On Thursday, my second son turned 22!  He was gone on his mission to Latvia for the last two birthdays but this year we got to have him over for his birthday dinner.  He wanted beef stroganoff and "Too Much Chocolate" cake for dessert.  He blew all his candles out in one blow.  The picture is a bit hazy thanks to all that smoke. He just finished a semester at BYU and is majoring in computer engineering.  We actually didn't have his birthday dinner on Thursday because he went "trumpet caroling" on that night.  They rang our doorbell about 8pm and 10 trumpet players stood on our lawn and played a couple of Christmas carols.  It was pretty cool.  I wish I could share a picture of that but it was too dark outside and the picture doesn't show anything. We gave him his birthday presents back in August--it's just so much easier on me when we do birthday presents at a different time than Christmas--and he likes his presents being a little more spread out

My third son (and third child) had his 20th birthday yesterday but we didn't get to talk to him or see him.  That's okay because he is doing what he's supposed to be doing.  He's far away in Eastern Europe serving a mission for our church.  He's in a war-torn country trying to bring some hope and love to people that must be feeling at least a little bit discouraged. He's the one with the pink, red and purple striped tie. He has been so cheerful and optimistic in his letters despite the challenges that he has.  It's been fun to read them.  We look forward to talking to him on Christmas! Here he is doing a service project.

This is a great video to watch or listen and get in the Christmas spirit.  I need to do that more. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrLoWt2tfqg How is my Christmas season going?  It's going pretty well but next year, I'm going to do more shopping in November so I can enjoy more fun activities in December.  My new resolution:  All packages that need to be mailed to my children need to be ready to go on December 1st.  And I need to use my book  more.

I have been wanting to change how we celebrate Christmas for a long time.  I frankly dread the holiday because of the pressure I feel in meeting lots of expectations on a deadline.  As a committed Christian, it should be one of my favorite days of the year but so far, it's not.  I've tried to think of ways to make it a happier time of year for me but I'm definitely not there yet. However, yesterday I made a little progress in making it a more religious holiday--more about celebrating Christ's birth and less about buying the perfect gifts. The first thing I did was buy this book: I have to admit that I have not yet read the book.  (Remember this is December and time is at a premium--and I just got it yesterday.)  However, at the back of the book, in the Appendix, he has a list of devotionals to do each day in December leading up to Christmas.  So we tried it last night after dinner.  The suggestion for December 4th was to read Psalm 24:9-10, sing "While She

We had a big Thanksgiving this year at our house:  36 people, all related to me.  I woke up early this morning worried that I wouldn't have enough turkey.  I thought maybe I should rush to the store and get another turkey breast.  But my husband convinced me that we had enough and we should try the experiment of possibly running out.  So I cooked a 19 lb. turkey and a 7 lb. turkey breast and we had plenty with some leftovers. We had lots of other food, of course:  raw vegetables, roasted sweet potatoes and asparagus, a green bean casserole, a squash casserole, fruit salad, a green salad, mashed potatoes, rolls, cornbread dressing, stuffing, olives and gravy.  Then for dessert we had several different kinds of pie:  pumpkin, sour cream apple, berry, key lime, lemon meringue, banana cream, and German chocolate.  It was all yummy and the amount was just about right.  I should have taken pictures of the food! Some of the older boys and men played football beforehand--the

Lately we've had some pretty cold weather--this morning it was about 15 degrees when we got up.  That isn't so very cold compared to the temperatures in Edmonton, Canada where my son is serving a mission; I think it got down to -15 last week.  But there were plenty of complaints from the teenagers who needed to ride their bikes to school this morning. What's the saying--there is no bad weather just bad clothing?  Tonight we're going to the store to get them better equipped for riding their bikes to school clothing-wise, assuming they can keep track of the mittens, scarves, etc.  And we're going to have a discussion about why we encourage transportation independence at our house. Here are the reasons to tell your children why they should ride their bike or walk to school: 1.  It helps you learn how to do hard things.  One of the things I love about my husband is that he is not afraid to do something hard.  He rides his bike to work, 6 miles away, in all but th

Camille had her seventh birthday this year.  She asked for spaghetti and meatballs for her birthday dinner.  She wanted a chocolate cake with pink frosting and a heart made out of raspberries for the middle.  She also wanted to go ice skating for her birthday so we went the following Saturday.  It was definitely much less crowded than it is when we go in January or February.  She wanted an Olaf costume for Halloween so that was one of her presents along with some clothes.  (Sadly she lost the top half of the costume on her way home from school on Halloween but she still had the hat.) Here is Mindy copying one of the expert figure skaters at the rink. We went to Southfork on her birthday because it was Fall Break and the weather was beautiful. Camille had a good month and stayed healthy all month.  It was great.  Camille loves to play with friends and have computer turns.  She is becoming an independent reader.  She takes piano from her mother.  We enjoy the cheer

Every October the kids get three days off from school.  It's a welcome break from the usual routine but I am usually very busy trying to get lots of jobs done along with extra activities. My main task for fall break is to take stock of everyone's clothes, switch out the summer clothes and see what we need for winter.  That's kind of boring but definitely necessary so we did that on Thursday. Then on Friday, we headed for Payson Canyon with my husband who took the day off.  In all our years of living in this area we've never done any recreating in Payson Canyon.  It turns out to be a nice place to visit. The first spot we visited was "Grotto Trail".  It's a very short hike with a waterfall at the end, perfect for small children.  Unfortunately we got a little ways down the trail and a DNR guy told us the trail was closed for a few hours because an aggressive moose had to be taken down and they were "harvesting" the moose.  I'm not sure t

This morning I was on the Internet when I really should have been getting ready to go run some errands but I came across a blog  http://www.dinneralovestory.com/   that talked about reading a book called The Secrets of Happy Families.   I'm not sure how good the book is after reading a negative review of it on Amazon.  What the blogger liked most from the book was learning about the "Do You Know" scale. The "Do You Know" scale is a list of questions made by some researchers to figure out how well children know their family history. These are questions like "Do you know where your parents met?"  Or, "Do you know some of the jobs that your parents had when they were young?"  According to the results of the study, the more a child knows about his family's history "the stronger their sense of control over their lives, the higher their self-esteem, and the more successfully they believed their families functioned."  Clearly, genera

I don't consider myself a particularly creative person.  On the violin, I'm more than happy to play the notes someone else has written rather than make up my own.  I'm perfectly content to read books rather than write them.  I have to get my house decorating ideas from someone else.  And on and on... But life hands me lots of opportunities to be creative whether I want to or not.  Every summer and fall I get to be creative with the produce from the garden and fruit trees. Lately we've had a great abundance of tomatoes and apples.  So yesterday I made salsa to can.  I filled my 12-quart pot with peeled, quartered tomatoes and cooked it way down, adding onions, green peppers, jalapenos, and seasonings.  I can't say I particularly enjoyed the process so I'm writing this post to remind myself to plant fewer tomatoes next year! Tonight was apple night.  I made a spinach salad and added sliced apple to it.  Then I made an apple cake and we had hot applesauce w

From August 2006  On Monday, September 29, 2014, my grandpa, Francis Everett Broadbent, died.  It was the same day my little granddaughter (his great-great granddaughter) turned 1.  He was 92 years old and never expected to live that long.  He suffered from severe, life-threatening asthma for most of his life and had to move from New York to California because of it. He was also diagnosed with leukemia about 17 years ago and given one week to live without chemo.  The doctors didn't expect him to survive.  But obviously he did--he had more work to do.  He also had other health problems that made life challenging including almost complete deafness which made it very difficult to talk to people and go to church.  But he kept trying anyway.  He lost his wife in March of 2012 after caring for her for many years and because of those things, I think he was really happy to finally be released from this life. 2006:  It doesn't seem that long ago except my children were 8 year

Our mornings are intense.  We try to cram a lot into that time before school so that after school can be a little more relaxed and we can concentrate on homework and other activities.  Here's how my typical morning goes: I wake up at 5:30 most mornings.  (This morning unfortunately my bladder woke me up at 4:45 and I never went back to sleep).  I do this so I can pray and read scriptures without interruption and distractions.  But my body has adjusted to this and I am now incapable of sleeping in even if I wanted to.  I think this might be related to getting older. After personal study, I play hymns on the piano to get my children up to the living room so we can do our family scripture study.  It's not exactly high quality but we are consistent.  We try to start at 6:25. After family scriptures and prayer, it's 6:40 and the kids do their jobs while I make breakfast and my husband helps Camille get dressed and make her bed.  She should be able to do this by her