Cecil: 4.5 months

Cecil has been learning so many things lately! The biggest one is sitting. He can sit for minutes at a time without support. The only thing is, is that after a while he'll fall over. I try to lay him on his back before he gets to that point, though.

Levi sitting @ almost 5 months

One thing that I feel has helped him learn to sit so soon is sitting in this activity center. And he has really liked it! He has gotten really good at grabbing the different toys on the center and can put some of them in his mouth. Of course he also likes looking at them. After about a month and a half of using it, I think he's ready for new toys.

He has a strong grip and strong arms. He's recently started making it very difficult to feed him because he'll grab my shirt and pull him to me when he's hungry. Except his arms get in the way...

Cecil has also learned how to roll on to his stomach. After about a minute (or even a few seconds) of this, he starts to cry.

He now wears size 9-12 month clothes and weighed in at 20 lbs last time I weighed him! Here's a comparison pic of Levi wearing the same onesie at about 16-17 months (almost 1.5 years)

Cecil also laughs a lot and enjoys spending time with Levi.

Cecil got to meet his Nanner! How fun.

He also got to meet Great-Grandma Izzy and Great-Granddad JC.

And he's just plain adorable. Look at those sweet eyes!

Creative Family History

I hear a lot of people talk about how they can't work on family history because everything's already been done.

I find that doubtful.

While I completely understand not knowing how to get started on family history, there is usually something you can do to better understand your family history.

Malachi's promise states that the Lord "will turn the heart of the children to their fathers." It also states that He will "turn the heart of the fathers to the children." I feel that this can mean a great number of things, not just making sure their temple work is done. If your heart has turned to your fathers, these are some things that you may do:

1. Learn their names. 
2. Learn about where they lived and what they did for work.
3. Find out what they looked like
4. Learn about their children, brothers and sisters
5. Help them receive essential saving temple ordinances
6. Make your own life story accessible to future generations. This applies even if you don't have children.

There are several ways you can accomplish these things.

1. Find records that document information about them and their lives
2. Ask family members for pictures
3. Print out pictures that you have and display them in your home, whether in frames or in a photo album (I think a photo book would be a really classy way to do this)
4. Talk to your living "fathers" about their lives and the lives of their family members. I will include questions that may be appropriate to ask them below.
5. Go through old pictures with family members and label them with the correct names.
6. Keep a journal or record your own story by recording it or writing it down - can be in segments or all together.
7. Take and save pictures of yourself at various points in your life.

So, unless you are familiar with your ancestor's names, have gathered all family photos, found all documents about your ancestors before 1850, have all of your parents' and grandparents' stories, labeled all family pictures, and recorded your own personal history, I have good news for you! there are still things you can do to contribute to family history work that are pretty easy to do.

_______________________________________________________________

Prompts suitable for interviewing older generations (and be sure to encourage story telling and tangents as you get this information):

• Describe your mother (father, grandparents)
• What did you admire the most about your mother (father, grandfather, grandmother)?
• What did you dislike the most about your mother (father, grandfather, grandmother)?
•  What was the physical appearance of your mother (father, grandfather, grandmother)? Eye/hair color, tall/short, etc.
• Describe a typical Sunday.
• Describe a typical work day
• Describe a perfect summer day
• Describe a typical school day
• Who was your favorite aunt/uncle? Why?
• Did you hitchhike?
• Describe a trip you went on with family (visiting family, moving, etc)
• How did you meet your spouse?
• Describe your siblings.
• What did your father/mother do for work?
• What was your favorite thing to eat?
• What were your parents' views on faith and worship?
• Why do you belong to your current faith system? Why did you change from your parents' (if the person you're interviewing converted to another faith)?
• Did your family have a garden? What was your favorite thing about it?
• What kinds of things did you do together as a family? Did you play games, talk, cook?
• How did your family dress? What kind of clothes did people wear back then?
• What was your parents' opinion on college? 
• Did you ever meet someone famous or semi-famous?
• What did your family do for Christmas? Easter? 4th of July? Thanksgiving? Other holidays?
• How are you like your mother? your father?
• Was there any special thing that you did just with your father/mother?
• Did you do anything special together as a family?
• How were the children expected to help with the farm and other work?
• What was the chore you liked to do best?
• Were there hired hands on the farm? Sharecroppers?
• Describe the places that you lived and why you moved (if you moved)
• What was your favorite thing to do with each of your siblings?
• What did you do with your pets if you had any?
• Describe what it was like to go to the movies.
• What was your favorite thing to do?
• Did you or your family gather wild food (nuts, berries, grapes)?
• What was your first job?
• List the jobs you've had throughout your life
• Describe your relationships with your various neighbors
• What is your favorite invention from your lifetime?
• What event during your lifetime had the greatest impact on the world/your country? Why?
• Where did you go to school? (grade school, high school, college)
• Did you play sports?
• Who were your closest childhood friends? What did you do together?

Easy Chicken and Dumplings

I'm all about easy, and I'm all about chicken and dumplings. The hardest thing about this dish is waiting long enough for the dumplings to cook before eating it! (and then probably wiping all the flour off the counter after you're done making the dumplings).

Granddad JC and Grandma Izzy have both said that not only did they eat chicken and dumplings often as they were growing up, but it was a staple at their family 4th of July celebrations when they were kids.

I've styled my recipe off of Mom's (which I think she got from Grandma) but added a few twists of my own to make it easier. I hope you enjoy it!


Cook one boneless, skinless chicken breast on stove with 1 tsp salt and 1 bouillon cube in about 6 C water (I fill up my largest pot about 1/2 way with water. I'm not exactly sure how much water it is or the exact size of the pot. It's at least 3 quarts, maybe more). Depending on if the chicken breast is thawed out or frozen , this should take anywhere from 20-35 minutes. I like to cook the chicken at a simmer so it's more tender than if I cooked it at a full rolling boil.

Meanwhile, combine the following ingredients in a large mixing bowl*:

3 C all-purpose flour
3/4 T sugar
3/8 t baking soda
3/4 t salt
1/2 C salad oil
3/4 C water

At the end, I generally have to finish blending the ingredients with my hands.

Flour a clean counter top, and roll out the dough to about 1/8 inch thickness. Cut dough into 3/4 inch wide strips at whatever length you like your dumplings to be. I like mine about 4 - 5 inches long. I've found that pizza cutters are the quickest and easiest way to cut my dough.

When the chicken has finished cooking, take it out of the pot and place it on a cutting board to cool. Bring the broth to a rolling boil. Add strips of dough to boiling water, stirring periodically. At this point, the food is prone to boiling over, so keep a close eye on the pot. I usually turn the heat down gradually as I add the dumplings to avoid that problem.

Keep the dumplings at a simmer for at least 30 minutes, stirring occasionally so the dumplings don't stick to the bottom of the pot.

Meanwhile, cut chicken into bite-size pieces and combine with dumpling mixture in the pot. Add salt, pepper, and garlic to taste. I like about 1/2 t of pepper and 1/4 t of garlic powder. Salt is just one of those things you have to taste for.

At this point, you just have to wait for the dumplings to cook. You can add flour to the broth if you want a thicker soup. The dumplings are done when they are soft and bend somewhat easily. I like to let them cook for at least 30 minutes, but I like them better when they've cooked longer than that, probably 45 minutes to an hour. This is a great dish to make ahead of time because it tastes better the longer the flavors have to combine.

Enjoy!


* if you want to make this dish even easier, you can buy frozen dumplings from some grocery stores, especially in the South. Don't use the refrigerated biscuit dough, though. It has sugar in it and tastes weird in this dish.

Awk-ward!

Early in the morning a few days ago, I went outside with Levi to play. He immediately ran to the playground, and I sat on the low concrete wall surrounding the playground to watch. I immediately felt the cold of the concrete on my unsuspecting posterior. I looked down, checking for pants. Yep, they were still there. I felt kind of silly, but at the same time, it had been as if there was nothing there between me and the concrete.

About 10 minutes later, some other mothers came out to the playground with their children. By this time, I was sitting on a bench that although cold, was nothing like the cold of the concrete wall. Another mother was sitting on the bench with me, when one mother started to sit on the concrete wall nearby. I invited her to sit on the bench with me and the other mother, saying, "I know how cold it is over there on the concrete, you should come sit on the bench--it's warmer." We made space and she came over, thanking us.

Then I said it.

I said, "Yeah, I sat on the concrete earlier, and I had to check that I was still wearing pants it was so cold!" No one laughed. No one even said anything commiserating with me about how very cold the concrete was. There was just this awkward silence while I realized that I had said something socially taboo around these parts. Then they changed the subject.

Now, I don't know about you, but when I say something socially awkward, I think about it for days (or months, or if it's really bad, even years) afterward. So I've been thinking about this, mostly about how I just should've stayed quiet. But just this morning, I realized that the main people that I've heard jokes like this from are my mother, her brothers, and my maternal grandmother. I have Scotch-Irish ancestry on that side, and I wonder if my forebears have been making jokes like this through the eons of time. I know when I watch movies set in Scotland, they frequently have jokes like this. So maybe this is a manifestation of my Scottish heritage. Ha!

Stories with Granddad JC

Granddad J.C. is a soft-spoken Southern man. He is kind and thoughtful, but oh! can that man have a good laugh! Many times his jokes will sneak up on you, and all of a sudden you're laughing about something he just said. I can picture the scene now: a group of my siblings and I are visiting with him and Grandma. Granddad is telling a story about his childhood in his deep, rumbly voice. He and Grandma both were excellent story-tellers and Granddad was particularly good at getting us to laugh.

One particular story I remember Granddad telling was from Christmastime when he was a child (if I remember correctly):

One Christmas when Granddad J.C. was small, his parents bought a HUGE bunch of bananas -- we're talking the size of the ones you see on the tree -- for a Christmas treat. Unfortunately, his parents got the bananas a week or so in advance, so all the kids were salivating as they waited for Christmas to finally come.

Picture from here

Sometime before Christmas, my great grandparents had to go on a day-long trip. They knew the bananas were in danger of being eaten, so they put the bananas in their bedroom and locked the door.

Well, one of Granddad J.C.'s brothers couldn't stand the temptation any longer, so after he tried the door, he tried the window to his parents' room. My great uncle could just barely wriggle through because it was a very small window, but he made it!

Well, if a boy ever had a feast, that boy did! He ate and ate, and then ate some more. He ate all the bananas that he could hold. He ate so many bananas that he couldn't fit through the window again! He just had to wait there until his parents got home, and take his punishment.

When Granddad told us this story, he had our sides aching from laughter! He's told some other good ones, like how he had Grandma convinced that 'J.C.' stood for Julius Caesar until their wedding day, when the preacher read, "And you, Julius Clyburn Connell ..." Another good one is the story of shortly after their marriage, Granddad took Grandma to a work party and couldn't remember her name when introducing her to his boss because he'd always called her "Honey."

What a great set of grandparents I have! I couldn't have picked better ones myself. And since I have such wonderful grandparents, that means they raised their kids right, so I have amazing aunts, uncles, and cousins. I am a lucky woman!

Muggins with Grandma Kathleen

Grandma Kathleen is one of the sweetest women I've met. She is very soft spoken, but a great disciplinarian. You know, one of those where the soft, serious voice is scarier than yelling.

She fits the description for the ideal grandmother: she has a stock of sugary cereals just for her grandchildren, a candy bowl, treats after every meal, AND lots of games and kids books. She was always up for playing games with us, even when other adults might find our games childish and tedious.

My favorite game to play with Grandma is a card game called Muggins. I think it's a pretty old game, because they don't sell the cards anymore. I just did an internet search for it, and there were no results for the particular card game I'm thinking of. However, we played the game with cards from the game Flinch:

Picture taken from here

The gameplay is very similar to the game described in this Wikipedia article, except that you say "muggins!" instead of "flinch!" when a player fails to play a playable card. Also not mentioned in the article is that the person who yells "muggins!" gives their top card to the person who failed to notice the playable move. Thus, if you are good at spotting muggins opportunities, then you can get rid of your cards more quickly. There are evidently several versions of Flinch, but we only played one version of Muggins, where we would deal out all of the cards evenly between the players.

Another difference is that playing cards in the middle took precedence over playing cards on other player's discard piles. This made for a fun twist to the game, as well as more muggins-calling, since most players were more intent on giving cards to other players (giving the first player a greater advantage over the second player if no one notices that they should have played in the middle instead).

Grandma had no mercy when it came to calling Muggins on her young grandchildren, but that was part of the fun of it all. We would play Muggins over and over again just to get the chance to muggins Grandma, who was nearly perfect in her muggins playing. If we did catch Grandma and call muggins on her, we would brag about it at the dinner table that night. We also had fund piling our cards on each other's discard piles, pretending that we were doing them a great favor in giving them so many cards. So many fun, happy memories!

PS: if you are interested in trying the game out for yourself, it can be played using regular face cards. Austin and I did so with two decks of cards. Muggins is more fun if you have more than two players, though.

Water Skiing with Granddad Jerry

After writing my post about quilting with Grandma Izzy, I thought it would be nice to make a post about something I did with each of my grandparents. The big thing that we grandkids did with Granddad Jerry--besides listening to fun stories from his childhood--was learning how to, and then actually water skiing with him.

Granddad was very patient teaching us. We'd start out standing on land, holding on to the handle while he taught us how to hold the handle and stand correctly so we wouldn't fall over once we were skiing. Then we'd go out to the boat, and once we got to deep enough water, we would put on the skis and slide into the water. It was fun trying to get a perfect score (smile, wave, no splash).

The beginners would learn how to ski on the barefoot boom. It was easier because you didn't have the extra factor of the rope going slack (and therefore losing your balance) and you could also hear Granddad coaching you, since it was right next to the boat.

Me learning to ski on just one ski. It's a lot harder than two!

Eventually, we'd get a short length of rope tied to the boom to ease us in to skiing behind the boat with the full length of rope.

I started skiing when I was about 8 years old, I think. It took me a long time to finally get the courage to cross the wake--the small wave created by the movement of the boat--but once I did, there was no stopping me. You do get a nice thrill when you cross the wake, especially if you do it fast enough! }:)

The older kids learned how to do tricks--skiing with the handle between your knees (no hands!), turning around 360 degrees, lifting up one ski for the "skier salute", just to name a few. I did a couple of them, but the skier salute was the only one that I felt safe enough doing to do more than once or twice.

One of my favorite things to do was to "double up". We would set up another rope and two people would ski behind the boat at the same time. I think you can see why I enjoyed this so much:

Hannah spraying Seth

When we were done skiing, we'd head back to my grandparent's house. Granddad taught us that we should always thank the person driving the boat. We did every time that we remembered, and would use his special nickname that we had for him--Mr. Nice Guy. One person would remember to say "Thanks Mr. Nice Guy, for driving the boat!" and then there'd be a chorus of "Thanks, Mr. Nice Guy!" as we all tried to make Granddad feel appreciated so he'd take us out again.

Thank you, Mr. Nice Guy, for all the fun times!

Quilting with Grandma Izzy

I have really wonderful grandparents, on both sides of my family. My mother's parents left a legacy in the (small) town I grew up in--many people I met knew of my grandparents and admired them.

I lived just a short walk down the road from my maternal grandparents, so my siblings and I would go over to their house often to visit, to be babysat, or to help in their garden. I even took piano lessons at their house!

One of my favorite things to do at Grandma Izzy's house was work on the quilt she was currently working on. I was the youngest of all my sisters coordinated enough to do the stitch work on the quilts (no, they were not tied quilts!), and while we quilted, Grandma would tell stories. Boy, could Grandma tell stories! Unfortunately, I don't remember them, but I do remember how much I enjoyed spending time with her and my sisters. Eventually, we made one quilt for each sister except for me--I think people were running out of steam by the time they got to me, and I don't remember telling anyone how much I wanted a quilt.

Quilting with Grandma was something I looked forward to and enjoyed doing with my sisters. I could feel her love for all of us, and I loved the family bond that came from it.