You have to watch them because they burn easily. You don't want to wait until they're brown or you've overdone it. This is what they look like when they've gone 3 or 4 minutes too long because you were too busy commenting on someone's Facebook post.

This is what they should look like, firm but not brown:

Unfortunately, E.T. Munchies are not my kids' favorite. I don't know who their parents are.

Whilst the E.T. Munchies were baking, I whipped up some sugar cookie dough. Mack & Amelia helped me roll them out and cut out shapes until they were bored and I did the rest after they'd gone to bed. The next night we mixed up several colors of frosting and the girls and I went to town.

Lily is getting to be pretty good with a frosting bag.

Amelia has yet to master the less-is-more concept. It's tricky getting just the right amount of pressure so you don't overdo it.

Although it's not yet Thanksgiving, the girls insisted that we do Christmas trees. Here are a few I decorated:

Amelia frosted the most cookies and loved mixing up the colors.

And marking her territory.

Lily didn't have as many to show because she nibbled along the way!

And she made a few special cookies for her brother and sister.

When we ran out of cookies to frost, Lily continued to practice her decorating skills on the lid of the cookie box.

Here is my favorite sugar cookie recipe. Nice and soft and just the tiniest bit of tang to them.

Sugar Cookies

{cream together}
1 cup soft butter
1 1/2 cup sugar
{add}
2 eggs
3/4 cup sour cream
2 tsp. vanilla
{mix then add}
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp nutmeg
4 cups flour

Chill dough 1 hour. Roll out 1/4 inch thick and cut out shapes.
Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.
Cool and frost.

The cookies are good enough to eat without frosting if the thought of eating something piled in butter and powdered sugar makes you want to gag. But that's not you, right?

Let me know if you try either of these recipes. What have you been baking lately?