The Empty Stocking

The stockings hung by the fireplace with care, for Saint Nicholas had already been there.  One held a stuffed kitty, the other a book.  Both had socks and a bit of chocolate. 

The third one was empty. 

The mother stood by the cold fireplace staring at the third, empty stocking.  It was the first year of her life that her stocking had been empty.  There was no one to fill it with chocolate coins, CDs, socks, miniature candles, gift cards, and as always, an orange snuggled in the bottom of the toe. 

This empty stocking didn’t mean no one loved her, and it didn’t mean people had forgotten about her.  It meant she was Santa’s Helper now.  She wasn’t the one who would wake up in the middle of the night to see if Santa had come.  Instead, she was the one who would hope her children would sleep past 5 A.M. Christmas morning.  She was the one wrapping presents on Christmas Eve.  She was the one who filled the stockings with care, and she was now the one who would gently place a candy cane on her two children’s pillows. 

She knew the empty stocking meant it was her turn to see the joy on her children’s faces when they woke up the next morning to find a slide, books, and a doll under the tree.  The empty stocking was a mark of growing up and carrying on the magic of Christmas. 

Next to the empty stocking was a small hand carved nativity set made out of wood from an olive tree in Jerusalem.  She thought of the cold night over 2,000 years ago that inspired this carving.  His mother laid Christ, who never had a stocking of His own, in a manger.  That day He gave the world hope.  He filled each person’s stocking with the gift of salvation.  And still, no one filled His stocking.  Instead He was betrayed, beaten, and crucified. 

The mother’s eyes flickered from her empty stocking to the carving of the Christ Child.  She realized her stocking was far from empty.  Not only had Christ given her the gift of salvation, He had also given her the knowledge of His Gospel, He had given her two wonderful children who, though they filled her days with work and stress, they filled her heart with joy and love.  He had given her a home where she could provide a shelter for her children, not only from the snowstorms, but also from the evils of the world.  He had given her the capacity to love, and the strength to persevere.  He had given her friends and family to support her.  2,000 years ago Christ had made it possible so she could live again with her family. 

She carefully rearranged the kitty in her daughter’s stocking, hoping one day her children’s stockings would hang “empty” over the fireplace as well. 

Clamless Clam Chowder

It’s August.  It’s hot.  It’s time to hit the pool.  And I’m making clam chowder! 

You could blame it on the pregnancy.  After all pregnant women crave all sorts of weird things, like pickles with ice cream.  But for me, I start craving soups in the middle of July when it’s 110 degrees no matter if I’m pregnant or not.  My aunt is the same way.  She and I could eat soups year-round.  This year I used my pregnancy as an excuse to make clam chowder in the middle of summer. The only problem with clam chowder is the clams. 

I love the creamy seafood flavor, the feel of my teeth sinking into a soft onion or carrot, and the occasional soft crunch of a cracker.  It’s the perfect flavor-texture combo for me.  But then my molars hit a nauseating, chewy, rubbery clam.  It never breaks up into smaller pieces no matter how long I chew it.  It only flattens out into a rubbery unpleasant mess inside my mouth. 

I was about eight years old when I first had clam chowder.  Mom and I were in a fast food seafood restaurant when I bit into a big, chewy clam. 

“Mom!  I don’t want to eat this!” I whined.

“Just swallow it,” she whispered.

“Can’t I spit it out?”
“Just swallow.  We’re in a restaurant.  There’s no reason to spit it out.”

She eventually let me spit the offensive piece of clam in a napkin. 

It was a long time before I had clam chowder after that. 

When I started making my own clam chowder, I endured the chewiness of the occasional clam. Everything else about the soup was worth it.  Over the years, I got sick of the clams ruining my meal and started picking them out.  Some people told me to just make a veggie chowder.  Though I considered it, I couldn’t bring myself to do it.  I love the flavor the clams bring to the soup. 

I recently came up with an idea.  Why not pour the clam juice in, but leave the clams out?  It may not be as flavorful, but at least I won’t have to bite into a clam.  The idea was a success!  I almost singlehandedly ate an entire batch of clamless clam chowder in four days.  (Okay so maybe being pregnant does have something to do with me craving clam chowder in August). 

The clamless clam chowder started off with buying minced clams, straining the clams to get every drop of flavor out of them, then throwing them away.  A slightly tedious and wasteful process, but I didn’t have to bite into a clam.  Then my mother discovered bottled clam juice!  Clamless clam chowder just became that much easier, tasty, and less wasteful!

Now I can eat clam chowder without the fear that my next spoonful of creamy, vegetable, seafood goodness will contain a repulsive chewy clam.

Don't ask me how to juice a clam!

In honor of my culinary success, I am sharing this non-summer recipe with you.  Hey, maybe you’re like my aunt and I, and love soups all year round, or maybe you’re just pregnant.

Clamless Clam Chowder

Ingredients:

1 cup clam juice

4-5 cups of Veggies (you can leave any of the veggies out if you don’t like them).

Potatoes (red potatoes are the best and you don’t have to peel them)!

Celery

Carrots

Onion

¾ cup butter (1½ cubes)

½-¾ cup flour (the more flour the thicker the soup)

1 quart half & half

2 tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

½ tsp sugar

Chop veggies and put in large pot. 

Pour clam juice over veggies

Add enough water to barely cover veggies.  If you add too much water your soup won’t be as thick.

Place lid over pot and turn on medium heat. 

Meanwhile in a separate medium pot melt butter.

The butter melts faster if you cut it up

Add flour and cook until blended (about 1-2 minutes). 

SLOWLY add half & half.  Keep heat on low-medium so it doesn’t burn the rue.  Turning the heat on high WILL NOT make it cook faster.

Constantly stir rue with spatula.  Once it’s thickened pour over veggies and stir to combine. 

Add salt, pepper, and sugar.  

Continue to let simmer so soup can thicken.  Try not to boil.  (I say try, because in the original recipe it says not to boil it, but no matter how low I turn the heat, it always boils a little).

Refrigerate leftovers

Cooks Suggestion:

·      This soup is great served in a bread bowl (don’t ask me how to make those), or with homemade rolls, or for something simpler, saltine crackers.

·      I like the leftovers better then the fresh soup.  The flavors have had time to soak in and meld with each other, and it’s a lot thicker.  

Can I just say YUM!

A day after eating the last of my clamless clam chowder I told a friend I wanted more. 

“I was so tempted to get the ingredients at the store today,” I told her.

“Well why didn’t you?” she asked.

“Because I need to give my stomach a rest from all that milk.”  (Slightly lactose intolerant person here!)

“Well make it next week,” she said.

“No, I’ll make it tomorrow.” 

Yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s the pregnancy cravings. 

The Price of a Leader

Achievement Days (now known as Activity Days) twenty-five years ago consisted of me showing up, doing whatever my leader had planned, then going home, usually with a craft or treat in my hand, and always with a smile on my face. 

When I graduated into the Young Women’s program not much changed.  Then one day when I was a fifteen-year-old Mia-Maid I watched as one of my leaders, Sister Crawford, came in with an armload of stuff for the mutual activity.  It briefly crossed my mind that my leaders probably did a lot more to get ready for a mutual activity than I had ever thought.  They were the ones who gathered all the supplies for craft night, put together our Laurel Legacy cook books, organized our temple/shopping trip to Portland, called people for service activities, and cleaned their house countless times before we came over.  I wondered if they enjoyed preparing so much for an hour and a half activity. 

After ten years I received my answer.

I was recently called to be the Activity Days leader for the 10-year-old girls in my ward.  I just showed up to the first activity, my partner did all the work.  Then she got released.  The next activity was all on me. 

I decided to center it on General Conference and thought it would be fun to decorate General Conference notebooks.  So with Pinterest as my crutch, I went to work. 

I spent hours creating the Apostle labels.  I cut them each out, then laminated them, and then cut them out again. 

I made the cute handouts and tied them on the Gatorade bottles.

Making and cutting out the labels for the books didn’t take too long.

Finally, I Modge Podged printed paper to composition books for the girls to decorate. 

All of that took me about 3-4 hours.  And that’s not including preparing my lesson, and rounding up all the glue sticks, double-sided tape, and stickers. 

As I was preparing the activity I was afraid that the girls wouldn’t like the idea.  They wouldn’t really use their journal, or listen to General Conference.  But I had to try.   My goal was to hopefully help them realize what an awesome privilege it is to have a living prophet on the earth today, and to record some of their feelings as they listen to him.

I was therefore surprised when, bringing out the journals, excitement emanated from the girls.  “I needed something to keep my notes in!” one girl exclaimed.  “My old journal is full!” another girl added.  “This will be perfect!” I heard one girl say. 

Apparently their primary teacher had challenged the girls to keep notes during General Conference, and many of them “had” to watch more than one session of General Conference. 

As I watched the girls attack the stickers, put the apostles’ pictures in order, and glue buttons to their journals, my joy was full.  I helped several girls put the pictures of the apostles in their journals, found the star stickers for another girl, and glued buttons on another girl’s journal. 

Words can’t describe how happy I was to see these 10-year-old Daughters of God so excited to be preparing journals for General Conference. 

Such creativity! 

All of the hours I put into preparing this one-hour activity was worth it.  And I’m sure that all the hours Sister Crawford, Creer, Plaisted, Mahaffy, Ostler, Merkley, and all my other leaders put into mutual activites were worth it too.  When you see your girls, no matter the age, having the time of their lives, anything is worth it. 

I love the stickers! 

Remember It

Facebook is a public journal.  People’s status’s range from personal feelings to ordinary life events.   

There are the everyday statuses.   “Just got home from the store with the kids.  Now off to make dinner!” or “Going out to dinner with my hubby!  I can’t wait!”  

There’s the more touchy feely, ones, “My little boy came and gave me hug today out of the blue and told me he loved me.  I really needed that.” 

Or the testimonies, “Today was another reminder of how amazing the Savior is.  He never leaves us, even when it feels like we’re alone.” 

I’m not saying a person sharing their lives on Facebook is bad.  (If I had a problem with it then I would delete my Facebook account).  What I am concerned about is all those little things we put on Facebook will eventually fade away.  I don’t see the day, but I’m sure someday Facebook will be like MySpace—no one uses it anymore.  The same will probably happen with Twitter, Instagram, and Pintrist.  All of those tidbits of life will eventually disappear. 

May I suggest a simple way in which people can preserve those special moments of their lives?

Keep a journal

Maybe you’re the kind of person who “doesn’t keep a journal very well.”  Honestly, it’s easier than you think, and there are soooo many ways to keep a journal! 

The Personal Traditional Journal

I’ve kept one since I was nine years old.  It is so much fun to look back on my kid and teenage journals to see how much I’ve grown.  Journals like these can provide a sense of strength.  Earlier this year I was pretty down.  I flipped open the journal in which I recorded the last few months of my mission.  I read several entries where I had gone through difficult times and how I overcame them.  Reading those entries strengthened me at that particular difficult moment.  I knew I could do hard things.

Your entries don’t have to be long.  In fact my last entry was a paragraph long.  I recently came across something on Pintrist where a lady literally wrote 2-4 sentences for each day.  Those simple sentences are snapshots into her life. 

Adding titles to some entries makes it a little more fun.

I sometimes add pictures to my journals.  It spices things up a bit.

My very first journal entry.

Typed Journal

Maybe writing’s not your thing.  I admit it takes awhile.  Typing doesn’t. There’s nothing wrong with typing out our journal.  Just remember to print it out once in awhile and get it bound so you can go back and read it now and again, and your posterity can have it as well.

Bullet Journaling

I saw this on Pintrist a couple months ago, and though it’s not for me, it was still pretty cool.  What you do is write the date, then write bullets as to what happened that day. 

An example:

This is not mine.  I got this image from Pintrist.  Yours doesn't have to be this fancy

Blog Journal

My mother in law has a blog journal.  She writes the happenings of her family and life on a private blog, posts pictures, and then gets them printed in a book.  It’s a place where both pictures and words go.  It’s not personal, so her boys can flip through them.  I had the privilege of looking through one.  It was amusing to see my husband as a young teenager, looking tough in his Bomber football uniform, or snazzy, all dressed up to go to the Prom.

If you’re looking for something kind of like a scrapbook, but way easier and not as fancy, try blog journaling.

Kid’s Journal

Again, I found this idea on Pintrist (don’t you love that site)?  A couple kept a journal for each one of their kids from the time they found out they were pregnant (or the adoption was official) to the time they were 18.  Then at graduation they gave their kids the journal.  The couple wrote about special events in their kid’s life, and how they felt about them, as well as the everyday things their kids did. 

Thinking this was a fabulous idea, Chris and I bought a journal for Lilly when we found out we were expecting.  My first entry was the day we had our first ultrasound and I saw her for the first time.  I was able to tell her about her birth several days after it took place, while it was fresh in my mind.  I recorded when she cut her first tooth, when she had her first taste of ice cream, and when she began to crawl—little things that are forgotten overtime.  I don’t write it in everyday, or even every week.  I do try to write in it every 2-3 months, or whenever something monumental happens.  I also stick pictures (or ultrasounds) in the journal too.

Spiritual/Scripture Study Journal

I have so many of these, and I hardly look through them again.  For this reason, I stopped keeping one, until one of my mission companions showed me something spectacular—a topic-by-topic study journal.  I listed a whole bunch of topics, then wrote each one on the top of a different page, leaving anywhere from 1-4 pages in between each topic.  When I found a scripture, a quote, or had an insight, I would turn to the appropriate topic and write it down, dating it afterward. 

If you are exclusively studying one topic you can write everything down on a loose sheet of paper.  Then put it in a three ring binder.  Continue to add to it as you study more topics, or the same one.  This gives you the freedom to add to it over the months and years.  You’re not constrained by how many pages there are. 

I love adding fun things to my scripture journal . . . like stickers

A sample from my journal.

Photo Albums

Hey all you Instagram junkies out there.  Ever thought of printing off your photos to put in an album?  Yeah, a bit too much work, I have to agree.  I have several boxes of pictures in my closet just waiting to go into albums.  I thought of an easier way to make pictures available in print (although I’m definitely not the first.  More like the millionth).  Go to Shutterfly, Walmart.com, Snapfish, or any other picture book website and make a picture book, adding words and titles.  These books usually cost less then printing out all those pictures, and buying countless albums, and they are thinner, which means more room on the shelves! 

Pictures are a great way to preserve memories and events.  I enjoy going through albums of when I was a kid, remembering camping trips, birthday parties, and everyday life.  Next time you post a picture on Instagram or Facebook, remember it will fade away someday so you might as well print it so you can remember the memory. 

Good memories from my high school days captured in a photo

Scrapbooks

If you’re looking for a more artsy way to display your pictures, you can scrapbook.  I scrapbooked during my teenage years.  It was not for me.  I however, love looking at different layouts, amazed at what some people can do.  It’s a beautiful way to document a life.   

One of my first attempts at scrapbooking when I was a kid

I got a little better, but eventually gave it up.

Smash Books

I prefer the Smash Book.  I’m a pack rat.  I have papers from my grade school days.  I keep movie and concert tickets, notes from friends, cards from grandparents, and feathers from camping trips.  Instead of piling them in a box I Smash them.  I glue them into a special book, write a little something about it, and call it done. There’s no color coordination, or picture placement.  It’s a way for me to keep those things that are sentimental in a place I can go back to, without having to unpack and repack a box. 

I told you I'm a pack rat! 

This page took me about 30 minutes, and I have a memory preserved. 

Hobby Journal a.k.a I-don’t-want-to-forget Journal

My hobby journal is just a notebook.

For me a hobby journal consists of writing down ideas for stories and blog posts, mainly so I don’t forget my ideas.  For you it could be a doodle journal, an art journal, ideas for a room you want to decorate, the first verse to a song you’re writing, ideas for how to better your business, date ideas, or fun things to do with kids—anything.  Write them down before you forget.

Only one of these stories ended up on paper.

The Purpose of Journals

Why keep journals?  I believe there are a couple reasons.

For posterity

Journals are for our posterity to read and learn about us.  When we read the personal words of our ancestors we learn about them, their likes and dislikes, what a regular day was for them, what they feared, what they treasured, and trials they went through.  Our hearts are turned to them.  When our posterity reads our journals their hearts will be turned to us.  Keeping a journal is having the Spirit of Elijah. 

Al 22 of my journals I've kept over the past 16 years

For Remembering

We’re humans.  We forget.  It’s so fun to go back through my childhood journals and remember what it was like being a kid, when my only worry was a scraped knee.  When I read those scribbled words I feel like a kid again.  I keep a writing journal to remember things I want to write someday. 

Memories are treasures we should always keep with us.  Memories become stories we tell our children and grandchildren.  We, and they, can learn from them.

Journals come in all sizes

So next time you write something on Facebook, post a picture on Instagram, pin you’re favorite quote on Pintrist, make sure to write it, glue it, or print it. 

Remember it. 

For some fun journaling ideas visit my Pinterest board on Journaling! Click Here.