A Wonderful Week in May!!

(all of the photos in my Blog are "Click-able" and you can see so much more detail when you click on them and make them bigger)

WOW! Last week was one of those rare weeks that don't come along very often where everything seems to just fall into order and it is perfect! I can't think of the last time I had a week like that!

Mother's day was a beautiful sun-shiney day
and my tulips finally "Came to life" and were just gorgeous!

Monday was a WINDY day....
and so Tracy pulled out our kites and got them all ready and we went to an open field near our house and flew kites for over an hour! It was SO much fun and a great way to take advantage of all the WIND that we so often experience in SE Idaho. The laughter and joy that my kids experienced was Priceless!

Tuesday was Jades 15th birthday
and was an absolutely awesome day!
(despite 50-60 mph winds that caused damage everywhere)

A "secret" person
in either Jades school, our ward or neighborhood left the sweetest thing on our front door... a $10.00 gift card to Hollywood Video and a $5.00 gift card to JAMBA Juice! That was SO thoughtful and Jade was so excited and felt special.
(Jade enjoyed a yummy "Jamba Juice" after the movie)
I wish I knew who did it so we could thank them!

YEA!! We took the kids to see STAR TREK on Saturday as part of a "post birthday celebration" for Jade. It was AWESOME!! I'm NOT a "Trekkie" fan and Tracy IS a "Trekkie" fan and we both LOVED it and the kids loved it as well!

It's been a hectic past few weeks and my poor hubby and kids have been neglected in the hair cutting department and so it was SO nice for me to finally have a free moment and give them fresh hair cuts. Jade has been begging me for a haircut for the past week. They are all once again clean cut and not looking like "rag-a-muffins" anymore!
VERY HANDSOME boys!! (if do say so myself!)

WOW!
80 degree temperatures this weekend and 2 perfectly gorgeous days!!
Tracy pulled out our grill and grilled up the yummiest BBQ pork loin for Sunday dinner along with baked potatoes and peas and corn. Absolutely Delicious!
Afterwards, we enjoyed a relaxing family bike ride, savoring the nice warm temperature and enjoying BLUE sky, sunshine, no wind and gorgeous scenery everywhere we looked!
It was really hard to finally pull ourselves in the house to get ready for bed and to get ready to start another week.

It's amazing how the most simple things in life like time spent with family and time in nature to enjoy it's beauty can bring the most joy!!
Another day of saying...Life is Good!!

Sunshine for the Soul...Sunday!

"Cherish your visions and your dreams,
as they are the children of your soul;
the blueprints of your ultimate achievements".
-- Napoleon Hill

(click on the photo to make it big!)
This is an awesome photo from a family trip we took over Labor Day weekend 2008. It is one of the mountain lakes along the Beartooth Highway Scenic Drive. There was the most amazing and gorgeous sunset that day and the colors and the lighting were absolutely perfect!!
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The quiet, peaceful, solitude of Nature feeds my soul !

YES, we planted too much Zucchini!

It's a good thing we like it so much!!

Well, we are still learning all of the ins and outs of gardening and last year we expanded our garden and made it bigger. We weren't sure if the soil was amended enough and I wanted to make sure we had some zucchini to enjoy, so what did I do...I planted 4 zucchini plants and they ALL grew!!

However, aside from the fact of sharing some with family and friends we enjoyed it in the fall and have been enjoying it all winter. I have made up 4 different batches of zucchini bread just this winter/spring alone and I am sad (and my kids are sad as well) because we are down to the last 2 packages of shredded zucchini that I had in the freezer.

Just this past week I made up Zucchini Bread and Zucchini Quiche and I was able to do this because we had frozen some in the fall when we had such an abundance of it and so I thought I would share these 2 recipes AND also some helpful tips that help me with enjoying zucchini all through the winter!

We are able to enjoy
the YUMMY smell that comes from baking zucchini bread all through the winter because of these little bags in the freezer!

By slicing zucchini and also "chunking" zucchini
and then freezing it you can pull these bags out of the freezer and make a quiche, casserole, OR, I pull them out and put them in Minestrone soup as well!

The secret to a MOIST bread...applesauce!
I am always trying to find ways to "cut the calories" in our meals and so by having these nifty little applesauce containers on hand I just dump one of these in the mixing bowl and then fill it up with oil and I have 1 cup of oil (and I've only had to actually use 1/2 cup of oil) AND it makes the bread SO moist!

Tracy said at work last Fall lots of people were bringing in zucchini bread for his department to enjoy and when they tried what Tracy brought they kept commenting on how moist the bread was. I attribute it to the secret ingredient 1/2 applesauce/1/2 oil mixture...
"Secret's in the sauce"!
(can you guess what movie that's from)
Anyways, I digress.

THE RECIPES!

Zucchini Bread
3 eggs, well beaten
1 cup oil (I use ½ cup oil and ½ cup applesauce instead of 1 full cup of oil)
1 ¾ cup sugar
2 cups grated zucchini
3 tsp. Vanilla
3 cups flour
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
¾ tsp nutmeg
3 tsp cinnamon
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Mix first 5 ingredients.
Sift and add the rest.
Grease 2 loaf pans and bake at 325* for 1 hour (OR until toothpick inserted in comes out clean.

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(as easy as 1, 2, 3
and you can whip up a delicious quiche for dinner)

Zucchini Quiche
5 cups zucchini sliced thin
1 onion chopped
2 Tbsp. butter
½ to 1 cup cooked ham chopped (optional)
Cook in skillet for about 15 minutes. (may need to add a little bit of water)

Mix together:
2 Tbsp. Parsley flakes
½ tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
¼ tsp garlic powder
¼ tsp basil
¼ tsp oregano
Combine vegetable mixture and spices together

Blend together
8 oz grated Swiss cheese
4 eggs

Make piecrust and press in un-greased 10” pie plate and
bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes (or until lightly browned).
Pour vegetable/spice mixture evenly over crust.
Pour cheese and eggs over the top.
Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.
Let stand for 10 minutes before serving. Enjoy!

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Pie Crust

½ cup REAL butter
2/3 cup shortening
1 Tablespoon sugar
½ teaspoon baking powder
1-teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon dry milk
3 cups flour
½ cup cold water
Mix butter and shortening together.
Add half the flour and all of the dry ingredients.
Mix.
Add the rest of flour and water. (Makes 2 double crusts)
Roll out very thin with plenty of flour.
Carefully put in pie plates and prick with fork all over.
Bake 400 degrees for 8 minutes, or until lightly browned.

*****(OR you can use ALL butter instead of butter and shortening)

Jade...another year older!

(all of the photos in my Blog are "Click-able" and you can see so much more detail when you click on them and make them bigger)

On May 12, 1994...
we were blessed
with an adorable and sweet bundle of Joy.
Jade Marshall!
Where has the time gone...
it seems like yesterday when these photos were taken.

Jades 4 upper front teeth were pulled when he was quite young and so all of his photos were TOOTHLESS and PRICELESS!
His smile has always made me melt with teeth or no teeth!

Jade has always been a "Camera shy" kid...
the majority of the photos from his younger years he is shyly looking down! He was and is so sweet!

Jade is a VERY Awesome older brother!!

Jade is a VERY adventurous kid and LOVES to enjoy life and have fun!!

Jade has always been silly and full of LIFE...
here he is with his dad displaying all of his cars after his last Pinewood Derby!!

WOW!!
Now I'm opposite from when I was young...I have all 4 front teeth and I'm missing my side teeth!!

Outstanding Choir student!!

Handsome boy on a handsome horse at Grandpa and Grandma's house!!

Jade's great sense of humor can make any baby laugh!!
He has such a knack for that and all of the little kids just LOVE Jade!!

Jade LOVES it when it's "Crazy hair day" or Halloween because he likes to do FUNKY things to his hair!! Here he is as a "Punk Rocker"!

Jade is one COOL KID!!
Every time he wears his headband he always gets comments from his friends on how COOL he looks!

Jade's not afraid of anything!!
I have lost track of how many garter snakes he has found in our yard and ran around the neighborhood showing kids and scaring them!

(actually he doesn't scare other kids on purpose...he just thinks that snakes are cool and gets excited and wants to show other kids and forgets that other people don't think that snakes are as cool as he does!)

Jade is a LOVER of animals!!
If there is an animal, insect or any creepy crawly thing in his sight he always finds it.

Jade has got SO much determination!
He is an AWESOME track runner!! (and a very handsome one if I do say so myself!)

My favorite thing of all that I love about Jade is his kind heart and most of all, he is the Peace Maker in our home!! He doesn't like there to be contention and he is the most "quick to forgive" person I have ever met. He never stays mad at you for long.

I am savoring the teenage years as I know I don't have many more left!! I love being your mom!
"Happy Birthday...#15"!!

Happy Mother's Day!

The joy of children!!

(Stick figures drawn by Jade)

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"You may have tangible wealth untold;

Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold.

Richer than I you can never be

I had a mother who read to me".

-- Strickland Gillilan
"Oh the Places You'll Go"!! (by Dr. Seuss)

I absolutely LOVE being a mom!
When Tracy and I got married 19 years ago
we had dreams of having a big family!

We really enjoyed and experienced a lot in the four years before we had Jade and then that sweet, little bundle of joy entered our lives and life was never the same!!

(CLICK ON THE PHOTO)
The way Ethan is looking at Jade and I in this photo is priceless!

Well, between having Jade and having Ethan we built a house, that Tracy and I pretty much built by ourselves after work and on weekends…I was by Tracy’s side the whole time handing him boards, helping him build walls, etc…
Hoping to fill it up with lots of children,
we built it with enough floor space
for six bedrooms.
During this time, we also had a miscarriage (12 weeks into pregnancy) and then my pregnancy with Ethan. For 28 weeks of Ethan’s pregnancy it was great and I had no complications, in fact I didn’t ever have morning sickness once and we really didn’t even know I was pregnant except for the fact that I had a growing belly!
I felt wonderful!
However, I developed really bad Preeclampsia at 29 weeks into pregnancy and got put on bed rest, but that didn’t help and I ended up having an emergency cesarean birth to prevent me from having a stroke or heart attack (as my blood pressure was 228/123). Ethan was born at 31 weeks, weighing three pounds.
(here for this story)

(photo of Ethan with a numb mouth
after going to the dentist and having a cavity filled...we read "Sweet Tooth")

Anyway, after having Ethan,
it took over six months
for my blood pressure to come back to normal.
So, I spent the next few years thinking hard about having more kids and decided I didn’t want to risk my own health with another pregnancy
because I wanted to be here to raise and enjoy my two wonderful sons that I have been blessed with!

Yes, we have had many a people ask us and wonder why we only have two kids. I could sit and have a pity party, but have not done that for one second.

There are many people in this world
who long to have children
and cannot and so
I give thanks daily for the wonderful opportunity that I have to be a mom to my two boys and I am very much savoring this season in life where I have children in my home!

Life doesn’t always turn out the way you want it to, but I love the following quote:

"The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way!"

*********

My greatest blessings call me mom!

Great use for cornmeal!!

I don't know about you but I LOVE anything made with cornmeal!
I really enjoy eating pizza where they have sprinkled the pan they cook the pizza on with cornmeal, or cornmeal on top of hamburger buns. There's just something about biting into the crunchy cornmeal coating...
Yummy!

I really enjoy cooking from staple ingredients and
cornmeal is definitely
a staple ingredient in our house!
With all of the soups and bean dishes we make up Cornbread is delicious and so I alternate by making up either corn bread or any of my other homemade breads. (click here for Cornbread recipe AND Split Pea Soup recipe)

Until this year, I have only ever used cornmeal to make CORN BREAD, however we received a delicious recipe for Cornmeal Pancakes from some great friends of our family! We made them up one weekend and they were a great hit with our kids! However, we realized that we needed to cut the recipe in half since it made more pancakes than our family of four could eat for one breakfast and so we adjusted the recipe and also added an extra egg to the batter since we have chickens and it's always nice to use our Farm Fresh Eggs (since they are plentiful at our house) and we added in vanilla to the recipe as well.

**********************

Last Tuesday, I had just gotten home from work and starting cooking up some split peas and then the power went out for the rest of the afternoon. Thank goodness my gas range still worked even though the power was off, but since the power was off all afternoon, it meant I couldn't bake up any bread to go with our Split Pea Soup.

When Tracy got home he whipped up a batch of "Cornmeal pancakes" and we spread some butter on them and folded them in half and ate them with our Split Pea Soup and they were delicious!
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I often times think about the Pioneers and how they must have ate and compromised with things and I'm sure they would have thought this meal was delicious!

Once again my kids never complained, but commented how yummy it was! Oh, and after dinner Ethan asked me if we had any leftover pancakes so he could take a PB and J sandwich
to school for lunch the next day!

He thinks they are great and loves it on Monday when we have leftover pancakes from the weekend because that is what he wants in his lunch...
Pancake Sandwiches!
(I would love to be a fly on the wall when my kids open their lunches at school and wonder what people are thinking). (wink)
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I sure love and appreciate
my "easy to please" kids
and my hubby
who always pitches in and helps out
when things haven't gone well
with my afternoons!
How VERY lucky I am!

Cornmeal Pancakes
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup flour
1/2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup milk
1/8 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix well.
Add the buttermilk, milk, oil, and eggs and stir until all ingredients are incorporated. Let sit for 5 to 10 minutes.
Heat a griddle or large frying pan to medium hot and oil lightly.
Use a ¼ cup measuring cup to ladle the batter onto the griddle.
Cook until bubbles form on the surface;
turn to brown the second side. Serve with butter, syrup or jam!

Enjoy!!

Find the "Wonderful" in Today!

It was a cold and blustery week...

we woke up to this lovely snow on Sunday

We had rainy afternoons
for several days without much sunshine at all!
(yes the weeds in my yard are growing quite well, if I do say so myself) ;)
************
And I reflected often on a quote I have in my kitchen and at my office at work:
"Find the Wonderful in Today"
(here is a little blurb
from our Christmas letter we sent to family and friends last year that always "Cheers me" when life gets stressful and overwhelming)

(December 2007)

.......Tracy has gone back to school, attending BYU-I and continues working as the Network Administrator for Fremont School District, this keeps him extremely busy and so we have had to be very creative with our family time. I can’t count how many times we would put our dinner in a thermos, pack the cooler and take our kids to the Lake, the Cress Creek Trail, or the Park to have dinner so we could add “fun” to our day". Since we didn’t get to see Tracy as much as we liked to, we compromised and took our FUN someplace different and created memories with our kids that will last a lifetime! With that being said, my new saying this year has been:
Find the “Wonderful” in Today!!

Sometimes it’s hard to find the “wonderful” in today, but there is ALWAYS something you can enjoy and be thankful for.
Whether it be the beautiful sunrise or sunset, holding hands with your sweetie, a hug from your kids, having your spouse, kids or grand-kids tell you the sweet words “I love you”, warm chocolate chip cookies, talking with a friend, your “health”, the sunshine, walking in the rain, the picture your kids drew for you, fresh produce from your garden, the flowers in every season, eating your favorite meal, weekend breakfasts, having a few minutes of free time to work on a project or read a book, listening to beautiful music, going for a walk in the fresh air and the list goes on…(end of quote)

Poor Jade...
Friday we had another stressful afternoon as Jade had a "seizure afternoon"
(read Jades story about Epilepsy here).
I feel SO badly for Jade and the struggles he experiences daily in life and I just hope I can be a great mom to him and always be the encouragement that he needs to have a happy and productive life!!
I feel SO blessed to be Jade's mom
and I love and appreciate
the JOY that he brings
to our home and our lives!

*********

Feeling very grateful
that he didn't have a seizure on the bus, or worse, a seizure at his track meet, which thankfully got cancelled and most of all I am thankful that we only have to deal with a Seizure day once every 10 to 12 weeks.

When Ethan started Kindergarten...
his teacher read the book "The Kissing Hand" to his class and Ethan loved it so much we bought it and we read it quite often ourselves. It is the SWEETEST story and one of my all time favorite children's books and at the end of the book there is the
"I Love you" sign
in sign language and so I am always
doing this sign to my kids when I see them in public.

I go and help out in Ethan's school class

on Thursdays and I always do this sign
when I am leaving
and the kids always ask Ethan
"What does that sign mean that your mom is making". Ethan tells them it means
"I Love you"!
I just hope my kids know
how much their mom loves and adores them
and how proud I am of them!

VERY grateful for my "handy" hubby

who fixed the door on our dishwasher this weekend!
(our dishwasher is only 1 year old--it is an Amana and we have loved it, except for the cheap plastic handle assembly inside the door, which broke).
Anyway, he took the door off and machined some parts in his garage workshop to replace the broken plastic ones and now it works as good as new.
I sure NEVER take for granted all of the MANY, MANY things that he does for us to keep our homing running smoothly.
Me and my kids are SO lucky to have Tracy!

It seems that every time you turn on the news, you hear depressing information about the economy, the Swine Flu and SO much negativity and also with the daily UPS and DOWNS of family life and the trials that come our way it is sometimes easier to dwell on the negative instead of the positive and so
I always try and do my best to make it a point to do as my quote says and:
"Find the Wonderful in Today"!
I can honestly say...
LIFE really IS GOOD!!

Sunshine for the Soul...Sunday!

"Life is like a rainbow.
You need both the sun AND the rain
to make its colors appear"!

(click on photo to make it large)
This photo was taken in 2007
and it is the
Lower Falls in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.
The mist from the waterfall is creating
the most gorgeous rainbow!

I needed this quote this week
as it has been a cold, rainy, miserable week!
YES,
along with the sun,
it also takes rain to make the colors appear...
This is what I have told myself as every time I turn around it is raining.
The rain will make the crops grow so we can have food
and flowers and trees grow so we can enjoy beauty,
and keep our grass green
and keep things alive from dying;
SO, the rain does bring the COLOR to things around us!

Enjoying a gorgeous rainy day
with a little bit of sun here and there
to brighten the day as well!