Company chicken salad

I used to just make chicken salad for girls' nights, book club, baby showers, and lunches with friends over. Then Jack asked why I never make it for him, because he likes it. So I started making it for dinner, too, with homemade bread and lettuce leaves so you can have a sandwich or a wrap or both.

My favorite secret ingredient for chicken salad is leftover fried chicken. You know, Bush's, KFC, grocery store deli: the crispy, salty, deep-fried, fatty chicken that is not good for you at all. It makes really, really awesome chicken salad.

We went to a family gathering last weekend and ended up coming home with a bunch of fried chicken, which we ate for dinner once, and then I deboned the rest, including removing most of the crispy fried skin (awww, but that's the good part!), and made a gigantic chicken salad. Yum.

So, sorry the recipe has no measurements. It depends on how much chicken you have and how much sweet and crunch you like, but ratio-wise I probably make mine with equal amounts of grapes and celery, a fourth as much onion and parsley, and twice as much chicken. Then I start with a scoop of mayo and stir. If it sticks together, it's good; if it's too dry, I add more.

Fried Chicken Salad

several deep fried chicken legs, thighs, and breasts, bones and skin removed
red grapes, quartered
celery, diced
green onions, sliced
fresh parsley, minced
a scoop of mayonnaise
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Mix well, serve with fresh baked bread and lettuce leaves.

Ice lanterns

One of the more impressive craft projects

with the least amount of work

and most fun for the kids

(fire AND ice?!? you're the best mom ever!)

we've ever done. Twice now. And again soon.

But I like Daddy!

Jack has to go to a work conference for a couple of days, so today he was telling the kids that he would be out of town. His conversation with Ellen went like this:

Daddy: "I'm not going to be sleeping here tomorrow night, Ellen."
Ellen: Immediately bursts into tears, wailing, and sobbing.
Daddy: "What's the matter? It's just for a couple of days. I'll be back."
Ellen: "But I like Daddy!"

Sheesh. She's only seven. I can't wait to see what we get when she's a teenager.

Farm Day

The Heritage Homestead Fair was so much fun! We met up with cousins the Friday after Thanksgiving and spent the morning petting goats, holding puppies and bunnies, running the hay bale maze, washing our hands, watching sheep shearing, plowing, a barn raising, eating kettle corn, pretzels, cookies, and going on a hay ride. I was the mom who dressed all my kids in t-shirts because it was sunny when we left the house. Then it got cold so we borrowed what we could. The kids still had lots of fun, and when Elijah's lips started going blue we called it a morning. :)

Joshua, Eva, Ellen, Caleb, Aunt Rebecca, Maylee
Evan, Jack, Claire, Garin, Aunt Heather, Lucia
Karen, Rose, me, Elijah (13 out of 23 grandkids)
Not pictured: Uncle Travis, Uncle Allen, and Grandma Shutt

Ellen was not feeling the cousin picture. She was cold.

Rose hanging with the boys

This plowing was serious business. Super manual labor here. No John Deere.



Uncle Travis helped raise the barn.

Waiting for the hayride and finishing off the kettle corn.

Thanks for a fun morning, cousins!

Grateful for love

I'm so glad we went to see Jack's brother get married last weekend. Such a cute couple. Also, I am glad that out of the very few pictures we got of our kids, they turned out like this:

And this:

I forgot the shirt that normally goes under Rose's dress.

And this:

And this:

The other picture I have of Jack shows him picking his nose. Hmm.

And of course we have no pictures of Jack and I, even though people were snapping pictures right and left. Thanks for inviting us to your wedding, William and Jessica!

Creativity

Today I am thankful for a sister who lives close, and kids who love to play with their cousins. I can't post pictures because I don't want to ruin the surprise, but who knew glue guns and fabric scraps could be so fun and cute?

Texas weather

My grandmother sends out a family newsletter, which I love, and in addition to all the cute pictures of babies born and graduations and weddings and mission calls, she mentioned that she had twenty-four inches of snow in her front yard and was without power for a few hours.

Today I wore a t-shirt and flip flops to walk my kids to school. We spent some time at a friend's house this morning and played outside. We're planning some outside activities for our upcoming days off of school for Thanksgiving. My kids ask me several times a week when it's going to be winter because they're anxious to build a snowman. They may feel a little cheated when we get to spring and they realize that it just doesn't snow much in Waco. In my life, the average is about every seven years, and it's not enough to build a snowman.

I'm grateful for the mild winter weather today.

Here's a quote I reread today that I heard and loved during the most recent General Conference:
"Although His time is not always our time, we can be sure that the Lord keeps his promises. For any of you who now feel that He is hard to reach, I testify that the day will come that we all will see Him face to face. Just as there is nothing now to obscure His view of us, there will be nothing to obscure our view of Him. We will all stand before Him in person. Like my granddaughter, we want to see Jesus Christ now, but our certain reunion with Him at the judgment bar will be more pleasing if we first do the things that will make Him as familiar to us as we are to Him. As we serve Him, we become like Him, and we feel closer to Him as we approach that day when nothing will hide our view."

Music and Mom

Today and everyday I'm grateful for my mom. I'm so glad she left volumes and volumes of written ideas, thoughts, and feelings. I find journals, notebooks, planners, and random notes when I'm least expecting it. Recently I found something else completely unexpected.

A few years ago one of my brothers recorded Mom playing the piano and made a CD. I was looking for some Christmas CDs I have and found my mom's piano CD, which I don't think I've ever listened to. I turned it on and it was like she was in the other room playing the piano again. She recorded all her favorite songs to play, songs I've heard my entire life. She also included an arrangement of "Love One Another" that I did for my grandmother's 80th birthday, and it took me a minute to realize why it sounded so familiar to me. One track features my brother Matthew singing with my mom accompanying. I am so, so, so glad she took the time to make the recordings.

I had the CD playing while I was getting breakfast ready and making lunches for Jack and Ellen before school. Ellen came out and said, "I know these songs! Grandma played them on her piano." So sweet.

That's my mom in the picture with Ellen on the day she was born and the day Mom found out her name was Ellen, too.

Fall

I have a love/hate relationship with fall. I love school supplies, sweaters, long sleeves, fun socks, jeans, playing outside in the cooler weather, and feeling cool sheets around me as I go to sleep. I love how the kids sleep better when it's cooler. I love the anticipation of the holidays and happy memories of years past. I want to really love fall. But I don't.

The cold, darker days make it harder to get out of bed, the kids sleep later and don't want to get ready for school, it's harder to motivate myself to do things, and watching the leaves and grass turn brown and go dormant is a little depressing. It's easy to feel nostalgic, miss family and friends, and remember how short and fleeting mortality is.

Which leads me back to what I absolutely love most about fall. The physical changing of the seasons and the word itself, fall, always reminds me of my own imperfections and complete dependence on the only one who overcame death and brings life and light to the world.

When my kids argue with me or fight with each other or just need a time out, they get to sit in the kitchen and work on memorizing a scripture with me. Right now we're working on a verse that describes our relationship with the Fall really well:

"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father." Mosiah 3:19

I'm thankful for fall, for the constant reminder of what the Savior did for me, how much I need his sacrifice, and how much he loves us all.

The gang's all here.

The kids were anxious one Sunday for a photo shoot with all their friends. Elijah insisted on holding Pooh, so Jack posed with Tigger for the group picture.

My sister made this awesome set of life-sized crocheted Pooh and friends.

Pooh.

Piglet.

Eeyore.

Tigger.

Mom got in on the fun, too!