Less is More, or More is More?

I gave the girls 3 sheets of window clings to decorate the windows in our house. They used all three sheets on 1 window no matter how much I tried to encourage them otherwise. Sigh.

Cream Cheese Onion Dogs

I'll spare you a picture this time. This is really, REALLY not a photogenic food. The picture I took made me not want to eat this so much. This is a super easy meal that we love. It came to us via my sister via a street-side hot dog cart.

Ingredients

Buns (I prefer Fransisco International Outdoor Rolls)
Dogs (I like Costco's polish sausages)
Cream Cheese
Barbecue sauce
1-2 T. Olive Oil
1-2 T. Butter
1/2 sweet onion, sliced about 3/4 inch thick


Saute onions in pan. You can use straight olive oil or butter if you choose. I like to mix it up a bit. You can carmelize them if you desire, but I like mine just as they start to turn light brown and still have some bite to them. Lightly toast bun and spread cream cheese on both sides. Put onions and barbecue sauce on top. Will make enough onions for about 3-4 hot dogs. Enjoy.

Proof that I am not crazy...

So, for the longest time I have loved Wheat Thins. They are by far my most favorite cracker ever. They are a staple in our house, they almost qualify as another food group. From where I am sitting right now, I can see 3 1/2 Costco-size boxes of Wheat Thins. Yum. Too bad my retainer is in right now...

For quite a while I have thought that there was a difference in taste between the Costco Wheat Thins and grocery store Wheat Thins. Everyone I know thinks I'm crazy. They tell me they can't tell the difference. For the longest time I held out and would only buy grocery store Wheat Thins because I could tell the difference.

My mom was over last week and had some Costco Wheat Thins to snack on. She asked if they were the low-fat kind. It was a blind taste-test, I swear. She told me they tasted different.

One more thing to knock off my "See, I'm not crazy list."

Or, my mom is just as crazy as me.

Steee-rike!

Yes, we went bowling. The kids had a blast. I sucked horribly. Even with the bumpers in. R rocked. Average speed for the girls' bowling balls, 3.5 mph. I couldn't believe that they had something to track the speed!

Check out her form and that action! Everytime it was P's turn to bowl, she would get up to the line and you could hear her say "Left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot, throw!"

Where did the ball go?

It's Been One of Those Days...

Endurance & Gratitude

This has been a rough week for me. I had yet another doctor's appointment where I was hoping for some good news. Yet again I was let down. It seems that I might have contracted a virus while in Mexico that somehow did something to my inner ear when I passed out. The doctor just doesn't know. Good news, no permanent damage, so hopefully the hearing loss in my right ear is only temporary. Bad news, the dizziness and tinnitus might continue on for another 6 months. I could tell the doctor was just throwing a number out there for me. He has no real way of knowing how long it will take to recover or if I will even recover completely. Yee haw. So excuse my word vomit and indulge me yet again...

Elder Robert E. Wells:

“I have been flying many kinds of aircraft for the last 30 years, both in the United States and in Latin American countries. Not too long ago when I had returned to the [United] States after an absence of some years, a very dear friend offered me the use of his new [airplane]. …


“We discussed my qualifications of being covered under his insurance policy, and it turned out that I needed a check ride with a qualified inspector as it had been some time since I had flown that particular type of plane.

“The arrangements were made, and I met the inspector at the side of the airplane at the appointed hour with my licenses from the USA, Argentina, Paraguay, and Ecuador, and logbooks showing flights in Cessna 310s across jungles, mountains, deserts, international boundaries, etc. He smiled calmly but was unimpressed and said, ‘I’ve heard about you, and I have no doubt about how much flying you have done, but I have to assume that those flights were when nothing went wrong. Now let’s fire up this bird and see how well you fly it when everything goes wrong!’


“For the next hour he made everything go wrong! He simulated every emergency he could think of. He turned things off that should have been on. He turned things on that should have been off. He tried to create disorientation or panic. He really wanted to know how well I could fly when everything did go wrong! In the end he climbed out, signed my logbook, and announced, ‘You’re okay. …’

“One of the purposes of this life is to be tested, tried, and proven to see how well we will serve the Lord. The Prophet Joseph [Smith] said that we would be tested to see if we would serve and remain faithful through all hazards. We knew before we came that there would be many adverse circumstances to test us: accidents, sickness, and disease to prove us; temptations and distractions to try us; disappointments, discouragements, reverses, failures, and all kinds of situations to determine our character. …


“The question still is: How well can you fly it when everything goes wrong? How well can you live when every test, every trial, every proof of your faithfulness is exacted of you?”

I told this story Relief Society while teaching a lesson on adversity. I had forgotten about it until a few days ago while I was reviewing the last few months. I am nowhere near being out of this trial yet, but I am most definitely not in the darkest days of it, or so I assume. Let's hope not. I have been told that there will be lessons that I will gain from this experience. I am grateful that I have not had to wait until this trial was over and long gone before I could reflect and receive some insight.

During some of my hardest days, I truly questioned myself. I had huge amounts of guilt because of my inability to take care of my family, I still do. I would lay on the couch during the day thinking of everything I should have been doing. I couldn't cook. I couldn't drive. I couldn't even make it off the couch some days to let my girls play outside. Sometimes I would want to pull my hair out and tear my skin to pieces when the dizziness got out of control. It was then that I realized my illness was affecting my sanity. This has been a very trying time for me. I go. I do. I run a tight ship. I have to, it's part of who I am. This has forced me to let go of pretty much everything. All at once. Oh yeah, trials are fun. What was the other thing that I taught in that lesson? That sometimes things happen to you for no good reason at all. Nice.

I recognize that I am such a Martha (Biblical, not Stewart). Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if Martha had sat down to listen to Jesus instead of prepare the meal. I'm sure some guy there (not Jesus obviously) would have been grumbling that there was no food. In my role as a mom I quite often get caught up in my Martha role because that is basically what I do each day. Clean, feed, repeat. But I forget that even though someone, sometimes, maybe even often, might have to do the dirty work, it doesn't always have to be me. My kids (and husband) are much more capable than I thought. True it might not be to my standards, but I have been learning to accept that. Ok, so I have to force myself to turn my back while R is vacuuming, but then everything is fine after that.

I recognize that it is part of who I am and that is fine. I think that one of the things I needed to learn is when to choose the better part. I have a hard time with that one. Because while I am having fun, in the back of my head I'm thinking about everything that isn't getting done. Once I was forced to drop everything for a while (quite a while to be sure), I found other things to take their place. Some more important things, some less important things. I am reassessing the priorities in my life and trying to choose the better part even if it is in 5 minute increments. But what matters most is that I have been able to release Martha's death-grip on me. Now Martha & I are just holding hands. Handcuffed to be sure, but holding hands.

So while maybe I haven't aced this flying test, I haven't failed it either. I still have a chance to show that I can do same dang good flying when there is some pretty bad turbulence ahead. So what if the oxygen masks dropped and some luggage got thrown around? No one was hurt, right? Hopefully my passengers aren't afraid to fly with me again.

The End.

Po' Man's Roca

So I made this the other night for a party we went to and by request here is the recipe! I really don't have a better name for it. It is somewhat similar to Almond Roca in flavor. Somewhat. Insomuch that there is sugar, butter, chocolate and almonds involved. The previous name was Chocolate Saltine Treat. Yummy. Doesn't that just roll off your tongue? This is super easy to make and I have no candy experience whatsoever so don't expect temperatures or any of that other technical junk.

Enjoy!

Ingredients:

2 cubes butter

1 c. sugar

1 t. vanilla

1 1/2 packages saltines

16 oz. chocolate chips (milk, semi-sweet, peanut butter, whatever!)

Nuts (almonds, cashews, walnuts, etc.)

1/4 stick butter

Line regular size jelly roll sheet with tinfoil and butter it with approximately 1/4 stick of butter. This works best if you stick it in oven for a minute or so while preheating the oven. Place saltines over entire sheet.

Melt 2 cubes of butter and add sugar, cook it until it is slightly brown. Not taupe, not caramel-colored, just slightly brown. Add vanilla.

Pour mixture over saltines and spread evenly to the edges of the sheet. Bake in oven for 5 minutes at 350*. Sprinkle chocolate chips on top and spread evenly to edges. Get creative with chip flavors if you want to. I usually mix half milk chocolate and half semi-sweet together. Sprinkle nuts on top and gently press into chocolate. Refrigerate MINIMUM 1 hour. Chop into chunks and devour. Oh and watch out for little bits of tinfoil on the bottom. It happens sometimes.