Halloween-a-Go-Go

October begins tomorrow! I can’t believe how fast September has flown. I’ve heard people say, “The days were long, and the month was short” before, but never quite knew what they meant until now. Tomorrow I’ll begin decorating the house for Halloween. I have a little stuffed witch who watches over the music studio from the tea table. There’s a mechanical spider who drops from the chandelier when it hears a loud noise. (The spider and the dog both set each other off. It’s hilarious.) I’ll drape this quilt over the sofa or the upstairs railing. I’ll hang my Pumpkin Blossom quilt (https://mombowe.blogspot.com/2014/09/pumpkin-blossom-quilt.html) on the wall behind my piano. I may coerce my son to build an upside-down scarecrow (we call it Legs on the Lawn) in the front yard. I’d do it myself, of course, but I only have one good arm. That excuse will probably be good for another month or two.

Amy's Turning Twenty

Here’s another spicy chicken soup, tailor made for nasty weather and nastier headcolds. It has fewer than ten carbs per serving, if that matters to you. If it doesn’t, serve it with tortilla chips, hot buttered biscuits or corn bread.

Enchilada Soup

3 stalks celery, diced

1 medium red bell pepper, diced

2 teaspoons minced garlic

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup diced tomatoes

2 teaspoons cumin

1 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon chili powder

1/2 teaspoon cayenne

4 cups chicken broth

8 ounces cream cheese

1 pound chicken breast, cooked and shredded

Juice from 1 lime

Gently saute celery, peppers, and garlic in oil. Add tomatoes, broth and spices. Simmer about half an hour. Stir in cream cheese until melted, then add chicken and lime juice. Serve piping hot. Makes about four servings.

Four Hourglass Blocks

“I just saw these jeans at Nordstrom for some $400 with fake mud on them. That doesn’t make sense to people who’ve actually worked in the dirt. Look – I wear jeans. I like jeans. Some of my jeans actually have holes in them. Those holes happened as a result of wearing the jeans and doing some work. It’s like a scar. You get a scar, you get a story. There’s this sort of parallel between an overpriced pair of fake muddy jeans with an overpriced diploma from an institution that was happy to take borrowed money but not so happy to give you skills that would make you hirable. As much fun as it would be to go back in time with a pair of $400 fake muddy jeans from Nordstrom and show them to the guys on Dirty Jobs, I realize it would be a terrible thing to do because their heads would explode.” – Mike Rowe

Autograph Wedding Quilt

Choose to love each other even in those moments when you struggle to like each other. Love is a commitment, not a feeling.

Make time together a priority. Budget for a consistent date night. Time is the currency of relationships.

Don’t put your marriage on hold while you’re raising your kids or you’ll end up with an empty nest and an empty marriage.

When you’ve made a mistake, admit it and humbly seek forgiveness. You should be quick to say, “I’m sorry.”

Pray together. Every marriage is stronger with God in the middle of it.

Marriage isn’t 50-50, divorce is 50-50. Marriage has to be 100-100. It’s not splitting everything in half, but both partners giving everything they’ve got.

Model the kind of marriage that will make your sons want to grow up to be good husbands and your daughters want to grow up to be good wives. – Dave Willis, author of The Seven Laws of Love

Hourglass Block

If I feel a little low, all I need to do is reread Marjorie Pay Hinckley quotes: “The trick is to enjoy life. Don't wish away your days, waiting for better ones ahead.”

“Thank you is a wonderful phrase. Use it. It will add stature to your soul.”

“No bit of knowledge goes wasted. Everything you are learning now is preparing you for something else.”

“Be kind. Everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”

“Each of us can ask ourselves each morning. 'What can I do to make life happier for someone today?’”

“Choose carefully each day that which you will do and that which you will not do, and the Lord will bless you to accomplish the important things that have eternal consequences.”

And my personal favorite: “The only way to get through life is to laugh your way through it. You either have to laugh or cry. I prefer to laugh. Crying gives me a headache.”

Four Squares Within Squares

“From the family proclamation we learn, ‘In the premortal realm, spirit sons and daughters knew and worshiped God as their Eternal Father.’ In that realm, we learned about our eternal female identity. We knew that we were each a beloved daughter of heavenly parents. Our mortal journey to earth did not change those truths. We each belong to and are needed in the family of God. Earthly families all look different. And while we do the best we can to create strong traditional families, membership in the family of God is not contingent upon any kind of status—marital status, parental status, financial status, social status, or even the kind of status we post on social media. We belong. We are daughters of our Heavenly Father, who loves us, and we love Him.” - Carole M. Stephens

DeAnn's Bento Box

The cooler autumn weather has me thinking of soup. This one is my favorite, especially when I’m dealing with autumn headcolds, allergies or flu:

Tom Ka Gai

3/4 pound boneless, skinless chicken meat

3 tablespoons vegetable oil  

2 14-ounce cans coconut milk

2 cups water

2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger

4 tablespoons fish sauce

1/4 cup fresh lime juice

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

2 tablespoons thinly sliced green onion

1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro (optional)

Cut chicken into thin strips and saute in oil for to 2 to 3 minutes until the chicken turns white. In a stockpot, bring coconut milk and water to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer. Add ginger, fish sauce, lime juice, cayenne powder and turmeric. Simmer until the chicken is done, about 10 to 15 minutes. Sprinkle with sliced green onions and cilantro (if desired) and serve hot. Makes about six servings.