Ruth and Fear

Ruth and I run at night after dark because that is when I can go. We did a two mile run tonight. Ruth did fairly well. We had to slow down near the end, but she ran the whole way. The first three fences that we ran past with dogs, Ruth got really scared and barked back at the dogs. I thought that was pretty funny. It reminded me of when she was a baby. Ruth was scared of the vacuum and instead of running away from it she would crawl up to it and hit it.

Lego Conversation

Johnny while showing me his two lego ships: Mom, which ship do you think will win the battle?
Me: probably the bigger one. It depends on how many guns.
Johnny: Oh. The bigger ships has lots of guns.

note: the bigger ship had lego Luke Skywalker on it with a lego light saber in hand.

A Murmur and a Chastisement

January has been a rather hard month. We have had at least one child sick almost every day, I have felt more tired than I think I ever have in my entire life because of this pregnancy, and John has been away from home a lot because of work and church stuff. We have also had a hard time trying to help Rachel to be happier and less whiney and needy. It seems like we have been at war with Rachel most of the month. I was feeling rather complainy last night as we put three of our kids to bed with fevers. I thought I would write a blog this morning about how some times are just hard. I thought maybe an appropriate start would be, "Sighed Mayzie a lazy bird hatching an egg..." Then I read this section from the Joseph Smith priesthood/ relief society manual in chapter 24:

As the members of Zion’s Camp marched from Kirtland, Ohio, to Missouri, they learned many leadership principles from their association with Joseph Smith. George A. Smith, a member of Zion’s Camp, recalled: “The Prophet Joseph took a full share of the fatigues of the entire journey. In addition to the care of providing for the Camp and presiding over it, he walked most of the time and had a full proportion of blistered, bloody, and sore feet, which was the natural result of walking from 25 to 40 miles a day in a hot season of the year. But during the entire trip he never uttered a murmur or complaint, while most of the men in the Camp complained to him of sore toes, blistered feet, long drives, scanty supply of provisions, poor quality of bread, bad corn dodger [corn bread], frowsy [spoiled] butter, strong honey, maggoty bacon and cheese, etc. Even a dog could not bark at some men without their murmuring at Joseph. If they had to camp with bad water, it would nearly cause rebellion. Yet we were the Camp of Zion, and many of us were prayerless, thoughtless, careless, heedless, foolish, or devilish, and yet we did not know it. Joseph had to bear with us and tutor us like children. There were many, however, in the Camp who never murmured and who were always ready and willing to do as our leader desired.”

I suddenly felt rather like the men that complained, and I knew that I have not been good enough. I have many many blessings. I know that by just choosing, and I tell this to my kids all of the time, that I can be happy and not murmur even when things are very hard. January has been just a little bit hard. I am grateful for the books, and prophets, and scriptures that I have to chastise me when I need it for the good of my life, my soul, and my family. I am sure this passage was in answer to my daily prayer of, "help me to do better, and to be more patient." I would like to be like the men who despite blistery feet, rotten food, and bad water were always ready and willing to do what was required of them.

Shrimp Etouffee

I decided that in 2009, I was going to make one new fancy dish for dinner once a month. For January, I chose to make a Cajun dish, Shrimp Etouffee. We are familiar with this, because we have eaten it at a good Cajun restaurant here in Wichita. I chose a random recipe from the web and bought all of the ingredients when I did my monthly shopping. Tonight, I decided that was what I wanted for dinner. The recipe said that it takes two hours to make. I started at 5:15 thinking that it would be just a little late for family home evening night. But apparently the recipe assumes you have previously made the shrimp stock. So it actually took nearly 3 hours. But we just had our family home evening lesson and game while the etouffee was simmering for 45 minutes. So it all worked out pretty well.

The shrimp etouffe was absolutely divine. I don't think I have ever made anything that has tasted so good. John said that it was as good as the best thing in our favorite Cajun restaurant. I just loved it, and I cannot wait to have more. The kids liked it, but it was way too spicy for children. Johnny actually ate his. He hardly eats anything that is not bread, cereal, or candy. But he ate all of his etouffee.

I changed a few things in the recipe. I left the bay out completely because I did not know that I did not already have some. I used fresh tomatoes that I pureed instead of canned diced tomatoes, and I pureed all of the other vegetables for the sake of my husband and children who cannot stand chunky sauce stuff. Otherwise I followed the recipe fairly carefully. If I make it again, which I think I will but not often, I will cut down on the spices for the sake of my children. I will also double the amount of rice I cooked with it. I will probably also cut the recipe in half. We have a lot of leftovers. John and I will take care of those with out too much trouble, and I may make it for one more dinner. All in all, it was really, really good. So if you like shrimp and spicy, and have three hours to make dinner, try this.

Ingredients

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 4 cups chopped onions
• 2 cups chopped green bell peppers
• 2 cups chopped celery
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 tablespoons Essence, recipe follows
• 1 quart shrimp stock
• 3 pounds medium shrimp (21 to 25 count per pound), peeled and deveined
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley leaves
• Steamed white rice, for serving
• 1/2 cup thinly sliced green onion tops, for garnish

Directions

Melt the butter in a large Dutch oven set over medium heat. Add the flour and stir continuously to make a roux. Stir the roux over medium heat until the color of peanut butter, 5 to 7 minutes. Add the onions, bell peppers, celery, and garlic to the roux, and cook, stirring often, for 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes to the pot and season with the bay leaves, salt, cayenne, and 1 tablespoon of the Essence. Cook the tomatoes for 2 to 3 minutes and then whisk in the shrimp stock.

Bring the mixture to a boil, and reduce to a simmer. Cook the etouffee, stirring occasionally, for 45 minutes. Season the shrimp with the remaining tablespoon of Essence and add them to the pot, stirring to evenly distribute. Cook the shrimp for 5 to 7 minutes, or until they are cooked through. Add the chopped parsley to the pot and stir to combine.

Serve immediately over steamed white rice and garnish with sliced green onion tops.

Emeril's ESSENCE Creole Seasoning (also referred to as Bayou Blast):

2 1/2 tablespoons paprika

2 tablespoons salt

2 tablespoons garlic powder

1 tablespoon black pepper

1 tablespoon onion powder

1 tablespoon cayenne pepper

1 tablespoon dried oregano

1 tablespoon dried thyme

Combine all ingredients thoroughly.

Shrimp Stock:

1 pound (about 1 quart) shrimp shells and heads

1 cup coarsely chopped yellow onions

1/2 cup coarsely chopped celery

1/2 cup coarsely chopped carrots

3 smashed garlic cloves

1 bay leaf

1 teaspoon black peppercorns

1 teaspoon dried thyme

2 teaspoons salt

Place the shrimp shells and heads in a large colander and rinse under cold running water for several minutes.

Combine the shrimp shells and remaining ingredients in a heavy 6-quart stockpot, add 4 quarts water, and bring to a boil over high heat. Skim to remove any foam that rises to the surface. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, for 45 minutes, skimming occasionally.

Remove the stock from the heat and strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a clean container; let cool completely. Refrigerate the stock for up to 3 days or freeze in airtight containers for up to 2 months.

Kate's Manga Drawings

These are Kate's drawings. I should note that they stayed up really late doing these most school nights, and now they use them as paper dolls.

Ruth's Manga Drawings

Ruth and Kate checked a book out of the library on how to draw Manga (Japanese animation). These are some of Ruth's drawings.

Stranger Cat

When I went on the run with Ruth and Kate on Wednesday, Ruth stopped to pet a cat. The cat then followed us all the way back to our house. After I let the girls pet the cat for a few minutes I made them come inside. To our surprise the cat was still at our house the next morning. Adam and I noticed the cat fighting our cat, Boy. The two cats seemed to fight for a couple of hours and then it turned to more play. The next thing we knew the stranger cat was eating out of our cat food, and sleeping in Boy's favorite spot in the garage. We looked at the stranger and and realized that it is an unnuetered boy cat. (I didn't exactly want one of those hanging out in our house or garage.) The cat stayed around completely moved in and comfortable. He even meowed at the door when he wanted us to feed him. The kids wanted to keep this cat, but last night we drove him back to the spot where Ruth first patted him. I might have been willing to neuter the cat and let him stay because he was very friendly and the kids seemed to like him a lot. But we have lost two cats since we have lived here and it has been very sad. So I thought we better bring him back to where his owners most likely lived. John and I thought that we could see our lost cats taking a walk with some one and not knowing how to get back home.

Treadmill versus Outside

I have been running on the treadmill most weekdays since October. This week I took Ruth out on a couple of mile runs. She actually has asked for more which surprises me. I just wanted to say that running outside is so much better and so much easier. I like that I can visually see how far I have run. I like the fresh air and the trees. But I am grateful for the treadmill because I would have never started running in the neighborhood. I felt so humiliated running/walking about every 2 minutes the first few days. There is no way I wanted to share that with the neighborhood. Plus, I can easily run everyday while my babies play around me in our family room. But I can't just leave home to run anytime.

Kate came on my run with Ruth last night and said, "We need a movie. How can we watch a movie while we run." pause. "Oh, that is why they built treadmills!" Sorry Kate but I would take the trees, the breeze, and the visual distance over the movie any day.

Inauguration Day Thoughts

1. Michelle Obama is definitely the best dressed first lady. I loved her yellow outfit.
2. I started to watch the inauguration while I ran on the treadmill and it was so boring that I had Kate, who was home sick, turn on a movie instead. She said thank you.
3. Ruth and Johnny spent several hours of their school day watching the inauguration. I think this must have really been for the benefit of the teachers. The kids said that it was boring and that Kate was lucky to have missed school. Kate also didn't have the usual make up work.
4. I read Obama's speech later that night. I think it was a pretty good speech. But no matter what he says and how good he looks his voting record on moral issues makes me nervous for what he will do in the future.
   

A Few Cute Things

1. Rachel keeps her toys set up pretty neatly near the couch. Anya will often come, take a toy, and put it into her mouth. Rachel will then take it back, scream a little, grab a tissue and wipe it dry. Then she will often say something like, "That is better."
2. Anya has been crawling over to the long curtains that cover the back door, hiding behind them, and then playing peek-a-boo with whoever happens to be looking at her. If no one notices her, she will yell out, "hi," until some one sees her and plays with her.
3. I have this laundry thing that has three bags hanging down from a plastic frame. I use that to separate the colors for the laundry loads of the dirty clothes. Anya always goes and hugs them because they are big soft things. I think it is pretty disgusting. Sometimes our dirty laundry is very dirty. But she is very insistent and I need to be around that a lot, so I have let her snuggle the dirty laundry bags.
4. Rachel has decided that she is a ballerina. She is telling people that her name is "Ballerina," and often correcting her family when we call her Rachel or Rae-rae.
5. Kate and Ruth have been playing with Anya every night during scripture study. John and I are at a bit of a loss as to exactly what to do because they get Anya laughing and laughing and laughing. We just think that it is so cute to have the older girls having fun with their baby sister and to see Anya laughing her head off even if the timing is all wrong. (maybe Ruth and Kate think it is all right.)
6. Recently whenever Adam says a prayer he sings the amen at the end in a very opera-y way.
7. I feel bad that I do not have a cute story to tell about Johnny. He has been a real stinker lately. I think he is taking lessons from the bad boys in the first grade. For example, when we told him not to stand on his chair at the table he started spinning around while standing on it and laughing. I don't think that sort of thing is cute, so the bum better watch out-- his mom is mad.
   

Princes and Princesses

Rachel was laying on the kitchen floor drawing while I was making dinner. After each picture Rachel would declare what she had drawn. When Rachel said, "This is Kate. She is a princess," Adam came in and took a look at her drawing. Rachel started another picture and said, "This is Adam. He is a princess." Adam immediately objected and said, "Mom, Rachel called me a princess and I am a boy." I said, "I know. You are a prince." Adam went over to Rachel and said, "I am not a princess. Princesses are girls. I am a boy. I am a prince." Rachel continued to draw another picture. She said, "This one is Johnny. He is a princess." Adam said, "No he is not. Johnny is too old." Then Adam added, "Johnny is a boy."

The Straw Pig

Yesterday John suggested starting a business called, "Straw Pig." We joked about that for some time--how it would be funny to sell crappy items that would just fall apart. Then it occurred to me that there is already a store that should be called Straw Pig and it is wildly successful-- Wal-mart. We've decided to call Wal-mart Straw Pig now. John went to Straw Pig last night and bought some donuts and viola they are really kind of gross. Some of them were even stale. Thank goodness for the combination of Target and Home Depot so I do not often have to settle for the quality of the straw pig. I much prefer the stabibity of a stick even if it does cost a little more :).

Conversation in the Car

John (the dad): Diane, did you blog about what Adam wants to do for the rest of his life?
Me: yes.
Johnny: What does Adam want to do?
Me: He wants to be Spiderman for the rest of his life.
Kate: That is good because in elementary school you always have to do projects on what you are going to be when you grow up. Now Adam will be prepared for when he starts school.
John: That is great commentary on elementary school.

Anya truns 1

Anya had her birthday on Friday. She was pretty happy about cake and presents. Dad made her a milkshake to go with her dinner which she loved too. Anya had to go to the doctors on her birthday because of a fever with a runny nose. She got an antibiotic for a sinus infection, and we found out that Anya has gained three pounds in the last two months. She now weighs 16 pounds and is up on the growth chart. She still is a happy smiley baby, but she is definitely starting those one year old tantrums. This morning, while I was putting Rachel and Adam into the bathtub, Anya put her pacifier in the toilet. When I pulled it out she tried to take it from me and screamed for some time because I would not give it to her. So we need to remember to close the toilets once again. When Anya was first born I would look at her and see such a sweet beautiful baby, but I would think, "In a year she will be playing in the toilets." That year has come. I just need to remember to enjoy the smiles and laughs. And maybe someday like President Monson said, I will miss the toys everywhere and the piles and piles of laundry.

About Me, Change and Twilight

Here is a blog about me. I have to have change. I have moved around a lot for most of my life and have become to rely on that. So I find that I get tired of things when they do not change. For example, I get really sick of the way my furniture is arranged if we live in one place for more than 2 years. So I rearrange it all of the time. I also get tired of our dishes. I like new dishes. I threw away a bunch of our plastic dishes and got new glass dishes just because I knew the kids would break the glass dishes and I would get to replace them. That way I would never get too sick of the same old plates and cups. Fortunately, clothes wear out and we use up soap quickly enough, so I can count on change in the wardrobe and in the smells. I am also always continually wanting to paint our walls something different. But that crosses the line of how much change my husband can handle. (I thrive on change, but John seems to thrive on consistency. It makes John nervous when I move the furniture around. But that statement is about John, not me. :)) Recently, I have realized that I need my blog to match the seasons. I have been struggling to find a theme that fits winter. I think I will have to take more wintry pictures. But it does not snow much in Wichita. Hmmm.... maybe I should picture surf the web.

Now, about me and Twilight. I have held out on reading The Twilight series because I have heard that there is a fair amount of making out. (I am also not a fan of teenage romance or vampires.) Since I felt guilty reading Dear God, It's Me Margaret by Judy Blume when I was 12, I felt certain that I did not want Ruth and Kate reading the Twilight series. In fact, I have not let them read Judy Blume books. However, there has been a fair amount of peer pressure on the matter. Most of my family on both sides have read and loved the books, basically all of the women in relief society read the books and went to movie together, and all but one of my friends outside our ward, as far as I know, have read the series. Now the one friend of mine, who has been holding out, read the first book over Christmas break because her 11 year old daughter has been begging to read it. Well, I have felt pretty good with my decision until now. I do not like being the only one. When I told John about my friend, he praised my decision and I had to tell him that actually, the pressure is getting to be too much and I am thinking that maybe I should read Twilight after all. My friend that just read them said they weren't as bad as we have heard on the making out side of things. So now I have to decide-- do I want to be the last man out, or read the books and then let my preteen daughters read the books?????? If Ruth and Kate are going to read the books then I should know what is in them. And if I read the books then I cannot tell my daughters that they are inappropriate for them to read and expect them to respect me. Alas, I feel torn and like a bit of a loser for caving in so easily to peer pressure at the age of 33. Don't get me wrong, no one has actually said that I have to read these books, it is just that everyone else is doing it. Fortunately, once you reach adulthood you can expect your friends to remain your friends even if you don't do what they do. Everyone has been very respectful to my decision. I just don't like to be 'the only one'.

?????????

Why is it that Sunday through Friday I have to force my kids out of bed at 7:15am for school and church and on Saturday's when they can actually sleep in they wake me up at 6:50am to ask if they can watch TV?????????

The Most Important Thing

This morning we woke up late and had to rush to make it on time for the bus. Johnny was having a particularly hard time going fast enough. He took a long time to get dressed, and a very long time to eat his breakfast. Because of this, he did not have time to make his bed, and I am not sure if he got his teeth brushed or not. Just before the bus pulled up I told Johnny to get his socks and his shoes on. He said that he did not have time to put on his socks. About the time Johnny argued about socks the bus pulled up. Johnny grabbed his backpack and I said that he could not leave the house without his coat. Ruth began yelling at Johnny to get outside as she and Kate were running for the bus. Johnny grabbed his coat, shook his backpack and stopped in the doorway. "I don't have my ds," he yelled. I said, "the bus is waiting for just you--GO!" But Johnny would not budge. So I went and grabbed his ds for him. He then fumbled in the doorway trying to get the ds into his backpack. We told him to just go and get on the bus and finally he did. I just thought it was so funny that Johnny declared that he did not have enough time to put socks on, but that he would not leave the house without his nintendo ds. The kid is obcessed!!!

Long Term Decision

In his spiderman costume, Adam walked up to me and in a very serious voice declared, "I've decided to be spiderman for the rest of my life."

More Christmas Pictures

Adam got weapons and armour

Ruth and Kate with lovely American Girl doll clothes from Grandma

Anya feeling like breakfast should have come before presents

Johnny and my sister Amber

Rachel getting toy food. Anya attacked this package. Poor baby was really hungry.

Christmas Pictures

Jeremy, Rosanne, Ada, Rachel, and me caroling at the Robertson's

James, Rebecca, Jay and Grace caroling

Grandpa Robertson

Adam obeying Grandpa about the Christmas bulbs

Christmas

We got to spend some time with Amber, my parents, Monika, Ben and Tommy between the wedding and Christmas. It was so nice to see them and be with them all. My kids were in relative heaven. They just need to learn that Aunts and Uncles are made for things other than wrestling. Johnny and Kate seem to think that if an adult is related it is okay to punch them. We will have to work on that. On Christmas Eve we went to PF Changs with my family including Seth and Natalie, and then Monika's in-laws plus Monika's in-law's in laws (Who happen to be friends from our child hood.) I think that I enjoyed the bit that I got to visit with people, but John felt miserable as we had Adam break 2 or 3 plastic chopsticks, as well as stab himself in the eye with one of them. Each of our 5 potty trained children had to use the bathroom at separate times so we went to and from the bathrooms 5 times. Anya fussed about wanting food when it wasn't there, and then not getting the food fast enough and then not wanting that exact food but different food. She was just a handfull the entire 2 hours we were in the restaurant.

After dinner we all went to Amber's apartment, read the Christmas story in Luke 2, and sang Christmas carols. It was really nice. We left Amber's when Monika and Ben went to bed at 8:30. When we got the Robertson's, all of John's siblings were just arriving for their Christmas eve caroling so we joined that party just in time. While we were caroling with the Robertson's, Adam started taking the red Christmas bulbs off the tree. Grandpa Robertson said that the Christmas bulbs had to stay on the tree. Adam them put tham all on one branch. We know that wasn't what Grandpa meant, but boy it was funny. Later Adam strung all of the bulbs together and hung them on the tree.

When we put the kids to bed we told them that they could not get up until 7am. Ruth woke up at 4am but, was good and waited until 7am. I think that the kids enjoyed opening their stockings and presents. Rachel's favorite thing seems to be the ring pops in her stocking. She still is telling me how she got ring pops for her birthday. Johnny got lego star wars for his nintendo ds and disappeared for 4 days until we took the ds away just to see if he could still talk. Thankfully, he can. All in all I think we had a nice Christmas.

The Wedding

I would love to post pictures of Seth and Natalie's wedding, but we realized that the batteries were dead in our camera about the time we arrived at the reception. So I have no pictures to post. The wedding was beautiful, though. Natalie has very good taste. She was able to take an ugly church gym and make it very elegant and lovely. They used a lot of Christmas trees and the put lighted wreaths in the basket ball hoops. Her colors seemed to be maroon and green. It fit the season perfectly and made for a very beautiful wedding.

My favorite part was seeing Seth and Natalie sealed in the Salt Lake Temple. (That is where John and I were married. ) Natalie made a beautiful bride and Seth looked happy for the first time in 9 years. Our family has been praying for Uncle Seth to be married for many years now. At times, it seemed very hopeless. I am so grateful that he found Natalie. She is beautiful, good, and smart and I am sure that she will make him a great wife. Seth has always been gentle and kind, so I know that he will make a good husband and father. I am glad that he has found a good woman to give him the support and confidence that he needs to succeed.

The Drive Out

It is a bit more than 1000 miles from our house in Wichita, KS to John's parent's house in Provo, UT. The drive generally takes between 16 and 18 hours. It took 21 hours of driving to get out there this time. We were in an ice storm through most of Kansas until about the last 70 miles when we drove into a blizzard. It was dark and our windshield wipers were so covered in ice from the ice storm, that they no longer worked at all. It was pitch black, I was driving, and I could not see 2 feet in front of the car. John noticed that he could tell where the bumps that let you know you have gone off the road by the way the snow clumped on them were, so John looked intently out his window telling me to go more left or right to stay on the road, while I drove between 5 and 10 mph. When several trucks and cars went off the road on the other side of the highway the headlights of the jammed traffic helped to light our way. For the most part we were the only car on our side of the highway. We aren't sure if a truck jack knifed and blocked all of the traffic behind us, or if the authorities closed off the highway just after us. When we finally made it to a safe stop, we immediately went to Wal-mart and bought new windshield wipers. Then we got dinner and a hotel. We were just so exhausted after the slow drive through Kansas we felt that we would be safer to get some rest before we drove the other 700 miles. We did something that we never do: we went to sleep pretty much right away and got up at 6am to get an early start. We were really blessed to be both safe from bodily harm and to have not been in a car accident. Through the ice storm we saw 5 trucks and 3 cars off the road, and then in the 40 miles of the blizzard we saw at least 7 trucks and 4 cars either jack knifed or in a ditch.

The next day we got through half of Wyoming with Johnny annoying people for his own entertainment as our only trouble. The second half of Wyoming we were in snow and had to slow down again. By Rock Springs it was blizzarding again and we had to drive slowly. But we were grateful that they did not close the highway. It was blizzarding until we got to Provo Canyon and then the snow just stopped and we drove the last 45 minutes in relative calm. It was such a relief to arrive safely in Provo. Thinking back, it seems pretty miraculous that we were able to drive through probably 500 or more miles of storm and to have seem vehicle after vehicle off the road, and we did not even slip or lose control once.

Time To Catch Up-- Family Home Evening Nativity

Well, we have been gone for almost 2 1/2 weeks visiting relatives for Christmas and to see my brother's wedding. So I have a lot that I want to blog and catch up on. I think that I will start in chronological order. The Monday before we left, we did our annual kid performance of the nativity. To avoid any conflict the kids drew their parts from a hat. The results were

• Ruth: Shepard
• Kate: Mary
• Johnny: Wiseman
• Adam: Joseph
• Rachel: Angel
• Anya: was suppose to be a sheep, but we made her baby Jesus instead.

I was surprised how perfectly the roles were assigned from such a random method. They all did a good job. Anya was a little fussy, Adam wiggled a lot more than you would think Joseph should. Kate was a very motherly Mary. Ruth was a very girly shepard, and Rachel danced and sang and enjoyed her Angel dress a lot.