I decided to try to cut back on sugar. Significantly.
A friend of mine is doing a sugar-free dietary change, and she is inspecting lots of labels and making sure that no added sugar goes in her mouth. She's found a list of ingredients that are often listed that are synonymous with sugar:
Source: About Health website: If the label says “no added sugars”, it should not contain any of the following, although the food could contain naturally-occurring sugars (such as lactose in milk):
Agave Nectar
Barley Malt Syrup
Beet Sugar
Brown Rice Syrup
Brown Sugar
Cane Crystals (or, even better, "cane juice crystals")
Cane Sugar
Coconut Sugar, or Coconut Palm Sugar
Corn sweetener
Corn syrup, or corn syrup solids
Dehydrated Cane Juice
Dextrin
Dextrose
Evaporated Cane Juice
Fructose
Fruit juice concentrate
Glucose
High-fructose corn syrup
Honey
Invert sugar
Lactose
Maltodextrin
Malt syrup
Maltose
Maple syrup
Molasses
Palm Sugar
Raw sugar
Rice Syrup
Saccharose
Sorghum or sorghum syrup
Sucrose
Syrup
Treacle
Turbinado Sugar
Xylose
The easiest thing to do is to make meals from whole foods--use fewer pre-packaged and pre-mixed foods and buy all the stuff that can be found around the edges of the store--milk, butter, fruit, veggies, and meat. However, it's a daunting thought spending hundreds of hours in the kitchen making salsa, fresh bread, tortillas, soaking beans, mayonnaise, ketchup & other condiments, salad dressings, and much more. Therefore, it's good to have a list of brands that make condiments that have no sugar.
A few brands that are good include:
Amy's Kitchen
Full Circle (Black Beans)
Que Pasa tortilla chips
Pace Picante sauce
Dole packaged fruit (in 100% juice)
Fred Meyer has organic peanut butter with no sugar, but everyone carries Adams. I prefer the no-stir creamy variety, which I've been buying for years.
Better Oats Steel Cut Oat Revolution (oatmeal packets), or just a cylinder of Quaker quick oats
Saltine crackers
Lucerne cream cheese
I'll be checking labels and adding to this list as I go.
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Monday, September 1, 2014
Long Weekend
Labor day has traditionally been a weekend for the big SCA event, this year being held in Canada, right over the border. Kelly, on the other hand, had other ideas. He said that we really needed to do something as a family for the last weekend of summer. We discussed what things we should do, and there were a few things we decided on.
Friday: Pizza. Hey, it's our tradition. No one has to cook and clean up is a snap. Which meant that we had even more time for GAME NIGHT! I didn't get any photos, but we played Monty Python FLUXX twice. This is a great game that has rules that can change from moment to moment, and the object of the game can change as well. Once you have met the obligation (Holy Relics: the Holy Hand Grenade and the Holy Grail; or The Cartoon Peril Was No More: the Beast of Aaaaarggh and the Animator cards), you are the winner and the game ends. I won with the goal "Squashed From Above" which meant I had the Finger of God and the Foot cards on the table at the same time as the Goal Card. Aside from the traditional and Monty Python versions, there are several other versions of the game, including Zombie Fluxx, Star (Wars) Fluxx, Oz Fluxx, Cthulhu Fluxx, and a set I'm going to get...Pirate Fluxx! After that, we played a game of GLOOM. This game has an object of killing off your characters in the most miserable way possible. It was fast and fun!
Saturday: We decided to skip the Sounders game (selling our tickets) and work on a few things during the day and have a family luau in the evening.
Kelly stayed home and worked on the deck and got all the boards laid out and screwed down. While we didn't have the railings installed yet, I figured we could put up the 4 x 4s (which will be part of the pergola) and tie ropes around to keep people safely in, if necessary. I sent out a general invitation, but no one took us up on the offer.
Cammie and I went out to a couple of different grocery stores looking for ingredients for our luau, which consisted mostly of ahi tuna, salmon, rice and pineapple. I was going to make pineapple chicken skewers, but given that we still don't have the BBQ on the deck, I needed to do all the cooking by oven. Unless we had a big group of people coming, I wasn't going to cook TOO much food.
Luckily, the ahi didn't need cooking--I made a soy sauce mix and let it marinate for a couple hours. I broiled the salmon in the oven with some butter and garlic. Simple and delicious! The sad bit was one of the loaves of the Hawaiian bread I got from the Chinese market was MOLDY! So sad. I was going to drive it back and exchange it or get my money back, but figured it would cost as much in gas to get there and back as the loaf of bread, so I just pitched it. I will not be doing any more shopping there, for sure.
Sunday: TOURISM! We decided to play tourist-at-home and went to downtown Seattle to have lunch at Pike Place Market, visit the Seattle Art Museum, ride the ferris wheel at the waterfront, walk through the market a bit, and then head home. In order to prevent having to fight for parking spaces, along with all the attendees of PAX, Bumbershoot, and the Mariners fans, we took the bus. There was a lot of people riding along with us, and the ride back was particularly crowded. It was standing room only all the way home--at least for Kelly. The kids and I were able to sit for the last few miles.
Some sights along the way:
At the SAM, they had a large display of glass art, and a bunch of art pieces from the 1400-1500. Most of them were religious in nature and it was such a thrill to get to see them up close and personal. I was able to get within inches of them to take detailed photos...in fact, several of them were unprotected (although they had roving security everywhere...just don't ask them where to find the restrooms--the one I asked was rather vague).
Quilted teapot...
Gorgeous blue and yellow vase from Italian Renaissance
Painted wooden box front...the gold was real shiny gold!
Italian pottery
Ceramic pond--the pieces fit together like a puzzle and were heavily glazed to look wet. This was a favorite for us!
Madonna and child, 1490.
Detail from a Madonna and child painting--the gauzy sleeve of the baby's tunic and the buttons on her sleeve were just amazing. This was from 1490.
16th century folding screens from Japan
Monet. Nuff said.
One of the biggest problems I had was with the lighting on the art. It was bright enough, but often left bright spots on the paintings like this. You usually couldn't view it straight on. This was from the bench provided by the museum for viewing this really large painting.
Or there was some reflection in the glass (no, I wasn't using a flash...that is usually against the rules):
Here's some sweet boots!
Afterwards, we wandered through Pike Place...
Rode the Ferris Wheel...
And then rode the bus home. We watched a movie together: Bears. It was cute and just over an hour long.
Monday: Bike ride! Earlier this summer, we finally got Ben to try biking again, and he very quickly got the hang of balance and pedaling. He then decided that he wanted to really spread his wings and go for a long bike ride somewhere. We promised that we'd do that before the summer was done, and here we are...at the final week. So, we drove down to the Centennial Trail that runs from Snohomish to Arlington...or maybe beyond in some city nearish to Mt. Vernon. (I don't know exactly where it ends, but we really had no intention of biking that far anyway--we read somewhere that it is about 30 miles in length). In the end, I biked about 2 1/2 miles with them and I turned around there. They continued on to the next trail head at Machias, about 4 1/2 miles from where we started, then turned back. My muscles are all very sore now...ugh. Took some Tylenol and cider, and may need to take a bath to fully relax the muscles. I have a feeling I won't be able to climb stairs for the next couple of days.
When I returned from the bike ride, I took off my helmet only to discover that the rotting strap on the back tore completely away (the chin strap has a nylon strap and was perfectly fine--the broken bit hugs the back of the head to keep the helmet in place). I had noticed that it was shedding black bits all over the place before we started out, but thought that since this is a designated walking/biking trail, I would have little chance of encountering vehicles and other dangers, and it was probably going to be low risk of having an accident that would require a helmet to protect me to that extent. It looks like it'll be a pretty easy fix, though. It appears that the straps have little velcro dots that attach the straps. I'll pop by the bike shop later this week to see what they can do for me.
Ben also needs repairs on his helmet; one of the neighborhood kids tore all the padding out while he left the helmet sitting outside one day. We have some new little guys in the neighborhood...lesson for Ben was not to leave his stuff out where others could get to it--always put your stuff away. I'm not going to worry much about finding out the culprit.
Dinner was a simple affair--burgers and fries (home made). The big kid starts school tomorrow; the little guys start next week.
Friday: Pizza. Hey, it's our tradition. No one has to cook and clean up is a snap. Which meant that we had even more time for GAME NIGHT! I didn't get any photos, but we played Monty Python FLUXX twice. This is a great game that has rules that can change from moment to moment, and the object of the game can change as well. Once you have met the obligation (Holy Relics: the Holy Hand Grenade and the Holy Grail; or The Cartoon Peril Was No More: the Beast of Aaaaarggh and the Animator cards), you are the winner and the game ends. I won with the goal "Squashed From Above" which meant I had the Finger of God and the Foot cards on the table at the same time as the Goal Card. Aside from the traditional and Monty Python versions, there are several other versions of the game, including Zombie Fluxx, Star (Wars) Fluxx, Oz Fluxx, Cthulhu Fluxx, and a set I'm going to get...Pirate Fluxx! After that, we played a game of GLOOM. This game has an object of killing off your characters in the most miserable way possible. It was fast and fun!
Saturday: We decided to skip the Sounders game (selling our tickets) and work on a few things during the day and have a family luau in the evening.
Kelly stayed home and worked on the deck and got all the boards laid out and screwed down. While we didn't have the railings installed yet, I figured we could put up the 4 x 4s (which will be part of the pergola) and tie ropes around to keep people safely in, if necessary. I sent out a general invitation, but no one took us up on the offer.
Cammie and I went out to a couple of different grocery stores looking for ingredients for our luau, which consisted mostly of ahi tuna, salmon, rice and pineapple. I was going to make pineapple chicken skewers, but given that we still don't have the BBQ on the deck, I needed to do all the cooking by oven. Unless we had a big group of people coming, I wasn't going to cook TOO much food.
Luckily, the ahi didn't need cooking--I made a soy sauce mix and let it marinate for a couple hours. I broiled the salmon in the oven with some butter and garlic. Simple and delicious! The sad bit was one of the loaves of the Hawaiian bread I got from the Chinese market was MOLDY! So sad. I was going to drive it back and exchange it or get my money back, but figured it would cost as much in gas to get there and back as the loaf of bread, so I just pitched it. I will not be doing any more shopping there, for sure.
Sunday: TOURISM! We decided to play tourist-at-home and went to downtown Seattle to have lunch at Pike Place Market, visit the Seattle Art Museum, ride the ferris wheel at the waterfront, walk through the market a bit, and then head home. In order to prevent having to fight for parking spaces, along with all the attendees of PAX, Bumbershoot, and the Mariners fans, we took the bus. There was a lot of people riding along with us, and the ride back was particularly crowded. It was standing room only all the way home--at least for Kelly. The kids and I were able to sit for the last few miles.
Some sights along the way:
At the SAM, they had a large display of glass art, and a bunch of art pieces from the 1400-1500. Most of them were religious in nature and it was such a thrill to get to see them up close and personal. I was able to get within inches of them to take detailed photos...in fact, several of them were unprotected (although they had roving security everywhere...just don't ask them where to find the restrooms--the one I asked was rather vague).
Quilted teapot...
Gorgeous blue and yellow vase from Italian Renaissance
Painted wooden box front...the gold was real shiny gold!
Italian pottery
Ceramic pond--the pieces fit together like a puzzle and were heavily glazed to look wet. This was a favorite for us!
Madonna and child, 1490.
Detail from a Madonna and child painting--the gauzy sleeve of the baby's tunic and the buttons on her sleeve were just amazing. This was from 1490.
16th century folding screens from Japan
Monet. Nuff said.
One of the biggest problems I had was with the lighting on the art. It was bright enough, but often left bright spots on the paintings like this. You usually couldn't view it straight on. This was from the bench provided by the museum for viewing this really large painting.
Or there was some reflection in the glass (no, I wasn't using a flash...that is usually against the rules):
Here's some sweet boots!
Afterwards, we wandered through Pike Place...
Rode the Ferris Wheel...
And then rode the bus home. We watched a movie together: Bears. It was cute and just over an hour long.
Monday: Bike ride! Earlier this summer, we finally got Ben to try biking again, and he very quickly got the hang of balance and pedaling. He then decided that he wanted to really spread his wings and go for a long bike ride somewhere. We promised that we'd do that before the summer was done, and here we are...at the final week. So, we drove down to the Centennial Trail that runs from Snohomish to Arlington...or maybe beyond in some city nearish to Mt. Vernon. (I don't know exactly where it ends, but we really had no intention of biking that far anyway--we read somewhere that it is about 30 miles in length). In the end, I biked about 2 1/2 miles with them and I turned around there. They continued on to the next trail head at Machias, about 4 1/2 miles from where we started, then turned back. My muscles are all very sore now...ugh. Took some Tylenol and cider, and may need to take a bath to fully relax the muscles. I have a feeling I won't be able to climb stairs for the next couple of days.
When I returned from the bike ride, I took off my helmet only to discover that the rotting strap on the back tore completely away (the chin strap has a nylon strap and was perfectly fine--the broken bit hugs the back of the head to keep the helmet in place). I had noticed that it was shedding black bits all over the place before we started out, but thought that since this is a designated walking/biking trail, I would have little chance of encountering vehicles and other dangers, and it was probably going to be low risk of having an accident that would require a helmet to protect me to that extent. It looks like it'll be a pretty easy fix, though. It appears that the straps have little velcro dots that attach the straps. I'll pop by the bike shop later this week to see what they can do for me.Ben also needs repairs on his helmet; one of the neighborhood kids tore all the padding out while he left the helmet sitting outside one day. We have some new little guys in the neighborhood...lesson for Ben was not to leave his stuff out where others could get to it--always put your stuff away. I'm not going to worry much about finding out the culprit.
Dinner was a simple affair--burgers and fries (home made). The big kid starts school tomorrow; the little guys start next week.
Thursday, August 14, 2014
August Days
There are some things that are posted on the internet that annoy the crap out of me. Especially Facebook. The most annoying are political in nature. I think of myself as a middle-of-the-road kind of person. Traditional, but not close-minded, values; socially open-minded, if you will. I also believe that we need smaller government and lower taxes, but also feel that there are people who are falling through the cracks in terms of care of the mentally ill and need assistance to keep themselves and society safe. I also believe in relying on the generosity of others for some things, but the government can sometimes help by providing people a hand up, not a hand out--like skills training to get something better than a minimum wage job.
I have carefully stopped following the Facebook feeds of people when I just can't stomach their political vomit anymore. A lot of those memes that are passed around are filled with inaccurate or misleading information; it's all about interpretation and filtering of data. And that pisses me off.
Sometimes, it's not politics, but something very different in nature. I got a strange one. One of the people who I have not yet omitted from my feed is a lady who LOVES her cats. She has a silly name for the herd of cats--the Furry Rebellion--and has unusual names for all of them. I don't know how many she has, exactly, but it must be a lot. I've seen names like the Agent of Chaos, the Assassin, Lord Wiggle, Lady Daring, and the Heinous Overlord (presumably the alpha cat). OK, it's cute, but I usually just skip over those posts because, quite honestly, I don't care about the interactions between her furry creatures. Maybe it's because I don't know her well enough to care (unlike very close friends whose critters I actually know), but she posted a message that said something like, "Of all my furry critters, which one is your favorite?" Really? I...uh...no comment.
Cammie has spent the last few days with her cousin at her aunt & uncle's house. They've been besties since they were very little and we try to get them together at least once a summer to spend time together. Aunt N & Uncle K have been very gracious about hosting her every year. I think it helps them out as well since the cousin is an only child, so it gives them a bit of a break. She's been away for three days and she hasn't called to check in. She must be having a blast!
A few weeks ago, I decided that I wanted to make another go at making sourdough bread. I bought a bag of unbleached Bob Mills flour, and it sat on the counter. Kelly knew that I was in the process of gearing up for this project, and as a fun gift, he bought me a pair of cool jars with blue glass lids, perfect for keeping the sour mix in to keep the bugs out. Fruit flies love this stuff. Unfortunately, when I unwrapped one of the jars, it slipped from my hand, dropped a mere 12" onto the carpet and broke. Gah!! The second one is still whole, at least.
He also got a packet of sourdough starter and taped it onto the bag of flour, which I found after returning from a weekend camping trip with Cammie in July. So a few days ago, I started the mix with the starter, a bit of water and flour. It looked so pitiful at the bottom of the jar.
After a couple more feedings, it started to look nice and frothy.
After about a week of daily feedings, I decided to make some bread. The difference between making bread with yeast and making it with sponge is that it takes two to four times as long for everything to happen.
You have to mix flour into a cup of the starter...although I doubled this recipe, so it was 2 cups of starter and six cups of flour.
When it's mixed in really well, you cover it with cling film and let it sit to rise and bubble a bunch.
After a few hours (up to 24), you then add more flour, sugar, baking soda and salt, and keep adding flour until you can knead it. You grease the bowl lightly, turn it over to grease it completely, and let it rise a bunch more.
Then punch it down....
Divide into loaves and let them rise...
After it has risen for a while longer, you slice the tops, and I sprinkled mine with rosemary and salt and lightly brushed with olive oil.
I baked it in the oven, according to the directions, which turns out to be too long or too hot an oven. I'll have to experiment a bit more. I also think I'll make smaller loaves.
The second loaf I baked for about 5 minutes less and it came out *perfect*. And it was *delicious*!
Tomorrow is going to be a busy day--doc appointment with my foot doc, going to pick up Cammie from her visit, and go to a Munzee event. It'll be fun!
I have carefully stopped following the Facebook feeds of people when I just can't stomach their political vomit anymore. A lot of those memes that are passed around are filled with inaccurate or misleading information; it's all about interpretation and filtering of data. And that pisses me off.
Sometimes, it's not politics, but something very different in nature. I got a strange one. One of the people who I have not yet omitted from my feed is a lady who LOVES her cats. She has a silly name for the herd of cats--the Furry Rebellion--and has unusual names for all of them. I don't know how many she has, exactly, but it must be a lot. I've seen names like the Agent of Chaos, the Assassin, Lord Wiggle, Lady Daring, and the Heinous Overlord (presumably the alpha cat). OK, it's cute, but I usually just skip over those posts because, quite honestly, I don't care about the interactions between her furry creatures. Maybe it's because I don't know her well enough to care (unlike very close friends whose critters I actually know), but she posted a message that said something like, "Of all my furry critters, which one is your favorite?" Really? I...uh...no comment.
Cammie has spent the last few days with her cousin at her aunt & uncle's house. They've been besties since they were very little and we try to get them together at least once a summer to spend time together. Aunt N & Uncle K have been very gracious about hosting her every year. I think it helps them out as well since the cousin is an only child, so it gives them a bit of a break. She's been away for three days and she hasn't called to check in. She must be having a blast!
A few weeks ago, I decided that I wanted to make another go at making sourdough bread. I bought a bag of unbleached Bob Mills flour, and it sat on the counter. Kelly knew that I was in the process of gearing up for this project, and as a fun gift, he bought me a pair of cool jars with blue glass lids, perfect for keeping the sour mix in to keep the bugs out. Fruit flies love this stuff. Unfortunately, when I unwrapped one of the jars, it slipped from my hand, dropped a mere 12" onto the carpet and broke. Gah!! The second one is still whole, at least. He also got a packet of sourdough starter and taped it onto the bag of flour, which I found after returning from a weekend camping trip with Cammie in July. So a few days ago, I started the mix with the starter, a bit of water and flour. It looked so pitiful at the bottom of the jar.
After a couple more feedings, it started to look nice and frothy.
After about a week of daily feedings, I decided to make some bread. The difference between making bread with yeast and making it with sponge is that it takes two to four times as long for everything to happen.
You have to mix flour into a cup of the starter...although I doubled this recipe, so it was 2 cups of starter and six cups of flour.
When it's mixed in really well, you cover it with cling film and let it sit to rise and bubble a bunch.
After a few hours (up to 24), you then add more flour, sugar, baking soda and salt, and keep adding flour until you can knead it. You grease the bowl lightly, turn it over to grease it completely, and let it rise a bunch more.
Then punch it down....
Divide into loaves and let them rise...
After it has risen for a while longer, you slice the tops, and I sprinkled mine with rosemary and salt and lightly brushed with olive oil.
I baked it in the oven, according to the directions, which turns out to be too long or too hot an oven. I'll have to experiment a bit more. I also think I'll make smaller loaves.
The second loaf I baked for about 5 minutes less and it came out *perfect*. And it was *delicious*!
Tomorrow is going to be a busy day--doc appointment with my foot doc, going to pick up Cammie from her visit, and go to a Munzee event. It'll be fun!
Monday, July 28, 2014
Mid-to-End of July update
Two weeks later...I get back to posting.
The kids and I took a quick trip to visit the Troll. The thing about touristy places, is they're always crawling with tourists. We had to wait several minutes for a threesome to get out of the way so I could get a few pics with the kids. As soon as they got on the creation, a group of what I suspect were college kids came by to get photos. They could have been a sports team or a famous rock band, for all I know... We headed to Green Lake to splash around, but I couldn't find a place to park. Stupid parking lot is SOOOOOO tiny! I saw some spots on the road around the North end, but by then, I just wanted to get back to our neighborhood. We stopped by the park near our house and Cammie splashed around in the water. Ben forgot his swim trunks, Cammie forgot a towel, and Emma wanted nothing to do with it.
Our deck is done. The slippery wood and wobbly railings indicated that it was truly done for. Kelly ripped it apart and found that it had far more rot than we first thought.
Cammie and I went to July Coronation while Kelly and the other two kids held down the fort. I was able to see a friend get elevated to the Peerage, and another friend was offered the peerage as well. Sigh. Always the bridesmaid...
Cammie was able to work with the blacksmith for a while. Last May, when she visited his shop on Merchant's Row, he said if she came back at the next event, he'd let her make something. Needless to say, she was excited to return to the July event and learn the trade! This is what she came away with!
We also got a chance to shoot some archery. The trick with shooting arrows into a grassy field is trying to find the arrows again afterwards. Straw colored shafts hiding amongst the straw. After shooting about 10 of them, followed by a great deal of digging, I managed to find an arrow from the Archery Marshal that was lost the day prior. We shot some more arrows, being short now three, and after a great deal of searching, found a bright green "war" arrow (with a large blunted tip). I held it up and read the name on the label. The Archery Marshal walked over and said, "I don't believe it. This guy isn't even here this weekend. This arrow has been hiding in the field for two years!" About that time, another archer brought out her dog to help search for the arrows. She had scented her arrows with birch oil to make it easier for her dog to find her arrows, but he was pretty good at finding other people's arrows as well. At the end of the day, all the arrows that were lost had been found! I was happy to go home with as many arrows as we arrived with!
Kelly and Emma went to Eastern Washington to visit with family and do some country stuff, like shooting targets. Apparently this one wasn't designed for .22 gauge weapons. PS - Emma did a lot of the shooting of this thing. Annie Oakley, move over!
He made her drive part of the way, as evidenced here:
She doesn't really want to drive and hates being forced to practice. I keep asking her but she keeps saying no. I figure if we can get her the license, then she can drive as much (or as little) as she wants, but she won't have excuses to not do things like go see friends or run errands. I hate fighting it. It's not like she's refusing to go to school or something, but it is a life skill.
I took the little guys out to explore a new park (well, the park isn't new, but we hadn't been there before). The sign said that it was for children ages 5-12, but this was the biggest toy there. The swings were for infants and the climbing toy was less than 18" off the ground.
The park had a "fishing pond" (lots of frogs, a few fish that we could see, but it was really murky), an English Garden with lots of flowering plants, and a ball field as well as an old settler's cabin.
Benjamin had a cub scout outing to Gameworks where he won a sort of One-Armed-Bandit and got 1,000 tickets! In the end, he had 1,600 tickets that he spent on this pile of loot. The snake is named Oscar. I voted for Nagini, but I was overruled. I guess Harry Potter is officially passe.
Benjamin helped me make Monkey Bread. It's French bread in a tube, cut into rounds then cut into quarters and tossed in sugar and cinnamon, then put into a bundt pan. Then you take butter and brown sugar and melt it down and pour it over the blobs. Bake for about 30 minutes at 350 (I think). Then you can just tear off bite size pieces of bready bliss. I have ideas for doing the same thing but tossing them in graham cracker crumbs and tossing in marshmallows and chocolate and baking. Everything tastes better when you make it taste like s'mores.
Excess salt and sweat makes a great hair styling tonic. Here's the Son of the Heat Miser during the off-season.
Cammie started piecing some blocks together for her first quilt! She wanted to do some sewing, so I pulled out my baggie of 4" scraps and let her design her own blocks.
We worked on doing good 1/4" seams, then I let her have at it. This is what she made in the first day! She made a few more the next day, and her goal is to make 48 total to make a twin bed quilt. This is a great project for her to start on, and I love that she's so eager to learn!
One more month of summer. I still have to take Mr. B to the pool to teach him to swim. Probably this week, now that we finally have the open swim hours at the pool.
Toodles!
The kids and I took a quick trip to visit the Troll. The thing about touristy places, is they're always crawling with tourists. We had to wait several minutes for a threesome to get out of the way so I could get a few pics with the kids. As soon as they got on the creation, a group of what I suspect were college kids came by to get photos. They could have been a sports team or a famous rock band, for all I know... We headed to Green Lake to splash around, but I couldn't find a place to park. Stupid parking lot is SOOOOOO tiny! I saw some spots on the road around the North end, but by then, I just wanted to get back to our neighborhood. We stopped by the park near our house and Cammie splashed around in the water. Ben forgot his swim trunks, Cammie forgot a towel, and Emma wanted nothing to do with it.Our deck is done. The slippery wood and wobbly railings indicated that it was truly done for. Kelly ripped it apart and found that it had far more rot than we first thought. Cammie and I went to July Coronation while Kelly and the other two kids held down the fort. I was able to see a friend get elevated to the Peerage, and another friend was offered the peerage as well. Sigh. Always the bridesmaid...
Cammie was able to work with the blacksmith for a while. Last May, when she visited his shop on Merchant's Row, he said if she came back at the next event, he'd let her make something. Needless to say, she was excited to return to the July event and learn the trade! This is what she came away with!We also got a chance to shoot some archery. The trick with shooting arrows into a grassy field is trying to find the arrows again afterwards. Straw colored shafts hiding amongst the straw. After shooting about 10 of them, followed by a great deal of digging, I managed to find an arrow from the Archery Marshal that was lost the day prior. We shot some more arrows, being short now three, and after a great deal of searching, found a bright green "war" arrow (with a large blunted tip). I held it up and read the name on the label. The Archery Marshal walked over and said, "I don't believe it. This guy isn't even here this weekend. This arrow has been hiding in the field for two years!" About that time, another archer brought out her dog to help search for the arrows. She had scented her arrows with birch oil to make it easier for her dog to find her arrows, but he was pretty good at finding other people's arrows as well. At the end of the day, all the arrows that were lost had been found! I was happy to go home with as many arrows as we arrived with!
Kelly and Emma went to Eastern Washington to visit with family and do some country stuff, like shooting targets. Apparently this one wasn't designed for .22 gauge weapons. PS - Emma did a lot of the shooting of this thing. Annie Oakley, move over!
He made her drive part of the way, as evidenced here:
She doesn't really want to drive and hates being forced to practice. I keep asking her but she keeps saying no. I figure if we can get her the license, then she can drive as much (or as little) as she wants, but she won't have excuses to not do things like go see friends or run errands. I hate fighting it. It's not like she's refusing to go to school or something, but it is a life skill.
I took the little guys out to explore a new park (well, the park isn't new, but we hadn't been there before). The sign said that it was for children ages 5-12, but this was the biggest toy there. The swings were for infants and the climbing toy was less than 18" off the ground.
The park had a "fishing pond" (lots of frogs, a few fish that we could see, but it was really murky), an English Garden with lots of flowering plants, and a ball field as well as an old settler's cabin.
Benjamin had a cub scout outing to Gameworks where he won a sort of One-Armed-Bandit and got 1,000 tickets! In the end, he had 1,600 tickets that he spent on this pile of loot. The snake is named Oscar. I voted for Nagini, but I was overruled. I guess Harry Potter is officially passe.Excess salt and sweat makes a great hair styling tonic. Here's the Son of the Heat Miser during the off-season.
Cammie started piecing some blocks together for her first quilt! She wanted to do some sewing, so I pulled out my baggie of 4" scraps and let her design her own blocks.
We worked on doing good 1/4" seams, then I let her have at it. This is what she made in the first day! She made a few more the next day, and her goal is to make 48 total to make a twin bed quilt. This is a great project for her to start on, and I love that she's so eager to learn!
One more month of summer. I still have to take Mr. B to the pool to teach him to swim. Probably this week, now that we finally have the open swim hours at the pool.
Toodles!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)