Tucson during COVID-19

So empty! Here is a two-minute video showing Tucson's beauty:

Youth Prom (formerly known as "Mormon Prom")

Every year the local stakes sponsor a Youth Prom. My girls were finally old enough this year! No dates, but luckily going stag was encouraged if you didn't have a date. Here are Elizabeth and Caroline at the dance.

The decorating theme seemed to be "rustic elegance," and the decorating was really, really well-done. There was teen-favorite food in every activity room. This room had karaoke and served Italian cream sodas.

There were even thoughtful tables in the restroom area.

After the party Caroline said it was so much fun, more fun than she thought it was going to be, that she was going to try much harder next year to get a date!

One last picture of my sweet girls.

(I made Elizabeth's dress on the left and Caroline's came from a thrift store with the jacket refashioned by our friend Rhonda.)

Orange Marmalade

I took on a challenge to make something new each month in the food canning arena.  Food In Jars is a great resource for all kinds of fruit and pickle canning information and ideas for something new instead of the "tried and true."


That said, I made a new recipe, but a favorite flavor: orange marmalade. I used my Instant Pot to speed the process along and it was very easy! No slicer here except my trusty knife, but cutting the oranges went quickly. Since my oranges were pretty sweet, I added sugar in a 1:1 ratio by weight to the fruit. I took bad advice from another recipe and put too much water in for the first cooking, so the marmalade's set was soft, but delicious nonetheless.

My girls and I picked some more oranges from our friend's tree, so I'm ready to try a second batch!

Locks of Love

Less than a week ago Elizabeth suddenly told me she wanted to get her hair cut and donate it to Locks of Love.  I love her hair--love it!--but I know it's hard to handle, so I agreed. Here she is before:

It came all the way down to her waist!

Here she is getting ready--she was really excited, not nervous at all:

And here is the "after":

She is thrilled!

Generation 1.5

In March our family made a quick weekend trip to Salt Lake City, Utah. We went for a temple sealing, but instead ended up in the emergency room at LDS Hospital up in the Avenues.  Happily, it wasn't one of the girls, but it was one of the relatives, and she had to deal with a dislocated shoulder. Not at all fun for her.

While we waited, we took the girls to B Street Park. This tiny park is on a lot that I think once held a Victorian house. It's a ten minute walk from where I used to live and I took my older children there many times. It's hard to explain how much I loved taking my second set of children to the same place my first set enjoyed so much.

We're down to only one chicken :-(

We have some visitors from out of town.  When they got here a few days ago we cooped our chickens up because they have two big dogs.  Along the way someone let the chickens out and the dogs left them alone, so for some reason we didn't feel an urgency to keep them cooped up.  Until this afternoon. One of the visiting dogs killed Toek, my Barred Rock chicken.  I'm really sad.

I'm not sure what to do now.  We have only one chicken left and as social birds, one alone is not ideal.  We haven't planned to replace any of the girls, but an opportunity came up this past week that we may go for.  Watch this space . . . .

New Year's surprise!

New Year's Day the kids came running in to my room to tell me it had snowed overnight.  Not so strange, right?  Wrong, because we live in Arizona in an area where it snows only every couple of years and no more than 0.25" when it does.

We had about an inch and it stayed until early afternoon.  The children loved it!

Sophia's getting into the family fudge tradition

I bought a couple containers of marshmallow cream and apparently they kept calling out to Sophia.  I couldn't hear it, but she could.  I told her I was planning to make fudge some time in December, but she couldn't wait.

Here is her first-ever batch of fudge--grainy, but delicious!  It was also chock-full of pecans, so how can you go wrong with that?  It was gone in 24 hours, of course, but there will be more.  Next time she should try Bill's family recipe (no marshmallow) and see which she likes better.  Grandpa Andy would be proud of her.

A little Thanksgiving children's project

I wanted something to keep the children busy for a bit on Thanksgiving afternoon, so I had them make turkey placemats.  Can you see them there?

I traced a luncheon plate on a piece of construction paper and a saucer on another, then filled in with turkey feathers.  I gathered stickers, buttons, and cut up bits of ribbon, yarn, and lace, putting them in pie pans on the table.  We used white glue, a glue stick, and hot glue to attach the various decorations.

The children were busy for at least half and hour and we had cute decorations for the table!

Meal Plan

Monday: Potato sausage, potatoes, stir-fried cabbage

Tuesday: One-pot Mexican spaghetti, avocado slices

Wednesday:  Vegetable soup with veggies from Bountiful Basket that need to be used up

Thursday:  Wyatt & Afie's sesame chicken from the frozen dinner club

Friday:  Pizza