Okay so here it is... what is it you ask?  It is what has been on my mind the last couple of months!
This is my new LIST.  Yes I am a list person (you that love me know this is true).  Only this time you are going to be my witnesses.  So I will state them here and you will help me keep track throughout this next year... Yes I am starting in June...why?  Because I am me and it just seems right!

This year I will:
Break a bad habit... okay I will break the bad habit of not moving enough...it is very hard when you sit at a desk most of the day and then are very tired when you get home...you know, a vicious cycle, but I will try to move more!
Learn a new skill...oh I know!  Beekeeping!, or how about falconry!  Well I DO want to learn those things, but I think I will try really hard to get better at quilting.  I just kind of do it whichever way I can think of but maybe I will even take a couple of classes and even learn the MATH (ick!) part of it!
Do a good deed...  Well that will just have to be a spur of the moment thing I can tell right now, hopefully I will remember to blog about it so I don't look like someone with a short attention/persistence span!
Visit a new place... well I'm going to count our recent family reunion location : Santa Rosa, NM (not CA Steven).  We have driven through, stopped and got gas (sorry about that Nick) but never really took the time to check out this cute, little I-40 exit.  I believe it is having a resurgence of earlier glory days and hope it well.  Oh! and Long Live The Blue Hole!
Read a difficult book... I have just started reading (again for the third time) Jesus the Christ by Talmadge.
It is hard AND long but worth every minute.  I could just never decide whether to read each page and then the footnotes, or read the chapter then all of the footnotes.  So now I'm reading it on an e-book and I think it is the whole chapter and then the footnotes...but don't quote me on that!
Write something important... Okay so in my church I have a calling with the 8-12 year old girls called Activity Days.  We (and I mean me too even though I am well over that age) are going to be setting up a journal/personal history this summer and I'm counting this as important NOT because what I write is important but the fact that I am obeying a commandment is important.
Try a new food... Okay I'd say every time I walk in the kitchen with a recipe in my hand my sweet husband can check that off his list!  But I think it means a single ingredient food so I will definitely search one out and try it (but I can tell you squirrel will not be it)!
Do something good for someone who can not thank you... I'm going to show my true side here when I say this could possibly be just keeping someone alive by not strangling them from my road rage!  Oh hey!  that could be a bad habit to break too...wait! I have way too many bad habits to break!  See I'm already getting distracted sigh...this one will also have to be a spur of the moment or maybe a good contemplation session to plan it out!
Take an important risk...Okay I can check this one off also!  Going to a job interview is never an easy thing to do.  I recently did this and like find a morbid sense of obligation to do this once in awhile, just to push my personal strength envelope.  I could be worse, I could feel the need to rob a bank once in awhile, but no I risk my personal psyche this way.

Wow! Totally didn't mean to ramble on but I definitely have my work cut out for me and now we'll see how I do in the coming year!  Whether or not I succeed I will be a better person by just trying...I think?

By Popular Demand!!
Not my Blog but THIS blog.  I have lately talked with women around my own age and we have discussed the changes in our lives as our children have gotten older and left or are gone on other activities so we don't cook as often as we did...needless to say we are still looking for new, time-tested recipes to use.  But we can never seem to remember what we used to cook day in, and day out.  Back in our day we did cook at home alot...most of us.  I know some who cooked at home once a week maybe twice and ate out the rest of the time (how did they convince their husbands to do that?).   I always felt bad for families in general because they rarely had a say in what they were having for dinner...the poor husband's just had to sit down and eat whatever was placed before them.  What if they wanted barbecued chicken and it was meat loaf night?  We lived abroad most of my children's growing up years so we really did have to eat at home a lot (foreign countries have delicious food but for a family with four children it's very expensive). 
Last week I happened to find a piece of paper form my wonderful 90's Organizer, you know the kind we used before cell phones? I had to laugh because there listed were some of our family's favorite and maybe not so favorite but well used anyway recipes!  But now my children have grown and are trying to think of menus of their own so for good or bad (and no judging please!) here are some ideas to take you down memory lane kids!
Baked Chicken (usually on Sunday after Church)
Lentil Pie (definitely not my favorite but my husband loved it so that is why!)
Ramen (remember no judging! ramen is different in Asia than America!)
Shepherd's Pie (Everyone agreed on this one.  My husband tried a different version of the recipe once the negative reviews still resound through our family discussions!)
Tacos
Pizza We had a family tradition that every Friday night was homemade pizza night and a movie!  Everyone made their own pizza. I made the dough and they used pie tins and spread out their own piece of dough created! Then we watched a family-friendly movie.  It was great until they started having Friday night football games and we had to put that sweet, treasured family tradition on the shelf.
Korean Beef We loved this marinade so much that one of our girls' wanted it for her birthday party food... in Germany!
Chicken & Noodles  This is an Edgell family tradition.  My Aunt DeWanda ALWAYS makes chicken and noodles for every family gathering so I decided my girls would learn to make homemade noodles when they were 8 years old.  They loved making these with 3 or 4 simple ingredients and   then getting to spread flour all over the counter and roll them out then put them into the fragrant chicken filled broth. Most importantly they felt grown up about making dinner. Ours was the thick, gravy kind of noodles not the soupy kind. We usually had this on Halloween...you know, "Good food before bad food" kind of thing.
Meat Loaf  One of my favorites, I don't know about the kids...
Company Casserole An easy lasgna-esque casserole.
Barbecue Chicken A favorite but sides were hard of think of for me .
Macaroni and Cheese  My husband loved the homemade, baked kind of course the kids, not so much so I had to do equal time and alternate types.
Tuna Helper I liked it, they liked it but I always felt guilty serving it...
Hamburger Helper My husband loves the stuff...does that make me a bad cook?
Beef Stroganoff  An easier version not the gourmet kind...
Biscuits and Gravy My Dad was a cook in the Army many years ago and this was truly a favorite that no one could make like him.  I try and fail miserably but it brings back wonderful memories of him.  Besides what is better than breakfast for dinner?
Breakfast But one rule, no cereal.
French Dip Sandwiches I loved the Au Jus sauce, they loved to "dip"
Hamburgers Need I say more?
Country Fried Steak A lot of work but when I was feeling homesick I would make it and everyone would cheer, of course they might have loved the mashed potatoes and gravy more than the steak, but maybe I did too...
Soup and Sandwiches Usually tomato (Not my favorite) and grilled cheese or maybe Campbell's chicken noodle.
Yaki Tori Which is Japanese barbecued chicken pieces grilled on sticks with this totally yummy Japanese sauce on them.  You could also buy them on street corners by department stores and the smell was heavenly!
Chicken Nuggets Who ever realized that kids would eat little chunks of chicken better than regular pieces of chicken were genius!
Chili This is my husbands specialty and still is, I don't think I've made chili in 25 years...
Pot Roast One of my children's favorite.  One was a picky eater but I think she could have put away one whole pot reast and veggies all by herself, and she is such a tiny thing too!
Hamburger Soup One of the all-time favorites for some but not all.
Cheese Raviolis 
Pasta Prima Rosa
Spaghetti
Nachos
This is all that was on the list, I know there were more but this might get some memories rolling!  I know I'll start reintroducing some of these back into our modern day menus!


   

Enduring To The End

A few weeks ago I was preparing for an Activity day with "My Little Girls".  That is what I call them not mine but I love them dearly.  Anyway it was it was a gardening segment and I wanted some words of wisdom from our General Authorities and came upon a wonderful talk from Sister Barbara Winder the General Relief Society President in 1985.  She talks about her daughter and son-in-law's gardening efforts.
  Anyone who knows me know I am not a true Mormon because I cannot garden I have a black thumb...actually every one of my thumbs, fingers, and toes will kill any green and living thing. My own daughter has often counselled me to "just finally embrace my brown-thumbs" Yet every spring I get the urge to plant and grow veggies and flowers...
But Sister Winder gave me words of glorious hope in her talk.
"the climate and soil conditions were different, but they determined they would follow the prophet’s advice and have a garden. Their first attempts at gardening were pathetic. The weeds grew much better than the vegetables. The gardens were “obedience gardens.” However, with continued effort, each year the gardens improved. They learned new techniques and developed skills...  Besides the practical lessons they learned, they found peace and assurance in keeping the commandments. Surely the promise was fulfilled for them: the prophet’s advice had been for their good always."
Through much trial and error each year the gardens got better and better.  I can keep on trying and even if I don't ever grow masses of beautiful green beans that I can learn how to can, I know that I am be obedient and TRYING to become more self-reliant.  So now you can join me on my journey of obedience!  There will be highs and lows and I'm sure many will fall to the scorching summer or relentless wind but with Miracle-Gro vegetable soil...how can I lose???Here are my seeds harbored safely in water an Easterly windowsill in recycled Sonic Route 44 drink cups.  See I can be Earth friendly!  These are my green beans.  "My Little Girls" planted carrot seeds at the same time.This is my basket of lettuce mix.  We planted this about 3 weeks ago and my sweet husband was so diligent about covering it for me throughout our freak cold snaps that I knew it would pull through, but alas, we had to reseed yesterday.  There were quite a few small leaves of green but they disappeared...do possums each lettuce?  We have a pet (absolutely not!) possum that was living under our house but has since been kindly evicted, maybe she wanted tender, shoots of French Mesclun more than we did...
Notice how there are so many ways to use a pallet going around on the web and what do I do?  Use it for a garden, not even a vertical one (sigh) will I ever be creative enough?
   Anyway here we are just hoping, and waiting, and praying (you know like the song?) not to kill a whole generation of green beans,salad greens and carrots.  Pray for them! (and me)...

Names

   I have always liked playing with names.I like looking up the meanings and spellings of old ones.  I would have had more children just to be able to use more names (although I had the best children already). Lately we in our family have been a bit preoccupied with names  It actually is a small hobby of mine seeking unusual but old ones, seeing how the rhythm of two together flow or hearing the sing-song lilt in a name coupling.
   To me names are like butterflies.  You speak them out into the air and most of them fly away, a few will hover around the same place but eventually, one will softly alight on the flower that perfectly suits them.
   I have always believed that names have a certain power in our universe, that our names echo throughout the eternities.We understand in our faith that names help to define our souls and lead us to places we wish to go.  I like names. 

First and Most Difficult

Author Angst, Pen Panic, Paper Paranoia, Sentence Scared, Word Wary, Writers' Remorse... Yes! That is me! Here Bear has made this beautiful blog for me to wax poetic, or right the wrongs of the world, or just make much ado about nothing...and can I write? No! All of a sudden I am flumoxed, jammed, stymied, stilted... okay so I can list words but that is about it! So this is my "just write something, anything and then when you get a thought write a real entry." entry. Be patient with me, I'm really working toward that front porch with white, wicker furniture and some lemonade. I do have one thought that I have retained for a couple of weeks now so it must mean something to me...in church somewhere someone mentioned how the original apostles were always brushing people away from Christ in order for him to rest...I realized that in recent times I have complained about "new people" coming to church and not keeping sacred things sacred. Then I realized that I, like the apostles are just trying to do the right thing, but I really don't want to be like the apostles and keep the people that are earnestly seeking the truth and the Lord away from him...so I have been repenting and trying to have a change of heart. There it is my first of I hope many tittles about nothing!