Time to hibernate:

It's already been two whole weeks since our little family got home from our 6 week trip to Utah. We drove home straight through- 27 hours!! The kids were awesome! Joren didn't even cry once until we were 1 mile from home. What troopers! The boys are adjusting to being home.. slowly. A two hour time change is kind of hard on kids. Joren loved finding all the toys at our house to play with. Since he learned to walk in Utah it was like discovering his house all over again. This was fun to watch.

So I want to do a quick recap of the month of fun. It occurred to us that this is probably the only time in our lives that we will spend so much time in one house with my family for the rest of our lives.. maybe not, but possibly. That said, I felt an extra yearning to treasure up all the goodness and warmth of my parents and their home while we were there. We talked to Grandpa tonight on the phone and Eirik cried and said, "come to my house please, and bring my horse Spirit, I miss you so much!" My dad was so great with our boys. It was sweet to hear my dad speak about his dream of being the grandparent to our kids that he thinks they deserve. We're so grateful already.

We also just packed in party time with all of Utah friends. There are few special friends that we missed (boo) but for those of you we got to see we had a blast! We got to see Letishe. Always a bonus. I think we scared her out of having kids though. (I really think they are not all like Eirik Tishe!) We almost missed Derek and Tasheena but snuck them in for a last minute Rumbi's lunch on the way out of town. Yeah, Tasheena, you're still a rock star. We got New Year's with Kit and Basil.. Always a grand time! 40 spicy wings and too much mud pie.. mmm... and I shouldn't have started naming friends because I can't name you all.. but we love you all.

and I started this post a LONG time ago and I wanted so bad to write about all the great things that happened in Utah and now I am on to such a new place that I have missed he moment and I can't really capture it.. so suffice it to say for now that it was remarkable and we miss our family.. each of you .. so much already.

So what is the New place?

Every January I get this wonderful sense of permission to hibernate. I don’t know if it’s just the weather or the fact that not a lot seems to be planned in January or what, but I try to keep my calendar empty, the fridge stocked and just stay home. It’s lucky I feel that way since we all came down with the flu this week. It came on suddenly, out of the blue with torrential throwing up everywhere. I changed bedding 4 times the first night and did 4 loads of laundry including 5 outfits and a couch cushion. (Paul was on call and got to miss the fun. He had his own 30 hour shift of fun.) I thought things would slow down, but after the vomiting came the stuff on the other end, leaking out of diapers onto everything. To top it off, I completely lost my voice yesterday. So, staying home was in our best interests and I don’t see us leaving home for at least another 4 days.

In the mean time the snow has been slowly falling steady for the past 3 days. There is a massive blanket of white everywhere I look out our back windows. The roofline disappears into the pond now covered in snow. Yesterday the sun came out in gorgeous springtime brilliance and I bundled the kids out and drug them out for a little sledding just in time to realize that it was still below negative with the wind-chill. We lasted almost a whole 5 minutes before we were all turning blue, and both boys were crying.

So, we have invented a million new kinds of pretend and played with every toy several times this week.

We’ve played rock band (not the plug in kind), memory, guess who, horses and more horses, magical horses, leap frog on pillows, tents, we turned off the lights and played with all the light up toys, light sabers in the dark,

obstacle course with the air mattress and tunnels, play dough (we made a prince and princess and a horse and made up stories and Eirik got to make all their accessories like the stirrups and crowns. Oh and play dough with a garlic press is tons of fun.) Dress up, lots of reading, puppies with puppy books and puppy food and water, Eirik took a nap in his tunnel, they helped me make bread and scones, Eirik learned to write A and E, and O today and we practiced numbers, hopscotch for M & M’s, fishing for consonants with a magnent and juice bottle lids, feeding our new fish and lots of time watching them, watching musicians on Youtube, yes this mam has had t get creative..

and then in the middle of all the playing, we got a great break when my friend Celeste, a flight attendant, decided to pop in for an overnight visit.

I'm sad to say that I think we scared her too out of having children. (Sorry Skinny Bella..We loved your visit!)

Notice Joren is pulling her hair! :)

It's mine!

....and the list continues.. building a dinosaur with our little dinosaur kit, acting out stories with costumes and music, dancing, mother may I, hide and seek, red light green light, TONS of Zaboomafoo dinosaurs – probably twice a day I think, Cailou (such a cute show), and did I mention lots and lots and lots of trips to the potty? I told Paul yesterday that I don't think other moms feel like they have to throw a "birthday party" at their house every day just to be sane. While we are in the middle of doing one great activity, Eirik is saying, "what are we going to do today?" "let's do something besides go down the stairs in the sleeping bag, that's boring" so.. I have been thinking a lot about patience lately. Mostly because my days go like this: (You have to read this as fast as you can and then imagine it at a high decibel for 14 hours a day with only a 2 hour break for a nap)

"Mom, I need to go potty. I can't do it myself, I'm scared, I need to go potty, you have to watch me, I need a milk, I need a milk, I need a milk, Milky milky MILKY, mom, mom, mom, mom, MOOOOOOOM, Joren's crying, I woke him up, MOM, Joren's crying, I need a MILK, I need my boots on. I can't be a cowboy without my boots, I need my boots on right NOW, right now, right now mommy, it's your JOB!" and then repeat this times 1000.

Now, I'm sure most of you are thinking that I must be a huge pushover and that I put up with way too much and that this kid walks all over me... and to you I will say, you might be right, but.... I also feel that I am a very assertive disciplinarian and very firm and I don't give in to impolite demands, I wait until he asks with a please which is usually a LOT of waiting and staying strong through his onslaught of incredibly pressing demands, not to mention a lot of time outs and removing privileges. I'm sure there are things I'm doing wrong and hopefully I will look back and say, I wish I had known... which would mean that there is a way of dealing with this kind of thing that is better than how I am doing it and I will eventually figure it out.. but as for now, I am doing the best I can at having patience. As I was reading about patience, I realized that maybe Eirik is learning some of his impatience from me. People tell me all the time that I am so patient with Eirik. This may be their way of saying, "I would have clobbered that kid by now. Or maybe they are saying, "You're letting him get away with way too much." I guess they are seeing the 85% of the time when I really have it together. (That % just kept getting smaller and smaller as I thought about it.) People miss the 6:30 wake up call that I just illustrated above. I'm not so patient then, and when all is said and done and my impatience rears it's head, Eirik ends up sad, and hurt and says, "you hurt my feelings mom." and the truth was, he really was scared and he is only 2 with the needs and wants of a much older and incapable child. His constant frustration is astonishing, which only helps me remember how very capable and strong he can be when his little body catches up with his intellect.

Mosiah 23: 21 Nevertheless the Lord seeth fit to ^achasten his people; yea, he trieth their ^bpatience and their faith.

D+ C 6:9 Be patient; be sober; be temperate; have patience, faith, hope and charity. (that one says it twice.. )

To be honest I have been sort of dreading this month. I have tried to be creative about using all of my resources since I feel sort of weak when it comes to this "being a mother of Eirik" thing, so we had a whole month in Oregon, then lots of fun fall activities, then a month in Utah (6 weeks) and now.... Janu boring rary...ary ary ary ary ary... and I hope someday it will end... ary.

He won't eat, but he screams when he is too hungry, He won't let me help him get dressed, but he screams that he needs help, he insists on wearing his cowboy boots everywhere, including to bed and he won't wear them in the snow because they will get snow on them, so he makes us carry him. Therefore, he hates to go outside, but he freaks out if he doesn't get an outing because he is too bored. He won't wear a coat or two shirts because they are too"steaky", or "steepy" or "it makes me feel fat". And if you mess with him then you're a "poopy stupy fupy". I'm probably singing the song of every other mother with a 2 year old. It doesn't make it any less real though. So here we are.. all you other moms with 2 year olds and all of you who have lived through it.. here we are.

And now as I think about it more, I wonder if it's not him being impatient, but me being impatient with myself. The more I learn about mirroring in relationships, the more true it seems.

My mom used to tell me that if I was bored I was a boring person. I couldn't disagree more. (sorry mom) I think there is an art to being bored and it has a lot to do with patience. The Buddhists are on to something when they preach letting everything go in order to find what you are looking for. So that's what I'm up to... hibernating for patience and peace and a little more compassion and charity for a little soul so overwhelmed with his new life he doesn't know how to express such an amazing variety of emotions that seem to always be at the surface.

My little life... in a little box... by a pond..

I usually worry about posts I put up after midnight... yup this is one of them. And that's the real Melody folks.

Christmas 2008

Christmas at our house was all about 4 things this year:
"1 blue light saber so I can be Luke,
1 green light saber so Joren can be OB1-Wan Kenobi
1 red light saber so Daddy can be "Dar Thader"
and a horse"

We even got Grandma in on the action! Way to be cool grandma!

This is what Eirik asked Santa for for Christmas in mid November. That's all he wanted and I think he repeated it to everyone he met for the next month and a half. I think his world would have crumbled if he had not received these 4 items. Christmas morning was a lot of fun because 2 year olds are awesome on Christmas. I made costumes to go with the light sabers. Eirik, I mean Luke, has not taken his off since he received it.

As Paul and I were standing in Target looking for Christmas presents for our boys I found this little knight uniform that I thought Eirik would be ecstatic about. Suddenly I was just overwhelmed with giddiness like I was the little kid at Christmas again. I was standing there, plenty of Christmas money rationed away for this very moment to buy our kids exactly what their hearts desired, and my little heart was beating with excitement to think that we could make their little dreams come true. How delightful it was to be able to buy them whatever they wanted and for that one moment I was able to overcome all of my stinginess, frugality, and tendency to withhold for the sake of living simply and "within our means" and just spoil those little sweeties rotten. Eirik is easy to buy for and we all had fun spoiling him, but we had the most fun being spoiled by my sister Katie who drew our name this year.
Can I just say that NOTHING could have prepared me for how cool her gifts were this year. She went so above and beyond that I'm still trying to conceive of a way to properly thank her and it's already mid Jan.
Here is the amazing hobby horse that she MADE without a pattern!and this is the darling blanket/ floor mat in the shape of a turtle that, again, she MADE with no pattern.
BTW it's double sided. yes people, she is so talented.On top of that she bought us some childrens books that are perfect since they are about dragons and horses and rescues, not to mention an awesome childrens dictionary.. so fun.
The Anthropoligie journal she found for me could not be more perfect.Paul helped me spend all my Christmas money on new clothes. What a great treat.
I bought myself a new necklace that says "Create" on in that I am crazy about.

My mom sewed this awesome apron for me. She let me design it 100% which made it wonderfully custom and just right for me.

She also painted this painting for us called "The Doctor". It's a copy of a Sir Luke Fildes painting. Paul hired her to paint it for us. We love it. Thanks MOM! (Isn't she adorable!)

If anyone else out there wants a painting just like this for their husband, I can give you my mom's contact info. She would love to do more. Paul will hang it in his office when he has his own practice someday... in the far distant future... (the year 2000 .. for you Flight of the Concords fans)

Sorry to be all braggy about our new stuff. I hope no one minds. I'm just really worldly and vain like that so that's what you get. If you don't like it stick it out your wazoo.

Besides the gifts, Christmas was fun because I did tons of cooking. I basically picked all my favorite recipes and didn't give anyone else a say in the matter. It was pretty selfish of me, but I didn't see anyone complaining.

These were some of the highlights of the menu plan... for the month..

Cranberry Salsa dip

This is a surprisingly delicious dip - great for anytime, but especially around the holidays due to the red and green colors

Ingredients:

3 c fresh cranberries, rinsed and drained (12. oz bag)

4 minced green onions (1/4 c.)

2 small jalapeño peppers seeded and minced (about 2 T)

1/2 c sugar

1/4 c fresh cilantro, minced

2 T fresh ginger finely grated

2 T fresh lemon juice

2 9 oz. pkgs (lowfat) cream cheese

garnish- cranberries and or cilantro springs

Directions:

Rinse, drain and pick over cranberries discarding all that are soft or bruised. Pace them in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped but not mushy. Place in a bowl and mix with the remaining ingredients. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours so flavor develops (it's too sharp and tart to begin with).

Place cream cheese on a plate and cover with the dip. Garnish if desired and serve with crackers. Water Table crackers work well.

Mexican Spinach Dip (Thanks Charyce)

Many friends have asked me for this spinach dip recipe since the Bunko party on my birthday- so here it is!

INGREDIENTS:
1 (16 oz.) jar salsa
1 (10 oz.) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
2 cups shredded Monterey Jack Cheese
1 (8 0z.) package cream cheese, diced and softened
1 (2.25 oz.) can chopped black olives, drained
1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F .
In a medium baking dish, mix together salsa, chopped spinach, Monterey Jack Cheese, cream cheese, black olives, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper.
Bake mixture in the preheated oven 12- 15 minutes, or until bubbly.

Serve with your favorite tortilla chips.

PREP TIME: 15 minutes
COOK TIME: 15 minutes

Norwegian Pancakes- Thanks Zach and Arrin

1 ½ c. flour

2 T sugar

½ tsp salt

2 eggs- beaten

2 c milk

2 T butter, melted

Mix first three ingredients. Add ingredients on the right. Pour on skillet with a little butter. These will be very thin and you can make it as one huge pancake and cut it into smaller pieces or in whatever size or shape you want. Serve with fruit, syrup or whatever you want.

Crockpot Lasagna- Thanks Janese!

1 lb. ground beef

1 med. onion chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

29 oz. can tomato sauce

1 c. water

6 oz. can tomato paste

1 tsp salt

1 tsp. dried oregano

8 oz pkg. lasagna noodles (uncooked)

4 c. (16 oz.) shredded mozzarella cheese

16 ox cottage cheese

1/2 c grated Parmesan cheese

Cook beef, onion, and garlic together in saucepan until browned. Drain. Stir in tomato sauce, water, tomato paste, salt and oregano. Mix Well. Spread 1/4 of meat sauce in an ungreased slow cooker. Arrange 1/3 of noodles over sauce. combine the cheeses. Spoon 1/3 of mixture over noodles. Repeat leayers twice. Top with remaining meat sauce. Cover. cook on low 4-5 hours.

Pumpkin Bread Pudding - Thanks Eugena. We loved it!

This Bread Pudding taste just like pumpkin pie. It sooo good and can feed an army...it would be great for a Thanksgiving morning breakfast.

6 large eggs
1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin or squash
2 cups (16 ounces) light cream
1 cup (8 ounces) milk
3/4 cup (5 7/8 ounces) granulated sugar
1/3 cup (2 1/2 ounces) brown sugar
1/4 cup (2 ounces) rum, optional
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons vanilla
8 cups (about 18 ounces) bread*, cut in 3⁄4" cubes

Use any non-savory bread: brioche, a sweet bread, or plain white or whole wheat bread.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the eggs, pumpkin, half and half, milk, sugars, rum, salt, spices, and vanilla, stirring to blend.

Lightly grease a 2-quart baking dish or a 9" x 13" pan; if you’re going to refrigerate the pudding before baking, be sure to use a dish that can go from the fridge to a hot oven. Place the cubed bread in the dish in an even layer, and pour the liquid mixture over it. Let it rest at room temperature for 30 minutes, or for up to 24 hours in the refrigerator.
When you're ready to bake the pudding, stir it together to redistribute the custard; quite a bit of it will have been absorbed by the bread. Sprinkle with grated nutmeg, if desired; and bake in a preheated 350°F oven till set and beginning to brown, about 40 to 50 minutes. Serve warm with whipped cream or ice cream; garnish with minced crystallized ginger, if desired.
Yield: 2 dozen small servings, or fewer larger servings.

Rice Pudding

1 c. whipping cream

3/4 c sugar

1/2 c uncooked white rice

4 c 2% milk

cinnamon and orange zest for garnish (optional)

Heat the oven to 325. Combine all ing. except the garnish, in a 2 1/2 quart casserole (low and wide is better than tall and deep). Bake the pudding for 2 hours without stirring. Let it sit half an hour to set. Serve the pudding warm or cold, with garnish. Serves 12

Christmas Eve
Large fresh shrimp steamed in Old Bay Seasoning:

1 lb shelled shrimp

combine:

2 T Old Bay seasoning

1/2 c vinegar

1/2 c water

boil-

add shrimp

stir gently

cover- steam until tender 3-5 minutes

Don't overcook!

African Salad Thanks Zach and Arinn

Dressing:

2-3 cloves garlic

salt and pepper (a lot) ½ tsp then add to that to taste

1 T or more sugar

1 T or less mustard

1 T or less lemon juice

vinegar (any kind) put more v. than olive oil

½ c. olive oil or more

Roasted Pecans- brownsugar, butter, milk High heat to dissolve sugar then turn it right down –pour in nuts stir stir stir

Green apples

Dried cranberries

Avocado

Onions

Cucumbers

Mixed greens

Christmas Morning:

Fruit Pizza with sugar cookie dough crust -Kudos to my mom for this great concoction

1 c. sugar

1/2 c. butter

2 eggs

1 c. sour cream

1 tsp vanilla

3 c flour

1/2 ts salt

2 ts baking powder

1 ts baking soda

spread with cream cheese and strawberry jam mixture

add tons of fruit on top- make sure to include kiwi and blueberries

Quiche: - my very own recipe

6 eggs

2 T Water

salt and pepper

6 slices of ham cut small

3 slices onion diced small

3 large mushrooms diced small

large handful of cheddar cheese

1/4 c. chopped cilantro

mix all ing. together

pour in unbaked pie shell (I use the barefoot Contessa's recipe)

Put another handful of grated cheddar on top then some thinly sliced (not too juicy) tomatoes all over

cover w/ tinfoil for first 30 min

cook at 350 for 40-50 min.

check often for doneness since I made up this recipe and I'm not 100% sure of baking time. :)

Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice- Christmas isn't Christmas without this

So Why did I just post all of these recipes?? I don't know. The same question could be asked, "why am I such a freak about record keeping." and the answer is the same, I don't know, I just have this compulsion that gives me unrest until it's all written down. Someone stop me!

New Years 2009

It's always a treat to be with Kit and Basil and this New Year's was no exception. I think I'm starting to feel my age though because this year as soon as we took this picture at 12:00 I thought, "ok, let's go to bed!"

We ate ourselves sick with tons of great dips/ hor d'ouvres, and a HUGE load of spicy chicken wings from Wingers. Yum (and what a mess).

So as we ring in the new Year I'm always frothing with plans and resolutions, ideas and goals. I get my calendar out and I try to plan the whole entire year. On one particular car ride with Paul I was driving him nuts with all of my "planning" and he finally had to say, "woman, would you give me some peace please!" I realize I'm a little obsessive... so my new years resolutions, in an nutshell:

Confessional:

I hit a spiritual slump in December. I was just not feeling it, and I think being in Utah made me feel sort of rebellious. I can’t explain it yet, but I was a cynical sassy molassy. I let some of my doubts and questions surface and I let them fester fester fester until I was just sort of stewing in ickyness. My sister is one of those straight down the line, black is black, white is white, kind of girls. I spewed some of my verbal garbage on her and she said, “If I ever have questions I just read my scriptures.” So here is my official thank you to her. In the face of my BAD attitude, she lovingly bore her testimony to me. I know she has been really diligent in reading her scriptures everyday and she has the spirit with her. So, I took her words to heart and got back on the scripture train. I swam back to the surface and I feel the sun again. I think there will always be questions I can’t answer and things I don’t understand, but what’s great about the gospel is that it makes me a better person, and it’s founded on principles that regardless of anything else always lead to more happiness than sorrow. We had a great ward conference this week. I was reminded that reading the scriptures is not an admonition, but a commandment. We also got very chastised for our poor temple attendance as a ward. Our bishop gave a talk that was outstanding. He reminded us that we covenant to give the Lord everything we have, but he promises that he will give us everything in return, and he started by giving us His only Begotten Son.

My new Year’s resolution last year was to take a dose of hope and get more optimistic. I’m glad to say that it was an appropriate goal and I have worked on it all year and I need to keep working on it. I am keeping this goal for this year and adding a goal to stop allowing myself so many sins of omission. My scriptures are sitting right there by my bed. I commit to open them every day. It’s really the least I can do.

Family shmamily in Snow canyon

My family

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas 2008!

Our little family headed out to Utah for the holidays. 6 weeks is a long time to be away from home, but we love our family and love being with them.

Joren turned 1!

We had a really fun little party for him at my parents house. Since his favorite thing to do in the world is take a bath we had a bathtub/swimming party. My cute mom bought a carpet remnant and put it in the garage under the swimming pool. We heated the garage and the pool water and had a swimming party for the cousins. I made this little bathtub cake and Joren was SO cute when he saw it because when he realized what it was he got really excited and clapped his hands. I love this kid! He loved swimming and loved all his new bath toys. He is so fun right now. He is learning to immitate sounds and is almost completly walking on his own. (close). He loves his brother and they are so cute together. He loves to be tickeled. He is very brave. He loves to climb on things. He gets so excited when he climbs the stairs and loves to wander off on his own and explore things. His first words were dad and mom followed by Jesus and all done. (my mom and I swear he said Jesus clear as day while we were looking at paintings of him at the museum.) He played peek a boo with me today in the car and was so proud of himself. He kept covering his eyes and peeking at me for about 5 minutes. It was such a sweet moment. He's also a very adept sword fighter. (you have to be at our house)
I have been thinking about all of my friends these past few weeks since I almost always send out Christmas cards and at this time of year, I love to gather up all the names and addresses of the many people that I love and think about the memories we have made and send out a little note of love. ... and this year I made the lists and the plans, and then never got around to sending the cards. My mom is a great example. I'm still trying to grow up to be like her. She sent out a giant stack of cards this year. One was to an 85 year old lady that she hasn't talked to in 25 years, but she has sent and received a card from her every year for all of these years. The lady's name is Harriet, and she helped and befriended my mom when she was a young mother in a new place. We got a card today from a family that lived down the street from us in Denver when I was in high school. The boys in the family were 5 and 7 when we moved away and in their picture we just got they are now grown men. Somehow my mom made a special enough place in their heart that for all these years they have sent her a Christmas card. I love getting Christmas cards. It seems like it's almost an old fashioned sentiment these days. Most of my friends have email and I could email a picture and an update and I do like the Christmas wishes/cards that I get through email, but I also love to have a picture of my friends to hang on my wall. The pictures I got last year are still up in my house. (If I was at home I would take a picture and post it.) And that's why I feel especially bad that I did not get my cards done this year. I think about my high school friends, my college friends, my work friends, my early marriage Provo friends, Missouri friends, Michigan friends and family friends and anyone else I have missed and well.. don't you just sometimes want to send out a great big "thanks for being in my life, that was such a great time, you really made a difference, you've made me who I am now, and Merry Merry Christmas, I hope you know how loved you are" kind of message to everyone you love? Well, it's pretty impossible to send that out to everyone who has touched my life, but if you're reading this you probably know you're someone I love.. so Merry Christmas to you, and sorry you didn't get a card! I'll be more like my awesome mom next year.

Paul did a great job on the Turkey this year. (as usual)

We hope you all have a WONDERFUL holiday! Merry Christmas!