When life hands you bananas...

With Rhiannon's early, early weekly schedule, breakfast is tricky.  A 5:00 am breakfast before seminary makes her feel yucky, so what we've done this week are quick muffins or breakfast burritos on the drive from seminary to school.  I made them up the week before school started and threw them in the freezer. All they need is a quick minute or less in the microwave before I go pick her up.  It has been great!

These have been favorite muffin winners so far:

Mel's Kitchen Cafe Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Oh my goodness, these are good!  They were the first ones to go.

Second place were these power muffins found on a website that featured kid-approved and diabetic friendly recipes.  I was just looking for a recipe that had greek yogurt in it, for added protein.  I like these muffins, but I like them even better heated up with some butter spread on them, haha!  Next time I'd skip paper liners and just grease the muffin tins really well, because these muffins tended to stick to the paper.  Still yummy, though!  And I had all the ingredients!

Power Muffins:  Blueberry + Yogurt + Oatmeal

So, with my muffin supply running low, it seemed fortuitous when a friend gave me a bag of bananas yesterday that were ripe and ready to go!  I made more muffins!  I enjoyed putting my food processor to work and used my can of dried eggs, too--I LOVE using dehydrated eggs in baking but haven't figured out how to make them work for scrambled eggs or "fresh" concoctions yet.  The one time I tried it wasn't...good.

  

These banana oat chocolate chip muffins turned out pretty good!  They don't have flour or oil in them!  And c'mon, anything with chocolate chips is good, right?

Banana Oat Greek Yogurt Muffins

As far as the breakfast burritos go, Jason, Rhiannon, and I have devoured them.  Wade isn't a scrambled eggs fan so they're not his favorite.  Leaves more for us!  These are fun and FAST to make!  I cooked a large pan of scrambled eggs, browned a tube of turkey sausage, and then assembled these little pockets by putting eggs, sausage, and some shredded cheddar cheese in the middle of a large burrito-size tortilla.  Then I folded the sides up and grilled them on my electric griddle until both sides were browned.  Tasty and EASY!!!

Thanks to Google and the Internet, I finally figured out how to freeze up all this goodness, too.  I learned that once you've cooked/baked to your heart's content, you:

1) let the food items cool completely to room temperature  (this doesn't take too long)

2) place food on a baking tray and put them in your freezer for 1-2 hours  (HURRAY for my big freezer!)

3) pop them in a freezer bag and call it good!

4) store in freezer for up to 3 months

Who knows how long we'll do this, but for now, breakfast burritos and muffins are saving our mornings!

A good haircut...

Boy, oh boy, a good haircut ALWAYS makes me feel like a million bucks!  I get one *maybe* 3 times a year, when I can't stand it anymore.  Kaitlin Hess at the Madison Avenue salon does a nice job!  I feel human again--yay!

Missionary Open House

Over the past couple years our ward has done open houses at our church building, where we invite friends and neighbors in the community to come on by, tour the building, and find out more about what we believe.  Last weekend another one was carried out, but this time the teenagers in our congregation did much of the teaching and organization.

Rhiannon put a lot of time into this, easily 10 hours (enough for a Personal Progress project--yay!).  Her class was asked to do a presentation on the Book of Mormon, and she organized their portion and got help from the other girls in her church class.  Other rotations that the youth taught included the family, Christ's Atonement and the plan of salvation, Joseph Smith and the First Vision, priesthood ordinances, and modern-day prophets.  Jason and I helped the Beehive class and prepared presentations centered around the Family Proclamation.

After a summer of planning, we showed up at the church on Saturday, got our areas ready, and waited.  Our bishop, Bishop Washburn, and our full-time sister missionaries met with all the presenters in the chapel before it started for a short meeting, where they encouraged the youth to be courageous, let the Holy Ghost teach, and not fear.  It was cool!

So at 4:00 pm we began and didn't stop for almost 2 hours.  We had 8 groups come through!  It was a very positive experience, even though we felt a little silly saying much of the same things over and over again.  Initially, we'd been a little grumpy about how much time this activity was taking up, but I'm glad we had the chance to do it and got over our grumpiness quickly!

The gospel is true!  God loves His children!

Happy Heart

Rhiannon leaves for seminary at 5:20 am. That's the only time I have her to myself until 3 pm, so we've been trying to say a little family prayer together before she goes. Last night I didn't set my alarm and slept in, missing Rhiannon by 4 minutes. She sent me this sweet little text, "I love you, Mom!"  As soon as I read that, my heart swelled so big that it hurt a little, and I got another tiny glimmer of how much God LOVES this girl! So grateful to be her mom!

Other happy news so far this week:

--A big weight was lifted off of Jason's shoulders at work with some successful testing on base

--Wade was voted to be one of 4 ASB (student body) representatives in his advisory class.  Every class chooses 4, so we're talking a lot of reps, but it was neat to know he'd been willing to try out for it and that some of his elementary school friends were telling people to vote for him. :)

--Rhiannon got a text from one of her friends who attended our missionary open house last weekend.  He wanted to know how to contact the missionaries! :)

--Wade tried out for percussion in his beginning band and got one of 4 slots.  A good week for this kid!

--Me?  I'm getting a much-needed haircut today.  Life is good! :)

Light of the World, by Brent Borup

I was looking around on our church website for a nice picture of the Savior to copy/paste onto the new fall semester syllabus for the YSA institute class I get to teach every week.  This picture, called Light of the World, by artist Brent Borup, stopped me in my tracks.  It's my new favorite!

First day of 10th and 6th grade!

The next school year has begun after a super-fast-and-fun summer!  10th and 6th grade, here we come!  Both Rhiannon and Wade did a great job getting up and were ready for the day by 6:00 am!  We rushed out to the backyard to take our traditional pictures before I took Rhiannon to the high school for her band class (which starts at 6:35 every day).

Cuties!

She loves that "Hello" shirt--super soft and comfy!

And if you're an Avengers fan, you can imagine how Wade felt about his Jarvis t-shirt!

Rhiannon and I saw the most beautiful sunrise on the drive.  As soon as I dropped her off, I zipped into a parking lot so I could capture it!  

After I got home from that, Wade and I killed a few minutes before we had to leave to get him on base to Murray Middle School.  Most days he will catch a ride with our neighbors, but I told him I wanted to take him on the first day!  Wade was so excited that we left 5 minutes earlier than we planned and got to the school so early we had to sit for a few minutes.  (Classes start at 7:20; students are allowed on campus at 7:00).

The rest of the day flew by while I waited for their school day to end.  I messed around on Facebook, got groceries, and went to a disaster preparedness class offered on the base.

Wade walked in the door happy and content at 2:30 pm; then I left to pick up Rhiannon and some friends at 2:40.  

Rhiannon already had Spanish, chemistry and history homework.  Wade's only homework was to get his mom to fill out school paperwork.  They both said it was a good, fast day, with no problems.   YAY!!!!!!!!!!!

Just for fun, here is something I made yesterday when I found myself with a bunch of extra time in the morning.  It was fun to see how much the kids have grown each year!  11 years of first-day-of-school photos! :)  We love these kids and know they will be successful and happy if they try their best, work hard, and show kindness!

Last day.

Today was our last day of summer vacation.  It was a nice, normal, boring day.  I tried a new muffin recipe and made a double batch of them while listening to the kids laugh upstairs.  Rhiannon graciously took it upon herself to help her brother coordinate his outfits for the week (HAHAHAHA! What a sweet sister and what a PATIENT brother!) and weed out some t-shirts that were now too small.  I've taught them well:

Rhiannon:  "I had him try on all his shirts and lift his arms up.  A lot of them looked like crop tops and had to go."

Then we jumped in the van and went to the allergist for Wade's monthly shots and had a "last day of summer" lunch doing drive-thru at Arby's.  We watched an episode of the Flash while we ate and then all did our separate things for much of the afternoon:

Mom--napped and relaxed
Wade--watched videos about video games
Rhiannon--Facebook

We came together to make the kids' lunches for the rest of the week and then dinner (grilled chicken salad).  I'm smiling thinking about our after-dinner conversation--the wonders and virtues of deodorant, and how Wade had to put on deodorant AT LEAST twice a day.  Before he leaves for school and after he changes out of his PE clothes.  He was pretty happy to add Old Spice Swagger deodorant to his school supply list for his PE locker, haha!  He also asked about Axe Body Spray, but Rhiannon said that wasn't a great idea because from her experience, boys practically showered in it and were too overpowering.  So funny!

Now we are waiting for Wade to finish with Boy Scouts so we can have a quick family swim before bedtime, get father's blessings, and go to sleep!

And just like that, we're ready for another year.  Everyone is feeling pretty good--we're mostly in shock that it's here already and are just going through the motions, though.  Didn't 5th and 9th grades end a few weeks ago???

My Pioneer Trek experience (Rhiannon)

Hey it's Rhiannon! :) I don't normally do the blog posts, but Mom practically begged me to write this one. So I obliged and here we are.

Trek was absolutely amazing, in every way. My faith grew, my muscles grew, and I have a greater appreciation for what those pioneers had to go through all those years ago. I had no idea what to expect when I first got to our Trek site, but I can tell you I wasn't expecting the trail to be as difficult as it was. SO HARD.

The good thing was I didn't do any of it alone. Our small Ridgecrest Stake got divided into five families with about twelve people in each, including our "Ma and Pa's. Everyone thought they had the best family but I know I had the best one. I was part of the MacGregor family, with my old seminary teacher as my dad and his wife as my mom. They are great and definitely made Trek that much better. Same with my "siblings". I already thought I knew most of my family pretty well, but I learned even more about them, and strengthened some friendships for sure.

To be honest, most of Trek went by in a blur. The first day was very strange and hard. Getting into our families was fun, but hiking 8 miles with a handcart, in one day..not too fun. We got POURED on with rain and one of my good friends (and sibling) Tamara sprained her ankle pretty badly on the first mile. She was a trooper, and started helping again afterwards, but I bet that was hard.

Our Stake was pretty lucky. I think Tamara's ankle and various people with blisters were the only casualties. We were definitely blessed! I was (happily) surprised that my feet did alright. I didn't get a single blister and my bunion didn't bother me at all. I did have a moment on the last day where I think I was getting dehydrated. But I felt well enough to keep going so it was fine.

There were a lot of people on the Trek. From our tiny stake there was fifty or so, but a stake from Las Vegas came as well and there were about two hundred of them. We had meals alongside them, and the dance was combined but besides that we were just pulling our carts in a line. Speaking of meals, the food was super yummy. I probably would have eaten anything but the food was REAL good. There was lots of tex-mex type food, and chicken. Mmm, mmm good.

For sleeping the first night, the boys slept in tents and the girls slept in this huge barn. It was fun and the barn was very cozy. Needless to say I passed out when it was time for bed. The second night was more "real" because everyone slept under the stars. No tents, just sleeping bags. The boys had one side of the field and the girls had the other. I didn't sleep as great that night but there were hardly any bugs and more fun that the barn.

There were lots of random speakers that impersonated people from the pioneer times. We had a Brigham Young speak to us multiple times and a Porter Robinson. I can't remember any of the other names, but I liked all of the speeches.

One of the most worrisome things of the whole Trek was crossing the river. (insert Jaws music here) It really wasn't that bad, and it was actually quite refreshing considering the water was cold and we had been sweating like beasts the whole time. I took my shoes off, hiked up my skirts and away we went. It really wasn't that hard, as the water barely went past my knee. The pioneers had to go through much worse than that.

The second day was probably the funnest. All of the days were, but we had more activities that day than anything else. We played a few fun games as a stake. My favorite game was "Grab-your-Gal" which is really hard to explain, but there was some winking and partnering up involved. You would think playing games like that would be super awkward and weird, but it really wasn't as awkward as it sounds--promise.
Also on the second day was the dance. It was incredibly crazy and disorganized but it was still pretty fun. If I could change anything about it, I would have the dance be in our own stakes. I was a lot more comfortable dancing with people I knew, rather than random people I had never met before. It was still great though, and I got my pioneer dance moves on for sure.

The third day was HARD. It consisted of 2 miles (easy, right?) where we had the Women's Pull, and steepsteepsteep hills that went almost straight up. The Women's Pull really wasn't that bad, because we were smart and the ladies in my family were buff (did I mention I grew some muscles on Trek?) On the hard parts we planned ahead and had families team up, so that each cart had twelve girls instead of six. We would take turns running carts up the hill. One cart would go first and then we would ocme back for the second cart. It was still tough but we were fine. As we met up with the boys again (who had been doing a Mormon Batallion reenactment) they sang for us and tried to get us to stop pulling the cart but we wouldn't let them.

The last mile and  half was incredibly hard and even more steep than the Women's Pull which is definitely saying something, but our families worked hard, and we made it. BARELY.

At the end, I was super close with my family, with God and my ancestors. If I could do Trek again, which I can't because I will be aged out next time, I would go in a heartbeat., It was amazing!