Food Nanny!

This has been a good week.

I love going out and watching the chickens.  They are just fun.  A little smelly at times… but fun.  When the weather warmed up, we opened the gate to the enclosed wire fenced area and the chicks timidly stood at the door and looked.

Would you believe it?  They were too chicken to come out!  After about 4 days, most of them will venture out.

I planted more seeds, but we are also having something that seems to act like a cutworm.  It just cuts the plant off at the base and leaves the top to die.  I put out my starts that I’d grown from seed and I think that most of them survived.

I’ve continued to write on the eBook. I send off a draft, get edits back, rewrite, and submit again.  It’s moving forward. I should have been busy marketing or training, but instead, we took off to do other things.

Wednesday I went to my clay day.  She had fired my greenware so I got to glaze that, but she had not fired the things I had glazed previously.  So I couldn’t find out if my test pieces would come out in colors that I liked.  So I tried some other glazes.

Thursday Tom and I planned to go to Branson.  We had severe storm warnings in the morning and so decided to delay our trip until they passed.  We’d also previously bought a chicken feeder in West Plains (north east of Mtn. Home). Alas, the top and bottom were from different feeders and they didn’t match.  So it had to go back.  So on our trip to Branson (northwest) we headed to West Plains first.

We had rain along the way, but not bad.  And it was so beautifully spring!  The wisteria was blooming in long purple fronds. Dogwood played peek-a-boo through the other trees. And the fresh green color was everywhere!  We took back roads to Branson and past old mills and streams and drove windy mountain roads. This time we were enjoying the journey as much as wanting to get to the destination.

We went shopping for shoes and slacks in Branson and then went to the Hughes Family show; 5 brothers, their wives and close to 30 children from infant to 19 - and they all participated in the show!.  I got up early on Friday and went to the three Branson seminary classes by 6am.  One third of the classes are doing excellent and the students are bright and attentive—most of them.  There are some irregularities that need to be addressed.

We lounged around a bit in the morning, went to lunch, and hit Silver Dollar City and their World Festival.  We listened to an Irish harpist and her drum playing husband.  We watched Polynesian fire dancers and Maori war dances.  We enjoyed Gaucho dancers from Argentina.  We saw a new show at the saloon and then listened to some Swiss yodelers and singers.  They played the alphorn and sang with it… but Sue and Steve are much better.  I think they should come and play at World Fest in Branson.  It’s only about a month long.

Tom got up about 4:10 on Saturday and at 5 am we left to drive him to meet with other bishops going to a 14 stake training in Oklahoma City.  I went back and got myself ready and went to the Stake Relief Society activity that prompted this trip in the first place.  This is the activity I’d done the recipe book for.

They had the Food Nanny from BYU TV there and she was passionate about the value of a family sitting down to eat at least 3 meals a week.  She shared statistics about the kids being smarter, going to college, getting into less trouble and all kind of other benefits from face-to-face family time at the dinner table.  She shared a system to make cooking easy.  She said that many of the younger people don’t know how to cook.  You can find recipes and her theme way of planning meals at foodnanny.com.

Our food at lunch used Food Nanny Recipes and it was TASTY!  It was a fun morning, but it ran over a bit.  I was watching the time because my Seminary and Institute in service training was supposed to begin at 1… but the first shift didn't start eating lunch until nearly 12. (And the RS function was to be over by 12:30)  It did end close to 1 pm… so not as late as I’d feared.

I had been really disappointed in the attendance I’d had at my trainings.  So I sent a letter out after last month... when I had 5 people there (out of a possible 19).  So this month I had 13 of 19.  A much better percentage!  And it was a great meeting.

We have been talking about teaching not by talking and telling, but by listening and observing.  Bro. Lawson said if you want to listen and observe, you need to create a lesson plan that allows you to do that.  Then he offered 5 ways to make simple lesson plans that involve the students in thinking, discussing, and participating in the lesson—so the lesson goes in the direction needed by the students.

I thought I’d need to go to Springfield to visit with a student who is to create a video inviting other students to an Especially for Youth activity.  I ended up talking to the dad on the phone and not going up.  But I think we have a plan. I’d sent a script in the middle of the week and he liked the idea.  Now to see if it gets executed.

I waited in the Branson West building and did some computer work and took a nap.  Then I headed to Harrison to pick Tom up as he got a ride back from Oklahoma City.  He thought he’d be in by 9pm, but arrived by 10.  That’s okay. I had a book to read.

We got to bed after 12:30. Ugh.  Today was a good day at church.  I had no lesson to teach so I felt like I just glided through classes.  Bishop’s Youth Discussion was to be after church, so before church I made a peach cobbler to serve as refreshments.

This evening, I’ve made a few calls, wrote to grandchildren and missionaries, and now am doing the blog.

That's my week.