Graham Crackers

We love graham crackers around here.  The problem is that the boxes are too small, and we eat them too fast.  Several dollars worth of crackers can implode in a matter of minutes into a small smattering of crumbs.

So occasionally (and not often enough) we make our own.  It's really easy, cheap, and fairly good for you.  And one recipe makes a lot of crackers .  Even more than we can eat in a sitting... although we try.  This recipe comes from my favorite basic cookbook that has great menus and even has recipes for cold cereal (like Wheaties) and crackers (like Wheat Thins) - Deseret Recipes from lds.org (not listed right now, sorry!).

Homemade Graham Crackers

mix together:
1/4 cup dry milk
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons lemon juice or vinegar

beat well in large bowl:
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
1 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 lightly beaten eggs

Combine curdled milk and brown sugar mixtures, and add:
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
6 cups (more or less) whole wheat flour

Divide in 3 or 4 equal parts (3 for cookie-like crackers, 4 for more crispy crackers).  Place each dough ball on a greased and floured cookie sheet (grease and flour aluminum foil, or use parchment paper to be able to get all the cracker off!) and roll to about 1/8 inch thick.  Prick with fork.

Bake at 375 for about 15 minutes or until light brown.  Remove from oven and cut in squares immediately (or they get too crispy and you can't cut them or get them off the pans without making a crumbly mess.  But the twins didn't mind licking it up.)

And More Scouting

And Ben isn't the only one doing scouting around here.

Chris just earned his Life rank (which means he can start on his Eagle project... and get it done before the end of the summer, I hope.), and David is now a Second-Class Scout.  So proud of both of them, and the hard work they are doing.  And I am grateful for the wonderful scout leaders they have to help these boys grow into men.

The Big Day

The big day that Ben has been waiting for has finally arrived.  We've been waiting for him to get his Eagle Scout project finished before I would take him.

He is thrilled.

Excuse me while I go check on my gray hairs.

Eagle Scout Projects

In our family, the boys have to get their Eagle Scout award before they can drive.  This rule came to be before they could even talk back.  It might have been less of an incentive for them to finish a really worthy ideal than a way to delay the having of teenaged drivers.  And yes, I will put it on the record that I think that achieving the rank of Eagle Scout is really something worth working for.  Regardless of whatever the current media firestorm says.

Alec did his Eagle project a while back.  He helped the city remodel sidewalks at street corners to make them more handicapped-friendly, with a ramp and a bumpy surface for grip.  He did a great job, but slowed down when it was time to do the paperwork and get it all turned in.  He did it, though, and got his driver's license and his Eagle.  

Ben had been working on his project for... a year?  Or has it been two?  He is so bashful around adults that he has a hard time simply making the phone calls to get the project started.  That took the longest time.  Actually doing the project has just been a matter of reminders.  He's made a bunch of magic wands (with a list of Harry Potter spells) and fairy wands (with stars and ribbons) to give to kids who are in the hospital.  It may have been inspired by seeing his little sister in the hospital.

And now he's done with the project.  I'm so happy for him.  Now it's just time to make the delivery to the volunteer coordinator at the hospital, and writing up the paperwork.  Yay!

Family Growth Chart

In our house, the growth chart is called a measuring stick.  It's what we use, instead of the door jamb, to record how tall our kids are growing.  To me, it's a great part of family history, because I grew up with the marks on the door frame.  My brothers were forever competing to see how tall they were and how fast they were growing.  They are all between 6' 2" and 6'8" now, and we still measure off when we all get together.  And we nearly had fits when Mom wanted to paint the kitchen.  Fine.  But not the door jamb.  Not the measuring marks!

It did get painted, after we transferred all the marks to a long roll of paper.  But it's not the same.

Years ago, I decided (after seeing it done in a women's Relief Society crafting activity) to make my own record of my kids' growth.  We painted long boards and marked the measuring lines.  We lined up the boys and stuck on star stickers for their height.  They loved it, and we used it all the time to measure them and other tall things.  AND it moved with us.  Good thing too, because we moved (counting...) six times after that.  But we always hung up the measuring stick and marked off their height on their birthdays.  It was an important tradition.

When we moved to our current house, we didn't hang it up (technical difficulties).  And this week, something bad happened to it.

(Gotta love that '90s sponge painting!)

I know the kids aren't yet done growing, so I had to make me another one.  Besides, there really wasn't room on the old one to record all eight kids.  No, I'd rather not have eight boards.  Really.

I wanted it to be big, but pretty enough to hang in the kitchen.  No, not pretty.  Very little we do in a house full of menfolk is ever pretty.  But it needed to look nice.  Enough space for eight kidlets, and able to be used practically for measuring other things.  And portable, just in case we move again.  Me?  Picky?

I found a perfect board in the garage.  It was primed white, so I didn't even paint it.  I cut off the end slightly, so it would fit in my not-quite-eight-foot kitchen.  I measured off the columns and marked them with another long board and a red pencil.  I like red in the kitchen.  This was the longest part of the whole project.  I marked off the inch lines and drew them with a marker.  I printed off the numbers, put where I wanted each one, and traced it with a pen, leaving a dent in the wood.  I traced and filled in the dents with marker.  Then I transferred the information from the old board.

Alec and I spent some time trying to decide on how to mark the heights.  One idea was to give each child their own color, and the board would end up looking like a rainbow (crayons come in an eight-pack, you know!).  We experimented on the back of the board, and it looks very creative.  We settled on black and white, with a little gradient (and room to write the ages).

I like it.  I'm sad we've missed a couple of years of heights, and I'll have to call the doctor's office and see how much information I can squeeze from them.  I'll keep marking the kids' heights as they have their birthdays.  Most of them have a lot of growing to do.  Actually none of us are done growing.  We all have a lot of growth left in us yet.

Groundhog Day

Really.  How many of you watched Groundhog Day today?  We do it every year.  Of course!  With some groaning, of course.  This year, (I think it was David) asked how many times we'd watch it today.  Over and over and over again, my dear...

But yeah, most of the kids watched it with me.  I missed the end because I was making dinner, which was a bummer because that's the best part.  It was fun to just sit and laugh together.

Afterwards, we had an interesting conversation.  And here are some things we learned from the movie:

• It's easy to feel like your actions and your contributions aren't getting you anywhere, or like no one appreciates what you do.  
• When you don't feel progress, or don't feel like there are any repercussions to what you do, it's easy to act out and do crazy or stupid things.
• Learning new things and making yourself better is always a good plan.
• We feel the best sense of accomplishment by helping others.
• Your actions always have consequences, even if we don't see them.
• Regardless of how badly you messed up yesterday, the Lord always gives you a new morning and a new day with no mistakes in it yet!

Happy Groundhogs Day!

Love My Husband

I had some ideas about love in smaller, more chewable chunks, but this one fit best for this month.  It is the pink heart month, after all.  This month, I will work on loving my husband, without asterisks.  Without fine print.  Without inserting any "yeah, but..." comments.

When I was younger, I didn't understand why people would say marriage was so hard.  Yes, I do remember listening intently to the low murmur of voices at my parents' closed door after I knew it had been a tense day.  I was always worried that they were fighting.  I'm sure they had their disagreements.  We all do.  Much later, my mom told me about the grooves in her tongue that happened from biting it so hard during difficult moments.  We all have those, don't we?

To me, one of the biggest roadblocks to loving my husband is me getting annoyed.  That's pretty sad, I know.  But when I let his (fill in the blank annoying habit) bug me, then it is my problem, not his.  I had a really hard time with this at first.  After all, it wasn't my annoying habit.  I'm not in the wrong.  Right?

Wrong.  It's my problem when I get annoyed.

His action is still his.  He still gets to be responsible for the things he does.  I don't own that.  I can feel sorrow for bad choices he makes, sure.  But I create a new problem by choosing to get bothered about it.  And that is what I am responsible for.  See, when I am annoyed, or bothered, or angry, then I lose that loving feeling.  I can't come to the discussion table with a sense of love and appreciation and really wanting to solve a difficulty for the best of both of us.

By letting him get under my skin, I add to the problem and become less able to help solve it.  Lose, lose.  And he doesn't want to be around me.  More lose.

My new choice, then, is to not get bothered.  I'm in charge of how I feel, no matter what.  I love him.  He's my man.  I chose him years ago, and I still do.  This month, I'll work on getting rid of the minor details that bug me so I can get on with the big picture of loving him.  Because I can.  And because I want to.

How do I get rid of the minor details?  Stay tuned...