2. Cook the bacon in a skillet over high heat until crispy, about 8 minutes. Drizzle Brussels sprouts with the oil and a pinch of salt, and toss evenly. Roast about 20 minutes until crispy.
3. In the meantime: Whisk together the shallots, bacon, 2 T apple juice or Apple sauce, and the 2 T of lemon juice.
4. Once the brussels sprouts are out of the oven, toss with the dressing and serve hot.
So we bought our washing machine on KSL, secondhand, for $75 dollars. Almost as soon as we brought it home we realized it had a mold problem. It was leaving our clothes smelling like mildew. Kyle wanted to throw in the towel and buy new, but we were poor, and my idea to try and clean it first prevailed. I found a tutorial online from a whirlpool washer maintenance man, and I’ve used it ever since. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a very detailed tutorial, and now I can’t find it at all, so I thought I’d write my own. So, here you go: How to clean a top-load whirlpool gold washer like a pro.
First, wipe down the inside with a towel and some mild bathroom cleaner. I use softscrub and a magic eraser. Don’t be afraid to scrub way back under the lip of your washer as far as you can reach. Here’s an example of what it might look like before you clean it.:
Second, turn you washer on. Some washers have a cleaning mode. This will keep the water very hot. If you don’t have something like that, just use a hot water setting. Keep the lid up until the washer fills as high as it will go. You’re going to need to fill it higher than that. Take a bucket or bowl and fill the washer up with hot water above the first lip. Here’s a picture of that lip. I’m pointing to the water line just above the lip.
Now that the washer is full of water, let it go through the first spin cycle. It will swash the water around in there and shake loose a bunch of the mold you can’t see. I usually add a cup of vinegar to the load at this point as well. Once the washer has drained the water, pop open the lid and start taking apart the gadgets inside.
Set these pieces soaking in a hot water bath. You’ll need to wipe them clean too, but I usually let them soak for a few minutes first.
Then go back to the washer and clean out the inside you just revealed by removing those other two pieces. I wipe it down and then rinse it our with a couple buckets of water.
Once all the pieces are clean, put them back the way you found them.
The soaking water will probably be pretty gross.
After this let the washer run through the rest of the wash cycle, which should include another rinse and spin. And there you have it! A clean-smelling (and looking) washer.
It’s been a great year for us here in the Barney house. One of our favorite things is to make goals, and most of the memorable moments of the year came from working towards these goals:
Goals #1: Kitchen update.
When we moved into our home last year the kitchen was hardly sufficient. There wasn’t enough space for a family-sized table, and everything was horribly outdated (except for the appliances, thank heaven).
Right from the beginning of the year we were working on it: refinishing the cabinets, hanging a new light, building a banquet, making window shades, building a half-wall, putting in a back splash, and building a baby gate.
There is still a lot we need to do, but mostly just finishing touches. We have certainly opened up space we needed in the kitchen, and completed some essential baby proofing. Plus, it’s been really fun.
Goal #2: Gardening
Kyle and I hadn’t ever had a garden of our own before. This year was our first shot at it.We grew a bunch of stuff, some of it from seed (you can see the starts on our kitchen table pictured above), some of it on our own land, most of it at a community garden plot.
Goal #3: Food Storage
An important part of gardening is learning how to store the extra food you’ve grown. This year I learned how to can apricots, jam, apple pie filling, and salsa, we also invested in a chest freezer and froze some fruits, vegetables, apple juice we had pressed, and jalapeno poppers. Aside from canning and freezing food, we also worked on building up to a year supply of essential items and food.
Our apple juice being pressed.Salsa boiling downGoal #4: Photography
This one is a goal I’ve tackled on my own ever since Kyle got me a DSLR for my birthday. I’ve had a couple chances this year to work on my photography. For instance, my brother-in-law’s wedding
… or my brother’s wedding
or family pictures for relatives
Goal #5: Read more
Kyle and I used to read A LOT more. Then missions and college happened, and it kinda’ stole the happiness out of reading. This year we wanted to get it back. I’m glad to report that we’ve read a whole bunch this year. The flame has definitely been reignited. Recommended reading from this year:
I Will Lead You Along: The Life of Henry B. Eyring – by Robert I. Eaton
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn – Betty Smith
My Story – by Elizabeth Smart
Little Women – by Louisa May Alcott
The Lincoln Hypothesis – by Timothy Ballard
The Race Beat – by Gene Roberts and Hank Kilbanoff
Beyond the Miracle Worker – by Kim E. Nielsen
… and then I caught up on some children’s fiction. I like to look out for good books to read out loud to my kids when they’re older.
Floors – by Patrick Carmen
Below – by Patrick Carmen
The Sisters Grimm – by Michael Buckley
Here’s to a new year! We hope to carry over all of these goals in 2015, and add a couple new ones. Do you have any good goals to recommend?
Tim and Brittany asked me to take their family pictures. It was a learning experience (I need a little practice manually setting aperture) but I think we captured some nice moments. I love the way the colors turned out. And their kids were so good! Incredibly patient for two kids under the age of 5. Check it out:
The day has finally come! The backsplash is up, and all is good with the world.
We owe a lot of the accolades on this project to my mother-in-law and father-in-law, since they called and asked if we had a project they could come down and help us with. (I know! Who won the in-law lottery? Oh, me.)
I’d never laid tile before, and I was a little hesitant about kicking off the project.
The start!
I laid out the tile in a pattern on the counter (herringbone. Ambitious, I know.) Kyle and his dad cut the tiles for the pattern, and Kyle’s mom helped me put down thin set, and place the tiles, until the baby woke up, then she was kind enough to babysit and run errands when we discovered we were out of things, like dinner, and lunch.
First batch of tile up!
The award for most amazing bit of tile work goes to Todd, who cut the tile to go around the molding on our kitchen sink window. Blew my mind.
Check out the tile cuts around the molding! Beautiful, no?
It took me almost a week after they left to grout the tiles, but I’m pretty sure we have the neighborhood’s most loved backsplash.
oooooo. ahhhhhh.
We still have a ways to go, but its certainly coming along!
BEFORE:
Befor
AFTER:
After!
In total we spent about 90 dollars on tile, and about 50 dollars on everything else. To see more information about our previous kitchen updates, check out part 1.
That time has come again when the Mormon Church holds General Conference and the Prophet, his Counselors, and the Twelve Apostles speak! Every year I like to review past talks that really inspired me. Here are a list of my favorites over the last 7 years:
For all of you who couldn’t make it to Josh’s Wedding, luncheon, or reception, here are some pictures of the events:
We lost power for several hours in the luncheon hall while we were setting up, but luckily the ladies helping Mom and I lived nearby, and had emergency lanterns and things. We ended up doing most of the decorating by lantern light. You can see the lanterns in the picture below.
I have personally never been bothered by the fact that men hold the priesthood and women don’t, but I recently started to wonder, “Why doesn’t this bother me?” I could see arguments building up around me for why women should hold the priesthood, and I couldn’t adequately explain why I didn’t agree.
Now I can.
The priesthood is the power of God on the earth. The same power that created the heavens and the earth. The same power by which miracles are done. Miracles like prophecy, revelation, visions, healing the sick, preaching the gospel for conversion, speaking in tongues, and calming storms. And yet, even though women can’t hold the priesthood, miracles like these can be done by women AND men.
Church history is full of examples of women healing the sick (often receiving revelation about how to do so). The mission field is full of sisters who preach with profound power, and have the gift of tongues and interpretation of tongues. I have never in my life felt I was less able to receive revelation because I am a girl.
There are, of course, certain tasks that only worthy, priesthood-holding men can perform. For example, only men perform sealings to bind families together for eternity. In fact, all the “saving ordinances” are performed solely by priesthood-holding men. However, even a worthy man with the power to seal cannot seal himself to his family. Another sealer must be present in order to perform the sealing. This is the same for all the “saving ordinances”, including baptism, and confirmation. A man cannot baptize himself. A man cannot give himself a blessing. A man cannot be his own judge. Another worthy priesthood holder must be present for him to receive these blessings.
And this is the key. No single person can save themselves.
You see, the priesthood is symbolic: it teaches us that no one can get to heaven without someone else opening the door. And ultimately that someone is the Savior…
…and the Savior is a man.
When these ordinances are performed for us, they are performed by a man representing the Savior. As Elder Oaks pointed out in his recent conference address on the priesthood power, “Ultimately, all keys of the priesthood are held by the Lord Jesus Christ, whose priesthood it is. He is the one who determines what keys are delegated to mortals and how those keys will be used.” When a priesthood-holding man performs a saving ordinance for us, it is not because that man has any special power. It is because the Savior has special power, and the man has been asked to represent the greatest man that has ever lived, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Maybe women read too far into this decision God made for men to hold the priesthood. I don’t believe our loving Heavenly Father was leaving some sort of cryptic social commentary on what women can and can’t do. I don’t think this decision was about women at all. Maybe, Heavenly Father simply hopes that when a son of God places his hands on our head we’ll be reminded of THE Son of God, whose life and death gives the priesthood its saving power. After all, “we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins.”
I am grateful for all the wonderful and worthy men in my life who have stood in the Savior’s place and opened the doors of salvation for me. I’m grateful to my Father in Heaven who prepared a way for all his sons and daughters to become the best version of themselves. And I am also grateful for the Savior, who lived the perfect life I could not live, and yet took upon himself the pain of my mistakes and failings, and did what I could not do: conquered. I am grateful for all that reminds me of him.
As my brother-in-law’s wedding was ending he asked if I could fill in for their photographer, who had unexpectedly canceled. I’ve never done any REAL photography, and certainly never a wedding, but I’ve wanted to give it a try. All things considered I’m pretty happy with how they turned out.
This was also my first time using Lightroom professionally. The final photo package has all the “good” shots in the original, plus 5 different presets: HD, Polariod, Warm Light, Antiqued, and Black & White.
Here are a few of my favorites:
Things I did well:
1. I picked a good place to do the group pictures. (Kind of a miracle because I just told everyone to walk toward the shaded side of the temple and crossed my fingers we’d find a spot.)
2. I think I did alright ordering people around, and getting a picture of most every group combination, without taking all day.
Things to do better next time:
1. Shoot more pictures. Lots of excellent shots had people with closed eyes, or momentarily weird expressions.
2. Keep the camera level to the ground. I had a little trouble with building lines going all curvy.
3. Think up more clever things to say. “Cheese” can only get you so far.
4. Come up with a pose list.
5. Keep my eyes open for garbage cans, metal lawn lights, stray pieces of hair, and girls skirts that are riding up. I didn’t notice a lot of that stuff until I was editing.
6. Make sure the photo angle is flattering to everyone in the picture, not just the bride.
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