I Love This!

I love my kids. Any chance to make a face. It's great.

So You Want to Know More About August, Huh?

August 10 was Lazy Day. I tried to be lazy. In the middle of the night, however, Jeremy and I had to deal with something. Jet wanted his mommy first thing in the morning. Lucky had an appointment. I could only be so lazy.

It was also National S'mores Day so we had ice cream with crushed graham crackers, bits of marshmallow, and chocolate syrup.

 

August 14 was National Creamsicle Day. We pulled out some Orange Cream ice cream from the freezer to celebrate.

August 15 was National Relaxation Day. Ha! It was busy busy busy that day because it was the first day of school. I did get snuggles with Jet, though, saying, "Happy Relaxation Day."

Book Lovers Love Books

August 9 was National Rice Pudding Day. Nobody in the family cares for rice pudding so I made rice and pudding to go with dinner.

It was also Book Lovers Day so let me tell you about a reading challenge I took on in August.

In preparation for her book, So True a Love, that was coming out on September 3, Joanna Barker hosted a read-along for her book, A Heart Worth Stealing, which is the book that takes place before the new one. The read-along was simple, a chapter a day. I enjoyed it and there were definitely times I was excited to find out what would happen the next day/chapter.

Once school started, I did a lot of my reading in the van waiting to drop off or pick up kids.

I am looking forward to reading So True a Love, but I can't be in too much of a hurry because I also have several books to read for the Adult Reading Challenge at the Orem Library, including the Orem Reads book for October, Fahrenheit 451. I enjoyed reading Frankenstein with other readers for Orem Reads last year. 

Lemon Tart by Josi S. Kilpack came in at the library while I was reading the other two books. It's one that counts for the library reading challenge.

During this read-along, Joanna Barker also had some games and things online. One of them was to "describe a book badly." I described Esther Hatch's book, There Goes the Groom, this way (since I had recently finished it):

"A couple spends their engagement delivering packages."

I tagged both Joanna Barker and Esther Hatch on Instagram. Esther Hatch got a kick out of it and reached out to me about how the main character in her first book was "Lord Telford." Of course that immediately became my next book to read.

 

Then I shared this experience on Instagram and both those authors thought it was cute:

Too cute not to share.

My four year old couldn't find a little tiger eraser he was playing with. I told him, "I'm sorry. I don't know where it is."

He told me, "I dropped it in Mommy's bag."

Oh. I started pulling out items from my bag- shopping list, etc.

I pulled out The Roses of Feldstone by Esther Hatch because she told me one of the main characters has my surname so of course I have to read it. By the way, her most recent novel, A Proper Facade, released recently.

As you do with four year olds, I held up the book and asked, "Is this your tiger?"

"No," he replied.

"What is it?"

"It's a book."

Next I held up A Heart Worth Stealing by Joanna Barker whose next novel, So True a Love (sequel to this one), comes out September 3.

Again I asked, "Is this your tiger?" to which he replied, "No. That's Mommy's chapter."

I am participating in a read-along of that book with Joanna Barker this month, a chapter a day. My son hears daily, "I need to read my chapter," or "I read/finished my chapter," always referring to that book.

I think it's adorable that he picked up on that and associated the book with my "chapter."

In case you're wondering, we did find that tiger eraser at the bottom of my bag.

August was a good reading month.

So You Want to Know About August, Huh?

Let's see. August. Well, I learned from Sarah M. Eden (one of my favorite authors) a little bit about Lammas Day which was on August 1. It's a celebration of harvest so it's common to bake bread on that day. So that's what I did. I baked wheat bread that day.

August 4 was American Family Day. We played together. For a couple days before that, we played the game my brother made up that we played with my brothers in Oregon.

 

\August 5 was Work Like a Dog Day. Jr. and I did yard work.

Later that evening, I took three of the kids with me to the Provo Library to an interactive movie event: The Princess Bride. They had instructions for us on paper for things to do at certain parts of the movie (yelling, "Stop! Stop!" during the kissing scenes, and rhyming with Fezzik) as well as items to do them with (balloons for swords, pieces of chocolate for the miracle pill, bubble wrap to pop in the Fire Swamp). It wasn't just interactive with the movie but with people around us, too. We had little bottles of water that we traded with a neighbor several times during the iocane powder scene until we finally took a drink. It was a lot of fun.

August 6 was Night Out Day. While I left the kids with root beer and ice cream to celebrate Root Beer Float Day, Jeremy and I took a drive up to Kyhv Peak Overlook to watch the sunset and eat Winco salads (it's our date food). I'd never been up there for sunset before. Jr. Jr. and I went up there for sunrise last year before October General Conference. It was nice to be up there with Jeremy for the sunset.

That day was also Wiggle Your Toes Day. I may or may not have played "This Little Piggy" with Jet but I didn't get any pictures if I did. I know I wiggled my toes, though. 

 

August 8 was Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor's Porch Night. Nobody celebrated at our house. Sigh.

That evening, Jeremy, Nichole, Lucky, and I went to the annual Utah County Birders potluck. We spent time beforehand looking for birds but barely saw any. Oh well. Still pretty scenery near Timpanogos Cave National Monument. 

Catch of the Day

 

Family Pictures

While in Oregon this Summer, we managed to get some decent pictures of the kids and a decent family picture.

Jr. took several of these pictures (Jet's picture? That's one of them).

We also got a picture at Shore Acres but Jeremy had to edit out some people in the background. I'm putting that finished picture here as well.

What?

 

Everybody, Look

Mommy: I'm not reading tea leaves. I'm reading cucumber slices and this cucumber slice has vampire fangs. That means we will eat Vampire Slayer cheese curds.

It was only later I realized the fangs were in the wrong position for vampire fangs. They were more like spider fangs. Sigh. We still ate the cheese curds.

Selfie Wars- Pacific Northwest Addition

Selfie Wars

Who did it best?

And some that didn't make the cut: