Some Late-Summer Miscellany

So what else has our family been up to this last month besides canning and football? Lots of little things...so it's going to be one of those blog posts with no rhyme or reason, as I try to cram in several mostly unrelated events.

Firstly (and superficially), I celebrated with a bunch of girlfriends when The Hunger Games movie came out on DVD. As you know, I am a bit of a fan, and so are many of my friends. So, when Jacquelyn invited everyone over to her house for a mommy movie party, she joked to everyone else that I would bring a cake along. Although I had promised no such thing, it got my brain thinking...just what would a Hunger Games cake look like, anyway? Well, this is the twisted concoction I came up with:

I made the arrow out of an eyeliner pencil & painted over it! From there, it's a chocolate-mint cake with minty green frosting (most of the book takes place in a forest, so I figured the brown-and-green color combo was appropriate). Then I sprinkled blueberries on top, with some strawberry-syrup "blood," to represent the poisonous berries from the climax of the story. I admit: chocolate-mint and blueberry-strawberry aren't the greatest flavor combinations! However, it was still lots of fun to make...and it tasted pretty good, too. So thanks, Jacquelyn, for inspiring me to bake a cake...even if it was just by accident!

We also managed to have a picnic dinner in Madera Canyon over Labor Day weekend. Very peaceful and quiet, and it was great to take a little walk in the woods, away from humanity. The canyon is beautiful in the evening!

We've had an unusually wet summer, so the local amphibians are friskier (and larger!) than usual. I saw this big toad outside a Dairy Queen one night, devouring every cockroach he saw...

A week or so later, just look what we found on our doorstep one morning:

The big fella spent the whole day relaxing in the shade of our front porch. By evening (after leaving behind a huge pile of poop--yuck!), he was ready to head out and eat him some cockroaches. I hope we see him again someday; the kids loved him.

As luck would have it, we had a library book at the time that was perfect for our toady friend

The weather is finally starting to cool off. Last Friday was especially breezy and fresh so I decided to take Celeste & Aurora to the zoo.

My little gals on safari

Luckily, we were just in time for the unveiling of the Zoo's newest arrival; a so-far-unnamed baby zebra! He was all head & legs...very cute (but shy, as you can see by the pictures; luckily his mama was close by)!

We didn't get to see too many more animals that day (maybe they were all on siesta when we visited?), but the weather was so great that it was simply a pleasure to walk around the zoo and enjoy the beautiful day. I can't wait until winter, when just about every day is like this!

I have such cute girls.

In other news, both Nathan and I had talks in sacrament meeting at church in the last month. Nathan's talk wasn't a long one, but it was significant because it was part of a special "Invitational Sunday." All the sacrament meeting talks, and all the auxiliary lessons, were geared towards visitors, less-active members, or investigators. It was a missionary-themed Sunday; everyone was encouraged to bring a friend to church! Nathan spoke and bore testimony eloquently of the Book of Mormon. Best of all, Nate's parents (at our girls' urging) attended sacrament meeting for the first time in a while. It was great to see them there, and it was great to feel the spirit so strongly on a day with so many new faces.

The topic of my talk a few weeks later was "Language/Honoring The Name of God." I was in tears when I heard the news...firstly, because I haven't spoken in sacrament meeting (much less spoken to adults!) since I became part of Primary more than four years ago. Also, swearing and profanity is something I personally struggle with (especially lately), so I felt like a total hypocrite for speaking on this particular subject.

Thankfully, writing the talk was an eye-opening experience; not only did it make me more cognizant of my behavior, but it helped me feel the importance of changing it. It lit a fire under me! I will still have to do some major adjustments in the way I speak, but I feel like this talk helped show me the way. I'm very grateful for the opportunity I got to prepare a talk on this topic; it's as if the Lord knew just what I needed to do to get me out of my rut!

So what else have we been working on? A little of this, a little of that...a birthday party or two, a few play dates, a couple of termite inspections (nothing serious yet, thankfully), some game nights (including one family barbecue dinner with friends)...things like that. And all the while, the weather is slowly (but surely) cooling off. It's gonna be a lovely fall.