How Do You Choose.........

I decided today to go through Tulip photos to prepare a blog on Tulips.  I have over 100 photo's of Tulips.  I loaded 68 of them into my photo workshop to crop and edit for the blog.

As I began to edit the photo's I realized I had way too many that I liked.  And so my question is how do you choose.... Which should I use?

So here are a few photo's of Tulips taken to see the inside of the flower.  I love taking photo's from all different angles and then seeing which is best.

I like the different patterns you see inside the Tulips.

I love that Tulips come in so many different colors and sizes.  I'm not sure which will be chosen for the Tulip blog, but I'm having fun looking at all the beautiful photo's again.
G.G.

Crocus....My favorite spring flower

The Crocus is my favorite spring flower.  These small flowers were always the first to bloom in my New Jersey garden.  They were the sign that soon I would be outside more, that soon I could begin to add new soil to the garden and plant new seeds. 

 I was amazed as I began to go through my flower photo's to find how many photo's I've taken of the crocuses in my garden.  It is the one flower that I have yet to plant in my Utah garden.  I have decided this year to plant some in a pot for next spring.  I remember sitting on the front steps waiting for the bus to pick my children up, and watching as the Crocus flowers slowly opened in the morning sun.

As the sun slowly warms them they open more and more....

Then as the sun sets they will close and wait to repeat the process again the next day. The colors I had in my garden where, purple, white, and yellow.  And then purple with white stripes and white with purple stripes.

Here are the Yellow ones.  I didn't have a lot of these.

 

 

 Here are the white ones.

The meaning of the Crocus is Happiness, Good Cheer and do not treat me badly.  Hmm... maybe I should bring a photo of one of these into work.  One of the people who works with me has not been the nicest to me lately, perhaps this could be a sign that they need to treat me better. 

I hope you enjoyed these photo's.  I know I've enjoyed looking back at all the photo's I've taken.  I hope to do a blog on Tulips next.
G.G.

Grandma Miller's Yummy Frosting

This past Monday I woke up craving my Grandma Miller's Yummy Frosting.   I don't typically feel the need to bake, but I just needed to have her frosting.  So many of my childhood memories can be found while eating something made with this frosting.  My most favorite treat would be whoopie pie's filled with it, but that was a bit more work than I had time for.  So I made a cake and her frosting.

The frosting is so smooth and it is not too sweet, it's just right.  I always looked forward to birthdays and having this frosting on the cake.  Or in many cases having whoopie pie's for my birthday cake.  It was so nice to sit down and have a yummy snack that reminded me of the best days of my childhood,  time with family.
I think all the reading of old cook books has made me think of all the foods I loved to eat and the people I connect them with.  My Grandmother was a great cook and I always loved going to her house and eating dinner or lunch with her and my Grandfather.  A few months ago I was craving the pickles she used to serve with lunch.  My family questioned why there were so many jars of pickles in the fridge.  I could never quiet find the pickles that tasted like the ones she bought.  What a joy it would be to go back in time and sit at the counter and eat soup, sandwich and really sour pickles with my Grandparents.  I'm so thankful I had so many summers at their house with them.

This summer I hope to teach my children how to cook, and I've been thinking of putting together a cookbook with recipes from my childhood, that have been passed down from relatives.  And perhaps some recipes that our ancestors may have made.  Hope I'll be able to share them with you.
Of course Grandma Miller's frosting recipe is a secret and I can't share it...
G.G.

Whoopie pie recipe

LumberJack Cookies......I wonder if my great grandfather ate them

As I have been cleaning and reorganizing my office I found a cookbook called "Favorite New England Recipes" I have been enjoying reading about the recipes and the stories behind them. One recipe was for "Lumberjack Cookies".   It made me wonder if my Great Grandfather Luther Boyd ever ate them.

Here is a photo of my Great Grandfather Luther Boyd.  I've noticed that in every photo of him he has this hat on.  I never met him, he passed away before I was born.  His family moved back and forth between Massachusetts and Vermont.  Most of the men in the family worked in the Vermont logging camps.

Here he is with his team of horses.

Here is a photo of him with his brothers and sister. 
The cook book had a little description about what life was like for the Lumberjack...
" Lumbering is a unique occupation and projects a day-to day life unlike any other. In the upper reaches of the rivers, when spring freshets deepen the water enough to float the logs, men of a particularly courageous breed shepherd the raw wood down the rivers, sometimes for hundreds of miles, to the sawmills.  They spend many days on the logs and on a raft with a shanty on it that brings up the rear.  In the shanty is a man at whom the others characteristically jeer but deeply value - the cook.  ..... When the logs were being floated down the river to the mills, there was always a cook shanty on a raft following the log drive.  It was a great treat for children to have a meal with the lumberjacks on this river raft. They cold look forward to fried salt pork, boiled potatoes, boiled beans, hot breads, Lumberjack cookies, and strong black coffee....."
I wonder if my Great Grandfather rode on the log rafts, and what other things he might have done.  It seems like really hard work to me. 
Today I woke up and felt the need to bake....and so I made some Lumberjack Cookies.

 You mix molasses, Crisco, and eggs together, then add cinnamon, ground ginger, baking soda and salt to the mix, and 4 cups of flour.  This is what the cookie dough looks like.

Then you put some sugar in a bowl.  The recipe I had said one cup, but you do not need one cup.  Dip your fingers in the sugar, then make a ball of dough, then roll the dough ball in the sugar and place on a greased cookie sheet.

Here they are all ready to go into the oven, the oven temp is 350 and cook them for about 13 minutes.

Cookies fresh from the oven.......

The recipe makes a lot of cookies.  I'm not so sure I like them, they taste a little like gingerbread cookies.... Hope my husband and kids like them.  Tonight we will learn about Great Grandfather Boyd and Lumberjack cookies.
I've decided to study up on some of these old recipes and write about them and my ancestors.  Hope you enjoy.
G.G.
Lumberjack cookie recipe

Mother I Love you....Mother I do....

Mother I Love You.....Mother I Do........
How can you not love someone who has been there for you all your life.  This is a photo of me and my mom when I was young. Thank you mom for sacrificing many of your dreams to take care of me.

Mother I love you...Mother I Do.... Father in Heaven has sent me to you......
Here is a photo of my mom with her parents and me and my brother.  My Mom did not have the easiest of lives, but she was sure her children were raised better.  I'm thankful for that.

Mother I Love you....Mother I do.... Father in Heaven has sent me to you... When I am near you I love to hear you singing so softly that you love me too...... My Mother helped me learn about God and Faith and the importance of loving others and forgiveness.  Here is a photo of my Miller Grandparents and my brother, mother and I after my confirmation at the church I attended as a teen.  My grandmother made my outfit. Thank you mom for teaching me the importance of faith.

Mother I LOVE You.....I LOVE YOU....I Do.... Here we are at my college graduation.  My mom never got to attend college, but she made sure I could, and I worked real hard because I knew of the sacrifices she made so I could go.... I loved my years in college and learning although I'm not in the animal science field I still use things I learned then to help me now, and I did have a minor in small business management, so being a supervisor of a store does fit with what I studied.  Thank you Mom!

We both shared a love of horses and spent some wonderful years riding together.

She was there for my wedding....

She helped to celebrate the birth of my children....

Here are 3 generations....Mother, Daughter, Granddaughter

Mother, Daughter, Granddaughter

 Here we are on my 30th birthday....How time flies.....My mom, My mother in law and my daughter.

This spring while mom visited we took another 3 generation photo.  I'm the shortest now.  Thank you mom for all you have taught me, all that you gave to me, all the time you spent with me, all the prayers you prayed for me....For being a very important part of my life.
Mother I love you....I Love you....I Do!

Since January.....How the time seems to fly.....

I have been very bad at blogging of late, you would think that once the holidays were over, I'd have settled down in my new position and then find time to write, but that has not happened.  My days at work are long and physical.  I spend at least 8 hours on my feet, walking from one end of the store to the other.... The hours change daily one day I'm up and at work before 6 am, and then the next day I work a closing shift of 2 to 10...during my spare moments I focus on my family, my house and my family history research.  I've been lost in the branches of my family tree for hours, and found some wonderful ancestors while there. I hope that soon I'll be out gardening.  Just a small garden this year though.  I don't have time for much more.
This past month my parents came out to visit.  It was wonderful to just hang out and relax and show them some of Utah.  Hard to believe we have been here almost 4 years now.

The top photo is of my daughter and mother on the "Tumble weed bench"  The wind blows the tumble weed and they get stuck around this one bench on our bike path.  The other photo is of my mom out on our back porch we had great weather while they visited.

Three generations together..... We had a wonderful time in the gardens in Salt Lake city. I've become the shortest in the family :(

Here is Mom with my children.  They had so much fun together, baking cookies, and pies.

Here are my parents up in the mountains.  We can't wait to plan our next visit.  Seems like we see more of Utah when they are here, perhaps it's because we take the time to jump out of the crazy rat race of life and just plan a quiet easy day.  They loved all the mountains and the views.

 

Off for one last walk together.  I don't know why God has taken us so far from the east and our family, I love it here and wouldn't move back, but I sure do miss my parents.  I at least in some ways know how my ancestors who traveled far away from Scotland,Ireland, and England felt, leaving family behind for life's adventures.  I wonder did they love their new home as much as me, or at some point did they wish they could go back.  At least in this day and age I have the telephone and computer to be able to communicate on a daily basis.  I wonder how often they heard from family if ever. 
Well I hope to blog more in the coming weeks we will see... sometimes my lovely bed calls to me so early and I just can't resist snuggling up under the covers and leaving the world behind for a few hours.
From,
G.G.

Count Your Blessings.....Name the one by one........

When upon life's billows you are tempest tossed, when you are discouraged, thinking all is lost, count your many blessings; name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.....

Sorry I have not made a post in awhile, I've been lost in my family tree.  My goal this year is to put sources with all the people in my tree on the LDS Church family history website, and that takes a lot of time when you have over 8,000 ancestors.  And of course as I go in to do one task, I find more names to add...... Plus I'm trying to add stories too..... Oh the work of a Family Historian is never done!  But I have continued on my path of Gratitude and wanted to share some of the things I'm grateful for this week.
1.  Moving to Utah, and Moving to Lehi.  As  both of these moves have blessed my family in more ways than I could even mention, and I'm hoping for more blessings to come.
2. My new Job.  Oh how I love my new job.  I love running around the store, I love being able to give encouragement to my employees, and I love to help the customers.
3.  Health and dental insurance through my new job.  Yeah.  We got to go to the dentist this week for the first time in 3 years and thank goodness there were no cavities.  Everything was covered under our new dental plan.  Yeah!

4. Good books that teach about how to grow closer to Heavenly Father.  I'm reading putting on the Armor  of God now .  Never thought of the battle we wage everyday for our eternal life.  My goal is to grow more spiritually this year.  I hope to share what I learn with you.  This photo I took from someone on facebook isn't it beautiful !

5. Time off.  I had a lot of time off the past two weeks and I spent 4 days at the Temple.  It was so wonderful!
6. I am thankful for my little family they are wonderful.
7. I'm thankful for good health.
8. I'm thankful for my little house.
9. I'm thankful for good friends.
10.  I'm thankful for old cars that keep on running.
Thank-you, thank-you, Thank-you.
Anyways I've had the song count your blessings stuck in my head.  and thought I'd share some with you.
Related article:
Think to Thank
Count your blessings