Counting my blessings.

Wow. It's been a week FULL of anxiousness, stress, worry, busy-ness, and so forth and so on.

I went to the temple on Wednesday evening to pray and find peace.

It was there.

It was a super cold day, and it had snowed the day prior, so the temple was a little s l o w. When I arrived, there was no one else outside, and the temple glowed in the darkness of the evening. The words in my mind at that moment were literally "peace on earth."

Bill was out of town all week, running flying like a crazy man from one place to another. He got home last night (or I should say this morning) at 2am, then had to be out the door this morning by 8. It's been a little stressful and hard to be a single parent this week as I have worked diligently to prepare the house for Sister Syddall's return and the ensuing company, while also attending to the schedule and needs of Mar + Bishop wife responsibilities + worrisome grandbaby news.

Tuesday night was the Bishop's Bash, which the Bishop didn't attend... but it was at his house, so I guess that counts hahahahaha. Not trying to be over-anxious or anything, but I'm hoping this is our last Bishop's Bash EVER. Out of the past 9 years, I believe only twice we have not had this exciting youth activity at our house. {Can I be done already???} It started way back when I was in YW and our Bishop lived across the street from us... little did I know how many years I would clean and decorate my house in order to host tons of wet/snowy-shoed youth ready to party it up. As Bill patiently listened to my soul's complaint about it this year (since he was going to be MIA), he said, "But the youth LOVE this activity." 

This year those who planned it added a few new activities like caroling and cookie decorating + hot chocolate. And Bill is right, the youth LOVE it. I'm just glad it's over haha.

Mar had tryouts for the Spring musical on Wednesday, and she had practiced incessantly for several days to have her "16 bars" prepared. She stressed and worried for the 3 days prior that she was getting sick and would not be able to sing (and breathe, for that matter). At her designated time, I drove her to the school and sat outside and waited. When she came back to the car, she said, "I don't want to talk about it or I'll cry, but I bombed it." I asked her how she thought she bombed it (obviously ignoring her first request). On her list: forgot some words to the song (don't ask me HOW, since she had been singing the same 16 bars for dayssss), hit a transition note wrong throwing the rest of the selection off, and took two breaths where there should have been none. AND, because she was so stressed at the other mistakes, she didn't do half the expressive actions she had intended. 

Sigh. I gave her my best mom advice... "whatever is supposed to happen, will happen, and you learned some valuable lessons for the next time you tryout."

Today she texted me "I MADE IT IN!!! I'm a female villager!"

So so happy for her! And glad she's not a male villager haha.

Seriously, perfect. It will require less time than a larger part, but will give Mar some great experience.

ALSO on Wednesday I received word that my almost full-term granddaughter might have a little complication. Something a little concerning was seen on an ultrasound, and they wanted Nae to come in for some more tests. I quickly googled the complication and was sick to see what devastating possible outcomes there could be. But I loved Nae's sweet text that said "Just trying not to stress about it and put our faith in the Lord that everything will work out for the best."

Wednesday was hard, so a perfect day to go to the temple.


Yesterday (Thursday) I received a friend request on FB from someone I didn't know. Usually I don't respond, but I clicked on this person and saw that our other mutual friend was one of the senior Sisters that Shi had served with on her mission, so I accepted the request. Within a few minutes, I had a message from my new friend that she lived in the ward where Shi is currently serving (for the whole 10 days she served there), and Shi's companions wanted to surprise her at their zone meeting the day before she was going home with a video clip from me, and would I be able to make a brief video and share it with her, then she would make sure the Sisters had it for the meeting. I've said here many times that I am NOT tech savvy (which I also mentioned on the video), so it took some time to figure things out, then almost the entire day to find a way to get the video to send. I'm not sure if it wouldn't send over FB due to international regulations or what, but I ended up having to put it on youtube to send it. This sweet, amazing new friend went above and beyond to get this message to Shi.  Because I know that not many people (hardly any strangers) read my blog, I'm going to share it here for memory's sake and your viewing pleasure (***Warning... I'm an ugly crier***)

I'm still not sure if it's what Shi's companions wanted (did they want something longer? something funnier? something more entertaining?), but it was still fun to send her a message. I'm excited to hear how it all went down. My new friend messaged me this morning that the Sisters got the video in time, and that Shi was probably now on her way to London to spend the evening with President and Sister Stevens before they send her off tomorrow. LOVED HEARING THIS TODAY.

Also today, news that baby E looks good!! What a relief. 

I'm counting my blessings today.

27 1/2 hours until Lo is home. I hope I can sleep tonight!

Neighbor gifts 2016: I want candy + 25 ways in 25 days.

I'm diligently trying to check off my to-do list so I'll have time to focus on my family during the season. What to give for neighbor gifts is always a struggle to figure out. I decided {again} to do homemade candy, and since I wanted to get it delivered EARLY, had the idea {inspiration, prompting} to add the #LightTheWorld challenge (the perfect reason to deliver goodies on Nov. 30th).

I tried out a couple of new candies this year (I've been in candy mode... probably because I have been trying to cut the sugar in my life hahahaha). Some were more successful than others, but, honestly, I think they were all delicious (I HAD to try them before gifting, you know).

These are a new favorite... Big Hunks. Yum. (Recipe here)

I call these Weeping Martha Washingtons... since mine were weeping hahahahaha. (Recipe here)

(They looked better once they were trimmed and packaged up.)

White Chocolate Cranberry Fudge (Recipe here)

Almond Toffee (I'm getting better at making it). I don't really have a functioning candy thermometer, so I was going by sight and intuition... turned out yum. (This is a friend's recipe that I've had for years... I will post it on my recipe blog... soon.)

And of course I'm already on my third batch of Mrs. Allen's Candy. (Recipe here)

And I almost forgot (since I had no pictures), I also made homemade Butterfingers. These are super yummy, but they are a bit of a mess to make, with a lot of flaky waste that I ended up throwing away. This recipe is NOT the one made with candy corn, which apparently does not have the same crunch as true Butterfingers. This recipe has the same crunch as the real thing PLUS they taste better (made with real peanut butter). I will also post it on my recipe blog... soon.

I packaged it all up in the perfect white boxes I got while in CA on Spring Break at my favorite Smart & Final (wish I had one here!).

I ran out of my perfect white boxes, however, so I grabbed my little tin beauties I had picked up at the Dollar Store (for taking meals to people) a while back. They were pretty perfect, too.

Because I really wanted to get these things DELIVERED without seeming too sickeningly early for neighbor Christmas gifts, the #LightTheWorld advent challenge was the perfect addition... slightly simplified (with scripture references included) for our non-member AND member friends.

I switched a couple of the days (shhhhh... don't tell) so that the gratitude day was on our garbage day, just in case people wanted to thank the garbage men. Seriously, we've been giving them a card with a little cash for years and they BRING OUR GARBAGE CANS UP TO THE GARAGE EVERY WEEK. Every week, people. That's a lot o' extra steps for those busy guys, but it just shows me how much they appreciate the kindness.

Once everything was assembled, Bill and Mar took them all out.

I have a couple other things I need to get/take to a couple neighbors (one family follows a very strict diet, so I figured they wouldn't love the candy), then I can call it good. The goal is to have it all done by tomorrow.

9 more days.