Thanks Google Browzer and the Law of Consecration

Sometimes searching for things on the internet is like trying to find a needle in a haystack that is laden with needles, pins, and other sharp objects. I have been in search for some good deals on experimental items. Such items are: a violin for Mia, and tap shoes for Tiago. (experimental since who knows what a child will latch onto)

I should say that I have been blessed with this life's closest version of the law of consecration. Because other people in our ward chose to develop their talents and share them (for a reasonable price), my children can enjoy the chance to learn new skills with little pressure to be the next superstar in any given event. Mia has started violin lessons from a boy in our ward. Tiago and Mia are signed up for a dance/tumbling class from a lady in our ward. And they both have the chance to play in a soccer league due to a man in our ward.

Still you have to get the necessary supplies for such sports and that can be expensive. If you don't know already, stores cater to the girls. I could find several tap shoes for girls at very reasonable prices ie $6. Boy tap shoes start at $20. Unfortunately, there is really no feasible way to make a girl Maryjane style tap shoe look like a boy's shoe. After hours of disappointing searches, I stumbled across this site that offered the shoes I needed in the sizes I needed with the price I needed. I mean, who wants to pay $20+ for a boy's tap shoes that will be too small for him in a couple months?!

In the end, the shoes cost less then $10 a pair including shipping. What is more amazing is that the selection of the shoes were scant to say the least, but it had exactly what I needed. Now wish me luck on finding such a steal on a violin. There is hope, but we are taking about $85 for a novice outfit.

Spontaneous Fun

The other day, Tiago found some facial mud and was a bit curious. I explained how the glacier mud feels cold as you put it on, but dries in a few minutes leaving a cool crackle behind. Tiago decided that it would be funner to watch Mia experiment with mud inside. Mia was more then willing and became a mud cat.
I think that you are only supposed to have it on for a few minutes, but like Mia was going to wash her cat whiskers off anytime soon. Good thing for moisture in the air and extra topical moisturizers.

BYU Football

BYU football has already began to creep into our family conversations again. Fernando and I were watching some BYU football commercial online and become privy to the following conversation between Mia and Tiago.

Tiago="I can play football. I can catch and throw the ball so that means I can play football."

Mia= "No you can’t. You can’t play with the nets. The people are all over you at the nets."

Tiago= "There’s no nets. They throw you the ball and you catch the ball and say “Yeah” then you get the piston cup."

Proof that although we try to indoctrinate BYU into them, the football part is still a little sketchy.

Tricks of the Trade

From a few of the comments on the freezer meal post, I thought I would list a few tricks. First, most dinners can be prepared and frozen and not even contain a stitch of cream of junk. Second, if you foil line whatever baking dish you will cook your dinner in, the prepared food can be arranged and lifted out of the pan and slipped into a ziploc freezer gallon size bag for easy stacking. I fit several meals right on top of each other.

My side by side freezer could hold at least 40 meals prepared with the ziploc method. I usually make a 9x9 size dinner for our family of 5, but even if it was a 9x13, it would still work. As for the recipes, I will post them later, but for now, try out your own favorite recipes and enjoy.

PS Another favorite thing I do is prepare (cut) my meat to be in the sliced, diced, cubed, etc shape necessary for a given dish. Fresh meals in minutes.

Modest is Hottest

After caving to the pressures of media and its influence in my home, I had a little buyers remorse. The object in question: Tinkerbell PJs. We tried to find the PJs where Tinkerbell wasn't striking some dirty magazine pose in equally limited clothes, but I still wasn't satisfied. I tried to ignore it and remind myself that the man who drew such a scantily clad fairy was not trying to ruin generations of girls and their idea of beauty. I hope that he was clueless to the low self esteem of many girls who are told repetitively that the only thing that a boy will be interested in is your body so show as much of it as you can.

One morning I could take her nudity no longer. Armed with Expo markers and a willing artist called Mia, we dressed her to reveal her face and cover up her body.

(note that her skirt was lengthened and the "top" went from nonexistent to froofy. The other characters needed a little assistance to on obtaining knee length and shoulder covered regalia.)

Mia was really cute when she tried to explain to me why she was dressed so immodestly. She said "Mom, she is so small that her clothes have to be small too." Sweet, but a bit faulty on the logic. Put some clothes on Tinkerbell or I will.

Testimonial

A few years ago, I attended a neighboring ward's Relief Society's Enrichment Activity where they discussed freezer meals. This lady blocked out one day a month for shopping preparations and clean up and produced 30+ meals for the month. She calculated the time for that day vs the time she used to take daily for dinner prep and realized she was saving herself an amazing amount of time. Also, she realized that her monetary commitment to food each month dropped drastically as well. I had dabbled around with the idea, but never really put it to use. One draw back for me was the amount of casseroles that were in her set of recipes. Don't get me wrong, I can eat me some cream of junk concoction loaded with cheese and fat any old time, but not night after night.

I have made may be 10 dinners at a given time to freeze and I always pre-cut my meat and separate them into individual baggies for each intended dinner, but that was the extent of my attempts. For some reason, I had the drive to try out her little experiment Saturday night. I started with the chicken dishes and popped out 6 meals (well, the main dish portion of the dinner at least) I guess I also should mention that there were 3 recipes that I made double batches. I then made 3 lasagnas. Since I was on such a roll I figured I would prep some more dinners. In the 3 hours I worked, I prepared 23 dinners and cleaned my kitchen and felt pretty proud of myself. I reveled in the fact that I still had the freedom to cook whatever sponanteous dish I am in the mood for or could rely on a back up as needed. I removed that annoying "What's for dinner" question and have saved hours of prep time.

In the end, I was left with the feeling of remorse for not trying this earlier and the drive to do this again and again. I can't wait to add to my repertoire so feel free to leave your tried and true freezer meals in the comment portion.

Enlarged Bonzai

When i was a little kid, I remember listening to this tape of inspirational songs while we drove in the car. Since we drove in the car frequently, we heard this tape a lot. One song made the profound point "Don't let the magic pass you by". Unfortunately, I do that way too often. The magic I regret today is not taking more opportunity to learn at college. I had so many venues to explore and I didn't. I should have taken some botany classes so I wouldn't be at such a loss with my yard.

Well, better late then never and although I have to start from ground zero, I am not afraid to try. Annoyed by the clump of plants smothering each other in a back corner of my yard, I decided to take action, pruning action. I first practiced with shapes and angles of cutting. Then I got to the heart of the matter and unveiled a potentially lovely honeysuckle tree.

I felt slightly bad for killing a living plant that actually also had its beautiful points. For example, it frequently bloomed these delicate purple flowers and stayed the same light shade of green all year round. It also doubled as cover up of those unsightly cable boxes. It had grown too wild and it was either the Texas Sage or the Honeysuckle. I chose the latter because of the cute little humming birds that seem to adore the yellow flowers. With a little grooming and proper neighboring plants, I hope to have that area be a restful oasis in the back. We'll see. I'll have to banish the fire ants first.