Forget-Me-Not…

(Click here for photo credit)

Last night Liz and I went with her good friend Charlyn and her mom (who is also named JoAnn, also a former Idaho girl, and also a teacher).  We rode the Trax  downtown to the Conference Center to hear the messages from our religious leaders at the General Relief society Woman’s Conference.  It was inspiring to be among thousands of other women, listening to messages encouraging us to be better. 

President Uchtdorf shared a wonderful message, using the Forget-Me-Not flower as a powerful metaphor.  The flower is often overlooked among taller more flashy flowers, but equally beautiful and lovely.  He reminded us that each one of us is important and that we are LOVED!

It was a beautiful fall evening.  The weather was perfect.  The flower gardens were thriving with late summer color.  The atmosphere of downtown Salt Lake was exciting and vibrant.  It was good to see all the progress of the new City Creek development.

Liz shot this picture with her phone.  Stunning!

I can’t wait for his message to come out in print.  I will share it then!

You can watch the video of the meeting here.

Have a great Sabbath day!

JoAnn

P.S.  Thanks to Elaine (Irene’s sister) for finding this quote so quickly!

Lookie, Lookie….What We Found!

We’ve had our eyes open for ideas for the inside of our playhouse for quite some time.  Today Andrew found this furniture on KSL.com.  It needs a little color, but don’t you think it will be fun? 

We’ve seen some cute children’s furniture on Pinterest.

Don’t you think our kitchen would be cute in blue or pink like these?

How about one of these colors?

(Image credit is available on my Pinterest board.)

We haven’t decided what color to paint them yet, but I’m so excited. 

Please check back to see what we end up deciding!

JoAnn

P.S.  I love KSL.com!

P.P.S.  Ken, if your reading this before you talk to me don’t panic!  It was a really good buy!

Wanna buy a cookbook?

I grew up in a household that followed this belief:

“If God had intended us to follow recipes,
He wouldn't have given us grandmothers.” ~Linda Henley

 My personal collection of family recipes included hen scratched notes written on the back of envelopes, units of measurement unknown to modern mankind (“Add a glob of shortening”), dishes that were created with a pinch of this and a pinch of that (and no written instructions at all), and even worse, simply delicious concoctions that went to the grave with the women who created them.

There was no shortage of good, hearty food in our home, or delectable sweet treats- just a problem with the recording system.

For this reason, our children have taken on the task of compiling a family cook book of the recipes we love the most.

In 2006, the kids secretly created a little cookbook of recipes we enjoy as a surprise for us at Christmas time.  They printed them at the copy center-all ten of them!

In 2009 a second book was published through Lulu and 40 copies were printed.  This book included a lot of recipes we wished had been in the original one, but for one reason or another had been omitted.

Over the last few years, Liz has taken on the primary job of expanding the cookbook to include recipes from all our children, my siblings, aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, Ken’s family, her Nielsen in-laws, and other family friends.  (Whew!)  She now has 458 favorite family recipes ready to head off to the printer in a format similar to this cookbook below.  The best part is that it is a ringed binder to allow for additional recipes to be included.

She is planning on ordering 200 copies!

If you are interested in getting a book of your own, hop on over to her blog and let her know you want one.

Here is a brief explanation of the price (from her blog):

I will be sending the book to the press by this weekend and will be receiving the books at the beginning of December, just in time for Christmas. Many of you have already reserved your copy of the book but I wanted to let all of you know that I will be ordering 200 books so please let me know if you are interested in getting a copy of the book. If you send me your money for the books right now I will be selling them for just $10! If you want to wait until I have the books to get your copy I will be selling them for $12 a piece. So let me know now if you are interested and how many books you would like as well. I do need your money as soon as possible since I have to pay for all of the books up front so please send me your money ASAP. Let me know if you need my address so you can send me a check.

Thanks, Liz, for all the hard work putting this together!

JoAnn

P.S.  We have some wonderful cooks in the family!

Pinterest…it is a fun addiction

If you haven’t experienced the fun of Pinterest, you need to check things out.  At first I thought I didn’t need it because I had my own bookmarks to save ideas of things I liked.  Little did I know that there were so many amazing ideas floating around out there-and it is so easy to find them on Pinterest.   It is fun to see what my friends find each day and I like to add cool ideas, too.  (Yes, we copy each other a lot!)

You can go to my Pinterest page just by clicking on the link at the top of my blog.  Each folder or board has a lot of pictures, recipes, etc.  You can click on one picture to open the  folder.  At the bottom of each picture is a link to go to the source and read more about it. 

These fun ideas came from a blog called “It’s the little things that make a house a home”.  Click here to go visit.

Want some fancy way to serve up pancakes?  Go to “The Girl Who Ate Everything” by clicking here.

I love the storage ideas.  This one came from here.

Can’t wait to try this idea at my next Halloween party!  This idea came from here.  (Bubblegum and Duct Tape)

It is so nice that people will share their creativity. 

Don’t you agree?

JoAnn

Remembering…

I liked  this quote I saw on Pinterest. 

On this anniversary of a terrible event in American history, we should all remember that

the human soul is resilient and amazing.

Courage is never giving up.

Or forgetting.

Brooklyn firefighters George Johnson, left, of ladder 157, Dan McWilliams, center, of ladder 157, and Bill Eisengrein, right, of Rescue 2, raise a flag at the World Trade Center in New York, in this Sept. 11, 2001 file photo.

Thomas E. Franklin took the picture of the firemen for The Record, a daily New Jersey newspaper.

(see article here)

JoAnn

A Little Family Time…..

This past week we had the whole family here!  It was a crazy, busy, noisy week, but we enjoyed being together.

We tried to capture some good photos and with four little children moving around it wasn’t easy.  Our big plans to go somewhere exciting sort of fizzled out, too, so here we are in the back yard.

     

The pictures are fun, but not quite as professional as I had hoped.  I guess we just need to get together again soon!

Who is up for another reunion?

JoAnn

The stars are out of line.

My Feng Shui is off.

Our computer is broken.

I  hope things get back to normal soon.

Here is a thought from my finds on Pinterest:

Thanks to Sweet Blessings for the quote.

JoAnn