Last Day of School

Indeed the last day of my first semester back at school has ended.  Hooray!!!  I took more classes than I should have so I was overwhelmed to say the least.  I am so glad that is over, next semester should feel so easy compared to this last one...I hope.  I'm not sure how I did because grades won't be available until next week but I think I did okay in two of the classes.  I'm only nervous about the final grade in the third class.  I have a long way to go before graduation and that's a good thing.  During the summer I will be able to finally finish so many projects put on hold.  It is a much looked forward to break but I think I know what I will do differently next time to make things run a little smoother and maybe next semester I won't feel so overwhelmed.

Our Easter

I love Easter.  It is a wonderful holiday where we get to spend time together as a family and reflect on the life and resurrection of our Savior.  We always have such good and uplifting discussions all day long about the Savior and the resurrection and what it means for us in our individual lives.  Not that we don't have wonderfully spiritual conversations on other days, but the spirit just seems to be so strong on Easter.

We did attempt another public Easter egg hunt.  This one was for the neighborhood we live in put on by the Home Owner's Association.  It was raining lightly so after the kids got their usual one egg we went home.

The kids love to color eggs as well and it is a tradition that they do with their father.  They love going to the store to pick out which coloring kit they are going to use.  They have decided though that next year they don't need a kit because they can just use food coloring and get the same results.  I like that idea too.

What a good looking group about to make some good looking eggs.

Lizzie loves this tradition and had some cool new ideas this year to try.

Rebecca patiently waiting for her eggs to get nice and bright.

Dakota and her rainbow of spring colors.

Megan thought the eggs were fun until she put faces on them
and then she thought they were hilarious.

Alex is still in apprentice mode but he had fun watching
the others and learning what works and what doesn't so
he will be a pro by the time he colors his first egg.

Easter morning was nice.  The kids woke to find their treats from the Easter Bunny.  The bunny even left behind a few foot prints.

I found a recipe for Easter Rolls a few years ago and it has become a traditional Easter breakfast treat.  The girls really look forward to these rolls.  We take a marshmallow and dip it in butter then roll it in cinnamon sugar, wrap them up in a crescent roll, then bake them in the oven.  When we take them out the marshmallow is not there anymore.  This reminds the kids of how Christ's body was laid in the tomb and how the tomb was empty when they went back.  There are many other symbols we talk about but you get the idea.  While the rolls are good, the thing they look forward to most is talking about what everything represents as they make the rolls.

Easter Rolls (plus a few non sugary ones for Daddy.)

While the kids were busy coloring the eggs with daddy I did an Easter project of my own.  Okay, so it's not really an Easter project but it is something I have been wanting to do for a long time and this was the perfect time for me to finish it. 

Prophets, Seers, and Revelators

I wanted the family to become more familiar with the living Apostles of the Lord and the best way I thought to do that was to hang their pictures on the wall so that we could see them everyday so I hung them on the wall along with the Prophet.  It doesn't look that big in the picture but the pictures are each 8x10 so it nearly takes the whole wall.  The kids love it and I think that it has helped to bring a special spirit in to our home. 

Finals Week

Next week is finals week at school for me.  I am so stressed out right now!  I only made it through this semester on a wing and a prayer (more prayers than wings though.)  I hope I do good on the finals.  One final exam is do or die, if I don't pass the final I don't pass the class, even though I have a 91% in the class right now...no pressure, right?!  The girls are a little jealous, they still have another month to go before school gets out for them, sorry girls.

Not just for hollidays anymore

This is a really silly post but I was so excited I wanted to remember it.  We have always loved the hot rotisserie chicken you get at the deli in the grocery store.  Many years ago we decided that since we loved the rotisserie chicken so much we should by a rotisserie machine, and so we did.  It was a small machine, only holding up to a 5 pound chicken, but our 3 kids were small at the time so it was all we needed.  We loved it!!  I would rotisserie chicken all the time and it always came out perfect.  Over the years as our family has grown in size as well as age we realized that one 5 pound chicken was no longer enough.  We needed a larger rotisserie.  I have been thinking about a larger rotisserie for a long time but just couldn't bring myself to look at it because I knew it was costly.  For our anniversary this year CJ told me to buy the rotisserie since it would be great for both of us.  I really wanted to but still wasn't sure so we didn't get anything.  We really needed a bigger machine so I started looking at them and after learning that not only can we rotisserie two 5 pound chickens at the same time but we could also cook a 15 pound turkey as well I was sold.  It has been 3 months since our anniversary but I finally decided to go ahead and splurge and finally get our anniversary present.  It didn't hurt that I got a brand new one for 70% off on Amazon with free shipping either.

As soon as we got it we put a 15 pound turkey in it to see if it would come out just as perfect as the chickens.

The turkey begins to cook.

Looking scrumptious.



A beautiful turkey for dinner.

The turkey did come out just as delicious as the chickens.  After dinner I put the leftovers in the freezer so that we could enjoy this yummy turkey twice.  It was so fun having a candle lit turkey dinner just because we could.  I can't wait to do two chickens at the same time.

Long post about soap.

I am always trying to find ways to cut spending any where I can.  I had read on the internet about a family who made their own laundry soap. They said their clothes were clean and it saved them a ton of money.  I thought it was cool, but wasn't motivated enough to run right out and make my own though.  Last year however, a neighbor of mine shared the recipe with me again and said that she personally used it.  I got more excited and decided it was time for me to give it a try.  The ingredients were easy enough to find and only cost $22 (I bought some scented oils to add to the soap to make it smell more traditional) plus I already had a 5 gallon bucket on hand so I followed the instructions and made my first batch of homemade laundry soap.  I was very proud of myself.  I now had 5 gallons of laundry soap with enough ingredients left over to make 10 more gallons. 

The instructions came with a usage guide as well.  Following their suggested usage guidelines for my HE (high efficiency) washer I should have had enough soap to last me for 3 years with the amount of ingredients I bought.  This made me very excited to think that I would only spend a little over $7 a year for laundry soap.  I washed my first load and was not sure if the soap really worked or not.  The clothes smelled okay and the clothes looked clean enough but something just didn't feel right.  The next load was the whites and when they were finished I could tell that the soap just wasn't cleaning as well as I hoped and I realized that must be what was causing my uneasiness.  About the same time I had trouble with my dishwasher.  After listening to suggestions on how to fix it the problem was discovered...Payson city just has some of the hardest water I have ever known.  It took a while to get the hard water deposits off the inside of the dishwasher but I did it and with the aid of a wonderful product added to the dishwasher, along with extra dish soap the dishwasher was finally cleaning the dishes again.  That's when I figured out the solution for the laundry soap problem.  The extra hard city water combined with the super capacity size of our washer meant that we weren't using near enough soap in the washer.  After some experimenting with the amount of soap I had to use with each load I finally felt comfortable using it again and began using my own laundry soap and feeling proud. 
Unfortunately the whites never did recover and they just seemed to be getting worse.  After the second batch of soap ran out, about a year since I began making it, I was too busy to make more (see my posts about school for reference) so I broke down and bought a jug of laundry soap.  It had been so long since I needed to buy it that I felt a little guilty for not just making more.  However, after I washed the whites in the store bought soap I didn't feel guilty anymore.  It made my whites look almost new again in just one wash.  I have been debating on what to do since I now know for sure that my soap cleans okay but I could be getting a better clean.  A year's worth of commercial soap is about $48 (if prices don't get any higher) vs. $15 for my own soap (since I have to use more it didn't last as long.)  With money being so tight I hate to think about spending the extra cash.  Not a lot when you spread it out over a year I know, but every penny counts. 
I don't really know why I am even putting this down in our family's history but I guess it could be a small reminder to how tough times were...at least I hope they get better in the future.  I have decided to go ahead and buy my laundry soap for now, but I have enough ingredients left to make another batch of soap should the store prices go too high.  For now I will keep looking for other ways to stretch our dollars until they scream for mercy.