I'll get around to it....

Did you try the frog eye salad? DO you have plans too?  It is such an pleasant reminder of summer reunions......but my biggest food memory of Idaho....is spam.....yes...spam....open faced melted cheese spam sandwiches!  But I do not need to give you that recipe because you just open the can and plop it on the bread....and 2) I wouldn't couldn't eat the stuff....I know how it is made now.....a...ya...no.way!

and talk about no way.....have you seen/heard about the Elf on the Shelf.......

Have you jumped on the band wagon, marching to the beat of this little doll....or are you like me?

And your head might pop off if you think about one more think being added to your christmas list, let alone try and be all cutsy about it because you are trying to potty train twins and it isn't going very well along with house breaking two puppies all while you continue to nurse a teething baby...um...ouch....and chauffeur around your "I'm too old for my mom to drive me but I blew the clutch out of my kid car so she must but I am going to have a total attitude about it" all while feeling guilty that you are not doing enough or maybe really...or...you are doing to much and loosing the spirit of Christmas ?  (BUT if you are one of these extra awesome peeps that keep it all together and makes everything rosy and tied up in bows for the rest of us to ooh and aah over then bless your heart, my hats are off to you! I'll just down another cookie.....)

SO...if you are like me then read here......it will give you a good laugh.......and make you feel better about your lackluster ability to get the elf spirit going.

But really, you must know, I will have to be joining the "make the elf play silly games and tricks so the kids will think he is alive"....because my mother in law informed me.....she will be getting the family one...YEAH! for me......maybe there truly is magic in the box.

I also know that I am more then a little lackluster in my preparation for the season is.....because my husband.....had to make peanut brittle....it was GOOD! He tried to make me feel all guilty about my lack of not having Christmas preparation...but...nope....didn't work....my mouth was too full of the sweet buttery goodness.  Thank you honey, you're the best!

He used the Peanut Brittle recipe here.

I will redeem myself ...eventually....and make almond roca, after I finish some Christmas skirts and mop the floor and pack for a quick party.....and.....and.....

Love yer lazy guts.......

Salt of the Earth

Yesterday I went from being talked down off the wall (if you need more explanation then that, we'll have to talk later.....at least that is what I told my husband) and thank heavens for my sister who responded to a text at 5 am her time......to listening to a woman we all wish was our mother sing  songs she wrote just for me and my memories of Idaho and cousins and summer....or at least that is what it feels like.....(long breath)

Idaho was to me what water is to a parched man in the dessert....

it was soul saving.....life saving...really

All summer long, Memorial Day to Labor Day, Fourth of July small town parades and fire works, horseback riding, first crushes, splashing in the water canals, so many bug bites you lost count, warm mellow sun on grassy fields, bb gun fights (yes, I could have sot my eye out...but I didn't), fishing, motorcycles, tents, stars as numerous as pebbles on the beach, quilts that smelled like dew, dogs barking, warm fizzy soda pop, water snakes slamming screen doors and wind that never stilled......

it is all all fuzzy around the edges and runs in my mind like a black and white rerun of The Andy Griffith Show (yep...still love that show) or even The Waltons.....and yes our kiddos roll their eyes when we watch those old shows on Saturday.

I think back now about my childhood summers there.....and I have to give credit to my uncles and aunts who took on an extra mouth, when all of them had more then enough mouths to feed...but I guess I kinda earned my keep....I weeded..and weeded and weeded....or it seemed that way! And if I didn't, well, just holler at me...I miss a garden.

We caught worms with our bare hands to throw in a bag and sell for cash to the anglers....I know totally eeeww now.....though I can and will thread a worm on a hook for my kids...if nothing else but to be totally cool in their eyes....but ya...still eewww.  We spent all day outside and had to be called in long after dark.....even with the bugs eating us alive. 

Idaho has become a sanctuary in my mind, and after listening to Cori Conners you would totally understand too......I have tied to convince my Utah Born husband that is where we need to move.....but I digress..

Cori is a much better story teller then I....

read here ......and really the song is so good, you must hear it...call me and I will run out to the car and play it for you over the phone....because the CD is always in my car. Even my kiddos love this CD and Cori, because maybe it explained their mother to them just a little, but more then that, Cori and her son, who was kiddo #5's soccer coach are intensely talented and real down to earth and good......good people...salt of the earth.

Hopefully we all have  misty edged black and white haven of our childhood locked away somewhere...that reminds us.....life is good.....and there are people out there that will take you in when no one else would, or save you from the monsters in the basement......(a whole other story...that I have written several times...yet can't post...not yet...)

Love your Idaho guts...and even if their not...love to all...

and the memory wouldn't be complete without frog eye salad.......for reals...a family reunion must!

FROG EYE SALAD

• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 3/4 cups unsweetened pineapple juice
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 3 quarts water
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 (16 ounce) package acini di pepe pasta
• 3 (11 ounce) cans mandarin oranges, drained
• 2 (20 ounce) cans pineapple tidbits, drained (or just crush your pineapple in the blender)
• 1 (20 ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained
•  (8 ounce) whipping cream (prepared according to your liking)
• 2 cup miniature marshmallows
• 1 cup shredded coconut

Directions

1. In a sauce pan, combine sugar, flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, pineapple juice and eggs. Stir and cook over medium heat until thickened. Remove from heat; add lemon juice and cool to room temperature.
2. Bring water to a boil, add oil, remaining salt and cook pasta until al dente. Rinse under cold water and drain.
3. In a large bowl, combine the pasta, egg mixture, mandarin oranges, pineapple and whipped topping. Mix well and refrigerate overnight or until chilled. Before serving add marshmallows and coconut. Toss and serve. 12 servings

I never include the coconut because enough of my clan doesn't like it...but either way...GOOD!

Calming a Messy Mind

This is my favorite hymn.....

....it calms my soul....

as does the Master.....

especially when I look at my list...the list....the list to end all lists...

...and I am.....let's say....overwhelmed...more then a little

but then I know.....with every fiber of my being....


that all is well...


even with a messy house....and a messy mind....


Peace.

Christ.

Love.

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

1. Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount, I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.

2. Sorrowing I shall be in spirit,
Till released from flesh and sin,
Yet from what I do inherit,
Here Thy praises I'll begin;
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.

3. Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood;
How His kindness yet pursues me
Mortal tongue can never tell,
Clothed in flesh, till death shall loose me
I cannot proclaim it well.

4. O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

5. O that day when freed from sinning,
I shall see Thy lovely face;
Clothèd then in blood washed linen
How I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace;
Come, my Lord, no longer tarry,
Take my ransomed soul away;
Send thine angels now to carry
Me to realms of endless day.