Buy Nothing

 I joined a facebook group where people give away stuff.  It's stuff that people don't need, and it's all local.  I've been gifted fabric and toys.  I've gifted various homegoods and a bike.  I love the community and thrift of the group.  Opened package of diapers or dog biscuits?  OK!   These are things that you couldn't sell, and might not even donate, but you post it and someone who wants it, says they are interested and it leaves your house!  

There are some people gifting more generally useful things like their surplus coupon stash.  And some people are gifting food, knowing that someone needs food, for real.

A friend of mine wrote about the quality of thrift like a sacred reverence for what you have.   Thrift is an extension of gratitude.  Thrift is the opposite of miserly.  There is no gratitude in miserly.  Thrift met Hoarding and decided to use it up, wear it out, or give it away.  I love Thrift! 

Snapshot and comments

 

G eats sausage sandwiches pretty regularly since he wakes up and gets himself ready and on his class before the rest of us are awake.   I'm really impressed at how he's developed this habit.  The other children wanted sausage sandwiches too, and that's expensive and more meat than I want them eating.  So the tradition of Sausage Sandwich Saturday entered our lives.  But then we ran out of sausages.  Ham, egg and cheese sandwiches were still delicious.

This is the table in our front room.  We've got Scripture stories that we use in the morning to sign, and voice interpret.  We've got many Book of Mormons which we've been reading at night this year with Come Follow me.  We've also got many hymn books because we're singing 2 hymns a day.  We've got a ukulele to find the starting pitches.  Puzzles and story books are always around too.

I made these doughnuts yesterday, painstakingly following a recipe!  Crispy Creamy doughnuts they were.  I hope to make a half batch next time.  The kids said they were amazing.  Having had so many treats they couldn't eat all 44!  I saved 30 and filled some with chocolate pudding and raspberry filling.  This morning they were a little critical of the results.  I let them know that their criticisms were not welcome and that they need to be careful to offer feedback that will do good.  It does not good to complain about the doughnuts their mother made.  They won't get their money back.  I'm not going to make them another batch.  Yikes.  They need to be careful to be kind when someone makes them something because criticizing a gift is going to get them a whole lot of nothing nice.

Growing up, my mom invited us to critique her art work and other things.  I know my mom was trying to get a fresh perspective and at best, help us feel like we had worthwhile things to say. I grew up thinking it was ok to give an ignorant opinion.  I see now that it is a horrible habit.  It is important to recognize your own ignorance and not say anything critical of things you know nothing about.  And if you do know something about a subject, hold your criticism for a situation where it would do any good.  Once the food has been made, we are not going to throw it away.  If you want to make it better yourself, keep that comment to yourself and just do it better yourself.

This is a picture of how we watch church at home with the speaker on the big screen and the interpreter on the big ipad.  I'm so grateful that we can watch church and that T S is such a wonderful interpreter.  We are so blessed in this.

2020 Christmas

 We drove out to Gtowne on Christmas eve to visit grandparents through the sliding glass doors.

The kids enjoyed doughnut holes and Christmas cookies out in the back yard.  B and L got remote control cars that have squishy tires and can flip over.   S and C also gave us a globe!  Now the kids can learn that greenland isn't bigger than the United States!  I had been shopping for a globe for a while but couldn't decide what would be best.  So the gift of the globe was 2 fold.  The globe is great and S and C are great at researching items, so that burden of deciding was a great gift to me.

Over at Grandma L's house we picked grapefruit and opened presents on her back porch.  L held to his pencil box as a prized posession.

We planned to do a sign language caroling to our deaf neighbors.  M had a piano lesson to teach and by the end of that, it was raining.  So we did a facetime caroling instead.  Then we recorded this to send out on Facebook and emails so that lots of people could enjoy a caroling from us.  Win win!  The joy of sharing a happy song and brightening people's day without too much cold, travel, etc...

Pizza, garlic rolls, apples and a giant chocolate cake!  This is our traditional Christmas menu.

G turned 16 and we made this gigantic swiss roll Rocket. 

We measured G and he is within 1 inch of E!  The doctors told us that he would probably be 5'6" which was tall enough that they would not prescribe growth hormones when G was still so small and we were worried.  At 5'7" and coming from a family of late bloomers, I'm confident he will be closer to 6'.  We'll see.

Primary Program

 

Our Primary President invited each family to put on a program at home.  They provided a script and songs.  It was precisely the level of difficulty for our family.  I chose youtube videos that had the songs put to pictures with the words as captions.  The 3 peas did the main speaking parts with M and G providing prayers, technical support and L support.

We had an ice cream and pizza party after our Saturday practice, as always!  The C family sent the pizza as their Christmas gift to us!

On Sunday we did a facebook video call with grandma, grandma and grandpa.  It was 30 minutes beautiful.  Phew, we're done!  2020 made it different, but we could still carry on traditions.

Grandpa

 I'm so glad my kids did get to know my dad for a few good years.  He still lives, but because of paranoid delusions, is not available to be my dad or their grandfather anymore.  My mother passed away this summer and so the absence of both parents is sad.

I'm grateful for my many wonderful siblings.  We are so blessed to have spent a lot of time visiting, discussing and corresponding in the last 4 years.  Now during the pandemic 4-5 of us have a zoom call regularly.  I really look forward to these calls and am so grateful for my siblings.

Ministering

 Why is it so hard to do what we are told to do?  Ministering is an assigned person to befriend.  I know many super kind, service oriented people who don't Minister in a formal way, but are super kind and willing to help.

I learned a while ago that guilt should lead to change.  If there is too much guilt, or not enough guilt, people don't change.  People feel guilty for not ministering to their assigned person, too much guilt.

more Special Deliveries and letters

 We've done some nice baking special deliveries this month.  We've done bread, cookies and cakes.  I hope we'll do some more cookies and rolls.  At 40 I'm realizing that it's OK to do Christmas different than other people do Christmas.  I like to make batches of 1 thing and then give it to a few people rather than make batches of 5 things, and give an assortment to many people.  

 I called a friend and asked for inspiration.  She pointed me in the direction of a chocolate cake with these sugar glazed cranberries on top.  I totally did not follow the recipe but I did make some sweet brownie cakes with whipped cream frosting and sugar glazed cranberries, cooked in mini pie pans.  They looked so magical, like they had snow on them!  So pretty.

We're getting our special delivery into routes, giving to 6 families that live in the same part of town so we make the whole trip in 1 hour.  

I got started on writing letters because of something that G's elementary school principal posted on the facebook.  So I'm writing to the stranger assigned in the "Love Letters" program, but also to mentors and people the program made me think of.  I feel so blessed by letters.  When I'm writing a letter, the words sort of lay out like different paths, and I am able to process which path I want to take as I am writing, sometimes pausing to see that if I take that path (word choice) it will limit my next word...

 P has been doing the science kits with the children on Thursdays.  He is having us do scouts as a family with pack meetings 3 times a week, science on the 4th day, and on Friday he works.  I'm so glad he works.  We are so blessed and our lives are so free of stress.

 Something I have learned in the last year, and the pandemic has made easy, is to resist people taking my time.  I don't owe anybody anything except my family.  So I don't have to give my time and that is great to realize.  I want to be a person with clear boundaries and become narcissist proof, because I love myself and don't fall for flattery.

We learned of someone who moved to a new home with their parents during the pandemic.  It means having a larger home and their grandparents involved in their childrens lives daily instead of locked away from each other.  I'm so happy that is working for their family.  I'm so glad my sister L was able to have my mom come to her home (2 blocks down the road) for her last 2 months of life.   I told the children that a good question for their future spouses would be if they would be willing to have their parents come live with them.  Hopefully nobody has psycho controlling or emotionally needy parents.  But I like to think I'm a fan of multi-generational living and supporting one another.  I really hope to be a help to my children/grandchildren, but also not be all in their business.  We need to develop boundaries.

Hope=Plan

 

James 1:2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into ^adivers ^btemptations;  3 Knowing this, that the ^atrying of your faith worketh ^bpatience.  4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be ^aperfect and entire, wanting nothing.

 I'm pondering hope and how it can be replaced with the word plan.  I was told once that hope used to have a stronger meaning of expectation.  Now it is used as wish, for something we would like, but have no expectation of.  I wanted to make a comment about this during Sunday School but didn't have it firmed up.  So I'm assigning myself to this as a subject and will present my findings in January.  

2 Nephi 31:20 Wherefore, ye must press forward with a ^asteadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of ^bhope, and a ^clove of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and ^dendure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have ^eeternal life.

To me it makes sense that if we have Faith in the plan of Salvation, that is Hope.  The Plan is there.  If we know that, we follow it.

Bean Soup

 I got this recipe from my sister MS who says it maybe came from my sister L or me but I think it must be from L because it's too funny to be mine. 

Irish Bean Soup

239 beans exactly.  Not one more because then it would be too farty.

Mulan Movie

 I watched the new Mulan movie today and loved it.  I watched it without sound so I wouldn't bother G who was attending class across the desk from me.  I look forward to watching it with sound with the kids tonight.

There is so much fantastical martial arts in the movie and I was reminded of Shaolin Soccer.  I went up to the library and picked that up so they can enjoy the cultural background of some of the moves in Mulan.

I look forward to my children getting to see a movie with all Chinese faces.  The writers of the movie were not Chinese so there are some things that may deviate from Chinese culture.  A lot of articles criticize the movie for being different from the animated classic.  Seriously?  Did they say those complaints about Maleficent or Ever After?  I think the representation in the movie far outweighs complaints that it isn't true to the animated classic, which is not true to the Chinese story of Mulan.  Sheesh. 

It's awesome.

I loved the movie so much I wanted to geek with other people who loved it too.  I didn't find any articles that were positive.  One article's complaint of the movie was that the animated classic showed a story of an ordinary girl who was able to do extraordinary things.  And guess what, it does take an extraordinary girl to accomplish physical tasks on par with any man.  As a woman of unusual size and strength, I know this.  The new movie shows an extraordinary girl who is forced to hide her talents and even when finally embracing them is rejected.  I loved that the witch in the new movie is told "It is never too late to take the honorable path." That was awesome!

Ballad of Mulan

Mural of Hua Mulan enlisting in the Dalongdong Baoan Temple of Taipei, Taiwan.

Mulan sighs at her loom.^[13][14] The Khagan is mobilizing the military, and her father is named in each of the conscription notices from the emperor. Her father is old and her younger brother is just a child, so she decides to take her father's place. She buys a fine horse from the eastern market, saddle and stirrup from the western market, bridle and reins from the southern market and a long whip from the northern market.

She bids farewell to her parents in the morning and leaves for the Black Mountain, encamping by the Yellow River in the evening, where she cannot hear the calls of her parents due to the rushing waters; only the sounds of the barbarians' cavalry in the Yan Mountains. She advances ten thousand li to battle as if flying past the mountains. The sound of the sentry gong cuts through the cold night air, and the moonlight reflects off her metal armor. A hundred battles take place, and generals die.

After the ten-year campaign, the stout veterans return to meet the Son of Heaven, enthroned in the splendid palace, who confers promotions in rank and prizes of hundreds of thousands. He asks Mulan what she would like. Mulan turns down the high-ranking position of shangshulang in the central government, and asks only for a speedy steed to take her home.

Her parents, upon hearing her return, welcome her outside their hometown. Her elder sister puts on her fine dress. Her younger brother sharpens the knife for the swine and sheep. Mulan returns to her room, changes from her tabard into her old clothes. She combs her hair by the window and, before the mirror, fastens golden yellow flowers. Her comrades are shocked to see her. For 12 years of their enlistment together, they did not realize that she was a woman.

In response, Mulan offers a metaphor: "The male hare has heavy front paws. The female hare tends to squint. But when they are running side-by-side close to the ground, who can tell me which is male or female?"^[15][16]

1/3 Recipie

 I'm obsessed with making small batches of dessert.  I regularly divide a cake recipe by the eggs.  Most box cakes call for 3 eggs so I divide the batter into 3 (about 1 1/4 cups) and we make 3 small cakes.  Sometimes I cook them in a bread pan in the toaster oven.  I'm a little obsessed with the economy of it.  I also love for the children to eat the cake and then it is gone after everyone has had a reasonable serving.

I bought 6 inch circular pans so that we can make little round cakes to decorate.  For birthdays we make a whole box of cake mix (!) and make a 3 tier cake.  Wow, so extravagant.  

I recently bought some little pie pans from the yard sale at church.  With my dear in-laws, I will never, ever be responsible for making the holiday pies.  So I donated my 2 regular size pans and have already made 2 pumpkin a pecan and chocolate pie.  I just pinch off 1/3 of the pie dough ball Grandma C gave us (5) and use 1/3 of the recipe I find online.  

 

Moderation is a fantastic thing and I really want the children to learn that a small piece of pie is enough.  A small slice of cake is a treat.  2 cookies is awesome!  

Today I am making a cheese cake in one of the 6 inch circular pans.  I lined it with parchment paper and put it in a water bath.  1/3 recipe looks like this:

10 oz. cream cheese
1/3 c. sugar
1t corn starch
1 egg
2TBS sour cream
1t lemon juice
1/4t vanilla
dash of salt

I used left over chocolate bear crumb crust from the chocolate pie of yesterday.

I stopped eating desserts about 4 years ago.  I'm currently 60 days in to a goal of 200 sugar free days to get a royal blue velvet jacket.  Making small batches of desserts helps me avoid being tempted by left-overs.  Small batch.  Small batch.  Small batch!

Ladies Camp-out

 This was our second annual Ladies camp out, pandemic style.  We went to Salt Springs which is only an hour away, we will be back!

We all swam and enjoyed seeing the huge crabs and fish in the springs.  There were three cauldrons so it was easy to get a good look without a big crowd.  The stairs were the hardest thing to navigate because people would hang out on them getting used to the water! 

I was so grateful for short hair and lasik surgery that helped me have a fantastic snorkeling experience.  It was so fun to cruise along with my face in the water and never worry about my hair in my eyes, and being able to use goggles!  It was really amazing.

Aunt L and E came and found us at the springs.  We got to show them the giant crabs and fish. 

The wood I brought was too damp and lame so E went and got some from the ranger station.  Yay!  Grandpa dropped off Grandma C and we had hotdogs, smores, sweet potatoes, carrots, corn chips, nerds, and whatever food folks brought to satisfy the demands of social distancing and allergies.

We survived the night by taking frequent trips to the restroom and cuddling up at 4AM.  The girls celebrated with Fritos for breakfast.

We wandered off to hike, remembering too late to bring bug spray.  This massive 6 ft wide cypress was a highlight.

Also this tree with grass growing off of it!

Ladies camp out was a blast and Salt Springs was amazing.  We look forward to taking the boys sometime soon.

Progressive Thanksgiving

 I'm hoping to make Thanksgiving Dinner across the month of November.  We made a splendid fruit salad last week.  Tonight we had tiny pumpkin pies.  Tomorrow I hope to make green been casserole.  Saturday we'll probably cook the turkey and have potatoes and gravy.  We make bread all the time.  So yummy.

Fruit Salad:
1 can mandarin oranges drained
2 pears cut up
2 bananas cut up
1 can of pineapple chunks (save juice)
1 cup of raspberries
2TBS corn starch
1/2 c. whipping cream
In as sauce pan combine the juice from the pineapple with 2 TBS of corn starch and bring to a boil to create a gel.  Cool the gel in the fridge or with frozen berries : )  Whip 1/2 cup of whipping cream then fold the gel into the whipping cream.  

1 Tiny Pumpkin Pies
1 egg
1 c pumpkin puree
1/2 c. Sugar
1/3 c. evaporated milk
Dash of Cloves, Nutmeg, Ginger and a 1/4 t of Cinnamon
Crust from Grandma C.  Such amazing elastic substance!
Pre-heat oven to 450, then bake at 350 for 30 minutes until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

Special Delivery

 Today we made ninja cookies and delivered them to my friends MM and SM.  When we dropped them off we sent a voice text message with our Special Delivery Song.  My friend SM replied with a recording of her family singing "Thank you for the cookies!"  Best Ever!

Visiting Grandparents

 For 8 months we've been visiting Ps parents through the looking glass.  Sometimes we drive to Gtown and sometimes they drive out here.  Sometimes we have a family video call.

Ps parents take the pandemic very seriously and appreciate that we also take it seriously.

"You will be wiser not to chance it, it isn't worth the risk." is a good bit of advice, perhaps my favorite new bit of advice.  But there are things that are worth the risk, like joy.  Visiting the grandparents through the window, wearing masks, grocery pick up, social distancing, these do not impact my joy.  Sickness, death, life long debilitating after effects, they are not worth the risk.  

I serve at a food bank pick up a couple times a month.  Masks and gloves are required.  One of the ladies I love will not wear mask or latex gloves.  I will bring her a beautiful mask and work gloves for next time. 

Make it DO (Cell phone and pizza)

 I decided to get a new phone after many months of not being able to use the LDS ap, or pick up groceries without using my phone as a hot spot for the ipad...  I couldn't take pictures sometimes because there was not enough memory.  The thing that mainly influenced the change was that I couldn't really send or receive texts from my house.  I know that was the case 2 years ago and finally I decided that was not a good fit anymore. 

Over the last year I have been bit by bit deciding that I deserve better.  Thankfully my husband has always treated me like I deserve better.  When he has offered me a new phone, I would say "This one is good enough" because I didn't use mine to make money, so I didn't want to be an expense for the luxury.

P delights that I am taking time to walk, buy myself good shoes, wear clothes that I like, and buy food that nobody but me likes (ricotta cheese).

I got this iPhone 6 Plus with 128G of storage after a similar model with less storage came but had a defective screen.  And as P says, I deserve a phone that can take beautiful pictures.  Yes.  I do.

I tried to put the phone with ATT for $25 monthly but they never sent the SIM card and after 4 weeks I canceled the order when I found that Xfinity would give me service for $15 and I had been paying $10 with Tello.  Xfinity sent me a SIM card fast but the porting of my number from Tello was stuck.  5 days into this process with Xfinity I found that ATT still had the number stuck in a port attempt.  So I got through to their customer service by using Ps phone number to cut through the phone menu.  2 more day of trying to get Xfinity to get the port unstuck my old phone stopped working, so I knew something was happening.  But it was not until today that my new phone has my old number!

The reason I so wanted to keep my old number was so that I didn't have to change it in all the places people use to contact me, and businesses send a verification text.  Keeping your number is serious!  I spend over 20 hours on the chat and phone working this through.  It took work.  But now I have a more functional phone with better coverage for not much more money.  

Today was the climax of several days with lP not doing her work and sneaking off to play with her friend.  Today the work was going to get done.  During one of the many "Mom I don't understand it" exchanges, I was cooking pizza.  I used a towel to take the pizza out of the oven and before I could set it down, the heat got to me.  My hand jerked and the pizza flipped onto the other pizza!  I stared at it wondering what I was going to do.  I decided to peel the cheese/pepperoni topping off and put it into the naked crust like a calzone.  Thanks to the pepperoni, the cheese hadn't fused with the other cheese.  The kids loved the fancy calzone and asked if I would make it again.  Sure!  But next time I'll do it on purpose.

Porter Pack: Skits

 P and I both love the scout program but the church isn't with scouts anymore.  So we've been holding scouts 4 days a week with the family.  This week we learned cheers and planned a skit.  Grandma and Grandpa were coming to visit so we planned to present the skit to them.  We told the story of our summer road trip.  It was beautiful.  The kids are getting some wonderful time together as a family.

Sing all the Hymns

Sing ALL the Hymns!

Start date:

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30
31	32	33	34	35	36	37	38	39	40
41	42	43	44	45	46	47	48	49	50
51	52	53	54	55	56	57	58	59	60
61	62	63	64	65	66	67	68	69	70
71	72	73	74	75	76	77	78	79	80
81	82	83	84	85	86	87	88	89	90
91	92	93	94	95	96	97	98	99	100
101	102	103	104	105	106	107	108	109	110
111	112	113	114	115	116	117	118	119	120
121	122	123	124	125	126	127	128	129	130
131	132	133	134	135	136	137	138	139	140
141	142	143	144	145	146	147	148	149	150
151	152	153	154	155	156	157	158	159	160
161	162	163	164	165	166	167	168	169	170
171	172	173	174	175	176	177	178	179	180
181	182	183	184	185	186	187	188	189	190
191	192	193	194	195	196	197	198	199	200
201	202	203	204	205	206	207	208	209	210
211	212	213	214	215	216	217	218	219	220
221	222	223	224	225	226	227	228	229	230
231	232	233	234	235	236	237	238	239	240
241	242	243	244	245	246	247	248	249	250
251	252	253	254	255	256	257	258	259	260
261	262	263	264	265	266	267	268	269	270
271	272	273	274	275	276	277	278	279	280
281	282	283	284	285	286	287	288	289	290
291	292	293	294	295	296	297	298	299	300
301	302	303	304	305	306	307	308	309	310
311	312	313	314	315	316	317	318	319	320
321	322	323	324	325	326	327	328	329	330
331	332	333	334	335	336	337	338	339	340
341	Finish date:

 I had this idea to sing all the hymns.  I've wanted to do this for about 15 years.  I discussed it with P and he felt that singing 2 a day was more functional than trying to finish by the end of the year.  The next morning as we gathered for sign language scriptures and prayer he suggested that we go in order so we can sing them all, then i pointed to this chart that is 3 pages tall, on the side of the cubbies.  His reaction was awesome.  He thinks I'm amazing. 

So far we have sung 10 and the children like putting little stickers on the paper to remember what we have sung.