Saturday is a Special day...

Today was such a strange Saturday. First of all, I woke up to rain and a dark room. I am used to being up pretty early- whether it's for a training run or a soccer game. Today I had neither of those. I had a lazy morning, reading in bed (gasp!) until about 9:30 when I showered and got ready to watch General Conference (the semi-annual meeting for our church). We set the kids up with their own table near the TV, along with little workbooks to help them listen and hopefully digest some of conference.



They did pretty well. Austin and Olivia drew pictures of the things they heard in the talks next to the photo of the appropriate speaker. Some of the things they drew were: Bible, prayer, temple, family, etc. Austin also wrote relevant words in his book. It was really cute, here is what he wrote: fellings, remeber, ordaneses, camandmens, mishenary, home, childhood, spirit, words, heart, camand, speshil, sacriment, president. I love that he tried to write all those words even though he wasn't sure of how they were spelled. Ashley did pretty well too since she had two good examples. She just drew and scribbled in her book... until she decided to dance on the coffee table. That was a little distracting. After about an hour the kids started to slip in their attention span. I gave them some of the other pages I had printed out. They loved the BINGO game and enjoyed using peanuts to cover the subjects they heard.





I know some people love to hear the world famous Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing, but my favorite today was the Children's choir which sang during the second session. They sang, "I am a Child of God", "I love to see the Temple", and "We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet." Those words are so powerful and hearing their strong, confident voices made me so proud to be a part of a church that teaches young children, from the time they can hardly walk, that they are loved, that they have a Father in Heaven who cares about them, and a Savior who died for them. I hope and pray that my own children gain a strong belief in this gospel and that it is of value to them throughout their lifetime.



I felt there was a subtle theme of hope to many of the messages shared today. That although we live in a time of turbulence and uncertainty, we should still have faith in God that He will protect us and help us. We should still strive to be good people and do those things we know we should. That all of us have trials and hard times- yes, life is hard- but we can do it if we rely on our Father in Heaven and follow the principles of the gospel like prayer, attending church, serving others, etc.

Now Jared is getting ready to leave for the Priesthood/Men's session this evening. I made tomorrow's dinner, Harvest Supper, and also Apple Rhubarb Crumble. Yes, it's a shock that I am actually baking something that does NOT include pumpkin- even pumpkin lovers have to branch out now and then. Don't worry, I still have a great recipe to share for today. Have you noticed that I am trying to share recipes that use pumpkin in an unconventional way? It's not just for bread, cookies, and cakes (although I love those things too!)



Penne with Pumpkin Sauce

1 onion, chopped fine
1 red pepper, chopped fine
2 large garlic cloves, minced
2 T. unsalted butter
½ c. canned pumpkin
1 c. chicken broth
1/2 c. water
2 T. heavy cream
fresh nutmeg
1/2 lb. penne pasta
3 T. minced parsley
fresh parmesan

*I actually think this recipe would be good if you omitted the pepper and added sun dried-tomatoes and spinach sauteed in garlic and olive oil. My mouth is watering!

In a skillet, cook onion, pepper, and garlic in butter over moderate heat, stirring until veggies are soft. Stir in pumpkin, broth, water, cream, nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste. Simmer the sauce, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes. While sauce is simmering, cook penne until al dente, reserving 1 c. boiling water. Drain pasta well. Add penne to the sauce. Cook over moderate heat for 1-2 minutes, stirring and thinning the sauce as needed with the reserved water. When pasta is coated well, stir in parsley. Divide in 2 servings and top with Parmesan cheese.