Ta-Da! Carter can tie his shoes!

So he's in first grade and he should already know how to tie his shoes. But last year we bought him shoes that stretched on, not tied on. I was a mean mom this year and told him he had to pick shoes that laced up or he wasn't getting any. He's been working on tying his church shoes for a long time, so it didn't take him to long to get it down. He was so proud of himself.Don't you love that adorable grin?



His proud, sassy, and slightly chocolately face.

I tried so hard to teach him to tie his shoes the way I do, but it just wasn't working. The way I tie my shoes is really weird...just like me! Thank goodness he has an awesome older sister who could teach him to tie his shoes the normal way!

The Technologically Challenged

That would be me. I'd rather take notes with a pen and paper than with a laptop. I'd rather write a letter than send an email. I'd rather heat a can of soup on the stove than stick it in the microwave.

But I've learned a lot. For example, I figured out stuff on my cell phone. Well, not a lot, but enough to help out my seriously technologically challenged parents program their phone. My mom still grapples with the idea that a cell phone can take and send a picture! Thus we can plainly see that my childhood was not abundant in technology.

Anyway, I spent the last hour working to turn my blog into a 3-column layout. I had to read, then re-read, then re-read again the instructions on how to do so. It actually worked on my first try! But then I couldn't get my stuff from my right sidebar to move to the left sidebar like they were easily supposed to do. I finally got all my information transferred, but I can almost guarantee I did it the long and hard way, and that there was surely a shortcut out there. The thing is, I would have no idea where to look for the shortcut.

So, are any of you savvy with a computer or anything with a plethora of buttons, knobs, and dials? If you are, please send your vibes my way, so that one day I will be willing and able to enjoy doing things either manually or automatically!

Bingo!

Months ago Melanie came home from visiting her cousins and told us about this game they play while driving. Every time you see a yellow vehicle you shout out "Bingo!" before anyone else does. It's quite an addictive game. The kids picked up on it and Riley loves to play it. Ben gets me all fired up when we go to St. George, and I literally start shouting "Bingo!" as soon as I see one. We even got my mom hooked on it, and now whenever I take her to the store she's usually the first one to spy a yellow vehicle and shout "Bingo!"

So yesterday I asked Ben how Riley did during Sharing Time and Singing Time in Primary. For a couple of months he was having trouble adjusting to his new teachers, but he's doing so much better. Anyway, Ben just chuckled and I asked him what happened.

"Well," he said, "they played the fishing game. You know, the one where they catch a fish and then sing a song?"

"Sure," I replied.

"What do you think Riley did when they pulled out the yellow fish?" he asked.

"Oh, man," I said, covering my face with my hand. "He shouted Bingo didn't he?"

"Of course he did," Ben chuckled.

It really is addictive. Just ask either Grandma Jeanne or Grandma Cathy what Riley says when they're wearing yellow shirts. ;)

Tangy Honey Mustard Sauce

Here's another delicous recipe from my ward cookbook. Carter kept saying, "This is like sweet and sour sauce, Mom. I love it!" Carter usually doesn't say he loves any food except for pancakes, waffles, syrup, and bubble gum.

Tangy Honey Mustard Sauce

1/2 heaping cup mayonnaise
3 Tbsp lemon juice
6 Tbsp spicy brown mustard
6 Tbsp honey

Mix ingredients well and enjoy!

(We use the Best Foods Mayo made with Canola Oil. It turned out great with that.)

Fajita Marinade

I just love ward cookbooks! They always have some really good recipes lurking in their pages, and I happened upon one yesterday. I wanted chicken fajitas but I didn't have any seasoning. I looked in the ward cookbook for my current ward and lo and behold there was a recipe for a marinade. It's delicious, tastes much better than any store bought seasoning I've ever tried, and is so much better on the sodium scale. I hope you try it out and enjoy it as much as I did!

Fajita Marinade
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice (I used the kind in my fridge)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp cumin

Whisk all ingredients together in a small bowl. Place 2 lbs uncooked chicken (I stripped mine first) into a quart-sized ziploc bag and add marinade. Shake bag to thoroughly coat all pieces; marinate in the fridge for 30-45 minutes.

(I grilled mine in a pan and they were moist and delicious. I'm sure you could grill them and they'd also be delicious.)

Allergic Addictions

Riley has always loved string. When he was just a baby I made him a fleece blanket that had ties all around the edges. He loved that blanket and still does. It sleeps with him every night. Because of the ties there were occasionally frayed edges that dangled little bits of string. When he was younger, Riley wasn't strong enough to pull them hard enough to get the string to detach, but he pulled until the piece of string was long enough to curl around his pacifier or across his top lip. He just rubbed and rubbed pieces of string across his face.

Now all the strings from that blanket have been pulled off and lost one by one. But Riley's attachment to string hasn't diminished. He now will pull strings from anything he can. For example, the pillow covers on my living room pillows have this rough, slightly shaggy texture, from which he can grab hold of a small piece of the fabric and pull it out to produce a short piece of string. He's done this so much the pillows have become threadbare in several spots.

This summer, instead of buying new shorts for my kids, I took all their school pants that had holes in them, cut them off, and voila! Shorts! As you probably know, once cut off jeans are washed they really fray. I trimmed most of the strings, but Riley found the ones I didn't. And through repeated washings the shorts have continued to fray, and Riley has continued to find the strings.

The other day the kids were sitting on the floor watching TV when Riley decided that his own shorts were void of string. To amend this issue he reached over to his sister's shorts and began pulling the strings from her shorts. She laughed and shouted playfully, "Riley, what are you doing? Leave my shorts alone."

Riley retorted, "I can't help it! I'm allergic to string!"

Allergic?

Later that week upon watching the fireworks Riley spouted, "I'm allergic to fireworks!"

Allergic?

Still later that week after seeing some people outside our apartment, "I'm allergic to neighbors!"

Allergic?

"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

As I was telling my sister-in-law about this story, she asked him, "What else are you allergic to?"

Riley paused to consider the question, and then replied in a slow passionate voice, "I'm allergic to chocolate."

Personally, I think Riley is addicted to being crazy.

I'm So Lucky

I really am. Ben and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary this month. Crazy, I tell you. I can't believe he's put up with me for this long. I think my parents are still bribing him to do so.

I got home from playing pickleball yesterday morning, and do you know what smell hit my nose? Pine Sol. For a woman who HATES mopping the floor, that is a great smell, especially when I wasn't the one using the Pine Sol. The dishes had been washed and as I closed the front door I heard the sound of the vacuum being pushed around upstairs.

I've done most of the cleaning since Ben and I have been married. Mostly because he was working and I chose to stay home with our kids, and I didn't mind (and still don't) keeping the house clean. I inherited that from my mom. But since I've started going back to school a lot of the responsibility has fallen on Ben, and he has come through beautifully. He doesn't think of it has doing this for me, but that it just needs to be done, and he does it.

And the kicker to my luck is that he made eclairs yesterday. Oh. My. Goodness. They were scrumptious. I'm not going to even tell you how many I ate yesterday, it's just embarrassing. But as Riley says, "I couldn't help it!"