Can't Sleep

I went to bed last night at 9pm because I was so tired and I had a headache. I was hoping sleep would make it go away but I woke up at 1am with a terrible headache that was soon turning to a migraine. I quickly got up and took my cocktail of advil and excedrin knowing that I could stop it quickly. I was so desperate that I took the excedrin even though I knew I would have trouble going back to sleep. Now that it is 4:45am I have completely given up sleep and decided to blog about my evening. I am supposed to get up in 15 minutes to go running anyway.

Yesterday was the beginning of the 4th week of having no kitchen and my house being in total disarray. It was a hard day to say the least. For family home evening we had to spend it in Home Depot picking out bathroom sinks and faucets and eating dinner at Burger King (which I hate). It was rather pathetic. Alan had to help his mom with something so I was left to put the kids to bed by myself. I was really tired and very GRUMPY. Poor Luke kind of took the brunt of all my frustration.

He has a little plastic cap gun that is out of caps but that he loves to shoot over and over again. Usually I just tell him to take it outside and all is well. Last night however, he and Bradley were both running around shooting their guns and yelling and I had had enough. I told them to stop now and don't shoot them again or I would take the guns, break them and thow them away. I don't think I said it very quietly either. After about two minutes Luke must have forgotten or just really couldn't help shooting it and he resumed the noise. I immediately took the gun broke it in half and threw it away just like I said I would. Here is the sad part. He didn't yell or scream or even start to cry. He just sat there and his little lip trembled a bit and he looked totally crestfallen. Mark cried for him though. I asked him what was wrong and he quickly let me know it was ME! We had prayer and I sent them off to brush their teeth. When I went upstairs to check on them I found Luke walking through the hall totally oblivious to me whimpering and muttering to himself, "she just broke it and threw it away. It is gone. In the garbage. Forever." Later I found him sitting on the counter in the bathroom trying to brush his teeth and muttering the same words. It totally broke my heart. If I hadn't broken it I would have gotten it out of the garbage and given it back tomorrow. I think he is definitely getting an orange plastic cap gun for Christmas.
Patience is a virtue that I am obviously still working on. Thank goodness kids forgive quickly and there is always a new day to look forward to and to try again.

Remodeling Pics

Here is the kitchen as of a week ago. Most of the cabinets are in and it is being painted at the moment.

This plastic drape is supposed to keep the dust out but nothing can stop that darn stuff.

This is where the entire contents of my kitchen now reside and this is also where Darren spends most of his day. No toy room can compare to a full kitchen at your immediate disposal. This was last week. This week everything has been rearranged by Darren and has an inch of dust over it.

I took this picture because everything is in the wrong place last week. It looks about one thousand times worse at the moment. I sure hope this all ends soon.

Soooo Tired

I am thoroughly ashamed of myself for the lack of posts. Time has flown by this fall with so much going on. Nothing has been very normal for us lately. We are in the midst of remodeling our kitchen and have gone through a whole house painting and new carpet being installed. I am truly grateful for all of it but I can hardly wait for it all to be done. It is possible that all could be put back together by next Friday but in the beginning we thought we would be done by the end of October so you just never know with remodeling. My entire kitchen is draped in plastic at the moment and painting is supposed to be going on but I haven't heard much in the last couple of hours. I am sitting in the family room and if I want to go upstairs or to the front door I get to go out the garage door through the garage and back in the front door. My house has at least an quarter of an inch of dust over the entire first story. I seem to be running constantly to buy something at home depot or go to another specialty store to see if they have the sink, faucet, lighting, granite etc. I am not complaining I am only explaining the lack of posts. The hardest thing is that I am supposed to carry on life as normal in all of this. I think Eleanor has to decorate a brown paper horse with any material we come up with and turn it in tomorrow. At the moment it is in some obscure spot covered in drywall mudd powder and ceramic tile dust. That just may be the medium of choice for this project.
I just got a new calling on Sunday. I was released from the nursery which is truly one of my very favorite callings and it made me very sad. I am now the second counselor in the primary over scouts and nursery. At least I still get some connection with nursery. Scouting is fun since my boys are totally involved and I now have somewhat of a clue of how it works.
The kids seem to be functioning fairly well in all of this chaos we are all just really dusty and everything is in the wrong place. I am craving organization and cleanliness like no other. (Hooray I finally hear painting starting again) Thats all for now I need to figure out what to feed my family tonight. This one is going to be tough since I have not only no kitchen but also no refrigerator access. We may just have to go visit Wendy.

Let's Do All We Can

My sister sent me this link. Please take a minute and watch the video clip. It shows some of the possible outcomes of Prop 102 not passing. I was livid and shocked with what I saw!!Here is the email:If you worry about what is or may be taught to your children at school... Please visit the following link: We should be taking all the steps necessary to ensure that this doesn't get passed in our own state. Copy the link into the browser and hit go http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1352578267/bctid1784521903
Dear Friends,I highly encourage you to review this short video which was sent to me by a friends who's friend is in the actual clip. It will blow your mind. Then please send this clip to all your contacts. The video will prove to you WHY we must pass the marriage amendment.This link was sent to me by my daughter Cheri. Her husband has a brother -- Robb -- living in Massachusetts and he and his wife are in the video clip attached. They've been involved in law suits and all the ugly details affecting this homosexuality agenda. Dear family,It looks like our legal efforts may after all be useful and serve a good purpose during the election this year in Florida , California , and Arizona . Our lawsuit and story are being used in the ads encouraging support to adopt these constitutional amendments. I was surprised to see it mentioned in California 's first TV ad for the amendment, and it is also discussed/printed in the Arizona government official "voter issue" guide. I'm also attaching an internet video clip that is circulating from the Family Research Council showing our story. Anyway, I think we're going to be involved in more media as people get reminded about what happened to us. I've already been contacted by the campaign manager for the California effort. I expect to hear soon from others. Anyway, I'm asking you to forward this clip on to people you know in Florida , Arizona , and California . We all have cousins, in-laws, extended family in many of these states. Tell them that what happened to us is real and will, I believe, undoubtedly come if these amendment efforts fail. This IS a big deal and we need to do what we can - even if we can't send money, we can hit "forward" and remind people of the stakes of this election. My brother-in-law's wife in Arizona is active their state's marriage amendment efforts. One thing she sent us yesterday caught my eye, "Our Area Seventy, Elder Anderson, said that the fight for traditional marriage in Arizona and California is the biggest fight he has been involved with in the Church. He told some volunteers that passing this Proposition is as important to saving our families as it was for the saints in Nauvoo to finish the temple in order to get their endowments before they moved west."

Free Handbag Giveaway

Handbag Planet is having a give away of a free handbag, 1 handbag every hour 24 hours before they officially open their doors. There are some really cute bags at not horrible prices. I'm not a big purse girl but these are great and you just may get one free. Go here to enter to win http://www.handbagplanet.com/contest3

bread recipe

Here is my bread recipe it is courtesy of my favorite chef around- Chef Brad. He is wonderful and has so much knowledge to share. If you haven't taken a class from him I would strongly recommend it. I just may be hosting one in my home as soon as all the remodeling is finished. His classes are on grains, breads, pressure cooking and on and on. You can get all of the ingredients that are on here if they sound unfamiliar at Char's Kitchen Store on Gilbert Road at Houston or at the Emergency Supply Store on Mesa Drive by Deseret Book.

The Master Recipe

5 cups warm water (between 95-110 degrees)
3/4 cup oil
3/4 cup honey (I put the oil in the measuring cup and then add the honey so they both come out nicely without the sticky mess)
1 heaping Tbsp. Salt
3 Tbsp Saf instant yeast (this really is better than anything you can get in the store)
1-3 Tbsp dough enhancer
1 Tbsp lemon juice (optional)
2 cups high gluten flour
6 cups freshly ground whole wheat flour (I use all kinds of grains here. As long as at least 2/3rds of the flour is wheat or spelt you can use 1/3 of any other grains you would like. Just grind them all together in your mill. They will change the taste and texture slightly. You just have to play around and experiment to see which ones you like best.)

Put all of the ingredients above in the Bosch with yeast on the top and then turn on speed 1. As that is mixing add as much additional flour for dough to pull away from the side of the bowl. (It usually takes about 14 cups of flour total) It should only pull initially half way up the side of the bowl, and during the 8-10 minutes of mixing it will pull completely away. It is important not to put too much flour in or your bread will be dry and crumbly. Add back in 2-4 Tbsp of water (more if needed) to keep your dough soft. The stickier the dough the lighter and fluffier the bread will be. Let mix for 8-10 minutes. Oil your hands and counter well. Divide dough into 5 loaves and let rise in loaf pans, sprayed with a non-stick spray. Let rise for approximately 30 minutes in well-oiled pans, until they have doubled in size. While they are rising preheat oven to 375 degrees. After putting bread in oven turn down the oven to 350 and cook for 30-35 minutes until bread is golden brown. You can measure the temperature of the bread with a meat thermometer they should be about 180 degrees. When they are done take them out and immediately take them out of the pans and let cool on a wire rack. I like to butter the tops. Do not bag until they are cool. You can get great bread bags at those two places I suggested at teh top as well. They freeze very well. We always eat one loaf that day and then one for the next couple so I usually freeze three of the loafs or just give them away to friends and neighbors.

Good Luck. I only know how to do my bread with a Bosch. If you do not have one I highly recommend one but they are pricey. I believe they are well worth the investment since I use mine all of the time and they will last you at least 20 years but probably a lot more. Feel free to email me or call or come by with any questions. Or we can schedule a lesson if you want. Just give me about six weeks until my remodeling will hopefully be done.

Happy 6th Birthday Eleanor!!!

Eleanor and her favorite cousin Jency
She does much more jumping and diving than swimming.
Ballet: She never smiled once during her performance.
This is the most common Eleanor we see. Even mad she is cute.
This morning she had six different breakfast choices for her six years. She chose the strawberries and whip cream, bluberry muffins and of course chocolate donuts.

Eleanor is our unique child. We love her for all that she is both the good and the unusual and the challenging. Her main loves in life are of course number one- Art. She says she is definitely going to be an artist when she grows up. Her mediums of choice these days are markers and trash. Everytime I go to throw away a wrapper or container of any type she stops me and says she wants that for her art. She still sits at the table for hours and colors and creates. Thankfully she produces much less these days because of the hours she is in all day kindergarten. I was constantly having to try and throw things away without her watching. The one thing I had to put a stop to lately was water color painting toilet paper. Way too messy and she wanted to keep every square. When she does art it is in mass production. Eleanor does not do things half way or small. She also loves to swim and play in the sand in the back yard. She became a great swimmer this summer and showed us her brave side. The older boys were on dive team and when they learned a back dive she watched them do it once and immediately pronounced that she could do that too and did an almost perfect back dive. She really loves her gymnastics and does it constantly. I am always getting to watch her latest routine or this new back bend. We are having a contest who can get all the way down in the middle splits first. I was ahead but she is pulling ahead now. She also loves playing with Darren and making him smile and make faces and sounds. She of course loves to play with all her friends and cousins. They love to dress up, play outside, make forts, watch t.v, tell jokes and be really silly. Notice nothing about dolls. Like mother like daughter. She absolutely loves Kindergarten. She is made for school. She loves to obey the rules and to sit for long periods of time and work on things and she loves to be social. Her teacher adores her. When I go to the school I usually run into another adult that works there and they are all telling me how wonderful and cute Eleanor is. I'm glad she saves all her sass and attitude for home.
There are a few things she does not like at all. She hates having to stop an activity and do something other than her idea. She does not like taking showers. She hates having people touch her unless you are scratching her back very softly and just the right way and in just the right places. She is very particular about most things like that. She hates eating dinner. No matter if you put a tablespoon of food or a cup of food on her plate she immediately says that is too much and she cannot possibly eat it all. She does not like to smile and laugh at things when Mom and Dad are watching. She usually laughs and then quickly covers her mouth or pulls the corners of her mouth down so that the smile goes away. She only likes to display emotions on her terms. She hates her art to be messed with or thrown away. She really wants to have a sister but does not want to have to share her room. Most of all she just does not want to be told what to do, when to do it or how to do anything. I think she is a type A personality.

She continues to get more beautiful all the time. That is fine except that I worry that she will define herself by that and not by kindness and compassion and sweetness. Every where we go people tell her how pretty her eyes are and never how kind she is. I wish we could look at a person and tell imediately how loving or compassionate someone is as much as their outside appearance. She is kind when she wants to be and very sweet at moments, but she also knows how to work it and milk people for what she wants. If you wonder if I am afraid for her to be a teenager that is a definite YES! Her toddler years were hard enough I can't imagine what the natural inclination for more independence and freedom combined with hormones is going to do to her.

We love our Eleanor and wouldn't trade her for anything. She has definitely taught us many valuable lessons. She is our very girly, beautiful, and sweet when she wants to be SIX year old!