a dollar's worth of fun

It only takes $1 to delight small children. We had company over the weekend, and between the two young visitors (ages 5 and 8) and our own Thing 1 and Thing 2, we had a large time with a box of sparklers. It was fun that lasted for an hour...and nothing caught on fire (except the sparklers!)

Homage must be paid

It is County Fair time again! For those of you who remember the saga of last year's winning blue-ribbon biscuits, baked on a whim at the last minute, well, the tale gets better this year.

After last summer's second place showing in the dill pickle category, The Reenactor canned not one, but two jars of his pickles with the express intent of winning. Great attention was given to beauty of cucumbers, placement in jar, and cleanliness of lid (NO RUST, remember?) These jars, after canning, had a ribbon tied around them and were stored in the back of the pantry all year so as to not be confused with pickles we could actually eat, or give away. This morning was the day T1, T2 and I got to take the pickles to enter them. Surely this year the most beautiful (he picked his favorite) of the two jars would win. Anticipation ran high as even the little extension homemaker ladies who take the entries exclaimed at the perfection of the pickles in the jar. We all were convinced...especially after looking over the competition...that this year TR would definitely take home the blue.

Meanwhile, I had again made the same biscuit recipe from last year, and I threw in an entry of "perfect cornbread" (that's the name, folks) also from the same worn-out Oklahoma 4H cookbook I got the biscuit recipe from. And again, I had to stand in line behind a woman who had brought in a HUGE box of baked goods to enter...she had an entry in each category possible I think. And I pity the judges who had to actually sample some of that stuff...I swear even the kids were afraid of some of the cookies she was entering. Shall we say her "no-bake" cookies resembled dog poo even more than normal no-bake cookies do? Seriously, it was frightening.

Anyway...we returned tonight to see what won what. The Reeanctor is out of town on business so me and the kids were giddy with excitement over getting to call him with the news of his blue (or better) ribbon. We got there, and DAMN....those extension homemakers screwed him again! Another red ribbon! What gives? The winning jar (the "grand champion" of the pickles) was full of big stems of dill...that is what we have decided was the element that sends those women to the moon in the canning division.

So our attention was now turned to the baked goods. My "perfect" cornbread won a blue ribbon (as it should...it really was tasty!); and my biscuits? PURPLE GRAND CHAMPION!!! Whahooooooo!

HA!

I'm still laughing about this. I never considered myself a champion biscuit maker. Usually I crack open a can of Grands and call it a day.

One more thing...I entered something else for The Reenactor without his knowledge. He took a photo of T2 at the beach last summer that he thought was good from the moment he shot it. I think he had it as a screen saver for a while, and it IS a good photograph. I had it printed as an 8x10 and entered it, along with a photo I took of T1 in a wheat field just two weeks ago in the "fine arts" (HA!) division. Most of you know that both The Reenactor and I have been professional, or semi-professional photographers in our lives....well he can officially say he's a better photographer than I am now...his photo won a blue ribbon...mine a red.

Congrats, TR...it's a great shot. Now figure out how to can a decent jar of pickles!!!

church camp and other things that never change

I went to church camp two weeks ago! First time I've been to church camp in ...well shall we say...decades! Thing 1 was eligible for her first camp experience this year, but it was required that an adult accompany her for the two-day camp, so I got to go too!

Here's how things are the same, and different, since I was at Camp Yokomo all those zillion years ago.

First of all...tetherball. One of the first things I saw after we got out of the car was a tetherball court. I haven't played tetherball since I attended church camp, and don't think I've seen one of the courts since then either. I used to love tetherball, but quickly realized in trying to teach T1 what it was that you need to be tall enough to not get whacked in the face when your partner slaps that ball back at you.

Second...church camp is fundamentally the same as when I was a kid. We slept in "cabins" with poor ventilation (no cool breezes!) but with excellent ceiling fans that helped out quite a bit. The cabins still have that same funky camp "smell" to them....a mixture of lake water, sweat, sun lotion, hair spray (at least in the girls' cabins) and dirty tennis shoes. I loved it. The dining hall I swear was just like the one at Yokomo, and the requirement to sing for mail, still the same. Only difference was that the mail could come in the form of a printed email sent to the camper, rather than just a snail mail letter. T1 had to get mail twice...and both times chose the option of telling a joke, rather than singing a song, for her mail.

I don't know church camp songs any more. Maybe it was the camp director and her helpers, but I really didn't recognize the songs they were trying to sing, and apparently most of the other adults there didn't know them either. Lot's of quiet folks during song time.

S'mores--still a requirement, thank God.

Excitement can hit a fevered pitch over the sighting of a snake, or toads (both of when we had in abundance the first night) and of any other wild creatures. My daughter has no fear of toads...picked up every one she could get her hands on, while I would have not gotten near the things when I was her age.

Three...yes three...four-leaf clovers were found one morning during a scavenger hunt. Four-leaf clovers were on our list and my thought was "good luck with that" as I've never in my life found one, but two of the women in our group each found one within ten minutes of each other, then T1 found one later that morning. Her response, "I am a lucky duck."

Here's the biggest difference I noticed....I might well have been the only grown woman in attendance at this camp who was not sporting a tattoo. I was really and truly stunned at how many tattoos I saw on the other moms there. I still am not sure why anyone could commit to artwork on their body, when I have to move the art in my house around regularly because I get bored with it, but hey, it seems that I'm in the minority now. I'm not just talking single sightings...but some women had multiple tattoos in evidence...arms, legs, between their shoulders! I feel quite plain by contrast.

T1 had a great time, and I know she'll want to go back every year. I'm glad because I remember having mixed reviews about my church camp experience. Partly because I attended when I was junior high, and I was just uncomfortable with meeting new people, but I don't think my own child will be that way.

I'm glad I got to share this first year with her though.

off the wire

I've been out the internet zone for a couple of weeks now, and won't be able to access my internet service regularly for a couple more days. My Mac had a bad power connection on it, and thankfully there is a company here town that can fix it. I had dreamy dreams of buying a new Mac, which I will ultimately still do, but this will hold me over until I can take more time to shop and backup all the info on my current Mac. Still, it is a hassle to not have that darn machine sitting on my desk, although I will confess that I AM doing a lot more things I probably wouldn't do because I'm so easily distracted by needing to look up stuff on the computer.

Anyway..hang in there..I'll be back up in a couple of days with tales of church camp, and North Carolina.