Cleaned my Washing Machine

I was on Pinterest last night and saw a pin about how to clean a top loading washing machine.  Since I was up so early this morning I decided I would follow her advice.  I can't believe how great it has worked and how great my machine smells.  The blog has all kinds of ideas for cleaning so I'd recommend you look at her blog if you have any questions.  The blog is OneGoodThingbyJillee.com.  To clean my machine I filled the basin with hot water and added 4 cups bleach then ran the machine for one minute.  Open the lid and let it set for 1 hour.  Then you run the machine through the complete cycle.  As soon as the cycle finishes you fill the tub up again with hot water and this time add 4 cups of vinegar and do the same thing you had done with the bleach.  It really worked well and I plan to follow Jillee for other great tips.

Peach Jam

I finished up two batches of peach jam (some of it may be peach syrup!) from our peach tree.  I still have two 1/2 pint jars from last year but didn't want to let the wonderful fruit go to waste.  I'm so glad I learned so much from Relief Society so I know how to do all of these things.  If all goes well I'll be canning green beans in the next few weeks.

Wreath

I have made many wreaths since I have been on Pinterest.  You'd have to go to Amy's house to see most of them!  I made this July 4th wreath for our door and I thought it turned out really cute.

Eagle Scout

My grandson had his Eagle Court of Honor on Saturday night.  I was impressed with the process and very proud of Perry for doing such an outstanding job.  I plan to add more pictures that Amy took when she was here but wanted to put a few pictures on with Perry, the invitation his mom and dad designed, and the project he actually did at Riverside Prep High School. 

Indexing

I have had the privilege of working on the 1940 Census.  It has been so much fun typing in the information of the various families living in Arizona, California, Pennsylvania, New York and Texas.  Those are the states I have actually typed up the information.  If you haven't looked into doing indexing I'd highly recommend it to you.  Before the census came I was doing birth, death and military records.  Last night I reached a goal I had set for myself to index 10,000 records by Sunday.  I was only one day off! 

Aunt Mildred

I got a call last week from my dad's brother Chester.  When I said hello he said "My sweet girl's going home."  She passed away on Thursday evening shortly after his call.  My Aunt Mildred was a special friend and I will miss the wonderful letters she wrote me at Christmas time.  She had a wonderful voice in her writing and gave descriptive details of everything she talked about.  We have corresponded for over 30 years and according to her she enjoyed my letters to her as much as I enjoyed her letters to me.  Aunt Mildred was an avid bird watcher which is something many of my children love doing as well.  I remember when I was a little girl she had a beautiful cocker spaniel named Taffy and a parakeet.  I don't remember it's name but she loved that bird and talked to him all the time.  He would sit on her finger and talk back to her.  My Aunt Mildred belonged to the Red Hat Club and was an avid bowler.  She was such a nice person I will miss her!

Last Goodbyes

Christian and Amy were the last to leave after our family reunion.  Ava ran over to Duncan and gave him a huge hug.  I made them recreate it for my picture because it was so cute.  I am so proud of my grandchildren.  Everyone one of them were so sweet to each other all week.  Katie gave pedicures to her cousins, the boys ran around like crazy and had a great time together and our teenagers were very gracious the whole time they were here.  I suspect they were bored but never let on!  Grandpa and I love all of them and feel honored to have been able to host such a great family reunion.

Don't Give Up

I was in a sewing jig and saw a pattern that I thought was so cute.  I bought the material and set to work making these dresses for two of my granddaughters.  After working and working and realizing that I had never worked with such a miserable pattern I was ready to throw the whole project in the trash.  I couldn't bring myself to do that and so when Amy came over I gave her what I had started told her to see if she could make heads of tails of this pattern.  She also struggled for a while but today when it was time to go to church out walked my beautiful granddaughters with their dresses on.  I am so glad that I didn't throw the material and pattern away and I was especially grateful that Amy took the time to finish the dresses for me!

Tomatoes

I canned 19 quarts of tomatoes from the one's that we were able to get earlier in the week from the Stake Relief Society.  What a well run process and I especially appreciated the young men who helped me carry my box to the car.  Can't wait to make my spaghetti sauce now!

Wall to Wall Wonderful

Everyone is in Victorville now.  I have all of my children and grandchildren home for a few days.  So far it is so wonderful to see how excited the cousins are to see each other and watch them playing together.  Family pictures tomorrow and I can't wait.  I took this picture this morning before Lincoln and Duncan woke up.  Too cute!

Fathers

Happy Father's Day to all the wonderful men who lead their families in righteousness.  How grateful I am for my father, my husband, and for the sons and son-in-law that I have been blessed to have in my life.  I'm proud of the fine men each of them are.  How blessed my children have been because of their sweet father who loved and cared for and about them.  How blessed my grandchildren are because of the loving and kind fathers who lead their family by their examples of goodness.  I feel honored to be a part of such a righteous heritage.

Preparations

Our family is all gathering to our home in the coming week.  Bill and Cathy's on Monday, Ben and Becky's on Tuesday, and Christian and Amy's on Wednesday.  Fortunately for us Andy and Angela and children live close by!  In preparation for feeding my wonderful army I have been preparing food ahead so I wont be stuck in the kitchen.  I made these mini banana split cupcakes on Friday and they turned out so cute I had to take a picture of them.  My freezer is full of casseroles and cookies, and other desserts in preparation for the great time we are going to have!  Next week I hope to have some family pictures to share--thanks to my Amy!

Recipes

I have had two projects that I recently finished.  The first was to put together a menu board for our weekly meals (Thanks Pinterest) and the second was to organize my recipe in a more user friendly format.  I'm not loving the menu board as much as I thought I would but I love the way I set up my recipes by categories.  Now I don't need to pull my big notebook out to find the recipe I want and I also have room to add more recipes.

Just a Thought

Liked this quote from the June Ensign article, Finding Peace Through Forgiveness. "Forgiveness was not primarily about restoring my relationship with the person who had offended me. Instead, its focus was restoring and improving my relationship with God. It was about trusting--really trusting--that he would take care of me and that He hadn't allowed anything to happen to me that wouldn't eventually work out for my benefit. Forgiveness centered on drawing close to Heavenly Father, understanding the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and laying everything on the altar--and doing this cheerfully, with confidence that I was safe in Heavenly Father's care." AWESOME!

Teachers

I don't know if people ever understand all that teachers do for their students. For 24 years I had a birds eye view of dedicated people who had a passion for helping children learn. Much of their time and money went back into their classrooms so that the children they taught would be given every opportunity to have positive learning experiences. Unfortunately, we often only hear of the teachers who are mediocre at best and who do some very stupid and inappropriate things, but the truth is they are the 1% of educators. Tomorrow my husband is having a popcorn party for his kids and to help I made some treat bags for them to take home after the party. I love being home!

Hooray for the USA!

Holidays are some of my favorite days. Here's the latest creation I made from an idea on Pinterest.

Aunt Erma

I attended the funeral for my Aunt Erma on Wednesday. Funerals are always so interesting because you sit and reflect about your relationship with the person who is being honored. Sometimes I think, Who are they talking about! As I looked at the picture they had displayed on a video projector at the front of the church I went back in time and remembered what she had meant to me. Aunt Erma had a way of making everyone feel like they were very important and special to her. I remember being shocked when I found out other people thought they were Aunt Erma's favorite. I just knew that I was the only one that she adored. She raised four rowdy boys and since I was the first girl born she made sure I was pampered. As a little girl she would take me to the beauty shop where she would have them give me a perm and since it took such a long time they always served me a lunch with a grilled cheese sandwich. I loved my perms until a girl at school asked me one time why my hair was always so "old-fashioned." I didn't have an answer because I thought I looked amazing with my Shirley Temple hair do. Aunt Erma sold Tupperware and I was her associate for many of her parties. I remember getting in the car with her and driving to unknown destinations where we would unpack and set up her display of the various containers and gadgets that she would convince women that they couldn't live without. She was am amazing salesperson and she rose to the top of the Tupperware organization in the Phoenix area. I smile when I think of us taking those trips together and I literally talked her leg off there and back. I still remember complaining that my mom wouldn't let me shave my legs and didn't she think that was terrible. She just smiled at me and let me continue to ramble on. Later in life she worked for the State of Arizona. She managed to move up there as well. When I was in grade school I would leave school at lunch time and walk over to her house which involved crossing the now freeway that runs through Phoenix. I knew I didn't need an invitation and that if I showed up she would give me a big hug and feed me lunch. As an adult I didn't spend much time with Aunt Erma because we didn't live in Phoenix but whenever I did see her she always made me feel special.