The-Kids-Are-Already-Hungry Dinner Surprise

Just when you finally feel like you’ve regained some semblance of control over the zoo that is your house, you look at the clock and it’s already dinner time.  Here’s what I did earlier this week.  Naturally, you’ll want to modify it to meet your family’s taste and appetite.  I don’t tend to make anything that isn’t flexible by nature:

1)      Boil water with salt in a pot big enough to accommodate the amount of pasta your family usually eats in an evening.  I made a pound.

2)      Heat oil, not too much, in a big, tall-rimmed pan.

3)      Chop up a small onion or half of a big one, two carrots (steam for four minutes in the microwave in a bowl with a little water if they need to be really soft), two small cloves of garlic and, yes I’m serious, a can of French-cut green beans, drained. I chopped up left-over beans from a recent meal.  Anything else you need used up will probably work as well.

4)      Add veggies to the pot and stir around in the oil.  Put on low or medium heat based on how long the next step is likely to take you.

5)      Chop up raw or cooked meat or fish into little slices and add to the vegetables, or defrost frozen meat in the microwave and then chop up and add.  Or unwrap some tofu and chop into chunks to add with a splash of soy sauce, or even crack in four to six eggs to scramble up with the rest.  About a pound.  We used leftover turkey.

6)      Add meat. 

7)      Add pasta (I used whole wheat mini shells) to boiling water and time normally.

8)      Season.  I used basil, oregano, 2 tsp (equivalent of 2 cubes) chicken bouillon, chili powder, a little salt, more pepper and, a new one for me, parsley.  When in doubt, smell a spice before deciding whether or not it will compliment your dish.

9)      Mix it around until the meat is done, the veggies are soft, and the spices are well blended.  If necessary, drain excess fat (but not down the sink).

10)  Have someone set the table.

11)  Drain the pasta.

12)  Serve with pasta sauce and shredded cheese, plus anything else your family love on their pasta.  (I thought about combining the pasta and sauce in with the stir-fry, but decided to let everyone combine or not combine for themselves, and they were happy to do that.)

13)  Enjoy!

For an even faster meal, double the stir-fry portion of the recipe and skip the pasta.  Break out the tortillas for burritos with lettuce, tomato, cheese, salsa, and sour cream. Mmm!  That sounds so good I think I’ll make that tonight!

What I Am Learning about Scripture Study from Reading them in Chinese

I feel like I am a new member again, or that I’m a new member for the first time when it comes to scripture study.  For as long as I can remember, I have understood the scriptures I read to some degree.  And if I stumbled across a passage I couldn’t connect with, I would either ask one of my very available and willing parents to help clarify it for me, or I would skip to a passage I was more familiar with.  Not too shabby.  Now I am learning why some of the people I taught on my mission would tell me the Book of Mormon was difficult to understand while others, with just as little previous experience with it, never seemed to have a problem with it.

As I read the words in my new study-edition of the Book of Mormon in traditional Mandarin Chinese, I enjoy the luxury I have long yearned for to have the characters for each verse in one column, the phonetic spelling of those characters (or “Romanization” or “pin-yin”) in the next column, and the familiar English verse in the last so I can study all three side by side.  This great blessing takes a great deal of work to take advantage of, and after studying this book almost every day for the last two or three months, and occasionally before that for another two, I still haven’t ventured past the Testimony of the Three Witnesses.  I have determined that, this time through, I am not reading for speed (last time through I simply skipped every word I didn’t already know) but for reading fluency, and eventually comprehension.  I am determined to make it through each section just reading the characters and recognizing every one by sight, without checking the pin-yin, before I move past it and call it conquered.

There are several paragraphs between the Title Page and the Introduction that I can now read through without checking, and I am finally enjoying the luxury, which I never fully appreciated before going through this exercise, of reading every word in a sentence without stopping, freeing me to put the ideas together into one coherent thought.  Language truly is a marvelous thing!

The question that has entered my mind several times through the last few months, and been excused largely without an answer about as many times, is “Does it count as scripture study if I can understand so little of what I am reading?”  One paragraph could take me five minutes to muddle through, leaving me too tired to attempt another.  So tired, that I actually fell asleep when I’ve tried it.  Does tripping over one paragraph of words I can hardly string together in a coherent thought count as study of the Book of Mormon?

Today, I learned why the answer is a resounding “Yes.”

As I was reviewing a few verses I still struggled a little with, in preparation for turning the page on them permanently and moving forward in my quest to read every character in the Book of Mormon in Mandarin, I enjoyed the flow of the words together in sentences I could now comprehend and appreciate.  I had worked hard on this, and the progress, while slow, had been exciting because my skills improved each time.  I felt the Spirit whisper to my heart words I had spoken to my son in recent days and I realized that I was keeping Heavenly Father’s commandment to “be obedient.”

“Things always go better when you are obedient,” I tell my son, “even when you don’t know why.  I know it’s hard sometimes, but when you’re obedient, you will always be happier.”

I knew this because my mother had taught me, “I’m not going to tell you why, because you’re just going to argue with me.  You obey first and then if you still want to know why, maybe I’ll tell you.”  It makes me smile to remember myself, short and pompous, trying to process those words as I pouted and humphed out of the room, but it is a true principle.

God tells us what we need to do to be happy, and He rarely tells us why upfront.  But when we obey, we often figure that part out for ourselves.

So the Spirit taught me this morning that we study the scriptures to be obedient.  The other blessings that come through that process are but blessings He already wanted to give to us.  We show we are ready to receive these blessings by keeping His commandments.   So, while I have many great, enduring, and even life-changing lessons during my scripture study, they weren’t taught to me by the words on the page.  Rather, they were taught to me by the Spirit I had put myself in the right place to hear by consistent obedience.

The Words Behind “There Are No Words!”

or, What Facebook is Really For

This blog could actually have many titles, but I narrowed it down to the two above.

We need code names for my four charges.  The boys will be Nemo, Captain, and Ninja, and my sweet Baby will be Princess.

The day began about on schedule, roughened around the edges by the fact that Ninja got to bed late every night so far this week, Captain hasn’t napped well Monday or Tuesday, and I was up in the night for a good two to three hours last night.  When Nemo’s Mommy dropped him off, she informed me that he would not be picked up before naptime as I had anticipated he would be.   Bound and determined that Captain would get a good nap today, and trying to preserve my own sanity and make some dinner in time for 5, I had planned to stay inside to play.  As soon as my brood of four was complete I knew I was going to need some help.

My downstairs neighbor had planned to teach a few children Preschool in her home this morning and told me Ninja (the closest to the age- and ability-level of her group) was welcome to join in, but as his usually-quiet nature gave way to a sleep-deprived performance routine, I perceived he would not do better for her and opted not to dump him into her life for the morning.

Everyone needed a snack as soon as Princess finished eating, which worked well because she happily went down for a nap.  After snack I fought with Ninja and Captain to clear the floor so we could dance around a little (Nemo was surprisingly willing to help).  Once satisfactory, I found something upbeat on the radio and they had some fun while I tried to recharge with a few verses of scripture study.  So glad I took that time!

When that got old, I don’t even remember what happened after that.  It was a blur of time-outs and we-don’t-hit-people’s and let-him-out-of-the-closets with a few breaks of peace in between.  Lunchtime came early, and thankfully so.  Ninja’s appetite really wasn’t what it should be, and Captain didn’t like his lunch much (though I’m told he chose it himself), but Nemo happily ate almost every bite.  Since he was doing so well, I decided to try to put him down for a nap first (princess woke up about them, thus clearing that room for his use).  Since the others were happily playing, I took a little extra time to sing to and rock him, and I left the room with some hope that he would stay down.

By now my lunch was only part-way finished cooking.  Ravenous in my first trimester of pregnancy, it was an almost-maddening stressor to be kept from eating all by itself, but I didn’t want anything else than what it would take 20 more minutes to finish cooking.   Somewhere along the way I knocked a glassful of milk onto the floor, which glass fell onto the padded booster chair by some tender mercy of a loving God who had clearly heard my plea that I would have the strength to survive the day with all my charges safe, and was answering.

Captain was next.  He went down easily and cheerfully. Ejale!

After much cajoling – then stern words – then raised voice, I finally locked Nemo in the bedroom.  Ninja (whose behavior instantly transformed when the other two boys were out of view) watched me with a look of helpless wanting to help – or at least understand – as I stormed around trying to get Nemo to stay in bed and feed myself.  The voice of Nemo’s mother telling me how much he loved to nap at home haunted me as I finally sat down to my meal as he cried in the background.  It was too hot to eat.  I tore out of my chair and yanked open the freezer door.  As I did, a box of O’s toppled down from its perch, but with an almost animal growl I smacked it out of its trajectory into the microwave across the tiny hall of a kitchen before it could hit my head.   I didn’t even look to see where it fell.

I found the ice.  I twisted the cubes loose and then tried in vain to scoop one out with my finger, so I cracked the whole tray upside-down over my bowl, letting the cubes that didn’t make it into the bowl fly where they would, and then flinging the remainder with the tray to the other side of the table.  Ninja and Princess enjoyed finding, chewing, and sharing them while I scarffed my satisfactory, but not-awesome lunch: half of a meal mix made to feed an entire family.  I asked Ninja for a hug.  We both needed one.

As I finished up, I could hear Nemo crying, “Please! Please!,” which I’d learned from previous sad experience meant he’d pooped his pants – as he always did at my house once or twice per naptime.  Trying to make amends, and improve the ambient in his little world (I wouldn’t be able to sleep with an angry sitter either), I locked the door with the other two on the outside and talked to him calmly as I changed him about how comfortable it would be now to sleep and how tired he was (and I wasn’t making it up, he was having a hard time keeping his eyes open).  As I got ready to leave he asked for water, which I offered to let him drink but not hold without supervision (again, from sad experience), but he wouldn’t have it that way…

By the time I finally put the child lock on and completely gave up on a pleasant naptime, I was almost seeing red.  Then I couldn’t find my phone, so I turned to my ward Relief Society Facebook page for some – well – Relief.  I had already started a comment that would try to explain a little about what was going on and ask if anyone had some time to come play…but finally what I posted was, “Someone come to my house!  There are no words!”  Understandably I got some very worried calls and texts after that, the first from the same wonderful neighbor, but within fifteen minutes I had a friend at my house with an age-appropriate Bingo game and her three-year old, and I deleted the comment from Facebook.

In that fifteen minutes, Ninja, who never naps at home anymore, made a pillow for himself out of stray socks and fell asleep on the floor.  I moved him to my room so he wouldn’t be disturbed when my friend arrived.  I tried to put Princess down but she couldn’t sleep because she hadn’t had enough to eat.  I thought sitting at the doorway and reading would help Nemo feel safe, or at least encourage him to give up the fight, but the way he peeked at me with one eye through his blanket, I think he saw the gesture as more of a challenge.

Soon after my friend arrived, Captain woke up to use the restroom and didn’t really get back to sleep.  I also discovered that Nemo had pooped again, which he had in no way indicated to me (aside from crying extra loud), so I changed him and just let him go.  They both played Bingo with my angel friend until I had fed Princess enough to sleep on.  We chatted about the day and various other Mommy things around the kids’ needs until she had to leave, which was only about half an hour before the time both of the boys with other homes went home.

My Ninja master is still asleep.

Beginning tomorrow I only babysit one who isn’t mine.  Relief beyond words.

Thank you to all of my friends and family who would have been here in a heartbeat if they could, and not think me terrible for having a special dose of one-of-those-days today.  I hope you’ll never hesitate to let me do the same for you if you need it.

All is well now – Pancakes for dinner!

Family-approved Recipes

Carrot Loaf http://www.grouprecipes.com/13108/carrot-loaf.html Ratatouille! Here's the Ratatouille recipe I was raving about a few days ago. http://www.rachaelrayshow.com/food/recipes/ratatouille/ Mine was soup though, with zucchini (which I chose to peel) instead of squash, and it looked like soup when I was finished, not like this. If this intriguing to you, see me for the I-don't-have-time-for-this version out of my cookbook. :)

Unexpectedly Meeting Up With Long Lost...T-Shirts

I unpacked some old friends this morning. I thought it was papers and notebooks but it was, among other odds and ends, a collection of shirts that David and I wore often when we were dating and first married, but got lost in storage when we moved away from Utah the first time. Bringing them out brings back so many good memories, as the pictures we now have in our home feature these shirts. Funny which things become the most significant as time marches on.

Repentance is...

Repentance is when you want what you need more than you want what you have.

...so my heart could cry in peace.

My heart is crying for people I love who persistently remain where they know they should not be. I'm not picking on any one person - I've been there myself before. The verse of the song that came to visit me as I pondered brought me both comfort and sorrow - relieving the pressure needed so my heart could cry in peace: They mean me no harm, but it's time that I face it: They'll never allow me to change. I never dreamed home would end up where I don't belong, but I'm moving on. Thank you, Rascall Flatts, I will sleep better tonight.