The Power of a Cookbook

There I was, in Deseret Book, enjoying a few moments of peaceful relaxation, flipping through books and finding any excuse I could to stay a few minutes longer.

A teal colored book caught my eye, I love teal, so I picked it up.  It was a cookbook, I enjoy cookbooks.  There were many things about this book in particular that caught my attention.  The most notable though doesn't have much to do with the book itself.  It has more to do with what happened when I picked the book up: I remembered a movie.  When I first watched it, it didn't leave a very big impression and I didn't think about it after that. I thought it was kind of cute and moved on.  So, why was I thinking about it now?

I had no idea why.

After I finished looking at the book I decided to buy it, it was teal after all!

On the drive home I thought of the movie again.  It's called "Julie and Julia" and is about Julie Powers experience setting a goal to cook all the recipes in a cookbook written by Julia Child.  Can you see where this is going?

After I arrived home I pulled out the book and was going through it and shared the experience with my oldest.  Then I off-handedly said, "wouldn't it be funny if I did what Julie did, with Julia Child's cookbook"?

"Well, Mom, if you want it to be a goal, you have to write it down and share it with others"  by now he was at the white board in our kitchen with a dry erase marker in hand, ready to write.  Before I knew it, we had written down all the sections in the book and how many recipes there were in each section.  

So, now I have a new cookbook, and thanks to a movie I barely remembered and my oldest, momentarily pro-active son, I have a goal to cook all of the recipes in the book.  

For reasons I won't go into here cooking has become pretty rough for me.  It is fraught with anxiety and lack of motivation and I usually dread even the thought of it.

For some reason though, with this cookbook it has become almost fun again, I don't dread it anyway.  I am learning a lot of new things and enjoying the benefits of it.

So far I have cooked 12 of the recipes, and all of them have been a hit.  Even the one Caleb sort of freaked out about when he saw the picture, but ended up liking.

Within the short span of about 3 weeks, my family has eaten healthier, saved money, eaten more meals together then we otherwise would have, and I am learning lots of new things about cooking.

What is this cookbook you ask...  It is titled "The Pioneer Woman Cooks- Super Easy" and is by Ree Drummond

When Life Gives You Lemons

We are all given "lemons" in life.  We all struggle with something.  Some have more struggles (lemons) than others.  Some have struggles that no one else can see.  Sometimes we have struggles that others refuse to even acknowledge.  They come in all sorts of ways, physical, financial, mental, familial, etc.  We can also have more struggles at certain times then at other times.  You might have 5 lemons you are currently dealing with, while someone else might have just 1 or 2.  No matter the shape, size or timing we all are given lemons.

We can all choose what to do with these lemons.  We can carry them around and hold resentment for the fact that they are ours to bear.  Some might choose to take the burden on by themselves, trying to eat the lemon no matter how much their face might pucker.  Still others might try to rid themselves of their lemons by trying to blame others, or even getting revenge.  

How are we suppose to turn them into lemonade when it can be so heavy just to have them in the first place?  

We add sugar!

When we add sugar to our lemons they become bearable, even desirable.  If lemons are a metaphor for our burdens and problems, then what is the sugar suppose to represent?  How do we make hard things ok, and bearable?

What sugar do you add to your life to make it bearable, to make it sweet?  The concept of things that apply to every person on the planet and yet differ from person to person fascinates me.  We all need to eat, but not the same things.  We all need down time, to take care of ourselves but there are myriad ways in which we can accomplish this.  

Some of the things that add sweetness to my life, that make my life bearable are: friends, downtime, my relationship with God, hiking, exercising, reading, writing.

Yes, life gives us lemons, but that doesn't mean it is suppose to be bitter, it doesn't mean we are suppose to hate everything about it.  We can do things to add sweetness and turn our lemons into joy.  What things help sweeten your life?

Variety is the Spice of Life

While I was sitting in church today I was thinking about my husband and children.  How blessed we are to have so many varieties of personalities and likes and dislikes in the world.  I went through each person and thought of what they have brought into my life and into the family.  John has brought a love of board games.  Because of this I have a lot more confidence when it comes to games in general, it has expanded my mind and strengthened my critical thinking.  

Jeremiah has brought a lot of laughter into our home.  That is the first thing that comes to mind when I think of his good qualities.  He also loves Kung Fu.  His love of Kung Fu has increased the amount of physical exercise we all get.  John has been taking Kung Fu for some months now and is doing really well at it and really enjoying it.

Caleb loves nature.  His love of and interest in nature has done a lot of things for our family.  First of all it gets us outside more often, which is good.  Second it has greatly increased out knowledge of the out doors.  We play a game where we have to guess the animal that someone has picked and this not only holds their interest during waiting times, but has taught us a lot about the animal kingdom and about individual animals.

James Henry loves science.  His favorite field seems to be physics (who doesn't love a good bouncy ball and all the reactions that one can create with it).  But he has a general interest in most sciences.  He loved the fireworks he saw on the fourth of July.  He immediately asked when we could buy some and set them off.  Well the next time would be New Years Eve and we have had a reminder up on the calendar ever since.  With his excitement over fireworks we wouldn't have purchased fireworks for New Years Eve and wouldn't have had such an enjoyable time setting off fireworks with friends that night.  The best was seeing his excitement over watching them- he was in heaven!

Families, friends, even acquaintances can all add so much to our lives.  I am grateful for my family and the joy they have brought to my life, but also for the knowledge and exposure to things that otherwise wouldn't have happened.  It is a blessing to have a variety of people in our lives.