Easter Love

I love Easter season!  There is new birth all around, the hope of a bounteous harvest, the relief that comes with new green and popping colors, all reminders of new life and renewal that can come with belief in Jesus Christ.  As noted in my previous post, our Easter week was full of service and sharing.  The week ended with two dinners with good friends.  We usually decorate Easter eggs the Monday before Easter, but that was replaced with rolling and dipping chocolate cremes.  So, when our friends with four little girls came to dinner on Saturday, we broke out the wire dippers, mugs and eggs.

 Mitch and Nicole Lamb came with their four girls, Arden, Susan, Ruby and June.  We colored lots of pastel eggs adorned with lots of little stickers, while the boys drew Magic the Gathering symbols on their eggs and dipped them in dark colors.

 I love that my boys still love to play with little kids.  They were so cute with the girls, as well as with the neighborhood kids.  I hope they never grow out of that.

Can you ever be too old for an Easter egg hunt? Ready, steady, go!

 The breakfast hors d'oeuvres consisted of chocolate and chocolate AND they still ate the big Easter breakfast I prepared - every bit of it!

The piece de resistance was peep jousting in the microwave.

A gripping 10 seconds.

Both sides died and deflated.

Barbara and David Parkinson, our good friends from Minnesota joined us for Easter dinner and we chatted while the boys played badminton in the back yard.  Happy Easter!

Willy James Wonka and the Service Project

James's third grade teacher gives each of the students the opportunity to do extra work to earn a Bachelor's degree, a Master's degree and a Doctorate degree.  He's completed the first two, and is now working on the third, which requires him to complete a service project.  We were thinking of all the things he could do for a service project, when Grandma Wheeler emailed with the idea to help raise funds for the members of their branch in South Africa to go the temple.  The closest temple to Port Alfred is the Johannesburg temple, which is a 13 hour bus ride, which would cost $150 for each person (plus other expenses for the trip).  The average family in the area makes $200 per month, so they need a little help to achieve their goal.

When I was in high school, I was given the opportunity to travel to Europe.  I had to earn the money to do this, so we made 5,000 suckers and sold them at school and also sold See's Candies.  I thought about having James sell suckers.  But as the Easter season was upon us, I thought that chocolates would be a better fit.  So, I found a recipe for "Kool-Aid Truffles" on Pinterest and thought, "anything with Kool-Aid in it has got to be easy." So, we tried out six flavors: cherry, orange, strawberry, lemon, berry and grape.  We packaged them like this:

But we sold them like this:

First I put James's picture on my Facebook page with a message he wrote:

To Centerville people:
Hello, my name is James Astling. I am doing a service project for my Grandparents who are serving an LDS mission in South Africa. Some of their branch members would like to go to the temple, but they don't have enough money to rent a bus for the 13 hour drive to the nearest temple. So, I am making chocolate cremes to sell for Easter baskets and sending the money to them. Each package is $3.00 and contains six chocolate cremes. The flavors are orange, black cherry, strawberry, mixed berry, grape and lemon. If you would like to purchase a package or many packages, please post your request here. I will deliver them Thursday or Friday before Easter. We made a bunch but my brothers are buying a lot of them, so get them before they are gone!

The last line is very true.  Spencer, D.J. and James started buying quite a few.  Spencer took to buying a few after every meal!

The recipe is really very easy, but the amount was overwhelming!  I received 124 orders just from my Facebook post. Then we decided to announce it to the Relief Society women in our ward.  James went into their class and they clipped a microphone on his shirt, then he read the paragraph he put on Facebook.  Mark went in with James, and he said all the women were goo-goo-eyed and ready to give James whatever he wanted.  We sent around a sign-up sheet and received 165 more orders.  As word got around we received more orders, for a grand total of 324 orders/bags.  Which means we made around 2,000 chocolates over two week's time!

Here are the ingredients for the second batch (so double this amount for 2,000 chocolates):

Our first batch, just the Astling family worked together to make over a few days:

We rolled the chocolate creme centers then dipped them in chocolate and put sprinkles on top to differentiate the flavors.

But as our orders grew, people offered to help us - and boy am I glad they did!

 James, D.J., Bitsy Tullis, Sarah Tullis and Spencer, who looks like he is bowing to Sarah.  They rolled two double batches in one hour!

 For Family Home Evening Night on a Monday, Jason, Trevor and Zach Smith, and Tiffin Tullis came to help.

On the next Tuesday night, our neighbor Carla Henricksen came over to dip and wrap:

Then Paulina Smith came over later to help package:

Thursday and Friday before Easter, some of the neighborhood kids came over to help deliver and collect funds in three neighborhoods.  I organized all the packages (packed in brown paper bags with names and amounts written on them) in neighborhoods, kept the back and side door open in the van as we slowly drove through the neighborhoods.  The kids thought they were so cool with their legs hanging out the back.  That's about as cool as a mini van can get.

Sara and Bitsy Tullis helped again, and Nate Tullis the second day, along with Jack and Allie Pierce and Jacob Adams.  Even though my ears are still ringing from the noise, I was very grateful for their help.  We finished most deliveries in three hours between the two days.

Because people were soooo generous and paid more than the chocolate charge, we raised much more than expected.  When James and I were making the last deliveries, he asked me how much we had made.  I told him that I will tell him, but not to tell others because it's such a special project.  He wasn't expecting how much I told him, and when I looked back at him sitting in his seat, he was crying.  I asked if he was ok, and he said, "I'm ok mom, I'm just really happy for the people in South Africa!"  We both held each other and cried over the generosity of those who were involved and thanked each other for working so hard.

This was such a wonderful experience to have during the two weeks prior to Easter.  Helping people along in their spiritual journey to become closer to Christ, who we celebrate during the Easter season, was a highlight of the year and our lives.  I was impressed with James, who didn't complain at all about all the work that was involved.  He was a good worker and seemed to understand the importance of this cause, as did all who were involved.  The timing for this project was perfect for Easter and even more perfect because when we go to South Africa those branch members who will go to the temple, will just have returned right before we get there and meet them!

Spring Break Shooting and Fire

We got a bum deal for Spring Break this year.  Instead of having a whole week of school off, we had Friday, Monday and Tuesday.  But the good news was that Mark's firm had an attorney retreat in St.George which coincided with Spring Break.  I asked the Logandale Wheelers (Jed and Ryan families) if they would take care of our boys for a couple of nights, which worked out great!  What worked out even better was the idea Joshlyn had for us to stay at their house while we took care of their kids so they could have a few nights away for their 10th anniversary!  Brilliant!

While we were childless, we braved a few zip lines west of Green Valley with a few other couples.  Mark survived the heights and I survived attorney humor (which honestly, I love).

 Since we had a lot of extra time after zip lining, we decided to partake of another offered activity: skeet shooting.  We went to Hurricane (pronounced Hurracun), past the Harley Shop, past the rodeo, past a crazy amount of horse trailers, horses and western folk, past the rifle range, past the archery range to the skeet range.  The range was set up sort of like a golf course where we rode in a golf cart to 12 different stations.  At each station there were two, umm skeet slinger machines, which threw the clay disc things right, left or straight at you.  The lady and man at the desk helped us novices by showing us how to operate the guns ("oh, no, never put the safety on" he says, and "you got something to open the box with?" the lady said as she approached us in three long strides with a pocket knife - blade out). I'm sure they laughed themselves silly as they pointed us in the right direction, told us to keep the safety off and let us roam the land with loaded guns and other people in the vicinity.

After shooting the first round, we all determined that we were going to be sore and bruised by the end of 12 rounds. So we kept going.  

Mark and his friend Peter, braved the guns and much fun. They both shot 12 out of 50.  Mark's friend Ryan did the best with 28 out of 50.

I lasted all 12 rounds, surprisingly.  Jinjer, Peter's wife, was the wisest one and stopped after the first two shots.  I didn't do too badly either. 19 out of 50.  Yup. 2nd place, baby. AND I didn't get a bruise on my shoulder or arm!  I feel a little more secure that should we ever be subject to a zombie apocalypse, I might last a half a day longer than Mark or Peter and maybe I could scare up some dinner.  That is, if we owned any guns, which we don't.  Still, I feel more secure.  Here is the score card for posterity and proof:

When we went to Logandale to remember how to be parents, we met up with the Wheeler cousins at Ryan's work camp. . . I mean field.  He had the boys carrying dried tree branches into a pile for a bon fire later that night.  See how picked on and forlorn they are:

Yet, strength is the benefit of such work:

Plus, they got the best bucket seat ride in the world back to Ryan's house.

AND they got to swim in the pool.  They are all certifiable nut cases as the water was NOT warm, but who notices temperature when having fun together makes warmth!

Mason donned a life-diaper, rather than a life-jacket. 

 D.J. is cold enough to wrap up in a towel, but the water is too tempting and he must be a part of it somehow.

 Elise and Jara got in and got out, which was fine by me.  I couldn't deny them getting into their swim suits with everyone else, but it didn't last long.

This reminded me of animals sunbathing on rocks in the ocean.

After a great dinner (thank you Wendy!) we took all the kids over to the work camp site. . . I mean field, and roasted marshmallows after the two small bon fires died down.  Ryan exercised caution and did not light the big bon fire as the wind picked up. Whew!

All children were alive by the end of our vacation, all parents returned safely, only a few bandages were involved, Jed's home will be free of Astling's and contractors (three came the last day we were there), and we had much fun with cousins!