Salem's Preschool Graduation

Last night was Salem's preschool recital called "Spring Sing" and today was Salem's preschool graduation. All went well. I can't believe the year is already over and he'll be in Kindergarten next year!

The night before he started preschool, I was scrambling around the house trying to get everything ready and then stopped to realize that my baby was going to school! It was an emotional night for me. I got on the computer and wrote Salem a letter. He'll be able to read it when he's older and cherish it. I wrote another letter today and hope to remember to write letters to my children on special occasions just to tell them how special they are.

Here are pictures from the preschool events:

Graduation Roll-ups & more

If you know me, you'd know that I'm not that crafty. I think crafts are cute, and many people do really cool things but when I do them I'm either too cheap or too lazy to do them as cute as everyone else.

Well...Salem's preschool teacher asked if I would bring some food tomorrow for his graduation. I debated about what food I should bring. Something healthy? Chips? Veggies? Cookies? Hmm...then I had some ideas! :)

Here is what I ended up doing:
Graduation Roll-ups
A tortilla roll-up with peanut butter & jelly. Then I tied some red yarn around it to make it look like a diploma!
I realize that I could have purchased some twizzler ropes and used those for the bow instead of yarn, but I didn't want to go to the store. You could also use curly ribbon, but I already had the red yarn. I was going to use whole wheat tortillas, but it didn't look as good so I opted for good ol' white flour tortillas. Although these treats aren't the #1 best health food, at least it's better than a cookie with 2 lbs of frosting on top. (Do you want a cookie with that frosting?) I opted for the classic pb&j since I knew the kids would like that. Otherwise you could fill the tortilla with just about anything if you wanted to do this for a graduate with more taste flexibility.

Here's another idea that I had in my brain, but I thought the roll-ups were a better idea:
Chocolate Graduation Hats
Put some chocolate Hershey's kisses in the microwave or oven to slightly melt but so they still hold their shape. Meanwhile dip Snyder's pretzels squares (they look like a grid) in melted chocolate. (Or any small square cracker.) Take the somewhat melted kiss and push the dipped pretzel a little bit onto the kiss and let cool.

Now you've got graduation hats! You could put frosting on top to make a little tassel if wanted.

What time is it?

What time is it? Time to fix your watch!

Oaklen put my watch in the dishwasher months ago and I have never gotten around to fixing it. Today I took it over to Stroud Jewelers and got it fixed. I never thought it would ever work again since it went through the dishwasher but with a new battery, it's good as new! So, now I have a really clean working watch!

The start of the garden

This is the garden from last year

The garden is in and I'm excited to see things grow this year. My friend Jodie and I team up to do the garden in my yard. Last year was our first time and I think it went rather well. We have used the square foot gardening method.

These are the things we have planted:
Tomatoes
Corn
Muskmelon
Zucchini
Banana Squash
Crookneck Squash
Pumpkin
Cucumber
Beets
Cauliflower
Carrots
Onions
Chives
Garlic
Cilantro
Oregano
Sage
Parsley
Calendula
Poppy
Carnation
Columbine
Alyssum

Songs that remind you of me

Every time I listen to a song it reminds me of someone or an experience. I'm going to turn the tables a little bit and instead of me listing the songs that remind me of you, I want you to comment on this post and tell me what song(s) remind you of me! :)

(Then maybe I'll let you know of songs that remind me of you.)

Have fun!

Success!

I was at another Home Depot location last night and they had a fridge lock! Yeah!

It's installed and Oaklen is curious, but so far so good! :)

Put your wheat to bed

A few nights ago, I put my kids and husband to bed, then put my wheat to bed! :)

Here's how I did it:
Cooked Wheat Berries - the easy way!
In a pot, soak 1 cup dry wheat in 3 c water for at least 8 hours. Bring to boil with lid on, then put the pot to bed! (Wrap in a blanket or put in a bed for about 8 hours, it will cook and still be warm.)

(I'm sure this would work for many grains.)
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I could go on and on about the wonderful world of wheat, but since I hope most of you already know how wonderful it is, I'll just give you some reminders. Here are a few things that I dug up:


Whole wheat flour is the foundation of good bread-making. It is an excellent source of Vitamin E, the B vitamins and others. It contains the highest amount of gluten of any grain. This becomes the elastic part of the dough and holds the yeast bubbles within the bread causing the bread to rise. The gluten in wheat is the only gluten that can be removed from the rest of the grain.

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Wheat - More than Just Bread

Yes, most people do just think of bread when they see the word "wheat," yet this is only one of hundreds of uses for the most versatile of all grains! Yes, it is considered the most important grain crop in the world -- providing 40-60% of the available energy and protein in developing countries. Because it stores so very well, it also is key to long term food storage. The purpose of this knowledge is to get you to understand the importance of having whole wheat in your diet. There are many reasons beyond the basic terrific nutritional benefits, but one of the most important is this: by adding high fiber whole grains to your diet will improve your health. Besides the nutritional benefits it is also tasty and good for you.

There are several types of wheat, but the most used are the soft and hard wheat. Hard wheat have the highest protein content and are best for bread making. They can either be winter or spring wheat, red or turkey or white (golden) in color. Soft wheat is best for quick breads, pastries, crackers, and cookies where protein content isn't as critical. White hard wheat makes exceptionally good bread -- a lighter loaf than the hard red wheat.

Whole Kernel (a.k.a. wheat berries). Soak wheat overnight then boil it which gives you soft wheat kernels. Prepared this way, they can be used for many things such as bulgur, popped wheat, pilafs, tabbouleh, meat extenders, cracked wheat cereals, bean substitutes, rice substitutes and noodle substitutes. Sprouted, wheat can be added to casseroles soups or stews, breads, muffins ... you name it.

Wheat conversions:
1 cup uncooked wheat = 2 cups cooked wheat
2 cups whole wheat = 3 cups ground flour
1 LB whole wheat = 2 1/4 cups wheat berries

Cowboy Caviar & Wheat Berry Salad

My friend Haley made this delicious salsa type dish. She calls it Cowboy Caviar. Here is her recipe:
Cowboy Caviar

6 TBS. red wine vinegar
2 TBS Hot Sauce (not Tabasco)
1 TB. Canola Oil
4 Cloves minced garlic
1/4 tsp. black pepper

(Mix above ingredients and set aside)

Drain and mix together:
1- 10 oz. peg corn
1-10 oz. black-eye peas
Add:
1/3 Cup green onions
2/3 Cup Cilantro
1/2 lb. chopped roma tomatoes

Mix all ingredients together. Best made a day ahead
Add 2 large avocadoes (chopped coarsely) right before serving.

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I loved the dressing so much that I figured that it would work for other things too. I made up this wheat berry salad and used the same recipe for the dressing. I changed a few of the ingredients or measurements for the rest of the recipe since that's what I had on-hand and in my garden. This recipe is versatile and you could put anything in there! :)

Wheat Berry Salad

6 TBS. red wine vinegar
2 TBS Hot Sauce (not Tabasco)
1 TB. Canola Oil
2-4 Cloves minced garlic*
1/4 tsp. black pepper

(Mix above ingredients and set aside)

Mix together:
2 cups cooked wheat berries**
1- 15 oz. can corn (drained & rinsed)
1- 15 oz. black beans (drained & rinsed)
3 green onion stems (chopped or cut)
1 handful of Cilantro (chopped) (about 1/3 cup)
2 roma tomatoes (chopped)

Mix all ingredients together. Chill at least a couple hours before serving.

* Add garlic according to your taste, tolerance, or your plans for that day! Serve this salad with gum or breath mints if needed! :)
** I used red winter wheat berries since that's what I have for most of my food storage. If you still don't know what I'm talking about, they're just the cooked wheat seeds. Most people use them to grind into flour. Here's one way to cook the wheat: in a pot soak 1 cup dry wheat in 3 c water overnight, after ~8 hours of soaking, bring to boil then reduce heat and simmer for 50-60 minutes. I'll do another post about more info on wheat.

Happiness is... Part V

Happiness is...
* my downstairs bathroom faucet, I love that it's big so you don't have to hug the back of the sink
* taking a shower with actual hot water and no screaming children behind the curtain
* finding cilantro in my garden from last year
* Oaklen climbing onto his bed with a book and saying "nuggle" (snuggle)
* getting a Britax carseat for $50
* when Darrell offers to give the kids a bath and help them get ready for bed instead of me
* doing Tae-bo with my kids and Salem saying "Go mom!"
* second-day hair
* getting breakfast in bed
* listening to Oaklen learn how to pray
* having Salem make up a poem that I have to write down
* watching Salem run to 1st base in tee ball, then doing a little dance when he got there

The search goes on...

Oaklen is my little munchie and he (as you know) is a turkey also. That means that he is constantly in the fridge. He knows how to open up the fridge, get the food and give it to me to open. One time he even managed to get an egg out of the carton, but luckily he chose a hard boiled egg, so when it dropped, it only cracked the shell.

I have been searching for a refrigerator latch so that Oaklen won't be able to open the fridge door. I've been to Toys R Us twice, Home Depot and Shopko. None of them have it! Toys R Us is all sold out and the other two places don't carry it. I might buy it online since I know it's there. Right now we have pushed our table to be in front of the door so he can't open it and he's crying because he can't get into the fridge...what a turkey! :)

I admit I got a fridge latch for a shower gift when I had Salem, but I never thought I'd need it since there's nothing dangerous about a fridge, everything is edible! I never thought about using it to keep food safe rather than keeping children safe until now.

Tee Ball

Salem has started playing in a tee ball team with South Salt Lake Recreation. He's had one practice and one game so far. It was pretty cute to watch the little 4-yr-olds try to play the game with only one practice. Most of them didn't know what to do. The highlight for Salem was the treat at the end, capri sun and nutter butters. He'd never had nutter butters before.


They were supposed to have had two more practices but they got rained out, so we've had to improvise at home. I used a bucket, an umbrella stand and a steel pipe for the tee, and Frisbees were the bases. It was pretty fun!

Broccoli vs. Steak

Which has more protein, 100 calories of broccoli, or 100 calories of sirloin steak? (Think about it for a minute...)

The answer is broccoli! Now stop reading right now and go get your frozen broccoli in the freezer to see for yourself. I realized this information while reading the book called Eat to Live by Joel Fuhrman. It's a great book that talks about eating nutrient dense foods. The way to fight disease is to eliminate the bad food with saturated fat and to replace it with tons of nutrient dense foods like fruits & vegetables.

After reading it last year, I started eating a lot more salads, but I admit that now I don't follow his plan as well as I should. I try to eat more vegetables but I still eat cheese and other things.

Here is the quote from his book:

"I see about twenty to thirty new patients per week, and I always ask them, "Which has more protein - one hundred calories of sirloin steak or one hundred calories of broccoli?" When I tell them it's broccoli, the most frequent response I get is "I didn't know broccoli had protein in it." I then ask them, "So where did you think the calories in broccoli come from? Did you think it was mostly fat, like an avocado, or mostly carbohydrate, like a potato?"

People know less about nutrition than any other subject. Even the physicians and dietitians who attend my lectures quickly volunteer the answer, "Steak!" They are surprised to learn that broccoli has about twice as much protein as steak.

When you eat large quantities of green vegetables, you recieve a considerable amount of protein. Remember, one 10-ounce box of frozen broccoli contains more thatn ten grams of protein."

Nutrients present in 100-calorie portions

	Broccoli	Sirloin Steak	Romaine Lettuce	Kale
Protein	11.2 gm	5.4 gm	7.5 gm	11 gm
Calcium	322 mg	2.4 mg	374 mg	470 mg
Iron	3.5 mg	.7 mg	7.7 mg	5.8 mg
Magnesium	74.5 mg	5 mg	60.5 mg	97 mg
Fiber	4.7 g	0	4 g	3.4 g
Phytochemicals	Very High	0	Very High	Very High
Antioxidants	Very High	0	Very High	Very High
Folate	257 mcg	3 mcg	969 mcg	60 mcg
B2	.71 mg	.04 mg	.45 mg	.32 mg
Niacin	2.8 mg	1.1 mg	2.2 mg	2.1 mg
Zinc	1.04 mg	1.2 mg	1.2 mg gm	.55 mg
Vitamin C	350 mg	0	100 mg	329 mg
Vitamin A	7750 IU	24 IU	10,450 IU	23,407 IU
Vitamin E	26 IU	0	32 IU	34 IU
Cholesterol	0	5.5 mg	0	0
Weight	307 gm	24 gm	550 gm	266 gm
	(10.6 oz)	(.84 oz)	(19 oz)	(9.2 oz)

This table is from http://www.diseaseproof.com/archives/healthy-food-nutrient-density-of-green-vegetables.html

Eat your greens a delicious way! Spinach Pesto Pasta

Tired of salads? Make sauces or dips with greens instead!

Tonight we made a delicious spinach pesto pasta. We don't really follow a recipe, Darrell just makes it up as he goes, he's a genius! :) Here's a rough recipe for what he put in it tonight.

Spinach Pesto Pasta
10 oz fresh spinach
2-3 garlic cloves
Olive oil
Salt
plain yogurt (couple of spoonfuls)
dried basil

Mix ingredients in food processor, then toss with cooked pasta. Yum!

Trashy idea

Someday when we redo our kitchen, I'd love to put in this cool trash receptacle.

It's a good use of a corner cabinet. There are three sections, I'd use them for: 1- Trash 2-Compost 3-Recycle

http://www.amazon.com/Rotary-Recycling-Center-Hardware-White/dp/B0006NIFNK/ref=wl_it_dp?ie=UTF8&coliid=I1CLW0QB9J12PI&colid=2A5WBR73LIEHE

Heather - Simpsons style

Here is what I'd look like if I were in a Simpson's episode...


This may be old news to you since the Simpsons movie has been out for a while, but I finally visited the website. :)
http://simpsonizeme.com/

Someone's been sleeping at my house

We had unexpected visitors from the park sleeping on our lawn...

We woke up this morning to find a duck couple camped out on our front lawn. The boys loved looking out the window at them. They're still there, taking a nap. Pretty fun!

Revolution Money Exchange - Just like PayPal but Free

Yeah for free money! :)

I have been made aware of a PayPal competitor called Revolution Money Exchange. It's just like PayPal but doesn't have any fees. I went ahead and signed up since they are doing a promotion right now until May 15. If you sign up by May 15, you'll get $25. Sounds good to me! :)

I added a button on this blog, click through that to sign up if you'd like, or click the link below:
Revolution Money Exchange

Revolution Money Exchange was started by AOL founder Steve Case to compete with Paypal. They're offering a $25 bonus when you register before May 15th!

MoneyExchange is the new way to send and receive money online between MoneyExchange accountholders. It's a great way to exchange money with friends, colleagues, or online sellers. Share restaurant, travel, or household expenses. It's easy, secure and, best of all, it's FREE to register and FREE to send and receive money between MoneyExchange accountholders.

It's a quick and easy sign up, and the $25 credit is applied to your account INSTANTLY. They ask for the same information you would need when you open a bank account, including a SSN. If you've done any online banking, you're probably pretty comfortable with the security of online banking systems.

Account issued by First Bank & Trust, Brookings, SD, Member FDIC and part of the Fishback Financial Corporation

Happiness is... Part IV

Happiness is...
* dropping your make-up and finding that nothing broke!
* listening to Salem sing his cowboy song that he learned at school (to the tune of "I'm a little teapot.")
* being able to email my midwife about anything! :)
* the lint in Darrell's belly button, it's so cute!
* Darrell bringing home the bacon (literally) and other items.
* a vase full of fresh flowers on the table
* apples n' peanut butter (and watching Oaklen do the sign for them)
* coming home to lots of happy phone messages on my birthday
* Firefox and their new spell check feature (it's a web browser)
* an empty kitchen sink
* listening to Salem make up words then saying "Mom, that's how you say [dog] in Spanish."
* watching Oaklen do his mischievous face...the one that says "I'm cute, so I can get away with it!"

A checkered daze

Today was a daze for me and my family. We're all sick. Darrell stayed home from work and slept most of the day. Both boys threw up last night. I've got a cough, the sneezes and runny nose, but couldn't rest since I needed to take care of the rest of them. We stayed home all day and finally went out on the porch in the evening to blow bubbles and get rid of our cabin fever.

Salem stayed in his PJ's the whole day. I think that has been the first time for that. He is getting more interested in playing board games. We played "Guess Who?" and Checkers. Playing those games brought back some childhood memories of my sister, Holly, and I playing.

For the Guess Who game, Holly and I arranged all the people with similar features to be together so it was easier to find them. Then we figured out the best way to ask a question to get more people eliminated, like "Does your person have facial hair?" instead of "Does your person have a mustache?"

When we used to play Checkers, Holly would get so mad that I would never move my back row. :) Then finally we'd have a face off between her last king and my last king. We'd both go to a corner and just move back and forth and never go out on the playing field. We were both so stubborn! Speaking of stubborn, it was really difficult for me to play with Salem and not be as competitive as I would have liked. It killed me to let him jump me when I knew it could have been prevented. But, I guess that's what every parent goes through. I'm sure you've read a sappy Hallmark card, or listened to a high school graduation speech that says "Mom, thank you for letting me win at checkers when I was a kid and making me believe that I really did win." I'll have to ask my mom or brother if they ever "let" me win (probably.)

Since it was Monday we did a quick family home evening. Salem went downstairs to get the FHE tree (chart telling you who does what.) Salem and Oaklen pretty much did the whole thing and Darrell and I just laid there on the futon and listened between coughs and sneezes. Oaklen chose the Sunbeam song, of course. He loves to jump and say the word "beam" and "him" at the appropriate times. Salem's lesson was on eating healthy food. He thought that it was a good topic since we were sick. He said "Heavenly Father told me that I'll get better today if I eat lots of feel good food." For the activity we played "doctor" with our medical kit. It's actually fun since you can really hear your "heartbeep" (as Salem says) in the toy stethoscope. My brother always liked to listen to mine to hear my little heart murmur. Bum-bum, bum-bum, bum-bum, SSSS, bum-bum...

We had air popped popcorn for the snack and knowing from my previous post, Oaklen dumped almost the whole jar of popcorn kernels on the floor. What a turkey! :) I always think about my friend Kristy when I make popcorn. She gave me the blue glass canister that I use to store the popcorn kernels.

Now they're all in bed and it's time for me to do the same. I couldn't go to bed without writing this blog post, otherwise I would have been thinking about it all night. It seems like I always have a blog post going in my head. It's actually fun to have a narrative of my life. Sometimes I'm able to write them down, other times they'll just be stored away into Heather's memory. Speaking of memory...I remember Kathleen in Jr. High told me that I was an elephant. I didn't quite understand, then she explained that I have a memory like an elephant.

Popcorn not popping

Sing this to the tune of the primary song "Popcorn popping"

I looked in the kitchen and what did I see
Popcorn on the floor in front of me
Oaklen had brought me such a nice surprise
Popcorn that spilled to my demise
I can take a broomful and make a sweep
A popcorn pile that is so deep
It was really so, and we truly found
Popcorn spilling all over the ground.