I'm sorry, did I forget to blog?!!

 Oh the summer days, a seemingly endless supply.  I'm 57 years old, and I still don't like knowing what day it is during the summer...or how many days are  left until school starts...

Yesterday after physical therapy, Camille and I went to a little Mennonite market, looking for some interesting sprinkles, for a cookie decorating activity we're doing with the kids at summer conference.  Well, they didn't have any good sprinkles, but we still managed to spend seventy dollars.  Who on earth needs a 500 pack of cupcake liners?  Apparently, me.  A big jar of local honey, some milk chocolate covered almonds for Miss Char, some coarse ground pepper for Mariel, xxx sharp cheese for Paul, a dozen ears of fresh sweet corn, and a big jar of molasses.  Camille decided, upon walking in and seeing some baked goods, including molasses cookies, that she was going to go home and bake.  

By the time we got home, I was going to bake, too.  I've been eating the keto zucchini muffins, they're so good, so moist, not as good as real zucchini bread, but not bad.  So I got out the kitchen aid, and put on the shredder attachment, chunked up two huge zucchini from the garden, and made 24 muffins, plus two regular real loaves of zucchini bread.  

The recipe is from Low Carb with Jennifer, Jennifer Banz (this makes 12)

2 cups almond flour

1/2 teas salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (I double this, plus add pumpkin pie spice)

1/2 C granulated sweetener (I used monk-fruit, mixed with brown sugar Swerve)

1 teas baking soda

2 large eggs beaten

1/4 c melted butter

1 1/2 cups grated zucchini

(whisk together dry ingredients, I melt butter in glass measure, add on top of shredded zucchini, beat the eggs in the same glass cup, add to the bowl, and mix it all up). (it's super simple and quick!)

She recommends squeezing the water from the zucchini before measuring.  I add extra zucchini to my muffins, it makes it so moist.  They bake at 350 for around 20 minutes, maybe a bit longer.   She has a recipe for pumpkin muffins too, same thing only a cup of pumpkin puree instead of the zucchini, and add pumpkin pie spice)

Anyway, I was baking away, Camille was baking away, and our house smelled like a bakery.  I did take a nice swim after shredding the zucchini, while the sun was shining, did some water aerobics all by myself out there, tried not to think of the way the shadows are changing and summer is ebbing away, winding down.

I put most of the muffins in the freezer, it really helps to have something like that for when you just want something baked.  

Our dinner was so good last night:  burgers with tomatoes from the garden, and the sweet corn.  The apex of summer, right?

This fine morning, we are going to Target!  I need chicken breast for this coming week, and Target's is the best, they haven't had any the last few times I went.  So, I told my girls that I'm leaving early, so if they want to go, they have to wake up early...early, ha, we're leaving at nine.  

Summer conference/Family week starts tomorrow at our church.  We used to stay out there in our camper, but our camper has seen better days.  Once the leaking started, she went downhill fast.  I know you're not supposed to love earthly things, but I loved my camper.   The whole cleaning/packing/moving in for a week, loved it.  Coffee in the morning outside, seeing all of your friends...loved it.  Well, we are planning on getting a "new" camper, not brand new, but a nice one, one that is small enough to tow on our little camping weekends, just the thought of it, yay!  But, it isn't happening yet, so we are commuting.

Commuting makes it much more difficult, even though it's only less than half hour away.  We are bringing out ride-ons and dollhouse stuff, and even Suri is going for one of the children's meetings.  We have to bring out coolers with drinks, and our lunches, and dinners.  We can still use our yard, but the camper...it's just not usable anymore.  

So we'll be thankful for what we have.  I did plan meals, keeping it simple:  ordering pizza one night, making crockpot salsa chicken to have in tortillas (fajitas), hot dogs on the grill with salad, and the first night is a barbecue so I don't have to make anything.  The conference ends on Wednesday, then Thursday there's PT for Cam, then we leave for a 3 day camping weekend.  When we'll pack for that is beyond me.

Paul leaves Sunday morning for Colorado, comes home Wednesday evening, for work.  You can't always pick and choose the timing of those things, so again, we're going to be thankful, thankful he has a good job.

Paul found a huge cricket, and saved it to show Achilles.  The little guy was interested but hesitant...

Sunny, however, was really interested....

The girls (Charlotte Claire, Sonja K., and Camille) who still live at home...they are too much fun, I'm thankful for our outings...this was the other day, we had taken the bottles and cans back, then went to get an oil change, which was hysterical:  Sonja was driving, the truck, and the guy guiding us into the bay was like No, THIS way, NO, OVER HERE, pay attention!, he said to Sonja.  She WAS paying attention, but he told her you almost fell in like four times!  oops.  Us all laughing like idiots, oh dear.  we can never go there again.

We then went to the thrift store, and to BJ's (helium tanks for summer conference).  

Anyway...summer isn't over yet, and I intend to enjoy the heck out of the rest of it.