My First Time Burning Weeds

We've been fighting the weeds in our "yard" for awhile.  We spend over $100.00 on weed killers and I personally would take a shovel to clear them away, but there were too many of them and too few of me.  My neighbor felt bad for me because she could see how much I hated them.  After the weeds in our front yard died off, I told the neighbor boys to ride their 4-wheeler all they wanted over the dead brush- they took that one step further and tied a metal grate to the back of the 4 wheeler and dragged my front yard until it was clear.  Bless them.

The backyard was another story.  The weeds drank that weed-poisen like it was kool-aid and settled in deeper.  We lost that battle when we left for a few weeks in the summer. Other than the small path I had cleared to and around our little garden, all you could see was weeds (and who knows what the heck could be hiding in brush that thick?  I wasn't going to be the one to find out!).

Then came Fall.  That's right, the fall of the weed-empire.  Their thick green stems turned crispy brown and I took courage.  One coolish day in November, I took my rake and shovel and headed for the back yard.  The weeds pulled out of the ground easily.  So, I began to make piles of dead weeds, with the intention of putting the pile into my garbage can.  The neighbor boys saw I was up to something, and came over to whack at some weeds too.  Well, the pile grew until it was in no way manageable and I was stuck.  I semi-hoped the wind would blow like crazy at night and take the weeds into the empty lots next to us.  No such luck. And I was tired.

Then my neighbor tells me that we should burn our weeds (my gigantor piles and her measly sprigs).  Of course I loved the idea.  I called the county and they told me I'd have to get approval to burn from the fire marshall.  I called the fire marshall and he was out of town for a week.  I told my neighbor the bad news.  The next day I hear Amara say, "There's a fire out there."  I look and there's my neighbor burning weeds.  I grabbed my rake and ran to help her.  She told me that her coworkers said that it's okay to burn and they just did it a few days ago without permission.  I figured that's good enough for me, and I began adding weeds to her pile.  Soon we were in the weed burning business.  We burned from 1-4, then Steve got home and we finished the fires from 4-5:30.  That fire consumed those weeds so fast!  I had a great time watching those manacing-money-eaters burn!  

 Above is the Before.  Below is the After.

Another after shot...

Another before and after...

Watching from inside...

And more burning into the night

Whew!  Strangely enough, I felt like this fire was a rite of passage for me.  I now feel more a part of this rural community.

Crazy Hair Day

Lily was excited to participate in Crazy Hair Day at her school this year.  With the help of a few colorful pipe cleaners and a pirate stuffed animal, I think Lily may have had the craziest hair in school that day!

I was afraid her head and neck might get tired holding all that up on top of her head all day, but she assured me that she would be fine.  When she got home, I asked her if she was ready for me to take her hair down, but she wasn't.  About ten minutes later though, she came up to me and said, "I think I'm ready to take this down now."

Have You Heard of the Candy Fairy?

October 31st is known as "O Dia das Bruxas" in Brazil (that's "the day of the witches"), however at our house, it's not about witches, but a day of the candy fairy.  For those unaware of the candy fairy, let me explain.  Children go trick-or-treating and bring home loads of sugar in various forms.  If they choose to leave the candy out on the table, the candy fairy will come while they're asleep and leave them a gift. 

So, my kids eat a few of their favorite pieces and leave the rest out for the fairy.  This year, the candy fairy left them a musical instrument, sorta like a lap guitar or harp.  It came with sheet music that you insert behind the strings, then you use the pick to play the notes.  Both girls enjoy playing with it.  Lily has even gotten really creative and made her own song on a sheet of paper that she cut out to fit the instrument. 

I think I would've liked one of these toys as a child.  Had I only known about the candy fairy when I was little!  Halloween for me usually went like this: I would first sort my candy by type, then barter with my siblings, then I would pay the unfair dad tax (let my dad have a few undeserved pieces), then I would eat a few morsels myself and hide the rest in my room.  When I wanted candy, I knew where to find it.  Unfortunately, my brothers (and maybe even my sister?) would greedily find out about my candy hiding spot and eat all the good pieces.  Sad, huh.  I remember having leftover stale taffy at my disposal well into the Easter season.

Steve remembers consuming all his candy within the first night or two.  He also would barter with his siblings for a selection that better suited him. :)

Spooks! Sneaks! And Sweets!

Halloween has come and gone,

We had a spook-tacular time,

Amara was the cutest chicken,

Lily, a witch sublime.

Our church had a trunk or treat

Two days before the big day,

Dad, a clown, Grandma, a gift,

And a witch-mom on display.

Ten minutes and a hundred steps later,

The girls came back, their bags heavy,

What a way to earn a load of

Sugar, sweets, and tooth-rotting candy!

Perhaps you think this story ends

After this evening masquarade,

But no!  Oh no!  There's more to eat,

For Halloween is in 2 days!

So, costumes and makeup they willingly wore,

And out they went to explore,

To join the neighborhood trick-or-treaters,

In their yearly, fruity-ful chore!

The trunk-or-treat was at our church, and it was basically a half hour of passing out sweets, then a potluck soup dinner.  Really fun and yummy.  We had a huge turnout and passed out around 150 pieces of candy.  My favorite costume that night was the cowpie!

And my favorite carved pumpkin on Halloween was this one:

Halloween was so fun this year!  The weather was perfect for us.  We didn't even have to put coats on!  The girls got a lot of candy, which they happily left for the candy fairy (after eating a few of their favorites first).  The candy fairy left them a cool instrument they can play to their hearts desire.  What a silly tradition trick-or-treating is, but I love it!  I got to go around with my girls to knock on doors in my mom's neighborhood (our old neighborhood) and meet new people.  It was so fun!

Steve stayed home to pass out candy.  But he ended up eating it all because no one came.  He probably appreciated it that way since he was watching a football game! :)

Check out the Smilebox Scrapbook I made about our halloween this year and a few pages dedicated to Halloweens of years past (yes, even you iphone and ipod users should be able to view it- and if you can't leave me a comment).  Also, I didn't have pictures from last year, but Steve's mom did (thanks!), and she emailed me them, so I've included a collage of a few of my favorites at the end of this post.

Make your own free scrapbooking design  Last year we were in "happy valley" for Halloween, so here's the Halloween 2010 collage... (click to see full size)

Lily keeps growing.

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

A Visit and A Blessing

My sister and I are very close and we have made good use of the invention of the Iphone/Ipod Touch's app called Facetime.  Above is a picture of April's baby Devon via Facetime.  Lily took the picture with a camera while I was talking with April.  This is how I usually see Devon.

On October 16th, Devon was blessed in church and my family traveled down for the blessing.  I loved seeing Devon in real life and seeing how tall he's gotten.  We had a wonderfully full weekend visiting with all my family members in Utah Valley and some of Steve's as well. 

After the blessing, April had a potluck luncheon at her house and I was able to get some pictures.  We had yummy build-your-own pulled pork salad, pasta salad, jello salad, drinks, and dessert. Yum!

I miss my family very much and living 2 hours away is too far for me.  I miss things like this:

 and this...

 and this...

But, I'm blessed we are able to visit as much as we do, and I'm glad that we didn't have to miss this occasion.

Sorry, Spencer.  My camera's reaction time is a little slow.

So good to see my dad!  I miss him!

Maizie talking it up!

Amara getting ready for prayer.

That weekend went by way fast, and we enjoyed every minute of it.

Homemade Big Macs!

Years ago my step-mom was spring cleaning and was donating a pile of stuff to the thrift store.  I happened upon the pile and being frugally-minded, I rummaged through and found a hardly worn cookbook entitled, "Top Secret Recipes."  It featured recipes of the favorite foods from American restaurant chains like Chili's, KFC, and McDonalds.  Cool!  I thought.  And I took it home excited to cook from it.  A few weeks later, I made their recipe for KFC coleslaw, one of my guilty pleasures, and I dove into the bowl with my fork... Hey!  There is no way this is the Top Secret recipe for KFC's coleslaw.  It's fine, but it's not KFC's.  That's when I decided to read the introduction to the book and discovered that it's not technically the top secret recipes divulged on those pages, it's a guy's best guess using thorough experimentation and taste-testing.  Well, the KFC coleslaw fell short, so that cookbook sat on the shelf for years.

Then recently I had a hankering for McDonalds, but trying to be slightly (ever so slightly) healthier, I wanted to make it myself so I could control the quality of the ingredients.  I remembered the recipe book had taken the McDonald's Big Mac and deconstructed it, so I used it as my reference to make homemade Big Macs.  SUCCESS!  These were awesome!  In fact, Lily has informed me she wants to make them for family favorite night (we do that ever other Friday and allow one of our family members to pick a favorite food for dinner that night).

Yum!  I should mention that we had these right on Sunday and the girls came to the dinner table wearing their pretty dresses.  Not wanting them to get messy food all over them, I had them take their dresses off to eat.  They took them off and came to the table wearing only their underwear.  I was hungry, they were hungry, so I didn't send them back to their room to put clothes on.  Besides, it's less laundry for me to do!