Thanksgiving Worksheets

Here is a link to some fun worksheets for Thanksgiving! There are pages for all ages in elementary school. There are fractions, cursive, crosswords, coloring pages, color by number, etc. http://www.tlsbooks.com/holidaypages.htm This website has lots of fun worksheets, so you can browse around while you are there. Below the Thanksgiving worksheets are Christmas worksheets. Enjoy!

Fun Websites

We're always looking for fun and educational (and sometimes just fun without the educational) websites for the girls to enjoy. I like to pass them along in case anyone else wants to check them out. We've found some fun ones this year for school....

www.nga.gov/kids/zone/zone.htm This is an AWESOME art website. Kids can make virtual collages, swirl art, and even add and remove elements from existing famous art. This is a really cool website. I tried it out to make sure it was okay for the girls, and I had a difficult time pulling myself away.

www.sciencekids.co.nz/ This website has some great science info. This is mostly for 2nd graders and up, but Jasmine (my kindergartner) enjoyed learning about the skeletal system of different animals. This is a great interactive science website. The only thing I don't like about it is the ads along the sides. Emily accidentally clicked on a link and was taken to a new website. This is a great website as long as you are close to help them see which links are ads and which are within the site.

http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/ We were given this link today to go along with Emily's science lesson on amphibians and reptiles. It has movie clips of animals in the zoo, as well as all kinds of photos and info on animals. Emily really enjoyed watching the animal movie clips.

http:/boowakwala.uptoten.com/kids/boowakwala-home.html This is Jasmine's latest favorite website. We were looking for a website with music for Jazzy, and this website has fun little songs that she loves to sing along with. There are also games and cartoon clips. The animals have a French and British accent, so Jasmine sings the songs with the accents, which is rather funny. She also goes around saying "La" all of the time.

Artisan Bread

My mom and sister gave me a recipe to make artisan bread. It is from the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. The recipe allows you to make a batch of bread dough that can be stored in the fridge for up to two weeks! You can have a fresh loaf of bread anytime you choose, and it seriously does only take around five minutes to whip up a batch.. I'll give you the simplified recipe version, so if you want further instructions, check out the book or the website http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/ .

3 cups lukewarm water

1 1/2 TBS Coarse Salt (Kosher salt works well, but plain old table salt works fine too)

1 1/2 TBS Granulated Yeast

6 1/2 cups flour (unbleached all purpose flour is what the recipe calls for, but I made it with

whole wheat flour plus wheat gluten and it was great)

In a very large bowl mix the ingredients with dough hooks and an electric mixer or stir by hand. The dough will be moist. Do NOT add extra flour. No kneading, either. I know, that's your favorite part, right? Simply mix until all the ingredients become a moist dough. Allow to rise uncovered for two hours. Push down the dough from sides of bowl, cover loosely with a lid (don't seal the lid or the gasses will build up and blow the lid off) to keep dough from drying out and keep it clean. You can now store your bread dough for up to TWO WEEKS!! in the refrigerator.

When you want to bake a loaf (you can do this on the same day you make a batch as long as you have finished letting it rise first) simply pull up a grapefruit-sized piece of dough and cut it off using a knife. Sprinkle with a bit of flour so it won't stick to your hands, and quickly pull the edges under to make a round shape. Sprinkle cornmeal or wheat germ on a cutting board and put the dough on it. Dust a bit more flour on top of the dough, then cut three slashes in the dough. These will allow the free-form loaf to shape nicely while rising and baking. Let dough rest for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven during this time to 450 degrees, and put water in a broiler pan or cookie sheet to create steam. Make sure this water doesn't run dry while you are baking, because the steam is what bakes the bread and makes an awesome chewy crust. After 30 minutes put the dough on a cookie sheet and bake for 20-25 minutes. You can make a larger loaf by cutting off more dough, but then you should increase your baking time to around 30-35 minutes. Even if the crust becomes very dark, it will not burn the middle.

This recipe will make four 1 lb loaves (made with the grapefruit-sized piece of dough). You can double the recipe, which is what I usually do because we love this bread. It slices well for sandwiches and toast, and I have used it for a chewy pizza crust as well. I'm sure you could also use it for breadsticks. This recipe is super easy, and you can have fresh bread anytime you want. As soon as you finish using the last of your dough, don't wash the bowl. Simply mix the next batch in the same bowl, and mix in the old bits from the sides and bottom of the bowl. This will help improve the taste of your bread by adding to the aged flavor.

I know this looks like a lot of instructions, but it's really simple once you make it a couple of times. Let me know if you have questions. Happy baking!

My poem from last semester

I wrote this poem last semester. I thought I'd post it....

Wedding Ring

On my left hand is a golden ring,
A circular symbol of eternal love,
Scratched from years of wear
Silently declaring to the world
I am taken.

I've worn my ring for so long
That it has created an indent,
A silhouette on my finger--
Like the marks left in carpet
By heavy furniture.

Its diamonds refract light
Into tiny sparkles and rainbows,
Light I carry wherever I go.
People say diamonds are a girl's best friend;
My best friend gave me the diamonds.

I noticed the weight of the ring
As it was lovingly placed on my finger
By a warm heart and nervous hand.
Now I notice its absence when I take it off,
Like a piece of me is missing.

I rarely remove the band,
Only to make bread;
The dough pulls our grime left from
Diapers, dishes, daily duties.
Maybe I should clean it more often.

I like the bits of grime and scratches.
They are tokens of the journey,
Memories etched in soft metal--
From our June wedding day
To purchasing a minivan

College, Coca-Cola, kids
Star Trek and McDonalds,
The birth of each daughter,
Date night every Friday,
Sunny days and stormy weather--

Holding hands through it all...
The greatest adventure of my life.

Wedding Ring

Last week I lost the center diamond out of my wedding ring. I was very disappointed, and I haven't found the diamond yet. I told Jim that since we were married in the temple we should have bought an extended warranty on the ring. Jim said that on the bright side, my ring lasted longer than most marriages. Ahh, there always is a bright side, isn't there?

Jim took me to Target and bought me a beautiful sterling silver and cubic zirconium ring for fifteen dollars to wear. It's funny, I have spent a lot of time reflecting this week about my wedding ring and its symbolism. You know what I've learned? My cubic zirconium ring sparkles just as much as my diamond ring (actually it sparkles more because the stones are larger), and it shows the world I am married just as well as my diamond ring. I actually really like me new ring, but I'll admit there is a lot of sentimental value attached to my other wedding ring. It's not the value of the diamond that is the loss so much as it is the fact that I have worn my wedding ring through everything over the past nine years. On the other hand, I now have a ring I can wear and not worry about damaging. I have a quote on my wall (it looks like vinyl lettering but I actually bought it at the Dollar Tree for a buck) that says, "The best things in life aren't things." I guess losing my diamond is a good reminder of that.

Mandy Jane Designs

My friend Mandy is an amazing photographer and has done some really neat things with temple pictures. Her blog is www.mandyjanedesigns.blogspot.com . She makes temple picture prints similar to the antiqued pictures that you see for sale at Deseret Book and Costco, but she charges a lot less. She also has her own style of temple photos. I bought one of the Idaho Falls temple with red tulips in the foreground. She will soon have prints available of the Twin Falls, Idaho temple. Currently she has Idaho Falls, Rexburg, and Logan temple pictures. On the side of her creative photo art blog she has a link to her photography blog. You should check it out as well. She did a photo shoot with my girls last year, and I just loved the pictures!

Earwigs in my garden...

Warning: This image is not for queasy stomachs.... Oh, I guess I should have put that in the heading BEFORE you all looked....

I hate earwigs. They are vile squirmy little creatures who like to hide in moist, dark places, lurking in the shadows, just waiting to frighten some poor, unsuspecting soul....

Earwigs have been a curse and a plague to me since I was a kid. I used to find them crawling across the floor of my childhood bathroom, their ugly brown bodies and pincers displayed upon the burnt orange linoleum. I used to get a small wad of toilet paper and cringe as I felt the pop of the exoskeleton, and then I would gag as the strong putrid smell of the dead little creature wafted up from is crushed remains. I sometimes threw the carcass and toilet paper in the garbage, but I was always afraid the bug might not be completely deceased, and could potentially crawl out after me. I decided flushing the pests down the toilet was preferable.

I have a good reason to despise earwigs. They not only used to crawl across the floor, but they more often were found hiding in most inconvenient places. As a kid I shared a bathroom with my brother and sister. We had an adorable little orange (to match the linoleum) wooden whale toothbrush holder. I believe it had four holes drilled in to hold our toothbrushes in the upright position. Now, what happens when you put a toothbrush in a holder like that? The left over water drains down the handle of the toothbrush and puddles at the bottom of the holder. The earwigs thought this was great, and we used to pull our toothbrushes out to find earwigs on the handles of them or lounging in the bottom of the holes. Here's something worse--at one time my mom bought us toothbrush covers for the heads of our toothbrushes, and, yep, you guessed it, we had to stop using them because we would pull our brushes out and find earwigs laying like lumps of toothpaste across the bristles.

After I moved from the country to the city I wasn't plagued by earwigs as much. My life was much improved, and some of my anxiety decreased when I brushed my teeth or moved things around while cleaning the bathroom. I let down my guard, relaxed, and lived to regret it. One day I decided to fill a plastic mug with cold ice water. I used the plastic straw that came with the cup (like the cups and straws you get at the hospital). I drew up a long suck of cool water, and I felt a hard piece of something hit the inside of my mouth. At the same moment I tasted a foul acrid taste. I spit into the sink, thinking I had sucked up a piece of rotten food that might have become lodged in the straw during its cycle in the dishwasher. What I saw, when I spit, was an earwig squirming in my sink. I was mortified. I spit, and spit, and spit. Then I brushed and brushed my mouth and tongue. To this day I can only drink out of those plastic straws if I'm in the hospital (like after having a baby), and then I throw the cup and straw away.

I've had an earwig in my mouth one other time. I used to tease my husband for always turning on the light to get a drink of water and rinsing his cup, even in the middle of the night. I used to simply leave the light off, fill the cup, and take a swig. I managed to nearly swallow an earwig that way, and I now ALWAYS rinse my cup before I drink out of it. I think it is a very good idea...

Okay, so now that you know more that you ever wanted to know about my past with earwigs, let's fast-forward to the present. I have a beautiful row of romaine lettuce growing in my garden, and four rows of corn. I decided to harvest some of the lettuce over the weekend, and guess what? It is absolutely FULL of earwigs and earwig poop. How can I eat something that appears to be crawling every time I touch it?! Last year earwigs ate all but two of my ears of corn, and it looks like they have the same idea this year as the corn is also already getting infested with earwigs. I decided to check the good old Internet for some home remedies for getting rid of earwigs. I found a suggestion for using tuna fish cans and some pantry ingredients and I decided to try it. Last night I put a can in my lettuce with the mixture, and what you see at the top of this blog is the results. That is a can full of dead earwigs. Impressive huh? All you do is mix one tablespoon each of soy sauce, molasses, and cooking oil. The soy sauce attracts the earwigs and the oil makes the can too slippery to climb out of and smothers the little pests. My dad said he heard earwigs are full of protein and soy should give them a nice taste for a stir fry.... Ugh, that is so DISGUSTING!!!!!!!! Another website said you can make the mixture with just soy sauce and cooking oil. I used molasses with the other ingredients. I also tried using a soup can because I only had one tuna can, but I didn't catch nearly as many earwigs in it, although I still did catch quite a few. Tuna cans seem like the way to go. Earwigs like to wander around at night, so put the cans out in the evening, nestled among the bases of the plants that are infested, and then dump the disgusting little bodies in the morning. I am going to put out more cans tonight..... Happy earwig hunting!