I'm still here.

I have all of these great intentions to blog and teach you about the things I'm learning almost every day. Instead, I think about my list of things to do and then I stop thinking about it and I procrastinate. I fill my days with reading, watching movies, playing words with friends, and cooking. I know that sounds lazy, but I am positive I'm not the only one who wants to have days like that.

I could give you a million reasons for me not wanting to tackle my to do list (Blogging is on there about a hundred times. It's quite the long list.) but at the end of the day, you just don't care and I can't blame you. Life finally calmed down and it's been glorious to get back to sleeping in and waking up in my own bed. I am slowly making my way back into the ranks of the productive people of the world. I made some good strides this week by deep cleaning, planning ways to decorate my new home, and searching for furniture I want to add to our collection.

I am not cooking a lot of new things lately, but I have to tell you about my favorite treat lately. Fruit salad. Oh my goodness. I made one for a family reunion earlier this month and haven't been able to stop. There are a million different ways to create a perfect fruit salad, but the recipe will always be different for everyone. I usually add things like peaches, nectarines, strawberries, blueberries, mangoes, grapes, kiwis, and plums. You can add orange segments, pineapple, banana (I recommend adding this one right before you eat it - it adds a nice texture, but it can get mushy if added and stored with the other fruit.), you could also add different berries and melon. You can always add fresh mint if you have it. If you don't, basil is a GREAT substitute! I like adding thin slices of shallot just for a balance to the sweetness.

Now, you might say, "Gee, thanks for that list of fruit, Kylee. You're such a great food blogger. I like how detailed your recipes are and how much instruction you give with all of your recipes." To that, I say, "You're welcome... and I wasn't done. Stay with me."

When you make a fruit salad (or any salad), there are a couple of tricks and tips.

• The first will always be to try something new! If you had asked my husband if he wanted some nectarines a couple of weeks ago, he would have laughed at you because it was a fruit and probably a gross one. Well, he loves fruit salad as much as I do, so I call that a win. Don't fill your salad with a bunch of new fruit. Try one or two at a time. 
• Next, pick a color palette. Fruit salads are beautiful when you add several different colors, but they can be just as appealing if you stick to a single color. I usually plan my palette around fruits that are in season (and on sale).
• If you want to add a sweetness to your salad, I recommend mixing a little sugar with strawberries. I actually add basil and shallots to this step because strawberries won't lose flavor or texture by mixing them really well.
• Don't be afraid to cut your fruit into different shapes. They don't all have to be diced exactly the same size. You don't have to be crazy and make animal shapes, but you get bonus points if you do!

I am going to start praying for snow soon, so if you want to enjoy the last of summer (or summer/fall in Utah), I suggest you start with this salad. It's sweet and light and a perfect note to end a meal and the hot weather on.

Food Storage Challenge

I know that I have been missing the last couple of months. I also know that I start posts now with things like, "Remember when I used to post regularly and then I stopped?" Well, life really has been crazy. I don't know that it will be less busy the next couple of weeks, but I am hopeful that it will. I miss blogging!

Now to update you: We moved. The plan was perfect. I picked an area I wanted to live, figured out a price range that would make it worth it, and started looking at condos. Then all I had to do was pick the one I liked best. Easy, right? (I wasn't being selfish about places to live. My husband honestly didn't care about where we lived. He just wants me to be happy. He's sweet like that.)

Well, the most important step in that is that we wanted to feel that our choice was ratified by our Heavenly Father. So we kept looking at condos, talking about what we thought and felt, prayed, and moved on if it didn't feel good. The worst part was that none of them were right. I can't even count how many we looked at. I can't count the hours spent online looking at listings and telephone calls made to ask questions. It was a very overwhelming and discouraging process.

So we decided we wouldn't move. Unfortunately, our condo had already been rented to someone else. Well, we found a condo just around the corner. My wonderful husband talked down the rent and we just had to move around the corner. The only downfall is that we lived in a unit that had the garage on the first floor and the living area upstairs and we moved into a unit that is almost identical to that. We had to move stuff downstairs only to move them upstairs. Thank goodness for family! I would have died if we had to move it all alone. Not kidding. The only other weird part is that our new condo is just like our old condo but everything is backwards. It's been crazy getting to know our new place.

Okay, now that you are up to date with the big move, I think it is time again to talk about using our food storage. I really didn't want to move it from one place to another (especially now that I know that we are in an upstairs condo again). I kept it very simple the last couple of weeks because we have spent a lot of time with family. Let me tell you the most important thing I learned.

First, I didn't need to worry about our food storage. I should have worried about kitchen gadgets and BOOKS. Oh, the books. Boxes and boxes and totes full of books. Luckily, they are really light. (Oh how I wish you could see my face and hear the sarcasm dripping off my lips.) It's okay. They make me more smarter. Now moving them makes me more stronger. It's a win-win!

Haha! We are going out of town again this weekend, so I am not even grocery shopping this week. We are eating spaghetti, sandwiches, cereal, and more canned goods. We are starting a new food adventure on Monday. I don't know when I will first blog about it, but it's going to be good. There will be so many more recipes to share with you. I can't wait to start cooking again!

The Word of God

Do you remember when I used to post on my blog? I remember those days. Waking up each morning and deciding what to talk about that day. Making lists of things I wanted to tell you in the future. Planning our daily menu on what I wanted to make that day. *Sigh* Those were the good ol' days, weren't they?

I have had a lot on my mind lately. Don't worry. I am not going to take you on a journey through my head. Go to Disneyland instead. The animation is much better. (I will reiterate my previous confession that I am artistically challenged.) I would like to share one of my thoughts with you though.

I like that our experiences shape the way we look at the scriptures. For example, I love kids and want about a million of them. When I read in the scriptures the way the Savior reacts to having kids near Him, I feel better about the way my heart is drawn to them. It makes those stories more touching to me.

I am finding that because I spend so much time thinking about, studying, and reading about food, when things that can relate to food are mentioned in the scriptures, I have a different perspective than someone who cares enough about food to eat it. Does that make sense? I hope it does by the time I am finished today.

In Hebrews 4:12, there is a comparison that tugged at the corners of my mind for weeks. I'm going to copy the scripture here so you can stay with me.

"For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."

I know this sounds weird, but it took me back to culinary school when we were butchering chicken. I was taught to use the joints as a guide to separate the thighs and wings from the chicken. It makes the work easier because you don't have to cut through bone. (Anyone in those classes can tell you that I was determined to be friends with a butcher so I didn't have to do those things. I don't like cutting through bones.) I only knew that marrow is inside bones. Impressive, right? I did some research. Basically, marrow is soft tissue inside bones that creates red blood cells. Red blood cells deliver oxygen to our organs. Without oxygen, they shut down. So, bone marrow is important.

That's the background of where my thoughts always lead when I read about joints and marrow. So you can imagine how I was a little confused about what it meant to divide joints and marrow. If you look at this phrase by itself it doesn't make much sense. However, if you compare it with dividing our body and spirit, it opens up an entire world of insights.

First, remember when I said that our experiences shape the way we look at the scriptures? Well, it's more than that. We read in the scriptures that we learn the gospel of Jesus Christ line by line and precept by precept. That doesn't mean that those lines and precepts are stacked on top of you until you feel overwhelmed. That means that we are presented with a line of the gospel and once we understand and are ready for more, we are given another line to help our progression. It is a very personal and merciful gospel.

The word of God can separate the temporal from the spiritual in our lives. As we read the scriptures and words of modern prophets and apostles, we can allow it to affect our temporal lives by choosing to keep the commandments found in them. (I think of this almost like a check list. Keep the Sabbath Day holy, don't kill, love your neighbor, etc.) We also have the choice to allow the words of God to affect our spiritual lives. We end up doing all of the things on the checklist, but we know why were are doing them. We are actually becoming like Christ.

Now, to use the joint and marrow comparison to come to that same conclusion. We know that joints are important for all of our movements. (Click here for my resource for this truth.) We don't always think that without marrow (and by extension, red blood cells and oxygen) having joints isn't enough to help you move. We can do those things on our checklist, but without knowing why and becoming better by doing them, it is almost like having a joint without the marrow necessary to move it.

Marrow carries oxygen to every part of our body. Every single part of our body. It helps our bodies reach their amazing physical potential. We can move, breathe, and ultimately create life. Our spiritual potential is just as incredible. Since we are literally His sons and daughters we have the potential to become like our Heavenly Father. The only way we can do that is to let the word of God "pierce" our souls and "divide asunder" those attributes that will keep us from reaching our potential. Then as He discerns our thoughts and the intents of our hearts, He will see us as He intended us to be: like Him.