Bread and Jam

Last Thursday night at leadership meeting they talked mostly about food storage and did a demonstration on canning. They even showed us the different tools and supplies that you need for canning and passed them around for us to look at. On one of the boxes was a recipe for strawberry freezer jam, and it reminded me of this lady on my mission who gave me and my companion some as we were leaving her house after an appointment one night. I am not really a big fan of jams and jellies, but we were hungry when we got home so we made some toast and tried the jam. It was so delicious! We ate all of it in less than a week! So I quickly copied the recipe after the meeting and today I made my first ever batch of strawberry freezer jam. It was so fun and easy. So then I had to make some homemade bread to test it out. All I can say is.....OH MY HOLY MOLY COW! There goes my diet for today!



I actually used the recipe that was on the back of the package of these Ball plastic storage containers that I bought at Kroger. Here it is if you are interested:

4 cups of strawberries (about 3 lbs.)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 pouch of Ball's fruit pectin

*Crush strawberries in food chopper or blender. In a separate bowl, stir sugar and fruit pectin together until well mixed. Add to strawberries. Stir for 3 minutes. Pour into containers and sit on counter until it sets up--about 30 minutes. Lasts for up to 3 weeks in the refrigerator or up to 1 year in the freezer. Makes five 8oz. containers. Enjoy!

Honesty...the best policy, or not so much?

Today after I dropped Katie off at school, Sarah and I headed over to SPAR. They have a place there they call KID ZONE where the little ones stay while you workout. There is a lady that has only been there for a couple of weeks that Sarah isn't crazy about--to say the least. One day last week when I picked her up, she said the lady was mean and that she yelled at the other kids. Well today, about 15 minutes into my workout, Samantha came to find me--which usually means that Sarah needs to go potty. She said, "You aren't going to believe what Sarah said!" When I dropped Sarah off, Marissa was in there, who Sarah really likes. But apparently, Marissa was just filling in for a few minutes because the new lady was running late. So Samantha tells me that when Sarah saw the new lady, she turns to Marissa and asks, "Are you still going to babysit us?" Marissa said, "No. I have to go help Samantha with something." To which Sarah replies, "But I like you better than her. So, can you stay?" Then she turns to the new lady (who, by the way, has heard everything Sarah has already said) and says, "Can you please leave? I like her better than you." At least she said please.

FHE x 2

Last night we had the young single adults over for Family Home Evening. That's the second time we have had them over and I think we're going to make it a monthly thing. Aaron and I really enjoy having them and so do the girls.

Tonight we had a great Family Home Evening with the Lundquists and Jen, Adam, and Ben Morris. Since January, we have been having one lesson a month about baptism to get Katie ready for her baptism next year. Tonight was our baptism lesson for this month. We talked about the fourth article of faith and it went really well. Can you guess who helped me make brownies and licked the bowl?

Random Happenings in Youngsville

Our hearts have been heavy the past couple of weeks with the loss of two friends, but we have felt encircled in the arms of our Savior's love as we recognize the many blessings we have been given. We are also grateful for the new perspective that these situations bring. And as we all know, time marches on, and here's what we've been up to.

Sunday at church I was asking our local square foot gardening expert, and our dear friend, Ava Lundquist, some questions about the SFG method. She offered to come over Monday night and teach our FHE lesson on square foot gardening. It was very informative and much needed. We learned that we planted some of our veggies a little too close together, so we need to transplant them, but still haven't done that yet. Hopefully we will get to that this week. Our plants have grown so much this first week. It's very exciting and fun to watch. The girls are having fun watering each day.

The girls had a blast Wednesday afternoon playing with the water hose on the slide. Oh, to be a kid again!

Thursday for playgroup, we went to the new Prien Lake Park in Lake Charles. It is really nice. They have these fun little fountains that the kids played in.

If the kids are outside, they are always finding and collecting rocks.

We couldn't keep them away from this little area with all the rocks by the water. They wanted to throw rocks into the water at the alligators--pretend alligators, but still, they were making us nervous being so close to the water.



Thursday night I had to go to a leadership meeting at the stake center in Orange, Texas. Our whole presidency was able to go and we all rode together. It was a very inspiring meeting and a great trip there and back with the amazing women that I get to work with. I love and admire them all.

Friday after school, Micah and Makayla came over to play with the girls. They had lots of fun together.



Last week while we were in Sears, Katie found this cute umbrella that she fell in love with. She is obsessed with umbrellas for some reason, and has been since she was two. It was one of the three things on her list for Christmas in 2003. Even though she already has two umbrellas, I told her if she did well on her report card, we would come back and get it for her. So she got her report card yesterday, and she got banner roll again. So here she is with her new umbrella. I think she's hoping to fly away like Mary Poppins.

Aaron went to Sears to get the umbrella and while he was there found this cute rainbow umbrella and got it too. So Sarah and Katie were testing them out this morning while it was starting to rain a little.

Katie made up this song about the rainbow umbrella and did several performances of it in the rain. And then of course Sarah had to perform too. They are so cute!

This afternoon we went to a birthday party for one of Katie's school friends. The party was a "Webkinz" theme. Everyone brought their favorite webkinz and they decorated food bowls for their pets. Then they took their pets to the pet table and found a spot for the pet and their food bowl and put treats in it for their pet to munch on while they were playing games and skating. It was decorated so nice--real plates, wine goblets for their koolaid, name cards, and a 'princess' chair for the birthday girl. There were too many cute details to list! The girls had so much fun they didn't want to leave, so we didn't make it to the other birthday party we were planning to attend. Other than that, just the usual Saturday chores and stuff. Although tonight as we were trying to get Sarah to stop talking and go to sleep, she shared more of her wisdom with us. She said, "When I lose a tooth, I will speak Spanish!" She cracks me up! Life is good in Youngsville!

My Picky Eater

Sometimes it amazes me the things that Katie will turn her nose up at and the things that she will eat. For example, she will not touch a cantaloupe, but will eat an entire bell pepper like an apple--after I take out the seeds, of course. She loves cucumbers, broccoli, carrots, and lettuce, but will not eat a salad. She absolutely loves boiled crawfish, but will not even taste crawfish ettouffee, crawfish fettuccine, or crawfish pie. She will not eat spaghetti, lasagna, hamburgers, or even my homemade chicken pot pie or chicken noodle soup--which I have to say are both pretty darn good! I remember one time when she was about 2 years old I was eating some mint chocolate chip ice cream and I asked her if she wanted some. She took one look at it and shook her head no. I knew she didn't want to taste it because it was green, but if she would just taste it, she would like it. So, being the mean mom that I am, I made her eat a spoonful and guess what? She LOVED it! Lots of times she just looks at stuff and decides whether or not she likes it by how it looks. However, I am careful these days about making her try new stuff. I have learned the hard way that she has a very sensitive gag reflex. So I tell her to take a tiny bite, and if she doesn't like it she can spit it out. Otherwise, I would be cleaning it up off of the floor. And I have to admit, she is more willing to try new stuff since she had her tonsils removed and has discovered a few new things that she likes, such as gumbo, tacos, and baked potatoes. Hopefully as she gets older, she will add more things to her 'likes' list.

What Matters Most

Sometimes things happen in the lives of those around us that make us realize just how fragile and precious our lives are. When such things happen it makes you pause for a moment and remember the things in life that REALLY matter the most and you find yourself wanting to speak kinder words, give more hugs, say "I love you" more, be quicker to forgive, and just make the most of each day that we have here on this earth. I am so grateful today for all that my Heavenly Father has blessed me with and what matters most to me--MY FAMILY--especially these two little girls!

Playing in the Dirt

When I came home from Sarah (Brooks) Mobile's baby shower this afternoon, this is what I found. My dear, sweet husband and girls were planting some vegetable plants in the garden I have been talking about for weeks now. I have always wanted to have a garden, but this is actually our first attempt. So we'll see how it goes. We are trying the square foot gardening method, which is supposed to be less work, but produce more than a traditional garden and take up a lot less space too.

Crazy for Crawfish.....Again!

Tonight we had another crawfish boil. I'm telling you, if Aaron could, I seriously think he would boil crawfish everyday! Tonight was actually a Primary Presidency (and family, and bishopric member over Primary and family)Meeting/Crawfish Boil. Meetings can be something to look forward to after all!



Here is my happy crawfish boiling husband!:)



This was the Morris' first crawfish boil, and they really enjoyed it! Here is Adam showing Ben and Sarah one of the live crawfish before he met his doom.



Here's the gang! Opps! I just realized that Wendy was missing when I took this picture, but she did finally show up--an hour and a half later! Classic Wendy! Good times with good friends!

The Peterson's Farm

Today we picked up Katie from school and headed to DeRidder to visit the Petersons. Unfortunately, the reason for our visit was a sad one. Mrs. Irene lost her battle with cancer late Sunday evening and they called and asked if Aaron could come to give her husband, Hansen, a blessing. Aaron's family has many ties to the Peterson Family. Hansen was the first bishop of the Lake Charles Ward and he married Aaron's parents. And since Aaron was 14 years old until the time that he left for the Marines, he worked for the Petersons on their dairy farm during the summers and on some weekends too. So from the day we met until now, I have heard many stories about the dairy farm and how much he loved working on it. This is actually a different farm than the one Aaron worked on as a kid, but he still loves it there. And so do the girls and I. It's really beautiful out there!

Sarah was so cute. She was so excited to be going to the farm. She kept insisting that we sing "Old McDonald Had A Farm" several times on the way. And as we got closer, she kept asking, "Is it working? Are we almost there?"

We told the girls to watch where they step. When they asked why, Aaron said, "So you don't step in cow poop!" They thought it was so funny they couldn't stop laughing for a few minutes.....until they saw some.

The cows were scared of us and wouldn't let us get close enough to pet them until Mr. Hansen came out there with us. They did however really like Aaron's truck and gave it a good ole' spit shine!

Aaron and Mr. Hansen--aka Sarah's new best friend--talking about the property and the good ole' days.

Mrs. Irene will be greatly missed, but the family seems to be doing okay and are finding comfort knowing she is in a better place. We all had a nice visit and hope to visit again soon!

Crazy for Crawfish

Since Adam and Rachel came to visit this weekend to celebrate Kent and Rachel's birthdays, we decided it would be the perfect time for a crawfish boil. So everyone came over to our house and we had a fun, and eventful afternoon. Here are some of the highlights.

Aaron picked up the crawfish this morning and began the purging process. The girls were watching as he cut open the bags and put them in with the salt and water. Katie said, "Now yal are feel to move around and do what you want to--except you can't get out!" And then Sarah added, "Yeah, 'cause we're gonna eat yal!"

Hanging out with Uncle Adam and Aunt Rachel.

Enjoying the crawfish! YUM!

Even my picky eaters absolutely LOVE crawfish. And they had it made with Maw Maw, Paw Paw, and me all peeling crawfish for them.

Jaimee and Katie picking on Uncle Adam.

Uncle Adam's payback.

Clayton withholding "sugar" from his Granny and thinking it was pretty funny!

Kent trying to recapture his youth.

We even had a massage therapist on hand.

When everyone was done, we started peeling the leftovers so we could make some crawfish pie--so delicious! But some "little birdies" came along and ate it all up. So sadly, there will be no crawfish pie this week.

Recycling wrapping paper. We're trying to do our part.:)

The trick candles got a little out of hand. Kent tried clapping them out and pouring his soda on them.

When that didn't work, Johnice decided that rather than the candles burn the cake, it would be better to put the burning candles in a styrofoam bowl. Turns out, styrofoam and fire do not mix well. This was definitely the most entertaining part of the evening.:)

Sarah's New Friends

Today when Sarah and I got home from our normal Friday routine (SPAR, library, grocery shopping), I saw two little caterpillars by our doorway. I pointed them out to Sarah and she was immediately fascinated by them. She watched them for a few minutes while I unloaded groceries. She informed me that they were both boys and she named them "Donnie" and "Collie." On my way into the house one time, she stopped me and said, "Mom, I think they want some gum." (We had just bought her some skittles gum from the grocery store.) I said, "I don't think caterpillars like gum. I think they like to eat grass and leaves and stuff like that. Maybe we should help them over to the grass."

So she got a leaf and let the caterpillars crawl onto it and took them over to the grass. She then said, "Yea, I helped them get home! They are so happy now!"

She watched them crawl in the grass for a few minutes and then I suggested we go inside to eat lunch. She very sweetly replied, "But Donnie and Collie will miss me too much!" I'm sure she was right. They were all such good friends. After all, she did save their lives!