I Really Was Looking Forward to Today...

I am very blessed. I have a home, food to eat and a car to get me where I need to go. I have a good family. I have an understanding of what this life experience is all about. I know my Heavenly Father loves me and wants me to be happy. I know there are billions of people out there that have WAY bigger problems than I do. But today I am feeling very overwhelmed and that makes me grumpy. I just want to go back to bed and pull the covers over my head and start over.

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Dear Non-Commenters,

I know you are out there in cyber-space reading this blog. You make comments to me when you see me in real life. Why not leave it here on the blog as proof?

There have been several times I almost quit writing because there are no readers. But I keep on doing it because I feel like it is a supplement to my journal.

I know you think of things when you read. How can you not? Everyone that has a brain in their head has an opinion. Why not type them out? It is very cathartic, trust me!

Thank You,

The Writers of the Fab 5 Blog

In a Pickle

I am the only person in my family that likes pickles and I only like dill pickles. The boys often tell me that pickles are cucumbers soaked in evil. Jim has often wondered why you would ruin a perfectly good cucumber by making it a pickle.

For years I have wanted to learn how to make my own pickles. Unfortunately, when it comes to the garden, Jim does the planting and I do the harvesting and bottling/freezing. It has been that way since we have been married. I suggest a pickling cucumber every year and every year I am denied. Well, this year, his brother that lives around the corner planted some pickling cukes and they couldn't keep up. I was given about 6 pounds of the little green vegetable and was on my way to learning something new (which I love!).

I started reading my USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning created by the USU extention. To my shock it takes 3-4 months to make a real dill pickle! They need to ferment in a cool, dry place before they can be processed. Luckily, they have a "Quick Dill Pickle" recipe. That's the one I am doing. I soaked the cukes in salt water over night. The I sliced them in three different ways: spears, chips and sandwich slicers. They are on the stove prcessing as I type this. I can't wait to see how they turn out! I will let you know...

Lazy River Tuesdays

For about 12 days in May I become part of a little known group called the "Lagoon School Moms". Our local amusement park gives schools in the area (UT, ID & WY) the chance to take a day off of school and have some fun. In our town we have a day for the 6th graders when they graduate from the D.A.R.E. program and a 9th grade Lagoon day. We deal with the kids for 12 days so we can get five season passes and a little bit of spending money - which usually gets spent at Lagoon.

As most Mormon Mommies know, Monday is usually the recovery day from the weekend happenings so we picked Tuesday and Wednesday to be our "Lagoon Days". Tuesday and Wednesday are generally the least crowded days at the park and, aside from Scouts, the least crowded days on our calendar. We try to get our jobs done and get the cooler packed so we can leave the house about 10:30. We take our towels and our 12x12 pop-up shade and stake our claim in a quiet corner of Lagoon-a-Beach. We get our tubes and head for the cool water. It has been very hot the last few weeks so the un-heated water is a welcome shock! The boys are old enough that they can go off and ride the slides on their own. All they have to do is check in with me every once in a while. They know I will be either laying in a tube in the Lazy River or under the shade knitting. They know that when they are hungry for lunch they can make a sandwich, eat some crackers or chips, and have some fruit for lunch. And they also know that when they are hungry for dinner we pack up and head for home. That has been our Tuesday (and sometimes Wednesday) ritual for the past few summers.

Some of you may know I don't do well in the heat. In fact, if the temperature never went above 85 I wouldn't complain one bit. I look forward to our "Lazy River Tuesdays" all week long. It is my chance to lay around in my bathing suit, get some sun and catch up on my knitting. But lately the boys have started to get a little bored with Lagoon. I can see a day when they won't want to go to the same old water park at all. They want to lay in the sun and nap with headphones in their ears or tell me they are bored more than they want to play in the water. Well, I'm not going to let them take away my "day in the sun"! Even if I have to go by myself they will never take "Lazy River Tuesday" away from me. It is just too hot in Utah in July and August to give it up altogether.

Long live "Lazy River Tuesday"!

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