If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.

To those of you who are familiar with Laura Numeroff's book "If you Give a Mouse a Cookie" or any of her other "If you Give...." childrens books, you'll understand this post.
If you are not familliar with those books...Go, read one to your kids, then come back and read this post.

I Love Laura Numeroffs books because they always remind me of myself. So, I've decided to describe my day yesterday in true "If you give a Mouse a Cookie" style.

If you give Ruth the task to wash the dishes,
she's going to want to clean the entire kitchen.
While she's cleaning the kitchen, she's going to start clearing the counters.
while clearing the counters, she'll notice some bannanas that are too ripe.
Seeing the ripe bannanas will make her want to make some bannana bread.
She'll start gathering the ingredients for the bannana bread, and while she's gathering, she'll realize that she is almost out of wheat flour.
She'll need to grind some.
While the wheat is grinding in the mud room, she'll look around and see that the mudroom needs to be organized.
She'll start organizing, and she might get carried away and start sorting the kids winter gear.
While sorting the winter gear, she'll notice that some of the coats and jackets are too small for her children, and decide to get rid of them.
She'll have to make a donation pile, and want a bag to put it in.
She'll need to get one from the kitchen.
When she goes into the kitchen to get a bag,
she'll see that the kitchen needs to be cleaned.
And chances are if she starts cleanning the kitchen,
She's going to want to wash the dishes.

A Few Things

My latest Venture.
Or maybe that should say my latest Ad-venture. It all started a couple of weeks ago when I was browsing the racks of one of my favorite thrift shops( I am a thrift shop junkie). I saw this beautiful vintage (my guess is 50's) dress, in MINT condition. I loved it, but alas, I knew it would never fit me, so I left it there hanging.
A few days later, I discovered EBAY.....lets just say I've learned my lesson. (just because you can bid on things really cheap doesn't mean you should bid on a whole bunch of things really cheap...You just might win it all. It's not fun explaining to your husband why there's $60.00 worth of withdrawals in $3.00-$6.00 increments.) O.K. I know this is all a little random at this point but hang in there...
SO, I'm telling my Sis.-in-law Heather what a dork I am with the whole EBAY thing, and say " You know, I saw this really great dress at the thrift shop." and off handily said "I wonder what I could get for it on EBAY?" She asked me if they have a lot of vintage stuff at the thrift shop and I told her they did. She told me I should open a shop on Etsy. Heather makes these amazing hair accessories and sells them all day long on etsy. (check out her shop flowergoodies.etsy.com) I thought you could only sell handmade stuff on etsy, but she told me You can sell vintage stuff there too. Anyway long story short..o.k. its still long, but I now have a shop on Etsy. I went back to the thrift store and the dress was still there!!! I cost me a whopping $10.00! SCORE!! I haven't listed the dress yet, I'm waiting to find someone who'll fit it so I can get some great pics. but I've found a bunch of other treasures to sell and I've already sold a few things. I've been having so much fun with this. Yay me! check out my shop at http://www.etsy.com/shop/Betterintime



Next Item:
Quist family Father and Son Backpacking Trip.
I don't have any pics. to post of this the Boys adventure, because the last time Adam went backpacking, he lost our camera. So, the camera stayed home this time.
Adam and Caleb had a great time this weekend with Grandpa Quist, Uncles: Michael, Paul, Nathan, Ben, and Russ, and with Caleb's cousins Robert and Daniel.
They hiked to a place called Rogers trough. They saw some cliff dwellings, and hieroglyphics there. Grandpa Quist gave a great devotional, and Caleb was given his very own little book of Mormon (perfect size to take backpacking.) He loves it. Thanks Grandpa. Adam said they had a great time and that Caleb is such a good little hiker.

Last but not least:
Bicycles and Answered Prayers.
Sarah has been wanting a new bike for a while. I said "wanting" not needing. Her bike is perfectly fine and usable. The problem is, Caleb and Eliza both have 20" bikes. Sarah's bike is only 16". Eliza got a new (used) bike for her birthday , and Caleb got a new bike from Santa on Christmas. Like I said, Sarah's bike is just fine so we didn't see the need to get her a new one when the other kids got theirs. But, I have noticed lately that Sarah has a harder time keeping up with Caleb and Eliza. Because her bike is smaller, she has to peddle twice as fast just to go the same speed they are going. She gets tired more quickly and feels left out of the fun sometimes. I told her I'd keep my eyes open for a good used bike, but I'm not going to go out and buy her a new bike when it's not even her B-day, or Christmas.
Last week, I saw a flier for a community yard sale on Saturday put on by the High school booster club. I made the mistake of telling Sarah that we might be able to find her a bike there. Later, when it was Sarah's turn to pray, she said "...and bless my new bike, that we can buy it." and then while blessing the food the next day "...please bless me to find my pretty bike" Sigh..... it was becoming a reoccurring theme. Every time she prayed, she'd mention something about "her" bike. I tried to tell her that sometimes when we don't really NEED something we may not get it... Even when we pray for it. But her faith was unwavering and she continued to pray, believing that she would get "her" bike. So, Saturday arrives and we're up bright and early to go to the yard sale. We get there and there are NO bikes! Not one. We hit every garage sale in town that morning and no one is selling bikes.
As we're driving around, I'm trying to figure out how to explain to Sarah About answers to prayers, how they're not always answered the way we'd like, or when we'd like. I can see her in the rear view mirror diligently looking for more yard sale signs, still hopeful that she'd find "her" bike, but there were no more sales, it was time to go home.
We were home for a couple hours, and just as I was about to sit down with Sarah and have that talk about prayers, we get a call from a brother in the ward. The conversation went something like this. "Hi Sister Gurr, could you guys use a girls
20" bike? Our daughter just got a bigger bike but her old one is still real nice. We'd like to give it to you if you want it."
" Uh, did you just say a girls 20" bike....We'll be right over."
And that is the story of Sarah's new (used) bike and answered prayers.

It's a Grand Old Flag !

This past Friday, the kids took part in the flag raising at their school. They sang "Yankee Doodle", "You're a Grand Old Flag", "My Country Tis' of Thee", and "Battle Hymn of the Republic". The kids all looked and sounded great! At a time when it's hard to feel patriotic, These children reminded me that our country is truly great, and I am blessed to live in it.
In other news, Sarah earned the Citizen ship award at school on Thursday. Great job Sarah!
On Saturday we spent the entire day pulling weeds, tilling soil, hoeing rows and planting asparagus, onion bulbs, chives, and cilantro. It was a long hard day of work, but we are glad to have our garden started. next weekend we'll plant peas, broccoli, and lettuce. In early-mid May we should be able plant everything else. I love having a garden.

Easter

We enjoyed a quiet Easter at home this year. We loved watching general conference. I loved all of the talks that reminded me of the importance of my role as a mother. I felt the Spirit so strongly as I listened to all of the talks. I am so grateful for a living prophet and apostles who guide us and give us direction from the Lord.
In addition to Watching conference, the kids were able to have an Easter egg hunt.
The kids usually get to have an Easter egg hunt with their cousins at Grandma Quist's house, but this year we wouldn't be able to make the trip to the valley. I could tell that the kids were disappointed, but they understood our reasons for not going.
We received a wonderful surprise in the mail on the Thursday before Easter. A package arrived filled with special Easter eggs from Grandma Quist. I was able to hide them for the kids, and they had a fun time searching for them. Thanks Grandma!!!