Dedicated man, dedicated run

Inspired by the Marathon mommy I took the challenge of dedicating my run yesterday to this great prophet.
I was hoping to have some of his talks on my ipod to listen to but, I wasn't able to put it all together so I decided I would run with just my thoughts, on what influence his life had on mine.
I generally work things out in my mind when I'm running, it is a good way of organizing my thoughts and finding clarity. I find that truly my spirit and body are more of a whole when they are both in the process of exercising. Yesterday was no exception, and it certainly was a difficult run for me. I did 7.68 miles and it was through our very snowy town. I was laready tired from a spinning class and although none of you really want to hear it I was having some cramps...Ugh. Needless to say it was a good/hard run. I was greatfu lto have the challenge to keep me going. (Rick did a 16mi run and called it a short run....amazing!)
It was my first run over 6 miles since November and I had taught a spinning class yesterday morning. In my spinning class were three missionaries (I was grateful for my more mellow selection of music) and it was interesting seeing the youthful energy of some of God's army. They certainly stood out as unique (one of them especially loved one of the songs and couldn't help dancing around a bit on his bike) but they all had this great determination and enthusiasm that showed through.
This was one of the MANY characteristics of President Hinckley that I enjoyed and aspired to acquire. He had this ability to motivate and inspire all in his presence.
As the miles rolled by and my thoughts traversed through various times in my life where his influence inspired and humbled me.
Here is a little list of some of the more memorable moments...
I recall being in a regional conference youth choir when I was a freshman in High school. At this time President Hinckley was still a counselor in the first presidency, but I remember sitting and listening to his words. Knowing that the words he spoke to me were a message of truth.
This would carry on with me. I remember him encouraging us to strive to do better and to be better, a message that would carry on throughout his presidency.

I also remember getting my tattoo on my leg. Yes, I already knew it was NOT the right thing to do. However, I will note that it was a very innocent tattoo, and was by no means a mark of rebellion, merely a best friend tattoo between me and my cousin Lisa. Shortly thereafter he gave his talk about respecting our bodies and that we should treat them like a temple. This is where I ate a good dose of humble pie...(not the first time and probably not the last.)
I have many many times regretted this decision and will forever have it as a mark as a weakness in decision making. Especially when my kids, primary children of young women ask me about it.

I have fond memories of the BOM challenge. I remember sitting (very pregnant with Poppy) on the floor of the primary room, doing a read-athon with my young women. I loved seeing the love and devotion that each of those girls put into his challenge. I especially loved seeing the mark of accomplishment that beamed on their faces when they achieved their goal.

I clearly remember the encouraging B's that he gave. Today in primary the children still remembered and could recall all six of the B's. This is impressive especially when I realized that most of them were not even alive, or very old when he gave them to the youth of our church.

I recall his sweet humble spirit that could charm even the hardest of men. I loved seeing him in the public sphere, taking on the lions of the press. He knew who he was and what his purpose in this life was, and they could not shake his character. I try to share the gospel freely with others just as he would have done. It is such an important part of my life, that if I refrain from sharing deny others the same joy and love I experience in knowing who I am, where I am going, and that I don't have to do it alone.

There are many other thoughts that came to me while I was running, this is just a few that I'll share. I'm so grateful for a wonderful prophet who guides our church and gives us the modern day direction that we need to return to our father in heaven.

I know that I have a purpose here in this life. I'm certain it won't always be easy and at times I may not fully understand that position, but I know that God loves me and that I have a Savior who has atoned for my sins and that I am a daughter of God. I grieve that Gordon B. Hinckley will no longer be in our presence, but rejoice that he is on the other side. I hope I can live my life with just as much clarity and purpose as he did.

Thanks for indulging me with so many fond memories and thoughts.

Week in Pictures...1st week of 2008

New Year's Eve Princess tea party. Chelsea and Poppy.
New Year's Day "Morning After" run 3.5 miles.

Daddy Getting the kids ready to run...notice the pink tights and super cape! He's our superdad.
Yesterday's primary "meet your teacher" breakfast. It was a great party with a good turnout. I think the kids really enjoyed getting to spend some fun time with their teachers. I am grateful to have my freezer back, and to have the planning off my brain!
Snow ant. The snow was way to fluffy for a snowman, so we made a giant snow ant instead.

This evening the McDonald's brought over their very fun/large Mastiff "Granite". He is so pretty and fun. Smiley, although the smaller, could still exert his dominance. It was fun to watch them bounding around the house...I think they need a gymnasium and they would have a great time. I was going to get a picture of granite up next to Poppy, just so you could get an idea of his actual size...but she wouldn't stand to close. He is as tall standing on all fours and she is.
He is one Beautiful dog...Shane tells me that he will probably gain another 50lbs or so. After all he is still a puppy!

Shorthanded Sunday!

For Christmas Oscar got the book "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible,
No Good, Very Bad Day" This was me this morning at church.

Note: I Planned on being short two members of the presidency...leaving me and the secretary to do the Sunday tasks.

Phone rings 7:15, Sr. Primary chorister will not be attending church, snowed in.
Phone rings 7:30, Substitute teacher for one of our classes is ill and will not be able to help out.
Phone rings 7:45, Primary president calls and will not be able to make it has to drive daughter to Seattle. (this was not too surprising, I was mainly planning on it, but it would have been nice if she was there)
Get to Church sacrament meeting went well...
Shortly after the Jr. Primary chorister informs me that she is leaving and will not be able to teach singing time for the Jr. primary! (I was hoping she would be able to do both Jr. and Sr. but no)

Primary begins...Pianist is late, I am panicking scrimping to find someone to play the piano. Find someone, but then regular pianist shows up...she does however, struggle playing the piano and all of the songs I pick she doesn't know! We end up singing acappella and I only know half the words!
4 teachers are not there, and there are no substitutes...luckily we combined 3 classes into one and a kind man in our ward agreed to teach a combined class of 2 other classes...
We had a January birthday to give a present to, but we haven't yet put all of it together...I end up giving him the poster part and I will have to figure the rest out later!

The lovely CTR6 class did the Jr. sharing time (and did a great job from the little bits I saw), which was a saving grace because I was then able to get the manual for the teacher who was going to fill in for the two other classes.
Another blessing was that a kind wonderful woman named Sherry came to the piano Rescue during Sr. primary singing time (the Jr. primary chorister is the Sr. Primary pianist, I know confusing)...this time we had a piano to sing along with! Still, I didn't know the words very well and was quite horrible directing...but the kids were very kind and forgiving!
I then taught my sharing time, which given the craziness of the day went really well until the last 5 minutes when we found out that we would have to do closing exercises in the primary room (which barley fits all of us, and we had already put away the sunbeams chairs!) So, out come the chairs and we re-shuffle kids to make it work.
Next, closing exercises...Krissy was conducting for her first time and sis a pretty good job, I was directing closing music, and we ended having too much time left over and so I had to do an extra song to take up the time.

Seriously this was a weird crazy Sunday!
I am pretty much venting here the frustrations of trying to be in the position of making things work! I feel sorry for others who find themselves shorthanded every Sunday! Gratefully, I only have to experience this every so often, but truly I get so annoyed with unreliable and fickle people!
I then try to remind myself that this is a volunteer organization! Everyon is voulunteer (including me!) So why do some feel a more sense of duty and responsibility while others can put it all off so easily????
Now, I'm going to go take a nice nap and will wake up much happier and ready to prep myself for the Primary activity next Saturday! Hopefully ALL of the teachers will be there!

Bethlahem Feast

My good friend Reem who is from Palestine taught me how to make this yummy dish last Monday. She doesn't use "recipes" so the following information is my interpretations on how to make yummy Baba Ganoush.

Two fresh pretty egg plants(above you see four because I was doubling the recipe)
1 large container plain yogurt ( I like Nancy's and that is the kind Reem uses too)
1 bunch Parsley finely chopped (not mushed in a food processor)
1-2 Tbsp dried mint
4-5 Tbsp olive oil (to taste)
Salt (to taste)
Pepper ( to taste)
1-2 cloves garlic finely mushed

Take eggplant and place on cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for about 1 hour or until cooked through.
Remove from oven and place in a bowl and fill with cold water. Let sit to cool.
When cooled peel off the skin and remove top part of plant. Finley chop or blend up the cooked eggplant. (I used our magic wand and it worked great, you could also use a food processor)
Next add lots of yogurt...this it the main ingredient. Then add the parsley to taste and remaining ingredients.
When it is all combined you should have a nice whitish looking dip that has a light soft taste of parsley, mint, olive oil, garlic and eggplant.
This is very delicious on pita bread!

Falafel!
Here are the mini falafels (I'll post this recipe later) I made to take to our ward party...this is the pre-fried photo.
I was going to make sure to post a list all of the fun items I had on the ethnic tables and I will do so now. I forgot to take pictures so you will just have to link to some of the recipes since I pulled them off the internet...

Pita's
1 cup water
2 tsp dry yeast
1 TBsp Sugar

2 tsp salt
2 TBsp olive oil
2 1/2 Cup Bread flour (or combination of wheat/white)

Preheat oven to 500 degrees- remove top rack and place remaining rack on lowest setting, covered with tin foil.

Combine water, yeast, and sugar in mixing bowl. let rest until bubbly.
Add salt and olive oil
Mix well
Begin adding flour 1 cup at a time. Knead bread until soft, moist but not sticky. You will want the dough to be pliable and a little moist (like a babies bum)

Next knead all of the dough into a disk on the counter, cut it like a pizza into 8 equal parts. Roll each part into a nice round ball and set on floured surface. Cover balls with moist cloth or paper towels to avoid drying out. Let raise for 30-40 mins.
When pre-heated roll out 2 balls into nice disk(pita shapes) not too thin about 1/8 inch thick. Place both disks evenly on the tin foiled rack. Bake for 4-6 minutes (Mine are usually done by 4 minutes). Roll out next two disks while waiting for the others to cook.
Remove finished pitas from oven( I use a spatula to pick them up so that I don't puncture the pocket) and stack on top of each other to cool (this will help them to collapse). Wait for oven to pre-heat back to the 500 degrees (I watch my little light to tell me when) then add the next two pita disks. Cook for 4-6 minutes and keep repeating.

Store in zip lock bags after cooled. Can also freeze to remain fresh.

Hummus...
2 cans Garbanzo Beans (drained, reserve some liquid)
1/3 Cup Tahini (you can find this usually by the peanut butter...or health food section of store)
1-2 Cloves Garlic (minced)
2 tsp Lemon Juice
1/2 tsp Cumin
1-2 TBSP Olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
Take ingredients and place in a blender or food processor. Blend until it is nice and smooth. Add some of the liquid if the consistency is too thick. Add more lemon juice or oil to taste.
Make some Pitas and enjoy!

Tabouli Salad-

• 3 cups of finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 1/2 cup of finely chopped fresh mint
• 4 or 5 finely chopped spring onions (with the green parts)
• 4 ripe, medium size tomatoes, chopped into small cubes
• 1 cup of medium bulger wheat (cracked wheat)
• 1/2 tsp allspice
• 1/2 cup lemon juice
• 5 TBS good olive oil
• Salt and Pepper

Grape leaf rolls-

Reem made these and they consist of rice with lemon juice, broth, olive oil, salt and pepper, wrapped in pickled grape leaves...very delicious.

Lebanese cookies- Click Here for recipe

Iraqi Cardamom Cookies -Click Here (these were my favorite of the three)

Date almond balls Tam'r ab Loze-Click Here

So there you have it...My week bundled up into a menu! I am grateful that I will not bee cooking as much this week. Although I am very grateful that it went really well and I had a lot of compliments on the food. It just goes to show that people do like GOOD food, they just need to try it!
I have also gained a better appreciation for the the story of Christ feeding the 5,000! Truly amazing! I suppose I need to sharpen up my faithfulness and maybe next year I will be ready to test my faith and only make one batch of pitas and other stuff etc...
Let me know if you try any of the recipes and if you like them!

Confrence Sunday Sampler

Today could very well epitomize fall wrapped up in a nice cozy package. We had the great opportunity of listening to conference (held in Salt Lake City and sent via internet, T.V., satellite Etc.. throughout the world). Twice a year, spring and fall, our church leaders hold a two day conference, full of inspiring counsel and direction to encourage all within its reach to stand a little taller and be a better person. Today was the final day of the fall conference, and I felt a sense of renewal and joy in being a mother, wife and friend.
Truly this life is about being part of a much bigger circle. Each of us has a the capacity to love, serve, and make this world a better place. I'm grateful to have the knowledge of a God who truly knows me and that I can have access to him through prayer. What a wonderful world we live in!
Along with watching conference, we took a walk to our Sunnyside park where we feed the ducks, pigs, lamas, and play on the toys. The pictures above show the trail we take to get to the park and Poppy and I laying down on the Merry-go-round. The air was crisp and fall -like, the leaves were changing colors and it felt like a beautiful fall day.
Following conference we ventured over to our Friend's, the Eaton's, for Samantha's birthday party.
It was a great party, we went for a hike on the hills across the road from their farm house, the kids had horse back rides, and then had some tasty pumpkin-chocolate chip muffins (all whole food made), and a bowl of mixed nuts and fruit.
Nikki my friend, and Sam's mom, really makes an effort to do things all organic and local (if possible). I have posted their ranch previously on my blog, but they raise organic free-range beef. It was delightful to see all of the kids having good-ol' fashioned fun! I don't think they even missed the sugar-laden cake...it was a real treat!