Flattered

Should I feel flattered that the Roto- Rooter Guy (Mark) gave us a frequency discount? Instead of $120 to clean out a backed up main in the laundry room--it was $90. He has been here three separate times in a month. I asked him if he felt like family yet!?

Behind on many posts and photos

It has been one of those kind of Sundays... I will be posting much of our happenings soon. I tried to post pictures and could not figure out why it just showed me words for days (no photos). Joe pointed out in about two seconds that it was because I was in Edit HTML mode and not in compose mode. Duh! Guess who is tired these days! Stayed tuned for more of our happenings. Hope you and yours are well.

Another one of those Sundays

Ahh, another Fast Sunday. I get up early and relish the sunshine and all the possibilities of a new day: a morning walk, journaling, blogging, thanks yous, lesson reading perhaps? No worry about Sunday outfits because Joe and I bought Easter outfits last night and will put children in them to wear a couple of times before Easter. Here's how the day really went, in short form: Girl screams when put on the potty, put back to bed. Second daughter crys about "lost cat." Joe leaves to Elder's Quorum meeting. Mom descales Hannah's hair (psoriasis). Second daughter burns third daughter's nose with fry pan when making eggs. Mom discovers burn when investigating burned egg smell. Bribes to daughter to keep ice cube on her nose. Son asks about baby and feels hiccuping and learns about the head down "little swimmer." We read about the Stripling warriors and their mothers in the Friend magazine. Joe writes out fast offering check and wood flooring deposit checks and leaves them on the refrigerator for the young men. Daughter yells up stairs, "Dad, I gave the boys the checks!" Joe chases young men up street to retrieve deposit check for the wood floor. Hannah frustrated by ear pressure, can't get ready for church. We go on walk, around the block to drop off promised Potty Training info to neighbor. At home, mad dash to dress for church. No nylons, tights, or socks (naturally). Goffy childrens pictures before new clothes are damaged. Late (*sigh*) to church!

A Chocolate Surprise

Joe and I went out tonight to try and replace (or view) baby furniture that was taken by the clean up crew after our storage area was flooded by sewage water. Imagine our surprise when we came home to find a bag of Ghiradelli chocolates and card from Beth (and Mike) awaiting us! Thank you, Beth!

Pirate Island

Argh! Baby Cora is initiated young into the willy life!

Such fun! Can you believe it!? Ahoy there-Matey!

Sam, before the pizza.

(These kids won 600 tickets. It is hard to see the rolls from this angle).

We got a call from Matt and Melissa tonight inviting us to Pirate Island for dinner and activities. This worked out well because Hannah was attending a dinner sleepover party of a close friend and helped the other children feel they got something fun to do as well. Thanks for the invite--Matt and Melissa. This was our first experience with Pirate Island. We were delightfully surprised at it's cleanliness, decor, entertainment factor, and delicious pizza. We ordered a special deal called the Kracken. It came with a two foot wide pizza (1/2 pepperoni, 1/2 Hawaaian), 2 jugs of Rootbeer, water, cups with lide for the children, 10 bread sticks with marinara and Alfredo dipping sauce, and 50 game tokens. The cost was around $55 which we split. The pizza was so much that we ended up dividing it between the two families and taking a large box home which served as lunch the next day. We tried to encourage the children to eat pizza first. This was difficult because of the thunderstorms and pirates voices, and overall excitement of the little ones.

Medieval Feast

Hannah designed her own costume to wear to the Medieval Feast at school today. (Isn't she clever with a glue gun?) She played the Gussli (a Russian version of the audo harp--God Rest Ye Marry Gentleman) for her talent. The children ate chicken and got to throw the bones to the floor, butter sugar cookies, crackers, cheese, and jam, juice, and other cooked dishes. This concluded their unit on the Middle Ages where they have read books like Catherine Called Birdy, The Midwife's Apprentice, learned about Knights and chivalry, the Feudal system, designed their own 3D castles, sewed pin cushions, designed a family crest and coat of arms, described and drew weaponry, etc.

New Blanket for a New Baby!

Great Grandma Edith Jex Clayton sent us a gift in the mail! She said, "Every baby needs a new blanket." Thanks Edith--we are excited to use this for our new froggy.

If I Only Had Three Days to See by Helen Keller

If I had three days to see by Helen Keller

Utah School for the Deaf: 1934

I have often thought it would be a blessing if each human being were stricken blind and deaf for a few days at some time during his early adult life. Darkness would make him more appreciative of sight; silence would teach him the joy of sound.

Now and then I have tested my seeing friends to discover what they see. Recently I asked a friend, who had just returned from a long walk in the woods, what she had observed. “Nothing in particular,” she replied.

How is it possible, I asked myself, to walk for an hour through the woods and see nothing worthy of note? I who cannot see find hundreds of things to feel in the delicate symmetry of a leaf. I pass my hands lovingly about the smooth skin of a silver birch, or the rough, shaggy bark of a pine. In spring I touch the branches of trees hopefully in search of a bud, the first sign of awakening Nature after her winter’s sleep. Occasionally, if I am very fortunate, I place my hand gently on a small tree and feel the happy quiver of a bird in full song.

At times my heart cries out with longing to see all these things. If I can get so much pleasure from mere touch, how much more beauty must be revealed by sight! And I have imagined what I should most like to see if I were given the use of my eyes, say, for just three days.

I should divide the period into parts. On the first day, I should want to see the people whose kindness and companionship have made my life worth living. I do not know what it is to see into the heart of a friend through that “window of the soul,” the eye. I can only “see” through my finger tips the outline of a face. I can detect laughter, sorrow, and many other obvious emotions. I know my friends from the feel of their faces.

How much easier, how much more satisfying it is for you who can see to grasp quickly the essential qualities of another person by watching the subtleties of expression, the quiver of a muscle, the flutter of a hand! But does it ever occur to you to use your sight to see into the inner nature of a friend? Do not most of you seeing people grasp casually the outward features of a face and let it go at that?

For instance, can you describe accurately the faces of five good friends? As an experiment, I have questioned husbands about the color of their wives’ eyes, and often they express embarrassed confusion and admit that they do not know.

Oh, the things that I should see if I had the power of sight for just three days!

The first day would be a busy one. I should call to me all my dear friends and look long into their faces, imprinting upon my mind the outward evidences of the beauty that is within them. I should let my eyes rest, too, on the face of a baby, so that I could catch a vision of the eager, innocent beauty which precedes the individual’s consciousness of the conflicts which life develops. I should like to see the books which have been read to me and which revealed to me the deepest channels of human life. And I should like to look into the loyal trusting eyes of my dogs, the little Scottie and the stalwart Great Dane.

In the afternoon, I should take a long walk in the woods and intoxicate my eyes on the beauties of the world of Nature. And I should pray for the glory of a colorful sunset. That night, I think I should not be able to sleep.

The next day I should arise with the dawn and see the thrilling miracle by which night is transformed into day. I should behold with awe the magnificent panorama of light with which the sun awakens the sleeping earth.

This day I should devote to a hasty glimpse of the world, past and present. I should want to see the pageant of man’s progress, and so I should go to the museums. There my eyes would see the condensed history of the earth—animals and the races of men pictured in the native environment, gigantic carcasses of dinosaurs and mastedons which roamed the earth before man appeared, with his tiny stature and powerful brain, to conquer the animal kingdom.

My next stop would be the Museum of Art. I know well through my hands the sculptured gods and goddesses of the ancient Nile-land. I have felt copies of Parthenon friezes, and I have sensed the rhythmic beauty of charging Athenian warriors. The gnarled, bearded features of Homer are dear to me, for he too, knew blindness.

So on this day, my second day, I should try to probe into the soul of man through his art. The things I knew through touch I should now see. More splendid still, the whole magnificent world of painting would be opened to me. I should be able to get only a superficial impression. Artists tell me that for a deep and true appreciation of art one must educate the eye. One must learn through experience to weigh the merits of line, of composition, of form and color. If I had eyes, how happily would I embark on so fascinating a study.

The evening of my second day I should spend at a theater or at the movies. How I should like to see the fascinating figure of Hamlet, or the gusty Falstaff amid colorful Elizabethan trappings! I cannot enjoy the beauty of rhythmic movement except in a sphere restricted to the touch of my hands. I can vision only dimly the grace of a Pavloa, although I know something of the delight of rhythm, for often I can sense beat of music as it vibrates through the floor. I can well imagine that cadenced motion must be one of the most pleasing sights in the world. I have been able to gather something of this by tracing with my fingers the lines in sculptured marble, if this static grace can be so lovely, how much more acute must be the thrill of seeing grace of motion.

The following morning, I should again greet the dawn, anxious to discover new delights, new revelations of beauty. Today, this third day, I shall spend in the workaday world, amid the haunts of men going about the business of life. The city becomes my destination.

First, I stand at a busy corner, merely looking at the people trying by sight of them to understand something of their daily lives. I see smiles, and I am happy. I see serious determinations, and I m proud. I see suffering, and I am compassionate.

I stroll down Fifth Avenue. I throw my eyes out of focus, so that I see no particular object but only a seething kaleidoscope of color. I am certain that the colors of woman’s dresses moving in a throng must be a gorgeous spectacle of which I should never tire. But perhaps if I had sight I should be like most other women—too interested in style to give much attention to the splendor of color in the mass.

From Fifth Avenue I make a tour of the city—to the slums, to factories, to parks where children play. I take a stay-at-home trip abroad by visiting the foreign quarters. Always my eyes are open wide to all the sights of both happiness and misery so that I may probe deep and add to my understanding of how people work and live.

My third day of sight is drawing to an end. Perhaps there are many serious pursuits to which I should devote the few remaining of hours, but I am afraid that on the evening of the last day I should again run away to the theater, to a hilariously funny play, so that I might appreciate the overtones of comedy in the human spirit.

At midnight permanent night would close in on me again. Naturally in those three short days I should not have seen all I wanted to see. Only when darkness had again descended upon me should I realize how much I had left unseen.

Perhaps this short outline does not agree with the program you might set for yourself if you knew that you were about to be stricken blind. I am, however, sure that if you faced that fate you would use your eyes as never before. Everything you saw would become dear to you. Your eyes would touch and embrace every object that came within your range of vision. Then, at last, you would really see, and a new world of beauty would open itself to you.

I who am blind can give one hint to those who see: Use your eyes as if tomorrow you would be stricken blind. And the same method can be applied to the other senses. Hear the music of voices, the song of a bird, the mighty strains of an orchestra, as if you would be stricken deaf tomorrow. Touch each object as if tomorrow your tactile sense would fail. Smell the perfume of flowers, taste with relish each morsel, as if tomorrow you could never smell and taste again. Make the most of every sense; glory in all the facets of pleasure and beauty which the world reveals to you through the several means of contact which Nature provides. But of all the senses, I am sure that sight is the most delightful.

"Decadent Brownies"

Costco is selling a new sweetener that is supposed to be easier on your GI index, Agave Nectar. It is light and sweet in taste. I was interested in this brownie recipe I stumbled across which calls for the sweetener and also uses black beans to increase the protein content.

I made them up on Monday. They really do firm up and become easier to cut after leaving in the refrigerator overnight. My children came home from school and smelled them and each had a double serving with milk--never suspecting the "real ingredients" in them. That is why we do not call them by their real recipe name! They are surprisingly delicious (especially if you are not buying chocolate--see Joe's New Year's Goal in earlier posts...and if you are pregnant and constantly tired). They are not, however, low fat or necessarily "healthy." In the recipe below, I used the same amount of semisweet chocolate chips in place of the baker's chocolate and I substituted powdered cocoa for the instant coffee.

Amazing Black Bean Brownie Recipe

For those of you who have a hard time tracking down agave nectar (substitute honey 1:1 for the agave nectar. Ania's head notes encourage you to keep these brownies in the refrigerator, they will slice much better if refrigerated several hours or preferably overnight.

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate (or 4 oz. semisweet chocolate chips) 1 cup unsalted butter 2 cups soft-cooked black beans, drained well (hs: canned is fine, I used 2 cans) 1 cup walnuts, chopped 1 tablespoon vanilla extract ¼ cup (granulated) natural coffee substitute (or instant coffee, for gluten-sensitive) ( or 1/4 cup cocoa) ¼ teaspoon sea salt 4 large eggs 1½ cups light agave nectar

Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line an 11- by 18-inch (rimmed) baking pan (hs note: or jellyroll pan) with parchment paper and lightly oil with canola oil spray. Melt the chocolate and butter in a glass bowl in the microwave for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes on high. Stir with a spoon to melt the chocolate completely. Place the beans, 1/2 cup of the walnuts, the vanilla extract, and a couple of spoonfuls of the melted chocolate mixture into the bowl of a food processor. Blend about 2 minutes, or until smooth. The batter should be thick and the beans smooth. Set aside. In a large bowl, mix together the remaining 1/2 cup walnuts, remaining melted chocolate mixture, coffee substitute, and salt. Mix well and set aside. In a separate bowl, with an electric mixer beat the eggs until light and creamy, about 1 minute. Add the agave nectar and beat well. Set aside. Add the bean/chocolate mixture to the coffee/chocolate mixture. Stir until blended well. Add the egg mixture, reserving about 1/2 cup. Mix well. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Using an electric mixer, beat the remaining 1/2 cup egg mixture until light and fluffy. Drizzle over the brownie batter. Use a wooden toothpick to pull the egg mixture through the batter, creating a marbled effect. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until the brownies are set. Let cool in the pan completely before cutting into squares. (They will be soft until refrigerated.)

Makes 45 (2-inch) brownies.

Reprinted with permission from Baking With Agave Nectar: Over 100 Recipes Using Nature's Ultimate Sweetener by Ania Catalano. (Ten Speed Press 2008)

101 Cookbooks http://www.101cookbooks.com/

Potty Training a Princess

For some time now I have been thinking of going back to potty training our youngest. She began spontaneously last year at the worst times (three days before leaving with Joe to Costa Rica, etc.). Yesterday, I just did not put a diaper on her in the morning after putting her on the toilet. She did not like this but she also did not have an accident. This morning, I showed her where the Big Girl Panties were and how soft they were. She has had some on all morning and not had an accident yet (it is almost 2:00 p.m.). She came up to me and looked me in the face and said, "Mommy--am I really a princess?" Yes!