Time flies when you're having fun!

Tis true, tis true...time does fly, especially when the moments of life are filled with sweetness and love and genuine friendship. Chad and I had our 11th anniversary this month and I marveled that time has passed in a blink. The weather we have been enjoying recently is certainly reminiscent of the kind we had that day. The weekend before our wedding, all was sunshine and tulips, but an east wind began howling the day before our chosen date and didn't let up until the next evening. I stayed with my friend Jenny and her family on my wedding day eve, they gave me a room on the top floor of their house and the wind whipped and whistled around all night. If I were a superstitious sort of person, maybe I would have been worried at the omen weather, but I would have been ridiculously wrong. Good thing we have the Spirit to rely on! Happy Anniversary Chad! Everyday I count myself to be insanely lucky that you said yes. (And wasn't I smart to ask?!)

Egg Carton Garden

I went to a Relief Society Meeting. We learned about gardening. Whenever I go to a gardening class I always realize how much I don't know about growing stuff. Stuff can be hard to grow sometimes depending on your soil ph and composition! I learned I need to put some sand in my soil as we live in a clay rich area. I can do that. I also learned about sprouting seeds. Prior to last year, when it was time to plant my garden I would go to a nursery and pay $1.50 for a single already-growing plant. When I lived in an apartment and had a tiny garden, that didn't cost a whole lot but now that I have a fair sized garden, it costs a lot more. Last year I tried seeds, with decent success, but I like total success if I can get it, so this year I am sprouting.

I bought a big bag of potting soil and put some in a bucket. We added water...

and then mixed it all up with our bare hands (cuz we're not sissies).

We then dug up handfuls and filled four egg cartons. Yes, I said egg cartons and no, I haven't lost my mind. The egg cartons are made up of 100% recycled material and are totally biodegradable. When the plants are ready to go into the dirt, just separate the individual egg containers and put the whole thing in the ground. Since plants don't really love to be transplanted, this eases their pain.

After our cartons were full of dirt, I poked 72 holes and the kids planted 72 seeds.Grant really liked planting the seeds. I may have a little gardener in him!

We planted corn, beans, peas, spinach, zucchini, crook-neck squash, 3 kinds of tomatoes, watermelon, "spooky" pumpkins, peppers, cilantro, rosemary, mint, basil, lemon basil, Italian parsley, thyme, oregano and our new experiment for the garden - cucumber. After placing each seed in it's designated spot Grace exclaimed, "They are all in their homes!" I agreed and said that we should put them to bed, so we carefully smoothed dirt over them and brought the cartons into the house. Here they will stay until they have grown up enough to get kicked out into the wide world where, hopefully, they will become big and strong and bear fruit (if we're talking tomatoes) or veggies, whichever the case may be. God bless our garden!

P.S. - The peach tree that I planted with much prayer and sweat and back-breaking shoveling is starting to blossom! Yippee!!














My cute tree is still so small and skinny it put me in mind of Moses and Aaron and Aaron's stick which blossomed and bloomed. No idea what I'm talking about? See Numbers 17: 1-8. ;)

Pablo Picasso's Got Nothing On My Kids...

Or on me for that matter. Of course, that isn't saying much cuz I think Picasso is TERRIBLE! Seriously! I mean, look at that...it's ugly! I think my painting today could give Picasso's Dora Maar here(one of many paintings he did of one of his many mistresses) a run for it's money.

I call it Ladybugs in a Field of Flowers. Nice eh? (Ha ha!) I guess I shouldn't bag on Picasso too much, he actually could paint beautiful things, he just chose not to.

Grace and Grant are creating beautiful things. I like to watch them work and imagine what it is they are trying to represent. Are they just experimenting with color or do they see something with their mind's eye that needs expression? I don't know, but it's important to let them try.

Grace made the ocean. There are purple and blue fish in there.

Grace says that Grant has painted mountains. I'm going to go with that answer.

We try to create something everyday in our house. I like the looks on the children's faces when they are in the throes of artistic genesis...they are happy. President Dieter F. Uchtdorf said, "The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul. No matter our talents, education, backgrounds, or abilities, we each have an inherent wish to create something that did not exist before. Everyone can create. You don’t need money, position, or influence in order to create something of substance or beauty. Creation brings deep satisfaction and fulfillment." I see that in my children and feel it in myself.

I'm not the craftiest person around (far from it) but it's not hard to find things to do. We paint, color pictures, bake treats, use glue and scissors and craft paper, make books, play with jell-o play-doh, draw, dance, make up silly songs, think up new games, cut out snowflakes, and on and on. When we do this together I feel the bonds of love between my children and myself strengthened. These are the ties that bind. I'm counting on these everyday experiences to make a difference when they are older. I hope they will still want to create things with their mother.

Speaking of creating things...
I made these. They were super yummy! I decided that my visiting teaching ladies needed Easter treats...don't we all? They are called Raspberry Jam Bars are they are filled with almond-y cookie and sweet raspberry goodness. I wrapped them à la Jaime the Sophistimom and put them in baskets along with a copy of the children's song Did Jesus Really Live Again?. They were pretty cute, and could have been done better by someone else with more flair, but I was happy with them and pleased to give them out as Easter gifts.
I like to create.

Why I Laugh Every Day...

Chad and I were chatting it up on the IM about the elliptical trainer he put together over the weekend. He wanted to double check his work on the tension line and I mentioned that while he was looking at it he might find the bolt he dropped down inside the machine.

Chad: "Maybe."

Me: "Think positive!"

Chad: "I try, but a little voice in the back of my head always says 'bulls*t' every single time."

Me: "That's funny! My little voice says, "I think I can, I think I can!"

Chad: "huh. I've never heard that voice . . . ever . . . in my entire life."

Easter hoo-ha!

How absolutely fabulous was it that Easter Sunday and Conference weekend coincided this year? I loved it! What better way to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ then to hear the testimonies of His prophet and apostles concerning the reality of that very event? I loved all the talks and I have never had a Conference Weekend where my questions were so directly answered and my fears so directly addressed. It felt like many of the speakers were talking to me face to face. Something that Elder Bednar said really resonated in my heart:

"The spiritual understanding you and I have been blessed to receive, and which has been confirmed as true in our hearts, simply cannot be given to our children. The tuition of diligence and of learning by study and also by faith must be paid to obtain and personally 'own' such knowledge. Only in this way can what is known in the mind also be felt in the heart. Only in this way can a child move beyond relying upon the spiritual knowledge and experiences of parents and adults and claim those blessings for himself or herself. Only in this way can our children be prepared spiritually for the challenges of mortality."

Oh, how that phrase "tuition of diligence" has stayed with me! If the church didn't seriously frown on tatoos, I would tatoo it on my forearm. That tuition is not just for children...it is for all of us. Testimony needs daily feeding, diligent and careful nurturing, to be strong. Even the everyday tasks of life require diligence! We must pay diligence her daily due if we are to enjoy the spiritual and temporal blessings that we seek. Our actions show the Lord we are serious about being His disciples and that we greatly desire His help and blessings. Here, this thought just occurred to me...the Lord told Adam that "by the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread all the days of thy life." This refers to work and it's rewards, but what if we considered it to mean spiritual work? We are diligent, we work, and the Lord's blessing is bread: "And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." (John 6:35) We come unto Christ by being spiritually diligent, and He saves us from sin and death. In Him we will find all the spiritual food we will ever need, and our souls will be satisfied. But, I digress...Conference was wonderful!

Easter brought flowers to my house.











I made the table runner from a too small table cloth and some extra fabric while I was watching "The Ten Commandments" (and a bit beyond it's end to be honest). That show cracks me up! Charlton Heston's hair is it's own character and deserves it's own credit at the end of the movie. I love how Nefritiri says, "Moses!" with so much drama and pathos. Oh, they don't act like that any more! (And that is probably a good thing!)

Mom, Dad, Heather, and Jeannine came to eat dinner with us. We had SO MUCH good food, and just to be different (and to make dinner more meaningful), we ate lamb for our main course. It was very yummy! All we needed was Charlton Heston at the dinner table intoning the word of the Lord to make our meal complete. Too bad he's dead. I wonder if they buried him with a gun in his hands? Am I confusing you? You should get out more.

After dinner we had our Easter egg hunt. We actually had the kids dye eggs this year, which I always did as a child but was never brave enough to have my kids do. We dyed a total of nine eggs...
and then the rest were plastic and filled with candy and quotes from scripture and the prophets about the resurrection of the Savior. We read through the quotes while the kids ate their treats and had a wonderful time. Here are some Easter egg hunting scenes.

The hunt is on! Merritt collected so many eggs that he filled his stegosaurus basket to the brim and then spent the rest of the time helping Grace and Grant.

Grant was super excited to find the eggs. Every time he spotted one he'd squeal "EGG!"

Grace loved her bunny basket almost as much as she loved finding eggs full of candy!

Things really got interesting when Grant threw an egg over the fence to the neighbor's dog. Ling-Ling promptly chewed open the plastic and scarfed the Kit-Kat or Wonka Golden Egg (whatever was in there) complete with wrapper. I tossed Merritt over the fence to retrieve the egg before Ling-Ling decided to eat that too. The goofy dog thought Merritt had come over to play and only by distracting her with a dog biscuit (which Jeannine keeps us stocked with so the kids can treat the dog) did we get that darn egg out of her mouth. Thankfully, Ling-Ling survived her encounter with Easter candy, though I'm sure her owner's were surprised when she pooped out the plastic wrapper!

Finally...I know I've already done a wacky weather post, but SERIOUSLY! Mother Nature is off her meds or something! I woke up on Tuesday morning to this...
That is 8 INCHES of snow people. Sure it was 95% melted by Wednesday afternoon but I shoveled snow in April. (Chad would have shoveled but he was in Omaha - where they were enjoying a heat wave.) Blah!

April Fools!

Spring Has Sprung!

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NOT!APRIL FOOLS!