The best way to end a month

 Mariah & family were not able to visit with everyone else because they were sick. Now that they are well they decided to beat the rising temperatures of the Central Valley and visit this weekend. It was fun. We did some art and their girls thought it was hilarious that I painted their hands and feet for the project. Mariah & Ross helped me with the last several Portugeuse Recipes I wanted to try for our month of Portugal. I am so tired and full right now, I will have to post about that it May I guess.

 

Let's go fly a kite!

 Looks like we might finish April with another couple days of nice weather. This has reminded me to post about the Hillary & Andrew Dobbins Family Easter tradition - Easter church service, nice dinner and flying kites at the beach. It was a wonderful way to celebrate spring, faith, family, community and this beautiful world we've been given.

laughing through

 I have seen several people on Facebook lately joking about the weather. I appreciate this coping mechanism - laughing their way through this crazy cold weather. My family in Utah is still having temperatures in the teens with lots of snow.

I can relate as far as all the rain we've had, but the temperature changes from day to day is not so strange for us. For example, Friday was beautiful weather and I was able to take a walk and find a "superbloom", and take the following picture. They've been talking a lot on the news about these superblooms, meaning that all of the rain has produced more than your average growth of wildflowers.

But then Saturday was not as warm and clear as forecasted - probably just in our area where the fog didn't quite burn off for the day. Now Sunday morning I've woken to thick, wet, almost rainy fog. Again, it feels good just to laugh about it.

peri peri chicken for the win!

April is the month of Portugal around here! I am finding out some fascinating details. But first up - cooking projects.

 I have to say, so far I have not been very successful in the recipe department for our countries of the month. This makes me sad. I wish I loved my great-grandmother's rice pudding recipe from Denmark- in fact, I'm sure it's a fine recipe, but I have learned that I hate rice pudding. I never got around to cooking any African dishes, but I hope to at some point this year. And, well, I blogged about how the "rarebit" sandwich from Wales turned out. But, when I started looking up Portugal cuisine I found a website called IzzyCooking.com, which has "28 plus Best Authentic Portuguese Recipes". They looked fascinating! Of course, I avoided anything seafood, even though Portugal is known for it. So far I have made 

1. Portuguese sausage: too bland.
2. Portuguese sweet bread: too sweet
3. Portuguese Burfina pork sandwiches:  eh
4. Portuguese BBQ Peri Peri Chicken: WIN WIN WIN!  Literally, "winner winner chicken dinner!"

The recipe and the method of cooking were wonderful. In fact, I used one of Luke's nice cast-iron skillets which went very nicely from oven to stovetop to oven again. It said that roasted corn on the cob was the perfect side dish, and darned if it wasn't! 

The Peri Peri sauce seems to be quite popular in Portugal, and they recommend using it on a variety of sandwiches. So, maybe I will give the Burfina pork sandwiches another try with it.

One bonus to this experiment was making it for just Reggie and I as everyone else is out of town. I like that we tried this recipe together, from a part of his heritage that we really know nothing about. It made for a nice evening together.

I still have several more recipes I want to try before the month is over. And I am realizing that whether the food turns out wonderful or terrible, or just not for us, I am thoroughly enjoying the process. As I am cooking I find myself thinking "this is fun!".  It really is such a mental health project for me. As funny as it sounds, when I am going about the responsibilities of my day, I remind myself that I can take a break every once in a while and look up something about Portugal, etc. And I am in the stage of life where I am not cooking dinner every day.  So, cooking a new recipe for dinner every so often has been a creative outlet.

A very special Easter weekend

Last Easter weekend was wonderful. It started out with the baptism of our granddaughter Hannah. She was so excited! The service included her 9 year old sister, Audrey, giving a talk about "the 3 Bears" we promise when we get baptized: to bear one another's burdens, to bear Jesus Christ's name and to bear our testimony.  Two of her cousins held the visual aids that Audrey had made. I played the piano for the service. 

I was able to practice on my grandmother's piano from the 1800's, which now lives at the Dobbins' house, pictured here with Hannah.

The next day Reggie and I helped out with a children's activity at the Oakland Temple, and our Dobbins family met us there. It included an Easter Scavenger hunt where you found the eggs, read the scriptures, clues and went to the next destination. The last destination was the visitor's center where they had 3 prizes for each child: candy, a rainbow bracelet that said "God keeps his promises" and a necklace with a little lamb charm.

Hannah wore the special dress she got for her baptism and we took pictures around the temple. She was thrilled to see a bride and asked her if she could take a picture with her. The bride sweetly agreed.

That night we colored Easter eggs, and the next morning we went to a special Easter service at church. I was grateful that Eli, Hannah and Audrey sang with our small but sweet children's choir.

Not quite the Narrows

 We had a couple of beach trips with some of the kids recently. The first time it was freezing cold, and I can't believe the little ones enjoyed getting in the water. But I admit, this part of Linda Mar Beach, which is completely rocky, provides the perfect area to wade, away from the waves. However, because of all the rain run-off the water was flowing! 

A couple of days later the weather was beautiful! We went to the sandy side of the beach and enjoyed the waves. But, I chose the free parking on the rocky side, which meant my only way of getting there was to cross over the rocks, through the running water. I have now dubbed that area "the mini narrows", after The Narrows in Zions National Park. We camped there 7 years ago but were not able to do the Narrows hike because it was closed due to too much run-off. Well, now I am satisfied!

Here is a picture of the real Narrows. I would say "someday", but I'm not sure this is in my future anymore. I am getting a set of hiking poles for Mother's Day, so maybe I can still do something!

"carrying your love with me"

 Every time Reggie leaves for a business trip I think of a certain song, which I've posted below. I hope he carries with him the knowledge of how much he is loved - by all of his posterity, but especially by me.

And then, recently, I've thought of this song in another light. I've expressed before how much I hate "paperwork days".  Since my Mom died, as anticipated, there have been a lot more of those days in my life. Most of her affairs have been settled now, but there is more to be done, and some of it is the hardest of all. But, as I work in the office bedroom, surrounded by so many of her things and pictures of her and my Dad, my mind goes to that song again. I'm carrying their love with me. I feel them telling me that I can do this, that they prepared me for this and that everything will be okay.

every Spring

 Since 2021 I have made the tradition of, every Spring, watching the Colin firth version of "The Secret Garden". This holds a very special place in my heart. I had ordered it from Amazon so all of the family could watch it "together", in their own homes on their own timing, and it coincided with our flower pot project. But,  it took on an even deeper meaning than I had anticipated.

I had decided to watch it on a planned sick day from work. I needed to go to the doctor for a painful biopsy - which I had been having once a year for a while - and so I knew I would need to lay down and recover for the rest of the day, once I got home. I told my Mom as little as I could about my plans, because I didn't want her to worry. But she needed to know that I wouldn't be available to her and that Reggie would be home taking care of both of us. 

So, all went as planned and I enjoyed lying in the office-bedroom for the rest of the day, watching The Secret Garden. However, that night my Mom woke up frantically calling my name out her bedroom door. She was such a fall risk by then that we had urged her to not get out of bed without our help.  But she was SO worried about me; she had dreamt that I was bleeding to death, and she was trying to go and find me. Luckily the office was right across her room and I met her at her door and assured her that I was just fine. She was relieved and felt better and was able to go back to sleep.

So, tonight I am in the office bedroom, listening to The Secret Garden, doing some organizing, and thinking of her. I know it is strange that that is a good - or at least sacred - memory. The reason it is is because I know how much she loved me -from that and a thousand other things. I am sad that her love for me resulted in worry and fear, but that is part of being a parent after all. I know that I am lucky.

a whole lot of fun in one day

 Since I knew a lot of our family would be visiting over spring break I planned some activities. Unfortunately Reggie was on a trip for the first few days, so we saved as much as we could for when he got home:

EASTER EGG HUNT - at our neighborhood school

The oldest 6 each got to help plan a fun a game or activity (we ran out of time for Hannah's art project, but we'll get to it soon I hope)

Isla was in charge of the TOILET PAPER ROLLING GAME. I think the pictures are self explanatory. She did a good job of keeping the prizes well stocked.  My favorite picture of the night is of 5 year old Bear. He was so excited to have landed on a prize! Never mind that it was a Blu-Ray of a black and white Jimmy Stewart movie - Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. In another picture you can see him clutching it. I do think, however, that it eventually dawned on him that he might have liked other prizes better, like the Hot Wheels Monster Truck. We made a rule of no trading until the game was over. Lucky for Bear Uncle Andrew, who won the Hot Wheel was willing to trade with him.

Eli was in charge of the PAPER PLATE STRING GAME. Each plate, with a prize, was attached to a string which ran up through a hole in the colander. You could not tell which plate belonged to which hole. So the player pulled on a knot at the top of the colander which pulled the attached plate towards them. Eli did a good job of deciding who went when. 

They say every picture tells a story which is certainly true of the one with a sister, cousin and sister. Isla and Addy were each hoping for the "Butterfly" lotion. You can see in the picture that Isla was thrilled to win it, Addy was disappointed, and Audrey was in the middle feeling concerned.

Bear and Audrey helped decorate the traditional EASTER CAKE and Julia got all of the cousins that were there to plant seeds in their flower pots. (More on this later).

I'm so glad Reggie got home in time to join in the fun! We missed Mariah, Ross, Avonlea, Emmy & Lillian severely, and can't wait to play these games again with them.

ps - The day before, Addy was in charge of the cooked HOMEMADE PLAYDOUGH. It seemed to not be turning out very well. I assured her that trying a new recipe was always fun no matter how it turned out. However, as the kids played with it they kept adding flour and cooking spray and it eventually turned out great. They played with it all night.