40 by 40 #39: Make Homemade Pop Tarts

 A handful of years ago (ok, maybe more than a handful...Like 6 or 7?  How much is a handful, anyway?) I was into making things from scratch.  I was trying really hard to avoid prepackaged foods, partly from a health perspective, but also to save a little cash wherever I could.  Unfortunately (or fortunately?) I have gotten away from that.  Sometimes it's nice to create things from scratch, but sometimes you just need to BUY THE DANG GRAHAM CRACKERS, HOLY SMOKES, WHO HAS TIME TO MAKE HOMEMADE GRAHAM CRACKERS?

Ahem.  Anyway.  During this phase, I pinned a recipe (on pinterest) for homemade pop tarts, which sounded highly intriguing.  I love a good pop tart (they are basically breakfast pie), so I thought making them myself would be kind of fun.  But that recipe sat there on my "Recipes to Try" board for years, through the passing of my "All Homemade All The Time" phase,  into my "I Have No Time For Anything" phase, and finally into my "Oh, I Have Time Again, And Oodles Of It" phase.  (Having kids in school all day is kind of the best.) (Also the worst.  But that's a blog post for another day.)  It had been sitting there for so long, that I decided to slap it on my 40 by 40 list to finally make it happen.  (If it's on a list, then I have to cross it off.  I'm a crazy person.  It's fine.)  (I also love parentheses way too much.)

This is all to say, I finally made some homemade pop tarts back in April, and I loved them.  They were kind of a lot of work, and they didn't taste anything like store-bought pop tarts, but they were flaky and sweet and delicious.  Would I make them again?  Maybe.  But certainly not on the regular.  My pants barely fit as it is.

I even took a couple pictures, amazingly enough!  Don't mind the general mess in the background.  That's what my counters always look like.  We dump everything there.  I don't even see the clutter anymore.

In case you were curious, I used this recipe.  And I went with cinnamon sugar, because it's my favorite kind.  And maybe the fact that it looked the easiest played a small part.  Maybe.

40 by 40

Here it is, the moment you've all been waiting for: my official 40 by 40 list.

I've separated these tasks into 8 categories because have you ever tried to make a list of 40 things you want to do?  It's madness.  But if you have a specific category, and you only have to think of 5 things for that category, it's much more manageable.

Some of these things are things I've never done.  Some are things I want to do again.  Some of them might not make a lot of sense to you right now so you'll just have to wait for the write up after I finish them.  But I think this is a feasible list for where I am in life right now.  Obviously I'd love to put "Travel through Europe for 6 weeks" or "Hike the entire Appalachian Trail" on here, but those things aren't really within my reach.  I decided to focus on things that are very possible for me to do in the next 3 years and 8 months.  I may or may not finish them all, but dang it, I'm going to try!  Let me know if you'd like to join me on any of these adventures :)

Physical

1. Run a 5K.  (The whole time.  No walking)
2. Hike a mountain peak.
3. Go snowshoeing.
4. Hike the Fairyland Loop at Bryce Canyon National Park.
5. Go paddleboarding.

Spiritual


6. Visit all the temples in Utah.
7. Read all the standard works again.
8. Finish reading and help scan my grandparents' letters from WWII.
9. Read At the Pulpit: 185 Years of Discourses by Latter-Day Saint Women by Jennifer Reeder
10. Go to Music and the Spoken Word.

Musical

11. Write a hymn.
12. Learn the basics of playing the violin.
13. Perform somewhere with the Blockburger Family Band.
14. See an opera.
15. Go to a classical music concert.

Creative

16. Create some map artwork displaying all the places we've lived.
17. Create a Cherries Virtue recipe.
18. Make pajama pants for the family.
19. Make a new wreath for my front door.
20. Learn to make paper flowers.

Places to Go

21. Take my kids to Yellowstone.
22. Visit Yosemite.
23. See the Spiral Jetty.
24. Visit Canyonlands.
25. Visit Capitol Reef.

Things to Read

26. Finish reading 1776.
27. Finish reading all the Chronicles of Narnia.
28. Read North and South by Elizabeth Gaskill.
29. Read a Sherlock Holmes mystery.
30. Read a book of Emily Dickinson poems.

Things to Eat

31. Eat creme brulee.
32. Eat a macaron.
33. Eat a Kouing Aman from Les Madeleines.
34. Eat a Doner (Doener? I need an umlaut!) kebab.
35. Eat pie from Burr Trail Grill in Boulder, UT.


Other

36. See a play.
37. Finish my denim quilt.
38. Write a short story.
39. Make homemade pop tarts.
40. Go to Gilgal Garden.

Looking Forward to 2018

I sat down on January 1st and thought about what I hoped the coming year would bring.  I had a few ideas on some things I wanted to make happen, resolutions if you will, but they seemed a little too big to complete in one year.  Then I looked back at my list of 2017 resolutions, and felt a bit of chagrin that 30 by 30 ended up being 30 by 36.  Then I realized that 36 is not that far from 40, and well...instead of creating a list of resolutions for 2018, I put together my 40 by 40 list. 

I'm going to create a separate post for the actual list (to make it easier for me to find when I want to reference it), but know that most of my "resolutions" for this year will be to work on that list.  However I've also been thinking of all the things I hope will happen in 2018, and here's what I've come up with.

I hope our little family is in a different situation next January.  I hope Clark has a job, we have a home, and we feel settled.  I hope we remain in the Wasatch Front, where we can attend all the family events, from Sunday dinners and birthday parties to baby blessings and weddings and everything in between.  I hope my girls find themselves at a school they love with friendships that can last for years.  I hope we spend a lot of time in the mountains, in all seasons.  I hope can meet new friends and reconnect with old ones.  I hope I can offer a little more compassion to those who cross my path, and I hope I can send a little more kindness out into the world to ease the pain and suffering that is everywhere.

Here's hoping, 2018.  Be kind to us all.

Remembering 2017

I don't post much on this old blog anymore, but I have been quite consistent with at least one post in January detailing resolutions, old and new.  Can't break tradition now!  So here is my look back on 2017.

I had a nice little list of resolutions for the year.  Let's pull that up:

• Find a family name to take to the temple.
• Learn to play all the hymns on the organ. 
• Learn to play a new song on the guitar.
• Walk 500 miles.  This time, for real.
• Read 14,000 pages.  (Yikes, that's a big number.)
• Pray more often and more fervently.
• Read the Book of Mormon as a family
• Go on dates with each of the girls.

And now, let's go through each item.

• Find a family name to take to the temple.
• Learn to play all the hymns on the organ. 
• Learn to play a new song on the guitar.

The first three items on the list were part of my 30 by 30 project.  I'm so pleased to report that I completed those three tasks, thus finished the entire list!  I wrote about taking a family name to the temple here, but apparently I never blogged about learning a new song on the guitar, or learning to play all the hymns on the organ.  For the guitar, I picked the easiest song I could find, Whole Wide World by Wreckless Eric, which weighs in with a whopping 2 chords.  E and A, over and over again.  I mastered that one pretty quickly, and got to check it off my list.

Playing all the hymns on the organ was a little trickier.  I had started this one long ago, and then I lost my list of hymns played, so I had to start over last January.  I plugged away each week, adding about 10 songs (more or less) to my weekly organ practice.  Once we knew we were moving, I knew I would probably lose access to an organ, so I pushed hard and finished before we left Illinois.  I may not be able to sit down at a moment's notice and play any hymn to perfection, but I now know it's possible for me to play any one of them with a little practice.  That's a good feeling. 

I guess I should rename this project 30 by 36, but oh well.  It's done!

• Walk 500 miles.  This time, for real.

I walked 508.23 miles this year.  Boom.

•  Read 14,000 pages.  (Yikes, that's a big number.)

Sadly I only read 12,796 pages.  I did read 51 books, or at least some part of 51 books.  There were 2 books that I started and opted not to finish: March by Geraldine Brooks and The Book of Mormon Girl by Joanna Brooks.  I really wanted to like both of those books, but I didn't. March because I was ticked at the main character, The Book of Mormon Girl because I had a hard time relating to the author (which was surprising, but perhaps I would have felt differently if I'd continued reading).  Looking back at the books I did finish, I read some great stuff this year.  Care you know more?  Check out my book blog!

• Pray more often and more fervently.

I believe I did pray more often and more fervently than in 2016, but there is always room for improvement.  It's also hard to measure something like that, unless I make a prayer chart, which I guess I could do, but then it feels too much like a thing to check off a list instead of a conversation with God, so I'm hesitant to start one.  However, I know that our current situation has elicited more prayer from me; perhaps you could say that God knows what He is doing when he sends us trials.  I'm grateful for the opportunity to humble myself and improve my relationship Him, even if it comes at the expense of my comfortable life.  We aren't supposed to be comfortable, right?

• Read the Book of Mormon as a family

While we have made some progress in the Book of Mormon, we haven't come close to finishing it this year.  But we'll get there.  Hopefully in 2018.

• Go on dates with each of the girls.

There have not been regular dates with the girls, but we did do this at least twice, so that's something.  For my date with Julia, she requested that we go to the library, write a comic book together, and get ice cream.  That girl is unique for sure.  I think Ella and I got a donut and then chatted at the donut shop.  What I remember most is each child opening up and talking about what's important to them, which is better than a sack of gold for a parent.  We should do that again.


2017 was a year of big changes for us.  Clark lost his job, we moved across the country, I found a job...lots of changes.  While not every change has been ideal, I have seen blessings throughout it all, and for that I am grateful.  I have a good feeling about 2018.