Anniversary Eve

We walked to church today cause the van is making bad sounds and I don't want to drive it anymore. The air was cool on the way there, but I just figured that would help me not break a sweat in my Sunday clothes. These were all the little people that were ready in time to walk, with time to spare.

The teenagers, as usual, were running late. Church was great, I subbed in the nursery. After church the kids took me into the Primary room so I could see the cute drawing that Natalie did.

Those are cute little people, Natalie! You're becoming quite the artist! That is really good for a 4 year old! Natalie was also excited to show us the snowman she made.

We started to walk home, but it was blowing crazy cold wind and the kids were freezing, luckily a neighbor offered to take them and I ran home with Daniel and Owen in the stroller. There's a storm blowing in! Time to hunker down for the night, it's nice that we have a holiday tomorrow. Tonight Corey and a few of the older kids got out Go For It - it's a family favorite.

I got this game in 6th grade for my birthday from Shannan Jackson. I didn't take it with me when on my mission or to college, nor did I take it or pack it away after we were married or through our various international moves... so I can only guess that it stayed at my parents house and they passed it on sometime in the past 5 years as they decluttered. The kids love it, it's been a fun game for them to play together. It was a special treat tonight for them to have Corey join in.

The game can get pretty intense.

While they played, I got some strawberry short cake ready for Sunday dessert, with a non-dairy vegan option for Hyrum and myself. I had a few thoughts of doing a fancy dinner or party for our anniversary (tomorrow) but the plans were mostly in my head and kinda vague. So we didn't do anything big tonight except for a strawberry shortcake dessert.

The little kids sat down and helped themselves to it without waiting for the older kids to finish their game.

We don't have anything planned tomorrow, and with the storm coming in maybe we won't get out at all. We need to get 4 wheel drive one of these years. I thought it would be fun to go up to the Blue Boar Inn for breakfast or lunch, we went there for our 1st anniversary. But the van is not working, the Fiesta is worthless in the snow, and Corey's car has been given to a friend to use for a while, so, we most likely don't have a way to get up there. It might just be a simple day at home. We'll see. We need Corey's business' ship to come in, we're struggling, he's spent, and I'm tired of it too. Just keep taking one day at a time.

I Am In Control Of Me

So, Corey is in St. George with half of the kids (EALSN), I'm at home with the other half (JMHWOD). We've both had a great weekend so far - Corey was able to get lots of work done without any needy toddlers around (no offense to Owen and Daniel!). He said it was super easy watching the little girls swim while Ethan was in his jazz band rehearsals. And life here seems pretty quiet and calm without my teenager that tends to tease and without the little girls that make the messes! ...Not that I'm focusing on the bad things. So, around here, it doesn't matter if Corey and I are home together or not... Friday night is date night and the kids kick me out of the house. So I went on a date tonight by myself. The Draper and Salt Lake temples are both closed for cleaning, so I went to the American Fork Temple, but first I went to Aubergine in Lehi for my date night dinner: a yummy salad and "nice cream" - made of cashews and cocoa, mmm.

I haven't been to the American Fork temple forever, it was nice.

After the temple, since it was still date night and my one night to have dessert, I thought I'd stop by Red Mango for some ice cream. And during my EJC workshop this week, we started by reflecting on the past year, things we've achieved, and then using that to help us establish our goals for this next year. But first we've been digging into our beliefs. Here is the breakthrough I had today, cause I've been going back and forth with things I know and things I feel - oh, I'll just paste my post:

I’m hoping I made some breakthroughs here. SO! My outcome that I want to achieve is to get to 120 lbs/my ideal body/a six pack. I wrote out my answers to all the questions in step 1 for awareness. My negative thought is that I don’t deserve it because I’m not in control of my life – a six pack/defined abs or my ideal body would represent perfection and a person who has their act together. And I don’t have my act together, so I don’t deserve it. So for step 2 – I think my boiled down limiting belief is: I AM NOT IN CONTROL. Here’s what I wrote in response to the questions

Q1 – Is this true? Yes, I am not in control of much of my life, but false that I can’t be in control of diet/exercise.

Q2 – Yes? Can you absolutely know without a doubt that this is true? NO! and immediately I thought of Viktor Frankl’s book Mans Search for Meaning! I AM in control of ME!!! and how I RESPOND to my life and my circumstances!

Q3 – How do I react, what happens when I believe this thought (that I am not in control)? I just don’t even try to be in control! I’ll pig out on a dessert if it’s available. Does it bring me peace or stress? Definitely stress, I feel like a victim. What images do I see? Me, hunched over in a chair, or slouched on a couch with a tummy bulging, sad expression. What sensations does it cause? Craving junk. Any obsessions appear? chocolate and cookies.

Q4 – Who would I be without this thought? So think “I AM IN CONTROL” instead... what do I visualize then? I see me standing tall, confident, looking up, facing the coming storm, ready to stand firm.

So tonight I got half way through this video and did the little bit of extra credit homework you gave me. It was date night like it is every Friday, and even though my husband was gone, I went out for date night. The first Friday of every month we go to the temple. I went out to Aubergine and got a healthy salad and some vegan “nice cream” and then went to the temple. After it was over, I was driving home, and told myself that since it was date night, I could let myself have another dessert. I started thinking about it in the temple, of going to Red Mango and getting one more treat, (Rationalizing: cause it’s date night! my cheat meal! (but if I was being honest I’d have recognized I’d already had more than a few cheats during the past week)) (I’m always starting over) Anyway, on the drive home I would be passing Red Mango, but I decided to not do it and what do you know, the ACTION of resisting and saying NO made me “FEEL!” better! I felt thinner, I felt healthier! NOTHING HAD CHANGED except for my thought, but I felt better and healthier. So I realized that so much of what I’m feeling or not feeling about myself comes from what I think about doing and then what I actually DO!!! I also read today a church article about a girl who overcame her addictions after she stopped making excuses – it said “I continually fooled myself into believing that my daily choices didn’t define me or my future” – hello, light bulb about beliefs! My daily choices (like whether or not to stop for ice cream) DO and ARE defining me now! And if I keep making those same choices and don’t take CONTROL of my decisions, They will continue to define me and thus will be defining the me in my future. So I was super proud I resisted the ice cream and I came home and made a swiss chard salad with beets and lots of good stuff instead. I do have control over my daily choices and they will define me and my future. My “cheats” lead to more poor choices and disappointment, which leads to me feeling out of control, then feeling like a victim, and giving in to the cravings and addiction which results in me visualizing myself as a sad slouched over pudgy frazzled mom.

So anyway, not sure if that made sense, but I didn't get the ice cream and came home and made another big green salad for myself - red chard, beets, white beans, mushrooms, onions, with some vegan poppy seed dressing, good stuff!

So I'm excited about the EJC community I'm in and I think I'm even gonna keep paying to be a part of it, it's helping me learn about myself and become a better person. The workshop/challenge we're doing is called "Design Your Best Year Yet". And I'm seeing messages everywhere reinforcing things I'm learning! Like in these two magnets from my parent's refrigerator:

One of the biggest things I want to focus on this year is gratitude. I want to have a good attitude.

So that's that, I'm going to tell myself and believe that I am in control. And if you want a delicious breakfast, bananas, frozen blueberries, 2 Tablespoons of ground flax seed and almond milk.

I'm going to work to get my best yet healthiest body and mindset this year. I'm loving the EJC if anyone wants to join me! I'm hoping to get some more of my homework there done this weekend before Corey and my mess makers get back (just kidding EALSN!)

Shout Out to Hyrum

It's January, time for new year's resolutions. I think I'll pretend I'm still doing the Vegan Vednesday thing. So, I'm still working on my goals for this upcoming year. But while we're here, just in case anyone out there is looking for some inspiration to your own health goals - I thought I'd give a shout out to my little H. Last year we all started learning about nutrition and Hyrum started to really focus on his diet, and then he began a new year resolution (academic year that is) by being a 100% committed vegan - absolutely no animal products at all. He won't eat bread if it has milk listed as an ingredient. He's a purist! I'm starting to let things slide a bit - I'll eat desserts now and then (prob too often, doh.) but not Hyrum. And look at the difference an improved diet has done for this kid in his AFTER and BEFORE photos (not "before and after", we're putting the "after" first) So, here's after he got his braces off this past October 2017 - 14 years old

And a year before - August 2016 - 13 years old:

Another before shot - June 2016. Hyrum hates this one (sorry buddy. I know, I've been there)

Isn't that impressive? Now some might say that this is just Hyrum finally getting his growth spurt, or now he's enjoying the hollow leg that comes to many teenage boys, but do not be fooled. Hyrum's been working really hard and eating very carefully over the past year. He has not had ANY chocolate this Halloween!! He doesn't eat pizza with cheese anymore for crying out loud! A teenage boy! He's found a good substitute for the pizza, vegan pizza with nutritional yeast. It's his favorite. Yes, this didn't happen by chance, Hyrum has made it happen. I recognize your hard work Hyrum! Keep it up!

2017 In Review

We haven't sent out Christmas Cards or Holiday greetings for a couple years. I did one online in 2014, which I recognize is more than a bit lame, but I guess "pathetic" it's better than "nothing". So, I'm late, but here's our 2017 recap and we send a wish that y'all had a great 2017 and we wish you a wonderful 2018. 

January - Joseph turned 17 years old, Corey's 3rd attempt at making an ice rink was his best yet.

February - Corey and I celebrated 18 years - we took a quick trip to San Diego, some friends from Chile stay with us for a couple of weeks, 1st car accident by one of the kids, Corey's business Movie M0uth got a new CEO
March - 5 month old Daniel is the cutest thing ever, Ethan turned 15, Corey and kids took a trip to Las Vegas with 10 kids and 3 Chileans, he's a champ.
April - Natalie is potty trained, Joseph ran an amazing but unsuccessful SBO campaign
May - Ethan's Year as school governor comes to an end, family bird watching, we're getting healthy
June - Family Pictures, Corey and Joseph trip to Boston, Lily turned 8, Wesley is 12, some of us are trying to go vegan, Boondocks
July - Natalie is 4, Owen turns 2, Scofield, Park City
August - Hyrum is 14, Total Solar Eclipse in Rexburg! Sophi starts kindergarten, a fun summer with our monarch butterflies
September - Abi turns 10, Sophi turns 6, Daniel turns 1
October - I took some kids on a trip to Moab, Courage Challenge, Hyrum got his braces off, worries about Movie M0uth, Halloween
November - Joseph's third strike, Thanksgiving, Momentum
December - Melodie turns 17, Family ski trip, Christmas

Fun fact of 2017 - it was the first odd year since 2001 that I did not have a baby. The first 3 were even years, and then came 7 kids from Hyrum in 2003 through Owen in 2015 that were born every odd year. Daniel broke the tradition being in 2016. We're looking forward to 2018. The only big change we know that's coming as of right now is that our oldest, Joseph, will be leaving this summer for a 2 year LDS mission. We are super excited for him, but also a little teary that our first chick is flying from the nest. It will never be the same, but you can't stop the change. He's ready to launch so we're happy for him. Have a happy 2018! 

Wolfcreek

We are at Wolfcreek up in Eden Utah tonight. Knowing that this is Joseph's last winter with us (we've got so many "last"s coming!) Corey wanted to make sure we got in a family ski day, so he planned this trip out for us a few months ago. Bad news is: there is NO snow. On the drive up here, there was seriously nothing. It was dark, so I couldn't see up the mountains, but all along the road, my headlights didn't show anything but brush in front of us and on the shoulders of the road. I did not see a pile of snow anywhere. I hope our ski rentals don't go to waste and that this ski day tomorrow works out.

Let's see... we've got Vegan pizza on the menu, Corey got apple cider and egg nog and a chicken pot pie. I grabbed a treat of Marshmallow Cereal for breakfast tomorrow, which Hyrum was happy to see is not made with milk or eggs, so he's ready to chow down on that. I don't buy that junk anymore though! I know I've said it many times before, I really don't this time! Except for today. But still, good job me, go team. Still, I have been snacking on it tonight. And I had some egg nog. I can feel myself slipping into the festive food overload of the holidays, doh.

What else... Corey took the kids to the resort rec center, I stayed at the room with Daniel and made dinner. When they got back I got out a puzzle, which is one thing that's been on my list that I want to do with the kids that we never get to do.

Owen was so cute, he tried so hard. It's a puzzle pictures of a ton of bouncy balls. We didn't get very far on it. Lily did a good job. I didn't make much progress. Hard to do a puzzle with Owen and Daniel around. I really hope we don't lose any pieces to it! Seriously, every puzzle I get out, we always lose one piece in the process, so annoying. I brought two puzzles. The other puzzle was "accidentally" opened up in the car. Yeah, that one's just going in the trash now, cause I know we'll never find all the pieces to that one now.

We are going skiing tomorrow. Well, Corey and the kids are. I'll be chilling with Daniel for sure and some other kids. I am heading back home at 1:00 with Joseph and three other kids (I need a full car so that Corey doesn't have an over-full van when he heads back) so that Joseph can be in Orem at 3:30 for call time before a Crescent Band Performance at the Scera Theather. It's been a busy holiday and the break will still be a little busy, but it's nice to have some time together just us. 

Getting Stuff Done

Today I ran more errands than ever before in my life. As that little framed thing from Hobby Lobby says "Messy bun and getting stuff done." I am home today after a major Christmas Shopping Binge. The older kids still had school today, but the younger kids are out, so Abi was my amazing baby sitter while I ran out this morning. I checked the weather last night: there was a storm forecast to be coming in at 2, so I left early and with great efficiency as I trying to race the weather (it was win-dy!). My original list wasn't this long, but here are all the places I ended up going to:

1. Home Depot to return the other toilet handle
2. DI to drop off donations
3. Ski N See to buy ski gloves for tomorrow
4. Red Balloon to buy Beanie Boos for Christmas
5. Spoons N Spice - to buy a few good cutting knives and nice small silverware for the toddlers
6. Kid to Kid - a few Christmas dresses (75% off now!) and toys for Owen and Daniel
7. Good Earth - nutritional yeast for Hyrum's Vegan Pizzas
8. Office Max - Tul pens for the stocking stuffers
9. DSW - nice black shoes for Joseph, he knows so it's okay for me to write it here. I had to ask him what size, I'm taking a gamble that they'll fit okay and be comfortable for him.
10. Ross - art stuff for kids and a few other things
11. TJMaxx - sheets for Corey and I, few stocking stuffers
12. Trader Joe's - my first time going in there ever. Got dried fruits and nuts for some healthy Christmas Day snacks
13. Target - grabbed a few things

Then I went home to relieve Abi. It was 1:00 and I would need to go get Skyline carpool in a bit. Wesley had a LBB performance and Joseph had a sectional, so Joseph had to take him, but J had to leave right after school to a Madrigal performance, so another mom did my carpool today, I went and got Wes from school, and I've been driving the Fiesta all day, which was fine before the storm, but I pick up Wes and had to take Wes to meet Joseph down town so they could get to American Fork in time. As we started to drive down town, the flurries began. I was getting worried but prayed and we met Joseph in time, then I headed home, buuuut, since it was on the way and I promised myself that I'd be fast, I stopped by the Murray Costco for food. I started to fill my cart with veggies, but then saw they didn't have any Vegan Pizza! Hyrum might die, so I'm gonna have to go to Costco again anyway to Sandy to see if they have it - but I'll have to wait until later, so, blah, I hurried and put back the things in my car - just like 6 veggie things, then I ran back to the car. So that was errand 14. Then I came down State Street and went by #15 Toys R Us for a few legos. Then I was on my way home, cause I didn't trust my tin-can of a vehicle to make it much longer in the snow, plus it's windshield wipers are terible. I got home and parked in the street so I could hurry and shovel the driveway before driving on it - which is my #1 winter rule - do NOT under (almost) any circumstance drive on our north facing driveway if there is snow on it without clearing off the snow first. 

Abi helped me, then Hyrum came out and wanted to go to the store. Then he and Abi started a snowball fight while I worked. I came to Abi's aide and put a few shovel-fuls of snow on Hyrum's head. Then he threw a snowball at me! He got me right in the head and ear! 

Well, after that second pile of snow down his shirt, I admit I deserved it. We had dinner - Hyrum made due without vegan pizza, and I watched Corey chase the little kids around.

Our house looks pretty good considering I've been gone all day. Abi gets all the credit.

Those little boys are so cute. Then I told Corey I had to leave him with little kids, cause Hyrum and Wes really wanted to finish their shopping. Boys, I've already been out all day! I don't want to go again! But they ignored my please and we went. So my last errand for the day was taking them to Target for my second time, I snapped a pic at the check out - feeling I should document this somehow, cause that makes #16 errands in one day. And that is a lot!

I guess I am a little impressed with myself, but I also don't feel very well right now, like not physically, just kinda empty inside. I guess I felt like I spent my day doing all this shopping just to do it, kinda, cause that is our culture? I mean I did get some things they want and need, but a lot was unnecessary and will just be more stuff to pick up after Christmas has come and gone. My kids don't need this much, and heaven knows my messy house doesn't want/need any more things inside it for me to shuffle in bins. We should be saving more or paying off music tours and stuff. But oh well. I guess I can return it if we need to return anything. I'm not sure what Corey's bought, we have not coordinated at all. We'll see how this goes! Another quote from the Hobby Lobby wall art collection:

I hope we're making the right things the priority.

Some Salads

I'm supposed to talk about Vegan stuff today, cause it's Vegan Vednesday! Ok. Food wise, I feel like my tastebuds have turned a corner. My weekly personal grocery list now mostly consists of making sure I've got enough goods to have GBOMBS everyday, per Dr. Joel Fuhrman's recommendation. GBOMBS are the cancer fighting foods that Fuhrman says you should eat everyday. Those are: Greens, Beans, Onions, Mushrooms, Berries, and Seeds. So I've been making all sorts of weird GBOMB salads, and just as weirdly, they all taste really good to me. Like - I bought swiss chard for the first time ever! I was slicing up a leaf to add to a salad and I chewed on a leaf of it raw just to see what happened. Last time I tried swiss chard was over the summer when I cut some from my parent's garden. Totally made me gag. But not this time! I chewed on quite a bit of it and it was ok! Plus I got the Red Chard, so it's really pretty with that bright red stem and veins, would be beautiful in a Christmas salad. I just mixed it with beans and avocado and mushrooms for a salad.

My second go at a red chard salad - Beans, mushrooms, yellow pepper, mustard, avocado

I'm not craving junk or sweets at all, just really looking forward to my breakfast bowls and my salads. Breakfast most days looks like this - a 1/2 cup of oatmeal or brown rice with blueberries (the second B in GBOMBS), flax (the S), freeze dried strawberries and a splash of almond milk. If I'm lucky enough that the kids haven't eaten all the bananas, I'll slice up some of those too.

And here are a few more of my salads:  

That one above - Greens, northern Beans, red Onion, Mushrooms, cucumber, tomato, flax Seed and some avocado and salsa. Another day's BOM salad below, got my Beans, Onions and Mushrooms in a salad with some radishes and drizzled with a little bit of teriyaki sauce.

This one is a burger salad - Green spinach,, northern Beans again, Mushrooms, Onions, and also yellow peppers, pickles, and I used yellow mustard as my dressing.

Another Teriyaki bowl - Butter beans, bell peppers, cucumbers, onions, radishes, mushrooms. Also really good with Alfalfa sprouts! This is one of mine and Hyurm's favorites.

So, if you're wondering what in the world we poor humans can eat if we don't eat mean, milks, eggs, and cheese, those are just a few examples. Eat whole foods to improve your health, spare animals, and maybe save the planet, all at the same time!
I saw this video yesterday on facebook of Neal Barnard, M.D. discussing his book “The Cheese Trap: How Breaking a Surprising Addiction Will Help You Lose Weight, Gain Energy, and Get Healthy." Very very good basic stuff. You should watch it! Other vegan things from my inbox:

• Breaking Medical News: New American Heart Association data found that a vegan diet reduces inflammation linked to heart disease better than the AHA's recommended diet.
• Have you been told that healthy, delicious plant-based meals are expensive? Think again! The Physicians Committee's Lee Crosby, R.D., took the SNAP challenge to eat on a budget of $4.15 a day and described some inexpensive meals on Good Morning Washington.

I'll get off of my soapbox now. I'll end this now by encouraging you to go enjoy some GBOMBS today and everyday. Until next Wednesday, this is Tiff the aspiring vegan signing off.

Vegan 2017 - The Film

I'm in the zone with diet and weight this week. It feels really good to feel like I'm living according to my own standards, how I wish and want to live but sometimes it's just hard. And on those days that it's hard to resist treats or "normal food" as my kids call it, I kinda beat myself up with negative self-talk in my head. I watched this video on Monday, got me super inspired to eating right. I was this girl last year after Daniel was born. If I was her right now I'd just be 2 months away from the end of my goal. I'm not going to join any competition, but I do have a goal to be that lean and defined. She's inspired me that I can do it. I watched a lot of her other videos on Youtube - she says it's 90% diet, 10% exercise. And of that 10% exercise, it's 7% weights and 3% cardio. I can do that! I'm in the zone with diet, so I can do this! Just watched this video. Good stuff! Go Vegan!

Hmm, curious... my post last Wednesday was on Vegan stuff too. The week before that I shared vegan stuff it was on a Tuesday, I seem to get on this soapbox every week - maybe I'll try to save any Plant-based preaching for Wednesday and limit myself to one soap-box post a week. We'll it "Vegan Vednesday" - say it like Dracula. We'll try to turn him into a vegan too

For The Animals

Today Ethan stayed home from school. He went to bed early last night cause he was feeling ill. When I woke him up this morning he still felt sick and tired and just couldn't get out of bed, so I let him sleep, and he slept until 11:30. He called me at 11:30 asking where I was. I was at Study group. Our discussion today was on The Ten Commandments. Among the things that came up during the discussion was hunting, and someone shared this excerpt by President Kimball in his October 1978 General Conference talk titled "Fundamental Principles to Ponder and Live"

Now, I also would like to add some of my feelings concerning the unnecessary shedding of blood and destruction of life. I think that every soul should be impressed by the sentiments that have been expressed here by the prophets. And not less with reference to the killing of innocent birds is the wildlife of our country that live upon the vermin that are indeed enemies to the farmer and to mankind. It is not only wicked to destroy them, it is a shame, in my opinion. I think that this principle should extend not only to the bird life but to the life of all animals. For that purpose I read the scripture where the Lord gave us all the animals. Seemingly, he thought it was important that all these animals be on the earth for our use and encouragement. 

President Joseph F. Smith said, “When I visited, a few years ago, the Yellowstone National Park, and saw in the streams and the beautiful lakes, birds swimming quite fearless of man, allowing passers-by to approach them as closely almost as tame birds, and apprehending no fear of them, and when I saw droves of beautiful deer [feeding] along the side of the road, as fearless of the presence of men as any domestic animal, it filled my heart with a degree of peace and joy that seemed to be almost a foretaste of that period hoped for when there shall be none to hurt and none to molest in all the land, especially among all the inhabitants of Zion. These same birds, if they were to visit other regions, inhabited by man, would, on account of their tameness, doubtless become more easily a prey to the gunner. The same may be said of those beautiful creatures—the deer and the antelope. If they should wander out of the park, beyond the protection that is established there for these animals, they would become, of course, an easy prey to those who were seeking their lives. I never could see why a man should be imbued with a blood-thirsty desire to kill and destroy animal life. I have known men—and they still exist among us—who enjoy what is, to them, the ‘sport’ of hunting birds and slaying them by the hundreds, and who will come in after a day’s sport, boasting of how many harmless birds they have had the skill to slaughter, and day after day, during the season when it is lawful for men to hunt and kill (the birds having had a season of protection and not apprehending danger) go out by scores or hundreds, and you may hear their guns early in the morning on the day of the opening, as if great armies had met in battle; and the terrible work of slaughtering the innocent birds goes on. 

"I do not believe any man should kill animals or birds unless he needs them for food, and then he should not kill innocent little birds that are not intended for food for man. I think it is wicked for men to thirst in their souls to kill almost everything which possesses animal life. It is wrong, and I have been surprised at prominent men whom I have seen whose very souls seemed to be athirst for the shedding of animal blood.” (Gospel Doctrine, 5th ed., Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1939, pp. 265–66.) 

One of the poets stated in this connection: 
Take not away the life you cannot give, 
For all things have an equal right to live. 

—and I might add there also, because God gave it to them, and they were to be used only, as I understand, for food and to supply the needs of men. It is quite a different matter when a pioneer crossing the plains would kill a buffalo to bring food to his children and his family. There were also those vicious men who would kill buffalo only for their tongues and skins, permitting the life to be sacrificed and the food also to be wasted. 

When asked how he governed so many people, the Prophet Joseph Smith said, “I teach them correct principles, and they govern themselves.” We look to the Prophet Joseph Smith for proper teaching. He said once: “We crossed the Embarras river and encamped on a small branch of the same about one mile west. In pitching my tent we found three massasaugas or prairie rattlesnakes, which the brethren were about to kill, but I said, ‘Let them alone—don’t hurt them! How will the serpent ever lose his venom, while the servants of God possess the same disposition and continue to make war upon it? Men must become harmless, before the brute creation; and when men lose their vicious dispositions and cease to destroy the animal race, the lion and the lamb can dwell together, and the sucking child can play with the serpent in safety.’ The brethren took the serpents carefully on sticks and carried them across the creek. I exhorted the brethren not to kill a serpent, bird, or an animal of any kind during our journey unless it became necessary in order to preserve ourselves from hunger.” (History of the Church, 2:71–72.)

So I looked up that talk above after I got home, then I got on a vegan tangent on Youtube. Ethan was my captive audience today (last week was Hyrum) and Eth watched this compilation of Vegan things with me, cause he was in the kitchen eating, ha! He agreed it was sad all the animals that die and also said "Humans are jerks." At minute 48 there, a man who is a holocaust survivor and he compared how the slaughter house shows a disregard for life the same way the Nazis did - hearts of cows, hooves, and other body parts all neatly stacked. Both the meat and animal industry use a highly efficient and dispassionate process and seem to feel no guilt about what they are or were doing. It is a long video, so we didn't see all of it but it stayed up on my computer and I'd get in another 10 minutes here and there. Ethan turned it on again tonight when I was washing dishes. I listened, and Lily came in and watched when an alligator got killed and it reasonably made her really sad. Sorry Lil. I didn't mean for you to see that. She then went over to the computer where she typed up then printed about 40 of these. She meant to do 5, but didn't think the printer was working, but it's just slow, so she accidentally printed 40. Cute girl. She wants to put them around the neighborhood. Become Vegin!

Tonight I finished watching it, it showed a clip about ostrich bags, which led me to this peta ostrich video. I feel really bad about the ostrich farms - and for a $4000 hand bag?!? Really? Poor creatures. and of course they show us the adorable baby ostrichs, so sad. Poor sweet little things. If I ever see some one with one of those bags, I might try to nicely inform them and encourage them to really think about where it came from and the animal that died for it. Although, in a near death experience book I read a few years ago, the guy died and his spirit was walking through the hospital and went into a doctors office. As his spirit walked through the leather sofa in the office, he was able to know in an instant the cows it came from, where they lived, their whole existance. Same with the trees that made the wood desk he walked through. He was told that the animals and trees were glad that they were able to be of use to the children of God. And I think it could/should be okay to use them a little bit, but me thinks it's gotten a bit out of control in our world. And I don't know why animals being used for shoes, car interiors, etc hadn't registered in my aspiring vegan head. We have a few leather things around here, but now I'm going to go for only purchasing plant-based items. "Vegan fabrics" - I didn't even know that was a thing until today. You learn something new every day.

Thanksgiving Day 2017

We had a fun time getting ready for Thanksgiving this morning. My parents came over, and we also had two guest from Brazil. Here is a little video when most of our prep was completed and we were waiting for our dinner guests to arrive

When we were ready to begin, Corey shared a few words and then we all went around the room and shared something that each of us is grateful for.

Then we said a prayer of thanks and began our feast, enjoying good food and good company.

Eventhough not everyone around here is vegan, I'll still call today our first Vegan Thanksgiving! Save the turkeys! Save the cows! Save the pigs! Be kind to animals, don't eat them. That begin said, we did have a small turkey and some dishes with milk/eggs/butter ingredients for to those who have yet to see the light. See, Ethan feels guilty...

Hyrum is our hardcore vegan. He is a purist. He doesn't like me to show this, but have you seen his before and after? Just a little shout out I did to him last month. He's been working hard. During the meal, we also talked about how this will very likely be Joseph's last Thanksgiving before his mission! Next year at this time, he might be homesick. We will be thinking of you!

No shortage of food for anyone, plenty of delicious food to eat, we live in a land of abundance.

Ethan provided the music entertainment. After eating and cleaning up, Corey had everyone help him with some ice rink stuff, and I visited with my parents. Then around 6pm Corey and a van full of kids went up to Park City to visit with Corey's family. Ethan, Hyrum, and Abi all slept over there tonight. As for here, after the little people returned they started playing the Wii and they are still going strong. But it's midnight, so I'm heading to bed. Goodnight, Happy Thanksgiving!

Little Fingers

I've been making a lot of waffles the past few weeks. Bread is off the grocery list right now, atleast when I go. I'm trying and stretch the food budget as we wait to see if we die here in the wilderness (speaking metaphorically in regards to the business, of course). So in our life right now, we have oatmeal for breakfast and waffles are the after school snack. Vegan waffles, of course! I spent a good several hours milling wheat on 15 Nov. I've been getting it out daily and making food. Owen really likes the flour and I have to hide it from him. It started off harmless - Owen and Daniel would just sweetly poke little holes in the flour with their cute little fingers. When they started to get more aggressive and grab it by handfuls, that's when I pulled the plug on their fun.

On goes the lid -

And cry goes the baby. Sorry Daniel.

Owen still found it a few times after that and knows how to take off the lid. He's made a not huge mess a few times, thankfully. But still I have to hide it at the back of the pantry now. Another cute thing that Owen's little fingers do it point at the "stars" in Wesley's room. Here's a picture from Sunday of Owen snuggling with Wes on his bed - pointing to the glow in the dark stars on Wesley's ceiling. His voice is super cute "Stars!!!"

And then he'll point over at the dragon and roar. Then they'll give the chicken puppet some love. He pointed at the cougar on Wesley's bed blanket and said softly "meow!" Cute little guy.

Owen loves Wesley, and Wes is such a good brother to him. Maybe we'll have Owen sleep in Wesley's bed when it's time to move him out of our bedroom. We'll be rearranging things after Joseph leaves for his mission next year, so right now we're keeping things the same until we have to change it then. Little video of them playing.

Sleepover

It's the last day of school this week, hooray. Two days! I wish it were like this more often! Tonight we officially decided that we will be eating here. Corey was toying with the idea of going up to Bear Lake like we did in 2014. He had made a reservation, but today I called my mom to see what their plans were, and they weren't going anywhere, so I invited them over here. So now we're going to have a thanksgiving meal here at home like we did in 2015. Should be fun, and less work than a drive up to Bear Lake would be. (Not that I always want to be a logistics party pooper!)

Last night the little girls were being so cute. Lily, Sophi, and Natalie were having a sleepover in Natalie's toddler bed. Yeah. Needless to say, they woke up from being uncomfortable. This morning, Natalie and Lily had moved to the floor. But they were playing super nice. It's always nice when that happens.

Hyrum stayed home sick today. He got up around 10. I had forgotten he was here. Had I remembered, I would have left him with the little kids and gone to Abi's County fair by myself. Instead, I just didn't show up, bad parent! But it's because I thought I had to get little kids ready, and I didn't have them ready in time! I'm sorry Abi. It went from 9:15 - 9:45. So when Hyrum wandered out of his room at 10, I was like "shoot!" My apologies again to my Abi for not making it out. She forgave me. After I apologized, I was able to quickly change subjects asking her how her grade Thanksgiving feast went. She said she enjoyed it. Although they didn't let her take her left over pumpkin cookies, instead they saved the left over food for the office workers to come and eat.

So, in prep for the nationwide "Turkey Day" on Thursday - Hyrum and I did a little animal rights research. I got an email from change.org today, referencing this article by the Washington Post. Hyrum watched the video with me, and we also watched this one of the Burnham farm. That one is really sad. We're convinced again that it is good to be vegan. Hyrum helped me find some vegan holiday recipes. This Forks over knives thanksgiving 2017 plan was also in my inbox today. But I needed a sweet potato recipe, and found this one! I'm excited. I ran to Costco for our Thanksgiving meal ingredients, and with the supplies fresh and on hand, I decided we'd do a little tastebuds teaser tonight - we made some of the Fire Brigade vegan stuffing for dinner, along with some milk and butter less mashed potatoes. It was great! I think I should make stuffing more often, it shouldn't be a dish just for November. Stuffing every month for a whole year, that's my new dinner goal.

What else. Business update - Renato's meeting with minister of finance that was on the 9th then moved to today has, (can you guess?) been moved to 28th. Figures. Business is still hanging on for dear life.

Sweet Trick or Treaters

This Halloween has been easier on us this year than we've experienced in past years - junk food wise. I didn't buy a lot to give out, so thankfully we don't have a lot left over there, yay. Also the older 5 kids didn't go, yay! So that's another reason there is less junk around here to throw me off the wagon. I did really good yesterday and didn't have one treat until we stopped at a neighbor's house so Sophi could use the bathroom, and then I was offered and accepted an Almond Joy. It was downhill after that - I had another Almond Joy, then a Kit Kat that I had originally intended to save for Ethan. Then I continued to just have "one more" treat of my candy hierarchy. Chocolate, cookies and cakes are my vegan weaknesses. I do fine if they're not around. Unfortunately during Halloween, they are all around. Luckily Abi's an aspiring healthy eater and gave most of hers away last night. Lily has a good stash, and Sophi and Natalie didn't get very many treats last night, being the sweet and un-greedy toddlers that they are. Plus they shared them with Owen and Daniel last night, which was so cute, so most of them got eaten last night, yay.

I'm glad I got this on film, cause it was precious. Natalie dumped out her bag of treats and Daniel saw it and came over. I was expecting her to gather the treats in her arms and shield them from her encroaching sibling, but instead she saw "Aww! Daniel!" and welcomed him in. Then Owen came over too, she again sweetly said "Some of these babies want to eat treats too!" Then taking a treat from Owen she said "I will help you!" and she opened his tootsie roll "Ok Owen, here! There you go!"

Then she opened another one. She is so sweet, hope this fairy butterfly gets sweeter every year. With this video documenting her sweetness now, I think we will be able to show her and keep her being a good girl like she was in 2017. In this next video she was cute too, showing me with tickled surprise that Owen just gave her some chocolate! I guess not realizing that it was hers to begin with? Pretty adorable. Another funny thing in this second clip - Corey decided to head over to a neighbors house to check on Abi and Lily. He put on his coat and announced his intentions to depart. He invited Sophi "Do you want to come with me?" Owen looked up, saw Dad putting on a coat. "DAD!!" he called out. Then he got up with a "I'll come..." We all laughed, since Corey's usually trying to get a break from this little man. Yes, Owen, we could have called that you would want to go with Dad, being as you're his little shadow. It was nice that he was calmly proactive instead of screaming in terror that Corey might leave him. Just a sweet "I'll come..." - that's a good improvement, thank you Owen! Corey laughed too, "I guess he speaks English!"

Oh, one more thing on the business front - so I took Sophi and Natalie around the neighborhood, Corey stayed home with Owen and Daniel, and the older kids stayed home to pass out goodies to the trick or treaters. As we were on our way back home, we met Corey pushing Owen in the stroller. Corey said me that he'd just heard back from Brazil. They were going to talk today at noon. I haven't gotten the full report yet, but we'll see if it means our free fall comes to an end as we hit the ground, or if we grow wings and fly, or maybe our flag will give us flight! We're keeping that flag flying.

Business Update - Corey sent me a text around 1:00 today with the following info:
Good news - the committee approved the deal. They also disbanded the committee to give more authority to move faster. One investor insists he meets with an IT guy to talk about IT needs of English schools. Not a big deal, and not related to M0vieMouth. R will see if Corey can talk to that guy later. Bad News - Last week the Brazilian Federal Government passed resolution 3922 that puts restrictions on asset managers who have money from pension funds. It has literally stopped the flow of money for this investor and other financing funds. R is meeting with the finance minister on Nov 9th in Brasilia to discuss. If not resolved, this VC's entire business is in jeopardy. R belives it will be resolved, but he needs some time to figure it out. Hopefully just a couple of weeks, but they don't really know, could be longer. (Ok, seeing as this "lets move on this fast" deal with it's "we'll get back to you in a few days" ended up taking 3 weeks, a projected timeline of a couple of weeks after Nov 9th means this thing is definitely going to be 3+ months before it's close to being resolved, Isn't that fun?! Ya gotta love government regulations, ugh.)

Owen the Singer

We went to our church tonight for a neighborhood chili cookoff. I didn't make a chili or soup, but did bring something - this lovely orange and fall colored vegetable dish - Ethiopian Cabbage Dish. I came across this recipe when it was shared on the McDougall facebook page - McDougall is a vegan guy but taken up a notch, cause he also says not use oil. But I made it with oil for tonight. But they gave tips and said it's easy to make it McDougall approved by cutting out the oil and then double all the spices. It was very very good. I got there a little late and so maybe people were already full, cause lucky Hyrum and I ate up most of it. Tasty! We enjoyed the other chili's too. One of the reasons I love fall is cause it's soup and stew season. After the neighborhood party was over, we stayed and visited. Owen was cute playing on the stage, pretending he was singing and taking bows to his fans.

We got a kick out of his mouth open as if he was singing, but with no sounds... 

Then he'd take a bow, then he'd sing again. Cute little guy.

Business wise, good news is that I only almost cried with fear and worry one time today, yay. I think yesterday left me emotionally drained. So that helps the tears not come when you're all out of tears. I'm still reading scriptures, praying, seeing help and support from on high. My mother knows what's going on and came and gave us a gift that was much appreciated. Moms are like that, they're always answering prayers. The kids who weren't in school today worked really hard too, we've cleaned the house, it looks great. I'm glad they were home today and that I have another day tomorrow to put them to work again, yay! They answered my prayers too. There are many blessings all around us, even if sometimes one specific blessing of help that we want doesn't come. We will still seek it and work for it, but will also trust in the Lord and his plan.

LDS General Conference Weekend

First off, I'm so behind here. To my children, if you look back at this blog and come to wonder how I blogged "everyday" and ran a household with 11 children, just know that at this moment in time, the house is a pretty big mess, I am still catching up trying to blog posts from August right now, not to mention that we're now in October and I've only done 10 days of September.  That being said, today was a pretty good day on productivity. For example, I made dinner tonight again! Leftover vegetable barley soup from yesterday that was fabulous, plus some cucumber tomato salad and also, for the omnivores in the family, we cooked up some beef stroganoff from our food storage. I think I'm going to use those more often - we had a ton of food storage that I wouldn't mind putting to good use to save a little bit of $ in the grocery budget. Plus it's a good way to keep the meat eaters happy without Corey going to buy groceries again using up my budget buying garbage. Go ahead and buy some eggs and milk if you must, but can we skip the Nutella?  He does it "so the kids aren't confused about what you need or don't need to do for a temple recommend", blah blah. I asked him how often they need to be reminded that being vegan is not required? And I don't even do it 100% all the time (had some egg noodles tonight) Plus, sweetie, I'm happy to tell them and have told them that too, but is it necessary to show them on a weekly/daily basis? I think their memories are good enough that they don't need to be reminded this often. Maybe I just need to have more food available, cause they look around and can't see anything to eat in a fridge full of vegetables. But Nutella? Do we have to torture poor Hyrum and me? Plus, like anybody is going to eat my vegetable soup if they know that pretty soon someone will whip up crepes with Nutella. And speaking of making more food for yourselves after dinner... Children- can we all just eat dinner and then be done for the night? Do we really need this 9 or 10 pm post dinner feeding? Can we establish some routines and schedules that we all follow?! Ugh, so hard getting to bed around here! Which messes up my morning... I can't keep surviving on this 5 hours of sleep a day. Maybe I should retire from my "family alarm clock" duty. But that would mean our whole life falls apart... sigh. Well, atleast Daniel is sleeping though the night though, that's really nice. Ok, done with my rant...

So, General Conference - It was wonderful. My ears were tuned in to hear things about establishing habits and routines and I got a lot of answers. I also loved Elder Tad Callister's talk on Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. On a few of the talks I didn't take notes cause my hands were busy holding Daniel (or about to be, as shown in the pic below)

Or during the second Sunday session I was loading the dishwasher. But Elder Callister's talk was one where I was sitting hands free and could have taken notes but I didn't want to cause I didn't want to miss the next thing he said. He hit it out of the park, loved it. The Book of Mormon is all true or maybe Joseph Smith was just "a very lucky guesser" lol - yeah right! I'll come back and update that with the link once it's up online. Plus I'll add the other talks that were meant for me. Great weekend. And today was day 1 of putting them into practice. I got up early and exercised and used my time wisely today. Still working on the best schedule for me, but I got off on a good start, hoping to tune it more this week.

BTW, another reality check for my posterity - this is what watching General Conference looks like around here:

Nevermind, I can't find my phone. Come back later... but I'll describe it... it's:

Lots o-people sitting in chairs (some falling asleep as in this pic from April 2017-pic 1 and 2) or laying on the floor with blankets. The kids did try to take notes, Abi and up. Lily and under were playing with toys most of the time but they'd come in now and then. One cute story - Lily came in during the first session with urgent news: there was a fire. Corey asked "A real fire?" Well, she said there was smoke. Corey jumped up and went in her room. She pointed out the window where there was clearly lava and smoke on the mountain (aka very red fall trees and low lying clouds). We got a good laugh out of that. But I can see how it would look like lava to a creative and imaginative little girl like Lily. So with the little girls, we didn't worry too much about nagging them to come listen. If they were in the room with us "listening" there was a good chance that we wouldn't be able to hear anything, cause they'd be jumping or wiggling or making noise. They took advantage of the chance to play without us nagging them to clean up or work, good girls.

Update: found my phone. Here's our conference picture. How many kids can you see? I spy 9. Joseph and Ethan are not present. They watched it in the side room, most of us watched most sessions in our room.

Corey is in upward dog, getting up after having his fill of kids climbing on him. Mel drawing. Hyrum taking notes and paying attention (good kid) Wes ready to give Owen a hug. Daniel watching Owen and taking mental notes on how to behave. Lily is on our bed drawing. Natalie is hard to see, but she is on our bed drawing too... You can see her little brown head looking closely at her paper.