Summer Projects...

Summer is all about projects around my house - ways to keep myself busy, (I really ought to just get a summer job!) Anyhow, I've had some good projects this year... my favorite has been a weekly visit to the temple. After our amazing experience with the Temple Celebration, and the blessings that came from that event I felt my service was due. Besides, it's summer, I have hours to fill and there is no better place - and no excuse. So that's been fun, I've been to 4 different temples, headed to Bountiful next week and been able to go with my dad, Art, and Jamie - good times.

ALSO FUN.... has been my summer bread project, which has spiraled into a summer cookie project, balanced with a bit of healthy cooking...a bit.
I wanted to learn to make really good homemade bread; wheat, white and french - after several batches a week and much patience and tweeking - I'm finally feeling confident in my bread.

It's a great summer project because you need rising time, perfect to coordinate with walking dogs or going to the temple. And it makes the house smell so good....


The problem is... I've also had this little cookie issue. I found this website (see earlier reference) to "the best cookie recipes". Well, what am I supposed to do, trust some strangers opinion? What if they're wrong? What is cakey is better than chewy? The ONLY way to truly find out, is to make a lot of cookies.Fortunately I have become a dough freezer, so I only cook as needed. That also makes it possible for me to share fresh cookies with various expert cookie tasters. I think I have found my preferred favorite recipe - it received HIGH marks from the tasters. The final challenge will be taking it to Sunday dinner for the vast opinion and, of course, Bud.
So we did do some healthy cooking - we made gazpacho - so yummy!














So that's not too much cooking right? ...well, except for that day that I had 5 desserts in the house at once. oops.









Ahhh summer - 2 more weeks. Bring on the butter...

Mulling around in the brain...

I've been writing a lot of blog posts lately, but I haven't actually gotten them from my brain to the computer. I am one of those people who narrate my life as I go about my daily chores, and often those narrations are in the form of what I plan on writing here. So in attempt to make note of my thoughts I decided I should probably really write...
(not that I have impressive or profound thoughts prepared)
We've had our share of challenges, especially this year. Loss, dog and child; lay-offs; frustrating house sell; not moving; losing funding for the dream job; and the list goes on... I have to say that in a lot of these moments I felt like we were at the bottom of the barrel - things couldn't get worse - "what have we done to deserve this?" But, I have a quote that resounds through my life and keeps rearing it's head in these moments of lowness... "You can't regret anything, it's all part of the experience."...It's not all that profound, nor do we have things we could regret, but moreso.. It's all part of the experience. As I look back over the events of my year, my life, I can see that these low times have been the most important. Doors have opened and closed at what seemed like horrible timing, but in retrospect I can see that opportunities missed or taken have been so very important.
For example, we wanted to move to Logan but the job lost funding. I was bummed, it was a dream job at an amazing school. I felt the need to change schools, and applied at a charter school in Daybreak. The interview went really well, I had all the right qualifications, but they were taking forever to decide. During these long days waiting for a decision I pondered the thought of leaving William Penn and came to realize how much I loved the school and my team. I was having the hardest time trying to figure out what to do if I got the job, it was stressing me out. I went to church and heard a talk about "praying for doors to open and close to help me know what to do." It made sense. I got home and there was an email that I didn't get the job. I knew I was where I was supposed to be. Going through something hard, helped me to know what was right.
I feel like my life has been blessed with these little opportunities so often. Moments when I think things are so bad, I stop and look at the whole picture and it's really perfect timing, or the best thing for us. I'm so grateful for the trials and challenges that make us who we are. Truly I feel blessed to have the life I do, though it may not be perfect, we may be poor, my husband may work 50-60 hours a week, our house may not be selling - but each of those things are a blessing in my life. We're poor - but Art's working a lot of overtime... our house may not be selling, but we don't NEED to move. The bad really isn't bad.
Take a step back and look at the whole picture - perhaps things are going well after all.