The Little Things...

It's here-- that mid-semester slump where you've been going to class for two months and theres a month left and all the projects are starting to be due, you're neck-deep in round two of midterms, and you're just ready for the summer nights, summer vacations, and summer loving to be here, but they're just not... So I'm focusing on the little things in my life that make me smile:

The First Bloom of the Season

This little beautiful crocus popped up in my front flower bed and beat all the other bulbs that were planted last spring. Seeing it still makes me smile, and I'm grateful for the beauty of the earth that our Heavenly Father blesses us with (:

This Girl

Miss Jennifer Seiter makes me smile endlessly. Certainly she's one of the many reasons I'm glad I served my mission in The Great Ohio Columbus Mission-- we always have such a great time whenever we're together, and I'm so grateful for her friendship! We talk about everything, and one of the things we always end up talking about is the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's so great to have such an uplifting best friend who I know will love me no matter what.

My House

This cute little house in Provo, Utah has been my home since August, and being able to decorate it, host parties in it, and learn how to be a domestic goddess in it has provided me with endless smiles. I'm so grateful for my parents who so wonderfully let me live here and who enjoy visiting!

Breakfasts and Facials with a Best Friend

Robert Baker is one of the best friends a girl could ask for... We like to get together every so often and get breakfasts at Kneaders on Saturday mornings, and make midnight Walmart runs to have facials. Speaking of faces, he can always put a smile on mine. I'm going to miss him for two years when he goes on a mission, but I'm grateful for his desire to serve the Lord, and I know he's going to be an amazing full-time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Crafting

I just love to create things. It makes me smile. That's all.

Newlyweds

I have had the privilege of being able to see two of my dear friends sealed for time and all eternity in the House of the Lord. Scott and Natalie Savage were married on the 24th of February at 11:00 in the Salt Lake City, Utah Temple, and Aubin and Jeff Palmer were married on the 11th of February at 11:00 in the Albuquerque, New Mexico temple. These two wonderful couples are as happy as can be, and thinking about their bright futures makes me smile, and I am so grateful for the knowledge I have that families can be together forever

Corny Jokes

There is nothing greater than jokes that make you groan and smile and roll your eyes...

Friends from The Ohio

Where would I be without these friendships and the things I have learned from these wonderful men and women? I treasure the times when we are able to get together-- seeing them makes me smile-- and I am so grateful the Lord put us all together in The Ohio to have the opportunity to become lifelong friends.

Life is BEAUTIFUL...

A Little Bit of Christmas Goodness

I found this idea in one of my mom's many cooking magazines, and I fell in love with it.


So, while I was out doing a little bit of Christmas shopping, I found these darling Wilton cookie cutters on sale...

So, I bought ten!

I gathered all the stuff to make the fudge (my first fudge-making endeavor, I might add!) and it was delicious! Much thanks goes out to my mama for supervising the process-- It is due to her we got the timing all right, and ended up with edible Christmas goodness!

Once the fudge was made, I packed it in the cookie cutters, let it harden a little bit, and then came the fun part:

I used icing that would harden and gave the little guys faces, buttons, sleeves, and pant legs. After the icing dried, I put them in cellophane bags tied with a festive ribbon around it. They made great visiting teaching gifts, cheerful 'thank you' gifts, and wonderful neighbor gifts-- This is such a fun, and darling, way to spread some holiday cheer!

November is a Great Month to Have a Birthday!

Cami and I are blessed enough to have birthdays that kick off the end of the year holiday season-- two days apart from each other no less! To kick off 'Birthday Season' this year, my sweet visiting teacher- Alison Whitney, brought me these delicious chocolate cupcakes that had york peppermint patties in them. Her sweet daughter got the recepie from the Martha Stewart Cupcake Book, and decided to share with me for my birthday!

It was a scrumptious way to kick off my birthday!

We celebrated my birthday on Sunday November 22. I got to pick dinner-- and we had Grandma LeSueur's Red Chicken and her broccoli salad with homemade scalloped potatoes, Lion House rolls with honey butter, and a fruit pizza for dessert!

Goodness, look at all those candles!

Rome is burning...

Cam's birthday was Wednesday November 25, so we gave her her presents after Thanksgiving dinner and we had her ooy gooey chocolatey birthday cake for dessert Sunday November 29...

It was delicioso!

Craft Therapy: October

For our Prosper ward Relief Society, we had our first ever Craft Therapy night, where we painted cute fall pumpkins. I was in charge, and I wanted it to be an evening of crafts, chocolate, and theraputic talking amongst women-- and that's just what it was. Our first annual Craft Therapy was a huge success!

Relief Society sisters, hard at work!

Pumpkins in progress

The final product!

It was a wonderful night, and everyone had so much fun! Can't wait for the next project!

My Perfectly Perky Perspective of Last Weeks Events

This last week was a whirlwind of family togetherness- It was awesome, and I loved it! Here are only five of the many good things that happened last week:

1. I learned from my Tick-Tock Grandma how to make strawberry freezer jam, I learned from my Papa-Bama Grandma how to make bread, and I have been enjoying the taste of my newly-found skills!
2. I bought a vogue doll pattern and a way cute apron pattern! I told Audrey I would make her her first dolly... and with all my friends who are getting married this summer, I certainly have my work cut out for me as far as the aprons go! I'll be getting busy on these two projects soon!
3. When I got to work on Saturday, the first thing my manager said to me was, "Oh, thank goodness you're here!" They needed another server there who actually knew what she was doing-- and that server was me! It is such a good feeling to know I am appreciated and a valued employee! :)
4. We had a lovely Mother's day, and I was delighted to be able to spend it with my momma, my two grandmommas, and the newest member of the momma's club- my sister! We had a delicious shrimp/corn/potato boil, and garnished our dinner with the watermelon we bought at the farmer's market!
5. Cami and Kevin finally announced they would be starting a family blog. Not an un-blog. Not an email with weekly updates. But a real live blog! It will be set to private, but if you want to know about the happenings in the Jensen family from someone besides Auntie Chelsea, have them add you to their list of blog readers!

"For today and it's blessings, I owe the world an attitude of gratitude!" -Anonymous

“Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all foods; and good bread with fresh butter, the greatest of feasts.”

James Beard immortalized those words about bread, and I wholeheartedly agree. However, I would like to make one small addendum-

“Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all foods;
and good bread with fresh homemade jam, the greatest of feasts.”

That's right... On Thursday we implored the genius of my Grandma Jones to teach us LeSueur girls the tricks behind making homemade, whole wheat bread. A time-consuming feat, fresh bread just out of the oven is is totally worth the effort!

Here, Mom and Grandma are beginning the process of mixing the ingredients.

My mom remembers Grandma, from her childhood, standing on a stool to kneed the bread- true to form, she asked for a stool and really got rough with that dough! This is an especially good pastime if you have anger issues you need to work through!

Little Miss Audrey was so amused by watching Grandma at work... She couldn't take her eyes off of Grandma J!

My mama, putting the bread into the oven-- ever so carefully so as to not let it fall!

Three loaves, topped with oatmeal and barley, soundly baking in the oven.

Look at those beautiful loaves!

Here's my daddy, enjoying the fruits (literally) of our labor! Dinner was bread and jam :)


For your viewing pleasure, here's some advice and a story about baking bread:

Thanks, Grandma Jones, for teaching us all about the fine art of baking bread-- Another successful mother-in-zion lesson for the journals (or blogs)!

A Springtime Outing With A Sweet Ending...

Looking a lot like the Blueman Group, we all piled into the Suburban Monday afternoon to take a trip down to one of my favorite places ever-- the Dallas Farmer's Market! We went with the intent of buying strawberries to make my Grandma LeSueur's famous freezer jam, but of course, we left with a few more things than just strawberries! :)

All in all, we accumulated the 16 pounds of strawberries we set out to get, two mangoes, six tomatoes, two baskets of baby red potatoes, 16 ears of sweet corn, a watermelon, a white hydrangea plant, a betterboy tomato plant, and a partridge in a pear tree. We all love the farmer's market!

The Red Barn is like the costco of the farmer's market. This is where we go whenever we want something fresh, and a lot of it. LOVE this place!

This is the man who sold us our strawberries!

Mom with her tomato plant... I can't wait 'till we have some homegrown tomatoes to eat!

Look at how yummy everything looks! I love fresh fruits and veggies!

This was Daddy's inaugural trip to the farmer's market... We were SO excited he was there, but when he moved the car from the food section to the flower section, he decided he would stay in the car. What a party-pooper!

Mom with the hydrangeas... These are her favorite flowers! Mine too!

The Jensen family

The women of the family... Looking great (as per usual)


Today we took those strawberries and mushed them up, added lemon juice, sugar, and pectin, and canned our strawberry freezer jam! This was a great Mother-in-Zion lesson taught to us by none other than domestic goddess, Grandma LeSueur. She has been making freezer jam since the sixties, and one of my favorite memories of visiting her house growing up is the yummy strawberry jam she always had for us to put on our breakfast toast! It's wonderful being able to recreate this childhood memory at will now- I think a new era has dawned in my life!

Preparing.

Mashing.

Boiling.

Canning.

We got fifteen pints and four half-pints out of 10 pounds of strawberries. No. We won't share with you- but feel free to call us for some pointers... we'll defer all questions to one Ms. Audree LeSueur!


Thanks Grandma!