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 wo...

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...

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 t...

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 ...

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 dur...