Pizza Perfection and Other Happy Times

Thursday night we made home-made pizza--a favorite for me, and for my kids. I make the dough, then assemble all these little bowls of toppings. Then I invite each kid in one at a time and they "decorate" their pizza. Avery went first; she put some cheese on, ate a handful of cheese, put some more on, ate some more--you get the picture. Then she methodically placed little ham slices in about a 3 inch area. She added some sausage and mushrooms and then she was done. Abigail got pretty adventurous, and chose pesto sauce rather than red tomato sauce. After the cheese she added ham, tomatoes, mushrooms, artichoke hearts and some sausage. Wow. Then Warren came in. He put red sauce, ham and cheese. No surprises here. The combos you see above are mine: on the left is pesto with mozzarella, roasted garlic slices, mushrooms and tomato. It was divine. On the left is red sauce, mozzarella, mushroom, sausage, onion and artichoke hearts. Yum. If you want to join us next time, let me know! I'll make the dough and then we can both bring toppings!

Friday night was a Blake Family Cousins Party at Cheryl's. All of Andy's cousins--like age 35 to newborn--gather and talk, eat, play Rock Band, watch sports etc. This time we were also joined by an 18 foot high inflatable slide and a cotton candy machine. It was so fun and I love how it keeps us all together and involved in each other's lives. Here is Avery, inspired by her dad playing Rock Band. I took 2 pictures: the first she was seated and playing, then she saw the camera and stood up for this one.

"Mom, can I be this for Halloween?" asked Abigail on Saturday. "I'm a bunny. And I will go up to people's houses and say 'bunny trick or treat' and get candy! And I will carry this bag." And that pretty much says it all. (I said "yes," by the way.)

Upgraded

Think of this as a commercial break from the saga of getting home from Paris. It makes me tired and ill just thinking and writing about it, so here is the recent news from our home. (I know this is long, but you can skip to the end if you just want to know why there are small crafting pictures with my name underneath them now!)
At Christmas, Warren got a "new to him" bike. Well, that meant an upgrade for all the kids in our family. Abigail got W's old little bike--not for Christmas, just after--with the training wheels back on. I felt so handy putting them on myself. And Avery got the tricycle to ride. These videos show each child on their new set of wheels. Avery's is my favorite, because even though she can reach the pedals, and can pedal, she still foots it, a la Fred Flinstone.
The other upgrade in our family is...we bought a TV! Some brief (okay, not so brief) Andy and Bekah Jennings' family history on TVs. For over the first year of our married life, we didn't even own a TV. We watched the occasional DVD on our computer. My family gave us an old biggish tube TV since they were upgrading. We still didn't ever watch anything on it, but for the bit of time that Andy had an X-box, he did play that on it. It stayed in our office on the floor. Then my family had a small TV/VCR combo they were looking to pass off to someone, so we inherited that (thanks, Brent!) After a while, Gordon gave us a DVD player that we hooked up to it. This TV was small enough it fit comfortably, with room to spare, on a night stand. After too may marbles and sandwiches jammed into it, the VCR stopped working, but it was okay. Then one day Andy's boss where he used to work asked us if we wanted his old TV. We had been to his house recently for a party and I pictured the TV I thought he was describing. It was in better condition than either of ours, and respectable-looking enough to put in the family room. We agreed and Andy went to go get it. Well, he came home with a TV that was about as tall as I am (I am 5'2"), and much wider. It was one of those old-school big-screen TVs encased in a wooden box with a big speaker across the bottom. It was hideous. I couldn't believe it--how did we go from not wanting a TV to having 3 undesirables, one being the literal "elephant in the room"? And to top it all off, in the drive from Queen Creek to Mesa, something had jostled the TV so it didn't work anymore. Now we just had a huge TV to dump on our hands. After several awkward weeks in our family room, we moved it to the back porch, along side the black TV from my family we were no longer using. Then one week we rented one of those HUGE dumpsters from the city so we could do some major work on our oleander hedge. We decided we would dump the monster TV in that. So I wheeled it out there, and some guy drives by and sees me and asks if he can have it. I explained it didn't work, but that didn't bother him. He came back with a car that it didn't fit in and took all my extra TVs off my hands--lucky for him, my neighbor offered the services of her minivan. At this point, Andy and I can't remember what TV we were using--the white one or yet another hand-me-down from my family. We really never watch TV, except at General Conference, and even that we watch on the internet. Our kids watched Sigining Time and the occasional Baby Einstein DVD, but that was pretty much it. Then my father in law wanted to upgrade his flat screen tube TV to a flat screen LCD HDTV. So he offered us his "old" one--it was only about a year old. It was pretty big, but I thought we could put it in the fireplace to store the back end. Seriously. We never use our fireplace, and it sits on a digaonal wall, so it has lots of depth. Well, it is a gas fireplace and we kept getting bad vibes about not capping the gas and so we never did it. So the TV just went on a cute 3 drawer dresser I use to store extra kitchen linens in. It was so out of proportion. It looked horrible. Still, it worked--well, if you had these headphones rigged up with a metal twist-tie for an antenna. (We have really bad reception at our house.) Every time I looked at it, I hated how big it was. It took up so much precious space.
So, fast forward about 2 years to this Christmas. With the gift money from several generous parents and grandparents, we decided to buy our first TV. In six and a half years of married life, we have never purchased a TV or a DVD player. We wanted something we could wall-mount so we could use the current wasted space more efficiently. Plus, we needed to do something about our TV not having a digital receiver, since Feb. 17 is rapidly approaching. So we looked online and off, and finally found a 22" flat screen LCD HDTV DVD combo--no DVD player to store--at Best Buy for a great price. Christmas money, plus tax. Last week, we bought it, and a $30 wall mount. I haven't decided where to mount it yet, so it currently sits in the same space the old one did, but it looks so much better. I can't wait to use that whole wall alcove for something else. Right now it holds the TV and boxes of my craft supplies.
Which brings me to one more upgrade--the reason for the boxes in the corner. (Sorry this is so long!) Today I got to bypass the 20+ person line at the Mesa PO and went right up to the business counter to ship my package. I felt like I had a golden ticket. I decided then and there to come out of the craft closet and admit that I have a business, aka a hobby that I make money off of. About 2 months ago, I started selling banners/garlands on Etsy.com, a site where people can sell their handmade goods. There are toys, jewelry, crafts, decor, clothing, accessories, paintings...it really is awesome. Anyway, I love doing artsy-crafty things, but figured I couldn't do that oustide of family craft day because it would take too much time from my family. Well, I have found the opposite. I use my time better, I get my other work done faster because I'm excited to get to my "business" work, and I have great conversations with my kids the few times they have been awake when I'm working on something, like the afternoon I spent talking to Warren as I cut a 40x30 piece of chipboard into 4x4 squares with an exacto knife. We just talked, and since I wasn't expecting to "teach" him anything, like when we clean together, there was no stress. Just my mindless task occupying my hands, and Warren occupying my heart and mind. I love designing and I'm getting a lot of great feedback, which is fun. I was so nervous to start--I worried I'd mess up on shipping or get bad feedback or no one would like what I made or that I just wasn't competent enough to do this--that I talked myself out of it several times. But then my brother-in-law McKane encouraged me one day--he is the CEO of Scrapbook.com--and suddenly I felt like I could do it. He had seen my work before when I used to design ecuts for scrapbook.com, so I felt like his opinion really was valuable. So I did it. And here is a link to my shop: bekahjennings.etsy.com
You can see what I'm currently selling, and if you click on the "32 sales" link under the "other items" title, you can see what I've already sold, since some of them I don't sell anymore. I hope you enjoy looking.

Flashback II: Getting Home From Paris, Part 1

On Tuesday, July 15th, we left Eguisheim, France--just by the German border--and drove to Paris. It is not more than 4 or 5 hours, but we needed to get in to Paris in time to return our rental car and conclude some random unfinished business. So we cleaned up the gite we'd rented for the weekend as best as a stressed-out husband with a nauseous wife and 3 small children can, all the while trying to pack efficiently so we could get all of our stuff in the suitcases for the plane ride home. We made it out fairly early, like 8-ish or something, with the intent we would stop by the McDonald's outside of town and get breakfast there. Well, we got there, and guess what? McDonald's doesn't open until 9; we were about 20 minutes early. But there was no food that I could guarantee I could eat on the autoroute, so we sat in the drive through, just behind the barrier they put up, and waited. We got up to the window right at nine, confidently ordered our Egg McMuffins or whatever the French equivalent was, and oh, they were out of eggs. I think I almost cried. We ended up with these weird pancakes stuck together with cheese and something else forgettable. Not exactly the protein rush I was looking for to feed my nauseous stomach.
We made it without much event to the IKEA we had mapped out to stop at for lunch, and to pick up a lamp we had broken in our Paris apartment, that if our landlady replaced was going to cost 35 euros. It's actual price at IKEA? 3.50 euros. (At that time, the exchange rate was $1.60=1 euro) No brainer, right? We got out of the car and I got really sick and threw up in the parking lot. Special. We went straight in and got lunch in the cafeteria and it was great. It's pretty much the same menu they have in the states, and very family friendly, with a kids play area in the middle of the eating area. Heaven for kids who have been in a car--a very, very small car--for several hours. After an infusion of meatballs, potatoes and salmon, my stomach was ready to travel again. We set off downstairs to find our lamp. We found it without any problem and purchased it. We put it in the trunk with our suitcases, because there was not an inch to spare in the seating area of the car: we already had all these random bags full of stuff I just couldn't throw away yet or thought I'd find room to pack later. Ha.
So a few hours later, we stopped at a rest stop and Andy opened the hatch of the trunk to get out diapers or something. The lamp fell straight to the ground and broke. Looking back, it is actually really funny--something Elder Wirthlin would've laughed at. I didn't. I cried. I felt so defeated. Sick, lampless, tired from being up too late packing, immensely homesick. I couldn't get home soon enough.
We got into Paris. Paris is crazy to drive in. Still, somehow Andy got me and the kids safely to our friends'--the Shirtliff's--to hang out. The plan was he would check in at our hotel and drop the luggage off--all the stuff we'd been carrying around for 3 weeks. Then he was supposed to return the rental car, which was right by our Paris apartment, and finish up some business there (like return the lamp we no longer had) and last, ride the Metro back to Shirtliff's.
Meanwhile, the kids and I watched movies and chatted with the Shirtliff's and the 6 or so adult guests who were staying there right then and leaving the next morning, just like us. Except they had a non-stop flight to UT. Okay, I know that we still would've had to get on another plane in UT to get to AZ, but UT is so much closer to home the NY. I was definitely jealous. Amidst all the little mishaps, there were several little blessings, which were big, that were great. Like Sister Shirtliff, of course, offered to feed us dinner. It was so good, and I didn't have to make it, or find it or pay for it-- I had dreaded finding food for our family of 5 at the height of the Paris tourist season. We stashed some stuff in the laundry; I was able to release a little stress as I cried to Elaine that I was pregnant. (I was happy to be pregnant, just sick of being sick and in a foreign country).
Andy made it back later than I expected. And he had not-so-good news. It took him an hour and half just to get back to the hotel. The rental car was due in 45 minutes. Consumed with worry that he wouldn't get the car back in time, he checked in and carried in only the 2 largest suitcases, leaving all the small bags and smaller suitcases in the car. He sped to the rental car place, and made it in a mere 15 minutes. He returned it, ran the errands and then headed back on the Metro with all this random luggage we still had with us. I was depressed. I had no idea how we were going to get all that luggage, plus the stuff we still needed to pick up at our friends'--Chris and Brittany's--that we had stored there 3 weeks earlier, because it wouldn't fit in our rental car. But there was no other option. You do what you have to do, so we threw away all the random stuff from the bags we'd been carrying around--stuff like ostrich sausage and cheese, opened rice containers, cereal and chip bags etc. We said our goodbyes and headed off into the still-bright Paris night, fully loaded.
More tomorrow.

Flashback

Today I had two visual stimuli for a flashback to France. The first came as I was shredding receipts. We keep our receipts for 6 months, then shred them. The only reason this system works is because we only have 6 folders for the year—each folder shares a month. I needed the January folder to stash a receipt in so I had to shred the July receipts today. In that folder I found our boarding passes to get home from France. Then I went to Costco and there, right by checkout—like a Costco-style impulse purchase—were glass vases with tulips blooming in them. Real, beautiful, bright tulips. When we arrived in France in April, tulips were everywhere. The weather was unseasonably cool and my mood was a little dark, but everywhere I went there were these tulips that challenged my inner-gloom just by standing up straight and tall. I can’t say I have felt “homesick” for France since we got back, but just for a second, I did.

I’m not sure I can re-create for you the feeling of setting out each day armed with only a map (laminated and overlaid with the Metro stops); a gigantic stroller which also doubled as a restraining device; some hygiene essentials—diapers, wipes, hand sanitizer; a cell phone that only had one number programmed in it—Andy’s; a few apples, some cheese and a knife to cut and spread it with; a few euros to buy bread with; 3 children aged 4 and under and a total reliance on the kindness of strangers. I can see myself in my mind’s eye pushing that behemoth up the sloped streets of our neighborhood to our Metro stop, with a few walking tour cards stashed in my stroller pockets as a guide for the day and I feel empowered. That’s how I felt looking at those tulips: they had defied the cold and the wind, I had defied common sense and taken my family to live in Paris in an apartment the size of our living room. We had something in common. (Too bad I still didn’t buy the tulips—I am so cheap.)

Unfortunately, looking at our boarding passes didn’t provoke similar feelings of sentimental warmth. Nope. They reminded me of the stress of getting anywhere in France with a family. I remembered I have never preserved for posterity the account of getting home—mainly because I was too busy sleeping and throwing up for several weeks once we got here. So I’m inserting it here into our family narrative here. Well, actually, tomorrow.

Thoughts on Resolutions

I had a thought-provoking exchange with someone about New Year's resolutions, that prompted the following email.

" I wanted to clarify something: when we talked about resolutions for the New Year, I wasn't defending them, I was defending you--as in, I believe that you are totally capable of making and keeping a reasonable New Year's resolution, or at least making progress on one. I felt a lot like you one year. I wrote, instead of resolutions, a list of inevitables--things that were bound to happen. I think it was the year I was pregnant with Abigail, because I remember the list including, "Gain at least 10 pounds," and "Give birth." It might have included acknowledgment for some good things I was already doing, like, "Go to church each week," or "Continue to make dinner." Last year my resolution was to write, as Pres. Eyring counseled, each day a time I felt the Lord's hand/love in my life. I definitely did not even do this half of the time. But I did it sometimes, and because of it I have a great blog entry from Paris, my personal favorite, about how God led us to exactly the right place for our family. I also really did become more likely to acknowledge God's hand in my life and I am more likely to include it in my future journal entries. The point is, I became better as a result of the goal, even if I didn't attain perfection in it. I think that is a good measure of a resolution; will I become better in some way from attempting this, even if I don't achieve it fully?

Another suggestion, is just set a January resolution. I am much more successful at achieving short-term goals. Make it a one-week resolution, and choose a new one each week, that way you don't end up with a huge list that you forget about the entire year--as I so often did. My most successful resolution ever? Teeth-flossing. I've been doing it for several years now, and it was the only resolution I set that year, and I am confident it has benefited me. Simple, not glamorous, but practical, and achievable.

Anyway, I don't think there is any magic in setting a New Year's Resolution. None. Zip . Zilch. Isn't every day the anniversary of a year from last year on that date? I do think there is power in believing I can make and keep a commitment to myself and to God. So please don't sell yourself short by thinking you are incapable--you are far more capable than you know. I love this quote: "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

(Marianne Williamson)