A few Sundays ago I asked the ward Family History Specialist for a little help.  I gave her a printout of my husbands pedigree chart and told her there are a few spots that I’m stuck on.   She took the paper and said she’d be happy to help.  I didn’t really think that she would be able to get past those names.  The next Sunday to my surprise she had found info on them.  And she didn’t stop there.  She kept going and going.  I got an email from her last night saying that she had prepared 43 names to go to the temple from Justins family.  FOURTY THREE NAMES!   That’s amazing!  It’s not only amazing that she found that info, but that she did it with a happy heart.  She served me and helped me in a way that I thought only my Mom would.   So what do I do for her in return?  Take her a plate of cake.  Somehow in the grand scheme of things that just doesn’t seem sufficient.  I’m sure she spent hours and hours doing research for me and all I give back in return is cake?!  I asked her what I could do for her and she said that she was just happy to help.  That is so rare in this day and age.  People today are so self-centered.  I hope I can be more giving like her and like my mom.  

To change the subject just for a second.  Look at Maddy!  I think I’m starving the poor baby. Wouldn’t you agree?

What was that? Was that a cool breeze I felt?  I think it may have been a little chill in the air {yesterday morning at 6 am.} But it was a chill nevertheless.  So I did what any other women who has survived a hot summer would do – I pulled out all the fall decorations!  I got everything up and noticed my bench was a little bare.  It needed something fallsy.  But what?  A pillow! When we bought the bench I had this ambitious idea in my head that I would make a lap quilt to drape over it for all the seasons and holidays.  Psh, that didn’t happen.  So I’ve settled on the idea of making a pillow to match whatever decor is up.  It seems much more doable. 

So after Macey was dropped off at preschool I pulled out my big box of scraps and found this leftover fabric from a quilt I had made my father-in-law.  It was perfect! It even has fall leaves on it.  So I sewed up the pillow top and embellished it with some felt leaves.  I topstiched those on, put it on the bench, and called it one of my best made up creations ever!  I love it! So what I wanna know is do you have your fall decorations up?  Or am I just weird?  It’s okay, I can handle the truth.

I had my first LARABAR last week and I loved it! It was chewy, yummy, healthy and …… expensive.  I’m sorry but two dollars for a tiny little bar of fruit and nuts is way too much for my budget.  Although,  it did keep me full for a long time.  Depending on which kind you get there are only 3-5 ingredients.  I figured I could make them at home.  How hard could it be?  Well, it turns out its pretty darn easy.  I googled it and there were some really helpful sites and some good Youtube videos on how to do it.  The ones I made last night are equal parts walnuts, dates, and dehydrated cherries.  I did about a half cup of each ingredient in the food processor for 30 seconds and then mushed it into balls, flatened it out into bars and wrapped it in saran wrap.  So easy, so healthy, so cheap. Here are some other LARABAR recipes:

Very Cherry: 1/4 cup dates, 1/4 cp dried cherries, 1/3 cup pecans, almonds or walnuts, 1/8 t. cinnamon.

Cashew Cookie dough: 1/3 cup dates, 1/2 cup raw cashews.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough: 1/3 up dates, 1/2 cup cashews, 1/2 t. vanilla, cinnamon, 1/2 oz. finely chopped semisweet chocolate.

Blueberry Bliss: 1/4 cup dried blueberries, 1/4 cup dates, 1/3 cup almonds, 1/2 t. lemon zest, 1 drop almond extract.

Mmm, those all sound soo good.  Hopefully I’ll get to make a new recipe every week – as long as Justin doesn’t get tired of them.  Give it a try and let me know what you think.

I am having soo much fun with all the things my Silhouette machine can do! I made this cute little boxes to take around to the people that I visit teach.  I didn’t want to go buy junk food to put in them because then I would have leftovers and I have been doing soo good at eating healthy food lately.  So I made low-fat Peanut Butter Brownies.  I hope they liked them.  At first you can kinda tell that they have whole wheat flour in them but after that they taste pretty good (well, they do to me anyways.)  Here’s the recipe if you want to give it a whirl.

Low-Fat Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies

 1/3 cup water

2/3 cup + 2 T. bean puree (white northern beans are good)

1 1/2 T. white distilled vinegar

1/3 cup peanut butter (I used the natural, non-hydrogenated stuff)

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 1/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup unsweetend cocoa powder

1/2 T. salt

1 t. baking soda

Pre-heat oven to 350. In  medium bowl, combine water, bean puree, vinegar and peanut butter and mix well.  In a separate bowl, mix flour, sugar, cocoa powder, salt and baking soda.  Mix the dry ingredients well with wet ingredients.  Pour in well greased 9×13 pan and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.  Top with icing directly out of the oven.

Icing

1/2 cup powedered sugar

2 T. peanut butter

2 T. milk (I used rice milk and it turned out really runny. Just a FYI)

Mix together and pour on top of brownies.

I peeked in on Macey last week while she was sleeping and she looked ridiculous all crammed into her little toddler bed.  I told Justin that it’s time for a big girl bed.  It only took a day or so to get everything all put together.  I had bought sheets at JCPennys for a twin size bed when they were on sale. And I had made this quilt for Macey last year.  I’m soo glad I did, because right now I don’t think I have the energy put something like that together.  This is probably my most favorite quilt I have made to date.  I have made MUCH fancier, more EXPENSIVE, very DETAILED quilts, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE this one.  Let me show you why.

I put a little extra strip of blocks on the backside.  I love it because, it’s kinda like a two-fer quilt.  The backside could be the frontside. Have you seen those new modern-like quilts where it’s just one little strip of color and the rest is solid? I love those!

My other favorite thing about this quilt is the TEXTURE! Let me show you.

All that crinkly homestiched goodness!  The blocks are topstiched right onto each other so when it’s washed the edges fray up all nice and pretty.  I love that it looks like a well-worn, well-loved quilt.  To me, making a quilt for someone equals giving them lots of love.  I want to make one just like it for Maddy in purple hues next year.  The pattern is very easy. I got it off of Crazy Mom Quilts.    I hope it inspires you to make something pretty!

My little Macey starts preschool next week.  I’m excited for her to go out and make new friends, but also sad that she’s actually old enough to go to school.  I picked up a bottle of hand sanitizer for her to give to her teacher and made a tag to go on it with my awesome little machine.  It says “Please let me know if you need a “hand” in the classroom, Mariesa M., phone number, (Maceys Mom).” I’m hoping that by having Macey give her teacher a present it will help her warm up to her and the whole idea of going to school.  And also if the teacher needs help she knows she can call me and hopefully I can get a babysitter for Maddy.  I got the tag idea from another blog, I wish I knew which one so I could link to it.  But anyways, if you like my idea feel free to copy it and put your pictures in the flickr group!

Linking to: Somewhat Simple , Creation Corner and Tatertots and Jello

If you have made anything off of the Ten Cow Chick blog, please share a picture! I just added a Flickr link on the menu bar.  So if you have made piggy bows, korker bows, a toddler dish towel bib, or anything off of the old Ten Cow Chick blog show us how it turned out!