"Mom's head is in a pot"

I have been learning the benefits of healing with "essential oils". Getting over walking pneumonia I am trying to open my lungs with eucalyptus so I make a tent over steamed water with essential oils dropped in the water. Wade called to talk to me and asked Laurisa where I was, she responded, "Mom's head is in a pot!"

Gratitude Door

Our Gratitude door was inspired by a book I read by my cousin Kristen Oaks titled "A Single Voice." It is an amazing read for not only singles but everyone! It is filled with so many inspirational stories and scriptures that can help us in our daily lives! I was very inspired by her chapter on Gratitude. She shares a story of a friend who under went cancer treatments and the things she was most grateful for. She put a large piece of paper on her door and everyone that came in or out recorded one thing that they were grateful for. So we decided to try it Jan 1st. It has been such an incredible month sharing our everyday grateful moments. It is amazing the many blessings we have in our lives! I realized while reading this book how many people have shared their life's lessons with my cousin and in return she has shared her life lessons with us in her book. I am so thankful for her book, she is truly an inspiration to me! I think that is truly the life lesson that inspires me most,is that we are all here to learn from each other! I think that is why I enjoy blogging so much because I learn from all of my family and friends who continually inspire me! I encourage you to make a gratitude door. The quote that she shares that the lady learned is that,"we cannot be unhappy and grateful at the same time." That is so true! It is contagious, even friends wanted to contribute to our gratitude door when they visited! It has been such a blessing in our home that I think we'll continue our gratitude door at least another month and hopefully continue in our hearts always!

Dress Designers

Laurisa's friends from her Light group begged her to come to their school dance(Mountain View) this weekend. It is a girls ask guy dance, so she asked a guy from Light that goes to Mountain View.
The next step was to figure out what she was going to wear! Us girls always have this dilemna! Well after Laurisa and I brain stormed we decided to take an existing dress from her sophmore year school dance and redesign it! We had so much fun doing this project together! I always have so much fun with Laurisa, she makes everything fun and she is so very creative!

Before

Laurisa tried not to smile like they always do in before pictures but she couldn't do it--so surprising (she doesn't know how to not smile.) We took this picture after we had already cut the under fabric short,removed the flower and the gathered fabric going down the side.

After
Wawh Lawh!!! Wow this dress really came to life with a little altering!!! Short dresses are more the style this year!

Trip to Utah

Wade has been traveling to Utah once a month for the past 3 years and has always wanted to take me with him, he finally earned a companion pass for this new year so I can travel wherever he goes through the year FREE! So I am now his companion flyer! Wherever he goes I go! It was so much fun to go with him to Utah! We stayed at the Marriott at Thanksgiving Point and enjoyed time with family!

While Wade worked we had a sister day and decided to take a cooking class together. We are all trying to use more grains in our cooking, so we took a class from a lady that wrote a cook book called "Cookies for dinner" We learned a lot and had a lot of good laughs! My sister in laws are the sisters I never had but always wanted. We always have so much fun together and enjoy each others company no matter what we do!

That night we all went out to eat at Rumbi Grill. It was fun to be with family. My nieces and nephews entertained me with their chopsticks! It was great to catch up on each others lives! We spent the night at the Marriott at Thanksgiving Point! The next day we went to the dinosaur museum, IMAX theatre, and shopped until we had to catch our plane. It made for a great little get a way! I like being Wades companion, can't wait for our next adventure together!

Visitors from Utah

Friday night we were able to have a family pizza night with a visit from the Kesteloot's. It was so fun to see them and spend time catching up on our lives! All the family came; Nana and Paul, Tom and Holly and Waylan, and Joslyn and Golden. We love anytime we can get together and it was really a treat to have Uncle Tom and Aunt Jen with us!

Organizing

I spent a day organizing all of my grains so they can be accessible in my pantry! I just love feeling organized in my pantry, it energizes me to cook! I love these peet containers because they hold a 10 lb size can from the cannery and they are clear so you can see what is inside them! I am enjoying grinding different kinds of grain into flour and putting them in my recipes! My pizza recipe I added spelt and teft and it was yummy. I also bought a cook book called "COOKIES FOR DINNER" which has recipes with 6 different grains milled unto flour. I am going to Utah this week and am going to take a cooking class from her so I will let you know any good ideas I come away with!

Backyard Vacation

Since the housework was done, and the children were away I decided to take a vacation in my backyard. I read a book sitting by my pool in my hammock! It was the most beautiful day--- 75 degree's and I always enjoy a good book on vacation so I took advantage of the perfect vacation day in my back yard!

Hearty Healthy Soups

My favorite food in the winter is homemade soup! Not only do I love the aroma it spreads throughout the home but I love feeding my family a hearty healthy warm meal! Two of our family favorite soups are Lentil Vegetable and 17 Bean and Barley.

17 Bean & Barley Soup

• 2 cups 17 Bean & Barley Bag of beans
• 2- 32 oz. Vegetable broth
• 1 cup onion, chopped
• 1 cup celery, chopped
• 1 cup carrot, chopped
• 1 cup bell pepper, chopped
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
• 1 can canned tomotoes
• salt and pepper to taste

Soak beans overnight (optional) in a large pot of water, then rinse and drain. You can also pressure cook on high instead for 35 minutes. Pour 4 cups of vegetable broth into pot with the beans. In a separate pan, cook onion, celery, carrot, pepper, basil and garlic in olive oil until soft. Combine this mixture and remaining ingredients into the bean pot and cover with more broth. Simmer covered for about 1 hour to desired tenderness. Be sure to occasionally check liquid level and add more broth if necessary. salt and pepper to desired taste. Makes about 8 hearty servings.

Lentil Soup

• 1 cup lentil clean well (soak for 30 minutes)
• 1 cup carrot, chopped
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup celery, chopped
• 1 tomato chopped
• 1 can 16 oz. tomato sauce
• 4-5 cups water
• vegetable stock 1 lg. carton or cubes and add 4 cups water with cubes
• 1 T garlic salt
• salt and pepper to taste or salt substitute

Cook all ingredients together in pot and boil for 15 minutes! So easy and fast--- Enjoy!

My word for 2009....

My word for 2009... is Laughter!!!

laugh (laf) to make the sounds and facial movements that express mirth.-n 1 the act or sound of laughing 2 a cause of laughter 3 [pl.] [Inf.] mere diversion of pleasure.

A good, real, unrestrained, hearty laugh is a sort of glorified internal massage, performed rapidly and automatically. It manipulates and revitalizes corners of unexplored crannies of the system that are unresponsive to most other exercise methods. ~Maud Van Buren

What soap is to the body, laughter is to the soul.
~Yiddish proverb

Laughter is an instant vacation.
~Milton Berle

The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.
~e.e. Cummings

A man isn't poor if he can still laugh.
~Raymond Hitchcock

Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face.
~Victor Hugo

You can't deny laughter; when it comes, it plops down in your favorite chair and stays as long as it wants. ~Stephen King

Laughter on one's lips is a sign that the person down deep has a pretty good grasp of life. ~Hugh Sidey

Have you chosen your word?

16 hours with my boys and loving it!!!

Saturday I spent 16 hours at a wrestling tournament with my boys! Jake had a national wrestling tournament in Phoenix and they tried to convince me to stay home since it would be way to long of a day, but I was up to the adventure and wanted to spend time with my boys! It was long but I loved every minute of it! I loved being around Wade and Jake and to observe the relationship they have (the positive energy is contagious)! It is neat to see Jake enjoy something so much and to hear him talk about the life lessons he learns! If someone told me that I was going to go to a 16 hour match I would have told them that there was no way I could sit there that long, but I proved myself wrong and I enjoyed it more than I could have imagined!
Because Jake was out last season with an injury and doesn't belong to a wrestling club, taking the 2nd place medal at this National Tournament came as a shock to everyone! Everyone came up to him to learn where he was from and his wrestling history. Jake definitely played into it! His casual, humble, laid back personality came out when they spotlighted him in front of everyone! Before the final match they gave a bio about each contestant! He walked up very casual in his pajamas and had them announce that he was home schooled and enjoyed foursquare and clogging!!! I don't know where he comes up with these things....hmmmm I wonder if his dad had anything to do with it! Don't let the 1st place boy from California fool you--everyone said he was good enough to take the tournament any weight. He has been wrestling since two, has a wrestling gym in his home and wrestles 7 hours a day--now that is dedication! It was a very fun and exciting day! Way to go Jake! You teach your mom great lessons and entertain me thoroughly!

It's a New Year 2009!

"Game Marathon weekend!" We had such a fun holiday playing games! We played in shifts with whoever wanted to play with Wade and I! Wade said he felt like we played enough games to last us until next New Years Eve! It is hard for Wade to play games because he doesn't feel his productive self, he was a very good sport and played just to spend time with the family.

After the reunion we all went to see the movie "Bedtime Stories" and then to Chick Fila to taste Joslyn's favorite treat, "peppermint chocolate chip shake"! We then came home and played games and then went to dinner to Joslyn's favorite restaurant "Carrabbas"! We came home and played more games!
The Wright Reunion New Years Day 2009
New Year's day was celebrated at our annual Wright family reunion at Great Aunt Jeanne's backyard. It is always the perfect weather for a picnic/barbecue! I just love the Wright family, they truly are the definition of FUN! I can see where Wade got his vivacious personality, charm and good looks---this fun family all have similar characteristics and looks! It was fun to introduce Wade to many of his relatives when we moved back to Arizona, since I knew them from growing up here! The kids also love seeing some of their friends from school that they didn't even know they were related to until they saw them the first time they came to the reunion! It is always fun to reconnect with this amazing family that we feel blessed to be a part of!

Happy New Year!!!

New Years Eve started out with a fun filled day going shooting in the desert with my brother Tom! It was just supposed to be the boys but Laurisa just had to go...the adventure girl that she is! They had so much fun learning shooting tips from the best! Thanks Uncle Tom for making it such a fun experience! Mitch had a close call driving home from the desert when a white stallion horse ran right across the road...thank goodness for those awesome quick reflexes and alert paying attention driving skills!!!
We all went out for dinner that night (except Mitch had plans with friends that he couldn't break)! When we came home Laurisa went to a New Year's party with her friends and Jake went to his first Stake dance...Yahoo! All the adult chaperone's later told me that you would have never known it was Jake's first dance because he was the life of the party with all of his fun dance moves and he asked several girls to dance! He takes after his Dad! Mitch also showed up at the dance, it was fun for the boys to be at a Stake dance together!
The adults had so much fun playing games all night! I don't think we have ever had so much fun playing games!!! I laughed until I was sick! The next day I woke up with sore abs and I remembered that it wasn't from ad ripper X but from laughing so hard from the night before! It was so much fun to bring in the New Year with Nana, Paul and Great Nana! Some of Laurisa's friends came over after their party! The celebration just kept going all through the night as different kids kept showing up and coming in and out through the night! That is the fun of having a house full of teenagers!

Beautiful Temple Lights

Laurisa's light group sang at the Mesa Temple! It was the most beautiful night with all the thousands of lights that surround the Temple grounds. Christmas is not complete without going to the temple to view the lights! Laurisa's group sounded like angels! It truly was a night filled with the Spirit of Christmas! I love having my family at the temple together and focusing on the importance of life! Thank you Light for sharing your beautiful angel voices for all to hear you testify of Christ.