Today Pie wore her heart on her sleeve…or at least that is what at least 10 people said to us.  We were at Primary Children’s Hospital and Pie wore Xuxu’s big glass heart from Jamaica.  Mouse donated Bumbie for the day and Star sang her songs and read her stories during the wait.  I wish you could have seen how well these girls took care of their sister on her big “heart check” day!

The Echo took about 45 minutes and Pie lasted about 39.  She was used to the stickers after that and tolerated even more of them for the EKG.  She charmed everyone in the place and ended up with about 2 pounds of Starburst candy!  Every corner found a new Dr., nurse or receptionist that would say, “Oh, she is so cute!  Can I give her candy?”  Starbursts must be the official candy of Primary Children’s!

We learned that Pie’s heart is now 100%.  She can run and swim and hike with the best of them.  She no longer needs antibiotics every time we see the dentist and we don’t need to be seen by another cardiologist for another three years!!

In the end she was given a token for the prize machine.  She looked at it solemnly and then looked questioningly at me and said her sister’s names in her sweet quiet voice.  The Dr. looked and me and asked what she was talking about and when I told her that the names were her sisters, the Dr. immediately understood.  Three more tokens were dispensed and Pie happily distributed the prizes to her sisters in the waiting room!

My heart was blessed today!

Note: I scheduled this post early because I’m without a computer. I’d like to thank Cocoa for adding me to Mr. Linky on her site!

James 1:27

“Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”

Today I’m going to take the opportunity to spread the news about an incredible LDS woman from South Africa.  Her name is Amanda De Lange and she currently resides in Xi’an, China with 23 orphans who are in her charge!

In September of 2005 Amanda was granted the opportunity to care for 6 medically frail orphans in her home. She gave up a lucrative job offer in Korea and started living on her savings and learning the ins and outs of daily feedings, medical care and the bureaucracy of processing paperwork to get these orphans into homes.

Along the way she has made many friends, founded a non-profit,  learned about doctors and nurses willing to care for orphans,  found organizations that will help with medical costs,  and opened her home to even more children!

Amanda has the true spirit of giving. She has given up her life and her ambitions to care for the most needy in the world. Many of these children would not have survived without her love and devotion.

If you’d like to learn more about Amanda and her mission, visit her website at: http://www.chinesestarfish.org/ and her blog at http://chinesestarfish.blogspot.com

I love a good man, and I’m telling you, I married one!

Not only did he take care of us this weekend, he did all the cleaning, cooking, child care and even did the deep cleaning that was on the list. All this, after a full week at work, so that I could rest and repair.

Let me tell you more about this man!

This man of mine believes that home with us is the best place to be. He doesn’t hang out with buddies, have hobbies (outside of the ones he enjoys along with us) or watch sports. For his full-time employment, he’ll work the hours needed to complete a job, but won’t work over time just to “warm up” to the boss. (He is impressive enough! ;o) He is sincere about wanting to spend time with us (me) over anything else in the world!

This man supports me in staying home (where I want to be*) and not working out of the home, he believes as I do, that my children need 100% of me.  He doesn’t see me as a babysitter, he sees my place as a place of honor, one that he doesn’t want to disrupt by asking me to work at making money.

This man knows when I’m about to call him, and usually beats me to it. (We’re connected like that!) He wakes at the same time I do, even if its before the alarm clock, and if I don’t wake up with the alarm clock, he lets me sleep. He knows what I’m thinking and we often say the same thing at the same time.

I’ve never seen Da angry at anyone (with the exception of people who are treating me badly), I’ve never heard him bad mouth anyone, and I’ve never known him to think he was better than anyone. He works hard, plays hard and loves deeply.

I’m so very glad he is my man!

(Have I told you what a great Dad he is? See hobbies at the beginning of this rant!)

I know many of you have great men in your lives too, so I hope you’ll pardon my outrageous post today and tell me about your good men!

*I’ll have to post one day about my experiences working out of the home and why I’ve come to the conclusion that it is not worth it!

I’ve been sleeping pretty regularly since Thursday, day and night!  Its felt great to catch up, but I’m so done with it! Unfortunately I’ll probably spend the rest of the weekend in this induced sleep state!  You see, I have a krick in my neck that will not go away.

It started on Monday and I figured it would be gone in a couple of days…like they usually are.  When it wasn’t gone by Wednesday, I called the Dr. and he prescribed some muscle relaxants.  I started taking them Wednesday night and because I still have the krick and a muscle spasm that extends from the bottom of my neck to about mid back, I’m still taking them.

The side effects of taking pills are that I sleep for the first 5 hours after I taking it, and then have about 3 hours of coherency until the next dose is due.  The first day was nice because of my insomnia.  I felt like I was catching up on some long needed z’s.  Today, I’m tired of sleep and would rather do almost anything else!

Now, I’m sitting down with Mouse to watch  Kung Fu Panda…which I can tell you my girls found absolutely hilarious because I could hear them laughing in my sleep, and hopefully, I’ll be able to stay awake!  No more pills are due until 10!

P.S.  I hope this post is coherent!
P.P.S. Da is taking “sick” days, so the girls are taken care of!

We lost.  We lost big.   Is this a wake up call for America?  Probably!

I urge each of you to rededicate your family to learning and understanding the principles of the Constitution. DO NOT rely on your public schools to teach your children these important things!  Read the scriptures and pray with your family for our Nation.  We must regain our foothold as a RIGHTEOUS Nation, and the only way to do that is to have a deep understanding of what the Founding Father’s set out to do, and why.   We must do it within the next four years if we want to turn this around!

Our curriculum for school has kept us busy with other historical studies, but today we are starting our Constitution studies with renewed urgency.  We are reading (aloud) The 5000 Year Leap: A Miracle That Changed the World.  We thought that this would be a great place to start, as this book teaches correct and proven principles for freedom, prosperity, and peace.

More later…

Hopefully, the constitution will still mean something tomorrow!

Don’t ever tell a sick child who is also deathly afraid of insects that she has a sick bug in her!  Oops!  Wrong choice of words!

Tonight we had Barley, Blackbean and Corn Burritos again, but this time we added fresh avacado to them!  Oh, heaven is the only word to describe this meal!

We also made this for dessert:

Creamy Blueberry Pie

* 3 cups fresh blueberries
* 1 (9 inch) deep dish pie crust
* 1 cup white sugar
* 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
* 1/8 + teaspoon salt
* 2 eggs, beaten
* 1/2 cup sour cream
* 1/2 cup white sugar
* 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
* 1/4 cup butter

* add to recipe box Add to Recipe Box
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* add to shopping list Add to Shopping List
* add a personal note Add a Personal Note

DIRECTIONS

1. Combine 1 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, and salt. Add eggs and sour cream, stirring until blended.
2. Place blueberries in pastry shell, and spoon sour cream mixture over berries.
3. In another bowl, combine 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup flour. Cut in butter or margarine with pastry blender until mixture resembles course meal. Sprinkle this mixture over sour cream mixture and berries in the pie shell.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 50 to 55 minutes, or until lightly browned. If desired, garnish with additional blueberries and mint leaves.

After reading all the comments, I decided to sweeten up the berries a bit and followed a different recipe to do it.  I cooked 1/2 of the berries with 1 t. flour, 1 t. lemon juice and 1/3 a cup sugar, 1/4 t. vanilla, 1/4 t. almond flavoring. The other half of the berries were poured into the crust without being cooked, then the cooked berries on top of that, the sourcream mixture and then the crumble. It turned out perfectly!

‘The virtue which is necessary to preserve a just administration and render a government stable, is Christian virtue, which consists in the uniform practice of moral and religious duties, in conformity with the laws of both God and man. This virtue must be based on a reverence for the authority of God, which shall counteract and control ambition and selfish views, and subject them to the precepts of divine authority. The effect of such a virtue would be, to bring the citizens of a state to vote and act for the good of the state, whether that should coincide with their private interests or not.’

Noah Webster, Founding Father

The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
I had heard strange things about this book, but decided at the last minute to spend my points on it at Deseret Book. I’m so glad that I did! I really enjoyed my down time getting through this one!

I guessed the ending WAY before the end of the book, but that still didn’t ruin it for me.

My 8 year old wants to read it, but I think I’ll hold her off for a few years. Even though its a fairy tale, some of it is a little heavy…like bloody bodies hanging from walls and a beloved horse that meets a sad end.

If you want something light, fun and quick, this is the one. I would have liked to have found it in an airport! (I have such a hard time staying on task in airports, esp. if books are “deep” or too technical! If my interest isn’t held easily, I’d rather people-watch!)

View all my reviews.

Tonight we’re working more on Xuxu’s Mayflower project, and look what we found!  Xuxu is a descendant of John Howland, that makes her a distant cousin of Sarah Palin!

Sarah Palin.  2008 Republican Vice-Presidential Candidate, Governor of Alaska.

Sarah Palin ->Sarah Sheeran ->Helen Gower ->James Gower->Arthur Gower->Abigail Hawes ->Isaiah Hawes -> Ebenezer Hawes -> Ebenezer Hawes ->Ebenezer Hawes->Desire Gorham ->Desire Howland ->JOHN HOWLAND

Sarah Palin is also a descendant of  Henry Samson, Richard Warren, Giles Hopkins, Stephen Hopkins & William Brewster!  All of these people were passengers on the Mayflower!  She is one connected lady!!

Other distant cousins of Xuxu’s:

• President Franklin D. Roosevelt
• Presidents George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush
• Alec and Steven Baldwin (please forgive us for that one!)
• Humphrey Bogart
• Christopher Lloyd
• Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Dr. Benjamin Spock

More cousins: President Richard Nixon, President Gerald Ford, and Winston Churchill are all descended from brothers of Mayflower passenger John Howland.

Find the Story behind Dave’s phrase, “Think like a Gazelle,” here.

Today at the bakery, buying our organic milk, Xuxu asked if we could get cupcakes.  I replied, “Gazelle’s don’t eat cupcakes!”   We had a good laugh about it.

Later, at Walmart I stopped to look at some very cute dish towels.  (I was ONLY looking! ;o)  Xuxu came over and said, “Mom, Gazelle’s don’t need dishtowels!”

I believe she gets it!