No "Labor" For Us On Labor Day, Plus Some Food Misadventures

September has been kind of a weird month so far. We've all been frantically recalculating our schedules, as we add several new activities, new piano students, golf trips, random outings with friends, and a few other things. What's made it a weird month for me is that I keep getting sick. I've had two bad colds that sidelined me for two weekends in September. Each cold came on right after completing an Activity Days activity. COINCIDENCE?!? Who knows? All I know is that two bouts of fever in three weeks is a pretty annoying way to spend a month. It slowed me way down, and crimped my family's style as a result. My girls were often left to their own devices, and hung around bored at home, playing with various electronic devices or else trashing the house.

But I have high hopes that my health will hold up for the next month. At least, it had BETTER hold up, because we have a lot of big events on the way. A family trip to Phoenix to watch the musical Wicked! Fall Break! A camping trip to Rocky Point, Mexico! My birthday! Halloween! Yes, it's that time of year when lots of stuff starts to happen all the time. Hopefully I'll be blogging all about everything...if I don't get sick again *grumble grumble*

Luckily, I managed to stay healthy for Labor Day itself! We entertained thoughts of barbecuing, mountain climbing, and trying out other awesome things. However, since we are all super lazy on the weekends whenever possible, we wimped out on most of those ideas, and we settled on an alliterative day: The BARRETTS would go BOWLING, then eat lunch at BEYOND BREAD and shop at BOOKMANS.

It turned out to be a really fun day (even if we didn't do everything in the original order). We picked up a bunch of new kids' books at Bookmans, then walked a few doors down to Beyond Bread, a delicious bakery, where we proceeded to stuff our faces with their huge sandwiches.

The sandwiches weren't the biggest I've ever eaten, but this restaurant didn't really have kid sizes. As a result, the girls couldn't open their mouths wide enough to eat their sandwiches...and chewing the fresh bread became a super-human feat of strength! They loved the taste, but they were not ready for those portion sizes. Oh well, better luck next time...it sure beat going to BURGER KING (which is where we could have gone, if we were sticking with the "alliteration" theme).

Shortly thereafter, we went to a bowling alley in Tucson, where the girls bowled one game and Nathan and I bowled two games each. We got this idea after seeing the girls have so much fun bowling with their cousins in Colorado this summer.

 

It was so much fun! We put the girls on a lane separate from us, which meant the adults and the kids could each go at their own pace. That turned out to be a great idea, since Nathan and I took our turns much more quickly than the kids. I probably bowled my greatest game ever that day (by professional standards, it was pretty low-scoring, but compared to my pathetic previous output, it was a phenomenal game!). The kids had a great time and thankfully didn't get too competitive with each other.

A few days after this wonderful day out, I got sick again. Ugh. As it happened, the night I was sick, Grandma Barrett invited us over to her house to watch the BYU football game. The kids were excited (as they always are to go to Grandma's house; she has a cat and cable television, after all). Lorelai was so excited that she decided to make a special dessert for Grandma. She chose a pretty ambitious project:

These are little chocolate-peanut butter cheesecake bites with frosting and an Oreo cookie crust. They were, in point of fact, incredibly delicious. They were also very time-consuming to make and Lorelai needed a lot of help...from none other than sick old Mom! It was a very drawn-out process; I'd help her mix one set of ingredients, set it in the oven, then go lay back down on the couch and fall asleep. Then when the oven beeped, I'd stumble back into the kitchen, pull them out of the oven, set them in the freezer to cool off faster...and promptly fall asleep again. As you can imagine, it took quite a while to get them done (and we were a little late to the game as a result). But it all worked out in the end; The cheesecake bites tasted great, everyone had fun at Grandma's house, I got to take a nap, and BYU's football team won! Just one note to myself: next time Lorelai wants to cook, and you're not feeling well, encourage her to make Rice Krispie treats instead!

Lorelai wasn't the only one of my children who got the cooking bug this week. Celeste had her best friend Alissa over to play, and they both got the idea to create food "inventions." This meant looking in the cupboard and mixing together whatever they felt like. As tired as I was, and as much as I wanted to sleep, I knew the kitchen might not survive the onslaught of creativity. So I tried to supervise a little bit and keep a nuclear meltdown from occurring. Plus, I helped them "cook" their slop into...something...

Yuck! I used our small griddle, since both girls' concoctions were "pourable". I hoped the end result would be at least roughly pancake shaped. No such luck with Alissa's "batter"--it was so runny that I ended up having to "scramble" it like eggs just to get it to take shape at all! The girls both offered me a bite of their "inventions"; I politely declined. Later, as the two moved their play date upstairs, the food quietly found its way into the trash.

Really, I should be proud of the girls for their daring in the kitchen. It's a good sign that they want to try cooking, and I want to encourage that. But in practice, it also means I'll have to deal with a lot of nasty food, until they start figuring out how everything works. It also means extra work for me, at least in the early going. I hope that in the months and years to come, I can guide all my girls in the kitchen, and help them all develop a few skills that will help them fend for themselves in later years.

September is already mostly done, and a busy month is on the way. Stay tuned for more updates!

Our "Extras" In Fall 2015

Hello! It's been a little while since checking in with the blog; we've spent the last month or so getting our afternoon schedules sorted out. All of us are trying new things out this school year, some of which are camera-friendly and some of which aren't. As a result, this may not be the longest blog post, and you may not see a ton of pictures. But what are you gonna do?

Anyway, here are a few of the things our family has been working on in the last month (give or take a couple of weeks):

Nathan has started up his "second job" again now that the school year has started: he's leaving home a little earlier each morning to teach seminary to local Mormon teens. Seminary teaching is a relatively new calling for Nathan; he was formally set apart in February, and only taught for a few months, but he loved it nonetheless. He is excited to be back to work teaching once again (this year's course of study is the Old Testament), and he is interested to see how it will feel to teach for a full school year. He was originally going to teach the junior/senior class, but at the last minute was unexpectedly switched to the sophomore class. He was worried about teaching that group (they are a little rowdier than his previous class), but everyone is slowly warming to each other, and Nathan's confidence in his teaching is growing as well. It probably doesn't hurt that there are a lot of...interesting stories in the Old Testament to pique the interest of the sleepy students!

Besides teaching seminary, Nathan loves to golf as often as possible...he's usually out on the course at least once a weekend. He often goes golfing with his mom...which probably means he has been "dating" his mom more often than me these days! But that's okay, I forgive him. He is still up for a board game night whenever possible, but life has gotten busier these days and many of our gaming buddies have sadly moved away. But we're working on setting up more game nights in the future!

Adrianne (aka Yours Truly) has tried out a bunch of new stuff with the kids being gone all day. I've mentioned most of this in an earlier post, but I've since added a few other things. To sum up: I spend a couple of hours each Monday at my girls' school. Half that time is spent helping Aurora's class during their "art" time. Then I spend a little time helping out Aurora's homeroom teacher fulfill various classroom tasks (sorting out papers & projects, etc.). After that, I head over to the school library, where I help Celeste's class during their library time. It's nice to have a designated "block" of time where I can help out with my daughters' classes. This is the most time I've ever put in at our school, and I am really liking it so far.

My other regular service activity is at another school; I assist the librarian at the nearby Continental School library. It is probably some of the nicest service I have ever done! Two hours, in a large peaceful room, surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of books...it's heavenly. I am calling it my "Zen" time for the week. Plus, the librarian, Geraldine, is pretty cool and I enjoy working with her. I have also found the time for a couple of other service opportunities. For a month, I played piano for a group of senior citizens in a nearby retirement home for their "Singing Hour." I've been asked to come back to do some more substitute work next month, so I may end up being a "permanent substitute" for that position. And last but not least, I occasionally attend an English class for a member of our LDS ward who doesn't speak English. It is a really fun job; the class is taught by our local full-time missionaries and the mood is always supportive and positive. I've been told that some non-member Spanish speakers will soon be joining the class, so I hope to continue attending; it could potentially be a missionary opportunity as well.

I'm plugging away at my new church callings, too. Primary teaching is nice enough, but I have been having a lot of fun planning Activity Day nights for the 10-11 year old girls in our ward...including my own adorable ten-year-old. Pinterest has been my best friend these last few months, helping me plan the activities...but I am proud to say that I came up with the themes of the activities on my own!

One of the activities took place just before our stake's camp-out for 11-year-old girls. I thought it would be fun for all the girls in this age group to have a "camping" night, so I pulled out the family tent, taught the girls some camp songs, and made some apple crisp in tin-foil, just as you would at a campfire!

There was even a little time left to tell "ghost stories"...things got a little intense at that point, but other than that it was a fun evening.

The next idea I had was to do a "spy-themed" night, involving a few spy-related activities, and then conclude the evening with a "secret service" challenge for the girls. The games involved writing "secret messages" with lemon juice or milk; popping popcorn; solving puzzles; and even "dusting for fingerprints" using baby powder on glasses.

The "secret service" challenge was given to each girl in a manila folder (along with a pen and a "disguise", which was a stick-on fake mustache...thank goodness for the Halloween costume stuff on sale now in stores!). Each girl was directed to perform small, anonymous acts of service for various friends and family members, and keep a record of these acts in order to get a small "reward" at our next Activity Day. Everyone seemed genuinely excited about the project, and I am looking forward to hearing their reports tomorrow night at our next activity! It has sometimes been stressful getting everything ready for the girls, but they are all really great kids and it has been very fun to work with them so far. It has definitely ignited my creative juices, which I hadn't used much in my other recent callings.

I'm very grateful for all these opportunities to serve. It looks like the jobs I applied for aren't going to pan out; that's a little disappointing, but I suspect this wasn't the right time for me to return to work yet. I am still earning a little money teaching piano, and so far that is going great. I know that someday I'll be working outside the home, and until that time I'm glad I have gotten out in the community a little more and found ways to help others I didn't know about before.

Lorelai is actually a little less busy this year than last year...at least so far. As usual, she is taking piano lessons from me. On the school front, she doesn't have as many after-school activities. However, her homework load is growing more challenging, and her activities during school hours are increasing as well, so it is good for her to come home and get a little more rest. She really loves her fifth-grade teacher, Ms. Moore, and she is getting along pretty well with her classmates. This is a nice change from last year, when she often struggled with loneliness and nervousness. Hopefully those things will not be big issues going forward this year!

Lorelai opted out of doing the school play this year, after performing in it for two straight years. There were probably many reasons for this, but mostly she wanted a chance to try out a few other after-school clubs that she hadn't yet had the opportunity to try. This semester, she is doing "Edible Science," which is a cooking/nutrition class that focuses on the science behind food preparation. I think she will definitely enjoy it! She is also planning on being in the crew for the school play (she'll probably help out with props and a little bit with costumes), so in the winter and spring her involvement will increase.

While getting her trombone repaired recently, Lorelai spent a little time playing with the music store's theremin. Don't know what a theremin is? Watch Dr. Who and listen to the theme song! They are super cool instruments.

Perhaps the biggest change for Lorelai has been her move from beginning band (which practiced twice a week after school) to advanced band (which meets during the last hour of school every day). At first, Lorelai was actually afraid to go to advanced band...ironic, considering how she had desperately wanted to be part of it last year! But now that she actually had an invitation, she started to realize the commitment and responsibilities that would be required, and she started to feel overwhelmed. She was near tears, and even asked if it would be okay if she stayed in beginning band for the year! Poor girl. We talked about it for a little while, and I talked to Mr. Mark, the band director, and we succeeded in convincing Lorelai to give advanced band a try for a while.

Over the last few weeks, advanced band has grown on her, and I think she will stick it out for at least the year. She has to practice her trombone a lot more (which she grumbles about, but does nonetheless), but she is starting to enjoy the music advanced band is playing. It is gradual, but I can hear her play improving bit by bit every week. She has come home excited by things that happened in band, and she's gotten really excited about the trips band will be taking later in the year (they have an annual trip to Flagstaff, and a trip to California as well). I am glad she has this opportunity to learn jazz music, ensemble play, and performing for multiple crowds. I think over time she will be great!

Celeste has got a lot on her plate this year! Maybe we are compensating for her relatively light load last year (when "all" she did was Girl Scouts). After two years of jealously watching her sister perform in the school play, it was my middle daughter's turn to try for the spotlight. She eagerly participated in tryouts, and hooray! She was cast as a Munchkin in Great Expectations Academy's upcoming performance of The Wizard Of Oz!

I have been so hoping this sweet girl would get a part in this particular play...The Wizard Of Oz has been one of Celeste's favorite movies for years. When she was three years old, she even had a Wizard Of Oz-themed birthday party! Secretly, I prayed she would get cast as one of the adorable Munchkin ballet dancers (the "Lullaby League"), who give Dorothy gifts after she arrives in Oz. Sure enough, Celeste was cast as one of those dancers...and I didn't even have to beg the director for it, or even let her know my secret dream! So far, Celeste is loving absolutely everything about being in the play; she can sing most of the songs in the play, recite half the dialogue, and talks excitedly about every detail of rehearsal. I am so glad she's getting this opportunity to be the "star"...and in a way, I appreciate Lorelai not trying out this year, because it gives her little sister some time to have her own "moment."

But the play isn't all that's keeping Celeste busy! After a year off, she's started dance classes again with the Sahuarita Dance Center. This year, she is doing a ballet/jazz combo class, which lets the students try out both classical and modern dance styles. Celeste was worried the class was initially too "ballet-heavy," but she has come to really enjoy it and is looking forward to her recital at the end of the year. And to top things off, Celeste has enrolled in an after-school club as well; she's doing "Reader's Theater" with several other kids at school. Whew! All this, and she's turning eight this December.

Aurora, at least so far, is our "non-busy" kid. No after-school clubs for her yet! I wanted her to take it a little easier early in the year, so she could get used to being a full-time student and all the adjustment that entails. Perhaps I needn't have worried, though...Aurora is doing wonderfully well in school so far. She absolutely adores her teacher, Ms. Avelar (and from what I can tell, the feeling is mutual). She is very obedient, kind, and respectful in class (why can't she save some of that behavior for home??), and she is getting very good grades so far. The lack of extra activities means I have more time to help Aurora with her reading (something I sadly neglected with Celeste). We have had time most nights to go over her sight words and read books together; it has been some good "together time" that I have missed having with her now that she's in school.

Whew! Everybody's all tuckered out from all the extracurriculars.

I am so glad my sweet youngest gal is adjusting well to school. I was a little worried at first she would miss being home, since she is sometimes the "clingiest" of my kids. But as it turns out, this little bird was more than ready to leave the nest! She is sociable, helpful, and more enthusiastic about learning every day. I suspect that in the winter-time, we'll try signing Aurora up for some fun after-school activity; soccer is likely, but we might do dance class instead. We'll have to see what she favors! In the meantime, I have loved watching her grow up so much in just a few short months. I can't wait to see the growth we've all experienced when this school year comes to an end.

Our Apple Annie's Haul, 2015

Near the end of August, our family took our (almost) annual trip to Apple Annie's Orchard and Produce Garden. I say "almost" because we didn't make it in 2014 (to our sorrow!). Two years before, we had a super-sized Apple Annie's trip, that involved not just picking produce and fruit, but taking a hayride, running a corn maze, and visiting a pumpkin patch as well! It was very fun...and apparently so exhausting that it caused us to skip the orchard altogether for a year. But this year, we would not be denied our trip!

We decided to visit Apple Annie's in late August this year, to avoid the busier fall season (although we definitely haven't ruled out another trip to Apple Annie's pumpkin patch in the future). In addition, we wanted to get some peaches and pears this year, which are usually only available before Labor Day. I would come to regret getting the peaches (more on that later), but the orchard had Bartlett pears available this year, which was definitely worth it. Their fresh-picked Bartletts are some of the best pears I have ever tasted.

The misters were already hard at work when we arrived!

As usual, though, our first stop was at the produce garden. We wanted to get our vegetable picking done before it got too hot!

Both the vegetable garden and the orchard have large stores, filled with a variety of delicious canned items. Syrups, jams, jellies, salsas, barbecue sauces, and more were all on hand to tempt us and to lighten our wallets.

This year, I planned on canning a little salsa...but not too much, as we had a fair amount left at home. So after getting the salsa ingredients, I encouraged the family to get creative and pick whatever they wanted! It would be fun to use the fresh-picked vegetables to make some delicious dinners, and it would encourage me (and hopefully all of us) to try some new things out.

We ended up with a pretty good haul, particularly with the cucumbers. My daughters love cucumbers for snacking, and they also wanted to try and make some homemade pickles too. We also got plenty of green beans, a variety of bell and chile peppers, a few eggplants, lots of zucchini and yellow squash, and even some black-eyed peas (which sadly spoiled before I could use them). Of course, we also piled lots of tomatoes into our wheelbarrow as well...both red and green tomatoes! The only disappointment was that there were no spaghetti squash grown this year. Our girls discovered spaghetti squash on our last Apple Annie's trip, and now it is one of their favorites. Oh well, hopefully they will be growing some next time we visit.

 

Even though the day started out hot, a bunch of storm clouds rolled in by late morning. It was really amazing (if a tad ominous) to see the cloudburst form several miles away, then slowly crawl towards us as we were busy picking produce.

After loading all our vegetables (and some canned goods) into the car, we headed over to the orchards to get our fruit. We had lunch first; it is always a treat to eat grilled hamburgers and the pie a la mode for dessert! Then it was time to get peaches, pears, and apples.

Sadly, my camera decided to die at about this point, so I don't have a lot of pictures. But we didn't get a ton of fruit; about a bucket each of peaches and pears, and two buckets of apples. The types of apples available were Jonathan apples and Golden Delicious apples, so we got one bucket of each.

Here's what the trunk of our car looked like after all our picking was done:

After getting home, all the fresh-picked goodies made our kitchen a little cramped.

Here's all the goodies we couldn't resist at the country store. Three different salsas, blueberry syrup, jam, honey mustard...mmmmmm....all so delicious!

I was up late that night putting a lot of those vegetables to good use. First, I made dinner...

Fried green tomatoes, squash gratin, and cooked green beans. I'd never tried to make fried green tomatoes before, but I thought they were incredibly delicious. I will definitely plan on making them again next time we go to Apple Annie's.

Fresh-from-the-vine tomatoes makes the best homemade salsa (here's how I make it, in case you care); unfortunately, it also means you can't wait too long after picking the tomatoes to get started. In the time it took us to load up our car and drive home, I'd already lost several tomatoes! Some already had a little mold on them; others were squished underneath other tomatoes. So I worked into the wee hours, canning my salsa for the year:

I only made a single batch this time. I still had lots left over from last year's canning. Plus, Nathan has lately enjoyed buying and trying out unique salsas from stores, which has slowed down our consumption of the home-made stuff. I'm a little worried that this year's batch was too tomato-y; hopefully it will still suffice for the future!

The bounty lasted us into the next couple of weeks (as of this writing, I still have a few peaches and apples waiting to eat in our refrigerator!). Here are a few other things I made:

Chocolate zucchini bread. It was delicious; very moist and flavorful. I gave some away, and froze another loaf.

Peach salsa. I'd never canned any before, so decided to give it a try this year. I bet it will taste delicious on chicken or fish later on.

Canned peaches. I only did a few cans; I always forget how tiresome canning peaches is! I hate blanching/peeling the peaches; it takes forever and never works as well as it's supposed to. Plus, the peaches at Apple Annie's are fairly expensive. I know I say this every time I buy peaches from them, but I am definitely done buying peaches at the orchard! Next time I want to can peaches (whenever that is; they aren't my family's favorite), I will probably buy them in bulk at the store in a crate when they're on sale.

Eggplant Parmesan. Now that's what I'm talking about! I love this dish, but until now, I've had to order it when we dine out, because the family has been afraid of it. But those times are now past! I bought three small eggplant and finally "subjected" my family to this dish. And they ended up liking it after all...hooray! I can't wait to make it again.

Spiced ginger pear preserves. I made this once last year, then gave it all away as gifts. But this year, I'm eating it for myself! Yum yum; it is delicious!

Canned pears. Our family, oddly enough, prefers canned pears to canned peaches. That said, I wish I'd been able to can a little more of them. Maybe next time!

We mostly ate our apples fresh; they are a favorite in my daughters' school lunches. But this year, we tried out something new with the apples:

We dehydrated lots of them! Our generous next-door neighbor has a dehydrator, and she has dehydrated apples for years for her family. I thought I would give it a go this year.

I also borrowed her apple peeler/corer to speed things up. It made prepping the apples fast and fun! The girls all took a turn coring apples, and they helped gobble up lots of the leftover apple peel.

We ended up doing three batches of apples in the dehydrator. About half the dehydrated apples were the Golden Delicious apples, and half were Jonathan apples. I added cinnamon to most of them, because cinnamon and apples go together like mac and cheese...or peanut butter and jelly!

The girls absolutely loved the dehydrated apples. I will definitely try this again someday!


As you can probably see from the pictures, I don't can very large amounts of anything. Deep inside, I desperately want to be an awesome pioneer woman, who cans 80 quarts of fruit in one sitting! I still have a few friends who do that, in fact! As I've gotten busier, though, I've found less and less time to do any canning. In fact, this is the most canning I've done in more than a year. I miss the days when I canned more in one day. But lately, we haven't been eating as much of our canned food either (sadly!), so I am hesitant to do too much more than what I'm already doing.

I suppose I also am too much of an "experimenter" to do too much of any one food item...as you can see, I like to try out new recipes. However, I don't think I am done canning yet for the year. I am definitely doing applesauce in the next month or so; my kids wouldn't forgive me if I left that out of our rotation! I also want to try canning some more plums (I did a few jars a few years back, and the girls have always begged me for more!), and possibly some more apricots or another type of jam. That's all in the future, though...for now, I'm grateful for Apple Annie's to get me in the "harvest season" mood that kick-started my canning. Here's hoping I get more done by the end of the year!