Service projects and Cookin' with the Kids

We have a Humanitarian Service evening coming up in Relief Society.  If you are not Mormon, that is the ladies organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (or Mormons). We will be making receiving blankets and baby booties, binding a couple of quilts, making file folder games, and love bears. I am busy making invitations for the evening, which includes a guest speaker and refreshments. It's a good thing they don't have to be done today, because my hands aren't working well today. I sewed myself a jumper yesterday and then cut out three more, and that was too much in one day, I guess. My hands are getting worse and worse. I have carpal tunnel, which I can't afford to do anything about, and  rheumatoid arthritis, so I have good days and bad. Actually, no good days anymore, but some OK days.

I have decided that it's time to teach the grandchildren to cook. Last night we made these cute little Sugar Cookie Tarts. I found the recipe and great photos on a blog I really like called LDS Craft Project. Its written by a great gal from California and has some really fun stuff! She used a tool from Pampered Chef to make the tart cups, but I didn't have one, so I made my own tool out of what I had on hand. I found a wooden bead just the right size to make the indentations in the cups. I had a piece of dowel that was a little to big for the hole in the bead, so I whittled it down to fit, and !Voila! I had a very technical tool the kids and I call the "masher". We had a lot of fun, and we have enough supplies to do it again tonight!

They were so-o-o-o good! They are filled with a mixture of cream cheese, Cool Whip and powdered sugar,
and we had fresh blackberries, just picked, and kiwi and bananas. Yum!

I got an idea from an article in Family Fun Magazine for making a "license" for cooking. You make it kind of like a driver's license, with their photo on the front and everything. They will be like learner's permits. I'll put a list of things they need to learn on the back, with a check box beside each item. Then we can check it off when they learn it. Some of the items will be how to peel fruit and vegetables, how to fry hamburger, how to measure properly....those kinds of things. And we'll choose together five different kinds of cookies for them to learn to make, too. Also very important...How To Clean Up! The kids are 10 and 11, so they will be able to do things that younger kids couldn't. You just adjust your list to the age of the child. I think they'll really have fun.

 I know that one of the cookie recipes will be my mom's Krispy Cookies. The recipe is at least 35 or 40 years old, and has always been a favorite of everyone who tastes it. You'll get it here next time! That's it for today, but I want to leave you with this little message....If you see a turtle on top of a fence post, you can be certain he didn't get there by himself. A proud turtle would tell you what a good climber he is, but a humble turtle would praise the grace of God that put him there. Until next time, Gramma G.

It's a hard life, but good.

Life is hard. After not working for over 3 months, my husband has finally gone back to work, and that's a good thing, but.....he's not making enough for us to get out of debt. We will be absolutely broke for the next year, if not longer, and that will cause havoc with his depression. It's a catch-22. But at least he IS working, so we can try to make some headway.

My grandson, Cameron, had his Cub Scout Pinewood Derby in March. His car wasn't very fast, but he had a good time, and that's all that matters. My oldest granddaughter, Cydney, also got the cutest little black puppy while we were there. Some people were in the parking lot with a box full of puppies, knowing full well that where there's kids there will be a better chance to get rid of them. Anyway, her step-mother wouldn't let her keep it, so guess what? I have a new puppy!

The one at the back is Cameron's. Its a worm on a roller skate. When my boys were
 in Cubs, we always made their derby cars different. We had a stick of Big Red gum
once, and a Cub Scout driving a hot dog, and a few other crazy things like that.
 My son is following in my footsteps.

A couple of weekends ago was the Clark County Fair and Rodeo, and I spent some time with my friend Bev in the Humanitarian Aid booth. We knitted hats for the newborns at the county hospital, we tied quilts for the humanitarian aid program of the church, we taught others to knit and tie quilts, and we re-acquainted ourselves with each other. (You can see pictures of the booth at the Bev's Blog link at the right.) She is a good person with a heart of gold, and she is constantly doing something for others. I am glad to call her my friend. She put a few things into perspective for me while we visited, and it was a good few days.

Now I am busy trying to finish three little flower-girl dresses for the wedding of my daughter's best friend's sister-in-law. How's that for a mouthful? The wedding is taking place in Georgia in about 2 1/2 weeks. The dresses are black, and hot pink with black polka dots. They will be really cute, I think. Basically, the only black will be the bodice and the polka dots, and the trim on the bottom of the sleeves. If I remember, I will take a photo and post it. Two of the little girls live here in town, and the other one lives in Georgia. It's a pretty simple pattern, so it won't take long to get them done, I just have to get started! To me, the worst part of sewing is the cutting out. I hate cutting out. Once that's done, its a breeze from there. I'm in the middle of that dreaded part right now, so I will start the actual sewing tomorrow. I enjoy that part.

I am working on that other cute pattern I told you I had for you. That's technically a lie. It's not one pattern, but a series of patterns. It's an alphabet book for little ones, and it's personalized for each one. I made one for my grandson and he really likes it. I'm making the one you will see pictured for another grandson...actually two grandsons. I'm trying to get the pages photographed and all the patterns made, then we'll do one or two pages per post. I think that will work. If not, we'll step it up a little.

Well, that's all for now. I need to get to bed and get some rest. I also am making a quilt top for the same wedding as the dresses, so I will be busy for a while. See you back at the farm. 'Night. Gramma G.

A Good Night

Tonight is a good night. I have been working on ideas for the next book in the Baggy Grandma books. More Recipes for Mom. Disappearing ink, slime, more silly putty, face paint, things like that. I think it will be good. Now I have to get started on it. I'm not too sure why I'm doing this, but maybe someday something good will come from it. I'm also going to start on the Kid's Crafts series. Volume 1 will be full of ideas for everyday crafts, Volume 2 will be summer crafts, etc........there are 10 or 12 total, each with 10 ideas in it. Just small little books. I have them all outlined and the projects chosen, now I just have to write them up and draw the illustrations.

I have just been made the chorister in Relief Society, plus I am doing the bulletin board and the newsletter. All of this came at the same time, so I am feeling a little overwhelmed right about now, but as soon as I get into the swing of things, I'll be OK. I love doing the bulletin board, and the newsletter is fun, too. Leading the music is more work, and the RS sisters have been asked to sing in Sacrament meeting next Sunday! With time for only one practice! We'll see what happens. The ward music chairman chose Hymn #113, and that's a familiar one, so we should be OK.

I have a new recipe for you. I got it from HungryGirl.com, and if you've never seen that website, you should check it out. They give all kinds of ideas and information on ways to scale down on fat and calories. It a great site! Anyway, this recipe is an "instead-of" recipe for those frozen lemonades you get at fairs that are so good, but not so good for you.

Lemony Sip-its

2 tsp. lemonade powdered drink mix (Crystal Light)

1 tsp. fat-free non-dairy creamer (like Coffee Mate)

8-10 ice cubes

Dissolve the creamer in 1/4 cup warm water and mix well. Add 1 1/4 cups cold water and the lemonade mix. Mix well and place in a blender with half of the ice. Blend at high speed until thoroughly blended. Add the rest of the ice a cube or two at a time, until desired consistency is reached. Pour into a tall glass and spoon or sip your way to lemony satisfaction. For an even slushier drink, put it into the freezer for about 20 minutes before enjoying. Really easy and really good! And if you're on Weight Watchers, the whole thing is only 1 point!

If anyone out there is reading this blog and has ideas to share for humanitarian projects, email me and I will share your ideas with everyone. Or if you have a group that does humanitarian projects, let me know. I know you're out there. Speak up! My sister-in-law is knitting hats for veterans, and she has 88 done so far. She started out with a goal of 50, and then moved it to 100. It wouldn't surprise me if she does about 150 before Thanksgiving. She's really fast. I used to be, but my poor hands don't work so purty good any more. Last winter we did hats for the children's cancer ward, plus "chemo cans", which were gallon paint cans, decorated outside and filled with goodies like crayons or colored pencils, notebooks, coloring books, scissors, toys and games, slipper socks, all kinds of things. We collected beanie baby animals for months! I haven't come up with a new idea for this year yet. I don't even know what is needed in this new place we live. I need to do some research, but ideas would be helpful.

Well, I think its time to close for tonight. It's 1:51am and I need to get some rest. See you next time. Take care of you loved ones. They are you most important assets. 'Night, Gramma G.

Stuff, Stuff and More Stuff!

Well, I missed last night because I was so busy trying to get this thing up and going the way I want it to be, that I forgot to write! I finally figured out how to get the slide show going, but the pictures aren't mine! How's that for crazy? So I will probably spend half the day tomorrow trying to get MY pictures into the slide show, instead of those really nice photos of places I've never even seen.

I just finished reading The Gift by Richard Paul Evans. Man, what a powerful story. What would or could the world be like if everyone were so unselfish! If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. But be prepared to read for 2 or 3 hours straight, depending on how fast you read, because once you start it, you won't want to put it down until you're finished.

Today was a beautiful day here in Montana. It was warm enough to wear Capri pants and short sleeves, but cool enough to get out in the yard, or the garage in my case, and get some work done. We have just moved to a new house, and its quite a bit smaller than the one we were living in, so there is a lot of "leftovers" that won't fit in the house. I'm going through everything and trying to decide if it stays or goes. My youngest daughter and her two little boys are living with us, so the space is even tighter that it would be normally. The garage has become our craft room, with a set of shelves on one wall that are 7 feet wide and 8 feet tall. On the opposite wall are storage bins for paper, embellishments, tools, etc. It's not the perfect place, but it's better than having all the stuff in storage and not being able to use it. We have her nice big dining table in the middle of the room for working on. (At least we should be able to work on it at some future date. Hopefully before the end of the world.) We are big scrapbookers, plus we like to make our own cards and gifts, so we have a lot of supplies. Junk, my husband calls it. We had a yard sale last weekend and he kept trying to sell the craft stuff along with everything that really WAS for sale! Men!

I have carpal tunnel and arthritis in my hands and sometimes its really hard to type, so if you find mistakes in my writing, please know that its not because I'm illiterate. I actually have a college degree. Of course, my degree, which is in Art, doesn't gaurantee that I can spell, but English was always my best subject in high school. So overlook the mistakes, OK?

My youngest grandson, Rafferty, who is one of the two living with us, is such a toad! He is so cute, and such a little devil at the same time. He's just like his Uncle Clif was. He wants to take everything apart. He gets in to everything! He can open the childproof doors now, and there's no stopping him! He's so smart, too. His vocabulary is growing almost as fast as his brother's, and he's a year and a half older. Cyric was a slow starter as far as talking goes, but he's making up for it. He's 3 1/2 now, and he talks up a storm. And he's really smart, too. He already knows about half of his letters and numbers, and can count to ten most of the time. He knows his colors and shapes and loves those books where there are things hidden in the pictures that you have to find. I actually have very smart grandchildren all the way around. The oldest just turned 15. (Wow! I don't feel really old until I think about things like that!) He and his sister will be spending a week or so with us pretty soon. Then when they leave, 5 others will be coming to stay. We will have a house full!!!!

Rafferty has found a new place to hide!

I guess I used to think that when my kids were all grown and away from home, that I would have lots of time to do all those things I wanted to do but never had the time. Guess what? It's not happ'nin'. All those things are still on the back burner waiting for me to have the time to do them. Remember that old saying, "The hurrier I go, the behinder I get." Well that's me. I find a project I want to do, I get the instructions, or I save up the stuff I need, and then I never get around to it and I wind up with all this "stuff" that I never use. And the sad thing is, that my children are just like me. They are all collectors of "stuff". With my boys, it's mechanical stuff. Cars parts and tools and computers and things like that. With my girls, it's scrapbooking stuff, and crafting and gift stuff. I apologize to them for that, and for all the headache it will cause them throughout their lives. I got it from my mother, and I was weak and didn't break the chain of "stuff collecting", but instead passed it on. Woe is me! Do you suppose that when I get to the pearly gates, that St. Peter will tell me I can't come in because of all the "stuff" I left behind? I'm going through it all now, but I'm sure it won't take me long to collect a new bunch of "stuff".

I'm going to try to add some links to other pages that I like and I hope you will like, too. We'll see how long it will take me and how I can screw it up before I figure it out. Hopefully, tomorrow I will have some of those links for you to look at. When I lived in Nevada, I belonged to a group called "Crafting Angels" and we did humanitarian projects. We made hygiene kits and school kits, and dressed dollies, things like that, for distribution by the Mormon Church to those in need. We knitted hats and mittens, made ABC books and picture books, that kind of thing. It was a lot of fun and we always had a potluck lunch and good companionship. I miss all those ladies a lot, and I know they are still doing great things. Anyway, the lady who started it all has a very nice website, and that will be my first link. If you go to her website, you will find patterns and ideas for all kinds of things.

Well, I think I've rambled enough for one night. If you ever have any questions about my ramblings, or want to clarify something I didn't make too clear, just drop me a line. I'm always here. This is Gramma G signing off. 'Night.