Weekend Memories

I just thought I'd update on the Brouwer family. We had such a fun time with my Provo siblings and their families last night. My brother, Jim and his family live and work at Aspen Grove in the mountains. My sister, Emily and her husband, Craig and my brother Scott and his wife Karissa are going to BYU/UVU. They all came over for dinner and we had such a great "adult" conversation together. I don't know if this has ever happened to any of you, but I've felt a little isolated from my family, especially the younger ones because we are so far apart in age. Emily is 12 years younger than I am, but now that they are older, I feel like we have so much more in common and our conversations have more substance. You can say what you want about being from a big family or raising a large family. I got all sorts of comments when I was younger. One girl accused my parents of over-populating the world and using precious resources. Growing up in a large family wasn't always easy. I think we all felt a lack of attention from our parents. (Really, what kid doesn't!?) But, what we lacked in attention from our parents, we certainly received from our siblings. And now! I wouldn't trade any of them for anything. They are really amazing people and I'm just so glad to live close enough to some of them now to really get to know them. Most of them were really young when I left home, it's fun to get to know who they have become. I know it wasn't always easy for my mom and dad to raise us all. (I think I was probably the most difficult teenager.) But, thanks Mom and Dad for doing an awesome job at it!

Okay, away from the soliloquy on the family. Now, I can move on to my amazing husband who didn't complain at all about me taking all of Saturday off. I went to a really great Enrichment Activity at the church. I made several Christmas gifts and a few cute things for my house. It was nice to get to know some of the ladies at my church too. Then, I got my hair done and met up with Robert's family for dinner. During all of this, Robert took the kids to Ethan's 2 Lacrosse games and to the BYU football game. He didn't complain about it at all, and I think the kids had a great time with their dad, and I definitely got some great R&R.

I've been researching Lactose Intolerance and Coeliac Disease for the last couple of days. I'm concerned that Ammon might have Coeliac. I won't get into the gorey details, but it's an intestinal disease that affects the villi in the small intestine. If it is, he'll have to go on a lifetime gluten-free diet. Not much fun, I'm sure. I'm going to have him tested at the doctor. His stools are never solid. I've had him milk-free for a long time, and dairy free for the last couple of weeks and it hasn't helped him all that much. Not much fun potty-training a consistent diarrhea kid! :-0 Anyway, I'll keep you all updated on his condition. We've recently switched to ricemilk instead of soymilk because I've heard that might cause problems as well. I didn't know when I signed up to be a mother, I'd automatically be drafted to doctor/researcher.

Anyway, great memories! I love you all. I'll get some pictures on here just as soon as I find the camera. I know it's buried here somewhere!

Traveling Salesmen groups

We just got solicited, again, by the magazine salesmen. They came by yesterday and I turned them away. My husband was around today and they hit him up. They almost got him too. Luckily, I've done a little research on these groups. They are generally black teens who say they are from inner-cities. They are generally trying to get out of the ghettos and gang problems. Sometimes they are trying to get points to get their kids back out of foster care by holding down a steady job. (That was the story today). They all have a well-rehearsed story that tugs at your heart-strings. It makes you almost want to buy from them. The fact is that most of their stories are well fabricated. The people that are getting rich off these scams are the magazine companies and the teen sales pushing companies.

The industry is riddled with exploitation of youth, mysterious deaths in van-rollovers, hiring of known felons, rapes, robbings and worse. When you are supporting these kids, you are actually supporting an immoral industry that is promoting slavery once again. There are better ways for these kids to get out of the slums.

Anyway, I just thought I’d give you something to go by, since I’m generally a pretty good sucker (or have been in the past), I’m afraid I’ve gotten pushed into these scams a few times. But NO MORE! If you’re interested in finding out more, check out this website: Magazine Scams and Rip offs

For all you crafty people

Okay, so I've never claimed to be creative in the decorating sense. Most of my house is still picturless because I can't decide where my pictures should hang. I generally leave those decisions to Robert because he usually does a better job at it than I do. So, I have a dilemma. Some of you creative, crafty people might be able to give me some ideas.

Our family has a list of about 10 family mottos that we made in a Family Home Evening at one point. We put them on a really ugly posterboard with marker that I had hanging in our home in Danville. I'm ready to update our look. I've thought about putting them on 10 different wooden plaques with vinyl lettering or toll painting. Just putting the vinyl lettering directly on the wall. Maybe the vinyl lettering on the wall interspersed with framed family pictures. Maybe I could hire one of my very talented sisters-in-law or a couple sisters to make a caligraphy artwork for me to frame and just hang on the wall. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Winter Fun

We woke up on Sunday morning to a winter wonderland. There was at least 2 inches of snow on the ground. Well, it didn't take much to coax the kids out into the snow. They donned hats, gloves, boots, ski bibs and coats and trekked out to perform the winter snow ritual. I'm not sure who was more excited about it, Robert or the kids. They had a great time. Here are a few pics.

Election Time

I'm really trying to figure out politics. Usually, it just makes me sad. I wish there were some moral people to vote for. Who, being moral, would want to involve themselves with politics anyway? It's a sad state of affairs our country is in and I feel sorry for whoever gets elected because they'll have quite the job to inherit. However, I still think our responsibility as citizens to vote for elected officials is so important.

A friend of mine posted this link on her blog. It is a test. Apparently it was written by a guy named Bradley O’Leary who is the former president of the American Association of Political Consultants. He wrote a book about Obama for this reason:

“I basically wrote this book for my six daughters and six of my grandchildren who can vote because a couple of them had told me they were going to vote for Barack Obama,” O’Leary says. “When I asked them why, they said because he was good looking, his rhetoric was wonderful, [and] they liked listening to him.”

In response, he put together a test for voters to compare their views on the issues with those of Obama. ”You score one point every time you agree with Barack Obama and you subtract a point every time you disagree with him,” O’Leary explains. “And if you wind up in the plus area, then you should vote for him. If you wind up in the minus area, then you should perhaps rethink about who you’re going to vote for.”

So, of course I took the test. I’ve kind of been on the fence about the candidates but after taking this test, I was surprised at just how far on one side I scored and how the rest of the country voted on these issues. I’m aware that the author is probably biased, although I felt the questions were worded pretty fairly, but at least this opened my eyes to many of the issues.

Your turn. See if you’re surprised at your score.

barakobamatest

To Can or not to Can

So, I had the best canning experience 2 weeks ago. It was my first time. I had gone to an Enrichment Activity the night before and learned all the little secrets, so I was ready to go. While canning, I really felt like there is nothing in the world that I would want to do and that I was really good at it too. The peaches turned out perfectly and I was done with 10 jars in about 3 hours. They look really pretty too.

Well, today was not the canning experience I hoped for. These are the reasons I think it didn't turn out so well:

1. I started too late - Don't start unless you have a good 3 hours before kids come home from school (Not fun to be canning, helping with homework, refereeing, teaching piano and violin lessons at the same time)Also, the later you start, the warmer the kitchen will be. I don't know why, but I was glowing by 5:00.

2. I did too many different things - If you're going to do peaches, finish them before starting another project, like apples or something

3. I decided to make apple pie at the same time - Okay, that's pretty much a no-brainer. Who in their right mind cans and makes apple pie at the same time. So, I thought I'd multi-task domesticity.

4. I bought a stock pot to can in but couldn't find a rack to put in it, so I ended up just putting them in the pot of boiling water - Fortunately, I avoided severe scalding, but definitely not the easiest or cleanest way to can. I bought it thinking I'd go so much faster. It will fit 6 or 7 cans at a time, but it took me so long to fill them, it would have been faster and cleaner to use the Pressure Cooker like I did the first time. Also, Archimedes principle works. The more cans you put into boiling water, the higher the water will rise. My pot kept boiling over and it finally put out my gas burner, so a few of my cans never sealed.

5. I decided to make a gourmet meal of roast and baked potatoes at the same time as canning - Duh!

So, I guess I made a few mistakes this time. I learned a few lessons. I don't think I'll give up on canning. I had that good first experience after all. In the hopes that you won't repeat my foibles, I hope you will take into consideration my recommendations.

1. Use a Pressure Cooker - it only holds about 3 cans at a time, but it doesn't boil over and make a huge mess, it cooks faster, and since it will only hold 3 cans, you can be getting more cans ready while your cans are cooking.

2. Always can in the morning - then you can use the rest of the day to do your apple pie and gourmet dinner if you feel like it after canning. It's always nice to have the kitchen clean when you're done too.

3. If you're going to can more than one thing, finish one thing before starting another or consider saving some of the canning for another day.

Alright, those are my suggestions for now. I'm drowning now in domesticity. I hope you enjoy. I'm going to bed now. My kitchen is finally once again clean until my kids get up tomorrow morning that is. I love the independence. Now, if they could just clean up after themselves too...

Softball, Halloween and Family

I had a marvelous time watching my sister's softball team play BYU. She assistant coaches the CSI (College of Southern Idaho) softball team. She played for BYU for 4 years, so this was an especially special time for her. They played a few games while they were here, and then she got to spend Sunday night and Monday with me! I love living in Utah. In the last month we've had more people stay with us than we had in a year before we moved here. I guess, I might get a little tired of it at some point, but for right now, I'm really enjoying the family connections.

My mom and dad will be here tomorrow night. Mom will have her 11th chemotherapy treatment on Friday. Only one more to go after that. We're all really excited for her to be done. She's been such a trooper. You don't hear her complain. The closest thing I've ever heard her to complaining was "If I ever get cancer again, I'm just not going to tell anyone." Poor thing. Nevertheless, I'm still excited to see her and Dad on Thursday.

On Monday, I took Debbie up to Aspen Grove to visit our brother and his kids. Aspen (Jim's daughter) is great friends with Ammon. She likes to mother him. She's an oldest child and is about 7 months older. He likes to protect her. She'll say "Ammon, come save me!" and off he goes to save the day. She's way cute! And, they are way cute together.

Today, we're picking out costumes for the kids for Halloween. Ashlee wants to be an Asian Princess like her friend Madi was last year for Halloween. Kyle wants to be a hunchback (way easy costume! :-)) Ammon wants to be a pumpkin even though he was one last year. I don't think he remembers. Good thing I have two great pumpkin costumes. Way to get mileage. Ethan wanted to be something scary! I was looking all over the internet. Of course, he wants to be original, so a monster, dracula, Frankenstein, a bat, skelton, etc, were'nt going to cut it. I finally suggested he should be a dead/zombie Lacrosse player. That shouldn't be too difficult with a little homemade fake blood and white face paint. Phew....glad that's over. Now, I have a month to prepare my little monsters. BTW-I'm giving out pencils and stickers for Halloween this year and encourage everyone else to do the same! Here's to Mothers Against Sugar Highs.

Here's a gorgeous photo of the foliage up the Alpine Loop. It takes me about 10 minutes by car to get here.