Today is Colin's 27th birthday (Happy Birthday Colin). I am not sure what he is doing for his special day, but I have no doubts it will be something I never thought of! He tends to have a knack for finding hole in the wall authentic restaurants, seems to know a lot of people who have a lot of interesting hobbies, and jobs, and take him along for fun, and he also never seems to run out of things to do. I am proud of him - he is working a job he loves, marrying a woman he loves, and building a life he genuinely seems happy in. I don't get to see him as much as I would like to, but I am just so glad that he is doing great at life! Colin was a kid who made parenting mostly easy, always had a house load of friends, always had a bunch of hobbies and interests, and could never sit still. When he was home, I never had to mow or do much yard work, because he loved doing it. To this day, he shows up and ends up working in the yard with Jim. I love that about him. I am thankful that he is our son! I love you Colin - happy birthday!
Evelyn had her tournament starting last night. Since her team did not win, she is now officially finished with her season. This little team really learned a lot this year. They had a great season, and I think Evelyn had a lot of fun!
Madison sent me her official ball photos - they are adorable! I can't believe how big my girl is! I had a lot of fun watching her play this summer!
And I am glad that Wrenley helped me have an excuse to buy all the nachos!
I also just want to say that the grandparent gig is awesome. I got to go to the games, showed up 2 seconds before game time, didn't have to remember to bring anything (except money), didn't have to scour the dugout for children's missed belongings, didn't have to provide snacks to anyone, or run them to the bathroom mid-inning, provide entertainment for the ones not playing, or buy any ball supplies. I did get to hang out with my best people, eat the nachos, and watch some cute kids playing a game and having fun. This phase of life is pretty sweet!!!
And I am very proud of my Evie girl - who went to every game, played her best, and did not complain about anything!
Other projects of the day - I had to use up the gallon of milk I bought last week. I wanted to make tapioca pudding but kept forgetting to get the tapioca. I settled on making chocolate pudding, mozzarella cheese, and I saw this ex-Amish lady say showing how she made butter in her kitchen aide mixer. I started the butter in the mixer - and got to work on the pudding and cheese. The fastest of these was the cheese - which is easily done. I skipped the reheating and molding part, and just used the crumbles on salad we had last night for dinner. It was good!
I started the butter first so it could be mixing while I was doing other things. The cream on this milk was thick! I had a lot! I mixed it for a very, very long time. I made cheese, and pudding and still had no butter. Mallory showed up. She makes butter every year with her kids for Kansas day - she turned the mixer up. Nada. I let it mix while I cooked dinner. Nothing. After a long, long time, I decided the ex Amish woman lied to me.
But the pudding - fabulous! Just like mom and grandma used to make back when we had the dairy! Will I do this again? Not sure - I won't make a special trip for it, but if I am in Scranton, I might stop by and grab some more - who knows. Mostly, I was just nostalgic for my childhood. When I told mom I bought the milk, she told me she was surprised. I do not like milk much. Not to drink anyway. I do love cheese, butter, pudding, ice cream and cream cheese! I also told the girls that when I was a kid, if we were running low on groceries, we always had milk, so sometimes for dinner, we would have biscuits and gravy, and a large pot of tapioca pudding. If we came in to find mom making that for dinner, we knew we were out of groceries. I think I equate biscuits and gravy to being broke - or needing groceries. I don't like biscuits and gravy much! My own kids will tell you that they feel the same way about spaghetti! Interestingly, I do not have the same negative feelings toward tapioca! I guess the mind is a weird place! Side note - not once in my life have I ever gone hungry. My parents and grandparents who we farmed with, had times where money might have been tight, but we always had meat in the freezer, eggs and milk and garden produce that we had canned in the summer. I am thankful to my parents for teaching me the value of raising meat, and for their continued gift of meat for Christmas. I am thankful to them for teaching me to raise animals, to garden, to can and process my own food. My mom also taught me that if you have the ability to read, you can cook anything, fix anything, and save money by doing just about everything yourself. I guess my love of projects came naturally!
Grace trade project 2 - this was a lot more difficult than it seems. Grace gave me an area rug. I wanted to put it on the floor of Preston's room to cover the carpet that Saige ruined in there. The rug is actually a lot bigger than I thought. Harper and I really struggled. We had to take the bed apart, and then we had to turn the rug multiple times to figure out how to get it to fit in the room. We ended up having to roll one end and put it behind the bed in order to make it work. I like how it looks and I love that it covered up most of the painted up carpet, but even if I hated it, I would leave it because this was a lot of wrestling and work! I need to wash the sheets (the girls stayed in there and apparently ate cookies in bed) and then clean the room so that Preston and Sunny have a place to stay when they are home in a couple of weeks! I won't complain about the work if it means I can hang out with them because I really have missed them this summer.
Actually, I miss all my big kids - 2 weeks until they are all home!
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