2 (of my many) problems solved!!

I'm sure you'll be surprised to hear this, my blog reading friend, but I have problems.  Some big and important, some pretty small and stupid.  Some which I just need to take by the horns and fix, and some are totally out of my control.  My job on the last group is to fix my attitude to accept that I don't have any control and find happiness in spite of them.  I know I am no different than anyone else in these declarations of problems, and solutions and non-solutions.  No one gets through life without their share of things to work through or around, or whatever.  

(Stick with me while I digress for a moment)  I was reminded of the importance of feeling gratitude no matter what you are going through just recently.  My good friend lost her child in a tragic accident.  This child also happens to have been one of my seminary students!  He was a smart, handsome, good young man, who loved his life, and the people in it.  To see his life cut short was a shock and as I said before, a tragedy.  My friend spoke at his funeral, and related how the thought came to her (in the form of a recent General Conference talk by Pres. Uchtdorf) about being grateful in any circumstance.  She took note of the magically folded and put away clothes in her dresser, the balanced meals that her kitchen seemed to produce from nowhere, and the texts that came to her phone at just the perfect time. (She voiced it much more eloquently)  Of course, these things were all facilitated by her friends and family, and she was able to, in the midst of her seemingly devastating grief, to recognize the service of others to her and her family.  Is she still grieving her son?  Of course, and most likely will be doing that in some form the rest of her life.  Is she debilitated by it?  Probably at times, but for the most part, she is using her gratitude to carry her through this horribly difficult time.  What a great example to me and to those at the funeral!!  I'm grateful for her!

(Ok, back to the original subject.  Although, after that, my "problems" seem pretty ridiculous, even absurd!!  If I could think of a different term to use, I would.  Maybe as I type it will come to me.)

So, what are these great "problems"?  First of all, I love to buy journals.  I am especially tempted when I go to TJ Maxx and take a peek at their inventory.  They always have something that catches my eye, and I usually succumb.  Now, a girl can only use some many of these, and as I'm not writing very often in a paper journal these days, I can't just keep buying them on a whim or my kids will curse my name for my empty journal collection when I die.  They will have enough things to curse me about.  I don't want my love of journals to be in that category.  So, what to do with this latest one I  bought?  I love it.  A bike?  Hello!  Reminders to enjoy the ride?  Hello!  Love both of those things.   

And, look inside.  Such cute pages.  (The pages rotate between about four or five different patterns.)  I <3 journal.="" nbsp="" p="" this="">

Now to the second dilemma (that's a good substitute for problem).  I love to cook, and I love all the recipe options available on the MANY blogs in the internet!  So many recipes!!  I have my favorites - ourbestbites.com, and smittenkitchen.com, just to name a couple.  Of course, allrecipes.com is a great place to go, and the foodnetwork website and pioneerwoman.com always have something.  Now how is a girl supposed to keep track of the recipes she tries, likes and wants to use again?  I was copying them into a recipe book but that is about full, and obviously redundant.  I don't need to reinvent the wheel here.  

Enter my new journal!  I realized I could make a record of the recipes I want to use again in it.  Great idea right?  But how to keep track of them and find them again?  I numbered the pages and created an alphabetical index at the back of the journal.  Now it doesn't matter if the entries aren't in any order.  I can easily find them as long as I remember to enter the page number they are on in the index.

When I thought of this last week, I couldn't help patting myself on the back for a brilliant idea.  (Now I realize someone has probably already figured this out, and posted it on Pinterest, or something like that, but I am not a very good Pinner and haven't seen anything so am feeling very creative and dilemma solving!  And you can be un-impressed if you choose, but I choose to be excited and a bit giddy about the whole thing.  And of course, grateful...

I'm reading a book!!

I haven't read a book that I can hold in my hands* for a few months, and I finally started one Thursday!  The fact that I'm so excited to be reading an actual paper book is a revelation to me.  I like reading on the iPad/iPhone because it is so quiet and if I am awake and John is not, I can read without bothering him, not to mention I don't have to turn on the light.  I read "The Power of Everyday Missionaries" by Clayton Christensen that way, and I liked doing that until it was time to discuss it in book club, and then I was a bit annoyed because I couldn't navigate to my bookmarks, highlighted sections, etc.
I also started reading "The Word's Strongest Librarian" during track season, but darn if the language didn't go south on that one!  I was VERY disappointed because I liked the story, liked the author's writing style, and wanted to know how he got to his present level of faith.  (It is a memoir about a man with Tourette's who is also LDS, but doesn't sound like he has a really strong testimony.  He is a librarian at the SLC Public Library who discovered that by lifting weights, he could have some control over his Tourette's.)  If anyone reads it, let me know, I'd love to discuss it with you.
I have been "reading" everyday, but it is a blog that I had to start at the beginning of and am working my way through the years until I get to present day.  It is called "The Happiness Project".  I read the book in March and have been playing catch up ever since.  Luckily, a lot of what is in her blog, is from her book (so far anyway) so it has been a nice reminder of things I liked about the book.  I only have 3 1/2 years to go until I am caught up!  :) (I would really like to know how I am so OCD about this!!  I did this with another blog "The English Geek" and I don't regret doing it, I just wonder why I have this compulsion to start from the beginning.  Maybe I just like to know their whole story!!)
So, that brings us to Thursday.  I heard about the book "The Funeral Dress" on a podcast I listen to called "Books on the Night Stand.  (If you are a reader, I think you will agree that is a great name for a podcast about reading/books.  Who among us doesn't have a pile of books TBR on some flat surface in their home??)  I requested it from our library, and of course, it had to be ordered in.  (Don't let me get on my soapbox about that)  I really thought I ordered in the book on CD, but no, when I picked it up, it was in paperback (with French flaps and deckled edges no less) and I started it the next day.  Last night I really had a chance to get into the story, and I can't wait to keep going.  I really hope my language "rule" doesn't have to be employed** because so far, I love this book!  A young girl, with an illegitimate daughter, is supposed to move in with a couple to escape living with her horrible dad.  Emmalee met Leona when she started working at a shirt factory and Leona took Emmalee under her wing and showed her how to sew collars.  Leona and her husband were just killed and then I had to turn out the light because I was so tired.  Don't worry, I didn't spoil anything for you!!  Sigh...a good read!  Happiness!!!

*I guess I do read a book everyday that I can hold in my hands, "The Book of Mormon", but I am talking about a recreational read here.
**Another book "Longbourn" had to be scrapped because of language!!  Did they really use the f-bomb back in the early 19th century??  Really???

Christmas is coming...

There are many blog posts floating around in my head...

One about me finally joining the 21st century and getting an iPhone last weekend.  My technological world is enlarged and I just hope I can stop accidentally calling people when I am just trying to navigate around the phone.  Sorry Dawn!!  Merry Christmas to me...

One about how excited we are to have Amber, Allison and Ryan all coming home.  See you in 2 days, Amber and 5 days, Alli and Ryan...

One which would be a continuation of this post in which I document the lamentations of the wise men in our Nativity sets this year.  Let me just say that in addition to the decapitated one from the Willow Tree set, Kristin has knocked over no less than 4 other partial or complete Nativities.  The accidents that were the partial take downs, were of, and I'm not even kidding here, Wise men!  We have had a good laugh about it, and when John found one set knocked over the other day, we couldn't help but ask Kristin if she had a part of it.  Apparently they continue to fear for their lives, even though Herod is long dead...

One about how Christmas is coming, and I still have many things to do, and a few things to buy, and a house to clean....

But those little snippets will have to do for now.

I have talked about my friend, Stacy Julian, before.  She is in the middle of a "12 days of Christmas videos" blog project.  Please go to http://stacyjulian.com/ and check it out.  Of course we are only on day 6, but you will want to catch up and then go back everyday so you can see the next one.  Some will make you smile, some are thought provoking, and some entertaining.  At least a few have brought tears to my eyes and a lump to my throat.  Wonderful!!

7 days and counting (backwards that is)

Soup weather

Last week Mother Nature threw me a bone and we had several days of really beautiful Fall weather!  Really beautiful!!  

Well, this week we are back to grey, chilly days, which only means one thing!!  Its Soup Weather!!

Tuesday, Kristin had a soccer game, (they won, and Kristin had a great assist on one of the goals!!)  It was deceptively chilly at the game which means I took some time warming up (read - I ate dinner with my fuzzy bathrobe over my clothes!  Its very effective!)

Anyway...dinner that night was lasagna soup.  This is from the website, Our Best Bites, which is full of really yummy recipes.  It was warm, cheesy and flavorful!  I used cottage cheese instead of ricotta, since I never have ricotta in my fridge, and I didn't add as much sausage as it called for, although John thought it needed more.  I made it a few hours early and put it in the crock pot to keep warm until after the game.  It's a keeper!

Another of my favorite recipes from OBB is black bean soup.  It is deceptively flavorful, although, don't leave out the cilantro - it is a key player.  The other thing I love about this soup is the nutrition information.  Really low cal, low fat,  Winner, winner!!  (Of course, the cheese you add before you eat it isn't included in the fat count!  ;)

One more favorite from OBB is Baked Potato Soup.  Unlike lasagna soup (Trev didn't love the chunks of tomatoes) or black bean soup (truth be told, I am the only one who loves, although I think Amber and Kristin will humor me and eat it), everyone loves this soup!!  What's not to love? Cheese, bacon bits, sour cream!!  Yummy, warm and delicious!!

Soup weather means I get to pull out my imitation Le Crueset pot.  It is an authentic Le Costco.  I know some may scorn the substitution, but its either this or nothing as I am far too frugal (read - cheap) to put out the money for the real thing!!

My favorite soup pot sitting on my favorite toile tablecloth.

Happy Soup Weather from me to you!

2 weeks GBE

Well, two weeks into it, and I haven't been perfect, but I haven't given up either.  Honestly, I don't feel inspired at all to be witty, introspective, or impressive.  I do feel like sharing 2 blog posts I have run across recently.

This one is by Jen Hatmaker.  (Maybe some of you have heard of her post that highlighted her as the Worst End of School Mom Ever.  It is pretty funny in and of itself, and if you are interested, click here.  My son-in-law Brandon actually sent that post to me, and I was ever so glad.)  But I have digressed...

The other blog post was shared by my youngest sister on Facebook. (The language in this post is not squeaky clean.  Just a head's up.)

What I find interesting about both of these posts is not only that they are somewhat related, but that neither of these moms are LDS.  Now, I'm not going to claim LDS women have the market on comparing themselves to other moms, but those of you who have listened to General Conference or a General RS Broadcast lately, know that it is a big problem among us.  We strive hard to be perfect, then fall short because we are human, and move on to beating ourselves up because we are NOT perfect, and surely are the LEAST perfect of all the sisters in our ward who are, well, perfect!!  It is a vicious circle.

Now that I am a grandma, and my kids are not little anymore, and I have (more than a few) grey hairs, I can honestly say that I am often able to refrain from comparing myself to others.  I think I have learned at least that much in my life so far.  But I would be dishonest if I said that the comparison monster does not rear his ugly head occasionally, and I have to beat it away (one good use for those gargantuan zuchinni, hee hee) and step back and remember that I would be a fool to let him get into my head.

I think that the majority of the time, though, I rejoice in the good things that happen to those in my circle, and that I sorrow with them for the not so good things that happen, and cheer them on when they are doing something hard or new, and, most of all, that I keep my perspective.  I would like to think these things anyway...

As I said at the beginning, I'm not perfect, but I haven't given up...