Taking a stand.

I have debated and debated on whether or not I would make this post public. I originally wrote it on our private Forsyth Family FHE blog. I mostly fear the negative comments and heated discussion that may come from it. But after reading a few other posts on the same topic. I have decided that there may be some in my sphere that may benefit from reading what I have to say about it.

We recently had a learning experience in our home. While staying at Grandma and Grandpas one night, my 9yr old happened to see part of a detective TV show that really disturbed her. She had bad dreams for a few nights in a row. We talked a lot about it. I had her describe to me what she has seen. And any adult of even teenager, would not have even blinked at it (a little past feeling I suppose). But this one scene showed something that had never ever entered into her brain before and it greatly disturbed her. We had a talk about how terrible things happen in this world. I told her I wished that I could say that things like that never happened, but they do and it is awful. But just because things like that happen in the world, doesn't mean that we should watch it(a wake up call for me). We then had a discussion about what she could do when she started thinking about what she saw. A few days later she came to me and told me she was still having a hard time. I told her that Satan had found an in, and he was using it to get to her. I told her that she need to not let Satan win. I then had her write out her favorite scripture(Alma 30:44 "The scriptures are laid before thee, yea, and all things denote there is a God...") on a index card and carry it with her. Then she could read it when ever she started thinking about the show. Eventually she'd have it memorized and then she could used it when ever she had bad thoughts. I was grateful to have listened to that prompting, she hasn't had any problems since(at least not that she has told me).

A week or so after this happened, my sweetpea brought home a book from school that we had ordered through Scholasitc books. It looked like it would be a fun book for us to read together at night. When she came home with it, she gave it to me and said "Mom, do you think we can hold off reading this for awhile? I'm just afraid to read it because of the show I watched." I told her that that would be fine, we would read something different, and in the mean time I would read the first couple of chapters to see what the book was like. As I started to read it, I realised that it wasn't at all what we thought it was going to be. That the subject matter was to "old" for my kids, and that it likely wasn't a book that I would want them to read even when they were older. I asked her the next day if she had started reading it and if that was why she didn't want to read it. She told me that she hadn't because she was too scared. I told her that I was proud of her, because she had listened to the spirit warn her that that wasn't a book that she needed to read. We donated that book to the library.

The main thing that I learned from these incidences is that I need to be more careful about what I read and watch. Which brings me to the next part of my post...

Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE seems to be raving about how amazing the Hunger Games books and movie are. The premise of the books disturbs me. Today I read a little debate on a friends Facebook status about whether or not to let her kids watch the movie. I was astounded by what seemed to me, simple justification, of the commenters as to why they thought these were good books and movie.

One commenter wrote "I must be made of steel or something - I thought it was awesome, and again, I was that inappropriate MOM and took [my daughter] to it too. Somehow, watching it together we could talk about it and it was OK."

"I must be made of steel. " I believe that is what Nephi meant when he rebuked his brothers " But ye were past feeling, that ye could not feel his words;"(1Nephi 17:45). This statement does nothing to convince me that these books are worth reading. It does the absolute opposite and warns me that this is something I should probably stay away from.

Another said "See and while the movie was probably made for entertainment, I believe Suzanne Collins wrote the books with a much deeper message in mind. I also think we can have great discussions with our (older) kids about this. I mean, look at our obsession with reality TV- picking people at random for our amusement. Sure, killing is the extreme- but it's also showing corruption in the Government and the track we would take if that were to ever happen. And I also agree, that there is tons of literature out there made to shock (The Lottery, Lord of the Flies) I think it's a good thing if it makes us think."

So we are already watching crazy amounts of reality TV, let's take it to the extreme and throw in some violence and make it into a book. Now that sounds amusing. WHAT? I do agree that thinking is a good thing, but do I need to read fictional violence to encourage me to think? There is plenty of violence and war happening in this world that I can take the time to learn about that will get me to think. Is it really necessary to add it to our entertainment to get us to think?

And another "I feel that the books really portrayed a strong, important and sobering message. The thing is, there are children who actually live like this (well, not with the glamour and glitz) in a state of war, today. That's something I think we should be aware of and why I don't see the message as being so far out there. It's a reality for many in this world and we are fortunate that it isn't for us. But it COULD be, one day."


I can be aware of children who live in war torn areas. But I don't see a need to be "entertained" by it through fictional movies and books. If you want to read about children who actually live like this, try reading "A long way gone; memoirs of a boy soldier" by Ishmael Beah. This book is heartbreaking. It is not an easy read. It is graphic, it is very real. You will cry, the reality that is portrayed in this book is paralyzing. I'm sure there are other non-fiction books out there similar to this, this just happens to be one that I have read recently.

Another commenter mentioned "The Authors purpose in writing them was to teach kids about war and peace. I found them disturbing but because of the reality I saw in them. To teach kids about war is a powerful and vital thing. The horrors and realities of it and that sometimes you have to fight for peace which can be incredibly horrific. We are taking our kids to Vimy, France as well as Flanders Field in Belgium to help teach them about war. If we don't remember we will forget. Hopefully we raise our children to be strong enough to fight for what they believe is right which is taught through the hunger games trilogy." 

That's just it, there are other ways to teach our children about war and peace and it is important. But there are more meaningful ways to do it. Like discussing the wars that have shaped our country. Or about the wars that are shaping the world today. And yes, I want to raise our children to be strong enough to fight for what is right. But I do not feel that I need a fictional novel(or movie) laced with violence, to aid me in this quest.

And one with a statement I like least of all. "The message of the books have nothing to do, actually with killing, in and of itself. They were written to show how war affects children. At the end of the the trilogy, though things are getting on an even track, no one comes away unscathed. They aren't back to 'business as usual'. It's not a happily ever after, fairy tale ending where everyone gets what they want and the bad guys are all eradicated. 
We really live in a society that has been shielded from events similar to stuff like this, and in pondering some of these concepts, we can come to a better understanding of the importance of preserving our freedoms, of teaching our children and those around us about the importance of humanity, compassion and sanctity of life. It's not that far off that society can become depraved and destructive. The events that have, are and will happen the world around are reality.
It's true, they aren't for everyone. 
But they are certainly an education. Not an easy one, but one that helps us see the need to stay close to the Lord."


We are only shielded from similar events because we choose to be. If we wanted to learn about what is really going on in this world we can. Maybe not on the regular evening news, but seriously folks, can we not find just about anything on the great big world wide web these days? And honestly this isn't a new idea. Killing for pleasure and the entertainment of a crowd that has happened in many civilizations. Lets look at the ancient Gladiators that were thrown in an arena to fight their opponents to the death. Or how about the ancient Mayan soccer like games where teams literally played to the death. Or how about not so far in the past, Nazi Germany who killed millions of Jews, just because. Or any other genocides that have happened in the not so distant past.

And my least favorite statement, "But they are certainly an education. Not an easy one, but one that helps us see the need to stay close to the Lord." Since when do I need a fictional book to help me stay close to the Lord? Is there not enough war and bloodshed  in the Book of Mormon to help us see the need to stay close to the Lord?  Not only that, it then teaches us how to stay close to the Lord?

I don't doubt these books are well written. I am sure they are "entertaining". I can even believe that in the right environment, one may even learn some important lessons from reading them. But they aren't for me and my house. I admit I know very little about them. But what I do know has done nothing to endear me to them, but rather to warn me that I don't need them in my life.

I know there may be a day when my children will be older and may be required to read these books or similar books in school. We will deal with that when that time comes. I remember in High School reading "The Great Gatsby" and being appalled by it's content. My hope is that we will have taught our children sufficiently that when they are required to read such things, they too will be appalled because they will recognize the Spirit telling them so.

Please tell me I'm not the only one?

*************************update*****************************

I have since discovered that I am NOT the only one. You may find other posts on this topic here and here.
And one more post, that isn't directly about these books, but one that fits in quite nicely can be found here.

Yummy yummy easy peasy cinnamon bun bites.

I was perusing through a my Martha Stewart Living magazine, which for the most part I find completely useless(too many adds not enough interesting stuff). Any who, back to my story. I was flipping through and came across a picture of some tasty looking cinnamon bun-like things. But that was all there was, a full page of ooey gooey goodness.

from marthastewart.com

 But no recipe to be seen. Since I was looking for something else I kept flipping. And there it was at the end of the magazine, the recipe for Cinnamon-bun Bites. I was inspired. But the recipe was to finicky for my liking. So let me share with you what I did instead.

Cinnamon Bun Bites

1/2 cup water
4 large eggs
1/4 sugar
2 tsp course salt
1/2 cup margarine
4 cups flour
1 tbsp bread machine yeast

I have a bread machine and I love it. I use it whenever I can, and since I notice that the amounts were kinda sorta the same as to what I use when making bread I decided to make my life easier and toss everything in my bread machine, use the dough setting and let it do the work.

In the pan and waiting to go in the oven.

When the bread machine beeped to let me know it was done working. I took out the dough and kneaded it for awhile. I prepared a pie plate(you could use a 9x9 glass cake pan) by melting a little bit of butter(the real stuff) in the bottom of it and spreading it around. I mixed 1 cup of sugar and 2 tbsp of cinnamon in a bowl. I melted 1/4 cup butter(again the real stuff) in another bowl. Then I sat down at the table with my 4yr old daughter and we began making little balls and dipping them first in the melted butter and then rolling them in the cinnamon sugar and placing each one in the pie plate. When all the dough had been used, I drizzled the left over butter on top and sprinkled the left over cinnamon sugar on as well. Then I set them aside to rise for 30mins. They are now baking in the oven at 350F for 45min. Don't forget to put the pie plate on a rimmed baking sheet, otherwise all that ooey gooey cinnamony sugary stuff will drip onto the bottom of your oven and make a really big mess. When they are done I will use the glaze recipe in the magazine to top them off.

Vanilla Glaze
1 cup icing sugar
1/2 tsp course salt
2 tbsp butter, melted
2 tbsp whole milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Stir together sugar and salt in a small bowl. Whisk butter, milk and vanilla and stir into sugar until mixture forms a smooth paste. Keep glaze at room temperature until ready to glaze cinnamon bites. Before using whisk until smooth.

I can't wait for them to be done!!!

All Done...now how am I supposed to not just eat the whole thing?

Sunday Dinner

Here is what we ate for Sunday Dinner.

 Tasty Crispy Meatloaf. You can find the recipe HERE...no seriously go find the recipe and try it out. I made it exactly as stated but with out the wild mushrooms because I didn't have any on hand. It was a huge bit with everyone, kids and adults alike. I think I shall forever make meatloaf like this.

Simple mashed potatoes, fancied up with a huge dollop of real butter and an equal if not bigger sized dollop of cream cheese and some chopped up chives...oh and my regular sprinkling of garlic salt.

And some yummy dinner buns that I had my girls shape by simply putting three little balls in each cup of a muffin tin.

We also had a green salad(everyone knows what that looks like, so no pic) and some roasted green beans with pecans and cranberries, But I didn't take a picture of those, they were still in the oven and then I forgot.

Chicken Amatriciana OH. MY. WORD.

My favorite pasta dish of all times I found at East Side Mario's. Chicken Amatriciana. SO GOOD! And now that East Side Mario's has closed down in Lethbridge I have been with out for quite some time. I had seen a recipe on Pintrest for Olive Garden's Spaghetti Carbonara and that got me thinking about my favorite pasta dish. So last night I decided to google it and see if I could come up with a recipe. I found this recipe. It sounded about right, but I was disappointed with the canned alfredo sauce and Four cheese tomato sauce. For me, a recipe from scratch means the sauce is from scratch too. So I did some searching and found this recipe for Rose Sauce. I followed it almost exactly with a few simple changes. I knew that my kids would not like this dish so I made them a version of the Spaghetti Carbonara, but with thinly sliced hot dogs instead of bacon. Since I was making a cream sauce for this recipe I thought I would use it in my rose sauce. Alright now that I have given you all of that preamble, I'll share the recipe that I came up with using these three as a guide.

Mandy's Chicken Amatriciana

The Tomato Sauce
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons minced onion
3 cloves garlic, presses
1 398ml(14oz) can of crushed tomatoes
1/4 cup water

Heat olive oil in sauce pan med-high heat. Add basil, thyme, oregano and red pepper flakes. Cook until fragrant, but be careful not to burn them. Add minced onion and pressed garlic, and saute until onions are translucent. at crushed tomatoes and water. Bring to a boil and let simmer.

The Cream Sauce
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
1 1/2 cups milk
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1 tbsp onion

Heat olive oil in sauce pan over med-high heat. Saute onions until translucent. Remove onion to a bowl. Melt butter in a sauce pan. Add flour and stir until paste is formed. Add milk, salt and pepper and stir continually; until it just comes to a boil, reduce heat and stir occasionally until thickened. Add sauteed onions, remove from heat and let sit 5 min.

The other stuff
1 large chicken breast, diced or sliced
7 strips of bacon
1 green pepper(if I had a red one I would have used it)
1/4lb Asparagus( a last minute addition. When I opened the fridge to get the pepper I saw it and had to have it)
and some past of your choice...how ever much you think you are going to eat. I have no idea how much I actually cooked.

Cook bacon in fry pan until crispy. Drain on paper towel. Add chicken to fry pan and cook until cooked through. Set a side. Add a little olive oil to the fry pan and saute green peppers. Cook until tender crisp. Set aside. Add a little more oil and saute asparagus until tender crisp and bright green. This is where we put it all together. Stir the cream sauce in with the tomato sauce. Now I only used about half of this sauce the rest I put away in the fridge for another day. (But if you want to make a bigger batch you can double the "other stuff" ingredients.) After you have set aside half of the sauce, add the chicken, bacon, and vegetables. You can either spoon this over you cooked pasta or add the pasta right in. I ended up with enough to make two big plates of pasta. And yes, I ate one entire big plate of pasta. It was so GOOD, I just didn't care.

A short but long walk

We all went for a walk to the grocery store this afternoon. I pushed the boy in the chariot the 6 blocks down to the store. I parked the chariot outside and let the boy out and walk around with me in the store. We bought our groceries and then headed back home. Once you let the boy out of the chariot, he doesn't usually have any plans on getting back in. Today was no different, but that was OK considering that I had put the groceries in the chariot and there wasn't all that much room left over for the boy. So we began our very slow walk home. Today he actually walked all the way home. In times past he has given up and wanted to get back in after we have walked about half way home. The boy makes me smile. The entire trip is one discovery after another. He has to walk through all the fresh snow and every foot print he makes in the snow is amazing. He stops at the sound of every big truck that passes and watches it until he can no longer see it. He stops and bends down to examine pine cones, rocks, sticks and piles of dirt. There is a little cement block barrier that he loves to walk along while holding my hand. He says all kinds of things with excitement. I wish I knew what he was saying. He points to things off in the distance. Sometimes he asks "what's that?" sometimes he exclaims something else that I don't understand. I try to just tell him about what he is seeing, giving him names of things and colours. He'll pick up a pine cone or a rock and carry it for awhile before throwing it on to the road. We talk about how it feels and what it is. I love to just watch him. I couldn't help but smile the whole way home. The two older girls had ran off ahead so it was just Munchkin and the boy. It was nice to just take our time and enjoy everything around us. I love these moments.

A Request for Pancakes

My SIL requested my pancake recipe after a posted this picture on my Facebook.

Strawberry Chocolate Chip pancakes topped with whipped cream, strawberries and chocolate.

So here is my basic recipe

Good Morning Pancakes

2 cups flour

1tbsp baking powder

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

3 eggs

1 cup milk

1 cup water

1/2 cup melted butter

1 tsp vanilla

Mix dry ingredients together. Beat eggs. Add all wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until just mixed but still lumpy.

OK, so that is the basic recipe, but I frequently make the following changes

2 eggs instead of 3

1/3cup(ish) apple sauce and 1/4cup(ish) oil  instead of 1/2cup melted butter (I never measure out the apple sauce and oil, I just kinda guess, sometime because of my guessing I need to also adjust the amount of water to get just the right pancake consistency)

This recipe works for me all of the time. At times I have added my canned pumpkin pie filling instead of the apple sauce and this makes a very tasty breakfast. We have added blueberries, diced apples, cinnamon, peaches, raspberries and of course strawberries and chocolate chips. We've also been known to add all kinds of strange colours to our pancake batter. No matter what we add, they have always been delicious. This is also the recipe that my 9yr old uses when she makes pancakes, something she's been doing for a couple of years now.

What do you like in your pancakes? If you give this recipe a try let me know how it goes.

New Vision

Can you see the difference?  I can!

I don't really understand the changes that have taken place in regards to Kymberly's vision over the past 6 months or so. But this is what I know. Today when her new glasses came in the mail and she wore them for the first time, she was amazed at all the things she could see. Over the past 6 months her eyes have being slowly adjusting to the changes that surgery brought on. But in that time she also developed astigmatism in one eye. So even though her eyes have started working together, one of them began seeing things somewhat blurry. On our walk home from the post office she exclaimed "Mom, I can even see the green sign!". She was looking at the small green street sign a couple blocks ahead of us. "Mom, these glasses make me see really far away!" What a thrill it must be for her. For the first time in her 4 and half years of life, she's beginning to see things as they really are. She is still developing that sense of depth and learning to trust what she sees.

Here's a little shameless plug. I purchased her glasses online at my favorite place zennioptical.com. We got 2 pair of glasses(including shipping) for under $50. Seriously, if you are in the market for new glasses or know somebody who is, GO CHECK IT OUT! You won't regret it.