Pear Crumble made our night, a misadventure in camping, fels naptha flour

1. I made pear crumble tonight with Asian pears. And because it was so delicious, I'm sharing the easy and low sugar recipe with you. You know how in a really good apple pie you add about 1 C sugar per apple (so about 4-6 C sugar)? This has a total of 1 1/2 C sugar and it's sweeter than apple pie. An instant winner for our family; we all loved it.

PEAR CRUMBLE
6 medium pears (they need to be pretty sweet--try Asian; also I substituted an apple or two instead of 6 pears)
3 TB lemon juice
½ C sugar
2 TB flour
1 tsp grated lemon peel
1 9-inch pie crust. (Check out smittenkitchen.com for a recipe).


Prepare pie crust and put in pie dish. Combine ingredients and put into a pie dish. Sprinkle Crumble Topping on top.

CRUMBLE TOPPING
½ C flour
½ C sugar
½ tsp each cinnamon and ginger
Cut in ¼ C butter
Bake at 400 for 45 minutes.


2.We went camping this week. Actually, two weeks ago we were going to go camping. Perfect weather, Matt had two days off. So we planned for it. Then I checked the weather. Blast. Rain on the forecast. Matt and I went on a date instead, taking a walk and eating ice cream. The rain? Never came.

On Monday, we saw the chance for camping again. Matt wasn't feeling too well (he'd worked 3 nights in a row and was completely exhausted). I got home from Emily's dance at 6 and he hadn't packed dinner yet and only half the stuff in the car. So we decided to leave the stuff in the car and eat spaghetti for dinner. Another camping trip foiled.

Friday we thought, "Third time is the charm!" Well, apparently not. This time we got everything in the car, paid for the campsite, got our stuff set up and started dinner. Suddenly it got cool and windy. And halfway through dinner it started raining! The forecast said nothing about rain! So we threw everything in the car and called it a night. Set up Emily's princess tent and she's been "camping" every night since then.

Maybe next time we'll actually stay the night.

3. After our weevil infestation, I was looking for ways to keep the bugs out of our flour in the garage. I thought to myself, "Those extra 23 bars of fels naptha aren't doing anything. Why don't I throw them in the totes with the flour?" Well, indeed, there are no bugs in my flour. But even after the bread comes out of the machine, it still smells like fels naptha. You have to grill it or toast it so you're not tasting. This is a word to the wise for you-- don't put fels naptha with your flour.

'Tis a gift to be simple

I think about this scripture all the time. "Except they humble themselves and become as little children" (Mosiah 3:18).
I look at my children and wonder which of their qualities I need to emulate. Some are easy: quick to forgive, quick to love (and having as much love as they do), finding happiness and joy in little things...

Appreciating our earth, loving Jesus at a very young age, being willing to please...

Being open to new things (okay, so Emily doesn't always have this quality), finding joy in creating, being pure and innoccent...

and I wonder which of these qualities I have. Not many of them. Maybe we should strive to be more simple, like our children.

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When you really think about it, can you get true happiness from your iPhone/iPad/dSLR/awesome possum minivan/really big house/sushi (the answer is YES)/clothes/chocolate...whatever your vice is?

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My children find happiness in playing in the dirt, in the leaves or climbing trees. Their favorite part of the bedtime routine is snuggling with me on the couch and reading books. We went through the Ensign today, talking about temples and Emily was so thrilled to see pictures of the temple and Jesus. "Can we go see the temple tomorrow, Mommy?" "Can we talk to Jesus?"

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Nathalie and Emily will now turn to each other with open arms and run to each other. They comfort each other (like when I put Emily in time-out, Nathalie comforts her) and show so much love and forgiveness to me.

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There's a lot I could learn from my girls.

Sometimes I need a reminder...

--that Emily and Nathalie will be best friends (Nathalie's backside, with Emily scratches) instead of sister-enemies
--that the only backsides I'll be seeing will be saggy and old instead of this cute one --that I won't have clothes in this size at my house
--that my laundry basket will always stay in my closet and not be used as a train

--that my bed will stay made because there will be no little people "helping to make it"

--that my kitchen floor will stay swept because no one will be throwing food on the floor
--that I won't get cute smiles like these every hour

--that there won't be any rocking to sleep at night

--that I won't read the same book 17 times a day

--that no baby will fall asleep on me at church

--that no one will ask me to kiss their boo-boos
--that my house will be so quiet that I'll go crazy
--that I'll probably call Emily and Nathalie every day, just to tell them I love them
--that I won't get heart-melting moments like this one (see below)

Emily hurt her lip by running around the house with a blanket on her head. A few minutes later she came to me in the kitchen with this bandaid on her owie.

Sometimes I remind myself that someday my house will stay in order. Because no one (besides Matt) will be there to mess it up. That I'll have all the time in the world to quilt, play, cook, clean and read. Because no one will want me to play with them or read to them or sing to them. That I'll be free to have my own schedule because I won't be taking a little girl to dance class or library time.

Sometimes I remind myself that when they're gone, I'll want them back.

Matt builds things

We needed more pantry space, so Matt whipped this baby together in the matter of a couple hours. Then I had the pleasure of organizing it (organizing is a passion). That makes pantry #3 for us!

My chocolate craving just reached a whole new level.

For a church activity I made some nice desserts. This is called a blotekake, a Norwegian cake with cream and straberries. It's dense like a shortcake but tastes more like an angel food cake. Delicious, delicious and Emily and I had fun dipping our extra strawberries in the leftover cream.


This is called "Adult Chocolate Cake", as in "So good you won't share with children." It has no flour, just eggs, sugar, butter and chocolate. It tastes like a dark chocolate undercooked brownie--but it's smooth, silky and cooked. Possibly the most chocolately dessert I've ever had, except perhaps for Buca di Beppo's Double Dark Chocolate Cake. I ate too much of it though when I was moving it from the cake pan to plate. The finished chocolate cake with cream and strawberries.

Why you should buy Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University right now

Matt and I started Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University (FPU from here on out) back in August. It's a series of "workshops on cd" (or in person if you go to a class) which teach you how to budget, save, plan for emergencies, get into safe debt, plan for your retirement, kid's college and become rich.

It has changed our life.

We have never been in major debt, never had a car payment, never carried our credit card balance over to the next month (except once when we had to buy textbooks) and not really lived beyond our means. But we weren't staying within our budget each month, we weren't saving as much as we wanted, we didn't understand a lot about debt and we didn't know where each dollar was going.

FPU is a brilliant, common sense workshop, that helps you with ALL these things.

FOR EXAMPLE: Matt and I would like to buy a second car sometime next year (I'm hoping for a minivan, he wants a motorcycle.) Before FPU we were saving for a down payment, but we didn't really have a good idea on how much we were saving and we were just going to "wing it" with estimating our savings. Now, after going through the first 5 lessons, we are saving to buy a car WITH CASH. It won't be the best and the brightest, but we won't have a car payment. How's that for radical?! Can you imagine never having a car payment in your life? Well, it can be done and FPU showed us how to create an accurate budget where we knew exactly how much we were saving.

The best part? I don't feel trapped by a budget. Sure, it can get a bit long. But I actually feel SO MUCH financial freedom knowing where every dollar went, every single month. Knowing that we paid off my school debt so we're not making any debt payments. Knowing that we can save enough for our children to go to college and missions.

Unless you are absolutely perfect in your finances, you are out of debt, you know exactly where your money goes and you and your spouse/significant other agree perfectly on money, YOU NEED THIS COURSE. It is excellent.

I love it when Emily dresses herself

Emily is at that fun stage where she loves to do things herself. Like dressing herself. And she loves colors or strange patterns. Or interesting accesories. Sometimes when we go out, we get weird looks because of her clothes. But am I going to stop her? No. Why? Because I love seeing her dress herself, because I love that she's finding out what she loves and because she's so darn cute. See for yourself! Emily wearing her scrub shirt, my tank top and some track pants underneath. She often wears my clothes around the house.

Again her scrub shirt, a pink skirt (which has so many stains that I finally hid it at the bottom of her drawer) and one of my scarves.

Emily wearing pajama pants. The hard part about pajama pants is that she has other pants, similar cut, funny patterns, that aren't pajamas. So how I do explain that her stripey pants in the same style are appropriate but these aren't?

Also, sorry I've been slow on posting lately. It's been pretty crazy at our house and then throw canning on top of that. As crazy as it's been though, I'm excited to say that we made pumpkin bread (with FRESH PUMPKIN!!!!!!!!) and pear/applesauce which was so sweet it didn't even need sugar (thanks to the asian pears). This week: visiting teaching, more applesauce, camping and cleaning.

Now THIS is a childhood

We've been out of town for a few days, here and there. But I wanted to record what Matt and I strive to create for our daughters. We hope to have our kids grow up without videogames but with treehouses. Without treadmills but with cornfields to run. Without chlorinated swimming pools but with creeks and lakes. Without cell phones (until they start driving) but with books. And so, here is your preview into our life in approximately 5-10 years.

Prettiest girl I ever did see. And look at those big eyes.

Nathalie is waiting for her turn with the ball.

Also the prettiest girl I ever did see. She loves running in the corn.

Can you see her kite? It was a great day for kite flying. Later on, Matt got the kite 200 ft in the air...and then the string broke. Both he and Emily were really sad because we couldn't find the kite.

Baby blessing weekend up north. 21 grandkids total.

Could it be?

I saw this today. And I was on a walk with a nice cool breeze, about 75 degrees. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

Have I ever told you fall is my favorite season?

A sprinkling

What's been happening in our lives? Not too much of any one thing, but a little of everything.
I wanted to document that Emily is actually wearing OVERALLS!!! And more than that, she doesn't complain that they are too tight. She also has "tight" Elmo panties on, but doesn't complain that they are too tight. Could we possibly be seeing the light at the end of the "too-tight" tunnel?

It was so nice of these people to think of us specifically when they put up their sprinkler! My girls had a blast. I don't actually know if they saw us playing in their sprinkler, but if they did, they didn't turn it off.

We got a package for Emily's birthday from her aunts. Emily adores the Winnie the Pooh puzzle. Indeed, we're in a bit of a Winnie the Pooh phase, which is alright with me since it's so gentle.

This is what they call "the place". It's a definite favorite playtime. I'm not sure why they love doing this so much. And I love Nathalie's camera smile.

So there you have it. Yay for September!

(Emily doing "I Love You" for Granny. She wanted to put on this apron after a Mutual activity where the young women wore aprons. She put it on and said, "Mommy, don't I look so cute and comfortable?" Yes, Emily, you look so cute and comfortable and I hugged her until she didn't want me to anymore (approx. 1 second). )

Matt is doing fine. He's busy working and almost done making a table for me. I am excited it's finally September and I'm craving apples. Apple pie, applesauce, apple tart, apple dumplings. I had an apple last night and thought, "Oh my goodness, I'm going to eat apples all this fall." Emily tells me everyday that she is 3 now and she gets 3 chocolates when she goes potty. She always shares one with Nathalie though. Emily is in a beautiful age. Nathalie is spunky and precocious. I can always count on her for a big smile. She can also say 20+ words, which is pretty incredible considering she's only 16 months.