1.12.22 Chili

 Today has been a nostalgic day. Somedays are just like that. Entering the final weeks of this pregnancy my hormones are up and down and all around from one second to the next. While routinely feeding my younger children lunch a flood of memories from my childhood came. 

When I was in grade school our annual fundraiser was a chili feed. This was a really big event. Because my dad was a farmer he had extra time in the winter and somehow he and a friend Rod Frahm became the chairmen for several years. Their leadership roles allowed our family first spots in helping prepare, host, and clean up the chili feed. They gave a lot of time gathering donations and supplies, working with people and managing the cooking of the huge pots of chili. 

Although I wasn't a huge fan of the chili, it was usually too spicy, even the recipe was special. A former family from the school, in fact maybe one of the first families to attend the school donated their personal chili recipe. The Trenkle Chili has been served to thousands year after year. Every year we would ask my dad to not make the chili too hot. Yet I remember watching many of the patrons dashing liberal amounts of hot sauce on their beans to make the contents hotter! The dinner consisted of chili- all you could eat if you stayed on site!, salad with special vinegar dressing, chips or crackers, white or chocolate milk, and homemade pie. 

I remember the friendly competition and intense desire to draw the winning poster to be enlarged and shown around town advertising the upcoming feast. There were some creative entries. Many that showed talking beans or bowls of chili. I remember sorting huge bags of dry beans to ensure no rocks or dirt ruined the chili for sale. I remember the fun and nervousness of going door to door with my parents pedaling tickets for the event. There were other families who always outsold ours that was a disappointment year after year. Yet, each year we planned and worked to try again at being in the top 3 selling positions. 

I remember being amazed at the huge buckets of salad dressing and thinking how could that much salad ever be consumed? It's funny because I primarily use 5 gallon buckets to store cooking supplies here and I know how quickly 5 gallons disappears with a lot of people. The night of the chili feed the school was flooded with patrons from all the Valley. It was an awesome! It also took a lot of volunteer effort to feed the thousands that seemed to come. 

I was not a good waiter. I spilled drinks on people, that was embarrassing. I remember helping with take out and eyeing the pie booth, and playing. I'm pretty sure we had to go home at a reasonable hour after we had "helped enough." 

I always asked my grandma Corn to make pies. She made apple. They were so tender, flaky, and delicious. Sometimes I think we come very close to her pie recipe once or twice I think we have copied it exactly but it's not consistent and I've never had perfectly mild pumpkin pie as hers. I don't know what she did- I'm pretty sure she didn't keep track either. I've followed the recipe suggestions she shared but never come close to her pumpkin pie. I don't remember how many she brought maybe 2 maybe 4. I just remember being so proud that she would bring pie to our event. 

The day following the official feed we were guaranteed a lunch of the leftover chili and salad. If there was enough left other grade schools in the district also enjoyed chili for lunch. The benefit was having chocolate milk again. In those days chocolate milk was only for special occasions not daily. I think our fabulous cooks also made some home made rolls to go with the chili. Those ladies were amazing with yeast dough. 

There are so many emotions swirling in my head today of family, motherhood, the heady power of creating life, and then shaping those lives for good or bad throughout childhood and adolescence. I came from a family that worked together and shared experiences. Greg and I have sought to give our children much of the same. We aren't strong on the recreate together aspect, but we have enjoyed our own fundraising experiences at our children's schools and events. Somewhere I am sure there are pictures of this piece of my own development. The skill of selling is an important one I have used time and again. The ability to see needs and meet them are always in demand. And the unity found working with peers and their families were priceless parts of the security I enjoyed in my childhood. Life is good. 

1.12.22 More Christmas

After talking with Anna on Monday on the week of Christmas I was reminded that I needed to be reaching out to the missionaries more often. I texted these ladies who were also new to our area and asked if they would like to come make cookies at our house. It all worked out I think I told the story earlier but this was the start of the evening. They were so fun to have in our home. 

That evening was our ward Christmas party. The youth were asked to portray the nativity scene. My youth were not super excited. The primary was asked to sing. Mark was Joseph. 

Addie is the shepherd in back the sheep is the small hunched teenager. 

The primary adds musical accompaniment

John as one of the three wise guys. He looked good as a king.

Aliza was the narrator. It was a beautiful program. It was so nice to do something normal like eat with a lot of people. 

 After Christmas passed I could not of a thing we had done in December I was surprised when I got these photos a week ago. I guess we had more going on than I realized. We are blessed. 

1.6.22 Fancy Eating

We had some generous gifts of crackers, meat sticks, and cheeses. Being that charcuterie boards are all the rage right now we toned it down and tried it out for our final lunch of the Christmas break. 

Of course the kids enjoyed the help yourself option. And one can never go wrong with cheese and crackers. 

Happy kids, easy lunch, no complaints, full bellies Major win! Thanks Dad. 

These kids keep aging even though I forget. This Lady is going on her first decade thus she needs to be learning more of the fine art of cooking. I'm not great for standing or walking these days but my brain and mouth work so I sat in another room and instructed her on how to make cookies. I'm so thankful she showed me the spoon size she was using before measuring the salt. A tablespoon is hard to take in cookies. A tablespoon of vanilla is not so big of a deal. The dough looked great. Learning to set a timer is the next lesson but as  always the cookies disappeared in no time flat. She will get lots of practice in the next few years. How we love watching them grow.  

 Speaking of growing this guy is now as tall as my dad maybe a touch taller. He fits perfectly in the hand-me-down coveralls. These are warm and hard to find these days. How thankful we are for all who think of us for clothing and supplies. Addie opened the day sorting through all 4 little girls clothes, I watched and gave some suggestions. I was planning the menu for the week, that we now can't find, and after her efficient sort she promptly took the old clothes to be burned. One thing about Addie her cleaning is final, I guess I'm more of a hoarder she's definitely get it all done. At least they can open and close their drawers easily now and maybe not so many clothes will live on their floors. I am blessed and here we go into the school year of 2022. 

1.5.22 A full December

This past December was different in so many ways as always I'm thankful for the snapshots that remind me of the life we live. We get busy doing that I forget to actually think about the life we are living. One unknown side effect of having missionaries is how much I appreciate people loving them and caring for them. This sparked a new desire in me to reach out to our missionaries and make sure they are ok. So I invited them to our house to make cookies. It was a sweet experience.  

They started up at Sue's she of course just welcomed them in and fed them some hot tapioca pudding. They of course were treated family style given a spoon and invited to take a test bite from the pan. The new sister missionary later related this was exactly how they eat tapioca pudding at home and that this day was her parents birthday. A tender mercy that God is indeed aware of her and knows her heart. I never have or probably won't make tapioca pudding and none of us knew this was a thing at her home, but God knew and so she went to a place that it was happening so she could know he notices her. Love it! They came later to our house she whipped up chocolate chip cookies which they took to other people. We enjoyed getting to know them just as many people in California and Ohio are doing with my children. 

One reason the month passed quickly was the daily attention to these lovely ladies. Afton continues to show great possibility of being a major cow handler. She helped Reed feed thse cows. It was nerve wracking driving maongst them as they mindlessly cross right in front of me and completely surrounded the tractor and wagon a see of black mooing cows is quite the sight. 

Most of the time cow work leaves these in the house playing to their hearts content. Who knows what they will do, but Millie runs a pretty tight ship and rarely do I come home to chaos. However on cow moving day everyone likes to come watch the cowboys and dogs work their magic. They bundled up and came out to watch the show. 

Another present to myself was an upgrade to LED lights. Uncle Ben taught Mark some basics and he was able to complete the installations with help from Addie, Reed, and myself. I like having more light.

In years past home depot has had some impressive Christmas decorations this year there were few to be found but the kids enjoyed a day away from home and the many possibilities are showcased in the store. Aliza is my secret weapon to managing so many little curious helpers. She is so competent, strong, patient, and creative when dealing with children. 

Reed is an eager willing cook. Here he is making sour dough waffles. Addie was gone somewhere and he did a great job. He is good at most anything he puts his hand to. 

In addition to life at home, this year there was major effort and preparation put into celebrating at school. We are so very thankful for the vision of our teachers at the grade school my children attend. 

ornaments, gingerbread houses, games, dancing, etc it was a very fun day

As activity day leader we always try to do something spiritual along with the fun. This project had to be modified but I wanted the kids to have a craft experience. I was surprised how much they really enjoyed sanding wood blocks. Truly, many of them could have sanded a lot longer if they weather wouldn't have been so cold. They then painted the wood and let it dry in preparation for a vinyl sticker to be placed to create the following Nativity scene. 

The boys making bird feeders. Our bird feeder was picked clean in a day. We have a lot of kids and so we split into boy group and girl group and just rotate who does what at any given activity. It works. The kids are sweet, I've learned to plan extra the kids are fast and to roll with however the projects progress. The kids brought good ideas a few months ago and we've been inspired as we worked to make their ideas come to life. 

I'm always cooking or cleaning up it seems.

A picture of Anna at a members house. I love getting these surprise pictures on my phone. 

So that's what we did in December we worked, we cooked, we celebrated. Life is good and we are blessed with energy and health - even though we were sick for several weeks it made us more aware when we were well. Now onto finding good things and ways to spend January and February as we patiently and nervously wait and wonder about the arrival of our next baby. 
 

1.4.22 In with the new

We worked a bit in reverse this year cleaning out the old the day before Christmas so we could bring in the new. We started the day removing old worn out furniture from our house. This triggered the need to wash and vacuum our two main living rooms. After that we all piled in the big van to go get the new couches. There is something very final with burning. Addie loves a good fire this was maybe one of her Christmas presents. 

After many hours, book it pizza's, and a lot of lifting we arrived back at home with our new used couches. We washed and dried the furniture. 

Thankfully Uncle Bryce saw our project and offered to help. While we weren't lacking man power we were definitely low on patience and energy by this point. His cheerful can do attitude was just what we needed to finish the project before dark. 

We love having room for everyone and some bigger chairs for the bigger bodies our children have grown since we moved here a lot of years ago. That could be in part from the delicious treats our neighbors shared with us this holiday season. We did not get to as many neighbors as I had hoped but we are forever grateful for the many friends who share their love and concern with our family. 

MAn loved the chocolate covered pretzels. They were really good. 

That night for scriptures everyone agreed the couches were just the right size. We are grateful for those we bought and were gifted them from. We are working to learn new habits like not walking or jumping on the furniture. We have to keep training the next generation to be better behaved. Hopefully this will soak in soon. I'm not sure how good of a police I will be buried deep in my accounting this month and struggling with late pregnancy limitations. We shall see. 
 

1.3.22 Christmas Eve 21

One of the best parts of Christmas is all the boxes. These boys loved the huge box that brought one of my favorite most hoped for presents new laundry baskets. With the amount of laundry we do a set last about 9 months then we manage for the next 3. We definitely use things up.

After many weeks and days of waiting the night was here and we had Christmas Eve Joy at Uncle KEvin's and Aunt Elizabeth's. Their house is the best for parties lots of room and people so there is fun for all. 

A fun new attraction the bouncy gym. 

Plenty of dolls and seating to play in. 

Santa made a special stop. The kids waited patiently for their turn. Parents hoped the wishes were filled at home. 

All photos thanks to this lady who is fantastic at capturing the moments. 

Next the nativity. It's fun and wild each year. This is a fun addition to the festivities each graduating parts and sure in the knowledge of the why of Christmas. 

The adults and teens endulge in the yearly assortment of Christmas yumminess. 

A new addition to the cast Merle man making his debut as a camel.

Visiting with Uncles.

Next step waiting a bit more for dinner to be ready to serve.

Finally to the feast! Plenty for first, seconds, and thirds for more than 40. We are blessed to live so abundantly.

Seating for all and a good time to catch up.

The kids were in a hurry to get to presents. This gift exchange of cold cereal is a highlight. Each gets their own box of cold cereal. Yum yum.

Cousins share lots of similarities and make each holiday and gathering more fun. Though the traditions have changed and evolved it is only becoming better and better. 

Teenagers were the big winners on the Kahoot Uncle Justin created for the White elephant gift exchange. They have fast fingers and good guesses.

We rounded the evening out with a cookie buffet and more visiting. 

 Life is good another year lived and moving into the next. We get bigger in number, wiser, funnier, and hopefully strengthened by each other. We are thankful to be family and for the times we get to be together relaxed and sharing some food and time. We have standard traditions that bind us together through the generations. Happy New Year.