This is from my friend Soni although I use chunky vegetables and she likes everything minced smaller or shredded/julienned.  It is one of my favorite ways to use my fall vegetables.  My kids grumble when I make it, but they eat it.  I told them this is a keeper despite their objections!


3 Tbsp olive oil
1 cup chopped white onion
1 small zucchini chopped
1/2 c cut up green beans
1 stalk celery diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 c vegetable broth (do not use chicken broth!  I have vegetable bouillon base that I use to make broth from)
1 15 oz can red kidney beans, drained
1 15 oz can small white beans or Great northern beans, drained
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes
1 15 oz can tomato sauce
2 carrots (1/2 c) chopped
2 Tbsp cut up fresh parsley (opt)
1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp dried thyme
3 c hot water
4 c fresh baby spinach (pieces torn in half if they are big)
1/2 c small shell pasta

Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large soup pot.  Saute onion, celery, garlic, green beans and zucchini in the oil for 5 minutes or until onions begin to turn translucent.  Add broth, tomatoes, tomato sauce, beans, carrots, hot water and spices.  Bring soup to a boil then reduce heat and allow it to simmer for 20 minutes.
Add spinach leaves and pasta and cook for an additional 20 minutes.  Makes about eight 1-1/2 c servings.  Serve with shredded parmesan cheese on top.

*This soup keeps for several days but does not freeze well.

The my little ponies that pop up all over our house add to the decorating scheme, don't you think?

 
Dear Family and Friends,

 This week I felt like fall even though the weather was warm and Indian summerish.  We kept the windows open most of the week and it felt so nice to have our house smelling fresh and clean again.  Despite fans/candles etc after a while if our house is closed up all I can smell is old diapers, dog gas and remnants of cooked food - not the best combination.

Allison had a great birthday.  She brought treats to school and shared a poster about herself.  Her math T.A. made her cookies and they canceled math homework in her honor.  She picked out a cake from Coldstone and ate a meal of noodles, butter and cake.  Enjoyed all her presents and stayed up late into the night trying to learn a new knitting project by the light of her night-light.  Jeremy took her out for a birthday dinner the next night to her favorite all you can Chinese buffet that has noodles and shrimp - her favorites.  (Until this year he would take kids out to lunch on their birthday but now our kids' school has a pretty stringent attendance policy and we didn't want to risk it).  So she was just beaming pretty much the whole week.  She started her new math class with the 5th graders and once she realized she could do it, all the butterflies left.  She is having to scramble a bit to learn a few new concepts but since she is still getting As on everything, I am not too worried.

Allison loves her new slippers Mimi!

 Taylor is enjoying conference.  Every time the organ comes on, he starts chirping away - loudly.   The first half of the week he didn't do so well.  To the point that I started to worry about more permanent brain damage from seizures or mini-strokes.  When he is tired he really favors his left side and keeps his left arm/hand curled up.  And he has a harder time walking now or using his hands.  But by the end of the week he started cheering up and relaxing his left side more.  We went to ward temple night on Wednesday and I couldn't help sitting there and wondering how long Taylor will be with us.  Sometimes I think we will have him for a long earthly life and then other times I realize how fragile he is.

Spencer met with his psychiatrist today (with Robyn along to distract and annoy).  I appreciate his doctor a lot but boy is he chatty.  Two hours for an appointment to see how Spencer is doing plus commuting to and from the U of U makes for a very long morning.  But he helps me see how good Spencer is doing overall.  We changed his meds a bit to help with the high anxiety he gets especially over making decisions.  And Spencer has started wearing an ipod while he does his math homework which seems to help him not be annoyed by the sound of little kids playing.

Friday night Jeremy and I got to go out to one of our favorite restaurants Biaggis up in SLC with our neighbors the Larsons.  We are going on a cruise with the Larsons in February so we had fun discussing what we wanted to do on our trip.  Plus we ate an obscene amount of good food and returned home to watch the A-Team.  The movie did a great job of playing off the old T.V. show and was a lot of fun to chuckle at.

 I have been getting up before the sun to run lately.  I have a 10k this Saturday and then a half-marathon at the end of the month.  After doing 12 miles yesterday with some friends the 13.2 miles don't worry me quite so much.  I am still not that fast but I am much faster than I was two years ago when I started running so I am happy.  I am almost getting used to running looking like a dork, with my headlamp on and my reflector vest.  Yesterday two of my friends and I are running along a trail in the pitch black and I just kept thinking, "please, don't fall!"  But the nice part about running in the dark is that I swear your body thinks its still asleep so you just cruise along without thinking too much about it.

Back to conference again.  Watching conference with kids is a great practice in patience and dilligence.  Allison and Spencer are getting better about listening quietly and Robyn made it through one session due to a box of candy and a game of bingo.  The rest of the sessions has seen Robyn digging through our toys to find the loudest most obnoxious things she can think of to drag out.  I am hoping some of the messages get through to her simply by proximity to the T.V.

Love, Heather

I finally finished my scarf for Allison that my sister Christina helped me start in DECEMBER!  The flowers didn't quite turn out looking like flowers but they are still cute I think.  This scarf was re-crocheted so many times until I could get it right.

This is from my older neighbor LeeAnn who always tells it exactly like it is. This is really good, fast to make and my family (except for one daughter who would prefer that all sauces be abolished so she could have just plain noodles smothered in butter) love it. To be prepared to make this I buy a large container of grated Parmesan cheese at Costco and freeze it in one cup servings.

Makes 1 1/2 quarts - enough to generously serve with one box of spaghetti noodles

1 lb. hamburger
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
16 oz tomato sauce
16 oz tomato paste
1 1/2 c water
1 c grated Romano or Parmesan cheese
1 tsp oregano
2 tsp basil
3 Tbsp parsley
1 Tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 bay leaf

Saute hamburger, garlic and onion till cooked. Then add the rest of the ingredients. Simmer uncovered anywhere from 20 minutes to 3 hours. Tastes even better the next day.

These are not fragile, melt in your mouth cookies that you have to refrigerate/freeze and roll on wax paper. These are kid friendly, make right away, sugar vehicles - able to withstand having mounds of sprinkles piled on without breaking.


1 1/2 c real butter
1 1/2 c sugar
1 c sour cream
3 eggs at room temperature
3 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tsp soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
6 c flour

Cream the butter and sugar. Mix in the sour cream, eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Add the rest of the ingredients a little bit at a time. Roll out on floured surface to desired thickness. Cut and bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Cool and frost with sour cream frosting.

My family is unanimous in deciding this recipe is a keeper. If you have never had it before the combination sounds strange - but it tastes delicious!


1 family size can cream of chicken soup

Dear Family and Friends,

Just returned from a fall walk. Really it feels more like an expedition with all the kids, roller skates, bike, wheelchair, dog plus our neighbor's dog who Spencer is dog sitting. But it is so nice and fall like outside with the Indian summer in full swing that who can complain. I needed to stretch my legs after today as I ended up with 6 hours of church meetings. I don't know how church leaders sit all day without loosing the feeling in their legs!

Monday I ran Allison to the doctor with Robyn tagging along. It turns out she wasn't kidding about her ear periodically hurting for the last TWO week. At least we got her on antibiotics before her ear drum burst and she has stopped the periodic waking up in the middle of the night to wail about her ear hurting. And as a bonus they got their flu shot/mist.

It is hard to believe that Miss Allison will be 9 this week. And then I looked at her tonight in longer jeans (she is so excited to have grown a little bit) and a fitted sparkly t-shirt with a dozen bracelets on her wrist and its a shock to realize that she has grown up! This week was parent teacher conferences. Allison is doing great. In fact I was a little shocked to learn how well she was doing. I knew that she had been going to fourth grade for math which isn't uncommon at their school. But since she is spending math time getting all her homework and any supplemental work done and then reading for half an hour they decided they wanted to bump her up to 5th grade. We don't want her skipping a grade entirely, so she will just be going with the 5th graders for math time. I am hoping it works out OK. When we told her that we decided she could do it for a month and then decide if it works she had mixed feelings. This is the note on my pillow: Dear Mom, I don't know what to do. I have butterflies in my stomach. Please help them go away. Sincerely, Allison. What a sweetie. But she has amazingly sweet teachers this year who will help her make the transition.



On Friday night, Allison had her birthday party. She invited 17 girls and all but one came. Inside I was just saying "dang, it" but Allison was thrilled to see all her friends. She has so many and they are interconnected so much that it is hard to invite one without the other and really she wanted all her girls over. She wanted a cooking/craft party. They made shrinky dink charms for a necklace that turned out really cute. They cooked stuffed shells, garlic bread, fruit shish kabobs and homemade rootbeer (all her choices). Then we frosted cookies, made root beer floats, opened presents and watched Camp Rock 2 while making friendship bracelets. Boy it makes me tired just saying it all. It ended up being a lot of fun even if it was controlled chaos most of the time. Jeremy took Taylor, Spencer and Robyn out to dinner and then Spencer came home and hid in the basement till the estrogen levels returned to normal.

Robyn has been in whine mode this week. She has stopped being cute in the middle of the night when she is up because of ghosties and pricklies getting her. I don't think I am very cute when I yell for her to go to her own bed or else either though. So hence the whine mode from lack of sleep most of the week. But she has been enjoying the sunshine, running outside or on bikes most of the day with her little friends. At dinner time she comes in literally dirty head to toe.

I was able to go to parent-teacher conferences for Taylor this week too. It was neat to meet his seminary teacher and tour the seminary building that is attached to his school. He has a main teacher and then each student has a one to one missionary aide. I thought it was very cool. His teacher and I talked about Taylor's diminishing abilities. Seizures just mess you up. But when he has a good day, it is a really good day - full of giggling, chirping and trying to see what body part he can use to activate switches with other than his hand.

Last Sunday I was able to go see Spencer get his 1st rank badge and his first merit badge - electricity. He led the flag ceremony and was anxiously studying the words before the court of honor to make sure he got it right. He doesn't seem to get as upset as easily since we adjusted his meds but his anxiety levels remain high over very little things - like having his shoes tied just right, his glasses rubbing his nose the wrong way, forgetting one word in a poem he has to recite. We see the psychiatrist this Tuesday to discuss options. His current teacher who had him for math last year says he seems to be much more social and open with people this year and to do better with other students - so that is a good sign. He was very excited that for guitar this week he got the song "Secrets" by One Republic, which was the theme song for Sorcerer's Apprentice. He thinks he is very cool when he plays it.


Jeremy has been working hard this week. He went to a photography night dedicated to learning how to do his lighting. He had a family photo shoot up in the canyon. And then he took on an extra design job that needed to be done by this week so he has been working some late nights. He has lost almost 17 pounds so far since he has given up eating anything beyond a small amount of healthy food. I have never felt so guilty about my sugar habit! Maybe someday I will join him when my will power and desire meet up.

Wednesday night was one of the highlights of the week as my brother Daniel came by for a visit. We were all so excited to see him and the fact that he brought Krispy Kreme doughnuts for kids and Trader Joe's chocolates for me was just icing on the cake. I would like to think I would treasure time with family just as much if they lived close by but I know that me a family visit is never long enough.

I canned salsa this week as our tomatoes finally turned red. It came out quite spicy as I put more peppers and pepper seeds in this year. One of our kids' favorite snacks after school is chips and salsa. Spencer has even learned that on a day he wants salsa he walks through the door stripping of his shirt on the way to the fridge for a bottle.

Last night the stake did a dinner/dessert thing for the broadcast. My part involved making lots of bread. So our house smelled like some wonderful bakery. But after that event and everything else this week I came home to kids all out and asleep early thanks to an amazing Jeremy. So I crashed on a couch with a mug of raspberry cheesecake hot chocolate (Stephens new flavor), a blanket and a super chick flick, Letter to Juliet. It was so nice just to lay there and be glad for my life.

Hope all is well with each of you,

Heather

Here is my favorite chocolate zucchini bread recipe. I like to think the whole wheat flour and applesauce helps cancel out the oil and sugar :)! We had this moto when Spencer started on one of his drugs that makes you constantly hungry. It is "you can't get fat on fruit and vegetables". So you can have fruit and vegetables in our house whenever you are hungry and it isn't meal/snack time. I am rethinking that philosophy as I watched Spencer today eat 2 apples, 2 bananas, 1 peach, a bunch of cherries, a handful of carrots, a cucumber and a serving of salad. At least he is getting his 5 a day! Here is the recipe courtesy of my Aunt Karol's real estate recipe/ad cards:

2 c flour (I use 1 c whole wheat, 1 c white)
1/3 c cocoa
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 3/4 c sugar
3 eggs
3/4 c applesauce
1/4 c canola oil
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 c chocolate chips ( I use the mini- kind. If you toss them with a bit of flour they stay mixed in better)
2 c grated zucchini

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease 2 8" loaf pans. Combine dry ingredients and wet separately and then mix it all together and add chocolate chips and zucchini. (Often I just dump everything in the mixer together). Divide between pans and bake 55-60 min. Let cool BEFORE taking out of pan and then slice.

I usually double this recipe and make 3 regular size loaf pans. It cooks the same amount. Enjoy!