Lesson Learned

Mother Nature's way of telling me I should have been outside gardening today

instead of painting the master bathroom "Pelican Blue".

I will do better tomorrow. 

The Best Seat In The House

We made a quick trip to Red Lodge today to spend some time at the Jones family cabin.

We saw horses

and bears.

We played games

(Notice how happy Makayla is when her ear medicine kicks in!)

and found Oma,

and Jessica, Ashley, and Megan.

One of the more interesting parts of our visit was this chair. Stan's sister, Konni Davis, had recently been visiting Aunt Grace (Jones) Helvey.  Aunt Grace gave her this chair which once belonged to Stan's great- great-grandma.  It is wicker, over 150 years old, and in fabulous condition.

That would make it the chair of Megan's great-great-great Grandma Jones

and Hailey's great-great-great-great Grandma Jones.

Now that is one old chair!

What You Missed, Amy

Dear Mom,

While you were at work we

ate a snack,

practiced our computer skills,

cleaned house,

took a nap,

played around,

had a ball,

wore ourselves (and Gma and Gpa) out, then headed home.

Don't worry, Grandma said its okay to wake you up at 3 am just to say "hi"!

Love, Hailey and Makayla

Confessions

I could be cleaning my kitchen

I should be doing the laundry

Perhaps I ought to finish off the Nanaimo Bars while I watch soap operas.

Actually, I would rather be out in the rain, working in the garden.

Last fall I planted these purple flowers.  When they came up this spring, I could not figure out what they were.

Tulips?  I planted some of those last fall

Nope.  The deer weren't eating them, and they were way too tall.

Finally, after the daffodils and tulips were fading, they opened.  Cool--allium!  I really like them, and I've never had any in my garden before.

The view from to the right of my back porch

Early Clematis in the front yard.

Newly planted flower beds to the left of my back porch

Hello, my name is Chris and I'm a gardenaholic. 

I'd rather garden than eat the Nanaimos.

I confess.  I am berry, berry addicted to the garden.

I Can See Clearly Now

There are comatose teens,

loafing little ones,

and idle eyes.

Yep, Hailey has lazy eye, and new glasses to fix the problem.

Doesn't she look smart?

Now if only Amy could figure out an equally effective fix for Makayla's uselessly idle ear tubes-

and this other inert object.

In The Garden

When I was a teenager and started playing the organ at church, I began to practice more regularly.  In particular, I frequently practiced hymns during the week.  I remember how often Oma would sit in a chair and knit or crochet and hum or sing along in German as I practiced.  She had a beautiful alto voice, and it was the alto part she would sing or hum.  I used to love it when she did that.

One day Oma handed me the music to "In The Garden" and asked me to learn it.  It was one of her favorite songs.  I played that song a lot over my high school years for Oma.

Today I played piano for a soloist at a Lutheran funeral.  "In The Garden" was the deceased person's favorite song. It's a beautiful song and I've always liked it too, maybe in part because Oma loved it. 

I did a little research and discovered it was written by C. Austin Miles, a Methodist. The song was published in 1912--much older than I would have thought.  Mr. Miles said that he had a vision of the Garden tomb, of Mother Mary looking for Jesus, and as a result wrote this song in a very short amount of time. Oma knew all the words in German, and I wish I could ask her how she knew the song and what about the song she loved so much. She often cried when I played it (and I don't think that was because I played it so awfully).  I think one of the reasons I liked to have Oma sing along as I practiced was because of the connection it gave us. Playing that song today brought back a lot of sweet memories.

A Recipe and a Good Day at the Temple

Today was our monthly Sisters at the Temple Day, with a luncheon after the session.  I was not in the mood to go.  I really just wanted to be home, out of the rain, working on some pressing projects. 

To make matters worse, my counselor, who was suppose to pull the luncheon together for today has been sick with shingles.  I called yesterday afternoon to see how things were going and I could tell she was not doing well.  I suggested she let me take over the luncheon, and she gratefully agreed.

On top of that, I was having a REALLY bad cooking day yesterday.  I was suppose to be taking a meal in to a family in the ward.  I decided to try a new "from scratch" cupcake recipe I had.  It was a disaster.

Does this look like a tasty cupcake to you?  So I  mixed up a box mix and made the frosting that came with the above loser cupcake.  That frosting recipe was awful, too. I quickly mixed up my old, trusty frosting recipe and ran the meal to the family. Now I've spent 8 hours in the kitchen making some stupid cupcakes, and I've got to figure out what to have at the temple the next day.  But by this time Hailey and Makayla have arrived and they are NOT having a good day. 

I'm not going to drag two crabby kids to the store to buy ingredients for a last minute gourmet temple luncheon dish. Fortunately I find a recipe for White Chili I've been wanting to try, and I have every ingredient in the house.  Do I dare try another new dish, given my very recent cupcake disaster?  Well, of course! 

White Chili

1 lb chicken breast, cut into 1/2" cubes

1 medium onion, chopped

1 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon oil

Brown chicken in oil with onion and garlic until chicken is no longer pink.

Add:

2 (16 oz) cans Great Northern White beans, drained and rinsed

1 or 2 (4 oz.) cans chopped green chilies

1 (15 oz) can chicken broth

1 teaspoon each salt, ground cumin, oregano

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/4 cayenne pepper

Bring to boil, reduce heat, simmer for 30 minutes.  (I tripled the recipe, cooked the chicken part last night, put everything up to this point in a crock pot this morning and cooked it on low at the temple during the session.)

Stir in 1 cup sour cream and 1/2 cup whipping cream and serve immediately.

(Don't ask me why I have sour cream and whip cream handy in my fridge.  I'm not going to explain that part to you)

Oh my goodness.  It was sooo good.  I brought corn chips for people to sprinkle on the top for extra umph. 

I also made Rachael's Nanaimo Bars, which I ALSO happened to have all the ingredients for (squirm).  I cut the pan into 25 pieces.  There were only 8 of us at the session, and only 7 stayed for lunch, a pretty skimpy turnout.  This is what I brought home:

Let's just say they were well received.

The best part of the day came during the luncheon.  There was a sister I knew well from Colstrip Ward (2+ hours from Billings) and she brought a sister I didn't know.  At lunch I sat beside the unknown sister,  introduced myself, and began to visit.  It turns out her 62 year old sister is going through the temple for the first time ever on Thursday in the Provo temple, and the siblings are coming from all over the US to be there.  The sister said she herself had not been to the temple for a decade or more, but had gotten herself ready for that event.  She added "I've been so nervous about going back to the temple for the first time in so many years, and when I saw the announcement for today's temple session with the sisters, I knew I had to be here. This has been the best day of my life in a very long time. I feel like this day was God's hand in my life."  By the time we were done talking, she was crying, I was crying, and suddenly temple session I hadn't wanted to be at became

the very best place to be.

Etiquette 101

A few years ago, Ashley, Megan, Stan and I had settled into a real rut, eating  ahi tuna, salmon, Cornish hen and other snobby cuisine.  We became totally complacent in our eating style. 

Fortunately, Hailey and Makayla started joining us for supper each night, reminding us of the "proper" lessons of enjoying our more humble fare of fish sticks and hamburger.

There's the "One-handed Nibble" lesson,

                                                           
                              the "Caveman Stab and Chew" lesson,

the "Let Me Tell You How I Really Feel About Your Cooking" lesson,

the "Drink Your Applesauce" lesson,

and the ever popular "See-food" lesson.

Stop by any evening and we'll be happy to cook you up a hot dog in the microwave and

pour our glass of milk into your lap.