Home Run Recipe

I was forced to play softball. My parents signed me up for a league when I was about 10. I didn't have a clue what to do. Having a hard ball (turns out it wasn't soft at all) thrown at me with only a skinny stick to defend myself while the people in the field are yelling at me (chatter) made me want to hide behind the bleachers and cry.

In high school we played kick ball in PE. I thought it would be easier than softball and I was right. I kicked that ball the very first time and started to run for first base and suddenly I woke up with a crowd of concerned faces staring down at me. I fell, passed out, and sprang my ankle. There wasn't even a cute guy to carry me into the nurses office.

So, I never hit a home run. Never ran across that plate. But last night I was on a team that hit a home run and it felt great! You see, I serve as a Meeting Coordinator for our church congregation. Once a month we have a Relief Society Meeting for the women in our church. The Relief Society is the largest and oldest women's organization in the world. I am so happy to be a part of it. It is my responsibility (along with the rest of the committee) to make sure the monthly meeting meets the needs of the women who attend. And, we hit a home run last night! It was fun! It was informative! It was delicious! It was crowded!

There are roughly 90 women in our congregation. One year ago we only had 8-10 women attending the meeting and the last few months that number has grown and grown. Last night we had 45 women there! That is 50% of the women! Holy cow I was thrilled. And guess what we were talking about? Squash. Who knew squash was so exciting?

For your eating pleasure here is a recipe from last night. I made this up myself. I'm calling it:

Home Run Butternut Pie

• 3/4 c sugar (or less because butternut is sweet already)
• 1 ½ t cinnamon
• ½ t each - cloves, nutmeg, allspice, ginger
• ½ t salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 ½ c butternut squash – cooked and mashed
• 1 large can milk

Blend all in blender and pour into pie crust, bake  425 degrees for 15 minutes and then 350 for 40 mins.

Previously Known as the Enrichment Leader

Do you think they are going to regret calling me to be the "Relief Society Coordinator"?

Dreaming of a White Easter

The house is quiet as everyone sleeps in on Easter Morning. MoTab is playing softly in the back ground. Easter rolls are baking. Easter baskets filled with summer shoes, t-shirts, Peeps and candy, milk chocolate for Noah, dark chocolate for Ike, are waiting on the hearth.

Heavy snowflakes are falling fast. The snow brings a festive Christmas feeling. I miss Hannah and Gabe terribly. When they were young Easter felt more like Christmas with the excitement of the baskets and egg hunts and the focus on Christ. Now the focus is more on family, the Honey Baked Ham, and the life of Christ.

The older I get the more Easter becomes about forgiveness and redemption. I'll still do more candy than necessary and force my teenagers to act like they enjoy looking for eggs - I'm a party girl - but my heart is filled with gratitude that I can be forgiven and I feel a need to forgive others.

Emily sent me this beautiful video.



We never need to walk alone.

Happy Easter.

Conference Report

I am pleased to report that we just spent 8 hours watching TV. I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints and we have a semi annual conferences. It happened this weekend. So on Saturday we watched 2 2-hours sessions and again today. The live sessions are broadcast on cable BYU channel. Its cool because you pretty much get to watch church on TV in your PJs.

Its also full of amazing talks and speakers and I always feel super motivated after conference! This year, the general themes I noticed were, "be of good cheer, do not fear", Be a believer, the importance of serving others, teach your children, have safe loving families, temple work and lots of other wonderful stuff.

That is a lot of religion for kids to take in all at once, who am I kidding, it is a lot for me to take in all at once! We have a few things we do to get through those 8 hours:


We eat a lot of Conference rolls Click here for recipe. This year I made orange rolls instead of cinnamon and they were delish!

We used to have the kids color little Conference pages and do fun Conference worksheets but they complained and stated they had outgrown that.

So we dogpiled instead:

Roland is the one in the fancy basketball PJs.

Occassionally there would be a little too much rough-housing and I would have to YELL at everyone to be quiet so I could be spiritually fed! During the 2 hour breaks we ran over to The Garden of the Gods to take in God's great garden. Ike was kinda sad but he smiled after I kissed him.

The boys climbed and ran and burned off those orange rolls.
Then we hurried home for the next session.

I worked on my afghan as I listened to conference. See all those kleenex boxes? we've had colds.

Noah tried to leave before conference was over,
but Roland escaped from Ike long enough to grab his foot and stop him.

It wasn't the peaceful conference I planned on (I thought we would outgrow all this by now) but it was still good.

Three Degrees of Separation

HOW ARE THESE PEOPLE RELATED?

The blogging world is really very small. My friend Diane is a blogger in Southern California:

Stylish Diane - I met her at Blogapolooza last year.

She has a son, Elder Jordan, serving a mission in Boise, ID:

Elder Jordan - I swear this picture was taken at the Hill Road Chapel.

My mom lives in Boise.

My mom

My mom met Elder Jordan at church last week! My mom loves the missionaries and will feed him and take care of him. Its so cool.

To my Boise readers (all 2 of you): Keep your eye out for Elder Jordan. If you see him, leave a message on his mom's blog.

Mission Possible

We had the Mormon Missionaries over for dinner last night. We feed them about once a month. They are fun to feed. They eat a lot (always makes me feel good) and they perform for us.We have an agreement with the missionaries that we will feed them and they will do a trick for us. We have seen some pretty cool missionary tricks in the past. One Elder (that's what we call the missionaries) did pull ups with his finger tips (on our very narrow door frame), another did bird calls with his hands, one could tell what scriptural book (and sometimes, chapter and verse) we were reading from if we read only the first sentence of a verse, one could touch our 9 foot ceilings with his hand while standing flatfooted and he was my height! We have seen some pretty talented young men. I'm telling ya.

So the Elders came prepared last night and after a delicious dinner (if I do say so myself) of chicken pot pie, freshly made apple sauce and rolls, they performed their tricks. Elder Wells hasn't been on his mission very long. He is a little bit shy and has very good manners. He can make a 4 leaf clover with his tongue. I could tell he was embarrassed, mostly because he blushed so much. We had to beg him to let us take this picture. I really had to beg.

Elder Wells' Amazing Trick! The 4-leaf clover. He has nice teeth.

Elder Van Lear (returning home on Monday!) told us that in the summer of 2006 he ate 8320 peanut butter cups, he spent $917.21 on them, and they weighed 437 lbs. He didn't gain a single pound. He also solved a Rubix cube in less than 90 seconds. I have never seen anyone do that. It was impressive.

Elder Van Lear's Extreme Rubix skills.

I am sending a link to this post to Elder Wells' and Elder Van Lear's moms. You have great sons!

New Scripture Study Idea

My dear old friend Celia posted a blog today about scripture study. I like Celia because she is slightly sarcastic and very funny. Anyways, for those of you who study your scriptures (all of my readers I'm sure), you might be interested in her article on scripture reading.

Birthday Weekend.

I feels like my birthday started on Friday and has lasted until today, my real birthday. I wish I had taken more pictures of all the cool stuff but I was too busy having fun.

Friday:

Some friends and I went to the Horticultural Society Annual Plant Sale. Last year I spent $300 at this sale and didn't even have a yard! This year I spent only $97. Such self control. I think when I am in my 60's (next year) I will be very active in the local Horticultural Society. There is no such thing as a grumpy gardener. I've never met one. Well, maybe in the winter they might get a little grumpy.After nurturing our green thumbs we went for mexican food. I got darling crafty scrapbook style gifts - the kind I love and refuse to make. That made me happy.

That evening every child in the neighborhood was at our house. When Noah's band practices we become the neighborhood magnet. I make all the non-band people go outside (the 11 year olds) or I will go crazy. The 15 year old girl next door always has about 4 friends over to jump on her tramp and act silly during band practice.

Saturday:

I gardened in the morning. I love to garden.

Noah had a piano recital in the afternoon at the same time as Ike's soccer game. Poor Ike, no parents at his game. He didn't seem to care. (I think the Flemmings are adopting Ike. They are like his second parents.) Noah played beautifully. He plays with real feeling and sometimes it makes me cry a little.

We went to visit my father in law, Wade. His sister, Doris was in town with her son John. I really regret that I didn't think to take a picture. They were sweet together and held hands the entire time. It made me love them and miss my own brother, David.

Then we went to Culvers for their butter burgers.

Then we took Ike to a birthday party.

Then we went to stake conference evening session.
We get a new Stake President today so last night we went to listen to Elder Holland.
I am so glad we went. He said that he was not going to give the talk he had prepared. He felt inspired to speak on a different subject. He spoke about "tough times". Now, I am going to paraphrase briefly (at least the parts the stuck out to me) what Elder Holland said: We know that we rejoiced in heaven at the opportunity to be here on earth and now that we are here, we wonder what all the rejoicing was about! That got a good laugh.

We all have tough times and right now things in the world are worse with war, earthquakes, economic struggles, attacks on the family and such. He said that it isn't about the wayward child, the divorce, the disease, it is about our discipleship. We took upon ourselves the name of Christ and we will struggle in this life, but how do we handle it, do we look to Christ?

He said our hearts will be broken. He drew an analogy saying, the clouds must break to make rain, the earth must break to be planted, the seed must break to sprout, the grain must break to make bread and the bread must break to nourish our bodies. Our hearts will break too. Without a broken heart how can we even begin to appreciate what Christ did for us? How can we know what it is to endure if we haven't had to wait for a husband to be a good man, if we haven't had to wait for a child to return (in every sense of the word), if we haven't suffered the pain of illness? He quoted someone famous and said something like, Endure what is happening now so in the future you can have joy.

He said we want to call ourselves long-suffering but we don't want to suffer and we don't want it to last very long. He actually was pretty funny. He talked about how when we are in a funk (my words) we tend to tell ourselves that we have never ever been happy. Ever. It was pretty funny.

He encouraged us not to tell ourselves that we must have done something to deserve a broken heart. He reminded us of our free agency - even in our reaction to tough times. It was an amazing talk and I felt like he was talking just to me. Roland felt the same. We were both very touched.

Then we went to Noah's show at Pikes Perk - a local coffee house. We got there towards the end of the show. The band was pretty excited and acting just a little bit cool. It was so fun to watch them! They have been practicing and working hard for about 3 months and they did great! Noah is quite the entertainer.

Sunday:

I have been told that there is breakfast for me followed immediately by a picnic. We have to be done in time to go to conference again at 1:00 so we can get seats for the 2:00 session. They have 2 sessions of Stake Conference here even if there isn't a GA.

I know the boys went with Roland to Costco yesterday and made me hide in my room until the birthday booty was hidden. So I think it might be bigger than a bread box. Or maybe just lots and lots of food. Food is their favorite way to celebrate anything.

Tomorrow will feel like my birthday too because I get to plant all my flowers! Yay!

Are you still reading this post? Thanks for sticking through the whole thing to the very self-absorbed ending.

Quotes

My favorite quote from WC is actually not from this WC but from Time Out for Women last fall:

Mary Ellen Edmunds:

"The more I focus on what I do have than what I don't have - the less crabby I feel."Me and Mary Ellen.

I pretty much try to keep things light and enjoyable on this blog. But about 6 months ago our family was really under stress. Before you all rush over here with casseroles and fudge - things are fine now (please don't bring fudge - I am trying to do South Beach). Last month I was in a gift shop in Boulder and saw a quote on a magnet that completely rang true for me. I am cheap and didn't want to spend $4.95 on a simple magnet. We drove home and I was filled with regret. I should have bought that magnet! Darn it!

I thought about that quote over and over. It sustained me. Silly. Just words - simple words - on a white magnet. I could type them up myself and tape them on the fridge for 1 cent.

Well, during WC we skipped over to Thanksgiving Point.

Surely they make a profit off of what I spend there.

And there was my magnet! It was $5.99. I bought it right away. I slapped it on the fridge first thing when I got home. In a few months it will be covered with smudges, wedding invitations, permission slips, and school pictures, but right now it reminds me to calm down and trust the Lord. Things will be fine in the end.

WC Pictures

Sally took lots of nice pictures for me because I left my camera battery at home in the charger. I took lots of pictures with my phone- but they look bad. My favorite bad phone picture is of Hannah in the Marriot Center with 20,000 well dressed (mostly) women in the background. Here are some of Sally's pictures. I am tempted to post all 100 pictures but have narrowed it down to just a few.


Sweet Lainey - such a good baby. I felt the need to skip conference workshops just so I could play with Lainey.
Hannah and Lainey - Hannah's new haircut Hannah's new haircut from the back. It was quite a change. They took off about 5 inches, super layered it, and did goofy stuff with the color. I think Hannah was in shock just a little. If you want to see lots of crazy nasty hair styles, go to the beauty school. Of course, Hannah's style was NOT crazy nasty.

Me, the Famous Celia, and Sally - Blogapalooza - I forgot to wear my black beads.
Sally, The Famous Paige, at blogapalooza. Page always poses real cute in her pictures. I wonder if she was coached on how to do that? Maybe she was a model before she started blogging? Sally looks like a model for Talbots.

FHE Dog Pile

Typical FHE at the Smith house:Ike gets ready to jump on the dog pile.
Noah and Ike together weigh more than 300 lbs. Look how big Noah's head is. Note the laundry on the floor.

Everyone sang "I Hope They Call Me On a Mission" off key.

Sigh.

Do You Have Horns?

I just read an interesting article in Vanity Fair about Mormons. I have been asked versions of these questions through out my life. However, I haven't experienced as much of it here in Colorado. There was much stronger anti-Mormon sentiment in Boise.

So, for my non-Mormon friends: Here are the questions you may have been secretly wanting to ask, but you are way too polite to do so. And for my Mormon friends: I thought you might enjoy the article. Here is the link. Warning: there are nearly nekkid pictures of Madonna on the page. So I have copied the text if you don't want to view Madonna in all her glory.
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Vanity Fair
April 21, 2008

Culture

A Mormon View

I came out of the closet years ago and since then have been encumbered by a never ending string of questions such as, “So, uh, yeah, like, how many wives does your dad have?””

You see, I am openly Mormon.

Dutifully, and with only slight annoyance, I would explain to inquisitors that my denomination of Mormonism, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), doesn’t believe in the whole plural partners thing. That practice belongs the Fundamentalist Latter-day Saints (FLDS) sect, which was founded close to 100 years ago when members of the FLDS movement broke away from LDS to form their own faction.

Yet, in light of the recent raid on the multiple-wife practicing FLDS ranch in Eldorado, Texas, which I found to be a rather sad indication of both the competency of the local authorities and the current state within the compound, I began to wonder: how many of my acquaintances wrongly assume that I, too, share my 700-square-foot New York City apartment with a barrage of prairie dress-clad sister-wives? Do they incorrectly believe that I have an Orwellian prophet? Do people really think I’ve been brainwashed by droning podcasts? (Not unless C-Span counts!)

So to debunk tall tales and misunderstandings, below are some abbreviated, unofficial LDS answers to common questions that I often get, both reasonable and ridiculous. To boost your Mormon-savviness, read on:

What is with the Mormon “magic underwear?”

Pundits and talk-show hosts love to mock our undergarments, yet no one seems to bat an eye at a Jewish kippah, a Sikhs’ turban, or the clerical garb that Christian priests wear. The truth is that worthy LDS men and women are endowed with these temple garments at a special ceremony. They hold sacred significance and are viewed as protective and a privilege, thus it is not polite to ask us about them. Would you like it if we asked you about your hot pink, tiger-striped thong? I didn’t think so.

Follow-up question: Aren't Mormons particularly good at magic?

Uh, no.

You’ve really never tried alcohol, smoking, or coffee?

No, and therefore don’t miss it. However, my vices do include ice cream and chocolate croissants, which—I must point out—don’t give me bad breath, yellow teeth, or wrinkles.

I see you are carrying the latest Carolina Herrera bag. Aren’t Mormons supposed to pay 10 percent of their income to a tithe offering?

Yes, we are asked to, and I do. Just imagine all the money I save from not drinking, smoking, or going to Starbucks everyday.

Where does all that tithing money end up?

Considering we have an unpaid service structure, where not even our Bishops and high-ranking church officials are paid for their dedication, that leaves a lot of money to do a lot of good. In 2007 alone, undertakings funded by these offerings assisted nearly 4 million people in 85 countries.

Do Mormons have horns?

Does anyone else find this question utterly bizarre? This folklore originates from the creative imaginations of persecutors of the early LDS church members. They claimed Mormons were devil spawns and therefore had horns. My hairdresser at Bumble and Bumble has yet to find a pair on my head.

Are Mormons Christians?

It depends on whom you’re asking. If it’s an LDS person, the answer will be affirmative—after all, it is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Ask an opponent of the LDS faith and the answer will likely be no. This discrepancy is due to the fact that portions of the LDS doctrine was not founded on the guidelines of Christianity as determined by Constantine and the Nicene Creed in the 4th century. Challengers are entitled to their own opinions, but the principles of the LDS church are based on the teachings of Jesus Christ, and therefore we believe ourselves to be Christian.

Why do so many Mormons get married in Disney World?

Actually, I don’t know how many LDS couples have gotten married in a Disney theme park—if any at all. You are not seeing Cinderella’s castle in the background of that picture of a groom and his modestly dressed new wife, but rather one of our 125 completed temples around the world.

Are Mormons allowed to dig in the ground?

It depends on the time of day. Before planting a flower? Yes. Before a manicure? Perhaps. Before dinner at Pastis? No. (Cue the eye-rolling.)

Follow-up question: Well, don’t they believe digging in the ground brings them closer to hell?

No.

Why do you live in New York? Don’t all Mormons live in Utah?

While I haven’t quite figured out why I voluntarily live in New York City, does the entire Jewish population live in Israel? Are all Catholics Roman citizens? LDS has a global population of over 13 million people, and 55 percent of the members live in countries other than the United States. Even though the headquarters of the church may reside in Utah, the state only makes up for 2 million of the world’s followers.

For more answers to your questions, visit Mormon.org. —Cassandra Handley

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