Fine. I'll Blog

It is the season. Sickness is starting to happen. So, I'll just quickly blog that December 11 was National Teriyaki Chicken Day and International Mountain Day. We had teriyaki chicken and I made a mountain of mandarin oranges.

O.K. Until next time.

 

Shelftember

I participated in Shelftember again. 

When I did go to the store (which wasn't very often), I stuck to my shopping list. Because I spent less money on bulk snacks at Winco, I was able to spend more on chicken and ground turkey (not super expensive but not the best deals, either).

I took some of that new chicken and my friend, Stephanie, and I got together to make Instant Pot meals again. Honey Garlic Chicken- it's a favorite.

 

Jeremy came back from his Twin Falls fair with ripe bananas so of course I made chocolate chip banana muffins. Then I pulled corn tortillas, rotisserie chicken, cheese, and spices out and made taquitos. Shelftember! 

 

I baked a lot of bread during the month, including sourdough. I think I'm making progress on figuring out how to do it successfully.

 

I did have to send Jeremy to grab some bread at the store one night because I didn't have any bread to make sandwiches for a trip we were taking. It was better for me to sleep that night than to try to bake bread and let it cool and cut it. I had to get up really early the next morning in order to drive down to Southern Utah (more on that adventure later). Safety is most important. I was too tired to drive home so Jeremy did have to stop at a gas station to get a caffeinated drink and something to eat. But again, we had saved money on other groceries during the month so in order for him to be safe while driving, while I kept dozing off in the passenger seat, it was worth the money.

 

As I mentioned before, I got sick the end of September so we ended up spending more money on groceries than I would have liked the end of the month because Jeremy had to get pizza a couple of times for me as I was getting my appetite back and didn't have energy to make meals. Before I got sick, I was also getting what sounded good for Jr. because he was sick before me.

Oh well. It started out as a good Shelftember. 

I Predicted This

I'm not surprised. 

I felt so good about catching up. I even caught up to the start of September. 

I started a few blog posts to get going with September things. I had 4 posts started about holidays at the beginning of September, Shelftember, "Other September thins", and a post about our garden. But as is the way of things, I started one post like this:

"Woohoo. I made it to the same month I'm in while catching up. You know what that means. I'm going to drop off on my blogging because it always seems to be that way when I've almost caught up. Life is crazy and busy, man. Let's see what happens."

I predicted it. I didn't predict I was going to get super duper sick for a couple days then need recovery time then need time to catch up on taking care of my family and house because you can't get anything done when you're that kind of sick. I'm still working on that part. But I finally cleaned my room today after my youngest decided to get out all the toys he could find and spread them around the room while I was sick. I've been washing bedding all day so I'll have a nice clean bed to sleep on in my nice clean room tonight. I decided I can let myself work on my blog for a bit so here we are.

So here is a picture of the sky again. It's what I do when I explain about why I haven't been blogging. 

 

Catching Up July 2025 part 1, though I'll probably lose track because of how long it will take to do all the catching up

The beginning of July saw family members getting sick (I was exhausted from taking care of sick people and getting sick myself), Jeremy going off to a fair in California (he also messed up his back somehow so the night before his trip, he had a Priesthood blessing and went to urgent care so they could help him out and Lucky and I did the heavy lifting of his supplies and I drove him early the next morning to Marcus's because they were driving together), and Jr. Jr. going off to Young Men Camp without Lucky because Lucky got sick and had to stay home. It would have been his first time.

There were also other stresses and Nichole and Jr. took swim lessons. 

Let me explain the corn husk picture. I got up early to clean one day and decided to take the bag of corn husks up to the outside garbage. As I was walking up the stairs, the bottom of the bag broke open and all the corn husk/silk/garbage fell out on the stairs. It was one of those shrug it off and deal with it moments. Did I mention there were stresses?

We observed rainbows for Summer Reading. Some of us saw rainbows in sprinklers and Jet and I made rainbows with a prism. 

We started harvesting vegetables from our garden.

We also celebrated Nichole's birthday.

We celebrated other holidays but I'll write about those in different posts.

We also saw blessings and had some faith building experiences. 

After Christmas 2024

After Christmas we were all still sick. Most of December we were sick. Blah.

We did celebrate Stan Lee's birthday on December 28 with shawarma. 

We had latkes and challah during Hanukkah.

I finished the adult reading program last minute on New Year's Eve. I earned a water bottle that says, "I read more in 2024."

I finished a year of "A Season of Family Meal Plans" by Jordan Page. I love those books.

We took apart our Christmas tree.

I got some morning walks in among the lights at City Center Park before the New Year.

We had New Year's Nachos.

 

December Holidays

Let's talk some December holidays that weren't Christmas and New Year's Eve.

There were a lot we didn't end up celebrating because of sickness. Nobody found treats in their shoes on St. Nicholas Day. Sigh.

We did get back to our tradition of someone being sick during the First Presidency Christmas Devotional, though. Woohoo?

And since that day, December 8, was also National Brownie Day, somebody did make brownies for us to eat during the devotional. 

December 11 was International Mountain Day and I did take a sunrise picture with mountains.

I also managed to make Teriyaki chicken because that day was also National Teriyaki Chicken Day.

Jet helped me make waffle batter for National Maple Syrup Day on December 17. I love that he's my kitchen helper.

Jet loves decorations and lights as you know so he and I were able to go for a walk in City Center Park in Orem on December 18. Jeremy called us when he was going to pick us up but I totally forgot to "answer the phone like Buddy the Elf," even though that was the holiday and I knew it.

When we got home I was telling the story to the kids when my phone rang. Jr. Jr. had called me so I could answer the phone the right way that night. Thanks, Jr. Jr. We of course then had our traditional Buddy the Elf breakfast for dinner.

We used our Fablehaven Cookbook and followed one suggestion for making Tanu's Heartening Soup (shelf cooking style with substitutions) the night before the Winter Solstice.

Then I got out on the Winter Solstice, December 21, for a morning walk around City Center Park while the lights were on. I love doing that in December/early January when I'm up for it (which I wasn't much up for it before January- just those two times).

 We celebrated Lucky's birthday in December. He took balloons to his classmates and we "partied" at home. Jet helped me make Lucky's birthday cake (and put the candles in) and luckily Lucky asked for a really simple dinner. 

Happy New Year!

Man, it was annoying being sick for most of December. I was feeling better then got sick again right before Christmas. We were all sick for the holidays. Sigh.

I'm doing better again except for that lingering cough I thought I was over half a month ago. Sigh.

So it's time to go into this new year and deal with life.

Happy 2025.

Enjoy this picture of the moon and the sky and the mountains.

I Got Sick

We didn't do some celebrating toward the beginning of December because I got sick again. It is tradition after all. Now that I'm feeling better (except for an annoying cough), I've got to play catch up on what we did do.

We've had some gorgeous mornings in December so enjoy this beautiful sky picture.

By the way, before December came, Nichole celebrated L.M. Montgomery's Birthday on November 30 by naming a piece of music after a character in one of her books.