A Sweet Treat

Today I was craving something sweet after lunch so I started rummaging through my cupboards to see what I could find. Sadly, I had forgotten that just a few days ago I went on an anti-sugar rampage and threw out all the good stuff in the house. I found candy and chocolate from Valentine's Day and Easter stuffed into all sorts of kitchen nooks and crannies and chucked it all. I was about to give up when a sweet childhood memory floated back to me--one of my favorite desserts from when I was little. Just imagine fresh strawberries, sour cream, and brown sugar. If you're like Jon, you're making a gross out face. But I have to say, don't knock it until you try it! Jon thought I was crazy the first time I mentioned it to him, and now he loves it. It is so easy, so fresh, so delicious, so sweet, so perfect. Just wash and hull as many strawberries as you want. Get a small bowl of sour cream and a small bowl of brown sugar. Then dip the strawberry in the sour cream first, then the brown sugar. And that's it. Oh, please somebody just try this and let me know if you love it as much as I do. And by the way, do any of you have a favorite food that you ate growing up and thought everybody ate, and then you got married or had roommates who looked at you like you were crazy when you ate it?

Paper towel Tower

So a couple of weeks ago we bought a big pack of paper towels from Sam's club. The girls like to play with them by piling them up and knocking them down. We even used the basketball to go bowling with the paper towels. We had a really good time. So after a while of playing, Grace asks me to start helping her stack them to the ceiling. She wouldn't let me stop until it was done. After many tries and many collapses, I was able to finally get it to the top by sticking a small metal can we have on the top of the towels to take up the space between the ceiling and the paper towels. So in short, here is the tower that Grace really wanted. After I finished, the girls wanted to pose with their new tower. It just made me laugh to see how important it was to Grace to see this tower completed. I guess kids can be very determined.

Welcome Spring!

In honor of the first day of Spring, I'd like to share one of my favorite poems. It reminds me of all the most beautiful of God's creations that re-emerge at this time of year.

Pied Beauty
Gerard Manley Hopkins

Glory be to God for dappled things-
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut falls; finches' wings.
Landscape plotted and pieced-fold, fallow, and plough.
And all trades, their gear and tackle, and trim.
All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour, adazzle, dim;
He fathers forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise Him

And here's my list of favorite things about spring, although not put quite as poetically as Hopkins.

warm days
riding bikes
going to the park
feeding the ducks
reading a book outside
Easter
General Conference
sandals
no scraping off my car
fewer layers of kids' clothing=less laundry and ease of carseat loading and unloading

What are your favorite things about spring?

A Simple Solution?

The other night Mary and I were watching the news about a baby boy who was adopted with a lot of health problems. He had been kept alive by taking many medications and being fed through his bellybutton. The main issue was that his kidneys didn't work so he needed a transplant in order to have "normal" healthy life. He had waited for almost a year when an adult man, who is a complete stranger, stepped up after hearing about this boy and said he would be willing to donate a kidney to this boy. We thought it was pretty cool that this guy donated his kidney for this little boy. As the news cast went on the interviewer was asking the director of live organ donations about this. I guess there is a problem with few live donations. The director says and I quote "It's a simple solution, if people would just step up and donate an organ...." I instantly scoffed at this remark. I think this guy is an incredible person to donate his kidney to this little boy, but for most people I think it's going to be a very hard decision to part with a piece of their body. Something functions in a way that keeps them healthy and alive. Don't get me wrong, if anyone in my family needed an organ I think it would be much easier to make the decision to donate but to donate to a total stranger is a different story. So in short, come on people, it's really a simple solution, just donate your organs while you are still using them, then all will be well and our society will be a better place.

Dear Heavenly Father....We pledge allegiance

So the other day Grace was trying to help Emme say the prayer over breakfast. In doing so she pretty much took over and started saying the prayer herself. After starting off with "Dear Heavenly Father" she switch right over to "We pledge allegiance to the flag...invisible under God" but then caught herself and finished the prayer. (I had to turn around so she didn't see me laughing.) First off, where in the world did she learn the pledge? I had no idea that she even knew it let alone could recite it. And second, how can a 4 year old be expected to say indivisible?

I just keep thinking that my little girl is growing up. I've heard the stories from my brothers about their kids but now mine has joined the club. It was too funny and too cute. I only wish Mary would have been there so she could have heard it too.

I Bet You Didn't Know. . .

I had a Michael Jackson doll when I was in elementary school. My grandma gave him to me for my birthday. He was the same size and shape as a Ken doll, but with a full red leather outfit, complete with one silver glittery glove bedecked hand holding onto a tiny plastic microphone. And I loved him. I've been pondering the implications of this because Grace has recently informed me that she would like a Barbie doll for her birthday. The big day isn't for several more months and chances are she'll change her mind (keep your fingers crossed!). But the idea of her wanting a Barbie has started me thinking. I really, really, really don't like Barbies. I think it's incredibly odd to give a toy shaped like Pamela Anderson to little girls. Girls are bombarded with the message that whatever their bodies look like, it's not good enough or right enough. And I want to avoid adding to that message. On the other hand, I had Barbies when I was little and I think I turned out just fine. I even overcame whatever deep psychological scars accompany playing with a Michael Jackson doll.

When I was in 6th grade I won the "Paula Abdul Dance A-like Award" at the end of the year awards banquet. For all of you who know about Paula's pre American Idol career, you can appreciate how truly meaningful that is. Well, after seeing her video with Randy Jackson during last week's show, maybe that award meant nothing after all.

I really like tuna sandwiches with dill pickles and crushed plain potato chips. I mean with the pickles and potato chips inside the sandwich, not on the side. But not all mixed up together. I like nice layers.

I generally like order and cleanliness. But too much organization drives me crazy. I really start to feel claustrophobic. And I have kind of a rebellious streak that makes me want to mess up super organized spaces. Maybe suffocated is a better word than claustrophobic.

I have memorized every word to every song in Saturday's Warrior. You can't stump me. I even know most of the script. So, you might think that I'm just a 80's Mormon culture junkie. But I also have never seen Johny Lingo. So take that. I'm an enigma. Seriously, whenever people tease me about having never seen that movie, I'm just tell them that I came from a very righteous ward where Sunday School teachers were always prepared with meaningful lessons, so we never had to play Hangman or watch Johny Lingo. Ha. The looks on their faces. . .so worth it. And just a little addendum: I also have memorized all of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I have a little fantasy that someday I'll be at a performance and the narrator will get sick. The director will come out into the audience and ask if anyone can sing the part. I'll humbly rise from my seat and take my place on the stage. And that will be my big break into life as a Broadway star. It could happen.

Ballerina to Black belt

So a while back the girls dressed up in leotards and tutus and danced around. I don't know if anything is cuter than Emme coming up to me and asking if I can help her be a ballerina. I was able to catch them dancing with the camera. I loved it when Emme gave her self a bravo at the end of the dance. She knows she has it so she had to give herself props.

So tonight I'm in the kitchen and Grace stands up from the dinner table and starts teaching Emme karate. It was too funny. Luckily the camera was nearby and I was able to video them doing Karate. So now I'm thinking I've got more than little ballerinas for daughters. I now have black belts for daughters. I know I'm safe walking down dark alleys as long as Grace and Emme are with me.