Ladies Camp-out

 This was our second annual Ladies camp out, pandemic style.  We went to Salt Springs which is only an hour away, we will be back!

We all swam and enjoyed seeing the huge crabs and fish in the springs.  There were three cauldrons so it was easy to get a good look without a big crowd.  The stairs were the hardest thing to navigate because people would hang out on them getting used to the water! 

I was so grateful for short hair and lasik surgery that helped me have a fantastic snorkeling experience.  It was so fun to cruise along with my face in the water and never worry about my hair in my eyes, and being able to use goggles!  It was really amazing.

Aunt L and E came and found us at the springs.  We got to show them the giant crabs and fish. 

The wood I brought was too damp and lame so E went and got some from the ranger station.  Yay!  Grandpa dropped off Grandma C and we had hotdogs, smores, sweet potatoes, carrots, corn chips, nerds, and whatever food folks brought to satisfy the demands of social distancing and allergies.

We survived the night by taking frequent trips to the restroom and cuddling up at 4AM.  The girls celebrated with Fritos for breakfast.

We wandered off to hike, remembering too late to bring bug spray.  This massive 6 ft wide cypress was a highlight.

Also this tree with grass growing off of it!

Ladies camp out was a blast and Salt Springs was amazing.  We look forward to taking the boys sometime soon.

Progressive Thanksgiving

 I'm hoping to make Thanksgiving Dinner across the month of November.  We made a splendid fruit salad last week.  Tonight we had tiny pumpkin pies.  Tomorrow I hope to make green been casserole.  Saturday we'll probably cook the turkey and have potatoes and gravy.  We make bread all the time.  So yummy.

Fruit Salad:
1 can mandarin oranges drained
2 pears cut up
2 bananas cut up
1 can of pineapple chunks (save juice)
1 cup of raspberries
2TBS corn starch
1/2 c. whipping cream
In as sauce pan combine the juice from the pineapple with 2 TBS of corn starch and bring to a boil to create a gel.  Cool the gel in the fridge or with frozen berries : )  Whip 1/2 cup of whipping cream then fold the gel into the whipping cream.  

1 Tiny Pumpkin Pies
1 egg
1 c pumpkin puree
1/2 c. Sugar
1/3 c. evaporated milk
Dash of Cloves, Nutmeg, Ginger and a 1/4 t of Cinnamon
Crust from Grandma C.  Such amazing elastic substance!
Pre-heat oven to 450, then bake at 350 for 30 minutes until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

Special Delivery

 Today we made ninja cookies and delivered them to my friends MM and SM.  When we dropped them off we sent a voice text message with our Special Delivery Song.  My friend SM replied with a recording of her family singing "Thank you for the cookies!"  Best Ever!

Visiting Grandparents

 For 8 months we've been visiting Ps parents through the looking glass.  Sometimes we drive to Gtown and sometimes they drive out here.  Sometimes we have a family video call.

Ps parents take the pandemic very seriously and appreciate that we also take it seriously.

"You will be wiser not to chance it, it isn't worth the risk." is a good bit of advice, perhaps my favorite new bit of advice.  But there are things that are worth the risk, like joy.  Visiting the grandparents through the window, wearing masks, grocery pick up, social distancing, these do not impact my joy.  Sickness, death, life long debilitating after effects, they are not worth the risk.  

I serve at a food bank pick up a couple times a month.  Masks and gloves are required.  One of the ladies I love will not wear mask or latex gloves.  I will bring her a beautiful mask and work gloves for next time. 

Make it DO (Cell phone and pizza)

 I decided to get a new phone after many months of not being able to use the LDS ap, or pick up groceries without using my phone as a hot spot for the ipad...  I couldn't take pictures sometimes because there was not enough memory.  The thing that mainly influenced the change was that I couldn't really send or receive texts from my house.  I know that was the case 2 years ago and finally I decided that was not a good fit anymore. 

Over the last year I have been bit by bit deciding that I deserve better.  Thankfully my husband has always treated me like I deserve better.  When he has offered me a new phone, I would say "This one is good enough" because I didn't use mine to make money, so I didn't want to be an expense for the luxury.

P delights that I am taking time to walk, buy myself good shoes, wear clothes that I like, and buy food that nobody but me likes (ricotta cheese).

I got this iPhone 6 Plus with 128G of storage after a similar model with less storage came but had a defective screen.  And as P says, I deserve a phone that can take beautiful pictures.  Yes.  I do.

I tried to put the phone with ATT for $25 monthly but they never sent the SIM card and after 4 weeks I canceled the order when I found that Xfinity would give me service for $15 and I had been paying $10 with Tello.  Xfinity sent me a SIM card fast but the porting of my number from Tello was stuck.  5 days into this process with Xfinity I found that ATT still had the number stuck in a port attempt.  So I got through to their customer service by using Ps phone number to cut through the phone menu.  2 more day of trying to get Xfinity to get the port unstuck my old phone stopped working, so I knew something was happening.  But it was not until today that my new phone has my old number!

The reason I so wanted to keep my old number was so that I didn't have to change it in all the places people use to contact me, and businesses send a verification text.  Keeping your number is serious!  I spend over 20 hours on the chat and phone working this through.  It took work.  But now I have a more functional phone with better coverage for not much more money.  

Today was the climax of several days with lP not doing her work and sneaking off to play with her friend.  Today the work was going to get done.  During one of the many "Mom I don't understand it" exchanges, I was cooking pizza.  I used a towel to take the pizza out of the oven and before I could set it down, the heat got to me.  My hand jerked and the pizza flipped onto the other pizza!  I stared at it wondering what I was going to do.  I decided to peel the cheese/pepperoni topping off and put it into the naked crust like a calzone.  Thanks to the pepperoni, the cheese hadn't fused with the other cheese.  The kids loved the fancy calzone and asked if I would make it again.  Sure!  But next time I'll do it on purpose.

Porter Pack: Skits

 P and I both love the scout program but the church isn't with scouts anymore.  So we've been holding scouts 4 days a week with the family.  This week we learned cheers and planned a skit.  Grandma and Grandpa were coming to visit so we planned to present the skit to them.  We told the story of our summer road trip.  It was beautiful.  The kids are getting some wonderful time together as a family.

Sing all the Hymns

Sing ALL the Hymns!

Start date:

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30
31	32	33	34	35	36	37	38	39	40
41	42	43	44	45	46	47	48	49	50
51	52	53	54	55	56	57	58	59	60
61	62	63	64	65	66	67	68	69	70
71	72	73	74	75	76	77	78	79	80
81	82	83	84	85	86	87	88	89	90
91	92	93	94	95	96	97	98	99	100
101	102	103	104	105	106	107	108	109	110
111	112	113	114	115	116	117	118	119	120
121	122	123	124	125	126	127	128	129	130
131	132	133	134	135	136	137	138	139	140
141	142	143	144	145	146	147	148	149	150
151	152	153	154	155	156	157	158	159	160
161	162	163	164	165	166	167	168	169	170
171	172	173	174	175	176	177	178	179	180
181	182	183	184	185	186	187	188	189	190
191	192	193	194	195	196	197	198	199	200
201	202	203	204	205	206	207	208	209	210
211	212	213	214	215	216	217	218	219	220
221	222	223	224	225	226	227	228	229	230
231	232	233	234	235	236	237	238	239	240
241	242	243	244	245	246	247	248	249	250
251	252	253	254	255	256	257	258	259	260
261	262	263	264	265	266	267	268	269	270
271	272	273	274	275	276	277	278	279	280
281	282	283	284	285	286	287	288	289	290
291	292	293	294	295	296	297	298	299	300
301	302	303	304	305	306	307	308	309	310
311	312	313	314	315	316	317	318	319	320
321	322	323	324	325	326	327	328	329	330
331	332	333	334	335	336	337	338	339	340
341	Finish date:

 I had this idea to sing all the hymns.  I've wanted to do this for about 15 years.  I discussed it with P and he felt that singing 2 a day was more functional than trying to finish by the end of the year.  The next morning as we gathered for sign language scriptures and prayer he suggested that we go in order so we can sing them all, then i pointed to this chart that is 3 pages tall, on the side of the cubbies.  His reaction was awesome.  He thinks I'm amazing. 

So far we have sung 10 and the children like putting little stickers on the paper to remember what we have sung.