For My Family

For those who may not remember, a couple years ago, my dad decided to open up a restaurant. It had always been a dream of his to own and operate a diner, and he felt very strongly that now was the time. He found a perfect spot, and he got to work! It took about a year to build/put together, but we were all so excited and really anticipated this great event. We had really high hopes for this diner and things felt good.

Well, they didn't turn out so good. The restaurant struggled to open and struggled to stay open. It barely made it 3 or 4 months before we had a family council and decided to close the doors forever. Some family members were OK with it. Some accepted this as the Lord's will for our family. Some didn't question why we were supposed to build a restaurant to only see it fail.

 

But some did.

 

Anyway, I came across this article in the January 2014 Ensign the other day. It brought me a lot of comfort as I read it, even though I have long come to accept this trial my family had to go through. I thought a lot of my dad as I read it and I really wanted to share it on here that Sunday, but I got kind of side tracked and forgot! Lo and behold, the very next day, my loving mother had sent us all an email with that very article attached, telling us how much she loved us and how she knew the diner was meant to be a part of our lives as a family.

 

So now that I'm thinking about it, I am posting the portion of the article that really stood out to us!

This is by Elder J. Christopher Lansing, Area Seventy, North America Northeast Area, from a devotional address to BYU-Hawaii on Oct. 30, 2012. The talk is called "Enduring Well."

 

"What We Become Makes All the Difference"

The business I own today was founded by my father nearly 60 years ago. He died in 1980, leaving me to take the helm of the company at the young age of 30.

In those early years, situations came up that required me to make decisions that affected the future of our frail business. I worked hard to act as my father would have acted, and I spent a great deal of time on my knees, trying to discern what to do. In all those decisions, I never felt a calming influence or any direction one way or another. I ultimately did what I thought was best and moved on. But I was disappointed I had not been able to get any confirmation of my actions.

One night my father came to me in a dream. I began to chide him for not helping me know what to do. He said he was aware of my situation but he was busy where he was and his former business was not terribly important. “Chris, we really don’t care about the business up here,” he said. “What we care about very much is what you become because of your business.”

That was a great lesson I hope I never forget. What we get during our life is inconsequential, but what we become in life makes all the difference.

Sometimes we forget that in premortality we fought alongside the Savior in defense of the Father’s plan of moral agency. And we won! Lucifer and his followers were expelled, and we received the opportunity to experience the life we fought for. The Father’s plan included the Atonement. Our job is to face our challenges and endure them well. As we do this, the Atonement has meaning in our lives and we fulfill the Lord’s work and glory: “to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39).

Like I said, this article really touched me and I felt like sharing it today. I know the Lord gives us trials and makes things happen in our lives for a reason. I know we are supposed to be here on Earth to learn and grow, otherwise, what's the point?

 

Let me know what you think!

Chicken!

How many of you moms out there are just like me and are starting to get frustrated that you can never remember to take out the chicken in time to thaw for dinner and end up just not cooking anymore? Ok, well that's me. My husband works and I work, so I have a limited time frame when it comes to making dinner. If that meat isn't thawed, I pretty much have to scrap my meal plans and come up with a Plan B. And yes, that has been our life for the last few months, and I've gotten frustrated.

I was on Pinterest the other day just browsing, and I saw the one pin where, you know, the mom makes a whole month's worth of meals or crock pot meals all in one day and stocks them up in her freezer. I'm sorry, but who has that much space in their freezer?? Unfortunately, I just skip over those and don't even bother to check for any good recipes. This time, I actually did open up the link and was really glad I did. I found the idea of cooking all my chicken for the week ahead of time!!

This might not seem huge to you, but it was to me.

Now, I am kind of sort of a snob when it comes to cooking chicken. Ever since I found better (and yummier and juicier) ways of cooking chicken breast, I've kind of stopped poaching/boiling my chicken. It seems so bland and flavorless, no matter how many onions and celery pieces you put in there. But at this point, being as exhausted and sick as I am, I have decided to let go of my pride and just BOIL THE HECK out of the chicken if it meant having fresh chicken already cooked and not from a can. Again.

So basically I went to the store today and I bought a 3lb bag of frozen breasts for $6.98 (at the lovely Walmart) and when I got home, I threw it in the stock pot with a few other pieces of frozen chicken breast filets I had in the freezer, roughly chopped half an onion that I had in my freezer, threw in some bullion cubes and some bay leaves, and let that sucker boil for about 30 min whilst I, tired mama, took a nap.

When the chicken was done and cooked, I drained the broth (which I totally wanted to keep and totally forgot!!) and gave those chicken pieces a good chopping and sorted them out into bags. I did 2 cups per bag of chopped chicken because that's about 2 breasts, ish. I was able to get 6 cups out of my 3.5-4lbs of frozen chicken.

I was kind of disappointed though to see that it only made 3 bags, which meant really 3 meals. However, cooked chicken is cooked chicken and I am really still pleased with the results and sooo looking forward to having chicken/cooked meals again. I still put the bags in the freezer, but at least now I can just stick them in the microwave for a quick warm up, or just throw it frozen in the casserole and let it warm in the oven.

Next time, I'll actually do some math and put forth a little more money for some more chicken. Now that I see how easy it is, I really am not daunted to try this again another time. If I'm especially feeling up to it, I may even brown some hamburger and sort those out, although I really don't mind thawing hamburger in the microwave as much because it doesn't get those tough/rubbery edges that chicken does and it's looser (since its ground) and thaws more evenly.

So I feel really good about this and slowly but surely, and definitely not all at once, will I try to be better each week about prepping my food for the week so that when I'm in the hustle and bustle of things, I don't feel so stressed and frustrated.

If you have any ideas or try this out, let me know how it goes! Happy Cooking!

New Computer!

First of all, Happy 2014, everybody!

I can honestly say I didn't really care much for 2013. Sure, there were some really good times, but overall, not my favorite year. I know 2014 will be a much better year, but as to why, well, that secret will have to wait just a bit longer!

But we did start out the new year pretty good already - we got a new computer!

It's a Dell, again, and I feel like it is the newer, better sister to my old Dell. All you Dell-nay-sayers, I don't really care. We have really liked our Dell and we got this computer for a good price ($350 - can't beat that!).

So likes and dislikes:
Likes:
Brand New
Faster
Built in camera - ooh!
10-key pad!

Dislikes:
WINDOWS 8. I mean, really??

That's pretty much about it.

So today's tasks are to contact Norton and find out why they did not extend our subscription to April 2014 like they told me they would a year ago. Also, uninstall a search engine hi-jacker that has ALREADY found its way onto our computer. I mean, seriously?? That was our problem with the other computer! But this one apparently isn't so bad and I've already got it uninstalled and just need to find anything else it affected and fix those. Hopefully after Norton is all good, that will help.

Viruses anymore. They are buggers!

Also, we are doing pretty good. Scott is taking 2 online classes, one Aviation ground class at the airport (the other aviation class is one of the online classes), and his MULTI-ENGINE flight instruction. WOOT! Can you believe we are almost there?? After multi-engine is commercial, and after commercial, he can finally start looking for jobs. Not like super-amazing jobs yet, but jobs none-the-less. However, if he wants to be an instructor, he'd have to keep doing instructor courses. Blah. We'll see where the Lord takes us though.

Hailey is almost 2 and talking like crazy and has too much energy for her own good and I can barely handle her sometimes! Just kidding, she's really a good kid, just likes to get into everything! I love her though and it's amazing to watch her grow how she is.

I am doing good. Still working at Central Utah Clinic. I have a calling in Cub Scouts over the Wolf Den. I teach piano lessons to a little girl in my ward on Saturdays. I crochet and knit, and sleep in my spare time.

That is all for now. Have a great day!

Delicious Dinner!

Here is something you may not have known about me: I have a thing with rice. I also have a thing with Cream of Chicken soup. Both entirely unrelated, but also both kind of a big deal to me.

I think the Rice Thing started back when I had Hailey and we were still receiving dinners from the neighbors. This one sister made her famous curry and I don't know if it was because anything at that point that I didn't have to make tasted amazing or if it really was that good (which I don't doubt!), but that was probably the best dish of curry I had ever eaten in my entire life. Besides the fact that the curry sauce itself tasted so wonderful, the sticky rice inside was cooked perfect and soft. Ever since that day, I made a goal to make rice just like hers.

I did have a few issues. That included I have a BUNCH of long grain rice, which makes for horrible sticky rice. I didn't want to go out and buy special rice because I really had that much long grain rice in my storage. I felt sort of guilty, like I was betraying the rice I already had. Number two, my rice cooker has a mind of its own. More often than not, the rice still comes out crunchy (eww!!). I tried the stove method over a dozen times, each with a new recipe from the internet, but they all failed. My quest for perfect rice continued.

And the Cream of Chicken Soup Thing, it's just fake. That's the only way I can describe it. It doesn't matter which brand I get, it still tastes fake. You can mix it with mayo or sour cream or milk or cheese...and it still tastes fake. I hate it and I avoid it at all possible.

This brings me to my delicious meal tonight. We had a ton of leftover chicken, so Scott said Why not Hawaiian Haystacks? I sort of groaned inside, knowing that I'd have to face the rice AND the cream of chicken for another unsuccessful dinner. But I turned positive and started my search online for a SCRATCH recipe. And guess what? I found it!!

No Cream Of Soup Hawaiian Haystacks

Real Mom Kitchen is the bomb-dot-com. And you know what is so great about this recipe? It uses everything one would usually have as a staple in their kitchen anyway. That is why I like these white-sauce/roux/milk or cream sauce things so much! They are SO versatile and you don't realize how much the "quick and easy" world has pushed it aside and made their own canned version to make dinner time come faster. But this scratch recipe (along with many others that I already use this same method for) is SO worth that extra 20 minutes.

So Cream of Chicken Soup Thing was checked off my list. I had finally conquered the soup!

Next was the issue with rice. I had remembered once seeing a quick "recipe" for rice in a cookbook that we got for our wedding.  "Mormon Pantry: Cooking for Two" by Debbie G Harman is the name and I have actually taken a few recipes from that book and already dubbed them as "family favorites." I decided to give this rice a try.

1 cup long-grain rice (me me me!)

2 cups water

1 tbsp butter

1/2 tsp salt

Bring the two cups water to a boil. Add rice, salt, and butter and stir well. 

Reduce temperature to medium-low and place a tight-fitting lid on pan. Simmer 20 minutes. 

Remove from heat and fluff with a fork. Serve while still warm.

I wonder if the salt helped do the trick because I had never added salt before. Whatever it was, I liked it! The rice actually came out SOFT. Did you hear that? S-O-F-T. Even my husband was surprised (poor guy having to endure all that crunchy half-cooked rice). Would you blame me if I told you I sat down and ate the left over rice straight out of the pan? Yum!

Combine these two elements together, plus some delicious toppings like pineapple, celery, cheese, and who can forget chow mein noodles, this was probably THE best Hawaiian Haystacks I have ever had.

The End!

The Good News!

The Good News is...my computer is back! Healthy and fast as ever. I am so, so very happy. It feels like the very first day I turned it on.

But that's the bad news. It's because it IS like the very first day I turned it on. Wiped the whole thing...and factory reset it. We backed it all up on my external hard drive, but I know that is going to take a good, long time to upload everything back onto my computer.

You know what, though? It feels really good, this starting new thing. True, it may take some work to get things back to where they were before (re-install the printer, put all my pictures and files back on, get all my settings the way I like it) but it is totally worth it.

Sort of feels like baptism, or the Atonement, wiping this all clean. Love it!

Anyway, I thought I would start a new thing. Try to write every Friday or Saturday to tell you about our week. Today is Tuesday, but this is making up for last week. And sadly, no pictures right now.

Last Monday, school started for Scotty and my mom. It also meant Hailey started at her new babysitter. She loved it!! The new sitter has 2 kids, one Hailey's age, and she came home happy as ever!

We are still trying to adjust to Scott's new schedule at work. It keeps him away til 8pm, which we are very much not used to. For two years we've had our evenings together, every evening! But I feel like this is good to shake things up a bit and get us working on our toes again. I think this will also encourage us to go to the temple more since before, we felt like we could go anytime, and thus, didn't. Now, we really have to plan it and stick with the plan. I think I am going to like this.

Friday was Scott's cousin's wedding. It was in Manti and it was beautiful. They both have such great families and I was very pleased to be in the their presence all day. We spent the afternoon/evening in Richfield for the luncheon and reception. I like Richfield! Small enough that it's in the middle of nowhere, but big enough for a Walmart! It was a great, but long, day.

Saturday, I went to my sweet little piano student's baptism. She got baptized with her two best friends. What a wonderful moment that was. It was crazy to see these young girls getting baptized. They were so little when we moved into the ward 3 1/2 years ago!

Sunday was our nephew's baby blessing. We spent more time with Scott's family and had a nice breakfast/luncheon. We spent dinner at my family's house where my tech-savy brother helped clean my computer.

Monday was great because my dear sister Oy decided to watch Hailey for me while I deep cleaned my house!! I did the kitchen/fridge and the storage room and it feels SO sososo great to be able to have space in the storage room again. I love that everything is organized again. I am happy.

And so that brings us to today, where I am yelling at my daughter to stay out of the garbage and stop eating those old carrot peals, and to stop climbing up on the rocking chair and tipping it over backwards, and, oh yeah, where I am avoiding the DISASTER in my bathroom where the toilet may or may not have flooded the floor...I am going to have fun cleaning tonight. Oy vay.

That is all! Hope you enjoyed!