Random Thoughts from Home!

I always thought that when the children began to leave the home that life would get slower and less stressful. I'm here to tell each of you that that is a crock. And thank heavens it is. How boring it would be if there wasn't something to do, some project to start, work on, finish, some last minute thing to do for one's calling, some service to perform! I love it.

Right now I'm cutting old jeans up to make small quilts. These jeans are old ones from when each of you were very young. I did not throw them away because I knew I would one day have time to cut and patch them together. They are being cut into 4x4 inch squares. I have already cut about 100 6x6 inch squares for twin sized quilts for whomever is lucky enough to need them. I am also working on a quilt for Emmi. There is also a pattern pinned to material for matching dresses for Maran and Courtney. I have also set up an area for scrapbooking. Not the fancy-shmancy kind, just the 'let's get these pictures on a page before I lose them' kind! I am also reading the Scarlet Pimpernel for bookclub in March and I've watched the movie so I think I'm going to like the book! I'm also involved in a personal progress kind of program for Relief Society. One of my goals is to memorize the Proclamation to the Family. I have the first two paragraphs memorized already! I continue to teach seminary and I hope that I have this calling for many more years. I love it! The students are so great and what I learn from studying is priceless. I am heading up the Activities Committee for the Youth Trek this summer and that's going to be something! I get to spend a lot of time with them as well this summer. When I think about it, I'm one of the fortunate ones who enjoys her life and where it has lead me. Not a lot of people are happy about where life has taken them but I'm not one of them! Lucky, lucky me!!

And the greatest reason for my happiness has to be your Dad. He is truly my special valentine all the year long! I have long believed that if each of our sons could be even half the man their father is then they would be outstanding men. And if our daughters could marry someone who was even half the man their father is, they would be happy. Your dad is the kindest, most tender husband, father and person ever created. He is truly without guile and is truly like Nephi of old who remained steadfast and immovable in his faith no matter what. I have posted in my seminary room two posters. One is for the young men and says, 'strive to always be a Nephi kind of guy' and the one for the girls says, 'settle for nothing less than a Nephi kind of guy.' Well, I was blessed and got a Nephi kind of guy. How many people can say after 30 years of marraige that their spouse still makes them laugh, still brings them joy, still makes them want to pinch themselves to be sure this eternal happiness is real! Life is good, especially when you are married to someone like your Dad!!!

Love you all

Mom

Random Thoughts from Home!

Thought I'd put this picture up of the cutie-patooties in dresses Grandma Mitchell bought. No, I did not make them! But are'nt they adorable? Having these girls in our home was such fun and could only have been improved if they had been joined by Nolan and Gerret! We missed you boys but we know you had a great New York Christmas.

This is our second Christmas where we took all the Christmas money we were given and added Christmas bonuses and any other cash we could come up with and got a big gift. Last year we bought the laptop which has been wonderful to use. This year we bought a 42-inch plasma TV. And yes it's great! Dad and I watched the last Indiana Jones movie Friday night and we loved it. We also watched football playoffs on Saturday and I was overwhelmed with joy. (shedding of tears will commence shortly!) Dad researched plasma vs lcd and size and everything else one should know. So when we were at Costco he was impressed with their models, sizes and the two year warranty. I don't like movie theatres anyway so now I have absolutely no reason to go to one now!

Not much is currently going on at home. I still love teaching seminary, Dad still loves being Young Mens president and Brady loves being a junior. He did drop yearbook and entered a regular AP English class and will be a teacher's assistant for Mr. Schatz. He also got a 32 on his first try of the ACT. He will be taking it again in order to qualify for a full ride scholarship at BYU-Provo. He needs a 34 for that and he also knows that Zach's 35 set the bar high.

We are leaving for church now so have a great Sabbath and week. Love you all.

Mom

Random Thoughts from Home

I've put these two cutie-patooties up because as you all know (check family calendar) they are celebrating birthdays in january! Both are way too cute and I love them to pieces. Happy birthday guys!!!

If you haven't checked family blogs be sure to check Lindsays year of pictures and Maran's very, very creative sled for her beautiful daughter. Great job Maran and Lindsay!

So the holidays are over and now begins the new year 2010. I thought when I was younger that we'd all be using jetpacks for transportation by now! But I look forward to so many things this year. I hope for continued health for each family member. Aren't we blessed when it comes right down to it? I hope that Jordan, Devin, Maran and Zach will continue to find success in their schooling. I hope that Patrick, Becky and Dad continue to have employment! And I hope that our grandchildren stay as absolutely adorable as they are now. I hope that we all stay close to the Lord and that in times of trials and tests that He is the first one we turn to. I am looking forward to getting together with the other Mitchell's this summer as we gather on the west side of Washington. I'll let you know details when we get them. I hope that we can pay off our van and get closer to being debt-free. Yay, Dave Ramsey!(thanks Jordan and Ginanne for the new book) I hope that each of us appreciates what a gift our family is and that we never take one another for granted. I hope that my mom continues to get better and that my sister Patty gets better. I have so much to be thankful for!

In regards to my last post when I was trying a new recipe, it was the oreo bonbons but they weren't as good as they looked. I think they were too rich. It was just cream cheese and a package of oreos mixed in the mixer and then rolled into one inch balls. They were then put in the freezer for about an hour and then dipped in white chocolate. Good but not great!

So for those of you who have my no-fail bread recipe I made it yesterday and learned something new. I had to go to work after I had put them into the bread pans so instead of rising for one hour they rose for almost two hours and they were beautiful! I just set them on the stove and without additional heat just the regular temperature, they were perfect looking loaves of bread.

So I hope each of you have a great day, week, month!

Love you all

Mom

Random Thoughts From Home

Sorry it's been so long, but frankly I've been busy looking for the months of September, October and November! Where did they go? Take it from me, when people say time goes by faster the older you get, BELIEVE THEM!

I had a great birthday today. My dear, sweet husband had seminary security this morning and brought warm cider and bagels and cream cheese for my students to celebrate. My good friend Michelle who is my walking partner gave me an oversized mug with Starbuck's cocoa mixes. And Brady gave me a symphony chocolate bar. I had great phone calls from my wonderful children and we ended the day with Chinese food brought home by that sweetie of mine. I think life is great and I have truly enjoyed my amazing 53 years of life thus far. Here's to the next 53!

I am going to be trying a new dessert recipe tomorrow and I'll let you know how it goes. Love to all you and have a great day!

Random Thoughts from Home

Hard to believe that summer is gone and now Thanksgiving is right around the corner! I have so many things to be grateful for and they all happen to be about family! I am grateful for a wonderful summer memory full of fun, laughter and little ones who were just as perfect as can be. And I am grateful to have had those wonderful days when all our children were together. And to get to know Lindsay and Devin and Ginanne just a little bit better. That is joy!

I am also grateful for lessons learned over the years. One is which is perseverance. On the wall in the family room is a beautiful quilt hanging that I started but did not have the confidence to finish so a wonderful quilter friend named Jody finished it for me. It's beautiful but it always bothered me that I couldn't quilt. So I started on small projects for the home and then expanded to baby quilts and small doll quilts. But I still didn't feel capable of finishing a good sized baby quilt until now! Courtney will receive a baby quilt that says to me that my skills have grown! Not that I am bragging but I am just saying that I didn't give up and I kept trying and every time I look at this quilt I feel happy! So now I have selected materials for a bigger quilt for Emmi and then I'll move on to Nolan and Gerret. It's like my bread making. For the life of me I couldn't make bread that rose and tasted and actually looked like a decent loaf of bread until about two years ago. The point I'm trying to get across is that although there are some things I won't ever be able to do, like singing in the Tab choir there is nothing I can't do if I put my mind to it. And once Courtney is given the quilt then I will post a picture of it.

And speaking of bread, here's the no-fail recipe that I now use and it works every time! And the ingredients are the most basic. You will always have these in your home.

2 cups milk 1 Tbls salt 2 Tbls butter/margarine 1 Tbls yeast

1/2 cup warm water 2 Tbls sugar 6-7 cups wheat and white flour

Heat milk, salt and butter in saucepan until bubbles appear around edges, then let it cool. Sprinkle yeast over water in large bowl, add sugar and stir, set aside for 5-10 minutes. Stir in the cooled milk mixture . Add 3 cups flour and stir with wooden spoon for 2 minutes. Gradually add more flour with hands until dough leaves sides of bowl. Knead dough on floured surface for 10 mintues. Grease mixing bowl with 1 Tbls soft margarine and coat dought also so it won't dry our or crack. Cover with towel and let it rise for 1 1/2 hours. Punch dough down and knead for 2 minutes. Cut dough in half and let rest for 5 minutes. Roll each ball into 9x12 rectangle. Roll up and fold under ends. Put seam side down in greased bread pan and let rise for 1 hour. Bake 35-40 minutes in 4oo degree oven. It's wonderful!

Love you all

Mom

Random Thoughts from Home!

I'm at the computer waiting for my oatmeal-banana muffins to bake. I had leftover bananas and of course cannot let them go to waste. Hope they turn out. What a beautiful Fall day. Dad is up in the attic laying the insulation. Boy is he noisy! I know he wants to get done before we go to our 2:30 temple session. It's Stake temple day and we're excited to see many ward family members there.

I put Maran's picture here to highlight the fact that our baby girl is turning 21 this Monday! Whoo-Hoo!!! It was only yesterday she was a roly-poly bundle of love crawling everywhere and with the most beautiful brown eyes looking for trouble! Happy Birthday little sis!

We were deeply saddened by the passing of Patrick O'Brien. He put up a valiant fight and we know that now he is healthy and strong and watching over his family. We will miss him.

In seminary this week my favorite chapter was 2 Nephi 31. WOW! So much doctrine packed into 21 verses. I strongly recommend all to read and feast and ponder and learn from this great chapter.

We of course are stocking up on Halloween sales and my treat bucket for seminary will never be empty. I love sales.

We would appreciate Christmas wish lists from all of you soon. Dad and I started shopping last night but Becky is the only one who's given us any ideas, so start thinking. Needless to say we started shopping for the grandbabies quite a while ago!

So here's a new recipe I found on one of my food storage websites. As you kids know a Halloween tradition in our family is the tossing of the pumpkins from the roof. It is always quite a sight and Emily enjoys it a lot! Well, I saved my jack-o-lantern and cooked it and now it's ready for

Jack-O-lantern pie.

3 1/2 cups pumpkin 3/4 c. sugar 1/2 tsp salt 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp giner, nutmeg and ground cloves 3 eggs 1 c. dry instant milk

Thoroughly combine all of the above. Pour into a pie crust and bake at 400 degrees for 50 minutes or until a knife inserted halfway between center and outside comes out clean. Let it cool.

I cut my carved pumpkin into 4-inch squares and with 1 cup water put into a big pot and simmered for 40 mnutes until soft. Then I put it into the blender and pureed it. It's in the freezer waiting to be made into Jack-O-Lantern pies!

Love you all and have a great week!

Mom

Random Thoughts From Home

So this is what I did on Halloween! I love days that are so productive. We bought the apples at Greenbluff quite a few weeks ago and they were starting to go soft. So I decided today was the day to get it all done. I tried a new pie filling recipe that I got off one of my food storage blogs and the apple sauce and pie were from my standard recipes. I made the pie because I had extra pie filling left over and didn't want it to go to waste. We still have carrots to can but that will have to be sometime next week. The only thing missing were little ones with spoons ready to eat the sauce piping hot right out of the grinder!

Dad bought insulation from Lowe's for the attic and he spent hours getting the 15 inch rolls through the 14 1/2 inch hole. But next week he'll start laying up in the attic and hopefully we will see a declne in heating bills!

We're going to enjoy chili and cornbread for dinner. Chili just sounded perfect for a busy fall day. It's an easy recipe that I got from Marsha. I just mixed 1 qt canned tomatoes, 3-4 cans of chili and one onion. Easy, peasy! I'm trying a new cornbread recipe because I can't find Grace Z. recipe. Don't tell Dad, he loves that recipe.

We also went to the temple today. We've been able to go almost weekly and I definitely feel a stronger spirit in our home and in our marraige. It's amazing what the temple can do for you!

Apple Pie Filling:

Mix 10 cups water, 4 1/2 cups sugar, 2 tsp nutmeg, 2 T cinnamon and 1 cup cornstarch together in a large pan. When mixed turn heat to med/high and bring to boil. boil just until it gets thick and then take off heat. Immediately add 2 T lemon juice and 1 t almond. Now peel, core, and slice apples into quart jars and fill with pie mixture to within 1 inch from top of jars. Water bath for 40 minutes. Easy!

Well, it's time for dinner so I'll say I love you and hope you all have a great holiday!

Love Mom