Our Kid is Awesome

Gareth gets to watch movies on Mondays while I do the laundry. (And lately more often as well, but we're going to do better about that this week.) He was sitting there happily watching his movie while I checked some blogs and whatnot on the computer. I went and told him that in fifteen minutes it was time for a nap. Then I proceeded to lose track of time until I heard his door shut. Yes, my child just turned off his movie and went to put himself down for a nap - at exactly the time I previously told him would be nap-time - all on his own. I doubt this will become a habit with him (though I certainly wouldn't mind). Some days he's so exasperating and some days, like today, he's awesome. I love awesome days - and could use a few more of them!

Halloween

I actually managed to put together a real costume for Gareth this year - one that I figured out as much as three weeks ahead of time! A huge thanks to my neighbor who took me along to Joann's with her, which is why I actually purchased a pattern for a costume. And then she let me use her coupons for the fabric and her sewing machine for the sewing. And there's no way it would've been made if it hadn't been for my mom patiently answering my gazillion questions every day about basic sewing things that the pattern assumed I should know. Here it is, Gareth the monkey:

Gareth at the playgroup Halloween party

Excited that we're letting him push the stroller.

Pre-trick-or-treating

I basically took shortcuts wherever possible when making the costume, so I didn't make a lining for the hood (good thing, since it barely fit as it was) and instead of making a tail I used the tail from our monkey leash and just clipped it to the belt loop on his pants. That turned out to be very useful for steering him around the neighborhood.

Overall, it was a fun weekend. Ryan and I made honey popcorn earlier in the day:

I meant to separate all of the unpopped kernels before putting the sticky stuff on, but totally forgot, so later Ryan tried to remove as many as he could find:

This stuff is awesomely delicious. And addicting. It's already gone. Gareth really enjoyed the little bits I gave him on Saturday, but on Sunday he decided it was too sticky or something and refused to eat anymore. Ryan and I certainly didn't mind that!

We went trick-or-treating with our neighbor and her little girl. Unfortunately, the best picture I got of her was from behind - my front one turned out blurry.


She's a bug, as you can probably tell, though it might be hard without seeing her other extra leg I suppose. She and Gareth got "oohed" over an awful lot - I think because there weren't too many other really little kids out. We saw a fair amount of 8-10 year olds and some middle and high schoolers, but not many others as small as our kids.

Gareth, of course, didn't remember anything about Halloween, but it only took him 4 or 5 houses to figure out that he needed to open his bag and the person would put candy in it. He did a pretty good job of saying "trick-or-treat" as well when we prompted him to, though he says it "critch-or-treat". It was slightly disappointing how few houses were participating. If there were eight houses in a cul-de-sac we were lucky if two were passing out candy. It's not like Gareth cared though. He got plenty of candy and had fun - maybe next year he'll remember what Halloween's all about.

A Little Short

I finally worked up the courage to cut Gareth's hair myself. But not with scissors - just with the razor. So now, even though I used one of the longest guides, it's super short and he kinda looks bald:


Ryan's fine with it, but I think I like it a bit longer. So maybe, since Gareth was so patient and good for this cut, next time I'll try to do it with scissors. If it turns out horribly he'll end up with this cut again.

Our neighbor was awesome and took some pictures of our family this past weekend. We got some really good shots, but then Gareth decided he's rather run around, so that brought the photo shoot to an abrupt end. I'll post a few once I get some time on the other computer, which is where they are.

Ahhh...

I finally got released from the nursery yesterday! It felt a little strange to be so free. I strongly considered introducing myself as someone new in Relief Society, but held back. A few friends were celebrating with me and for the first time in years Ryan and I attended Sunday school together (well, I suppose we have had the odd week here and there when visiting family or after just moving somewhere new, but it feels like it's been years).

I'm looking forward to getting to know more women in Relief Society. The hard part is that, over a year after moving in, my energy and excitement for being super sociable and reaching out to others has definitely waned. Perhaps the coming weeks will revitalize that. I felt bad about not trying harder yesterday, but between the strangeness of being there at all and combating my body's dislike for fasting I wasn't able to expend any energies in that arena.

Overall, I'm excited for this change. I got the Bishop to promise that whatever they give me to do next I'll be able to attend Sunday school and Relief Society. And while I may not always enjoy the lessons in those two hours (though yesterday's were pretty good), they should at least give me some food for thought and a much-needed break from Gareth. Besides, it felt awesome to go pick up Gareth yesterday and have him so ecstatic to see me - and for me to feel happy to see him as well.

Another Milestone

Gareth has hit another milestone this past week - climbing out of the crib. I was wondering if he'd ever figure that out before we moved him to a big bed. I'm hoping to purchase a mattress for him this next week, so he squeezed this accomplishment in at the last minute. Gareth's been really good about waiting patiently in his crib until we decide to wake up and get him. I was therefore quite surprised yesterday as I was getting ready for the day to hear him crying and to hear the sound get nearer to our room. When Ryan got up this morning he walked out to find Gareth in the living room playing with books. And when Gareth woke up from his nap this afternoon he failed to emit his usual cry for me, but quietly got himself out of the crib and came to find us. It's rather nice to have him get himself out of bed - or will be until he does it at 1 am.

Portraits

And now we come to my worst area of all - portraits. These are all pictures of Gareth, since I didn't have anyone else willing to have their picture taken. I would post some that Ryan took as well, but his aren't as easily accessible at the moment.



Now that we've got a nice quality point-and-shoot, we've decided we need to start saving up for a good SLR. Taking pictures of a constantly moving child is practically impossible with a point-and-shoot, unless you like your pictures really blurry.

My neighbor owns a mat cutter and we were able to get some linen tape from a local framing store, so I was able to mat a couple of my pictures myself (the clarinet keys and the water spigot). I was going to frame them myself as well, but when I took them to the frame store to verify I was about to do it correctly the nice man there framed them for me for free (but now I know how to do it myself in the future). My class is over now - our last couple of sessions were about matting and framing and then we held an "art show" at the church with finished products from both photography classes and a quilting class. It was a fun class, though a bit stressful at times, and I think I've learned a lot from it. Hopefully what I've learned will help my future picture-taking improve.

Line and Texture

I'm a bit behind, so I'm going to combine line and texture. A couple of weeks ago our class focused on line and how you can use line to make a picture seem more "positive" or "negative" or give weight or emphasis to objects in your picture. (A line going left to right in an upward motion will apparently give a positive feel to anyone who read left to right. Countries where they read the opposite will get the positive feel from right to left lines in an upward motion. Or so our teacher says.) Here are a couple of my line pictures:





Last week we discussed texture, which is basically what you'd think (the picture above would be an example of both line and texture). The idea behind texture in photography being that you want your viewer to get a sensory reaction to the picture. I had a much more difficult time finding texture pictures, but had more of them turn out decently. Here are some of those:






This week we're working on portraiture, which I'm afraid I'm no good at. In case you haven't noticed the trend, I seem to tend toward abstract pictures rather than representational. I feel that I never quite get everything working together right in the representational world. And it doesn't help that Gareth always, always, always notices when I'm taking pictures. Or that for some reason he's decided that having his feet/toes photographed is the best thing in the world. After this week we learn about matting/framing and then we get ready for our art show (held at the church) on August 4.

Cafe Rio... to eat or not to eat?

And I quote:

"It is no secret that Cafe Rio is one of the more popular restaurants among BYU students. It is for this reason I felt compelled to write this letter to expose something I found both shocking and saddening. I noticed Cafe Rio uses real Coca-Cola in its recipe for pork barbacoa. That means many of us have disobeyed the commandments of our prophets without even knowing it!

"I am appalled Cafe Rio would perpetuate this subterfuge in Provo. Surely the owners must realize how many of us are striving to uphold the Word of Wisdom. How can we do that when they are secretly giving us real Coke? Now that this despicable deception has been brought to light, I think the only solution that we, as students of the Lord's university, can embrace is to immediately stop patronizing Cafe Rio until it uses caffeine-free Coke in its pork barbacoa recipe.

"Until then, let us eat on campus -- BYU Dining would never serve real Coke. Further, I call on the Honor Code Office to consider whether students who continue to order pork barbacoa should have a place at this university. Surely we cannot have students attending BYU who don't think it's important to follow the prophets. If students insist on eating pork barbacoa at Cafe Rio, they should cede their spot at this university to someone who is willing to be obedient, even when it doesn't suit their carnal tastes."

This was a letter to the editor in the Daily Universe. I laughed my head off. Hope to hear what you have to say!

Should give you a good laugh

I have to say this is the funniest thing I've seen in a while! I'm not really high tech like my siblings, so pardon me for just posting the link. http://www.flickr.com/photos/passiveaggressive/3642661392/

Photography Class

A woman in our ward offers a free seven-week photography course each summer - one of the reasons I was glad we ended up staying here. I've finally purchased a new camera for us, since the idea of trying to shoot for two hours with an obsolete memory card that can hold 36 pictures and a camera that probably uses up batteries in 1 hour didn't appeal to me. (When I looked through the manual for that camera I noticed that they assure the owner that the date function will continue to work after the year 2000. Definitely time for an upgrade.) I decided to stick with a compact camera for now, and went with this one. Happily, it arrived late Monday afternoon, just in time for my class yesterday.

The class is called "Learning Design Through Digital Photography", so we are focusing on how to compose our pictures, with an emphasis on line and texture. Our first assignment was due yesterday, consisting of two pictures each of the following categories of art: representational, abstract, and non-representational. Here are my best of the bunch:

I felt like I had a very difficult time finding abstract photos, but I must do a much better job of taking abstract pictures than representational or non-representational, since our teacher seemed to like these. Hopefully I'll improve in the representational category over the course of the class! Our class yesterday was focused on line, so look forward to some line pictures next week!

The Word of Wisdom

A Sunday school lesson on the Word of Wisdom is a very funny thing. Sunday school lessons are funny things for a lot of reasons, but I noticed it particularly this time because my mind has recently been on the topic of food as the result of reading The Omnivore's Dilemma.

Discussing the Word of Wisdom in Sunday school is largely an exercise of patting ourselves on the back for not drinking alcohol, smoking, or dropping acid. First, we dive into D&C 89:4:

Behold, verily, thus saith the Lord unto you: In consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days, I have warned you, and forewarn you, by giving unto you this word of wisdom by revelation—

After reading that, the inevitable Sunday school question ensues: "What are some examples of these evils and designs that we have seen in these latter-days?" Now the faithful members of the Sunday school class will reveal our main enemies, the dangerous, conspiring evils that constantly threaten to undermine our health: the tobacco industry, the alcohol industry, and the illegal drug underworld.

Can you see anything missing from this picture? Like maybe the industry whose products end up on our plates every day? Let me state a few observations about the demographics of the Sunday school members in this ward as well as many other wards I've been to in the U.S. The overwhelming majority of them do not smoke, drink, or use illegal drugs. I would bet that a majority of them have never in their lives sipped coffee, smoked a cigarette, sipped alcohol, or would even recognize an illegal drug. I'm practically 30 and the only time I've ever come close to ingesting these things is in the occasional annoyance of a nearby smoker or that one time that I confusedly gave in to the incoherent demands of a teppanyaki chef (long story).

Constant vigilance, brethren and sistren! Let's be extremely conservative and say that 10% of the Sunday school members actually struggle with one of the Big Word of Wisdom No-Nos. What do the other 90% get out of the lesson? They get to feel good about themselves while telling anecdotes about other people they've known (or sometimes younger versions of themselves). For most people there, the Word of Wisdom has nothing to do with sacrifice or resisting temptation. Many of us believe that the Word of Wisdom is as easy as the law of tithing, or easier.

I'd like to submit that "obeying the Word of Wisdom", by which I mean taking the typical legalistic approach and adhering to the simple list of official proscriptions, can be culturally compared to graduating from high school. Congratulations, folks. What an incredible accomplishment. The difficulty of doing this actually depends a lot on what background you have, like what kind of family you were raised in. Most of us middle-class Sunday schoolers have been blessed with a lot, and therefore graduating from high school is about as easy as falling over a log. Similarly, abstaining from Word of Wisdom No-Nos requires minimal effort, because to break it would mean acting against all the ingrained cultural and familial forces that have shaped your life since before your skin was exposed to the atmosphere.

No, my dear Mormon readers, this is not at all impressive or effective. Keeping out a short list of certain types of filth does not make your body pure or healthy. It only keeps it free from a short list of ailments and addictions. The "evils and designs" that threaten your health you may only be vaguely aware of. The industrial machinations in place to provide you with the cheapest possible selection of food would likely surprise you. This industry, from which you and I freely gorge ourselves, is motivated by something that may rhyme with "health" but it starts with a 'w' and has a significantly different meaning.

"That sounds like one of those crazy conspiracy theories," you say. Like the kind in D&C 89:4? Of course not, right? Everybody knows that those conspiracies are the tobacco, alcohol, and illegal drug industries. The evil Marlboro guy. Those devilishly funny beer commercials. The "secret combinations" of teenage gangster wannabe crack-smokers. That's where the evil lies, not the friendly McDonald's ads or the "variety" of processed corn-derived products lining the shelves at the supermarket. The tobacco/alcohol/drug fiends are motivated by something completely different than the food corporations, right? These guys want you to get sick and die! The food guys just want to earn a living!

Another funny thing is the way we like to gloss over the meaty parts (D&C 89:12-13):

Yea, flesh also of beasts and of the fowls of the air, I, the Lord, have ordained for the use of man with thanksgiving; nevertheless they are to be used sparingly; And it is pleasing unto me that they should not be used, only in times of winter, or of cold, or famine.

Luckily we have a more modern interpretation of this scripture: "sparingly" and "only in times of winter, or of cold, or famine" actually means "every day".

We sit back and complacently distance ourselves from the soul-destroying monsters of alcohol/drug/smoking addiction, and yet we have no idea where our own food comes from and why. It might be wise to consider these kinds of things, since they directly impact our health. What better time to talk about these things than during a lesson on the Word of Wisdom? Can we get past high school?

[Footnote: My comments regarding high school and the like are not intended to diminish the accomplishments of those people who come from poor or otherwise difficult backgrounds or circumstances and have had to overcome incredible odds.]

gDiapers

To my great amusement, a few months ago I found myself contemplating looking into cloth diapers for our next kid. (I was quite determined against them when expecting Gareth, partly because I'd no idea how far they've evolved in recent years.) And, oddly enough, it wasn't because of the environmental impact or the cost of plastic diapers. It's simply that I'd grown tired of the act of purchasing diapers. I find myself dreading the end of each box and the ensuing trip to Sam's Club (oh, how I wish they'd build a Costco here!!!!) to buy more. The thing I don't like about cloth is the constant washing. So I'd actually given up on the idea, until I came across gDiapers. These diapers come with a flushable insert. How cool is that!? You can even toss wet ones in your compost! So, I'm once again contemplating plastic diaper alternatives. And hoping that Gareth is ready to potty-train sooner rather than later, so we get a diaper break for a while.

'Sta

Here's a new quick and easy 'sta (as Gareth calls it) recipe for everyone, obtained from the Cooking Light June 2009 issue (found online here):

Pasta with Zucchini and Toasted Almonds

Ingredients

• 2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved

• 2 tablespoons minced shallots

• 1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme

• 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

• 1/4 teaspoon sugar

• 5 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided

• 1 (9-ounce) package refrigerated linguine

• 1 1/2 teaspoons bottled minced garlic

• 3 cups chopped zucchini (about 1 pound)

• 3/4 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth

• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint, divided

• 1/3 cup (1 1/2 ounces) grated fresh pecorino Romano cheese

• 3 tablespoons sliced almonds, toasted

Preparation

1. Combine first 7 ingredients in a medium bowl. Add 2 teaspoons oil, tossing to coat.

2. Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain well.

3. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon oil to pan, swirling to coat. Add garlic to pan; sauté 30 seconds. Add zucchini; sauté 3 minutes or until crisp-tender. Add broth; bring to a simmer. Stir in pasta and 1 1/2 tablespoons mint; toss well. Remove from heat; stir in tomato mixture. Place 1 1/2 cups pasta mixture in each of 4 bowls; top evenly with remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons mint. Sprinkle each serving with 4 teaspoons cheese and 2 teaspoons almonds.

I was getting a little nervous about this one the past couple of weeks since as the reviews were coming in online there were an awful lot of "eh" or "blech" reviews. I did change a few things. I used grape tomatoes rather than cherry, mainly because they were more cost-effective and vidalia onion since I couldn't see any shallots. I left out the mint, but used a bit of basil instead, used parmesan cheese since it's what we have, and used more almonds than called for. I also used penne pasta rather than linguine, knowing from experience that an independent-minded but less than perfectly coordinated 2-year-old and spaghetti or linguine are a great recipe for frustration all around at the dinner table. I'd say I used about 12 ounces of penne - it seemed perfectly balanced even with more pasta than called for. One big complaint in the reviews was the impossibility of stirring everything together in the frying pan. I just mixed it all together in a serving bowl, almonds included, and grated the cheese over the top of that. This was a delicious and easy summertime meal that we all loved.

Budgeting

I'm extremely excited about a new budget system we're trying out - BucketWise. It was written by Jamis Buck, who actually used to work at BYU on the same team as Ryan, and it's basically everything we've been wanting. When we were first married we used Quicken, but that didn't allow us to create different categories to sort our money into and then draw from. It was a decent way to track overall spending and make sure we were syncing up with our bank account, but it didn't really do what we wanted. And once our version became too old to download online account information we stopped using it.

Next we tried the YNAB approach without buying the YNAB product. Ryan coded up a complete clone of the YNAB spreadsheet where we could enter our purchases into a register, dole money out to specific categories, and it would record how much was spent, budgeted, and remaining in each category. If we went over in a category it would subtract that amount from our available amount to budget in the next month. This worked pretty well except that there was no way to account for different bank accounts. And then Ryan was going to need to roll it over for the new year (I didn't have the time or inclination to learn how to do it myself), but he was too busy with school so it never happened. A scary 5 months of not keeping track of our purchases ensued.

Now we've successfully transitioned over to BucketWise (thanks to Ryan allowing me free reign at the Mac for one weekend so I could enter everything from the past 5 months and figure out how the program works). The program allows you to set up multiple bank or credit card accounts and then you can create "buckets" within each acount. For us, I have all deposits go into a "general" bucket and then I can dole it out from there. With this program I can tell exactly what we can afford to pay for from our main account and what we'll need to pay for from our secondary account (where my paychecks go). I'm hoping this will gradually end the worries about if we've got any money left in our primary account. We're being better about making sure we have the money for a purchase before we make it - even the little ones, which was usually what caught us before. And we're using it to help us save for items we want to get in the future; we already have a "bucket" for Ryan's drumset! We'll see how it works over time, but so far I'm excited.

Triple XXX Date

Once Ryan finished his semester we took his mom's advice and went on a date - a rare and unusual occurrence indeed. We planned to go to a movie, but the theatre looked more run-down than a Provo dollar theatre, so we decided to pass on that option. Instead we went to Triple XXX. Despite it's odd name, it's just a harmless burger joint. The name comes from the Triple XXX root beer they serve. It is one of only two remaining Triple XXX root beer restaurants in the nation and has been featured on The Food Network. We had a great time - the root beer is superb, I enjoyed looking at some of their old pictures showing views of the area from the restaurant (which has been around since 1929), and they have a unique burger that is served with peanut butter on it. Yes, peanut butter. Ryan was the one to brave it, and he says it's delicious and he can't figure out why no one else has thought to do it. We'll be more than happy to have any family or friends who want to try it come and visit!

Memorial Day Concert

We didn't have a very exciting Memorial Day - Ryan worked and I did laundry. We didn't get together with anyone and we had a casserole for dinner, not the typical bbq. We didn't see any parades or bike races. We don't even have a flag to hang out. I was feeling a little bummed about our lack of celebration, so thankfully I'm playing in the local Citizen's Band this year. The first concert was yesterday evening.

I'd always wrinkled up my nose at the thought of playing in a community band or orchestra. I felt that it would just be disappointing after the other ensemble experiences I've had. But Citizen's Band is unique amongst community bands. It's been around for over 160 years and the performers range from talented high school students to people in their 80's. Some of the older members have been playing in the band for 50 or 60 years. Several members of the band are war veterans, one of whom hang-glided in behind enemy lines on D-Day. Most of the local band directors, studio teachers, and orchestra members participate in the band, which definitely helps the quality of the playing. The band is primarily a sight-reading band. For most concerts we only have one rehearsal the evening before. We don't get the music until that rehearsal, so we sight-read it and perform it the next night. And the band is very skilled at pulling it off. Apparently they're hoping to start having the band tour occasionally - performing at a conference in the next couple of years and then a trip to Europe after that.

The music isn't middle-school level either. Well, occasionally they'll throw one of the better of those in there, but for the most part it's good music. At our concert last night we played the to-be-expected patriotic pieces such as Armed Forces Salute and Stars and Stripes (as a side note, does anyone else get sick of Sousa marches?). But we also threw in there the ever-favorite Beguine for Band (remember that one Susan?), which isn't nearly as annoying when not paired with 15 other schmaltzy pieces, and even a great transcription of Shostakovich's Festive Overture. Definitely sight-readable material (though I did have to practice a few licks in the Shostakovich), but it seems they stick to good quality sight-readable material.

It was awesome to be able to play at the Memorial Day concert. We let Gareth stay up late so that he and Ryan could come. The audience consisted of mostly elderly people (I'm curious to see if that's always the case or if it's just due to the holiday) which meant there were actually several veterans in the audience. Playing that concert was a great way to feel a part of the community and feel that we'd done something to celebrate the holiday.

Farmer's Market

The long-awaited opening of our local farmer's market occurred in the first week of May. I took Gareth out in the slight drizzle and was surprised to find the place packed. Toward the end of last summer it never seemed so busy as it does this month. I was hoping to find asparagus, since I know that it's one of the first crops ready for harvest, and I wasn't disappointed. It costs the same as in the store, but why pay for asparagus shipped from Mexico or Canada when you can get some that was cut that morning only a few miles away?! We've been enjoying asparagus once a week so far. We've also been enjoying the lettuce and spring greens. Ryan's comment on our first salad with the fresh greens: "It actually has flavor!" We're also starting to stock up on the homemade jam, hoping that come wintertime we'll have enough extra to get us most of the way through until we can get it again.

I never thought we'd go this far with the whole fresh food thing, but we're actually contemplating trying out the local pasture-raised meats as well. I was surprised to see that the ground beef isn't all that much more than in the store: $4.25 - $5.25/lb. Just to get 85% lean has been costing us $2.99 at the store lately, with more lean options costing almost $4. Unfortunately the ground beef is the least expensive of the local meats. I'm not sure that the market prices can compete with the store prices where chicken and pork products are concerned, but I've still got some checking to do. If we weren't a poor grad. student family I'd maybe do it anyway.

We did get a couple of tomato plants - an Early Girl and some variety of grape that I can't remember the name of. We've had plenty of rain and sun since planting them and it looks like they're shooting up quite nicely. I'm so excited to (hopefully, if all goes well) have our own tomatoes this summer!

Good Review

I came across this review of Twilight today and thought it was excellent. The book is brought to my attention now and again, so I'm always interested to see what others think of it. Since the author is a scholar in the children's lit. arena, she actually speaks with some expertise and knows how to express her thoughts about the book in an intelligent way, much better than I could do! I like that she balances the negative with some positive points as well, because they do exist. Though some of her points make it rather frightening that I keep seeing 11-year-olds toting copies of the book. Do the parents know what their child is reading?

Easter

Before you look at the pictures, yes, the Easter Bunny did make it to our house. We just don't have any pictures of it. We were so busy getting Gareth ready for church and then trying to keep him from the other baskets that I never even thought to get the camera out until well after his basket contents had mostly disappeared/been put away out of his reach. Gareth got some bubbles and an Etch-a-Sketch, both of which he enjoys (bubbles are apparently yummy).

My parents came out for Easter and we had a great time having them here. Gareth learned to say "Pops" and "Gram" while they were here, and he seems to be remembering that that's who they are! Dad tried to teach him some French as well (things like "tu es bete"), but the only thing that stuck was saying "Salut!" whenever my dad put his hands on his head. Gareth would only do that for Pops though.

Our weather that weekend wasn't the greatest, but my dad braved the wind to spend lots of time outside with Gareth. I even let Gareth play outside on Easter because it was actually sunny and almost warm out:



Gareth loves this rusty, mildewy swing set. He'll start on the double swing (on the "floor" of it), move up to the double swing seats, then on to the yellow swing, the white swing, then the slide. Pops taught him how to go down head first. Thanks, Pops.

I decided to splurge and get Gareth an actual Sunday outfit for Easter. His Sunday clothes have consisted of jeans with a button-down or polo shirt for the past several months. I'm hoping this set will last him through the rest of the year:



And possibly the best part of Easter was our fattening meal:

Ham (unglazed - I really think this is my favorite way)
Sweet Potato Rolls
Spinach and Strawberry Salad
Classic Scalloped Parmesan Potatoes
Asparagus Amandine
Strawberry-Lemon Tart
Lemon-Coconut Cake

So, most of those recipes are from Southern Living, which should tell you everything right there. But, man, were they delicious. We had to do two desserts because there were too many delicious recipes to choose from. It was difficult to narrow it down to those two even. Do yourself a favor and print out the cake recipe. The cake itself is just a regular yellow cake, and it has become one of my favorites. I think it's the moistest cake I've ever had - better than store-bought. Ryan wasn't a huge fan of the lemon filling, so we'll experiment with different fillings (but if you like lemon fillings, this one was good). And the icing is just a basic cream cheese icing with coconut sprinkled on at the end.

An uneventful, but very enjoyable Easter.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Yes, yes, I'll get around to Easter and Gareth's birthday eventually. But I have to get pictures onto the computer for that and I haven't done it yet.

In the meantime, I'm reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. If it weren't for the amazing book group I attend, I would never have read this book. I've got to have it finished by Thursday, and for the first time ever I'm having difficulty with that. Not that the book isn't good. It is. But there are recurring portions of it in which the author rants about conventional farming methods and how they're horrible in various ways. Some of these are more interesting than others. Some I know have factual basis, but others seem exaggerated. They also start feeling repetitive. These portions of the book leave me desiring footnotes or parenthetical documentation, not only to back up her claims but also because they start to sound like a research paper. So, while I enjoy reading about her family's experience growing food and turkeys and hens and buying locally whatever they don't grow, I keep having to slog through the rant portions and it's slowing me down.

I'm having difficulty relating to some of her assertions, even when she gives anecdotes from her or her husband's own experience. Do the vast majority of kids these days, and even from my generation really have issues thinking of food and dirt together? Do they truly not understand that those peas and melons start as seeds or that a carrot grows underneath the ground? Really?? As far as I know I don't think I've come across anyone like this. And for me personally, I grew up helping plant all those fruits and vegetables in our small garden. I loved planting time. And I loved perusing the seed catalogs, choosing flowers and vegetables. When I moved away to college I actually missed weeding (the lack of landscaping at my parents' new home left very little weeding to do when I got home for summers). I certainly don't claim to be all-knowing about when to put various seeds in the ground or how to care for them, but I (and I like to think the majority of those around me) know that fruits and vegetables start as seeds!

What I'm enjoying most about the book is that it's giving me the gardening bug. I'm suddenly eager to grow tomatoes in a pot and some herbs and possibly, as the likelihood of our staying here for the summer increases, some chard, peppers and other vegetables. Even if all of those don't happen this year, I'm excited for the farmer's market to open again in a few weeks so that we can return to buying fresh produce from the local farmers. Because it really does taste better. Perhaps one day I'll even start canning a little here and there so that we can have some good fruit to use during the winter months when little of that is to be found at the store.

Now, I'm not going to order my own turkeys and raise and kill them (let alone try to get them to mate), but I am interested in one day trying out cheese making. The chance of that happening before all our kids are in middle or high school is very slight. But it sounds like it'd be fun (and is supposedly easy). I can picture me and my sisters and Kate (our honorary sister) pulling mozzarella (apparently you have to pull it like taffy). And I wonder how much better it'd taste than what I get at the store. Maybe I'd decide it's not worth the effort, but I still want to try it someday, just because. Until then, I'll plan for the day when we own a house with a large yard with plenty of room for tomatoes, peas, lettuce, strawberries, raspberries, and whatever else suits our mood. We'd better end up in a place that's good for gardening!

Oh look a new post!

I love my sister Sarah. She is so funny. She makes me laugh.

Gareth Eats, Ryan Bakes, Erin Programs

After deciding a couple of months ago that he only required breakfast and then a few bites of either dinner or lunch to keep him going, Gareth finally decided a couple weeks ago to eat again. He certainly has made up for his lack of eating previously! He's had a few days where he's eaten non-stop, asking for "munch" (lunch) just a few minutes after finishing his breakfast, eating two or three snacks and a full lunch and dinner as well. After a couple weeks of that he seems to be tapering off a bit, but he's still eating well at meals, so I guess he's decided moderation between the two extremes would be best. He's starting to hit the "terrible twos", throwing little tantrums complete with lying on the floor leg-kicking and he's getting more intentionally mischievous. But with that comes his greater attempts at communicating with real words. He will often repeat the last word of any sentence I say and is getting more willing to try out new words. Here are a few new pictures of him:

Wearing the hat Grams made for him.

Another (shorter) haircut.

A sweater from Grams.

My mom's been having fun knitting things for Gareth (and even for Ryan!). We've appreciated them a lot since we've had such a cold winter and had to keep our house on the chilly side to keep the electric bill reasonable. We've even been able to use the sweaters in the cold mornings of the past few days. Thanks, Mom!

And now on to the second part. Ryan really likes German Chocolate Cake. A lot. I made one several weeks ago, but he wanted more last week. I was busy cleaning up the kitchen from dinner, so he went ahead and baked the cake himself! (We make it from scratch, so it really is an accomplishment.) All I did was take the cakes out of the oven and put it together (which I messed up by not putting enough frosting between the first two layers - oops). He made the cake and the frosting all by himself! I was very impressed and, aside from my mistakes, it turned out perfectly.

The unfortunate thing about this cake is that it never lasts as long as it seems like it should...

To complete our role reversal, I'm letting Ryan try to teach me how to program. I'm having him teach me Java, figuring I'd rather learn that first and Ruby or Python later rather than the other way around. After hearing him talk about the students in his classes at school, I'm hoping my ability to grasp the subject doesn't disappoint him. It'll probably be a long process since we're both quite busy, but I'm enjoying learning so far - it's good to be cleaning some of the rust out of my brain!

Thoughts on Internet Filtering

The explosion of information and media brought about by the Web presents some serious problems for anyone with even a remote sense of decency. No one defines decency in the same exact way, but I believe there is useful commonality. Some people don't believe that there is such a thing as decency or don't care for the notion. If any such person has stumbled upon this blog post, I invite them to leave.

Among those who do believe in varying levels of appropriateness of content online, there is disagreement about how this problem should be solved. Let me venture to say first that forced Internet filtering is not the correct answer.

What I mean by forced Internet filtering is something akin to what you would see in the HBLL library at BYU. Internet filtering software is installed on a separate computer, called a proxy, and every other computer has to connect to the Internet through that proxy. The filtering software restricts access to a list of sites, called a blacklist, that are suspected to contain objectionable content. The software also analyzes the content of each website that is requested by every computer and determines automatically whether that site is appropriate or not. If you try to navigate to a website that is deemed inappropriate, you instead get a webpage that effectually says, "Shame on you. Your attempt to look at pornography has been logged and reported."

Why doesn't forced Internet filtering work?

Forced Internet filtering, in its present form, does not work for the following reasons:

Too ambitious for a packaged software solution

Automatically categorizing all web sites as appropriate or inappropriate is a lofty goal - a worthy goal, even - but there are so many different types and degrees of inappropriateness on the Web in so many formats that a single packaged piece of software cannot provide a satisfactory filter without a great deal of human oversight.

Technical solutions give non-technical parents a false sense of security

The technical boundaries that most parents place on their children are easily overcome. I speak from close personal experience. My parents thankfully did not attempt to use an installed Internet filter, but I'm sure it wouldn't have mattered much. Instead, there was an Internet password. You might be surprised to hear this, Mom, but learning that password was easier than taking candy from a baby, and I never had to watch you type it in. The BYU Internet filter is trivially easy to circumvent. It's useful too, as I'll explain in the next section, because BYU blocks practically half of the Internet.

Not only can geeks like me get past a typical filter, but so can inappropriate content. It's not very much trouble at all for the content to evolve into a format that makes it past a filter. If you filter out all swear words, people will come up with new ways to spell or abbreviate them that are easily readable and understood. Media can be encoded, encrypted, and compacted in all kinds of different formats. Websites can be accessed through other websites. It's almost like the illegal drug trade. If you outlaw it, it will move underground.

Sometimes there is no easy way to get around the filter. This can be the case if you work in a large corporation containing an entire IT division with the primary mission of locking down and restricting everything you do and touch while on the job. Even if you do break through the Iron Wall somehow, you might later get sacked like the little expendable peon that you are. I don't recommend working in such places for various reasons, but this is not really the environment I'm talking about anyway.

Unacceptable amount of false positives

False positives are incidents when the filtering software falsely classifies a website as containing inappropriate content. While working at BYU as a web developer and as a research assistant, I constantly ran up against the "shame on you" page when trying to access legitimate websites. Colleagues of mine all had the same experience. Since I don't access pornographic websites (not even accidentally - imagine that!), from my point of view this filter did nothing other than prevent me from getting information I needed at inopportune times. There is no explanation for this sort of thing other than an inhuman automated declaration that you have accessed a site that you shouldn't have. You might as well be talking to a phone rep at an electric company.

If you think it's bad at BYU, try going to someone's house where they've installed some shrink wrap web filtering software - the kind that's marketed to the same kind of suckers who will install "anti-virus software" from a pop-up window. If you try to browse the web, you'll soon find that, little did you know, up to this date you've been swimming in the eternal lake of fire and iniquity and your all-but-lost spirit is shrouded in a ponderous chain that you have labored on every time you logged onto your computer! Never again shall you roam the wicked shores of the Island of Phelps. Let the heavens have mercy upon your soul.

Terrible granularity

When I talk about granularity, I'm talking about the smallest unit of information that can reliably be blocked by an Internet filter. Up to this point that unit has been entire domains. A domain is the first part of the URL for a website, like www.google.com. BYU blocks YouTube (at least they did when I was there). Every single thing on YouTube, no matter how vile, or how enlightening, is blocked. That rules out a gigantic chunk of useful information on the Web as we know it today. It just so happens that it rules out a lot of cat videos and completely inappropriate videos too. I suppose the existence of the latter category and the collective IQ score of the associated comments for every video (-493e233) was the reasoning behind blocking it. It sounds like there's a good case to be made to someone high up at BYU for blocking the entire Internet. Some Internet filters block entire blogging domains like blogspot.com and wordpress.com.

All complaining aside, the fact is that the terrible filtering software can do absolutely nothing about separating the good videos from the bad because they're all technically on the same website: YouTube. With such a great software tool like that, your choices are: ban everything or allow everything. Dealing with the comments is a trivial matter: they're all stupid, so just delete them from the page. Yet the web filtering software can't even do something as simple as that! Why not? Well frankly it's too much work for the developers of a packaged piece of software to put in special features for blocking specific parts of a lot of different domains. The software would have to detect the stupidity of the comments and delete them automatically, and while there's work being done in that direction (stupidfilter.org), there is still a long way to go.

Inhibits accountability

Finally the most important reason why forced Internet filtering does not work is simply because it's forced. The CS department at BYU used the Blue Coat web filtering software. We made up a slogan for it that we should have put on a T-shirt or something:

Blue Coat: Satan's plan for web filtering

When you forcefully take away the choice of what you can and cannot access online, you create a sort of prisoner culture. Within such a system, it is easy to feel that you are justified in getting away with whatever you can within the constraints of the system. Not only have the parents left the policing up to the Internet filtering software, but so have the kids. Getting to a website without being blocked by the filter must mean it's okay. Everyone is absolved of responsibility. It becomes a game almost: my parents installed a forced filter; therefore they don't trust me; therefore I feel no obligation to keep their trust; therefore it's simply their will against mine. Pretty soon I'll have found a way to get the content I want and I think, "Hah! I win this round! Bring it on Mom and Dad!"

Now obviously there are varying levels at which you can trust a child with the responsibility of browsing the Web depending on the child's personality and age, but strict, parent-controlled Internet filtering is not going to grow or adjust well for teaching different levels of accountability, and I've explained why a typical Internet filtering solution does not work even if it isn't parent-controlled.

Now that I've talked about what doesn't work, maybe we can start thinking about what might work...

Sweets

Usually I post recipe stuff on my sister's blog, but decided that I'd stick this one here just for the fun of it.

Ryan and I tend to make the same few treats over and over again, only trying new things around the holidays. But the other day Ryan decided he wanted something new so I delved into the cookbooks to see what might catch my eye. This is the recipe I decided on, from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook:

Chocolate-Caramel Bars

1 cup flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 cups coarsely chopped pecans
1 cup flaked coconut
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
2 tsp. vanilla
20 vanilla caramels, unwrapped
2 tablespoons milk
1 cup milk or semisweet chocolate pieces

1. For crust, in a medium bowl stir together the flour and brown sugar. Using a pastry blender, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Press mixture into the bottom of an ungreased 13x9 baking pan. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes. Sprinkle pecans and coconut over hot crust.

2. For filling, combine sweetened condensed milk and vanilla; pour over pecans and coconut. Bake for 25-30 minutes more or until the filling is set. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan combine caramels and milk. Cook and stir over medium-low heat just until caramels melt. Drizzle caramel mixture over filling. Sprinkle with chocolate pieces. Cool completely. Cut into bars.

I'm pretty certain this was the first time I've ever used sweetened condensed milk. I remember it being on the shelves at home growing up, but I can't ever recall using it for anything. What did you use it for, Mom?? These are delicious, but you definitely don't need more than one after a meal! The nuts, coconut, caramel, and chocolate make for one rich treat.

Another good snack to try is this one that we've been using in Nursery the past few weeks:

Pretzel sticks
Raisins
Banana chips
Butterscotch chips

Just mix it all together in whatever quantities you desire. It's marvelous - I have a hard time not snitching some myself!

I Can't Think of a Good Title

I'm not very good at titles. I never have been. I hated being required to have titles for English papers in middle and high school. And I don't like spending hours trying to come up with a title that will very likely only be mediocre.

Over the past several years I've spent a fair amount of time considering my chosen degree/career and whether it was a good choice or not. I decided to major in music in 7th grade. Thankfully I was intelligent enough to re-evaluate this decision towards the end of high school. And, despite liking some other things as well, I didn't like them enough to want a career in them. I loved performing, so I continued on in music.

But after I got married and had graduated I sometimes felt badly that I hadn't majored in something where I could graduate and get a typical full-time job and make lots of money while Ryan finished up. Even the FAFSA forms seemed to assume that this was what I should have done, so Ryan didn't get a Pell grant that last year. During the same time I was teaching private lessons, which I liked decently enough, but didn't feel like I wanted to do forever. After all, my dream had been performing, not teaching. So it was easy to feel, despite knowing since 7th grade that I'd wanted to do music, that I'd made a poor decision. (Of course, if I considered my other interests, none of those were particularly lucrative either, so I'd probably not have been any better off.)

Then I had Gareth and we moved. And we knew we'd only be in VA for a year, so it didn't make sense to teach there. And Gareth hated me practicing. And I almost went crazy. Sometimes I really did wish I'd done something where I could go get a 9-5 job so that I could choose to go back to work.

The year ended and we moved here. I've been surprised by all of the musical opportunities in the community, especially considering that the music program at the university is non-existent. I've realized how much I loved and missed teaching. Private lessons are still preferred, but my sectional teaching is (usually) enjoyable for me as well. I've discovered that everyone needs an outlet to re-energize them. For me, I've got to get out of the house without Gareth and teach and play and bring in some income. The everyday grind is more easily faced as long as I have this outlet. (Thankfully Ryan is incredibly supportive of this. I don't think he enjoyed the almost-crazy me.) And now I'm so grateful I chose the career I did. Because I don't really want to be working a 9-5 drone job. With my degree I have so much flexibility. I can choose to be involved in as much or as little of the music community as I would like. I've spent most of the school year working 3.5 hours per week. I can't think of many other jobs where I could do that. In whatever community we end up in I can find local performance opportunities. I can go back to school and get a MM or a DMA if I want or ever need to. Wherever we go I can teach. And I can teach from my home if I choose to (right now I teach at the high school). It is so easy for me to have a career and a family life with my degree. I feel like, if I needed to, I could do a decent job of supporting a family with my career. And the best part: I love what I do!

Phelps Family Roots

Hiya folks. I'm due for my appearance on this here blog. I have to step up to the competition. Since it's really late and I have to go to bed, I thought I'd just leave you with this romantic little episode in honor of my wonderful parents: Enjoy.

Dishwashing Discourse

Today I finally forced myself to wash the dishes that had accumulated over the past couple of days. I stuffed the dishwasher full and piled everything else up to the left of the sink so that I couldn't forget anything. (I rarely allow dishes to accumulate, but I've been in a bit of a kitchen cleaning slump lately.) As I was washing dishes I pondered upon washing dishes and dishwashers. I realized how grateful I am to have a dishwasher - even a crummy cheapola one like what we have. Without our dishwasher the dishes tonight would have taken a whole lot longer. And I'd probably have many more days when I just let the dishes wait until the next day.

But while I appreciate the dishwasher, I feel a little bit conflicted about having one while our children are young. You see, I didn't grow up with a dishwasher. I know my mom really, really would have liked one for many years (especially once all us kids somehow turned the dish washing back over to her), but we didn't get one until we moved into a new house towards the end of my senior year in high school. And, no, I don't want my children to have to go through hand-washing dishes simply because I had to. It's that as I've gotten older I've realized how grateful I am that I had to hand-wash for all those years.

Having several roommates during college helped me to see how growing up with a dishwasher can leave one lacking a few necessary skills. Many (probably most) of the roommates I had were, quite frankly, pathetic when it came to hand-washing dishes. If they used something of mine and washed it by hand, I usually had to rewash it myself because it was so obviously still dirty it made me sick to think of using it again. It was amazing to me to see how low their standards were for clean dishes. Several roommates seemed to not realize that hot water was necessary to the process. And it definitely didn't help that usually all they used was one of those soap-dispensing sponge things. I noticed that those wasted lots of soap, got ridiculously disgusting after a few months (remember, this is a college apartment, so the sponge part definitely never got replaced), and were horrible at scrubbing. Most of these roommates had no idea what "elbow grease" was or how to apply it. The worst part of that was that this lack of knowledge usually carried over to other things, such as cleaning the tub or stove, as well.

So, though I'd always hated doing the dishes as a young child, I suddenly found myself glad that Mom had insisted dishes be completely clean, that I'd learned how to use elbow grease on a particularly stubborn pan and that my hands had, over time, become conditioned to being in very hot water.

Ryan and I spent our first two married years hand-washing dishes. Initially we alternated who washed and who dried each night. We owned one of those soap-dispensing sponge things since that was the only way Ryan would wash the dishes. I kept a washcloth on hand for anything that needed real scrubbing when I washed. But, eventually, we mutually agreed that it was best if I wash and he dry. I didn't really mind washing anymore, since Ryan wasn't a sibling who would purposely drop the silverware into the rinse water like bombs and splash water all over me. In reality, it was probably more that it wasn't keeping me from anything I'd rather be doing and I hated having the little counter space we had be covered in dishes. Ryan was good at getting the dishes clean, but I could wash a lot faster than he could. I'm not sure if that was due to all my years of practice or to his getting lost in our conversations and forgetting that he was supposed to be washing dishes as well as talking! On top of that, he never could get his hands to stand my almost-as-hot-as-it-can-go water temperatures. So, when we moved after those couple of years we threw away the soap-dispensing sponge thing and haven't ever bought another one (which probably distresses Ryan on the rare occasion that he washes dishes).

I worry that our children, if we have a dishwasher in our home, will grow up to be hand-washing pansies like so many of my roommates. My only hope lies in the fact that we still have several dishes, including our pots and pans, that are not allowed in the dishwasher. I'll just have to purposely make them difficult to clean once in a while, just so the kids get lots of elbow grease practice.

Gareth Tidbits

Well, Gareth is still a darn cute kid. Some new words that he's learned: monkey, done, milk, water, and horse. I couldn't figure out where he'd picked up monkey until we started doing the monkey song the other day and realized he must've picked it up in Nursery where we sing that every week. At least he's learning something in there! (I'm afraid his spiritual education isn't as advanced as some other kids his age, but he does at least fold his arms for prayers.)

I'm finally getting him to do some of the hand actions for songs at home, but he still never does them in Nursery. His favorite songs are Eensy, Weensy Spider, Ring around the Rosies (which he calls ashes), and the monkey song. Gareth seems to not like structured activities too well. By the time the lesson in Nursery rolls around he doesn't ever want to participate in what everyone else is doing. Usually a couple other kids will see what he's doing and decide it'd be more fun and join him. The other kids are more easily guided back to the activity. I've given up trying to force Gareth back. As long as he's being quiet and not injuring anything I figure I'd rather have him do his own thing than have to be taken out screaming. He's also taken a dislike to holding my hand if I let him down to walk. Someday I'm sure we'll think it's wonderful for him to be so independent.

You know how some kids really like dogs or cats? Well, Gareth is obsessed with horses. Every time we read Rumpelstiltskin we start out "Once there was a poor miller who had a beautiful daughter... and a horse." Every book that has pictures of horses, Gareth is sure to stop and point them out. I hope this isn't an indication of the type of animal he'll want some day.

Gareth's also learned how to jump without holding onto anything and to do a somersault. It's fun to watch him get so excited about such things. Speaking of him getting excited, he still loves the outdoors. We had a nice (albeit cloudy and windy) day yesterday so we took him out to a trail in the area for a walk. After being cooped up for the past couple of months he thoroughly enjoyed wandering free. He threw a great tantrum when it was time to get back in the car. We happily realize that that's his way of saying, "That was lots of fun. Thanks you guys!"

And, finally, here are some pictures of Gareth downing some strawberry smoothie (after eating a bowl of oatmeal and a whole banana - he eats more than I do half the time!) This was a very happy morning for Gareth.

Drinking every drop.

Happy boy!

When It Comes Right Down to It

When we were looking into graduate schools for Ryan and trying to make decisions we figured we could handle this area because at least the annual snowfall here was half that of Utah. Little did we know what we were getting ourselves in for. Now, I know winter has been a bit brutal all across the country this year (boy, am I glad we're not in Kentucky and without electricity!), but the Indiana winter seems a bit extreme to me. We've had many days when the high is in the single digits, and even a couple of days when it never got above 0. And that's without the wind chill. True, we haven't had as much snow as we usually got in Provo, but Provo never had a -30 wind chill. Because of our horrific winter I've been mentally comparing the places we've lived and trying to decide where I'd choose to stay put if I had to choose between those few places. A futile exercise since I doubt we'll end up in any of them, but it helps wile away the cold winter hours.

I grew up in New Jersey. It can be quite humid in the summer (August is the worst), and the humidity can make the cold of winter cut through many layers of clothing. The fall is gorgeous; I always loved driving along the tree-lined streets and highways in fall. There are lots of trees and there are hills and even a few mountains (that I know are not as big as the ones in Utah or Albuquerque). Thankfully the mountains are smaller so you don't feel like they're going to squash you flat. Other New Jersey pluses: lots of history, beautiful old houses and small towns, and, most of all, you don't have to pump your own gas! I've had many uncomfortable experiences trying to pump gas and wish that every state would outlaw it. NJ does have one big downside: cost of living. Sure, there's no sales tax on food and clothes, but that gets more than made up for elsewhere. Natural disaster-wise, not much. You get the occasional hurricane, but it's not usually as bad in NJ as places like Florida or North Carolina.

Virginia had a nice mild winter, with only a couple of snowfalls while we were there. It does get cold and they can get more snow than that, I'm sure, but from what I know of it, winter seemed great. Summer, though, gets quite hot and humid. There are lots of beautiful parks and country areas (we didn't find Manassas itself to be wonderfully beautiful, but if you got out of Manassas a little ways it got much better). Again, a big downer is the cost of living. More than 25% of our income here was spent on rent. And that was just to get a place that didn't have what looked like 50-year-old appliances, the water heater inside the master bedroom closet, or garbage dumped out in the front lawns.

Provo is better cost-of-living-wise. Of course, I think if I were to end up living in Utah I'd try not to be in Provo/Orem, just because I'd like to not be in the midst of all the BYU students. But while you're a student it's a great area. Spring and fall are nice, but they don't last long (I always wish they lasted longer everywhere), summer can be on the hot side but, as some would again contend, it's a dry heat. My main complaint against Utah is that winter lasts from September until June. Yes, I have seen snow fall in Provo over Memorial Day weekend. It didn't last long, but the fact remains that it fell. If I were into skiing, the mountains and snow would be advantageous, but since I'm not into skiing, I'm not such a fan. The Utah mountains are right on top of you and do want to squash you flat.

And now here we are in Indiana. Summers get humid, I'm sure, though I've yet to experience that. And the winters I've already talked about. And we can get tornadoes here, though apparently in our specific area they rarely touch down. Cost of living is awesome, especially for poor students. There are wonderful farmer's markets through the summer and fall. There are small towns with old Victorian houses that I love (and that you can buy for a lot less money than in NJ). And it's very, very green with lots of trees. Even the houses start to turn green! (I think I'd invest in a power-washer if I had a house with siding and lived here.) I would recommend it as a great place to retire, except that I can't imagine that I would want to suffer the winters here as a retiree. Other places get cold and snowy, but here you have a flat terrain and high winds. The wind makes all the difference in the world when winter comes.

So, when it comes right down to it, where would I choose to be? My ideal place would be somewhere with very little chance of natural disaster, mild winters and summers (though still having them, since I am a fan of seasons after all), low cost of living, lots of trees and hills, small towns with beautiful old houses, and with a law against pumping your own gas! Yeah, I don't think that place exists. But if I had to choose between here and Utah, which has been what I've mainly considered for some reason (cost, perhaps?), I think I'd still choose here. I'm not sure Ryan would agree with me, but the greenness trumps the winters for me. At least for right now. As I said, I don't think I could handle the winters as a retiree. Maybe by then my ideal place will exist.

Everybody Learn Globish!

I enjoyed this article in the BBC and had to share. What do you think? Would it be like those Frenchies to try such a ploy? :)

And on a more serious note, I found this Mary Poppins article interesting as well.

Divine Potential

Wow. It's been almost a month since I've posted anything and, despite Kate's request, no one else has posted! Sorry Kate, I'm not trying to hog the family blog, but I can't force others to post. C'mon everyone! Believe it or not, my life is not always/usually/ever blog-worthy!

I've been reading a Young Women's oriented blog for the past several months, which I usually find to have interesting and worthwhile insights, even though I do not have a calling in young women. I particularly enjoyed one of today's posts, on what I assume is an upcoming lesson. The topic (as you can see if you followed the link) is "Finding Joy in Our Divine Potential". (Don't you just love all the cliche terms and phrases we have in the church that we hear all the time but don't ever stop to think about what they actually mean? Or if they even have a meaning? I think "divine potential" falls in the first category. The best I've recently heard is "faith is real".) I've been drawn to the subject of divine/eternal potential ever since teaching this visiting teaching message, trying to get my companion and visiting teachees to actually (heaven forbid!) think about the topic and what our various roles as women (and men) are, and having the idea that women have roles other than motherhood be completely dismissed. Oh, and I'm pretty sure after those visits my companion was convinced I'm apostate. I think I've managed to dispel that notion over the past few months.

Back to the topic at hand, I like the attitude of the writer of the above-linked post. She isn't saying marriage and family aren't important. She's careful to say that they are, and that she loves being a wife and mother, and that those roles are fulfilling parts of womanhood. But she recognizes that they are not a complete picture of womanhood, that that's not all women were created for, and that many women can and will fulfill their potential without being a wife or mother. She mentions President Uchtdorf's talk from the Relief Society broadcast, which I agree is a perfect fit for this topic. I loved that talk! Basically, the writer has expressed my thoughts on the topic of divine potential perfectly (I think, as they currently stand).

And, even more than that, she's helped me realize that I'm very happy I've yet to recieve a calling in young women's. When I read about having a panel discussion on what about their womanhood brings them joy, my heart froze and my thoughts were "Um...um...crap! I haven't the foggiest idea! I need more time!" So, yeah, I'm glad I'm not having to teach these lessons yet. I'm suddenly very happy to be keeping 2 year olds fed and happy in nursery. I know how to help them get where they need to be. I'd like to serve in YW some day, but for now I think I'd like a while longer to figure myself out before I'm thrust into a position to help guide young women into womanhood.