What's For Dinner Wednesday - A Delightsome Pear

So, somewhere along the way, I lost a whole day. I was trying to decided what kind of post to do today and thought that "What's For Dinner Wednesday" would be good. But guess what? Today is not Wednesday. Who knew? Anyhoo. This is one of our family's newest most fav-O-rite desserts. We have been getting a lot of pears from our food co-op lately. We have had this like 100 times in the last month. Well, maybe not 100, but pretty close.

This is what I love about it. It's good. Dang good. It is the easiest thing ever to make. It's kinda fancy nancy if you are trying to impress. And it is totally healthy because the main ingredient is fruit. You pretty much have to eat it, for your health's sake!

This is what ya do. You take a pear. Cut it in half. Scoop out the seeds. I have a small melon baller and it works perfect for that job. Place the pears in a baking dish, put an oh-so-generous pat of real butter in the hole you just made with the melon baller or spoon. Sprinkle some brown sugar and chopped pecans on top. Then pop 'em in the oven 'til you can't stand the yummy smell any longer and you just have to devour them right there at that very moment. Sometimes I bake them at 350, sometimes, if we can't wait so long, 400. Whatever. It's not rocket science. But it is good. If you are in Texas, serve it with a scoop of Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla. If not, you can serve it with some other inferior brand of vanilla. My inferiority of choice is Bryers Natural Vanilla.

Here's Aubrey patiently waiting for me to take the picture so she can finally get at it.


And I must give credit where credit is due. Thanks goes to me mum, who is the one who first showed me how to make this little delight.

Monday Morning Musings - Chotskies And All

So Addy had no trouble adjusting to the time change last week. But it's catchin' up to her now. Saturday and Sunday night she fell asleep at the dinner table before she even took a bite of her food. We carried her up to bed at 6:30 both nights and she slept until about midnight both nights. She is giving a whole new meaning to midnight snacks for me. She wakes up starving since she didn't eat her dinner. I have to take her into the kitchen and get her a snack and then put her back in bed. Then she comes in again and wakes me up at 6:30 in the morning. My alarm goes off at 6:45. And I have this thing about getting every single minute of sleep I deserve before that alarm goes off. So to be cut off from my snoozin' even 2 minutes before my alarm goes off is a tragedy in my opinion. We are gonna have to figure somethin' out and figure it out real quick like.

My children, I love them. More than anything, I do. They can talk though, lemmetellya. Sometimes I feel like I might actually have a nervous breakdown if they don't stop talking and give me a few minutes of peace. One big problem is, our house has a ridiculously major echo..echo..echo.. And sometimes they all talk nonstop for like an hour. All at the same time. To me. When I'm in the middle to trying to do something. And usually that something is a thing that requires a lot of concentration. Addy last night when we were having our midnight snack, I don't know how she managed to eat anything because she was jabberin' the entire time. I was like..ADDDDDDYYYY. Pleeeeease. I. Want. To. Go. Back. To. Bed. EAT! But I must admit, it was kinda cute to hear all the funny things she had to say. She is a funny girl.

Aubrey has been learning about the pilgrims at school and she is telling me all the things she is learning about pilgrim children. Like they didn't have chairs for the kids to sit on to eat. Or that kids didn't have their own beds. One night, I was trying to make dinner and do about 50 other things at the same time. The kids were sitting at the counter and they were supposed to be working on their homework. And they wouldn't stop talking. And I started to shake a crazy nervous sort of way because I felt like I was gonna lose my mind. So Aubrey said, "Hey mom! Why don't we do like the pilgrims did? Their kids couldn't talk unless an adult talked to them first!" I said, "Aubrey, that is the most fabulous idear I have heard all day!" Yeah....my kids wouldn't have made very good pilgrims.

There are certain things that always happen at our house when Steve is out of town. For one thing, burritos always show up on our dinner menu. Because the kids and I could happily eat burritos every night for dinner, but for Steve, he thinks it is some sort of punishment when he has to eat a burrito for dinner. Another thing that always happens when he is out of town in the month of November, we set up the Christmas trees. Because he thinks it is some sort of crime to put up a tree before Thanksgiving. Well, phooey on you, Mr. Scrooge! I sent him a text last week when we were putting up the tree and asked if he would be mad if he came home and the trees were up. He sent me a text back and said, whatever makes you happy sweetheart. And then I sent him a text back and said, who is this??? Anyway, we were able to decorate the tree Saturday night.

I love decorating the tree. When I was growing up I hated my parents tree because of all the mix matched ornaments. I wanted a fancy nancy schmancy tree where everything matched. And now, I love our tree with all of its mix matched, homemade ornaments. Every year when we put the tree up it is like a trip down memory lane. The kids remember when they made certain ornaments that are special to them. And we get to remember all the trips we have taken over the years. When we go on trips we always buy an ornament from the place we are visiting. It started with the very first trip Steve and I ever took after we were married, and it still continues today. Here is a picture Emily took of our new Disneyland ornament we just bought.

I have to be honest and say, the ornament idea came from my extreme dislike of souvenirs. I hate souvenirs. My favorite thing to do with a souvenir after we get home? Throw it in the trash. It's the hard, cold truth. But you know, when you are visiting a place, you feel like you have to buy something to remember it by and to be able to say, "HEY! I WAS HERE!" But I can't bring myself to spend money on something that I know will end up in the trash two days later. Thankfully most every place we visit happens to have an ornament section in their souvenir shops. There have been a few places we have had to improvise, and we might have a few key chains hanging on our tree as ornaments. But hey, if you are going to have a chotskie tree, you might as well go all the way with it, right? That's what I'm sayin'.

As for Mr. Scrooge, he's getting soft in his old age. I think he likes having the tree up now just as much as the rest of us. And he says he is finished going out of town for a while, which is good for us. It might mean no more burritos on the dinner menu for a while, but we'd take him over some beans and cheese any old day.

Gratitude

This is the time of year to remember all that we have been blessed with. I pray everyday that I will remember all that the Lord has blessed me with and that I will be able to teach my children to recognize their blessings and have gratitude for those blessings. Some of the things I am the most thankful for are my wonderful husband, my children, my testimony of the restored gospel and my Savior Jesus Christ. I could go on and on, but those are the things I am most thankful for. You might remember our "Wall of Thanks" we did last year at Thanksgiving time. If not you can click here for a refresher.

This year my mom gave me the idea to keep a "Family Gratitude Journal". You get a notebook and number it from 1-1,000 ever November. Then you keep it out on your kitchen counter and every time you sit down to eat everyone writes some things they are thankful for in the book. And when you have guests over, you can invite them to write in the book also. You try to get 1,000 things in your book by Thanksgiving day. And you keep the book from year to year and can go back and see and remember some of the blessing your family enjoyed in years past.

I used to keep a running list like this a long time ago. Each night I would sit down and write down everything that I was thankful for that day. I remember that when I was doing that, I noticed so many little things that normally would go unnoticed. But when I was looking for things to be thankful for daily, the smallest things gave me such a huge sense of gratitude.

So I made these notebooks today. One for our family, another for a friend. This is a new family tradition we are going to start this November. I hope that it will help be an answer to my daily prayer, that I will be able to show gratitude and teach my children to show gratitude for the things we have been blessed with. So, what are you waiting for? Go grab a notebook and let the gratitude begin!

Flashback/Flashforward Friday - Revenge Of The Nerds

The above picture is a picture of me when I was in 6th grade (I think). We were having some kind of crazy dress day at school. The below picture is of Zac taken just a few weeks ago (his is in 7th grade) when they had nerd day at his school. I was so proud of him for letting his true nature shine through! I had to pick him up early from school for an ortho appointment and forgot that he was wearing this, so I didn't bring him a change of clothes. Poor boy had to go to his appointment like this.

Veterans Day, Apples, & Friends

Thanks Applebee's for our 1/2 priced dinner tonight. Steve got his meal free since he is a Veteran and we went to Emily's and Aubrey's Parent/Teacher Conferences today and they both got "A" is for Applebee's cards for being such super smart cutie patooties so their meals were also free! Yay! I didn't mind taking the night off from cooking. While we were there, Addy kept putting her cheek up next to mine and drinking her drink. I couldn't figure out what she was doing. Then she said, "Now we look like them!"

Thank you Veterans for your sacrifice and service!

Monday Morning Musing Which Were Actually Mused On A Tuesday Night, But Who's Counting?

We were setting up our Christmas Trees tonight, I couldn't help it. I have been resisting since Halloween. We got our little tree up in our kitchen and it is all lit and decorated. We put the big one together in the living room but the lights and decorations will have to wait for another day. As much as I loved the spirit of Christmas that was present while putting up the tree, there just comes a time in my day when the majority of my children must be in bed. And if that time comes and then passes and all of my children are still out of bed, well, let's just say, it ain't pretty.

It was snowing here today and I had the radio on and Christmas music was playing and I could feel the heat (♪comin' off the street. she wants ta party-ooh-she wants ta get down-ooh-all she wants ta do is, all she wants to do is dance♪) in the radiant floors and it was so cozy in the house and it would have been absolutely perfect with a Christmas tree and twinkly lights. But alas, there was no Christmas tree with twinkly lights. I just had to do it. It makes the house magical. And I like magical.

When I was getting the trees and lights out, the kids were trying to get all the decorations out, but I wouldn't let them. I told them those had to wait until after Thanksgiving. I DO have my Thanksgiving decorations up, if that makes any of you naysayers feel better.

While we were putting the big tree up, which really isn't that big, but it's bigger than the small one, hence "the big tree" title. Anyhoo, while we were putting that one up, Addy kept getting in the box and saying, "Andy is going off to college. We need to be there for him." Or she would jump out of the box and say, "Hey! New toys!". She might have accidentally watched Toy Story 3 a few too many times today. Like 2 1/2 times. Before you get all judgemental on me- she watched it once. Then her sisters came home from school in the MIDDLE OF THE DAY (dang early release week) and they wanted to watch it so she watched it again with them. They were supposed to come tell me when it ended so we could do chores but it started over and played for about 30 minutes before I realized it and turned it off.

So this is the sitcheation. I am totally way behind in blog posts. Like months and months and months behind. I was going back through pictures today looking for something Addy needed to take to preschool. I saw all the pictures of posts I have been meaning to do forever. I am feeling the need to wrap things up, with the end of the year approaching and all. I was putting dates on my calendar today and I was like, Ok, it's one week until this major event, then the next week this major event, then the next week there's 2 major events, then the next week a another, then the next week a MAJOR MAJOR event, and then-BAM-Christmas-BAM-Wedding-BAM-New Years-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-2011. 2010 is over and I still have blog posts from June waiting to be done.

Can I just tell you what just happened just now? I was typing and I felt a sting on my left hand, I looked down and there was this huge mosquito biting me. Well, HELLO. First of all, they never bite me. Second of all, there is no second of all. But I killed it by hitting it with my right hand. The almost dead carcass was stuck to my right pointer finger and I could feel it twitching on my finger and it really freaked me out so I was trying to shake it off and it wouldn't come off and I was frantically trying to find the kleenex box but I just cleaned off the desk the other day and moved the box and in my freakout mode I couldn't remember where I had moved it to, so I leaned over to the trash can and frantically tried to wipe it off with a piece of paper and I gave myself a major paper cut between my ring finger and middle finger. Curse you you stupid mosquito!

So what I was trying to say before my comedy of errors took place is that, just prepare yourself. 'Cause I am sure sometimes you are like, "Would she just shut up already!" Which, by the way, if you ARE saying that, it's really rude and you should keep those kind of comments to yourself. But I'm about to unleash a whole slew of blog posts on your unsuspecting self. Which really isn't true, because now that I told you, you aren't exactly unsuspecting anymore. Are you? Yeah, I know. You're thinking the shut up thing again. Some people are just so rude!

Child Labor At Its Finest

Addy: Daddy, can I watch Ki Lan in here?
Steve: No, I'm watching a football game.
Addy: Mommy, can you turn Ki Lan on in your room for me?
Allyson: No, I'm about to fold laundry in there and watch Glenn Beck. Ask Em to turn it on in the playroom for you.

Addy leaves and I fall asleep on the couch. A while later Steve wakes me up.

Steve: Honey, you have to go in the living room and see what Addy is doing.
Allyson: Grrrr..I'm asleep.
Steve: You really have to go see.
Allyson: Grrrr..can you just tell me?
Steve: No, you need to go see this.
Allyson: *sigh* Grrr...fine.

In all she folded 3 loads of "large capacity" laundry. WOO HOO! I'll never fold the laundry again!

Flashback Friday - Roy Boys

These pictures were taken in December 1997 while we were visiting Steve's family in St. Louis. We were at Steve's Dad's parents house. The above picture is a picture of the 4 Roy boys: Roy Otto, Roy Nelson, Zachary Roy and Stephen Roy.

Pictures of Zac with his great grandparents. Unfortunately he is the only one of our kids that was able to meet them and he was too young to remember.

Steve with his Grandmother, Virginia

Halloween x 7 = Spooky To The Max

Since when did Halloween become as big as Christmas? We celebrated Halloween for a good full week, if not more. I can't even count how many times my kids got dressed up in their costumes for different parties or activities. Here are some of the things we did last week.

Monday:

We went to the library for "Spooky Stories"

Tuesday:

The girls had friends over for pumpkin muffins, hot chocolate and Halloween crafts

The finished crafts

Wednesday:

Addy and I went for story time and trick-or-treating at the library

Thursday:

Addy dressed up in her witch costume for her party at pre-school. That night the kids and I went to the school carnival. I only have pictures of Addy at the carnival because she is the only one who would stay with me. Poor Steve, he missed out on all the fun because he was out of town all last week.

Friday:

The kids went to various parties but in between we were able to finally carve our pumpkins

It totally disgusted Aubrey to stick her hand inside her pumpkin and she kept begging me to do it for her.

Addy had no problem gutting her pumpkin

Em

The finished product

Saturday:

We went miniature golfing and got rained on

Being that we live in Utah and all, whenever Halloween falls on a Sunday, our entire state instinctively does their Trick-or-Treating on Saturday. It was raining when it was time to go trick or treat so I gave the kids the option to go in our neighborhood and have to walk up 50 bajillion steps to everyone's front door in the rain, or go to my mom's neighborhood to their "Trunk-n-Treat" which would involve zero steps in the rain. Thankfully they chose the latter. And thankfully they moved the Trunk-n-Treat into the church. After we finished there, Zac decided to face the rain and go door to door in my mom's neighborhood with his friend Garrett. The girls and I decided to go trick or treat in the mall. We didn't get far though because Steve, who had just got back in town at midnight the night before and had worked all day Saturday, had a small break before he had to go back to work (until midnight) (I love you babe!) so we changed directions and drove to where he was to eat dinner with him.

G & Z

Emily

Aubrey

Addy, who was supposed to be a witch with her sisters, but at the last minute changed her mind and went as a beautiful princess.

I had no plans for dressing up, but seeing as how we were one witch down and had an extra hat, I threw on some black and donned the hat.

Sunday:

My mom and Lauren came over that night for dinner and we made caramel apples.

The Psychological Effects Of The Duck Hunt On A Slightly Crazy Lady

I don't know if today is the last Saturday of the season or not, but there is an over abundance of gunfire in my back yard this morning. It is almost as bad as opening day. I remember opening day. I went for an early morning walk and some people stopped to ask me directions and I was afraid to stop moving long enough to help them for fear of being a "sitting duck". Must keep moving, must keep moving. That's what I kept repeating in my head. A moving target is harder to hit, right?

So for the entire moth of October, I have been hearing gunfire and swamp boats, all day every day. They wake me up every morning. And it really grates on my last nerve to hear it. I'm not kidding you. It irritates the you know what right out of me. So the other day I was digging down deep within my soul to determine what exactly it is about the duck hunt that bothers me so much. Is it the fact that some days I feel like I live in a war zone? No. Is it the fact that I live in a beautiful place surrounded by all kinds of beautiful birds who have a sanctuary right down the street from me and if the poor birds choose to fly over the wrong side of the fence, they are gunned down? No. So then, what is it, you ask? That bothers you so much. Well, to get you to really understand, I first must tell you the story of a grumpy old shirtless obsessive lawn mowing man. This is his story. It is my story too.

This is our 2nd duck hunting season in our new house. Before we moved here, we lived for 12 years in our old house. And right next door to us lived a grumpy old shirtless obsessive lawn mowing man. Exaggerate you say? No. No.

This man irritated me every single day for 12 years. He was retired, so he was home all day, and therefore had plenty of time to plan and plot ways to get on my last nerve. We had a little wall that ran down the length of our front yard, separating our lawn from his. It was the perfect height and width for little kids to climb and play on. But only if they didn't have grumpy old shirtless obsessive lawn mowing man living next door. "GET OFF THE WALL! GET OFF THE WALL!" We would hear if the kids even looked like they might try to scale the thing.

One year, he cut down every deciduous tree in his yard. All he had left were bushes and plants that kept their leaves all year long. We had a tree that was right on our side of the property line. I know that that tree was the bane of his existence (which secretly made me very happy). How do I know? Because I would stand at my kitchen window every fall day and watch his own personal battle with this tree. Every day he would be out there raking up the leaves that fell or blew on his side of the yard. But before he would start to rake them up he would take his rake, hold it up to the tree and try to shake off any leaves that were just barely holding on for dear life and might fall upon his yard later that day. One day, I looked out my window and he had a step ladder and a saw and was actually cutting branches off my tree.

That's what he did to make me crazy in the fall. What was his choice of irritation in the spring and summer? His lawn mower. But it wasn't just him, it was also the grumpy old shirt wearing obsessive lawn mowing man who lived across the street from him. They had this unspoken lawn mowing battle going on between them. The shirtless one (I call him this because he never wears a shirt when he mows his lawn. And he is like 75 years old.) mows his lawn on a perfect diagonal. The shirt wearing one makes 2 passes on his lawn, once going horizontally the next pass vertical. Therefore making a perfect grid pattern. If those things are not enough to get on your nerves when you are lucky if your lawn gets mowed before the grass reaches knee level, they mow like every third day. And it cracks me up to watch it. I will hear one of them start their mower up and like clockwork, within 15-20 minutes, the other one is out there mowing his lawn. The one not to be outdone by the other.

We've covered fall, spring and summer. What about winter, you ask? What about winter....Well, one Christmas I decided that we needed to make an effort to befriend the neighbors we had that we didn't know very well. So I made a little gift bag to take around to them. For Family Home Evening we had a lesson about how we should love our neighbors (even the grumpy old shirtless kind who might behead you if you touch the wall). The kids were all excited and so we bundled up and set out, gifts in hand. We rang grumpy old shirtless man's doorbell and waited for him to answer. I was hoping his wife would answer. But alas, she did not, and there he stood looking at us with his grumpy old man look. We said a chorus of "MERRY CHRISTMAS!" One of the kids handed him the gift bag which he would not take until they shoved it into his hands. He looked down at it with his grumpy old man look and then with his grumpy old man voice said, "What's this?" We said, "It's just a little gift from us to wish you a Merry Christmas". He shoved the bag back at us said, "WE DON'T WANT IT!" and slammed the door in our faces. WELL MERRY FREAKIN' CHRISTMAS TO YOU TOO! That's what I felt like screaming, after the initial shock wore off. My kids were so young, they about cried. They had no idea what had just happened.

What exactly does this have to do with ducks? What this has to do with ducks is this. Mr. Grump, he is a duck hunter. And he has a swamp boat. And he would do something with it, clean it or fix it or just start it up for fun and let it run forever. All the time. Right next to my bedroom window. At 6:00 in the morning. If the swamp boats are so loud that they wake me up in this house when they are miles and miles away, how loud do you think that thing was outside my bedroom window? At 6 am? Deafening.

This is what bothers me about Duck Hunting Season. I know, with all my heart, when I hear those swamp boats off in the distance. I know, without a doubt in my mind, that in my brand new home and personal sanctuary, that right out behind me sitting in his boat, is grumpy old shirtless obsessive lawn mowing man. And in my heart of hearts I know, impossible as it might be, I know that he knows I am here. And he knows that I can hear him. And he knows that it bothers me. And that is what makes me crazy outta my head when I hear it. It's like now, forever for the whole rest of my life grumpy old shirtless obsessive lawn mowing man will forever haunt me, even after he leaves this earth. Every October. He will be there.