Beautiful Day

Today has been beautiful for many reasons. Mainly, I have friends and a the beauty of nature to thank for that. Look at the treats Mother Nature gave me this morning when I stepped out my back door that leads to my garden....

What a beautiful thing to wake up to! Thank you Mother Nature for the sunflowers, yellow crookneck squash, Roma tomatoes, cabbage, squash blossom and butternut squash.
Also, you'll notice...my blog is beautiful again. A big thank you to Lyndsay (again)! She had me test adding an html code widget to set my background (rather than her logging into my blog to fix things) to see if it worked and wha-la, it worked perfectly. Please visit her new site HERE.....if you are looking for someone to beautify your blog, she's your girl!
There are certain days when one would be remiss to not mention certain things or people that need to be mentioned. So today I hope you won't mind me highlighting a friend (I hope she won't mind for that matter)!

T has been a friend of mine for as long as I can remember (we're talking elementary school here so 20 plus years). We recently reconnected thanks Facebook (where else)?

Today her son would have turned 18. She lost him a few years ago due to circumstances I'm not quite clear about. What I do know for certain is that it was beyond tragic, as any loss would be for a mother. He was a beautiful boy with his mother's eyes.

I don't know how she's getting through it, but she is. She's as strong and as beautiful as she was when I met her as a spunky girl at Sirrine Elementary School in the late 1980's. Some people just have that spark- that fire inside that keeps them going when others would just give up. She's one of those people, an inspiration in my book.

Tonight I feel really grateful for my friends and family. What a blessing it is to learn that it's people, not things, that make life happy (and yes, I know some people have the ability to make life not happy...but you know what I mean, the people who build you up, who love you and support you).

The people in my life mean more to me than gold...the old friends, the new, the locals and those across the sea, the chosen family, the blood family, the besties, the sisters, the casual ones, the old school friends, my church friends, and of course blogger friends....the lot of you. ThAnK YoU for making my often rocky, bumpy (and of course hilly) life much more joyful than it would be without you.

Remember: today is a gift...that's why the call it the present (I know, I know, feel free to insert an eye-roll at that catch phrase, I can see some of you now....but, it's true).

Almost forgot!

Do you love the new design of my blog as much as I do? I want to thank Lyndsay (visit her fabulous blog here) from the bottom of my heart for making giving me the gift of a blog that looks a lot more fun, stylish, up-to-date and simply much more cute than anyone else ever could. I love the wise owl and the colors...she got it just right. She's a talented designer, not to mention a wonderful mom and friend. Thanks a billion Lyndsay!! Someday when you are officially back in business, I am sure you will have many a customer-in-waiting banging down your door (for now, keep Mommy-ing Finn and new baby Maya, which is way more important than designing my blog...but you took time out to help me anyway for which I am eternally grateful)!
:-)

Rub-a-Dub-Dub...

.....a Sugar Scrub for your tub (OK, shower)!

I needed to take my mind off a few (trillion) things the other day so decided to make a sugar shower scrub for myself and my daughter (and have an extra jar I'm saving for a friend too...which is in the photo).

Growing up, my grandmother owned and operated a health food store. She taught me early on the importance of natural products (she's like a wise medicine woman) so rather than buy chemical-laden store brand scrubs I make my own.

The base recipe is so simple:

2 Cups Granulated Sugar

(or 1 cup granulated, 1 cup brown)

1 cup of olive oil

2/3 cup fresh lemon juice from a lemon

For a real exfoliating experience I added 1/2 cup of coarse kosher sea salt. I also decided to make it a sugar and spice scrub so added:

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon

dash of nutmeg

dash of cloves

Stir it all together and put it in a jar or plastic container. Any extra oil/juice will separate and float to the top so you want to stir it again before each use. I personally don't like the extra oil and juice so I poured mine through cheesecloth to strain it. I use recycled food jars to store the scrub but you could buy the pretty Ball preserve jars and tie a ribbon to it for gift giving.

Rub on and leave for 5-10 minutes and rinse well with warm/hot water. Your skin will thank you for it. The olive oil does wonders for softness and to clear up any irritations.

It's awesome just as a hand scrub too! Leave a little jar by the kitchen sink and whenever your hands are extra dry, rub some on and leave for a while and they'll be baby soft again in no time.

You can add other things rather than the sugar and spice mix....you could add lavender or a little baby oil or instead of sea salt you could add dried grated orange/lemon rind to add an extra scrub factor. Use the base and then use your imagination.

With Mother's Day around the corner I may make some more and give it as a gift. Girls....share this recipe link with your friends, it really is so cheap to make and takes 5 minutes. Guys....make some for your mom, girlfriend or even guy friends who appreciate good skin care! If you want me to make some for you, let me know. I don't have a ton of supplies but could make little samples to send out.

Enjoy!

Texas Hot Cocoa Cake (and utter randomness)

A lot of you who are my friends in real life have either eaten and loved (or have heard me talk about and want to try) my Grandma's Texas Hot Cocoa cake. It's a "secret" family recipe that is no longer secret because well, I caved in and gave it to my friend Lyndsay for her awesome recipe sharing blog (which you can find by clicking on the cake link a few lines back). Lyndsay went to the hospital yesterday in labor to have her new baby girl so it would be uncool if I didn't give her a shout out..so Lyndsay, Wes and Finn have fun welcoming BG (Baby Girl) Johnson to the world! I am happy she didn't make you wait until Friday the 13th and I can't wait to learn her name! Between Lyndsay's baby girl and holding my friend Christi's new baby boy Zander on Monday (not to mention another friend expecting a baby soon, a few more trying and other friends adopting), I am becoming very baby hungry....hurry, change of topic!

I think I just met our new neighbors who made an offer on the house next door to us(their offer was accepted...it's a huge 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom giant house, such a steal at 100,000). I think they're Vietnamese and am really hoping they are because I love Vietnamese food (especially from Cyclo). Maybe I can become their new best friend in Mesa and they can teach me some new cooking methods! Either way, they seem nice enough and quiet....I hope our kids shenanigans in the back garden don't prompt any phone calls/complaints to the police (they tend to get a little loud at times despite my shushing them over and over and over and over).

I've been a bit exhausted the past week or so following the re-decorating of the bedroom....it really was draining (but fun, and I still love the green)! Our plan was to rest this past weekend (to make up for all the hard work of the weekend before) but that didn't happen. All the kids weren't feeling their best so that meant mom (i.e. me) stayed up most nights comforting them (I'm not complaining, there's nothing I'd rather do)! Then I came down with another mini-cold which now luckily seems to not be getting worse- small miracle!

Late Saturday afternoon, the Englishman decided to build a greenhouse/cold frame (whatever you want to call it)....basically a warm little house full of moisture for our veggie plants. He built our new little veggie house out of our old box springs that were just tossed onto the back patio during our room makeover (they were just sitting there waiting to be thrown out on a bulk pick up day so he just decided it had to be able to be used for something)! He had fun dismantling it and getting some stress out. First he had to rip all the fabric/cloth off and then had to remove all the metal staples holding the wires to the wooden frame, then he had to unhook all of it. He took the wooden frame apart and then put it back together, covered it with tarps and wha-la, our greenhouse was born. And we are saving the metal framing from the box springs to use as a trellis or veggie frame for our cucumbers, etc. It ended up being a really awesome project in recycling and in this economy I was happy to save the money that we would have spent buying new timber (which yes, he was planning on going to Home Depot the following weekend to do just that). I was assigned the lovely task of picking up the dozens of metal staples that went flying all over the patio and into the patio carpet which tangled up nicely together (it was fun trying to pull them all out of the carpet without gouging myself....anyone who knows me, knows I am a klutz)! Here are a few pics of our new veggie house and plants:

On a totally different note, I'm re-thinking the name of my blog, again. I keep going back and forth and everything I think of and use just isn't sitting right. I'll think of something that'll stick eventually. Thank you to those of you who read my blog, no matter the name. It's brilliant to see the dots from around the world of people who have stopped by. To be honest, I set this blog up mainly for my children to someday know what their mom was thinking and for myself to focus on the good things in my life but if it can connect me to other moms (or anyone else of course who gets something out of my ramblings about not-so-important things) then that is a gift. The more the merrier!

On the surface, I detest technology because I pride myself all things vintage, but technology in it's purest form can be used for so much good and to connect people together who otherwise would never meet. Personal blogs in particular, where a lot of us write about what is closest to our hearts, show that we share a common thread that loops around the globe. That thread = we humans who cherish our own lives and those in it. Our words share with others what makes us tick, makes our spirits soar, what we believe in, what gets under our skin and mostly, what inspires us to be more. What could be cooler than that (aside from making those same things take precedence in our real lives every day)?

Speaking of which....I promised our children today that we would make fresh squeezed lemonade, and I can't wait (only 1 hour and 10 minutes until they get out of school)!

Remember: hug the ones you love.

Ode to...

.......Mr. Tanner.

Place: Dobson High, Mr. Turner's math class
Date: 1994
What: Inspiring Words that have never left me

Sometime this past week my oldest daughter decided to go through a box of my papers from high school and of course, they ended up scattered through out the house. Are you shocked? What else would my kids do with a box of my papers? It's a rule to throw them all over the place like a NYC ticker tape parade! She also had fun laughing at my old yearbooks and wondering why I wasn't a cheerleader, or should say scolding me for not being one.

So on Saturday I was hoovering (UK)/vacuuming (US) and my amazing new hoover (which actually works and does what it should) grabbed the corner of a paper sticking out from underneath my daughter's bedroom door into the hallway. See photo proof of how the piece of paper was almost completely destroyed.

I turned off the hoover and rescued the paper, of course I didn't know what it was but I never keep anything that isn't important so figured it was a birth certificate, or a first drawing or something equally as crucial.

But ironically it was actually something I was thinking about after I wrote my last entry about dreams. When I started asking in my last journal entry to start pondering about what happiness was, this paper was one thing that actually popped into my own mind. On this piece of paper were printed words that offered my younger self an early glimpse into what happiness should be, and from what sources it would never come from. As an adult the words mean more to me than they probably ever did to the 17 year old version of myself who originally held this piece of paper in her hands- an earlier version of myself who thought that by age 33 years old (a-hem, in other words by now) life would certainly be perfectly blissful all day every day, 24/7/365. This piece of paper contains some of the most awesome advice that a high school student could have ever hoped to receive- it is Mr. Tanner's "first day of math class" note.

For the record, I was, and am and will be forever more dreadful at math. If it weren't for my fear of math I would have become an oceanographer, or nurse, or architect, or any number of things that I wanted to be had it not been for my math struggles growing up. One time I even had a math teacher in junior high tell me that the left side of my brain must not have fully developed (at least he got fired for saying something so rude....I was a straight A student aside from math, but not because the left side of my brain never developed)!

I thought I would dislike Mr. Tanner based on the fact that I disliked math. Ended up I really liked him as a human being though and here is why, based on what he said to us in his note which reads:

"What is your passion? What is your dream? What drives you to accomplish that which no one else has? To be willing to stand up and make a difference in a society where people fear to be different? Are you one step ahead or one step behind the crowd? We cannot afford to waste our precious days for they will vanish as quickly as they come.

Will you be ordinary or extraordinary? Excellence has a price tag and many refuse to pay it.

Do you have a voice? Then speak out in the appropriate time. Use wisdom to guide your passion and reams to speak out that which burns in your soul. Let your tongue be set on fire to those words which are righteous and true.

Do you believe you were created for a purpose? Then set your sights on the things above and focus all your passion on that dream until you fulfill your destiny.

Will you be like the majority or the minority? Even if you lost everything but your life, your faith is more important than anything the world has to offer. Don't trade it in or pawn it off when times get tough or for the temporal pleasures of the world.

Never settle for second best for it will leave you like the rest. Easy paths are seldom fulfilling and often make crooked men. Take risks and soar above everyone else. Remember one final note. In all that you accomplish, keep your motives pure and never seek position or prestige. For by doing so you will the world by the motivation of love."

I don't know if Mr. Tanner actually wrote this, or if someone else did and he just loved the words as much as I do...but either way, I will always attribute it to him until I know someone else actually wrote it. My favorite line is about the idea of losing everything- and how faith is the one thing you can live with even with nothing else in the world. Maybe it's not just faith, but definitely love, family, friends and humanity of course. In this day and age, many of us are learning what is really important...the economy is stealing everything away from many of us. Suddenly the latest fashions, coolest gadgets and a brand new car every other year are things that many of us just cannot afford anymore, well, unless we don't want to put food on the table.

Mr. Tanner's note says it all to me really. Things in the end are nothing. Your outlook and the people you surround yourself with are really all that you can take with you in the end....and even if you don't believe you can take it with you (I do but know not everyone does), these are still the things that really make life worth living. It's probably illegal nowadays for a teacher to hand something like this out to students, sadly. Even if now, the state of the paper itself makes it look like could care less, the truth is that it's one of my prized possessions. I wonder if Mr. Tanner is still at Dobson?

Basket....

Sheer basket case. That's me since I last wrote. Not in a bad way. It's not because I'm freaking out or scared or angry. It's all good. It's more overwhelmingly feeling this amazing sense of awe in everything. Why? I have no idea. I have been crying on and off for the past few days over the most odd things, like commercials, songs, sunsets, and yes, even the Inauguration....who knew Yo Yo Ma would make me break down? Happy tears. And no, I'm not expecting a surprise baby (which is usually the case for me crying over every little thing). I feel really grateful to be alive. There is so much more in my mind, tons of words I'd like to put down, but can't because dinner needs to be started not to mention there is a scheduled Blogger outage in 20 minutes and I'd like to get this posted. For utter randomness, I wanted to share a photo of me and Lilz that Daddy-O took this past Saturday. I look awful, but it's a miracle to me to see how exactly alike our eyes are, it gives me hope and peace to know that through my children I will live on someday (hopefully in an upstanding way, but regardless, part of me will always be with them; not that I plan on going anywhere anytime soon but hopefully this is making sense). The spuds are beckoning me to be baked.......and another miracle, Happy Birthday to my dear friend Tricia on her 33rd (I remember turning 15 together thinking it was so cool that I beat her to it by 10 days but when I hit 33 10 days ago I envied her for still being 32). I love growing older with lifelong friends...and again, feel another tear welling up.

Darkness and Light

I know, I know, I already wrote a novel once today so promise this will be short especially as I have a sinus headache.

A study in darkness and light, just taught to me by one person, a lifelong friend who learned some bad news this afternoon.

On the darkness front, I knew immediately that it would feel like a punch in the gut for her family and the why us questioning would surely follow.

On the light front, I saw how she reacted to the news and thought about how much I admire her for not turning immediately to anger but going and seeking solace at the temple. I know a lot of you reading this may not be LDS like she is (and I am) but no matter what your religion, or even if you aren't religious, I just admire anyone who chooses to lemonade out of lemons.

To turn to something, anything positive (whether it's your family, charity, church, etc) that will take your mind off of the immediate unfairness of a situation is a lesson I know that I need to learn for myself.

I thank this particular friend and all my other friends who are a good examples of being graceful and appreciative of life even when it seems it is at it's worst.

Life is so short, it may not be fair, but I am trying to remember to enjoy the ride.

One Word

This afternoon, just for something fun and because I haven't done one of these in a while, I thought I would cut and paste an e-mail survey that one of my best friends sent to me (with my answers, not hers of course because I don't think she'd want me sharing her answers with the universe, although her answers were totally good ones).

A few years ago I was survey obsessed, and so apparently were all of my friends since they were the ones sending them to me at the rate of about 20 a day, sometimes I got the same exact one about a billion times over a year or so.

They are a great way to waste time for a stay at home mother like myself, or for anyone if you just want to escape real life for a moment or two.

I think all of us gave up on the survey titled "Get to Know Your Friends" however because nobody has sent that for a while now....most likely because we all know by heart, by memory and like the back of our hands what is hiding under each other's beds, what color crayon we'd be, where else in the world we'd rather be at the given moment and whether our favorite jewelry consists of gold or sterling silver (or the rare platinum for those of us who can actually afford it)!

I had never gotten this one before though so here goes....It's simple and probably really boring for everyone to read, but since I'm not feeling too well today I figured this may be the only way to get something on here in my current state of sheer exhaustion and therefore lack of any and all brain juice and/or creativity.



ONLY 1 WORD ANSWERS.IT'S HARDER THAN YOU THINK!!!
1. your cell phone? unreliable
2. Your significant other? unpredictable
3. Your hair? enemy
4. Your mother? passionate
5. Your father? chill
6. Your favorite thing? pictures
7. Your dream last night? travel
8. Your dream/goal? eternity
9. The room you're in? extra
10. Your fear? death
11. Where do you want to be in 6 years? carefree*
12. Where were you last night? home
13. What you're not? confrontational
14. Muffins? blueberry
15. One of your wish list items? teaching
16. Where you grew up? hot
17. The last thing you did? phonecall
18. What are you wearing? clothes
19. Your TV? digital
20. Your computer? connections
21. Your mood? knackered
22. Missing someone? always
23. Your car? red
24. Something you're not wearing? shoes
25. Favorite Store? none
26. Your summer? watermelon
27. Your favorite color? green
28. When is the last time you laughed? morning
29. Last time you cried? yesternight
30. Four places I go over and over? home, school, stores, Moms
31. Four of my favorite foods? Chinese, Mexican, Greek, Grilled
32. Four places I would rather be right now? abroad, sleeping, temple, beach
33. The thing you're proudest of? family

*carefree as in the state of mind, not as in Carefree, Arizona. ;-)

The End....just in time to make Lily lunch and run to the school to pick up Caed and Mimi (see number 30 above).