A new Spring

Finally the lull of my life has ended. For months I have not wanted to engage in anything on my down days other than Netflix and my computer. But alas, I just recovered from a week of the flu and new life has beseiged my soul. I up and applied to finish my BYU degree through the BGS program they offer (I only have 25 credits till I have my bachelors.) I've planned to do that for years, so why the ambition now? I actually feel driven to move forward in my Hebrew studies so doors will open easier to return to Israel, and this is what urged me to send in my application.

I started reading again. After creeping through two or three books this last half a year that I still haven't finished and turning down month after month of two different book clubs, I picked up a book called The Faith Club which I have wanted to read for years. It's engaging for me since it talks about the relationship between Islam, Judaism and Christianity.

I am working on several songs with my voice teacher in anticipation of a Spring/Summer concert at the temple visitors center in Maryland. Two of the songs are in Italian (considerably easier to learn than French) including a long time favorite, "O Mio Babbino".

I started a personal history at dad's request, so that he can include it in his own autobiography. Dad asked for four or five pages from each of us, however I am at six just on my first eight or so years of life. I am really enjoying this, and trying to make it well written.

Along with this project I have felt a renewed fervor for scrapbooking which I haven't done for years. I want to put together my own pre-married life scrapbook now, since each of the boys have one of their early childhood years.

And now, here I am in my jammies at 11:30 Saturday morning working on my third post for the day. You know, it must be that I am finally on top of this virus that layed me and my kids up for a week.

Anyhow, we'll see how long this motivation to be overly occupied lasts. Life is so full, so rich already, these distractions can most often add to the joy but can on occassion get in the way. I think the ebb and flow of it all is natural and good, and if one thing is certain, we should not feel required to overextend ourselves by comparing or guilt.

Happy Spring! We look forward to our cherry blossom and Dogwood visitors!

Creme Brulee

We had a fun evening of making creme brulee. I bought the torch two years ago but only now got it out of the box. It was Jonny's idea. He begged me for a week and later admitted he just wanted to try the torch. But the dessert was delicous! I try creme brulee at restaurants whenever I can and endorse the Zoom creme brulee in Park City, perhaps also available at the Tree Room at Sundance. But ours was pretty darn good. We put a little too much sugar on top, but as a whole, with fresh berries, it was a success. I ate two and a half.

Knights in Shining Armor

Na na na na na na na na na na na na....BATMAN!

Matthew as Iron Man with the tin foil rolls for weapons.

The wicked pringleator!

Weilding the swords with my meat mallet.

My boys love weapons. It's all about the gear! I would rather put it this way than to say that they are violent. They just really dig action. Last week I bought three boxes of aluminium foil and they forged swords and armor for themselves, (and Peter put on his Batman gear.)

National Pie Day

As simple as PIE! Yummy chocolate tarts from Martha Stewart's Pies and Tarts. And above the tarts, a layout of the table.

Banana Cream from the Lion House Cookbook. And below, the famous Lady Bird Johnson Pecan.

Cherry with a cheat code lattice cutter from Williams Sonoma. And bottom, Apple from Favorites!

Thanks to Sarah, National Pie Day was a success at the Liechty home, after nearly 10 years of it passing by unnoticed. We had lots of neighbors and friends who joined us and Brent and Ralph were here for the pre-celebration baking, three days earlier, when I made a blueberry, Tollhouse chocolate and pumpkin pie to freshen up my crust skills, and to appease Matthew who just happened to start a crazy pie obsession about the second week in January. I figure that Matthew like his cousin Oliver for the Contreras family, can be our patron Liechty for NPD since his birthday is January 5th. Lucky for Matthew, I had already been sparked with the desire to make pies by Sarah.

I had the happiest day in a long time on Friday January 23rd. Peter and I danced to Sympathique as I rolled out crust after crust, mixed fillings, melted chocolate, sliced bananas, emptied cans and dusted flour off my nose. In the end I made two sweet potatoe pies, one apple, one cherry, 6 chocolate tarts, one banana cream and the winner! the pecan pie recipe that Lady Bird Johnson made for JFK the day he was killed. It rocks! Our friends brought a fruit tart, a chocolate cream and lots of vanilla icecream. James and I agreed, it was one of the happiest nights we've had in a long time. Thanks to the pie, and Sarah and Martha and Favorites and the Daily Universe January 1995, the Lion House and Pink Martini and all those friends who jumped on board and called out Happy National Pie day as they walked through the door. I now believe we will continue this fun mid January American tradition.

The crazy posting

Sorry about the upcoming post! It will be forever evidence that I am still learning how to do all this stuff.

Christmas Joy!

I am not sending out a formal Chrismas card this year, (we spent a lot on our pictures last year!) and since I have this brag set up, I thought I'd put some fun shots from this last year.


This summer we drove cross country to Utah and back to Virginia. These are some pictures from our stop at Niagra Falls and Mount Rushmore. I daresay we would do the drive again. The boys did GREAT!

Matthew was a great running back for his football team this year. You can't tell how muddy he actually is. His other teammates were not nearly as muddy after this game, but the way Matthew plays football... he became well acquainted with the mud.

This is a classic shot of what James spends a lot of his life doing. (He is on his lap top).

You know those guinea pigs I complain about all the time? Here are a couple shots of how cute they actually are so you understand why I can't get rid of them.

Jonny's is Fluffy(left), Stevie's is Snuffy(right) and Matthew's is Puss in Boots which now Peter believes is his (up at the top).

Stephen is a good little musician. This is his Spring concert for music at school. He also plays the piano now and played a duet for a concert this Christmas. (up at the top)

Peter is in heaven as the youngest of four boys who have already attained a load of toy dart guns and weapons of various sorts. This is a super long shot nerf gun, bigger than him!

Jonny won third place in the regional pinewood derby last March. Finally, just in time since it was his last year to enter,

he won the pack race in January and Stephen got second place.

Here are the brothers at the regional competitions looking cute.

Distinguished Students and My French Song

This one is for Kim. If it weren't for her gentle prodding I would never get around to additions for my blog. So I am waiting for my most recent pictures to download and I will from there figure out what to tell you all about.



I do have two occasions I want to brag, I mean blog, about but I am unknowing how to include the dramatic evidence. Perhaps before I actually post this one, I will figure it all out and you can see first: the certificates that Jonny and Stephen received from their elementary school for being chosen as "distinguished students". And second: I will include the recording of myself singing at my voice recital last Sunday. (And of course there is a recording of Peter singing "I am Iron Man, na, na, na na, na, na Iron Man" as well as the entire Power Ranger Ninja Storm theme song, on pitch.)



So in hopes that I will be able to figure out the mechanics of scanning and adding sound recordings to the post, I will elaborate on these two items.



Three times a year the teachers at Island Creek Elementary pick a student from their class who has distinguished themselves in one area or another. Jonny and Stevie both had this honor when they were in First Grade and then graciously again this Fall. It was fun to have both of them receiving their award together. Jonny's teacher's gave him an award for "writing words that knock Mrs. Markon and Mrs. A'hearn's socks off" (I should include one particular poem). Stephen's teacher gave him an award for "Excelling in Mathematics". It was great! They even got to hug the school mascot, "Cosmo the Crocodile. " Maybe subconsciously I married James so we would have smart kids.



And as for me...last Sunday I performed for the recital of all my voice teacher's students. I sang an entire French song! called Au bord de l'eau by Gabriel Faure. It is a lovely soprano song that lilts and swells with sap and I just loved singing in French (even though James said I sounded like an American with a bad French accent.) Then I sang Show Me from My Fair Lady. That one was fun because I just love musical theater and I even did the Maria from Sound of Music point- up- to- the- sky- with- my- index- finger on the super long high note I held out forever at the end of the song. I am hoping that this Spring I can swing a concert just for myself, maybe a dozen songs. I really love singing, but I have some improvement to make on breath support etc.

So I will post this without evidences and include them later. Thanks, Kim.

This last one is the one I wanted you all to see of the famous Iron Man and Power Ranger songs.