Dropping Hints

I turn 35 next week--January 14th. I feel pretty good about that although my YW like to tell me I'm old. I haven't come up with a good comeback to that one yet...still thinking. Because guess what, I'm not old!! Yes, I usually have Keane or U2 or Erasure playing in the car when I'm cartin' those little missies around, but I'm not old.

Anyway, I know many of you are just racking your brains right now because you don't know what to get me for my birthday. So just pick from the list and make my day.

A homemade baked cake. (No boxed mixes please)...a clean house....new sunglasses for all this glaring snow....cool leather boots with heels to replace my 'man made materials' boots....a jewelry box to replace the one my brother Mike bought me in junior high.....the will to continue exercising everyday...The Carol Burnett boxed set so I can laugh my bum off...an electric mattress pad (saw at Costco last week) to compliment my electric blanket Paul gave me for my 34th birthday (can you say human grilled cheese)....kids that eat what I put in front of them....husband that adores me (check, got that already)....The  Dummies Guide to the Wii (so I can beat my kids at boxing)....gift cards to iTunes....the knowledge to put movies on my iPod Touch…a license plate rim that says, ‘Still California Dreaming’….and eggs benedict on the big day. Got it? Good, go get it.

Cynthia’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve Celebration

  

A fun-filled evening was had by all in our little family. We stayed home, cooked dinner, frosted cupcakes, watched old family videos, and let the kids watch the ball drop in NYC at 10pm. For dinner we had pan-fried tilapia and parmesan risotto. I’ve decided after several attempts that risotto isn’t worth the hype. Give me a regular rice pilaf any day rather than ladling in hot stock slowly for 45 minutes. Yawn.

The highlight was the chocolate peanut butter cupcakes. But be warned….these cupcakes, like anything peanut butter, require you to have a large glass of milk standing by lest you get called by a radio station and have to answer the trivia question, “Who shot Alexander Hamilton in that famous duel?”. Answer without milk: “Ew-un Buh”. Don’t let this happen to you. Other than that, these are amazing cupcakes, and that’s coming from a non-peanut-butter lover. Happy New Year! 

Molasses Spice Cookies

We’ve made these cookies twice this Christmas season.  They are my all time favorites—chewy, spicy, great for dunking. Of course the recipe is from The Best Recipe, my all time favorite cookbook. Hope you like ‘em too!

 

1/3 cup granulated sugar (about 2 1/2 ounces), plus 1/2 cup for dipping
2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (11 1/4 ounces)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon table salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), softened but still cool
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar (about 2 1/2 ounces)
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup molasses (about 6 ounces), light or dark

Instructions

1. 1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Place 1/2 cup sugar for dipping in 8- or 9-inch cake pan.

2. 2. Whisk flour, baking soda, spices, and salt in medium bowl until thoroughly combined; set aside.

3. 3. In standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat butter with brown and granulated sugars at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to medium-low and add yolk and vanilla; increase speed to medium and beat until incorporated, about 20 seconds. Reduce speed to medium-low and add molasses; beat until fully incorporated, about 20 seconds, scraping bottom and sides of bowl once with rubber spatula. Reduce speed to lowest setting; add flour mixture and beat until just incorporated, about 30 seconds, scraping bowl down once. Give dough final stir with rubber spatula to ensure that no pockets of flour remain at bottom. Dough will be soft.

4. 4. Using tablespoon measure, scoop heaping tablespoon of dough and roll between palms into 1 1/2-inch ball; drop ball into cake pan with sugar and repeat to form about 4 balls. Toss balls in sugar to coat and set on prepared baking sheet, spacing them about 2 inches apart. Repeat with remaining dough. Bake 1 sheet at a time until cookies are browned, still puffy, and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft (cookies will look raw between cracks and seem underdone), about 11 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through baking. Do not overbake.

5. 5. Cool cookies on baking sheet 5 minutes, then use wide metal spatula to transfer cookies to wire rack; cool cookies to room temperature and serve. (Can be stored at room temperature in airtight container or zipper-lock plastic bag up to 5 days.)

The Magic of Snow

Bless you mother nature for sending snow to my neighborhood. It’s been too cold to play outside all month and the kids have been fighting way too much due to cabin feveritis.  But now the white powder that delights my children has arrived. Why is snow like magic for children? And just in time for Christmas.

Like a good mom I sent the kids out in their snow gear to enjoy the splendor of it all! There can’t be more than 3 inches but it’s enough to give them something to smile about. 

 

Teenage Silliness

I received an email from my friend Andy (who has the most delicious food blog) this morning. It was a link to Eric Snyder's (formerly of the pullitzer-prize winning paper The Daily Herald) homepage where he wrote a screenplay for Twilight. I laughed so hard. My favorite line: "Since when do white people honor treaties with Indians?" Hardy, har har.

Ready to laugh? Click here.

Merry Christmas

This year our stake YW leaders challenged all the young women and young men (teenagers from 12-18 years of age) and their leaders (that would be me since I am the big P in my ward) to memorize The Living Christ.  For those readers not of my faith (the LDS / Mormon faith), The Living Christ is a document issued by leaders of our church proclaiming to the world our belief in Jesus Christ as Savior of the world.
It’s a pretty long document. And I often think I am low on gray matter these days, but I can finally say I have it all memorized. To explain here what this means to to me is pretty personal and I’m not articulate enough anyway to describe such feelings in a public forum. But I will say this—at this wonderful Christmas season I feel such a renewal that He is my Savior. “God be thanked for the matchless gift of His divine Son.” Merry Christmas. 

Dreaming of Me

I have crazy dreams that I often remember with such details that I confuse myself. Thank goodness my dear friend Allison is a master at dream interpretation. Earlier this year I had a dream that I went to Young Women’s Camp (which came true) but while at YW Camp my husband put our house up for sale and sold it—all in one week. I came home from camp desperately crying and begging the new owners to please not make us move, that I really did need my house.

I desperately called Allison to see what this crazy dream meant. She said that houses represent ourselves. So Paul was trying to get rid of me! FYI—I’ve told Paul before that if he ever wants to get rid of me I will not go quietly but will take him for all he’s worth—that’s when he usually looks at me like I’m one pawn short of playing with a full chess set. Anyway….I’ve been having some really do-whoppers of dreams lately that I desperately need interpreted.  I have all the usual dreams of not having any teeth, of being caught in just my underwear in public, and of course running but not going anywhere. Old hat.

But lately I have had dreams such as-- Obama having in his possession the lost 116 pages of the Book of Mormon manuscript and how I’m trying to convince him to turn them over to the church….or dreams where my neighbors all live on islands and can only get places by diving off their land and swimming out to sea……or ok….I can’t remember anymore right now. And I just asked Paul to remind me of some of my hokier dreams (because I always tell him when I wake up) but he doesn’t remember either. Smart boy. So don’t leave a comment of dream interpretation and say that I’m going looney, because I already know that. Give me something good.

And no, I’m not on any medication.

Foul Words A Plenty

Is it wrong that I laughed so hard I cried the other day upon hearing this:

Hallie: (approaching me while sobbing) Mom, Ilene says that when I grow up I'm going to.....I'm going to (more sobs).... I'm going to smoke. But I'm not Mom, I'm never going to smoke. But she keeps saying I WILL!!

Mom: (biting lip to prevent guffaws from escaping) Well, ignore Ilene. I know you won't smoke when you grow up.

Hallie: No mom, I'll never be a smoker.

Ilene: (sitting silently at the kitchen table, coloring, while shaking with pent up laughter and squinty eyes cast down)

An Epiphany on Homemaking

Once upon a time there was a gal named Cynthia who was a good homemaker. Yesterday she was a good girl and cleaned her kitchen/dining/family room, otherwise known as the great room. This happy little gal stood back, sighed with pleasure at the sight of a sparkly clean house, and then went to pick up the kids from school. Within 30 minutes the children pillaged and plundered the pantry, strewing the home with homework, crayons, pencil shavings, smashed bananas on the floor, backpacks strewn everywhere, Ritz cracker crumbs aplenty, etc. The happy homemaker was no longer happy.

When her husband came home that night she tried to explain it this way, "Imagine that you worked so hard on some financial statements for a client. Everything was just right and you were impressed with your brains and abilities. Just then, an angry co-worker comes into your office and hits the delete key. You hadn't saved your work because it's impossible and you were forced to start all over again. But you just couldn't do the same work twice--somehow that made you feel like nothing more than a eunuch. So you watched the food network instead." The husband totally got it. Thank you.

BYU Flashback

A few days ago Paul and I went on a date thanks to my blessed sister Patty who loves to babysit my kids. So we went to Thai Ruby (one of my favorite restaurants in this whole valley) and then to the BYU Museum of Art to see current exhibit on The Demise of Modernism. Well, apparently BYU doesn’t consider the MOA a great date destination because it was closed this particular Saturday night, and probably every other Saturday night I suppose. Rates!

So what do we do? Well, we haven’t seen the new addition to the Tanner Building, let’s go there! Obviously we were stalling and not wanting to go home until the kids were asleep. So we headed back to the building where Paul and I spent the greater part of our college years. Upon entering the building, I was flooded with memories and emotions of days gone by. Here are just a few.

• I remember giving a report in Information Systems about this crazy new computer in the library that could give you up to the minute information on stocks. Something called the internet.
• I remember not ever once raising my hand to answer a question in class—during all four years! Yea, yea, I’m a know it all, but about important stuff like mascara and the best way to cook asparagus, not business.
• I remember there was a student or two in each of my classes that had a laptop computer. I remember being jealous that he didn’t have to go wait in line at the computer lab to use Quattro Pro version dinosaur 1.
• I remember leaving my apartment early in the morning to make it to the computer lab before classes began to print out my homework. I also remember being so poor that I would agonize whether I should print out my homework on the free dot matrix printer or whether to splurge and use the 10 cents per page computer lab laser printer. Live large Cynthia, go for the laser.
• I remember failing Accounting 210 (Paul aced this of course, like everything) and having to retake it as a night class. Nothing ruins a good night’s rest more than ending the day at 9:20pm with debits and credits instead of Cheetos and chocolate milk.

But most of all I remember telling myself that life would begin when college ended. I was right about that one. See? I am a know it all.

Tip of the Day

Do not run over rakes in your garage with brand new tires that cost $110 each. Yes, you can still see some of the white stickers on the tire because I just bought the tires last week. Laugh for me, I'm not. I should blame little Ilene who was raking leaves on Saturday, but I won't unless she has $110 in her little wallet.

ApartmentTherapy.Com

A while back I was featured on ApartmentTherapy.Com for my pillows. They liked my designs as well as my low prices. I had never heard of this home decor website before but apparently they have 2 million hits a day. I didn't get two million orders, but I got enough in one weekend that I was waking up at 4 am to cut and sew like a sweat shopper. The hype over this pillow hasn't slowed down--I've sold it 35 times now. So thank you Lily at apartmenttherapy.com for the fab article. I check out your ultra chic and modern website almost daily now. Here's to good design. (*glasses clinking in the air for a toast*)

My Kind of Town, Chicago

I am obsessed with the idea of living an urban life in a big city. I would live in a high-rise, preferably one that is a converted loft or something equally cool. And each night Paul and I would walk down the crowded streets (notice I didn't mention the kids) and stop at our favorite cafe and dine al fresco. This is why I love Chicago. We returned from the Windy City last Saturday after spending a great week with Paul's parents.

We traveled down to Springfield to go to the FABULOUS Lincoln Museum. This was the highlight for me--I found myself wiping my eyes after each of the magnificent documentary movies, grateful for the sacrifices President Lincoln made to preserve our country.

We walked down Magnificent Mile in downtown Chicago, seeing American capitalism at its best as we wandered stores like American Girl, The Lego Store, Tiffany jewelers, etc.

We had a great time at the Field Museum seeing mumified cats and dinosaur bones.

And who could forget all the gorgeous fall leaves to be enjoyed in a state that actually has trees growing naturally?

Sing it Frank, "And each time I leave, Chicago is tuggin my sleeve, Chicago is the wrigley building, Chicago is the union stockyard, Chicago is one town that wont let you down. Its my kind of town."

Green with Envy

Alright, so I don't have to be green with envy because this buffet is all MINE. I bought it from Four Chairs Furniture in Lindon. Go look in this store--it's a real treat. I'm too embarrassed to list here how much of my furniture has come from this store, so I won't. All I will say is, they are the best. I have a more modern/vintage taste, so I tend to pick shaker style furniture and avoid all the country (albeit adorable) looking stuff in their store. I am particularly pleased with how my green cabinet turned out because I had to go to a paint store and have it matched. I was trying to acheive this look from Pottery Barn and I think I hit it dead on. I am beaming I am just so happy with my new piece of furniture. If I were a character in Fiddler On The Roof I might ask the Rabbi if there is a blessing for my green cabinet. He would hopefully respond, "May it hold your gratin and french onion soup dishes and cookbooks for many years to come."

A GOOD Mom

Ok, I haven't blogged in a while about motherhood. I've been thinking about what kind of a mom I am. I am not the kind of mom that slurps kisses on my kids and just beams when they come into the room. In other words, I am not too sentimental. I value my independence and strive to teach my children to be good and decent members of society. I never miss my kids on the rare occaion that I get a break (albeit 1 day or 7 days) from them. But I do think I am a good mom nonetheless. And here's how I realized it today.

I know I am a GOOD mom because...

1. I take extra long showers until my skin turns red just to avoid stepping out of the bathroom into the Twilight Zone.

2. I love being home alone and never get tired of it. Ever. If such an event occurs during the day (while all the kids are at school/pre-school) I simply enjoy the silence--no TV, no music, nothing. If such a blessed event occurs at night (if Paul takes the kids out to a sporting event (*yawn*)) then I watch long BBC movies.

3. Driving in silence. Kind of the same as #2 only I take this to two different extremes. I either drive in complete silence and inhale deep breaths to cleanse my normally noise-filled life or I listen to music VERY loudly. This works particularly well in our new car with a Bose audio system. Even better if listening to U2's Vertigo. I feel naughtly because I listen to it so loudly that I have to keep checking my rear-view mirror lest I see an ambulance trying to blow around me because I can't hear a thing and should've pulled over.

4. I sneakily eat chocolate sometimes. (Is this what closet alcoholics do?) I hide in my pantry and eat the delicious European chocolate or else I'd have to share. Heck, the kids are happy with dum dum lollipops, why share money?

5. My kids say I'm mean. Enough said.

So why are you a good mom?

She's Got Good Jeans

I have been on a kick lately embroidering my girls plain jeans into adorable creations. The hardest part is that I have to rip out the inseam (or side seam) to get the denim to lay flat under the embroidery machine. The rest is easy...pick out cute fabric for applique and sweet colors of thread.

You Say Tomat-o, I Say To-ma-toe

40 pounds of Roma tomatoes...10 orange fingernails...1 helpful husband...2 dozen canning jars...5 hours of boiling water (blanching and sealing)...4 slippery tomatoes falling to floor...1 wood floor needing to be mopped....10-15 meals ahead of tomato soup and homemade pasta sauce.

Peach Pie Season

Nothing makes me happier than going to Allred's Orchards and buying 1/2 a bushel of peaches (about 50 peaches). Homemade pie makes me giddy. Buttery flakey crust and sweet filling with a touch of nutmeg. Heaven on a plate. With all the bio-enginering going on, why can't they figure out a way to make peach season last longer than 8 weeks? Ah well, I've gone through a bushel of peaches and I'm determined to go through another in the next two weeks.

Chinese Chicken Salad

I've been making this salad for at least 8 years. I love large salads for dinner in the summer. It's just one of the best and can knock the socks off of any chinese chicken salad you'll find at those overpriced chain restaurants. Mmmm...good. The kids favorite part are the fried noodles on top. Please do not top this with packaged crunchy noodles. You'll ruin it. You will.

Chinese Chicken Salad

Salad:
2 cooked chicken breasts, shredded
1-2 heads green leaf lettuce
green onions, diced
1 ½ cups slivered almonds (optional, I'm not a huge nut fan)
3 cans (8oz each) mandarin oranges
1 package (12oz) wonton noodles, cut in strips and fried crisp (found in produce section)

Dressing:
2-4 T. sugar (depending on how sweet you want it)
1 tsp. Dijon mustard (helps emulsify the dressing so it won't separate)
1 ½ tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1/3 cups rice wine vinegar
2 T. sesame oil
2 T. water
½ cup canola oil
toasted sesame seeds

Whisk all the dressing ingredients and then slowly drizzle in oil while whisking.

PRINTABLE VERSION: CLICK HERE

Back to School

The best part about back to school as a kid was getting new clothes. Now that I am a mom I realize I am mean. (Duh.) I try to hide some of the new clothes from my kids--like long jeans and sneakers because it's still too hot. Well, I gave in on the shoe thing but I hid the long pants because I don't want to see holes in their jeans by October. And since I am sewer extraordinaire I made Ilene some smocks. How cute are these? But who am I kidding--the best part about back to school is having 2 out of the 3 kids gone 7 hours a day. As evidenced by my favorite commercial of all time--Staples "Back to School".

Pretty Patchwork Pillows

I have lots of odd scraps of linen lying around. So I decided to put them to good use and make the girls some pillows for their beds. I don't think they'll mix 'em up. I love the coordinating stripe and am sad that I am getting down to just scraps of that as well. It has served me well though in making the girls' roman shades and dust ruffles. Always a sucker for polka dots and a good stripe.

Kitchen Shelves

We've lived in our house for two years now. And for two years I have been staring at this big blank wall in my kitchen wondering how to fill it up with stuff. I had three options--1) A large buffet with a hutch, 2) A large buffet with shelving, and 3) a large buffet with tons of framed art (or one large art piece). I finally decided what I wanted--option #2. So I ordered my buffet and then went to Ikea and bought these amazing stainless steel shelves. Could I blog about Ikea more than I already do? I love, love how these shelves turned out. It's going to be another 6 weeks before I can replace this thrift store table with my gorgeous buffet--check back then to see the full impact photo. Yee haw!

The Wild Wild West

If we had lived 150 years ago in Utah (like we do now) or in California (like we used to *sniff sniff*) then we may have made our living in the wild west living like this.

Put Your Feet Up

I'm a sucker for a good ottoman. They make my feet happy. My family room ottoman (purchased at T.J. Maxx a few years ago) was looking pretty shabby. So I bought these two little ottomans at Ikea last week (only $43 without the cover!) and made them some snazzy covers. You like, no? Me like.

Not the Summer of Cynthia

Summer is pretty much over. Oh sure, the mercury will continue to remain high for another month or so, but my kids start school in one week, so really, it’s over. I am openly rejoicing that the kids will go back to school, and privately mourning that this was not the summer of Cynthia. Summer of Cynthia, what’s that you ask? Well, if you read my blog regularly and you know me at all, you know that I hate everything about winter—coats, snow, muddy slush, and especially washing my hands in icy water out of the tap. (Our water heater is on the second floor so it takes 2-3 minutes to get hot.) Now, here are 4 points what would’ve made this a Summer of Cynthia.

1. If I had planted my tomato plants earlier (although we did have frost in June so they would've died anyway) I would already be eating homegrown ones instead of still eating store bought ones. Gag.

2. Snow in June. See this post.

3. If BYU hadn’t changed their pool policy to students and faculty only I would’ve gone swimming more than three times this whole summer. And I actually had 3 cute suits for this summer. (Leftover from Hawaii last fall.) Our city has one outdoor public swimming pool. One!!!

4. A vacation with just me and my little family. Alas, summer is when my poor husband must become a work-a-holic due to all the types of clients he has, so he can hardly get time off. He did take two days off to be stay-at-home-dad while I went to YW camp, 1 day to drive to California to see my family and 2 days to go to Idaho for his family reunion. Every year we say this is the year we’ll go to Arches National Park, hike the narrows in Zion National Park, or go to Yellowstone. *insert big sigh here*

I am not joking when I say that summer fills my happiness canteen and gets me through the winter. Since the canteen was never filled I'm a bit worried about my sanity. Thanks goodness I love to bake cakes and make hot soup. That will be my prescription sooner than I'd like to think to get me through the icy days ahead.

Fun Find

I found these amazing modern vinyl decals from another etsy seller. His shop name is One Up Designs. I can't believe how cute these turned out! I want everything in his shop. Oh drat, there go my own etsy profits for a while. They are such a refreshing alternative to all those other very cutesy decals out there. Hooray for modern!

(Yes, I know the girls' room is in serious need of some TLC but it's good enough for now. I never said I was a perfectionist.)

Friends, Friends, Friends!

Do you remember that I Love Lucy episode where Lucy is feeling all alone because everyone forgot her birthday and so she is sitting on a park bench crying her eyes out when a marching band of people comes along to cheer her up? They called themselves the “Friends of the Friendless” and quickly cheered Lucy up and even got her to march in the band. I always loved that episode, for reasons of humor of course and not because I think a band should go around looking for sad and lonely people. (Creepy.) But if there were such a band for the Friends of the Friendless, they’d never stop for me, because I have many, many wonderful friends.

This picture is of just a handful of my dearest friends. Six years ago we started having lunch together as friends and neighbors and today we still do our best to get together once a week (during the school year at least) and have lunch. (Can you guess by the picture who was hosting this day?) Oh sure, we have 22 children between the 5 of us (of the 5 pictured here, even more when you add a couple other gals) but that never stopped women from getting together and building bonds of friendship. Ok, so one of us moved to Washington but she still gets together with us often.

We swap babysitting so we can volunteer at school, we take each other meals when babies are born, we travel together, we take each other scrumptious chocolate cakes for birthdays, we let each other know when there is a good sale on kids clothes, we can peaches, pears, and make jam together, we decorate, sew, and paint each other’s houses, started a vegetable and food co-operative in the neighborhood, and even organize each other’s messy pantries and closets.

We all value education and are either working on our degrees, have college degrees, have master degrees, and one is even heading to law school in the fall! Some of us work all the live-long day at home and some of us work all the live-long day at home and outside the home. We are all different as can be and that’s why we’re such good friends. Who wants to be friends with someone just like you? No thanks, that’s boring. I can talk to myself if that’s what I wanted.

We are all women who know—we know the purpose of life, we know the truthfulness of His Gospel, and we work super duper hard to forward His work at church and within our homes. We’re obviously very religious, but not in a weird-o Bible thumping, wear-your-religion-on-your proverbial sleeve kind of way. We believe in families and know that families are the foundation of any successful society. (Hence all the children.) Being a mother hasn’t put any of us in shackles, but rather has taught us how much the individual matters. Who doesn’t want to be loved and cared for?

And if you are tired just reading this blog, imagine how tired we all are at the end of the day. No wonder we get together for Kelly’s Thai Noodle Wraps or Robyn’s Basil and Herb Chicken. No wonder we love each other so much.