Nectarines and Peaches

My friend's parents have a beautiful orchard on the foothills of Maple Mountain. She invited us up there this fall to pick peaches and nectarines. It was great! I love picking fruit and though the girls preferred to play we got plenty to take home. The nectarines are my favorite- so sweet!

Little Lucy on my back- she didn't like it when the branches kept getting in her face but I couldn't put her down because there were hornets everywhere eating fallen fruit.

A couple of lovely pickers. Grace, Lili, hmmm. Where's Kate? Like I said the thrill didn't last long for them. She was gone into the woods with her friends by this time.

Some of our bounty. These have been much enjoyed and still occupy half of our freezer.
Thanks to my friend!!!

Prepare

We have been told for over 70 years to get food storage and now I think some people are beginning to understand why. I hope more people start following. Those few who have it won't be able to sustain the rest if food suddenly isn't available. We are in a much more fragile situation than during the great depression because of our way off life. I am hearing of many people who have lost their jobs or are expecting to be laid off. Unfortunately many of those people do not have food stored. I believe that there is no mechanism to recover from our economic problems and so things will only get worse. I heard somewhere that the church only has enough food for about 4% of the church membership. If another 10 percent have a year's supply I would be surprised. What about the rest? A sobering thought. We may do more than just think about it soon.

Are you on Santa's naughty list?

Kate asked me that the other day. She had watched "Elf" shortly before and I think was trying to understand the whole nice/naughty list thing. I told her that Santa doesn't have adults on his lists, only children. We talked about why Buddy's dad was on the "naughty" list (because he only cared about money) and that the movie wasn't real. I reflected on this for the whole rest of the day. Why did I tell her that the movie wasn't real and basically that Santa's list is real? The whole Santa thing kind of annoys me. I like pretending but I don't like lying and there seems to be too much fuzziness between the two with Santa. Lili already knows that we play Santa. If Kate asks I think I will just say, "It's fun to pretend there's a Santa." We all need to play Santa for others anyway right? We are going to help a family in need this year and so maybe that will come up. I kind of hope so.

Thawing the Turkey

I always try to get a big turkey. That way we have plenty of leftovers. Enough for us and to send home with family. This year it is 19.65 lbs. That is great, except that it takes longer to thaw and longer to cook. Several years ago I got a meat thermometer and I forgot to take it out of the turkey after I measured the temperature and the plastic protective part on its face melted into the drippings. The gravy was really good that year. Since then we've relied on those pop-up timers that come in the bird. Last year it took forever to cook the turkey and eventually we had most of the meal without the turkey. It ended up taking over 6 hours before the "tender timer pop-up roasting gauge" popped up. This year I think I might set my alarm for the middle of the night and get up and put the turkey in. Then I'll go back to sleep. Or maybe we can just plan to eat at 4 instead of 12:30. At least we'll try to avoid filling the house with smoke like we did two years ago when we had a fire in the oven (there was a leak in the roasting pan). Ah, memories. A good site for turkey cooking references is www.the-perfect-turkey.com (though it says 4 1/2 hours for a 20lb turkey like everyone else and that has NOT ever been long enough for us).

New Email Address

We are switching our internet service provider and so my email address that I've had for the last almost 6 years is going to disappear. The end of an era. So, now I have to choose a new one. What should it be? I want it to be meaningful or funny or something so I can remember it. I have friends with email addresses like bookinterrupted, 3g3b3g, 4myfam, arctikfox, and chunkyjean. I have a couple of Usernames that are hdpottery -my initials and the hobby I wish I had time for. Burpingfish is another one I have used. I have no idea why but it has been easy to remember at least.
It all seems so final. Once I choose, that's it. It almost like naming a child. Okay, not really. So what should it be? I don't know yet. Any ideas?

String Line Art

I'm teaching an art class to my older daughter and 10 other 7-10 year olds from one of the homeschooling groups here. We've been learning about line and edges and how to see them in order to draw more accurately. I've always been interested in string and hair and the shapes they make when they are wet and stuck on something. Small parts of them are so easy to move to put them just where you want them. I guess pencil is like that too a little but I like the way this works even better. I looked online for a lesson plan for a project for class like this and couldn't find one, so I thought I'd just look for some examples of finished work to show. I couldn't find any anywhere except one abstract piece. I decided to sit down and do a quick one myself of Lili tonight and here it is:

I really liked doing it. That would be a fun niche to get into wouldn't it? I was thinking we would make them on nice paper and then we could spray paint them gold. After that we could sort of burnish them with shoe polish or something to make them pop. Fuuuunnn.

I'm excited for tomorrow. It can't be worse than last week- I'll have to tell about that sometime.

Unity

President Eyring spoke about increasing Unity today. I have been thinking about this a lot lately because of the wonderful unity I feel within the homeschool groups I am part of and the contrasting situation I find in my neighborhood and ward. My concerns here aren't necessarily divisions or contentions but a simple lack of knowing and loving one another. We live in the middle of Provo, a large university city, with many students coming and going.
When we lived in Mapleton in a ward with many more families it was so much easier to feel that unity. That was, of course, really nice. However, I'm determined that for whatever time we're here that we can build a kind of unity greater than what we have now. I'm excited that the Relief Society has just announced a yahoo group. I think that will be really helpful. Heavenly Father will provide a way.

General Conference Oct 2008

Today was the first day of the LDS 178th Semiannual General Conference. It was excellent, of course. I have been working on a lot of little things, as usual, and also as usual the speakers spoke directly to some of those things. I am so grateful to the Lord and his tender mercies in being aware of me and sending messages that will strengthen me in my life. President Thomas S Monson actually mentioned that "Heavenly Father is mindful of each one of us" in his opening address.

A few brief thoughts from today:
President Monson also announced 5 new temples! Including those under construction now there will be 145 temples when these 5 are done!
Elder L Tom Perry taught us to live "A Simplified Life."
Sister Allred reminded us that "when you save a woman, you save generations." And, "This is the Lord's work- he will help us do it."
Elder Oaks reminded us about appropriate behavior for our commemoration of the sacrament.
President Uchtdorf spoke of Hope. He said that even in adversity we can have Joy in the Hope of Christ. -In the midst of winter I found within an invincible summer.
Elder Joseph B Wirthlin taught us how to avoid anger and resentment in adversity. His mother taught him "Come what may, and Love it!" He said "Put your trust in the Lord, do your best, and leave the rest to the Lord."
Elder Holland spoke of angels- heavenly and earthly angels. He testified that Heavenlt Father never leaves us alone. He encouraged us to be angels to others as we pray for angels ourselves.
Elder Lawrence Corbridge told us to Remember! Everyone can do it. Life is difficult but we can choose to receive his help and it will be easier. Keep on the path- don't quit and you will make it.
Elder Christofferson spoke of becoming a Zion people. He said we must strive for unity, godliness, and charity. The building up of Zion should be our greatest object.
Elder Bednar reminded us to ask in faith and to be grateful.

There were a couple others that I have notes for but I didn't catch their names so I will add them later. I also have lots to think about and write about these topics. I felt impressed today that keeping a journal was important and blogging is a great way to do that for me. I am going to try to do it often.

Brown and Sticky

One of Tom's favorite jokes for a while was "What is brown and sticky?" When you hang out with scouts a lot like he does I'm sure you get some pretty funny answers. One day Tom decided to ask Lili and Kate this great joke. Kate, thinking she knew the obvious answer, said, "the floor?" So, I've decided that I can laugh at her little truisms and try and learn something too. Yes the floor is brown and usually sticky but someday I won't have that problem anymore and maybe I'll just miss it a little.

I know you're dying to know. The answer is: a stick.

Fresh whole wheat bread. Just like my mother used to make.

I finally got around to trying to find a good whole wheat bread recipe and thanks to my friend Jennie I found the perfect one. I asked Mama for hers once but she had changed her recipe over the years to one that had come with her breadmaker and it wasn't the same as I remembered. This one is as close to what I remember as I'm going to get. Even my husband thought it was excellent! This was my first time make bread totally from scratch- meaning I even ground my own flour! The bread wasn't even done and I had this feeling of total satisfaction. It is very peaceful to know that I have a bunch of wheat that I can use to make yummy things even if times get tough. A little closer to being really prepared.

"If ye are prepared ye shall not fear." D&C 38:30

Making Faces

A little while ago, Kate and Grace were making faces with Tom. They all tried to make sad faces but I guess the girls didn't find Tom's very convincing. Tom replied to the girls that he doesn't have much practice so that is probably why he couldn't do it very well. In all her 5-year-old wisdom, Kate responded "Maybe you should try making an angry face."