More than just a hair dryer . . . . .

If you are a mom, grandma, neighbor, pre-school teacher, kindergarten teacher etc - you may have had to deal with kids writing on walls and doors and other surfaces which were not meant to have crayon on them!  I encountered this and after scrubbing paint of a couple of places, I googled it on the internet - duhhhhh.  So simple to remove, plug in your hair dryer - put it on hot and blow very close to the crayon, it will melt and easily wipe off in its entirety with a piece of tissue!  You've gotta love the internet!

Self Expression

Allowing our children to "find their own voice" was (is) challenging even to the best of parents.  Bringham Young's advice to "teach correct principles and they will govern themselves" however simplistic it sounds, is not always easy to do.  Don't we just want to nudge, push, correct, and insist so that our children will always find the "right" voice?  When my children were all still at home and "The Simpson's" was a highlight on TV, their mother was adamant that they not watch it.  I felt it was a program in which children did not respect their parents, talked back to them, made fun of them and were vulgar.  Some how this was all supposed to be funny.  Down the road, did they always obey me?  No, although I don't think they ate a steady diet of  Bart, some of them did snack on it.  Yesterday, while setting the table for dinner, I grabbed a hot pad out of the drawer to slap on the table prior to placing a hot dish on it.  I started to grin, then smile, then laugh.  One of my sons had found "their voice" while in middle school CTE class and machine embroidered good old Bart on the hot pad - just for their mom!  They did all turn out to be very wonderful children - each with a voice of his/her own!

"Dill Pickles" - A Legacy

Dill pickles may seem a rather odd "legacy" but the melding of Mark and Debbie into one family brought with it, oddly enough, a legacy of great dill pickles!  Both of our mothers made fabulous dill pickles - loved by all their children and grandchildren.  When we were married, I noted that both of them virtually had the same recipe.  Grandma McBeth's dill pickles had one ingredient that Grandma Christiansen's did not. Grandma Christiansen's recipe however also had one ingredient that Grandma McBeth's did not.  Just as the bible states, "and the twain shall be as one,"  speaking of husband and wife; I took it to heart and my mothers' dill pickle receipes became "one."  Our children love the pickles and put in requests for home canned dill pickles. So canning season 2011 begins with dill pickles and here are the first jars.  It is my hope that the vines stay healthy, the weather stays warm and the cucumbers abundant!  Below is the combined dill pickle receipe I use.  It is easy, fun and good eating! Some legacy!

1 quart apple cider vineger
1 quart water
1 cup rock salt
1/2 tsp. powdered alum

Boil this mixture and pour over quart wide mouth jars of cucumbers, dill, 1 clove of garlic per quart and 1/2 to 1 hot pepper (depending on your palate!)

Put on lids and bands, process for 5 minutes!

Pickles need to age for at least 1 month before eating!

For best results use small cucumbers, no longer than 4 inches.

Are YOU prejudice?

Ask me and I'll emphatically say, "No! The color of your skin, the lilt of your voice, the religon you profess, does not matter.  It is who you are and how you behave that matters to me."  . . . . . . . .  or so I thought!  I spent 5 days in San Francisco recently - a different world from my little corner of the USA.  I suddenly found myself taking Taxi cabs - alot.  Each taxi cab I rode in was driven by an individual born outside of the USA, each one was from a country in the Middle East. Each was pleasant, kind and helpful.  A couple of them in retrospect took advantage of the "out-of-towners" and drove around a few extra blocks to up their fare.  Sad to say, I was nervous each time.  "Does this person hate me because I'm an American? Would they like me obliterated because I am a Christian?"  I found it unsetteling in myself.  I think we are always disappointed to find out we're not quite the wonderful people we thought we were. In defense of myself, I am sure that the events of time and terrorists and mindless tragedies across the globe have contributed to thinking twice about whether or not we trust the individual in the front seat.  Wouldn't it be wonderful to trust the entire world? and if you ask me if I'm prejudice?  I'll try to say, "I'm trying not to be, I may think things in my head, but I would never vocalize them.'   Hmmm  next year I'll be a better person.

The Little Engine Who Could

This story was always a favorite of mine as a child.  I think because I often felt "less than" as a child, this story gave me hope that if I persisted, I could achieve whatever goal I may set.  In the ensuing years I have learned that persistence is good but that if I coupled persistence with the help of the Lord I could accomplish any good thing.  As I reflect upon my life, I see that with the help of the Lord I have been able to accomplish many good things. 

So now I have found myself caught in the "weight trap" - in applying these same two principles, perseverance and help of the Lord I can beat this trap too.  I have set a goal of 1 year to lose 20 lbs. I must be persistent and diligent in following healthy eating, cooking, living, principles.  These principles must be based upon divine counsel - which I have come to believe are the Word of Wisdom. 

Since I have wrapped myself around this cause with this focus - this quest has changed from just losing weight to living healthy - it is more positive, principle based and a concept wherein I can truly seek the guidance of the Lord as well.

The best part of it all???? I now feel happy about this goal.  It does not have the depressing burden of , "Oh I have a muffin top and can't seem to lose this fat." (FYI:  "muffin top" as defined by the picture below is now an official definition in Oxford dictionary!)

Feel free to give me help, advice, encouragement, ideas, recipes etc. 

Take a few minutes. . . .

I haven't posted for 3 months! I was gone every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday 4 straight weeks. I'm not losing as much weight on "Weight Watchers" as I would like to. My life is a wreck. . . . but I have taken a few minutes to do a couple of good things. Weight Watchers has put me back onto the activity train. I have been exercising for 45-60 minutes a day. But one of the best things I have done, is to listen to the recording on www.lds.org of Elder Bednar's simple, beautiful, inspiring instruction of being an Aspostle. If you don't do anything else with your time. . . .take a few minutes and watch this. It is so tender.

Will Rogers Follies

I haven't posted, I haven't done much of anything for 2 months now except go to work and work on the play I am directing, "Will Roger's Follies, a life in Review" - to say that it has consumed my life is but s mere exaggeration. I eat, drink, sleep, dream, work, sew, order props, with the scenes, the music and dances of this production running through my head. I can't complain - as I volunteered to do this. About 15 years ago, Mark and I saw this production at the Capitol Theater. I just fell in love with it at the time and have always wanted to do it here. Oddly, for being a Broadway Musical that won 6 Tony Awards for best musical, best choreography, best costumes and on and on. Not very many people have ever seen or heard of it. Will Rogers was an icon in American history. The only person to ever speak at both the Republican and Democratic National Conventions in the same year. Here was an individual who was a down to earth, common man who never got past the 5th grade. Yet he wrote a newspaper colum, had a weekly radio show, movie star, vaudville star. He touched shoulders with Presidents, kings, religious leaders, as well as the common folk. In his simple, every day way he is known for a host of amazing quotes:

"Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there!"

"A fool and his money are soon elected."

"All I know is what I read in the papers, and that's an alibi for my ignorance!"

"Be thankful we're not getting all the government we pay for!"

"Buy land, because they ain't making any more of it!"

"Don't let yesterday use up too much of today."

"I never met a man I didn't like!"

"Everybody is ignorant, just on different subjects."

"Get someone else to blow your horn and the sound will go twice as far."

"I have a scheme for stopping war - No nation is allowed to enter into one until they have the last one paid off."

The play will be great and I will be glad I did it - but I won't take on a musical ever, ever, again that involves so many people, so much time, so much everything! But I love it!