Things are fun and busy here in Utah County. I am trying to repent of my lack of blogging but Sundays slip by quickly so I might just have to choose a different day to post!
We are loving our little house and have been slowly adding finishing touches. We finally put up some pictures and got some large rugs. Our garden went crazy this year which has been so great! We have been experimenting with beets, beans, tomatoes, jalapenos, and corn. The squash will be coming on soon so we are excited about that!
It is great living next to Nick's sister Lindsay and to Joe. I started teaching Grace and two of Linsday's kids piano this month and I am excited to start that up again.
Nick loves seminary and has a great faculty to work with who keep him laughing. You'll have to ask him for stories.
Wesley keeps getting cuter if that's even possible. He is starting to talk and understand a lot! He loves garbage anything, garbage cans, garbage trucks, garbage you name it! He likes all machines and noise making devices. He likes to look in the mirror and watch a cute person in there!
We are having a great time getting to know wonderful people and learning self reliance skills: making soap, canning, finances, home repair. Stuff you are all pros at!
That was a lot of rambling so I'll sign off and Wesley's trying to break the computer! Have a great conference weekend!
Monday, September 25, 2017
Sunday, September 24, 2017
Hart Happenings
Greetings all!
This week was marked by some fun events. Jack and Peter both had soccer games. Jack's team is undefeated and Peter pulled out some signature moves during his game that had us rolling on the sidelines.
We had a great Family Home Evening with Ruthie's family to kick the week off. Dinner was delicious. We helped make a dent in their potato harvest by feasting on dutch oven potatoes and then had a great lesson about making sure we are charged and powered up, courtesy of Peter.
Ian has started Tavaci (his choir class) again and is thrilled to be preparing for his Christmas concert.
Alex made a trip to D.I. (there is a reason I rarely take him shopping) and came home with an air hockey table. We have already more that recouped the cost in good times and listening to the boys laugh and play together ALL. DAY. LONG.
The frost came and hit all of our plants. So the season is over for us! It is a little earlier than usual but what do you do?
The big news of the week: Alex came in with 3 eggs this morning! They are the first we have gotten from our chickens. It is very exciting!
Ruth, Addy, Ian, and I went out Saturday afternoon to tour the houses of the Parade of Homes. We had so much fun! Ian and Addy were so excited about every element and Ruth and I came home inspired and full of ideas. Watch out Alex and Garrett! There was one that we called the playhouse that had a slide embedded in the walls that shot you out into a foam pit right next a floor to ceiling rock climbing wall and deluxe indoor playhouse. The owners of this house had quite the imagination! But we also came home pretty content with our own cozy, quirky houses.
Can't wait for Conference! Hope all is well with everyone!
This week was marked by some fun events. Jack and Peter both had soccer games. Jack's team is undefeated and Peter pulled out some signature moves during his game that had us rolling on the sidelines.
We had a great Family Home Evening with Ruthie's family to kick the week off. Dinner was delicious. We helped make a dent in their potato harvest by feasting on dutch oven potatoes and then had a great lesson about making sure we are charged and powered up, courtesy of Peter.
Ian has started Tavaci (his choir class) again and is thrilled to be preparing for his Christmas concert.
Alex made a trip to D.I. (there is a reason I rarely take him shopping) and came home with an air hockey table. We have already more that recouped the cost in good times and listening to the boys laugh and play together ALL. DAY. LONG.
The frost came and hit all of our plants. So the season is over for us! It is a little earlier than usual but what do you do?
The big news of the week: Alex came in with 3 eggs this morning! They are the first we have gotten from our chickens. It is very exciting!
Ruth, Addy, Ian, and I went out Saturday afternoon to tour the houses of the Parade of Homes. We had so much fun! Ian and Addy were so excited about every element and Ruth and I came home inspired and full of ideas. Watch out Alex and Garrett! There was one that we called the playhouse that had a slide embedded in the walls that shot you out into a foam pit right next a floor to ceiling rock climbing wall and deluxe indoor playhouse. The owners of this house had quite the imagination! But we also came home pretty content with our own cozy, quirky houses.
Can't wait for Conference! Hope all is well with everyone!
Sunday, September 17, 2017
Hart Happenings
This week was full to the brim preparing for the garden class's end of the year Harvest Fest. It is the culmination of the summer program the boys have been participating in. All their families are invited and we prepare a feast with stuff they have grown in their gardens. The menu was as follows:
*Harvest Soup
*pizza (baked in the mud oven the kids made years ago)
*poppyseed dressing coleslaw
*sweet pickles
*fermented dilly beans
*fermented zucchini relish
*veggie tray and dip
*fresh pears and plums
*bread they baked out of wheat they grew, harvested, threshed, winnowed, and ground into flour
*raspberry jam
*chocolate zucchini cupcakes (so delicious)
It was quite the feast! Ruth came to show her support which was much appreciated even though I hardly acknowledged her. I was kind of a crazy person that day. But the family has been so supportive. Small world story: I got involved with this program years ago through the Master Gardener program I participated in. We had to give so many hours of community service in a gardening way to earn our certificates. This kid's program was one of the ways to get those service hours in. Well we had a great Master Gardener volunteer this year whose name was Dan Christman. We actually connected earlier this year at a horticulture symposium. When I heard his last name I asked if he was related to any Christmans in Pocatello. A sister from my mission had married a Christman from Pocatello. HE was THAT Christman! So over the summer he brought some of his kids to help in the garden and I met the whole crew and then Rosie (his wife) came to the Harvest Fest and we got to reconnect which was a thrill! Small world, indeed.
On top of all the crazy prep for the Harvest Fest we managed to squeeze in soccer practice and games (Jack's team is undefeated), Jack's birthday, throwing a baby shower for a friend, book club, and Ian's first singing class of the semester.
Jack's birthday was a hoot! He is really into Harry Potter right now and so we showered him with that sort of thing. He went to Olivander's to choose a wand, stopped by Honeydukes for some candy, got some Harry Potter glasses, received a snitch, and also a very amazing invisibility cloak (thanks to Grandma Robin's talent). It's kind of created a problem though in that Jack keeps disappearing! He puts that on and we can't see him anymore. He also loves the soccer goals that he got from Grandma and has even set them up inside to play. That didn't last long. I had to be the bad guy and kick him outside.
Tender mercy update: When we ordered chickens this spring we ended up with more than we had planned on and 3 of them turned out to be roosters. I'm pretty sure our neighbors hate us because the 3 have these crowing wars in the morning. One starts the party and then they all go crazy, so what could be a couple nice crows to greet the morning turns into this 15 minute testosterone induced manly beating of the chest showdown. And a couple of the rooster have really sad crows. Sad but loud! Anyway, this couldn't go on so I posted an ad on Craigslist. No response so I started trying to pawn them off on anyone I knew that butchered their own roosters or did the homesteading thing. No go. So Alex re-posted yesterday that he would pay someone 10 bucks to come and take 2 of the roosters off our hands. He got a call this afternoon that someone was interested. I was pretty sure that it was someone interested in butchering them. Why else would anyone want 2 roosters for crying out loud? This devastated the boys. They tried to be brave and console themselves with thoughts of the roosters going straight to heaven and getting "real brains". They wanted to say their last goodbyes and everything. It was very tragic. So we all went and snuggled on Peter's bed when the people showed up and let Alex do the dirty deed. He came back in with some great news. It was just a young couple looking for some companions for their lonely hen. The girl opened up the box and just started gushing: "oooohhhh, they're so cute! I didn't even know what a silkie was, but they're soooo cute!" So, those roosters are going to live well at someone else's house and get all the kitchen scraps they could ever want. Happy ending indeed. Jack said "Heavenly Father sure blessed us."
Just like he always does.
We had Stake Conference today and one thought stood out to me. I'm pretty impatient with myself and have a really hard time recognizing progress because I'm never as far along as I want to be or moving ahead rapidly enough to suit my taste. The stake clerk spoke and offered this idea that I had never really thought of in these terms. He said, "incremental progress over an infinite number of days leads to perfection." I'm still thinking on it, but it struck me as rather profound.
This is super rambly so I think I'll end. Sure love you all!
*Harvest Soup
*pizza (baked in the mud oven the kids made years ago)
*poppyseed dressing coleslaw
*sweet pickles
*fermented dilly beans
*fermented zucchini relish
*veggie tray and dip
*fresh pears and plums
*bread they baked out of wheat they grew, harvested, threshed, winnowed, and ground into flour
*raspberry jam
*chocolate zucchini cupcakes (so delicious)
It was quite the feast! Ruth came to show her support which was much appreciated even though I hardly acknowledged her. I was kind of a crazy person that day. But the family has been so supportive. Small world story: I got involved with this program years ago through the Master Gardener program I participated in. We had to give so many hours of community service in a gardening way to earn our certificates. This kid's program was one of the ways to get those service hours in. Well we had a great Master Gardener volunteer this year whose name was Dan Christman. We actually connected earlier this year at a horticulture symposium. When I heard his last name I asked if he was related to any Christmans in Pocatello. A sister from my mission had married a Christman from Pocatello. HE was THAT Christman! So over the summer he brought some of his kids to help in the garden and I met the whole crew and then Rosie (his wife) came to the Harvest Fest and we got to reconnect which was a thrill! Small world, indeed.
On top of all the crazy prep for the Harvest Fest we managed to squeeze in soccer practice and games (Jack's team is undefeated), Jack's birthday, throwing a baby shower for a friend, book club, and Ian's first singing class of the semester.
Jack's birthday was a hoot! He is really into Harry Potter right now and so we showered him with that sort of thing. He went to Olivander's to choose a wand, stopped by Honeydukes for some candy, got some Harry Potter glasses, received a snitch, and also a very amazing invisibility cloak (thanks to Grandma Robin's talent). It's kind of created a problem though in that Jack keeps disappearing! He puts that on and we can't see him anymore. He also loves the soccer goals that he got from Grandma and has even set them up inside to play. That didn't last long. I had to be the bad guy and kick him outside.
Tender mercy update: When we ordered chickens this spring we ended up with more than we had planned on and 3 of them turned out to be roosters. I'm pretty sure our neighbors hate us because the 3 have these crowing wars in the morning. One starts the party and then they all go crazy, so what could be a couple nice crows to greet the morning turns into this 15 minute testosterone induced manly beating of the chest showdown. And a couple of the rooster have really sad crows. Sad but loud! Anyway, this couldn't go on so I posted an ad on Craigslist. No response so I started trying to pawn them off on anyone I knew that butchered their own roosters or did the homesteading thing. No go. So Alex re-posted yesterday that he would pay someone 10 bucks to come and take 2 of the roosters off our hands. He got a call this afternoon that someone was interested. I was pretty sure that it was someone interested in butchering them. Why else would anyone want 2 roosters for crying out loud? This devastated the boys. They tried to be brave and console themselves with thoughts of the roosters going straight to heaven and getting "real brains". They wanted to say their last goodbyes and everything. It was very tragic. So we all went and snuggled on Peter's bed when the people showed up and let Alex do the dirty deed. He came back in with some great news. It was just a young couple looking for some companions for their lonely hen. The girl opened up the box and just started gushing: "oooohhhh, they're so cute! I didn't even know what a silkie was, but they're soooo cute!" So, those roosters are going to live well at someone else's house and get all the kitchen scraps they could ever want. Happy ending indeed. Jack said "Heavenly Father sure blessed us."
Just like he always does.
We had Stake Conference today and one thought stood out to me. I'm pretty impatient with myself and have a really hard time recognizing progress because I'm never as far along as I want to be or moving ahead rapidly enough to suit my taste. The stake clerk spoke and offered this idea that I had never really thought of in these terms. He said, "incremental progress over an infinite number of days leads to perfection." I'm still thinking on it, but it struck me as rather profound.
This is super rambly so I think I'll end. Sure love you all!
Nilsson News
Wow! It has been awhile since we have posted. Emerson's baptism was definitely the highlight of the month so far. We were glad the Grandma and Grandpa were able to come up as well as the Harts. We enjoyed the first watermelon from our garden as part of the celebration. It was amazing! We had twelve that matured very nicely and we shared them with friends and neighbors. The reaction were all the same, "You grew that here?!" Our biggest one so far was one we took to the Hart's on Jack's birthday and it weighed in at 24.8 pounds. It was a very successful experiment that we hope to continue in years ahead.
Along with the watermelon, we have been harvesting corn, tomatoes, peppers, onions and potatoes. We have about 15 pumpkins that we will be picking here soon. We have been canning like crazy and hope to wrap it all up with some applesauce.
Last week we finally got all the ground tilled, leveled, and de-rocked so we could plant 4,000 sq. feet of grass seed. It has taken awhile, but we are finally seeing a few green sprouts here and there.
We started school and between canning sessions we are trying to keep it going. The kids have been pretty excited about getting back into a routine and so has their mom. Addy is taking piano from a new teacher that likes to teach jazz (wish it could be Mrs. Manning!). She is also doing clogging again. Emerson has loved going to scouts and is doing a great job passing off his requirements. Eliza is involved with a homeschool gymnastics group and absolutely loves it. Millie is sitting up and is very close to crawling. The longer she stays immobile the better. Henry is such a funny boy and is a deep thinker. Here's a funny story to get you thinking.
I was at the counter cutting up some honeydew melon and Henry climbed up by me. He asked what I was doing and I told him I was cutting up some melon. He nodded and said, "Oh. Melon." He then reached into the fruit bowl and picked up a little yellow object and asked what it was. I told him it was a lemon. He repeated, "Oh. Lemon."
He looked over and pointed to what I was cutting and said, "Lemon?"
"No, this is a melon. A honeydew melon"
"Oh. A melon." Then looking back at the object in his hand, "Is dis a melon?"
"No, that is a lemon."
"A lemon." He nods but is thinking very hard.
Again he looked over and this time he said, "Is that a lemondew?"
It was quite the confusing conversation! Why do we make english so complicated?!
Hope you all enjoy your Sabbath whether you are eating melons or lemons!
Along with the watermelon, we have been harvesting corn, tomatoes, peppers, onions and potatoes. We have about 15 pumpkins that we will be picking here soon. We have been canning like crazy and hope to wrap it all up with some applesauce.
Last week we finally got all the ground tilled, leveled, and de-rocked so we could plant 4,000 sq. feet of grass seed. It has taken awhile, but we are finally seeing a few green sprouts here and there.
We started school and between canning sessions we are trying to keep it going. The kids have been pretty excited about getting back into a routine and so has their mom. Addy is taking piano from a new teacher that likes to teach jazz (wish it could be Mrs. Manning!). She is also doing clogging again. Emerson has loved going to scouts and is doing a great job passing off his requirements. Eliza is involved with a homeschool gymnastics group and absolutely loves it. Millie is sitting up and is very close to crawling. The longer she stays immobile the better. Henry is such a funny boy and is a deep thinker. Here's a funny story to get you thinking.
I was at the counter cutting up some honeydew melon and Henry climbed up by me. He asked what I was doing and I told him I was cutting up some melon. He nodded and said, "Oh. Melon." He then reached into the fruit bowl and picked up a little yellow object and asked what it was. I told him it was a lemon. He repeated, "Oh. Lemon."
He looked over and pointed to what I was cutting and said, "Lemon?"
"No, this is a melon. A honeydew melon"
"Oh. A melon." Then looking back at the object in his hand, "Is dis a melon?"
"No, that is a lemon."
"A lemon." He nods but is thinking very hard.
Again he looked over and this time he said, "Is that a lemondew?"
It was quite the confusing conversation! Why do we make english so complicated?!
Hope you all enjoy your Sabbath whether you are eating melons or lemons!
Belliston Adventures
This has been an exciting week! Grace has been asking for piano lessons for months now and had her first one yesterday! She loves her teacher, Mrs. Manning, and has been practicing constantly ever since.
Joe sprained his ankle pretty good on Thursday morning playing basketball and has had lots of good doctors taking care of him.
Jake and Joy have been been riding around on their bikes and try to be like the big kids and ride down the big hills. It makes their parents pretty nervous but no serious accidents so far.
It was really fun to see everyone at the baby blessing! Thanks so much for traveling so far and making the effort to be here. We felt really blessed to have so much family here.
A couple weeks ago Jake found a big spider on the sidewalk which ended up being a tarantula. The kids got the neighbor boys to catch it but Jake, Joy and Grant each had a good time holding it in their hand. A few days later we found another one in our yard. I guess this is the time of year they start coming out.
Love you all! Happy Birthday parents!
Joe sprained his ankle pretty good on Thursday morning playing basketball and has had lots of good doctors taking care of him.
Jake and Joy have been been riding around on their bikes and try to be like the big kids and ride down the big hills. It makes their parents pretty nervous but no serious accidents so far.
It was really fun to see everyone at the baby blessing! Thanks so much for traveling so far and making the effort to be here. We felt really blessed to have so much family here.
A couple weeks ago Jake found a big spider on the sidewalk which ended up being a tarantula. The kids got the neighbor boys to catch it but Jake, Joy and Grant each had a good time holding it in their hand. A few days later we found another one in our yard. I guess this is the time of year they start coming out.
Love you all! Happy Birthday parents!
Sunday, September 10, 2017
Hart Happenings
It was so fun to attend Emerson's baptism and spend time with Mom and Dad. It was really nice of them to come over afterward and help us finish cutting down a big pine tree in our front yard. It looks so much better to not have dead things in the yard, especially a behemoth like that.
We were also so glad we were able to get down to Hope's blessing. Joe and crew are such wonderful hosts we never want to leave so we lingered and lingered.....The food was awesome, as usual, and we had fun listening to the jokes Nick gets from his dad. Good times.
On Monday we spent the day in Logan with Mom and Dad and Ruth's family. We went canoeing which was so fun! I was a little nervous when Jack and Emerson insisted on taking a canoe out by themselves, but they figured things out, were able to get themselves unstuck from a sandbar and narrowly escaped being capsized by the wake of a passing speedboat. They thought it was a grand adventure. It was nice to see all the birds and some pretty water lilies and enjoy a nice, slow day. We brought some blackberries home with us, courtesy of Mom and Dad's garden. We'll see if we can make them live.
School started for the kids this week and they have jumped in with both feet! I'm always blown away and a little intimidated by how smart they are. We are learning about Galileo and the Turks and numbers and astronomy and patterns and polishing our handwriting skills.
Ian and Jack are really into Newsies right now. Thanks for putting that on our radar, Joe. We watched the broadway stage production that they filmed and released in the theaters. It was excellent. The music is so much bigger and brighter and the vocals are superb! You can find the whole film on You Tube. Highly recommended.
It is nice to feel the settling that comes in the fall. I am so glad to be getting back into a schedule.
Well, our friends just showed up. I'm off to play games. Love to all!
We were also so glad we were able to get down to Hope's blessing. Joe and crew are such wonderful hosts we never want to leave so we lingered and lingered.....The food was awesome, as usual, and we had fun listening to the jokes Nick gets from his dad. Good times.
On Monday we spent the day in Logan with Mom and Dad and Ruth's family. We went canoeing which was so fun! I was a little nervous when Jack and Emerson insisted on taking a canoe out by themselves, but they figured things out, were able to get themselves unstuck from a sandbar and narrowly escaped being capsized by the wake of a passing speedboat. They thought it was a grand adventure. It was nice to see all the birds and some pretty water lilies and enjoy a nice, slow day. We brought some blackberries home with us, courtesy of Mom and Dad's garden. We'll see if we can make them live.
School started for the kids this week and they have jumped in with both feet! I'm always blown away and a little intimidated by how smart they are. We are learning about Galileo and the Turks and numbers and astronomy and patterns and polishing our handwriting skills.
Ian and Jack are really into Newsies right now. Thanks for putting that on our radar, Joe. We watched the broadway stage production that they filmed and released in the theaters. It was excellent. The music is so much bigger and brighter and the vocals are superb! You can find the whole film on You Tube. Highly recommended.
It is nice to feel the settling that comes in the fall. I am so glad to be getting back into a schedule.
Well, our friends just showed up. I'm off to play games. Love to all!
Hyde Park Highlights
It has been so fun to see family in the past two weeks! Dad and I enjoyed attending Emerson's baptism. He was prepared and seemed excited to be a member of the Church. The next day I drove to Springville to attend Hope's blessing. That is always special. It was fun to be with so many of our family and Lori's family! What great folks! Then back to Idaho to listen to Ruth as she taught Relief Society about creating "curb appeal" and landscaping ideas for your house and yard, and to help her freeze her corn. I wasn't a whole lot of help, but it was fun to hold baby Millie :) I also helped Elise make a very special birthday gift for Jack. Alex wants to market it... Happy Birthday to Jack tomorrow!
Emma moved to an apartment this week and it has been a bit of an adjustment, to say the least. You can smile and wink, but just you wait until your baby moves out and see how you like it!! Really, she is very happy and it will be a wonderful experience for her. I think it will ease me into this stage of life since she's been home a few times to get things and use the computer. At least I can talk with her now and then.
The garden is in full harvest - corn, beans, tomatoes, onions, peppers, potatoes, berries and more berries, and even some of our apples are ready to pick. We've frozen lots of corn and are getting ready to make some spaghetti sauce and salsa - after we bottle the peaches we bought. A busy time.
Oh, I wanted to tell you something interesting... You know how they say you have to remove the oven racks when you do a self-cleaning? Well, someone told me about how to clean the racks while the oven is cleaning itself, so I tried it. I took the racks out, put them in the bathtub, covered them with hot water and put 2 or 3 drier fabric softener sheets in the water. The next morning, I took the racks out of the tub, gently wiped them and they look brand new! Amazing! It was fun to put them in the clean oven and pretend it was a new appliance. The things that I get a kick out of - really?!!
Have a great week, all of you! Hope to see you again soon.
P.S. I'm planning a birthday party for Dad. Please let me know if you might be able to attend on September 23rd or the 30th - if you want to. It will be a flying theme, perhaps with some actual flight time for those who might like to go up with Dad as pilot. We'll have some other flying opportunities, too, like paper airplanes, balsa wood planes, etc. Just let me know if you would plan to come. No pressure!
Emma moved to an apartment this week and it has been a bit of an adjustment, to say the least. You can smile and wink, but just you wait until your baby moves out and see how you like it!! Really, she is very happy and it will be a wonderful experience for her. I think it will ease me into this stage of life since she's been home a few times to get things and use the computer. At least I can talk with her now and then.
The garden is in full harvest - corn, beans, tomatoes, onions, peppers, potatoes, berries and more berries, and even some of our apples are ready to pick. We've frozen lots of corn and are getting ready to make some spaghetti sauce and salsa - after we bottle the peaches we bought. A busy time.
Oh, I wanted to tell you something interesting... You know how they say you have to remove the oven racks when you do a self-cleaning? Well, someone told me about how to clean the racks while the oven is cleaning itself, so I tried it. I took the racks out, put them in the bathtub, covered them with hot water and put 2 or 3 drier fabric softener sheets in the water. The next morning, I took the racks out of the tub, gently wiped them and they look brand new! Amazing! It was fun to put them in the clean oven and pretend it was a new appliance. The things that I get a kick out of - really?!!
Have a great week, all of you! Hope to see you again soon.
P.S. I'm planning a birthday party for Dad. Please let me know if you might be able to attend on September 23rd or the 30th - if you want to. It will be a flying theme, perhaps with some actual flight time for those who might like to go up with Dad as pilot. We'll have some other flying opportunities, too, like paper airplanes, balsa wood planes, etc. Just let me know if you would plan to come. No pressure!
Saturday, September 9, 2017
Flake Fun
9 Sept 2017 - Sorry for our lack of blogging the last couple of weeks. Things are going well in Snowflake. We have re-started on the island in the front and we are slowly making progress. The weather has been pretty hot so we only have a couple of hours each Saturday to work on it so the progress is slow.
The exciting news for the week is that we got our first pets! We bought 5 Tetra fish and they are lots of fun to watch.
Last night was really nice so we decided to go on a quick walk before it got completely dark. As we were coming back through the fields we saw some movement in the weeds. It was a toad! A few feet further there was another one! In all we saw about 5 toads hopping around! It was so much fun!
Oh, and last week (again on a walk) we were almost run over by a coyote! We saw it running towards us and Scott kind of startled it or it would have hit us! As it was, it passed about 20 yards from us.
Hope you all have had a great week!
The exciting news for the week is that we got our first pets! We bought 5 Tetra fish and they are lots of fun to watch.
Last night was really nice so we decided to go on a quick walk before it got completely dark. As we were coming back through the fields we saw some movement in the weeds. It was a toad! A few feet further there was another one! In all we saw about 5 toads hopping around! It was so much fun!
Oh, and last week (again on a walk) we were almost run over by a coyote! We saw it running towards us and Scott kind of startled it or it would have hit us! As it was, it passed about 20 yards from us.
Hope you all have had a great week!
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