Happy Chinese New Year

Let me just say in advance that I am SO disappointed that I didn't get pictures of all that went into this day.  

Here was the inspiration for it...

On one of our Hawaii trips back in January 2011, I received a set of dishes that once belonged to my (birth) grandmother, Nanny.  My mom and auntie carefully packed part of the set for me to carry home on the plane, and then brought the remaining pieces with them when they came to Dallas the following August.  I LOVE glass.  I LOVE dishes.  I LOVE heirloom pieces that have been handed down from parents and grandparents.  So these were a treasure to receive.

For two years I didn't do anything with them.  I just put them on a shelf in my kitchen and felt a little bit of happiness every time I looked up there and remembered them.  And then at the end of January, when all the Christmas stuff had finally been taken down and my dining room table looked heartbreakingly bare, I decided to set the table with Nanny's china.  

I hand washed all of these gorgeous pieces.  There are serving pieces, spoons, a creamer and sugar bowl, and salt and pepper shakers that were also included in this set, so it took a good chunk of the morning to wash and dry all of them by hand.  BUT...it gave me such a great opportunity to lovingly give each of those beautiful pieces a little bit of overdue attention.  And I fell in love with them all over again.

OK...here's where this story strays a little and I start to sound like I'm very easily distracted and scatter brained...

I set the dining room table for 8 and happily admired it for about three days.  

And then I thought, "It's such a shame no one will get to see this table except us."  Except I must have said that out loud because Flowering Buttercup chimed in with, "We should invite the Rodriguez's over for a Chinese party!"  (Yes, I know my dishes are from Japan and not China, but in the minds of the people who live in my house, there is very little distinction between those two countries.)  

A few days later, the girls and I were having lunch at Panda Express and my neighbor came in to buy Orange Chicken sauce.  Of course that led to a conversation about what she was going to do with it, and she ended up giving me a recipe for homemade orange chicken.  

Wheels were turning in both my mind and Flowering Buttercup's...and one of us Googled Chinese New Year...I'm not sure who.  And guess what!  We were happily delighted to find out that it was coming up...on February 10th.  

I came home and mentioned our great idea to the Scout Master who said, "Um...why don't we just invite them over without calling it a Chinese New Year celebration.  Cuz we''re not Chinese and that's a little weird."  Well, I am actually a teeny bit Chinese, so it didn't sound that weird to me.  So I sent out this group text to every one of my contacts whose last name was Rodriguez.

(yep, Flowering Buttercup pointed out the date discrepancy, so I had to send another text to change it to the 10th.)  Within a few hours I got responses back from all 6 that they were available and would love to come for dinner.  HOORAY!

So, I started planning a menu...

Orange Chicken (with Panda Orange Sauce from my neighbor Jill)
3-4 chicken breasts, cubed
1 cup cornstarch
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup oil
Salt and pepper, to taste

Rinse chicken in water and pat dry. Season with salt and pepper.

Heat oil in large skillet. Dip in cornstarch, then in egg. 
Cook chicken until browned but not cooked through. Place chicken in 9x13 greased baking dish. Cover with orange chicken sauce (I use almost the whole bottle). Bake for 45 minutes at 325 stirring the chicken every 15 minutes to coat evenly.

Beef and Snow Peas (from the Pioneer Woman)

Beef with Snow Peas via TPW

Fried Rice (my mom's recipe)

Baked Wontons (from my Pampered Chef years)

and...
Homemade Fortune Cookies

These were SO cute and so easy, I'm thinking about making them again this week to give to my friends for Valentine's Day.  When I do that, I'll remember to take pictures and post about the whole process.  

Flowering Buttercup helped me think of some cute fortunes to put in the cookies...

I planned and cooked and put stickies all over the fridge, and had a tiny little meltdown on Saturday afternoon because my head was filled with Chinese parties, Valentine's Day, photography homework, a Book of Mormon pageant rehearsal (more to come on that), a play at the HS, a multi stake dance that I had volunteered to chaperone, and not enough hours left in the weekend.  But I pulled myself together and did one thing at a time, and as always, when the Rodriguez's are involved, everything comes together better than I even imagined it.

So, even though I forgot to take my camera out of the bag, and didn't even think about pictures until after the food was long gone, we still had a really great time.  (It's just not documented quite the way I had hoped.)

And guess what else?  Those inspiring dishes that started this whole thing??  I didn't even use them because I only have 8 and there are 9 Rodriguez's and 6 of us...there was no way to make that work.  Instead we went with red plastic plates and cups...brilliantly Chinese, huh?  I did use two of the serving bowls, though, so the dishes were there in spirit.  

After dinner, we played games and then passed the guitar around and sang songs.  Those Rods are so dang talented!  I don't know why I'm always so shocked that they can play yet another instrument every time we're with them.

We LOVE this family so much and are SO happy that they are always willing to come over and hang out with us.  We had such a great time and Chinese New Year was the best excuse EVER to have a little get together.  We might have to make this a tradition!

Happy Year of the Snake!!

Photography Class Day 4

I wandered around taking pictures of  shooting random stuff this week, trying to find a shot that "rocked it" for my homework.  Everything I shot looked too stuffy, too posed, too "not me."  I pretty much gave up until Thursday night when I started feeling my internal homework clock ticking loudly!  

After an already super-full day, nothing looked very interesting at 10:39 on a Thursday night. I walked up and down the stairs and through the entire house looking for something...anything to take a picture of, and became increasingly irritated at the little pile of Mack's belongings that I kept tripping over.  

And then I wandered into his room and heard him peacefully snoring in his bed and thought that there won't be many more years of tripping over his stuff.  (Actually, the reality is probably that there will be a handful of years in the immediate future where the stuff I trip over will be bigger than this little pile...but eventually there won't be stuff to trip over in my house.) And eventually all these little people who get bigger everyday, and more mature everyday, and move closer everyday toward lives OUT of this house, will actually BE out of this house, and so will all their little piles of stuff.  

SO, for a few quiet moments on Thursday night, I decided to embrace the pile on the floor and capture it.  So that someday when my floors are uncluttered and my home is quiet, I can look at these and remember how much I loved the activity and commotion of a busy family.

I don't have a tripod, so I stacked a pile of books on the floor, and got down at eye level to take these.  I set the white balance at INCANDESCENT and then COOL WHITE FLUORESCENT (both of which were still a little off) and set the ISO at 100, which meant that I needed a WIDE aperture (4.2) and a slow shutter speed (I think these were at 1" and 2")

Have I mentioned how much fun I'm having playing around with this camera?  I still can only shoot things that don't move.  There isn't time to go through all those settings with people who are in motion.  But I LOVE that I feel like I'm actually using the abilities this camera came with.  I'm totally enjoying this photography class!

High Five for Friday

Crush of the week:

Dolvett from The Biggest Loser.  I love him because he's SO nice to everyone.  He makes watching that show totally worth it.

Favorite Quote of the Week:
Spell Girl and I snuck out this week for a quick Sonic/shopping date.  I found a super cute, very-yellow hoodie that was practically free so I bought it.  Spell wasn't impressed with it at all and thought it was an impulsive purchase.  When I brought it home and put it on, though, here's what she said:

"Whoa...Mommy...I LOVE that!  When I saw it in the store I thought it looked like a baby poop yellow, but on you it looks like sunshine!"  

Mental Note: Adding "makes baby poop look like sunshine" to the list of my talents.    

What I LOVE this week:

Sweet little love notes all over my kitchen.  It's such a nice reminder in those moments when we forget how much we love each other.  

What was FUN this week:

Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet.  I never realize how much these amazing Cub Scout leaders do until I see all these little packs of boys accomplishing goals, writing skits, and achieving recognition.  I love that scouting is a huge part of that little village that helps us raise this little boy.

Song of the Week:
We've been all about show tunes around here this week since June is picking audition music for the upcoming Pop Show at school.  She really wanted to pick something from Les Mis or Wicked, but those two shows are SOOO popular right now, and therefore a little overdone.  The Scout Master and I steered her toward something a little less obvious, and SO much more suited to her personality.

Notice Me Horton, from "Seussical the Musical"

It's been an awesome week here, and I'm so looking forward to a full but equally amazing weekend.  Hope you had a great week and that it's almost spring where you are.  

Throwback Thursday

I went with another random selection today from the iCloud for tbt.  My mouse scrolled and scrolled and happened to stop at September 2009.

One day, in the middle of the fall, the Scout Master and his brother decided to take all the cousins (minus Flowering Buttercup) to Antelope Island.  Those two are impulsive and adventurous like that.  They can cook up a snow cave expedition or a hike for the kids or a fishing trip in a matter of minutes.  They're pretty fun dads.  I packed a picnic lunch and loaded five kids into the van, and off they went for a day long adventure.  They spent the entire afternoon hiking, exploring, wading in the warm water, and bonding.

yikes!  is that my baby up on that giant rock????

Do you know what I thought about when I looked at these pictures?  I could not believe how much these cousins have changed in 4 years!  But, as grown up as they've gotten and as smart as they're becoming, they still LOVE being together.  It doesn't happen as much as we would like, but when it does, it's bliss for everyone.  These guys are more than cousins...they're FRIENDS.  I love that our 7 years in Utah seared in all of us that eternal bond.  I love these kids so much.  

 And I SUPER LOVE their adventurous dads!

The Village

We've been having some serious debates around here about what to do with our upcoming summer vacation.  It's nice to have options, but it's also a little challenging.  Everyone has an opinion.  

There are some definites...
Girls Camp in June
Scout Camp (also in June)
Choir Camp (Flowering Buttercup)
Strings Camp (Spell Girl)
South Padre Island for a week of playing on the beach while the Scout Master slaves away at work in McAllen... I love that tradition!

But we have a few options with the rest of our summer...
Hawaii?
EFY in Provo?
EFY in San Antonio?
the whole month of July in Utah??
Church History trip?
Washington DC?
Disney World?

The Scout Master and I are feeling a little urgency to make these next few years of vacations kind of impactful ones (I don't know if impactful is a word or not, but I'm using it) because after the summer of 2015, our family dynamics are going to change a whole lot!!  Can you believe that?  In two years, we'll be planning a summer of packing, preparing and moving Flowering Buttercup off to college.  (...sniff...)

A few of those trips have been postponed or completely eliminated from the list for reasons beyond our control, so at this point (in Feburary...a whole 4 months away) we're kinda leaning toward the Church history trip or the DC trip.  Some of the people in our house are not thrilled about that possibility, though.  Some of us really, really like summers in Utah.  Some of us have only ever spent summers in Utah.  And some of us have no idea what could be enticing or interesting in dumb old Washington DC.  

One of the more strongly opposed teenagers in our house took up her cause with her favorite teacher at the middle school, who happens to be the former YW President in our ward.  We've gotten used to waiting a little while longer after school for this daughter to have her daily connections with Mrs. Braithwaite.  Yesterday she was VERY late coming out after school, so I figured the conversation must be a pretty good one.  I have no idea what they said in that classroom, but when my DC-hating daughter got into the van, she said, "I think you're right.  Washington DC sounds like a great idea!"  (What???)

I wanted to run right into the building and hug that woman.  

In one relatively short conversation, she changed the mind of a stubborn, sulky 14-year-old.  She did what the Scout Master and I have tried for weeks to do...she convinced her to consider something different.  

I cannot tell you how much I LOVE having a village of wonderful, wise, thoughtful, caring adults to help us raise these kids.  Sometimes they get tired of hearing their parents' voices...probably more often than we'd like to admit.  Sometimes another neutral person can say the same thing we've been saying in a totally different way that makes it a little more palatable.  Sometimes it's just good to get a second opinion.  

I am so grateful for all the Mrs. Braithwaites out there, for amazing teachers, youth leaders, Bishops and neighbors who make up this complete little community of surrogate parents for my children.  It totally does take a village to raise a child.  

Looking Up

This morning, I sat next to Flowering Buttercup in the van on the way to Seminary.  She was already deeply entranced by the little iThing in her hand, and it was not yet even 6:00am.  We drove the ten minutes to the East building without saying a word and she never looked up from that tiny little screen.  

On the way home from taking one of the other kids to school, I noticed a middle school aged girl walking to the bus stop from her house, the same familiar little iThing in her hand.  She didn't look up from that thing even when she arrived at the bus stop, and I'm not sure that she noticed the handful of other kids who were already gathered.  I wondered if she's ever talked to them?  I wondered if bus rides to school are now eerily silent with iThings replacing that archaic conversation we used to have as teenagers.   I wondered what all those kids who don't have iThings do while they're walking?  Are they socially unacceptable because they make eye contact?  Is it a whole new level of insecurity to not have texts to check or statuses to update?  

While I watched that girl at the bus stop and waited for the next round of kids to carpool, I remembered a story from a Conference talk a couple of years ago...

At the end of a particularly tiring day toward the end of my first week as a General Authority, my briefcase was overloaded and my mind was preoccupied with the question, "How can I possibly do this?"  I left the office of the Seventy and entered the elevator of the Church Administration Building.  As the elevator descended, my head was down and I stared blankly at the floor.  The door opened and someone entered, but I didn't look up.  As the door closed, I heard someone ask, "What are you looking at down there?"  I recognized that voice - it was President Thomas S. Monson.  He had seen my subdued countenance and my heavy briefcase.  He smiled and lovingly suggested, while pointing heavenward, "It is better to look up!"  - Carl B. Cook General Conference, October 2011

What a huge challenge it is to get these kids to look up!  Not even all the way to heaven, but just at the people around them.  What an odd generation we're cultivating who communicates primarily via text.  I worry all the time that boys will eventually lose the skill of asking girls on dates.  And then dates will become obsolete.  And then no one will get married and any chance I have at being a grandmother will be lost!  I worry that my future missionaries won't have a clue how to knock on a door and teach the gospel because they will have spent their entire teenage years looking down into little screens in their hands.  

Currently, only the two older kids in our house have cellphones and only one of those phones is an iThing.  June is now 12 and rapidly becoming more social, more involved, and less at home.  She petitions on a regular basis for her own cellphone so that she can better communicate with her chauffers us when she's away.  And I have to say, the thought has crossed my mind more than once to give in and upgrade Spell Girl to an iThing and hand down the older phone to June so she isn't left on some curb waiting for us to pick her up.  But then I think about how difficult it already is to get our ONE iPhone user fully engaged in personal interaction now that she has access to the entire world in her hand.  How can I compete with Pinterest, Netflix, youtube, the Mormon Channel, and a text from her current love interest all at the same time?  I can't.  Imagine if all the kids had those?  We would just gather around the table with our phones, upload a youtube video for FHE, listen to the scriptures from the Gospel Library app,  text our testimonies, and never look at each other again!  It's kind of horrifying.  

So, what's the answer?  How can looking up become more enticing than those little phones?  Maybe that's the test of this generation...and their parents.  

I came home this morning and read the rest of that Conference talk.  It's not about cell phone usage or teenagers or even communication.  It's about trusting in Heavenly Father.  

"As we parted, the words of a scripture came to mind:  "Believe in God; believe that He is...; believe that He has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth."  As I thought of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ's power, my heart found the comfort I had sought in vain from the floor of that descending elevator."  - Carl B. Cook

It is impossible to find that comfort on a little screen.  You can't adequately convey love and appreciation for someone in an email.  Sometimes that has to be done in person.  Prayers cannot be texted and answers cannot be received on an iThing.  Heavenly Father waits patiently for us to turn off all that stuff, set aside our worldly distractions, and look up to Him for guidance and direction.  That's my goal this week...not to be more exciting than youtube, or funnier than Netflix, or more interesting than a text, but to remind my kids that it's good to turn those things off every now and then, and just be still.  That relationships are more important than status updates.  That Amazon does not know them as well as their parents do.  That the things that will bring them the greatest joy and comfort and hope are not found on Google.  They are found in the quiet moments spent with Heavenly Father and connecting in person with the people around them.  

Phew...this motherhood thing is so hard sometimes.  I'm grateful to have the guidance of a loving Heavenly Father to help me with all the hard things.  I know that He has entrusted me with these four little people and that He has an even greater interest in their futures than I do, so I'm sure that if I look up and ask for help, He'll help me figure this out.  

"Experience has taught me that if we, like President Monson, exercise our faith and look to God for help, we will not be overwhelmed with the burdens of life.  We will not feel incapable of doing what we are called to do or need to do.  We will be strengthened, and our lives will be filled with peace and joy.  We will come to realize that most of what we worry about is not of eternal significance - and if it is, the Lord will help us.  But we must have the faith to look up and the courage to follow His direction." - Carl B. Cook

Love at Home

I wasn't feeling a lot of Love at Home today as my children all returned from long days at school.  Some of them were grumpy.  Some were impatient with me and with each other.  Some of them were not very anxious to clean up messes they had made.   The Scout Master is out of town this week, so I didn't have him to "bounce" my irritation off of.  Instead I decided to remove myself from them for a little while and regroup.  I constantly feel the weight of my responsibility to set the tone in my home, and if left to my own devices today, I would not have set a very good one.  

Last week I had asked one of the girls to prepare a Family Home Evening lesson on "having a house of order," but after the events of the day, I made an executive decision to change our schedule.  It's February, which is LOVE MONTH, so I thought tonight would be appropriate to talk about LOVE at HOME.   It was a short lesson.  Spell Girl read a scripture about "loving one another" and we all marveled at how many love references there are in the scriptures.  I talked for a little while about how our house should be a LOVE ONLY zone.  We should be able to come home from long days, challenging classes, and not so great school environments, and feel safe and loved and uplifted.  We should have a family filled with people rooting for each other.  

"None of us need one more person bashing or pointing out where we have failed or fallen short. Most of us are already well aware of the areas in which we are weak. What each of us does need is family, friends, employers, and brothers and sisters who support us, who have the patience to teach us, who believe in us, and who believe we're trying to do the best we can, in spite of our weaknesses. What ever happened to giving each other the benefit of the doubt? What ever happened to hoping that another person would succeed or achieve? What ever happened to rooting for each other?” ― Marvin J. Ashton

After the lesson, I handed everyone 5 little paper hearts that I had cut out last week, and asked them all to write one thing they loved about each of the other 5 people in our family.  I encouraged them to put some thought into their love notes and not just write something funny or silly.  And then we taped all of our hearts to the kitchen cabinets.  (This is not an original idea, by the way.  We did this last year after I read about it on another blog. The kids loved it and we decided to make it an annual tradition.)

In 20 minutes, we changed the tone of our home from annoyed and impatient, to kind and happy.   

It's so nice to dig around in our heads for the lovey dovey things that are in there...sometimes buried under a lot of other stuff.  I love to read what the kids write about each other...and about us.  It's always such a happy surprise.

It will be so nice to wake up to those happy notes every morning as we walk into the kitchen. There are a few extra hearts leftover in case any of us feel a little inspired to add some more love to the kitchen.  We're officially dedicating February as LOVE MONTH in our house, and we're designating our home a LOVE ONLY ZONE.  Maybe if we do it for a whole month, it will stick for the rest of the year!  <3

Photography Class Day 3

Last week, our homework was to shoot a still thing, in low light, using three aperture/shutter speed settings (one underexposed, one overexposed, and one using the camera's suggested balance.)

Here's what I turned in today...

(underexposed)

(overexposed)

(perfect...according to the camera)

The purpose of the homework, though, was to prove that the camera doesn't always pick the right settings.  We each posted our three pictures up on the white board and the class voted on which one they liked the best.  Fairly often, it was the overexposed shot that was the most popular even though, according to the camera, it wasn't "perfect."  "Perfect" is a subjective thing, isn't it?

I wasn't quite the rockstar that I was last week.  This week Hector "rocked it." (meh...)  My shots fell somewhere in the middle of the class - not the best, but definitely not the worst.  But I still loved being in there today.  I know more people's names, and a few of them know mine.  I said stuff.  I asked questions.  I contributed, even though I'm not an expert.  It's so much fun to do something completely different than what I do in a typical week.  

This week we practiced using white balance and ISO.  Our homework for next week is to take ONE SHOT using all four things we've learned: aperture, shutter speed, white balance, and ISO.  In Vernetta's words, "I want this shot to KILL IT."  Sheesh...No pressure...

So, for the next 7 days, I will be dragging my camera around trying to find something amazing that "Kills It!" for next Saturday's class.  Wish me luck...


P.S.  

High Five for Friday

What I LOVE today!  
It's February.  And February is my favorite month!!  And in Dallas, unlike other colder places in the world that still have not just inches but FEET of snow on the ground, apparently February = spring.  And I love Spring, too.

What was fun this week...
Flowering Buttercup and some cute friends went to an Allen Americans hockey game on Tuesday night.  Super fun!

What ELSE was fun this week...
Road Trips!  This was just a short one, but I had a great companion and we had so much fun escaping life for a little while and exploring Canton Trade Days.  We talked and talked and talked and talked!!  And then we shopped a little, ate lunch, shopped a little more, and then got back in the car to come home and talked and talked and talked some more.  

What I'm grateful for this week...
The Scout Master offering to teach Flowering Buttercup how to parallel park.   I have my limits. :)

What I'm looking forward to...
Super Bowl Party with friends in the neighborhood.  I LOVE the commercials football!  And I love that the coaches are brothers.  That's kinda fun!  Looking forward to a fun night with friends and really good food!

Hope you have a great weekend!