Stake Conference thoughts

Today was our Stake Conference, and as things would happen, there was a huge winter storm, the biggest of this winter, that blew into town Friday night.  This made getting down to the Stake Center a dubious proposition, because we all know that Santa Fe County does not like to plow the roads on a weekday and especially not on a weekend.  We just didn't feel comfortable trying to make it down there for the Conference.  Joseph and I were making some plans to have church here at home.

Thankfully, a better solution to this problem presented itself.  Our very amazing and awesome Stake President made arrangements to have the Stake Conference broadcast via the internet to all of the unit buildings.  All around that was a better option for our family.  We only had to hop-skip over to the church for Conference.  I'm so glad too, because the messages we heard today were answers to prayers, and it was so nice to be in the church with our friends from Pajarito Ward.

Before I share some thoughts, I wanted to point out a truth that was shared.  We had Elder Larry Lawrence with us and he spoke on the Law of Compensation.  I'd never really considered this law, but basically it's that when a door is closed to us, if we are righteous, the Lord will compensate for that loss.  The fact that we were able to view the Conference online, in our own building was a nice compensation for not being able to get down to the stake center with the rest of our stake.  The gospel is true!

For the last few months I have felt very "beaten up" by the world, people - some of them friends and family, and the things the world teaches as truth.  Not that I have ever entertained the idea of giving up on standing for what I believe in, but sometimes I wonder why I do it, and if I will ever get a break from the pounding I feel.  So when Pres. Zollinger, our Stake President spoke about "To Them of the Last Wagon", I felt like a prayer had been answered. 

Sometimes it's hard being in that last wagon, with all of the dust and the muck.  But perhaps this is where most of us are.  We are just regular members of the church, trying to follow the prophet, trying to do our best despite all that the world throws at us.  Pres. Z, encouraged us to find solace in the Savior and to keep moving forward.  He also reminded us that without the trials of life, we would not be able to understand and appreciate the joyful parts of life.  We are clay in the hands of the master potter, and sometimes we will find ourselves in the furnace, but the potter will always be there with us.

Pres. Betts, also spoke.  He managed to tie the Word of Wisdom and the Family Proclamation into a wonderful talk.  The Word of Wisdom was given as a warning and a forewarning.  So was the Family Proclamation.  The talk Pres. B. quoted from was Pres. Hinckley's talk called, Stand Strong Against the Wiles of the World, from the October 1995, General Conference.  This was the talk that Pres. Hinckley introduced The Family Proclamation to the world.  Pres. B., encouraged us to follow the teachings found there, because those principles teach us about The Plan of Salvation and how to prepare to live with God.

My friend Juli also spoke, and she continued on with the themes found in The Family Proclamation.  She is a great mother and spoke about some of her struggles with motherhood and mothering. But reminded us from the Doctrine & Covenants 64: 33 "Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great."

So, Jeffy, you are the smallest in our family -- I expect great things, pal, because you are putting me thru my paces! :)

As I mentioned in the beginning, Elder Lawrence was the General Authority and concluding speaker of our Conference.  He was very inspiring and uplifting with his remarks.  He spoke on the Law of Compensation.  I feel urged to sit down and examine my life and to see where the Lord has given me compensation and blessings in my life.  I'm going to sit down and actually write that in my paper journal soon.  He ended with the council that if we believe in the Law of Compensation our trials will make us better, not bitter.  Which reminds me of a poem called, Adversity Reaction by Peter Czerney,

"What is your adversity reaction? 

Getting bitter or getting better? 

It's the difference of one letter. 

If you're bitter notice why. 

It's that selfish little 'I'."

So there it is, Santa Fe Stake Conference, Spring 2015.  It was a great Conference.  Thanks to all who made it happen.

Dear January

Dear January,

I'm breaking up with you. Seriously, I don't know how we ever thought it would work.  It never does work, and yet we persist every year in getting together and trying to make it work for 31 of the longest days of our lives.

I will not lie, having someone sick for three weeks has not been fun. But the frosting on the cake had to be when my husband had to go to the ER.  You tried to kill him!  Why oh why? (note to the reader: all is well, just a new migraine symptom made itself known, we had to make sure it wasn't something more serious).

 

Then there is pointlessness of snow.  Seriously, in December we can sing about Winter Wonderlands, White Christmases and Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow, but the snow that you bring, January, is just soul sucking, white flecks of horror.  Rain is good.  You can sing in the rain.  Raindrops can fall on your head.  Drip-drip-drop little April showers, oh and you don't have to shovel the rain.

 

Things that saved our sanity though, I give all the credit to my inner Arizonan for this, was the oranges that we ordered.  Sweet Baby James says orange is a happy color ... YES!  Yes, it is!

 

We managed to have some fun with play-doe.

And you can never get enough of building trains.

Still January, I am quite ready to be done with you, because this is where we ended up last night.  Dumping salad in the drawer of potholders.   All we could do was laugh, because there was nothing else left.  I won't even go into detail of how Jeffy managed to smear half a tube of Desitin all over himself, the wall, the dresser, his face ... twice.

I'm counting the days till you go, January, just counting down ... 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 ... buh-bye!

Till next year,
The Atomic Mom.

 

 

 

 

Life of Jeffrey

 Because everyone knows the best thing to do when you're cold is to wear your snow-bibs over your footie jammies.

Jeffrey, is a little boy with a whole lot of something packed into his three foot frame...

Sunday, Joseph and I were down stairs doing dishes.  All of the sudden we heard this awful noise, of something falling and wailing.  It was more than someone falling off the top bunk bed, and the wailing was painful.   We both rushed upstairs to find Jeffy on the floor with the TV on top of him.  He'd pulled it off it's spot and onto his face and chest.  Thankfully he was fine and only had a scrape on his face.  But still, I think this guardian angels work overtime...

In the last few days, Jeffy has also taken to carrying around my old Cabbage Patch Kid doll and calls it "Baby".  "Mama, Baby is crying!"  "Mama Baby has poopted his diaper" (even though baby is a girl doll) (And we are very into bodily functions right now -- did you know everyone poopteds? It's true.)  Last night Baby was crying and I said, Jeffy, "Why is your Baby crying?"  "Because he got a TV falled on him."  Art imitates life.

Today, the phone rang.  I didn't look at the caller ID very clearly and I thought it was Joseph. It was not.  I said, "Well that's a bummer, that wasn't Daddy."  Jeffy was right there and started to talk about his Daddy.

"Daddy is at woooorrrrrk."

"What does Daddy do at work?"

"He gets wheels for all the people."

"Really?  And then what?"

"He puts the wheels on our cars.  That's so nice of him."

Here's to TVs and wheels on your cars.

Homemade Egg-nog

Here is the long awaited egg-nog recipe...because like I said before, friends don't let friends drink store bought sludge egg-nog.

I won't write a whole long spiel about it, other than to say, you can modify it however you want.  I took this recipe here (Non-Alcoholic Egg-nog from, A Sweet Pea Chef) and tweaked it a bit.  I like creamy things, but Joseph does not like them as much as I do ... so I lightened it up a bit and expanded the recipe so that everyone could have some.  We also like a lighter spice blend as well.  If you like nutmeg and clove, add them, I didn't.

You will need:

6 C whole milk
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon (more or less to your taste, though)
4 egg yolks
1 1/2 C sugar
3/4 C sweetened condensed milk
2 C half-and-half
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp rum flavor (optional)

Method:

Over medium heat, bring the milk, S-C milk, and cinnamon to a low boil.  In a separate bowl combine the egg yolks and sugar till they are a fluffy slurry, and the color has lightened up.  After the milk has come to a boil, temper the eggs, by whisking a 1/4 C at a time, of the hot milk into the egg/sugar mixture, till you have about half the milk left in the pan on the stove.  At this point the eggs should be tempered enough so  you can add the egg/milk mixture back into the pan on the stove.  Continue to heat on med-low for about 5ish minutes.  Remove from the heat, and add the half-and-half, vanilla, and rum flavor.  Allow to cool in the fridge for several hours, but it's actually really good warm too.  If you want a richer egg-nog use cream and 2 more egg yolks.

Christmas 2014

Here is the story of our Christmas ...

On Christmas Eve morning I slipped on some ice, trying to take our garbage barrel out to the street.  Thankfully nothing was broken, but I did feel like I'd been in some sort of car accident for the rest of the day, and for most of Christmas Day itself.  In fact, I spent a nice few hours in my bed on Christmas with my tablet watching Miss Fisher Murder Mysteries on Netflix. 

But, but, but ... things were good, and went well for the rest of the people.

We ate well, recipes to come later this week, as I finally remembered to write down my eggnog recipe and photograph it.   You see, friends don't let friends buy and consume store bought sludge eggnog, it's just wrong.  My recipe is better, and you can make it with stuff you have in your fridge right now.

Also, if you received a Christmas card from us, you noticed that I made a note about atomicdays.com.  A few months ago I bought my own domain name and am going to be moving the blog(s) over there.  I still have to figure that out though.  So, come January 1st, or 15th or 31st, and possibly 32nd if that is still not up and running, then just come back here and visit.  I give you no guarantees of what I will do, or when I will do it.  I'm tired, and mostly unmotivated these days.  The only thing I get right all the time, is getting James to school on time, which is a major miracle considering my aversion for mornings.

But I wax verbose and you want to see pictures...well mostly the grandmas want to see the pictures.  The rest of you hooligans want that eggnog recipe, and I pinky-promise I will get it to you ... by New Year's Eve.  

The Boys opening their Christmas Eve presents from Grandma Brinton.  Fish-bots.  

 

The horde all arrayed for your Christmas convenience.

 

The destruction of the Christmas tableau.  Everyone gets their own color of wrapping paper.  James was telling Jeffy how to unwrap present, which was totally unnecessary.

 

Opening ...

 

Displaying ....

 

Playing .... actually, it was very cute to watch Pinocchio with his new Pinnochio toys.  He had them acting it out, as the movie went along.

 

Playing with the Fish-bots in the sink ...

And in a bowl...

 



 

And together ...

 

Finally, a video of the boys playing with their fish:

 

I hope your Christmas was great.  And now, back to Christmas vacation and Miss Fisher Murders.

Happy Constitution Day!

Happy Constitution Day!

Yes, the little American History teacher in me is giddy, just giddy!
I have to say as well, I was touched this morning after I dropped James off at school, I stopped to talk to my neighbor.  As we were standing in front of her house we heard the kids across the street at the school start singing the national anthem, and then say the Pledge -- then let out a giant WHOOP! when it was all over.  

It was especially heartening to hear this, as New Mexico seems to be totally devoid of patriotism most of the time.  And everywhere you turn the country, world and people seem to be falling apart.   At least here in our little corner we did it right today.

We even watched The Preamble Song for our morning devotional.  The boys told me to stop singing ... sillies ... don't they know there is a song appropriate for EVERY occasion, and that I probably know it, and will sing it?  Get used to it kids, your mom is going to embarrass you.
James also wanted to know why they used feathers to write instead of pencils.  Obviously pencils would have been easier, right?

But seriously, we do have an amazing and divine Constitution to work from.  I know our current leadership is fine to ignore and even violate it most of the time, but it is still there and there are good people, nationwide who want to, and do try to preserve it.  For that I am very thankful...

Now, everybody SING!

Atomic Summer

I guess summer really is coming to a close.

Joseph took the air conditioner out of my bedroom window over the weekend.  And we've had a bite of fall in the night air for almost a month now.  In another 2ish weeks, we should be turning on the furnace and putting the first layer of blankets on the beds.

As we were driving today, the subject of "the end of summer" came up in our conversation.  James was practically in tears that summer was almost over.  He didn't want summer to be over.  It was especially hard when we drove by the North Shore Shave Ice trailer, all closed up and ready to go into storage for the season.  He was begging for a sno-cone.  All I could give him was the promise of an ICEE from the Piggly-Wiggly on Friday for Homecoming. (Ah, the joys of small town life....everyone, and I mean everyone gets out early for Homecoming and town shuts down that afternoon).

I have to admit, as James was lamenting the end of summer in the car, I found myself a bit weepy at its end as well.  As in I was actually holding back tears and I felt my voice crack a few times.  I love summer ... even the thought of a 100-bajillion degree summer in Phoenix is more appealing than the deep mid-winter.  Although, I'm sure I'd melt if I ever were to go back to Phoenix in the summer now.

We've been in school a month as well.  There is a huge story there, and I'm not totally sure I will share it, or if I even want to share it.  I've had some very deep feelings in regard to sending James to school.  I feel like when I've expressed them, I get crickets back, or I'm *that*friend, and everyone smiles and nods their heads and ducks for cover.  I really don't mean to be so basketcaseish.  Seriously, I don't.

Summer was grand and fun and yes, we are sad to see it go.  Although the boys were happy to see pumpkins out front of the store.  I told them we can't have a pumpkin till October.  I have my limits people.  Don't even get me started on the ridiculousness of Christmas before December 15th, which is the day I think I am mentally ready for it.

So, now we wait for many long months for the return of our favorite time of the year ... with its sno-cones, no schedule-schedules, friends, park days, back yard days and the warm lick of the sun on our skins.