30 June 2009
25 June 2009
Ripple effect
Four years ago tonight in Utah the family put on a big celebration for Mom and Dad's 50th wedding anniversary. Completely wonderful! Feels like yesterday. Thought about it today considering Mom and Dad are finalizing their current (long) church assignment in Houston this weekend, packing stuff from their apartment into their truck (for my brother to drive to Utah) and soon will fly home. An altogether different wedding anniversary for them this June. Where do the years go?
Kent's trundled off to High Council meeting and I'm Home Alone. I finished watering the garden where he started it after work on the corn, changing the water on the rows every 9 or 10 minutes and in between, sprucing up a scrap page of Noah on PSE. In his hat! At the park. And tasting blueberries from the carton on the counter. A GALLON carton, an entire FLAT - I picked them today. You couldn't rightly call it this morning, though it was, as it was hot as blazes and felt like After Noon. I picked them slowly since I didn't think to tie a milk jug to my belt loop to free both hands, and while I had a great time the first hour and a half, the last fifteen minutes dragged. I will wear the milk jug when I go next week for more.
I'm home alone and tired a little. Good tired mostly. Thinking about how I've got the spiritual thought for the prayer meeting for the 5:00 shift at the temple tomorrow night and should come up with it tonight. About how I've got lunch, supper and breakfast Saturday to think about tomorrow morning and make and pack in sacks and a cooler to go with us to Atlanta. About how next week I'll be panicked over the talk I've got to give four times to the four levels of girls at Girls Camp the following week; theme: Ripple Effect.
I've got it started in my mind already. First off: Girls, hi. I'm Sister H. Feel free to look. STARE at me. Gawk! We always want to, don't we, when a speaker, a (strange) person we know not at ALL well stands up and opens their mouth. What do you see? Feel free to say.
(We'll see how it ventures out from there.)
Thinking about girlfriends a lot today, and now still. Jenny, Erin, Marcia, Laura, Sarah, Mom, Amy, Dana, Sandra. Abbie. Talked to her last night. She's teaching a friend today or tomorrow when she comes over how to stand on her hands. Abbie can do it. She didn't learn it in gymnastics, she just learned it. All of you have stuff going on, and I worry. (Who doesn't. Have stuff.) I hesitate to say that; really I want to encourage and help you. If I could. Prayers work always, but tonight (to me) being there counts most. Sigh. I'm thinking too about Regina and Jean, my neighbors who I love and love to gab with, and us holed up tonight and every night in our houses in the air conditioning instead of sitting on our front porches or lawn chairs, visiting. Both even have swings, so pleasant. I'd like to, but often when I get an impulse to run over at night, the sun's still way up and it's hot. Or there's gnats. You know, it's pretty outside but devilishly warm. On a day like this when I stood at high noon in the berries at 90(+) degrees and am flushed, it's not cool to be hot.
I'm thinking about girlfriends tonight, and a little tired. I wane in the evening. That's normal - it's normal for me to be dozy around evening and even take a catnap before I go to bed. Without Kent here there's a lot of silence to take a nap in. Watering the garden kind of revved me up though; I watered the herb garden and watched bees drone and buzz around the lavender in the spray. I walked from the back door to the gardens twelve times.
The light's changing while I write and I'm really pretty content.
Kent's trundled off to High Council meeting and I'm Home Alone. I finished watering the garden where he started it after work on the corn, changing the water on the rows every 9 or 10 minutes and in between, sprucing up a scrap page of Noah on PSE. In his hat! At the park. And tasting blueberries from the carton on the counter. A GALLON carton, an entire FLAT - I picked them today. You couldn't rightly call it this morning, though it was, as it was hot as blazes and felt like After Noon. I picked them slowly since I didn't think to tie a milk jug to my belt loop to free both hands, and while I had a great time the first hour and a half, the last fifteen minutes dragged. I will wear the milk jug when I go next week for more.
I'm home alone and tired a little. Good tired mostly. Thinking about how I've got the spiritual thought for the prayer meeting for the 5:00 shift at the temple tomorrow night and should come up with it tonight. About how I've got lunch, supper and breakfast Saturday to think about tomorrow morning and make and pack in sacks and a cooler to go with us to Atlanta. About how next week I'll be panicked over the talk I've got to give four times to the four levels of girls at Girls Camp the following week; theme: Ripple Effect.
I've got it started in my mind already. First off: Girls, hi. I'm Sister H. Feel free to look. STARE at me. Gawk! We always want to, don't we, when a speaker, a (strange) person we know not at ALL well stands up and opens their mouth. What do you see? Feel free to say.
(We'll see how it ventures out from there.)
Thinking about girlfriends a lot today, and now still. Jenny, Erin, Marcia, Laura, Sarah, Mom, Amy, Dana, Sandra. Abbie. Talked to her last night. She's teaching a friend today or tomorrow when she comes over how to stand on her hands. Abbie can do it. She didn't learn it in gymnastics, she just learned it. All of you have stuff going on, and I worry. (Who doesn't. Have stuff.) I hesitate to say that; really I want to encourage and help you. If I could. Prayers work always, but tonight (to me) being there counts most. Sigh. I'm thinking too about Regina and Jean, my neighbors who I love and love to gab with, and us holed up tonight and every night in our houses in the air conditioning instead of sitting on our front porches or lawn chairs, visiting. Both even have swings, so pleasant. I'd like to, but often when I get an impulse to run over at night, the sun's still way up and it's hot. Or there's gnats. You know, it's pretty outside but devilishly warm. On a day like this when I stood at high noon in the berries at 90(+) degrees and am flushed, it's not cool to be hot.
I'm thinking about girlfriends tonight, and a little tired. I wane in the evening. That's normal - it's normal for me to be dozy around evening and even take a catnap before I go to bed. Without Kent here there's a lot of silence to take a nap in. Watering the garden kind of revved me up though; I watered the herb garden and watched bees drone and buzz around the lavender in the spray. I walked from the back door to the gardens twelve times.
The light's changing while I write and I'm really pretty content.
22 June 2009
Simply the feel of things
I watch the BYU channel at 8 am, devotional talks and/or General Conference. While I usually do early morning stuff I listen, and I’m doing it now. Standing in the kitchen with a small job in front of me on the bar - putting away recipes I brought home from mom’s. One day last week I went through mom’s recipe binder. “Copy whatever you want,” she said, happy that I was interested. I brought home a pile of papers.
While I cut recipes into squares and rectangles that I can put in my own binder here, Bonnie Parkin has been introduced and is speaking. About love and mothers. It’s cool listening to her while I’m working on mom’s recipes. The paper feels nice in my hand, and the sound of the scissors in it as I go around words and words and words (recipes we got all excited about last week) makes me smile. It’s not you know the paper or the scissors or the recipes that’s making me happy, though I LOVE simply the feel of things - but what else came home with me from Utah. Mom’s love.
Sister Parkin is talking about mothers showing love, but more, teaching their children to pray to feel the Savior’s love – I wonder (cutting and organizing and listening) if I do this enough. I hope when my kids think about it they really get how I love them and know my high calling as their mother is to direct them to Jesus Christ. The spirit whispers all these things to my heart while I listen and my hands are busy.
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And by the way, today is mom and dad's 54th wedding anniversary!
While I cut recipes into squares and rectangles that I can put in my own binder here, Bonnie Parkin has been introduced and is speaking. About love and mothers. It’s cool listening to her while I’m working on mom’s recipes. The paper feels nice in my hand, and the sound of the scissors in it as I go around words and words and words (recipes we got all excited about last week) makes me smile. It’s not you know the paper or the scissors or the recipes that’s making me happy, though I LOVE simply the feel of things - but what else came home with me from Utah. Mom’s love.Sister Parkin is talking about mothers showing love, but more, teaching their children to pray to feel the Savior’s love – I wonder (cutting and organizing and listening) if I do this enough. I hope when my kids think about it they really get how I love them and know my high calling as their mother is to direct them to Jesus Christ. The spirit whispers all these things to my heart while I listen and my hands are busy.
.JPG)
And by the way, today is mom and dad's 54th wedding anniversary!
20 June 2009
Cool salad
I made green potato salad this morning for our lunch. It isn't supposed to be green. Here's the link for the recipe. Land-O-Lakes has a similar recipe pictured below.
Mine turned green when I Bulleted the sour cream (all the sauce there is - no deadly mayo) with fresh dill I picked. Didn't want to spend my time mincing dill with a knife on a cutting board so into the sour cream it went; all that went into the Magic Bullet and after some whirrs I had oops green sauce. Added parsley from the garden, boiled new potatoes Kent dug fresh, hard boiled eggs, salt and pepper and onion and garlic powders. And frozen green peas. There's supposed to be celery in this but I forgot to buy it so I had to use celery seed spice and thin-sliced jicama for crunch. It worked! I used half bacon and half turkey bacon, and wow! Great salad. We had it for lunch with cold rotisserie chicken and whole strawberries and carrot sticks.
Poor Kent went to and from lunch to keep his watering going in the garden, and still isn't done. It's over 90 degrees on the back porch (expected to be 102 with heat index of 110) or we would have thrown a checkered tablecloth over the patio table and eaten outside. Kent sweaty and all. I have my hair pulled up and it's hot in the house. For one thing our electric company cycles the air conditioning on and off on these mega hot days. The fan runs but the AC, no, so it gets sweltery. Boiling 'taters and eggs and frying bacon steamed things way up in the kitchen - ↓ but I have a cold water bottle full of yeah, this. Jen helped me catch on last week and now I'm so cool.
Sour Cream and Dill Potato Salad
Mine turned green when I Bulleted the sour cream (all the sauce there is - no deadly mayo) with fresh dill I picked. Didn't want to spend my time mincing dill with a knife on a cutting board so into the sour cream it went; all that went into the Magic Bullet and after some whirrs I had oops green sauce. Added parsley from the garden, boiled new potatoes Kent dug fresh, hard boiled eggs, salt and pepper and onion and garlic powders. And frozen green peas. There's supposed to be celery in this but I forgot to buy it so I had to use celery seed spice and thin-sliced jicama for crunch. It worked! I used half bacon and half turkey bacon, and wow! Great salad. We had it for lunch with cold rotisserie chicken and whole strawberries and carrot sticks.Poor Kent went to and from lunch to keep his watering going in the garden, and still isn't done. It's over 90 degrees on the back porch (expected to be 102 with heat index of 110) or we would have thrown a checkered tablecloth over the patio table and eaten outside. Kent sweaty and all. I have my hair pulled up and it's hot in the house. For one thing our electric company cycles the air conditioning on and off on these mega hot days. The fan runs but the AC, no, so it gets sweltery. Boiling 'taters and eggs and frying bacon steamed things way up in the kitchen - ↓ but I have a cold water bottle full of yeah, this. Jen helped me catch on last week and now I'm so cool.
Sour Cream and Dill Potato Salad- 8 strips of bacon, diced
- 2 whole eggs
- 3 green onions, sliced (including whites)
- 3 stalks of celery, diced
- 3 pounds red potatoes, cut into 1/2″ chunks
- 1/2 cup frozen green peas
- 1 cup reduced fat sour cream
- 1/2 cup plain yogurt
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp dill
- 1 Tbsp parsley
- salt and pepper to taste
- Put your eggs on to boil with water just covering them. Cover and bring to boil over high heat.
- Meanwhile, dice your bacon and toss it in another skillet over medium heat.
- Scrub and dice your potatoes and put them on to boil in salted water.
- Your eggs should be boiling now, so remove them from the heat and set aside, still covered, for half an hour (set a timer so you don’t forget).
- While everything is cooking, add the sour cream, yogurt, dill, parsley, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper to a large bowl and mix until well incorporate.
- Keep an eye on your bacon and remove to a paper towel with a slotted spoon when done.
- Dice your green onions and celery.
- Pour frozen peas at the bottom of your colander.
- When potatoes are fork tender (about 15 minutes), pour into colander over the peas (the boiling water will thaw them). Allow to cool for a few minutes.
- Once potatoes are thoroughly drained, add to bowl with sour cream mixture while still hot. Stir well. The hot potatoes absorb the sour cream dressing really well.
- Add in bacon, celery, and green onions. Stir well.
- Once your eggs have finished sitting for 30 minutes, cool them in an ice bath, then peel and dice.
- Add hard boiled egg to potato salad and mix well.
- Can be served still warm or chilled.
19 June 2009
Uprooted
I'm so happy to not feel sad. The day I fly home from Utah or from wherever (every time) is a throw away day. Time wise anyway. AND emotion-wise. My emotions are like the planes I travel on - take off and land, take off and land. The long stretch from the airport on ground shuttle to the city where my car is parked besides makes me sad even while it's bringing me nearer and nearer it and the half-hour drive to the house.
I feel uprooted, unearthed. Remember the scene in Potter where the Herbology instructor pulls a plant from its pot and it screams? I'm so not a Potter-person really - I can't even remember what the plant was called. Mandrake, I think.
Yeah, well I feel like that the day I leave Utah and fly home. Mostly, not always... but this time, yes. Yanked straight out of my dirt. (Well and, too, a little when I leave home; leaving my routine and especially Kent is tough - but flying away to be with family for three weeks is a happy thought. Who freaks out then? I dig in way, way fast when I'm in any state where my kids or parents or brothers and sisters are.) I just can't pull up and come home easily. Wednesday morning I kissed Jen goodbye at the the airport and in the afternoon, late, kissed Kent hello. That was after I had thrown open my suitcase and backpack and pulled stuff out as fast as I could to put it away, not lingering. One Christmas a few years ago Jen gave me socks and I wore 'em. The moment I pulled them out of the suitcase once I was home was very like the moment Christopher Reeve, Richard Collier from Somewhere in Time, pulled the 1979 penny out of his 1912 suit pocket, and was jetted - I mean the man flew - back to the present from the arms of his love. Aagghh! Remember how haunted he was afterward? Pasty and sick? Okay, well that's not what happens to me. Too dramatic - unpacking the socks, I was already IN the present, just hours home, so really they took me BACK in time and I was so, so, so sad. Very. It's weird and silly, but anymore I don't linger unpacking in that Somewhere in Time-ish space.
Late in the afternoon I kissed Kent hello and kept my chin up. But why so serious? I love, love, love Kent AND my house AND my garden and yard and friends and routine, and . . . what's up? Wish I knew. A day futzing around here, laundry running and supper to get and breakfast the next morning, and I'm okay. In time what was truer than true while I was up and down and flying around goes two-dimensional on me, graying out like on an old t.v. set, flat-lining, and what's in front of me settles me - and now I breathe. I only cry a while and not even on the outside lest Kent feel lost on this happy, happy day for us.
We're not meant to time travel or be in two-places-at-once without coming apart at a seam I guess. I AM so happy to not feel sad.
I feel uprooted, unearthed. Remember the scene in Potter where the Herbology instructor pulls a plant from its pot and it screams? I'm so not a Potter-person really - I can't even remember what the plant was called. Mandrake, I think.
Yeah, well I feel like that the day I leave Utah and fly home. Mostly, not always... but this time, yes. Yanked straight out of my dirt. (Well and, too, a little when I leave home; leaving my routine and especially Kent is tough - but flying away to be with family for three weeks is a happy thought. Who freaks out then? I dig in way, way fast when I'm in any state where my kids or parents or brothers and sisters are.) I just can't pull up and come home easily. Wednesday morning I kissed Jen goodbye at the the airport and in the afternoon, late, kissed Kent hello. That was after I had thrown open my suitcase and backpack and pulled stuff out as fast as I could to put it away, not lingering. One Christmas a few years ago Jen gave me socks and I wore 'em. The moment I pulled them out of the suitcase once I was home was very like the moment Christopher Reeve, Richard Collier from Somewhere in Time, pulled the 1979 penny out of his 1912 suit pocket, and was jetted - I mean the man flew - back to the present from the arms of his love. Aagghh! Remember how haunted he was afterward? Pasty and sick? Okay, well that's not what happens to me. Too dramatic - unpacking the socks, I was already IN the present, just hours home, so really they took me BACK in time and I was so, so, so sad. Very. It's weird and silly, but anymore I don't linger unpacking in that Somewhere in Time-ish space.
Late in the afternoon I kissed Kent hello and kept my chin up. But why so serious? I love, love, love Kent AND my house AND my garden and yard and friends and routine, and . . . what's up? Wish I knew. A day futzing around here, laundry running and supper to get and breakfast the next morning, and I'm okay. In time what was truer than true while I was up and down and flying around goes two-dimensional on me, graying out like on an old t.v. set, flat-lining, and what's in front of me settles me - and now I breathe. I only cry a while and not even on the outside lest Kent feel lost on this happy, happy day for us.
We're not meant to time travel or be in two-places-at-once without coming apart at a seam I guess. I AM so happy to not feel sad.
08 June 2009
Utah and Idaho
Since I last posted I've taken gobs of pictures. My first day here I got up early with mom and traipsed around her yard with her photographing flowers. We climbed down the little hill behind their house and back up it, two little old ladies giggling and clutching rocks and weeds to keep us from face planting. The sun broke over the mountain and I caught this amazing-colored iris.
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As soon as Kent arrived we drove to Idaho to visit his folks. Poppies are one of Kent's mom's favorites.
After lunch on Sunday Mom H sliced a COLD cucumber, handed me these, and we took a short nap.
Burley
Back in Utah, kids and grandkids
Noah, 7 mos.
Amy holding Noah
Andrew, 2
Landon, 3
Joseph, 4 and Landon
Brad, Dana, Brady, 3, Garrett, 1
Scott
Garrett
Nat
Jennifer with Landon, Garrett, Brady, Abbie, 6 1/2
Andrew
Erin and Noah
Nat, Erin, Jen, Dana, Amy, Abbie
Grandpa and Noah
These pics of the kids and Kent and me were mostly snapped when we were all together this weekend, just after Jen got into town and a WHOLE week after Kent and I went to Idaho. Plans to be together several times as a family during the week mostly crumbled as day by day different ones of us got the stomach flu. We thought it was just a family thing but we heard it's been all over Salt Lake. It doesn't matter, it was icky. From babies to grandparents, cousins and best friends, aunts and uncles, we've all been miserable. Thankful to be together yeah, but miserable some days.
A new week's ahead.
.JPG)
As soon as Kent arrived we drove to Idaho to visit his folks. Poppies are one of Kent's mom's favorites.
After lunch on Sunday Mom H sliced a COLD cucumber, handed me these, and we took a short nap.
Burley
Back in Utah, kids and grandkids
Noah, 7 mos.
Amy holding Noah
Andrew, 2
Landon, 3
Joseph, 4 and Landon
Brad, Dana, Brady, 3, Garrett, 1
Scott
Garrett
Nat
Jennifer with Landon, Garrett, Brady, Abbie, 6 1/2
Andrew
Erin and Noah
Nat, Erin, Jen, Dana, Amy, Abbie
Grandpa and Noah
These pics of the kids and Kent and me were mostly snapped when we were all together this weekend, just after Jen got into town and a WHOLE week after Kent and I went to Idaho. Plans to be together several times as a family during the week mostly crumbled as day by day different ones of us got the stomach flu. We thought it was just a family thing but we heard it's been all over Salt Lake. It doesn't matter, it was icky. From babies to grandparents, cousins and best friends, aunts and uncles, we've all been miserable. Thankful to be together yeah, but miserable some days.
A new week's ahead.
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