Remember that bread maker with the gluten free setting that Bryan gave me for my birthday? I used it for the first time today. This is the tallest loaf of gluten free bread I've ever seen.
Does the bread still taste gluten free?
Yes.
Is it the best gluten free bread I've ever had?
Is it vastly superior to all other gluten free breads?
Also yes.
Yum.
Last week I got a text from my friend asking if I wanted to see a play with her. Her husband had gifted her the tickets for her birthday back in May and she was excited to use them. At first they tried to find a sitter so they could go together, but it was the weekend of youth conference for both our stake (their old stake) and their new stake, so there were no youth to be found. She decided to make a girls night of it. I said yes!
And then she discovered that she had the date wrong and it was actually for Saturday night when all the youth would be back in town. She opted to keep it a girls night.
My brain got a solid workout watching the existential comedy Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. It was well done and fun to see something from the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival.
This has been our busiest summer, maybe ever. We don't have any big trips planned, we've only done a handful of things for our summer theme, and we aren't dong any major household projects.
Why is it so busy?
Normal stuff. Girls camp, high adventure, FSY, youth conference, library activities, the occasional park visit with friends, and weekly church youth night. Add in newer things like Cooper's cross country practices and Phoebe's harp lessons and it feels like we've been running at top speed. I spent most of Wednesday in my van, driving kids places and waiting for them to finish whatever I had driven them to.
Today I laid down for an hour of quiet time and I woke up two hours later, shocked that I had slept at all. That's how worn out I am from the summer so far.
I love summer. I'm not wishing it away. But, man, I am tired.
About two months ago we had some friends over for a few hours to play. Topher and his friend Caleb spent much of that time in the backyard. We had just prepped the garden bed, but hadn't planted anything yet. Topher and Caleb found our stash of seeds and decided to plant some pumpkins. We found out after the fact, of course. They were very proud of themselves.
A week later we planted the rest of the garden. Topher was concerned that we were upsetting his seeds.
It turns out he had nothing to worry about. His pumpkin is coming along quite nicely.
On Saturday night we had a big ward activity that I helped plan and run. There were several stations, one of which asked the members of the ward to write their name on a leaf and add the lead to our ward family tree. After the activity, somehow the extra leaves ended up among my party supplies. I decided to use them for singing time the next day.
The leaves on the left have song titles, the leaves on the right have instructions on how to sing the songs. I scattered the leaves on the ground at the front of the room and the kids got to pick which leaves we added to the tree that Bryan drew. I've done similar activities with them in the past, including making a thanksgiving tree. But either the kids didn't remember or they were nice enough not to point it out.
Sometimes the kids get carried away with the actions and forget to really sing. This time I brought a handful of blank leaves. I called them our bonus leaves. I told the kids that our primary pianist would listen to how they sang. If they sang the words clearly and used strong (but not yelling) voices, they could earn a bonus leaf for each song. That made all the difference! They didn't earn one on the first song, and that really pushed them to do their best for the songs that came after. I realized after I took the picture that they'd earned one more bonus leaf that I'd forgotten to add.
The bonus leaves are in the middle.
How can you tell when your vehicle is getting older? The door handle comes off in your hand.
Don't worry, Sophie was able to put it back on.
