Music and lyrics

Yesterday at choir practice, our choir director shared an article from the Mormon Times about music from someone who is very well know in the church music industry (forgive me, but the name has slipped my mind at the moment). He talked about how Satan uses some of the most gifted, talented people in the world to influence people and about how we should not tell our kids that what they are listening to is junk because it could be the most amazing piece of music but it's not about the music, it's about the lyrics. There was more to the article but she only read part of it. I agree with that. You can have a super talented artist sing a song but unless the words of that song are inspiring and/or uplifting, then it's not a good song lyrically. I notice that a lot in music. It's just another way the adversary influences us and our children and friends. Next time you're listening to a song that you like, listen to the lyrics and see if they are positive or negative, suggestive words. It's amazing to realize just how lyrically bad songs are these days. That's why I try to play it safe and listen to church music only, unless I'm alone. I don't want Tanner to be influenced by all the bad, suggestive words in songs these days. Even when I'm listening to songs that I listened to when I was a teenager is risky. At the time, I thought nothing of it but now I am a lot more aware of the words in them and what the message they are trying to tell. I do listen to radio and other music, but if there's a bad word or suggestiveness in it, I turn it off. It's not worth it to me. I want to be able to invite the spirit into my life and have it with me all the time and if I listen to some of the songs that are out there, I know I won't have it with me.

In other news...Matt passed his gun class he had to take to get a gun licence!!! Now that he has that, he can apply at Brinks to be an armored guard...and hunt! We're getting low on deer meat and I'm trying to use it sparingly because I LOVE deer meat. It is so good. I'd like to try other kinds of wild life meat like elk or moose. Matt just has to get a tag to be able to shoot those and then we can stock up so we don't have to buy yucky hamburger. I am not a big fan of hamburger.

Tanner is enjoying Kindergarten, still. He's had a few of his friends over to play last week. I was busy making salsa, and applesauce with Susanne. If any of you have beets that you need to get rid of (or you have too many and can't use them all) please let me know. My beets didn't quite turn out so I would like to do some more. I love beets so as much as you're willing to share, I'll take.

This year I canned Pears, Peaches, Beets, Applesauce, Salsa, Peach jam and in October I will do my Raspberry jam. I have LOTS and LOTS of raspberries so I am making lots and lots of jam (Erica, you can for sure expect to get some). I love canning. I wish I could can more but we couldn't afford too much this year. I did do more than last year, which was great. Next year, I plan on doing more than I did this year. Pretty soon, I'll be canning 2-3 times a week for the whole summer.

Well, that's about all to share for now. I hope everyone has a great week.

Getting Better

So only 6 days since my last post...lol. Maybe next post will be 5 days from now. Let's see...what's been happening???? We are in Calgary right now and we are helping my Mom and the church up here do the annual food drive for the Salvation Army. Last year they got $750,000 worth of food and this year they are hoping to make the Guinness book of records and get $1,000,000 worth of food. What a great thing to be part of.

Tanner did really well in his speech. His SLP (speech language pathologist) was very impressed with him. Mostly because he has a cold and so his 's' sounds (which are hard for him to come naturally but he can do it if he slows down and controls himself) are perfect because they are not nasally. Hopefully he'll get it soon. We've been working on them for a really long time.

Tanner's quilt is almost done. I just have to quilt it now. I had to trim it and pin and sew the filling in it and that took some time. I also made my sister a quilt for her baby. It's just a double sided flannel blanket but she didn't have any and I didn't want her to not have at least one for as soon as the baby is born. It's big enough for her to swaddle the baby or use it as a crib blanket. I'll post pictures hopefully in the next post.

I also did more canning! I canned strawberry rhubarb jam. It was really easy. I am also making rhubarb pies and apple pies with my aunt. I'm doing that the last week in September. I hope that next year I can do some tomatoes and applesauce. Plus the pears, peaches, and jams. When I first thought about canning, I thought it was so hard but when I did it, it wasn't that hard at all and in reality, it's quite easy. Especially if you have a friend or 2 or 3 to do it with. It goes much faster with more people. Plus if you start small, it doesn't seem overwhelming. I only ordered 1 case each of pears and peaches and it was perfect. If I ordered more than 1 of each, I think I might have felt a bit overwhelmed. I'm glad I started small and next year, I'll go bigger.

My sister is coming to get her bassinet and baby clothes tomorrow (at my Mom's). I'm excited for her to finally have them and to be able to give them to her. We all made guesses at when she's going to have her baby and what it's going to be. Tanner said it's a girl. When I asked him if someone told him that he said that Heavenly Father told him. So who knows...we'll see. I guessed a girl too. Only Dean, Megan and my Aunt Carolyn think it's a boy. There's benefits to both. If they have a boy, they have TONS AND TONS of boy things that I can pass down to them. If it's a girl, she'll be just as spoiled as Tanner was when he was first born. I hope they have a girl because I think Megan needs to have a baby that is spoiled like Tanner was and still is. I don't know...is that vain of me? I just don't want her to feel like her baby isn't as special or spoiled as Tanner is. But I'm sure that if she has a boy, it will be spoiled in other ways that Tanner wasn't. I'm just really excited for my sister and her husband to have a baby and to be an Aunt in my family. I can hardly wait!

Well, I guess that's about it for now. Until next time...

Where are you???

My brain is not functioning on blogger mode like it usually is. I can think of a lot of things to say but for the last couple of days, not much. So maybe I'll just tell you what we've been up to.

Today, I decided that I am going to can peaches when I get back from my super awesome trip in Calgary.




My adopted Mom...not really adopted literally but in heart, Ann, is going to help me do them because I have no clue how to do them. I am soooo excited. I remember having tons and tons of peaches when I was younger. They are so yummy. I think I'm going to get a 20lb case and then when pears come in, I'll do a 20 lb case of them.




I only have about 32 jars and I don't really want to buy more. I have to buy a bunch of rims and seals because the lady that gave me most of hers, kept the lids on and they're all rusted. I got some last year to do my raspberry jam, but I don't want to buy more if I don't have to.



My raspberry jam is not going to be overly successful this year because we didn't get as many berries as we did last year. So I'll just do them in the small jars. Maybe if anyone has raspberries they would like to give to me????? lol.

So that's what I've been up to today...for the most part. I took Tanner to swimming, did some laundry before it rained, did the dishes, finished packing and went to work. Oh, and Tanner and I played too and we made peanut butter cookies. They are so yummy. Of course we had to put chocolate chips in them. Tanner loves to put chocolate chips in every cookie. Tomorrow, I'm going visiting teaching, taking Tanner to his second last swim class, and cleaning the bathroom. So, until tomorrow...