I Want To Do It By Myself

My little independent child. 

For Beans 'N Franks Day on July 13, we had pork 'n beans and hot dogs. Jet wanted mustard on his hot dog and told me, "I want to do it by myself." He did. He started squeezing the mustard out but didn't think to stop squeezing. This was the result.

That's how we learn, right? Keep doing things, making mistakes, until we figure it out. Growth.

We managed to scrape off most of the mustard until it was edible and hopefully next time he can remember not to squeeze as long.

P.S. We all got a good chuckle out of it. 

P.P.S. National French Fry Day used to be on July 13 every year along with Beans 'n Franks Day so we would celebrate with chili cheese and fries with hot dogs, but whoever is in charge of things changed it so it's no longer on the same day every year. Oh well.  

We might not have wanted to do that this year anyway as it's been so hot, we wouldn't want to use the oven to cook fries. 

I Learned Some New Skills

Superb Owl Sunday was on February 8. Jeremy, Nichole, Jr. Jr., Lucky, and Jet all contributed to Sunday Sketches. I will post about that later.

Jeremy fed us some Rootinest Tootinest Breakfanootinest Casserole (his own creation- we haven't had it in years, though). 

Since the weather was nice, I wanted to take a nice relaxing drive in the afternoon. Several of us got in the van and went for a drive through Provo Canyon, around Deer Creek Reservoir, up into Midway, around Heber Fields, and back through downtown Heber, around Deer Creek Reservoir, and through Provo Canyon again, where we had a tire blow out after we got out of the canyon.

So I got to learn some new skills and recognize many blessings. If I was on my own (without Jeremy), I would have freaked out. As it was, we were both able to support each other. Jeremy looked up YouTube videos and was able to get the spare tire out of the trunk (and managed to get the old tire off and into the trunk- it was heavy). I was able to crawl down on the ground and figure out where to put the jack. We both took turns lifting the van with the jack. I got to put the spare on and put the lug nuts back on. Jeremy did more tightening than I did. We both got to see that the spare was flat so I called some friends and since we were not too far from home (huge blessing), I was able to get a ride home to get our portable air compressor and drive back with our other vehicle. Then I got the experience of learning how to use the air compressor to fill up the spare tire. Jeremy and I worked well together. That's another blessing.

It was a beautiful night. Kids were well behaved. Nichole took Jet walking up and down the sidewalk because we pulled over off the main road to a road that didn't have much traffic. Jet was well behaved in his cute Seahawks jacket. I put that on him because the Seattle Seahawks were playing in the Super Bowl that day (and won). Jr. Jr. kept himself entertained by juggling.

It ended up not being too late when we got home, too.  

The next day, I was able to get kids to school then drove to get a new tire. I got to read some more of The Hobbit at the tire store while I waited and then found out the tire was still under warranty. Woohoo. Yay for more blessings. 

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.

 

Mother Taught, Daughter Learned

Nichole wanted to get some practice with the sewing machine since she's taking a sewing class at school. So we got the sewing machine out and she made a face mask. I gave her the instructions I used to make masks for Jr. Jr. and Lucky back in August and she went at it. She did a good job.

Nichole wanted to learn how to make skillet chicken parmigiana (yumm) so she could add another recipe to her repertoire. I helped her follow the recipe since it's a little more involved and time consuming than some of the things she's cooked before. She did a good job.