Mail Time!!!!

Out with the old in with the new! I sold our blender and magic bullet who have been used greatly and served us so well...because we just got our dream blender: the Blendtec!! We had our last Jamba this week and are now on to drinking and eating more home made yummies!

We were so excited to try some recipes and test our new kitchen dream gadget out. So to say the least, it was a day full of cooking! We did two smoothies, made poppyseed bread and vegetable soup base powder and then made it into a soup. It was so fun watching Mister James so giddy about this new gadget! I LOVE how much he loves to cook! Everything turned out delicious, well I couldn't quite do the beet smoothie ;).

I'm grateful we are so blessed to be able to create food hat we know all the ingredients to! Eating healthy and being more fit is always people's New Years goals but it really is one of ours!!! And one we are making changes and goals to keep! This Blendtec is going to be put to good use!

Then to top off such a wonderful mail day we got our family yearbooks in the mail as well!!! We did a Groupon for them and procrastinated so we had to catch up 3 years of life in two nights into two books! It was a whirlwind but we did it and we are so excited to have these special treasures for our family!!

***And we mailed Bops 60th birthday present off. It was a "mail day!"

Love Around the World: A celebration of Family History

Tonight was the first big women's Releif Society Activity my dear committee and I were in charge of for this year. We decided to light the fire and strive to inspire Family History work! The theme was "Love Around the World." Celebrating the fact that we all come from different backgrounds, have different traditions and heritage, and have unique stories of our own.

A sweet older sister in our church ward gave a message at the beginning about the importance of expressing love. She read love letters from her ancestry that were so sweet and made me reminisce the tender letters Mister James has written me. Love letters are truly wonderful! 

I made a globe cake for the evening and it turned out so fun. I was a little worried about making it and about the time it would take...but it was SO worth it. I swirled vanilla bean and strawberry cakes and then put some sweet heart sprinkles in the center as a surprise. It was so fun to make!

We invited members to bring a ancestry recipe to share along with stories, photos or memorabilia. I shared my great grandma Tutus tradition of tying cookies to a tree and calling them "Fairy Cookies." 

It was a lot of fun work and a wonderful evening. I'm so thankful for the importance of keeping records and knowing your roots. It's so fun to learn more about ones history and the amazing people who've gone before you!

Valentines Day

Lovey Dovey Heart Day this year was pretty simple. It was a beautiful sunny day! We began by getting spudnuts for breakfast and grocery shopping. Then it was mommy clean the house time and daddy school/work time. My gift to Mister James was an awesome wooden engraved card and a bag of chicharone (which is true love cause I can't stand them, and while pregnant that smell is quite awful). His gift to me was a foot soak and rub, which was very nice.

We splurged and got salmon for our meals today. I miss salmon in WA and love how it makes me feel like I'm home in that great green state. Lunch was lemon pepper salmon over wild rice.

Then our salmon dinner was an incredible balsamic reduction salmon (heavenly!) with rosemary potatoes and peas. Topped off with dessert pizzas. Needless to say it was a very delicious day, it only lacked a box of chocolates ;).

Then the sky couldn't have planned it better.....a beautiful pink sunset to finish off the lovey dovey heart day.

A true Romance

There is sooo much garbage on tv and in the movie making world. Poor values, broken families, sex, dishonesty, crudeness, hate, revenge....the list really could go on and on. Values that would have SHOCKED our grandparents and parents but to the world of today are just normal and the "way things are". These things should shock us to!! What a sadness that brings to true love. True love that everyone really desires and needs but is not taught, shown or emulated. True love. There is such a thing.

True love is honest, it's adoring, it is sacrificing, it is sincere, it is real, it is beautiful, it is happy, it is timeless...and so much more. I know that these values are the ones that lift a society, bring happiness to individuals, make couples stronger and fill homes with success. These are the romances we need. These are the stories media should want to embellish and portray.

Even though there is much garbage covering our beautiful world there are still books, movies, and lives that emulate the timeless and not forgotten truths of true love. I recently finished the series, "The Paradise" and was pleasantly surprised and pleased. In fact I fell in love with it :) and couldn't stop watching. This show is full of good values and teaches bits of what that true love is!!! It is by no means a perfect series and I'm sure some would go in and knit pick and rip it apart, throwing aside the goodness, but in my humble opinion this is a star amongst all the black clouds in media.

In "The Paradise" there are core values and principles taught that I believe encompass "true love". Now when I say "true love" I'm not talking fairy tale love or only of romance. True love basically is saying love that is true, real and good. Within this series here were a few true love messages I found;

- Sacrificing for the ones you love. Many of the characters portrayed this great and important principle. They learned that giving up or pausing or changing goals or dreams they might have had was more important than losing the love of someone they cared for a great deal.

- Being Honest. This is an enormously important aspect of true love. Telling someone the truth about your feelings and actions shows a trust and confidence in one another. Also, if that trust is broken, remedy it. Don't just throw in the towel and lose each other.

- Standing up for one another. When you see someone you love looking down or being treated poorly be their cheer team, be their stalwart companion. Don't allow others to demean or belittle those you love. And definitely don't do it yourself to them!

- Making each other's dreams a reality. When you know that there is something really really important to someone you love you strive to make that dream possible. You care about helping them shine!

- Learning together. Keeping your minds learning is so important and doing it together is even more. Letting your children see how important education and love of learning is, is crucial to society! If you don't love it and show it why would someone else?

- Working together. Oh how important this is in true love. Are you willing to work, sweat, penny pinch, and work along someone you love? You learn a great deal about each other and problem solving as you do this.

- Respect. Yep sing it, "R E S P E C T, find out what it means to me!" This goes both ways. Respect one another, your feelings, your thoughts, your bodies, your honor, everything about one another. 

There were many important and beautiful messages taught in this mini series and it gave me hope that true love is out there in this world of ours. We are not big tv watchers and try and leave the screens off often in our home, but when I do choose to watch or listen I strive to look for the standards of true love in what I choose my mind to take in. Cause what you take in ultimately starts to become the values you internalize and emulate. So let true love triumph!! Turn off any garbage that comes on and choose to let true, good and lasting love enter your life and mind!!

Heart a Cookie

Tonight for Family Home Evening we decorated my moms traditional sugar cookie hearts. Her recipe is BY FAR the best sugar cookie ever, and the only one I eat that leaves me with a happy heart. Jacob Johnsons won by far as most well decorated! I told him it belonged in a museum! And we all thought it was reminiscent of My Little Pony.

Those Petersons! They made a cookie for each other, so cute! It was fun to enjoy time with friends and share in this little holiday tradition!

I sure love my Mister James. He has been one BUSY man with work, side projects, school and what not. It means the world to me when he can pause to live life and be with me and Jane and friends. Love him! And love yummy heart cookies, they are pretty much what makes Valentines time Valentines for me!

Cook'n

I have just started a new little side job writing articles for a great company called Cook'n. Each month they have different writers write articles about recipes, food tips, food memories or history and more. It is so fun to be a part of a group that loves good food! 

Food is not just something we consume. Yes it gives us energy and nourishment and is a necessity of life...but, like little Remi in Ratatouille, I think food is exciting and thrilling. The flavors on this earth are incredible! Curry, cinnamon, basil, cocoa, cumin, rosemary, nutmeg, lemon, cream, cheese....the flavors and spices of this world seem endlessly delicious to me. It is a special time whenever I get excited about a new recipe to cook up in my kitchen! It is a gratifying feeling to make a dish that is met with "oohs" and "ahhs" by those you've served. Food completes any party, any special occasion, and gathering and any home table. That's why we have party foods and comfort foods and midnight snacks. We all love food! And something that is so important is liking good food! There is a lot of garbage eaten in our modern busy era and it's sad when a child can't identify certain vegetables like a potato or beat. There is a great importance to honor and love good foods again, to love cooking at home, to learn some gardening skills, to fill our grocery carts with more produce than processed.

I am thrilled for the opportunity to write these articles each month and to learn more from all the other authors! Food is wonderful, don't ya think!

Link to my articles and others:

http://www.dvo.com/newsletter/monthly/2015/february/tabletalk1.html

BANFF Film

James' date for me this month was going to the BANFF Film Festival in downtown Idaho Falls. The theatre was beautiful!!!! Now I must see a play there! Old 20-30's style architecture and drapping curtains. It was amazing. And, the films were quite INCREDIBLE! At the BANFF film festival the shorts are focused on sports and outdoors type genre. There are some pretty talented, brave and courageous people in this world. We got to watch quite a few short films, all were notable and inspiring. Two of my favorites:

1. "Tashi and the Monk." This story was so expiring, humbling and touching. A man who was born unwanted and thrown amongst some leaves was saved by his grandparents. He was a problem child and fought a lot. Later he became a student of the Dalai Lama and a monk. He returned to his homeland and started a school for angry, troubled, and are "lost." In this school he helps them feel as a family, learning to help one another and become happier and stronger. The youngest child there was a little girl named Tashi and she was a trouble maker. It told his story while following her transformation. There are so many children in this world who need love. And people like this Monk bring a little piece  of love back into life and this world. We all need to realize how blessed and lucky we are to live in America, most of us in very nice living conditions and health. It caused me to reflect on how much I have and how spoiled I felt. When we complain do we realize there are children out there who have little to nothing, temporally, but are happy beyond comprehension to have a roof over the head, a pair of clothes and people that love them? Love, not things, is the true source of real happiness! That is what we need to spend our time, focus, money and efforts on in this life; spreading and giving love.

2. "Out on a Limb." This young man had one of his legs amputated at age 9. He taught himself how to ski, and ski REALLY well. Watching him fly and jump through the snow with ease was breathtaking. He goes back country skiing with no lift and so has to climb a mountain covered in snow with one leg! The determination and strength of this man was inspiring. My favorite quote from his film was, "Dissability is a myth." Acknowledging that all of us have differences and challenges presented to us in life and that they are not to weaken us or cast us aside...we are to learn from them, to become stronger and to live full lives. I loved that outlook!!!

Each film inspired me to be a stringer and better person. To give my life more meaning and purpose. To be outdoors more and to explore new places. To be charitable and loving to others. To care about this beautiful earth we live on....thanks Mister James for taking me to such an incredible evening of film. Love ya!

Cream Date

Oh cream dates are the best!!! We met some friends at our local dairy today and splurged on some ice-cream together. Supposedly it's "national eat ice-cream for breakfast day", so it was a must.

I'm a sucker for Chocolate PB. If it's an option I have a very hard time passing it up. That combo really is a match made in heaven. See the heavenly glow of it above :). 

I think Jane quite enjoyed sharing Daddy and Mommy's creams. We also enjoyed grilled cheese and chips together. I love this local dairy and always come away so HAPPY!! There is something about eating local at a friendly little shop. And nothing beats ice-cream in my book. To think that people 500 years ago didn't really have ice-cream....poor souls. I think it must be one of the foods of Heaven. Happy Cream Date!!!!!!!