The Age Old Question

(not my photo)

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it,
does it still make a sound?

In the beginning, the only people who read my blog were Russ and Cindy Lynn. And I was good with that.

In the intervening months I've grown accustomed to having a few wonderful readers; friends who's comments I enjoy and look forward to.

That is why I find myself partially paralyzed by the recent discovery that my blog isn't updating on blog roll sidebars anymore. It's a tricky relationship, blogger and reader. I tell myself that I'm blogging for me, and me alone. And yet I want you here too, adding your voice to my thoughts and experiences, laughing along with me, and enjoying my messes.

The problem is that I'm already behind in the memories that I'm trying to record. I've tried everything I can to force a fix but the problem is obviously a blogger problem. So I think my answer to the age old question is going to have to be

If a post publishes, and no one knows it, it is still worth writing...

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Update: Must have been karma. As soon as I decided that I would have to keep on blogging, regardless of who knew I was doing it, my blog started updating again!

Touched by Joy

Before I had children I had an unspoken, subconscious, and totally unrealistic expectation of what I thought life would be like.

Basically, I thought life would be like a shampoo commercial.

Not an R-rated shampoo commercial, like you'd see today. A shampoo commercial like you'd see in the 70's or 80's — where the blonde mother and child, dressed in white, run in slow motion through fields of wheat. (Sorry--can't find any pictures so you'll have to imagine it.)

That was what I thought life was going to be like.

I was mistaken.

Instead of a shampoo commercial, I had a sick baby. Instead of a shampoo commercial, I found out that I was always exhausted. Instead of a shampoo commercial I was cranky and so were they and then on top of everything there were triplets.

And nothing was ever in slow motion, except perhaps the cleaning up of vomit.

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Every now and then, though, there was a moment.

A moment that seemed like it was almost removed from time, a moment that was extraordinarily beautiful and felt tinged with gold. I started calling them my shampoo commercial moments.

For many years it puzzled me. What was this moment, and what did it mean?

Finally I decided that it was some kind of stamp of approval by the Spirit — a bit of affirmation.

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The other day a lovely friend of mine blogged about joy. She quoted Sister Barbara Thompson, a counselor in the General Relief Society presidency in our church. Sister Thompson said,

Feeling joy is a manifestation
of the presence of the Spirit.

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So that's what it was. The shampoo commercial moments were moments where the spirit showed me the joy that was my life.

Even if we weren't wearing white....

Or running in slow motion.....

Ticket to Ride & Ride & Ride

Tonight we were happy to be able to party with Ken & Alisyn, who were gone for far too long. There were several highlights of the evening; Russ tried a new mexican recipe, we had a new dessert, and of course we played games.

On tonight's game menu: comparing the different versions of Ticket to Ride. We got the US version for Christmas, we gave Mahon the German version, and Ken & Alisyn got the European version.

(please notice that we coordinated our sweaters without realizing it. Alisyn's looks darker, but was almost the same color as Cindy Lynn's & mine were. )

We've now played the US version quite a few times and the German version obsessively for the last 2 weeks. Tonight we played the German version and then the European version for the first time.

I think the German version is much more difficult than the other versions. I can't decide which of the others I think is easier. The US map is bigger and less cluttered, and the game is simpler. But having the train station in the European version makes the game so much less stressful--getting blocked is no longer a problem. I can tell already that if Cindy Lynn & Mahon don't end up moving back here we'll have to buy our own copy of the German game!

For dessert I made a new recipe that Katie fed us last night. It was unbelievably rich and yummy, and I had to make it right away. It's called Apple Dumplings, and is from the pioneer woman's blog. Which apparently is very interesting, though I have yet to check it out.

The dumplings are served with whipped cream, but I didn't think to take a picture while we were eating them, and I'm not going to put whipped cream on the leftovers! So you'll just have to imagine that part. It calls for Mountain Dew, but next time I'm going to try Sprite. So that Josh doesn't have any reason to be drinking half of a bottle of Mountain Dew...

Here's the recipe, and if you want step by step pictures, you can see them here.

• 2 whole Granny Smith Apples
• 2 cans (8 Oz. Cans) Crescent Rolls
• 2 sticks Butter
• 1-½ cup Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• Cinnamon, To Taste
• 1 can (12 Oz.) Mountain Dew Soda

Preparation Instructions

Peel and core apples. Cut each apple into 8 slices each. Roll each apple slice in a crescent roll. Place in a 9 x 13 buttered pan.

Melt butter, then add sugar and barely stir. Add vanilla, stir, and pour entire mixture over apples. Pour Mountain Dew around the edges of the pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Serve with ice cream, and spoon some of the sweet sauces from the pan over the top.

WARNING: Prepare this dish at your own risk. It is beyond imaginable.

Girl Talk

I really like being female. I like being a mommy, and I like not having to scratch and slap people on the butt, and I like girl talk.

Tonight Cindy Lynn and I spent the evening with two of our lovely friends. When Cindy Lynn's husband heard that we were there for 4 hours, he asked what we did. And when Cindy Lynn told him that we talked the whole time, he said,

GOOD GRIEF WOMAN!!! WHAT ON EARTH DID YOU HAVE TO TALK ABOUT???

Well obviously Mahon doesn't understand about girl talk.

We can talk about anything. We can talk about everything. We can talk about books we've read, movies we've seen, and places we've been. Parenting tips, ways we're sure we're messing up our children, ways our parents messed us up. We can talk about what's making us happy, what's making us sad, and what we're not really sure about.

And it is all wonderful and soul-feeding. Thanks, girls!

More Pyrex Trouble

This is what happened the other night while I was trying to make hot chocolate. (Endless partying requires lots and lots of hot chocolate.)

(Didn't I just break a pyrex casserole dish?)

What a mess. It took me and Cindy Lynn and my sister in law Jenny to clean it all up. It was all over my sweater, sweats, and slippers. (yes, my house is cold.)

Happily, I have another pyrex bowl. I actually cook a lot of things in my pyrex bowls in the microwave--anything that has a white sauce base I cook in the microwave instead of on the stove.

I'm a little worried, though, that the next time I try to cook something it will explode on me again. Hopefully the problem was just that the syrup & the bowl were too hot and the milk I added was too cold. I should be more careful...

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P.S. Perhaps I am not meant to make hot chocolate. Or at least not in the microwave. Because I just found out that this is what happens when you make the syrup in a 2 cup pyrex measuring cup...

ARGGGHHHHH!

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P.P.S. At least now the whole microwave is clean!

Ava-Tastic --Updated

Yesterday we, like one billion (plus) dollar's worth of people worldwide over the last few weeks, plunked down our hard earned money and went to see Avatar.

What an adventure that was. After 3 hours we emerged from the theater exhausted, triumphant, and looking like geeks in our 3D glasses. (Oh, and Russ's hand was numb from being squeezed too hard!)

The little kids were so disappointed that they couldn't go too, so we have promised them a trip to the theater soon. (Which is a really big deal in our home.)

In the meantime, they can have fun with Josh's 3D glasses....

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I'm adding my own thoughts about the movie since a couple of people have asked:

I was actually surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Overall, I think that it's one of those movies that you just should see in the theater (and in 3D) because it's such an experience. It will never be the same on a home tv.

So here's what I thought of the movie itself:

Good:

• Very exciting--never boring, even though it's long.
• Very likable good guys and a very terrible villian.
• Interesting technology--fun to watch.
• BEAUTIFUL PLANET--by far the best part was looking at this planet that they "created." It was stunning.
• Interesting indigenous population. Sort of human, sort of feline, blue, and 10' tall.

Bad:

• A fair amount of swearing. In my opinion not gratuitous, but definitely noticeable.
• A little queasiness if you look at the edges of the screen at the wrong time.
• Quasi-nudity. Cindy Lynn & I talked about this after. The Na-Vi' are blue & striped and are not "dressed" in the normal sense of the word, although they don't seem totally naked either. More like they're all wearing very tight fitting blue unitards with loin cloths and lots of well placed jewelry. You see a fair amount of blue butts and some breasts. I know this probably seems trivial to some people, but I worry because I know my teenage boys are at an age where they could be really affected by exposure to overly sexual images. I think this was ok, but it was pretty close to the line of not ok, if that makes sense!

I had wondered about taking the triplets and someone told me that they thought it was far to intense. Jared probably would have enjoyed it, but it would definitely have stressed out Rachel & Jenna.

Sew Insane

Last year I didn't finish my Christmas sewing (dresses for my girls and another for my favorite 3 year old) until the middle of January. I was determined to start earlier this year and be finished at a reasonable time.

I did start earlier. I finished in time for my girls to wear their dresses on the Sunday before Christmas, but only because I sewed the entire day before. I didn't finish the rest of my Christmas sewing until the 23rd. Next year I hope to do better than that.

On the other hand, last year I sewed 3 dresses.

This year I made:

1) A jumper that turned out to be for cute Kate. Mindy had given me an adult sized jumper years & years ago to use for the fabric. The fabric was so beautiful, but I couldn't bring myself to make something for one of my girls and there wasn't enough fabric for both. I decided this year that I really wanted to sew that fabric, and this is the result. I thought it was darling.



2) A jumper for my niece Lilly, who normally does not cry when she wears clothes I make for her.



3) A jumper for Marley, because she's so cute and I wanted to surprise Katie. (I think Eric was more surprised--he thought it was a hand-me-down from my girls, not one made just for Marley.)

4 & 5) Jumpers for my girls. This fabric is what's called a border print--with some kind of pattern running along both sides of the fabric. Last time I sewed with a border print I wasn't too happy with the results. So this year I was resolved to make something more pleasing to my eye for my girls. I started in a bit of a panic, thinking that I hadn't bought enough fabric. (Note to self: measure fabric again before panicking.) I had a yard of two of a coordinating fabric.


I cut off a couple of lines of the coordinating fabric and added it to the bottom of the girls' jumpers to make them 2" longer.


Then I decided that I also didn't have enough fabric for the bodices, and so I cut out the row of smaller penguins to insert in the bodice. The thing that I'm the most proud of is the candy cane lines. On the coordinating fabric the candy cane line comes right below the penguins, but then there is something else above them. I decided that I really wanted a candy cane line above them too, to set the penguins off from the regular fabric of the bodice. So I cut out another candy cane line and sewed it into the bodice. I think it looks terrific.

the finished product!

As you can see, Marley thought she was hot stuff with her matching jumper.

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Last year I had ordered some fabric samples from fabric heaven. (For those of you who aren't fabricaholics like myself, fabric heaven called Mary Jo's. It's in Gastonia, and it's seriously the size of Walmart and full of fabric.) It makes me hyperventilate to even walk into the place, it's that awesome.) Anyway, by the time the samples came I'd already found and purchased the fabric I used last year. But one of the samples was really interesting because it was crinkled. So when Sherron went back to visit her family she brought me back some of this crinkled taffeta. Enough for my girls and to share. With that fabric I made:

6) A Christmas dress for my favorite 3 year old. I used black velvet in the bodice, and it was interesting to sew with. It wasn't bad as long as I basted everything first. I was pleased with the way it turned out.

7) A Christmas dress for my favorite 12 year old. (Older sister of the 3 year old.) This one was interesting, since I haven't sewn for a long time for a 12 year old. (About 9 years, I guess!) She definitely wanted a "big girl" dress, so we ended up looking online together at dresses and she told me what she liked. I ironed the fabric so that it was mostly flat, and cut the skirt on the diagonal so that it would flare instead of being gathered & full. She also wanted long sleeves instead of short. (Can't blame her there.)


8 & 9) Dresses for my girls. (I know, I know. They already had the jumpers! But they're getting older, and they're not going to let me choose everything for much longer. So I have to do it while I can.) Instead of using the black velvet for their dresses I used navy velveteen. (Though it looks more black in the pictures for some reason.) I wasn't nearly as happy with the way their dresses turned out. The velveteen definitely is not lush like the velvet, though it is easier to sew with. I don't think I like the blue as well as the black either. (Next year I will probably use the little bit of the fabric that is left and make someone a dress with a green bodice--I'm just curious to see how that will work.) I also think the long sleeves are not nearly as cute as short are, but they are so much more practical for our cold chapel.

One night while we were playing games I made necklaces and bracelets for the girls to go with these dresses. Isn't having girls fun?!?

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I also made pajama pants for all three of the little kids, but those are pretty easy so they really don't count (much) in my list of Christmas sewing. I thought the jumper/dress total was pretty impressive, though. Or pretty insane!