New Years Rolls

Here's a great roll recipe for New Years.

Heat over medium-high heat in saucepan for 2 minutes, then set aside.

·       5 cups flour

·       2 Tbs. active dry yeast

·       1 tsp. salt

·       1 egg

·       ¼ cup sugar

Combine dry ingredients in bowl.  Add water/butter mixture and blend well.  Add egg, slightly beaten.  Knead for 6-8 minutes, until smooth and elastic.  Place in a greased bowl, turn once and cover with a clean cloth.  Let rise until double. Punch down and divide into thirds.  Roll out each third into a circle and then cut into 12 pie-shaped pieces with a rolling pizza cutter or knife.  Roll each pie-shaped piece into a crescent and let rise again on baking dish.  It also works to just make round balls of dough for the rolls.

Bake at 350^o for 12 – 15 minutes or until golden.

Here's the Deseret News Review of my new book. I just had to share this review. It's good. This is a great Christmas gift if you're looking for adults and children.

"TEXTING THROUGH TIME: John Taylor and the Mystery Puzzle," by Christy Monson, Bonneville Books, $12.99, 176 pages (f) (ages 8 and up)

A new book by Christy Monson is a wonderful piece of fiction for young children. “Texting through Time: John Taylor and the Mystery Puzzle” is also a useful tool for parents who want to teach their youngsters about the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the sacrifices of the early Mormon pioneers.

Alicia and Micah are young children with a fascination for church history. Their father recently developed a cell phone that allows people to travel through time. The children have already used this tool to visit Brigham Young in the first book it the series, and they tell their father they would like to use the phone this time to visit the prophet and third president of the LDS Church, President John Taylor.

Their father is skeptical at first because he has learned of a few glitches the phone has. He tells his kids he will go with them. But when the phone is activated, it only takes Alicia and Micah to England, the place where John Taylor was born.

Alicia and Micah meet John Taylor as a child. After playing war games with him and his friends, Alicia and Micah decide they should go home and see their father. The phone will not transport the children back home, however, until they finish a puzzle.

The puzzle makes the children travel throughout the entirety of President Taylor’s life. They go with him to Canada where he was a Methodist preacher. They also go to Nauvoo, Ill., after he was shot in Carthage Jail.

The most poignant part of the book comes when President Taylor describes the death of the Prophet Joseph Smith to Micah and Alicia. Children reading the book will not only understand the gravity of the situation, but they will appreciate Joseph Smith and his sacrifices on a much higher level.

The combination of time travel, cell phones and church history makes this book appealing to young children.

Monson does an excellent job intertwining scriptures into the book as well. The scriptures are placed in such a context that children will be able to understand them easily.

Monson is also the author of “Texting Through Time: A Trek with Brigham Young.” Her works have been published in multiple church magazines, as well.

Shelby Scoffield has a bachelor's in English from Brigham Young University and a master's in rhetoric and composition from Stanislaus State University. She is currently working on her teaching credentials so she can teach high school English.

To the Heroes

*I've been gone for a while from this blog, but I'm so happy to be back. I've missed you all.*

Last week was a rough weekend.

The news from Connecticut was very overwhelming. I couldn't watch the news without breaking down. There is real evil out there.

But there are also real heroes.

As I turned on my computer on Sunday, the news was filled with stories of heroic acts:

A janitor who had the courage to run through the hallways to warn others, a teacher who gave her life after hiding her children in cupboards, a young boy whose life was saved when a hand reached out and pulled him into a classroom, a parent who not only mourned for the life of his child but also the family of the shooter.

There are many more -  more than I think we all hear about.

The heroes.

My heart goes out to all of them: the families, the victims and the heroes.

Thank God for the Heroes.

Music Rocks My World

I'm a Suzuki Piano Teacher.  I have teacher friends who I work with. Together, we are planning a big Piano Party for our students in January.  The kids will have some fun workshops, then a pizza party, and a concert for dessert.

We have some wonderful performers lined up for our concert.  We have a large auditorium and our students won't begin to fill it.  Even if their families come there will be lots of empty seats.  So we thought, why not invite more people? 

The concert is on January 11 at 7:00 in the Auditorium at Summit Academy Junior High in Draper.  It will last one hour.  For $5.00, you can have one of those seats.  For $20.00, you can bring your family.  To see who's performing, and to find out how to get tickets, click here.

Music rocks my world.  How about yours?

Linda Garner

English Toffee, Quick and Easy

Toffee is one of my favorite holiday candies. I like to make it because it’s fast and easy. It’s also fail-proof once you know how to do it. You can make it with or without nuts, depending on your taste and allergies. I love it with sliced almonds, but my favorite is fresh chopped walnuts. We have a walnut tree in our back yard. (The squirrel and I have a contest each fall to see who gets the nuts. When I get there first, he scolds me soundly.)

Making Room

I'm not sure where we got the word combination flash mob.  Maybe because it happens without warning and it involves a mob.  I've seen some really great ones, but here's my new favorite.  I love the variety, and I love the surprise ending.  I don't want to give it away, but is tender, and it touched me.

I found myself wondering where Mary and Joseph would find shelter in today's world. Would they be welcome in my home?  In yours?

I think they would.

For now, I'm making room for them inside my heart.

Linda Garner

That's What Makes You Beautiful

Flash mobs are so much fun.  I get a big charge out of them.  This one is extra special.  It was performed by special needs students.  They spent ten weeks learning this routine.  They practiced thirty minutes each day for the entire ten weeks.  You can see the joy of accomplishment in their faces.

How do we create joy?  Where can we buy accomplishment?  Maybe it has something to do with investment.  Maybe we work for it.  Maybe we invest our time and our sweat.  Maybe we invest our heart.

Click here to see something incredible.  Feel the joy.

That's what makes you beautiful.

Linda Garner

Grow Your Marriage by Leaps and Boundaries by Dr. Jerry L. Cook, CFLE

Dr. Cook believes that a happy marriage must have three things: equal power between spouses, communication focused on the resolution of the conflict, not the conflict itself, and forgiveness. None of us is perfect, and we all make mistakes.

He includes a questionnaire, assessing the boundaries in a marital relationship. Take the test to find the areas you need to improve. Boundaries help a couple draw the line between right and wrong and set expectations.

This book outlines many pertinent questions that couples need to talk about in their relationship, such as physical boundaries, emotional boundaries, social networking boundaries, and media messages.

Dr. Cook gives excellent examples of what a healthy discussion is like. Couples who read the book together will learn from his examples, and they will enhance their communication skills. He outlines how to change a conversation from attaching each other to sharing sensitive feelings on a difficult subject in a step-by-step manner.

I recommend this book to newlyweds and those who have been married for years. His techniques are very well outlined. It’s also a fun read with many examples throughout the book. This is a good tune-up for all of us.

Happy reading! Enjoy the improvement it will bring to your marriage! Thanks Dr. Cook!

Christy Monson, M.A., L.M.F.T., Retired

Dr. Jerry Cook’s New Book to be released: Grow Your Marriage by Leaps and Boundaries

Is your marriage out of bounds?

“The art of creating life-long marriages is disappearing at an alarming pace, largely because couples do not fully understand where (or how) to “draw the line” in a way that strengthens the relationship. These lines drawn are the boundaries that, when created the right way, show each spouse they are more important to the other than anything or anyone else. Grow Your Marriage by Leaps and Boundaries provides the tools for you to effectively create boundaries with technology, words, and body language.”

Cook’s new book will inspire readers to evaluate how they prioritize their marriage, and to make changes when needed. A common theme is that the boundaries are most useful when decided upon by the couple themselves; dialogs are provided to help readers create, maintain, and negotiate boundaries with their spouse and others.

None of us are perfect, but our marriages can be perfect for us,” says Cook. “Sometimes we underestimate the power of a positive marriage, and outsource our best selves to those things that are least important.”

www.drjerrylcook.com

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About Jerry Cook:

Jerry graduated with his doctorate in family and human development from Utah State University, and now serves as an associate professor of family and consumer sciences at California State University-Sacramento. Growing up on a farm in southeastern Washington state, and losing his mother to cancer at a young age, his passion is to help others recognize the basic skills that help families thrive. Jerry and his wife, Sarah, have been married for 19 years, are parents of three children, and co-authored The Parent’s Guide to Raising CEO Kids. Jerry has been interviewed by Fox 40 (TV, Sacramento), the Sacramento Bee (newspaper), and Sacramento Smiles (radio program).