Goose Beach

I happened to spy all of these geese congregated down at our beach this afternoon.  I am not sure what they were looking at, but it seemed as though they were all facing toward one "alpha" goose.  You'll have to click on the photo to enlarge it and be able to check out all the geese.

Own It!

I am so grateful for this handsome guy. 

He has always been my biggest fan and truly is a great cheerleader, whether he's at work or he's home with his girls.  Sometimes I stress about my appearance, and he is always complimentary and tells me to "Own it!"  It is a fabulous piece of advice, and I am grateful to be married to someone who is so supportive.

Happy Birthday To Me

I'll be honest, I'm not really liking how these numbers are adding up each year.  I feel as though someone added at least ten years to the chronological measurement of my life!  Regardless, I had a birthday.  Because it was on a Sunday, Chris and I went out on Saturday to celebrate, and we went out with Misha and Kristen on Friday night.  Chris and I also saw La La Land.  It was so so.

My children (ok, not Amy) got up Sunday morning to decorate for me, and Kristen made blueberry muffins for breakfast.  I love having older girls.

They also made dinner that evening.  Amy commented that the next 18th birthday in the house would be a real one.  (Yikes!  My baby will be 18 this year!)

Besides the Baby Foot present from Amy, Chris gave me another blog book and Misha and Kristen gave me some UGG type boots.

There was some picture taking.  But not many complimentary pictures in my opinion.  And there was so much photo bombing going on, that after awhile, the exasperation might have seeped through.

Happy birthday to me.

Needing Spring

Come January, I am soooo ready for the cold and snow to be done.  Since Mother Nature has never ever honored my request for Spring in January anywhere I have lived, I had to resort to a pedicure.

The Potential of Mrs. Potato Head

This is part of a message that I shared in a Relief Society lesson on Sunday.  It is something we all need to internalize.

Am I Good Enough?

…we must stop comparing ourselves to others. We torture ourselves needlessly by competing and comparing. We falsely judge our self-worth by the things we do or don’t have and by the opinions of others. If we must compare, let us compare how we were in the past to how we are today—and even to how we want to be in the future. The only opinion of us that matters is what our Heavenly Father thinks of us. Please sincerely ask Him what He thinks of you. He will love and correct but never discourage us; that is Satan’s trick. (Devn Cornish  Am I Good Enough?  Will I Make It? October 2016 General Conference)

There are people in this world blessed with some very visible talents:   Playing a musical instrument, singing, speaking in front of people, creating beautiful art, designing scrapbooks, building homes, cooking, working on computers, or swimming, to name a few. 

We often compare ourselves to others using these visible talents as a measuring stick for our worth.  Our self talk brings us to,  "I’m not as good as…" or "I can't do…"  Which often leads to "I’m not…enough."  Sometimes we think we do not have many talents or that other people have been blessed with more abilities than we will ever possess.

And sometimes when we attend church, we become so discouraged even by sincere invitations to improve ourselves. We think silently, “I can’t do all these things” or “I will never be as good as all these people.”  My dear friends, we all have talents.  Some are visible and wonderful and good and are used to bless the lives of others.  Some are not so visible but are equally wonderful and good and are used to bless the lives of others.

Take a moment to look at Mrs. Potato Head.  From first glance, she may not appear to be talented.  Sure she has this great compartment in her back for holding lots of stuff, but can she sing?  She is the perfect demonstration of why you and I are talented, worthwhile, and more than enough.

Hats - Mrs. Potato Head has many hats.  She wears them all interchangeably.  You might be one of those talented individuals who, having many responsibilities and wearing many hats, are able to multi-task without missing a beat.  You juggle life with grace and ease and calm.

Hands - Are your hands like the Savior's, stretched out to lift others up? Do your hands heal. Are your hands constantly serving?  Perhaps your hands love others endlessly or are hands that love and care for children, enfolding them in hugs. Do your hands fold in prayer?

Feet - You might have feet that go the extra mile, feet that are determined, feet that are persistent, or feet that do missionary work.

Ears - This world has need of ears that really hear and listen to others.  Is that you? Do you listen without judging others?

Heart - Is it your heart that responds to promptings and acts upon them? Do you have a heart that cares for others, that loves? Do you have a cheerful heart?  Do you show empathy or patience or compassion?  Are you a peacemaker?

Eyes - Eyes are often used to make first impressions.  Do you look beyond physical attributes and accept others?  Do you see a need and fill it?  Do your eyes reflect hope and happiness and does the light of Christ shine in your eyes?

Mind - Do you work to have clean and pure thoughts?  Does your mind seek to know and understand?  Are you able to learn, to remember?  Do you teach others? Are you looking for solutions?  Do you solve problems?  Are you a creative thinker?  Are you punctual?

Mouth - A smile makes all the difference.  Are you quick to say kind words, give compliments, and show enthusiasm?  Do you graciously accept a compliment?  Do you say "Thank you"? Does "I Love You" roll easily off your tongue?  Do you keep a confidence?

You, my friend, are enough.

Baby Foot

Amy gave me this cool gift for my birthday--Baby Foot.  The package came with two plastic booties filled with lavendar-infused lotion designed to soften your feet and cause the dead skin to peel off.  The instructions recommended taping the booties shut around your ankles to keep the lotion inside the booties.  I chose hair scrunchies instead to keep the booties tight around my ankles.

The instructions indicated that feet will start to peel within 5 to 7 days.  Kristen is anxious to see what happens, and maybe help in the peeling process.

Big Dog Award

Kristen brought home the Big Dog Award from school yesterday.  It is given to a thoughtful and reflective learner who is ALWAYS engaged.  As a student she is on her game the moment she leaves the house in the morning until she steps back in the front door in the afternoon.  And then every. single. word. she has bottled inside during the day pours out.

Lightroom

I have been learning Adobe Photoshop Lightroom over the past couple of months.  It was rather daunting at first as I researched the best way to create a catalog which would, in turn, create a naming and saving convention for all of my photos.

I have spent hours culling through all of our Picture Files to weed out photos that were not pertinent, that were blurry and of poor quality, or duplicates.  Out of the 36,000 photos we/I have taken over the past 19 years, I deleted approximately 4,000 photos.  That meant I went through those photos one at a time to decide.  It took hours.

Then, I went over those photos again to add keywords.  Again, that took hours and days.  But now, I am pretty pleased with the result.  Now, my next goal is to learn to "Develop" the photos to enhance them without looking as though they have been enhanced.  Someday, I will even get comfortable in shooting in RAW format and then developing the photos in Lightroom. Right now, I am comfortable with JPEG.  I don't "Develop" all of my photos.  I think straight out of the camera is great as well.

I am grateful for the internet and to be able to learn from people who know a lot about Lightroom.  There is much to know.  And just maybe once I get Lightroom mastered, I will move on to Photoshop.  By then, Misha might just be able to teach me a thing or two.

Nickel Allergy

It wasn't until Amy was over a year old that we realized that she might be allergic to nickel.  I bought some of those pajamas that have the top and the bottom snap together.  She would wake up with round marks on her torso the size of the snap.  The doctor was quickly able to identify a nickel allergy when I mentioned it.

It was fairly easy to keep the allergy in control until Amy started wearing jeans with snaps, adding belts to outfits, and having her ears pierced.  She has had to learn to add a coat of nail polish to the back side of the snap (and that doesn't completely work), to wear unders that cover where the snap might contact her skin, and invest in good quality earrings.  She has to be careful with all types of jewelry as it contacts her skin.

The latest issue that we have had to deal with was an allergy to her BRACES, of all things.  The rash started almost immediately around her mouth and has continued since.  She started taking benadryl at night and could also try hydrocortisone cream (but hasn't yet).  We were hoping to have the braces off in May, but that is looking iffy now.  Being allergic to her braces is extremely rare, and because of the cost involved, you can't just take them off and try something different.  I told her she ought to feel special.  She wasn't buying it.

Amy's Hair

Amy has been experimenting with her hair lately.  She has wanted to do balayage on her hair for a long time.  Balayage creates an ombre effect where it is lighter on the ends and gradually gets darker.  So, in November, Amy came home with highlighted ends.  She loved it, but it really fried her ends.

This month she decided to dye her hair back to one color and had a couple of inches cut off as well.  It took her a few days to get used to the darker color, but it looked good.

Tulips

Chris brought me tulips after returning from a trip.  The tulips were rather droopy and fragile when he brought them home.  I carefully put them in a vase and hoped for the best.  By morning, they were standing up straight and looking beautiful.

You Know You're Getting Old When...

...your oldest daughter returns from an evening out with friends with instructions to wake you when she gets in.  And then you wake up in the morning and find this note.

Fortunately we can tell from when she sets the alarm whether or not she made it home in time to make curfew!

Kristen Spotlight

I found this in Kristen's church papers and thought it would be fun to add here.

My Girls

While driving home from church Sunday afternoon, I pulled up behind my daughters at a stop light.  They had left the church parking lot before I did, and I figured, were unaware that I was rolling to a stop behind them.  All at once, all three of them turned around and waved at me. They cheered my heart.

Elvis Gnome

Come on.  You know you want an Elvis Gnome.  Head on over to Hobby Lobby before they're gone!

A Snow Day

We got a lot of snow overnight and were cheered to received a call at 5 am Thursday morning announcing that school was cancelled.  Except that the call came at 5 am.  I got up to exercise since there was little chance that I would be going back to sleep and whispered to Misha on my way past her bedroom that school was cancelled.  "Yes!" was her response.

The snow lasted throughout the morning.  Kristen headed off to Sophie's to continue their tradition of hanging out on a Snow Day.  Misha, Chris, and I worked to clear the driveway and later in the afternoon, Chris went outside to pull the girls behind Max.  It was still bone-chillingly cold and everyone bundled up.

You might be able to guess that this is Misha from the hat, but otherwise, she was covered head to toe.

Bear Claw Shredders

These shredders have been on my Amazon Wish List for awhile, and Chris was kind enough to gift them to me for Christmas.  They look a little ominous and might just double as a personal safety device.  I used them on the BBQ chicken I cooked in the Instant Pot.  The shredders were slick as can be at shredding the meat.  I think if they came in two sizes, I would enjoy using a smaller size, but they were excellent at shredding the meat.

Instant Pot

My brother gave our family an Instant Pot for Christmas.  It took me a couple of days to get reorganized after Christmas before taking the time to open the box and read the instruction manual.  We had BBQ chicken that turned out wonderfully.  Normally, I would thaw the chicken in my fridge for a couple of days before placing ingredients in my slow cooker for 3 to 4 hours on low.  I took these frozen chicken breast from the freezer, trimmed a little fat off, place them and some BBQ sauce in the Instant Pot and set it on the Poultry Selection for 30 minutes and worked to get the rest of dinner cooked.

While many tout that the Instant Pot can cook chicken in 15 minutes or 30 minutes if the chicken frozen, you do have to account for the warm up time on the pot (building up the pressure) and then the cool down where pressure is released.  It took about an hour, but hey, if you forget to thaw chicken and want the same result as 3 to 4 hours in a slow cooker, the Instant Pot will come through for you.  The chicken was perfectly cooked and delicious.  Five stars!