Monday night we did another fun Christmas tradition:  making gingerbread houses.  Many years ago I would bake real gingerbread.  It was an ordeal for me.  Finally I decided it was just not worth all the stress, time, and effort.  Especially after the time where I sneezed for an hour straight because I got some flour dust in my nose.  So now we use graham crackers. My husband constructs the houses.  He takes 3 full-size graham crackers and cuts them in half using a knife.  Then he takes 4 halves and uses a glue gun to make the base of the house.  Then he glues the other two halves together to make a roof.  He then glues the roof onto the house and then glues the whole house on to a paper plate.  Obviously they aren't edible houses with the glue on them but are any gingerbread houses edible after they've sat out and gotten rock hard?  Plus using hot glue means we don't have to come up with little milk cartons to construct the houses around. The beauty of the graham c

By pure luck, our family was able to begin the Christmas season in one of the best ways I can think of.  In October, we got tickets to see "Sacred Gifts" at the BYU Museum of Art.  Our tickets just happened to be for November 29, which was Black Friday.  So we took our family out to eat (a Black Friday tradition) and then we went to the exhibit.  I think my children generally liked it, especially with the Ipads we rented at the exhibit which gave additional information.  My husband and I really enjoyed it and hope to go back without them sometime.  We weren't allowed to take pictures in the exhibit but here are some I got online: The exhibit featured works from three European artists:  Carl Bloch, Heinrich Hofmann, and Frans Schwartz.  They were late 19th century artists specializing in religious paintings, particularly paintings of Christ.  This quote, taken from the  website says, "Most of these works have never before been on view in the United States,

I have to admit that I don't particularly enjoy the preparations for Christmas.  The list of things I need to do seems so long.  I worry about disappointing my children with their gifts on Christmas morning. I worry about buying things that will really be useful or enjoyable for all the people on my list.  Do we really need more junk in our house?  Once I decide what I'm going to get, then I have to find it at a price I'm willing to pay and soon enough to get packages shipped to relatives living far away.  It all seems so complicated. Because there are four birthdays in our family during December (two boys and two in-laws), I have tried to do a lot of my shopping in November so I don't get completely overwhelmed.  But this year I rebelled and worked on other projects.  Now I'm paying for it and it's a little stressful. But I don't really want Christmas to take over November as well as December so how do I solve this problem?  Hoping for a few ideas, I

Last night we decorated our Christmas tree.  As we did it, I thought to myself that this is one of my favorite Christmas traditions.  I love to make lists so here is a list of the reasons it's one of my favorites: 1.  We have a set time.  We do it the first Monday night in December.  That's the date we decided worked the best. Monday night is Family Night so we already have that time open when everyone is there.  When anyone wants to put up the Christmas decorations early, I have a date to tell them.  I don't feel conflicted about putting it up earlier because that's the day.  And personally, I think that Christmas should not start taking over the month of November too. 2.  We have a fake tree.  This makes putting up our Christmas tree so much quicker.  If you have to go buy a tree, you've already doubled the amount of time it takes to put it up and decorate it.  I admit, real trees are lovely and nicer than fake trees.  Some of them have a nice smell a

Recently I read Thanksgiving:  A Time to Remember by Barbara Rainey, published in 2003.  I am so glad to have come across this book, courtesy of my mother who shared it with me.  The purpose of this book is to share the story of the Pilgrims and the miracles that allowed them to survive and eventually thrive in this new land.  Included in the book is the story of the Pilgrims to be read aloud to children.  I hope to do that in the days leading up to Thanksgiving--maybe after dinner for a few minutes on our less-frantic nights.  I started last night after dinner.  My children weren't sure if this was some new punishment or what, but the first chapter only took 8 minutes so I don't think it was too painful!  It should take less than an hour total to read the story aloud.  Also included with the book is a CD of Thanksgiving songs and music, which I haven't listened to yet, but hope to. The author says, "I was determined that my children would hear the stories of the

Something weird about me is that I really enjoy keeping track of our money.  It is actually my favorite household task (except when I have to call people about questions with bills--not fun.)  Every Tuesday, I do the finances.  That means collecting all the receipts from the depths of my purse and writing them down in my little financial notebook where we keep track of our budget, figuring out our checkbook balance, paying the bills, etc.  I won't say I love all the numbers that show up when I do the finances but it gives me some kind of feeling of control over our money.  Don't we all want to feel in control of our money instead of the other way around? So it's probably not too surprising that one of my goals in life is to teach my children how to be responsible with their money.  I'm not sure how successful I've been but one of the things I've done is to have a lesson on our family finances.  I've done this maybe two times over the last 15 years and s

Recently I've been reading a book called One Thousand Gifts:  A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are by Ann Voskamp.  I'm not sure if I recommend it yet or not.  The book is written in a poetic style that's hard to read, so I've been doing a lot of skimming and I'm not done yet, but I like the idea of feeling gratitude all the time and finding joy in all aspects of your life. The author found herself being very unhappy with her life, for various reasons, until one night she had a very vivid dream in which she was diagnosed with cancer throughout her body and was told she would die shortly.  The nightmare wasn't true but it was a pivotal moment for her because she realized that someday she would die, as we all will.  Her question was "Which road through this brief land?  What is all most important?  How to live the fullest life here that delivers into the full life ever after?...How do we live fully so we are fully ready to die?" (p. 28-29)

Continuing the story of our 6000-mile trip last summer. .. After we visited Boston , it was time to start heading home.  We left on Tuesday morning, leaving our 3rd son behind to take an airline flight home.  He had had his shoulder surgery 7 weeks before and the surgeon wanted him to start physical therapy before waiting any longer.  Also, his mission call was waiting for him at home! After about 6 hours of driving, our first stop was in upstate New York in the area where the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was founded.  First we visited the site of the actual founding of the church, the Peter Whitmer home in Fayette, New York.  It's a pretty small log cabin and we were fortunate to come at a time when there weren't many visitors so we could go inside.  The guides told us that when there are big tour buses, they can't take people in, but just seat them outside and talk about it.  I am so grateful for the weather we enjoyed on this trip.  We saw lots of r

When I was 13 or so, I had a Sunday School teacher that tried to tell our (very noisy) class that if we worked hard enough at something we could become, literally, the best in the world at that thing.  The example I remember him using was specifically about me because I played the violin.  He told me that if I practiced hard enough on the violin I could become the best in the world.  I really didn't believe him at the time and I'm still pretty certain on that point.  However, after reading Mindset by Carol Dweck I can see that maybe I needed to accept the challenge to become the best violinist I could become. Carol Dweck is a psychologist who, as a young researcher, wanted to understand how people cope with failure.  So she brought children one at a time into a room at their school and gave them puzzles to solve, starting with easier ones and progressing to harder ones.  She was expecting to see differences in their approaches but was surprised to see just how differen

With their house being built in a former apple orchard, my parents have something like 7 apple trees in their yard.  So every year, they have lots of apples and they're willing to share with me!  I really love food made from apples. There are several ways I preserve apples so we can take advantage of this harvest. 1.  Freezing apples:  This is a less-common way to preserve apples but I really like it.  I use my apple-peeler-corer (which is the greatest invention) and then cut up the apples a little bit more to make about 6 cups of sliced, peeled apples.  I put them in a gallon-size freezer bag, add a tablespoon or so of lemon juice, and then stick it in the freezer.  That's it!  It's really easy.  I use the bags of apples in apple crisp or apple pie through the winter.  Those recipes go so much faster when the apples are all ready to go. 2.  Applesauce:  A few weeks ago, my children and I made 42 quarts of applesauce during fall break.  It was really tiring and next

Last Sunday I was concerned about my daughter's oxygen levels (low 90's because of her recent illness), so after the main church meeting, I brought her home.  Since she was missing her Sunday class, I wanted her to have a meaningful Sunday-type experience, so I went to  lds.org and checked out the Bible videos which use text directly from the New Testament and are stories from the life of Christ and his apostles.  I have been meaning to take a look at them for a while and I'm glad I finally did. We watched quite a few--they're all pretty short--and I really enjoyed them.  They held my daughter's attention too.  They're done very authentically and it gives the viewer a taste of what Christ's life was like.  I almost wish they could add to the words in the New Testament and make the videos a little longer but they really wanted to stay true to the scriptures and there's a lot to be said for that.  The viewer can add their own meanings and miss

Recently my husband stumbled across Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire:  The Methods and Madness inside Room 56 by Rafe Esquith.  He listened to it as an e-book from the public library and really liked it.  So he got the book for me and I read it too.  It's a quick read and interesting.  I'm not sure how life-changing it will be for anyone, but with all the debate about education, it is certainly relevant.  Education is the new wealth, according to George Will. Perhaps what I liked most about the book is hearing the ways that he has been successful in helping lower-income children rise above their circumstances and move out of this impoverished world that they live in.  One of the ways he does this is through high expectations.  He requires an essay from his students every week and a very long book report every month.  He has a book club and tries to instill a love of reading in his students.   He has a movie club that any student may join but checking out a movie means s

My youngest turned 6 on Sunday!  It would have been a perfect day except she was sick, poor girl.  It's some kind of virus that is giving her a fever and a lot of coughing, so she's had to be on some extra oxygen.  Minor illnesses cause problems for her that most kids never see.  But that's just how it is and we deal with it. In so many ways, she is doing very well these days.  Just since school has started, she has become an artist!  She never drew pictures before kindergarten, just a lot of scribbling.  But now she draws suns and skies and grass and stick figures with eyelashes and fingers and hair and clothes.  It is so fun to see.  She used to be very delayed in her fine motor skills with very weak hands but she really has made a lot of progress in the last year or two.  She loves to write short letters, asking me how to spell various words.  At the beginning of the school year, she disliked having to write her name and she would get her neighbor to write it for h