Talents?

About a month ago I was called to be an Activity Days leader. I am really excited about this calling and I think that there is a lot of potential out there for this program. Twice a year we have to do a recognition night and our next one is in December. The theme that was chosen (before I was called) is Talents. Tomorrow, myself and the other leader will be introducing this to the girls by each creating a table to display our talents. I know what a talent is but I am really stumped trying to come up with talents that I have.

My loving husband said that I am patient but is that really a talent? I don't know that I could justify that as a talent and even if it is, how do you even begin to put "patience" on a display table? He also said that I'm really good at baking cakes. Now there is something that I can run with. I thought about making and decorating a cake to take tomorrow. Now, I'm not super good at cake decorating yet but I've definitely got the cake baking part down! I've even found a couple new recipes I would like to try but I'm not sure if they're good recipes to try with girls I don't really know yet. Maybe I'll go with something like chocolate or white, who knows. The only other thing I could come up with all on my own is playing the paino. I can put a song book on the table but after those 2, I am stumped! Hopefully I can come up with something before 3:00 pm tomorrow. Wish me luck!

And thus it begins

School started Wednesday last week. Normally I really wouldn't pay attention or care as to when school was starting but this year is different. This year is the year that my little family embarks on a long journey. Alex decided to start school. Orginally I thought we were planning on him starting in the spring, however, somewhere along the way, it quickly became him enrolling for the fall semester. Now here I sit, after a long, LONG afternoon, with a sleeping baby in the nearby room, blankly staring at the computer screen. My husband has enrolled for 2 classes as that is about all that he can handle due to the fact that he's working full time. He has a math class and an art class which requires him to be at school Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights.

I always loved when Alex came home from work for 2 reasons. I missed him and I enjoy spending time with him and it also meant I could pass our son off to him for a little bit. Erick always loves when Alex comes home and gets excited when he sees him. Now, that won't be happening so much. I know it's going to be hard, it's already hard and this is only the second day of class, but I know it will be worth it. In the end, he'll have a degree, we'll have moved one step forward in the progression of life and all will be jolly. Ok. Perhaps it won't be jolly, but at least we'll have his college education taken care of, well the bachelor degree. Then it will continue on to the master and hopefully he'll be done after that. One can hope, right?

New Recipes

Hello Blogging World. I am here to ask for your help. Well, I'm more like BEGGING for your help. I am in dire need of some new recipes. Whatever you want to send my way, though I'm really looking for new dinner recipes. I've hit a brick wall and am so tired of cooking the same things for dinner. I love to try new recipes so whatever you have, please share. Thank you.

Learning and Experimenting

I never grew up with organic anything. I had never really been to a farmers market. It just wasn't how I was raised. My mom did cook all of our meals though. She made breakfast every morning for us, even if it was just a bowl of oatmeal, she would pack lunches (when we were wee little babes going to elementary) and she would make wonderful dinners. The older I have gotten (and since I've become a mom) I have become quite fond of farmers markets and learning about organic food. While I don't know that I am completely sold on organic fruits and veggies I do prefer them to be fresh, not frozen and I LOVE being able to support my local farmers. I do however want to make the switch to organic meats. I do believe the hormones they inject in the animals is a big factor in why kids are developing at a much younger age and I just think that there are better, healthier ways to do things. While I'm not the one who currently does the shopping for food, I hope that when I do become that person again, I will be able to buy organic meat. I know it will be a sacrifice but it's one that I am willing to make. I just need to get my husband on board. Sorry for that little tangent. Onto what I learned.

I found a website that I love! www.wholesomebabyfood.com. They have a lot of good information and suggestions on making your own baby food. A friend of mine has a little girl who is a couple months older than my son and we decided that we wanted to try and make our own baby food. It couldn't be that hard. Right? It wasn't. Buy veggies/fruits, steam if needed, puree and voila! Homemade baby food. She lives an hour north of me and came down so we could go to the farmers market to buy some veggies. We purchased summer squash, zucchini, green beans and blueberries. We decided to just go with veggies this time and a little later we will do peaches, apples and apricots, all of which we can get for free! You can't beat free baby food! When we got home from the market, we washed everything, chopped up the squash and zucchini, steamed them, boiled the green beans and the blueberries really didn't have any prep work involved. Once they were all done, we put some in the food processor and some in my Bullet (you know the infomercial" And in 1,2, 3...." okay maybe a little more than 3 seconds, we had delicious, fresh, non processed, no salt or sugar added, good for you baby food. Literally, that easy. I felt so accomplished.

Long over due

Tonight was the first night that Alex and I went out on a real date without the baby. I'd say it was about time, he is 7 months old now. I'm just kind of protective and don't really trust too many people to watch him. Since we live with my grandma now, it was high time that we take advantage of her willingness to watch him. Our original plan was to go out to dinner, a sit down restaurant, then head to the temple to do a session. Well, Alex got home late, his cold was annoying him so we decided to cut our temple trip short and then we went to Goodwood for some BBQ. It was tasty! On the way home from dinner I said, "Do you realize we just spend an entire evening without Bubbs and we didn't even talk about him!?". Alex's response was, "Ya. That's so sad" Me, "That's not sad. It's Healthy." Which I totally believe. I would hate to become one of those couples when they spend time away from their children all they talk about is their children.

Now my son is pretty good about going to sleep between 8 and 8:30, usually. When we got home, just after 10:00, my grandmother informed me that he didn't fall asleep until about 9 and he had just woken up right before we came home. I'd like to think it was because he was waiting for us to get home. No one else has ever put him to sleep. Alex picked him up off the couch and took him down to the room. I walked in to find our little bubbs laying in Alex's arms falling asleep. It was so cute! I wish I had a camera. It's evenings like this that I am reminded all over again why I love my husband.

Here's my issue

When a judge states that what was passed by voters is "irrelevant" why then are we voting!? If a judge is just going to rule and make decisions based on what he/she wants regardless of what the majority wants then we have major issues. It's a sad day in history when judges and government have no regard for what the majority of the people want but do what is popular. I'm curious to see how things will begin to take shape and form over the next several years. God help us all and give us the strength to fight for our freedom.