School Photos

It was time for school photos the other day, and we were able to take Desert Boy. 

Doesn't he clean up nicely?

He wasn't too sure what to think about all the photography equipment, but he cooperated well, even with all the hair spraying (with water) and combing.

Here are some of the kids in line, with teachers and parents close by to make sure they didn't get messed up at the last minute.

What Desert Boy liked best was playing with the older kids after his photo was taken.

He was introduced to Battleship. I remember playing this at Grandma's house years and years ago.

He got some lessons from his cousin. It was a good afternoon!

Peach Leather

We've had a plethora of wonderful peaches lately. Some of the ones that fell on the ground bruised a bit, so I decided to try something different with them--make fruit leather. I always called it fruit roll-ups, but I guess it's the same thing, except the homemade version is so much healthier. 

I found various recipes on the Internet and decided to incorporate a few to make my own. My ingredients: peaches, honey, lemon juice (and for one batch, cinnamon). I took the skins off the peaches and cut off the bad sections, putting the good parts into the blender. I added a couple squirts of lemon juice (maybe 2 teaspoons worth), and about 1/4 cup honey. Then I turned the blender onto puree.

I put Saran wrap down on the dehydrator sheets, and then poured the fruit leather mixture onto the plastic, using a spatula to spread it out into a somewhat uniform thickness.

Next it was into the dehydrator at 135 degrees. Some recipes said for 6-8 hours, but with the thickness I had, it was more like 10-12 hours. Other variations are to put the fruit leather into your oven at the lowest setting with the door open for a couple hours, or to put it onto big cookie sheets covered with cheesecloth and let dry outside in the sun for a couple days.

The end result is a firm fruit leather. 

If you're my husband and son, you just eat it straight from the plastic wrap, and suddenly it's all gone because it tastes so good! (They seriously ate one whole sheet in just one sitting.) 

The taste of the peaches is really concentrated, so it's almost like candy. 

You can also roll up the plastic, cut it into pieces, and put into Ziploc bags for storage. If you want to keep the fruit leather for awhile (say, because you're so tired of peaches), then you can put the Ziploc in the freezer and it will keep for a few months. 

Yum!

Freezing Corn

Having grown up in the Midwest in a small town surrounded by corn and soybean fields, I still consider myself a corn child. I love corn, especially corn on the cob. Our garden has been producing great corn, but I wanted some to freeze, so I bought a couple dozen ears.

I put a few ears into the boiling water at a time (not too many, because the water is supposed to return to a boil within a minute), and boiled them for six minutes.

Then they went into cold water for about six minutes.

Then they dried out.

Then it was time to get to work with my handy-dandy carving saw. I really like this part, and for some reason when a bunch of corn kernels are stuck together, they just taste better. 

I didn't want any corn to go to waste, so I made sure to nibble on the ends of each and every ear. (It's a good breakfast, right?)

Then I put 2-3 servings in freezer ziploc bags. It's definitely more work than just buying it at the store, but the corn tastes so good!

Water Boy

On our recent trip to the Midwest to visit family and friends, we also had several opportunities to play in water. And Desert Boy loves water. I think that might even be an understatement. Most kids like water, but I think kids that grow up in the desert see so little of it get extra excited because they know water's a scarce resource.

One of our stops was the Face Fountain at Millenium Park in Chicago, an interactive place that was attracting large crowds. The water isn't deep, no more than an inch or two, but it feels oh so cool.

Desert Boy was lucky to have a couple of young ladies willing to accompany him around the fountain. That was great for me because I didn't have to keep a constant eye on him.

Instead I could watch the man-made waterfalls and occasional spurting of water. Desert Boy wasn't too sure about the spouting water, but some of the other kids got right in the spray.

Despite the shallow water, Desert Boy found a way to get wet--just get down and splash!

This fountain was at Lincoln Park zoo, and water squirted out of various spots in a random pattern, so it was a challenge to run through it and not get wet.

Of course, Desert Boy sort of wanted to get wet, so he inched his way closer to the water spray,.

The most water we encountered was at the hotel pool. Desert Boy jumped in by himself, was toted around the pool, and practiced swimming. But his favorite activity was to be thrown into the pool. We quickly learned that he just sank to the bottom, so the catcher had to be quick to pull him up. He wiped his face off, scrunched up his nose, and then said, "Do it again, do it again."

So he got thrown in again...

...and again...

...and again. Oops, something didn't go quite right with this entry. That didn't faze Desert Boy, though. He still wanted to do it again. 

Notice how so many different people are throwing him in? His aunts, uncles, and grandpa definitely wanted to have their turn!

Now every time we go to a hotel, Desert Boy wants to go swimming. And jumping. And go flying through the air. I think he's turning into an adventure junkie.

Almost 90 and Going Strong

Here's my Grandma, who I got to visit this last weekend. She's my hero. She's traveled around the world (and flipping through her photo albums when I was a kid gave me the travel bug!). She always looks on the bright side of life (why not?). She is certainly an example that in giving you receive--she is still active in the church choir, committees, helping with elections, and more. I sure hope I can age as gracefully as she has! Thanks, Grandma, for being such an inspiration!