January

February is finally here and it's beginning to feel as if Old Man Winter 09/10 just may go the way of the dinosaurs after all.

But back to January.

January, as is customary, is decidedly dull. There were a few highlights.

My father turned 77 this year. As is our custom, we met at his house and enjoyed one of our family's traditional desserts--carrot pudding with brandy sauce. This recipe is one that has been passed down in the family. It came from my father's mother, who probably got it from her mother.

In it's most traditional form it requires the purchase of kidney fat from a butcher or slaughterhouse (an ingredient you USED to be able to get at the grocery story), and Muscat raisins that have to be ordered from the Sunmaid company in California (an ingredient that ALSO used to be available at grocery stores).

It also requires the use of pudding molds. Pudding molds are hard to find and often expensive, and are impossible to find in the shape that we grew up with and for which the recipe is designed--two large pineapple juice-type cans cut to make a mold and a lid. Most molds look like jello molds or bowls, which may or may not have an impact on the cooking. As it stands, my father can make three puddings and steam them all in one stock pot. I don't see how that would be possible with the bowl-shaped molds. One problem of modern society is that all the juice cans these days are made with ridged sides instead of smooth sides like they used to be. The ridges make it somewhat more difficult to extract the pudding from the mold after cooking.

Anyway, my family and one of my sisters went to Mom and Dad's this year to observe, help, and learn the making of the pudding. Dad is very particular about the way it's made. It has to be done like his mom did it. Exactly. You have to use the right kind of grater to grate the potatoes and carrots. You have to make sure you seperate and coat each individual raisin with the flour mixture.

He directed our efforts like a master conductor, correcting where needed, bullying us out of the way when it wasn't being done quite right. :-)

Then we all relaxed while the pudding steamed for three hours, and until the rest of the family gathered.

As usual, the result was delicious, the company delightful.

Other highlights?

Oh, come on. It's January.

December

I'm not even calling my posts "Catching Up" anymore, because that's really all they are--a monthly catch-up. So why call it that?

Anyway, December was busy--mostly because we didn't actually start our shopping until just after Thanksgiving. We had to figure out where the money was coming from this year. Life is getting incredibly more expensive. Next year we'll only have one kid to pay out the nose to put into high school--and part-time at that. Marching Band is worth it, Marching Band is worth it, Marching Band is worth it...

Hannah has decided to take a year off before considering college, which is fine--especially for our wallets.

We spent much of our time following our musicians around town--concerts and performances and taking Hannah downtown to do some street playing. Then there were the friend parties and sleepovers and such. I used to worry that my kids would be a little anti-social with the homeschooling thing, but the truth is far from that. They're busy with their social group all the time. All three of them.

Hannah's Fiddle Group recorded two CDs this month--one traditional music, the other Celtic Christmas music. Both Hannah and Ian play on that.

I think the biggest piece of news for this month was our cold, dark December Sunday. We woke early that morning, having fallen asleep with snow falling, to find the power out. We shrugged, figured it must be out in the whole neighborhood, and went back to sleep. A little while later we woke again, got up to get showered for church, and looked outside. Lo and behold, all the neighbors had lights!

As it turned out, the snow that night was extremely wet and heavy (backbreaking to shovel) and had pulled our power line down. We could see it out there, looped over the yard, the end of it buried in snow in the corner of the yard. The line had snapped about 8 feet from the pole, in among the trees where the line's insulation had probably worn off. The power company came in the afternoon to evaluate the outage, and called the tree service to trim the trees out of the way. Fortunately for us, the trees that caused the problem were in the neighbor's yard, so we didn't have to pay for the trimming. Yay!! We spent most of the day at a friend/neighbor's house, eating dinner and playing Wii. The power company finally came around 7 p.m. and had the power on my 7:30 or so. Still, we were without power for around 18 hours. It was an adventure.

Our second disaster/adventure involved the garbage disposal. It jammed and Darin couldn't get it going again. He cleaned it out, didn't work. So then he tried to take it apart, but the screws had become so corroded that they broke off. Which was OK. The disposal was really ready for replacement. The gaskets were corroded, the whole thing was full of rust. So we went disposal shopping. We were disappointed by the choices available locally--either crappy models or very expensive models. We started doing some looking around, researching on the internet, and found a WasteKing 3300 (VERY highly rated, best warrantee in the business) for just $20 more than the crappy, poorly rated Insinkerator Badger that Home Depot and Lowe's carries. The downside, obviously, is waiting a week for it to arrive. We've been using LOTS of paper and plastic dishes because we can't use the dishwasher without the disposal in place. We've also stuffed that side of the sink with towels to deter any temptation to pour water down that sink--since there's nothing there but a bucket. I've never been more excited to do dishes!

Also big this month, obviously, was Christmas.

We had a really special Christmas this year. We worked hard to NOT make it about money and presents. We talked with the kids about how we were short on money and wanted to cut back. They were gung-ho about it all and offered suggestions of ways we could simplify. That involvement on their part really got them into the Christmas spirit as they carefully chose presents for one another. We had a simple but pleasurable Christmas, in which no one received any 'stuff' that they just didn't really want/need. You know how you do sometimes--you spend money on stuff just to spend money and just to 'fill' the tree skirt? We didn't worry about that so much and it was nice.

We also decided to spend Christmas Eve with grandparents so we could stay home on Christmas Day. We first started doing this last year when we were snowed in on Christmas Day. We had such a wonderful time, we decided to make it permanent. We also like to go out to dinner on Christmas Eve. This year we went to Applebee's. It was WONDERFUL!!

I've also started doing something that involves everyone in important things, and gets everyone excited. I've started asking everyone what they just couldn't do without for such-and-such an event, then making sure that everyone has at least one favorite thing. So breakfast Christmas morning, I had asked everyone what they thought was an essential food for Christmas breakfast. We had a meal heavy on carbs, but delicious--scones with honey, crepes with Nutella, muffins, orange Julius, and bacon. I do the same for summer activities--what does each person really want to do this summer?--and we try our best to do everyone's favorite. I also did the same with New Year's Eve dinner. We had lime Pepsi, steak, shrimp, a cheese ball, and crackers. PLUS lots of other goodies.

We rang in the New Year with the five of us plus a friend of Hannah and Ian. We stayed up until 3 or 4 a.m. laughing and playing games and watching movies and putting together puzzles--and of course, eating.

I'd bet I've gained at least five pounds this month--the great food in combination with the lack of jogging--due MOSTLY to snow and cold, but not COMPLETELY. I have to admit, I've very much enjoyed the month of sleeping in until 7! But with new Saucony's for Christmas, I have no excuse to sleep in anymore!

New Year's Day we went sledding at the golf course. We had so much fun, took some great pics, and thoroughly chilled and exhausted ourselves. GREAT TIMES!

We spent our weekend putting away Christmas. It's a bit melancholy. But this year we had such a wonderful Christmas season, we still felt very much in love with all things Christmas--even though we did some Christmas decoration housecleaning and got rid of some old stuff that we just don't use anymore. Just in time to adopt some NEW things from my mom and dad. We ended up netting a reduction our Christmas stock by about 1 box.

There's something oddly therapeutic about getting rid of stuff!

Catching Up: the November 2009 Edition

Hmm. November.

Marching Band season came to an end. It was rougher year than last. No endless string of sweeps and some stiffer competition. In the end, they placed second at state competition. Grandparents came up for the Friends and Family performance. Fortunately it was clear and fairly warm that night. This year they invited parents to come and march with them during one song on the field. Darin did it. He nearly got trampled.

Hannah and the fiddle group started putting together a CD this month. They still have a lot of recording to do and are working to concentrate their efforts on Christmas music. Hannah's been collecting and transposing traditional celtic carols for weeks.

First trimester of school is over. We're all relieved. Hannah got all A's on her report card after stressing about her first (and last) year back in public school. She did a psychology presentation that was kind of fun--her an a group of kids in her class had to do an oral poetry presentation on some psychological malady. They chose Hypochondrianism. Funny. This tri she has more college courses, which means buying more textbooks, which hits the pocketbook hard. Ouch. Fortunately you can find great deals on just about anything SOMEWHERE online. We ended up paying about $50 apiece for $150 textbooks. The textbook racket really steams my britches!

Did I mention we all had the swine flu? I think that was last month. At least all us girls. Everyone had SOME sort of sickness during that time. If the boys had it they didn't have it severely. Just a couple of days of not feeling all that great.

Anyway, back to November:

Thanksgiving with Darin's family this year--and it was a weekend FULL.

Wednesday we did the annual soup/pie night. It's GREAT! We each bring a pot of soup and a pie or two to share, then eat all the pie we want! No feeling stuffed after pigging out on Thanksgiving dinner and not having room for pie afterward! There are usually plenty of leftovers to feed people over the weekend.
Thursday, of course, we ate and played. Friday we played and ate. Darin's sister put together a Jeopardy game composed of information she had collected about the members of the family as well as information about some of the family ancestors. It was great fun. But NEVER, I repeat N.E.V.E.R. use those game show buzzers with a room full of small children and teenagers. I swear, I thought my head would explode! Saturday, the teens went to the temple to do baptisms for a couple dozen ancestors that the family geneaological team had uncovered. THAT was cool. We made it back to Ogden that afternoon JUST in time to get Ian to the school--the marching band was playing in the Christmas (oh, excuse me for not being Politically Correct) HOLIDAY parade that night. Sunday, we CRASHED!

Monday, much to EVERYONE'S chagrin, it was back to the old grind--school and work.

Christmas break is coming, people!

Catching Up

My, my, my, but it's been a long time since I posted. Naughty me.

So, where to start? I don't know, because I have no idea what I posted about last.

Wait, I'll go check...

September 20th. Wow. How very neglectful of me.

In my defense, I've been busy. I mean, school's started up, we have a kid in marching band, a kid in orchestra, a kid in soccer, plus the roadshow.

Oh! The roadshow! I guess that was the big thing this past month. Wanna see some pics? Here's one:


It was called 'Peter's Pan: a Mormon in NeverFound' and involved a cast of mermaids, pirates, fairies, Peter in search of his mother's lost pan, and a lost boy. We also had one boy play the door. It was kind of cool. This kid really wasn't interested in being involved. I 'threatened' him into coming to help out with the backstage stuff. At some point he wrote himself the part of the door and became my most faithful cast member from that moment on. He had exactly one line at the very end of the show: "SLAM!"

Wait. Here he is:

His sign says, "Second Closet to the Right and Straight On 'Til Sacrament Meeting."

It went really well. The audience clapped and laughed in all the right places. The kids worked hard (they DID the whole thing--from story, to script, to costume and scenery design and manufacture. It was THEIR show and they were very proud of it.).

We have yet to hear what kind of awards we won, or if we'll win any. From what I understand they're planning on doing it again in two years. Cool. I hope I get to direct again.

Maren played her last soccer game of the fall season Saturday. Phew. Long, hard season. Her team only had 8 legal players. At that age, they need nine for a team. We recruited someone's sister--an 8-year-old--to fill in, but we only ever had a full team when EVERYONE showed up or if the other team spotted us a couple of players--which happened more than once.

We'll see what happens in the spring. We either need to recruit more girls or we need to break up the team and distribute the girls to the other teams.

Here she is:


We also went on a field trip over fall break. Me and the kids drove down to SL to the Tracy Aviary and the copper mine. Pics? Sure thing:






We also had our first snowfall. Don't make me remember the date. This pic shows snow up on the mountain, but we had some slush on our lawn from this storm:


Oh, and here's a pic of Hannah earning money street playing. Notice the lack of shoes. The sign says, "Raising Money for Valley of the Moon Fiddle School":


AND, HALLOWEEN IS IN FOUR DAYS!!

Lessons from the Street-Hannah

I just got back from doing some street playing this evening. I made a total of 80$ in about 4 hours, which I did in two shifts. The farmers market down here was having a "Harvest Moon Festival" with lots of booths, lots of people, and lots of money.
I smell like hippies right now, this most recent shift was spent across the sidewalk from a hippie dude and his hippie girlfriend selling hippie memorabilia and henna tattoos, so now I smell like henna and incense.

Anyway, not only is street playing a fun way to make some money (and see hippies) but you can also learn a lot about people out there.

For one, the people that can afford the least, often give the most.

Children still have a sense of wonder and appreciation of beauty that most adults, in the hum drum of life, have forgotten. Some parents understand this and some don't.

Most people don't care about the mistakes, those that do are not worth your time.

Some people are more willing to give if you smile at them, some only care about the music.

Non-mormons will often give more than mormons.

Only one person in all of ogden knows that the song is called "Ashokan Farewell" and not "That Song from the Civil War"

Most people don't understand that you can't answer their questions and play the fiddle at the same time.

Hard work and time pay off.

People are generally good, giving, and appreciative.

It makes me realize that humanity is not as pathetic as I sometimes think.
It also makes me wonder how many random people have pictures of me on their cameras right now.

Canning

We canned yesterday.

I still have 50 or so quarts of tomatoes, salsa, and tomatoe juice sitting on my picnic table outside.

For those of you who can, here's a SWEET tip--can on a camp stove on your back porch. Keeps the kitchen cool, keeps the mess to a minimum.

I really should be bringing the jars in instead of posting on my blog. But I probably won't. I'll probably make the kids do it tomorrow.

Pimp Your Phone

Just for fun, I decided to 'pimp' my new phone.

Then Hannah wanted hers done.

Then Maren wanted hers done.

So--mine:


Hannah's:


Maren's:


Nail polish and toothpicks, folks. And a steady hand.