Gratitude

Our Thanksgiving Tree is filling up.

And I'm keeping a gratitude journal of my own as well. Here's part of my gratitude list for the first couple weeks of November.

• Dishwashers. Ours has been broken for a week. While doing dishes the old-fashioned way has provided more time for good conversation with the kids as they've taken turns teaming up with me to do the dishes by hand, it's getting old. Jared tried to fix it. The repair guy tried to fix it. Still not sure what's wrong. We may be getting a dishwasher as our big family Christmas gift this year...
• The Internet. Ours was down for two days. Wow, is the internet a huge part of our lives! I was able to get some spotty connection through my phone so I didn't get too far behind on work but the kids weren't able to look things up for homework, I wasn't able to look up recipes I wanted, etc. Amazing how useful and wonderful and helpful the internet can be. But also amazing how it can be too much a part of our lives. It was nice to have a little more time for other more important things when we didn't have the Internet as an option.
• Basement windows. After moving into this house with boarded-up basement window holes that let in lots of cold air and no light, we finally got new windows installed down there yesterday. Now our pantry down there is bathed in natural light and it's much warmer - and our house doesn't look quite so run-down (boarded up windows just aren't all that classy). Once Jared and I finish replacing the missing mortar between the rocks that make up the walls of the basement, it'll be even more cozy and weather-tight down there.
• A smart fix-it-guy husband who's always willing to put in some manual labor. Jared's so good at fixing things and has saved us thousands and thousands of dollars in home and car repairs thanks to his ability to figure out how to fix just about anything. And growing up on a farm seemed to help instill a love for manual labor in him. Jared (with some help from me sometimes) has figured out how to fix dozens of car issues, lay tile, install dry wall, fix tons of computer issues, build a fence, re-mortar the stone foundation of our house, paint, put in a sprinkler system, and build a whole house for us in St George.
• Our ward. We had a great primary party last night. The kids were totally in charge and they put on puppet shows and made popcorn for each other, did face painting on each other's faces, watched some Living Scriptures videos, ate hanging donuts off strings and enjoyed a great family night at the church. We have a small primary (25 kids attending in combined junior and senior primary) and all the kids just really seem to like each other - it's like a group of cousins or something. I love how the older kids always step up to help the younger kids (and I'm proud that my big kids are a big part of that) and that everyone just loves each other. We've got such a wonderfully random assortment of people in our ward and I love how everyone seems to be so understanding of each other's situations and willing to help and support as needed.
• Heat. After last week's nice 70-degree weather, it snowed and got really cold this week. It was a pretty darn cold time to remove the old plywood on the windows and prep the casings for the new windows - but we got it done! I'm so grateful we can just adjust the thermostat and be cozy and warm in our house. So many people in the world are so cold all winter. We are so blessed.
• Snow. We had our first serious snowfall and woke up to winter wonderland on Saturday morning. It's so pretty. The kids built their first snowman. We've had a beautiful fall. I guess I'm ready for winter now. And the kids' delight in the snow is a joy to behold.
• Great Health. We are so very blessed with great health in our family. We get the occasional slight sniffle and cough but that's usually it. Last night, however, Eliza had some violent throwing up going on and today my tummy's a bit off. Jared wasn't feeling well last week. Cleaning up throw-up isn't so bad though when you only have to do it once every few years and when your kids get over things in a day or so most of the time. I'm so grateful that we don't have to deal with sickness much at all.

Scripture Challenge Weeks 15 and 16

I got my week 15 stuff ready a couple days ago but figured I'd just save it and combine with week 16. Hope no one out there was crying too hard about not seeing my scripture post last Sunday but I was busily having great spiritual discussions with my mom and sisters at a little get-away (blog post coming soon on that) rather than spending time on the computer.

Week 15

Alma 13:27-28 - It's SO important not to procrastinate my repentance. I don't think I do a lot of hard-core sinning but I have many areas in my life where I can and should do better. In order to more fully be who I want and need to be and avoid the dumb cycles I tend to fall into (see last week's post), I need to be more "humble, meek, submissive, patient, full of love and all long-suffering" and need to more fully notice and appreciate the love of God in my life.

I need to especially work on being submissive, patient and full of long-suffering. I'm generally sort of fiesty, impatient, and somewhat determined to change everything that isn't quite lining up with my vision of how things ought to be. Some things can and should be changed but some need to be accepted. When I just submit to something that pretty much needs to be how it is, there's a lot of peace. But this submissiveness is so hard for me!

I also need to watch and pray continually so that I can see where I should be pro-active and where I should stand back and be humble and submissive and patient.

Week 16

This week I was struck by several passages in Alma that emphasized huge sacrifices made to live and teach  the gospel. Alma gave up a huge chunk of his life to devote to missionary work and along with Amulek, endured ridicule, beatings, hunger, prison and humiliation again and again at the hands of those who rejected their messages of hope and love (Alma 14). Amulek had to give up "all his gold, and silver, and his precious things, which were in the land of Ammonihah, for the word of God, he being rejected by those who were once his friends and also by his father and his kindred" (Alma 15:16). The followers of Alma and Amulek gave up their lives as they were burned while Alma and Amulek were forced to watch. Alma gave up (Alma 14).

Devotion to anything we really care about requires sacrifice. We can't have the benefits that come from devotion without paying the price. And all in all, the prices I've had to pay have been great bargains. Sure, paying tithing can feel like an uncomfortable squeeze sometimes. Sure, fulfilling callings often involves stress and time and doing things I don't necessary love. And yes, fasting, keeping the Sabbath Day holy (and helping 5 rambunctious kids do the same) offers plenty of challenges. Plus there have been deeper, harder, sometimes heart-wrenching sacrifices along the way. But all in all, I'm coming out way ahead. The Lord has offered me such abundant blessings for every sacrifice I've made - sooner or later, it all comes around beautifully. 

Favorite Snacks

When it comes up that I don't buy chips, pretzels, goldfish crackers, fruit snacks, and other typical kid snacks, I've had a lot of moms have ask me what in the world we have around for kids to snack on. I tell them that we don't really have open-pantry snacking going on and that we really only have one snack a day - a healthy little snack right after school (used to do a small morning snack as well when I had preschoolers). People who come to dinner at our house are often amazed to see how much dinner my kids eat and to see that they eat things many kids might turn up their noses at. I'm pretty sure they eat dinner so readily because their tummies aren't already somewhat full from snacking.

But we do eat snacks and we've developed some healthy and tasty favorites. So for this week's recipe post (I'm trying to do one every Saturday), I thought I'd share our family's current favorite snacks. These are all easy and fairly healthy things that my kids and all their friends who come over after school seem to really enjoy.

Loosli Family Trail Mix

My favorite snack for the past year or so has been this trail mix. I made it up myself after not being able to find a store-bought trail mix I liked (I don't really like peanuts or milk chocolate so that made lots of trail mixes less-than-enticing to me). I looked at all the trail mix options I could find to come up with ideas, did some adjustments on what I saw, and came up with this trail mix that has become not only a favorite for me and my family but also a staple at all our Power of Moms Retreats - we serve it alongside fresh fruits and veggies during our breaks at Retreats and it's always a big hit. It's much lower in fat and calories than many trail mixes but has a lot of protein and even omega 3 from the pumpkin seeds. You can buy the individual ingredients packaged at most grocery stores but it's cheapest and easiest if you can buy them at good bulk food place.

Ingredients:
1 cup raw unsalted sunflower seeds
1 cup raw unsalted pumpkin seeds
1 cup raw unsalted almonds
(adjust to your taste - some people like to use the salted variety for one of the kinds of nuts/seeds)
1 cup craisins (can use strawberry or cherry flavored craisins)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Mix together. Eat handful by handful. Don't eat it all at once!

Fruits and Veggies

We've always got apples, pears, and grapes around (whatever's on sale at the store) as well as baby carrots and frozen peas (my kids like to eat handfuls of frozen peas, right out of the freezer, as a little snack). I cut up apples, pears or cucumbers, set out grapes, etc. a lot of days as the after-school snack and kids know they can grab some carrots or grapes out of the fridge for a quick snack if they're feeling hungry. I also like to get a "special fun fruit" most weeks when I go to the store - something different and exciting for the kids to try - they loved it when I brought a dragon fruit home from the store one time and mini bananas, kiwis, various melons and the occasional pineapple have all been big hits.

Here's Isaac with some dragon fruit - the kids thought it was sort of like kiwi and marveled at it's beautiful pink exterior that's so different from the interior.

Crackers and Cheese with Apples

These are by far our favorite crackers - they're SO tasty and SO much better for you than most crackers. We like to eat them for an after school snack topped with some sharp cheddar cheese alongside some nice crispy Fuji or Gala apple wedges. We probably do this for after school snack at least a couple times a week.

Smoothies

We do smoothies a lot - especially in the summer. Every smoothie I make is a little different since I just use what's on hand.

Ingredients:
1-2 frozen bananas (peel them and put then in your freezer when they start to get brown)
whatever other fruits I've got in the fridge (grapes past their prime, overripe pears, bruised apples, etc work great in smoothies - chop up larger fruits into quarters or eighths before trying to blend them)
frozen berries or other frozen fruit along with the fresh fruit or just frozen fruit if that's all I've got
several handfuls of spinach
2-3 heaping tablespoons of vanilla yogurt (Nancy's is my favorite brand lately - hate how most yogurts in the store are full of sugar or corn syrup and fake flavors and aren't really any better for you than low-fat ice cream would be...)
a little water or juice (1/2 - 1 cup of liquid is usually needed to get everything to blend right)

Mix in blender until smooth.

Cookies

We eat quite a lot of cookies. We have some fairly healthy and very tasty favorite recipes and while maybe it would be healthier to stick with fruits and veggies all the time, I admit it, I love cookies and my kids have taken on that love. I think homemade cookies are a perfectly great after-school snack and after-dinner treat a time or two every week.

Here are my favorite three cookie recipes:
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
(all work great w/o the chocolate chips but I like a little chocolate in my life)

What are some of your family's easy healthy snack favorites? I can always use new ideas!

A Lesson from a Smart Boy

Yesterday Oliver woke up with a bad tummy ache and it wasn't feeling better by school time. We decided he should stay home from school.

After dropping off the other kids and heading back into the house, Oliver remarked, "Wow, it's quiet in here." Yep. I told him it would be the perfect day for him to catch up on his reading (he was behind a little in his reading log for the week) and told him I'd need to get some work done while he was reading but we'd do some fun stuff later if he was feeling better. He took off to read and I sat down at my computer.

A few minutes later he came in and presented me with this list of the things he planned to get done while the other kids were at school. He thought of all this completely by himself:

Here's the translation in case his handwriting and spelling don't make things clear:
1. Reading 47 minutes (this is how far he was behind in his reading log).
2. Raz Kids is an online reading program he loves - and I appreciated that he realized he'd need to work on that on his own while I did my work.
3. Sum Dog is an online math program he loves.
4. Wonders of the World is a coffee table book full of amazing nature photography and Oliver said he hadn't looked at it in way too long.
5. Reef movie is a DVD all about fish that we got a couple Christmases ago and I'd forgotten about (as he was watching it, I kept hearing him in the other room loudly ooing and ahing nad at the end he said "That movie had no words but I still learned so much. I think it's my favorite movie now.")
6. Hug mom for 18 seconds.
7. Kiss mom 8 times (and read Reef book that goes with the DVD).
8. Play 1 song.
9. Play a game with mom.
10. Do a puzzle with mom.

After smiling at this very cute list and praising Oliver for coming up with so many great ideas, I was a little concerned that my chatty little partner and his list might make it hard for me to get the stuff done on my list but you know what? I realized that some of the stuff on Oliver's list mattered a lot more that some of the stuff on my list so I did a little revising of my list. And the great news is that we got to everything on Oliver's list - but we substituted a nice jog (me)/bike ride (Oliver) for the puzzle since it was such a nice day.

I guess Oliver's been paying attention to my example of daily list-making. And I'm paying attention to Oliver's example of  including relationship-building activities on the list, not just work-oriented and household-oriented stuff. I think I'm going to start adding stuff like "give an 18 second hug" and "play a game with my kids" to my "must-do" lists each day. Thanks for the lesson, Ollie!

Creating a Real Thanksgiving Season

I'm a bit backed up after spending three fabulous days with my sisters in Napa Valley, CA (post coming soon). Scripture post from Sunday coming soon.

But for today, here's a post that went up yesterday on Power of Moms and on Deseret News that I bet you'll really enjoy - includes lots of simple, meaningful ideas for making November a whole season of Thanksgiving and a 20-minute podcast that my mom, sisters and I recorded late Sunday night as we discussed Thanksgiving ideas.

Creating a Real Thanksgiving Season

Good Times

Here are some good times that I haven't gotten around to blogging about in the past month:

Grandfather's Birthday 

Jumping in the leaves for Grandfather/Dad's birthday (more on that on my birthday post for my dad HERE).

General Conference

This is pretty late but here's what the kids did while watching General Conference a month ago:

(LOVE this magnetic "fractiles")

Eliza took about 15 full pages of notes while watching conference - I kid you not. She's the most avid conference-watcher ever. Love this girl and her deep desire to choose the right and learn all she can.

I think this was the sum-total of Isaac's conference notes. Ashton took sparse but quite insightful notes on his phone. I love that my kids are so different from each other.

Crazy Hair Day at School

Ashton also did his hair crazy this day (he must have been getting something upstairs when I took this photo - seems he's always forgetting something upstairs and making us late...) but when he got to school he realized it actually wasn't crazy hair day at his school - it was hat day. So he quickly made himself a hat out of newspaper and used that to cover his crazy hair and all was well.

Running

Ashton took care of the twins while Isaac, Eliza, Jared and I ran the school 5K on a freezing but lovely day a couple weeks ago. Most runners were dressed up and they had zombies and witches jumping out at us during the run which added some excitement. Liza ran with me (and gave me a good excuse to go slow) and Isaac ran with Jared (and beat him).  Isaac took 2nd place for the intermediate school, Eliza took 2nd place for the elementary school and Jared took first place for the adults. I'm so proud of them!

I'm still running three miles three times a week. I'm still sort of slow (10 minute miles work great for me). I'm still not totally loving my runs sometimes while I'm doing them but I always feel great at the end. I love being out in nature and watching the seasons change.

Here's how my running path looks these days:

Sweet ending

Oliver's prayer tonight:

Heavenly Father:
Thanks that we could have a good day today and get our book reports done even though we got them done so late (The last-minute book reports for both twins that got pushed off with all the Halloween stuff made for a little bit of a stressful evening.) Thanks for my mom and that she keeps me away from drugs.  (It was red ribbon week at school last week so I guess drugs are on his mind.)  Thanks that my mom keeps me safe from anyone stealing me. (Last night when he was trailing behind while trick-or-treating, I suggested he stick close and hold my hand since there might be some not-so-nice people mixed in with all the very nice people out and about.) Please help my mom to have fun with her mom and sisters in San Francisco but that she won't go to our favorite museum there without us. Bless that it will be almost like she's at my basketball game on Saturday since Daddy will take a video. Please help us to win our game and win all our games but maybe not all of them just most of them. Thanks for giving me such a great family.

Then after his prayer, he gave me a hug and held my face in his hands as he looked right in my eyes and said, "Mom, you're the best mom in the whole entire world."

Nice way to end the day.

And when I came downstairs to the kitchen and found that Ashton and Isaac had only done their dinner jobs half way after I specifically asked them if they'd done their jobs completely. I didn't feel all that annoyed about it. I figured the best mom in the whole entire world would just nicely clean up the rest of the dinner mess and give her kids a break - this once . . .

Halloween 2012

It was the best Halloween ever (I'm so glad that the kids say this every year).

We carved our pumpkins on Monday (and I remembered to get in the picture thanks to our "Get in the Picture Challenge" - join in! The challenge ends November 7th.)

 The kids did their own designing and almost entirely their own carving this year. I just helped the twins a bit. And I felt like a great mom when I took the time to help Isaac clean off lots of the pumpkin seeds and roast them this year (that has felt too overwhelming for a few years but Isaac really cares about pumpkin seeds so I made sure we did it this year - yeah me!).

I think they turned out really great.

 

Then yesterday on Halloween we hosted the 2nd Annual Neighborhood Halloweeen Parade and Dinner. We had about double the number of kids and families this year and it seemed like everyone had a great time. We played games, bobbed for apples, paraded up and down the street, stopping for candy from some nice neighbors, then enjoyed black bean soup (I 6 timesed the recipe and was so glad we had enough even when lots of people enjoyed seconds) before going our separate ways to trick-or-treat. I love our neighborhood so much.  And wow, the weather was perfect!

I'll let the pictures tell the story:

Here are the kids headed out to trick-or-treat. Isaac had serious costume issues - he was going to be a pirate but we couldn't find an eye patch and someone's been a pirate in our family for like 5 years so he sort of wanted to do something new. So we bought him some mummy wrap stuff but then he was worried he'd be too hot. At the last minute, he grabbed a karate suit from the trial karate class he took a couple years ago and it worked out great! Eliza was a happy sunflower using part of Isaac's old Peter Pan costume and some other stuff she found around the house. Oliver put together a great cowboy costume and didn't complain a bit about the too-small boots he insisted on wearing even though we were walking a long time for trick-or-treating. The fake gun our neighbors loaned him made him pretty happy (we don't really do guns around here so it was a special treat). Silas was a skeleton warrior - Ashton helped him make some duck tape armor that went over his old skeleton costume and he made a sword and was thrilled (should have got a photo of him with the mask and helmet - oh well). Ashton borrowed a "mad scientist" costume from a neighbor and was thrilled with it (but was trying to be very serious and scientific in this photo).

Some kids wanted individual photos. Some didn't. Whatever.

The belt from Isaac's old Ninja costume made him feel his costume was just right.

 Eliza's under shirt looks pretty blue here but really, it was more greenish. Maybe some leaves would have been a nice touch. But she was happy.

We did a fair amount of trick-or-treating and met lots of very kind people who had fun decorations and generous candy. And we saw plenty of houses that were pretty scary simply because they were pretty run down and had some iffy people hanging out on the porch - our neighborhood provides scariness in a variety of ways...

Then we came home to sort our haul (sorting and trading is a highlight for my kids) then the kids put all the candy they didn't particularly love (about half of what they got) out on the front porch for the Halloween Fairy who'll hopefully remember to drop a fun little game or puzzle by for them in exchange for the candy they left for her. I'm thinking maybe the Halloween Fairy will leave coins instead of a gift this year because she's a bit busy and perhaps the kids will be more excited about coins now that they're a little older. We'll see!

Happy Halloween!

 

I've been meaning to make these Halloween collages for years and years. I finally gathered together favorite photos from the past 10 years and made these collages to hang up in my house every Halloween (bought some cheap black 11x14 frames and maybe next year I'll get around to having the kids help me decorate the frames with pumpkins and spiders and the like.

Scripture Challenge Week 14: Sucked into Cycles

This week's scripture update isn't based in any specific scriptural passage I read this past week. Instead, it's spurred by the patterns of events in the scriptures and unfortunate similar patterns I'm seeing in my own life.

As I read the scriptures or see what others are going through, it's often quite easy to see some patterns of poor choices that lead people into not-so-good places in their lives. The Book of Mormon offers the same pattern again and again - people are righteous and happy, people get prideful and forget the Lord, people get in trouble and wind up pretty miserable, in the humbled state, they turn back to the Lord, they get righteous and happy again and the cycle begins again. In movies and books people do things that we, the outsiders who can see the bigger picture, recognize as really bad moves.

In my own life, I can see my own silly cycles and ill-fated decisions that must look so obvious to the Lord or to anyone else who could see the details of my life:

• I sit down at my computer after the kids are in bed to check a couple things and then I'm still sitting here, hours later, my back hurting, thirsty, tired, but sucked into something I started that I think I should finish so the next day might be less packed - but I don't work efficiently when I'm tired so it's really not smart to do this.
• I wake up to my alarm in the morning and lay there for a few minutes, rationalizing that I'm prepping my mind for the day and that 10 minutes of wake-up transition will work out fine. It doesn't. We're rushed and late again and again. If I need 10 minutes of wake-up time, I have to set my alarm 10 minutes earlier. So I do. Then my morning brain suggests that I've woken up 10 minutes extra early so I have extra time to doze off before I really have to get up. I need to stop listening to my morning brain.
• I often say I'll do something and then realize I spoke too soon and my schedule and brain is just going to be too full but I'm not sure how to get out of what I said I'd do and saying no feels more stressful than just plowing through and doing what I said yes to. I am getting better at saying "Let me check my calendar" or "Let me think about it" but I've still got a ways to go.
• I put in too many hours on Power of Moms for a couple weeks and start to feel the sad irony of spending so much time trying to help other moms be great moms that I may be compromising my own mothering (or my own sanity). Then I promise myself I'll be more in balance the next week and won't let myself get so out of balance again and I do draw better boundaries things are better for a while. But then I find I've created too tight a deadline again for myself and end up putting in too many hours again on Power of Moms. 
• I put on my running clothes first thing in the morning and head to my favorite running trail after dropping the kids off at school and then sit there in my car for a bit, trying to get myself to get out there and run when it's cold and I really don't want to and I ultimately do go running every time and it feels great but why do I waste time and emotional energy on thinking about how I don't want to do things that I know I need to do and that I'll always wind up doing...
• I try to change things that aren't really very changeable in other people far too often and re-learn the need to let go of certain hopes or expectations repeatedly.
• I go for several days or several weeks reading scriptures with real intent, praying before reading, finding great insights and bits of personal revelation. Then I get a bit lazy and start rationalizing and my scripture reading gets shorter and more shallow. Then many things in my life seem to suffer. Then I get going again on higher-quality scripture study and the cycle starts again. But at least with this scripture challenge I'm doing with my sisters, I'm reading at least SOMETHING daily and writing these weekly updates so it keeps the cycle on higher ground...

I know what I'm doing wrong in the case of a lot of things that aren't going particularly well in my life. But I allow myself to fall into the same old traps time and time again. It gets old learning the same lessons again and again. 

Perhaps it all comes down to getting my lowering some of my expectations of myself and of others (and not just theoretically realizing I should lower them but figuring out how to actually lower them for real) and raising my will power.

P.S. I've been watching General Conference Highlights which are 2-minute nuggets from the apostle's talks in the most recent General Conference - love these bite-sized gems of inspiration that I can enjoy so quickly and easily. Check them out if you want!