Uncategorized Archives - Page 17 of 28

Grilled corn, avocado and tomato salad with honey lime dressing. So good.

I’m grateful for Pinterest for so many reasons. The biggest being all the new recipes I’ve found there. I’m not a great cook, nor do I love to cook (though I love to eat) so any help I can get in the kitchen department is welcomed with open arms.

My biggest beef with most recipes, however, is that EVERY Pinterest recipe is “the best thing you’ve ever tasted”, “your family will love you”, “your life will never be the same” recipes. Turns out–not true. There’s some pretty awful recipes on there (or I executed them wrong which could totally be the case). But THIS recipe. This recipe is a keeper (and I so wish I could remember where I originally found it). SO SO SO good. And easy. Trust me. Your mouth will love you.

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Grilled Corn, Avocado, Cilantro and Tomato salad with Honey-lime dressing.

Salad:

1 pint grape tomatoes cut in halves (super good with home-grown tomatoes)

1 avocado cut into chunks

2 ears of fresh corn-on-the-cob (I’ve tried canned corn–it’s just not the same)

2 Tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped

Dressing:

3 Tbsp vegetable oil

1 Tbsp honey

Juice of 1 lime

1 clove garlic, minced (or use already minced garlic from a can if you’re efficient like me)

sea salt and fresh cracked pepper, to taste

Remove husks from corn and grill over medium heat for 10-15 minutes. I use a special pan (I call it special because I don’t know the real name for it) for this on the stove but you could also do it on a bbq or a George Foreman type grill. It definitely makes a difference if you grill the corn. Rotate the corn every few minutes until all sides are cooked. There will be some brown spots on the corn. You want it to be tender, but not mushy.

Slice the tomatoes in half. Cube the avocado. Chop the cilantro. High-tech kitchen stuff.

Once the corn is cooked, let cool for a few minutes (seriously–it’ll burn you if you try too soon. Yes, I’ve tried too soon). Once cooled enough to handle without burn-risk, cut the corn off the cob. Mix the corn, avocado, cilantro, and tomatoes in a bowl. Be careful not to be too aggressive and mush the avocado.

Add all of the dressing ingredients in a separate bowl and mix well to combine. Pour the dressing over the salad and let sit for 10-15 minutes to let it all blend.

You can eat this plain, but it’s reeeeeally good with tortilla chips. I like the blue corn tortilla chips from Trader Joe’s because they’re really salty (gosh I love salt). But any tortilla chips would do.

If you want some ideas of other GREAT food finds, you’ll want to read this.

You can also follow my “healthier dinners” board on Pinterest for some healthier meal ideas.

Or, just follow ALL my boards on Pinterest. Cause I pin good stuff. And only good stuff.

And if you’re looking for some good sites to follow for GOOD recipes and many that are relatively simple, I recommend checking out Mel’s Kitchen Cafe and Damn Delicious. I don’t know either of them. Just found them through friends. Both great sites!!

What if we took over Facebook….

There are generally three things I hear people say about Facebook. “I’m not on Facebook”, “I gotta get off Facebook”, or “I hate Facebook.” And my response: “You’re using it wrong”.

Truth is, I love Facebook. I don’t spend a ton of time on there, but when I do, I usually leave feeling better than when I started. And many times I cry (in a good way).

Facebook and social media in general can be a complete life-suck. Idle, wasted time. BUT. If we use it right, it can truthfully change the world. I believe that with my whole heart.

In fact, these four videos were all ones my friends shared on Facebook and inspire me to be a better human (they’re DEFINITELY worth watching).

A few things that may help:

**If Facebook makes you feel bad, you have the wrong Facebook “friends”. If you don’t want to start drama by un-friending all the people who bring you down, make you feel “less than”, or make you feel dumber just by reading what they choose to write, just hide their posts. Easy as that. Only show friends who share good content. Or get in the habit of scrolling past the ones who don’t (you already know who falls in what category).

**Steer clear of comment sections. Especially on news stories. I mean, sometimes I go in there just to see how deplorable humanity has become (and it’s bad) but most of the time, I never visit comment sections. It’s just bad for the soul.

**Use your time wisely. I try not to spend more than 10-15 minutes at a time on Facebook. If I find it’s a “good sharing” day, I’ll click on many of the links friends have shared. If I’ve been on there for a bit (more than 5-10 minutes) and haven’t come across anything great, I get off.

**SHARE GOOD CONTENT. This one thing alone is what will change the face of the Internet (break the Internet). If we spent more of our time sharing good stuff, that’s what will spread. If you see/read something and it gives you hope, happiness, love, makes you want to be a better person, it literally takes 10 seconds to hit the share button. Ten seconds. And if you’re extra ambitious, take 2 minutes and write something thoughtful to go with the share. Social media suddenly gets flooded with GOOD instead of with benign or bad.

Remember the dress that “broke the Internet”? The one that was white and gold (I mean blue and black)? People were so caught up in whether or not the dress was one color or another. I was simply amazed with HOW FAST it spread. A dress that was different colors to different people. It had spread around the world and reached millions upon millions of people in ONE DAY. Look at the potential here. It’s powerful. It’s fast. And it’s boundaries are limitless (be it for good or bad).

**Only comment on GOOD stuff. It’s funny the things people post on Facebook. And by funny I mean sometimes people’s brains fall out of their head and their heart gets ripped from their chest while they type something behind a computer screen and post it. Just skip it. Don’t comment. Every time you comment on something, it gets shown to all your friends. And then the stuff not worth spreading starts to spread (even if it’s unintentional). If it’s something that reeeeeally eats at you, send that person a personal message kindly letting them know what they said affected you (in whatever way). I’ve done this a handful of times. Mostly when someone says something offensive about God. I like to be in the habit of defending God. Pretty much everything else I just let go.

**If you don’t want to share the content (I understand not wanting to flood everyone’s feed with share after share after share), simply “like” it. If someone takes the time to post something to Facebook, and it’s GOOD, it’s sure nice to acknowledge that we care they shared something. A “like” tells that person, “this was a good thing to share” (funny things can also be good things to share–as long as they’re funny things that aren’t aiming to hurt others in the process). When you “like” something, it is also shown to some of your friends and things that make people FEEL better start to spread. And if someone consistently shares good content, and their stuff gets “liked” or shared more, Facebook will show more of their stuff. Facebook rewards likes and shares. So if we’re liking and sharing GOOD stuff, Facebook “rewards” that by showing more people. If a lot of people are liking and sharing bad stuff, Facebook rewards that too. It doesn’t care if it’s good or bad. It just cares that people are liking and sharing it. So if WE decide what to like and share, Facebook follows with us.

**Make an effort to search for good content and share it. Don’t always regurgitate what other people share. If you’re reading something on the Internet, and it makes you better (for whatever reason), copy and paste the link in a Facebook post and YOU start the sharing. Facebook NEEDS more good content.

**Facebook doesn’t have to be bad. It’s actually a tool that can be incredibly useful for GOOD. It has the ability to reach millions of people in an unprecedented amount of time. It has the ability to spread messages across the world. It has the ability to CHANGE people. To make people better. To inspire us all to BE more (and BE more doesn’t necessarily mean DO more just so we’re clear on that).

And per a friends request, we decided we should be able to vote people off Facebook. You know, Survivor style. “The tribe has spoken. It’s time for you to go.” I think it’s a great idea.

The key to Facebook is to USE IT RIGHT. Skip the friends who post useless information (no need for confrontation, just scroll right past them or hide their content). Share and “like” the content that’s worth sharing. Make an effort to use this tool for good! It’s up to us how it’s used and it’s up to us what kind of influence it can have in our lives.

If we keep these things in mind, Facebook can be so so good. Let’s take over Facebook for good!

Miles for Mitchell. Mitchell’s Journey 2015

I stumbled across Mitchell’s Journey by “accident.” Still not sure how I got there. But one of the very first Facebook posts I read was this:

“THE TRUE VALUE OF A MOMENT…

With all that has happened I am grateful that I have always been liberal in taking photos; because seemingly ordinary moments way back when are priceless today. Without apology or a moment’s thought I captured everything: the boredom, the laughter, the tears, the drama and on few occasions extreme hardships. So, as I have been working through this sacred vault of family photos the saying “sometimes you will never know the true value of a moment until it becomes a memory” has been playing over and over in my mind. And with each photo-set I poured over that saying was reinforced. I never delete the blurry or over/under-exposed photos, either. I’ve noticed, as time passes, that I begin to see magic where I once saw mistakes….So, my advice to everyone and anyone I know is to take photos. Take them like a paparazzi. In sickness and in health, in happiness or sorrow…photographs fuel memory….and memory fuels the heart and soul…

…there are no ordinary moments. Not one. I am so grateful for happy memories. And because we have photos of these moments…lots of them…our joys and memories are all the richer.”

I knew after reading that, that this would be a journey I would follow. A message I believe in with my WHOLE HEART. There are no ordinary moments. “Photographs fuel memory. And memory fuels the heart and soul.” The EVERY DAY moments that make up the stories of our lives.

Mitchell Jones was diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a muscle wasting disease which results in progressive muscle deterioration and is fatal by late teens/early twenties. By the age of 10, Mitchell’s heart function had deteriorated faster than expected and in less than a year he passed away from acute heart failure in March of 2013.

His dad, Chris Jones, started a Facebook page to chronicle his sons journey but it has become so much more than that. It is a place of inspiration, hope, and LOVE. Instead of being bitter and angry, Mitchell’s dad is sharing his grief, and healing hearts all over the world.

Last Saturday I was able to photograph a charity 5K put together by Mitchell’s family (and lots of volunteers) to raise money and awareness for this horrible disease.

I’ve been to a lot of races. And though I always tear-up at the start of every race (something about that race spirit), I will never forget this one. A brave little boy who made the most of a life he didn’t choose. And a family that chooses to share their grief with the world to spread hope and healing to a world desperately in need of both.

Here are some photos of the race. And there’s a little video at the end for those who dig those kind of things (you know, the kind of things that make you cry).

You can also catch an interview Chris did about the importance of taking every day photos HERE.

Miles for Mitchell. “Because his broken heart touched mine.”

Help for the Homeless

A few years ago I watched a documentary called “Every Mother counts“. I learned so much from watching this and I think about it often. But one thing that stuck with me most was the mother’s who didn’t have the resources to give their children what they NEED. Through no fault of their own, these mother’s weren’t able to give their children basic life necessities. Sometimes no homes. Sometimes no food. No clean environment to birth them in or raise them in.

I remember thinking how horrific it would be to not be able to provide my own kids with the very things they need just to stay alive. Shelter, clean water, food. Basic necessities. I come back to this documentary often when I start to feel bad about not giving my kids “enough”. My kids have NO idea how lucky they are. And I try to always remember how lucky I am to have all the resources I have to take care of my children’s needs.

I’m going somewhere with this.

If you’ve been following me for any length of time, you know my heart is with the homeless. I hate that people have no place to call home, regardless of what they may or may not have done in their life. I feel for the men. I feel for the women. I feel for the addicts, the mentally ill, and the people just down on their luck. I especially feel for the families. And the parents. And the kids. Who find themselves living in the homeless shelter for any length of time.

I went on a tour of our local homeless shelter several months ago. I learned more than I can express in words and it has deepened my desire to be more involved with the homeless community. I recently found out our local shelter (The Road Home in Utah) is in need of sack lunches for preschool age children (1-5), and during the summer, all school age children. When people stay at the shelter they are responsible for their own food. There is a very small “food bank” at the shelter for emergency purposes, but the people are expected to find/provide their own food. There are places downtown that provide meals for those in need, but standing in those lines with your family and taking children into some of those environments would be tough. School age kids can get discounted meals at school. The homeless shelter has several volunteers who run a small preschool at the shelter. They let in about 25 kids for the preschool. At any given time there are around 60 preschool age kids at the homeless shelter who don’t get lunches through school.

I have been in contact with a volunteer coordinator at the shelter who has given me the following information. If you aren’t local to Utah, I imagine your local homeless shelter is in need of various service projects if you wanted to contact them directly. For those in Utah, I would LOVE for this blog community to help step up and provide lunches for these kids in need. You can do it on your own, with a youth group, or get a group of friends, family members or neighbors together and do it as a group with everyone contributing something. The best part about a service project like this is that you can get your kids involved.

This is a new program at our shelter and they are continuing this project through the summer. For the first week and last week of summer, they need 180 sack lunches (when all the kids in the shelter will be around). For the rest of the weeks in summer they need 60 lunches (when the school-aged kids will be at summer school or boys and girls club). The lunches need to be dropped off at 10:30am on your assigned day. The staff will start distributing meals around 11 am each day. Though they can only fit about 25 kids in the preschool, they are still trying to provide all 60 kids with a lunch (and all 180 kids on the days when ALL the kids will be at the shelter).

IMG_2859_1 These lunches are for children 5 and under so they don’t need to be huge elaborate lunches. And they’re normal kids so they’ll probably eat the same kind of things your kids will eat. Some ideas would be: a sandwich, cheese sticks, go-gurts, chips, fruit snacks, applesauce or fruit cups, crackers, carrot sticks, raisins, cuties (oranges), juice box, or 20-30 bananas or apples they could cut up and divide out. The same type of things you’d give any toddler/pre-k kid for lunch.

To sign up for a day, you can go directly to this link and pick the day you want on the sign-up form or you can contact Craig Foster at [email protected] or 801-819-7293. It would be amazing if we could fill up the calendar for the summer. They were going to discontinue it for the summer but it’s been going so well it will be good to keep the momentum.

If you have questions you can contact Craig directly or feel free to ask me and I’ll answer what I can!

And if you would PLEASE share this with your social media friends (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) and friends and family, it would be helpful to spread the word as much as possible. Utah is becoming “famous” for taking care of its homeless population because we CARE (if you haven’t watched this video, you must. It’s awesome!). I’d love for all of us to be part of the community that cares.

THANK YOU in advance to all of you for being amazing and helping parents keep their kids fed. I get e-mails every day from this community and I know how incredible everyone is. If we can do one small thing to alleviate a huge pressure for some parents, that small thing becomes a BIG thing. Bless those parents, families, and kids. I pray they can find a place to call home and stability as soon as possible.

{A friend of mine has already done this for the shelter. She bought her supplies at Walmart and talked to a store manager about what she was doing. They gave her a discount on the groceries. Worth a shot at any store! And if interested, you can get a donation slip for a tax write-off when you drop the lunches at the shelter.}

{ALSO, the homeless shelter is ALWAYS in need of new socks and underwear for adult men and women. Socks are like gold there. So if you decide to do lunches and wanted to take a pack or two of new socks or underwear as well it would be greatly appreciated! Baby formula is also a much needed item.}

For some practical ideas on what you can DO and TAKE to other people in need, this has been an amazing resource for me put together with the help of many many friends.

Connecting generations through photographs

I mentioned in my last post that I’m not sentimental about things. But then my sister pointed out I am sentimental about photographs. And that’s definitely true. I don’t need to keep the stuff. I just need a photo to remind me of the way the stuff made me feel. And the people who made me feel.

That’s why I LOVE this photography project so much. Connecting generations through photographs. Then and Now photos.

I went through some of my parents photographs. Boxes of photos, scrapbooks and albums of photos, slides, etc. Photos of them as kids and some of their ancestors. I picked out some of my favorites showing some of the every day moments/things of life.

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Then I looked through the photos I currently have OR took photos of the same moments/things to have comparison photos between the generations.

I was initially inspired to do this from this video I saw on Becky Higgins YouTube channel.

After watching this, I wanted to do the same thing with my photos. And you can do the same too (cause it’s cool and you’ll have fun doing it-promise). Just look through the albums you have, pull out some of the photos, find photos you have that are similar, or TAKE photos that are similar. It was so interesting to see how things were back then and how they are now. How some things have changed SO much and how some things haven’t changed at all.

With the old photos, I just took photos of the photos with my phone camera (near a window so I could use the natural light and no flash). You could also scan them.

Here’s what I came up with:

THEN and NOW.

Carseats then……. Carseats now.

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Lawncare then….. Lawncare now.

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Bad days then…… Bad days now.

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Cribs then…… Cribs now.

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Babies in laundry baskets then…… Babies in laundry baskets now.

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Cute bums then…… Cute bums now.

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Daddy pile then…… Daddy pile now.

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Technology then…… Technology now.

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Baths in the sink then…… Baths in the sink now.

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Family portraits then…… Family selfie’s now.

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Traditions then…… Traditions now.

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Mom doin her thing then…… Mom doin her thing now.

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Summer swag then…… Summer swag now.

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Pool fun then…… Pool fun now.

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Babyseats then…… Bumbo’s now.

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Photos then…… Photos now.

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Cars then…… Cars now.

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Baby swings then…… Baby swings now.

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Birthday parties then…… Birthday parties now.

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Kids in buckets then…… Kids in buckets now.

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Snow day then…… Snow day now.

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Strollers then…… Strollers now.

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Family photo album then…… Family photo album now.

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This was such a cool project to do. I can’t recommend it enough.

After you’ve gathered all the photos, and found the comparisons, you can put them in Dropbox, access them on your phone and make some super quick and simple Project Life layouts using the Project Life App.

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Man I love photographs and ALL the many things we can do with them!