Beautiful Tuesday

We are having ideal weather! It's not as warm as it was a week ago (it was in the 70's!), but it is clear and beautiful and in the 50's. Perfect weather for working in the yard again, but I'm letting a blister heal, so didn't do too much today.

Just for fun, I'll run through the day, so you know what it's like around here. I slept in until 7, but Tom was up by 6/6:30. Matt was also up 6:30. He starts breakfast for whichever children are up. Tom and I left at 7:30 to go to the temple and were back around 10. Meredith and Garrett left for school about 8:30; Jianna walks them to school, and sometimes Haley walks along, too. But usually Haley and Bethany stay home with Dad (or Grandma, when I 'm here).

Then there's the usual routine stuff, like laundry that goes on each day. But today Matt and I went down the street to a new neighbor's to help set up our old bunkbed in their house. We found there was a need to move some furniture to make room for the bed first. It's a good thing Matt knows how to disconnect and reconnect computers and other stuff, because he needed to do that, too. We barely got back in time for Jianna to go to get Garrett from school at 12.

As beautiful as the day was, we had to convince Garrett and Haley that playing outside would be more fun than staying inside today (they wanted to watch TV). They played on the swingset and helped rake leaves and cut twigs. Meredith gets out of school at 2:50, and today had to get home quickly to get dressed in her Halloween costume and go to "activity day" with other girls her age in Primary.

The piano will finally be getting some regular use again. Meredith had her first lesson yesterday, and was able to learn the first half of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" during the lesson, and figure out the rest after hearing Matt play it after the lesson. She practiced yesterday and today, and is doing very well. Now Garrett wants to take piano lessons, too.

Jianna stayed at home working on dinner while I did the pickup of the carpool for Meredith's activity day. We had duck spring rolls, some other kind of rolls (like a crepe with scallions and filled with egg), and peas. Our meals are much more varied now than ever before, thanks to Matt and Jianna.

Tonight Thomas called with a question about paying his credit card bill. Karen also called, but it was time to eat, so we didn't get to talk much. It's always nice to hear from one or more of you.

The evening routine tends to be the same most nights. After dinner, baths are administered and dinner dishes washed. Then Meredith reads from the Book of Mormon with Matt. Then Jianna reads some scriptures to the family. After that, Matt reads from something a little lighter - they finished Harry Potter, and are currently reading "Bunnicula."

I couldn't resist sitting to write this for a few minutes, though I have several other things to do before going to bed tonight.

So I hope you all have a safe and pleasant day tomorrow. And I hope all the children enjoy Halloween!! We'll be at the door handing out the large candy bars Tom always buys. Everyone enjoys coming to our house on Halloween for those big candy bars. We usually have more than 100 trick-or-treaters! But there are always leftover candy bars:)

Happy Halloween, and love,

Mom/Pam/Grandma

New to blogging

So "Hi" to all of you who may check out our family blog. And "Thank you" to Karen for doing such a super job of trying to get us all to communicate more. It's been so wonderfully warm here through most of October, I'm not sure I can face any really cold weather yet.

Tom offered a job to a member of the Belmont 2 Ward to work in our yard, since she's out of work and has spent a little time working on the temple grounds. Margaret has come several times over the past couple of weeks to help do a fall cleanup. While she's working, I feel like I should be out there, too, and Jianna has also joined in. We're getting plenty of fresh air and exercise as the yard gets cleaned up.

The latest addition to the yard is a new swing set for the kids to play on. It has a climbing wall, ladder to a second story "house" with a steering wheel, periscope, telescope and telephone. Under the "house" is a picnic table, which can be converted to become a lower deck under the "house." On the side for swinging, there is a two-seater, a regular swing, a baby swing and a trapeze. All the grandchildren can enjoy it when you come to visit (hint, hint).

Well, we just completed living off of our food storage for a week, per the bishop's challenge to members of the ward. A week isn't really a challenge for us, since we keep so much food on hand. But, it is apparent to me that what I would miss right away if we were really living on food storage would be fresh produce. So, I think it a good idea to store some seeds for planting in season.

Today was our stake conference. President Bowen has been quite focused on preparedness for the past year or so. Today was the date by which members of the stake were to have:

1) at least a two-week supply of food, water, medicines, and cash
2) critical health information well-organized: medical prescriptions, prior inoculations, details for contacting your doctors, insurance, and bank accounts
3) a 72-hour emergency kit with copies of the critical information

I'm afraid I haven't completed the copies of the critical information yet. And since Matt, Jianna and the kids are here, our water supply is not up to two weeks' worth yet, but I do have two 55-gallon barrels outside ready to fill and store.

Life is busy, and it's hard to manage time to do the things that are important. But I feel so blessed. I was struck by Elder Eyring's talk at General Conference and came home and started a journal of blessings, which I have written in briefly each day. Each of you in our family is a blessing to me every day, and every day I think of you and pray for your welfare. I so enjoy being with you and hearing what you have to say. It makes me look hopefully forward to a day when we can all be together and enjoy each other's company without having to travel thousands of miles.

I'll encourage Tom/Dad/Grandfather to add to this blog. He always has some funny stories to relate. You might want to hear about the brief conversation he had with Elder Holland a couple of weeks ago when he was here for a singles education conference:)

Love to all of you,

Mom/Pam/Grandma

P.S. The picture at the beginning of this posting is Thomas with Isabella at the BHS graduation. I thought you might like to see a picture of Isabella. I'll take a picture of the swing set soon and Matt's kids in their Halloween costumes so you can see them, too.

Laurel's Violin Recital (Aug. '07)

Low-fat lemon squares

So, now that I have to eat low-fat food, I have had to come up with recipes for treats. Some things have been more successful than others. The lemon squares turned out quite well, so I'm posting the recipe for them. The crust is not quite as crunchy as when you use butter, but it's still good.

1/3 c. low-fat margarine (like Brummel and Brown)
1/4 c. sugar
1 c. flour
4 egg whites
3/4 c. sugar
2 T. flour
2 t. shredded lemon peel (opt.)
3 T. lemon juice
1/4 t. baking powder
2 drops yellow food coloring (optional, but it looks weird without it)
powdered sugar

Mix margarine and 1/4 c. sugar together. Add the 1 c. flour and combine until crumbly. Press into bottom of an 8x8 pan. Bake at 350 for 15 to 18 minutes.
Meanwhile, for the filling combine egg whites, 3/4 c. sugar, 2 T. flour, lemon peel, lemon juice, baking powder and food coloring.
Pour filling over crust once it is baked and bake 20 minutes more or until center is set. Cool and dust with powdered sugar.

Karen's Family update for October

We haven't had the newsletter up and running for such a long time that I'm not sure where to start. School is in full swing and the kids are happy about that for the most part. Laurel and Ben love school as always. I've experimented with letting them make their own lunches for school and it has worked out surprisingly well. They just need a little supervision so we don't have lunch boxes full of fruit snacks and crackers.

Megan has had a little trouble warming up to preschool because she's the only girl in her class. Luckily, she saves the drama for me in the morning and is quite happy by the time I come to pick her up at lunch time. And it's been nice to have some time to go to the library with Jacob. And to go grocery shopping without four kids in tow. I am enjoying the quiet, but I still miss them when they're all gone. I think it makes me realize how quickly they are growing up, which I don't really like to think about.

We have also been busy getting ready to move in a couple of weeks. It is a short move, but requires lots of packing and organizing nonetheless. It has been nice to go through everything and throw things away, though.

Since this is the first time I've blogged, I'm going to try put some pictures in from this summer. Just to make it more interesting. Remember this is the EAGAR family blog, not just the Meeker family blog, so please post some stuff!

The kids at Yellowstone in June:

Here's one that Laurel took (not bad):

And one that Ben took of Laurel taking a picture:

Sadly, most of his pictures were deleted every time he dropped his (inexpensive) camera and the batteries fell out... poor Ben.

And here are the kids when we went to the IS department camp out in August:

Megan with one of her famous picture poses:

Jacob hiding in the grass with part of the camp stove:

And Laurel playing with a glow stick (with a coworker's daughter looking on):

I guess Ben was having too much fun to sit still for the camera...

That's all for the Meekers, please send your posts so I have something to look at too!