A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

A relative asked me to email some pictures of my kids. She just needs head shots. Here's a sample of the recent photos from which I have to choose:




Maybe these pictures are only worth two words: "What the...?"

Apples Galore

Kent's mom has what we consider a small apple orchard in her front yard. Each fall we hope for mostly not-wormy apples to make apple butter. In October, the kids and I helped their Grammy pick several boxes of apples. Two days later my sister, Carolyn, came to Provo to help us process the fruit into yumminess-in-a-bottle. I was happy with our 21 bottles. I thought they would surely last until next Fall. But we've already gone through five quarts! (We really like apple butter!) Luckily, the apples kept coming. Our Aunt Jan offered some from her trees and a neighbor had a bunch of Golden Delicious left over from the harvest from her parents' yard. Adding that to the few I had left from before, we had enough for another two batches. So Carolyn came again last week and ran the process while I ran kids around town and pitched in when I could. We had 14 more quarts, plus a dehydrator full of cinnamon-sprinkled Fujis, plus a dozen apples left to just snack on. Here are some pictures of our work. I am so grateful for everyone's help.

Super Duper Super Saturday...and Weekend in General

Yesterday I attended our ward's Super Saturday. I was there to set up and stayed an hour past ending time trying to finish projects. (I always sign up for too much.) Coming home, I realized what an enjoyable time I'd had. I've been dreading the cold winter months, which snapped into place yesterday morning. However, walking home from the church, I was cheerful and ready for winter. I love spending time with friends snacking and chatting. We hosted Kent's Young Men's presidency and their wives for dinner on Friday. It was so nice to visit with adults in our cozy home with a fire going. Tonight we gathered with my extended family for dinner and FHE. And Kent and I squeezed in a dinner out for just the two of us Saturday night, too. For me, it was a perfect, if cold, weekend.

A friend of mine took a few minutes at Super Saturday to teach us ways to take stress out of the holidays. She asked us to consider what we want out of our holiday season, be it a family tradition to continue, events with children...whatever we most wanted. I immediately knew that what I most wanted was time with my friends and family. I truly wouldn't mind getting rid of the gift giving and just focus on gathering. Although...

...we did make some really cute flower clips for hair or for a clothing accessory. In my parallel universe where I have undemanding children and all the time in the world, I would make a hundred of these clips to give away to my friends and fam and then sell the rest on Etsy. In reality, I'll be lucky to finish the ones I started for my girls' stockings in the next forty days. (Yep, that's the countdown.) Happy holidays!