A Correction

Apparently I was wrong(not too surprising). Daniel was reading my previous blog post and alerted me to the grievous mistake. The song that he heard and started playing with Kathryn was "Chariots of Fire" not "St Elmo's Fire". Big difference. I think it just solidifies my earlier point...I just don't hear it.

The things I don't hear.

Kathryn likes to sit at the piano and find notes that sound good when played together. When she finds a grouping she likes, she'll play them over and over again, sometimes making up a song with just that chord. Today, she did just that. I was sitting here at the computer doing something and all I heard was a rhythmic pounding noise. I was about to ask her to do something else, when Daniel suddenly appeared from the bedroom and said "Keep doing that!". It startled both me and her and she stopped playing. He told her to keep doing what she was doing, but she couldn't remember what two notes she had been playing, so Daniel, plunked them out and told her to play them again like she had been doing. So she obeyed and started her rhythmic pounding, He directed her to go a little slower, and then a little faster and when she got it just right, he started playing "St Elmo's Fire". And then I could hear what he had heard, those two notes and the rhythm that she was playing them was like the intro to the "St. Elmo's Fire" song, before all I could hear was noise, but Daniel could hear the music. They played quite the duet. If I'd had my camera at hand I would have recorded it. Kathryn was beaming from ear to ear and Daniel was doing what he does when it comes to playing the piano.

That all being said, I don't always have Daniel here to hear the music in the notes that she is playing, and for the most part it is just noise to me. I think that we really need to take the time to teach this girl some piano so that she at least has some recognizable(to me) music to play.

Answers

I love how the Lord uses us to help others find answers to their own trials and problems.

Yesterday while I was playing around on the computer, I came across some useful information. It wasn't planned and I wasn't looking for that particular information. But I was glad that I found it and knew that it would be a good thing to know how to do.
Today Daniel and I went to the temple with some friends from our ward. In our travels and conversations, we ended up talking about this information. Turns out that it was information that one of my friends really needed to know and would really be a benefit to her and her family. I had no idea that she was looking for this information, or even how much she would appreciate me passing the information on to her. I just spent the last few minutes helping her find this information over the phone.

She made the comment that the Lord had led me to that information so that I could share it with her. I think she must be right. Why else would I happen upon it while doing something completely unrelated? Yes, that information will benefit me and my family as well, but it wasn't a really pressing matter for our family. I suppose what I am saying is that I am glad that the Lord could use me in such a simple way.

I know my Heavenly Father loves me, because he helps me know how to help my friends, even in unexpected ways.

Too close for comfort

I came home this morning from dropping off Tansley at pre-school and running a few errands to the smell of melting plastic. You know, like the smell that you get when you accidentally put a plastic bowl on a hot element. There was nothing on the stove and all the elements were off. I followed my nose down the stairs to the basement. I remembered that in the middle of the night Tansley had come and told me that the light in the bathroom downstairs was burnt out, but in the morning she told me it was working again. So I started my search in there, immediately I knew I must be in the right place. The light was on, but very dim. I turned the light off and went to take the cover off, but it was hot to the touch, not a good sign. I grabbed a towel and then loosened the screws and took off the cover, and the smell of melting plastic was even stronger. I unscrewed the bulb and could see the blackened ring. Again, not a good sign. I called Daniel at work to let him know what was going on, and he suggested that I make sure that the kids don't turn the switch on at all, so I put a piece of tape over the light switch.  When Daniel got home and took the ceiling fan down(don't ask my why there is a ceiling fan in the bathroom, it was there when we moved in and we have meant to replace it, but just haven't yet got around to it...we will now), this is what we found.

One of the wires was melted right through, and a good part of the plastic ring was reduced to ash. Sickening and scary. I was only gone for an hour this morning...any longer and I could have come back to nothing. Thankfully, somebody was looking out for us today.

I know my Heavenly Father loves me, because, today, my house didn't burn down.

Italian Wedding Soup

About a week ago I was wandering aimlessly through our local grocery store trying to think of something to make for supper. Something different. Something simple. Something tasty. AND something that I new my kids would eat.

A can of Campbell's Italian Wedding soup caught my eye. I stopped for a moment, picked up the can and thought. The only time I have had Italian wedding soup is at Eastside Mario's, and I loved it but I wasn't sure if my kids would like it. So I decided that I would have the soup and I would just make some boring soup for them. I paused and put the can of soup back on the shelf. I had a better idea. It was only noon, so I had plenty of time to go home and use my beloved google to find a recipe to make my own home made Italian wedding soup and time to come back to the grocery store to pick up what ever ingredients I didn't have at home. Before leaving the store, I bought some sausage and alphabet noodles(they were the cheapest and smallest noodles) because the picture on the can showed noodles and little meatballs, and I knew I had neither of those at home.

I headed home made lunch for the girls and promptly set out to find a recipe. I was surprised at how simple the recipes were. And that they actually sounded like something my girls would eat. I found this one and this one along with many others. And then I found this more complicated one that I would love to try sometime, but for that night I was looking for simple.

Using these recipes I ended up amending them as follows

Mandy's Italian wedding soup

8 cups chicken broth
2 cups finely shredded spinach
1 cup chopped carrots
1 cup small noodles (like alphabets or orzo)
10 breakfast sausages(because they are faster than making your own, but one day I'll make my own)
fresh grated Parmesan cheese

Remove casing form sausages, break each sausage into about 5 or 6 pieces and shape into meatballs. Fry in pan, when almost cooked all the way through, remove from pan and drain on paper towel. Bring chicken broth to a boil. Add spinach, carrots, noodles and meatballs. Return to a boil and boil for about 10 minutes or until noodles are at desired doneness. Dish into bowls and top with fresh Parmesan cheese. Enjoy the yumminess!

Keep in mind that they only thing that I actually measured here was the chicken broth, which I started out with 6 cups, but then added about another two after I had added everything else.

My girls loved this! So I decided to make it again this week. To go along with it I made some tuna salad. Sliced some croissants half way through, filled with the tuna and some cheddar cheese and baked them in the oven for an unknown amount of time(just enough time to melt the cheese and to make the outside of the croissant crispy). These too were a hit.