Love'n the Fall thing!

*upgraded "happy fall" banner from last year! It looks so much better!*

I LOVE fall! I love the crisp cool air in the morning. I love the change of colors - in nature, decor and fashion. I *heart* decorating my house for the different seasons and holidays! Here is some of what I did this year!

*word reminders of what November is all about!*

*I made this Gratitude Board this year. I'm not totally happy with it, but it was fun!*

*my daughter made me the "give thanks" LOVE it! It went perfect with my Acorn children I found this year!*

I hope Fall is treating you well this year! Happy FALL!

the Birthday Boy!

(getting ready to blow his 49 candles!)

Today it's your birthday shout Hoo-Ray!

Yep! Today is my sweet husband's birthday! I really am the luckiest girl alive to have married someone who is so good and kind!

(candy from Brazil! Vaughan's favorite!)

Vaughan is the best Dad and husband in the world! I hope he has a super-de-duper day! I LOVE you sweetie!

(Vaughan in his birthday suit- yep, he got a suit for his birthday! *giggle*)

Being Prepared

Since I can remember I've been interested in Food Storage. I'm not sure why, but it's kind of a hobby for me! Maybe it's because I enjoy food so much! Eating it anyway!!!

My Mom taught me to buy sales. Not just for the week, but for the future. She always had at least one extra on her shelf so she didn't have to run to the store for a missing ingredient! I thought that was brilliant and I have tried to follow that example.

I tried to use coupons to save, but had very discouraging success...then I found Coupon Sense and a whole new world of saving was opened up. Coupon Sense has helped me take "stocking up" and SAVING money to a whole new level. But this isn't about Coupon Sense.

I have always had a well stocked pantry. I didn't want to waste, so I was careful to only buy what could be used in a year. I like to date the things I buy so I know how fast I use them. It also helps me to know what to use first. One other thing is you will see that certain things go on sale at the same time every year - i.e. soup, canned fruit, sugar etc.

When I return from the grocery store everything gets set out and dated, then rotated to the back of the shelf so that what is oldest is used first. I should add here that I don't just store food - I have paper products, cleaning supplies and personal care items that I also store!

(our pantry/laundry room. I love drawers! They are great for storing jello, pudding, spices, or any thing else that comes in packets!)

We have added additional storage over the years and we now have a *food storage* room that we store our long term storage, cereal, and snack foods.

(doorway to our food storage room. I keep paper products -except tp & paper towels in the cabinet you can see. Tp, paper towels, garbage bags and laundry detergent are stored elsewhere. If I had a garage I would store them there!)

My canned food, pasta, spices and foods I use often are stored in our pantry/laundry room. My system is if the shelf is full, then I don't buy any more until it can hold more, i.e. if the tomato soup row is full, I don't need it. If it is missing a few cans, then I buy more when it goes on sale at the price point that is good to me.

(here are some of the cans in my pantry. Notice the cardboard between rows. This is an inexpensive way to stack your cans. I'd love to have one of the storage systems out there, but they are expensive, and I think they take up too much space! This is my cheap-o way of doing it!)

However, for the past two years I have felt an urgency to buy food. I started buying EXTRA beyond what can fit on our shelves. We turned our office into our *over storage*. This isn't hoarding. I just *feel* like this is something Heavenly Father wants me to do. I haven't understood why, but when I question the feeling, I feel like it is a good thing, and so I continue.

(this is how we are storing our "extra" food. These plastic containers work great under beds too)

I have kept my spending within budget. I haven't gone crazy and borrowed money or anything! Some weeks I don't go grocery shopping - because there isn't money or there isn't time to do so. But because of my life long hobby I know when it is something I shouldn't pass up, and I am able to get the best deals. (most of the time - I'm not perfect!)

We went to the cannery and canned on Friday as a family. It was so much fun, and now I have a little more of some things and I've added powdered milk, dried fruits and veggies that I didn't have before.

(We had to do some rearranging in my bedroom to find room for these boxes. It was a pain, but it feels good. And it's "forcing" me to get rid of things we don't need to make room for things we do!)

WHY am I boring you with all of this? Because, if you haven't started storing extra food I hope to inspire you. I know it's important to do. I think it's more important than we realize.

Our family has already reaped the blessings of having food storage. Last year there were many times I couldn't go grocery shopping. But I never worried about not being able to feed my family. My kids hardly noticed!

Do you remember the parable of the 12 virgins. Six were prepared and six were not. Because the six that had prepared were there waiting and ready they were allowed into the wedding - the six were frantically, trying to get prepared, last minute, too late. They missed the wedding.

How come the six prepared didn't share their oil? Were they not allowed? Were they selfish? Was this something the six UNprepared needed to learn? Maybe, a natural consequence of sorts?

I've thought about this parable a lot lately. Maybe we will store food and never need it. Probably not. But I want to be the one that could share if needed, not the one that has to ask for food from others.

If you have made it this far in this lengthy post - thank you. You are probably much more prepared than I and you probably didn't need this, but read because you were curious! But if by some small chance someone does need this I hope you now realize that no matter what your financial situation is, no matter how small a home you live in, really, no matter what - you can prepare.

I really want to inspire you to do something to prepare...even just a little. "If you are prepared, you shall not fear."

I know there are lots of things to "prepare" -spiritual & temporal. All we can do is try. Little by little it will all come to pass!

If anyone would like help, I'd love to help! Just give me a call or email. It's fun to share what you've learned! Oh, and if anyone has a good way to track food storage, I'm on a hunt for some kind of excel spreadsheet or something!

(Here are some canned and bottled food that is going to be turned into a cute table in my bedroom. Yep, I've finally succumbed to food storage furniture! It's just waiting for Vaughan to make the wood top and then I will make a to the floor table cloth to match the decor in my room!)

Halloween Fun 2010

We had such a fun Halloween weekend. We spent Saturday evening at our ward Fall Festival! It was lots of fun passing out candy to the trunk or treaters! I love seeing the cute kids in their costumes. Then we enjoyed visiting with friends and eating chili and other treats while the kids played games at the different booths.

Here are my PJ twins!Hope with the spider I painted on her face!

The next day, after church, we had planned a family party. It was definitely one of the most fun nights I've had in a long time! I don't remember laughing so hard!

I planned a yummy dinner of potato cheese soup -served in yummy pumpkin shaped bread bowls, salad and steamed broccoli. We also made homemade rootbeer.


I asked each of the girls to come up with a game and I would supply prizes (candy bars). I thought this would be fun and take the place of trick or treating.

Our first game was led by Holli. Charades with a halloween theme! Shocking, I know, but I have some pretty amazing actors in my family! LOL!



Next, was Hope. Her game was pretty cute. She took two lengths of yarn and tied them to the ends of two pencils next to each other. You had to wrap the yarn around your ears like glasses and start pulling them up towards your mouth with three m&m's on the pencils. The goal being to get them to your mouth to eat them! Again -SO FUNNY to watch!!

Then Heidi led us in a game of deadly wink- where someone is IT and they wink at the people in the circle which kills them and the person in the center is trying to figure out who the "murderer" is! We had so much fun!

Our last game was provided by Grandma Moore. She brought donuts - and as is tradition in the Durfee family these can only be consumed if they are hanging by a string from the ceiling!
Hillary, Heidi, Holli and Hope insisted that even though we were all "gamed" out that we finish off with our donut event! It is sincerely the most funny thing to watch and I'm glad we went along with their fun!

In the end we were all exhausted from laughing, eating and enjoying ourselves! My kids all said at one time or another that it was the most fun they had ever had for Halloween! I think a new tradition has been born!

Spooky Time

I LOVE fall! I seriously think it's my favorite season. Maybe because we are coming off of summer and I just appreciate anything COOLER! This year it seems like fall is taking longer than normal to get here! I couldn't wait for it to get cool outside so I brought fall inside!

We're definitely ready for Halloween! (I made these Countdown Blocks this year and this Countdown!)

And I changed up this banner from last year! It looks SO much better!

I also changed my jars! (I was inspired by different blogs. I don't like gory or to0 scary)

I make this EEK! with Hillary. We were inspired from this blog.

Yes! I think we're ready for the fun!

Time Out for Women

I had the opportunity to go to Time Out for Women this weekend. Can I just say WOW!

I laughed, I cried and enjoyed soaking in the spirit of the amazing speakers.

I went with my sister, Mom, daughter, niece and three sister in laws! We started the weekend with lunch at Olive Garden to celebrate Missy's birthday. Then we checked in our hotel in Phoenix. We stayed at the Wyndham which was walking distance to the Phoenix Convention Center.


Shortly after checking in we headed to the Convention Center to hear three speakers - Virginia Hinckley Pearce, Wendy Watson Nelson and Sheri Dew and an amazing soloist-Dallyn Vail Bayles. WOW, what a line up. Can I just say if you have never heard Dallyn sing you are missing out! He has the most beautiful voice. Check him out on Itunes or wherever you buy your music!


After being spiritually fed we went back to the hotel and got ready for another FULL day. We visited and laughed and ordered pizza. We were all in bed a going to sleep by midnight! (I thought this was pretty good!)

The next morning we hurried to get ready and get to Time Out. It started at 9am. The music was done by Mercy River. Three women who harmonized beautifully! I loved their music. I had never heard them before. We listened to DeAnne Flynn, Brad Wilcox, Mariama Kallon, Amanda Dickson and Merrilee Boyack. All amazing speakers, and I learned so much and enjoyed feeling like I was "normal" -whatever that is, and learning about how to be a better me. It was seriously hard to see it end.

I think we all wanted to bask in the fun, so we headed to Chandler to "Merchants Square", my brothers antique mall and browsed around. And then the exhaustion hit me like a ton of bricks and all I wanted to do was go home and put my feet up!

When I got home only Heather was here getting ready to leave. That is pretty typical. She is usually getting ready to leave for somewhere! Vaughan and the other three girls were still gone. They had spent the weekend at Fossil Springs.

It was kind of funny when they came home. . . I think they somehow thought I hadn't gone anywhere. They came in all excited to tell me about their trip and all the experiences they had! It sounds like they had lots of fun. This went on for an hour or so. Then Vaughan went to get pizza and the girls and I decided to watch a couple of movies. When they were over I went to bed. Vaughan was already there watching a ball game of some kind. As I was climbing in bed Vaughan said, "So how was your weekend." I started laughing and said, "I wondered when someone was going to ask!" Hey, it only took 3 hours! So I shared with him some of the things I learned. Mostly, I told him Sister Mariama Kallon's story. If you don't know who she is (I didn't) you are missing out! Her bio says: "Raised in war-torn Sierra Leone, she saw many things as a young girl that might fill a person with fear and hatred. After witnessing the violent murders of her parents and the loss of her siblings, Mariama spent much of her youth fleeing from rebels. She was eventually introduced to the gospel of Jesus Christ and was given a humanitarian kit by the Church, which became a treasured symbol of hope that she used to bless the lives of many as they again fled for their lives." She has a DVD that tells her story. A couple of my SIL's bought it, so I am going to borrow. She was pretty amazing and I think we could all use a shot in the arm of gratitude for being here (America) as she puts it, "the land of plenty".

So, all in all it was a pretty special weekend. Thanks to my sweet daughter, Mom, niece and sisters for sharing it with me!

General Conference Love

I can honestly say my two favorite weekends occur in October and April. This is when we have the privilege to watch General Conference. I LOVE listening for the messages that the Lord has for me. I LOVE seeing my family gather around the TV to listen to the words of our leaders. I LOVE the feeling in my home.

I'm so grateful for inspired leaders that lead and guide us today. I feel so blessed to know my Heavenly Father loves ME, to know of our loving Savior and the plan of salvation.

Now, I get to go forward and apply the things I have heard this weekend to MY life. To improve and better myself and help my family to improve too!

What a blessing!