Bird Refuge

May 8, 20141 Comment

If I were to pick up another hobby, birding would be high on my list. I don’t currently have the desire to invest time and effort into another hobby, so for now I enjoy identifying very easy birds like pelicans, and birds that I can remember the name of only because it is yellow-headed blackbird. The reason I am so tempted to take up birding, is we live ten minutes away from an excellent bird refuge. We went out with the kids and drove around the auto-loop and enjoyed massive amounts of awesome birds.

(Now I should insert all the wonderful pictures I took. But my camera is on its last legs and sorely needs to be replaces. All my pictures were blurry.)

SUPER EASY Tie Dyed Eggs

April 28, 2014Leave a comment

I recently overheard a conversation about a mom lamenting over the mess of dying eggs. I had to cut in and tell her of the following method. I came across this idea on a now defunct blog of a friend, and it makes egg dying super simple and mess free.

Here is what you need:

Food coloring
Paper towels
Boiled eggs

Put drops of food coloring on the paper towels, and then roll the boiled egg across the paper towel. That’s it. There’s no need for vinegar or soaking. No splashing, or spills. You can even easily dye eggs that are already cracked. And the eggs look awesome.

Chicken Coop

April 27, 20145 Comments

The chickens were evicted from the brooder box. They stunk and were creating a huge amount of dust. The landlords were a bit nice and let them stay an extra week while their new home was being constructed.

We Joe has been working on the coop a lot trying to get it ready for the quickly growing chickens. Anytime we had any amount of free time, we would be out working on the coop. Because we were using reclaimed wood from the torn down shed, it took longer than it might have otherwise. Using reclaimed wood sounds great from an ecological and budget standpoint, but it also increases the time spent doing wonderful tasks like pulling out nails, discarding yet another board that split, and occasionally playing mini games of tetris to fill in a hole.

To make our coop we used plywood, a few two by fours, and side planking from the old shed. We also had an old door two old cupboard doors, tar paper and a few other wood pieces lying around. We did buy all the hardware, extra two by fours, the run fencing, paint and shingles for a total coop price of $175. Not bad for a coop that is six feet by four feet.

Both Joe and I designed the coop, a lot of it just as we went. That did means at least one time of pulling off a whole side and re-doing it so it actually functioned. (You can notice the change in the door side in the pictures.) It also meant hastily installing a rain gutter before another rain storm after the freak snow storm revealed that the coop was far from water tight. Now we can collect rain water off of the roof, so the gutter was worth it.

The coop is very roomy for our small flock of four. (And we almost certainly have a rooster. Right now, he is the nicest chicken of the bunch and I wouldn’t mind if one of the hens went broody and I ended up with some free chicks.) We want to get more chickens in the future. I don’t want them so much for the eggs, but for their excellent soil preparation. I have a lot of weeds to get tilled up and I would rather the chickens did it than me.

We still aren’t quite done. We want to make the run more secure, and are almost done with a new feeder and chicken fountain. We also want to make the coop more mobile, which will require wheels. Here’s the chickens enjoying their new home.

Obsessions

April 26, 2014Leave a comment

PB can become obsessive. Lately it has been egg hunts and geography. We did so many egg hunt in the week before Easter…upwards of 10 a day. We put away the eggs on Easter with a plea for no more egg hunts.

PB loves geography. Joe was trying to convince him that an atlas did not count as a story for bedtime. He choose a road atlas for a prize at the library. I was looking at an unlabeled map of the United States and was asking PB the names of the states, because he knows them better than I do. One of his favorite activities is asking Siri the population of various countries or states. It is a great if not strange interest for him. Still, I could care less to know that Utah’s population is probably higher than Kansas now, but not at the 2010 census. I do know a weird number such odd facts because PB wants to know.

I’m just glad C is a bit more well rounded. He generally likes everything, although the sandbox is heaven for him.

A Few Family Pictures

April 23, 2014Leave a comment

Why This Church?

April 15, 2014Leave a comment

I grew up in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, also known as Mormons. My family has been members for generations, since the church was established in the mid 1800s. I liked church growing up, I believed in what I was taught.

When I got to be an adult, I started to ask myself questions. Why was I a member of this church? I’ve never been dissatisfied with my faith: I wasn’t asking myself to solve a spiritual dilemma. But I did want to know why generations before me joined and stayed active in the church, and define why I also wanted to stay.

My church, like all Christian churches, centers on Jesus Christ. I have known my Savior, and feel my testimony of Him is strengthened by the teachings of my church. But I also believe I could have still gained a testimony of Him through any number of good Christian faiths.

While studying, I found a theological answer of why I should stay in this church and not another. The first answer is priesthood, and the second is Eternal Family.

1)Priesthood: My father and my husband have priesthood lineage lines that traces their priesthood ordination back to Jesus Christ. Most lines go back through fathers and grandpas and then meet up with Joseph Smith, who was ordained to the priesthood by Peter, James and John, who were ordained by Christ. In other words, the priesthood is authority and power that can be traced directly to Christ. We are Christ’s church, and we act under the direction of Him, directly through priesthood power received by Him.

2)Eternal Family: When I married my husband, the officiator did not say until death do you part. He married me for eternity. I have assurance that my family will be a family even after we die. This comes not from a desire for it to happen, but an assurance that through the priesthood we are bound together in the Lord’s way.

Ultimately, the real reason I go to church thought, is I believe it is where the Lord wants me. Every other reason is secondary to that. The church has brought me blessings, the greatest of which is a personal relationship with God and Christ. I want to continue that relationship, and so I remain where I believe He wants me to go.

Wyoming

April 9, 2014Leave a comment

This is a quote from PB: “I have too much love, I need to hug you.”

We went and visited my sister for Conference weekend. PB was very excited to see his cousins. They exhausted each other with all their playing. Besides visiting, we went and played disc golf. I think disc golf is a great way to experience the landscapes of the area. Wyoming is windy and with hardly any trees and wide views.

We also enjoyed a free day at the local college. Their were tons of activities. We decided to split up, and each took a kid. I got to look at animals, dig in the sand, play balls and play dough with C. I was happy we split up, it meant I could spend more time focusing on my child instead of everyone else, and I didn’t have to wait on anyone (not my strong point).

(This picture isn’t from our visit. It’s just cute.)

Laundry Room Floor

April 8, 20142 Comments

Usually the decorative state of a laundry room doesn’t matter that much, but ours is also the hallway to get into the downstairs. I walked through there all time time. Out of all the room in our house it was the one that bugged me the most. I didn’t like a single thing about it. Boring, ill-painted (and damaged) walls, and awful stick on tiles. I hated the flooring. It was stained and ugly. So one day I started to see if we could get rid of it.

That started weeks of scraping off the stupid flooring. My husband got a good system down and did most of it. After a very short time, we had decided it really wasn’t worth all the effort. But when you start a demolition project, it is hard to change your mind. So we just lived like this for a month, and eventually it all got ripped out.

There was a good layer of adhesive left behind. I took a small section and scrubbed it off with a bunch of chemical, and then applied a coat of concrete stain. Just a little section to see if it would work out as I hoped. I was surprised and happy when it did. I wasn’t trying to do something that was unattainable!

I exposed myself to far too many chemicals one Saturday and scrubbed the rest of the adhesive off. That part didn’t actually end up taking more time than I imagined, but I would prefer not to ever have to deal with all the chemicals we used again. Final step was a couple of coats of concrete stain.

On hindsight, I would have not picked black, it shows dust and everything else far too much. (I bough the stain spur-of the moment on a home improvement store trip, so there wasn’t a lot of thought that went into color choice.) But, I am liking it much better than the stick on tiles. It was an inexpensive project, although it did take far too many labor hours.

Growing

March 28, 20141 Comment

It is spring so everything is growing outside. The kids are growing a ton too. PB surprises me sometimes because he is so tall (just under four feet), and he keeps getting taller. He’s pretty smart too–he can read and count to 100. C is funny because he has a long torso and short little legs. It is hard to get clothes that fit right.

This is mom admiring the flowers with C. I was happy this shrub turned out to be a forsythia, just because it meant I guessed right.

The boys went to the Zoo in Logan without me. It was nice.

Joe took this awesome picture.

Jumping in puddles in the rain. We like to get our feet wet after a good rainstorm.

Hammocks are the best.

Redeemed

March 27, 2014Leave a comment

Last week I talked about conscious. I have done many things I would rather take back. Sometimes the memory of what I did eats at me. I’ve felt dirty, unlovable, and guilty. Guilt feel horrible. But I can’t change what I’ve done, and I also can’t change my knowledge of right and wrong. I have to live with the knowledge that I am far from perfect, that I make mistakes and do things that I know harm those around me.

Even worse is addiction. Although I have not had any classical addictions, I still have my own little pet sins that I return to. Anger and distractions are horrible habits that I turn back to even when I know I shouldn’t be. Just writing about this makes me cringe. I want to change and do better, but sometimes it seems beyond me.

Luckily, I don’t have to live with the pain and guilt my mistakes. There is a path that can take me away from addictions, and can help me change over time. There is a power that enables me to do more than I can by myself. Power that can make up the difference of all my shortcoming, that can take away the sting of my guilt, that can bring me blessed forgiveness and strength.

It is through Jesus Christ and the wonderful atonement. I rejoice to live in a world where so many people know of the redeeming love of Christ. I also know that there are many that do not know that His love extends even to dark sins, that we are never beyond His healing power.

If we want to change and no longer live with guilt, there is way out. The Atonement extends to everyone.

This is a short series outlying the fundamental beliefs I have. For more see:
Truth is Absolute
Conscience