I have four daughters with birthdays in March – that’s our version of “March Madness”! And to make it worse, they’re on the 6th and 7th and the 22nd and 23rd!!!
So, just to make life a little easier, and because it’s a birthday tradition, they decorate their own cakes! Well first of all, they get to chose their own dessert – might not even be a cake (because honestly, can’t you think of lots of desserts that taste better than cake?).
Jo here chose Rice Krispie squares with caramel icing (she needs gluten free foods).
Her “cake” was too gooey to get much decorating, and too hard to stick candles in. So they’re just sticking to the caramel and were flopping over. Blow quickly Jo!
Jen planned hers all out carefully and worked with much care to get her cake perfect. She chose a marble cake.
Perfect! I like how she used candle holders as flower clusters rather than as candle holders! Love the pink and yellow colour scheme!
Okay, I did this one . . .
. . . it says Happy Birthday and has two candles – one for each decade!!! (Do you think it’s too much?) She was too busy finishing up college and starting a new job to decorate her own cake. She chose the delicious Tres Leche Cake (always love making that cake – gives me a reason to open a can of Eagle Brand and lick out the can!)
Note: I can’t believe I have a 20 year old daughter. It’s really hard to fathom since I’m only 25 myself!
And finally . . .
. . . Kat requested a rainbow chip cake with purple icing. Here she is with her finished cake and toothless 7 year old grin.
Then a few hours later, she decided she needed to add a little more . . .
. . . and now we have a finished cake!!! Wow! It took more than a few minutes to pull all that out of the cake before we could eat it. All those animals and ballerinas came from my childhood. Mom used them to decorate our cakes. The tradition continues!!!
So . . . it works for everyone – they have fun decorating and I have time for other birthday preparations. And then we put the cake stuff away until the other three birthdays in the fall. My guy and I usually chose undecoratable desserts for our birthdays – like coconut cream pie or black forest in a bowl!
Easter is a wonderful holiday! What a wonderful thing to celebrate – the Atonement and Resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
But I’ve never been too thrilled about the idea of the Easter Bunny bringing things. Now don’t get me wrong, I love chocolate just as much as any other normal woman out there, and love any excuse to buy it. But, a rabbit bringing treats – I don’t get it!!!
The Easter Bunny doesn’t visit our house. On Easter Sunday my family woke up to find a display up high on the piano (away from little fingers of course!).
There were pictures of the resurrected Christ and bowls of Easter treats.
Eggs symbolize “new life” and so does “resurrection”.
Completely perfect for our family!
And now an Easter picture of my reverent daughters!!!Happy Easter!
It’s New Years Day!!! Time for me to craft my “word” for the year onto a block of wood that will sit beside my bed.You can read more about what this means in last years entry (find it here).
It took me longer this year than it ever has before to choose my word. Usually they just jump into my mind, weeks before New Years. But this year, I even had to ask my FB friends for suggestions, and here’s what I got:
Rest, Joy, Love, Peace, Fun, Bacon, Stand, Create, Faith, Trust, Cleave, Cherish, Chocolate, Quest, Discernment and Laugh (hmm . . . this one’s from my daughter!)
Lots of great ideas! I was leaning towards the words Cherish, Love and Treasure (although Bacon and Chocolate ranked right up there too). But I also need to have Fun and Laugh more too! So when I found this word this very morning, it was like a lightbulb going off in my head!!!
So without further delay, my “word” for 2013 is . . .. . . Savor! (or “savour” depending on your spelling preference!)
The verb means “to appreciate fully; enjoy or relish”, and this could apply to anything – like each day, or people, or events, or life. So to me it basically means to find joy in everything and love and cherish everything.
The noun refers more to flavour, like in the scripture Matthew 5:13 “Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.”
When I chose “savor” I was thinking more of the verb, but I love how the noun ties into the bacon and chocolate words, which are indeed some of my favourite things! And I think that when I’m eating a Lindor chocolate, I’m experiencing both the verb and the noun!
I included this quote by John Wooden on my block because I think it’s a good reminder. Whatever happened yesterday, today is a new day – make it a masterpiece; savor it all.
And to remember my past words (yes, I’m still working on them!) . . .2010 – Patience
2011 – Delight
2013 – Courage
2013 – Savor
One other thing that I especially like about the word “savor” is that it looks a lot like the word “Savior”. When I glance at my block, it not only reminds me to savor everything and everyone each day, but also to appreciate fully, enjoy or relish my Savior, and all He has done for me.
We have two Christmas trees every year. We refer to one of them as our “Nativity Tree”. It’s got white lights and lots of gold and silver on it, and all ornaments somehow remind us of the Savior.
Under the tree are some small gold and silver boxes – one for each person in the family. On Christmas Eve we all take a bit to time to think of what gift we will give the Savior this year – some way to help us grow closer to Him and to improve ourselves. We write this on a piece of paper that is in our box – and also look back on our past “gifts” to the Savior. It’s a good time for personal reflection!
One year I thought that it would be neat to receive “gifts from the Savior”. I didn’t mention it to anyone in my family, so they were a little surprised to wake up on Christmas morning to find gifts under the Nativity Tree! (All our gifts go under the colourful tree – the tree with the other types of ornaments you collect over the years and that the kids have made!)The gifts under the Nativity Tree are all wrapped in plain paper and they each have a scripture or saying on it that is pertinent to that person, or to the gift. We always take time to read the scripture before opening the gift.
I usually buy the gifts from a church bookstore, but that can get pretty pricey. With this year being a house-building year for us with not a lot of extra cash laying around, I decided to make gifts. We might not have had cash laying around, but we did have plenty of wood laying around!
For example . . .. . . this is what my guys gift started like! It’s a chunk of solid oak that was cut off the bottom of a newel post on the stairs. What would you make with that?
Now before I started any projects, I asked everyone what their favourite scriptures or quotes were, and their favourite colours, so I could make something meaningful to them.
My guy likes Mosiah 4:19
“For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.”
This is what I came up with for him . . .. . . a candle holder, with his favourite part of the scripture.
It’s simply words stamped onto cardstock, then distressed and mod podged onto the stained piece of oak. He loves it, even though he wondered if I dulled his drill bit drilling the hole in the top!!!
My gift was thoughtfully made for me by me at my friend’s craft classes – thanks again Kd!!!I love this quote and picture of the temple. I was going to give it to one of my girls, but then I realized “Hey, I want it!!!” And if I keep it, each one of them will be able to benefit from the message!
Elle’s gift was probably my biggest challenge! She liked a really long scripture, and the whole thing was so good, I didn’t want to shorten anything. (You can read it in the pictures!)
Her favourite scripture right now is Doctrine and Covenants 98:1-3.
I decide to make her a candle holder too, but hers was a soft wood and didn’t dull the drill bit!!!I printed out her scripture – one verse per side of the wooden block. Mod podged on scrapbook paper in her favourite colours and glued on the little clothes pins. I like the clothes pins because that way she can easily change her scriptures, or add pictures, or anything else inspiring.
Warning: remove ribbon if you’re going to burn the candle!
Yes – it turned out pretty cute!!!
The next three daughters were easier – they all got long pieces of wood to go over a door or window.
Min got Proverbs 3:5-6 (one of my favourites too!)
“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct they paths.”
Jo got Alma 26:12.
“Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak;
therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God,
for in His strength I can do all things . . .”
Lee chose 1 Timothy 4:12.
“Be thou an example of the believers,
in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.”
Jen got a picture of the temple too. I printed hers from this site.Then it was simply mod podged onto a piece of 2×6 with all the cute other little details to match her room.
Laying a piece of cloth over the mod podge while it’s still wet (pressing it down and then peeling it off right away) gives a nice canvassy looking finish.
Kat’s gift was actually made by my mom! Thanks mom!!!
Six puzzles to keep me her quiet in church! These are about one inch squares and each side has a picture on it. It’s pretty challenging!
And finally, Mac got a popsicle stick puzzle.
One side has a picture and the other side has . . .. . . a message! And again, mod podge is the secret ingredient!
And the final, finally . . .. . . a picture of the Savior by Liz Lemon Swindle – an amazing artist.
She says of this picture,
“During His ministry, Christ healed a blind man. The leaders of the Jews called the man before them and demanded he renounce Christ. When he refused, they cast him out.
When Jesus heard what the leaders had done, He immediately went looking for this man (John 9:35). I could see the determination on Christ’s face as He made His way through the crowd. I draw comfort from knowing that if He will search after him, He will search after me.”
This 8×10 picture was free during the “Every home should have a picture of Christ” campaign. All I had to do was frame it!
This tradition that we started a few years ago has quickly become one of my favourite parts of the holidays. Tears are often shed and the Spirit is felt as we celebrate our Savior’s birth.
A few years ago I started choosing a “word” for the year.
Making New Year’s resolutions is a wonderful idea, but I found that I was never able to stick with them – probably because we’re still on holidays when the new year begins, and who wants to start exercising or dieting or whatever, when it’s still holidays? Not me.
So choosing a word to live by for the year seems to work for me.
After some thought, but not too much (the words just seem to pop into my head!), I decided that my word for 2012 would be . . .. . . Courage!
When my daughter saw me making my word block, she commented that courage was a good word for 2012 – you know, for if the world ends!!!
Anyway, the scripture I chose is found in Joshua 1:9
“Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed; for the Lord thy God is with thee withersoever thou goest.”
I chose “courage” for a few reasons, but I wasn’t really sure how to put it into words. And some were private and personal reasons that I just wasn’t ready to share on my blog! Anyway, last night I opened up the January Ensign and read the First Presidency Message. And WOW!!! President Monson summed up for me exactly why I choose “courage”.
Let me share a little (or you can read the whole short article by following the link above).
“Ralph Waldo Emerson said: ‘Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide on, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them.’
Courage is required to make an initial thrust toward one’s coveted goal, but even greater courage is called for when one stumbles and must make a second effort to achieve.
Have the determination to make the effort, the single-mindedness to work toward a worthy goal, and the courage not only to face the challenges that inevitably come but also to make a second effort, should such be required. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says, “I’ll try again tomorrow.”
And that’s why I chose “Courage”!
Ready for a quick recap of my other words? This is the third year I’ve chosen a word at New Years.
“Nevertheless the Lord seeth fit to chasten His people; yea, he trieth their patience and their faith.”
(Mosiah 23:21)
My little word block sits beside my bed as a constant reminder to me of my current and past words (yes, those past words still need work!!!)
I used browns and teal this year to match my king size bedding!
Notice that book under my scriptures? That is the first word I ever chose . . .
. . . SIMPLIFY . . .
and it will always be my word. My mom gave me this book a few years back and it sits by my bed because I refer to it often. I have this word (Simplify) hanging in a few other spots in my house too.
I think Christmas has more traditions for me than the rest of the year put together!!! Righteous traditions are wonderful and necessary things for our families. The Service Star is a tradition we start on the first day of December. We actually have two of these little wooden stars with our Family Motto (another tradition!) printed on it. One stays on our Nativity Tree (another tradition!) and the other star is put into action.
So we draw names or do rock, paper, scissors etc. to see who will activate the Service Star. That person has 24 hours to do a service for someone in the house and leave the star at the place where the service happened. So dad emptied the dishwasher for Lee and left the star in the dishwasher for Lee to find when she came to do her morning chore. Lee walked the dog for Jo and left the star with the leash. Jo found it and made Jen’s bed and left the star on the bed for Jen to find, and so on, and so on . . . We added a new twist this year: if you haven’t done a service within the 24 hours, you get to give everyone a back-scratch! Unfortunately, we didn’t get any back-scratches!!!
This is just a view of some of the ornaments on the Nativity Tree. In order to be on the Nativity Tree, the ornament must remind us of Christ somehow. I love this gold one and it’s tag that says Keep Christ in your Christmas.
I read about this idea somewhere just before New Years 2010. The idea is to choose a word for the year and let that be your theme word and your motivation. I loved the idea – so much more likely to succeed than New Year’s Resolutions!
So my word for 2010 was . . .. . . PATIENCE. And yes, I’m still working on it and probably always will be!!! I need reminders, so I decorated this little wooden block with my word, the year, and a scripture. It sits with Mason on my bedside table, reminding me every day of the year about PATIENCE.
My word for 2011 is . . .. . . DELIGHT. The scripture says “Let thy soul delight . . .” and that’s exactly what I’ve been trying to do this year. I’m finding it quite DELIGHTful as I look more for the positive in things and what causes me DELIGHT in this journey through life.
My word is just printed off the computer and then mod podged along with scrapbook paper onto the block. I’ll be able to fit four years worth of words on every block. What a collection I’ll have at the end of my life – by then I should be absolutely perfect at everything!!!
Valentine’s Day this year was fun! I didn’t have my usual LOVE type crafts (yup, packed!) but you can sure gets lots of fun things at the dollar store – like my guys tie!!! He assured me he will only wear it on Valentine’s Day and never to church, but I think he looks very handsome in it!!!
And this year’s special menu is . . .
. . . heart shaped pepperoni on the pizza!!! I was planning to cut out the pepperoni using scissors, but my brilliant Facebook friends suggested a cookie cutter. But that presented a problem – yup, mine are packed!!! I did know where my heart shaped paper punch was, but that may be a little tricky to slide the pepperoni in!!! Luckily the kitchen still has gramma’s stuff in it, and I found the perfect size heart cookie cutter, and it worked like a charm. Thanks brilliant FB friends!!!
And this year we had . . .
. . . a Valentine Tree!!! We re-purposed our Christmas tree (because I hadn’t taken it down yet – that’s gotta be some sort of records!!!). But my guy had said he liked having it up – made a pretty night light. Gotta keep my guy happy!!! Besides, it was small and up high, not in the way at all. So my Kat and I had fun putting hearts all over it.
Celebrating holidays with fun little traditions – kids sure love it and remember it (especially if there are photos. Too bad I forgot to take a picture of the green milk for St.Patrick’s Day that greats them every year for breakfast!)
Her “cake” was too gooey to get much decorating, and too hard to stick candles in. So they’re just sticking to the caramel and were flopping over. Blow quickly Jo!
Jen planned hers all out carefully and worked with much care to get her cake perfect. She chose a marble cake.
Perfect! I like how she used candle holders as flower clusters rather than as candle holders! Love the pink and yellow colour scheme!
. . . it says Happy Birthday and has two candles – one for each decade!!! (Do you think it’s too much?) She was too busy finishing up college and starting a new job to decorate her own cake. She chose the delicious Tres Leche Cake (always love making that cake – gives me a reason to open a can of Eagle Brand and lick out the can!)
. . . Kat requested a rainbow chip cake with purple icing. Here she is with her finished cake and toothless 7 year old grin.
. . . and now we have a finished cake!!! Wow! It took more than a few minutes to pull all that out of the cake before we could eat it. All those animals and ballerinas came from my childhood. Mom used them to decorate our cakes. The tradition continues!!!
