This week there was a good sale on peaches at our HEB (that’s the local grocery stores for all you non-Texans). Sarah decided that we should bottle some and make some other peach products so last Saturday I bought a bunch of peaches when I went shopping. The lady at the checkout was surprised that I was getting so many and asked if we were making cobbler! On Monday, Sarah spent some of the day working on bottling those peaches. She made one batch (7 jars) and they turned out much better than the ones we tried last year. She also made some delicious peach jam from them this week. She made some peach syrup also that we’ve been eating on pancakes this week…yumm!
On Wednesday we finally got around to delivering the flyers for the block party that we’re having this coming Saturday. We went up and down our street and knocked on every door. We found a few people home and got to talk to one family for quite a while. They were super nice and we’re hoping to make better friends of them. They have kids close to our kids’ ages.
On Thursday night I told Eliza that we could go swimming on Friday. She remembered all day long on Friday and was carrying her swim suit around most of the afternoon waiting for me to get home so we could go swimming. She really wanted to go. We had to talk her into eating dinner first. We used a few distraction tactics (like setting the table) and got her to eat before we went swimming. We took the kids down swimming at 6:30 after dinner and swam for 40 minutes or so. Eliza was more interested in the little splash pool than the big pool this time. She jumped into it and “swam” around by herself. She is getting more and more brave. When we did get her into the big pool (which was much warmer by the way) she even let me let go of her a few times in the deeper water and she kicked her legs to stay up. She’s learning fast. James, of course, loved to splash and get water everywhere. He got some water in his nose about halfway through our time and was done after that.
Eliza found my old recorder from 6th grade in our music cabinet this week. She’s been walking around “playing” it a bunch. Mostly it just sounds like a whistle but she loves to show us and to have Sarah play with her. She is also starting to do somersaults on the floor. They’re not very graceful and are more like flops but she loves doing it.
James has been on a teething spree this week. He has three teeth coming in on top. All things considered, he’s been a trooper about the whole experience. He’s had a few rough nights of getting to bed but mostly has been good. He hasn’t needed a bath all week because he’s constantly covered in slobber. We just mix in a bit of soap and wipe him down! (I jest of course. We bathed him twice this week just like normal!)
Some of you read my blog post about my first reaction to the announcement by the BSA that they are going to allow openly homosexual people to be scout leaders. Apparently a lot of people from our ward also read it and I got several comments on it at our young men/young women’s combined activity on Tuesday. I was happy that others shared my sentiments and also that they were willing to read my writing. I am proud to lead with other adults who are willing to follow the prophet and are looking out for the best interest of our young men.
On Saturday Sarah had her early morning missionary coordination meeting that she has every other week. After the meeting she got to go with the sister missionaries to a lesson. It’s fun for her to be able to go to these lessons and to contribute. The sister that they visited sounds really nice and has a super cute little 5-year-old boy that keeps life interesting.