Things I did this week that made me feel awesome

Sometimes we just need to celebrate the small victories, amiright? So here are a few things I did this week that made me feel awesome:

Pressure washed the van.

After our weekend road trip, our van was covered in sand. I took two trips through the carwash, but there was still sand everywhere, so I borrowed my in-laws' pressure washer. I opened all the van doors and sprayed the areas where the sand built up around the edges. 

Pressure washing stuff is pretty satisfying. It makes you feel all powerful, and it's cool to see the dirt going away. 

I also pressure washed our driveway to get all the chalk art off. 

Made pumpkin rolls.

Making a yummy dessert is always rewarding, but it's even better when it's fit for the season and looks pretty. 

Rescued my kid from a popcorn kernel.

Eva had a popcorn kernel stuck in her teeth, and it was really bothering her. I saved her with dental floss, and well... let's just say... I felt like a bit of a hero. 

Knew the answers to the kindergarten homework.

I realize I should be functioning well above the five-year-old level, but I still get excited when I know the answers to Eva's homework. It's just nice to know that I've mastered something in life. And it's not like Jeopardy where I know some of the answers. I know all of the answers in kindergarten. Like, I know everything. 

Found a shelf at the thrift store.

This was such a pleasant surprise and further confirmation in something I have always believed... that the Lord blesses us through thrift stores (Cousin Cyndi says we are guided by the "thrift store Holy Ghost"). 

One night I was thinking about how to better organize my living room closet, and I had the idea to put a certain type of shelf in the closet, which would have required a trip to IKEA. Y'all know how much I hate IKEA (and if you don't know, just hang out here a little longer because I mention it on my blog a few times a year). 

Well, the very next day, I was at the thrift store shopping for plates, and I found the shelf. So not only was I blessed with the exact type of shelf I wanted, I was also spared the dreadful task of going to IKEA. 

Mask Stories

Now that we've been wearing masks for several months, my kids have all developed "mask preferences." 

Nicky wears masks from Old Navy. I bought him a set of 5 in gray tones. He likes to wear the darkest gray mask on Mondays and then a slightly lighter mask each day so that by Thursday, the last "school day" of the week, he is wearing the lightest gray. This represents the lightening of the week as he progresses toward the weekend. 

Daisy wears glasses at school - a fact I totally forgot since she doesn't wear them at home. I rarely see her in glasses, so it didn't even dawn on me that she would have "fogging" issues. She prefers the masks that the school gave out because, in her opinion, those masks cause the least amount of fogging. Whether or not that is true... who knows. Daisy comes up with her own stuff. She either wears the masks from the school or Old Navy masks. 

Zoe likes the masks from Costco. The teal one is her favorite (they come in a package with orange, yellow, gray, and teal). 

Eva has what she calls her "truck mask." It has cars and trucks on it. That was the first mask I ever bought, and it has remained her favorite. If there comes a day when we can't find her truck mask, I can guarantee we won't be able to get her to go to school. She occasionally wears a different mask, but it has to be her choice (and by occasionally, I mean about one in twenty mask wearings). 

I have my preferred masks as well. I have a set of cloth masks with wires over the nose that I like. As far as being breathable, I think the disposable masks are the best, but I try to not use them very often because... earth.

Scotty wears a black mask that we got for free from the City. 

Our mask station

Mask wearing is pretty easy-going for Scotty, Nicky, Daisy, and me. We don't love it, by any means, but we're used to it, and it mostly happens without drama. Zoe and Eva have been pretty good about it, but they have some "little kid" tendencies that make things interesting. 

For one thing, their masks get really dirty. Sometimes Eva's has a brownish spot inside after school. I don't even want to know what happens to make it brown. Fortunately, it washes out. Zoe's masks are often dirty on the outside. I don't know how that happens, either, though it appears that she rubs her face in the dirt at recess or something. 

One day Zoe came home in a different mask than she went to school in. I asked her what happened to her mask, and she said it was full of boogers so she had to go to the office and get a new mask. 

(Heaven bless the teachers and office staff. I'm sure they have some doozy mask stories. Gotta love when a kid comes up to you saying, "Teacher, my mask is full of boogers"). 

Another day, Zoe had a bloody nose before school. We got it under control, but she had some residue escape during school, so her mask had bloody spots and crusty blood boogers all over it when she got home. 

As I mentioned, Zoe's favorite mask is the teal one from Costco. The other day I was at the car wash vacuuming sand out of the van when I saw the teal mask under the seat. I picked it up in my left hand and kept vacuuming with my right hand, but somehow I managed to accidentally suck the mask right out of my grip. I hollered a profanity and then just stared into the vacuum hose in a trance. 

I got away with it for two days (she wore the yellow one) before Zoe said, "Mom! I can't find my mask. I need my blue mask because it matches my Halloween costume." I convinced her to wear the gray one to her dance class Halloween party by telling her how lovely it looked, and then last night I ran to Costco and bought a new set of masks so she could have her teal mask. 

This morning I handed her the new mask to wear to school with her Halloween costume (our kids got to dress up today!) She put it on (Zoe wears her mask a lot even when she doesn't need to), chewed on it for a while, and then came to me and said, "Mom, this mask smells like hot sauce." 

Hot sauce?

She was very upset about the smell of the mask, so I dabbed a few drops of peppermint oil on it and said, "There! Now it smells like candy canes!" She was pleased as punch, and then all the other kids insisted on having candy cane scented masks as well. I have a feeling that's going to be my new morning routine. 

Speaking of mask smells... one day I took Nicky somewhere, and upon arrival, I handed him a mask, and he put it on and said, "Ew! This mask smells like someone ate Chick-Fil-A and burped in it!"

My kids have complained about the smell of their own breath in their masks. Sometimes their descriptions have made me sick to my stomach - like the other day when Daisy said, "One day at school I sneezed in my mask, and it smelled so bad!"

If nothing else, mask wearing has helped my kids understand the importance of brushing their teeth. 

How Plates Unleashed a Monster

Building the doors for our basement gave me a bit of a project bug and made me want to make something else out of wood. For a while, I've wanted to make some plate shelves to hang over my kitchen table, so last week, I enticed Scotty into helping me. He's such a good sport!

And here they are! 

Ta da!

It was a quick, easy, and inexpensive project. Luckily we have this fancy workshop to do our projects in:

These are some of my favorite dates! Working on projects together! True romance includes watching my husband build stuff and hang it on the wall for me. 

It's a balanced effort, though. He does the building, and I do the staining. But while he's doing his part, I often sit back and say, "Oooo! That's how I like my men! Hanging stuff on the wall for me!" (I say the same thing when he vacuums, folds laundry, or serves me ice cream). 

I was really excited to get the shelves done so I could go plate shopping. It started simple enough - I bought a few chargers at Hobby Lobby for $1.50 each. Then I went to the thrift store and had so much fun sorting through plates. I'm not usually in the market for dinnerware, so it's an area of the store I normally skip. There were stacks and stacks of plates to look at and so many different options for decorative configurations. It was overwhelming and thrilling! Plus it was the first time in over two weeks that I'd been without kids, so that in itself made the shopping trip pure bliss! 

In the end, I bought a selection of white plates, two pumpkin plates (as seen above), and two Christmas plates. I did not buy the cowboy plates, though I found them very tempting:

Yee-haw!

I came home and started putting plates on the shelves, and that's when the monster surfaced. I didn't like the way they looked, so I rearranged them. Then I rearranged them again. And again. I also test-ran some Christmas layouts because I'm overly excited for Christmas decorations. 

But I confess, I've already bought three different combinations of Christmas plates, which puts me right on the edge of breaking all of my holiday decor rules. 

My affection level for the current plate configuration is about a 7 out of 10. There is room for progress. But I also need to keep myself in check. NO MORE PLATE REARRANGING!

Just leave it alone until after Thanksgiving when the time is appropriate to release the Christmas Monster. 

In the meantime, I'll try to stop buying plates, but I can't make any promises. 

--------------------------

And for the sake of keeping it real, here's what my kitchen really looks like:

You're welcome.

Over There by Nevada

Over the weekend we went on a little adventure. We've been itching to go somewhere... anywhere. We were very fortunate to enjoy several camping trips this summer and a quick trip to Wyoming with some friends, which helped suppress our wanderlust, but it's starting to come back in full swing. We don't need to go far. We just need to go.

Scotty is a wonderful adventure planner, so he took Friday off work and made arrangements for our journey. Meanwhile, I planned the food. Since we are still under contract (via Nicky) to not go out to eat this month, we had to take all our food with us. I think "road trip food planning" is one of my talents - at least when it comes to food we take with us. When we eat out on trips, Scotty usually does the research and finds the food places. I excel at things like Thanksgiving leftovers in gas station parking lots while he excels at finding the best burgers in town.

We left around 8:00 Friday morning and drove to Gandy, Utah. You've probably never heard of it. We hadn't either. It's over there. By Nevada. 

In fact, we stopped at a place called the Border Inn, which is a gas station and motel right on the border of Utah and Nevada. 

While we were there, Daisy asked how far we were from Utah. I said, "Utah is right there," and pointed ten feet away. She said, "What do you mean?" I said, "Utah is literally right there. By the gas pumps."

The gas station had pay phones, and our kids have never seen any, so they were pretty blown away. We didn't have any change, or we would have let them call Grandma. 2020 Coin shortage... you know... plus I don't know if they were in working order. I'll have to ask Nicky if he heard a dial tone. Not that he'll know what that means. 

Of course, we got a taste of Nevada's COVID signage which is just as overwhelming as Utah's COVID signage. 

The gas station was our potty stop before heading to Gandy. Our purpose in Gandy was to tour the Crystal Ball Cave. 

But first... lunch:

Some sandwiches deserve to be on the internet

This is my signature veggie container with dips.

I take one on most trips we go on. 

We tailgated on the side of the road in the desert after driving 29 miles on a dirt road. 

The tours are provided by the Bates family, who originally found the cave. They are voluntary stewards of the cave. 

We met our tour guide, Granddaughter Bates, at the family property. 

The lane leading to the Bates property

in the middle of nowhere

We then followed her a few minutes up the mountain where we parked and hiked a quarter mile to the cave entrance. 

The cave was amazing. 

Stalactites

The first room of the cave

Trypophobia triggers aplenty

Crystal

A ladder going up into a "chimney"

(no one has gone up the ladder since the 50's)

The wedding cake

Nicky sitting in a crystal (with permission)

The exit to the cave 

(you enter and exit at different points)

After the cave tour, we took the kids to swim in a warm spring nearby. As we drove to the spring, we came across a sandy stretch of road that didn't seem very "van friendly." We decided it might be wise to park and walk the rest of the way to the spring. I think we made the right choice because the sand was the consistency of powdered sugar - finer than the sand we normally deal with, and at some points, it was 8-10" deep. 

Behold the "poof:"

The photos do no justice to just how messy this was. There will be sand in our van for the rest of time. But it was worth the mess to get to enjoy the spring. 

It's a really small spring, and we were the only ones there, so that was nice. When we were leaving, another family was coming (they toured the cave with us), and they, too, opted to not drive through the sand. 

(I'm not much of a water person, so I didn't go in the spring. Nicky constantly tells me what a boring mom I am. Sorry, kids).

After the warm springs, we drove two and a half hours to Fillmore, Utah to have our first Corona hotel stay. We had the hotel pool to ourselves (yay!) and let the kids swim for a while. Then we enjoyed some road trip tacos in our hotel room. 

Scotty and I like to wrap hard shell tacos in soft

tortillas. We put sour cream on the soft shell like glue.

All the kids showered, and we went to bed. 

In the morning, we got some grab-and-go continental breakfasts from the front desk (it was distressing to drive past Burger King on our way out of the hotel parking lot knowing we could have had breakfast croissants instead of cardboard muffins, yellow oranges, and bottled water). We got everyone ready and packed up all our stuff so we could head to the Fillmore lava tubes. 

We got to the tubes around 9:30 and went exploring. Lava tubes are cave-like tunnels formed by magma flow. They're equal parts creepy and cool. They (and caves and mines) scare me because I envision all the ways I could get trapped or die in them. But they also fascinate me. I was okay with Crystal Ball Cave and the lava tubes because they're very spacious, but I still thought of at least 88 ways we could have died.

Where is Scotty?

Floor is lava!

Inside one of the tubes - that bridge collapsing

is one of the 88 ways we could die in there

More trypophobia

Inside one of the tubes - those rocks had to fall 

from somewhere!

In the first tube we went in, we could hear bats. It was pretty cool but also eerie. 

The lava tubes reminded us of Pirates of the Caribbean, so we walked around saying, "Dead men tell no tales!" while crying about Disneyland a little bit. 

It's fine. 

We're fine.

Sniff.

In reality, I'm just as happy on trips like this as I am on trips to Disneyland. I'm just still in utter shock that we live in a world where Disneyland is closed. 

After we ventured through the lava tubes, we went to some hot pools about 20 minutes away. We arrived around 11:00, and the pools were full of partiers already. So with social distancing and the fact that drunk twenty-somethings aren't really keen on being joined by a bunch of kids, we just took a quick look and moved on. Plus it was starting to get really windy. But then we saw another pool a ways down the road, and no one was there!

Turns out, it smelled like cow poop, and the water was cold, but we didn't let that hold us back!

(And by "we," I mean "everyone but me" because I'm the boring mom!)

Scotty and the kids swam for about half an hour. Multiple people came and tried to get in and left because it was so cold. It was quite amusing to watch! 

While everyone else was swimming, I made sandwiches. When they got out, they were freezing, but they changed into warm clothes and enjoyed another tailgate lunch. 

From there we set off for home. 

We had a really great time, and it was fun to see a part of Utah that we weren't familiar with. 

I'm losing my mind, but at least I have rice crispy treats

Almost an hour ago I started making rice to go with our dinner. I just went to check on it, and this is what I found:

Rice uncooked. Cooker lid open. No water.

My brain is currently mush. 

But now the rice is cooking for real (I triple checked), and while we are talking about rice, let's make a smooth segue to rice cripsy treats. 

A little back story:

I used to work at a Special Ed vocational training school. One of our training areas was a bakery where students learned to bake a variety of yummy goods and fulfill customer orders. Two of my favorite things to buy from the bakery were pumpkin rolls and rice crispy treats with mini Reese's Pieces in them. 

I left my job when I had Nicky, and I started making my own pumpkin rolls and Reese's Pieces rice crispy treats as a matter of survival. Back then, I could buy mini Reese's Pieces in the baking aisle. They came in bags like chocolate chips. Then over time, they started becoming scarce. Soon, I couldn't find them at all. I tried using regular Reese's Pieces, but they weren't the same, so I accepted my fate that I would probably never find mini Reese's Pieces again. It's been years and years...

But this week, look what I found!

These were somewhere in some store that I can't remember! Possibly Walmart. Possibly near ice cream toppings. Why didn't I make a mental note? All I know is that they cost $2, and I snagged them off the shelf in delight and then went straight to the cereal aisle for crispy rice. 

(Ah! It was Walmart. I remember now because I remember getting the big bag of Malt-O-Meal cereal). 

Anyway, I'm quite pleased to be able to have my rice crispy treats again. Today I helped Daisy make a batch.

We only put in half a bag of Reese's Pieces, but we probably should have dumped the whole thing in, so we could live a little! 

Daisy was a little distressed about pressing the treats into the pan, but she got the job done! 

If you're looking for a quick and easy fall treat - might I suggest tracking down some mini Reese's Pieces and adding them to your rice crispy treats? 

Nom nom.

Goal Check-In #2

It's time for another check-in on my 21 Before 21 goals. Thank you for bearing with me. I thrive on this form of accountability, so I should do this more often. 

1. No soda for the rest of the year.

So far, so good! But the other day I caught a whiff of freshly poured Pepsi and wanted to curl up in a ball and cry. I am 43 days soda sober. 

2. Finish reading Jesus the Christ. 

I'm on chapter 14. 

3. Try 10 new recipes. Done!

On my last check-in, I had tried two. I have since tried:

Baked Pumpkin Oatmeal* (Loved! Especially with a drizzle of maple syrup and whipped cream)

Thai Mango Red Curry* (Just okay. Not likely to make again)

Slow Cooker Creamy Lemon Chicken Pasta (Yum! Will make again but with thicker sauce)

Slow Cooker Company Pork Roast* (Yum! We marinated it then smoked it instead of slow cooking it, though)

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins (Good, but I didn't have enough pumpkin pie spice, so they were a little lighter in flavor than they needed to be)

Sweet Citrus Chicken Salad* (Good, but the green onions nearly killed me an hour after eating it, and that kind of ruined the experience)

Southwest Cobb Salad* (Meh. The chicken was delicious, the dressing was disappointing)

Smashed Potato Salad* (Not for me)

Pumpkin Oatmeal

Sweet Citrus Chicken Salad

Smashed Potato Salad

I guess that means I'm done with this goal. I'm kind of sad about that. I should have aimed higher. My doctor had me go gluten-free for a while, so the recipes with * are some of the ones I made gluten-free. I’m happy to say that I don’t appear to have gluten intolerance. Give me all the breads!

4. Get a haircut. Done! I also colored my hair, so I feel like I've overachieved. 

5. Don't eat out for a month. 

Going strong! And I'm actually really enjoying it. The list of meals I plan to eat out after this month is getting long, though. I am looking forward to parrillada from Chile-Tepin, a Pepe from Jimmy John's, happy hour at Itto, and some Papa Murphy's pizza on our smoker. 

Nicky's contract

6. Finish the closet doors in the basement.

The doors are built and stained. Now I just need to get a coat of polyurethane on them then Scotty can hang them.  

7. Get the door hung on the storage room.

Haven't started. 

8. Hang the closet doors in the kids' bedrooms.

Haven't started. 

9. Weigh less on December 31 than I weigh today.

Not sure what my current weight is. I had a doctor appointment last week, and they didn't weigh me! And I haven't weighed myself. 

10. Walk 250 miles. 

I'm falling behind on this one, but I am currently at 51.5 miles. 

11. Do 2,000 push-ups.

I'm at 446.

12. Do a DI run. Done!

13. Clean out the garden. Done! 

14. Try something new. Done!

15. Finish 9 books.

I've finished:

• The Girl With the Louding Voice by Abi Dare
• The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
• Home Before Dark by Riley Sager
• Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris
• Find Me by Anne Frasier

16. Clean out the box of junk that's been sitting on the window seat in my bedroom since July. Done!

17. Go to the doctor. Done! 

18. Complete a study of temple symbols.

Still working on this. 

19. Buy a dishwasher.

I've narrowed it down to two models.

20. Finish a self-reliance class.

Two more weeks. 

21. Hang the sign over the washer and dryer that's been sitting on the floor for two months. Done!