Today our aunts E and L visited. We had a back porch visit through the glass. We played a few rounds of Scattergories and gave them our soap carvings. It was so nice of them to visit. I hope we can visit them in Orlando someday.
We also went out to Gtowne to work on Grandma L's driveway some more. Our new pressure washer is much more effective and we made a lot of progress. G also mowed her lawn where she wanted it mowed. P and M rode 15 miles into town and we met them with a pizza. Gandma treated the kids to popcicles which they never get at home.
We stopped by Grandpa's house and got another popcicle! He invited everyone to share a neat story. Great question. The kids enjoyed chasing the marsh rabbit that has been eating his plants.
We drove home by way of sam's club, checkers (for fries) the market P likes to get a soda from, and the park with a bathroom. The children enjoyed watching Rio on the way home.
Tonight I made dub dubs: sausage and cheese stuffed yeast dough cooked on a waffle iron. I made cheesy cauliflower by cutting the head into 8 wedges and steaming it until it could crumble. I drained the cauliflower, and put it back in the pan with 4 T butter and broke up the cauliflower with a wooden spoon. Then I added 4oz white cheddar (because that's what I had), 1/4 c of flour and 3 slices of american cheese (to make it a little yellow). Yum!
Previous dinners this week always included a large salad. Spaghetti and huge salad. Baked potatoes with chicken and a huge salad. P likes to eat the left over salad for a snack.Today there was a testimony given that referenced being a Pollyanna. The person referencing this story suggested most kids haven't seen it but ours have. After the zoom stream disconnected and we had our sacrament, I led the kids in a testimony meeting where I tearfully recounted the events of the movie. I told them that what you send out into the world comes back to you and that Pollyanna was an orphan. She gave out gladness because of what she had been taught by her parents. And when she (in the movie) falls and breaks her legs, the townspeople bring that gladness back to her. In her time of despair, joy is returned by those it was given to.
"Despite the current common use of the term to mean 'excessively cheerful', Pollyanna and her father played the glad game as a method of coping with the real difficulties and sorrows that, along with luck and joy, shape every life."
So we're going to honor this by creating a Pollyanna (5/5) day and watching the movie each year and having a cake. We do this with 40:1 day, which is coming up. Oh no! Did we miss it? Well, we better celebrate it today.
Our home has solid wood doors. These beautiful sound canceling doors are stained dark brown and the previous owners dogs scratched them up quite a bit. The current owners children have vandalized them disgracefully over the last 10 years. About 2 years ago I resolved to paint them white and only got through 1 door before taking a hiatus from that plan. I recently took up the job again and have finished 2 more doors. This week with P off work I am trying to do the door to his office and to our bedroom. I have taken over the garage to have both doors getting painted at the same time. This is exhausting but satisfying work. I sand the doors then do 2 layers of primer and 2 layers of paint. Each time I put on the first layer of primer I think "Uh this looks awful." Little by little, each layer looks better. It makes such a huge difference. I'll have to take some before and after pictures.
Today we took a family outing to Salt Springs. The girls and I had camped there in November 2020 and were hoping to take the whole family someday. It has a combination of great elements that make it a nice place to visit. It is only 1 hour away. The parking lot is less than a walmart walk from the actual springs. It's not crowded. The bathrooms are close by! The water is so clear and there are interesting things to look at in the caldera; blue crabs, fish and deep bottomless crevices!
We brought things to cook hotdogs and smores on the fire. We never do this away from home. It was a big deal to have cooked food and messy treats instead of dub dubs, cookies and apples; our standard for family outings fare. We brought intertubes and boogie boards (that lP, age 10, delights to call biggie boards). We had goggles for everyone and snorkels to share. Everyone had water shoes.
P has the week off and when we found out that G had no school on Monday, we decided this would be the perfect opportunity to take this trip. It was not quite warm enough to keep it from being cold. L needed to get out twice. LP had a zoom book club at 4 so we got packed up and let her do that on the drive home. It was a good outing. L wants to go back, but I think it's more of an annual event.
Compared to Itchetucknee, that is far, expensive, crowded, lots of lines, no bathroom access for hours, this is a nice relaxing outing. I'll have to suggest it to the P family. Something in the middle we can all enjoy.
I got my first corona virus shot on Wednesday and will get the second one later this month. The county facility where it was done is staffed by fire and rescue personnel. They have things running so smoothly, I was in and out in 20 minutes, including the 15 minute waiting period after the shot is administered.
G will get his shot today! I meant to call and get him scheduled the last 2 days that was possible but kept forgetting Then when I called today around noon, they had some cancellations and were able to get him in today at 4:30.
