Peanut-palooza!

This is my Charlotte girl one short year ago.

And here we are at SIX years old! Am I the only one who is shocked by this transformation?

For Charlotte's birthday this year, she wanted to go to Peter Pan (the ballet) at the Imperial Theater in Augusta.  She and I went to it on a mommy/daughter date and mingled with the cast afterwards.  This is Charlotte with her favorite character- Tinkerbell.

We also attended our first school fund raiser event during birthday week- 

the FUN RUN!

Whatever, it wasn't that fun, and I don't think we will be raising funds for the school in the future.  Donate? Sure. But call people? Um no.  Charlotte did run/walk a total of 2 miles though and she LOVED it.  So that was great.

On Charlotte's actual birthday, Rob flew home from a month away for work.  Charlotte requested we go to Red Robin for dinner and that SHE get to sit by her daddy. Who could say no to that?  So we had a nice dinner out and then they SANG to her and brought her an ice cream sundae.  ;)  Charlotte was overjoyed (I knew our extrovert would enjoy that surprise) and my introverted Rob was mortified (bonus.)  We also took cupcakes to Charlotte's class for snack, so there were plenty of birthday treats and I made no family birthday cake this year.

Charlotte has always been a fun girl to talk to, but as she gets older we are finding more things that we both enjoy talking to each other about.  She has loved starting Kindergarten, and she and Toby rarely ever argue when they play together now, because they are both just happy to be together. Charlotte is generally a confident, assertive, happy little individual (though we are already having some hiccups as she compares herself to other girls at school- that is such a hard thing to try not to do, I know.) And I love my girl sooooo much!  Happy birthday to my Peanut girl.  

Charlotte's birthday interview: (These answers are amazingly similar to last year)

What's your favorite color? Pink

What's your favorite movie? Rapunzel (Tangled)

What's your favorite song? I am a Child of God

What's your favorite food? Macaroni and cheese

What's your favorite thing to do with Toby? Play cars with him on his carpet.

What's your favorite thing to do with Jacob? Tickle him.

What's your favorite thing to do with mommy? Cuddle!

What's your favorite thing to do with daddy? Go bowling- just like we did today!

What’s your favorite part of the school day? Going to art.

What do you want to be when you grow up? A cooker and a haircutter. I want to live in Paris when I grow up.

What makes you feel happy? My mommy. (Awwww)

Once upon a time

Once upon a time there was an adorable little boy. As he grew older he would have very poofy hair, play the trombone and piano, and torture his younger siblings. Eventually he would serve a mission to Madagascar for the LDS church and graduate from BYU and become a linguist.

Once upon a time there was also a precocious little girl.  As she grew older she would love art and poetry, dye her hair every color of the rainbow, play the flute and french horn, and torture her nephew. Eventually she would graduate from BYU and continue on to Rutgers to become a librarian.

One day the linguist met the librarian. They found out they were both silly and serious. They had both taken time to grow into their own people. They both loved the Gospel, travel, music, words, family, laughter, and best of all- each other.

Happy 7th anniversary to my sweet Rob.  

Real life is better than a fairy tale because of you.  There is no end.  :)

Yes, I can!

Don't worry, this has nothing to do with politics or the current election season.

I've made strawberry freezer jam for several years now, but wanted to try my hand at some "real" canning this year.  So far I have done whole roma tomatoes, peach slices (in juice,) 2 varieties of applesauce, dill pickles, my usual strawberry freezer jam, and plum jam. 

The main thing I have learned is that it is a whole lot easier than I thought it would be.  I wish I'd tried it sooner.  (Except for the tomatoes that is... I'm not doing tomatoes again, they were kind of a pain and they taste no different than store bought canned tomatoes to me, so what's the point.)  The plum jam and applesauce are AWESOME though. And we haven't tried the pickles or peaches yet, so I'll let yas know.  ;)  I love opening the cupboard and seeing these beautiful jewel toned jars of wholesome foods put up for a rainy day.  

And I do see those storm clouds brewing.  We have been very blessed to be able to live comfortably on a single income and I know that for today's world we enjoy considerable job security.  But many, many people right now are without work. We, in the US, are also dealing with extensive drought conditions that are (and will  continue) effecting the cost of food to feed our families.  I don't want to be all doom and gloom or have anyone thinking I'm preparing for the zombie apocalypse, but it gives me a sense of security to develop some skills that could help me better stretch our resources should the need arise.  A few other things I've done this year- besides canning- are: 

-Got into better physical shape (to limit preventable medical conditions that incur high medical costs.)

-Grew a few foods in our backyard garden.

-Took the Heartsaver CPR and First Aid class. (I only wish I had done this before Toby sliced his fingertip.)

-Prepared a 72 hour kit in case we would need to leave our home in the event of an emergency. (Hurricanes and tornadoes are both possibilities where we live.)

-Began to plan and implement long-term food and water storage.

-Began to remove more processed foods from our diets and make more healthy alternatives from scratch.

Here are a few things I still want to do:

-Take a class on basic mending and clothing alterations. (This is coming up soon and I am excited!)

-I want to try pressure canning- but pressure canners are expensive, so I'm on the lookout for a used one.

-I want to learn to make soap.

-I want to bake something in a solar oven.  (For as warm as it is here, solar cooking is probably possible 10 months out of the year- in Germany it's probably possible like 2 months out of the year.)

-I want chickens.  (This one is going to have to wait a few years though I'm sure.)

Doesn't that sound like FUN?!?!?  (I can hear the groans from some of you.)  But seriously, I am enjoying learning my old timey homesteading-traditional-whatever-you-want-to-call-it skills.  In many parts of the world, this is still how things are done and it can't hurt to learn.  If you want more info, these are a few of my favorite resources:

LDS- Provident Living

Food Storage Made Easy

The Prudent Homemaker- this lady's story is crazy inspiring

The Hillbilly Housewife

And one final thought, if you have read this far...

Being self prepared is really ingrained in Mormons. I think because of our pioneer heritage and because we believe so strongly in helping others... if you are not prepared in a crisis, you will not be able to help anyone else either.  Dieter F. Uchtdorf said it better than I can, “Too often we notice the needs around us, hoping that someone from far away will magically appear to meet those needs. … When we do this, we deprive our neighbor of the service we could render, and we deprive ourselves of the opportunity to serve.”  Huh.  Maybe this does have something to do with my political feelings after all.  :)