Recipe System!

Does this look familiar?

What about this?

 or this..........

I have had this recipe project on going now for over a year and a half. This is not my normal way of tackling projects, I usually begin and end things rather swiftly (Corby would say it is my red personality but what does he know) but wow oh wow has this been a doozie.

First off, I began it with not an end in mind thinking it would just evolve or something. Second,  I thought it would be a great young women 10 3,500 hour goal for Leticia. Hours are still cranking!

After many starts and restarts I can finally say I am probably 10 hours or less away from completion. Holy Cow, has this ever been the never ending project, but in the end I believe it will be the finest master piece I have ever accomplished. Aside rearing beautiful responsible daughters.

My masterpiece in progress.

 I decided to go back to the old fashioned 4x6 recipe card system. I bought colorful card stock, cut it into 4x6 sizes, I typed into my computer every recipe known to man that I love, and then I printed it off in a color coordinating system. Green are main entrees. Yellow dessert, Grey is soup, etc! I have to take them to Staples for laminating and the project will be complete.

To finalize my brilliance when making menus for weekly cooking instead of searching and writing and rewriting ingredients needed at the store, I will simply look through my recipe holder, pull out the necessary cards, slip them in my purse and refer to them as needed while shopping. Because they are laminated, they will withstand all sorts of torture and last through the millennium.

Just home from Staples, 88 feet later.

 So the fun part of cutting out and organizing is next on the agenda. 88 feet of laminated recipe cards. Are you kidding me? At $2 a foot I'll let you do the math on that one. Merry Christmas to me, dang it!


Upon completion I will take a photo but I needed to reward myself for the work thus far done.

I love cooking healthy, fast meals for my family and this process will only increase my love. Plus, one more added tidbit, when a friend says can I get that recipe? Sure, I copy, paste, and send it on it's merry way.

Oh the simple joys in my life!

The masterpiece!

As you can tell, there is lots of room to grow, that was intentional, I love to gather new recipes! All my hard work has paid off, it is complete. Now grocery shopping and cooking will be an effortless task. What's for dinner?

Abundance

We have been blessed with such a great crop of peaches from our tree as well as tomatoes from our garden and our kind neighbor's garden. I have canned 30 quarts of peaches and froze just about that many.

 
                             I canned 36 quarts of super yummy spaghetti sauce and 8 quarts of pears

 Today, I did salsa for the first time ever. I have to say I am nervous because I put jalapeno peppers in it and might have got carried away because the juice touched my hand and it burned for hours. Hope you like your salsa hot family!
I love canning. It  holds such a sense of accomplishment for me. Seeing all that food on my food storage shelves makes me feel like I am doing my part in being self-reliant. I love being able to make meals without thinking ahead and not needing to run to the grocery store for weeks. Bring on the natural disasters, we will be prepared! (just kidding)

I must brag for a minute, but doesn't that look gourmet! Hours of chopping.

All that work and this is the end result.

I also canned 10 jelly size jars of jalapeno jelly. Yummy, get a Ritz cracker, smear cream cheese on top then a dab of jalapeno jelly. No need to take bites, this is a pop it in your mouth in one chomp. For some reason my jalapenos aren't all that spicy so this jelly is mostly sweet but after eating a few you soon feel a kick.

I thought the canning season was over but alas my parents stopped in and provided me three boxes of apples. I decided to turn them into applesauce. I use applesauce in my recipes in place of oil. When I make applesauce I don't add sugar only apple juice concentrate and puree it in my blender. No one wants a chunk of apple in their pancake right?

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

Step 5

I choose to freeze my applesauce rather than can, it tastes better in my opinion. Thanks mom and dad for thinking of us.

Gardener Village with Ms. B

Ms. B does a great job planning a field trip every month for school. For the month of October we were off to Gardener Village to the Witchfest. This place is so cool. They have witches all over. Some walk around and greet you and others sit stationary for lots of photos to be taken. The girls went with Ryli and Sady, their part sister/part friends coherts. It was a beautiful day, hardly even needed a jacket and for the most part not busy. I found a groupon for a sweet deal on the petting zoo and pony rides so we made a day of it and enjoyed ourselves.

 Ryli, Bria, Ada, and Sady posing with the witch in the purple dress. 

I love this one of Bria, her smile is so natural and at age 5 that natural smile is hard to come by!

The girls laughed and laughed about the witch and her breasts.  They were super scared of the huge black spider that was climbing up her broomstick.

By the petting zoo was this way cool swing made out of a tire that looked like a tractor. The girls took turns riding on it. I love how Bria just never gets caught looking at the camera. Sweet little Bria.

After the fun petting zoo and tractor swing, we stood in line for over an hour waiting for our pony ride. We were lucky to ride Blueberry. The girls all loved taking a trot around the village.

 

Somehow Bria didn't get the hat on when she was on her ride so we wore it for a spell afterwards. So so lucky.

Getting saddled up and this time not forgetting the hat. Ada was so excited for her turn, it was worth the $5.00 deal I found to ride dear ole blueberry.

Catch on the flip side fella's I'm outta here on with my pony.

Such a fun fun afternoon to spend with our teacher and friends. Our teacher brought us a bag of candy to eat while we mingled with the witches, what more could you ask for, food, entertainment and transportation.


 

Parenting Love and Logic Style

My friend became a certified love and logic instructor and asked if I would like to take a course. I hesitated because I have taken this course when Teesh was in Kindergarten. I think the practices are great. I love the natural consequences idea. I figured I should support her and I could use a refresher course. 

Boy, have I ever been grateful for the things my mind has been reminded of. Wowsie, I have forgotten a lot. It is a 6 week course and it is held on Friday evening. Date night, right? Nope, too expensive for us both to take so I am soloing it.

Each week we have a different topic:

Week 1:  Putting an end to Arguing, Back Talk, and Begging

Week 2:  Teaching Responsibility without Losing their Love

Week 3:  Setting Limits without Waging War

Week 4:  Avoiding Power-Struggles

Week 5:  Guiding Kids to Own and Solve their Problems

Week 6:  Teaching Kids to Complete Chores...Without Reminders and Pay

Don't those sound like amazing thoughts. I love this process. Basically you show empathy for your child, spouse, co-worker, (really it works on anyone), and get them to solve their own issues. You offer suggestions with their permission and encourage them that you know they are smart enough to do hard things.  You are a consultant with them. Your children bounce ideas off you and you allow them to make their own choices and learn from consequences. You are always there for life threatening decisions but for the most part you don't step in when you know things won't be so pretty in the end. Easy to say so so hard to do.

I learned tonight that:

*People skills are more important for success as an adult than academics.*

This really made me think about the opportunities I am providing for my daughters. Have I made the right choice to put them in charter schools and IB Programs that challenge them and require so much time. Oh, the pressure to always make the right choices as a mom. I am doing the best I know how and I guess everything will work out in the end, right?

Anyway, I am so excited to implement all my "refound" knowledge and give this parenting try my best effort. Girls just remember you didn't come with a manual and I will make mistakes but hopefully as I try to improve and you can forgive we just might make this family thing not too bad!

Highland XC Season 2012

Here's my Teesh Lareesh pushing through knee pain, keep it up!

This year Leticia and Sierra both decided to run cross country. Sierra makes me laugh because at the first practice, coach Rowles had them run a fair distance and then do some interesting walking movements and upon completion said now if you can do this you are on the team. Sierra was so ecstatic, she raised her hand and said, "coach, coach I am doing it". She then realized he was kidding and pretty much anyone who wants can run cross country. Oh my sweet little innocent Sierra, I love you!
I love that my girls had the confidence to run and compete with more seasoned runners. Like I always say, it is not a competition between anyone else, only yourself. I would have the girls set a personal time goal before each meet. Sierra once again made me smile, when I would ask her she would say,"Mom, don't make me think about that it makes me nervous." Oh sweet little daughter you have a competitive mother and one who feels goals are a necessary part of this great life.

Coach Rowles giving last minute pointers.

Before a meet, warming up and mentally preparing.

On your mark, get set, boom!

and they are off.......

Go Highland.

Teesh shaved 4 minutes off from the beginning of the season.

  So proud of you Teesh, way to push yourself.

For one of the meets, Sierra was moved to Varsity.

Here is Sierra after achieving her personal record! Way too be Sierra.

It was an up and down experience for the girls. They had 6 meets for their season. The meets were on Wednesday afternoon. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend every one of  them. I love cheering for my girls along the way. Truthfully, it makes we want to join in and run right beside them but that would be embarrassing as well as they would be disqualified so I will restrain myself and be the cheerleader.
 I would run from one point in the race to the next and scream out my girls names. I knew they loved it because I would see grins and buttons popping! It was hilarious one meet I had Bria and Ada with me. Little side note:  Ada has her own language and we hope for her to be able to join us in our English language soon but for the time being she has some interesting dialects of English. Sierra is Hahee in Ada language.   Anyway back to topic, I was screaming Go Sierra, Go Teesh and Ada is a second delay behind with go Hahee go Teesh. Everyone around would laugh and say how precious. It is precious that she would cheer her big sisters on. How lucky we are to have healthy bodies that can do what we need/want them to do.
Way too go Sierra and Teesh! You make your parents proud, now look who is busting buttons!

At one of the meets, the girl's Young Woman President, Tammy Simons, came to cheer them on. It was something she didn't have to do but did anyway and made them this adorable goodie. Thanks Tammy Simons for magnifying your calling and supporting our girls.

 Every year at the end of the season we have an awards dinner where the athletes are given awards and parents are invited for a dinner from Olive Garden. It was exciting to see the progress both Teesh and Sierra have made.

 Graciously accepting the compliments

 Leticia receiving her award

 Sierra listening to the compliments her coach shared

Receiving her award

182nd General Conference

Every year for General Conference I make homemade, real homemade cinnamon rolls on Sunday morning. It is something I look forward to. Yes, it is a lot of work, but hey, twice a year isn't bad and oh my with the chopped walnuts or pecans and the cream cheese frosting Mmmmmmm.

Not everyone can appreciate my nuts so I make some of both.

Our stake, along with 8 others,  was given the opportunity to sing in the Saturday afternoon session at general conference.

Sierra Jane Hansen

Leticia Elizabeth Hansen

What a once-in-a-lifetime-opportunity!

The girls had to commit to practicing every Sunday from 5:30 to 9:00 for 6 weeks. We had a dress rehearsal the Saturday before. Grandma Hansen, myself, Malia, Bria and Ada met Corby and the girls there. It was an amazing experience to be in the conference center up so close! My pictures look like I was way far away but I wasn't. The Saturday, day of performance, they had to meet at the stake center at 9:45 and did not return until 5:15. What a long long day but so worth it. I loved that they were both chosen as only 3 young woman and 3 young men from each ward were asked.

They sounded like angels singing and both said it was a great experience.

They each received a ticket to share during the session so Corby took Malia and got seats right next to the missionaries. When the age change was announced the missionaries were elated. So cool to be present for that fantastic announcement. Corby said they were on row 9. Look who is looking important now, oh yeah the Hansen Family!

Homecoming for Sierra!

I dedicate this post to my beautiful daughter Sierra!

Isn't she cute!

Sierra was also asked to Homecoming. She made the decision all on her own to turn down the offer because she is only 15. It was a hard difficult decision and I am so so proud of her for choosing to follow the prophet. You will be blessed little daughter of mine. I love your strong testimony and I love how you choose right even when others don't. I love you! I am so proud of you! I know you will be blessed with many future dates when you turn the sweet 16!