Johnny Lingo Night: A YW Activity

• Buy some cheap Hawaiian leis. And tell them to wear their Hawaiian shirts or clothes if they have them. • 1 Paper doll. Give her a modern name. Make her big, like as big as a smallish poster board. Make her cute and color her. Cut her out. Take some time. • Download the movie, Johnny Lingo from lds.org. o https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2011-05-0010-johnny-lingo?lang=eng o It’s old and corny, but you will be surprised at how the girls will love it. • Handout: I made these using postcards that you can buy at the office supply store. This is what I put on them:

• Ingredients for Pineapple Dole Whip Smoothies The Activity: • Begin with story of your paper doll. Make sure they are paying attention when you tell her story. I am going to call mine Maria. Maria is a (whatever age of girl you are working with). She likes reading, movies and hanging out. She loves to wear her favorite styles. Sometimes her friends are kind of sarcastic with her. They might say, “Maria, wow, those shorts are so stylish. Where did you get them? From your mother?” And then they laugh; only Maria feels bad. (Rip off one of her arms. You keep telling her story where people are rude or sarcastic to her, and as you tell them what is said to her, she feels sad and you rip off another piece until she is in pieces. This usually make people sit there in shock. How could you rip her up? You spent so much time on her. Explain how our words are sometimes used to attack, demean, or cause pain to other people. • Watch the movie Johnny Lingo. They WILL make fun of it at first, but for me, the minute Moki, the father says, “Mahana, you ugly,” they are hooked. • Discuss the movie. My favorite new “Come Follow Me” question: “What did you notice in that movie? Have a good discussion. Talk about your own feelings and experience but let them share their own. • Hand out the poem. • Make Dole Whips: My recipe: • Ingredients: o 4 cups frozen pineapple chunks o 1/2 cup milk o 1/8 tsp salt o 2 Tbsp sugar o 1 Tbsp lemon juice • Blend all ingredients together and drink it like a smoothie. WE also ate some store bought coconut cookies to go with our tropical theme. I put little umbrellas in their smoothies as well.

Okay, for today, I have three new pictures for your pinning pleasure. One is something a friend of mine asked if she could pin, and inspired me to come back to my blog. The other two are some I made for my Young Women as we had a lesson Sunday on Being kinder to each other. They all relate, so they can all go on this blog. The first one I made after coming home frustrated from yet another activity that was centered around eating things I know I shouldn't. Last year I was diagnosed with diabetes (type 2) and I have scratched and clawed my way to being very healthy and controlling my blood sugar. If you don't live with me, you don't know how hard it has been to change the way I have been for my whole entire life into this new creature who does not want to live an agonizing life of being sick all the time, just because I like to eat too much. It is HARD. EVERY DAY. I don't take breaks from my life-style that I have adopted because I am an addict; give me a cookie and I'll eat 10. So I was at this party with people who care about me, I know they do, but they don't understand what it's like to be me, so they insist that I eat stuff at their party. I didn't even want to go to the party, because I knew what it would be about. I ate one piece of celery to appease the honored because she said I had to eat something. Even though I told her I had just eaten dinner. Even though I was full. I HAD TO EAT SOMETHING. So I made this sign.

Please understand what I am saying. Just because you don't think it's a party unless you are stuffed, bloated and feeling icky, doesn't mean that is what I mean. The other two relate because we need to help each other rather than not help each other. First, we need to build each other. If you are working on something, I hope to all that is holy that I am your biggest supporter. I want to lift and to build. So this is what I made for my girlies:

And then, because I want everyone to know what my goal is, the third one is about being who you are no matter where you are. It is an amazing quote.

Enjoy! Pin away!

Starting back up again

It has come to my attention that perhaps the time has come to start up my blog again. I am starting to get into designing thoughts and sayings, and some people would like to pin them, but they can't do that from Facebook. So I thought I would put them here. First off, let me say that I love doing this. I have done some fun things for my Young Women (did I tell you I was in Young Women's now? It HAS been a long time!) But before I begin, a word of caution. I am going to fill this blog with my philosophy in life. I make no apologies. I am targeting no one. My philosophy might not be your philosophy. Please play nice. I have recently had an episode in my life where I put my philosophy out there to share and someone thought I was targeting her. I was not. I was defending my philosophy. I also have seen in a group that I belong to that some people get really offended when someone posts something they don't agree with. Honestly I could go around with carrying my fence around all day (personal joke, don't take a fence (offence)) about things people say or do, but it would give me too many wrinkles, and since I am a grandmother now, I already have my fair share. So take this in the Spirit it is intended, and we will have some fun. I will post some of my design work, and you can pin it on pinterest. Yeah for us.

Happy Bean Soup and Being Brave

So, little did I know when I woke up this morning I would be making a pot of my delicious Happy Bean Soup. I have been toying with the idea of entering Deseret Book's soup contest. The prize is for a $100 gift certificate, but that isn't why I wanted to do this. I reinvented this soup a few years ago when Randy asked me to make him some white bean soup. I had no idea how to make white bean soup. The only thing I did know was that you needed a ham bone. So I looked up a recipe and it seemed good to me. It had parsnips in it. I had NEVER eaten parsnips before, and wasn't sure what they looked like. (4th picture down on the right) I had never tasted them before either. Here is what I did to make this soup mine: First of all, I replaced most of the butter used with truffle oil. If you have never had truffle oil, well, it is heavenly. It is pungent and earthy and makes things taste amazing. Truffles are one of the most expensive foods on the planet. The way to get around the cost is to use infused oil. Try to find the smelliest oil you can. Price doesn't always determine this. A bottle costs anywhere between $11 and $23 depending on where you shop. I think we decided that the best was from Williams and Sonoma. Worth the investment, really, I kid you not. The other thing I did to tweak the recipe was to double the amount of ham. More ham more good in my book. The final thing that makes it mine not theirs and I think adds tremendously to the taste is to use vegetable stock instead of water. I think I used water the first few times I tried it and then decided to try veggie stock. IT TASTES TOTALLY BETTER! Mine is way better than THEIRS. So I made soup today and took pictures. You had to add a picture to your entry. I don't know if I will win. But I have shared with you a wonderul recipe and if you like it, and you smile, it will make me happy.

Texas Caviar

What my husband is obsessed with lately. And it's tasty too. Being the gringos we are, we don't add the jalapenos, but you can do what you like with it. Oh and I've discovered we like either nice cherry or grape tomatoes quartered in this better than regular big tomatoes because they have more flavor. Enjoy....

The first and the last. Last time for Stephen to start school (he's a senior); Last child to go to elementary school in her final year... first time driving to A hour which I am blessed (no sarcasm here, is there???) for an entire year. What a day

This Is Me Challenge: Challenge #17—You say “Yes”, I say “No”

This Is Me Challenge: Challenge #17—You say “Yes”, I say “No”http://scatteredsunshine-mommabees.blogspot.com/2011/08/yes-and-no.html