march fo{u}rth 2008

Today is March Fo{u}rth!

Let's march fo{u}rth today by setting goals to become better people each day. Here are a couple of quotes that I found about setting goals and marching fo{u}rth that I love.

"Life offers many challenges. Go forward worthily and with faith. The Lord will make you equal to every righteous task.....Let us go forth like the armies of Helaman and build the kingdom of God. Like the royal army, let us be “united, bold, and strong, … marching forth to conquer on life’s great battlefield” (see Hymns, no. 251). All of these hopes, blessings, and opportunities will come to us if we will only believe and be not afraid." -James E. Faust“Don’t Be Afraid,” New Era, Jul 1998, 4

"I am so thoroughly convinced that if we don’t set goals in our life and learn how to master the technique of living to reach our goals, we can reach a ripe old age and look back on our life only to see that we reached but a small part of our full potential. When you learn to master the principle of setting a goal, you will then be able to make a great difference in the results you attain in this life." -M. Russell Ballard“Go for It!,” New Era, Mar 2004, 4

Fears Family March Forth Goals for 2008

Todd: Read the Doctrine & Covenants
Journal every day
Submit at least 1 book proposal to a publisher
Run a full marathon
Give my wife a hug and a 6 second kiss every day{okay, I added that one to his list}

Liz: Run a full marathon
Take twelve family names to the temple
Run 800 miles by December 2008
Learn to play 3 hymns from the hymnbook
Give my husband a hug and a 6 second kiss every day

Brenna: Save $50.00
Journal four times a week
Read 1 chapter a week in the Book of Mormon
Practice the piano 30 minutes a day 5 days a week
Get to bed by 8:30/8:45 on school nights{I’m in full support of this goal}

Emma Grace: send birthday cards to all my cousins
Learn to play 2 songs from the Primary Passages song book
Go on one horse trail ride

Eliza: Learn to ride a bike without training wheels
Send birthday cards to all my cousins

Charlie: Learn to talk

Scott: Journal everyday
Have daily scripture study with Tracey
Don’t acquire any new debt

Tracey: Learn something new each quarter
Have daily scripture study with Scott
Don’t acquire any new debt
Bradley: Go camping with Corbin & Family at least 4 times this yearGo to Hawaii on Vacation with SarahJournal everydayRead the Book of Mormon cover to coverAttend the temple once a monthWrite a children’s book
Sarah: Attend temple once a monthJournal writingScripture studyKeep photos organized and in orderKeep scrapbooks up to dateSew a quilt

Alyssa: Learn letters and numbers moreHow to put together wordsLearn to readHow to do big cartwheels Corbin: Learn Letters and numbersLearn to play sports (catch and throw and kick...)ride a bike with no training wheels Ava: Learn to walkBe a good girl for mommy and daddyGrow some hair

Miralyn: To go along with a new found passion...read 6 books (it all started with Twilight and I realized, “hey this leisure reading is kind of nice”)

Brian: Get back into running - run two half marathons

Brady: Finish 7 merit badges

Connor: Get 25 silver arrowpoints on top of the regular requirements for cub scouts

Callie: - Read 3 fairy books all independently

Ashlyn: “learn how to ride my bike all by myself”

Tara:Keeping my Monthly Goals (New Years Resolution)
Attend the Temple with Gary (together) every month
Run the Ragnar and train well for it
Track my Miles
Read all of President Hinckley's Talks (or as many I can find)

Gary:Run a half marathon
Attend the Temple each month with my wife (Tara)
Stop biting my nailes in time segments - I will start by quitting for a whole week. (March 4-March 11). Hopefully I will do so good in this week that I continue on!
Land a big time Job!
Read Religous Material Frequently

Mom(Peggy): Read the Doctrine and Covenants and the commentary
Stop procrastinating…do things when called upon

Dad(Bob): Publish the Bishop’s book by summer 2008
Exercise by riding bike
Go to Gary’s graduation
Go to watch everyone run the Ragnar Relay

Julie: Read Sunday School and Relief Society lessons each week ahead of time to be ready for Sunday.Attend the temple once a month during the school year, but at least twice a month or more while the boys are in Kentucky.Organize all school units and have a planner ready and usable for the new year so that I can be ready and prepared ahead of time for each school week. (As Cody put it-"You mean organize your classroom!")
Be an active part of the Book Club in my ward and read all the books that we choose Cody: Bear my testimony at least 6 times this year in church. Achieve Tenderfoot and 2nd Class Scout by his 12th birthday in April.
Then acheive 1st class and be working on Star by next March 4th
Garrett: Achieve Wolf and Bear and as many badges as I can.Read the Pearl of Great Price and Joseph Smith History.

Alexa:To not procrastinate (school, Church, chores, etc)
Be able to run the Ragnar Relay. Run Cross Country and get a PR: 27 Min.
Don't pick my nails until March 11th

Susan:Be a "Menu Planner"
Be a better business owner such as being more "aggressive"
Train and run the Ragnar

Ethan:Read Scriptures every night
Work to improve my Pre-calc grade and study for my next ACT test
Work with Spencer to get my eagle scout award this year.

Spencer:Run 3 times a week
Get 7 Merit Badges
Run the Ragnar

Tanner:Scribble Scribble Scribble...Not sure what that says:)

Addison:Practice the Piano 5 times a week
Start Dance

and the winner is...

And now ... the moment you've all been waiting for ... the judges (who also happen to be the participants in the event, but we're ignoring the obvious conflict of interest issues) have returned from deliberations and it's time to reveal this year's Golden Boot recipients.


But before we reveal the winners, I would just like to say that everyone did a fantastic job on this, the first of many annual goal setting challenges. It has been exciting to see many of you carry through on goals that may have been a little bit of a stretch. Stay tuned for the next post, where I will reveal everyone's goals for 2008.




And now ... without further delay ... the winners of the 2007-2008 Golden Boot Awards are ...

Adult Winners:


1. Todd
2. Sarah


Children Winners:


1.Alyssa
2. Cody




the GOLDEN BOOTS

happy leap day

It's February 29th!!

My girls found this little guy sitting in their cereal bowl{before the cereal} this morning. Happy Leap Day!! We only get to have this day every four years!!

I hadn't thought too much about Leap Day until I went to Kristi's blog last night and she had frogs and things about Leap Day. So I thought I better get our little frogs out of the toy bucket and tell the girls "Happy Leap Day".

Brenna will find a little froggy in her lunch today at school too. Emma Grace would have found one in her lunch but she is on a new kick of buying her lunch at school which is a really nice break for me!

This is why we have an extra day in the calendar every four years:
Leap years are needed to keep our calendar in alignment with the earth's revolutions around the sun. Using a calendar with 365 days every year would result in a loss of 0.2422 days, or almost six hours per year.

"march forth" is coming

We have a new tradition{this is our second year} in our family to celebrate March 4th. It's the only day of the year that is also a "command". So everyone in our family{all of my siblings, in-laws, nieces, nephews} set goals to work on to help us MARCH FORTH. It's a fun way to celebrate making goals and teach all of the children how to set goals.

We start off with marching music, playing a marching drum, eating footlong subs, tracing the kids feet on a big white tablecloth{getting it embrodiered, of course}, and then telling everyone what our new goals are going to be for the next year.

By the way, I'm so excited that in 10 years{or more} I will have a big white tablecloth with my children's feet all stitched on it. One foot for each child for each year! How cute to watch them grow!!

This year the really fun part is that someone will win our GOLDEN BOOT AWARD for accomplishing their goals. Yep...it's a GOLDEN BOOT with a little bit of cash inside for fun. I have been emailing with everyone in our family to find out exactly what they did to accomplish their goals. And over the last couple of days everyone has voted for the two people that they felt BEST accomplished their goals. So Fun!! Everyone did great!! I now have the winners and I have the boots ready to go to the GOLDEN BOOT recipients on MARCH FORTH.

{okay, so the boots look a little cheesy and yes they came from a garage sell for a buck and are spray painted gold...this isn't the GOLDEN GLOBE AWARDS!}

Here are a few of the goals that were set AND accomplished!! Wa-Hoo!!

Journal everyday*get completely caught up on scrapbooks*read the entire Book of Mormon*send out Birthday cards to every member of their family{80 something cards}*learn how to ride a bike without training wheels*read all of the American Girl Doll books*complete Visiting Teaching 100%*lose 20 pounds*compete in a Ballroom Dance Competition*run two half marathons{this is the sister-in-law who inspired me to start running}*begin a Masters Program*learn alphabet*learn numbers*Charlie's goal was "NO MORE BLOWOUT DIAPERS" and I'm happy to report he accomplished his goal!!

We'll find out on MARCH FORTH who our GOLDEN BOOT AWARD WINNERS are for this year!! And we'll see what amazing goals everyone has set for this coming year!! So look for a post on March 4th!!

scentsy candles

I think I'm in love again but this time with candles!!

My wonderful sister-in-law, Tara sells these awesome candles{Scentsy Candles} that I just can't get enough of. I've been meaning to do a post on them for months to let other people know about them because they are so great!!!

You just turn the candle on...no wick, no matches, no fires. It's a great thing!! And they have so many amazing scents!! You have to check them out!!

chocolate chip gingerbread cake

I got this recipe from my friend Liz Barrett. I really liked the way she made this cake into cupcakes and put a buttercream frosting{with cinnamon} on them. Or you can do the bundt cake. I don't really like making bundt cakes because I have a terrible bundt pan.
Of course, this is a wonderful recipe for the holidays but it sounded good for our Sunday dessert so I made them yesterday. :)
This recipe is from "Luscious Chocolate Desserts" by Lori Longbotham (Chronicle Books, 2004).

Chocolate Chip Gingerbread {Cup}Cake{s}

2-1/2 cups, plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup natural cocoa powder, such as Hershey's, plus additional for dusting
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 (12-ounce) package miniature semisweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1-1/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 cup dark molasses
1 cup hot water

* Position a rack in the middle of an oven heated to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 10-cup bundt pan.

* In a medium-large bowl, whisk together 2-1/2 cups flour, 1/2 cup cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmeg and pepper.

* Toss chocolate chips with remaining 2 tablespoons flour in a medium bowl.

* Beat together butter, sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer on medium-high speed in a large, deep bowl, occasionally scraping down sides of bowl with a rubber spatula, for about 3 minutes, until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to medium and add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

* In a 4-cup glass measure or small bowl, whisk together molasses and hot water. Reduce mixer speed to low and add flour mixture alternately with molasses mixture in 3 batches, occasionally scraping down sides of bowl with spatula and beating just until blended.

* Fold in chocolate chips.

* Transfer batter to prepared pan. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, until cake begins to pull away from sides of pan and is firm to the touch.

* Cool cake in pan on wire rack for 20 minutes. Invert cake onto rack and cool completely.

* Serve, lightly dusted with cocoa and cut into wedges.

* Makes 8 to 10 servings.

apricot chicken

I made this a couple of nights ago and my family was begging for more...they loved it!! Really simple to make and YUMMY! It's from the Southern Living Magazine{one of my MOST favorite magazines}.

APRICOT CHICKEN

4 skinned and boned chicken breast halves

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 (16-ounce) can apricot halves, undrained

1/2 cup orange juice

2 tablespoons lite soy sauce

1 garlic clove, minced

1 teaspoon dark sesame oil

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

6 green onions, thinly sliced

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro


Place chicken between 2 sheets of plastic wrap. Flatten to 1/2-inch thickness, using a meat mallet or rolling pin. Sprinkle with salt.
Drain apricots, reserving liquid. Coarsely chop apricots.
Stir together reserved liquid, apricots, juice, and next 3 ingredients.
Combine flour and pepper; dredge chicken in flour mixture.
Cook chicken in hot vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat 3 minutes on each side. Reduce heat to medium; stir in apricot mixture. Cook 3 to 5 minutes. Add onions, and cook 1 minute. Sprinkle with cilantro.