Don’t you just love to make something out of nothing?  Here are a few thoughts from President Uchtdorf (from my church) that were put into a short video from the Relief Society broadcast last fall.  It is from the www.lds.org website.

Create Video

He expresses that because we are Heavenly Father’s children and He created us, that we have those same desires to create here on earth.  And, yes, we help create children, but we also have a desire to make the world around us a better place.  To create something out of nothing.

So, I wanted to post a few things that I have created this past year.  It has been so fun to try new things and CREATE stuff for my home and for others.

First, I discovered that refinishing furniture is a lot of fun.

Grandma Pratt had this old, beat up shelf thing on her back porch.  It had been painted brown and was in pretty bad shape due to the weather.  She said it was Jared’s that he had made in wood shop class in high school.  I painted it all up and had a great time.  I proudly showed the finished project to John and he said, “I made that!”  So, it was actually John’s creation!  So, it stays in the family.  I put a distressed finish on it.

And here is the king head board that Grandma gave us.  I thought it was a bit outdated.

I put a white finish on it first…

Then, I distressed it as well.

And, here is how my room looks now.  (I have a lamp for the “side table” but it is being used to hatch a robin egg right now.  Not that the egg will hatch, but Ivan had to try.)

I also did some sewing for Christmas.  I made these cool reversible aprons for some friends of mine.

And, here is what I’ve been up to most recently.

Yup.  I made these!  Elizabeth helped me choose the fabric and the bling.

Isn’t the trim so sweet?  I just love it.

And now, for my next project.  I am going to paint this table and probably the chairs, too.  The table is weathered badly.  The finish is very rough and snags everything.  It probably was left on someone’s porch as well.  Obviously, the leaf was not on the porch with it.

I love the cool lines of this table.  So, what color should I paint it?

And here is my sweet “hunk-o’ hunk-o’ burnin’ love” doing the dishes.  Not a project, but so fun to look at.  Thanks, hon for being such a wonderful help around the house!

So, what have YOU been up to?  I’d love to see some of your creations.  Post it on your blog and let me know!

Now, I’m off to CREATE dinner.  I wonder what I should fix tonight….  Always a dilemma for me….

(5/2/09  It has been brought to my attention that if you are using Internet Explorer to view my website, there is no recipe here.  Yikes!!  The whole bottom of my blog has been wiped out.  Very STRANGE!  So, open up my blog in Firefox or some other browser and you should be able to see everything.  Or, just e-mail me and I’ll send it to you.–Lisa)

Up until now, I have never been successful in making good biscuits.  Over the years I have tried several different recipes.  Have you ever made whole wheat biscuits?  Have they ever NOT been dry hockey pucks?  I have never even managed to make good white flour biscuits.  What always makes me mad is that the recipes always call for a ton of butter and they still taste terrible.  What a waste of good, yummy butter!

Well, if you are wanting biscuit success, search no more.  <Can you hear the Hallelujah Chorus?>  Give this recipe a try.  I have even used this recipe in place of store bough pop-can crescent dough in my mother’s “Chicken Croissant” recipe.  A smashing success!  The only thing I can compare these to is that they are similar to the “Grands” biscuits in a can.  But, so much better for you.  No chemicals, no white flour…..

So, without further ado:

The Best Whole Wheat Biscuits Ever

These are the best whole wheat biscuits; so light and fluffy and delicious. It took me a few times to get them just right, so I added some notes to the original recipe posted by “Jennifer” three years ago on one of my NT yahoo groups. Thank you, Jennifer!  P.S.  You need to start these the day BEFORE you want to devour eat them.

Mix together:

4 cups whole wheat flour (I use hard white, but I’m sure hard red would be fine, too.)

4 tsp Sucanat (or brown sugar?)

1 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups yogurt or buttermilk etc

You can cut the butter in if it is harder. I have even melted the butter and then mixed everything together. Cover and let soak 12 hours at room temperature.

Knead in:

1/2 Tbsp baking soda

1 1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1/2 tsp salt

What I do is squish the dough kind of flat out onto my counter top. Then, I sprinkle the soda, cream of tartar and salt on top. I cut the dough in half and put one piece on top of the other. I knead it all together until it is well incorporated (maybe 30 seconds?) Then, I squish it all flat again. I fold the dough in half and then half again, for an extra flaky biscuit. Then, I squish (sometimes roll) it all down a final time, attempting to make it into a rectangle. It should be about ¾ to 1 inch thick. You could at this point use a biscuit cutter and cut into circles, but I just use my pizza wheel and make square biscuits. In fact, for this final squish down, I put it directly onto my baking stone. An un-greased cookie sheet would work as well. I like to separate my biscuits ever so slightly, but that is up to you. Bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes. If you are not floating to heaven while eating these, you have done something wrong. Enjoy!

Unbaked  (They should “look” like they are going to puff up when baked.)

Baked (I’m getting hungry….)

Now…go soak your flour and get your sausage out of the freezer for Biscuits and Gravy in the morning!

After eating Funeral Potatoes on Saturday night, we went to a wedding reception.  Talk about a range of emotions! <wink>

Anyhow, Calvin caught the garter.  (Wasted on the kids!)  Joe and Theresa got married and they seem to be a happy couple.  We had a lovely evening.  I have a picture of the bride and groom, but I can’t get it to upload for some reason.  Just imagine it.

Aren’t my kids great!?

We were over at Joe and Liz’s on Saturday.  Liz was on a bike ride and Brayden was a little cranky.   Joe offered him some applesauce and it worked just great.  Well, at least it kept him occupied.  You should have seen Liz’s face when she walked in the door!

Down the hatch!

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While we were there Avy enjoyed a “bath” in Brayden’s toy box.

Now… how do I get out of here….

Babies are so delightful!

Avalon loves her little pillow.  Reed and I made a pillow just like this one for Lily and Rachel for Christmas.  We stuffed them with lavender, fluff, and love. There was extra fabric so we made one for Avy.  She loves to squeeze it and it must go to sleep with her.  So, now when it is time for bed or naps, I just say, “Where’s your pillow?” and she and I hunt around the house until she finds it.  Then she grabs it and hugs it.  Then, she goes to sleep.

Actually, any soft squishy stuffed animal will work as well.  She just loves to hug and squeeze soft squishy things.  Isn’t that great?  She’s such an angel.

The baby is sick, and Gma has the boys, so I might as well catch up on some posts/pictures while I hold this little hot potato.

In February we had the privilege of going to the Draper, Utah temple open house.  We took Gma with us.  Normally, you have to have a temple recommend in order to go inside a temple, but when a new temple is built, they have an open house and anyone can see what it looks like.  It is very beautiful inside.  The children liked it, too.  Calvin said his favorite part was the sealing room (where couples are married for time and all eternity.)  He said that he had a real peaceful feeling there.  The spirit spoke to him.  Isn’t that wonderful?  I love the temple.  What a blessing it is to have so many temples so close to me.

It was a cold, grey day in Utah.  Ivan took these pictures of the temple while we were driving by in the tour bus.

Avalon is sick today.  She has thrown up multiple times, has diarrhea, a fever, is lethargic, etc.  She is either whimpering or asleep.  Either in her bed or my arms.  I hate to see her so sad.  Yesterday she was so happy and had a great day.  Then, after dinner the “fun” began…  Don’t you hate it when your babies are sick?

Well, she just tossed her cookies again…  The Barf Bowl doesn’t work for babies, so I’ve just been carrying her around with a bath towel.  And, now she’s asleep in my arms.  So sweet, yet so pitiful….

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Admin note:  Many of you have let us know that leaving a “comment” on our blog is a pain.  I agree.  We finally figured out how to change it.  So, let’s try it out.  Does anyone want to leave a random comment?  Let’s see if it works.  I believe I have to moderate the comments, still, so it might take a day or so to appear on the site.  Thanks for your patience with this.

It just so happens that one of my old friends from Georgia works at the same company John does.  We finally had him and his family over for dinner and games.  It was a lot of fun.

And, for those of you who know him, “D” hasn’t changed a bit.  Still as crazy and interesting as ever.

Here is his lovely wife, “L”.  Calvin and her talked a lot about books.  She is a great mom, too.

“X” is the spittin’ image of his father.  I couldn’t get “A” to take his focus off of the parking garage, but he is a cutie pie.

And this little guy, “R” is such a fun, laid back little kid.  He climbed onto my chairs and table and was amazingly dexterous for such a young age.  I couldn’t get enough of him.

“R” is only about two weeks older than Avalon.  But, he’s a whole head taller.  Here they are having a stare down.  They played well together.

It was a fun evening and it was good to be around a dear friend again.

How ’bout them eggs?

A cool one Cal did.  Right before dying it, he let it roll off the table.  Very cool!

Ivan’s Alien…

Another of Ivan’s…

I loved this one of Reed’s…

These pics were taken shortly before devouring them in “Creamed Eggs on Biscuits”.  Yummy!  And, I made deviled eggs out of the rest.  Mmm…  Mmmmm… Good!  I make the BEST deviled eggs. 

Let’s all take a moment of silence and remember Aunt Mary and the life she has lived.  Her bygone days of youth are o’r.  It’s hard to be officially over the hill, and we are in mourning for our dear aunt.

We got together with Joe and Liz and had a feast in her honor.

Did you notice the black table cloth?

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And…..  The Funeral Potatoes?

Yumm!

Let’s take some time to pause….

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And reflect….

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Happy 30th Birthday, Aunt Mary!

We LOVE you!!!