Yesterday was C R A Z Y. I’d been playing with my sister since Friday, so my rhythm and schedule was off and laundry running out and…yeah.  But it was a good day.

At church, Colin gave a 25-minute talk in Sacrament Meeting on temples, springboarded from this talk by Elder Richard G. Scott.  Much of Colin’s talk was spent reminding us that we have to really decide to go, and on a schedule, or so many unanticipated obstacles will spontaneously appear that we’ll never get around to it.  And don’t wear a watch when you go.  I was blessed to have a sister, a friend, a sister-in-law, and Colin’s parents there to help compensate for my lack of husband who normally keeps our little crew under control.  Degen hurt his leg on Saturday, and asked to sit in a stroller all during church.  Then, it turns out that Colin had agreed to substitute teach Degen’s Sunbeams class at the same time as I taught my CTR 7 class.  Ruthie and Hillary signed up to join him in teaching about Being Kind to Animals, and Sonja agreed to watch little Heidi. Sonja has been willing to babysit a lot this week–thank you!!! Colin had an EQ Presidency meeting after church, so the kids and I listened to music in the car for a while before heading home for lunch.  I’m grateful to have a husband who serves others so willingly.

Sonja served us a yummy lunch and we all got to visit for a while before it was time to load up the cars and head to the airport by way of the beach.  Ruthie and Hillary both wanted to see the beach, and I’m so glad they did!  Kim recommended we go to Crissy Field since it was on the way to the airport.  Neither Colin nor I had ever been there before, but it was a pleasure to go.  I can’t believe how close it is, and with grass and beach and grills and free parking, I’m putting it on the list of places to go on a date.

We put our toes in the water, Degen carefully staying at the water’s edge and Maggie venturing in farther and farther despite my warnings and getting pulled under by a wave.  Colin and I both jumped in and saved her, all three of us getting soaked. Lucky, my Mommy brain had thought to bring an extra change of clothes for the kids though I’d had no intention of any of us getting wet.

Colin stitched together this neat 360 degree panorama  of where we were.  We mostly enjoyed the scenery and took pictures and let our toes enjoy the sand.  There was a little boy who’d wandered away from his family who adopted us for a little while, playing enthusiastically with Maggie and Degen.  It took us a while to find his family who were picnicking nearby with a large group and hadn’t noticed yet that he was gone (boy, do I sympathize with that!), but we enjoyed having a little friend to play with.

After a little while at the beach, it was time to take Ruthie and Hillary to the airport.  I had such a fun time during their visit!  Aside from the joy having my sister around, it’s just fun to have visitors to motivate me to enjoy the beautiful place where we live.  I hope they both had as much fun as I did.

I’m so lucky to have seen two sisters in one month!  I enjoyed visiting with and getting to spend time with both Liza and Ruthie.  They are both great young ladies and I can’t wait to see them at Thanksgiving.

On the other hand, it occurred to me today that I still have never seen a firefly or other biolumenescent insect and I went online to look up where to find them.  Apparently not often West of the Mississippi.  I missed my chance while we were in Arkansas!  Also, I found out that fireflies are carnivores, or at least omnivores.  That’s okay with me, as I like ladybugs and they eat other bugs, but for some reason I think it’s a little more gross in a firefly.  A lot of grossness in this post.

Speaking of bugs, one of my favorite bits of literature on the subject is a piece about spiders that exactly describes my feelings about spider webs.  It’s in Robert Fulghum’s book, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, which I have read and re-read and I consider it a treasure in humorous reading.  When I lived in my own place I kept it near my bed for reading when I had a bad day.  Definitely recommended reading.

Falafel balls from Costco

Updating my blog

Trying new recipes

Painting shows (Bob Ross’ happy trees…)

Checking on the garden every day…some of those plants grow fast, and some of those pests eat my veggies fast!

Listening to Colin practice the piano

Planning for the next family get-together

An example of his wonderfulness (it’s a word now!) is that he remembers for us that our first date was on Bastille Day in the year 2000.  He took me to dinner, then to the toy store for a preparatory explanation of the movie we were about to see, then to see the first X-Men movie.  We had a great time on that date and got married two years later.  In the nine years since, Colin has made a point of taking me to each of the X-Men movies in the theater in honor of our first date.  Isn’t that awesome?  I like to think romantic stuff like that doesn’t matter to me, but I get really excited when he makes a point of celebrating “us” together.

Good Kimberly offered last-minute to babysit ALL THREE KIDS so we could go out that night, and Colin planned the whole date.  I love planned dates!  Even when they cost zero dollars, or when I don’t even like the plans, I love it just that he plans ahead.  After a very, very long day wrestling with the little ones, re-showering and putting some makeup on and going out alone together was impressively refreshing.  Colin had looked up the new X-Men: Wolverine movie and made phone calls to find out which theaters had it on the largest, digital screens and at what time, then decided on a restaurant nearby for dinner.  We picked up our tickets, then took a little walk around the downtown area, and headed to dinner at a fun Mexican restaurant.  After dinner, we discovered that we’d locked the keys in the car, but we have roadside assistance coverage with our car insurance so it wasn’t too much of a stress and we decided to just watch the movie and then call the insurance to have the car unlocked.  The movie was neat (not flawless, and I recommend watching it on Clearplay at home for those of you who, like me, prefer to skip the violence), and afterward the tow truck/locksmith guy came very quickly. We got home to sleeping children and a lovely babysitter who didn’t even imply a desire to strangle us for being gone so long.  She even giggled with us over the fairy band-aids we got her that we made with “real fairy wings.”  Thank you Kim!

We spent much of the evening patting ourselves on the back for our marriage accomplishments.  We’ve made it through three relatively unpleasant pregnancies, had three relatively pleasant children, bought a house, moved several times, changed jobs, dealt with unemployment and financial stress, done grad school, supported each other in various callings at church, and managed to enjoy each other in the process.  It’s good to remember some things you’ve done right once in a while.  Here’s to forever, Colin!

What about the rest of the description?  Well, the same cut of meat can be called a bunch of things.  In Googling how to cook my roast, I discovered a lovely site that may prove to solve my meat-labeling issues: The Cook’s Thesaurus.  Google took me to a page within this site that provided a reasonable explanation to this (and other) food jargon issue.  Here’s what it had to say about my roast:

The chuck section comes from the shoulder and neck of the beef, and it yields some of the most flavorful and economical cuts of meat.  The downside is that these cuts tend to be tough and fatty, and they have more than their fair share of bone and gristle.  It’s usually best to cook them slowly in a liquid.

shoulder roast = shoulder pot roast = English roast   Notes: This boneless cut is located right behind the arm roast on the carcass.  It’s rather tough, so it’s usually cooked in a liquid.   Substitutes: arm roast OR bottom round OR cross rib roast

Isn’t that lovely?!  Now I know how to cook it and what other names could be used for it.  And if I ever want to cook it again and can’t find a store that sells it under the “English Roast” name, I’ll be able to ask a butcher for the equivalent or a substitute in an educated way.

Speaking of butchers, there’s nothing worse than talking to a butcher you don’t know about something neither of you may know anything about.  I admit, I don’t know my meat-mongers at all. But I always wonder as I pass the meat counter whether they really know anything about meat (or cooking meat) beyond how to cut it.   They seem to always be hiding out, nearly out of sight, behind the counter just hoping that no one will bug them.  They also seem to usually be really short, skinny people who may or may not speak English.  Probably my love for Fiddler on the Roof has tainted my ideal of “the great butcher” by making me think that a butcher has to be a big, muscular, dominant man with an impressive personal presence exuding expertise in the field of all things meaty.  Why can’t I have a Lazar Wolf butcher? If you’ve never seen the movie, you can see Lazar Wolf at work about 2 minutes into this video:

Silly side note: Isn’t “thesaurus” a funny word?  It’s like the name of a dinosaur.  Or THE dinosaur.  Hmmmm…

What about the rest of the description?  Well, the same cut of meat can be called a bunch of things.  In Googling how to cook my roast, I discovered a lovely site that may prove to solve my meat-labeling issues: The Cook’s Thesaurus.  Google took me to a page within this site that provided a reasonable explanation to this (and other) food jargon issue.  Here’s what it had to say about my roast:

The chuck section comes from the shoulder and neck of the beef, and it yields some of the most flavorful and economical cuts of meat.  The downside is that these cuts tend to be tough and fatty, and they have more than their fair share of bone and gristle.  It’s usually best to cook them slowly in a liquid.

shoulder roast = shoulder pot roast = English roast   Notes: This boneless cut is located right behind the arm roast on the carcass.  It’s rather tough, so it’s usually cooked in a liquid.   Substitutes: arm roast OR bottom round OR cross rib roast

Isn’t that lovely?!  Now I know how to cook it and what other names could be used for it.  And if I ever want to cook it again and can’t find a store that sells it under the “English Roast” name, I’ll be able to ask a butcher for the equivalent or a substitute in an educated way.

Speaking of butchers, there’s nothing worse than talking to a butcher you don’t know about something neither of you may know anything about.  I admit, I don’t know my meat-mongers at all. But I always wonder as I pass the meat counter whether they really know anything about meat (or cooking meat) beyond how to cut it.   They seem to always be hiding out, nearly out of sight, behind the counter just hoping that no one will bug them.  They also seem to usually be really short, skinny people who may or may not speak English.  Probably my love for Fiddler on the Roof has tainted my ideal of “the great butcher” by making me think that a butcher has to be a big, muscular, dominant man with an impressive personal presence exuding expertise in the field of all things meaty.  Why can’t I have a Lazar Wolf butcher? If you’ve never seen the movie, you can see Lazar Wolf at work about 2 minutes into this video:

Silly side note: Isn’t “thesaurus” a funny word?  It’s like the name of a dinosaur.  Or THE dinosaur.  Hmmmm…

It rains in the Spring.  I like rain because it smells good.  It makes everything feel clean and new.  It gives variety to my life.  I even like thunderstorms because it makes me humble and reminds me of the power of God.

Flowers!  The flowers start to come back and they smell good and help me to be cheerful.

Easter.  My birthday.  May parent’s birthdays.  Passover.

The sunshine comes back warm, but not too warm.  I always forget how much I missed the sunshine during the winter and it’s like a great surprise every year.

Green grass and leaves.

Strawberries!  I had strawberries for breakfast with a little whipped cream.  Who knew that two cups of strawberries has fewer grams of carbs than a cup of cereal?

Other spring fruits and veggies!  Asparagus, artichokes, apricots, avocados, and pineapple.  (I just found a list of fruits and vegetables by season–with pictures!!–here)

The farmer’s market starts up again and I can find good produce next month!

General Conference

Kites–I should bust out our kite and take the kids kite-flying with all the wind we’ve got right now.

Spring Cleaning.  I rarely actually do a whole huge Spring Cleaning, but I do get a little bug in my head helping me to get motivated to try to get things back in order.

Anticipation and planning of summer vacations.

Did I mention flowers and sunshine?  I really love those…

I’m cooking sans microwave for now, obviously.  I don’t know about you, but we use our microwave quite often.  I suppose I could go find the box in our storage room that holds our toaster oven and use that to decrease the awkwardness of heating up the entire oven for every little reheating activity.  It’s a convection oven, too, so it would make things heat up faster than our big oven.  Hmmm…I hadn’t thought of that until just now.

We’d never purchased nor priced a microwave before since we’d gotten one for our wedding, so the other night when we decided our microwave was unusable Colin and I were relieved to find out that there are many acceptable models under $100.  After reading through reviews and “most popular” lists on Amazon and Walmart and Sears and Target and Sam’s Club sites, Colin determined that if and when we buy another microwave, we should probably go for either a Sharp or a Panasonic 1100W 1 cubic footer.  So, when we get our tax return back (maybe this weekend!) we may take a little chunk of it and get a microwave.  Then again, I may see how we do with just the toaster oven and watch yard sales for a good microwave…

I like having time alone when I exercise.  I try to work out early in the morning, sometimes before even Colin gets up, and almost always before anyone else in our apartment complex is outside.  Walking the three minutes to our gym outside in the fresh air before dawn refreshes my soul.  I love sunrise–I’d forgotten how much.  And since it’s been about three years since I’ve even had the bathroom to myself on a regular basis, having a half-hour or more legitimately to myself gives me an emotional boost. I feel like God and I are the only ones awake and I find I can pray with more gratitude and focus.

Exercise is helping me lose weight!  I’ve lost 5 1/2 pounds and one fat percentage point since I started.

I have time to listen to music.  Right now it’s not great music, academically speaking, but I’m enjoying it and I’m sure I’ll discover more as I go along and get bored with the baby stuff.

I feel happy more of the day.  I find I don’t have to work so hard to be happy.  I don’t have to try so hard to be motivated to pick up the house because I’ve already done something good and feel great about it.  I don’t want to sit on the couch and watch TV so much of the time.

I have a reason to get up in the morning besides someone crying at me.  So much of the last couple of years I’ve woken up to crying babies, and it’s trained me to almost dread waking up.  Now I have an appointment with myself to do something for myself that makes me feel good.  I admit that I still defiantly stay in bed after the alarm rings, but I think that may gradually go away on its own.

I like to have a quantitative measure of what I’m doing.  Changing diapers and making dinner and folding laundry could be quantified, so maybe I should do it with those too.  But with a treadmill it calculates all the numbers for you and you can see as you work just how much work you’ve done and compare it to yesterday.  I like lifting weights, too, because I count as I lift and each time I finish a set it’s like I’ve made it to a goal.  I almost like weights better than cardio because I get to the “I successfully finished something!” point more often.

Since I wear my hair in a ponytail most days of any given month, I accepted the challenge and haven’t had a ponytail (except when working out!) for two days. I don’t think I’d actually “let myself go”–I’ve just never been un-gone. I have actually felt a little prettier with blow-dried hair than with dried-in-my-ponytail hair, so it’s a good thing in any case.

Did I mention that being part of the weekly+ challenges qualifies me for a drawing for “fabulous prizes?” This time it’s a gift card to Bath & Body Works so I probably wouldn’t be able to use it on myself if I were to win, but it does sound fabulous does it not?

January Ponytail
February Ponytail
March Ponytail