Welcome, Welcome Sabbath Morning (and afternoon and evening)

My favorite day of the week is Sunday. The Sabbath. The day of rest.

Now certainly there are some Sundays that are a little stressful (like maybe the ones where I teach YW or if there are a bunch of meetings to attend), but overall I love Sundays.

First of all, I love Sunday music. In Sacrament meeting I love singing the hymns. I usually try to sing a different part each verse. I know the soprano and alto parts well and usually do fine at those, but for fun I also try to the tenor and bass parts (sung up an octave). Bass I can hear fairly well (probably because I'm usually an alto, so I can hear those low parts), but the tenor takes a bit of concentration. Shhh, don't tell the ladies, but sometimes the tenor and bass parts are the best parts of the song! For example, the bass part on "True to the Faith" is a blast to sing, especially on the chorus!

Beyond the sacrament meeting hymns I also love to listen to spiritual, uplifting songs. On the local radio stations (FM 100 or KOSY 106.5) they play these types songs all day. When we get home from church the radio goes on, and stays on for the rest of the day. Music is such a peaceful, soothing part of the day.

I also love that Sunday is a day of rest from all the "need to do" stuff. On Sunday I can sit on the couch all day and not feel guilty at all that I'm not _______ (fill in the blank: doing laundry, cleaning house, running errands, etc.) I can truly rest not only my physical body from doing those things, but my mind as well from the pressure to do those things.

Sunday food prep is so easy as well. Every Sunday we have the same thing: roast, rice and corn. I put the roast in a foil lined pan, dump a can of cream of chicken soup and a can of cream of msuhroom soup on it, and sprinkle dried onion soup mix over the top. I then seal the foil up and pop the roast in the oven on 275 degrees until church is over (or later depending on how long it takes for Craig to get home from his meetings). It's easy and quick to make the corn and rice right before we sit down to eat. Making the same meal every Sunday means my mind is not stressed with what to make and with the concerns of which kid will grumble about how yucky dinner is. Everyone enjoys this meal and expects that is what will be on the table each Sunday.

Maybe after dinner (ok, usually after dinner) someone will make cookies. Very often it's Shanna's Chocolate Chips, which are super delicious cookies. First you cream together 1 cup shortening, 1/2 cup white sugar, 1 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp. vanilla, and 2 eggs. After those ingredients are well creamed you add 2 2/5 cups flour (I know, weird measurement...just do 2 1/2 cups and take a teeny bit out), 1 tsp. baking soda, and chocolate chips. Then you put it on your cookie sheet and bake at 370 degrees (again, a weird measurement) for 10 minutes. When the cookies come out of the oven you have to do one important step...Slam the cookie sheet down on the counter. Technically that step is not in Shanna's recipe, but that's Libby's hint for perfect cookies. I don't know why, but I promise it makes the cookies taste better somehow.

The rest of the day is usually spent in activities such as talking to family on the phone (Hi Mel! Hi Mom and Dad!), playing games together, reading scriptures, working on Personal Progress or Duty to God or Faith in God, reading the newspaper, or taking a much needed nap. Or, as I am now doing, writing on your blog about the joys of the Sabbath!

In the June 1993 New Era magazine, Robert L. Backman says this of the Sabbath: "With [the Sabbath, the Lord] gave us the means by which we can become well-rounded mentally, physically, socially, and spiritually. The purpose of the Sabbath is to nourish the spirit. Truly we are rested, refreshed, and renewed as we pause and concentrate on spiritual things. We are better prepared to meet the world and the challenges of our daily lives if we turn away from our own pleasures and delight in the Lord."

I have to agree...the Sabbath is truly a day which helps me to feel "rested, refreshed, and renewed." What a much needed thing in this crazy world!

Cleaning the sink...Angie's style

Have you heard of the FlyLady? She's a woman with an online site, book, and newpaper column that help show other women how to take care of themselves and their lives more efficiently. One of her signature things is telling ladies to show the love they have for themselves by shining their sink everyday.

Well. I must tell you that shining my sink every day is NOT something I usually do. I tend to be more of a "Oh, hey, the white sink is starting to turn brown, maybe I better clean it," type of gal. But earlier this week, I found out about a sink cleaning that I could probably subscribe to daily.

When our family went to take Melanie back to "her summer home" (haha), we ate at a restuarant called Angie's. If you ever go to Angie's, I would suggest you clean the sink. No, this is not some weird way of working to pay for your dinner, this is an ice cream lover's dream! Cleaning the sink at Angie's consists of ordering about ten gallons (give or take a few) of soft serve ice cream, loaded with 3 toppings and bananas, served in something that looks a lot like a kitchen sink--it's a stainless steel tub that's maybe 6" x 12" in size, attached to plumbing pipes which is all attached to a wooden stand so it nicely sits on your table. After you clean the sink, you get a bumper sticker so you can proudly show off your great abilities to the world.

After arriving in town, we went to dinner at Angie's. Our plan was to clean the sink after dinner, but our plans were foiled when the portions at Angie's were just too big to immediately tackle the sink. So, instead we went to a movie to give our food time to digest.

We went to see Night at the Museum 2. Reviews haven't been overly favorable, but I personally enjoyed it. One of my favorite parts of the movie was Amelia Earhart, played by Amy Adams. I loved her moxie! I wish that I could be more consistantly like that...happy, energetic, ready to take on the world and anything in it. My second favorite part of the movie is the family movie quote replay, which happens once we leave the theater. It's amazing to me how my kids can remember every line in the movie after just seeing it once!

During the family movie quote replay time, it was suggested by party-pooping parties that shall remain nameless that we forego the sink cleaning and just head home. WHAT!?! NO WAY!!! Except for the dropping off Mel part, that was the WHOLE PURPOSE of going up there as a family. So, cooler (hungrier? less party-poopier?) heads prevailed and we went back to Angie's.

Going back to a restaurant a few hours later is actually pretty funny. The restaurant staff tends to look at you a lot like "Wait...weren't they here earlier? What are they doing here again?" Well, we're here to clean the sink, so pile it high with chocolate sauce, oreos, and peanut butter cups and bring it on!

After cleaning the sink (I think the grand champ on the ice cream eating was probably Bradley with 4+ bowls) we dropped Mel off and headed home. While the rest of the family zonked out in the back of the van I drove home, singing along with the radio all the way, happy to have spent an evening with my wonderful family!

The First Post

So, shouldn't your first blog post be amazing and incredible so that everyone will come back and read more? That's what I would think, however, if you're looking for that here, you won't find it.

This first blog post will basically be so that I can see how my blog looks before I head out on a little trip to take Mel back to her summer home. Ooooooh, she sounds so rich. A summer home. I almost said take Mel back to school, but she's not in school now. She's just working. But I wasn't taking her back to work, so I couldn't say that. I guess I could say I'm taking her back to her apartment instead. So....

This first blog post will basically be so that I can see how my blog looks before I head out on a little trip to take Mel back to her apartment.

Wow, with just a few small keystrokes we went from rich (with a summer home) to the plain old every day folks that we really are.