Cheeseballs

When I wished Jeremy a Happy National Cheeseball Day on April 17, he texted me this picture.

He's a cheeseball.

 

Speaking of cheeseballs: in years past, Nichole has contributed short stories and artwork to UVU's Warp & Weave journal. 

Jeremy and Nichole toyed with the idea of submitting pieces to Warp & Weave together and they did so this year. Jeremy submitted a short story and Nichole submitted a piece of art that went along with his story. They were both accepted so when we went to the event for them to get their copies of the journal, we found out that the picture was placed right after the story. Good job, editors. 

We celebrated Blah Blah Blah Day while we were there.

Speaking of cheeseballs, earlier in the day, Nichole sculpted a cheeseball in the shape of a bat because April 17 is also Bat Appreciation Day. It's become tradition.

She also created this art piece for Bat Appreciation Day and International Haiku Poetry Day, also on the same day. 

I love my girl and her talents. I also love my husband and his talents. I'm also happy to support them. I spent time with Jeremy's short story, helping him edit it (there was a word limit). I also gave them a ride and went to the event with them since I knew how to get there.

Bonding Time: Hiking

Since it has been a mild Winter, I wanted to take my nature loving boy out hiking one day in the hills.

Jr. Jr. and I took the afternoon on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, January 19, since he didn't have school, and we hiked up to Battle Creek Falls. We took binoculars and the birding camera with us.

Just up from the parking area, we heard scritch-scratching in the underbrush, which I would have assumed was a spotted towhee but I could see robins, so not a spotted towhee (be careful about assuming). Jr. Jr. has really good eyes when it comes to spotting things so he helped me notice the bird that was not a robin. I got a look at it in the underbrush with binoculars and this is how things come out of my mouth since I'm a birder-

Me: You're right. That's not a robin. That's a thrush! Robins are actually thrushes but this one... if it has a reddish tail, it's a hermit thrush. Do you see the tail?

Jr. Jr. confirmed the reddish tail (I would use the term "rufous"). 

I love birding.

Besides the birds, we also enjoyed the hike together. We had plenty to talk about, including the ice we kept seeing in the stream and the water flowing under the ice. 

Nature's cool, man.

 

We made it all the way up to the falls and a little above the falls before turning around. I only slipped twice, once on the way up, once on the way down, both in the same location. Ha. Nothing scary. 

When we got back down to where we saw the hermit thrush on the way up, we saw it again with the robins. It decided it would be a good sport and posed in a tree so I could get some good pictures of it. I was very pleased with it sitting there for so long.

Jr. Jr. and I enjoyed that time together. I love that we have that love of nature in common.

  

I love bonding time! 

 

Earlier that day, I got out for my morning walk at the park with the Christmas lights. The city says they're going to leave them up until Valentine's Day like they did last year.

Lucky, Nichole, and I made cheese ball that day, too. Nichole shaped it into a witch's hat. It didn't last long. Mmmmm, cheese ball. 

 

January 19 was also Whisper "I Love You" Day. There was plenty of that going around. It was National Popcorn Day. The kids had popcorn. It was also Brew a Potion Day. We had hot chocolate and I told everyone to put whatever they wanted into or on it.

 

The next day, January 20, was Penguin Awareness Day. Jet and I watched "Surf's Up" together. I haven't watched that in a while. It was fun.

  

Catching Up April 2025 part 2

April 12 was Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day and National Licorice Day. We celebrated by having both. We did have tomato soup with our sandwiches.

April 13 was National Peach Cobbler Day. Yes, I made some. I tried a different recipe that didn't use as much sugar. My peach cobbler loving child said he liked it so yay. Less sugar.

We had an at home potluck that evening. We haven't had one of those in while. Here are everyone's contributions from oldest to youngest: cookies, peach cobbler, pizza, pickles and cheese cubes, sparkling apple-grape, lemonade.

That day was also Palm Sunday. This year I tried to do a better job with celebrating Holy Week. The Church had some good resources for every day leading up to Easter. It was a good way to focus my scripture study.

 

April 14 was Look Up at the Sky Day. It was National Dolphin Day. It was International Laughter Day.

How did you celebrate?

 

April 15 was World Art Day. I went up Provo Canyon to get a look at a place that I think looks like a piece of art. When I was there on World Water Day, I got that impression so I wanted to enjoy it again.

Nichole sent me several art pieces she had to celebrate World Art Day.

I love that she uses different so many different mediums.

April 16 was Charlie Chaplin's Birthday. Who else puts rolls on their forks and makes them dance to celebrate?

P.S. It was also National Banana Day. 

 

April 17 was, in no particular order, Bat Appreciation Day, National Cheeseball Day, Blah Blah Blah Day, National Haiku Poetry Day, and National High Five Day.

This is what happens when I hand my daughter some seasoned cream cheese on these holidays.

This is what happens when I take seasoned cream cheese and ask my son what I should make.

Son: A penguin!

Me (after "sculpting"): I think it looks like a ghost.

 

Lucky was the one who let me know it was National High Five Day. I gave him a high five for that. Jeremy showed me a haiku or a few.

We had Blah Blah Blah for after school snack. Remember that? Apple slices with peanut butter and honey? Except lately we just use honey peanut butter instead of adding honey to regular peanut butter. 

 

That evening I went to a Relief Society activity and learned a new skill: embroidery. I've done a lot of counted cross-stitching in my past so some of the stitches were similar but there were definitely some things for me to learn.

 

The next morning, I had to wipe snow off my vehicle. Note the snow covered hills across the lake. Ah, that "Spring" weather.

Catching Up February 2025 part 2 (more like 3 because my Valentine post fit in with the catching up)

February 17 was President's Day. Jet helped me with the flag picture that day.

It was also National Cabbage Day. I made egg rolls one of the days around that holiday.

 

February 18 was Pluto Day. I watched one of the many episodes of Psych where Gus said, "You heard about Pluto?" The subtitles had it wrong, though.

 

February 19 was Chocolate Mint Day. I had another Peppermint Patty.

February 20 was National Muffin Day. For dinner we had... muffins again. We made all eggless muffins again. Cornbread muffins, blueberry muffins, and raisin bran muffins.

 

February 21 was the Anniversary of The Legend of Zelda. The kids requested Deku Scrub Cheeseball, which I made. Because Nichole is the one who usually sculpts the cheeseballs nowadays, some of the boys were surprised to learn that I was the one who made the original Deku Scrub Cheeseball way back in 2017. Jet helped put the bay leaves on top.

Jet and I haven't had a chance to do as much baking together as we used to. When we do get the chance it's so nice. I've missed it.

He helped me grind wheat one day, which was nice. My big helper. 

Jet also enjoyed making tracks in the snow (when we had snow. We've finally made it to Spring but I'm still blogging about Winter).

Speaking of snow, a few of us made the trek to the Snow Goose Festival in Delta this year. It was so foggy at first that we couldn't even look for the geese in the fields and when we got to the reservoir, we couldn't see anything there, either.

We entertained ourselves while we waited for the fog to lift.

Finally the fog lifted and just like last year, we found out that the geese had landed on the other side of the reservoir. Except that this year they were so far out, we couldn't get a good look or good pictures.

We did get to see a few fly in from time to time but we've had more exciting years. Oh well.

 

The day after the Snow Goose Festival was National Banana Bread Day, February 23, so we had some banana bread Pop Tarts.

It was also National Rationalization Day so Jeremy made something he'd been wanting to make for a long time- bangers and mash. 

That night was a multi-stake fireside with Camille N. Johnson, the Relief Society General President in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A couple friends and I walked to the building where it was being held. I did not get a good picture. There's a better picture of us when we had banana splits back in January.

Bad picture aside, the fireside was really good. I appreciated the things Sister Johnson shared with us. One of the things she shared was that every morning she has her own personal devotional with President Nelson, prophet and president of the Church. She will put on a talk that he has given in the past and will listen to that while she's getting ready. After that, so many sisters in our stake, including me, took that same challenge and started listening to President Nelson every day. It was talked about when we gathered together for the Worldwide Relief Society Devotional and Testimony Meeting a few weeks later. I went with my ministering sisters.

 

February 24 was Tortilla Chip Day so we had tortillas and dip of course.

 

Jeremy's birthday was in February. Jet wanted to put the candles on the cake so he decided how many of each color and placed them. What a sweetie.