Adventures in the kitchen

We decided at the beginning of March to move even more towards a vegan diet. We'll never be totally  vegan because I believe there is some place for animal products. I just don't believe they should be given as much a place as they get in our American diet. My other blog has more on the things I have learned. 

However, I have been trying lots if new recipes and the family has been very patient with me. Here are a couple latest...

The liquid is homemade rice milk. I'm quite pleased with it other than we have to shake it before we use it. The cinnamon roll is my regular recipe with rice milk and vegan margarine to replace the butter and milk. The family raved about the cinnamon rolls.

I really don't care to cook, but I must admit that learning something new and having a bit of a challenge in the kitchen can make it more satisfying.

It's birthday season again and it just blows my mind that 25 years ago Johnathan was born...when I was nearly 25. He is now expecting his first baby. So we will have three generations separated by 25 years with each one. I honestly don't know where the time went. 

James is having his own time warp. One of the boys in his English class has received his mission call, and another  boy is waiting for his. It really brings it home to James that his mission is right around the corner. 

That DAM run

Oh, I'm going to have fun with this!

Husband and I signed up for the Dam Run in Emmett, Idaho next month. The course raises 1800 feet in 3.8 miles. Husband is going to try running. I'll run when I can, but mostly walk. This will be good training for girl's camp.

Proud Mama Moment

James submitted a poem to the school district magazine Valley Visions. It was accepted for publication! Tom's mom would be thrilled. 

Painting and Baby

We finally got Hannah's room done. We wanted this darker pink and lighter color with a medium pink for trim. Tom won with just the two colors. We will soon be working on curtains to bring in the medium pink. 

 One wall is the dark color. The rest are the light color.

And our first pictures of baby!

 Baby is now the size of a blueberry.

 

 John eating baby

Romance

You'd think after nearly 27 years I'd know what romance means. 

Tom (after work): I come home with ideas of romance and you're too tired from your 4 mile walk to go on a bike ride. 

Which will it be...Witch or Warlock?

We're going to have a new addition to our family around Halloween!

John and Laney are expecting!

We are so excited to be abuelita y abuelito. Hannah squealed when we told her. She is so excited to be an aunt, and the boys are excited to be uncles. We can't wait! Tom says it can come a little early and be born on his birthday.

And other exciting news...

I'm going to girl's camp this year! I've been called as the ward camp director. All I can say is "Thank goodness it's a stake camp this year" and "I can't wait to go to camp with Hannah!"

I'm working hard on health so I will be able to hike with them. More on my other blog.

Tis the season...for remodeling

Tom had finally had it with the bathtub. When we moved into our house it was as rough as sand paper. We knew we could have it refinished so we did. It lasted for 10 years, and Tom decided it needed work again. So he did it. Here it is nice and new again.

Then Tom turned his eyes to the kitchen ceiling. Last year we had a leak that caused part of the paint to peel. We got the leak fixed, but were slow to repaint. So this year Tom decided to repaint and thin no more. He has gotten a coat of primer on and repaired some spots. Tomorrow he will touch up the primer, and count down the minutes until he can paint.

Neither of these projects look too exciting, but we sure appreciate them.

During this time, Tom has made friends with the guys at the paint store, and he learned that the owner just bought the place and is clearing out all the old paint so he can bring in new inventory. That means Tom is excited to paint the whole house, and we can't pass up the price at $10 per gallon.

Coming up...

New paint in...

Hannah's room

Both bathrooms

The hall

The family room 

And

The living room

Food, Glorious Food!

This month we had a lady come to RS to talk about food storage and USING IT! She had lots of great ideas, and we enjoyed a taster's table made entirely from food storage items. Her blog is All Things Provident and you can find lots of recipes and ideas there.

Yesterday I decided it was time to try her cookies. They are delicious. They have no eggs and half the butter was replaced with white beans. The family loves them. I'm going to try them again with egg replacer to see how that works. 

I've been busy working on our menu and updating our food storage so I know what we need to get. Rotation has always been a problem for me. Hopefully, the things I learned this month will help with that.

New Goals

Most of last year's goals proved to be quite a challenge, but I was able to do quite well on the two I mentioned on this blog.

Hannah was planning to finish her Personal Progress by her seventeenth birthday. So I was working toward that, too. Then the leaders suggested she get it done by the temple dedication which gave us a month. In addition to finishing my goals I was helping Hannah finish, so it was a busy month. It was great to get my Personal Progress with Hannah. I'm so glad the church decided to let moms do it, too.

My medallions are so pretty!

The other goal was to learn one hymn per month on the piano (total fail) and to perform twice. One performance was the Hymns of Thanksgiving...the other has been a bit of a surprise. Our new calling is to do Sacrament Meeting twice a month at the Life Care Center. Part of that has become me playing hymns and special numbers on the piano. It has been a great experience to play in a less threatening situation. I'm even learning to accompany the singing.

I have been figuring out what I want to work on this year. Weight and health, of course, and relationships. I don't have details worked out yet.

The holidays

November was a busy, exciting time in addition to dealing with Janet's passing. The temple was finally being reopened, and we were able to help with the open house. Tom helped with parking, and I was an attendant inside the temple. We were so excited to get our temple back!

 

We watched the youth cultural event (November 17th) at the South Stake Center. Here are a few photos from the event.

Hannah was so excited. She got to shake hands with the prophet!

 

Here is Boise Central Stake's youth doing their thing...  

 

 James sang in the choir...he is the one with the bushy hair in the lower left corner.

 

November 18th was the dedication of the temple. Tom, Tim and James helped with parking. Hannah was asked to help put shoe covers on people. We all had the privilege of attending the dedication within the walls of the temple.

 

After the dedication we raced downtown to the CenturyLink arena for the Hymns of Thanksgiving.

 

Then we went to Utah...

We took Laney on a tour of the conference center.

And saw the lights the day after Thanksgiving.

The funeral was very nice. We enjoyed paying tribute to Tom's mom and spending time with the siblings.

Then we started on Christmas traditions. I attempted fudge, but it turned out weird. Tasted good, though. I tried making cookies, but decided that candy is my thing so I saved the treats by making truffles. 

On to gingerbread houses. The day we were going to make them Hannah caught Zena with one of the backs, and we discovered that she had taken care of two house backs. Making the frosting was frustrating when my Bosch attachments proved too wimpy. Thank goodness I had a small hand mixer. As we sat down to make the houses we realized that Zena had disappeared ALL the sides to the houses. Everyone donated the good parts so I could make a good house to share with another family. Everyone else used graham crackers to fill in the gaps. This is James' house. We are calling this year the "Mayan apocalypse" or "hurricane Zena"

Christmas morning we were finally up soon after 9 am. As we ate breakfast we watched "Joy to the World" which was produced by the church.

Then we opened gifts, watched movies and...

Went sand sledding.

What else do you do when there's no snow!

Here we are at New Year's eve. Hannah is at a dance. James is at a party. Tim and his girlfriend took a nap and then joined us to see the new year in. Soon John and Laney will be here to play. It will be a late night, but it will be nice to be together.

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Before we left town for Thanksgiving Tom was helping Tim find a good bike on Craig's list. They found one valued at $3000 on sale for $300. It was an older bike, but they decided it was a good purchase. While there Tom noticed the lady had a cello in the garage. He asked if she played and she said she'd taken some lessons but preferred the bass. So Tom asked if she wanted to sell it. So another $300 bought Hannah a cello.

 

The cello is Hannah's share of any inheritance we get from the estate. We don't know how much money the cello is worth, but there are some signs that it is a good cello. 

1. The neck is unfinished. The lady at Dunkley's told Tom that the finish just comes off on the cellist's clothing so the good cellos don't have finish on the neck. 
 2. The back is made of one single piece of wood. 
 3. It sounds fantastic! 
 We decided to give it to Hannah after the trip to Utah. 

 

Hee hee hee...I can't wait!

 

Trying to get Hannah's attention

 

Who's cello is that?

 

Mine!

 

My precious, my precious!

 

One cello--$300

New Strings--$100

One happy musician--priceless