My Corner of the World

The title of this post just makes me laugh and laugh to myself. Awkward Confession #1: I wear earplugs during my kids' band concerts. It only gets embarrassing when the other parents try to start up conversations with me and I have to go, "huh?" and lean awkwardly toward them like I have age-related hearing loss. I usually have to pull out the ear plug in order to have a conversation because the noise in the high school negates the possibility of having a normal conversation even without having plugs stuffed in my ears. And then they say something like, "Oh, what a good idea!" all while looking at me like I'm really weird because I'm missing out on something really good. Believe me, I was in band too, and I don't even think the students would take offense. They know they don't sound good. I know I would've gladly plugged my own ears when I was in Band. We have a band concert to attend tonight. Luckily (?) for me, I have the excuse of goin...

Chocolate chip cookies are one of my weaknesses. I admit that freely. I learned to bake them when I was less than 10 years old and they are connected with so many of my happy childhood memories. I learned to bake them at home in my mom's kitchen and I baked them regularly until the day I moved out. I can remember one time baking chocolate chip cookies late at night with friends and then just eating the cookie dough. I also remember my best friend bringing me home baked chocolate chip cookies on my 17th birthday. At my bridal shower, I was even given a Tupperware tub full of chocolate chip cookie dough as a gift and I still think of that as one of the most memorable gifts I ever received! As an adult, I've baked them for my friends, brought them to church potlucks and bake sales, taught my kids how to bake them and lately I've also been.... modifying the recipe. I've been trying to healthify my chocolate chip cookie recipe. I recognize that a food that's made of...

So today I had a little extra time and I decided to run my own little home-based pizza shop. I could call it: Barboli's. I was frustrated with getting my kids to school late 2 days in a row mostly because all 3 of them have been relying on me to get their lunches packed, their breakfasts made, and their backpacks stuffed. Thankfully, I've at least trained them all to take showers and used the bathroom by themselves. :) So I decided I needed to do something about the lunch situation because that has been taking WAY too much of my valuable morning time. I've been trying for a while to come up with lunch solutions that all of my kids will enjoy and that I can prepare in advance and simply pull out of the refrigerator or freezer. Last month I got together with a group of friends and we made pizza pinwheels but, for some reason, those didn't go over so well with my kids. So I thought, why not just pizza? Why make it complicated? My kids all LOVE pizza and they'll ...

This post could sound like I'm referring to lots of different things, like sports or working at a machine shop. Really I'm just asking generally about your work style. I have discovered that I'm definitely, no holds barred, a starter. I LOVE starting new projects. I've had to suppress many urges to start new projects this summer. But I just kept asking myself, "When? When will you have time to work on that?" You already have about 5 projects going that you started last year." Seriously, I have something in every room of my house. In my office that I'm sitting in right now, I had a plan to make DIY magazine files thinking it'd be cheaper than buying them. I found a super cute post on pinterest of some that can be made with plywood ad 1x4s and I went straight to Home Depot and bought the materials. Unfortunately, I am deathly afraid of operating the miter saw on my own, so I'm waiting for a time when my husband has time to help me and can gi...

I am so proud of this little guy, I mean the little baby watermellie in the picture below He's so cute and miniature and it's so rewarding to see fruits on the plants I've been working so hard to grow. (Friends with large gardens and watermelons, please don't laugh. I'm a beginner here.) Gardening is such an act of faith; you put a seed in the ground and you hope that something will grow up in its place. After working diligently all summer to take care of my garden and water it and stuff, I have come to the scientific conclusion that if you water plants, they will grow. Groundbreaking, I know.  It was my son, M's idea to grow a watermelon in the front yard. I actually let him pick out two at the store because we couldn't decide which one to buy. I think that was a good choice because only one of the plants is producing fruit and the larger, better looking one that we planted in the backyard is the one with only flowers and no fruit. They are b...

I have been "working" in my home as a stay-at-home mom for the past 15 years. Sometimes I've loved it and sometimes I've found it very, very difficult and have been lonely and even depressed. Somewhere along the line, I developed an acceptance of the job of  stay-at-home mom and I became proud of it. I still don't love answering the question that other moms pose to me, "And what do you do? Do you work?" There's nowhere to go after that. I can only answer their close-ended question with a negative, (what's the opposite of an affirmation?) I was just talking with someone at church on Sunday-- a teacher, who was telling me how she was getting ready for the next school year and she was telling me how it's difficult, but then she interspersed her comments with the statement, "I've never been a fan of it." I said, "Of what, public school?" And she said, "Of mothers working." I processed that and realized that, al...

Most people I know think I'm pretty crazy, but I spent part of my summer vacation walking across the plains of Wyoming with my husband, son, and his church youth group. We walked 40 something miles in 4 days all the while pulling handcarts that were loaded with our food, water, belongings and supplies. We slept in open tents, we camped on the bare ground, we cooked our meals over the fire in a dutch oven and we washed up as best we could. We left our phones and technology at home as we tried to walk in the footsteps of our forebears, the Mormon pioneers of 1856 who pulled handcarts with their families all the way from western Illinois to Salt Lake City, Utah. Many sacrificed their lives that year as they were stuck on the plains when an early winter snow fell in October. It was hard for us and for some of our youth group, but it was nothing compared to the sacrifice those early pioneers made. We were lucky to be able to walk on our nicely paved trail in the summertime and we were a...