Family Soup

This post is a little late for last year, but, now you can plan ahead and do it for 2010. My neighbor gave me the best idea for a Christmas Countdown and we have been doing it the last 5 years. On Halloween night we have our children pick out 25 pieces of candy and put it in a baggie until the end of November. A few days before December, we take the candy out and use curling ribbon and saran wrap and make a candy countdown chain for each child. This year we had to put the bottoms up higher after the first week. Our 2 year old was eating everyone's candy. Too funny. It is a great tradition. And inexpensive too.

Wouldn't it be great if your kids came home to find a witch (kinda looks like Mom... naw...) in their kitchen making this pot of chili on All Hallows Eve? I haven't tried this recipe yet, but that's the plan at my house!

(You may find some of these ingredients hard to come by. Even the best-supplied kitchens occasionally run short of hawk toenails. And grubs and maggots are at times out of season. We've thought of some substitutions that may yield acceptable results. They're in parentheses.)

Spooky Halloween Chili

1/4 pound ground goblin gizzards (ground beef, 15% fat)
1 medium eye of Cyclops (onion)
1 15-ounce can soft-shelled beetles, drained--beetle juice is to be avoided (kidney beans)
1 28-ounce can blood of bat (V-8 juice)
1/8 teaspoon pureed wasp (prepared mustard)
1/4 teaspoon common dried weed (oregano)
1 dash Red-tailed hawk toenails (crushed red pepper)
2 teaspoons ground sumac blossom (chili powder)
1 teaspoon hemlock (honey or sugar)
1/2 cup fresh grubs (sliced celery)
1 Tablespoon eye of newt (pearl barley)
1 Tablespoon dried maggots (uncooked rice)
water from a stagnant pond, as needed (tap water)

Best made during the last phase of the moon--if that is not possible, just do the best you can in a softly lighted kitchen after dark.
Brown the gizzards in an iron cauldron over a fire made from the siding off a haunted house. Add chopped eye of Cyclops and simmer until the pieces of eye become translucent. Add blood of bat and soft-shelled beetles; bring to a slow bubbling boil. At this time, add the common weed, maggots, toenails, sumac, grubs, hemlock, eye of newt, and pureed wasp.
As it cooks, you may want to adjust the consistency with the pond water. You can tell it is done when the eye of newt swells and the vertical, tan-colored "cat's eye" appears on one side.

I found this fabulous artist who has painted 24 amazing pictures of heroes from the scriptures. He has done 12 from the Bible and 12 from the Book of Mormon. He sells them as posters, 11x14, and 3x5 sizes at really great prices. They depict men and women of courage, faith and strength in a way that is beautiful and powerful. Each picture quotes the scriptures describing them as well as time frames, and asks "Who's Your Hero?" It is just the kind of artwork that would appeal to most kids. I love the concept and the idea of these heroes decorating my kids' walls. LOVE IT!! I'm thinking Christmas.... Check it out!
www.realheroposters.com

I haven't been to the Hogle Zoo for a few years. Wow! They've made some improvements. What a great zoo! I took my 18 month-old and my nearly 3 year old a few days ago. Good timing. They start charging at age 3. Anyway, we had a wonderful time! The kids really loved all of the animals, naming them, mimicing them and talking all about them. We caught the bird show (which I highly recommend!) and rode the train. Fun was had by all! So, if you're looking for a good place to spend a day with the family, don't forget about the zoo. It's a classic.

A couple of weeks ago our family became the proud owners of a GPS system. You know what that means. Yup. We've started geocaching. So fun! There are so many geocaches out there, even close by. Everyone in the family enjoys it and we take turns. I highly recommend it for good, clean, cheap family fun. If you are already in the geocaching crowd and find a log with SKAK listed, we beat you to it!

Our family loves Easter! We do things a bit differently from most families, though. You see, the Easter Bunny has so many families to visit that he likes to do some the day before everyone else. We signed up for this option a few years ago. So, sometime during the night on Friday night, he comes to our home and fills our Easter baskets and hides our eggs. The kids get to participate in the fun egg hunting tradition on Saturday morning instead of Sunday. They've never complained about having the Easter Bunny one day early. They are kids, after all! Then on Easter Sunday, we focus solely on our Savior Jesus Christ and the uncomparable sacrifice he made for all of us. We especially discuss the beauty and promise of the resurrection and what that means for each of us. Usually we also have a big family dinner with grandparents, etc. on that day.

This year, I'm aiming to have a special family discussion on Easter morning where we can talk about all of the symbols of Easter. As part of that time, we will talk about the sacrament, and I'm hoping that when we partake later on in church that each of my older kids will be thinking a little deeper about the significance of it all.

I love this time of year. Everything is so fresh and new. And, I love that our church's General Conference coincides with the Easter season. A time to reflect, to recommit, to learn, grow and blossom. To start again. I hope to infuse my family with those very concepts. That is, after all, the great plan.

The Church has just launched a new YouTube channel with videos. See http://www.youtube.com/mormonmessages. Read an explanation of additional video sites at http://ldsmediatalk.com/2009/02/07/church-videos-for-blogs-and-web-sites/

When trying to help our children learn the value of serving others, I think we all tend to look at the big service projects, thinking that we need to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and care for the sick. Of course we do! But don't forget that the little stuff counts too. You are probably helping your children learn about service more than you think. Family chores are self-help, but also service oriented. Caring for a neighbor's pet while they are away, bringing in the groceries from the car, running downstairs for a jar of tomatoes and sharing a favorite toy are all baby steps, but legitimate forms of service. So, let's not be too hard on ourselves. Our kids are learning each day. And in the long run, perhaps those day to day projects will end up being the biggest shapers of character after all.

My husband and I have been trying to find a way to send our teenagers to a third world country. No...not to stay! Though it's tempting at times. We're thinking hard labor service. You know, work the grouchies out of them, help them learn to look outside of themselves, develop some deep gratitude for all they have, and really help someone or many someones in a way that will change lives and lift communities.
So this is what we found. There are several local organizations who take teenagers on two week-ish excursions to roll up their sleeves and do some good in this world. (While I know there are many other groups that do such things, I think I'd feel better working with a local group. Paranoid, I know.) Some of the places they go have been Bolivia, Tonga, Kenya, Mexico, Fiji, Brazil and Peru. While there, they may do all kinds of things like build schools, orphanages, dig wells, anything that will help the locals pull themselves out of despair and poverty. Most of these groups also include a day or two of sight-seeing. Because they are non-profit, those going can solicit help to pay for it from individuals and businesses who can write it off as a charitable contribution. Each group is chaperoned by several adult volunteers. In our case, either my hubby or I would go too.
Some of the groups we have found are:
http://www.ays.org/
http://www.hopeprojects.net/
http://www.youthlinc.org/
We're thinking we'll take our oldest in 2011. Extra bonus...he can do his Eagle project for scouts as part of his trip!

I love Sugardoodle.net! It is a place where latter-day saints can share ideas for their callings. I was on there today and I found a packet the was put together that includes Family Home Evenings for the year. You can click here to download it. Thanks Stephanie Finlayson for your hard work.