How good is your emergency evacuation plan?

I viewed this video on the Food Storage Made Easy page on Facebook today and was really inspired.   They've created an emergency preparedness challenge each day of the week and I've learned SO MUCH.  I did pretty well on the "create 7 quick and easy meals" challenge, and we're okay in the stored water department, but today's 72-hour kit/emergency evacuation challenge woke me up a bit.  Sure, we've got stuff, but it's all over the house and there really is no plan in place.  I was especially impressed by this woman's "sentimental and important documents" stash, right there with the 72-hr backpacks.  Genius!  There is so much I want to do, but for now it's Baby steps, baby steps!

Cooking with Rhiannon

Inspired by Mel's Kitchen Café online (again!), Rhiannon and I made these today.  They're cooking right now.

Happiness.

Especially since I haven't made cinnamon rolls in over a decade.

Here's the recipe:

Vanilla Pudding Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese Frosting

Note: to use instant yeast instead of active dry yeast, decrease the yeast amount to 1 1/2 tablespoons instant yeast. Still mix it with the water and sugar but you don’t need to wait for it to proof – just continue with the recipe, adding in the yeast/water mixture where indicated. Also, as with all yeast doughs, I never use the flour amount called for in the recipe as a hard fast rule (unless a weight measure is given and then I pull out my kitchen scale). Because humidity, temperature, altitude and a multitude of other factors can impact how much flour you need in your yeast doughs, I always judge when to quit adding flour by the texture and look and feel of the dough rather than how much flour I’ve added compared to the recipe. This tutorial on yeast may help identify how a perfectly floured dough should be.

INGREDIENTS

Rolls:
• ½ cup warm water
• 2 tablespoons active dry yeast
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 3 ½ ounce package instant vanilla pudding
• ½ cup butter, melted
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 6+ cups flour
Filling:
• 1 cup butter, softened to room temperature
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 4 teaspoons cinnamon
Frosting:
• 8 ounces cream cheese
• ½ cup butter, softened to room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 cups confectioner’s sugar
• 2-3 tablespoons milk

DIRECTIONS

1. In a small bowl combine water, yeast and sugar. Stir until dissolved. Set aside. In large bowl, take pudding mix and prepare according to package directions. Add butter, eggs and salt. Mix well. Then add yeast mixture. Blend. Gradually add flour; knead until smooth. Do not overflour the dough! It should be very soft but not sticky. Place in a greased bowl. Cover and let rise until doubled. Then roll out on floured board to 34 X 21 inches in size. Take 1 cup soft butter and spread over surface. In bowl, mix 2 cups brown sugar and 4 teaspoons cinnamon. Sprinkle over the top. Roll up very tightly. With knife put a notch every 1 1/2 inches. Cut with thread or serrated knife. Place on lightly greased cookie sheet 1 inch apart. Cover and let rise until double again.
2. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Remove when they start to turn golden (don’t overbake). Frost warm rolls with cream cheese frosting (combine butter and cream cheese and mix well, then add vanilla and sugar and mix again, then add milk for desired consistency). Makes about 24 very large rolls.

NOTES

Freezable Recipe: After shaping the rolls and placing them on the baking sheet, cover with lightly greased saran wrap and a layer of tin foil. Store in the freezer. The night before you want to serve them take out the rolls and put them in the refrigerator. Let them thaw in the refrigerator. Take them out about 8-9 hours after being in the refrigerator and let them rise until doubled. Bake according to the recipe. (If you have less time, you can take the rolls out of the freezer and let them come to room temperature on the counter – about 4 hours, then let rise until doubled).

96?!

96.  That's how many blog posts I need by the end of the year to match the number I did in 2012.  It's not going to happen, and that's okay! 

Looking back over this year, I was trying to think about what was happening in March-April-May for there to be so few blog posts.  There were some exciting things going on (big cruise, Ragnar for Jason, baseball, end of school, among other things), but I think the underlying reason was my preoccupation with that possible Florida move!  I was certainly spending a lot of time searching on the Internet instead of blogging. 

This weekend:

--Wade earned his Cub Scouts Bear award and Religious Knot.  Woo-hoo!  (that's a 2013 goal completed!)

--Rhiannon and Wade helped me and some other families with our church meetinghouse cleaning assignment.  Jason was at home overseeing the installation of something cool in our backyard  (see next item in the list)

--We enjoyed our  new hot tub.  Our old one died and looked bad, too.  This new one is refurbished, much larger and nicer.  Bring on winter!

--Jason and Rhiannon drove down to the Los Angeles temple for a youth baptism trip.

--Wade helped me plant a fall garden. (crossing our fingers for radishes, cilantro, kale, spinach, and peas!)

--Wade and I went to McD's for lunch, and he hung out with some friends in the afternoon, doing everything from football to cup-stacking (yes, Google Speed Stacks and you'll learn what Richmond Elementary kids are INTO this year)

--I spent some time prepping for Wade's 10th birthday party next month (Iron Man 3).  I'm also done with Halloween costumes.  (Wade got an Iron Man 3 suit and Rhiannon got a Dr. Who sonic screwdriver....) 

Happy Weekend!

Fasting works

I had to laugh at this definition on the Merriam-Webster site this morning:

worrier

noun

 

Definition of WORRIER

 a person who is inclined to worry <she's a mother—being a worrier is part of the job description>

 

Synonyms: handwringer, worrier, worrywart

Related Words: defeatist, fatalist, pessimist

Near Antonyms: optimist, Pollyanna

 

 

 

Well, sort of laugh anyway.  I hope I'm not a defeatist or a fatalist, but I KNOW I'm a handwringer and a worrywart!  If there's nothing to worry about, I find something.

 

Take, for instance, our combined Cub Scouts packs.  We were having some issues and hadn't had any awards to hand out at pack meetings for several months.  It was a problem.  The boys were earning stuff, they just weren't getting those belt loops and badges in their hot little hands.

 

So the summer went by and we got a break from pack meetings, and a little breathing room.  But our first pack meeting of the school year was looming (it's tonight!), and we didn't have the awards.  I was starting to worry I was going to wring those hands of mine right off, figuratively speaking.  I kept thinking about some of the parents who were openly disgruntled, as they should be, at the last pack meeting, and I really, really, REALLY wanted to avoid that.

 

So, I pestered people with questions. 

 

"Are the awards here yet?"

"What can I do?"

"Have the awards been ordered?"

"Do we need to cancel pack meeting?"

etc, etc, etc.

 

I worried, and I worried, and I worried.

 

And then Fast Sunday came around this past weekend, and I decided to fast and pray about this issue, among other things.  I added it to the list of things I was fasting and praying for and tried not to feel silly about it.  I thought to myself, "We can pray to Heavenly Father about anything, at any time, anywhere, right?"

 

I was still worrying last night, thinking about pack meeting coming the following day.  I said prayers and tried to calm myself down and be at peace.

 

Then this morning I got the following email from a friend on our Cub Scout committee:

 

"The awards came!!!"

 

 

I know there are SO many more things I could be worrying about.  Syria.  Obamacare.  The US economy.  California.  Global warming.  The zombie apocalypse, for crying out loud.  But it's comforting to know that God is in the details of our lives and that He cares about us and our problems, no matter how big, or how trivial, they may seem!

 

Old friends

Jason and I went out to dinner last night with one of our great Virginia friends, Fred Shelton.  He was in town for a short work assignment.  His wife Carol took our family pictures for us back in 2008...see them HERE. 

It was a wonderful visit.  We got to catch up and hear how his family was doing (his daughter has been working as a federal agent for over a year--she's COOL.).  Fred couldn't believe that Rhiannon was a teenager now--in his mind, our kids were still 8 and 5! 

So many fun memories came back to us, of Jason's experiences in the Pentagon and of our adventures in D.C.  What a blessing that move has been for our family!  Not only for the life-changing adventures, but for the friends we made, too.

We dropped Fred off at his hotel afterwards and he said what I was thinking, "This has been great.  It's like I've been with family!"

The extra, extra mile

Last night Jason and I attended Rhiannon's Back-to-School night at the middle school.  I was impressed by every one of her 7 teachers, but especially her Honors Algebra teacher, Mrs. Hetherton.

That class has some strict guidelines because you can get high school credit for it, so there's no such thing as re-taking a test for a better grade, you get what you get.  (This was totally different from her Physical Science class, where they let kids retake tests as many times as they need to, and as a result, over 60% of their students last year got Advanced on the state test results...which is VERY impressive.)  Because of that rule, Mrs. Hetherton said she's available before school, during both lunches (she gives up her lunch AND her prep period and leaves her classroom open), occasionally after school, and then she handed out her home phone number.  Kids can come in to her class during their lunch time and do sample math questions to prep for quizzes and tests (I was happy to hear that Rhiannon had already done that).

THEN she explained that the reason she doesn't give help too much after school is because as soon as she gets home, her phone starts ringing, past students start calling her to get help on their high school geometry class!

I'm grateful for teachers like her, who work so hard for kids and also set an example for the rest of us.  It made me wonder, "When's the last time I went the extra mile or made myself that available to someone?"