A Grand Start to Band

This evening was Matthew’s fall band concert. He was equal parts excited and nervous. This is his first official concert at the high school and as he is first trumpet as a sophomore, I think sometimes he feels like he needs to prove that he deserves that spot. He also had a big solo for one of the pieces, one that he has been working on for months. So having some nerves was to be expected. The theme of the concert was video game music, a super fun theme in my opinion, and the solo given to Matthew was from the game “Medal of Honor.” The band director wanted Matthew to play his solo from off stage for the ethereal effect, so he was hidden up in one of the openings for lighting on the side of the auditorium. And let me tell you, he did a spectacular job. Seriously. It was A-MAZ-ING!

I could not be prouder of how well Matthew has done. He started off with a good portion of natural talent, but he has been a dedicated band member and has really given it his all. This is the current band director’s first year at our high school. The previous director resigned and changed fields completely in order to meet the needs of his family. Matthew was really looking forward to working with the previous teacher and was devastated when he quit. Seriously, he was crushed to the point where he was going to do band this year because he had already committed to do so, and then decide whether he was going to continue in band or give it up. I didn’t want him to give up something that brings him such joy just because of a change in directors, but I didn’t say anything at the time hoping that by the time this school year ended he would have a rosier view. 

Well, Matthew’s view is definitely rosy. The new director has been amazing so far. He has already developed a good relationship with the kids and Matthew has been loving band. His first love is still jazz band, but he has really been enjoying his first marching band season as well. Matthew is so excited about many of the things that are planned for this year, and I’m glad he has jumped into high school with both feet. I hope the next three years will be filled with amazing experiences. 

And as a side note, Matthew was taking pictures in his hidden solo location before the concert started. He has a really good eye and took some amazing shots. All my kids have inherited the tendency to be shutterbugs from Kevin and with how good the cameras in cell phones have gotten, they always have access to a camera when the bug bites them. So Matthew’s little homage to his music was fun to see.

Hallo-tween Gathering

Now that she is a mighty 6th grader, Malia and her group of friends have been gathering outside of school hours more frequently. One of her crew hosted a little Halloween party this evening and Malia had a marvelous time. There were no games, no planned activities other than pulling a simple costume item out of a box and wearing it to honor the occasion. Malia said it was one of the most fun parties she has attended. These tweens have officially reached the “hanging out” phase and pizza, goodies and some grand conversation was all that is needed for a great party.

The host’s mom made some fantastic chocolate skulls, filling each with red sugar and an assortment of Halloween sweets. When she called to check with me about allergens and such, I imagined small skulls. But that is not what she had in mind. The white chocolate skull Malia brought home was nearly the size of Malia’s actual skull. Fun, right?! 

I suspect there are many more of these casual gatherings on the horizon. I remember finding great joy in the casual gatherings that I attended on a regular basis when I was a teenager, and I hope that Malia finds herself part of a similarly solid friend group. Having a supportive posse can make all the difference in these tween/teen years.

Pretty Little Pumpkins

Often, I get my inspiration for fun food from the internet. Once in a while, I come up with clever ideas all on my own. And sometimes my inspiration is a combination of the two. Today’s edible ode to autumn was an idea sparked by an image I saw of a cupcake decorated to look like a pumpkin. My thought process was, “Mmm…I’ll bet I could make a pumpkin cookie that looks like a pumpkin…” And thus, an idea was born. 

I used the pumpkin cookie recipe we already love and used a toothpick to create the grooves in the pumpkin prior to baking. The cooled cookies were sandwiched with a bit of tinted cream cheese frosting and details added with some pretzel sticks and a bit of fancy piping. The leaves were my favorite. So easy with a frosting tip and so cute!

The house smelled delicious all morning, like cinnamon and pumpkin. I made Kevin and Nathan, who were home for the baking and basked in the aroma, wait all day to sample our goodies. And when the time came to consume my art, none of us were disappointed. They were delightful. And fun food is always so much fun to eat! The only thing I would do differently next time would be to decrease the amount of frosting used to sandwich the cookies. It was a bit too much for our tastes and made them too sweet. But other than that, these little cuties were a complete success!

Divine Design

Nathan has wanted to be a temple worker since about five minutes after he went to the temple for his own endowment. He has a deep and abiding love for the temple and the work we do there, and his desire to spend time there has led him to go as often as he can. One of the tender mercies associated with his early homecoming from Texas has been the speed at which he was called and set apart as a temple ordinance worker. The longest part has been waiting to begin since last week Saturday was general conference and our temple was closed for cleaning the Saturday before that. But he was finally able to begin his service today and despite the fact that he still has a significant headache, he found great joy in serving today and is already looking forward to his shift next Saturday.

As part of this first day of service, he was given a tour of the temple and learned some interesting things. We all know that the temples are adorned with numerous works of art depicting the Savior, people from the scriptures, events of the restoration, etc. One of my favorite things to do as I wait in the temple for one thing or another is to enjoy the artwork and I’ve always been certain that each one was carefully selected to bring the right spirit into the temple. But one tidbit Nathan learned today and shared with me is that the temple design committee not only gives much thought and attention to which works of art are to be housed in the temple, but the location of each piece is also very carefully selected. As he spends time in the temple, he was encouraged to look at each painting and ponder what we can learn from that particular painting being placed in precisely that spot. 

As I think about several paintings that have particularly caught my attention when I’m in the temple, my mind is already working on why they would have been placed where they are. I am looking forward to the opportunity to ponder on and learn from the placement as well as the subject of the various works of art as I attend various temples in the future.

Competition Day-BYU

Last night Matthew’s marching band competition was held at BYU. He has been an avid BYU fan for years, so the opportunity to play and march on the Cougar’s homefield was super exciting for him. Unfortunately, it was not a great performance, and he came home disappointed in how they did. However, that did not dim his enthusiasm for the fact that he had played in the stadium!

Tuesdays are young men activity nights and since this particular competition happened to fall on a Tuesday evening, Matthew suggested to his leaders that they attend the competition for this week’s activity. They decided to do so, and I was so glad! It was a sign to Matthew that what he does matters and that they are supportive of him. Over the past many years, the young men activities have been heavily focused on sports (mostly basketball) and outdoor recreation like hiking and camping. None of those things are particularly interesting to Matthew and he (and Nathan before him) has long bemoaned the fact that there has been no variety in their activities. We have some new leaders right now though, and I think it has been good. And as I said before, I’m so glad they decided to drive down to see Matthew march. Even though this particular performance was not great, Matthew was so pleased by their attendance.

Some Tricky Treats

It’s October which means the fall season of fun food has begun! As usual, my family is more than happy to support my culinary experiments, and this evening we enjoyed our first…and second…spooky dish of the year.

I’ve been baking without milk and eggs for fifteen years now. I’m getting pretty good at it, but there are several things that have been a struggle to get right. One of those things is brownies. The chemistry that goes into the perfect, gooey brownie is pretty complex. If even one element is off, the results are either cakey, dry and crumbly, gluey, oily…you get the idea. Eggs are one of the key elements in brownies and without them, the texture can be extremely difficult to get just right. Baking at high altitude is also an issue as the higher elevation effects baking chemistry in interesting ways. Over the years I’ve attempted to come up a fantastic brownie recipe that has no eggs and works at our altitude, but since I can’t eat chocolate, it has been a rather sporadic task. But from time to time my kids would request brownies so I’d give it another try. Using my own experience, I’ve gotten close, but was never quite pleased with the results. 

In the last few years, Matthew has become a confident baker of cookies. It is nice because it means that when he gets a craving for something, he can make it himself. And since he likes chocolate and it doesn’t hate him the way it hates me, brownies are one of the treats that come up in his rotation of cravings. As such, the task of finding a good brownie recipe has risen on my priority list. 

In July, I consulted with Pinterest and selected half a dozen egg-free brownie recipes to try. I chose ones that used different methods, different ingredients or different proportions from the things I’ve tried in the past hoping that one would be successful. I researched elevations of the bloggers whose recipes I was considering as well to try to find one that was close to the 4700 ft. we live at here. I tried all of them in small batches in the space of about a week, tasting one bite of each in order to assess the recipe without giving myself a headache and then left the remainder for Matthew and Malia. And while I was hopeful each time, I was repeatedly disappointed. There were a couple that were close, but just missed the perfectly fudgy quality that my family loves.

After trying so many recipes without success, it kind of became an obsession. And while a brownie obsession may sound like a good thing, it is actually not all that grand. Being a bit OCD is hard sometimes. My brain would not let go of the idea that there had to be a recipe out there that would work. Seriously, it was keeping me up at night. And so I headed back to the drawing board, and the internet. After combing through many more recipes that were either egg-free or high altitude and rejecting them all as nearly identical to ones I’d already tried, I finally came across a recipe on a plain, unassuming, not-professional, home baker’s website. She called them “small-batch high altitude vegan brownies.” While most elements of the recipe were things I had tried, she was using a liquid sweetener as well as granulated sugar which was something I hadn’t seen anywhere else. It caught my attention because one of the things that happens in high altitude baking is that things dry out faster and the addition of more liquid would be a natural adjustment to make. She was also baking at a lower temperature which is exactly opposite the normal suggestion for altering a recipe to work at high altitude. Those changes intrigued me and although I had decided that I had baked far too many brownies that week and was going to give it up for a while, I knew that I needed to try that recipe, or my brain would keep focusing on the need for perfect brownies to the detriment of my sleep and ability to focus on anything else. 

Needless to say, I gave in to the need to bake. When the tiny 8”x4” pan of brownies came out of the oven, they didn’t look like anything special. The top didn’t look any different than a chocolate cake would, and I’ll admit that I wasn’t overly hopeful. But later that evening after they had cooled, I cut into them and was astonished to find that they were not the slightest bit cakey. They were rich and fudgy and absolutely delicious. My one bite left me completely satisfied in the results. Everyone else was just as happy. In fact, Matthew had to fight off Daniel and Malia in order to claim more than one brownie. And while I generally encourage sharing, I felt completely justified in telling Matthew that the bulk of those bars were his.

With such a recent success in the realm of allergen free and altitude appropriate brownies, when I was deciding what spooky treats I wanted to create this year I knew that I wanted something that used brownies.  I have a fantastic white chocolate brownie recipe (No, it’s not a blondie or cookie bar. It’s an honest real white chocolate brownie.) that I can consume with pleasure and no ill effects, so I figured that I could create something that everyone in my family could enjoy. Luckily for me, most of the world loves brownies so the ideas were many. I selected two of my favorites, ones that fit quite nicely with both a traditional brownie and a white chocolate brownie. They were simple to create, fun to look at, and delicious to eat. 

Stay tuned! There is more Halloween themed fun on the way! 

Sprinting Towards Eternal Salvation

This weekend is general conference. We had all planned to watch all the sessions from home, but last night Nathan and Matthew were given an unexpected opportunity to attend the Saturday evening session in the conference center. Kyle, one of Nathan’s roommates from last fall, called Nathan yesterday afternoon. He was downtown and had become the sole possessor of four tickets for last night’s session. He invited Nathan to attend, told him Matthew was included in the invitation, and told them they needed to be in the conference center in just under an hour. It is a good 35 minutes from our house to downtown. Add time to change clothes, park and walk to the conference center, and the time was very short indeed. But Nathan was not going to turn down an opportunity to see conference live, so he and Matthew both changed as fast as they could and headed out the door just minutes after the phone call ended with the hope that they could make it in time.

We got a message from Nathan just minutes before the 6:30 deadline letting us know that they had squeaked in just in time. They had pretty much run from the parking garage to the conference center and poor Matthew, whose legs are half as long as Nathan’s, had to sprint to keep up. In fact, by the time they got to their seats, he had to pull out his inhaler. But they made it! Stevie, another of Nathan’s previous roomies, was also invited so there were four of them.

This was the first time Matthew has had the opportunity to attend a session in person, so he was super glad that things worked in their favor. Nathan loved the atmosphere in the auditorium and specifically commented on how amazing it was to hear all conversations stop and watch as all in attendance stood as the prophet entered the room. I’ve experienced that same occurrence, and the sense of reverence is akin to being in the temple. Seriously, you can feel the righteous power those men who are prophets and apostles hold as they arrive. 

I’m so glad two of my boys were able to have such a great experience. And I’m even more glad that the opportunity to have such an experience was important enough for them to drop everything and run to get there. I would hope that they, and me and the remainder of my family, would always be ready to change directions on a moment’s notice and sprint towards the Savior at top speed. I guess that’s another metaphor for how I want to live my life-I want to be ready and willing to drop everything and run as fast as I can to do whatever the Lord asks of me. I know I’m not there yet. There are still times when I move forward more reluctantly than I should, but I’m a work in progress and hopefully my desire to be better will help me make those changes one day, one invitation and one sprint at a time.

A Bit of Role Reversal

I was cleaning the top of my refrigerator this morning and found this mixed in with my fridge magnets:

My eyes only welled up a tiny bit. Nathan’s missionary service has changed him. And he is carrying that missionary spirit with him as he moves forward in his life. Our newest fridge magnet is a valuable reminder of how by simply living the gospel openly, in normal and natural ways and in even the most routine of activities, we can strengthen ourselves and our families as well as share the gospel with those around us. 

For my birthday earlier this year my mother-in-law gave me a book by Sis. Wendy Nelson entitled “What Would a Holy Woman Do?” The idea of the message shared is to look at our day to day lives and ask ourselves how a holy woman would accomplish each task, no matter how mundane, so that we can incrementally become more holy one day and one task at a time. I feel like this missionary magnet in the center of our kitchen is another such reminder. How would a representative of Jesus Christ act in each daily chore, activity, and interaction? 

Back when Daniel was in the MTC preparing for his mission to Oregon, he was asked what it was like going to church in Utah. His response was that there are members of the church and there are disciples of Christ. I feel like that is a perfect way to describe someone who is living the gospel casually as opposed to someone who is really committed to the Savior. It is a phrase that has made its way into our family culture, and I personally use it all the time. It is a distinction that is continually helping me determine how I’m doing on the covenant path. If I’m feeling lackadaisical or indecisive about something, I’ll ask myself if my choice is consistent with being a true disciple or if my level of commitment is just enough to qualify as a member of the church. And being completely honest with myself has helped me make some changes that I hope will be for my eternal good.

Both Daniel’s and Nathan’s missionary service have influenced our entire family. Being able to talk to them regularly as they served helped us feel like we were a part of their lives while they were away. The additional element of streaming church meetings allowed us to have a front row seat for several big events in Nathan’s time as a missionary. And watching both of them become truly converted through the course of their missions has had a profound impact on me. As these phrases and magnets serve as reminders for me as well as them, it has shown me that while I worked diligently to teach them while they were young, now they are teaching me. And I love that I’m learning from my children.