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Blogging via Other Blogs

So, I have SO MUCH to share, but so-to-no time these days. Itʻs a common excuse around here, but itʻs the truth! In an effort to get things moving along, Iʻm sending you to see two other blogs. The first one is my sisterʻs birthday post…because I was a part of it and it was fun! You can see it here.The other is over to my mom and dadʻs little blog about their mission. They experienced a cow c-section. Since my last two babies were c-sections, I found this totally cool. Go here for that one.

Iʻm hoping to be back really soon!

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Categories Life

On A Mission On A Farm

15 Mar

My mom and dad are going on a mission for our church. Most of you are probably used to seeing two young boys in white shirts and ties. Well, we have lots of different missionaries out there. My parents are going on an Agriculture Service Mission. What is that?! Well, our church owns a lot of farms across the country. These farms are operating to supply the church’s large welfare program. Most of the jobs are run by volunteers.I decided to learn more about the welfare program since my parents were going to be leaving for about eight months to be a part of it. The welfare program was started during the depression of the 1930s. With no jobs, the government stepped in to alleviate this problem. The church feared that their methods promoted idleness because nothing was required in exchange for the help. In regards to setting up the welfare program as a response to government welfare, the president of our church at the time said this:

“Our primary purpose was to set up, in so far as it might be possible, a system under which the curse of idleness would be done away with, the evils of a dole abolished, and independence, industry, thrift and self-respect be once more established amongst our people. The aim of the Church is to help the people to help themselves. Work is to be re-enthroned as the ruling principle of the lives of our Church membership.” (In Conference Report, Oct. 1936, p. 3.)

Since then, it has grown tremendously and the help we are able to provide spans the globe. The Humanitarian Aid program provides medical supplies, they find water sources in third world countries, effective substance abuse programs and respond to natural disasters to name a few. One of the reasons I love this program so much is that there are no administrative costs. The work is volunteer.

The night before they left, we had Family Home Evening with the whole family.My parents talked to everyone about what they would be doing while they were gone and why they decided to do it. Each family came up with their own service goal to do as a family while my parents were gone. Their decision to serve has inspired all of us to serve more too.After that, the tweens and teens were fortunate enough to have a little extra ~~lecture~~ inspirational talk from my dad about education. He made a deal with them..something about grades and money. I don’t remember earning much for my grades. They were so engrossed. They didn’t even seem to notice the dessert party we were having.Chocolate mousse, root beer floats, chocolate chip cookies, cupcakes, apple cobbler, banana lumpia. It was yummy. There was a lot! I ate a lot too.This picture is blurry, but I love the laughter on everyone’s face. I found this video while I was doing my research. It talks about the church’s response to Hurricane Katrina. I love that they had trucks on their way to Louisiana from various parts of the country before the storm even hit! It kind of gives you an idea of how they do things.So, we will miss my mom and dad a TON! But, we are all super excited for this adventure for them. What a great way to enjoy retirement. Live the simple life. Enjoy each others company while providing service.

Here’s a timeline of the church welfare program. It was a good little history lesson for me.

Tags: About Me, marriage

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Categories Life

Chicken Fruit Vegetable Wheat Bread Thing Recipe

28 Feb

I don’t even know what you call this. But, my kids requested it for lunch after we had it for dinner, so I figured it was blog worthy.Now, I am no pro in the kitchen. I can’t taste something and tell you what’s inside. I call my sisters in the middle of new recipes all the time for translation. But, since I’m married to a pretty healthy eater (who totally imposes his healthy views on his family…sheesh!), figuring out something that’s a step above the taste of cardboard gets me pretty excited. And for the record, we (the kids and I) do enjoy cookies, french fries, candies and pastries whenever we get the chance.

There’s a “topping” and a “spread” and the bread. I really wanted to make bagels for the first time for this, but I didn’t have the time, so I bought (well, my sister picked it up from Costco for me) the bread. Although I did make bagels that night and I am in LOVE. But, this bread is awesome anyway, I love it.For the “topping,” I just chopped up apples, cucumbers & threw in Craisins. You could change this up depending on your crowd…more veggies, more fruits, whatever!I cooked some chicken breast in my super awesome oil core electric skillet. It keeps it really moist. If I didn’t do that, I’d probably boil it so that it doesn’t dry out. Just dice it up.Then, I tossed it all together.For the “spread,” I just combined some cream cheese, ranch powder & some milk. I creamed it together as best I could.I toasted the bread. You don’t have to, but it does help keep the bread firm so that it can hold all the toppings.

Swipe on a little of the spread, scoop on your toppings and that’s it! Kid’s love it! Hubby loves it! I love it! It’s easy! I’m happy!Pretend not to notice the paper plate. It was an “I don’t wanna do dishes” kind of night.

Here’s the breakdown:

Makes about 10-12. In my house, that’s about 4-6 servings. It just depends on your eaters.

Toppings:

1 apple

1/2 Cucumber

3/4 C of Craisins

2 Chicken Breasts (I added nothing to the breasts)

Spread:

Approx 4 oz (a block is 8 oz) of cream cheese

1/3 packet of a powdered Ranch sauce

About 1/4 C of milk. Add milk slowly until you reach a peanut butter-like consistency. I used powdered milk because it was all I had, but I bet whole milk would taste great…or even heavy cream!!

Any bread will do.

If you do make it, I’d like to know what you think. Or at least what my kids could call it in place of, “that thing you made with the sauce and the bread and the stuff on top.”

Enjoy!

Tags: cooking, events, food, Holidays, parties, snacks

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Categories Create

Armoire Makeover for Sewing & Fabric Organization

17 Feb

My super-Craigslist-finder sister found these awesome (and kinda ugly) armoires for $40. In Hawai’i, we don’t have very many options when it comes to furniture. Pressed board furniture does not do well here. Solid wood furniture is preferred, but it costs a FORTUNE! It’s often cheaper to buy quality furniture on the mainland and ship it here via ship cargo. The best furniture finds are usually at Costco. But, you’re limited to the type and it’s only seasonal.

Anyway, this piece is solid wood. It’s very sturdy and all the drawers glide easily. PLUS, it has the adjustable shelf clip thingys (I’m sure there’s a name for this) already installed. Often times armoires aren’t outfitted for shelves on top. And…with the push of a lever, the drawers all lock. Perfect for little two year old hands and seven year old fabric lovers…who sometimes forget to ask before cutting up fabric.I broke up the hubby’s work day and told him that he needed to leave and pick it up within an hour and a half…nowhere near his office. He was less than pleased (to put it nicely ). I was very happy!!! He couldn’t park in his office building because it wouldn’t fit in the parking garage, so he parked at his mom’s apartment building and walked back to work. All this in his “office attire.” Thank you babe!In the beginning, I went after it with OIL BASED paint. YIKES!!!! Who knew it was so awful to work with? I hated it. I couldn’t stand the lines. Now I know why everything grand-dad painted had those paint lines through them. He was a painter. I always thought he just used really good thick paint that left lines because it was so “quality” thick. On top of that, I wasn’t even sure it would dry this month! So, although I was very grateful for my dad’s free paint….I ended up stripping it all off the next day. You can see here that I also attached paintable wallpaper to the doors and created a border with wood strips. The wood strips were leftover toe kick boards from my kitchen remodel. I just cut them on my table saw.This is how she looked inside before.And these are her insides after. I used wrapping paper and Mod Podge. I know it’s kinda wrinkly…but I wasn’t too worried about it because once everything’s in, it won’t show. I had the same attitude with painting MANY coats on the shelves. I just needed it to be “generally” white.

I drilled new holes on the drawers so that I could add knobs. The knobs were brushed nickel, so I had to paint them. I also removed the hinges to spray them black.Now, it’s not organized yet. I just wanted to see if I could fit everything that I was hoping to inside. I’m so excited! Everything fits! Anyone free to help me organize all my fabric into something that’s functional and pretty to look at???? All my favorite fabrics are in the drawers. Did you notice that “keyboard drawer” and how it fits all of my sewing machine “stuff” perfectly? I should probably screw a board on to the back of it so things won’t go falling off.In a nutshell, here’s how it went down.This was so fun. I LOVE IT so much!!! Now, to clean the house that was very neglected during this project. *sigh*

Tags: create, DIY, home, life, tutorials

Comments 8 Comments
Categories Create, Home

Feeling the LOVE

14 Feb

I started off Valentine’s Day in my daughter’s classroom. I had the kids make valentine hair accessories for themselves or to give away. They came out really cute. Wish I had a chance to snap some pictures.

For my kids, I sewed everyone a pillow case to go with their new pillow. I hate that it takes a whole day and a number of loads just to wash the pillows. I was at Wal Mart one day and I saw these “travel pillows.” They aren’t tiny like for the airplane. It’s almost exactly a standard pillow cut in half. It’s perfect for kids. They are really soft too. For just over $4, it was totally worth it. The best part, they are small enough to toss in WITH a load of laundry. Think of all the money I’ll save on utilities! I’m throwing all the old pillows out.For the girls, I used leftover fabric from their Christmas blankets. I never posted it in my “Gifts I Made This Past Christmas” posts, but here it is.Believe it or not, it’s exactly what she had on her Christmas list. “A blue blanket with snowflakes. And if you can put words on it that say, ‘Let it snow!” So, that’s what she got. Joann’s had a sale, during Christmas and their fleece was only $3!!!

For the boys, I just used GI Joe fabric that my son picked out a year (or two or three) ago for a blanket that was never finished. I put brown minky on the backs of theirs so that they would have a soft side too. If it wasn’t for cutting the fabric, these whipped up really fast. They were excited about it, so it made me happy. We had Family Home Evening tonight instead of last night, so they snuggled up on their pillows while we watched a short video.For dessert, I copied what my sister did for her family. I made heart shaped cinnamon rolls.I added a little twist and dyed the frosting pink. They were kind of ugly by the time the frosting went on since they cooled a little bit first. They didn’t ooze like they normally do. Anyhow, the kids were psyched, so it was worth it.The hubby and I are having our Valentine’s date on Friday. I’m looking forward to it! And with that, here’s a fun quote by a man I love and admire.“I am satisfied that happiness in marriage is not so much a matter of romance as it is an anxious concern for the comfort and well-being of one’s companion. Any man who will make his wife’s comfort his first concern will stay in love with her throughout their lives and through the eternity yet to come”
-Gordon B. Hinckley

Tags: cooking, create, gifts, Holidays

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Categories Create

A Sea Glass Wedding On The Ocean

8 Feb

Gosh it’s taken me a long time to find the time to get to this post. And, to save time, this is mainly just going to be a post of pictures. There are soooo many. Please pardon the lack of order. WordPress is not the most user-friendly for inserting a lot of pictures, so it was taking too long to organize it. I really had to cut out a lot of good ones. I wish I could post pictures of everyone. I didn’t get any great ones of just my brother and his wife. There was an “official” photographer, so she took care of that.This is my oldest brother with my youngest brother. Both of their wives are natives of the Philippines.It was a LOVELY event. It was so elegant and so beautiful. We love love love our new sister-in-law! We are so happy for my brother. They make a beautiful couple.As for my kids and their wedding attire, I really wanted them to “coordinate.” The only way to do that I realized was to sew the clothes myself, so I sewed my daughters’ dresses. I was pretty excited about my older daughter’s dress because I “designed” that one in my head, then on paper and it came out as I imagined. My little one’s dress started off as a peasant dress, but it wasn’t happening…so I did a bunch of stuff to make it look the way it did and I was really happy with how it turned out.Everyone had a great time planning and putting things together. With my sister-in-law (who did the jewelry) as the coordinator, we were quite the wedding force. Everything was beautiful. All of the vases were re-used from past weddings in our family. The decor was so incredibly budget friendly. The reception was held at my brother’s home turned vacation rental. The setting was perfect.For the food, we all took care of a dish or two. Everyone kind of does at least one dish really well…so we stuck with that. The food was so amazing. Here’s my dad at the stove.The company was fabulous. It was a small-ish reception in that it was just the family. So, including my grandma (who is 90 years old and has more energy than me!), that makes 38 of us. My sister and her husband who currently (not permanently ) live in California, came so it was really nice having our whole family together in the temple.The bride’s sister flew in from the mainland and she has a cousin that lives here who was able to attend. My daughter and my niece are excited about their new aunty!That’s my Crafty SIL/Jewelry Store/Wedding Coordinator on the left…and one of my ultra fabulous baby-sitter nieces on the right. As you can see, height does not run in our family.

Here are a few candids…All the little ones loved walking through these crystal strands.My kids love all their older cousins.We got the idea for these monogram letters from Pinterest. My mom cut them out of pine wood and painted them. They were a really nice touch.We brought the letters inside to hang on the wall once the dinner started.My sister did the same thing under these plates that she did at the shower.Here she is with my oldest niece. Sometimes we suspect they were made from the same mold.I love this boy…and his smile.One of my super-dependable baby sitter nieces and my nephew…son of the groom.Strategizing the cake cutting.Daughter of the groom…she got him good!I love this shot my sister-in-law took. The sky is a perfect backdrop.Look how much spunk my grandma has. And that’s my “Martha Stewart Sister” who doubles as a pastry chef. Very handy to have around. I love that she lives about a minute away from my house.This is the sea-glass candy she made that I talked about at the end of this post.My daughter and my niece had fun with my camera for about 10 minutes….I have so many pictures of my sister here…she’s setting up something in almost every single one.Here’s my cute niece sneaking (getting caught) a plate of cake in a dark corner of the room.

And here’s my daughter…not so sneaky with her cake. It kept her busy while we were cleaning up.Boys Club.And more candids. Everyone loved the edible pearls.As you can see, it was a lovely event that we were all thrilled to be a part of. Congratulations to K & J and the beginning of their new life together.

Tags: About Me, events, Hawai'i, life, marriage, pictures

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Categories Life

The Wedding Shower

31 Jan

After the fun we had at the jewelry party, it was time to focus on the shower. We had a “Tea Party” theme. The bride’s sister who lives thousands of miles away flew in the night before the shower.Everyone did their part to make things pretty.My little sister did all of the names on doilies by hand. It was a really elegant touch.My SIL used her handy-dandy cricut to cut out all those adorable boxes. To make it even better, they were filled with chocolate covered macadamia nut clusters smothered in caramel.We played some games and ate.Look at all these hand-made prizes! Lucky for us, even if we didn’t win, we still got a prize at the end.Fresh baked bread was filled with different sandwich fillings. We had three “flavors” to choose from. It was delish!This flavor of lemonade was new to all of us. It was a big hit.Spinach salad and these cream filled strawberries on the side completed the meal. It’s great having a pastry chef in the family! She stuffed them with a mix of cream cheese, powdered sugar and a little vanilla. They were topped with graham cracker crumbs.After we ate, it was time for gifts. The bride received a beautiful heirloom pearl necklace from her sister who had been keeping it safe for 14 years since her own wedding! It was a really sweet surprise.She also brought a gift from her son who used his own money to buy his favorite aunty some comfy PJs.We all chipped in while my SIL worked her magic and made this beautiful pearl set (She’s wearing all three pieces) for her. I wish I had a link to her online store, but IT’S NOT UP YET!!! (no pressure Ky…but HURRY UP!).My other sister found a great idea to make a basket of “Dates For A Year” since my brother and his bride lived in two separate countries and didn’t get to “go on dates” much. We thought it was a good idea from the beginning, but seeing everyone fill it up was so fun and creative! For January, they went box car racing. Other dates they will have to look forward to are driving around the island sight seeing with gift cards to various stops around the island. A day at the park with a frisbee and a Jamba Juice gift card. A hammock to take to a beach park and hang out.A DVD for “The Bucket List” with a “worksheet” to fill out their own bucket list.An envelope with two five dollar bills. They go to a mall or superstore and each spend five dollars on the other person that is an expression of love and creativity. I wish I could remember them all. She was really excited about it. I think we all were! My mom also gave her the beautiful simple frame.I almost forgot. My oldest sister made these refreshing fruit popscicles. She used an ice tray as a mold. They look so pretty too!It was a super fun day with the most important women in our life. We were so anxious for the big day!