My Birthday in the Month of May

May 2nd rolled around as it does every year making me older. And as with each year of my life, I've learned a little more.

I have learned that counting my blessings and thanking my Heavenly Father for them can cheer me up fast and clear my head of negativity, doubt and fear.

I have learned that slowing down the pace of my life is so much more relaxing!

I have learned more about faith as an action word this past year. I truly had faith that the boys could have a triple eagle court of honor. I stressed and cried, but never gave up. And in spite of Spencer's initial resistance, and working around leaders' schedules and roadblock after roadblock, it came to pass.

I learned how to sail a boat.... and how to drive a motorcycle!

Being a Sunbeam teacher in Primary, I have learned more about Heavenly Father's love for me in the perfectly brilliant creativity He used to create this glorious world we have to live on. There isn't just one kind of tree, one kind of flower, one kind of animal, one type of landscape for us to admire and make this home pretty, there are thousands of different, unique, beautiful plants, animals, insects, flowers and terrains. The sky with clouds, rainbows and stars; our amazing, miraculous bodies. I feel His love more abundantly.

I'm glad I can still learn and that I have more of life to live and continue learning!

A Little Spring Concert (Back in April!)

I have been a little occupied the past few weeks and May slipped by so fast! I will be catching up, because there is much to blog! Emily has been in a home school choir since a year ago January. The director is a home school mom that has 5 small children. The choir and director are mostly Mormon. Their group is called the Super Singers. They have a t-shirt with a logo on it and everything! At the end of April, they had their Spring concert for the parents. Then they went around to assisted living facilities and the Texas Children's Hospital for concerts. In December the Super Singers also had multiple concerts at the same facilities. I have been so impressed with Cindy Scott, the director. They practiced once a week for an hour and learned 10 songs. I have some partial clips of three songs that I especially liked that I want to share. It was a great experience for Emily.

The first song is Be Our Guest from Beauty and the Beast, with a few lyric changes to fit the group. It is always their opening number.

This song I had to put in. It's The Rainbow Connection. It holds a bit of nostalgia for me, since I sang it as a solo in front of my Junior High School at the end of the year assembly.

This one is an upbeat song called We're Making Music All Day Long. It's at the end and they are singing in two parts.

Other songs included Tomorrow, Elvis' Blue Suede Shoes, Deep in the Heart of Texas, The Bare Necessities, Little People, a couple of others, and a song I had never heard called Everyday Heroes, which I loved most. So I have to indulge anyone who cares to listen to one more. The words are really touching:

All around who can see, who is strong and who might be?
Can we know who is brave, who will sacrifice to save?
All around, who can see, what their fate is meant to be?
People give, people care, there are heroes everywhere.
Every day someone cries out, every day someone needs,
Every day someone hears them, and listens and heeds,
Every day there are heroes, people just like you and me,
Every day there are heroes who never meant to be.
People give, people care, there are heroes everywhere.

The beginning and ending are sung by the kids 10 and up, which was Emily and three other girls.

Colorado, Denver South Mission en Espanol!

Damon got his mission call on Friday, April 24th! He had flown home from BYU on Thursday and was still adjusting to life back home when I walked in with the envelope and announced it's arrival. He said, "Don't show me the postage! James told me that I would know by the postage whether it is foreign or stateside." So dutifully I kept the package in my custody and Emily and I covered the metered stamp in layers of masking tape. Then he said he wasn't prepared yet to open it. I wasn't prepared for that response. So we were all on pins and needles the rest of the day. Taylor had a youth temple trip and Spencer was at a lifeguard training session till late that night. And Sr. D and I had an all-day sailing training the next day. So Damon decided to open it Friday night after the boys got home.

Emily stayed up till she just couldn't keep her eyes open and lay asleep on the couch till Taylor arrived at about 11:15 PM. We woke her up and Damon called Heather and put her on speaker phone. He opened it and read it out loud, from beginning to end. "Wow!" was pretty much what his reaction was and then, looking at the camera, "Just for the record, I'm not disappointed, I'm really excited!" He feels really good about it, and is excited to learn Spanish. So then he took the tape off the postage. James said that if it was $1.31 it was stateside, and $1.37 if it was foreign. Well, his postage was $1.34. We had a good laugh and thought it appropriate that stateside, but foreign language got it in the middle. But the rates have changed in the last 2 years since James left, so who knows? But Damon would have been confused nonetheless had he seen it at first.

On a personal note, my heart is full of gratitude for a son who has a strong testimony of the restored gospel and who also has a strong desire to serve the Lord and teach it to others. I don't take this great blessing for granted and feel to thank Heavenly Father for such abundance!

It was very exciting, nothing words can describe!

If you want the footage, here are the first 4 minutes I recorded.

Easter Eggs and Baskets

It's a little tough being the only one excited to color Easter eggs, but then again, there's no competition and all control. Emily and I set it all up. Taylor ended up coloring his in a jiffy when Emily was almost done. (Plopping them into the cups and getting on the computer) Spencer was at a party, came home at 11 and quickly dunked his for a light-toned pastel feel. "That way the color stays on the outside of the eggs."

But Emily and I had fun. She used the wax crayon, experimented with the colors and I just watched and took pictures, trying to be semi creative. They were so colorful. Instead of floral arranging, we tried our hands at eggal arranging.

I did not have it put together to do Easter baskets on Saturday this year, so Sunday was the day. We have church at 9 so the basket and hunt were short and sweet. The boys each got an orange Texas tie and a little key chain that said "choose ye this day" and Emily got a very soft, darling Webkinz Jr. stuffed dog. I had sent Heather and Damon an Easter box and we missed their participation.

The hunt consists of finding peanut m&ms all over the living room. Unsanitary, but it's not like the candy is doing their bodies any great good either. The kids came out about even and they were all courteous with each other. Easter is always such a good-natured morning at our home. I sang in the choir, taught Primary, made dinner, had a sister in the ward over for dinner, watched a Mormon Message from Elder Holland and talked with my mom on the phone. A happy Easter!

I know that my Redeemer lives and provided hope in this life and hope of eternal life. I'm grateful for spring and the new life and hope it brings and symbolizes!

Preparations for a Perfect Passover

This year since I am blogging I wanted to chronicle my preparations for Passover. This is a day like unto Thanksgiving. They are both feasts and thus have many dishes and timing start and end times and a festive table to set so that the whole day is one culinary accomplishment to make any homemaker proud to BE a homemaker!

On Thursday morning, April 9th, I began by preparing the 1/2 leg of lamb. (Normally I get a whole shank portion, but with less people coming and Sr. D and my substantially reducing our meat intake I just got the smaller piece.) I combine 1/4 cup olive oil, 8-10 minced garlic cloves, a tablespoon each of fresh oregano leaves and thyme leaves, pepper and Kosher salt, and rub it with bare hands all over the lamb. Then I wrap it in plastic wrap and put in the fridge for it to cure.

Next I prepared the chicken broth that would be the base for the matzo ball soup. Into a big pot went a whole pullet, carrots, celery, an onion, garlic cloves, a turnip, thyme leaves, salt, pepper and water to simmer for 2 hours. And the aromas of Passover began! MMM!

Boiling eggs for the seder and making charoset came next. Charoset is also eaten during the seder, or program, at Passover. It represents the mortar used by the Israelites to make the bricks while they were slaves in Egypt. It is made by peeling and finely chopping up apples, and adding , cinnamon, chopped pecans, and a little apple juice. It is very yummy!

For the table centerpiece I have had a tradition for many years of buying fresh flowers and making vases out of the matza bread used in the seder. Matza is unleavened bread, which is the only bread eaten at Passover reminding us that the Israelites had to leave Egypt so fast they didn't have time to let their bread rise.

Then I made the matzo balls for the soup. They are like dumplings and the soup is just the matzo balls and the chicken broth with everything strained, and it is soooo good. The balls are made with matzo flour, eggs, oil, salt and water. They are boiled in the broth.

I also made a sponge cake which turned out wonderful, but forgot to document it. Ugh! And the strawberry shortcake tiered in parfait glasses with the sponge cake didn't get photographed either. So we will just have to imagine the look and taste as best we can!

For the feast I serve lamb, small red roasted potatoes, asparagus, gefilte fish, and then strawberry shortcake for dessert. Sometimes I throw in a Caesar salad too. The potatoes are made by combining in a bowl the washed and dried potatoes, chopped fresh rosemary leaves, garlic (I use a LOT of garlic at Passover) olive oil, salt and pepper. Toss it around and put potatoes on a cookie sheet at 375 for 1 hour, turning occasionally. They are so delicious! I got a picture of the rosemary being chopped, but not the final product. Oh bummer! At this point I am trying to simultaneously set the table, finish the parfait dessert, get the potatoes in and make sure the timing is still good. So I just forget all about taking pictures.

On to setting the table. Many years ago I found some green and yellow dishes at Dollar Tree and thought they would make a perfect set of Passover dishes, and they do! I use them only on Passover and Easter each year and they are so fun! Besides the big seder plate on the table, I put small portions of the food we eat during the seder on each person's plate. Emily was a big help on this part of the preparation. There is some unleavened bread, a hard-boiled egg, a little horseradish, a sprig of parsley, and a spoonful of charoset. (the apple stuff) Grape juice in the goblets, miniature frogs scattered in the middle and two candles finish off the table setting.

The lamb comes out and the aromas are amazing to the senses. Sr. D carves (and picks) the lamb (his absolute favorite part of Passover). He gives any in the kitchen the first juicy bites. The full-time elders arrive, and we are about ready to begin the seder. But I am still trying to do the very last touches: get the asparagus on the stove, but not turned on yet, matches placed near to light the candles during the seder, get a bowl, a pitcher of water and a towel for washing hands during the seder, and pull out the token bottle of gefilte fish from the fridge. (Sr. D loves this and it is a very traditional Passover feast item, but the rest of us cringe at the odor it gives off:))

And Passover begins! Shalom!

A Couple of Noteworthy Items to blog out of Chronological Order

I feel like I have so much to write about right now and I'm leaving things out! Emily was in a dance recital before we left for Nauvoo and I wanted to blog it, but so much keeps coming up! She has been working on these dances for almost the whole year and the three girls in her class did a really great job. They did a 50's funk song to the song "Ain't That a Shame" and a drill dance too.

We also discovered a possum living under our shed in the back yard! We don't know what to do with it. Spencer, Taylor and I saw it the other day nosing around the back bushes and we took some pictures. It's as big as a raccoon or big cat! Yikes!

I played in a string quartet at March Enrichment. One of the ladies in my ward who plays viola had taken a class many years ago and she had to write some music, so she did and we played her piece. She actually played the cello part on her viola, because we have 2 violinists and 2 violists and no cellists in our ward. It was fun to practice, but 1/2 way through the performance, we got way off and it took me a couple of lines faking it to get back on track and it still didn't sound right, but it ended OK. Oh well. Here is the live recording. It was a difficult piece in that each part was playing a different syncopation, and it wasn't always harmonious even when we played it right. So there were only a few spots I could identify where we all were supposed to be. The rhythm changed a lot which made it fun and challenging.

Tiffany Running as Fast as She Has Strength

On March 28th I ran in a 5K race that our stake (church) sponsered. I had started running one time around our neighborhood (approx. 1/2 mile) months ago and came through the door gasping for breath. Emily was really scared, like I would keel over any second. I tried it again after a couple of months of weight training at the YMCA and it wasn't quite so bad. (Although I noticed some unsolicited jiggling in the middriff section AND the back side which was disturbing!)Then at the beginning of March, when Sr. D was out of town and then sick, I didn't want to go to the YMCA by myself, so I picked up running around the neighborhood again and wondered if I could go further than the 1/2 mile. When I found out about the 5K, I set a goal. Each week I upped the run another lap around the street. (5 kilometers = 3.106 miles)

The day of the race was freezing! I don't know the temp, but there was a good, strong wind that blew right through me. I was nervous. I had only run 2 1/2 miles up to that point but figured I could keep right on and my adrenaline would push me through. Sr. D and Emily came to cheer me on and I did it! I didn't stop running the whole time. There were people I passed who were walking. Then they would sprint ahead of me, then start walking and I would keep a slow, steady lope and pass them. It was funny.

The stake had many other things going on that day too, like a 1 mile family walk, presentations by a chiropractor, nutritionist, podiatrist, and a weatherman on hurricane preparedness; food storage displays, and the fulltime missionaries had displays up and helped out with the races. A hospital also brought over a moving lab to do free blood screenings to test cholesterol levels and I got mine tested. The results came back in a normal range. Whew! Sr. D wanted to take a picture of the lady taking my blood, "so that I could blog it". So he took a picture, but I will spare you the image!

They gave medals for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in age/sex categories and I came in 1st in the 40-42 "girls"! I think I only heard them announce a 2nd place winner, so there may have been only 2 of us, but hey! I'll take it!

I had a great time and I have kept running. I run 3 times a week and lift weights twice a week. On the days I run, we go to the YMCA and I do arms and upper body for 10 min. or so and then I run home, it's almost 2 miles and it feels great. (Especially when I finish!) I can actually feel an increased strength in my heart, lungs and legs. And I don't feel those jigglies anymore!