Pause...

Earlier this month, I was reading the First Presidency's message in this month's Ensign. It is titled Treasure of Eternal Value and in it, President Monson talks about three things that will help with Eternal Happiness: learning from the past, living in the present, and preparing for the future. It really struck a cord with me; My goal for the past few months has been to spend more time with my kids and playing with them instead of worrying about what the house looks like or other piddly stuff. After reading the article, I promised myself that I would start living in the present; use it to do those things that are the most important and not spend my time wishing away my life. To compliment those thoughts, our last MOPS meeting was about taking the time to have a Spiritual Spa Break - meaning, taking some time each day or whenever possible to think and reflect and have a pick-me-up spiritually. The lady who was speaking to us emphasized the importance of learning the art of waiting; to wait and enjoy each day and enjoy our children along with it. She made the comment that we should not wish away our time or our children's lives - that sometimes we get caught up thinking, "I can't wait till he gets bigger so he can do this" or " I wish he was old enough to do that". But she made the point that we should enjoy our children everyday because before we know it, they will be big and on their own.

So with that as the background of my thoughts, I was sitting at the table eating dinner with my boys tonight. Rhett was at the temple with the Young Men, so it was just the three boys and I eating an informal dinner of Mac-n-Cheese. The conversation quite cute - the boys talking about the year they were born and other things I don't remember. But I do remember looking at each of them and wishing so much I could just keep them in that state forever. So eager for learning, so eager to please, so innocent, so good, so happy. My thoughts fell on the future children we will have and how much joy they would bring as well. It made my resolve to enjoy each day with them even stronger; and not that they won't stay as wonderful as they grow, but I realized that as each day passes, they are a little bit different each day - a bit bigger, a bit more independant, a bit older. There's a line in the movie Finding Neverland by Jonny Depp's character; he says, "A boy should never be made to go to bed, for he only wakes up a day older. And before you know it, he's grown." Maybe I need to find myself some pixiedust...

I'll take any suggestions...

Lately I've just been feeling "Blah". I don't want to do anything, I don't have any energy to do anything and I'm perfectly content sitting on the couch watching TV. Usually, I can't wait for the boys to go to bed so I can work on one of the many projects I usually have going, but lately, I just don't want to do a thing. Every now and then I'll get a burst of energy and get something done; then I think, "wow, that was so cool to get something done; I'm going to be more productive and get more done tomorrow". But then tomorrow comes around and I don't want to do anything again. It's making for a very long list of things I need (or want) to do. Ugh...

Rhett's parents came to visit two weekends ago. It was General Conference weekend, so we spent Saturday and Sunday watching and listening to our Church leaders. Rhett and his dad went to Priesthood Session Saturday night, and the boys, me and Grandma Hunt stayed home and played. The boys went out with the neighbors and took turns riding down the driveway on their skateboards. They did all sorts of "tricks"; going down on their stomachs, while playing air guitar, going down with friends, while sitting, under their friend's legs - it was quite the show. Even Andrew took a turn or two going down with the kids. (I don't know if you can tell, but in the picture of the boys going down on their stomachs, Zach's eyes are closed. He pretended to be a transformer most of the time).

Sunday, of course, was spent at home and the boys spent some time outside playing "boxing". To insure they had the ultimate experience, they donned bare chests and had "tatoos" (thank goodness for washable markers). However, that fun had to be put to an end after Zach came in complaining his chest hurt (Aparantly, Porter was doing some real boxing).

Monday we got up and took a drive down to the the Quarai ruins in Central New Mexico. The pueblo indians lived here from about 1400-1600 when a Spanish mission was then created to convert and save the indians. It took about 100 years for the Spaniards to use up all the resources and the indians either died of famine or war with the Apaches or left the area. The boys had a great time climbing all over and walking through the mazes of ruins. We had a picnic at Quarai , then went to Abo to see more ruins. Abo is about 20 miles west of Quarai. Abo was the center of the Spanish missions in New Mexico in the 1600's. We walked through all the ruins again and did some more climbing. We headed home to feed the missionaries, then afterwards took a walk down to the Rio Grande river to throw sticks.

Tuesday, we spent the morning hiking along the Petroglyphs. The boys, grandpa, and Rhett climbed all over the rocks to find all the different pettoglyphs. After, we went to Blake's Lotaburger to treat Grandpa to an authentic Green chili cheeseburger. It was sure a great weekend and we sure enjoyed having Grandma and Grandpa Hunt here.

YUMMY!!

My mom sent me this beautiful and delicious edible arrangement as a thank you from all the family for hosting them the other week. Nothing is cooler than opening your front door to this! There was strawberries, pineapple and cantalope flowers, grapes, oranges, cantalope and honeydew slices, as well as chocolate covered strawberries, apples, and bananas! It was fantastic! The kids loved it as well - they kept asking for more and more! I was a little hesitant, only because I just wanted to sit and look at it!

Finally, Our Easter Pics!

I'm sorry to all those that have been cursing me for not updating my blog lately. I had my mom, brother, dad, and sisters (that includes in-laws) with their daughters here last week for a fun Scrapbooking week! It was a blast! We played all day and scrapbooked all night. We put all the tables and supplies in my living room - it was packed! The nice part was everyone brought their paper, stamps, and embellishments and everyone used what was there. We had two Cricuts going along with about 15 cartridges and had a Cuttlebug. It was a scrapbookers heaven!

Scrapbooking is hard work! (note all the mother's asleep on the couch while the kids watch morning cartoons... thanks goodness for Dora and Diego!!)

Then there was Easter. We had an Easter Egg hunt on Friday before everyone left. As a result, Sunday was relaxing - The Easter Bunny came and left his trail of bunny "droppings" (jelly-beans) which led the boys to their baskets. I made them each a crayon roll this year - mainly so they would each have their own crayons to use in church. (there's nothing more embarassing than Andrew yelling "STOP!!" in the middle of church as Zach is trying to take "his" crayons.)

Don't I have the most handsome boys in the world?!? :)

This week has been spring break and I've totally enjoyed not having a schedule to get up to. I did still teach preschool Monday and Wednesday, so I did have to get up by 8:00, but the other days I've thoroughly enjoyed laying in bed for as long as I want to. It's really making me look forward to summertime! We've been staying busy - Monday we had the neighbor friends over (between them, the little boy I babysit and my boys, I had 6 boys at my house!!) and we took everyone to the park. Tuesday, we packed a lunch and took it over to Tingley Beach where we had a picnic and threw rocks in the water. Wednesday, Porter and Zach played all day with the neighbor kids again - I finally had them come inside at a little after 5:00. They were exhausted! But not too exhausted to go to McDonald's for ice cream cones and a little more play time on the playground. Today we had some other friends come to play. Tomorrow Rhett's staying home from work and there's talk of going to see Horton Hears a Who. I think Saturday's scheduled for getting the garden ready for planting - springtime means it's time to get planting those peas, carrots, and spinach!! I'm really excited. I love seeing the plants grow and being able to harvest and eat what I've grown myself! Not to mention the money I save...

I'm off to start dinner - we're having the missionaries over tonight and on top of making sure dinner is ready at 5:00 (we usually eat at 6:00) I have to make sure we have PLENTY to eat!

Watch out for those Rhinoceroses

I was upstairs watching TV in our loft relaxing on this Sunday afternoon. Porter and Zach were in their room, putting together their latest Lego creations and talking. "Guess what Uncle Dan told me," Porter said. Interested on what divine words of wisdom my little brother had told my son, I put in a listening ear. Here's what he said:

Porter: Never laugh at a rhinoceros.
Zach: Why?
Porter: Because it will knock you over.
Zach: Oh.
Porter: But you can laugh. Because you'll never see a rhinoceros.

What to do with the Wheat

I have been working on doing what the prophets have said and do food storage. My current goal is to accumulate enough for one month, so I've been storing sugar, milk, oatmeal, oil and other things. And I've also stored wheat. I also have been trying to rotate my food storage - but I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to rotate through wheat. I don't have a wheat grinder, so making loaves of bread is out for now. I keep thinking that I need to find recipes, but the thought of cooking wheat just reminds me of this mixed-grain cereal I had at my grandparent's house once. It was so bland and gross and it seemed like for every bite I took of it, it would multiply. But then I found this recipe. It was super easy and very tasty - my kids even liked it!! They ate it without complaint; and Andrew couldn't get enough. So here's a way to EAT THAT WHEAT!

Cracked Wheat Casserole

1 lb. Ground Beef
1/2 Cup Chopped Onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups water
2 Tb. chopped parsley
1/2 cup uncooked cracked wheat (I didn't have any actual cracked wheat, but I took the regular hard red wheat, and ran it for a minute in my food processor. I don't know exactly how that is different from actual cracked wheat, but it worked fine!)
1 tsp. Beef Bouillon
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/4 tsp. oregano
1/4 tsp. Pepper
1/4 Cup Parmesan Cheese
1 cup chopped tomatoes

Brown beef with onion and garlic until pink color has gone from meat. Drain. Combine rest of the ingredients except the cheese and tomatoes. Pour into a 1 1/2 quart casserole dish. Bake in a preheated 350* oven for 45 minutes or until the cracked wheat is tender and water has been absorbed. Stir in the cheese and tomatoes. Let stand a minute before serving. Enjoy!