Howes That! Dallin & Kathryn’s Corner of the Internet

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Welcome to Howes That!, where Kathryn and Dallin will attempt to keep you up to date with what's happening in our lives. Howes That! is ever changing and always growing, just as we are, so please come and visit regularly and comment on our posts. We'd love to keep in touch!
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I Am Woman

May 8th, 2011

I am a mother, and as such, I am a home maker and a wife. I am a sister, a daughter and daughter in-law, an aunt, a teacher, a carer, an example and a friend. This is my work. It’s what I love and it’s who I am. I try to take pride and care in each of these things.

Dallin and I were having a discussion recently about how we define our self, and our self worth. During our discussion we discussed that what is most important is defining ourselves by things that are eternal and unchanging. Not all women in the world can define themselves as mothers, but they can define themselves as women. We have a divine nature to love, care for and nurture others…not just our children. That is eternal and it is unchanging.

I am grateful that I have the divine nature and call that is womanhood. I am blessed to know that I can bless and enrich the lives of those around me. I can constantly strive to be better and hopefully also help others to be better. I am grateful to know I can do and be all of those things independent of anyone or anything else.

It is true that there is no calling in this world that will ever be equal to motherhood in ANY way. There is nothing that ever will be as fun, painful, rewarding, challenging, tiring, enlightening, empowering, terrifying, precious, heartbreaking, joyful or all-encompassing as motherhood. My heart breaks to think of those who would be truly amazing mothers but have not been blessed at this time to be so. My heart breaks even more for those who have somewhere lost their divine desire to want to be mothers… it’s a true tragedy to see those women living below their privilege….

I have had many women in my life who I will be forever grateful for. Their examples have taught me all I want to be as a woman and a mother, whether they themselves are mothers or not. Thank you to my mother, mother in-law, my ‘other’ mum, my grandmothers, aunts, my precious sisters and my dear friends for being those examples. I would love to share with you what they have taught me, but that would have to be a topic for another day.

Womanhood is an honor and a privilege.

Jelly on a plate…. Jelly in a cake!

May 4th, 2011

So it was Dallin’s birthday this week. He’s not a man for ‘hoo haa’ – he didn’t want a special dinner, he didn’t want friends over, he didn’t want to have take away – so we went about our day as usual, he got home and we had chicken rolls for dinner because that’s what was on the menu plan (yeah, I know… exciting right!?) and then he looked after the boy while I taught a half hour lesson. Very understated!
There was only 1 request Dallin had for his birthday. When I asked him what type of cake he wanted he said ‘Cake!? No…. or, maybe a 7 layer jelly cake’ (Jello-o for any Americans reading this) – Well, when it’s the only request he has what else am I meant to do but research, and make a jelly cake!?

The Rainbow Jelly cake

Now, I know that I would never make a hand model, but my hands aside the picture looks pretty good, and I’ll admit that the cake looked pretty good too! So Dallin took this photo and posted it on his Flickr account and has had atleast 1 or 2 people ask how I made it!? Although it took me 2 days to make, it’s really quite easy.

You need as many packets of Jelly as you want layers, sweetened condensed milk… again this will depend on how many layers you want. You also need Gelatin, lemon juice and a whole lot of boiled water. For this one I used 4 different jellys and 2 cans of sweetened condensed milk.

Milk Layer
3/4 cup boiled water
2 dessert spoons of Gelatin
juice of 1 lemon (I used bottled of lemon juice and just guessed how much)
1 can sweetened condensed milk

Jelly Layer
1 pack of jelly
1 1/2 cups boiled water.
Dissolve jelly in boiling water and allow to sit (in the bench) for a minimum 30 mins until mixture is warm to cool, but still liquid. I left one for atleast a couple of hours and it was fine.

I started with a milk layer and poured about half of the mixture into a 9″ cake tin. Once it was set I poured the jelly layer on top – repeat until complete, making sure each layer is set before pouring on the next one! Because the milk mixture is much more than you need for 1 layer you can either adjust the quantities to only make as much as you need at 1 time OR you can leave the milk sitting in HOT water until you need it again, so that it stays liquid OR (and I haven’t tried this) I heard that it doesn’t take very long to ‘melt’ in the microwave if it’s set.

The 4 jelly, 4 milk layers, completely filled my 9 inch spring form cake tin, to the very top – so you may want to take that into account when planning how many layers! I had thought about decorating the top with a small amount of cream (just a border)- but I ran out of time, and Dallin likes jelly – just jelly – cream or ice cream or any other garnishing or decoration is not required! Having said that, I did have left overs tonight with cream and some crumbled chocolate and I thought it was great!

Now, having done this once I have just a few things I would do differently.

*On a side note, my husband lived in Switzerland and Germany for 2 years and he tells me that the word for jelly in German means ‘Food of the Gods’*

First, I would endeavour to make the milk layer as thin as possible. Mine got thinner as I went along but I would have like them even thinner….

Second, I used a spring form pan and lined it with glad wrap….That was painful…. I’m sure some bakers out there would be horrified to know that I only own either spring form or silicone bakeware. Next time I would use either a silicone or a standard cake tin. This would be in the hopes that I could invert the silicone dish and it would come straight out or, I could put the cake tin in boiling water for a minute before inverting it straight on to a dish.

Third, I would have started a day earlier so that I wasn’t pouring the last layer of jelly on at 4.30pm the night of his birthday…..

Fourth, When pouring the last layer on I would leave the tin in the fridge and bring the jelly to the cake instead of the other way round…. I’m sure my sticky jelly floor agrees with me :)

I did play with the idea of giving the cake a thin biscuit base, for 2 reasons, the first is completely selfish – I love biscuit bases – I don’t know why, but I’m pretty sure it’s genetic (well that’s my excuse). The second reason is that I thought it would just give a bit of foundation and stability to the cake. If I was doing a biscuit base then I would go back to the spring form pan, but I wouldn’t necessarily line it, just to keep the outside as smooth as possible.

If you do a google image search for jello layer cake you will see a few different ones which look infinitely better than mine but I’m pretty sure the recipes are all very similar.

But after all of that the most important things are that 1. Dallin loved it, and 2. I had fun and was pretty happy with the end result.
Make sure you let me know if any of you try it, I would love to see and hear about it :)

The way things should be….

April 28th, 2011

Me and my boy.

So I had written a lot more than you see below and then decided to delete it all… I decided that what I had to say was really quite simple….

Life is wonderful with family and friends, and my greatest responsibility is, and always will be, as a wife and a mother.

Life doesn’t need to be complicated.

I want to share with you just a few of the things I’ve read recently that have reinforced this to me.

Fist, this inspiring talk from Elder Lynn G. Robbins, given at the recent General Conference of our church, titled What manner of Men and Women ought ye to be? Although of course many of the remarks talk about Jesus Christ, for those who may not be members of our church it is still worth reading. It taught me a lot about how I should be teaching my son, and future children, as well as reminding me what I should be.

The other things I have read recently come from a blog called ‘The Super Organiser Mum’ and just reminded me that simplifying life and focusing on what’s most important is one of the most wonderful things we can do. The blogs entries are titled Amanda and Busy.

Through all of these things I have found a new motivation and desire to readjust my life to focus on the simple and meaningful.

Changes, such as putting more time and energy into creating and maintaining relationships with friends and family that are of a real and lasting value.
Spending less time on the computer (regardless of what I may be doing) and more time helping and serving those around me.
Most importantly, spending more time with my husband and son, showing them how much I love them. Teaching and showing my son how to become the person I one day hope he will be…. I would be totally lost without them in my life, and have no doubt that without them I would not even be half of the person I am today….

No matter what your family situation may be, I promise that they are worth working and fighting for. Don’t be afraid to be the first one to say ‘I’m Sorry’ and don’t ever be afraid to tell them you love them. They are worth everything…


After reading this, my wonderful sister said ‘I think it’s time for me to check out of facebook and check in to my family’… what a great way to put it! Thanks sis!

Store what you eat and eat what you store.

April 25th, 2011

I love storage. There is something about having everything in it’s own box, in it’s place that makes life seem easier, simpler and less stressful… you seem to be able to keep a track of where things are, and how much of any one thing you have, plus I find that if you have good storage then things don’t get destroyed and seem to last longer. Cupboards full of matching storage containers, all labelled cleanly and clearly is what I’m all about….but it takes time and money and so my house is not as I wish it was…. but maybe one day it will be!

Good containers = lasting storage

However, one area of ‘storage’ that I just can’t seem to figure out is my food storage. The principle of food storage is a sound one, which makes so much sense for so many reasons, I have no problem understanding the principle…. What I do have a problem with is maintaining and rotating my food storage. What I’m interested in is how you keep track of what you do have, what you should have, and how you rotate your food supply to make sure you don’t have food that gets left at the back of the cupboard for 3 years! So I would love to have ideas from you…

Play Dough

April 23rd, 2011

Joshua is at an age now where he can ‘help’ me with many of my daily activities. He helps me fill up the washing basket, type emails, take photos, put his toys away, put his dishes in the sink, put the rubbish (and sometimes the ‘not rubbish’) in the bin. He’s starting to become my little shadow and helper and I generally just love having him with me. I love seeing him explore and enjoy life, and one of his favourite things to help me with is cooking!
It’s wonderful! Now I can use baking as an activity that Joshua and I can do together and hopefully, with some delicious results! Josh and I have a great time as I try not to care too much about the mess he makes as he help me ‘mix’ the ingredients… or that he uses my measuring spoons to scoop out spoonfuls of batter which he then proceeds to eat….

I had been thinking for a while about making playdough with my sister and her 2 yr old girl and so a few weeks ago we went over to their place to do just that! The recipe is so quick simple, and you can find it on the side of a Cream of Tartar container …. I’ve also given it to you here!

1 cup of salt
2 cups of plain flour
2 cups of water
2 Tbsp of oil
4 Tbsp Cream of Tartar
Food colouring

Mix all ingredients together in a saucepan and stir over medium heat until mixture congeals.

Getting everything ready before you start really helps!

When we made it we halved the above quantities and made it in 4 different colours. Keep in it an airtight bag/container in the fridge and it should last for 6 or so months. I found you need a reasonable amount of food colouring if you want bright colours like I did. Just a few drops will give you quite a pale colour so it’s best to get the ‘bottles’ of food colouring as opposed to the little dropper packs.

Pouring in the flour!

It always impresses me how much the kids just love to be involved and help. I will measure out the ingredients and then let Josh pour them into the bowl/saucepan… it’s so simple and yet he loves to be helping me. Also another note… I discovered that the Cream of Tartar containers hold about 6 Tbsp… because I only had 1 container and I wanted to make 4 colours (which would have required 8 Tbsp) I just reduced the amount of Cream of Tartar in each batch…

And more flour!

And mixing it all together!

We had lots of fun making playdough, although it did get a bit tricky when both kids were wanting to help and there wasn’t enough room!

Mummy's job was mixing it on the hot plate.


The final product! Nice and bright...

It was good fun and I’m sure that most kids would love knowing that they’re playing with playdough that they have helped make! All you need then is some cheap cookie cutters and a rolling pin and you’re set for all your playdough fun!

Making allowances

April 5th, 2011

Remember when money was exciting?!

I’ve been having withdrawals from blogging, but I’ve been somewhat busy lately and somewhere along the line it slipped to the bottom of the to-do list, until tonight! I have one boy in bed, one at a church meeting and one playing cricket so I have found myself with a bit of quiet time… Granted I should be doing my kitchen, but that will be there when I’m finished this!

I like having a budget. It helps me prepare for my bills, I know what I can AFFORD to spend on shopping each week, I KNOW whether or not I have the money to do things, which helps when money is tight… you stick to your budget and you know you’ll be ok. It’s brings a sense of security and order to know that your finances are secure….

The problem when you’re sticking to a budget, and especially a tight one, is that when you see a top you really like, or a friend invites you out for lunch, or you want more funds to feed your addiction to scrapbooking…. you are torn between self deprivation or guilt – neither option is very appealing! So the trick is to eliminate both guilt and self-deprivation and the solution is simple… give your self an allowance – or in other words pocket money!

Allowing yourself (and your spouse) pocket money with each pay, gives you a lot of freedom. To start with, you no longer feel you have to deprive your self of some of the things that makes this life so wonderful! I love catching up with friends over lunch, going to dinner on a date with my husband, and seeing the joy and energy my little boy has when I take him to the swimming pool.

By giving yourself pocket money you go from always saying ‘I wish I could….(fill in the blank)… but I just can’t afford it, it’s not in the budget….’ to saying ‘Sorry, I can’t do lunch this week, I’m already going to the movies with Mum…. but what about next week?’

There will, of course, be times when you will have spent your ‘pocket money’ and you will still have to decline the invitation, but how much easier will it be, knowing that you don’t have to decline EVERY time!? Of course the list of things you can spend your pocket money on is endless…. lunch, dinner, movies, music, clothes, the zoo, hobbies… and some things are much more expensive than others, but don’t forget you can save it up for a few weeks (or months….) to be able to do those more expensive things….You may also find yourself thinking of and looking for ways to have fun that cost less… because at least it’s allowed to cost something!

Just remember that life with a budget doesn’t mean that you suffer… In fact, life with a budget gives you all that you need…and sometimes more. I’m grateful that my Mum always taught us the importance of a budget and living within your means! Even today I can picture Mum drawing up her budget sheet each month… and now I do exactly the same…although mine’s on the computer! It gives me peace of mind, making me a more happy and content wife and mother, allowing me to focus my time and energy on loving and serving my family and those around m.- and isn’t that what life is REALLY all about!

Family Holidays

March 31st, 2011

Beautiful Sydney views from the zoo!

On Saturday we got back from spending a week in Sydney to visit with family, the whole trip was wonderful! It contained many of the elements that make holidays such a wonderful time!

First – I didn’t feel guilty for not constantly thinking about the washing, the dishes, the ironing and all the other household duties that fill my day at home. Now I don’t want that to sound negative because most of the time I feel a great sense of satisfaction and accomplishment when I have a pile of clean ironed clothes and a clean bathroom and kitchen – but it’s nice to have a break every now and again!

Second – We had a couple of days where we spent almost the whole day just as a family, the 3 of us spending time together having fun and enjoying each others company. As I’m sure you all appreciate it’s not something that most of us get to do very often – having uninterrupted family time is a unique and wonderful opportunity that we always take with both hands.

Gorgeous Baby Elephant at Taronga Zoo

The third thing, and in many respects the most treasured, is that we were able to take time to visit with our extended family. We stayed with Dallin’s brother and his family and although it was crazy, hectic and at times stressful, it was so wonderful to watch the kids play together, they had a wonderful time! I loved being able to play with our niece and nephews and watching them laugh and play, as well as seeing Joshy’s face light up while he was playing them. One of his cousins now does ‘Joshy kisses’ and Josh learnt to say ‘BLAY’ it was really sad to leave them!

The boys have a blast on the trampoline!

One of the high-lights for me was on the last night when we met up with Dallin’s Aunt & Uncle along with his cousin with her kids. Dallin hadn’t seen his cousin in around 7 years and although I knew who she was we had never really spoken before so it was great to see and meet them. What made it so wonderful is that although you could say we had never really met there was no time lost in the introductions and getting to know each other – we were just family.

The girls catching up!

While we were in Sydney my family were back in Adelaide working hard to pack up and clean my Mum’s house in preparation for her move interstate (and yes, I do feel guilty that I wasn’t here helping!). Mum and Adam left on Tuesday for a 12 hour drive and are now relaxing in Mt Beauty for a few days before Adam comes back on the weekend and Mum starts her new job on Monday. Although it is of course sad to see Mum leave, we’re excited for her starting a new job in a new town. It will be a big change but I’m sure that she will love it and probably won’t ever want to come back!

Mum and the kids!

So after the holiday and farewells we are coming back to reality, but it has all reminded me and impressed upon me how wonderful and important family is. Whether we live just down the road or millions of miles away and whether we spoke yesterday or haven’t spoken for years, nothing changes the fact that we are family. That bond will always be there and I hope I can always appreciate it!

Fun Times

March 21st, 2011

Playing with the cousins!

A couple of months ago we decided we were overdue for a family holiday and that we should head to Sydney to visit Dallin’s brother and his family! As always, it seemed like forever away, but now here we are in Sydney, and I’m sure the time will just fly.
It was a fairly wet day in Sydney on Saturday and so although we had great plans of bikes, pools and parks, those plans never eventuated and we spent most of the day at home, with an afternoon trip to the library.
It was not an ‘exciting’ day as such, but it was also a lovely day! One of my highlights of the day was in the morning when the boys were just playing together, hiding under blankets, kissing and hugging each other, and generally just having fun together! When I think about it, one of the main reasons that we wanted to take this trip was so that Josh could spend some time with the boys. They’re his only 2 boy cousins and we don’t know very many other boys his age, so it has been wonderful to just watch him playing with them.

Now we’re just looking forward to the rest of the week and some nicer weather!

Prepare, Investigate and Evaluate

March 16th, 2011

As I wrote the title of this blog it occured to me that there are probably many more applications to it than what I’m about to share… But for now we’re back on the topic of money….

Prepare
Q: What’s worse than going to get the mail (or checking the email) and finding it full of bills?
A: Finding it full of bills that you’re not expecting and aren’t prepared for!

As I have shared before, I love having a menu plan, for more than one reason! Ultimately it saves me money, it makes my shopping trip less stressful and it makes day to day life SO much easier and less stressful because I don’t have to rack my brains every day to try and think about what I’m going to have for dinner. I’m sure I also have a greater variety of food than I otherwise would… Being organised and as prepared as you can (especially financially) makes life so much easier, less stressful and consequently much more fun and enjoyable. So here’s a simple to suggestion to help you be prepared for those bills like water, electricity, gas, council rates etc. that always come when you least want them!
At the beginning of this year I went through our utilities and made a rough estimate of what the total cost would be through the year. I then took that number and worked out what that equated to for each month… I use a monthly figure because we get paid monthly – if we got paid weekly or fortnightly I would have worked out the figure for that instead. Now, every month when we get paid I can take that money and put it aside so that when the bills come in I already have the money there to pay for them. Of course sometimes it will be more than I budgeted and sometimes it will be less – but atleast if it is more, I only have a comparatively small amount to make up… and if it’s less then the excess can stay there for the bills that are over budget – or be used in many other ways.
So it’s up to you how you keep a track of the money you have put aside for the bills, but here’s a few suggestions….

- The bank account! With our bank account have an everyday access account, linked to our cards and then we have a couple of savings accounts that can only be accessed through online banking. When the pay comes in we use one of those accounts to keep the money for the bills aside. It’s easy to have the money separated and know that you can’t touch it except for the bills! Then when the bills come in we just transfer it across to our regular account and pay them.

- Cash! What more can be said – take the cash out of the bank and put it in a safe place until you need it… With most people paying bills with credit cards or bpay online this is not a very popular option. But if you can’t control your use of the card, then it’s a good one!

- Keep a record. It’s not too hard to make up a simple spreadsheet that allows you to keep a track of the money you should have in the bank for your bills. Update it with each pay and then you will always know how much money should be in the bank. Just make sure you know your limits before you go to the shops!

Investigate

This one is pretty simple! When Dallin and I are looking at making a ‘big’ purchase – whether it be a new phone, a camera, a car, a computer, a piano, new furniture etc. we like to talk to people. Getting experiences and opinions from a variety of people helps you to make well educated decisions… which helps you save money, and get good value for your money. I think it’s important to remember that value for money doesn’t always mean buying the cheapest one. It means buying something that is good quality, that suits your needs, and that you like. I mean, think about it…you don’t want to buy a bright green lounge suite just because it was the cheapest one there… and then look at it everyday and regret not spending the extra money to get something you actually like. You will just end up buying another one sooner than you otherwise would have…Having said that – if you WANT a bright green lounge suite by all means go for it!
I also think it’s essential that you know what’s important to you before you go buying… for example if you’re buying a new camera, know what features you want before you go shopping, and decide which are optional and which are essential. Does it need a large screen? Is the camera size an issue for you? Is zoom important? What about the resolution…. These are all things you should decide BEFORE you go to the shop so you don’t get talked into buying something you don’t want… Oh, and set a price limit too…

Evaluate

I have a spreadsheet that I use to keep track of what I spend…
Except for the shopping money I take out in cash, almost all of my purchases are made using EFTPOS, that way when I log into my bank account I can easily see and remember what it was I purchased because the details of the shop are listed on my transactions. I go through my transactions regularly and enter the figures into my spreadsheet…. then I can see the REAL picture of what I’m spending and re-evaluate my budget. If I am consistently going over budget in some areas then I can look realistically at what I can do to cut back there, or if needed I can cut back in another area to allow for more money where it’s needed. I find constantly evaluating and looking at your budget is one of the best ways to remind yourself not to spend money and gives you a great opportunity to consider what you really do or do not need. My spreadsheet it quite detailed and is actually one I found on the internet (that I have adjusted slightly) if anyone wants a copy I’m more than happy to share.

I hope this has given you some more ideas on sticking to your budget! I have at least one more of these coming… so I hope you don’t mind that too much!

A World of Change.

March 12th, 2011

I don’t miss high school… Not one bit! If there was anything I would say that I miss it would be that when I was in school, I saw and talked with one of my best friends everyday… But even then, I still have that friendship and although I don’t see and talk to her every day like I did then we are still good friends, we’ve just grown up a little and have our own lives to live!

Now if I could tell you what I DON’T miss about high school… the list is LONG! But at the top of the list would have to be the drama….

I remember a girl at school being SO upset that her best friend had a boyfriend and that, as she put it, ‘he has changed her.’ Because of this issue that she had (or that she created, depending on which way you look at it) she lost her best friend – and in the long run it probably cost her a lot of friends… Thinking about it now I remember that she had the same issue with at least one of her other friends. At the time I had never been in a relationship, and yet I could still see that this was an over reaction. Now, probably 9 or 10 years on I think about that situation and have learnt an important lesson.

The view of teenagers, and perhaps the view of the world, is that you should never allow another person to change who you are. There is some merit to that. You should never allow another person to lower your standards, or tell you that you are less than what you are. When that start to happen and you start to believe it, that’s when trouble starts and you can end up in a very dark place. You can’t see the way out and looking at it to the extreme it can destroy your life…. BUT… You SHOULD allow other people to help you raise your standards and help you feel important, loved, and like the child of God that you are. When that happens then you reach new heights, achieve goals greater than what you thought you would ever be able to achieve and what is most beautiful about that is that you can then lift those around you.

I’ve never been, and probably never will be, a big fan of change…. my husband and my mum will testify to that…. But I have come to know how necessary and beautiful it is. It’s change that allows us to become and be better than we were yesterday, I’m sure that any one who has suffered from an addiction will testify to that. It’s change that allows us to make new friends, ask anyone who’s had to move interstate or overseas and met a friend who they will be forever grateful for! It’s change that allows us to gain knowledge and experience, ask someone who has lost their job and taken the opportunity to go back to uni and start a new career! But the biggest thing I’ve learned is this – It is change that allows a couple to create a happy and successful marriage. I love my husband and my son, and because I love them I am continually wanting to be a better wife and mother. I can’t do that if I don’t change…. it’s impossible. If I chose to not let my husband change me and he chose not to let me change him then we would be heading in different directions, but as partners we are continually making the changes necessary to reach our goals.

By asking someone not to change we are ultimately asking them to stop growing and learning…. and why would we want that for a friend? I am not in touch with my friend from high school anymore but I’m sure that she has changed, and I hope that somewhere she has learnt that allowing someone to change isn’t such a bad thing!

I hope that I never have and never will try to stop anyone making positive changes in their life. If someone ceases to change then they also cease to grow, and to me that is one of the saddest things of all.

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