Sunday, August 31, 2025

Grow, Dinosaurs, Grow!

On a whim one day, Jeremy got something for Jet. Dinosaurs... that grow in water. Jet played with them for a little bit then put them in the water. From time to time I let him take them out and play with them when I wanted to refresh the water. Then back in they went. And they did grow. It was fun. Eventually they got pretty big then we left them out of the water and they shrank back down. Now the dinosaurs are probably in with Jet's toys somewhere. We'll have to get them back out and do it again sometime.


Friday, August 29, 2025

Catch of the Day

Jet: I'm staying here with my new friend.

Thursday, August 28, 2025

Mommy, Look

Jet: That cookie looks like a frog.

Wednesday, August 27, 2025

Catching Up July 2025 part 1, though I'll probably lose track because of how long it will take to do all the catching up

The beginning of July saw family members getting sick (I was exhausted from taking care of sick people and getting sick myself), Jeremy going off to a fair in California (he also messed up his back somehow so the night before his trip, he had a Priesthood blessing and went to urgent care so they could help him out and Lucky and I did the heavy lifting of his supplies and I drove him early the next morning to Marcus's because they were driving together), and Jr. Jr. going off to Young Men Camp without Lucky because Lucky got sick and had to stay home. It would have been his first time.

There were also other stresses and Nichole and Jr. took swim lessons. 
Let me explain the corn husk picture. I got up early to clean one day and decided to take the bag of corn husks up to the outside garbage. As I was walking up the stairs, the bottom of the bag broke open and all the corn husk/silk/garbage fell out on the stairs. It was one of those shrug it off and deal with it moments. Did I mention there were stresses?

We observed rainbows for Summer Reading. Some of us saw rainbows in sprinklers and Jet and I made rainbows with a prism. 
We started harvesting vegetables from our garden.
We also celebrated Nichole's birthday.

We celebrated other holidays but I'll write about those in different posts.
We also saw blessings and had some faith building experiences. 

Tuesday, August 26, 2025

I Learned Something New

Sourdough. It's a thing. I've seen enough demonstrations. I've heard plenty about the benefits. I've also recognized that it is a time consuming process so I haven't thought seriously about attempting it. I don't have time for sourdough. Until...
for a Relief Society activity in June, we had a hands on lesson in sourdough. And I mean hands on. We each got a bowl with flour and salt and a wooden spoon. Then we passed around the sourdough starter and water and a kitchen scale. Wow. That doesn't sound good. Let me try again.
We were given instructions and followed them together in our activity. I even learned how to stretch and fold and did it both at the activity and when I got home. 
Thanks to a friend who took pictures of me at the activity and texted them to me. 
 
I took some starter home with me to put in the fridge. This is not my first sourdough starter but I have never gotten to the point of feeding it before so eventually it just gets thrown out. But since we were really doing a hands on thing here, I was determined to feed it a week later. Before that, however, I realized that the hands on part of the sourdough process isn't actually that much. There's just a lot of letting it sit. And I've baked enough bread products that letting something sit is not abnormal for me. 
Anyway, so I actually made sourdough bread for the first time and second time and so on.
I've even fed the sourdough starter several times since the class, with or without intent to bake.
I've had varying levels of success with the bread and with the starter but I've done it. Yay, me. I actually tried something new.
I'll leave you with a last pretty loaf as compared to the sad one before.
 

Monday, August 25, 2025

Catching Up June 2025 part something

I used real strawberries. Jr. decided to use strawberry flavored red vines. Close enough, right?
June 27 was International Pineapple Day and National Onion Day. We had pizza and yes, I am for sure a pineapple on pizza person. I also like onions on pizza.

  

Thursday, August 21, 2025

Late Night Shenanigans

 

One night, when they should have been sleeping, Jeremy and Jet stayed up way too late playing together. Jeremy made a mustache out of adhesive felt for Jet to wear so they both had mustaches.
He sent me pictures later because I slept through the whole thing. 
I mean, how cute is that? I love my husband and my son so much. 

Tuesday, August 19, 2025

Celebrating Eric Carle's Birthday 2025

We love Eric Carle. Such fun books and illustrations. Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? was my youngest's favorite book for a while. He had the whole book memorized because he could look at the pictures and know what words went along with them.
So when we found out about Discovery Kits at the Provo Library and that we could get one that was Eric Carle themed, we definitely had to put it on hold. An added bonus is that it became available for us to pick up in time for Eric Carle's Birthday on June 25. Woohoo!
We read books, we did puzzles, we played with character magnets from books.
There were also some crafts but we didn't get around to doing any of those.
It was great. I definitely want to check out more Discovery Kits. It was good bonding time.
 
Lucky got to try something new as well. Book Boxes. We put a certain book on hold (there are two different books available) and it came in a bag with a bunch of envelopes. When he got to a certain page in the book, there was an envelope to open. It had anything from a treat to a game to a sticker or bookmark, something that went along with the action in the book at the time. He got to keep the goodies when he finished and we returned the book and the bag.
That was also pretty cool. 
He read the The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale. 
 
I do like different programs and resources at our local libraries. Libraries are wonderful! 

Thursday, August 14, 2025

Summer Reading Tween Scene

Lucky went to a Tween Scene for Orem Library's Summer Reading Program. He had fun doing the Percy Jackson one last year. This year the theme was Wingfeather Saga. He knows plenty about that series so he had a good time again.
There were different activities and a treasure hunt. He decorated a tote. He made a paper dragon to fly.
Summer Reading activities are awesome!

Wednesday, August 13, 2025

Catching Up June 2025 part something or other

Who needs pictures of people when you can have pictures of food? 
We're still using A Season of Family Meal Plans by Jordan Page. Love those cookbooks. We had Sausage Potato Hobo Packs and made cornbread (a recipe I have in a recipe box) for a side dish. Yumm. 
We decided to have a barbecue and spent money on some things for it. We had Polish Sausages and Jeremy brought home some marinated veggies (mushrooms, zucchini, onions) from Marcus' barbecue which we put on skewers and grilled. For dessert we bought waffle cones to make waffle cone s'mores. One of the activities for library Summer Reading was "make something tasty together for a BBQ." A friend stopped by and joined us for a while. It's nice to share.  
We tried some new Spanish appetizers. We had a different version of Pan Con Tomate. We had Orange and Avocado Salad. We had Spanish Garlic Cauliflower. 
We had vanilla milkshakes but with chocolate powder and peanut butter in them, so our usual woo-woo drink. I also told people they could make fluffernutter sandwiches with whatever bread they could find since it was the Summer Solstice. We had baguettes left over from our tapas.
I didn't take any selfies that day. I was planning to celebrate, it just didn't happen. 
I wore my bow earrings. I did not wear my pirate ship necklace because I couldn't think of any pirate movies she was in.
June 22 was also National Kissing Day. Jeremy and I celebrated. 
Detroit Style Pizza is kind of like upside down pizza. The sauce goes on top after the cheese and toppings. 
We kept it simple with Easy Fairy Folk Tortilla Pizzas from The Fablehaven Cookbook