Home By the Creekside

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I love frosty mornings. This tree is outside of my classroom and I love how it looks when we have that freezing fog. I volunteered to move out to one of the trailers this year just so I could have windows and fresh air. I am so glad that I got a picture of this tree as it cleared up this afternoon and melted all of the frost off of it.

I went to Robert's today to look for some Valentine decorations. I saw they were having a class on decorating this box for a card box. I thought since I like making cards and I love the card exchange that I am in. This project was a must for me as I just put my cards in a pile in my craft room. (Brayden thought it was going to be a lunch box)...Hmmmm.....Maybe next time as I do eat with my students in the cafeteria once a week with the student of the week. It was very easy. I just trimmed the paper to fit, mod podged it, and there you go! I am not sure if I am going to do the top. For now, I am leaving it as is.

Excited to head outside to do some serious snowman building! I guess I need to tell Clayton that we don't live in Arizona anymore. Cute! Cute!

I get home from visiting teaching and Brayden has this huge Cheshire cat grin on his face. He has been really infatuated with saying how big he is going to be when he grows up and how he wants to grow. He takes his shirt off and says, "Mommy, I want to show you were I am growing." He points to his underarm. I am like how do you know if you are growing there. He said I have hair under here. I looked and I thought to myself, "No way!" He is too young for hairy underarms. It totally looked like hair. I want my boy to stay young!! So I said it is just dirt and he said, "No mommy!" Even Clay thought his little boy is turning into a man. I looked really closer. Dry skin. He used to have eczema on his legs and now it traveled to under his arms. Yeah! I said to him, "Sorry, honey, but you are not going to grow there for a couple more years." We put lotion under his arms and had a good laugh.

Can you believe it took less than a half an hour to raise? This is what we will be having with freshly churned butter from our beloved cows. (just kidding) Man, I wished I had some more of my strawberry freezer jam that I made a couple of months ago. In my old ward in Arizona, they really pushed ordering dry pack. I felt pressured into buying wheat, wheat, and refried beans? Anyways, I am really glad that I did invent some money into it. I have been able to use my flour, dehydrated apples, and sugar. And I used almost one can of wheat. Whoo hoo! In Mesa, one awesome lady showed us how easy it is to make sprouted wheat bread. This was the only bread that I could get to rise when I lived in Mesa. As you can see from the pics, it rises here too. I love living in a higher elevation. Now, any suggestions on what to make next with my wheat? ***If you want the recipe, let me know and I will have to photocopy it as it is lengthy. If you want a loaf of this awesomeness and you live close by,

I am not a political buff. Yes, I am a republican and conservative but lying beneath the surface (I mean way down), I do have some liberal views that do not rise the surface very often (I am not a closet Liberal/democrat). AND SO... I can't help be excited for my family to see an awesome piece of history go down on Tuesday. I was teaching the 3rd grade about Martin Luther's dream for equality this week and what a wonderful thing it is to see Obama get elected and see some of that equality happen. I showed students footage of his life and segregration. It made me sad to think of how life was in those years. So...with that out and all. I really like this quote from his speech awhile ago: "And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn I may not have won your vote tonight but I hear your voices. I need your help. And I will be your president too."

I am posting this recipe. If you want to experiment with your family, have fun. It is good but if you are not used to it. I would use it to compliment beans in the chili. I am actually going to do that next time. I posted the actual recipe but I doctored it up and added my version towards the bottom. If you try this email me back and tell me what you think. I am now making sprouted wheat bread this week. I have my wheat soaking. It takes a couple days for it to sprout. By the end of the week, we will be able to enjoy some yummy bread. What is cool about this bread it also gives you a vegetable allowance! Wheat Chili Original Recipe Soak overnight in your crockpot (not turned on) 4 cups wheat ( I used red wheat)--add more water as needed 4 cups of water Next day cook in the crockpot 2 pounds hamburger 1 large onion 1 green pepper Add: 1 tsp chili powder 1 tsp garlic 2 cans tomato sauce 1 can stewed tomatoes Then combine cooked wheat to hamburger mixture and heat thoroughly My version:

One thing I really like about living here is that it primarily LDS. Alot of people use their food storage and have some pretty good tips plus recipes. The first thing I tried this week for my little family is blender wheat pancakes. I currently do not have a wheat grinder which is now on my list. I blended the wheat in milk for about 7 minutes. The wheat did not smooth out as much as I would have liked. I will make it again but soak the wheat first. Then I was given a taste of wheat chili at work and the recipe for it. So I decided to prepare wheat chili for my family. At first, Clayton was alittle skeptical of it but he was on board. We have all of these cans from the church. Why buy them if I don't use them? Right? I do use my apple slices for apple crisp. YUM! I soaked the wheat over night. I did use too much wheat. I probably would have cut it down to maybe a cup and half rather than 4 cups. It cooked in the crockpot all day. This what it looks like in the bowl. The puffed up s

You might hear this at Walmart when a child is lost! Yep, I am one of those parents who lost their child in the store. Kinda pathetic, right? We decided to go as family and do some grocery shopping. Let me say this was the last time as a family for quite awhile. For the past couple months, we've been transitioning Lyndee to walk along the side of us and stay near us. You can see where this is going, right? Tonight, as Clayton and I were picking out pizza, Lyndee turned around bolted and ran away from us. She ran from the frozen food section all the way to automotive. I have never experienced so much panic in all my life. I am going up and down the aisles calling her name and holding back my tears. I am just thinking the worst and what might happen if she was kidnapped. Very stressful situation. Overhead in the intercom,"We have a lost child, blonde, 4 years old, and wearing pink. This is code Adam." Then someone was bringing here to the fitting rooms. I don't know if

I love the "Once There Was A Snowman" primary song. When the the Christmas snow started to melt because we had some above 32 temps, we were able to make a snow woman and snow man. We had so much fun that day. My nephew helped build these but did not want to have his picture taken. We were able to roll huge snowballs around. Since the snow was wet, it was so HEAVY. The snowpeople have since left. We hope to see them again this month or next. We even were able to sled down the 5 foot drifts that were up against the house. I even got on top of the drift, got on the sled, and then flipped backwards the wrong way. Sorry no pictures of that my friends! My nephew and son busted up laughing at me and I was just hoping the neighbors were not looking at that moment. The kids were able to sled down the drifts with no problem. Can't wait for more snow to do this again.

We are not going to Arizona or Utah for summer vacation. We are taking an "official" family vacation that involves visiting absolutely NO family. Yep, Mount Rushmore, South Dakota!! Totally random, huh? We are going to rent out a cabin for a couple of nights or stay in a really nice hotel that has kid stuff for our little ones. Do you realize that it is only 10 hours from here? That is less travel than to Mesa. Then we are going to do little weekend trips around here if we have time and of course, money. * Over in Northern Idaho Coeur d'Alene * Craters of the Moon * West Yellowstone, MT (visit the Imax and see the sights) * Jackson * (Maybe) Mormon Miracle Pageant in Manti, UT --love it!

Well, maybe not so much a panty thief. This morning I was getting Lyndee's clothes ready for the day. I open up her panty drawer. It was empty. No socks, no undies, or tights! The only reponse Lyndee could give me was "hee, hee". She does that alot. They were not under the bed, nor in the closet, or in any of her bins. We were clueless. So I asked her, "Can you get me your panties?" She bends down by her dresser and pulls a pair out along with an orange dolly from underneath her dresser. I thought to myself, "what else did she cram under there?" She shoved all of her socks, undies, leotards, and tights way to the back under the dresser. All we could do is bust up with laughter. She is such a silly girl! What a great spirit she brings to our little family!

My main floor family room is finally clean. I even dusted the top of our entertainment center. It think it always helps to rearrange your furniture. I am always doing that! I love change! Whoo Hoo! My kitchen is clean. Even my granite countertops are sighing with relief. This is our front room. It is always clean. This is the room for visitors so they don't have to look at when my kitchen and fam room are a disaster. In the summer, this is called "my nap room". The leather couch feels so cool in the summer and of course it is comfy. I think it must be the sun that is giving me some energy. It is so nice to see the sun out today even if it is only 22 degrees. I had two weeks to purge everything and clean and I chose to veg out with my kids which I felt was my priority.