The Word Nerd Is Delayed

I was supposed to fly home today, but I made the mistake of booking a connecting flight through Dallas, which can have flight-cancelling weather any time of year.  Flash flood warnings in Texas stranded me in California this morning, so instead of spending the day riding airplanes, I got to spend more time with my mom and sister. No complaints from this quarter!

Mom drove me to Heather's place so I could see her new house and meet her horses . . .

. . . and goats. :)

Then Mom and I spent the evening working on what quickly became my favorite puzzle ever.  It's a circle with 100 cool words in a fun variety of colors and fonts.  Every time one of us completed a word, we would call it out.  "Flummox!  Hodgepodge!  Curmudgeon!"  It was word nerd heaven, I tell you!

Pizza, a Puzzle, and a Porsche

I spent my last day at the cabin . . .

. . . hanging with my family . . .

. . . and piecing together a custom puzzle . . .

. . . we gave to Mom as a Mother's Day present.

We also ate some delicious pizza for dinner.  It's hard to find good pizza in Massachusetts, and I enjoyed this place's pies so much for lunch yesterday that I suggested we pick up more this evening.  No regrets.

It was also fun to take pictures next to my brother's sweet rental car.  My dad's midlife crisis was a Porsche, and I've had a soft spot for them ever since.  I don't actually want to own one, but I sure think they look cool. :)

The Power of Celery

Our little family reunion relocated to Mom's cabin last night . . .

. . . then we poked around some stores together this morning.  I liked this laser-cut wooden map of Lake Arrowhead . . .

. . . and I'd love to tour whatever mansion has decor that would match this unique painting.

Shopping was pleasant enough, but I think my most memorable experience today was persuading the Attack Bird (Mom's pet caique Turbo) not to try to kill me every time I passed his cage.  He agreed to tolerate me after I gave him some celery (which is his favorite food lately) . . .

. . . but he still likes Rob better.

An Impromptu Reunion

Earlier this month, I heard that my brother was flying out west to spend Memorial Day weekend with my mom and our younger sibs.  I don't travel much, but I couldn't resist a chance to gather with my family for the first time since the COVID shutdown last year.  So I booked a flight . . .

. . . to the Land of In-N-Out (read: California) . . .

. . . and stayed at the House of Decorative Candy Dishes (read: my mom's house).  All that candy looks inviting, but she doesn't eat most of it.  In fact, Red Grandma often intentionally buys beautiful candy that tastes terrible, so no one will nibble her seasonal decorations (at least, not more than once).

Mom's always been dedicated to exercising regularly, so we went on a brisk walk this morning . . .

. . . then she compensated for that strenuous exercise by introducing me to Crumbl Cookie.  I'm not usually one to wax poetic about sugar cookies, but that pink one is positively divine.

Graham Cracker Architecture

Back in winter, I bought some candy to make graham cracker "gingerbread" houses with my family.

I don't know why I never got around to it (probably because Christmas time is crazy busy), but last night I decided it was finally time to break out those gumdrops and decorate some graham crackers.

We quickly discovered that it is really hard to make a stable structure out of frosting and graham crackers, so most of us just put frosting and candy on bits of cracker and munched contentedly.

Joy, however, was determined to make an actual house-like cracker-building . . .

. . . and she was quite pleased with how it turned out.  We all praised her achievement, then we helped her eat it. :)

Rhubarb Jam and the Joys of Math

We recently used up the last of our rhubarb jam from last year . . .

. . . so Anna and I decided to make more with stalks from our big rhubarb plant.  I think Anna's wrinkling her nose because rhubarb is so different from most other produce we cook with, and we use it so rarely that we haven't gotten used to it yet.  It smells like nutmeg, tastes like tart apples soaked in lemon juice, and feels like chewing a peach.  That may sound like a strange combination . . .

. . . but it sure makes yummy jam.  We especially like putting it on pancakes with some whipped cream.  It's like having strawberry shortcake for brunch any season of the year. :)

While Anna and I were preserving some rhubarby goodness in the kitchen, the boys were watching Joy review for her math exams.  As a humanities major, I don't really relate to people who find math entertaining, but I suppose there are lots of folks who would think I'm weird for cutting up a plant in my yard, boiling it with sugar and Jello, then putting it on my pancakes.  We all have our quirks.

Squishmallow Day

Happy Squishmallow Day!

Never heard of that particular holiday?  I hadn't either until this morning, when the kids decided to celebrate the day we expanded our squishmallow herd from one to four, and launched two years of delightful (and sometimes annoying) family make-believe.

The kids spent this new holiday playing squishmallow games . . .

. . . then they put Todd's squishmallows in time-out for a while (until they were willing to be more considerate). . .

. . . and made brownies with a frosting portrait of Murphy . . .

. . . to cap off a fun day.  When we bought Luna as a Christmas gift for Anna back in 2018 (a few days before we moved to Massachusetts), I certainly didn't expect that we would one day own over a dozen squishmallows with such a variety of sizes, colors, and personalities.  I also little imagined that the kids would have so much fun playing with them together.  That's definitely worth celebrating. :)

Summertime Fun

 The weather is warming up, and snow is a distant memory, so the kids have been asking to set the trampoline back up again.

We made it a family project this morning . . .

. . . and the kids spent a bunch of time bouncing on it.  They had a great time . . .

. . . until they got tired and sweaty, and decided to come inside and read instead.

Warm weather also means that Kimball Farms is open again!  Phillip and I went on a date to get some ice cream last night.  This cone (which is the smallest one they sell) looks kind of tiny in the picture, but it seemed huge in person.  On a hot night, you have to eat fast to finish all of that luscious Kimball yumminess before it melts all over your hand.  Challenge accepted!

Scenic Rail Trail

 We met up with another family this morning . . .

. . . to stroll and scoot along a nearby rail trail.

The kids stopped periodically to explore the woods . . .

. . . check out a pond . . .

. . . and climb on these cement things by the parking garage.

Then we went home and Joy took a nap.  Apparently, fatigue is a potent COVID vaccine side effect.

That Wasn't So Bad, Was It?

Since Daniel and Joy's age group is now cleared to receive COVID vaccines, I made them appointments at the nearest pharmacy available, then we took a drive up to Lowell this morning.

They were a bit nervous, since their mother had (unwisely) mentioned that her shot really hurt.  Both kids brought a squishmallow for comfort . . .

. . . then were relieved to discover that the shot hurt much less than they expected.  Maybe their nurse was gentler than mine, or maybe the Pfizer shot just feels less like a punch in the arm than the shot I got.

The weather was nice, so Anna asked if we could go to the park.  While the younger kids played . . .

. . . Joy hung out and watched.  Her vaccine's side effects left her feeling kind of lousy, so she wasn't in the mood to play.

Meanwhile, I relished the freedom of going maskless in public now that I'm fully vaccinated.  I know the CDC says that's safe to do, but it still feels weird after a year of masking up every time I left the house.  It's like I'm breaking some sort of rule.  I'm sure I'll get used to it though.  In fact, I'm really looking forward to getting used to it.

Reflections on Christ in the Temple

 For the first time in over a year . . .

. . . I was able to go inside a temple today.  The pandemic closed our local temple (and many others) last March, and someone apparently decided the shutdown was a good time for renovations. I recently heard that volunteers are needed to make sure only authorized workers come in the doors, so I signed up for a shift this morning.  I wanted to be helpful, but I also really wanted to go inside the Lord's house again.  Although it was strange to find the temple's beautiful interior transformed into a noisy construction zone, that sacred building was still a wonderfully uplifting place to be.

One of the stations I was assigned to didn't have many people coming through, so I spent most of my time reading Church magazines someone had provided.  This touching article suggested that when Christ told Peter where to cast his net to catch a huge haul of fish, His goal may have been partly to demonstrate His divinity to His future apostles, and partly to provide for their families while Peter, James, and John left their livelihoods and devoted their lives to His service.  That seems like the sort of thing our compassionate Savior would do.

I also loved seeing this picture.  It's one of my dad's favorites, mainly because he liked examining the expressions on people's faces as they looked at Jesus.  The middle-aged people approach hesitantly, with a mixture of hope and doubt.  Can He forgive them? Will they see a deceased loved one again?  Does He have answers for their burning questions?  The elderly people in the foreground have already learned to find answers, comfort, and peace in Him.  The child in the picture is too young to have questions or cares; he simply peers guilelessly at you, wondering what you think of Christ, and what you plan to do about it.

Puzzling

 We've been doing a lot of puzzles at our house lately.

We turn all of the pieces face up on one side of our folding table, and work on the puzzle on the other side.

Daniel probably works on puzzles more than the rest of us combined.  Sometimes he works together with a parent or a sibling (we find that three's a crowd at our puzzle table), but he's also content to work alone, and he sometimes finishes a whole puzzle in one day.

Anna prefers to have company when she's piecing a puzzle together.  She thinks just about anything is more fun if she does it with family or friends.

Incidentally, I've often wondered why the artist chose to include a rainbow and copious amounts of pink in this dinosaur picture.  The puzzle's official title is "King of the Dinosaurs," but given the color scheme, maybe it should've been "Queen of the Dinosaurs."  Or, as Joy suggested, "Mega-Awesome T-Rex in a Magic Forest."

Define "Lost"

  The kids and I headed to Oak Hill for a picnic this afternoon.  The plan sounded simple enough . . .

. . . until I made the mistake of letting Joy and Todd go ahead and out of site.  

When we reached Lookout Rock, they were nowhere to be seen.  Daniel and Anna looked over the edge to see if Joy had fallen down a cliff again (she hadn't).  Then they suggested that we go looking for their two lost siblings.  I may have just flunked the "don't let your group get separated" test, but at least I remembered that our best chance of finding each other was to stay at the place we agreed to meet at in the first place.

Sure enough, a few minutes later we saw Joy and Todd coming up the trail.  Joy insisted that she wasn't lost--she just didn't know where WE were.  She and Todd had gotten tired of waiting at the picnic spot, and went looking for us to make sure we hadn't taken the wrong trail.

I was just glad we were all back together again . . .

. . . especially since Joy had the backpack with all of the food. :)

(And I don't know why Anna's wearing a mask at a picnic.  Makes it kinda hard to enjoy the smoked Gouda.)