Over Rated

Before today it had been two weeks since I had shaved my legs. I am okay with that, even while wearing capri pants and shorts. I think these feelings come from a combination of me getting older and lazier along with being a lot more busy mixed in with my general dislike of shaving. 

Moral of this story: If you see me with unshaven legs, don't be surprised or alarmed and know that my dislike of shaving far exceeds my embarrassment and self consciousness. 

For your viewing pleasure ;) one leg smooth one still hairy. 

Get Excited About Jacob of Avondale!!

Some of you may remember that I read this book a little while ago and really,really liked it. Well, I have been emailing with the author, Craig Packer, and he has agreed to give me an interview!! I am super excited about this and literally had butterflies in my stomach when I received his acquiescence!!! :D

BEST OF ALL, Craig offered (because he is awesome like that) to either:

A. Give a free copy of Jacob of Avondale to one of my lucky blog readers

OR

B. To make Jacob of Avondale available for purchase at half price (on a preset number if books). 

I need your help, blog readers! Let me know which offer sounds better to you, A or B.

Also, I would love submissions of interview questions! I am fully capable of coming up with random interview questions, but I would love to have the questions you have answered as well.  I will give you about a week to submit questions which should give those who want to read the book, time to do so.

Comment either on the blog or the blog's Facebook page your vote on the offer as well as any interview questions you may have. 

I'll be posting my extended review of Jacob of Avondale soon. In the meantime, I suggest everyone get to reading so you all can be as excited about this as I am!!! (You won't regret it ;)

http://jacobofavondale.tateauthor.com/

Book Review: Ephesians

The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Ephesians
By: Paul the Apostle 

***** 5/5 stars! This is a wonderful book full of a lot of great insight and instruction. I have about half of the book highlighted with notes inserted throughout because of all the great stuff in there.

This book is a super quick read. It took me six days initially (one chapter a day, cuz that's how I roll) but when I reread it it really only took about an hour, and that was with my kids bugging me all throughout. 

I love this book and highly recommend it. It it pleasant, uplifting, and I was able to understand and follow along (which was nice after muddling through the Corinthians and Galatians). Give it a read!!!

Here is a link: http://www.lds.org/scriptures/nt/eph?lang=eng

Recipe: Chocolate Frosting

Am I the only one who only either buys store bought cakes or a container of frosting to go on my box mix cake? Oh, well that's embarrassing. ;) Either way, this chocolate frosting recipe was kind of a life changing event for me. For realsies.

It all started when I picked to bring dessert to my mom's house for lunch this past Sunday. Watching LDS General Conference all day Saturday made it hard for my lazy self to make something. At about 10pm Sat night, I was feeling super excited that I still had a box of yellow cake in my cupboard since I've been trying (and mostly failing) to keep processed foods out of my diet.

Sunday morning we went to my dad's house for breakfast and then were scheduled to be to my mom's house for lunch (It seems like my parents always schedule things on the same day. Divorce kids problems :). So on the way home from my dad's house I googled chocolate frosting recipes. I pulled this one up and saw that I had all the ingredients. Awesome! 

When we got home the first thing I did was run to the fridge, pull out two sticks of butter, and put them under my armpits. Ain't nobody got time for letting butter soften on it's own. With the butter warming under my arms, I pulled out the other ingredients and the mixer. By then the butter was feeling fairly soft, soft enough that a high speed beater was able to whip it into complete softness with only a few bent beater tongs. (I was able to bend the beater back into shape. No need to stress over my beater ;) 

Talon kept begging for a bite so when it was just butter and cocoa I gave him a little piece. Hilarious!! Funniest thing that has happened in a while. :D  Once I got it all mixed up, Talon kept asking for tastes and probably would have eaten the whole bowl by himself, but would have had to fight Mark over it since they both kept 'tasting' it. 

I ate three pieces of cake on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. I think Mark ate that same amount. Talon would ask for cake and then just eat the frosting off. Seriously, it's that good. Hope you like it :)

1 cup softened butter

1/2 cup cocoa powder, sifted (I totally did Not sift!)
5 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3-4 tablespoons milk

For full instructions check out Laurens Latest.

He was covered in frosting.  We had to change his whole outfit and would have given him a bath, if we weren't already late.

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The Miracle Washing Machine

We do a lot of laundry here at the Beech House. For only having 4 people, it amazes me how much laundry we have. All. The. Time.

Memorial Day morning our washing machine broke. It made weird noises and then stopped working, full of clothes and full of water. (My heart about stopped along with it). Mark called his parents and they came down so his dad could take a look at it. 

Done for. No revival. Dead.

I had already purchased a movie ticket for Austenland so had to leave my family to get this taken care of without me. (I had so much fun with my best friend and her family and absolutely loved the movie!!). I kind of felt bad for leaving but a little bit not at all.  I got out of the movie and found out Mark had purchased a new washing machine. I got home to a fancy new machine installed and ready to wash. It works great!!

Now for the miracle part.

#1 Mark was home so I didn't have to deal with it on my own. 

#2 Mark's parents are awesome. They came down, looked at the old machine, went to buy a new one with Mark/watched the kids while Mark bought the new one, hauled the new one home in their truck, helped instal the new one/watched the kids some more, and hauled the old one away. Awesome. 

#3 Mark had recently gotten a raise and worked a bunch of overtime so we had a little extra money. 

#4 Memorial Day sale. 

#5 There was a floor model of a door buster that Mark asked about. The salesman said that they were going to get more in so he wasn't allowed to sell the floor model. Right then a manager walked by and told the salesman that Mark could have that floor model. The salesman had turned down 7 people before the manager said Mark could have it. We saved an additional $300 because of that. 

#6 It was all taken care of in one day. 

#7 I was able to see an awesome movie with awesome people and hardly had to be involved with the whole fiasco. :)

This broken washing machine was hardly a problem and more a reminder of the Lord's mindfulness of us and the tender mercy he is continually showing us. I know that this really is an example of a miracle in my life. :)

I'm A Negative Beech

I am a complainer.  I know this about myself.  I'm especially horrible when I am tired...which is a lot. The temperature, kids, cooking, cleaning, traffic, what evs, I complain about it all.  Well, I have decided that I want to change, that I want to be better and more positive.  This week I am challenging myself to be positive and to not complain.  I'm sure that it will be difficult at first, but I'm hoping that by the end of the week, I'll be awesome...er than I already am ;)  I thought it would be fun if we all did the challenge together!! Super fun, right?!

Personality Challenge: Be Positive

• No complaining
• One week
• That's it

I'll post updates on the blog's FB page and I will also report back after the week is up.  Feel free to do the same.  :)