Blueberry season

I found a blueberry muffin recipe I love, here, in my favorite Test Kitchen Cookbook.
(36 muffins and only one stick of butter).
I like to sprinkle a little bit of this sugar on top before I bake them--a detail that's worth it.
I enjoy having company and I like cooking to feed them. We've enjoyed many delightful meals with family members in our home this summer. Despite my intentions, there were some meals I didn't get made in time. These are the blueberry muffins that came out of the oven about half an hour after my company left.
BOO!
Next time?
Our company have come and gone . . . . no more visitors from out of town until next month.
(When we have a priesthood ordination and baptism in the same weekend!!!) 

Colorado Cares Day

. . . was on July 28th when we were out of town.
We didn't want to miss it twice, so we asked if we could participate before or after by taking some of the quilts to tie.
We worked on the first tonight at Family Home Evening.

Most loved it.

Who's the photographer?

This one was not so sure.

Everyone participated anyway--even the littlest.

One down, three to go.
I let the girls stay up and we finished tying it. They all asked to do more.

(We met the coolest lady when we went to pick up the quilts. . . . she makes 150 quilts each year and has them tied at this event. A widow, very active elderly lady with a tidy home--made beautiful by the work of her own hands. She had just canned apricots and showed us the storage room in her home where she keeps all the quilts. If you know Nathan's grandma, Nana, she is just like her. Meeting her as a family made it all worthwhile).

Visitors from Vegas

Today we hosted Nathan's Aunt Adele and Uncle Victor.
Although we've seen each other few times since, the last time they visited our home was when we lived in married student housing at BYU . . . . . more than 11 years ago. The last time Nathan visited their home was during a professional conference.

They are retired and staying out of the Vegas summer heat visiting different parts of the country. Not far from here for the weekend, they called to see if we could get together.. We attended our ward together and brought them home for our traditional "just home from church meal" PANCAKES.

We talked about food storage, blogging, serving in a Spanish speaking ward, their recent travels, two new grand-babies, and much more. They invited us to their cabin and we found out Vic is 193 centimeters tall.

It was delightful to share a few moments with them. And that's what it felt like, because all too soon, they were gone. Thanks for coming out of your way to see us!

**** The High Park fire is out! (And we had a ton of rain this week).

Independence Day

Today:

One walk.
Two loads of laundry.
Three trips to the hardware store.
Four "Hungry, Hungry Hippos" (played heavily during the afternoon non-nap hours).
Five kids watched "Mary Poppins"
Six times I said to Nathan, "I can't believe how bad the smoke is today!"  *****
Seven happy mouths
Ate (8) our first homemade ice cream.

We wanted a quiet, stay at home and get work done kind of day--it was nice.

My mom gave us her ice cream maker, too. We are going to use it.

In TX, a neighbor gave us a loft bed he'd built. We love it and have used it ever since. The first modification was to add a ladder. Today's modification was to add a bunk at the bottom for another bed. It's not done yet, but it's a lot closer.

Every picture of Nathan was blurry . . . except when I asked him to stop moving. I can't keep up.

****The fires are not very close to us physically, (ie we are not in direct danger). The biggest change is the air quality. Most days are not too bad, we carry on as usual. Today was one of the worst I've seen. I didn't want my kids outside longer than they had to be, which isn't typical for this time of year. The smoke was strange . . . not too bad in the early morning, but changed during the 30 minutes we were in Lowe's. It is like the campfire you can't get away from--so smoky. You think things are OK, but sometimes when you are out driving you think to yourself, "Hmmm, I can't see the mountain today."

I've been praying for help for the firefighters, but perhaps I should pray for rain?


Dear Dad: I did wash all those dishes. They are back under control. For now.

Good food

Takes time.
Disappears quickly.
Often uses many dishes.

This became a sausage/pepper/onion pizza. It was all gone at the end of dinner. So good while it lasted.

Sometimes, I wish the only thing I had to do each day was make dinner.

"You've got quite a posse!"

What the worker at the UPS store said to me when I went in to make a copy. I think she felt overwhelmed for me, because she wouldn't let me pay for it. (And at that point, I only had 4--little did she know).

Note the part of the posse at the far left who doesn't want to participate . . . . not always that one, but usually one who would rather not participate

Shopping with 4 or 5 kids is less easy than shopping with 2.
In some ways.
We've had some readjusting to do to each other over the month of June.
I am sure we'll get it down just about the time the craziest of all time crazy shopping trips comes--shopping for school supplies.
Or this year I will get smart, hire a babysitter and do it one at a time.

Someday I will miss days like these
Saying "NO" one hundred times in half an hour at the store
Nearly losing an 11 year old who had to check out the toys
Putting back the no so secretly placed donuts that made it into my cart by small, sneaky hands
Listening to them tell me I should give something better than granola bars to the guy with the "NEED HELP" sign
Helping me carry in the groceries
Apologizing later for being unkind. (Their apologies and mine).

Quite a posse, yes.
My posse.

(merriam-webster.com gave me a laugh when I looked up posse because it says
"a large group often with a common interest" and I feel like I am in the middle of 6 very conflicting opinions all day long until Nate gets home from work and he and I have some of the same opinions) 

(This photo was taken in the parking lot of my mom's public library. If you look closely, you can see the reflection of a box of canning jars in the rear window. This was the day my mom gave her canning jars away, we bought 5 pairs of sunglasses, and went to chess club).

122

The number of June photos I took off my camera this morning.