Menu Monday

One thing about me and menus is that I don't always follow my plan.  Generally speaking, I make the meals I plan to do but not necessarily always on the day I schedule for it.  So these are the meals I plan to make this week and hopefully on the day I list them.

Monday
Meat loaf, baked potatoes, green beans, orange wedges.  Dessert:  apple crisp with vanilla ice cream.

Tuesday:
Salmon with creamy dill sauce, noodle rice pilaf, spinach salad, fruit

Wednesday:
Sweet-n-sour meatballs over rice, peas, fruit

Thursday:
Spaghetti with marinara sauce, green salad, garlic bread, fruit

Friday:
Better-than-Panda Orange Chicken, Loaded Fried Rice, salad, fruit

Saturday:
Tacos, Spanish rice, fruit

Sunday:
Marinated baked chicken, roasted squash, peas, green salad

one little word 2014: NURTURE

A few years ago, I heard about the idea of choosing one word that would represent my "philosophy" for the year.  It could be a direction I wanted my life to go, or something to inspire me, or something I could center my goals around. 

 

My word for 2014 is NURTURE. Previous words were ENJOY, PEACE and CREATIVITY.

A bulletin board website I enjoy reading is Two Peas in a Bucket (www.twopeasinabucket.com).  A few weeks ago, there was a post about one woman's 2013 word, which was also NURTURE.  She talked about how her health challenges made it necessary for her to start doing some things that at first were really difficult (working out, seeing health specialists, etc.)  But she looked at it as nurturing her body.  Her blog is at http://meadowwalk.blogspot.com/2013/01/olw-nurture.html.

One thing she said that I really liked was:

            "Nurture" isn't even about losing weight and going to the gym. It's about getting my first mammogram ever. It's about overcoming my dread fear and getting a Pap smear. It's about screaming in pain and my mom holding my hand while I had a uterine biopsy to make sure I didn't have cancer (I don't) and getting my gynie issues fixed once and for all.

That really resonated with me and I decided to make NURTURE my word for 2014. 

I will nurture MYSELF by taking care of myself.  Getting enough sleep; working on improving my eating habits; learning more about nutrition, hypothyroidism and the changes my body will be going through as I move through my 40s; exercising; taking time to relax and enjoy myself; taking time to do my hobbies; getting together with girlfriends; taking a time-out once in a while to just do what I want to do; making a small book of inspirational quotes—all these are things that I can do for MYSELF.

I will nurture my CREATIVITY by improving my skills in sewing, quilting, gardening, scrapbooking, cross stitching and cooking; I will not be afraid to learn a new skill if I come across one that sounds interesting; I will take the time to do my hobbies, even if it means other things don't get done; I will enjoy the time I allow myself to browse blogs and Pinterest to find inspiration and projects.

I will nurture my SPIRITUALITY by improving my relationship with God and my relationships with the Young Women of my ward; fulfilling my Church callings (including visiting teaching) to the best of my ability; making time to read my scriptures and study lessons; going to the temple at least once a month; unhurried prayers, especially at night; and having time to just reflect.

I will nurture my FAMILY by spending more time with them; doing things they want to do; scheduling one-on-one time with them; regular dates with my husband; working on being "in" the conversation with my children, especially my 5 year old as we work to overcome his stuttering and continuing to teach gospel principles.

I will nurture my ENVIRONMENT as I do my homemaking tasks; decorate my home; organize my spaces and keep things clean.  I will also nurture my larger environment by working to conserve water and electricity; not making unnecessary trips in the car; using my reusable shopping bags; looking for ways to reuse things; recycling as much as I can; passing on to others things still in good shape but that we don't need anymore.

I will nurture OTHERS by keeping up with their lives; checking in with them via email, Facebook and phone calls; remembering their birthdays and sending a card or some kind of acknowledgement; being aware of their circumstances so I can offer support if needed; making plans to get together to have fun; just generally trying to be the kind of friend I would want to have.

I am sure I will think of more ways I can nurture and be nurtured but this is a starting point.  I believe it fits in with my general goals and projects, and I look forward to what this year will bring.

lego quest

We have Legos.  Lots of Legos.  Not as many as some people I know do, but we have lots. Some time ago, I came across a website called Lego Quest.  It was started in 2010 and the owner posted different challenges of things to build with Legos.  She invited people to send in pictures of the Lego creations and posted them a week or so later.  The only real rule was that you had to build something using your own creativity--no using the Lego designs that came with a package of Legos.  So if the challenge was a car, you had to design your own.

I thought this was a great idea.  So I copied down all the Quest challenges into an Excel spreadsheet and made columns for each of my two older kids.  As they build things, they will check off what they made and I will take a picture of it.  I hope to share them here.  I also found a simpler list for my 4 year old so he can participate too.

I added a few and changed a few from Lego Quest, so here is our own Quest list:

Car
Monochromatic
Vessel
2-dimensional
Tool
Creature
Collaboration
Your Favorite Book
Maximum Height
Spring
Shadow
Mixed Media
Earth Day
Ancient Monument
Kinetic
Bird House
Metamorphosis
Flags
Wrapped Object
Repair or Replace
Buoyancy
Display Your Art
Storage System
Cityscape
Illumination
Bridge
Playground
Archeology
Halloween
2 cups of random bricks
Map
Holiday Scene
Coral Reef
Favorite Song
30 pieces
Maze or Labyrinth
Food
Occupation
Country
Garden
Aircraft
2x2 bricks only
Modern Marvels of engineering
Microscale
Functional
Growing
Macroscale
Favorite scripture story

For AD:
Car
Something very tall
Something with a window
Bridge
House
Boat
Furniture
Cube
Symmetrical
Maze
Pyramid
Tree
Flowers
Insect
Make a pattern
Use only 20 bricks
Animal
Sea Creature
Snake
First letter of your name
Your name in Lego
Toy animal house

 You can look at Lego Quest to see examples of what others did if you're not sure exactly how to approach a challenge.  I'm excited to see what my children come up with!

Here's our summer 2013 bucket list:

Go to a few Real Salt Lake soccer games
Go to a Salt Lake Bees baseball game
Visit a different park each week and take lunch to eat there (Thursdays)
Go swimming (M W F)
Visit Seven Peaks Salt Lake city
Go to Lagoon
Go to Cherry Hills (we'll go for a family reunion and then at least one other time)
Hike Ensign Peak
Get a cool treat (Slurpees/ice cream) each week
Sleep in the backyard
Movie night in the backyard
Grill an entire dinner at least once a week
Dutch oven dinner every other week
Go to the library (Tuesdays)
Weekend at Bear Lake
Weekend in Idaho at friends' cabin
Weekly movie night with concessions bought by earning tickets through doing chores)
Weekly game night
Summer Movie Clubhouse at Cinemark Theaters
Family reunions
Watch the fireworks at 4th of July
Go to  Taylorsville Dayzz (and go on the rides!)
Watch 4th of July parade in Hyrum
Make smores
Build something using ALL our Legos
Have a BBQ with friends
Watch Draper Days fireworks
Buy and fly kites
Do puzzles
Blow bubbles (refill station, bubble snakes)
Play with pom pom shooters
Play with sponge balls
Make/play with flubber
Go bowling
Visit Salt Lake City Cemetery--lots of pioneer graves there
Visit the Ft. Douglas War Museum
Visit the Gilgal Sculpture Garden
Visit the Pioneer Memorial Museum
Hike Donut Falls
Go to Cache Valley Cruise-In
Go to Wheeler Farm
Go to Clark Planetarium

Some other ideas:
Visit the BYU Museum of Art
Visit the BYU Bean Life Science Museum
Visit the LDS Church History Museum
Visit Hill AFB Museum
Governor's Mansion tours
Go to the Manti Pageant
Visit Bear Rive Migratory Bird Refuge

Most of these activities should be low cost or free.  We may add more ideas if we have time.  We may drop some and do others instead.  But I think overall we'll have a great summer!

back to blogging

Well, it's been 6 months since I posted last.  I did write gratitude posts through Thanksgiving, although my goal was 30 days.  The last gratitude post was titled "Life" and although I was talking about my birthday, there was a deeper meaning to that.

On Thursday, November 28, 2012, a student at CM's school committed suicide.  It was a difficult weekend as we helped her deal with it.  Although she didn't know the student personally, he was in one of her classes so that made the whole situation more difficult.

Just when we thought we had talked out everything, 27 people were killed in a shootout at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut on Friday, December 14, 2012.  So that started another difficult weekend.

I fully intended to blog about our Christmas activities.  We had a great holiday season.  Things didn't quite go the way I planned, partly because The Writer had to travel for work, then he was trying to finish up his month-end, quarter-end and year-end work before taking the last two weeks of December off.   I wanted him to be involved with what we were doing which meant that a lot of activities had to be pushed to the weekends.  Still, we had a great time and I learned a few things that will make Christmas 2013 go much more smoothly.

Winter passed by quietly.  We had lots of snow, though the water managers say it wasn't enough. 

We started the spring soccer season in April and have one more week of games for all three players.  AD will have one more game after that.  Spring has gone by quickly with soccer practices three days a week and games nearly every Saturday.  We were glad to have a low-key Memorial Day!

We are in our last week of school.  I am a year removed from finishing breastfeeding my last child and have more energy than I have had for awhile.  I am excited for summer and we have lots of plans.

One thing I have learned is that although my kids have lots of things they want to do during the summer, I am the one who makes it happen.  In part this is because I am the driver, but also if I don't tell my children they need to do their chores before we go do anything fun, or tell them, "Come on, let's go!", we don’t do much.

So I have been surfing the Internet and Pinterest for ideas of fun games and activities, as well as places to go here in our home state of Utah.  I've also made a Summer 2013 Bucket List of things to do.  Some are big activities, some are simple everyday ones, some are things we'll do several times a week, others we'll do just once.  I'll share pictures and links to some of the games, activities, places and things to do we hope to do this summer.

GAMES

Marshmallow Shooters. OrPom Pom Popper.

Bean Bag Toss.  Great for all ages.  Great for family reunions.

Ladder Golf.  Another great one for backyard play or family reunions.

Life Size Angry Birds.  The mom who came up with this was planning a birthday party.  I think the execution of this game was amazing!

Backyard Scrabble.  Life size tiles!  And a great way to practice spelling through the summer!  In the comments, the author gave how many of each letter you need.  They used a thin plywood but I think I will get 12x12-inch scrapbook paper and cut the pages down to 6x6 inches and then laminate.

Creativity

Lego Maze.  Doesn't this look like fun!  And the possibilities for mazes are endless!

 Slime.  Children will have all kinds of fun with this!

Flubber.  Another great hands on activity for children!

Other Activities

Bubble Snakes.  A different way of having fun with bubbles!

Sponge Balls.  Great for cooling off on hot summer days.

Bubble Refill Station.  Such a cute idea and easy for kids to get their own refills! (Probably have to help  the under-5 crowd).

I'll share more tomorrow!

Gratitude Day 28: Life

Today is my birthday and I am grateful for that day years ago (I'm not gonna admit how old I am) that I came into the world.  I am grateful for the life I've had.  It's been a good one.  It's had its ups and downs, its challenges and easy times but overall it's been good.  God has blessed me greatly and I am grateful for that.

Gratitude Day 27: A nice normal day

Today was a nice normal day.  I did my usual thing and that is always a good day for me.  I am grateful for my family's health.  When I worked as a Deaf Mentor, some families had children that were not only deaf but also had other medical problems and you never knew if a day would bring a trip to the ER or the doctor.  I feel for those families who have to deal with this kind of challenge.  So I am always glad when a day is just a nice, normal, maybe even somewhat boring day.