Flake Fun

13 November 2016 - It has been an interesting and productive week.  We had our last drive through flu shot clinic on Friday and I am glad that they are over.  Scott went to Flagstaff for an economic update (they are cautiously optimistic for the future). And we did a lot of tile at the house. 

We had our stake conference today and it was quite the event.  Some of you may know that Taylor and Snowflake have been at odds for a while but today a new stake was made and we were moved to the new Centennial stake which consists of both Snowflake and Taylor wards.  Our wonderful bishop was called to be the new stake president so there will be a lot of changes in the next couple of weeks in our ward.  Two of the wards in the old Snowflake stake had pieces carved out of them and put into a Taylor ward, but no boundary changes in our ward.   Always great to be a part of history.

I have been thinking the last couple of weeks about preparedness and being self sufficient.  And in light of Lauren's comment about sharing recipes and dinner ideas, I thought I would share something that I have started doing again - a 3 month menu.  Our ward preparedness guru challenged us to have a 3 month supply of food and at first that seemed overwhelming.  Then I sat down with a 3 month menu and made a list of all of our "regular" meals.  There were quite a few of them and I just started putting them into the calendar.  Nothing was repeated more than twice in a month and there were a few spots to fit in the occasional meals.  Being able to look at the calendar gave me an idea of the foods that we eat on a very regular basis and now I am starting to stock up to make sure that those items are in our food storage and freezer.  It also gave me an idea of how much food I really need to freeze or can.  I'm not staying it would work for everybody but it has been nice for us so far. 

If you are looking for something new...fajitas with leeks is REALLY yummy!  It adds a bit of umph.  We also really enjoyed Tuscan Pasta. 

Ingredients:

Pasta (I like penne, bow ties or something of that nature)

Sliced chicken breast (you can do cubes too if you want)

1 pk cream cheese

sun dried tomatoes

4 T butter

1/2 T basil (if you have fresh it is REALLY good)

4 cloves garlic

2 cups milk

6 oz parmesan

salt and pepper

Cook noodles.

Grill/fry chicken.

Remove chicken from pan and saute the garlic in the butter.

Add basil and cream cheese.  Stir until smooth.

Add tomatoes.

Wisk in milk.

Stir in parmesan, salt and pepper

Stir in chicken and serve over noodles. 

This recipe freezes pretty well too if you would like to freeze leftovers!

I hope that you all have a great week!

Manning Musings

It is good to finally get a chance to post on the blog!  I enjoy reading your posts every week and it is good to keep up with all the changes going on in each family.
Things are pretty much the same here each week. Nick is busy with seminary teaching, guitar teaching and gigging. I play with Wesley and life is good.
The seminary teaching is going better than at the beginning of school. Wesley and I went up last week to participate in the lesson and to meet students which was very fun! It is a rigorous adventure but we are learning a lot of things about each other and ourselves!
Wesley is at a very fun stage. Most people don't know this because he gets pretty serious around other people but he is a chatter box and can be quite loud at times. He is starting to eat solids and roll over and scoot. He has very strong preferences and likes to do things for himself. Sleeping is not one of his preferences.
Yesterday we met with the bishop for tithing settlement and talked for awhile about the youth in our ward. Nick and I teach the youth sunday school for ages 14-18. We learned some pretty sad things about the youth in our Stake. There are about 8 missionaries out from our Stake and there should be a lot more than that. Many of the kids in our ward have parents in jail or really difficult family situations. The bishop said it just seems that parents are checking out of parenting responsibilities and don't care what their kids do. Sad stuff. So thank you for being good people who are invested in good things!
Congrats to the Harts for their new home! Good luck to the Flakes on their house work! We can't wait to see you next month!

P.S. So I am thinking what I should make for dinner which is a question I ask myself multiple times a week. What would you all think of doing something with recipes or meal planning on the blog? Just if you want, people might put a really great meal down that they had and if people want the recipe they can ask. Thoughts?

Flake Fun

6 November 2016 - First off, thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes.  It was a wonderful day.   The past couple of weeks have been busy.  Scott's boss changed jobs so things are kind of in chaos in his department but hopefully soon there will be a new, permanent boss.  I have been assisting with drive thru flu shot clinics which are pretty popular in the communities that we take them to.  But enough about jobs...

The weather has finally decided to feel like fall.  We built our first fire this week which was fun.  Luckily we had put a stack of firewood on our back porch because it rained for a couple of days straight and the rest of the wood pile is soaked! 

The house is coming along.  We started tile yesterday and didn't get a whole lot done but it feels like it is the beginning of the end!  I spent Friday doing some painting and once I got back from the shot clinic on Saturday we did the tile.  It was an exhausting feat but it is going to look really nice when it is said and done.  We made an appointment to have the carpet installed the week of Thanksgiving so now we have a deadline and a list of things that have to be done before the carpet guys come! 

Congrats to the Harts for getting into their house!  It looks like you guys have been really busy doing fun stuff...and moving!  I don't know how fun the actual act of moving is but it always is nice to have family around to give a sense of organization when everything is in chaos! 

Today we had an interesting relief society lesson that struck home to me.  It was on what one sister called "Mormon Motherhood Martyrdom"; the idea that we as women will NEVER measure up.  It was a good reminder for me that I don't have to be everything, in fact, I can't be. 

Have you guys gotten the big emergency preparedness push in your wards?  It is hitting pretty hard down here it seems and it is quite interesting.

Can't wait to see all of you next month!!!

Hart Happenings

So our post from last week never got published so I retried and that is why you are getting a week old post today. It has been an intense week as we pack all of our belongings and prepare to move tomorrow. We went to our new ward today which was great and totally different from where we have been. No lingering cigarette smells and no cussing in class. But we loved those aspects of our last ward; the diversity, the all-are-welcome mindset, and the lovely little widow ladies. It will be an adjustment but we feel so good about the move which makes us really excited to see what lies in store.....

Thanks to Ruth and her fan for all the boxes and for letting us hang out in her peaceful, clean house while our is complete chaos. Oh, and for feeding us!!! Thanks guys!

Life is fun and new at the moment! 

Our nice to eat you door for Halloween. 

Hart Happenings

I Here are some pictures of our lives lately!

Our new house!

Our house at the moment. 

Life is good here! We're moving on Monday. For reals. Woo hoo!

Autumn in Hyde Park

Well, it's awfully quiet around here! Emma has been gone since Friday. Chester was gone until Monday morning. What a lonely weekend... Well, just Sunday. Dad and I took off in a rush for St. George on Friday after a very cooperative baby came just in time. We stopped at the birth center in Ogden long enough to take care of things there, then took off for the big band competition down south.

The band did a remarkable job and played and marched their hearts out!! They were incredible, competing with bands twice their size with the same energy and sound. They took 3rd in the state and 4th out of 24 bands at Bands of America competition. Emma had three solos that were just amazing! They didn't do as well as they had hoped, after taking 2nd place the last two years, but they really did well. I think the disappointment disappeared as soon as they were on their way to Disneyland! They have spent the last two days there having a grand old time! Becca and Darin drove down to watch the parade at Disneyland that the band played in. They spent time on some rides and having lunch together with Emma, which delighted her greatly.

We got home late Saturday night and had meetings all day on Sunday. It was a wonderful opportunity to have dinner with and listen to Elder Uceda speak to the YSA in the Spectrum. What a humble man with amazing stories of sacrifice and dedication. We thoroughly enjoyed our time with him.

I picked Chester up at the vet on Monday morning and he was sick. I guess he felt bullied at the kennel and ended up with intestinal issues, at least that's what the vet said. It could be the shots they gave him. He's had a few accidents since we got him home and had to be taken out to the bathroom several times in the night last night. We hope he feels safe and loved soon so we can get some sleep!

I'm excited for Emma to return tomorrow, though I know she's not going to be very thrilled to be home. She'll come back to a boat load of homework and stress, but hopefully will get through it by reflecting on the wonderful experiences she's had recently.

We are also excited for the Harts to move into their new home soon! We can't wait to go up and help them get things put away and organized.

Today was a great success for me when I tended Wesley while his mother taught piano lessons. We went for a walk and he didn't much like the stroller, so I carried him home and sang to him and he settled down and enjoyed the walk. We sat on the porch and played and talked, but when it got cold enough that I thought I should take him in, he heard his mom talking and decided he'd had enough of me. But by then the lessons were over! We are making headway - hooray!!!

Thomas is going to have surgery sooner than later. He is scheduled for November 17th. We hope he is well enough to enjoy Thanksgiving the next week...

Lastly, but not leastly, very happy birthday wishes to Jenn!  I know you're working on your house tonight, but hope you've had a great birthday!!

Nilsson News

Okay, so I wrote this lovely long post on my phone with pictures and everything and then when I tried to publish it, everything failed.  So, this is going to be a slightly less detailed version of my previously attempted post.
We have really been enjoying this fallish time of year.  We've gone to the pumpkin patch to pick pumpkins, carved said pumpkins, played in the leaves since we actually have leaves to play in for the first time ever!  Soup is part of our menu each week which I thoroughly enjoy, but some of the kids not so much.  It's a great time of year!
This past Monday, we went with the Harts on a little field trip to watch a falconer work with his bird.  She is still in training but we got to watch her swoop and catch her lunch.  Then we got to watch as she devoured it.  I don't know whether it was this last part that maybe made Addy a little woozy, but as we were walking back to the car, she collapsed, passed out.  I wish I could say I remained calm and collected but no, I pretty much freaked out.  Alex ran over and Addy came to but was still a bit delirious.  Alex carried her to the car and we gave her some food and water.  It took her awhile to get back to normal and she still doesn't recall what happened.  Crazy.
Yesterday, we went to a neighborhood Halloween party.  I ended up running into an old LD's friend that I haven't seen for ten years.  She didn't recognize me at all with my hair cut and once she realized who I was, asked where all my hair was.  It was fun visiting and catching up.
Our goal for this week is to begin work on finishing our basement.  We got all our stuff cleared out of it, measured the walls and made a supplies list.  We opted not to go forward with the outrageous $45,000 quote that a contractor gave us.  We may not be able to do it quite as timely as someone who knows what they are doing but we know we can do it for a fraction of the price.  If anyone is looking for something to do, feel free to come and join in on the fun!
Happy Fall!