Dear Granny and Grandpa...and Uncle B this time:

Especially for B: Thanks for playing outside with the girls every day. They loved it. Absolutely adored it. Thank you.

Thanks for playing with Emily at the park on our trip. Remember how I used to climb everything? Well, apparently Matt was worse than I was. Now I realize why Emily thinks our entire apartment is a jungle jim.

Thanks for giving Nathalie her cow. (Other readers: Nathalie was obsessed with cows. All she wanted to do was say "cow" and "moo" and read books about cows all the time. ALL THE TIME. So my mom bought her a cow, and when we gave it to her, Nathalie got this HUGE smile, ran over and yelled, "MOOOOOOO!" as loud as she could! It was worth every dollar....of the five.)

Thanks especially for taking Emily to Build-A-Bear for her Missy Missy. She loves this bear. Like I told you, she sleeps with it daily. She uses it as her pillow, makes sure she doesn't need medicine, gives her drinks and covers her with a blanket. She loves this, and loves that Granny gave it to her.

Thanks for letting us play at your school. Isn't she a doll?

Maybe a future teacher in the making?

Thanks for taking the girls on the "ride". They were bummed when we recently borrowed a big cooler and it didn't roll like yours.

Monkey child. She climbs up my doorframes. No, not by straddling it. By actually holding onto one side and climbing up it like a pole. Seriously.

I had to throw this picture in. Nathalie looks super chubby in this and I love her little hand. She'll be a climber too.

Love,

Michelle

Dear Granny and Grandpa:

Thanks for letting us come visit you. We had a blast and it was a really nice break from our busy lives here. Emily loved all the attention. She talks to me daily about things we did or saw with you. She talks about reading books all the time with you, playing ball and just having you all to herself. She's been struggling a bit since we got home! Emily loved being your little shadow, especially you, Granny, and running all sorts of errands with you. She misses you a lot.

Nathalie loved reading books all day long. If I let her, I would be reading to her every minute all day.

Nathalie loved being your (Grandpa) little buddy. She misses the height advantage you gave her while holding her. She loved following you around outside and tries to "help" Matt in the garage now.

Both girls miss reading. (And by the way G&G, don't you love the fact that Emily is holding that balloon in this picture? Remember how we watched "Up" and she held her balloon the WHOLE time? What a funny girl.)

Emily loved going to the lake, even though she wouldn't wear her life jacket to get on the boat. The water was a little cold though and wore her out!

Nathalie is just plain cute.

Thanks for letting us play with the kneeboard while you took my siblings tubing. They loved that Grandpa has a boat and Daddy pulled them on a little boat.

Nathalie misses eating cereal at the big table. She's not a fan of her high chair anymore and wants to be big like she was at your house.

And both girls loved all the loving they got. Granny and Grandpa are definitely more patient than Mom and Dad!

Love

Michelle

P.S. Another letter or two to come.

My First 3 Acts of Tightwaddery

A very good friend recently gave me this book, "The Complete Tightwad Gazette" by Amy Dacyczyn. She (my friend) and I are always looking for ways to not only save money, but cut down on the waste in our lives. The author talks about many different ways to recycle, reuse, check prices for the best possible deals (and without coupons!), find things for extremely cheap or almost free and essentially, save money on every aspect of your life.

You're probably interested in this. At least most of us are saying, "How can I make my money go a little further?" Some of you are saying, "How can I make my money go further AND recycle things?" So I suggest to read this book.

But for this blog, I'm going to tell you three things I did today to save money.

1. I looked in the dented/damaged can section at the store. I found 3 cans I needed for dinner and all were $.30 each, normally $1. Saved $2.10.

2. I created a small clothesline. Hard to do in my second floor apartment, but my line should hold 4-8 shirts. I hung 4 shirts with stains on them to dry in the sun. Saved a few cents in electricity, and who knows how much in trying to wash out those stains.

3. I found a broken kids trampoline on my walk today. Knocked on the door, asked the owner if I could have it. Took it to a friend's house who is willing to fix the frame a little bit. Tomorrow I'll see if I can find replacements for 2 missing legs and then buy some rubber bottoms for the legs. Total cost of broken trampoline? Free. Repairs? Probably about $10. Saved anywhere from $25 to $75 on a present I really wanted to get the girls for Christmas but couldn't afford.

There are some things I won't scrimp on. Food, for example, since I believe very strongly in eating whole foods that are ethically clean and of high quality. Also, I'm not sure about going to cloth diapers yet.... (advice/opinions??)

Where do YOU save money?

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!