hot and sweaty

We recently returned home after a week long vacation to California (more info/pictures about that in upcoming posts) and now I know why celebrities always look so great. NO HUMIDITY!!!

I have to say I was feeling pretty darn good about my new haircut while out in Cali. And my make-up looked great all day. We enjoyed temps ranging from the low 70’s to the mid 80’s. And then we came home. We are now enjoying 100+ degree days with 99.9% humidity. By the time I’ve showered and dried my hair, I’m sweating profusely. My make-up looks like crap as it sweats off. An hour after I fix my hair, it hangs limply in weird waves.

I’m glad to be home, but I’m already missing the beautiful Southern California weather!

blueberries

Melissa and I took a road trip a few weeks ago to pick fresh blueberries at Chautauqua Hills Farm. We each picked one and a half gallons of fresh blueberries so the blueberry baked goods have been in abundance!

Muffins

Fresh berry salad

Blueberry scones…see recipe below.




Blueberry Turtles…these tasted much better than they look!
And here’s the recipe for English Cream Scones (from my Aunt Lou Lou):
2 cups flour 
1/2 cups (heaping) sugar
1 T baking powder
1/2 t salt
6 T unsalted butter (not margarine)
1 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup dried currants or dried cranberries/blueberries (I used a little more than a half cup of fresh blueberries)
Preheat oven to 425. Mix dry ingredients. Cut in butter using fingers (Yep, use fingers). Make a well in center. Pour in cream. Mix with hands until moist. Add blueberries and knead 10 to 12 times. Form into ball and press out to a 9 inch circle (1/2” to 1/4 “ thick). Cut into 8 to 12 wedges, or drop by heaping tablespoon onto cookie sheet or baking stone. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Bake 14 minutes on TOP half of oven until golden brown.
Note: These are tender and fluffy and also make great shortcake biscuits for strawberry shortcake.
Enjoy!

art studio

We have a new art studio in town. They hosted a glass painting party a couple of weeks ago.

Here’s my creation. I also made a mug, but I wasn’t thrilled with the finished product.

treat tuesdays

I thought it would be fun to have a special treat for dessert on Tuesdays. Here’s our treats so far:

Week 1: Ice Cream Sandwiches.

These were made with chocolate cake mix in the waffle iron. After they cool, put ice cream in the middle. I wasn’t crazy about them. I’m kind of funny about soggy cakes/bread and they just a little too soft for my taste. But I did like this part of it:

The first batch was a fail. But they were yummy to eat just by themselves. So if you want something chocolate this summer and don’t want to turn on the oven, chocolate waffle cakes are pretty darn tasty. And easy. And fast!

Week two we had Slutty Brownies. I didn’t name them (Duncan Hines did). I just eat them!

You can get this recipe on the Duncan Hines website. Start with cookie dough. I bought a tube of refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough. Smoosh it into an 8 1/2 by 11 inch greased pan.

Then crumble about 16 Double Stuff Oreos.

Top with brownie batter for an 8X8 pan, not the family size box. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes (or more).

These really were to die for. I guess they’re called “slutty” because they are really rich and make you feel a little naughty when you eat the whole pan!

Week 3 we had s’mores.

Week 4 there were no treats. We had waffles for dinner and I wasn’t really in the mood for sweets after that. I guess maybe having waffles was the treat!

delaney’s garden…complete

I think I’m finally finished with Delaney’s garden. I may add a few more things here and there and I plan to add to it next year. But for the most part, I’m done!

We had some issues with our stepping stone, so we’ll probably replace that sometime. I didn’t get the glass pushed down into the cement. Lesson learned!

The lightening bugs in this jar will light up if you flip a switch. Perfect for an evening garden party! I found that orange pot out in our shed and I spray painted it.

Another spray painted pot. For both of these large pots, I bought a hanging basket on sale and set it in the pot. So much easier (and cheaper) than planting flowers in a large pot!

This is the picket fence gate that I found last weekend. I would like to find something to hang on it, like a little garden sign or something. The table is a painted pot turned upside down. I picked up a plate at Dollar General to top it off.

So that’s it!

P.S. I’m still battling the poison ivy out there. It’s mostly up by the fence behind the orange potted flowers. And I’m diligently spraying them with Round-Up.

getting ready for disneyland

We have been busy making preparations for an upcoming trip to California. We are going to Jeremy’s 20 high school reunion and while we are there, we will go to the beach and spend one day at Disneyland.

We are driving so I wanted to have plenty of things to keep Delaney busy in the car. She helped me make this notebook for writing or drawing.

I made this autograph book for Delaney to take to the park.

I made a few pages that were specific to certain characters. The characters can autograph the left side and I’ll put a picture of Delaney with the character on the right.

Delaney is super excited to see the princesses and has been counting down the days until we go on vacation!

summer school

We visited Nate at summer school so we could see him trying out a communication device. This device actually belongs to another young lady, but she has been encouraging Nate to use it. And he’s doing pretty good.

This device has a touch screen. But it also allows the user to use a sensor placed on the nose or forehead to make choices on the screen.

The assistive technology that is available is pretty amazing. And it’s exciting to see Nate making progress with communication!

farmer fresh

A couple of months ago, one of my students brought me some eggs that he got from his chickens. Delaney thought it was pretty neat to have brown eggs, which she called “farmer fresh” eggs. She was so disappointed when we ran out of those farmer fresh eggs. Luckily I have a friend who gets eggs from her sister in law. She happened to have some at home so I took Delaney around the corner from our house to pick up our farmer fresh eggs. Poor kid is going to be so confused!

I’m thinking a trip to the farm may be in order to get this little city girl straightened out on the life cycle of an egg!

road trip

Saturday started off with a road trip to Marion, KS to visit a few antique stores. I went with a couple of friends who I wouldn’t have if it weren’t for Nate…one of his nurses, Melissa and his para at school, Karen. They take great care of Nate and are a lot of fun to hang out with!

I haven’t mastered the art of taking a picture of myself. The first one I tried ended up just being the top half of my head. Need to take some lessons from the teenagers!

We saw lots of great treasures. This was taken out at a barn and it was sort of like “picking” as in American Pickers (they actually came out here a couple of years ago). I prefer to have prices listed because I’m not a haggler!

There were lots of treasures in the barn. Outside was row after row of rusty old stuff. Everything you can think of…including the kitchen sink! It was all sorted out, but a little to worn for my taste.

I really liked this old cabinet. It would be perfect in my kitchen to use as a pantry. I’m going to keep looking for a great deal on something like this!

I did find this little treasure…a picket fence gate. By the way, Delaney’s garden is almost complete, or as complete as it is going to be for this year. Update to come…

I found this old toolbox at an antique store. I’m going to paint it and use it for Delaney’s books or DVDs in her room.

I really liked this cloche. It’s not new, but it was at one of the antique/gift shops we went to. Now I need to find something fun to put in it.

My final purchase was this old dresser. I’m going to paint it white to match Delaney’s other dresser. This one is going at the foot of her bed and will be great for extra storage. She was so funny when I brought it home. She said, “Is this my new dresser? Is my old one not cute anymore?” Silly girl!

Now I have several projects to work on this summer…the list seems like it is endless. But I guess that’s more to blog about!

happy dad’s day

We celebrated father’s day with my awesome dad on Saturday. Both of my brothers and their families were in town, so we ate (one of our favorite past-times) dinner at my parents’ house.

My mom and the boys played a little foosball. She’s not too shabby for a grandma!

Delaney gave this to her awesome daddy. She was absolutely correct on several. Please disregard her dyslexia. We’re going to practice that this summer. And honestly, that poor child has a pretty darn difficult name to write. What was I thinking?

After the sun went down, we had some friends over for root beer floats and a movie.

 

We watched “We Bought a Zoo” with Matt Damon. And then Delaney left with them for a sleepover! It was so peaceful around our house this morning. And then she came home. And it was peaceful no more. What a grump!